Part 5

The hallway outside the small room he, Fuu, and Jin were staying in was dimly lit, and full of noises that floated about it almost tangibly, like ghosts that had lost their way.

It was chilling, and he fought against the urge to shiver. Voices of women seducing men, and of men wooing women. Voices that sounded more like the cry of an animal. Behind him, the voice of Fuu wafted from under the door, asking Jin what was up with Mugen.

He didn't need her concern. He was a big boy, and he could take care of himself.

The sound of a woman giggling drifted to him and he decided that what he needed right now was a girl. Lucky for him they were staying in a whorehouse. He began looking through the keyholes of the doors, completely unconcerned about how lewd the act might look to anyone who might see him.

By the third keyhole he found what he was looking for. Beautiful girl, lying on a bed, kimono low off her shoulders, and no man in sight. She must have been waiting for the customer who had paid for her to arrive.

Mugen smiled cruelly. Finders keepers.

Turning the doorknob, he swung the door open, and swaggered into the room. "Hey babe, ready for a good time?"

She sat up a little on the bed, long black hair sliding over her pale white shoulders. There was an open window next to the bed, and a slight breeze was blowing in and playing with the folds of her kimono, rippling over them. He found the effect enticing.

She lifted her chin and squinted at him. "They told me you were the personal guard to the royal family. You are different than I expected you to look."

Mugen laughed, kicking the door shut behind him. "What? I'm not ugly like you expected?" He let his red jacket fall off his body. It made a loud smacking noise as it hit the wood of the floor. The room was dark, a column of moonlight reaching through the window to bathe her, and he hoped that in the shadows she wouldn't notice his prison tattoos.

It didn't seem like she did. "Well you're an eager one, aren't you, hon?" she said, giggling and eying his outer garment lying on the floor.

He made a deep guttural noise, and began moving toward the bed, about to leap on her and—

Click. The sound of the door opening.

"You seem to be lost." Deep male voice. Strong. Used to having its way.

Mugen cursed, pausing with his arms braced against the bed on either side of the girl and with one knee on the mattress. "Hold that thought," he said to her with a wicked grin, before he stood and turned around.

The man standing in the doorway was tall. Very tall. So tall that at first Mugen didn't think the man could be Japanese, but then he saw the short black hair and slotted eyes and knew he must be.

"What the hell do you want?" Mugen spat in an annoyed tone.

The man raised his eyebrows—two slim angled lines almost lost in the darkness—as if he were confused by Mugen's words. "I want the whore I paid for." His tone emphasized the obviousness of the statement.

Mugen was answering almost before the man finished speaking: "No."

"No?"

"No."

The man laughed now, a halting and sharp sound, like wood breaking glass. "Do you know who I am boy?"

"Personal guard to the royal family, blah, blah, blah. So?" He kept his voice defiant, while considering that he was without a sword. There was still the hidden dagger, strapped securely to his side, and there were a few candlesticks in the room he could use as weapons if he had to. In his favor, this royal guard dude would also have had to lose his weapon to come into the whorehouse.

Mugen heard the sound of metal scraping against metal as the man slid a katana out of the sheath at his belt. Or maybe not.

Apparently "house policy" didn't apply to everyone.

"You are obviously, not very smart. Most people cringe when they hear Shinnyo is near."

"I ain't most people. I'm the guy that's gonna whip your butt." And then Mugen dove at the man named Shinnyo, going for his knees and determined not to allow the man's possession of a sword to force him onto the defensive. Shinnyo flipped out of the way, swinging his sword behind him. Mugen caught the blade on the metal that plated the bottom of his geta sandals.

Shinnyo was fast. Very fast. Mugen felt a smile slip onto his face, loving the feeling of the adrenaline tightening his muscles and the sudden "awake feeling" his heightening senses gave him.

Twisting his ankle quickly, Mugen tried to force the blade caught in his geta out of Shinnyo's hand. It would have worked on a weaker man, but Shinnyo was not a weak man, and he managed to dislodge his blade and strike again. Mugen was lying on his back on the floor, and had to roll away to avoid the metal whistling through the air.

Shinnyo was laughing. The whole time. Laughing.

A sound like wood breaking glass.

It hurt Mugen's ears. "Shut up!" he yelled.

Shinnyo laughed louder.

It felt to Mugen like his insides were being torn out by the sound. It screeched inside his brain and he found himself enraged by it. Flipping onto the bed, Mugen used it as a platform to throw a kick high enough to reach Shinnyo's face. "Don't worry Baby," Mugen said, glancing momentarily down at the girl, still lying on the bed. She had an alarmed look on her delicate face. "I didn't forget about you. I'll be back to finish what we started in a min--."

He would have completed his sentence, but the air was knocked out of his lungs as he tried to dodge a sword thrust and ended up running into Shinnyo's retaliatory kick. The force threw his body against the opposite wall, and his arm took most of the impact, screaming its protest in pain. Growling, he sprung onto his feet and ran toward his opponent. Shinnyo was standing across the room in a wide stance, and Mugen dropped to the ground just as he came within sword-striking range, sliding between the man's legs to get behind him. Flipping onto his hands and standing on them, Mugen slipped his ankles under Shinnyo's shoulders from behind, pulling them toward him while at the same time springing up on his hands to punch the backs of both of Shinnyo's knees.

Shinnyo crashed to the ground with thump and a grunt.

The grunt, of course, was Mugen, being that Shinnyo was now lying face up on top of Mugen, who was trapped on his stomach under the huge man.

Maybe that last move hadn't been such a good idea. Mugen tried to reach for the dagger strapped to his side and just got his hand around it as Shinnyo rolled off of him. Mugen immediately sprang at him, keeping him from getting to his feet, and holding the dagger to his throat. Unfortunately, Shinnyo had also managed to bring his sword up and was holding it to Mugen's throat.

They were at a stalemate, and they paused like that as the moments dripped by, keeping time with the drops of blood sliding across Mugen's skin from thin cuts that now laced his body. The red liquid drawing spider webs on the hand that held his dagger surprised him. He hadn't even realized that Shinnyo's attacks had wounded him.

Shinnyo was still laughing.

"Ready to give up yet?" Mugen taunted. They were beside the bed, with the mattress behind Mugen where he sat on top of Shinnyo. The column of moonlight from the open window cast Mugen's shadow on the other man so that his expression was hard to see.

"Your kind is not welcome here." The laughing had stopped.

It took Mugen a while to realize that Shinnyo was staring at the tattoos on his wrist.

"Too bad I don't care. You know, I killed one of the royal family once."

"Then it will be my civil duty to kill you in return."

Mugen scoffed. "Like hell." He was about to jump off of Shinnyo to end the stalemate and resume the fight when suddenly—

PAIN. A twist. MORE PAIN.

Mugen gasped violently, and then coughed with equal force. Pain. His back arched with the impact and the twist of a dagger through it. Lower back. Right side. Someone had stabbed him. The word became hazy, and his thoughts truncated, as he stumbled backward. Away from Shinnyo. Away from the bed.

The girl. Standing there. Scared look on her face. Bloody dagger in her hands. Her. She had done it.

Shinnyo. Standing now. Laughing again. Laughing. Laughing.

Warm liquid. Running down the backs of his legs. Lava out of a stab of fire.

He had to get away. He'd fought with wounds before. But he had no sword and this man Shinnyo was good.

Had to get away. His wild eyes fell on the open window. Column of light. Follow the light. He ran toward it, stumbling a little, and throwing himself through the opening. They were only on the second floor, so he managed to land pretty easily, grunting with the pulse of pain the impact sent through him.

He was in an alleyway. Dirty, smelling old and rotten. Shinnyo's face appeared at the window above him, and in the moonlight it was the first good look Mugen had of the man. The features looked carved out of stone, perfect and precise. Like the face of a god. The eyes, they were darker than death, and their darkness reached Mugen even from where he stood below. "Are you going to run, Criminal? Are you a Coward?"

Mugen cursed at him and stood his ground. He wouldn't run. He wasn't a coward.

Then he heard Fuu's voice yelling his name. He saw her face a few windows down. "What the hell are you doing, you stupid pirate? …Wait… Mugen, is that blood? Mugen!"

He staggered a little. Blood. There was a pool beneath him. He was loosing so much blood. That whore. She'd twisted the dagger after stabbing him. Twisted the dagger and ripped a hole in him. He looked down. The dark pool was glistening in the wan light.

It had just been a dagger, how could there be so much blood? He realized that it was very likely he was going to pass out.

"Come on Shinnyo, let's finish this!" If he was going to pass out, he was going to kill this guy first. Out here he had more room to maneuver than in the room. Maybe that would work to his advantage.

Shinnyo answered his beckon, and suddenly appeared on the ground in front of him. Mugen fought to remain standing. He was dizzy. So dizzy.

Strange shapes floated in front of his eyes, shadows that twisted around like a kaleidoscope. He tried to plant himself firmly in a fighting stance, looking around for something to fight with. He still had his dagger in his hand, but Shinnyo was swinging his katana threateningly as he began to walk toward Mugen.

Shinnyo attacked and Mugen just barely dodged out of the way, falling to his knees as his equilibrium was thrown off. More blood dripped to the ground below him.

And then there was a blue blur dropping from a window above and landing on top of Shinnyo. He turned and watched it, as it attacked Shinnyo, squinting to try to understand what it was. The blue blur wore glasses and a long ponytail. It was a great effort to remember that the name of this blue blur was Jin.

"I don't need yer help!" Mugen managed to slur.

Jin glanced up at him. He had knocked Shinnyo to the ground with his aerial attack. The royal guard wasn't moving. "Apparently," he said simply.

Mugen tried to stand, but almost stumbled to the ground again. He was caught by a small body with soft hair. Fuu. His arm fell heavily onto her shoulder and she cried out a little. He knew he was too heavy for her to support, and he pushed her away, but then Jin was there with her, and the two of them were dragging him away.

"He was mine ta kill ya four-eyed idiot." His lips felt foreign to him and his words stumbled as badly as his body.

"I didn't kill him. He's only unconscious. There isn't time; you're loosing too much blood."

"I'm fine. Let me at him. Gonna bash his big head in—" Mugen almost toppled over, but felt the arms of his companions holding him up. They were trying to force him to run but his legs wouldn't work.

Why did he feel so drunk? He couldn't remember suddenly. His mind felt murky and sluggish. It must have been a good party. With lots of sake.

Where was he going? They were approaching the trees lining the city. And now they were in them, he being dragged past them.

Who was dragging him? He looked to one side. Tall thin man, narrow face, delicate glasses, long black hair. He turned to the other side. Slight girl in a red kimono. Brown hair tied up, large eyes, soft features. "Hey, yer preeeeeeetty," he slurred at her. "Wanna find a bed?"

"Mugen, you pig!" She looked down at him fiercely, cheeks turning bright red, and he saw that she was crying. That was strange.

And who was Mugen? Was that his name? He giggled. He'd forgotten his own name.

It occurred to him that he couldn't really feel much and that he was shaking. He was cold. "Come on baby. I need ya ta warm me up."

"Stop here, in this clearing. I have to start a fire." the man with glasses said.

"Why? What are you going to do? Jin, there's blood everywhere. What do we do?" the girl answered, panicked.

"Just set him down."

Mugen found himself lying on the ground as the man with glasses wrestled his dagger out of his hand. Mugen hadn't known he was even holding it. The man then gathered some leaves into a small pile and began hitting the blade against a rock to make sparks. A flame was born there and grew as the man added twigs and then branches…

Mugen couldn't do anything but stare at the fire. He couldn't even move. The fire was dancing and it hurt his eyes, but he couldn't look away. He felt his mind sinking into a murky darkness. Shapes and shadows were joining the fire in its dance, the two tangoing together and he remembered things that seemed not to belong here.

Koza was staring at him, giving him her usual look of vulnerability through black eyes. She made him think of a stray cat. "What do you mean you're leaving?"

"I mean I'm leaving." He walked along the path, idly throwing a rock up and catching it repeatedly with one hand, while the other rested in his pocket.

"Yeah, but how? There's no way to steal a boat without the guards seeing you. Even if you get away they'll catch you again. Just like they always catch us. Over and over again. We escape and we pirate for a while. They catch us and we're back here."

"There are less guards when there's an execution going on."

She stopped, but he continued walking, scuffing the ground with his geta as he did.

"Who's going to be executed?" she asked behind him.

There was a guard standing ahead of them on the road, gun held securely to his chest. He was eying the two of them suspiciously.

"Me," Mugen answered.

He caught the stone in his hand one last time and threw it at the guard. Hard. It was time to start a fight.

"Mugen!"

The voice should have been Koza's, but it wasn't. He opened his eyes a little to see a young girl looking down at him. Who was she again? The name "Fuu" came from somewhere in the shadows of his mind.

"Mugen, wake the hell up you lazy idiot." She was slapping his cheeks gently, stopping when she noticed his eyes were open.

It was dark and they were in a forest clearing.

"I'm ready." The man with glasses appeared over him, holding a glowing dagger. "Turn him over."

Mugen grunted, as he was pushed onto his stomach. His hands slid against sticky, wet dirt.

"We are going to have to hold him down. Are you ready?" the man's voice said.

The girl replied, "Yes."

And then Mugen's numbness was dissolved in the feeling of the glowing, hot blade of the dagger being thrust into his lower back. He screamed as his body arched in agony, the smell of his burning flesh searing his nose. Strong hands held him down and he felt wetness on his cheeks as he yelled, "I hate you!" He didn't even know the name of the person he was yelling it at.

Then, there was only darkness.