Chapter 9: Owing Owen
"You must go. Now." Jin ordered as he locked eyes with Mai. She shook her head in response but Owen stepped in and agreed,
"He's right. We have to make haste."
"I said I'm not going anywhere." Mai refused. Owen looked to her anxiously.
"Now is not the time to delay! I'll carry you out of here if need be." Mai didn't bother to look at him.
"I shall like to see you try. You're mad if you think I'm going to run and leave them to fight off those men alone. They've done more than enough for me already." Jin only continued to stare at her, knowing her mind was made up and there would be no convincing her otherwise. He stepped closer to her and removed one of his katanas, handing it over to her.
"This time I shall offer it to you." Mai accepted it.
"Pretty generous of you to let me have this."
"Borrow." He corrected. Owen watched the exchange and was quick to protest.
"No, I won't allow this. Diana is NOT fighting those men. We're leaving! And that's final." Mai sighed, sizing up the katana and then turned toward him.
"Flee if you like but I'll say it only once more, I'm not leaving them. This is my fight. I refuse to run any longer." Owen studied her. He spoke gently,
"There's some Diana left in you yet..." Mai said nothing and instead began to walk away after the others. Owen called out to her and Mai stopped, "You said you're not leaving them...but you really mean you're not leaving him." Closing her eyes, Mai silently continued walking.
"This should be fun." Mugen said grinning as he eyed the gang of men on horseback below; his form remained hidden in a cluster of oak trees and berry bushes. Jin looked on beside him, sizing up the vast amount of men.
"This is ridiculous." Fuu said, stumbling through some foliage. "Mai shouldn't be here."
"Neither should you but here you are." Mugen mumbled to her. Fuu chose to ignore him and instead looked off to the side where Mai knelt steadily next to Mugen. She quietly got down beside her.
"Mai...you don't have to do this. You should get away while you can, while they can't see you."
"I do have to do this-"
"No. You don't." Jin cut her off. Mai looked to him but he had his eyes set on the group of men below. "I want you to go." Mai looked away from him, focusing too on her pursuers.
"I'm tired of running."
"What's he doin' down there?" Mugen grunted, pointing down toward the gang of men. Owen was approaching all of them, alone.
"What is he planning to do?" Jin questioned suspiciously. Mai finally understood he was asking her but she had been too caught up in her own thoughts to realize.
"I-I don't know. He never said anything to me."
"No tellin' what that crazy bastard's up to. Think he's sellin' out on you?" Mugen shot the question at Mai like a loaded pistol. She said nothing keeping her focus maintained solely on Owen. His betrayal was what she was quickly dreading.
Could he really be furious enough with me to stoop to revenge?
On sight of those men, Owen must have known why they were here. Or perhaps he even knew them?
But Mai was to the point of being sick of being afraid. The feeling had always been there haunting her and it was time for it to end. When dread had nearly consumed her entirely, she felt Jin firmly take her by her right arm.
"I'll take you to the docks." They exchanged unwavering looks with one another, both set on standing their own ground. And for a moment, Jin seemed to see the inkling of relent in her eyes, as though she were about to agree, but it dissipated.
"I told you I won't run. I thought out of anyone you'd honor that choice. I've yet to see you run from anything, let alone battle."
"This is different." Jin replied briefly, his tone indicating he cared not to elaborate but it was enough for Mai. She placed her hand on his and struggled a smile.
"I'm where I want to be." He returned a look of final acceptance.
"Mugen!" Fuu hissed. Both Mai and Jin turned to see him sliding down the dirt filled hill side, great clouds of dust trailing him.
"I'm surprised he waited so long." Mai said, tightening her grip on the katana. Jin looked as though he were about to say something to her but she had swiftly passed him and he quickly followed. He almost fell onto her when she abruptly stopped and Jin was about to call her on it but was ceased by the deafening bang of a gun shot. Mai screamed,
"OWEN!" She ran off down the hill, almost falling most of the way down. She slid onto the unforgiving ground, her hands painfully meeting the dirt and rock below. Mai pushed the intense sting from her mind and made her way swiftly to Nathan's motionless body. He had been shot in the lower torso and Mai's eyes widened in horror as she knelt beside him, immediately tearing cloth from her sleeve with her teeth. Applying pressure to the horrific looking wound she met Nathan's eyes with her own. They were open, but just barely and he smiled weakly back up at her. As if by instinct, she brought her hand up to his face, smoothing back his long hair. "It'll be alright." Her voice soothed, reassuring him and she felt his chest heave beneath her hand. Every breath for him was a struggle.
"Stupid European." A familiarly cruel voice spat. Mai shot her head to up to see a stocky man dismounting his immense horse. The suns rays spread about his blindingly white hair. His left eye was half welded shut by a thick scar that swooped down well across his lower lip. The other pupil appeared swallowed in an intense blackness. He adjusted his elegant crimson kimono, its golden trim glimmering in the sunlight. And he was grinning wickedly, that foul wickedness that paraded crooked teeth.
It was him.
"Hiratoshi." Mai seethed, her tone engulfed in a thick mix of fear and rage. He grinned as he looked down upon them.
"It seems I have found you my foreign jewel." Mai only narrowed her eyes angrily up at him. "And all thanks to that pitiful excuse for a man." She swallowed nervously, quickly looking back down upon Owen. His eyes were still half open but still just barely. Her thoughts clawed at her mind,
Then he did really sell me out?
Fuu cautiously approached hoping to help in some way, but she was weary. As she inched closer her foot met with something cold and hard upon the ground. It was a gun.
"He foolishly thought he could purchase you from me or at least make up for your father's debt." Hiratoshi explained, his tone carrying hints of chuckles. "Not that any amount of money can make up for the fact you cost me a great deal of my men. He tried to save you, when all he really did was let me know you were here somewhere. And there you are."
"You're a filthy monster! If anyone is a 'pitiful excuse for a man' it is you."
"So I see you've become fiery in your time away from me. I shall have to remedy that..."
"Don't think so..." Mugen barked, raising his sword. Hiratoshi looked off to his side, catching Mugen in his sights.
"Now, really, I haven't the faintest idea who you are, nor do I care. But I'd suggest you scram if you value your life."
"Live. Die. Makes no difference to me. When your time comes it comes. I never 'scram' from nobody, especially not from the likes of you." Hiratoshi only smiled his cruel smile again and made a gesture to his men who had all immediately dismounted from their steeds. They all unsheathed their weapons and started for Mugen. He grinned,
"Well alright then." And he gripped his sword with both hands. "Let's have some fun."
