Chapter Four
The world was a bright and beautiful place to Fuu. Once again, she was flanked by two of her friends, with her third friend nestled safely inside her kimono. The town fountain was cold and gurgly and inviting children to play in it (although Fuu admitted she'd taken off her sandals and splashed in the puddles too, while Jin had looked annoyed and Mugen disgusted). The spraying water made rainbows in the air, and the flowers were all in bloom even though it was awfully late in the season for that… and, well, everything was just great.
Fuu watched a butterfly fluttering around her head, while Jin and Mugen talked.
"Don't you know anything at all about her?"
"Not really," confessed Mugen, scratching his head. "I was sort of an accident. The only reason she had me was that it was raining. She probably would have just left me in a gutter, but there was a thunderstorm and she went into this poorhouse. She left the same night. The only thing she really said was that my name was Mugen. She wouldn't even hold me."
"That's so sad," said Fuu quietly, watching the butterfly try to light on Jin's head. He brushed it away.
"They told me her name, but no one knew who the dad was. She never came back." Mugen turned his arm and picked at a scab on his elbow. "I guess I'm pretty stupid for wanting to find her, since she doesn't want me."
"I don't think you're stupid," said Jin quietly.
"Really?"
"Well, I do. But not for that reason."
"Look, guys!" exclaimed Fuu abruptly. "There's a butterfly on my arm."
"Don't move," instructed Jin.
"We'll take care of it," said Mugen. The two were already drawing their swords.
"What! No! No, don't do that! Don't you see how pretty it is?"
"Whoopee," said Mugen sarcastically. "If I can't fuck it, I don't care."
"Then why are you looking for your mother?" asked Jin. Mugen swung his sword at Jin's head. Fuu sighed as the butterfly fluttered off, and Jin and Mugen went brawling past. She sat for a moment on a pile of firewood by the entrance of a sandal store and watched the two rolling around like animals.
Men, she thought.
A young man strode past.
"Excuse me!" called Fuu. He stopped. "Have you seen an old woman around lately? She's foreigner… probably wearing bright colors, with really dark brown hair?"
"Sorry, cutie. I haven't," he said.
"Oh, my," said Fuu, blushing sweetly. Momo poked her head out of Fuu's kimono to watch Jin and Mugen brawl.
"Excuse me!" called Fuu to the next person, an old woman in a zigzag skirt who was slouching something awful.
"What?" she snarled.
"I'm looking for an old woman wearing bright colors and with dark hair. She's a foreigner."
"Why?"
"She's my friend's mother."
The women chewed the inside if her lip a moment thoughtfully, watching Jin and Mugen fight. "Did you know you have a rat sticking out of your clothes?" she asked finally, and continued on her way.
Fuu sighed. "Excuse me!" she called to a young mother passing with two hyperactive children. "I'm looking for—"
"You asked my yesterday. I said no," said the woman grouchily, trying to hold onto both children.
Fuu put her fists on her cheeks and her elbows on her knees. "This is hard," she reported.
"Ee," agreed Momo.
Mugen and Jin's scuffle finally ended, and they strode over, covered in dust and pretending not to pant from exhaustion.
"Why don't you try to separate us anymore?" asked Mugen.
"What's the point? You'll just end up fighting again anyway. Besides, you're obviously evenly matched."
"We'll see about that!" said Mugen, getting out his sword again. But Jin wasn't looking at him; he was focused on the old woman in the zigzag skirt. She was across the street, leaning against a water butt, moving a coin through her fingers in a shifty way and watching them.
"She's not very nice," said Fuu.
"Of course she's not! That's Kana! Hide me!" he begged frantically, grabbing Fuu's kimono sleeve.
"That's Kana?" repeated Mugen, unimpressed. "She's just a little old lady, Jin, sheesh. You couldn't just take her out?"
"You know I couldn't!"
Mugen sighed. "I always gotta do all your dirty work, don't I?" He threw his sword over his shoulder and began crossing the street. Kana watched him coming from the shadows. Fuu turned away, burying her face in Jin's kimono; even Jin looked up, not wishing to see Mugen slaughter her, even if she deserved it.
And so both of them missed the moment when Kana pushed herself out of the shadows and began drawing a dagger, ready to defend herself, and Mugen stopped dead in his tracks, getting a full view of her.
Tan skin. Dark hair. And her clothes, that bright zigzag pattern that only people from Ryuukuu wore.
His sword dropped. Fuu and Jin looked up.
"Mom…?"
