(Author's Note: I'm off hiatus! My computer ate the final three chapters and I had to re-write them, and they're very choppy and not nearly as good. That makes me angry… but here they are anyway.)

Chapter 8

Sopping wet and mad as hell, Jin stalked down the road, wringing out his kimono sleeves and ponytail while ignoring the stares of passerbys. How stupid he'd been, to stay with them. To assume they'd listen to him. No one ever listened to him, even when there was indisputable evidence that he was right.

And Mugen… being taken in by that horrid con artist… and Fuu… siding with Mugen. It was enough to make Jin sick.

Well, he resolved, he would just have to walk back to where he was before this whole fiasco. He'd retrace his steps and get back on track. His own track. No more Mugen or Fuu or Kana. He was better off alone, anyway.

As the sun slowly rose and his clothes slowly dried, Jin grew more depressed. So depressed, in fact, that he neglected to watch where he was going, and began to turn down the same street he'd run away from earlier.

"Hey, you! Ronin!"

Jin stopped so abruptly he nearly tripped over his dripping hakama. He looked up guiltily; a balding man was standing under the eves of his house, trying to fix his partially dismantled windchime.

"Your girlfriend tried to steal my windchime!" yelled the man.

"She's not my girlfriend," muttered Jin darkly, but the man ignored his protest and kept shouting.

"She's a lousy thief! And she's not a very good thief, either! She dropped all her money when she fell! But I'm keeping it to compensate for the repairs needed for my chimes! And I'd call the police, too, if I could find them!"

Jin pulled back in surprise. Fuu actually had dropped her money? Jin had just assumed that Leiko was lying when she suggested it; he'd assumed Leiko had stolen it, as usual. So she was telling the truth. But just because she told the truth once didn't mean she was really Mugen's mother.

Fighting with his own emotions, Jin didn't realize the man was still glaring at him.

"You better leave this town soon, ronin! I'm filing a report against you and your trashy girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" snapped Jin, but he was already scurrying away to avoid further conflict.

"You better run!" yelled the man after him.

Jin chewed the inside of his lip thoughtfully as he walked back down the road. Dust from the street was settling on his damp clothes and turningh im slowly brown. But he didn't notice. Knowing that Kana at least had the ability to be honest certainly changed things. And.. perhaps he owed it to Fuu to go back. After all, was Fuu safe with Mugen and Kana? Jin wasn't so sure. It was anyone's guess what that moral-lacking rogue was up to…


"Hee hee! Cricket!" exclaimed Mugen, pouncing after a cricket in the field. It sprang off the tip of the blade of grass it was on, landing on another. Mugen left the path and began wading thruogh the grass after it; Leiko watched, shading her eyes from the sun.

Fuu wandered behind Mugen and Leiko, each step taking her further from Jin and making her doubt herself more and more. Ahead of her, Mugen was springing farther and farther after the cricket.

"Don't worry about him," said Leiko suddenly, turning. "He was a loser. You can do better."

"I've never even really had a real boyfriend," said Fuu. "Er—not that he's my boyfriend!"

"If he really cared about you, he'd have come back. But he hasn't, has he? Nope," said Leiko. Just in front of her, Mugen jumped across the path in hot pursuit of the terrified cricket.

"The cricket is a sign of good luck," said Fuu.

"DIE, CRICKET!" yelled Mugen, trying to stomp on it.

"Never mind," sighed Fuu. She turned and looked behind her, hoping to see Jin. But she couldn't. The sun was making the whole field appear wavy.

"Er… Leiko? Can I ask you something?" asked Fuu hesitantly.

"Sure."

"Um… you know how you said you didn't like seafood? Well… um… isn't seafood pretty much… a staple of a Ryuukuuian diet?"

"Yeah, well, that's why I'm sick of it," said Leiko, eyes narrowly. "That ronin really poisoned your mind, huh? I never trusted him."

"GOTCHA!" yelled Mugen, on the other side of the field. For a moment he stood triumphetly, waist-deep in the grass. Then, a cricket jumped away, and with a groan Mugen sprang after it.

"I hope he comes back," muttered Fuu, mostly to herself, looking back. More and more, she was wondering why she hadn't gone with Jin.

"Of course he won't," said Leiko.

Fuu squinted. Was that…?

"He is!" she cried suddenly. "Look, there he is! Mugen! Leiko! Stop!"

Both stopped and turned. Fuu jumped up and down and pointed to the silhouette on the horizon. Mugen waded over to the women, brow furrowed with concentration. The relieved cricket hopped away.

"Uhh… Fuu? That's not Jin," said Mugen slowly. "Jin isn't multiple people."

"Uh-oh," said Leiko.

"Uh-oh," agreed Fuu.

Mugen was already unsheathing his sword. "You guys go, and I'll fight them off."

"You're such a good son," said Leiko, kissing his cheek. "Just in case you get captured, Mommy went west, okay?"

"Gotcha."

Leiko turned and, without a backward glance at Mugen, began hurrying toward the nearest group of trees for cover.

"Don't you feel bad about putting him in danger?" panted Fuu, hurrying after her.

"Mmm… nope! I don't even know him, do I?" asked Leiko, diving into the underbrush.

"He's your son!" cried Fuu in horror. Leiko just shrugged, hunkering down in the leaves. Fuu settled next to her and tried to see Mugen through the leaves, but it was impossible. She finally gave up and sat there, wishing Jin were around.

"Stop breathing so loud," whispered Leiko after a moment.

"Me? I'm not the one who's breathing loud."

"Yes you are. You sound like a 300-pound-man."

"No I don't! You're the one who's making all those little grunting—" Fuu stopped suddenly. Slowly, she turned around. Slowly, Leiko copied her.

They found themselves face-to-face with a hulking, bearded man wearing very official clothes.

"Hello, ladies," he said.

"Oh, shit," said Leiko.