Mugen slashed the undergrowth of the forest with his sword. The thick vegetation gave way with satisfying snaps and crashes. It didn't make him feel any better, really, but this anger – no, fuck that – this rage had to be transferred to something, anything, or he was certain he would explode. Or kill someone. Maybe a bandit would happen by, one that was stupid enough to trouble a man with fire and a far-from-calm assurance of death in his eyes.

Goddamn her. Goddamn her straight back to the fiery pits of hell from which she crawled. Snotty, stuck-up bitch, thinking she was better than him because she was clean most of the time, and chipper, and liked to go out of her way to help people she didn't even know, which always, always, ended up getting her into some kind of mortal peril which he would have to risk his life to get her out of, because Jin never lifted his pristine fingers to help because he didn't give a shit, and Mugen did and…

Fuck, he thought. Because I'm fucking stupid.

Mugen had never troubled himself with girls. Not with their feelings anyway. He never stayed in one place long enough to get attached to anyone; he usually just fucked them and left them, sometimes paying for it, sometimes not needing to. If this had ever upset any of them, he wasn't around to know. Fuu wasn't any different from all those other girls, really. He'd had some who were prettier, or smarter, and definitely a hell-of-a-lot less trouble than she was, and he'd never thought twice about them after. Mugen had seen men who had thrown away everything, lost their damn minds, over a girl, and he had been disgusted; what they did was stupid, girls weren't worth that much trouble, and he was confident that he would never, ever, find himself in that situation. But damn if he didn't go and get all…complicated over the first girl he'd been forced to keep company with.

He wasn't any better than those fools who sat outside in the moonlight, in the mud, serenading some bitch in the window who wouldn't give them the time of day.

And it drove him crazy, fucking crazy, that his one weakness, the one thing he knew, deep down, could drive him to his knees, was a girl.

A girl who was in love with the coldest bastard God ever made perfect with his fucking perfect hands.

Mugen stopped to wipe the sweat out of his eyes. The trees thinned ahead of him, and through the gaps between the trunks he could see the moon reflected on water. He had reached the river. And right there, sitting calmly, as always, by the riverside, probably meditating on some complicated philosophy that Mugen couldn't even pronounce, was Mr. I-Only-Sully-My-Hands-For-The-Most-Righteous-Reasons-And-Never-Sully-My-Dick Jin.

Well wasn't that just fucking perfect?

Mugen stormed through the dry leaves to the edge of the trees, not giving a rip about stealth. Hell, he had made enough noise getting here to alert a deaf man to his presence; he was certain Jin, ever alert and ever fucking watchful, had heard him coming from the moment he started crashing through the undergrowth. Jin gave no outward sign of awareness as Mugen approached and stood directly in front of him.

"Get up, you frosty asshole."

Jin made no move, simply opened his eyes and looked up at the sweaty, disheveled, dirt-covered man in front of him. "Is something troubling you, Mugen?"

Mugen sneered. "No, I'm happy as a goddamn lark. Get up and fight me, and let's settle this right now."

Jin looked him up and down, then closed his eyes again. "If you are referring to our feud, then as much as I would like to, I cannot oblige."

"Scared? Finally realized that you don't stand a chance?"

Jin opened his eyes a fraction and gave Mugen a look of utter contempt. "No, you fool. When that duel takes place, I assure you, you will lose. However, as of now, we are both under a life-debt contract with Fuu, and, as you no doubt remember, one of the stipulations of that contract is that our feud is on hold. Until we fulfill our obligations to her, there will be no fight between you and me."

Mugen gripped his sword tighter in his hands. "This isn't about that goddamn contract and you know it."

"Do I? Please, enlighten me."

Mugen opened his mouth and shut it again. He couldn't…he wouldn't start blabbering about…about…hell no. Jin knew perfectly well what this was about, and Mugen would be damned if he was going to give Jin the satisfaction of hearing him admit defeat. Admit his loss in a contest in which Mugen had fought his hardest, and Jin had won without even playing the game.

"I have no part in your troubles with Fuu."

It was too much hearing his voice say her name, seeing his lips form the word. "Don't say her name, you bastard!" he hissed. But Jin continued.

"I did nothing to encourage her affections. I have remained distant in an attempt to allow her feelings to wither. If this has not worked, it is no fault of mine."

"It is your fault, goddamn it! Why didn't you leave? Why didn't you stay with that woman? You don't even try and she gives her attention to you! If you're here, there's no room for me!"

Mugen wanted to puke. He hadn't meant to say those things. Jin gazed at him, unblinking, and Mugen felt naked, angry and embarrassed and aching, and unable to do anything but stand there like a love-struck fool, staring at his feet.

"I did not leave because I made a promise, and any life with Shino would have been cursed from the start if I broke my word, abandoned my obligation, in order to have it." Jin spoke quietly, no longer looking at the pitiful man standing before him, but off into the distance, no doubt thinking of long dark hair and smiles and fried eel. "What will you do?"

Mugen ran a dirty hand through his unruly hair. That was the question, wasn't it? What could he do? "I…don't know. Leave, I guess. Leave and forget."

"Will you be able to do that?"

Mugen didn't know whether Jin meant leave or forget, and he supposed it didn't really matter which one. "Of course. It won't be any problem. I'm an expert at it."

"It is harder than you think."

Mugen thought of Fuu's face as she screamed at him, as she watched Jin with the most pathetic look on her face, and the rage he'd felt earlier stirred once more. But then he thought of her smiling face, and having her beneath him, and above him, and feeling her heat beneath his fingertips, and never seeing that, never feeling that ever again, and all he felt was cold. "How did you do it?"

Jin smiled, just a little. "I will go back to her, as soon as this task is finished. I have that hope. You have no such comfort."

It was true. If he left now, he was certain he would never see Fuu again. And the thought of Fuu traveling alone with Jin, of being one bodyguard short, of getting in trouble again and having no one fighting tooth and nail to save her, scared him more than he would ever admit, even to himself.

He turned and started to walk. Jin called out behind him.

"Where are you going?"

Mugen sighed and sheathed his sword. "Back to the campsite. Stay here for a while longer, okay?"

Jin nodded as he watched Mugen head back into the woods, and turned back to the water.