Chapter 4

Triumvirate

The sun was just rising when we left, with nothing but the shirts on our backs. I didn't feel right taking anything from the apartment. It wasn't really mine to take. I said a silent prayer for Gengi's safety as another teahouse left my life forever.

I didn't talk much on the road. I had too much to say to risk opening my mouth, too many questions which I knew did not have straight answers. Who were those men? What did he do now, and how badly am I implicated? Why did he come to that teahouse? Did he know I was there? What does it mean if he did? What does it mean if he didn't?

I couldn't ask him any of these things, so I said nothing. He knew me enough to be grateful for that. Its funny, when you get to know a person. The easier it is to call someone out on their bullshit, the more pointless it becomes.

When we could no longer discern whose stomach was rumbling over the din, we ducked into a small eatery to grab a bite to eat. Mugen had nabbed a couple coins from an old woman who was folding tiny little paper cranes for money. We both pretended not to notice.

We ate wordlessly at a small table in the corner. I grabbed the last bit of sushi roll on the plate uncontested, which caused me to look up. I never got the last piece. Sure enough, his eyes were on a couple of gentlemen who entered the bar. The sames ones who were asking about him the other night. He ushered me out the backdoor, his gaze never leaving the two men.

I was preparing to sneak away when I saw Mugen unsheath his sword. I shook my head. "We can just leave," I whispered.

Mugen shook his head in return. "They'll follow us."

"If you kill them they'll just be others."

He sighed a bit at that. But although he seemed to agree, the argument was not enough to make him put away his weapon. "You're being a child," I pouted, not sounding unlike one myself.

Mugen turned and looked at me in such a way that said if I did not stop talking immediately he would use me as a human shield. I folded my arms and looked away from him. I might shut up but I didn't have to be happy about it. He ducked into the restaurant, and I waited.

I wasn't sure what I was waiting for. I never was. But as always, I knew it when I saw it. There was a chorus of startled screams, and the mangled body of the larger gentleman came crashing through the paper doors. Mugen followed soon after. "Go!" he said, and a small gaggle of bewildered lawmen tumbled after him.

So I ran. I wasn't sure where I was going or who I was running from, exactly. But I ran, somehow taking comfort in the fact that for whatever reason, these things always seem to sort themselves out. Suddenly, a hand reached out and clamped over my mouth. Before I even had time to react, I was yanked back behind an ally way. I stood still as a couple of plain-clothed cops ran by. See? The cosmos seemed to be saying. It all works out in the end.

In fact, the cosmos might have punctuated that argument with an exclamation point, for I knew immediately who my kidnapper was. I knew his smell, his hands, the way he seemed so very uncomfortable touching me. Caring not a bit for his personal space in that moment, I whirled around and threw my arms around him. His body stiffened as if I had just shot him in the neck with a poisoned dart gun and not, in actuality, shown him a sign of great affection. But slowly, as if his limbs were being manipulated by some unseen puppeteer, he returned my embrace. It was at once the very worst and very best hug I had ever been a part of. "Hi, Jin," I muttered into his shoulder.

He took a moment to process things, as he normally did. And then finally, "Hi, Fuu."

"Don't be so glad to see him," Mugen growled from behind us. Both Jin and I snapped out of the embrace, blushing as if our dad just caught us necking on the couch. "He's here to kill me."

Jin raised precisely one eyebrow. I took a step further away from Jin and gave Mugen a very piercing look. This better be good.

"I heard that the shogun offered him a wad of cash to take me out," Mugen explained, keeping his sword drawn. He did not yet move from his spot.

"That is true," Jin admitted.

"You sell out," Mugen spat, disgusted. "After the shit they pulled on you, you'd work for the government?"

"I fish."

Those two small words let the air out of Mugen's indignation. He was not expecting that. "Fish for what?" he sputtered.

"Fish," Jin replied simply, as if this was not the dumbest question he had ever been asked. "That's what I do for a living now. I was approached by the shogunate. They thought for enough money and a promise to clear my record, that I would double cross you. Since you were obviously in some sort of trouble, I thought it best to accept and hope that I would find you first." As he said this, it was clear he was reworking the logic in his head. He paused a second, and then nodded. Yes, it still works out, he seemed to think, and then said the next bit out loud. "Why would you think I had come to kill you?"

I shifted my gaze to Mugen, who to my surprise, looked completely and utterly embarrassed. It was the first time I had ever known him to appear off balance. "Uh…" he stammered, shifting his weight around from leg to uncomfortable leg. "Because…you suck?"

Silence. The three of us stood staring, a Mexican standoff of awkwardness. Though none of us said a single word, the following conversation took place in the span of about 6 sideways glances:

You're an idiot.

It's not like you'd be the first guy to sell me out.

I'm still hungry.

What was I supposed to think?

I wonder if he brought any money.

They don't have any money, do they?

Bet he took the money, too.

I'm really starving.

It's a good thing I took that money.

Smug little bastard.

I'm tired.

We better find someplace to sleep.

I'm glad you came.

Me too.

Jerk.

And so, having said our piece without actually saying anything to each other at all, we wordlessly turned and headed down the road.