Chapter 10

It's Only Teenage Wasteland

We ran through the woods as fast and as reckless as ever, branches whipping at our skin as we went and lashing up our thighs. We could see the lights of the pier through the trees, and I knew soon we would loose our cover. The trickiest part of this whole process was probably going to be the last 30 yards.

I held my breath as we barreled towards the clearing, and sure enough, I almost ran headlong into a young boy. The same boy that was so suspicious of Jin when we first arrived. He was pointing the same sword at Mugen.

"This is a really stupid idea," Mugen said, skidding to a halt. He drew his own sword but did not yet raise it.

"I'll say," the kid replied, his voice shaking. He lunged for Mugen, who easily swung the kid around so that they were now a mirror image. "Really stupid," Mugen repeated. "I'm gonna kill you if you fight me. Like, there's not even a question."

"Yeah?" the boy replied, and then we were surrounded by six or seven others. They all looked so young, and angry in that particular way only young people can be. "How about now?"

I looked at Mugen. It was a fair question. He caught my incredulous stare and seemed slightly miffed before answering, "Pretty sure it still won't be a problem. Watch out for this one," he said, wagging his head towards me. "She bites."

One of them took a few steps further away from me, looking me over wearily. Perhaps he was scoping out my incisors.

"What difference does it make?!" the boy yelled sharply, as if Mugen was just trying to change the topic. "We were willing to die for you, anyway! And now what?!"

"So you walk away and don't die for anyone. Sounds like a good deal to me," Mugen said, still not quite raising his sword.

"You sold us out!" another one shouted from the crowd, and for whatever reason, this set Mugen off.

"What the fuck were you buying into?! Huh? Did you ever think about that?! " he shouted, flinging his arms around so wildly I actually had to duck to avoid being scalped. "Everyone's all, 'I'm ready to die for your beliefs.' What the fuck does that even mean? Do I have a bumper sticker on my ass I don't know about? Huh? What do I believe in? You tell me!"

It was a me-caliber outburst, a tantrum of epic proportions. It was all the confusion and doubt and frustration he was feeling over this Messianic role foisted upon him that never suited him to begin with.

It seemed to throw the boys for a loop. Whatever they were expecting when they snuck off to confront their disgraced leader, this was clearly not it.

"That wasn't rhetorictical," Mugen said, when his questions were met with stunned silence.

"Rhetorical," I corrected him in a small voice.

"Rhetorical. Thanks," he gave me an appreciative nod. "Like, I'm asking you. Why are you here?"

The kids looked at each other for a moment, and then they all answered at once. It sounded like:

"Justicefreedomofexpressionreligionnotaxationwithoutrepresentationnorestrictionsonbiggamehunting."

There was another pause. "What?!" everyone said at once.

And then the de facto leader of this splinter group piped up, "Justice! OK?" he turned quickly to face the others and nodded authoritatively. "We'll go with that."

"No, you go with that," Mugen growled, now officially throwing his sword on the ground. He ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his sinus. He looked like a frazzled kindergarten teacher more than a warrior. It was a side I never imagined I'd see in him. "That's what you go with. You believe in that. I mean, that's why you're out here, wavin' swords around and cussin' out cops. Something happened to you to make you want justice."

The boy's eyes glazed over for a moment, and it was clear he knew the exact moment. The very instant he decided that the world was unjust, and that had to change. "And how about you?" he gestured to another kid. "What's your scenario?"

The boy sort of blushed for a second and then said meekly, "I was the one who wanted fewer restrictions on big game hunting."

Mugen and I looked at each other. "Really?" I asked.

"I have a big family!" he exclaimed. "I'm one of 13 kids! We can't feed everyone with freakin' rabbits! But they make the licenses so expensive that only the rich people can afford them, and they're just mounting them on walls anyway..."

"OK," Mugen said, cutting him off. "So there you go. You all know your Reasons. You're not wandering around, running into walls or some shit. You know what's up. What do you need me for? Besides gettin' you all killed?"

The bell rang out on the pier, and all of us turned to look at it, startled out of whatever uneasy reverie we were in. I looked at Mugen, urging him to get a move on, and he looked away from me.

"So why like this?" the leader asked again, a certain amount of resolve back in his voice. He stood up straighter now. More like a man.

Mugen sighed heavily, kicking his sword off the ground and into his hand with the toe of his sandal. "If I asked you nicely, would you have listened?"

The bell rang again. I was starting to do a mild approximation of the pee-pee dance. I wasn't sure what would happen if we missed that boat. I didn't even know what was happening a mere two miles behind me. Jin could have been arrested, for all I knew. Maybe worse.

"OK..." the kid seemed to concede, finally lowering his sword. The others followed suit. "So now what?"

"Now go fight the fight you were all really fightin'. And kick ass."

For a moment, the boys seemed taken aback by the simplicity of it all, which was a common reaction to Mugen. Complicated questions. Monosyllabic answers. Go. Fight. Win. That's all there is to it, really. Adding all these layers to it just weighs you down.

Ultimately, the boy gave a funny little backwards shrug towards the heavens. "S'aright?" he seemed to be asking the universe. And the universe said, "S'aright."

It always does, when you take the time to listen.

Making a bewildered sort of huffing sound that reminded me of Jin, the lead boy waved us off. "Go," he said. And that was that. Mugen's Day Camp for Wayward Youths was over just as suddenly, and as accidentally, as it began. It occurred to me then that was true of most things in life. Your biggest moments are unplanned, unexpected, and transient. You can only hope you recognized them for what they were as they leave.

Mugen took a few steps backwards, whether as a way of saying goodbye or to make sure they weren't going to change their minds, I couldn't be certain. Then we spun on our heels and took off for the boat.