'Oh, good grief,' Fuu sighed as she entered her room, plopping herself on the floor. 'How many hours did we just work, Jin?'

The said man stumbled into the room soon after, swaying back and forth, and fell onto a load of comforters.

'I have lost all sense of time.' Clearly, they had a very busy first day of work.

'That woman is insane!' Fuu exclaimed, 'she nearly made my fingers fall off from all the cleaning. And she seemed so kind and cheerful at first!'

'Fuu, if Satan is walking about the Earth, will he openly acknowledge the fact that he is Satan?'

'...I see your point.'

She got up and brushed off her kimono. It had gotten covered in splints from the wood chopping she had done. Who makes a young woman like me chop wood, anyway? Fuu thought bitterly.

'Are you willing to keep this up?' Jin asked.

'Well, we're going to have to work our butts off nearly all day for as long as we're here... but did you see how much money they gave us?' She held up the bag of gold coins. 'I can't believe this is half of the normal wage. That's the upside from all this work. The owner must be pretty wealthy.'

'Hnnn. It is quite a bit of money, yes.'

'We could buy dozens of dumplings with this! Ohhh... I can taste them now...hey, hang on a second..." Fuu suddenly seemed troubled. She crawled towards Jin and studied his face. He leaned back slightly, not used to the closeness, but was relieved when she merely took off his glasses and examined them.

'These old things are cracked!'

Jin sighed.

'You mean you only just noticed ? They've been broken for days.'

'Ohhh... when you fought that samurai guy? Well, with this money we have here, we can get a new pair!'

'But...they aren't too easy to come by, and rather expen--'

'No excuses,' she interrupted, 'I'm buying you a new pair, and they're going to be prettier than these.'

Jin remained silent. Prettier?... he thought, somewhat afraid of what Fuu had in mind.

'Well. What are you waiting for? Let's go. I'm sure we'll find something.'

'I'm not quite in the mood to go anywhere,' he replied, vexed, ' and I thought you were tired, too.'

She knew she was, but she was energized at the idea of shopping for a 'rare' item.

'Fine. If you're not coming along... then I'm still going. Back before midnight- promise!' She stuffed the money into the fold of her kimono, and raced out the door. Jin smiled- so this is what it's like to have a friend, he thought. It was a nice feeling.

I wandered around the area, wondering where in the hell she could have gone. The teahouse was history, I knew that firsthand. Maybe she went to some old geezer's place? An inn? Whatever, I know I'll find her, I thought. With every minute that passed by, the urge to be near her was getting stronger. Who knows what she might get herself into- anything could happen to that chick. I walked, walked, and, yeah, walked. All I was doing was walking, with no lead or any destination. In my desperation, that walk eventually turned into a pace, and then into some sort of a jog, but some moron decided to ruin my day by bumping into my shoulder- hard.

'Watch where you're go-!'

A smaller, more feminine voice echoed mine. And I nearly burst out laughing at the sheer perfection of the situation.

She couldn't believe her eyes- there he was. Showing up when she wasn't even expecting it, and nearly blasting her shoulder off from the impact of the collision.

'You...jerk!' Fuu yelled, as she punched him in the same shoulder she had run into. 'You should watch where you're going!'

He took a moment to spit on the ground, and spoke:

'You know, maybe you should watch where you're going!'

'Ugh, just-' she waved her hand to dismiss his comment. 'What are you doing here?'

'What am I doing here? I came to save your ass from being killed or somethin', that's what.'

A part of her was grateful, but she wouldn't want to ruin the mood by softening up their little quarrel.

'Well, I was doing fine on my own. I don't need or want you around.'

Mugen took a quick peek at the small sack in her hand.

'Oh yeah, you're doing fine on your own. Where'd you get that money- another brothel? Steal it from a pimp?'

He knew it was foolish to assume these things- Fuu was good at working and Mugen was totally aware of it. But the endless pleasure of getting on every last nerve of hers... can't put a price on that.

As expected, she packed a nice solid punch to his upper arm.

'I can't believe you! We reunite, and the first thing you do is bust my shoulder and then accuse me of being a thief. I would never stoop so low! And you have the nerve to-'

'Oh, quit your whining,' he interrupted. 'If it weren't fer me, you'd be long gone, chica.'

She knew it was true, of course, but continued on walking as if the encounter had never happened.

'Hey, where d'you think you're going?' he said as he grabbed the back of her kimono, causing her to stumble backward.

'I have to go buy stuff. You know, something normal people do.'

'Well, I never said I was a normal person, sweetheart, but...' he scratched the back of his neck lazily, 'whatever floats your boat. What're you buying anyway? Food, I'll bet.'

Blinded by her frustration, she blurted:

'As a matter of fact, I'm buying new glasses for Jin.'

Mugen's facial expression remained unchanged, but he was surprised. He knew there was a chance, but... he didn't really think that Jin had gotten to her this quickly .

'So four-eyes is with you, huh,' he stated, hiding his annoyance. With each passing moment, although he and Four Eyes had decided to be something like 'friends or whatever', he just felt like storming into wherever he and Fuu were staying and kicking him out for being so clingy.

'Well, I went to see her too...' Mugen thought, 'But I'm not clingy. No way in hell. Nah, i'm just trying to make sure she ain't getting her limbs chopped off. That's all-- I'll bet he's just molesting her. He kind of has that molester's smile. You know--'

'Look, are you going to stop staring at my boobs anytime soon?'

Mugen blinked, unaware that he was staring at her chest. He was about to tell her off, but then thought it would be wuss-like to let go of his manly pride so easily.

'Actually, no.' This time he only stared at them even more intently than before. 'Even though they're practically nonexistent...' he mentally added.

'Ohhh!... You damn lecher!'

'...Heh.' Mugen scoffed and continued in the direction that he had been going in earlier, and he had the nerve to bump into her a second time. For a minute she felt a playfulness in his touch, but figured that overall it was simply out of pure childishness. However, she made nothing of it.

And with that she kept walking, much faster than normal. Of course, Mugen got a good chuckle out of the entire rendezvous.

He didn't follow- he decided to let her go be a brat somewhere else. Instead, he wanted to stir up a little more mischief. He looked down, scanning the dirt road, and surely enough, found tracks. Deep tracks. Fuu's tracks.

'Tch. Of course she'll leave tracks as deep as a freaking moon crater.' He smirked. 'Oh, I'll find out where you're shackin', sweetheart... You know it.' He mentally congratulated himself for being so clever, and followed the tracks.

Fuu kept wandering around the village, not quite too sure where she was headed, but mainly she was looking for a small, quirky shop that would carry such uncommon objects as glasses. However, all she could find were restaurants and clothing shops-- perhaps the odd bookstore, but those were for rich travelers. Not for the likes of her, unfortunately.

'Gee, I wonder how Jin managed to get his glasses anyway...' Fuu thought, as she scanned the various stores and kiosks. 'But...come to think of it, he doesn't even really need them for his eyesight. They're only for show, right? Like his trademark or somethi-'

And she fell face first on the cold hard ground.

'Oww! What the hell...' She whined, rubbing her face with her hands, trying to remove the grains of sand that had gotten stuck to it, although a few still remained due to the sweltering heat of the afternoon. She looked back and realized that she had tripped on... a dead fish. Of all things.

'First the Stupid Jerk nearly dislocates my shoulder -twice-, and now I trip on a gross slimy thing and get a mouthful of sand? What a day...'

'Young lady, you wouldn't happen to be hurt, would you?' An unfamiliar voice addressed Fuu.

She looked up, and couldn't believe her eyes. She never thought something this nice would happen to her that day.

An incredibly good-looking young man, about twenty or so, stared her right in the face, smiling so gracefully it would make any woman's heart implode. His hand was outstretched towards her, offering to help her up-- the classic sign of gentlemanliness.

And get this; he had on a pair of drop dead gorgeous glasses.

'They look expensive,' she thought.

'O-oh. No, no, I'm fine, I'm good. Not hurt,' Fuu mumbled, feeling quite lucky. She steadily stood up, ignoring his hand, and knitted her hands together in a girly fashion. The glasses... they were a thousand times nicer than Jin's old, dull things. He retracted his hand and stood up, still smiling.

'Er, this may sound a bit odd, sir-- but could I, ah, inspect your glasses for a sec?'

His smiley expression remained unchanged, save for a slight eyebrow raise, and chuckled.

'Oh, no, I've had that tried on me a good many times before, my young lady. I'm afraid I won't be letting these go.' He pushed them up to the bridge of his nose- a somewhat Jin-like thing to do, Fuu thought- as if he were protecting them.

Fuu stared at him, her mouth slightly open.

'Um. He thinks I'm going to steal them.' she thought.

Which was kind of her plan, really, but clearly that couldn't be done now. Plan A; officially ruined. She sighed.

'Mister, I wasn't planning on stealing them, really,' she lied, quite well, actually. 'I, uh, you see, I have a friend who--'

'Hrrrrrm, so you're interested in purchasing them, then? Hmmmmmm?'

'Is this guy a mind reader or something?!' Fuu exclaimed mentally, awestruck by this pretty stranger.

'Well, if you're willing to purchase them, that'll be one gold ryo, please!' He closed his eyes, and held out his hand, implying that he wanted the money immediately.

Fuu's expression brightened-- it seemed that he completely underestimated the amount of money she had.

'Of course... if I'm dressed like this, in an old worn kimono, he's bound to think I'm some peasant, and automatically assume I've got little or no money at all!' She nearly laughed.

She whipped out the oval-shaped coin, astonishing the young man.

'Will this do?' Fuu asked, wearing a seemingly benevolent grin.

The man suddenly seemed defeated. He merely stared at Fuu, with something that looked a lot like confusion, and simultaneously exchanged the two items himself. He walked away, mumbling something under his breath that sounded a lot like 'Eh, well, what can you do?...' and treasured his newly acquired coin. Fuu stared off, watching him as he walked along the path, his eyes still fixated on the money.

'...What a weird guy. Sure was handsome, though.'

Satisfied with her 'purchase', she span back on her feet gaily--

And bumped into something. Again.

She looked up, only to find Mugen towering over her. Again .

'...Why you again?' They complained, synchronously.

'I thought you were going in the other direction!' Fuu yelled, gathering the attention of a group of strangers.

'Yeah, well, I got lost!' Mugen shouted back. Which is odd, because he should have been able to follow Fuu's tracks. At one point, they most likely blended with other people's footsteps, he supposed.

'Ugh, why is today such a horrible day? Why are you always popping up every time I turn around?'

'I don't know, maybe because you're trying to follow me everywhere since you're so damn desperate?'

Their voices only grew louder, and people continued to listen from inside restaurants, from their houses, and some even formed a small entourage.

'Me, desperate? That has got to be the biggest joke I have ever not laughed at. I just finished getting these-' she held up her precious gift- 'thank you very much.'

Mugen was about to say something, but he took another look at the glasses, examining them carefully.

The crowd around them gasped and began to mutter incoherently amongst one another, clearly in awe.

'Yeah, they're nice, aren't th--'

Mugen roughly grabbed them from Fuu's hand, and gave her a long, hard glare.

'You're an idiot. Do you know whose glasses these are?'

Fuu stood, wide-eyed, unable to comprehend Mugen's sternness. They started speaking more quietly now, and eventually the crowd dispersed, off to tend to their own business.

'I, uh, bought them from this young guy--'

'Yeah. That 'young guy' is the chief of the yakuza in this area. Everyone knows him for the glasses he wears. You should know that, you dumb broad. How much did'ja end up paying him?'

...Yakuza? She thought.

'I, uh, I paid him one gold ryo...But he-- yeah, he was a bit weird...but, he was so--he looked so--'

'Yeah, that's what every girl says. He's a screwed up guy, but he's pretty damn serious when it comes to business. What he's really trying to do is make sure that he and his gang are the richest bastards in this place. The fact that you let him know you have money is a threat to him and his little bozos. Now because you're so damn stupid and you paid him one damn ryo, he's gonna come after you. Bitch. I can't have that happen.'

Before Fuu could even protest, Mugen took her by the wrist and led her out of the market and into the village area.

'Lead me to where you're staying. We'll lay low there until they come for us, so then that way I can freakin' kick their asses.'

Fuu nodded, and couldn't resist the urge to smile. Her anger had completely vanished now.

'This... this is the way Mugen expresses himself,' she thought, ' whatever danger comes my way, he always jumps in to protect me. No matter what.'

Finally, they reached the inn.

Only to discover that it had been completely trashed, with nobody in sight except for the pretty yakuza leader and two of his henchmen, all brandishing long katanas, just about ready to pounce on either one of them.

'And I wouldn't change that about him for the world.'