Of Gunshots and Sorrow
Chapter 22
The Crows
AN:/
Moody1656: Quick note! There was a typo last chapter. Fuu's hands are tied in front of her, not behind.
Fuu shut her eyes when the door started to open. It swung into the wall with a loud metallic clang. The clang barely sounded over the sound of bullets leaving their respective barrels. "Idiots! Hold your fire!" Hisoka went about giving the orders he always did. She heard the men breathing heavily around Hisoka. She could almost hear him gnashing his teeth together. They were pissed. Mugen pissed them off. These were all sounds of triumph, normally. Instead, Fuu heard another sound that made her stomach feel cold and empty. Blood hit the ground in sloshy drops.
Her eyes snapped open.
"Fire!"
Another round of shots rang and made her wince back. But she kept her eyes open. At the door stood Mukuro. No, his corpse. Hisoka must have thought they'd accidentally killed his partner just a second ago.
Three men fell to the floor. Fuu didn't know it yet, but one had a chest wound and the other two were shot right between the eyes. Right in the middle of Mukuro's body, past the alarming red of blood and torn flesh, was the end of a gun. Mugen was shooting through a hole in the body. And he was shooting well enough that he killed three men and injured two with just his first round. Mugen's hair gave him away behind the body, but he was still doing a good job at shielding himself.
Without a word the body was flung across the room, stunning some of the men while others shot at will chasing Mugen's acrobatics as he rushed behind one of the wooden boxes of product. It didn't take too long before he flipped onto the top of the five foot tall crate and launched himself most of the remaining distance left toward Hisoka and the four lackeys. Fuu watched in awe as he threw the bloody gun straight into one man's mouth, effectively breaking a number of teeth, and pulled another gun out before hitting the ground.
Her captors all stood facing her savior. No one was shooting. Seven men and Hisoka versus Mugen turned to three actually still able fighters and their ringleader in less than a minute.
For not the first time since they'd met, Mugen looked more animal than man to Fuu. His teeth were bared. He had a serious cut along his cheek and several other cuts all over his body. His hair was wilder than usual. His maroon jacket was wrapped tightly, deliberately, around his waist. It was a makeshift bandage. At that moment, Fuu realized Mugen shouldn't be standing so easily. That's when she saw the slight shakiness in his eyes that no one else would notice but she who was used to seeing him in fights.
He was actually nervous.
"Leave, boy." Hisoka's voice was low, almost whispered. But there was no fear, no hesitation; despite the man he was clearly threatening through subtext had just taken out most of his men. "I'm a generous man, so I'm letting you have one last chance to turn around without harm."
Fuu was staring at Mugen, hoping he would look at her and see that she was pleading that he would listen. If her eyes hadn't been wide and waiting in hope that he leave, she wouldn't have seen him almost glance her way before keeping his eyes on her step-father. Leave. Live.
He says nothing. The only sound in the room is the sound of Hisoka's now slightly toothless guard crying on the ground.
Her step-father's fists clench. "She's not worth all this sacrifice. You think she'd do this for you?"
Mugen continues to stare. Fuu can't see a single weapon on him and knows Hisoka is ready to give the order.
His fists unclench and a short, derisive chuckle covers the sound of the groaning man. "She abandoned her mother."
Fuu barely heard the man as he moaned again. She didn't, however, hear Hisoka's gun go off when he shot the man. She didn't hear Mugen's gun go off and miss Hisoka. She didn't hear any of this because, though she never thought herself capable, Fuu launched her body, zip-ties and all, toward Hisoka and bit down on his ankle.
A warm liquid metal coated the bottom of his slacks and her tongue.
- - 22 - - 22 - -
She was dead.
Even though he knew this, Jin tried to hold onto the little strength he had left simply to watch the blind woman should she suddenly reanimate. His left arm was useless. Additionally, now that he stopped fighting and let himself feel his injuries Jin could tell his right hand had been strained from holding the door as a shield. His wrist would swell up soon if he didn't bleed out.
He had misjudged Sara's fighting abilities and rushed her, knocking the gun out of her hand thinking she would be easier to take on up-close. When he thought he could overpower her and cut off most of her offensive attacks, she pulled out a small sickle-like weapon and began hacking at his body.
The fight was over quick because instinctively Jin swiped down on her arm and broke her wrist. Then, without holding back, he pushed forward on her chest and knocked her off her feet and to the ground. He heard the sickening sound of her skull cracking right as he pointed his gun at her and stopped himself from pulling the trigger.
He was still teetering above her with the gun out and ready. Blood slowly creeped its way out of her mouth and down the side of her neck, her teeth coated so heavily that they almost looked black. Her eyes were bulging; the left one would probably fall down and out of the socket if her body were lifted.
Shocking Jin enough to drop the gun, his abdomen shook as he breathed.
He killed her to save the few people he cared about, the few people that cared about him. Either she returned to her children or he did. This was always black and white, it always had been. He had even told her he would not hold back. What made him shake, though, was that even before he heard the crack of her skull he had already regretted pushing her. Somewhere in the back of his mind, despite what he had told Sara and himself, he did not plan on killing her.
As he stared at her still open eyes, he suddenly saw Shino's face instead of Sara's.
He felt like someone was squeezing his stomach. To be a father, he had killed a mother.
He heard the hollow sound of barking as he closed his eyes and let his body fall to the concrete.
For the first time in a long time, Jin hated himself. He hated the man who killed.
- - 22 - - 22 - -
Seeing Fuu react so violently did not make Mugen pause and consider what was happening, it woke him up. He missed his shot when the injured guy on the ground momentarily distracted Hisoka. He'd pulled his gun out of the back of his shorts as the asshole ranted and waited for a shot. He didn't expect Fuu to react at that moment too, which blew his shot. By the time he recovered from the fact that he missed he knew the last three guards would either shoot him or Fuu and immediately went about taking them down next.
He killed one, and nicked the other two who barely dodged when they realized what Mugen was doing.
"Gahhh!" Fuu's shrill cry made Mugen turn to see that Hisoka had kicked her face away from him.
"Fucking bitch!" He spit. Hisoka grabbed Fuu's hair and pulled her up forcefully until she stood on her own. Tears were freely spilling from her eyes. Blood tainted the middle parts of her lips. She choked on a cry of pain mixed with tears.
Mugen watched with an odd mix of pride and anger as she hardened her face and forced herself to take in even breaths. She was trying to be strong. Why the fuck would she worry about that now? Fuu attacked Hisoka like a rabid hamster, something he'd never thought was possible, and she was still trying to keep up this stupid appearance that she wasn't being hurt. She was pretending that she didn't need to be saved.
"Mugen! Mugen, get the hell outta here! This isn't any of your business! I'm fine!" Fuu shouted.
The man who had killed her mother in front of her and just blatantly attacked her emotionally by bringing it back up again AND told her the blame was on her for not trying to save her mother just smirked.
Mugen knew that the last two lackeys had their guns trained on him waiting for him to move or for an order or for anything to happen.
Hisoka didn't look at Mugen as he spoke, but the ex-criminal knew this current criminal was addressing him as he spoke. "Run away. Just run and save yourself. She did it before, now she wants the same for you." At the next part he turned his eyes to Mugen and pushed his gun into her neck. "It's the most heroic thing this stupid little cunt is capable of. Do it for her sake, yeah? Leave."
"You won't do it," Mugen answered right away. "You need her. You need her money, that's what this is all about, right? Yer not a big enough idiot to kill your investment."
The man laughed. Laughed. "It speaks!"
Mugen ignored the pain where Mukuro stabbed him and focused on the asshole that still found humor in a fight despite everything that had happened that night so far.
"But you're right." He lowered his gun. "Boys, help me out." He paused and looked at Mugen with a mocking tilt of the head, as if he were considering his options. He slowly smiled as he said the final decision. "If I die, so does she."
The last two nameless men moved while their guns stayed trained on Mugen. One stood a foot forward and to the left of Hisoka, the other stood to Fuu's right. The man on the right slowly moved his gun toward Fuu. Hisoka, with some mocking flair, flicked the safety on his gun and stashed it. With a flick of his wrist he pulled out a butterfly knife.
He needed to do something, Mugen knew. The issue was that this wasn't as simple as him killing a few assholes and maybe stay alive too, he also had to make sure Fuu came out of it unharmed.
Mukuro, though lifeless and mangled behind him near the entrance, haunted him one last time. He saw Fuu bound by rope not plastic as Hisoka made a long cut just below her ear down her jawline to her chin. She didn't move, somehow staying strong, but her scream rivaled the one he'd heard so long ago in the warehouse. He practically saw Mukuro stand next to Hisoka and Fuu with a leud smirk.
"Lower your gun, boy." Hisoka ordered with the previous tone of condescension he had used earlier when he'd been "generous." "I may not kill her, but I don't need her pretty even less in one piece."
The cut wasn't deep but blood was pouring out and covering her neck.
All Mugen could think was that he needed to kill Hisoka now. His finger wanted to pull the trigger so bad. If he did it fast enough maybe he could kill the other two before they got to Fuu.
"Lower your gun."
He couldn't let them kill her. He had to come up with something. There was still hope in this situation somewhere. Something had to happen that would make a clear path for him to save Fuu. Mugen felt desperate for the first time since he lost his family. He couldn't lose her too.
Hisoka grabbed Fuu's hands roughly, the backpack swung back and forth on the zip-tie. He grabbed her right index finger and readied the knife in a threat. "Lower it!"
He lowered himself to the ground slowly and put the gun down. His eyes did not leave Hisoka.
"Same with anything else you've got."
Mugen slowly pulled out his last gun and Mukuro's dagger, setting them all on the cement carefully before standing.
"There." Mugen said. "Now you."
Hisoka nodded and put his knife away. He signaled for the man next to Fuu to move his gun and the man pointed it back at Mugen, taking a step forward like the other man whose gun was still trained on Mugen.
Mugen finally let himself look at Fuu. She was staring back at him with her stupid giant eyes, watery and pathetic like when he first met her. She mouthed the word 'please' at him.
He was still pissed at her. "A letter."
She had the decency to lower her head.
"What?" Hisoka asked.
Mugen ignored him. "You could have just told me to fuck off, sweetheart."
She flinched but didn't look up. "I couldn't risk…either of your lives." A sigh escapes her lips like a butterfly. Her eyes blink repeatedly to shake away the tears before she looks at him again. "Mugen, leave. I just have to wait it out until I can give him what he wants."
He wanted to shake her. "You actually think that's where it ends? You're throwing away everything your parents did." Her eyes turned cold and he knew he was finally gonna get some honesty out of her.
"Don't preach to me! You aren't exactly a model son." She knew how to get him to turn cold too.
"I never had to be!"
"Oh, grow up Mugen."
He snapped at that moment. He felt like he was back under her care in an abandoned warehouse hours before getting pissed. "You're the one who ran off after everything I did to keep your scrawny ungrateful ass away from this douchebag!"
Fuu recoiled a bit, but pretended to still have the same fire as before. "You only did that because of Hi—"
"You know damn well I did it cause of you!" His declaration echoed off the walls.
"Hello?" Hisoka tried to interrupt.
"Please," she whispered. The room was quiet for a moment and Mugen watched as she realized that she couldn't beg him to leave. "Just leave." Her tone was harsh, but the tears she was pushing back down her throat undercut it. "Beat it!" She screamed it this time; clearly hoping that would push Mugen away.
He wouldn't fall for it, though. He knew she wanted him to save her just as much as he wanted to.
She kept yelling at him to leave.
"Fuu! Shut up!" He snapped at her. To him she looked terrified, even more now that he yelled at her. In truth, she was shocked that this may be the first time he used her name. Never before in his life had he been so determined to save another person. He always thought that people who felt this way were doomed to die if they were focused on saving someone else. Mugen, though, he knew he would live. If only to make sure she would never have to fight to stay alive again. "Have a little faith in me, will ya?"
Her stepfather laughed and mocked 'how sweet' the whole affair was. He stepped forward toward Mugen, leaving Fuu dumbfounded as she stared at the floor with wide eyes. Mugen grit his teeth with each step the older man made. "Now then," Hisoka said. "The big question is what to do with you. We can't have you following us again, but I also can't kill you. I gotta give the kid a reason not to run."
Something like a silent growl shook in Mugen's chest. He wanted to rip the man's face to shreds with his bare hands. "Let her go."
Hisoka stood at arm's length away from Mugen now. Mugen remembered the pain from his wound and lifted his right hand, pressing tightly on the hoodie wrapped around the gash.
He noticed. "You can't save her," Hisoka sneered. "You're barely standing yourself."
"Mugen, run—gahh!" Mugen looked away from Hisoka. The two lackeys pushed her to the ground and were kicking Fuu relentlessly.
She curled tight, gasping and screaming while holding the backpack close to her chest.
"Shut the hell up!" Mugen's grip on his side tightens and his eyes widen, ready to charge the men.
"Fucking prin—"
One shot. Then another.
Mugen and Hisoka both ignore the other and face the scene.
Her eyes are large and shiny behind a film of tears. Her motuh is open but no sound leaves it, not even a sob. Clutched just above the folds of her backpack and below her chin is the small handgun Mugen had given her a lifetime ago. The sound of shaking metal makes the image real. The sound of agony from the two men who have collapsed to the floor from being shot through the shin or foot makes it fact.
Still, Mugen can't accept it. It's enough to completely blow any focus he had.
"Run!" he shouts. Fuu's eyes snap up. Mugen knows his eyes are wide with fear, but he isn't so much scared they won't get out of this as he is scared that—
"You bitch!" Hisoka is already on his way to her, acting on impulse rather than reason.
Remembering how Mugen had stood up despite being bound back at the photographer's place, she pops up from her side and hops up to stand. The gun falls from her hands to the floor and shoots randomly, hitting a box. Her focus is on something else, staying up. Hisoka barrels toward her with speed and she's sure she'll hit the ground again.
She feels Hisoka's large calloused fingers graze her neck just before Mugen tackles the man to the ground.
Mugen gasps from the pain of landing on his injury and tearing it even more. Hisoka's head hit the ground fast and hard, disorienting the man just long enough for Mugen to pause and adjust his bandage. As he finished Hisoka managed to kick Mugen in the knee.
"Mugen!"
He risks looking her way. "I said go!" She hesitates, but he strains and hears her eventually reach the door that leads downstairs.
When he looks back, Hisoka is trying to pull his gun out. Falling on his back and twisting around in a dance, Mugen manages to kick the gun away and out of his hand. He pulls out his lucky dagger from the folds of his bandage/jacket, where it's tightest against his injury, before Hisoka can react. Though slippery from the coat of blood around the handle, he gets a firm hold of the dagger and stabs Hisoka between the ribs and twists.
The man gasps and chokes. In a twitchy last attempt, Hisoka reaches up. He grips around the hoodie tied to Mugen's wound. He stretches his fingers inside the wound.
Fatigue finally hits the animal. Mugen starts slipping. His vision starts going brown. With his left hand, Mugen ushes down on Hisoka's neck. He can't go without knowing Fuu is safe.
Both men struggle and choke against the other. Mugen starts coughing and shouting without a sound. Blood slowly bubbles out of Hisoka lips.
She needs to be safe.
Hisoka's eyes start to unfocus and his hand slips.
In that brief moment, Mugen realizes he can't hear anything. The last thought he has before he loses his sense of balance is that he can't remember hearing anything after kicking the gun.
The world breaks around him.
He falls in.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Up.
He breaks through water. It's clean—so clean it's white. But it reminds him of Ryukyu's ports. Maybe because he was still there the first time he visited this place. This strange ocean that feels empty yet full at once. This strange ocean that feels small and never-ending, welcoming and invaded, loving and terrifying, good and bad.
His hearing was back, but there were no waves to clue him in just the fluttering feathers of the Crowmen. The ancient men stood around him in a circle, as usual. Their faces, if they had any, were hidden in the shroud of black feathers they wore like robes. Spears were in their hands. His mother told him that the ancient spirits did this before they judge a man's life. It felt more like they were guarding him.
He'd escaped from them so many times, maybe this time they weren't going to let him.
His voice was quiet when he spoke. "Not yet."
The Crowmen didn't move, but they were listening.
He thought of Fuu and his sister and his brother and even Jin. He needed to get back to them. He thought of Hino. He didn't save her but he saved Fuu. He got what he didn't admit he wanted. He finally saved someone.
Thr Crowmen kept staring. He could feel water move a little around his hair.
He knew he didn't need to save her anymore, not really.
The water shook around him.
Everything felt like it exploded around him until he was in nothing but air. His body still didn't move but he felt it fly as the Crowmen took flight around him—some pulling him up as they went.
"Mugen!"
He needed to get back to her.
"Mugen!"
He had to get home.
The crows' feet let him go. He could feel their feathers touch his skin or flap wind toward him as they left. He fell again.
"MUGEN!"
He fell knowing this time she'd be on the other side.
Slowly the pain came back. He'd choose that over dying every time.
- - 22 - - 22 - -
Her face was really close to his, hovering. She was looking for any sign of him coming back. She could barely see past the tears that crowded her eyes. But as she stared at his stiff and torn face, unshaven chin, and the graze on his cheek that would scar she noticed his lower lip twitch.
"Mugen?" Her voice was soft. Her throat still burned from screaming out at him to wake up. His nostrils widened, letting in air.
Fuu watched in awe as his once closed eyes gave way to white and then a sharp, cold gray. She smiled. "You're alive…"
"It's you," he said. She wondered if it was his weakened state that made him more emotionally open. He sounded caring and even a bit relieved to see her.
With a deep sigh of relief, she sat up straight to give him room.
He flinched. "You were crying over me."
She laughed through her tears at his blunt comment but nodded.
"It got in my cut," he said and flinched again. He put his hands down on the ground around him and Fuu watched as he noticed that he was now on his back and Hisoka wasn't anywhere near him.
"Kohza was here the whole time," she explained. "She helped me move the bodies."
Struggling to sit up, he stretched a hand out to Fuu—surprising her. She eased him into a sitting position.
"Jin?"
She nods and tells him she got him in the car. Fuu didn't tell him she was amazed it still worked. Eventually, the two work together to get him standing. He nearly falls but his grip on her holds him up. Holding up his weight as best she can as they head down to the car. "Mugen?" she asks as they start going down the stairs.
He doesn't look at her. "Hmm?"
"I-um…" she pauses. He still doesn't look. Instead he focuses on each step they take down. She sees blood still dripping steadily from his body to the concrete. He's alive, but just barely. "Sorry."
He doesn't stop walking—they're almost all the way down. "Next time," he says, "just don't leave."
- - 22 - - 22 - -
Mugen (or Jin, if you're reading this),
My stepfather found us. I've realized we can't keep running away from him. You need to find your siblings, and you can't do that if we're constantly being hunted down.
Mukuro promised me a deal. As long as I leave with them, you'll be safe—your whole family will be safe. You've kept me alive for so long, it's my turn to pay you back. I know you don't like mushy stuff, but you are the most important person in my life right now. I can't let you die too. Don't follow me; I'll never forgive you.
Stay safe and find your family. They need you more than I do.
I love you.
-Fuu
AN:/
Moody1656: It's done! This is the last "official" chapter, but I have a short epilogue for all my lovely readers. As usual, here is a preview—our very last. Thank you, everyone, for your constant support and patience. By everyone!
She was gripping onto the fabric of his shirt as if he would fall through the gaps between her fingers if she lessened her hold. They looked the very picture of a tormented and paranoid couple who had been too close to losing the other one too many times. To anyone other than Jin the image would have been heartbreaking, but he who knew them both on a more personal level and knew most of what they had suffered together saw the happiness that had been missing from both of their lives for years.