I hold no claim to the characters from this kick-ass Anime. Only Ryu, Liza, and Reiko are mine!
Chapter One
Reunited
"They definitely came this way. That old man in the last village said that the trio came this way."
"I thought you only knew the chick? How do you know what the men look like?"
"Because when we received reports, we got descriptions. How many samurai do you know walk around with glasses on his face? Or a brown weirdo with blue tattoos from prison? And the fact that they're with a young woman fitting Fuu's description just makes me that more sure it's the ones we're looking for."
"You're such a weirdo, Ryu."
"Coming from the English woman, right?"
"You got that right."
Ryu Matsu shook his head. 24 and standing at 6'0', Ryu had black hair that he kept short with a blue tint and green eyes. Dressed in the traditional robes of the samurai, his colors pertained to grey and white, his blades held to the right of his body and a green sack on his back.
The English woman he was talking to was Elizabeth Rush, though she preferred to be called Liza. At 5'9' and 18 years old, she kept her long, blonde hair in a twisted, crooked ponytail to the left of her head with a pair of big, blue eyes. Dressed in a green kimono, she currently wore the left side of her dress off of her shoulder, exposing bright white skin as she wore a white halter top. A large naginata was strapped across her back and she was currently rubbing her right thigh through her kimono, careful not to hit the knives she held strapped to her leg.
"Ryu, just how far are you willing to follow this girl?"
The third voice joined the conversation, making the man turn to look at the woman that was still sitting on the bench behind them. That was Reiko Noba, the last of their happy, little bunch. With long black hair that reached past her waist, she kept it scrunched up at the nape of her neck with a pair of cold, grey eyes. Dressed in a purple kimono with flower patterns, a single blade in a black sheath was hanging to her left, a golden talisman hanging from the sheath.
The trio were currently outside of a tea house, having just finished lunch. Ryu had asked for information on a group they were currently tracking and they were getting ready to take off again.
"I've told you before, Reiko. Fuu and her mother took me in when my mother died. She's my little sister. I have to make sure she's safe. I kept an eye on her while she worked in that tea house back home but now that she's run off I have to confront her."
"Confront her?" Liza raised a brow. "You sound like you're afraid to do so."
"I'm a convicted criminal now, thanks to you two. I'm worried about what she'll say. Then again, with who she's traveling with now I don't think I need to be that afraid anymore."
"You're not a criminal yet, you know," Liza grinned. "Your face was never seen and there's not wanted posters of you yet."
"But the longer I'm around you two, I'll be placed on them in no time, I'm sure." Ryu hung his head.
"You're free to leave any time," Reiko told him. "We can take care of ourselves."
"And believe me, I wish I could, but I can't. I was raised to help women, especially when they're in dire need. Besides, you're not that bad; either of you."
"Aww, you're so cute, Ryu!" Liza giggled at him. "It's too bad you're gay."
"I told you, I'm not gay," Ryu crossed his arms. "I just don't want to sleep with you."
"Yeah, that means you're gay."
Ryu rolled his eyes. This was a constant conversation between the two of them. Liza liked to flirt; a lot. She flirted with anything and everything if it walked on two legs and could talk, male or female. Ryu wouldn't lie and say he wasn't attracted to the blonde English woman but he had his morals. Now he just had to stick with them.
Reiko, on the other hand, blew him off every chance that she could. She clearly didn't hide the fact that she disliked the man traveling with them. Hell, she seemed to dislike anyone but Liza but Ryu didn't hold it against her. He knew all about what made her this way. He couldn't blame her for that.
Ryu was surprised that Reiko hadn't gone off and left on her own. With the way she acted she seemed more like a loner but she always followed what Liza wanted to do. The two of them were inseparable and why that was, even Ryu had yet to get the answer from either of the two women.
"I heard that there's some famous painter in this town." Liza folded her arms behind her head. "I'm interested in going for a look."
"You like paintings?" Ryu raised a brow.
"No, not really. I just want to see how much a naked picture of me, Reiko, and you cost."
The man sighed. "I should have known."
"We need to be careful," Reiko commented. "I hear that there's Yakuza wandering this ar-"
"GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE!"
A man ran past them, an enraged look on his face. Liza was able to get a good look at him.
With messy black hair and a faint beard, his skin was tanned and he wore a grey shirt with a red, short sleeved happi and dark grey hakama that were cut off at his knees. There was a sword strapped to his back, pair of Geta sandals, and blue tattoos on his wrists and ankles.
She blinked. "Ryu...you said blue tattoo rings, right?"
"Yeah, that's right," Ryu tossed the last dango in his mouth. "Why?"
"Because I think that was him."
…
"What?!"
"You're an idiot," Reiko sighed, squeezing the bridge of her nose as Ryu took off after the running man.
"Should we hurry after him?" Liza asked.
"No," The older woman answered. "Let him take care of his own problems." Reiko stood up. "Let's get out of this place before sunset; I don't want to get caught in a town."
"Then we'll need to head over the river," Liza stretched her back out. "There's a boat fare, you know." She looked down the street where Ryu had disappeared. "You think we'll lose him this time?"
For the last few months, Liza and Reiko have been trying to lave Ryu behind but every time they parted ways and left him behind, they somehow ended right back up with the man.
"Who can say?" Reiko commented. "It's all left to the hands of fate."
"Hey, hey you! Stop running! I need to talk to you!" Ryu yelled at the man in red.
"Can't stop! Need to save the girl!"
"Save the girl?" Ryu froze for a moment. "Save the girl? Do you mean Fuu?!"
The man didn't reply, though, just dropping over the side of the bridge and landing on a boat of barrels before beginning to beat the hell out of the three men on it.
"What the..." Ryu watched as one of them men in blue opened a barrel and grabbed something from inside before jumping onto the stairs and beginning to run. It was a young woman in a pink kimono. He wasn't able to get a good look at the girl's face but if this guy was who he was looking for then that girl in pink...
Ryu wasted no time in running after the man, the guy in red not far behind him. Letting the other man take care of what was going on with the freak, Ryu caught the woman was she was tossed aside.
Relief flooded his body as he took a look at her face. "Fuu!
The young woman that he had caught looked up at him in fear before surprise spread across her face. "M-Matsu?" Her words were muffled behind the cloth covering her mouth but she repeated his name when he removed it. "Matsu, is it really you?!"
The man grinned as he looked at his adopted sister, untying her arms. She always called him by his last name; always. Fuu was about 15 with brown hair pulled back and a deep pink kimono with flower patterns.
"You there," A voice sounded behind him before he could reply and Ryu turned to find...a large man in a sumo outfit.
Ryu blinked. "What the hell did I just drop in on?"
Apparently the large man had been tracking down the people behind slave trafficking in this little town. Fuu had been tricked into being a model and was almost sold off and put on a European ship. The Officer shut the whole shop down, and arrested an older man for being the owner.
"I really did drop in on some weird shit, didn't I?" Ryu sighed, watching as the sun began to set on the bridge he now stood upon.
"Matsu, what are you doing here?" Fuu asked.
He frowned. "What am I doing here? Shouldn't I be the one getting answers?" He growled. "I told you not to leave that village. Do you know how worried I was when I received word that you had run off after helping a pair of criminals escape execution?" He glanced at the two behind him. "No offense."
The man in red smirked. "None take, asshole."
The man in red, as Ryu learned, was Mugen and the other companion was Jin. Jin was a spectacled man with long black hair tied in a loose ponytail with two strands to frame his face. In a simple indigo blue keikogi and hakama, the keikogi was adorned with multiple symbols that are four squares in a diamond formation on the right pec, sleeves, and the back. There was a teal beaded bracelet on his right wrist and his blades were to his left.
"Fuu, who is this?" Jin asked.
"Ahh, this is Matsu; he's my brother!"
"Adopted brother," Ryu corrected her. "Call me Ryu; and I apologize for anything she has done. I know how she can be."
"Apology accepted." Jin nodded.
"Pay me, and I'll think about it," Mugen replied, flipping through a book in his hands.
"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Fuu growled. "And let me ask you where you've been? Not even a letter in five years? What the hell, Matsu?"
"Well," Ryu rubbed the back of his head. "I got involved with some bad stuff and I didn't want them to try and track me through you so I kept my distance for a while." there was a squeak and he smiled as a brown flying squirrel crawled onto his shoulder and began to rub it's face against his. "Hey, Momo; good to see you, too."
"Trouble?" Fuu raised a brow. "What kind of trouble?"
"Well, I suppose I can't get mad at you for traveling with a criminal, considering..."
"Considering what?"
"Uh...I'd better let them tell that story," Ryu waved a hand. "But that's besides the point. Fuu, what are you trying to do?"
"I...I've hired Jin and Mugen to help me...help me find the samurai who smells of sunflowers."
"Sunflowers..." Ryu's mouth turned into a frown. To think that she was doing that... "Fuu-"
"Don't say it, Matsu," Fuu cut him off. "This is my choice. You can either help or not but that's not going to change my mind."
Ryu frowned. He knew why Fuu was after the Sunflower Samurai, knew what she wanted, but that didn't mean that he liked it. "It'll be dangerous, Fuu. You can run into...well, crap like this." He gestured to the town around them. "And, no offense, I don't like the idea of you being alone with two men."
"So three will make it better?" Mugen grinned from behind his book.
"Well, I'm traveling with two women so-"
"Two women!?" Mugen jumped up with an interested look. "Why didn't you say so earlier?!" He leaned closer. "Are they hot?"
"Umm..."
"Come on, are they an eight? A nine? Or...are they a ten?"
"Well, if I was to rate them..."
"Don't even!" Fuu clapped her hands over her ears. "I don't want to hear it!"
"Aww, you're just jealous."
"Let me just explain one thing...Liza and Reiko aren't...normal."
"Oh?" Mugen raised a brow.
Jin turned around as well. "They're not normal?"
"You'll understand...eventually," Ryu gave a grin. "So, I guess you've got another set of companions; when we find them."
"What do you mean?" Fuu asked.
"You see, the two of them like to disappear at night. Sometimes I'll catch up to them in the next town or-"
"You mean you're stalking them?" Mugen laughed.
"No, if anything, they're stalking me!" Ryu replied. "Then again, they do stand out so they can cause a ruckus; in more ways than one."
Fuu hung her head as Mugen continued to pound Ryu with more questions. "Why do I have a feeling this this whole trip just got worse?"
I hope you guys like it. Review! :)