Jin and Fuu sat in the little house in a morose silence that made it easy to hear the running feet approaching them. Koza hurried through the door, dropping to her knees and gasping for breath. "Please, you've got to help him! He's going to die." Tears ran down her face.
Fuu knelt by her and took her arm. "What do you mean?"
"Mugen," whispered the girl.
Jin stood up, setting his swords in his belt. "So it was a trap."
Koza nodded miserably and the three of them set out for the dock, gazing in horror at the burning ship visible for miles. "It's the pirate ship!" whimpered Koza.
"Who's on that ship?" Fuu grabbed her and shook her. "Koza, who..."
Koza pulled away from Fuu, her hand to her mouth. "Mugen."
There was a tremendous explosion and the air seemed to quiver around them. Koza sank down, sobbing as if her heart was broken, while Jin stared in shock at the fire melting away into the water as the ship sank. Then Fuu screamed.
"NO! MUGEN!"
She started to run down to the water and Jin seized her. "Calm yourself!"
She fought him violently and the samurai's heart constricted. He couldn't say when he had come to love Fuu as a sister, but an affection as strong and true in its way as his feeling for Shino had sprung up in his heart and he couldn't bear to see her in such pain. Did she really love Mugen so much? How could he not have seen it? Then again, he was not well-versed in love. Oh, he had known about brothels and the pleasures of the flesh for years, but love was not something he had ever experienced until he met Shino. That sweet gentle woman, who helped him at the grilled eel stand and talked calmly of going into a brothel to pay her husband's debts, who shared a night with him and finally stood up to her worthless husband, and even now waited for him….Was it possible that the wild Ryukyuan had inspired the kind of feeling in Fuu that Jin had for Shino? He supposed it was, and as he realized what Mugen's loss was going to mean to Fuu, a terrible sorrow closed over him. "You must calm down, Fuu."
She heard the pain in his flat voice and clutched at him, shivering as the last of the flames was quenched. Then there was nothing but the sound of the rain and Koza's sobs.