It did not take Algren long to find Miryu's house, but when he had called for her, she did not answer. Instead, he decided to go through the back door, and give her a surprise, finding more than what he had bargained for. Right there in the courtyard, was the female warrior, dressed like the men in the village, practicing with her katana. Engrossed in her training, she did not hear him enter, nor did she feel his presence, focused only in her task, in the unseen enemies that she had set herself to fight.
The style she had employed was unlike what Algren had ever seen before. The speed in which her attacks were executed, they were fluid, almost serpentine… He could see that there was one very crucial trait in all of them: each single attack consisted of a maneuver so fast that only trained eyes could detect, followed by a sharp strike. Whether the assault was aerial, or targeted for hand-to-hand combat, it would always be the same. Once her katana was unsheathed from its tsuba, the actual attack would not be far behind. As the seconds passed, he found the light within her sapphire eyes burn brighter than the sun, and immediately knew that this was where her heart felt the most peace, by absorbing herself to her training… There was literally no wonder as to how she had garnered such renown as one of Japan's greatest warriors, after what he had seen.
Miryu had no notice of him, not until she turned towards the back gate, and found him standing there, dressed in his uniform, free of his wounds. "Algren…" she murmured his name, and he swore, by the name of all things holy, it had been the most heavenly sound he had ever heard. For the longest time, she stood there and did nothing, just staring into his ocean-hued eyes, until he slowly walked towards her and enveloped her in his arms, something that he had yearned to do in a long, long while. "For the longest time, I feared that I could not see you again," she whispered into his shoulder, unknowingly allowing him to hold her tighter. Although she knew that Katsumoto would never allow his death, but she also knew that if he had forbid him to see her, there would be no way around it, as they were in his territory, where his word was law.
Placing a finger onto her lips, he hushed her, and brushed a stray lock of hair behind her eyes. Why did she have to look so beautiful, so irresistible? Her sapphire eyes, they seemed overjoyed to see him, and that was all he needed to know at the moment. "It's good to see you again, too," he replied with a grin that she rarely seen from him, lighting up his already strikingly handsome features. "I missed you, Miryu." Only God knew that he spoke the truth, and there was nothing he could want more than to hear her laughter once again… Her body, it felt as if she had been made to be held in his arms, and he could feel every single curve of that lithe form against him, bringing him a taste of what awaited him in heaven.
But anything that started always had an end. Suddenly noticing that they were not alone, she pulled away and maintained a respectable distance from him. It was Nobutada, Katsumoto's son. "Miryu-san, my aunt sent me to invite you for dinner," he said, "Higen and Magojiro are literally begging for your company."
With a light chuckle, Miryu replied, "Oh really, what do those little rascals want now?" Casting her gaze at Algren, she motioned for him to follow them, having no intention to leave him out of her sight again. "Nobutada, your aunt is a strong woman…" she said to the young man, whose youth was equal to hers. "No woman could have withstood the pain of losing a husband so young, and to care for the man who killed him…" She knew that at that point, Algren had not acquired enough knowledge of the Japanese language to understand her words, and she was afraid that he would know that Taka was the wife of the man he had killed just before they were taken hostage, but the very moment Nobutada told her otherwise, she kept her silence.
When they had entered Taka's house, Algren made to turn away, knowing that he was the one who had caused Taka so much pain, but Nobutada was insistent, leading him into the dining-room, where food had already been served, and where the young widow had treated him with extreme politeness. He could see easily how pained she was, how much anger she must have felt. After all the formalities had been gone through, she would not look at him for the slightest while, even if she remained civil with Miryu.
"Taka-san, thank you for this lovely meal," Miryu smiled, once she was done, adding a slight bow to her words of thanks. The older woman returned the gesture, and continued to eat. She could see the guilt in Algren's eyes, and the animosity in Taka's. If she were a fortune-teller, she would have interpreted them as two beings who opposed one another by will of Fate, and nothing more. She knew that there was nothing she could do to remedy the situation between them, but she also knew that it would not do Taka well to draw on enmity for so long.
"He is vile," Taka whispered to Nobutada and Miryu, who cared not to translate for Algren. "He smells like the pigs… please, make him take a bath…" To some extent, the younger ones agreed with her, and turning the conversation into English, for Algren's benefit, they told him that they were going to bring him to a very special bath in the outskirts of the village, where the water was not only good for his wounds, but to cleanse his soul as well.
Miryu smiled at his ready acceptance, and whispered to him, "You are in for the experience of a lifetime, dear Captain," after making sure that there was no one to overhear them. That night, the American could have sworn that he could be the luckiest man in the world, without knowing the true meaning behind her words.