And the war came with a curse and caterwaul

and the war came with all the poise of a cannonball

and they're picking out a rise by coal and candlelight

when the war came, the war came hard

The night that the wind wailed the worst was when their happy peace was shattered.

Fuu had been sleeping restlessly, Yukimaru tucked neatly against her chest, but even the baby was fidgeting in his sleep. Fuu's arm was tucked protectively around him, and Mugen sat on his half of the bed, silently watching the mother of his child sleep. She had tucked herself as close to Mugen as she could, silently migrating unconsciously towards his warmth. He reached down with one coarse hand, brushing a finger over her smooth cheek and smoothing out her hair.

Jin sat next to the dying fire, his katana propped up against his shoulder. Mugen had one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other gently cradling Fuu's head.

The wind was howling horribly from the cliff, and the sturdy walls of their hut seemed to bow under the force. Mugen and Jin kept their dangerous eyes on the door, and the instant that the wind died, so did two government assassins.

They had tried to burst through the door, but one got a face full of metal geta and the other got a sword through the throat. Jin shook his sword sharply to get the blood off, and Mugen dragged the bodies outside. Fuu was wide awake, her eyes staring at Jin, one hand over her child's mouth.

"How many more." She said, her eyes full of starlight.

Jin shook his head and listened. "None. They thought we'd be unsuspecting and off guard. They only sent two." He reached down and grabbed a slim kunai one of the assassins had dropped. He held it up to the faint light of the moon, and Fuu could see the fine steel glitter. He examined the grip, the blade, anything for some sort of marking. Finding none, he gripped the kunai and threw it at the wall next to the door. It flew true, and quivered when it sunk into the wood.

Mugen walked in moments later, plucking the kunai off of the wall nonchalantly, and sat on the futon. He ran one strong hand over Fuu's head, and she noticed that his hands were free of blood, but smelled of brine. He'd sunk the bodies into the ocean, then. Ignoring her but for the hand on her head, Mugen said, "I searched them, but couldn't really find anything to make them stand out. Poison, daggers, needles, katana, nothing special. Nothing unusual. The government doesn't think much of us anymore, it seems."

Jin was still. "Did you search their bodies for some kind of mark? A tattoo, a brand, a specifically placed scar? They could have been hired thugs, from a yakuza."

Mugen lifted his hand from Fuu's head. "Let's look again." He stood and walked back outside, not looking back at her once. The light whisper of Jin's feet signaled his leaving as well. Fuu wrapped herself tighter in her blanket, and held her child closer to her heart. She heard various thunks of things hitting soft flesh, fabric tearing, metal hitting rock. So he hadn't sunk the bodies, but he had washed his hands. Interesting. Fuu lay still, staring at the door and listening to the outside. She could hear the murmer of Jin and Mugen talking, but heard nothing of what they said.

She didn't move for a long time, until the sky started to turn gold and Yukimaru fussed for his breakfast.

Three days later, Jin and Mugen still weren't talking much and both were still on edge. Mugen had taking to strapping his son to his back when he went fishing, and Jin rarely left Fuu's line of sight. She pretended everything was normal, and cooked and cleaned and took care of Yukimaru, but he was a quiet baby nowadays and she couldn't say she was much better.

Which was why she was half relieved and half terrified when she saw Hana coming up the hill to the house. Fuu hadn't seen any of the villagers since her pregnancy, and Hana only a few days before Yuki was born. The girl had her head down and her shoulders hunched, like she was trying to be smaller, and her pace was quick to the point of being almost panicked. Fuu needed to see another female face, but she really doubted this one was going to be the bearer of good news.

And she was right. When Hana came up to the house, disheveled and out of breath, Fuu had gone to greet her. The first words out of Hana's mouth were, "You must leave this place."

Fuu pulled back, alarmed. Hana's face was streaked with dirt, and the coarse fabric of her kimono was worn. Fuu said uncertainly, "Hana-sama...why? This is the only place I have! There is nowhere left for me to go!"

Hana's face became pinched, and she grabbed Fuu's shoulders. "The villagers grow restless. The government sends people to ask questions, to search homes, and several people have already been taken into custody! The women who helped you, gave you food, their families have been driven from the island. I escaped, I ran. Fuu-chan, they're going to come up here, and they mean to kill you." Her eyes flickered to the hut, where Mugen stood in the shadow, holding his son protectively against his chest. "And your son."

Mugen's face was hard, and he came out of the hut with his sword in one hand and his child cradled against his shoulder with the other. "How much did they pay you." He stepped forward.

Hana went still, her eyes wide, and she gripped Fuu's kimono a little tighter. "I...don't know what you mean, I ran, my father was going to disown me so I ran...!"

Jin stepped out from behind Mugen and said quietly, "So why do I hear so many mon in your pocket?"

Hana took a step back and looked around her, sadly. "They said you wouldn't come to any harm, they just wanted me to take you to them like I was going to help you escape..."

Mugen moved so fast he was a blur against her throat. "Where, when, and who." She gasped and struggled, a thin line of blood trickling down the pale line of her neck. She looked over to Fuu, who was wearing such an expression of betrayal that Hana had to look away again. Yukimaru cooed against Mugen's shoulder, and he said dangerously, "You would sell my son to his death. He's only a few months old, you would kill an infant for..." He sliced open her kimono, and a bag of golden mon fell out, spilling onto the dirt. He studied it for a moment, and looked back at her. "You would send my son to his death for fifty mon. I would charge at least two hundred for the death of a child."

And then Hana spoke no more. She dropped like a stone, holding her bleeding throat, trying to choke out words through her ruined windpipe. She bled out in three minutes, and Mugen pushed her over and took the mon out from under her dead body.

He looked over at Jin. "We've got to go. Now."

Jin nodded. "If they paid her, their waiting. Probably in the town, definitely on the water, and congregating in Nagasaki." He sheathed his blade and went to see what else was salvageable off of Hana's corpse.

Mugen shook his blade and sheathed it quickly, grabbing Fuu by the wrist and dragging her inside. She said urgently, "Mugen, what are we going to do? We can't stay here, and there's nowhere else to go..." He pushed Yukimaru into her arms, and handed her the sling that he used to tie the baby to his back.

"Secure him to you. No matter what, don't lose our son. I thought something like this might happen, so I stole a boat from one of the local fishermen. He lived alone, and wasn't missed. I swam onto his boat, slit his throat, and took it back over to the church. I hid it there, for when this happened."

He was piling their things into the fish basket, all of their dried fish, potato skins, pouches of water. He pulled out her pink kimono and shoved it in there as well, even though she only wore the orange one these days. The pink one reminded her too much of before, of being alone, of being...afraid. But Mugen was with her now, and nothing would happen.

He stopped what he was doing and stared at her. "What, are you stupid again? Come on, we're leaving now! Get Yuki on your back!"

She shook herself into working and quickly tied the baby onto her back. Mugen strapped the full basket across his chest, and when they came outside, Hana's body was not to be found. Jin, however, had a small sack of things, and it looked suspiciously like Hana's kimono. Mugen jerked his head to the side and Jin nodded, and they began their descent to the church.

Fuu slipped twice on the slippery rocks coming down, and Mugen caught her each time. Silent, strong, he pushed her back into place and they kept going down.

Jin and Mugen pushed the modest fishing boat into the water, and Mugen helped Fuu get inside. He stuffed her below deck, with the provisions, and he and Jin went to get the boat sailing. Mugen spoke loud enough for her to be able to hear. "We won't go to Nagasaki. We'll go south, they aren't expecting us there. People may have forgotten what we look like, we might be able to go back. And if the mainland isn't safe enough, well, there's always..."

And Fuu finished his sentence in a whisper. "Ryukyu." And she peaked her head on deck to watch her last home get further and further from her grasp.

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Wow, I haven't updated in...a really long time. Sorry about that, but now it's summer break and I'll try my hardest to write more frequently.