Track 28: Hellacious Hubris

Fuu and Jin had left a little too late in the afternoon and didn't get very far on their first day of traveling. Additionally, they had made the horrible decision to adventure during the beginning of winter, when the days were shorter and the weather was far more likely to be dangerous to weary travelers. Fuu had jokingly suggested that they could just stop wherever they got tired and sleep by the side of the road like the good old days, to which Jin replied in his typical dry tone that if he was going to die on this journey, it would not be by freezing to death. Thankfully, they made it to a small village at the edge of the province just as the last bit of the sun was disappearing beyond the horizon, and found a small room to rent.

As Jin was preparing to sleep, he noticed that Fuu still seemed alert and active, not all like he remembered her. She stood beside her bedroll, doing some breathing exercises. Then, suddenly, she drew her katana. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Oh, sorry!" Fuu said. She lowered her sword before turning to him and smiling. It was the first time since he had found her that she had smiled like she used to. "I have to practice before I sleep, if I don't I won't be able to go to bed. I'll try to be as quiet as possible."

"How long do you usually practice for?" Jin asked.

"It varies," Fuu said, looking down to examine the weapon in her hand. "It's hard to explain but I know when I've done enough to allow myself to rest. I have to practice until my mind stops moving. If I try to sleep before that, I… well I won't get any rest anyway."

"I see," Jin said. He got out of his bed roll, coming to his feet. "Show me what you've learned," he said, drawing his own sword.

"But umm…" Fuu's eyes were drawn to Jin's blade, glistening in the lamp light of the room, "We don't have bokkens, we could get hurt," she said.

"I promise I won't hurt you," Jin said, giving his signature ever-so-slight smile, "And I promise that you can't hurt me."

Fuu couldn't help but grin at him, "Well, if you're so confident, then let's begin," she said, assuming a low guard.

They half-circled each other, and then Fuu came at him with a precise sideways slash. Jin deflected it easily, as well as Fuu's follow on attack. He parried and countered, and found her defense to be very solid. He was giving only a small amount of effort of course, but he had to admit that Fuu's ability was not what he was expecting. For the level she was performing at, he would have thought that she had been doing this for far longer than just three years. Although he would not have admitted it to her, he had doubted her abilities. He didn't think that it would be beyond a lord to make a female samurai a lieutenant for dishonorable reasons, and not for her skill alone. However, that was clearly not the case with Fuu. He felt confident that if they did find themselves in trouble, he would not end up having to protect both her and himself alone. It wasn't like having Mugen around, of course, but at least Fuu would be a little more predictable. Fuu stayed awake to continue training after Jin had finished his evaluation of her, and he fell asleep to the sound of her sword cutting the air in the room.

…

It took just over five days on foot and ox cart to take them two provinces away to their destination, or almost there at least. "Well, this is where you get off," the cart driver said as he pulled to the side of the road at the base of a mountain trail, winding upward in front of them.

"What?" Fuu said, "I thought you said you could take us all the way to the village?"

The driver shook his head, "This place you're going, it can't be accessed by cart, this is as close as I or anyone else can take you," he said.

Fuu sighed, "At least we're no strangers to walking," she said. She tipped the driver before dismounting. Her and Jin watched the driver turn his cart around and head back down the road before speaking again, "What does your map say about this place?"

Jin squinted ever so slightly at the map as he held it up in front of him, "It does not show landscape very well, it's mostly just roads and towns," he said, "But we appear to be in the right place," he said, handing the map to Fuu.

Fuu looked it over, focusing on the area Jin had circled. "If this is right…" she said, "Then I think this village is in a valley surrounded by mountains," She showed the map to Jin, pointing to where they were, "And if it's accurate, this road is the only way in or out."

Jin nodded, "I hadn't considered what the map was indicating about this area before now, but…" he looked back at the mountain, "I have to admit, something about this makes me uneasy."

"As a Lieutenant, I'm required to study military strategy," Fuu said, "This is the kind of terrain we would drive bandits into to trap them."

"Most troubling," Jin said.

They stood in silence for a moment, both staring up at the mountain path in front of them.

"We still have to go," Fuu said, "There's no other choice."

Jin smiled, "I agree entirely," he said.

The trail was narrow and rocky, Fuu could only imagine how difficult it was for porters, and a cart would absolutely never make it through. Although, for two nimble samurai traveling light it presented little trouble. A thick canopy of trees hung overhead the whole journey, blocking out most of the sun except for small streams of light shooting down between branches, and it was difficult to see very far into the thick brush on either side of the trail. After two or so hours of following the trail deeper and deeper into the mountain, they arrived at the top of a hill where the canopy opened up, and there before them they could see the whole valley, including the village. It was even worse than what the map had indicated, the valley was like a deep wooden soup bowl, the village filling up most of the base with mountains creating steep walls on all sides, and only the one road leading in or out.

"How do you wish to proceed?" Jin asked.

"We'll go as though we are samurai dispatched on official business by our lord," Fuu said, "I've traveled out of province on business many times before. It's customary to check in with a local official first."

"Are you sure it's wise to draw attention to ourselves?"

"We're outsiders in a small village," Fuu said, "We won't go unnoticed no matter what we do, it's at least better to make it known that we have the authority to be here. As long as we present ourselves first, the local policemen should leave us alone."

"I will defer to you then," Jin said.

They made their way down the trail, and into the village propper. Walking through the streets, they drew even more eyes than normal. This village clearly did not get a lot of visitors. They made their way to the police station, it was a shabby building by the market near the center of town. It looked run-down, except for the sign above it clearly displaying the Kanji for police. The sign was so fresh it looked as though the paint might still be wet.

"Are you sure about this?" Jin asked, looking up at the sign.

"This will make things easier, trust me," Fuu said, "If we don't check in they'll send someone to follow us the whole time. You can wait outside if you choose."

Jin shook his head, "No, I go where you go."

Fuu nodded, and then moved toward the door of the police station. As she stepped through the curtain that hung over the entrance, she was immediately accosted.

"What are you doing, girl?!" A man yelled at her from behind a desk near the entrance, "Who's swords are those, and what are you doing with them on your belt?"

Fuu stepped forward into the building, allowing Jin to step in behind her. She reached into her kimono, "My name is Guard Lieutenant Fukumi Saito, I serve Lord Akio Yamaguchi," she said, pulling out her tsuko-tegata and presenting it to the man behind the desk.

"Whaaaa?!" He said, his face contorting as he snatched the passport from her hand. He examined it for a minute, his eyes growing wider as he did. "Captain! Come look at this," he said, yelling behind him.

Fuu looked past the man for the first time, observing that there were about ten other men near the back of the long building, sitting around a table eating lunch, all dressed in policemen's uniforms. One older and more dignified looking man stood up from the table and walked to the front of the building. "What's going on here?" He asked, approaching the desk from behind.

"This girl," The policemen started, "She says that she's a samurai and her passport looks real, but I don't know what to do."

The man, presumably the police captain, snatched Fuu's passport out of the man's hand and took a long look at it himself. Suddenly, he slapped the back of the other man's head. "Stand and apologize to Lieutenant Saito this instant!" he commanded.

The man bolted upward and bowed, "I apologize for my insolence, Lieutenant, I just-"

"We don't usually see any swordswomen around here," the captain said, cutting off his policeman, "Much less a Guard Lieutenant. Who did you say you serve?"

"I am in the service of Lord Akio Yamaguchi," she said, choosing not to acknowledge the policeman's apology.

"Hmm, yes I know of him. His farms supply a lot of our grain, but we don't often see his samurai around here," The captain said, "And who is this man with you here?" he then said, his eyes turning toward Jin.

"This is Hiroshi Kimura," Fuu said, "He is a contracted sword I hired to assist me on this official business."

"Of course," the captain said, looking back to Fuu, "and that official business would be?"

Fuu took a moment to collect herself, this might be a hard lie to sell, depending how adept a policeman this captain really was, "Lord Yamaguchi recently got word that a major fugitive was captured and executed here," She started, "He believes this fugitive may have been the same one responsible for several killings and cattle thefts in his province, and I have been sent to confirm whether his suspicions were true," she said.

"Hmm," the captain stroked his chin, "And if you were able to confirm that this fugitive was the one executed here recently, would there…"

"There would be a bounty to be paid to whatever individual or group captured him," Fuu said, answering his question before he could finish it. She had been in a similar situation several other times. Small town cops, she thought to herself, all exactly the same.

"Well then!" the captain said, clapping his hands together, "You're welcome to stay as long as you like, feel free to question anyone in town, and we will help you as much as we can."

"What do you know of this fugitive? Were you the ones who captured him?" Jin suddenly interjected. There was an urgency, an aggression in his voice that Fuu had never heard from him before.

The policeman who had been manning the desk spoke up again, "We captured him alright! Got him in his sleep!"

Fat chance, both Fuu and Jin thought simultaneously.

"By 'got him' do you mean you…?" Fuu started.

The captain shook his head, "We captured him, but we quickly found out that he was wanted by the Shogunate. We sent word of his capture and then the secret police arrived. They executed him here, but privately. Apparently the last time someone tried to execute him publicly there were… complications."

Jin couldn't help but smile, remembering the first time he and Mugen had fought side by side. "Yes," Jin said, "I have heard he is difficult to handle."

"So you're familiar with him?" the captain asked.

"If he really is the same fugitive we're looking for," Fuu said, "What was his name?"

"He identified himself freely as Mugen, from the Ryukyus," the Captain said, "Didn't even have to torture him for it."

The other policeman laughed, "But we sure did anyway!" he said.

Fuu felt herself tense up. There was a sort of tremor building up inside of her, and her vision began to narrow on the two men in front of her.

"We heard he cried and begged for his life before they killed him," the captain said, laughing with his man.

Fuu felt as if she had been lit on fire, a rage like she had never before experienced rose up inside of her chest. In her mind, she saw her sword moving across the two men, she thought about the sounds they would make while they laid on the floor, mortally wounded, she thought…

She felt Jin's hand on her shoulder, and the flame was instantly extinguished.

"Gentlemen," Jin said, "I would encourage you to not waste the Lieutenant's time with gossip, do you have any more information of value to offer?"

The policemen settled down again. "Unfortunately not," the captain said, "You're welcome to ask around the village if anyone else knows anything. He was here for several days before we captured him, and it's possible some of the common folk saw him being moved by the Shogunate's men. Stay as long as you need to make an appropriate determination," he said, handing Fuu's passport back to her.

Fuu managed to unclench her jaw enough to get out a "Thank you," as she took her passport back from the captain, "We'll let you know if we find anything."

Jin and Fuu turned around, and exited the police station. They made their way about halfway down the street before speaking again.

"There were a lot of policemen there for such a small, remote village," Jin said.

"Yes, I noticed that too," Fuu said, "Very unusual, like everything else about this."

"I have to ask," Jin said, stopping in the street and turning to look at her, "If I had not been there, would you have killed those men?"

Fuu turned to meet his eyes, "I… I have to believe that as a samurai I would have been able to control my emotions. I just had a moment of…" she paused, "Well, it's not like I could have killed them all anyway," she said.

Jin's eyes narrowed. Regardless of whether Fuu actually believed it, he knew it wasn't the case.

As they questioned the village's population, things only got stranger and more confusing. Everyone knew about the fugitive, but every single person they talked to had a different story about how his supposed capture and execution transpired. A bartender told them that he had gotten so drunk at the bar he had tried to fight a policeman and was then knocked out. A Buddhist priest told them Mugen had come to him with a guilty conscience and confessed about his past crimes before turning himself over to the police willingly. One sixty-year-old woman told them she had single handedly subdued him with her "way-of-the-dragon Jiu Jitsu," and then demanded reward money from Jin and Fuu. Depending on who they asked, Mugen was anywhere between a 300 pound, 7 foot tall giant, or a 4 foot tall pygmy. He was thin, then fat, then muscular, then fat again. He also apparently used a variety of weapons, one person described him as a dignified samurai with katana and wakizashi, another said he was dressed in rags and carried only a club fashioned from wood like some kind of troll. As the afternoon rolled on, the way he was executed got increasingly creative and horrifying; it began with simple things, like a private beheading, and then escalated to being burned alive, being eaten by dogs, being pulled limb-from-limb by a horse, or a combination of all of the above. Some people mentioned the Shogunate's men coming through to take care of him, some people didn't even mention the local police and talked about his execution as if it was conducted by a mob of the villagers. There was only one basic commonality between all of the stories - A man named Mugen from the Ryukyus had come to the village, been captured, and been executed there.

In the late afternoon, Jin and Fuu stood out front of one old man's house and became increasingly horrified as he described in excruciating detail how Mugen had been eaten alive from the inside out by 'foreign insects and vermin being controlled by a black magic practitioner' before being dissolved in acid.

"You made that last part up!" A woman said, presumably the wife, as she emerged from within the house, "There was no acid," the woman said turning toward Fuu and Jin, "He was buried here though, and I know where!"

This caught Jin and Fuu's attention, "Can you show us where he was buried?" Fuu asked.

The question seemed to deflate the woman, "Well… I can't show you, but I can tell you," she said, getting quiet and looking around before proceeding, "On the south end of town, opposite the trail leading in, we have a graveyard. They didn't want to bother taking his body back through the mountain pass, so they buried him in an unmarked grave in the back. Shouldn't be too hard to find, the earth hasn't been disturbed since they were here."

Fuu bowed to the old woman, "Thank you, you don't know how much this helps," she said.

"So…" the old woman said, "Is there any reward money in it?"

Fuu felt a vein in her forehead threaten to pop, "Of course," she said through gritted teeth before handing the woman a few gold coins, which she greedily snatched.

As they walked away from the old couple, Fuu exhaled in exasperation, "Well, it's not much but at least we have one lead after a whole afternoon of wandering around hearing all of these stories." It was getting late in the day, and they found themselves alone on the street once they were away from the couple's home.

"I must admit," Jin said, "Many things do not trouble me. But I did not enjoy hearing strangers describe a friend being executed in numerous, awful ways."

"It's so strange…" Fuu said, "It's almost as if…" she said, trying to find the words to explain what she was thinking.

"As if they were instructed to tell any strangers in town that Mugen was captured and executed here, but weren't given any details to go on so they filled in the gaps themselves," Jin said.

"Yes, that's exactly it," Fuu said, "I hate how much of a trap this feels like."

"Maybe, but a trap for who?" Jin asked, "This seems like a lot of effort to go through just to catch us."

Fuu shook her head, "I think we're going to find out soon one way or another," she said, "What should we do now?"

"Going to the graveyard seems like the next logical step," Jin said, "We will wait for nightfall. It should be a full moon tonight."

"Going somewhere that somebody has probably laid an ambush for us and waiting to be ambushed isn't much of a plan," Fuu said.

"It's not just about waiting to be ambushed," Jin said, "If there really is a grave, we have to exhume it. We have to try to confirm if the remains are his."

Fuu stopped in her tracks, "What are you talking about?" She said, "We're not just going to become grave robbers! Desecrating a graveyard is a serious crime, unmarked grave or not."

Jin didn't turn to look at her, "We have to know," he said.

"My actions are tied to the honor of my lord," Fuu said, feeling that little girl inside of her rising up again, "This isn't like before, we have to have limits on what we do."

"You told me once…" Jin started, turning to look at her, "That the world would be a dark place without duty. You have the strongest sense of duty of anyone I've known, but where has it gone now, when I need you?"

"This isn't just about duty!" Fuu said, unable to keep the little girl in her chest anymore, "If I do anything to dishonor Lord Yamaguchi I'll be bound to take my own life! The Bushido-"

"Do not…" Jin cut her off, bringing his voice as close to a yell as he would ever allow himself, "Do not lecture me on the Bushido code. I have lived it everyday since I could stand on my own two feet. I will not have it recited back at me by…" he stopped before finishing his sentence.

They glared silently into each other's eyes for what seemed like a long time. Finally, they both exhaled, releasing the tension that had built up in the short exchange. "Jin I…" Fuu said, looking down to the ground, "I'm sorry I…"

"No, I apologize," Jin said before Fuu could find the words she was looking for. He closed his eyes, displaying the same stoic, pensive expression she had seen on his face many times before. "I should have known how you would react to such a suggestion. I understand well what a samurai's honor means and I-" Jin was cut off by Fuu wrapping her arms around his middle and burying her head into his chest.

Fuu kept her face down and buried in Jin's kimono so he couldn't see the tears in her eyes, "I missed you both so much," she said, fighting with all her might to not audibly sob, "I've thought about you both everyday since we left each other at the crossroads."

"I know," Jin said, returning her embrace, "I have as well."

"You have to understand…" she continued, her voice muffled by the fabric, "My swords, my Kenjutsu, my position as a samurai, it's the only thing that has made me feel connected to you both all these years…" She pulled away from him, wiping the tears from her eyes with her sleeve, "I can't lose this, but I also can't lose both of you again, so I'll do whatever is necessary to help you find Mugen."

"I can promise you won't compromise your position," Jin said, "Because we will most certainly have to kill anyone who will be waiting for us at the graveyard. If there are any dishonorable actions, there won't be any witnesses."

Fuu couldn't help but smile, "Was that… a Joke?" she said, "I don't think I've ever heard you make a joke before."

"It was not a joke," Jin replied.

…

There was not a cloud in the sky that night, and the full moon bathed the village in irie gray light. Fuu felt herself shiver as they made their way to the graveyard. They were going to need to find some more winter-worthy clothing soon if this hunt for Mugen lasted much longer. They approached the graveyard from the trees, observing the open ground from the treeline for a long time before deciding to move in. Quickly, they made their way to the back, moving low and as silently as possible. The moonlight was a gift, had it not been such an unusually bright night it would have been impossible to find something as subtle as disturbed earth. The graveyard was also small, thankfully, and after a minute or so of searching Fuu stumbled upon an earthen mound without a marker that seemed particularly out of place. She clicked her tongue twice to get Jin's attention, and then he too ran over. He took the shovel they had "borrowed" from an open tool shed in town and began to move the fresh soil off the mound as silently as possible while Fuu stood guard, looking and listening for anyone who might approach them. It was a very shallow grave, and it did not take long before Fuu heard the distinct sound of the shovel hitting something that was not dirt, and a foul smell arose from the ground. The smell made her want to vomit, and she did not want to look. It gradually got worse and worse as Jin moved more of the dirt away. Finally, the sound of the shovel stopped and there were several seconds of silence before Jin clicked his tongue back at her to get her attention.

Fuu finally turned and looked. Her and Jin stood in silence, staring down into the shallow hole in the earth. Even without the unusually bright moon, it would not have been difficult to determine what they were looking at. Half covered in soil and partially decomposed, was the rotting carcass of a yama kujira - a mountain boar. They would have been relieved to not see the body of their friend, if they had not both been generally so perplexed by what they were looking at. They didn't have very much time to ponder it, however…

Fuu felt something pierce the air from the other side of the graveyard, it was coming at her with extreme speed but she did not have the reflexes to stop it. She did her best to move her head with the milliseconds she had, but it was without consequence. The blade of Jin's sword, glowing in the moonlight, sliced just over her shoulder, cutting the arrow in half right before it would have impacted her head. "Archers!" Jin said, no longer having a need for silence.

Fuu drew her Katana and began to move in the direction the arrows had come from. She moved fast and low, her sword behind her in the waki no kamae guard as she ducked between and around the many grave markers. It seemed as though a continuous barrage of arrows was impacting all around her, and she could feel Jin's presence moving alongside her own, toward the enemy. Suddenly she felt another, close and in front of her. She heard the heavy breathing, the shuffling of feet, the sound of the trigger being pulled on the crossbow. She moved toward it, and when she was within ten feet a figure wearing all black appeared in her vision, bathed in moonlight. He attempted to drop his crossbow and draw a knife, but he didn't even have it out of its sheath before Fuu had sliced upward with her katana from the waki, cutting him from hip to shoulder. He felt straight downward, almost into himself. Fuu quickly brought her sword back down to deflect another arrow that had come from directly behind the first man. Fuu charged at this second enemy, closing the gap almost instantly, he attempted to use his crossbow to block her blade and lost his hand in the process. Fuu reestablished her guard and swung with her hips, aiming the blade a little higher this time and taking the second man's head clean off. She felt a third come from behind her, very close. She reversed her grip and drove her blade backward at her belt line, catching the third directly in his solar plexus with the front of her sword. She ripped it from his chest and heard his body crumple onto the ground. Then she got as low as possible, trying to detect other threats. After a moment, she felt the presence of two more people, one clearly being Jin, a little bit ahead of her in the dark. She popped up and ran forward, sword at the ready. When the two figures came into her vision she saw Jin standing over the last of the would-be assassins, the tip of his sword at the man's throat as he laid on the ground. Fuu flicked the blood of her sword, but didn't sheath it as she came up beside Jin.

"Did you get the other two that were back there?" Jin asked as she approached.

"There were three, and yes I did," she replied.

Jin nodded, "There were five here," he motioned to the corpses that surrounded them, and then focused on the last assassin again, "Talk," he said plainly.

The assassin looked up at Jin for a moment, and then smiled, catching both of them off guard. He then opened his mouth as wide as it would stretch, and the moonlight caught him at just the right angle to shine all the way into the cavity in his face, where there were rows of rotting teeth, and no tongue. The assassin laughed, then with lightning speed reached behind his back, producing a knife, and jammed it directly into his own neck. Fuu and Jin could just stare at him as he laid there and died for almost a minute, gargling on his own blood. When he was finally done dying, they turned to each other.

"I… have no idea what to make of this situation anymore," Jin said.

"Let's worry about that after we get out of this valley," Fuu replied.

…

Jin and Fuu skirted the village on their way back to the mountain pass, encountering no more resistance. They ran up the pass and away from the village as quickly as possible, trying to put as much distance as they could between themselves and any more possible adversaries. However, once they got to the top of the hill where they had first observed the village, they both stopped in their tracks. They weren't alone, they could both feel it. They drew their swords, and as they did, bodies began to emerge from the trees on either side of the road before them. They stepped apart from each other, creating distance and stood at low guard with their katanas. The bodies that had emerged from the woods remained motionless. Fuu counted 11, and steeled herself for a serious fight. One of the bodies stepped forward slowly, out from underneath the canopy of trees that covered the pass and into the moonlight. Jin and Fuu recognized him at once as the police captain they had spoken to that day.

"I'm impressed," the captain said, "I didn't think you would get past those men at the graveyard. Unfortunately for you your efforts have been for not, because you have to die here and now."

Fuu's eyes narrowed on the man, "If you're so confident we're going to die anyway, at least tell us what's going on," she said.

The captain thought for a moment, "Well, I guess it can't hurt, you'll be taking it to the grave anyway," he said, "Your pirate friend really was here, briefly. I was told the original idea was to keep him here as live bait for you two, or anyone else who came looking. But he escaped almost immediately, and the next best thing they could come up with was a made up story about an execution."

"You were told?" Fuu asked, "So this wasn't your idea?"

"No, of course not," The captain said, "I was originally the only policeman here. One day some officials working for another Lord in a different province arrived. The plan was theirs, and because I'm the only government official in the village all they needed was my cooperation. They paid me, and gave me enough money to hire these men from the village as my police force."

"What Lord? What province?!" Fuu yelled.

The captain laughed, "Now that I'll take to my grave," he said, before turning his back on Jin and Fuu, "Kill them!" He barked at his men.

The ten policemen charged, six on Jin and four on Fuu. It did not matter though, the policemen, who were simple farmers and shopkeepers mere months beforehand, could not have overwhelmed the two samurai if there were a hundred of them. The captain watched in horror as his policemen were cut down as easily as rolls of bamboo. It was over in maybe seconds, and as the last policeman's body fell to the ground with a dull thud, both Jin and Fuu looked up at the captain. Backlit by the full moon, they appeared as specters, demons who had come down from the mountains to pray on mere mortals, without hesitation, regret, or remorse. The moon shined so brightly that he could even see blood dripping from their blades.

Fuu took a single step toward him, and he immediately fell to his knees and brought his forehead to the ground. "Please!" He pleaded, "Please don't kill me, I had no choice. Please!" he cried.

Fuu moved silently forward until she was directly in front of the captain, bent forward and crying into the ground. Jin came up from behind her, "What do you want to do?" He asked.

"What do you mean, you didn't have a choice?" Fuu asked the man, brushing off Jin's question.

The captain looked up from the ground just enough to meet Fuu's eyes. "The village is dying," he said, "It has become too costly to pay porters to cross the pass with supplies, but these people have nowhere to go, some of the families have been here for ten generations. When those officials came, they offered to pay for everything. They were going to care for this valley for the next fifty years. That's why everyone cooperated, why everyone helped sell the lie to set you two up."

Fuu took in a deep breath, "What is your name?" she asked.

The captain sniffled, "It's… it's Haruto Wantanbe… Police Captain Haruto Wantanbe," he said.

"Back in the village, you claimed to have tortured my friend, did you?" Fuu asked, glaring into the man's eyes.

The captain shook his head, tears still streaming down his face, "No… he wasn't in our custody long enough for us to do anything. We were instructed to tell anyone who came asking that he was tortured, to provoke a reaction," he said. He then looked down, unable to maintain eye contact with the specter before him any longer. "Torture… I've never even drawn my sword. This was such a peaceful village. My whole life I…" and then he stopped, unable to find the right words.

There was a pause, and then Fuu spoke again, "I don't believe you are a dishonorable man," she started, "So you have earned the right to not be lied to. You and your policemen were the only ones in the village I gave my name to, the only ones with the information necessary to tie this back to my Lord. In order to protect the honor of my Lord and his family from my actions today, you must die here and now along with your men," she said.

The captain's tears grew more intense, but he did not continue to plead. "I… I understand," he managed to get out in between quiet sobs.

"Fuu…" Jin said, "Killing men in combat and executing them is not the same, it does not leave the same kind of mark on you. I understand why this must be done, but please, allow me to-"

"No," Fuu said, stopping him. She looked over her shoulder to address Jin directly, "It was my choice to use my name, show my passport at the police station, I marked the captain and all of his men for death when I did, and I did it unthinkingly, uncaringly. This is my responsibility, and this man is just as much of a threat to my life and the lives of the people I care about as he would be if he was charging at me with a sword." Fuu then turned back toward the man on his knees before her, "Police Captain Haruto Wantanbe, do you have any last words?" She said.

It was quiet for several seconds before the captain spoke, "Every decision I've made, every choice… It was for the people of this valley. Everything I've ever done was what I believed was best for the families I was sworn to protect. I have no regrets, and I would not choose differently given a second chance," He sat up straight on his knees, swallowed, and wiped the tears from his eyes, "Please… do it quickly."

Fuu nodded, "You have earned that," She said. The captain closed his eyes and bowed his head slightly. In one swift motion, Fuu's sword crossed just above his collarbone, decapitating him. His head fell to one side, and his body fell to the other. Fuu flicked the blood from her sword, "May you pass easily into the next life, Captain Wantanbe," she said, resheathing her blade. Once it was stowed, she brought her hands together and said a quiet prayer for the captain, his men, and the village below them.

"Time to go," Jin said, walking past her.

"Yes, I agree."

…

They made their way back through the pass without encountering a single other soul, and made it back to the road where the cart had dropped them off the day prior just as day was breaking over the horizon. Fuu was exhausted, and once they finally stopped she bent down and braced herself on her knees. "Well, what do we do now?" she asked.

"We can't do anything from here," Jin said, "We need to get to a village and rest."

"Next one is another few miles back down this road," Fuu said, "It's a long walk."

"Maybe not…" Jin said.

This caused Fuu to look up, and sure enough, coming down the road right toward them was a cart with a driver and one passenger.

"Jin…" Fuu began, "If anyone goes up that trail and finds those bodies…"

"I know," Jin said, "We will try to prevent that peacefully."

They watched anxiously as the cart approached. Once it was closer, they could see the passenger was a woman, probably only a little older than Fuu. The cart stopped just in front of Fuu and Jin, and the women dismounted it silently. As her feet hit the ground, both Jin and Fuu felt a vibration in the air. They tensed up, this wasn't a normal woman, she was dangerous and they could both feel it. She glanced at the two of them, and then approached. "Good morning," she said, "Have you two just come from the village in the valley?"

"Yes," Jin replied, "Unfortunately some trees have fallen in the pass, it is near impossible to navigate right now. I certainly wouldn't recommend it without help."

The woman squinted at Jin, "Wait…" she said, "I… I know you."

"Huh?" Fuu said, eyebrow raised.

"Yes yes I remember you," the woman said, "You were with my husband, back during that mission to take down the counterfeiting operation."

Jin was taken aback, "Husband? Counterfeit?" he said, unsure of how to respond.

"Yes, did you both come here to look for him too?" She said, her eyes crossing over to Fuu now.

"I don't believe so," Fuu said, "Who is he? What's his name?" she asked.

"Mugen," she said, "My husband's name is Mugen, from the Ryukyus."

Fuu and Jin looked as if they had just witnessed a dog give birth to a baboon. There were several seconds of silence that was so strong it was as if the area around the three of them had suddenly become the vacuum of space. Then Fuu took a deep breath…

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT!"

…

A/N: I told myself I had to make it through two chapters before I allowed myself the indulgence of a good old fashioned author's note, and I'll be brief. Don't know where this is going or when it'll end, don't actually know what's going to happen in the next chapter yet. If you're here because you followed me while I was still writing "Solipsism," I apologize for the apparent drop in quality. I haven't done any "serious" writing since I stopped working on that story almost 8 years ago, and it definitely shows. Thank you to those of you who have already liked and followed, hopefully you're just as excited as I am to see what happens!.

-Wahs.