Samurai Champloo Fan Fiction ❯ Fine, Fine Line ❯ Mugen ( Chapter 3 )

I first noticed the sunlight streaming in from a small window, the light was directly in my eyes, how could I not see it? I tried moving my head out of the path of the light to get a better look around. I couldn't focus well on anything, it looked like the room was spinning.

 

Room? Where the hell am I?

 

"Where the hell am I?" I screamed out. I strained to sit up; the sharp pain in my stomach stopped me from getting very far.

 

"FUCK!"

 

I laid back on the ground with a louder curse—a wound in my side swelled with pain, even more than the one in my gut. Just my luck, I couldn't get up, and I could barely lie down. But my screaming must have caught someone's attention. I heard footsteps traveling outside, growing near me, and then fading off. Instinctively, I lifted my hand to my neck and then I noticed it.

 

"Where the hell is my sword? You damn thieves!"

 

My growing rage almost gave me the strength to rise. I began to push off the cloth sheet that had been draped over me when I noticed something else.

 

"Where the hell are my clothes? I'm going to kill whoever's out there!"

 

Some more footsteps approached and a door on one side of the room slid open. A small figure stepped through the doorway. That figures; I'm laid out on my back and she's carrying on just fine. Just my luck.

 

"Mugen! You're awake!" Fuu seemed excited seeing me up, so to speak.

 

"Yeah, what of it?" I'm awake, I want to get up. Where's my sword? My clothes?"

 

"We took them off of you to bandage your wounds,' Fuu replied.

 

"WE? What does THAT mean? Who else is here?" I started looking around the room for my sword. That bastard and I had unfinished business.

 

"Calm down. It's just Ichiro, my father's retainer. He went and told me that you were waking up. He helped me bring you here."

 

"Your father's retainer? So you found your old man, huh? I guess you got what you were looking for."

 

"Yeah…" her voice trailed off a bit. "I guess I did."

 

"So when do I get to meet this Samurai who smells of Sunflowers? I want to know who I went through all this trouble for."

 

Fuu just stared at me. She was being quiet for once. Too bad I wanted to hear her talk.

 

"Well where is the guy? Do I get to meet him or not?"

 

"He's dead." She said as she knelt on the ground.

 

"Great. We risk our butts to find this guy and now he's dead."

 

Fuu just sat there. She never just sits there. She was starting to piss me off.

 

"What's the matter with you? Aren't you going to call me a stupid jerk? Why aren't you saying anything?" I screamed a little too loudly. My back and my side reminded me that I had been injured—those guys, the church, the explosion.

 

Fuu was looking down now, her eyes fixed on her hands. She was holding something, but I couldn't see it.

 

"HEY! I'm talking to you! What are you looking at?"

 

"N-nothing." She said as she placed her hands in her lap. She had been looking at her tanto and it was sticking out of her kimono sleeve now. I noticed a familiar green strand hanging from the end of it.

 

"Where'd you get that? Where's four-eyes?"

 

"I took it. I wanted something… to keep." She struggled to spit out the last words. I feared the worst.

 

"That bastard! He left? We still have a score to settle! When did he go?"

 

"He didn't leave. You weren't there, Mugen." Her pace started picking up. Typical Fuu. "That man, he killed my father, and he was going to kill me and Ichiro, too. He had me cornered, but Jin came and saved my life. You didn't see them fight." Fuu's face was tightening, tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

 

"I fought him too, y'know? But I'm still here. You don't see me crying over it." I was fishing for a response here, but she kept on going.

 

"They kept swinging at each other, diving around each other. I was afraid. Scared. I didn't think they were going to stop. And then, they did."

 

"Quit beating around the bush!" I butted in. "What are you trying to say?"

 

"Jin. Jin's dead. He died saving me." Fuu started sobbing as she spoke.

 

"That's bullshit!" Jin couldn't be dead. That guy's almost as tough as I am. Almost.

 

"I took the beads before we buried him. I wanted something to remember him by. I hung it here next to the skull that brought me here, to my father."

 

"I don't believe you. I want to see a body."

 

Fuu stood up, went to a corner of the room and returned with a cloth bundle she set down in front of me. "I placed your swords together for safekeeping. We found your sword near your body on the beach." She took my sword out of the cloth wrap. "And I kept Jin's as part of tradition. They say the soul of the Samurai is linked to his sword. In a way, these are part of Jin." She brought out the daisho. Blue.

 

I forced myself to sit up. I leaned against a wall to keep from falling back to the ground and reached out to grab Jin's swords. "I'll take these…"

 

Fuu snatched them back to her body. "Why do you get them? You didn't care about Jin. You wanted to kill him!"

 

"Well what are you going to do with the swords? They're weapons. Ya don't get all mushy over 'em. Why didn't they stay in the damn ground?"

 

"I just wanted to make sure that they went to someone who cared!" She was shaking as she yelled.

 

I held out my hand. "Don't worry. I'll take good care of them."

 

She waited a few seconds before handing them over. I had to pull them from her hands. Fuu started walking back toward the door she came in. "You must be thirsty, let me get you some water."

 

"I'm hungry too."

 

She stopped in the doorway for a second, and then continued on outside. Jin's swords felt heavy in my hands.

 

"Bastard."

 

I drew the katana a few inches from its saya; the temper design shone in the light coming from the window.

 

"Nice sword."

 

* * *

We had been on the island for a week with nothing but vegetables and rice to eat. Fuu didn't say much on the ferry back over to Nagasaki. Whatever. I had to get some real food in me or I was going to die.

 

I walked back through the city streets, to the stand where Jin and I bought the cakes with Fuu's money. I knew I couldn't afford anything there, but I remembered seeing a small pawn shop just across the street. It was a small building, but it was a chance.

 

I stepped through the beaded curtain hanging in the doorway. A voice called from behind a counter.

 

"Can I help you?" An old man asked, smiling.

 

"Yeah."

 

* * *