Wandering Hearts

Chapter 2 - Payback

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Mugen scratched his head, for once not spraying lice or dandruff everywhere as he studied the quiet samurai across from him. "Tch so you finally came looking for her huh?"
"What?"
"Figures, after five years that's all you have to say," the pirate grumbled. "You'll never change will you."
"What are you doing here?"
Miyuki came to the table and set down a plate of dumplings in front of Jin along with his miso and sake. She turned to Mugen and smiled, "hey Mugen, what can I get you?"
"Huh?"
"The usual and be quick about it I don't have much time brat," Mugen said, waiving one careless hand in the air."
Her right eyes twitched, "brat?"
"Yeah, brat what's it too ya?" Mugen smiled as he worked his way under her skin.
jin watched on completely perplexed, she knew Mugen? How long had he been in town? Was he searching for Fuu as well?
"Just wait until I find Yatsuha you big dumb jerk," Miyuki said before stomping off to the kitchen. She had obviously spent too much time around Fuu, Jin thought.
Mugen sighed, "just what I need her tattling to Yatsuha." He frowned before brushing it off, knowing Yatsuha she'd just hit him with something, then later she would 'rock his world.
Jin watched a smile stretch across his face, "who is this Yatsuha?"
"Eh? Oh yeah you wouldn't remember her would you?" Mugen smile turned roughish and he stretched his arms upward. "Do you remember those fake coins you found when you couldn't catch a single fish?"
Jin closed his eyes in annoyance, yes he did remember that annoying day, he still couldn't understand why every fish in the lake refused to look at his hook. "I remember."
"You remember what we did with that money right?" Mugen said, his eyes wiggling slightly.
"I see, the prostitute," Jin said.
"Tch like I would shag up with the same prostitute, give me some credit dude. Yatsuha was working undercover to sniff out the lowlifes that were creating the fake money."
Miyuki came to thier table again and set down a plate full of fried eel along with a bowl of white rice and a jug of sake. "Here you go jerk," she said with an unusually chipper sing song voice.
"Why you little twirp, where is she?" Mugen glared at the young girl that reminded him way too much of her role model, Fuu.
"Oh she'll show her face when she wants to," Miyuki smiled and began to walk off, throwing over her shoulder. "Enjoy your last meal sucker."
"Miyuki," Kaya shouted from the kitchen.
The girl cringed slightly before running into the kitchen. They watched the girl disappear into the crowd before returning to their meal. Mugen scarfed down the eel on a single swoop before diving into the white rice like a pig fed table scraps. Jin ate a few dumplings and waited for Mugen to continue.
Mugen took a swig of saki from the jug, "that sure hit the spot. She found me again a few years back while I was in Edo. Turns out she just couldn't forget a stud like me."
"I'm sure, so you live here?"
"Yeah we've got a place on the northern edge of town," Mugen said. "Speaking of prostitutes what ever happened to that Shino chick?"
"Shino live in Edo now," Jin said.
"Oh? I knew it," Mugen mused to himself. "I told her not to get her hopes up. So when are you going back home?"
"I'm not, Shino and I," Jin closed his eyes. "I left her in Edo, she is married with a child."
Mugen studied his old companion, he didn't seem to have changed much, long hair, fake glasses, the same gi with out a lords' emblem on them, same dull Jin.
"Mugen," Jin whispered, "Why did she leave?"
"To look for you, dumb ass."
"Why?"
Mugen finished off his sake and stood, "sorry, can't tell ya. Fuu would kick my ass if she found out I spoiled everything for her. When you're ready to leave tell Kaya, she'll show you where I live and then we can start this journey."
"We?"
"Yeah we, didn't think I would let you go off and disappear into Japan again. Besides I've never got to kick so much ass as when i was traveling with you guys. I figure trouble follows the three of us and I could use some action." Mugen stretched before scratching his hair, "food's on the house, see ya."
Jin watched him walk out of the tea house. He tried to wrap his mind around what was happening. Two sets of brown eyes watched him from the kitchen door.
"The jerk took long enough to get here so why is he still here shouldn't he be running off after her by now?" Miyuki whispered to her sister.
"Now now Miyuki, he's probably going to sleep in town before he leaves, it's a long journey."Kaya whispered back. "Still, it's been five years since he saw her."
"Exactly, he's a jerk just like Fuu said."
Kaya smiled, "you know she doesn't believe that."
"Whatever, I wish I could be there when they find each other, I want to watch Fuu belt him." Miyuki smirked, if only Fuu had stayed a few more months then she would've had front row seats. Miyuki rubbed her hands together, an evil smirk dancing on her lips. Maybe she could still get in a shot at him, slip him some bad sake, she even had a stash of mushroom she would slip customers when they crossed the line and tried to grope her sister or stiff them. Yeah that's what she'd do after all he was spending the night anyway. She'd just make sure he felt like shit for the night.
Kaya nudged her sister, "what are you scheming?"
"Huh?" she blinked up at her sister before putting on an innocent face. "Oh nothing sis nothing at all. He'll need his strength in order to get to her in time so I'm going to get him some more to eat." She slinked back into the kitchen before her sister could see the evil glint in her eyes.
Kaya sighed and shook her head, she was going to make the Miyuki specialty. She should stop her, she was too young to understand that somethings took time and that all that really mattered was that he was here now.
Miyuki snuck past her with a smirk on her face as she carried a tray to the unsuspecting ronin. She reached out to stop her but the little worm ducked from her grasp and sped over to Jins table.
"Too late now," Kaya said to herself and shrugged she had work to do and customers to serve.
"Here you go, it's a house specialty," Miyuki placed a dipping bowl to the side and a small plate of Shabu Shabu as she tried to suppress an evil chuckle, now to make sure he eats it. "Fuu taught us a special recipe, enjoy." She ran back to the kitchen and peeped ot to watch and see if the sucker ate it.
Jin watched her leave out of the corner of his eyes then he looked down as the raw meat and the bowl of boiled water. Shabu shabu, he hadn't eaten it for five years, probably for the same reason he hadn't come to this area, or many other places that held memories of their time together. It wasn't the same.
He picked up the chop sticks and slipped the first piece of meat into the spiced water.
Kaya and Myiuki watched as the first piece of meat entered his mouth. Miyuki chuckled and clapped her hands together.
"You really shouldn't have done that," Kaya said as she watched Jin dip another piece of meat into the water.
"You could've stopped me," Miyuki said, "but then you wouldn't get a stab at him either. Nope you let me do the dirty work and we get to watch him suffer for a night. It's not like I'm trying to kill him."
They watched him eat the entire plate, When he was finished Kaya walked up to him, Miyuki trailing behind with a sheepish smile on her face.
Kaya began clearing the plates, she could already see the color draining from his face. "Mugen leaves along the water, just make a right and head straight down the road, you'll see it."
Jin looked up at the two girls, he felt warm, perhaps he ate the meat too raw.
"Would you like some water? You look a little pale," Kaya offered. Now that it was done she wished she had stopped her.
"Water would be appreciated," Jin said.
"Sure thing," she gave the dirty dishes to Miyuki and walked away to get water.
Jins' stomach began to grumble in protest, he put an arm across his stomach and groaned, damn Shabu Shabu. It was a bad luck meal for sure maybe the real reason he never ate the damn meal again was because the last time he did he almost died.
Miyuki walked back to the kitchen, shuffling her feet. If Fuu found out what she did she'd probably be pissed. Now that it was done she was starting to feel bad, she hadn't wanted to remember all the good times Fuu talked about with Jin. She just saw that he had made her leave to look for him, and then he shows up.
She passed by Kaya as she brought him the water. Miyuki turned and watched him accept the water from her sister.
He drank the water in a long gulp then placed the cup on the table, rising Kaya noticed he was still hunched slightly, his arm wrapped loosely around his stomach. It was always this way, they felt sick, stumbled out of the shop and barely made it down the road before emptying their stomachs. The only reason they still had business was because everyone knew this was the consequence for messing with them.
"Just down the road?" Jin asked softly.
Kaya nodded, "It's the house on the left that has sunflowers in the field, Fuu's is on the right."
Jin nodded and walked out of the shop. The two girls watched him go feeling to guilty for words. Kaya sighed and went back to her other customers. He'd be fine by morning.
The setting sun beat down on Jins' back as he walked down the road, the sea glimmered in between the houses as he slowly walked by. Sweat dripped down his face, he squeezed his eyes shut as his stomach cramped up again. He stumbled over to the side of a house and fell to his knees, retching. Half eaten food poured from his mouth in long streams, burning his throat until it was to raw and painful to swallow and still he continued to wretch onto the earth. Emptying everything onto the ground, food, bile anything that would come out did.
"Man, what happened to you?"
Jin didn't spit the vile taste from his mouth but couldn't look up as he stomach continued to try and purge his insides from his body.
Mugen leaned against the wall and watched Jin heave heave once of liquid and solids from his stomach. Poor sucker, when Jin had taken too long to follow him he began to suspect that the little brats were up to no good. He should've known they would do something like this.
Jin forced his mouth closed and tried to swallow but his throat continued to convulse, grating against itself.
Mugen pushed off the wall and walked over to his old companion, he was tempted to tell him about the mushroom but he understood why they had done it. "Hey, I ain't carrying your ass back to the house."
Jin tried to smile but his head roared in pain and fire blazed in his throat, stealing his strength. He braced his arm against the wall and slowly pushed himself up until he was standing on shaky legs. His arm shook against the wall as he tried to keep his balance and his stomach heaved once more making his vision go back for a moment.
Mugen caught him before he could fall into the puddle of vile and slung Jins' arm over his shoulder, taking on the samurais weight. Damn how much of that shit did they give him? He helped the half-conscious man down the road to his home.
Yatsuha stood on the porch, her arms crossed under her large breasts as she watched the two coming toward her home.
"Don't just stand there, come help me," Mugen grumbled.
Yatsuha frowned but left the porch and took Jins other arm and helped her husband carry him into the house. "So this is the infamous Jin huh? He doesn't look so great to me."
They laid him on the floor by the fire pit and Yatsuha went to get a damp cloth, "Miyuki and Kaya strike again," she said to herself as she walked back to the fevered man on her floor.
She knelt b his side and draped the cloth over his forehead, receiving a sigh of release from Jin. "Get a bucket, I don't want him puking on the floors that i have to clean up." She continued to pat the cloth around his face and neck while Mugen went outside for a bucket. "She has been very worried about you, you know." She said softly, "she said she was afraid something happened to you, something about the dojo you came from.. Of course Mugen just told her you weren't here because you were 'out shagging a real broad, he doesn't want a wooden plank." She said, imitating Mugen perfectly.
She chuckled to herself, "she would get so angry and storm off. Still I know the longer it took for you to come the more sad she got and she started to wonder if mugen was right." She looked into his glazed, half open eyes. "Sometimes it just takes some people longer to finish their journey."
Mugen came back in and wanted to gag, women and their stupid emotions. "I don't know why you're bothering to talk to him, he's was to war gone to here you." He set the bucket next to Jin and stood next to Yatsuha, resting a hand in his light brown hair.
She shrugged, "you'd be surprised what you hear when you want to."
"Yeah whatever," Mugen grumbled, "I'll be outside chopping wood."
She watched him leave from where he came, and got up taking the drying cloth with her to the bucket of water.
Jins' body shook, he felt like he was dying. But he couldn't die, not yet. He had to see her first. "Fuu," her name slipped from his cracked lips before he turned and began heaving into the spare bucket. Nothing came out and still his stomach tried to purge.
Yatsuha knelt behind him and tucked his hair out of his face, dabbing the cloth on the back of his neck while he continued to heave his soul into the bucket.
"You'll feel better tomorrow," she told him. "Then we'll start our journey." I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees you.
After night covered their town in darkness Jins body, relaxed and he fell into an exhausted sleep dreaming of a young girl in pink being attacked by zombies.
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Next chapter we get to find out what Fuu is doing in Edo.