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Abstinence Education	By : MadameManga Category: +. to F > Blade of the Immortal Views: 11959 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Blade of the Immortal, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
The characters and universe of Blade of the Immortal/Mugen no Junin are copyrighted by Hiroaki Samura and do not belong to me. Not one sen will come into my hands in consequence of this story.

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Squick warnings: Sex in various forms, including quasi-incestuous themes and a 16-year-old female paired with an adult male. Violence will eventually rear its head as well; hey, you have to separate at least one body part from its owner in any BotI story.

Abstinence Education

by Madame Manga
Part Nine

What had Hyakurin once told her�that she would suffer for years if she fell for a guy like Manji? Rin sat under the overhang of the porch to escape a drizzle of rain and wondered for the hundredth time exactly what that had been supposed to mean. The Mugai-ryu assassin had only met Manji that day, but had apparently stuck him right away into a category of men she didn�t care for. Samurai? Swordsmen in general? Well, she must have known more than a little about what Shira was like�
And Manji was nothing like Shira, if arguably only as a matter of degree. Just for example, he didn�t hurt women for fun. Rin grimaced and shuddered simultaneously and looked for a knife. She whittled wood chips into a little pile for tinder, then stacked split sticks in the hibachi. Striking sparks with Manji�s flint and steel, she started the fire and used the old bamboo-leaf fan to shield the small flames from the gusting wind. Venturing slowly around the edges of the chips, they seemed reluctant to catch hold. Perhaps the wood was a little damp. She coughed as the smoke swirled into her eyes and turned her face away. Through the dispersing rain clouds she could see the angle of the declining sun. Manji had gone on his errand to the market quite some time ago, but he�d surely be back before dark. Perhaps he had taken shelter from the rain.
The weather seemed to be changing at last; this had been a chilly shower rather than a summer steambath. They might have to burn a brazier in the hut to stay warm when winter arrived�or sleep like farmer�s families did, all in the same futon.
The thought of sleeping in Manji�s arms brought a smile to her face, but it quickly faded. He probably wouldn�t want to do that. That would be too much like lovers, and he�d made it very plain that they weren�t going to be lovers. As a matter of fact, before he had left he had practically given her the cold shoulder. Not in quite the same way he had done while struggling against the urge to touch her, but with a terse formality she had hardly ever seen from him.
The foundation of their life together was different now, she understood, as if an earthquake had shifted the rocks beneath their feet and passed on. Superficially nothing had actually changed�they still were teacher and pupil, bodyguard and defended, brother and sister in some sense. And grown man and budding woman, just as they had been when they had first met. Somehow she had always known the possibility was there, and so had Manji; he had both rejected and played with the idea from the beginning, never letting it go even while he scoffed at her for taking any such suggestion seriously.
Probably he was still wrestling with those possibilities now, though he had an available safeguard in the idea of teaching her. Rin had longed very much to accompany him to the market, clasp his arm and talk with him on the way. She sensed that they needed to become re-acquainted, or at least begin to feel their way around the newly drawn margins of their relationship. But put off by his manner and realizing he wanted some time by himself, she hadn�t suggested it. She could only hope that he wouldn�t change his mind somewhere on the road.
But whether or not he returned with his purposes settled, so much for all her rosy imaginings. She sighed and put a few larger pieces of wood on the fire as the kindling caught. Romance? That might happen sometime in the future, in different circumstances and with a different man. With her gruff yojimbo, all such ideas were cleanly lopped off as if with one of his sharpest blades. Rin�s mind still held a few remnants of the fantasies she had cherished, like flowers with broken stems kept in water, but she knew they would soon wither and be forgotten, a passing dream.
She did love Manji. If he had really been her elder brother, she could not have been more devoted to him; most brothers would never have the opportunity to show their sisters the kind of concern he had demonstrated for her.
He wasn�t her brother, though. He was a man who could arouse all her womanly passions no matter how little he flattered her girlish longings. That was the seed of their predicament; that she could show him her love in any of a number of ways, and that one of them in particular had the potential to blot out all other loves, whether they wanted it to or not.
So what did he want from her?
Certainly Manji cared about her in a protective light; he had gone through hell for her sake, or for the painful memory of his real sister. There was an element of atonement in the blood he had shed for her safety, something that might have nothing to do with her personally. No wonder he didn�t want to think of using her body for his pleasure. In looking at her as an object of desire, he might almost have been violating a vow, or losing a cherished sense of higher purpose. Wasn�t that why the old nun had infested him with the kessen-chu in the first place? So he could find that purpose and pay with undying labor for the many lives that weighed on his soul?
Rin swallowed hard and warmed her hands at the now-blazing fire. She had a dim and apprehensive consciousness of encirclement by far greater forces than the fickle attractions of men and women. One small jolt, and the delicate balance of the universe threatened to topple�
�Hey.� Manji dropped something to the ground with a thud. Rin looked up and saw that it was an entire small straw-wrapped keg of sak�. On top of it he tossed a net bag full of corncobs in the husk. �Would you get that cooked? I�m hungry.� He turned his back and disappeared into the hut.

Continued�
- 8
- 9
- 10
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Abstinence Education