Living near the Ocean von abgemeldet (FuuxMugen and FuuJin Friendship) ================================================================================ Kapitel 2: Questions and Answers -------------------------------- Chapter 2 – Questions and Answers The silence she, Jin and Mugen were in was the most uncomfortable thing that Fuu had ever felt with the two men. She couldn’t believe that they had searched for her, and they were finally together again. All those years Fuu had imagined that Jin and Mugen would come back to her. That they wanted to head for another journey with her. Now Mugen sat right in front of her stuffing Dango in his mouth, while Jin was silently drinking his tea. Fuu breathed in deeply to speak to Jin. She knew that Mugen wouldn’t answer her anyway when he was eating. “So Jin. What did you do in the last five years?”, she asked and smiled. Jin, polite as he was, answered her question, stoic as ever. “After we parted, I went back to Shino as I promised her. Living for her is still dangerous like it was five years ago, so I’m just able to visit her from time to time. She has to stay in the temple.” He sighed and sipped on his tea again. “The rest of the last five years I spent as ever. Working as a bodyguard when I needed money…” “… and fighting Evil wherever you could.”, grinned Fuu and took his cup. “Want another cup of tea?” He only nodded and Fuu went back into the kitchen. Right after she vanished behind her curtain, Mugen bent over to Jin and hissed. “Did you see that?! The two little brats are hers! They called her MOMMY!” Jin pushed his glasses back up. “Believe me Mugen, that little girl yelled loud enough for me to hear that.” “And how are we supposed to deal with that?! What are we doing anyway now that we found her?” That was indeed a really good question. Jin and Mugen had agreed to search for Fuu, but now that they had found her, they didn’t know what to do next. Would they head for another journey? And if yes, what sense would it make to walk all around Japan? “Take a good look Mugen.”, Jin whispered and looked around for himself. “Sakura Inn”, Fuus teahouse, was certainly a new built building. The wood was still bright and stainless. The sun shown brightly trough the door and two little windows on the right side. It was certainly not older than three years. “And what am I supposed to see here?”, Mugen asked dumbly and leaned back. He looked at Jin questionably. Jin thought to himself, ‘Why am I even travelling with an idiot like him’, and then answered: “This is a very new house Mugen. Probably it was only built for her and the children. And the father of her children I’d say. Why would she want to leave her home? Besides, she wouldn’t let the kids get into the danger of being murdered by the Shogun or some other guys.” Fuu then returned with the tea and looked at the two questionably. She decided that she didn’t want to know what the two men had been talking about and sat down. “Mugen? What about you? What did happen to you the last 5 years?” Fuu set down the tea for Jin and took her time to take a closer look at Mugen. The prison tattoos around his wrists were the same as they were 5 years ago. His hair was now a little bit longer than it had been and he had grown even taller. As she looked in his eyes, she recognised that he was staring at her. “I’m not the one with two little kids running all over the place. You should tell US what happened to you.”, he growled. ‘Is he angry?’, she thought confused and turned around. She couldn’t see the two kids listening, as they normally did when she had guests. The always sat on the very top on the stairs where they thought nobody could see them. Probably Jirou had to calm his little sister down. She was afraid of almost every guy with weapons. “Who’s the father Fuu? Do we know him?”. Mugen kept on asking, while Fuu thought of a way how to explain it the best. But before he could ask another question, he felt something crawling up his left leg. “WHAT THE..”, he yelled and leaned back too much. He fell from his bench, directly on the floor. Momo, Fuu’s little squirrel was crawling up his trousers and quickly flew back to Fuu, as he tried to hit it. “MUGEN! Don’t you dare hurt Momo. He’s not a young squirrel anymore you could seriously hurt him!” She stroked Momo and gave him something to crunch on. “That was my target”, he mumbled and pulled himself back on the bench. “I’m also curious Fuu-chan. These two kids seem to be a little bit older than five. Are they even yours?” “You’re right Jin”, she sighed and her look was getting sad. “I don’t know exactly how old they are. And I don’t know who their parents are, or where they come from.” Confusion filled the room. Mugen didn’t notice, but he let out a sigh of relief. “I found Jirou and Maya four years ago. I was searching for a village where I could work and live in peace, and on my way here, I found them. They were lying in the sand, unconscious and seriously injured.” Jin and Mugen were watching her carefully. She seemed lost in her thoughts. “I took care of them until they woke up and got better. They had lost her memories and I was the only person they could cling onto. Like me, they didn’t have a place to stay, so we decided that we should stay together and search for a village we could live.” She smiled again. “We were searching for 2 long months. They decided to call me Mom. I don’t know why but I didn’t really mind. I felt as I had full responsibility for them and that we were all meant to be together. She looked back at Mugen and Jin. “They couldn’t even remember their names, so I decided to name them after my two best friends.” As expected, Mugen didn’t really understand. Fuu sighed and started to explain. “Don’t see any commonalities Mugen? Mayu is named after you. Mayu – Mugen.” She turned to Jin. He had already noticed. Jin – Jirou. “I feel very honoured Fuu-chan” She gave him one of her sweetest smiles in return. Mugen on the other hand, didn’t know what to think. Fuu had named the little red-haired brat after him. She wasn’t their biological mother. ‘Good thing’, he thought, but he didn’t know why. “How did you all land here in this little village?”, asked Jin. Fuu continued to tell her story. “We desperately needed some money. So we decided to make a stop and found this teahouse. It was belonged to a very nice old woman. She really needed help. She let us live for free and I helped her with her guests.” Fuu was once again lost in her precious memories. “Her name was Sakura. That’s why the Inn has this name now. For 2 years we all felt like we were a real family.” Mugen noticed, that Fuu had tears in her eyes. As she continued with her story, he found out why. “I found out later that Sakura-baa-chan was Christian, just like my father was. She was hunted by the Shogun.” Tears were now running down Fuu’s cheeks. “One day the kids and I went grocery shopping into the neighbour village. W-When we came back in the evening, the teahouse was all burned down and Baa-chan was nowhere to be found.” Fuu wiped her tears away, but they didn’t stop flowing. “The villagers said that the Shogun’s assassins had captured her. H-Her last wish was that I would rebuild the teahouse and life here with the kids.” Jin had reached for her hand and tried to comfort her. She bit her lip in return. “The whole village helped to rebuild the teahouse. That was 2 years ago and now we three are a part of this village. That’s why the inhabitants are never angry with the kids if they steal a little bit of food. They know that they do it to help me.” She sighed deeply. “Well. That is what happened to me.” She smiled at Jin and squeezed his hand lightly before she wiped her tears away again. After a few moments of silence, Fuu spoke again. “As I already mentioned, as my best friends you two are invited to stay here. You don’t really have any plans of what to do next right?” Mugen only shook his head. “Well what about some holidays then? I’m sorry Mugen but you will not find any brothels here so you will have to spend your time otherwise.”, she grinned and stood up. “I’ll close the teahouse for today, it’s already late anyways. Time for some sleep.” That was what they all needed after this much information. Fuu went up the stairs and showed them their rooms. After wishing them a good night she vanished into the kids room to talk to them, before going to bed herself. It had been a very exhausting day. But she was happy that she had her two best friends around her again. OoOoOoOoOoOooO Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)