My Samurai

Chapter 10: Baseball And New Plans

   The four of you sat in a small restaurant waiting on the food. It was daytime and Fuu and Jin sat on one size looking at the map to see where you guys still needed to go.
   "How much farther did you think it is?" Fuu asked tracing her finger along the map. Since you hadn't been with them throughout their whole journey you don't how long they've been traveling. You and Mugen were on the other side of the table with Mugen who was laying on his back, his head by your leg. His arms were behind his head as usual and he was quiet, which was unusual.
   "Are we getting closer?" You ask Fuu and she smiles at you. "We'll reach Saga soon. It won't be long before we reach Ikitsuki Island." You nod at her and Mugen finally speaks.
   "Shouldn't you be worried about where you need to go?" He asked without opening his eyes. You're reminded that you still don't know where your home is and can't remember anything. Sighing you tell him, "That's not important right now." He gives you a weird look and is about to say something when your waiter shows up.
   "Here you are," he says and sets multiple plates down at your table. It all looked very expensive and your sure you guys can't afford this. "We didn't order all of this..." Fuu starts to say when Mugen interrupts. "Don't worry about it, I ordered for us."
All three of you look at him and Fuu whispers to him and asks how he's going to pay for it but he insists that he's got it covered so the 4 of you start to eat.
                                ****
   "That was so good!" Fuu says stuffed. You nod in agreement, its been so long since you guys have eaten that good. "Are you certain you can take care of the bill?" Jin asks.
"You bet," Mugen responds and suddenly he jumps up and crouches down on the floor next to your table. Before you could speak up he jumps up and sprints out the door. Once the workers realized he was skipping out on the bill they chased after him.
You sighed and massaged the sides of your head in frustration. "I knew something up..." You said to yourself as you start to run in the direction the guards went.
   When you caught up to them you saw Mugen a couple feet ahead of them on the ground. Then he jumped up with what looked like a ball and was yelling angrily. "Who threw this?!" He was saying and a man in blue said it was him. He was standing in front of the guards and Mugen flung the ball back towards his direction. Everyone including you ducked as the ball came speeding through the air and destroying a building behind you guys.
   "Wanna play some ball?" Said the man in blue and you and Mugen looked equally confused.
Back at the restaurant the four of you were tied up and the workers surrounded you. "If you play in the game tomorrow, I'll pay your bill." The man in blue offered and Fuu tried to convince Mugen to agree. "What the hell is this ball deal about anyway?" He asked.
The man explained how baseball was about hitting a ball with a bat and running bases, it came from overseas. He also talked about how our country's future depends on it. Apparently they have to play against the Americans tomorrow and his original team members ran away.
"Mugen we should do it," you whisper to him, "its better than working for a month here to pay it off." He turns to the man in blue.
   "So the Yankees are really that tough?" He asked and the man nodded. "In that case..." Mugen said getting to his feet, "I'll do it!"
   You, Jin and Fuu also had to play since there weren't enough players and you sighed reluctantly.
                           ****
   It turns out the man in blues name is Kagemaru and as the sun went down he and the four of you practiced playing baseball. Mugen was running laps and you watched Fuu and Kagemaru toss the ball back and forth. He was telling her how he heard about baseball but you weren't listening. You were still thinking about what Mugen said earlier about you figuring out where you need to go. All you knew so far was that water triggers a bad feeling but that wasn't enough information. You started to think that maybe you shouldn't be traveling with the three of them considering you had different goals from them.
   "Come on (Y/n)! Were gonna do some more practice." Fuu calls to you and you go to her, hoping that this sport will distract you from your problems for a little while.
   The next day you guys prepare to play and line up in front of the foreign players. "Aren't we a few people short?" Mugen asked.
"Don't worry about it," Kagemaru says and you notice a dog and Fuus squirrel Momo at the end of the line.
"This isn't going to go well," you say under your breath and you all take your places to start the game.
                             ****
Kagemaru was first to bat and he did  good as expected, but next was Jin who started off with a sword stance. The announcer wasn't sure if he would be able to hit the ball like that but he did surprisingly well. Next was Mugen using two swords and you watched eagerly. He was the most confident about this when he agreed so you wanted to see it he could really pull it off.
   He was able to get a home run but made the mistake of running past Jin so he was out. "No way," Fuu said but his eagerness didn't surprise you.
You and Fuu both struck out and your other team members, the dog, Momo and an 80 year old man, weren't very helpful.
Kagemaru managed to find another man to play and he kept telling him to bunt but he wasn't listening. "Where did he find this guy?" You say to yourself. You couldn't wait for this game to be over.
   For the rest of the time the American team started to play dirty. During Jins turn they used weapons and tried to tackle him and he was doing fine avoiding them until the end where he was sat on by one of their larger players.
   "What are we going to do," you ask and Mugen stood up. "I want you two to stay out of this," he said and you both sat on the bench. Mugen and Kagemaru were the only ones left and it was the American teams turn to bat.
Mugen was able to get their first batter out but Kagemaru was injured trying to catch the second ball.
   The only one left was Mugen, so it was 1 against 9. Surprisingly Mugen began throwing like how he first threw when he was angry and we started doing well. Pretty soon it was one against one and as Mugen threw the last pitch, the batter threw his bat. They were both hit but Mugen was able go stand, so the Americans lost and finally left.  
                                 ****
   It was nighttime and Fuu left to find more supplies to help with everyone's injuries. Kagemaru was passed out and Jin was slowly falling asleep too. A little farther away you sat with Mugen, holding a damp cloth up to the right side of his face. The bat had hit him pretty hard but other than that his injuries weren't too serious.
   "Mugen I have to tell you something," you say after a long silence.
   "Well we've been sitting here for like an hour," he said scratching his head, "what are you waiting for?" You look at him annoyed and take your hands away from his face. "I think you guys should go on to Saga without me," you say without looking at him, "I was thinking about what you said yesterday and..."
   "And you want to look for your home or something?" He says interrupting you.
   "Well yeah," you say and he doesn't say anything for a while. You don't want to say anything either so you two just sit their in silence once again. After what felt like forever Mugen takes the cloth from you and holds it up to his cheek. "Why are you telling me this?" To your surprise he sounded annoyed but your not sure why.
   You didn't know what to say. Maybe you thought he would try to stop you or something but right no. it seemed like he couldn't care less, which you hoped wasn't true. You didn't want to look at him because you knew he probably had that annoyed look on his face. "I just don't know what to do," you say and your eyes start to water up. Of course you didn't want to be away from the three of them but you felt like you were just extra baggage for them.
   "I think its a dumb idea but go ahead," he said leaning back on his hands. "What do you mean?" you ask and he moves to face you. "You don't want to leave and we don't want you to leave so I don't know where you got a dumb idea like that."
   You don't know what to say, you know he's right but a part of you wishes you could work towards your goal like they are. Suddenly Mugen stands up.
   "After we find Fuus flower guy I'll help you find where your from." He tells you while tossing the cloth to himself.
   Hearing that your eyes started watering even more. Not because you were sad but because you couldn't believe Mugen said that. It was unexpected but you were happy to know that he cared that much about you to help. Of course he would never admit that to your face though.
   Smiling, you stood up and hugged him, causing him to stop throwing the cloth. You were shorter than him so your face only came up to his chest.
    "(Y/n) what's your problem?" He asked. He sounded annoyed but he didn't push you away but patted you on the head playfully. You pulled away from him but he grabbed your hand and started walking back to where Jin and Kagemaru where.
   "Come on before Fuu comes back and starts yelling at me again," he said. The two of you make it back right before Fuu and the two of you continued to patch up the rest of everyone's injuries so they can be ok for tomorrow.