What's Best for Fuu

Rescues and Realizations

Jin lingered in a corner of the room, eyes closed behind his glasses as he listened to the bustle of the doctor setting about trying to mend Hiroshi's wounds. It had been a tricky endeavor to move the heavily injured young man into the nearest available establishment (only the owner of the tea house would offer her shop for use, closing the business to customers) but they couldn't properly tend to him in the street where the gashes would surely become infected.

Thus, once the doctor had arrived, Jin had helped to relocate the poor samurai's son. That was where his service had ended, though; seeing as his specialty was inflicting wounds rather than mending them. The tea house matron had been pressed into service as a nurse, fetching supplies upon request of the medical professional.

Suddenly the door to the makeshift infirmary was flung open as Hiroshi's mother burst in, "Hiroshi! Where's Hiroshi? Where is my son?"

"Gijouhei-san, I don't think-" A very pregnant Shino was trying to calm the frantic woman, since it seemed even the samurai's usual calm had abandoned him; if his pale and despondent appearance was anything to go by.

"You people DON'T think! That's part of the problem!" The angry and worried woman snapped at the younger one. If that devious waitress hadn't presumed to be worthy of her son, then Hiroshi wouldn't have been injured! It was all Fuu's fault, so far as she was concerned, and any friends of that bratty girl could take the blame with her!

With a sigh, Jin made to rise. All the racket was certainly not going to help the doctor concentrate, nor was it good for Hiroshi's health. And if the elder samurai wasn't going to make an effort to silence his hysterical wife, then it certainly shouldn't fall to a pregnant woman to carry the stress of the burden.

Jin's approach went unnoticed by the desperate mother, who had finally spotted her son lying on a blanket that had been spread in a cleared out corner of the tea house and moved to rush in his direction. "Hiroshi!"

Suddenly a pale hand on her shoulder was stopping her, and she glared at it's source. How dare this bespectacled ronin touch her! How dare he prevent her from reaching her son! In a dangerous mama bear growl the woman snarled, "Move!"

"It would best for you to remain outside, your fretting won't help," Jin spoke calmly to the panicked woman before looking past her to the silent and ill looking samurai that was her spouse, "Be there for her."

The elder man lifted dim and distant eyes to gaze at the ronin, not daring to glance in the direction of his son. Unlike his frantic wife, he knew full well where the blame rested. From the account given by the teen who had told them what happened, a group of yakuza had attacked. That meant they had been after Hiroshi from the start. It was an act of revenge, striking against his son to get at him. Which made it his fault. His fault if his son died.

Adjusting his glasses with a sigh, the ronin noticed that his words hadn't gotten through to the despondent man, though at least Hiroshi's mother had stormed back outside after a last challenging glare. It wasn't hard to guess from the demeanor of the older man what was running through his head, "What's happened can't be changed, what must be done must be done."

The statement was punctuated with a pointed look into the street, where Hiroshi's mother now paced outside the establishment. Following the ronin's gaze, the samurai's brow furrowed in concern for his spouse. He had to be there for her, but he was the source of her pain. With a sigh of his own he gave a nod, determining that that meant he had all the more reason to be the one to provide comfort, "You're youth doesn't hinder your wisdom, does it?"

There was no chance to reply, though Jin was sure the question was rhetorical anyhow, as the man stepped outside to place a hand on his wife's shoulder. Immediately the Gijouhei matriarch collapsed into her husband's arms weeping.