All Bets Are Off

A Samurai Champloo One-shot by
Dragonboy


Mugen's eyes burned with hatred as he glared at Jin.

Jin's eyes possessed a cold fury as he glared at Mugen.

Fuu's eyes darted back and forth between her two bodyguards, growing more 
nervous by the second.

"Um...guys?"

"QUIET!" they shouted in unison, causing the young girl to flinch as if 
struck.

Feeling the thick and ever-increasing tension in the air, everyone in the 
area slowly turned and stared at what was going on.

Ever so slowly, Mugen raised his hand which held his weapon.  Jin did the 
same.  Time seemed to slow to a crawl for everyone present.

Then, without breaking eye contact, they struck.

Mugen came in low, hoping to end it quickly, but with a speed that defied 
human ability, Jin parried and counter-struck in the same motion.  Mugen 
barely deflected the attack, but managed to push Jin's arm back far enough 
to strike again.

Jin, anticipating the tactic, shifted his wrist and brought his arm up under 
Mugen's.  Both were forced into a stalemate as they tried to use brute force 
to knock the other away.

"You really wanna die, don't you?" Mugen spat.

Jin's eyes flashed behind his glasses mockingly.  "As if you could."

"Guys," Fuu pleaded.  "You promised you wouldn't do this!  It's not even 
that big a deal!"

"It's the principle of it," Jin told her.

"Damn right!" Mugen agreed as he pulled back, causing Jin to stumble 
forward.

The battle resumed and quickly melted down into a brawl, quite unlike the 
usual dance-like duels usually seen between two master swordsmen.

Tables were overturned, chairs were smashed, innocent bystanders were hit by 
various thrown objects, and all the while the two samurai continued fighting 
furiously.

Fuu gave a deep huff and sat back down, laying her chin on her propped up 
hands.

'Why are men always so stupid?' she wondered.

She sighed and glanced down at the table in deep thought.

Suddenly, an idea came to her.  It was crazy.  It was risky.  But...would it 
work?

Slowly, she stood up, grabbed a pair of chopsticks, reached out, plucked up 
the solitary piece of sushi sitting on the plate in the center, and popped 
it into her mouth.

The result was instantaneous.

Mugen and Jin froze in mid-combat, both with stunned expressions on their 
faces.  The chopsticks that they had been holding fell from their fingers to 
the floor with a soft, yet audible clatter.

Beads of sweat began falling from every bystander's head as they watched in 
fear of the outburst that was bound to happen.

Mugen and Jin glanced around the restaurant, as if at a loss for what to do. 
  Finally, they sat back down on either side of Fuu and Mugen pulled a small 
money pouch out of his pocket.

"Hey," he called to a nearby waitress.  "Can we get another order of the 
special over here?"

There was a long moment of deafening silence.

A few minutes later...

Fuu sighed as she walked down the road.  "I can't believe they ran us out of 
town like that."

"Mm," Jin agreed next to her.  "Awfully rude of them, indeed."

Mugen's stomach growled loudly.  "I'm still hungry, dammit!"

End


I just wrote this all on a whim, because I've really wanted to write a SC 
fic.  I'll try something a little longer next time.

Dragonboy
A proud member of Dragon Stiel Inc.

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