If any idle conversation turned to the weather that day, nearly every comment had to do with the bright warm sun, or the puffy white clouds, or the gentle summer breeze. This was, simply, due to the fact that on that day, the sun was quite warm and bright, the clouds were exceptionally white and puffy, and the breeze was just gentle enough while still taking the blistering heat out of the summer day. In fact, that day was a perfect day. It was so enthralling, in fact, that the people of the sleepy village spent so much time admiring the weather that not one noticed the dusty, road-worn traveler collapsed face down to the side of the street.

In Mugen's opinion, this day was far from perfect. The wonderful sun that everyone was going off about was steadily roasting him alive, and those buggers-for-clouds were too puffy for shade, or else that good for nothing breeze blew them too quickly away while still finding the energy to throw dirt into his face. In Mugen's opinion, the day could have been far better.

It took him quite a while, in that state, to realize that the strange difference in light and temperature between his head and the rest of his body was caused by the shadow of a person standing to his side. It was another while before he bothered to turn his head and gaze blurrily at the stranger's feet. Another traveler, by the looks of it. Of course, none of the villagers were ever going to notice him.

"I thought you promised not to die until I killed you, idiot."

Mugen suddenly felt the urge to be angry, but he was slow in figuring out why. What had just happened that required his anger? His mind cranked slowly around this problem. Someone had…said something? To him? Yes. That had happened. Now. Had they insulted him? He could safely recall the word "idiot", so that was likely. But that happened all the time. Why did he feel like getting up and slugging the guy now of all times?

He furrowed his eyebrows and stared at Jin's feet, still mulling—

Wait.

What?

Suddenly the pieces clicked audibly into place in his head, and he rocketed to his feet, aiming a punch right at that blank face he hated so well, and when he absolutely missed, he promptly fell back to the street in a cloud of dust.

Jin was mildly impressed with the villager's unwillingness to notice anything.

Maybe it was a local popular trend.

Mugen greeted the dirt like he had several hours ago: like an old friend one hadn't heard from after parting ways; with much rejoicing and hugging; with much good liquor and hearty retellings of past exploits—

On second thought, perhaps it was nothing like that at all.

Mugen greeted the dirt like he had several hours ago: like an old friend one just wanted to punch in the face. Yes, that was a lot more like it.

Above him, his old friend was getting yet another friendly greeting.

"You get him, Momo-chan! You show him that it's not alright to kill Mugen when I'm not around!"

Again, not a villager, Mugen noted. If it sounded that annoying, it had to be someone he knew. He had all the bad luck like that. Besides, it knew his name. There weren't too many people still alive who did. Damn. That meant it was—

Momo-chan flew back to Fuu, deciding it had mauled Jin's face long enough. Never let a day go by without a good face-mauling, that was Momo-chan's motto, and it was quite a satisfying motto to live by.

"How could you actually kill him! After all we've been through?" Fuu's eyes grew big and teary. Mugen wondered if she'd leave him alone if he let her believe he was dead.

"He's not dead," Jin said, straightening his hair and glasses.

"Shut UP!" Mugen hissed, "I am, I am dead!"

"He fell on his own," Jin casually ignored the self-proclaimed corpse. He turned and set about going on his way.

Fuu looked between the two of her former comrades, torn. "Jin! Wait! Where are you going?" And in the same breath, "Mugen, are you okay? You don't look okay."

He opened his eyes to see her crouched worriedly at his side. He was even going to say something, maybe even something nice, but then she was gone. He stared at Momo-chan instead.

"Hey," he said half-heartedly, figuring he might as well say something after he'd worked up all the energy for it.

Momo-chan's little eye glittered. There was no limit on daily face-maulings, after all, in fact, the more the better….

"Jin! You can't just leave! We have…we have catching up to do!" Fuu wouldn't release his hand, so Jin was content to drag her along behind him until she got the hint.

She really didn't want to let go. She really didn't want to have them walk out of her life again. The two or three times it had happened or sorta happened already were enough for her. She had to think of a way to get them to not run off or kill each other or ruin all the buildings or get arrested or get stuck with zombies….

Ok, so maybe she only had to worry about the first two.

"Jiiiin," she began again in her best whiny voice, "don't go. If you stay, I'll treat you to lunch—" She had no time to keep from crashing into his back as he came to an abrupt stop.

"Alright. I'll stay." He was as calm as ever, and Fuu fought back the truth of the power of her bribe with a smile.

Mugen forgot about being dead in his haste to catch up with them, Momo-chan fluttering unhappily on the hilt of his sword. "Me too," he panted, "Me too! No fair! You can't treat him like he's so special and then ignore me all the time!"

Fuu glared at him. "No one said anything about ignoring you. You were the one content with just laying on the ground in the first place."

"But you'll buy me lunch, too, right?"

Fuu sighed. As troublesome as her two friends could be, she really was happy to see them again. Alive and all. And it was also comforting to know that some things in the world never changed. Today would be just like old times.

It was less comforting after Jin and Mugen had jointly eaten her out of all the money she had been carrying with her. It was nice to be nostalgic about the old times and all, but some memories were better without being relived. It didn't help to learn that Mugen had been lying face down in the street for hours because he hadn't eaten in days.

"I hope you guys are happy now," she grumbled as they left the restaurant.

"Yep," Mugen replied, turning down the street.

"Unn," Jin echoed, turning the other direction.

"Wait! Where are you two going!" There really was no end to the frustration.

"We stayed, you bought us lunch," Jin explained, as if it was completely obvious.

"And now we're leavin'. Thanks." Mugen finished it up, calling back over his shoulder.

He was stopped in his tracks as his clothes suddenly refused to move forward with him. He choked, stumbling backwards in Fuu's grip. He stumbled all the way over to Jin, and was rewarded with the sight of the same rough treatment applied to the incessantly composed man.

Ten minutes later she had dragged them out of the town and seated them in the grass. Threats were made—no one would be leaving this "circle of friends" until significant "catching up" or "reminiscing" had occurred.

"I'll go first," Fuu said brightly, "Do you guys remember that time when the Americans came and we all played baseball?"

She smiled at them, expecting their angles on the fun experience.

Mugen stared at her with a blank look on his face, as if she were speaking craziness and he wasn't sure if getting up to alert the proper authorities wouldn't just rain some horrible crazy wrath down on him.

Jin, on the other hand, was as still and collected as death, sitting quietly with his arms folded and his eyes closed. His breathing was light and steady, and it was almost 87 certain that he was asleep.

It was sure one happy reunion.

Mugen was pretty sure, when he wandered back into town alone, that that was the way it had to be. Nobody could expect three people, who had spent so much time together followed by so much time apart, to easily fall back into the kind of friendship they'd once had. Especially when they only had one day in which to "catch up" and "reminisce". Especially when they each had their own separate life and business and path now. They couldn't be expected to drop everything and team up for unknown adventures, even if it had happened before.

It was just a little bit of bad timing.

Mugen, unnoticed by the villagers, slumped down into the dirt of the street. He lay back, deciding to look up at the sky this time around.

He frowned.

It really was a perfect day.