ore ha dare to mo kumane-;
................P R U R I E N T

FUU Mugen comes into the tea shop were Fuu works and this is where the sotry begins. For free dango, he agrees to save her from some thugs in the tea shop. After being captured, it is Fuu that throws fireworks to distract everyone's attention so that Mugen and Jin can escape. By way of Fuu's double sides coin, Mugen is forced to come along with her to search for the Himawari no Nioi Suru wo Samurai. Mugen calls her all sorts of name from flat chested to bitch, but whenever Fuu is in a jam, he is there to save her. Also, when Sara asks her to allow either Jin or Mugen to come with her, she sends Jin away with Sara. During an interlude by the river, Fuu confesses her concern for Mugen's wellbeing after the journey is over to Jin. Although she thinks he is a ero otoko, it's clear she harbours some sort of feelings for Mugen, even if it's only as a dear friend.

Both times Mugen 'died' it is Fuu that helps bring him back in a sense. the last thing he sees before he closes his eyes and loses consciousness in the water (after Mukoro betrayed him for the second time) was Jin, then Fuu's face. After Toube's wheelchair explodes on Ikitsuki Island, as his soul is taken out of his body and ascends, Fuu calls his name out and his sould drops back into his body.

Romance? Who's to say, some note that fated 'by the lake scene' in episode 24, where she expresses her concern towards Mugen's fate to Jin in privy. However, Okuru told Fuu that traveling with people after such a long time makes them like family, Jin and Mugen would be like her brothers, and Fuu is only 15.

JIN When Jin comes into the teashop, Mugen mistakes him for one of the magistrates samurai and begins attacking. Throughout the journey, the argue and bicker. They've also sworn to kill each other. Mugen thinks Jin to be a muttsuri megane, a gloomy dude in glasses, and Jin thinks Mugen lacks self discipline. However when Mukuro betrays Mugen and everyone thinks Mugen has died, Jin goes to kill Mukuro. Also, whenever Mugen is going to fight what could be a risky battle, Jin tells him he can't die because he is supposed to kill him. A strange expression of sentiment, but nonetheless, sentiment. the very last episode, on Itsitsuki Island, as they lay recovering in the hut of Fuu's late fathr, Jin tells Mugen that he considers Mugen and Fuu to be his first true friends.

KOUZA Kouza grew up on the same island as Mugen. She finds Mugen when he is injured, so let's assumed she helped him get back on his feet. She has a possesive elder brother, Mukuro, who killed their mother. The way Mukuro touches her makes me wonder if maybe he abuses in more ways than emotional. In Mugen she sees a way to escape her brother because he has the strength to kill him. Her childhool has left her extremely relient on others. Thinking Mugen died during the attack on the shogunate's ship, and tricking Jin into killing her brother, she goes off with her boyfriend Shiren. In the end, Mugen kills Shiren, but spares Kouza's life, though she pleads with him to kill her. In the flash back, Mugen meets Kouza after she has bandaged his wounds. Letting her life was probably him returning the favor, then again the only woman we have seen Mugen kill was Sara, and that made him emotional. Kouza thinks highly of Mugen, and is clearly fond of him. Whether its because she has feelings for him, or whether its only for using him as protection from her brother is hard to say.

After watching episode 14 again, and it almost seemed that Kouza planned the entire scheme with Shiren from the start. She knew her brother would betray Mugen, who now had friends. She would use those friends to kill her brother in the guise of revenge for Mugen, and she and Shiren would live happily every after.

MUKURO An odd name, since it means corpse in Japanese. He is a pirate who uses others as a means to his ends, and insists on Mugen joining with him because they are both loved by the Hell they've grown up in. In their younger years, he arranges an attack on a ship carrying sugar, and Mugen is captured. He does nothing as he watches Mugen jump off a cliff to avoid being shot by the firing squad. Later, he recruites Mugen again to attack a shogunate ship full of gold, and he purposely explodes the ship Mugen is on. I think because he knows Mugen is strong, and he cannot keep Mugen under his thumb like Kouza, he is resentful of Mugen. At any rate, killed by Jin, shocked that the one who betrayed him was Kouza.

SARA A shogunate assasin sent to stop Fuu on her journey to find her father, Kasumi Seizou. She's a blind shamisen player who had a son that was taken from her because of her blindess. the shogunate holds her son's life over her head to control her. She grows attached to Mugen because she can sense the same desolation in him as in herself. During her final fight with Mugen, there is no doubt she will win, but she holds back at the last moment, allowing Mugen the finishing blow. Mugen, clearly distraught over what she's done, asks her why she didn't kill him. She had suddenly realized/accepted that her son died a long time ago and that she was only a pawn. She honestly wanted Mugen to live, so she allowed hersel to die.

Sara's death is the one time we see Mugen show regret for killing. Whether he was angered by the fact that she was out of his league, a formidable enemy that should have landed that final blow, but instead choose to throw down her weapon and let Mugen live on. Or whether he respected her n the same way as Okuru, a kindred spirit in pain. either way, Mugen wasn't please with the outcome.

YATSUHA A ninja working for the shogunate working to stop a forgery operation. She disguises herself as a prostitute in a brotel, and since she is the only pretty once there, Mugen and Jin rock-paper-siscors to get her- Mugen wins. She attacks Mugen to escape her lust advances, but decides that Mugen's strength is what she needs to complete her mission. fueling him on with the promise of great sex, she gets Mugen to take down the forgery operation. She knocks him out and leaves him at the city's edge in the end, saying that Mugen will be her husband someday.

OKURU In Japanese, can mean to dispatch, or to bid farewell to the dead. I'm assuming he's Ainu, it's pretty cool that SC included the Ainu. The Ainu are to Japan as Native Americans are to America. Okuru was a doctor, who returned to his village to find it had been burned down by the shogunate to stop the spread of a sickness-- despite the fact either no one in the village was sick or the sick were few in numbers and could have been saved. Okuru lost his wife and child and he himself has been lost ever since. Because of him, Mugen is attacked by shogunate officials who confuse him for Okuru, so when Mugen meets the real Okuru he attacks him. After a while Mugen and Okuru talk, the music Okuru plays is sad and haunting and reminds Mugen of a tune he heard when he was small. In the end, he dies fighting against shogunate officials out to kill him. Reminicient of how Mugen choose to jumped off a cliff to the ocean to deny the firing squad of taking his life. Okuru, who was set on fire, kills the government officials who came after him with the aid of Mugen and Jin, then staggers to the cliffs edge, looks back once at Mugen and jumps off. I think Mugen held respect for Okuru because of this-- he says I know that guy is definantly still alive in the end.

TOUBE; UMANOSUKE; DENKIBOU Are three brothers who have been searching for Mugen all this time in order to exact revenge. During Mugen and Mukuro's attack on the ship carrying sugar, Toube, the eldest brother is maimed and left in a wheelchair. They were blamed by the govenment as having a part in the attack and outcasted. No longer able to climb the social ladder and become government officials, they seek out Mugen to inflict as much suffering as possible boefre they finish him off. So they have been spent almost a decade huntin Mugen. Literally insane, as they go crazy one of their eyes begin to bludge from the sockets turning a pinkish color. They follow Fuu to Itsuki Island and take her as a hostage, beating her. When Mugen gets there, he trades Fuu's life for his own. He manages to kill all 3 brothers, but is severely injured.

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   Prurient is © Alicia. Images edited on PSP7&PS7, coding done on notepad. Fonts used are final lap, san serif, tahoma, and verdana. Brushes and textures from here, here, and here. Samurai Champloo and Mugen are © manglobe INC. and Shinichiro Watanabe. This is created in fandom and I do not profit from it. Please do not take, reuse, or redistribute my graphics or info without my permission.