I'll be right here when you need me

Anytime just keep believing

And I'll be right here

Looking at a tan flag, a guy with orange hair and a brown hat with goggles looked at the flag waving in the air. On the flag it had the words 'M.I.A' written in black ink, which stood for 'Missing in Action'. He looked at the grass starting to grow over the three graves. One which was empty with a white sword on top of the grave; with smudges of a blast on it.

Rewind 7 months ago

"Come on Heihachi let me help you with the mission!" Whined a black haired girl, trying to go on the completely suicidal mission that the seven samurai were going to go on and defeat Ukyo and end the war.

The orange haired boy, Heihachi, shook his head. "It's too dangerous." The girl looked at him with her brown eyes. "I'm not letting you go alone with the moose!!" Heihachi laughed, every time that got him. "He's going to help me however he can. If I d-." He looked at the girls head go down, her paler hands clenched into balls, slightly shaking in frustration.

"You can't possibly think he'll be able to protect you! He's barely experienced as a samurai… you'll get killed because you didn't have one thing right and then you're just going to let me stay here and have me live for the rest of my life knowing that my best friend died because I let him?!" She yelled not looking up from her glare at the ground.

Heihachi looked over slightly sighing. "You know that won't happen! Besides I'll blow the place up before it gets me." Her gaze looked up, slightly striking Heihachi in the heart. "You're lying. You don't even know whats happening yourself. Why even promise that!"

"Ra-." The orange haired boy said but got cut off by the black haired girl getting up. "No. Save it, okay? Heihachi-dono." His friend said, using the more formal version that he thought he'd gotten her to stop saying.

Watching her walking into the distance, he cursed himself and got up, walking back to camp.

"Hey kid, whats got your hat in a bunch?" A robot suit said walking to his friend. Heihachi shook his head looking towards a direction. "It's nothing Kikuchiyo." The robot, even though it can't have emotions, made a sad sound and nodded knowing that it'd be better not to anger the mechanic-rice-lover.

The next day was combat day. No one should be this messed up, but one was.

"Okay Shioroji, let's start dodging them!" Yelled a dark skinned man; with wavy hair down past his shoulders. A blonde with a helicopter styled hair-du nodded. "I got you Kambei!"

Ahead of them, was Heihachi and Katsushiro were on a disembodied killer robot, riding up to the giant ship in the air that Ukyo was hiding out on. "Can we speed up Heihachi-dono!" Yelled the green-blue haired boy; to the one who was inside the robot at the time being. "Yeah! Give me a sec!" Yelled Heihachi back; soon they were both flying up to the ship.

Katsushiro jumped off the robot and killed off some of the guards while Heihachi went to do his bomb job while he saw half of them already done. Raising an eyebrow, he quickly finished them off. "HEIHACHI-DONO!" Yelled the green/blue haired boy yelled, as his friend got hit with a bullet, soon enough he was dead thanks to Katsushiro.

Wiping some blood off of his mouth, he waved at Katsushiro, telling him to ignore it and go on. "There." Heihachi said finishing the last one off, putting the keypad on the wall, making it ready to blow at any second possible.

Katsushiro was busy holding off all the guards coming in, somehow rather they'd figured out that they were in here. Most likely Ukyo's doing. "Heihachi are you almost done!" He yelled back to his mechanic. Heihachi just got out a gun with three bombs in the center of it. As soon as he shot it, he was pushed away by someone, then hearing a familiar cry of pain.

Looking up he saw his best friend since they met on the missions, Rachael, or Rach to everyone she knew. She took his place, she would die instead of him. "You idiot!" The orange haired boy yelled getting up looking at his black haired friend, the one he'd just fought with the night before, and now the one who was going to die because of his mistake.

If you ever need a friend

Someone to care and understand

I'll be right here

A small smile formed on the girls' mouth. "I told you you'd… get hurt…" Coughing slightly she looked at him. "And now you're dying!! I told you no to come with Rachael!" The brown-hated boy said trying to budge the giant thick sword that was stuck. "You needed someone else here… and I'm your friend… I'd call it equivalent exchange." She said putting a smile to try to comfort her frantic friend.

"How is it equivalent exchange?!" Heihachi said, using a more stern voice as if scolding his friend for saving him.

"My life… to save yours." She said coughing out some blood. Katsushiro ran over, after killing off all the guards. His green orbs widened as he tried to help Heihachi pull the sword away.

Pounding on the metal, Heihachi looked desperately around for something, anything, to get the sword un-wedged. "Wait right here! I'll go get my tools and then…" He started. Rachael looked at him sympathetically, knowing why he wanted to help so badly. He'd abandoned his friends and they died because of them, and he was trying to repay his sins.

"Heihachi, I'll be fine. Get out of here before it blows." The brown eyed girl said, forcing back tears not wanting her friend to leave her, but she didn't want him to die also. His lighter brown eyes looked over sternly. "I'm not leaving!" Looking through her black bangs, she looked at Katsushiro. "Please, get him out of here. Don't let him die."

Knowing about how they thought about each other, he nodded. "Let's go Heihachi." Heihachi looked over at the younger boy with a slight trace of anger. "How can I just abandon her?! She'll die and just because I wasn't careful enough!" All you could hear was the booming of robots being destroyed.

All you have to do is call my name
No matter how close or far away
Ask me once and I'll come
I'll come runnin
g

"Get out of here now Heihachi!" She yelled, her voice cracking from the pain. "Forget about it! Hey-wait-What are you doing?!" Heihachi said, being pulled up into the flying ship by Katsushiro. "Let me down Katsushiro! She's going to die!" Katsushiro looked at his grieving friend. "It was her dying wish. Don't you want her to die peacefully!" Everything became quiet again, until millions of explosions went off, sending the flying ship Ukyo was on, crashing down sending metal flying everywhere.

Looking down Heihachi watched his friends dying form, missing from where it was. Scanning along where the crash site was, all you could see was her white sword, smudged with ash, dirt, and blood. Why was a symbol of purity now a symbol of death and anger in the orange haired boys' eyes?

And when I can't be with you dream me near

Keep me in your heart and I'll appear

All you gotta do is turn around

Close your eyes

Look inside

I'm right here

"Lets go back…" He said in a monotone voice. Katsushiro nodded, knowing there'd be no problem going back to retrieve bodies and swords after it was all over.

Though… his friends body was never found. They searched through the woods, under the wreck, and all around. No sign of a blood trail, foot prints, or ripped pieces of cloth. Looking around through the smoke he put his hands around his mouth, remembering what Rachael said to him the first mission they had to do.

Flashback:

"Where were you!" Yelled Kambei, worried sick about the two friends laughing and walking out of the forest. "Well Rachael ran off to find a chipmunk.. so I had to go find her." The black haired girl nodded and grinned. Kambei sighed while Kikuchiyo laughed at the two friends.

Heihachi furrowed his eyebrows. "What happens if you get lost on a mission and we can't find you?" The girl tapped her chin with her nail. "Just call out my name, I'll hear you, and I'll come find you!" Heihachi stared at his friend like she had been turned into a giant plant alien. "No seriously." Rachael laughed and nodded. "I have great ears, just yell out my name, think of me, and I'll come running to where you are. Alright?"

"Alright. I'll be waiting to find you!"


Automatically thinking about all the times they had together, he took a breath in. "RACHAEL!! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, COME TO THE WRECK! I'll wait here…" Waiting in that spot, he looked around no loosing hope on his friends' method of finding him.

Whenever you need me

There's no need to worry

You know that I'm gonna be

Right here

Day by day he came back to check if his friend had come and sat down to wait for him; but there was no sign of her cheerful smile or optimistic attitude. After a month Heihachi gave up on calling for his lost friend.. no... crush.

They buried Gorobei and Kikuchiyo on the top of a Kana hill that looked down upon the rice fields, what they were fighting for. Next to their graves was the white sword stuck into the ground with M.I.A written on the ground of where the body should've been.

The months passed, the snow went by Kana, and it became spring instantly. The rice season. Katsushiro tried cheering up the boy with a ghost on his sword, but nothing worked. He even tried getting him to talk to girls again, but that just ended up into a disaster. Every few months he would see Heihachi walk out and go to the wreck sight to pay his respects for his lost friend.


Thinking about when he lost her it killed him inside to know he could never see her smile, comfort her when a team mate died, or when she just felt down. He couldn't talk to her about what the best rice would be to put on a side dish.

It was the summer for Kana Village. Every kid was down by the lakes or rivers playing around, now that the war was over and it was finally safe to play. Lovers were taking long walks in the forest; talking about what the war was like and how they were glad that they survived.

"If she didn't sacrifice… she didn't have to die…" He said, his voice slightly cracking from the pain still inside his heart. Katsushiro tried to cheer him up by hooking him up with girls, or giving him as much rice as he would've ever wanted. But, when he ate it, he just felt like he didn't deserve to eat when he couldn't share any of it with his long lost crush.

Sitting down on the setting sun he watched the sun reflect off the sword that he tried to polish to its white self. He would have wanted it gold, to show how much he thought of her, but it would be a disrespect to the fighter to change their sword on them after their death.

Ask me once and I'll come

I'll come running

And when I can't be with you dream me near

Keep me in your heart and I'll appear

All you gotta do is turn around

Kambei walked up behind the thinking boy. "Heihachi, you might want to come to the camp fire tonight, Katsushiro said he found something you'd like to see." The brown-eyed boy looked up at his teacher and nodded. "Alright…" Nodding, the wavy teacher walked away from the 'rice god' as some people called him.


"Alright so you see how you can start this by just hitting the rocks together?" The closed eyed boy asked his confused friend, who was just staring into the rock like it was space. After a few seconds she raised an eyebrow. "No not really. It seems difficult!!"

Heihachi laughed and patted her on the head. "Think of it this way, Rach. If you have 2 pieces of metal, and you strike them together, you cant create a spark." He stated, knowing she knew a lot about metal, as for she was a technician as well. "And when you use a striker, you can easily get things sparking, right?" Rach nodded starting to get what he meant.

"So- then you'd have to use the stick and the rock so they create friction and make a spark…?" She asked looking up at her friend. Fact was, she had a crush on him before he even had a crush on her. Go figure.

He grinned. "I told you that you could get it if I just put it into more simple of terms." She laughed and slightly nodded. "I guess your right… but I still don't see how come you get to be the smarter one!"

They had started this argument over who was the better mechanic when they first met. Because Kikuchiyo thought it'd be better for only one mechanic on the team, and he didn't want another girl to join the team.

Kambei had to explain to Kikuchiyo with the help of Gorobei that having two mechanics would get the job done faster instead of just one mechanic working by himself. Soon after the two metal workers started at it to work on projects that the team needed fixed or needed to overwrite. Heihachi let Rachael have most of the jobs because she didn't have much field experience, being from a town that forbid women from doing any labor work that man should be doing.

Though Heihachi had been in the previous war, as a back-line mechanic. So he already had enough experience to fix things quickly, Rachael on the other hand had to learn how to fuse stuff quicker than what she had to do back in the shop.


Heihachi laughed slightly remembering how much fights they'd gotten into just because they thought one or another was a better mechanic than another for some reason. Usually he'd be the one to point out the flaw and Rachael would believe it wasn't wrong and then they'd have to fix it; because it blew up.

Kikuchiyo and Rachael were rivals, considering that Kikuchiyo kept restricting the stubborn-mechanic from working since she was a girl and not a guy. Gorobei would usually wait till Kiku-chan was gone, then let her work on whatever it was.

Kambei on the other hand, was the only one to stop Rachael from going over the edge with something and probably almost killing herself if she put one wire wrong. Usually he'd tell her advice, though no one knew what they talked about unless she told them the next day. But her lips were as sealed as zip-lock. Not a single word about what conversation had gone on, would spill out.

His brown eyes looked at the sky, imagining the clouds would open up and show him a sign of where his friend had gone, or died, so he could at least retrieve the bones instead of just leaving them there for animals to chew them up. He'd probably kill them for just going 99 ft within the bones.

"Heihachi!!" Yelled a voice running over. "Hey there Komachi…" Said the boy waving slightly at the little girl.

"Did you hear!! Katsushiro thinks he found something!" Komachi said energetically. He basically thought the whole time that Komachi and Rach were sisters, considering how energetic they could be or how passionate they were if they did something they wanted to do badly.

Heihachi nodded his head. "Yeah… can you tell me what it is?" Komachi stuck out her tongue out and shook her head no. "Katsushiro said I couldn't tell you! He said it's a surprise!"

The orange haired boy raised a confused eyebrow. Katsushiro never kept secrets, unless it was about Komachi's older sister. But everyone knew that he liked her in the first place so it wasn't much of a secret anymore.

"Can you give me a hint?" He asked hoping he'd at least get a hint to what this 'surprise' was. The small brown haired girl put her hand on her chin, almost looking like a Rach replica.

Tilting her head still thinking she nodded slightly. "I guess I could give you a hint… But that'd give it away!" Heihachi's face slightly dropped. He really thought he could get something out of her.

Both of them had a connection. Komachi loved Kikuchiyo with all her heart and soul and wanted to marry him when she got older. Heihachi the same, but more like ask Rach out after the war had gotten over and nothing could tear them apart. Both were devastated by their losses.

Komachi was left alone when Kikuchiyo left, she hadn't had one good-bye. He left in the dead of night with the rest of us to get a head start, he wanted to say good-bye, but we knew Komachi would cry and it'd tear Kikuchiyo apart. In the end. Kikuchiyo saved Komachi's life by stopping Ukyo from harming her, but he got killed doing so.

Both Heihachi and Komachi couldn't believe that either were gone, but the reality had set in. Komachi's much sooner than Heihachi's.


"H-Heihachi…" Asked the meek voice of a smaller child. The orange haired one looked back, greeting Komachi then looking back into the distance. "Can I ask you a question…" Her voice sounded a bit cracked, like she had been crying before she came to see him.

Both Komachi and Rachael had a shy side to them, anytime Rach asked for advice, she would ask it like she would get hurt if no one wanted answer it. So did Komachi, but Komachi's was slightly more confident. The only difference between the two; Komachi had more confidence than Rach and had to give her pep talks, because only Heihachi and Komachi saw through her masks.

"Is Kikuchiyo going to come back?" Heihachi looked at the little girl, not wanting to say no because it'd break her heart even more. "No… he's not… but I'm still here to help you with thinks, alright?

Komachi nodded slightly and sniffed. "So is Rach gone too…" She took her missing more like she ran away and shes just finding a good time to finally come back. But Heihachi lost that idea. "I don't think so…"

With this, Komachi got defensive. "So you've given up on finding her, havn't you! You were talking about her every day until she died, then you spent all the hours of the day looking for her and waiting. Then a month after you just… GIVE UP!" He looked at the child who had just said something very thoughtful, but stung his heart.

He'd wanted to search more, he'd wanted to wait more for her. But there was no real evidence that she was even alive. That explosion would've killed her.

"… I'm sorry…"


"Just come tonight, alright!" She said and pranced off. Why did everyone want him at the campfire tonight? Well he'd find out soon enough.

Getting up he walked down towards the village, having it almost be the time for the bon fire. They had it on the day that the samurai have died. It was more of a ceremony to give them peace in the after life.

Usually he never went to the bon fire. He sat at the hill instead of going down, just watching where the crash was.

"You made it!" Shioroji said putting his arm around Heihachi and bringing him over to the fire. The orange haired boy nodded. "So whats this about a surprise for me anyway."

Everyone looked at Komachi and Katsushiro. "You told him!!" Katsushiro pointed at Kambei. "He did too!" No one really cared, Kambei was allowed to, originally he was the only one who was supposed to tell him.

Heihachi watched them quarrel. "Sister will be here any second!!!" Komachi said. Heihachi knew that it was Kirara because the other was gone.

Kirara walked out of the forest brush and looked over in Heihachis direction and grinned. Everyone already knew what the surprise was. Heihachi just sat down more depressed since he actually had to go to this thing.

Look inside

I'm right here

As the night went on, it was almost over and the only person wanting to leave was Heihachi, maybe Komachi also for hearing the story of Kikuchiyo again.

"Heihachi, why don't you tell the story of Rachael, it's a little fuzzy to me." Kambei said with Shioroji agreeing. Slightly sighing he looked at the fire adjusting himself.

Chuckling slightly he smiled. "She was a great mechanic… one of the most beautiful ones to. Her smile could light up any dark situation… even if you wanted to ignore it, you couldn't stand to smile back. Komachi reminds me a lot of her… hyper and energetic, while still down to earth and sensitive." Komachi smiled, usually she cried at this story, but today she was happy for some reason.

Looking to everyone he continued. "Even though we fought over who was the better mechanic and who knew more about metal, we still meant well…until the night before the attack that is. I didn't want her to go so I told her she should stay here…" Katsushiro looked at his friend, knowing it was hard for him to tell the rest of the story.

"A-." He got cut off by someone walking out of a bush. "And she told him not to go. So she found enough courage to go on the mission secretly, and got onto the ship earlier than anyone so she could save the one she cared about. She said for her dying wish she wanted the love gone so she wouldn't have to suffer him dying also." Heihachi looked around, barely recognizing the voice.

"After the explosion she woke up in a nearby village and got her wounds treated. The villagers thanked her greatly for saving their village and she fixed their machines which were destroyed in the war. After a few months she started making her way back to Kana, running into many happy travelers. She was glad she could come back. But she realized that everyone thought she had gone, and she was missing." Komachi got up and hugged the legs of the person who was talking.

Kambei smiled and so did Shioroji. Katsushiro on the other hand had on this wide grin that only meant that he was very happy about something that was going to happen. Heihachi just watched the figure pick up Komachi.

"Soon enough she got to the wreck sight, her friend was no where to be found and she called out his name. He had not heard her obviously, and she sulked for a few days before getting back on her feet and continuing across the fields. She ran into a little kid who lead her to the village and reunited her with everyone but one person…" Stepping out of the darkness, you could see the features of who was telling this odd story.

It was a woman. She had mid neck length red hair with black stripes in it and a crème shirt on with black bandages wrapped around the fore-arms. She had dark brown eyes and pale skin with freckles.

"Its been a while, right, Hei-kun?" She asked smiling. Heihachi's eyes widened and rubbed his eyes. This wasn't a dream, She was really back.

Running up, he engulfed his long friend a crushing hug. He was slightly crying, but he didn't care. This was his friend. His alive friend whom he thought he'd lost.

"I told you, I'll be right here for you."

x0xtennisfanx0x: Thats it!! My first samurai 7 story! Sorry if they're a little... OC... But... I kinda havn't watchd it for a while and its 1:24 am and I'm tired! But anyway! IF you want more of these then send me a message or send a review on what song and what character and the OC character for that person. I'm glad to do some more! I'll watch more episodes this Thanksgiving so I can get it down.