How long had it been since his last visit to this miserable world? Given the choices he made, not long enough. His return felt too much like a "culmination of journey" thing, which meant he was gonna die. He may be old, but he wasn't that old dammit! He could still keep up with most of the stupid younger kids…except the stupid younger kids that was his captain. This was exactly why he had been "asked" to pick up new recruits from their home. Apparently engaging a fleet ten times the size of your fleet meant casualties. Heavy casualties. They even needed a new cook, the last one having been fried by a stray laser.
Their world was an obvious choice for new additions to the 7th squad. The dinky planet produced more unruly youths then Earth did idiots. Once the ball of rain and water was near, it was easy to replace the near weekly deaths caused by Admiral Idiot. Whenever the 7th squad paid a visit, the volunteers flung themselves at the hull. But on this particularly depressing day, the streets were empty. Nothing was there, not even a huge rat waiting to gnaw on his feet. And as far as his ears could tell, nothing was happening. The city of darkness was quiet. No faint cries of pain, no whispers for mercy, no blood crazed yells from the locals. Nothing at all. Though the aged Yato had to admit that it was a nice change to not be mugged at every alleyway, it unnerved and annoyed him. How the hell was he supposed to find recruits if they were all hiding? And his undying mother was no help at all, telling him that he should stay off the streets because a ghost was going around killing people. They were too old to believe in ghosts anymore. It was a poor choice on Abuto's part.
Hours later and not a soul in sight, except for the one red head lady Abuto saw everywhere. By her build he knew she was a powerful Yato, well into her prime with no end in sight. And what kept Abuto away was how she held herself. The crimson maiden dragged her feet, wandering aimlessly. The 7th squad had no need for the broken, much less Kamui or the Harusame. But apparently she was the only soul left alive in the whole city.
"Hey, you! Stop following me, I have to find recruits for the Harusame." The woman jumped, startled by Abuto's call. It was as if she could only hear the never-ending rain. The aged Yato cursed himself for not ordering one of the younger, more energetic clansmen to hunt down recruits. He was getting too old for this crap. The last thing he needed was to drag some drunken lady aboard the flagship just when the idiot had started to forget the whole Kada thing. Better to shake her off then have her wander into the ship. As the obviously depressed and or drunk woman made her way over to Abuto, he began to question why he had thought it had been a great idea to call her over. His experience with redheads had amounted to his killing sociopath of a leader and the sociopath's younger sister with a natural talent for fighting. Both times had ended, painfully, for him. The closet he came to an answer was that he thought it was Kamui looking for a fight.
"Have you seen my son, Jii-san?" Who was she calling old? He was aged, not old! Why the hell was every red head he met rude as hell? Either they slaughter crew members or they beat the crap out of him in a fairly serious fight. "Has he gotten into any trouble?" Abuto sighed, he had heard this many times. If she was lucky, her son would come back with only a head wound. Usually, they never came back at all.
"Why are you asking a geezer like me? Don't you know we start losing our memories at my age?" So far the woman had proved to be nothing like the siblings he had the fortune of meeting. The woman smiled at Abuto's rain soaked face, annoying him. The face reminded him of when Kamui would smile in between stuffing his face with ice cream.
"If you find him, can you give him this? He looks a lot like me." The woman handed Abuto a toy umbrella, a common gift to Yato children. This one had a red rabbit on top, with words scribbled in crayon. The unknown child had apparently named his umbrella red hare. "Tell him, Taiyou is waiting." What kind of sick, demented Yato named their child Sun? It seemed strange to tell a Yato the sun is waiting.
"Hai, hai. I'll give it to him if I see him." Glancing over his shoulder, Abuto saw the woman staring at him. The smile she wore wasn't creepy like the other two he had seen. It was warm and gentle, like a mother.
"Abuto, why are you so late? We were gonna leave without you." The door guard by the ship was surprised to find the vice captain of the 7th squad with a toy umbrella slung over his shoulder.
"I got lost. Have you seen any red head kids running around?" What could the old man say? He was a sucker for this kinda thing.
"I haven't seen anyone except Admiral Kamui. He went out for a walk an hour ago. Look he's right there, why don't ask him." Their ever cheerful leader walked up the path to their ship, his smile defying the dismal rain. Seeing him in such a good mood lifted Abuto's spirits.
"Abuto, have you seen the ghost everyone was hiding from? Apparently she killed a dozen Yato yesterday." The older Yato sighed, knowing where this was leading. So he decided to ask Kamui before he possibly forgot the location of the missing son.
"Kamui, have you seen any kids wandering around? I'm supposed to give this thing to him. His mom wanted me to tell him, Taiyou is waiting. I wonder what that means." Abuto scratched his head, wondering if the newly instated Admiral remembers whether or not he'd seen the kid.
"Abuto, what did his mom say?" Kamui played with the toy umbrella in his hands, finding a secret compartment in the handle filled with candy. The manslayer's hand danced over the trigger, squeezing it once to find that it shot bubbles out the end. He wanted to break it.
"She said-"
"Taiyou is waiting." Abuto repressed the shriek of terror as the woman appeared right behind him. Her antenna tickled the back of his head as Abuto stood perfectly still, aware of the umbrella pressed to his back.
"This a surprise, Kaa-san. I never knew Yato can come back to life." Abuto knew how Kamui was feeling. The upper corners of his eyes were twitching and his fist tightened around the toy from his childhood.
"Yato can change too. Its not too late, Kamui. What happened to my son? Where did the brother who wanted to protect his family go? You-." The red hare knifed through what should've been Abuto's right arm. The phantom from a different life dispersed into the pouring rain.
"He died. I have no use for weak things like my past."
They boarded the ship without another word. When Abuto asked Kamui what he would do with the toy, Kamui responded by hurling it at the ship's reactor. It was strange though. Usually, it would've gone in the corner with all the other uninteresting things.