Genji leaned on the table as he watched Hanzo work. He saw the look on his brother's face when he was undergoing his partial maintence, and how he tried to hide his own anger and shame when Ash called him out on ignoring things he shouldn't have. Hanzo did feel regret at what happened, he knew that since their confrontation, but sometimes Genji wondered if the pain of his heartbreak had cost Hanzo things. It didn't help that he was still in denial about what happened in the castle, but that he didn't react to his touch when he held him seemed to be a good sign. Then Hanzo turned to him, and Genji could tell he was forcing himself to look at him in the eye.
"Tell me, Genji." Hanzo said. "Tell me what happened since...since we fought. That night."
"...Are you certain you want to know, Hanzo?" Genji asked. "What happened was intense, explicit. I will not sugar-coat it." He may have forgiven his brother, indeed understood on some level why Hanzo did what he did, but that didn't mean he would forget.
"I do not want you to. You said I should forgive myself, and I saw the results of what I did to you, and if I am going to have any chance of redeeming myself I need to know what happened between that night and your confronting me in Hanamura." Genji nodded after a few minutes, then gestured to himself.
"I will begin with that night. I was found in a hospital outside of Hanamura. Dr. Ziegler was visiting when I was brought in, bleeding from the wounds you inflicted upon me, missing my arm even. My legs had been in such a state that they could not be saved, but my vitals were, barely. It was after she saved my life that Overwatch stepped in. Somehow, they found out I was outside of the clan's favor and that you were the result of the state I was found in. They managed to move me to their headquarters in Zurich after stablizing me, I had been listed by the hospital staff as a John Doe and the official statement was I died on arrival. After I was brought to Zurich, Overwatch had made me an offer-help them dismantle the Shimada clan, and they would rebuild my body. All I could think about that time was how could you try to kill me, your own brother. I knew I could not return, not without being killed or worse. In the end, I had nothing to lose at that point, so I agreed to their terms. Their cyberneticists worked hard, building a new body, replacing what I lost, supplimenting what was damaged. The process took months, and it was even more weeks for me to adjust. Due to my previous training, I was assigned to their covert operations division."
"Blackwatch." The more infamous part of Overwatch, Blackwatch had taken questionable actions and had gotten them suspended following some incident in Cairo. From the way the world reacted, one would think they were the only ones to cross lines for the greater good, but they weren't. Every country had a black ops division that took similar actions, but then, they weren't caught or exposed. Nor did their actions contribute to the fall of whoever they were connected to.
"Yes, Blackwatch. I knew the business almost as well as you, and that intelligence contributed to Overwatch being able to dismantle the Shimada. It took us three years, but we did it. Every operation they had was destroyed, merchandise was confinscated and any member we caught was either imprisoned or killed, the latter being more likely. I looked for you all that time, wanting to inflict the same pain you inflicted on me." Hanzo flinched, but was otherwise not surprised. "I looked for you, but I did not find you. No one did. It was during our attack on the clan that I learned you ran away after our fight, that you had abandoned the clan and the elders were sending assassins to kill you for your betrayal. I thought it ironic, the golden son of the Shimada clan running away from the duty he worked so hard for, that he renounced the power my "death" now gave him. Even Overwatch looked for you, but you proved elusive. After the clan was dismantled, they decided you were not worth their efforts and focused on other areas."
"Then what happened?" Genji paused, reflecting. "You said you left Overwatch. Why?"
"After Overwatch dismantled the Shimada, I found myself facing a life as cyborg, one neither machine nor man. At first, I was able to ignore it by focusing on missions but over time, it proved difficult. I was an outcast in the world, having no place anywhere. I hated myself, what I became and the vengeance I achieved in dismantling the Shimada clan only left me empty, save for the self-hatred I felt at what I became. I destroyed the very clan that sought to destroy me, that had destroyed me, but it would not restore my body. It would not restore my brother, who took his blade against me. For a time, I stayed with Overwatch-where else could I go? Even if they did not have me listed as officially dead, my blood would have, and I was no longer the carefree, handsome playboy of my youth. The conflict within me grew, and I reached my breaking point on a mission in King's Row. We were battling Null Sector."
"The omnic terrorist group. You were there the time they took King's Row."
"Hai. It was that mission that I was forced to face how the world had no place for someone like myself. I was not a human anymore, nor was I a machine. Even in Numbani, where omnics and humans lived together in peace, I was an outcast. After we stopped Null Sector, we returned to Zurich. Then I left."
"And you went to Nepal."
"Not in a direct manner. I wandered, lost in my thoughts, in my despair. Then I met Zenyatta, he is a monk, once a part of the Shambali order. It was through his guidance that I was able to reconcile my dual nature. I may have a cybernetic body, but inside, my soul, my human soul, is still intact."
"It was a long, difficult journey for you to accept what you became."
"It was. It was also during this time that I realized I had to put the past behind me, pieces of me I have long neglected. I needed to face you, to put to rest the demons that had haunted me." Genji paced a bit, gathering his thoughts. "I was not able to find you, but I learned things about you over the years-how you became a mercenary, evading assassins from the Shimada clan and that every year, on the anniversary of our fight, you risked your life infiltrating Shimada castle and making an offering in the temple in my memory. The rest you know. Now you."
"Me?"
"What have you been up to since our fight?" Hanzo looked away, trying to gather his thoughts. Genji just stood there, patient.
"After our fight, I...I could only stare, in shock-how could I do this, my own brother? I ran not long after. I did not think, did not consider, I just ran. I tried to justify it. You pushed me to it, you would not take part in the business, you kept defying the elders, I had to erase the dishonor you brought down on us. My first visit since then, I discovered the elders wiped all trace of you. It was as though you never existed. I could not return after that, so I stayed away. At first, the assassins were sent to take me alive, to bring me back. Over time, they came to kill, but I survived. I heard things, about the Shimada being attacked by Overwatch, that they were being dismantled. But the attempts would not stop. I had turned to mercenary work to survive."
"Did you ever think about that night?"
"Every day. I regret what happened, Genji, despite her claims to the contrary."
"Ash values family, brother. To her, it means more than anything, or should. To strike one's family down, it is abominable."
"She would be right. In any case, all my efforts to justify what I did would not erase my shame. It would not bring you back. If I could return to that time..." He would have done something, anything, different than fighting with his brother. Genji knew this. "There are times I wish I acted different that night, acted in a way that did not bring dishonor to the clan.
"Such as seppuku?" Genji asked. Hanzo nodded. "Hanzo. Look at me, brother." Hanzo turned and faced him. "I have found, in my journey, that what we grow up believing in and valuing are challenged by time and experience. Often, what you value and know, from experience, to be true. But sometimes, what you once valued and believed to be true no longer reflects your current understanding."
"And this, to achieve redemption, no longer reflects your current understanding?"
"Committing suicide, even if it's through combat, because of a terrible mistake no longer reflects my current understanding. Sometimes, brother, I wonder if the Western view of ending one's own life is more accurate." With that, Genji left the armory and Hanzo to his thoughts.