I'm so close to finishing this fic ahhhh.

I'd known the kid was small, but seeing him in person was something else. The top of his head just managed to reach my chest, even with my elbow at rest. Still, he stood glaring at me as well as someone twice his size. It seemed he'd found his resolve.

I wished he hadn't.

"I don't want to jump into a duel," I said, keeping my voice soft. "Let's just talk first."

He looked at me with all the distrust of a wild animal. From the moment he jumped down from his fighter, he hadn't let me within ten paces of him. When I tried to step closer, he took a step back, gloved hands hovering over the knives strapped to his chest. He only had two in the bandolier, and the blades looked longer than his hands. These definitely weren't throwing knives. If we fought, he would bear down on me in an attempt to bury one in my chest. I would have to keep him at a distance with my saber. I couldn't risk using my gun.

"I don't have time to stand around talking," he snapped. "Quit stalling."

I didn't know if it could be considered stalling if I had no plans to duel him properly. If forced, I would attempt to disable him, and we could hold him captive, but I hoped I could avoid drawing my blade.

"It's clear you're anxious," I said. "You also look exhausted. At the very least, let us give you something to eat, so you can sit and rest for a while. You can't fight at your best like this."

He did look exhausted, his skin pale and his eyes masked with rings of faint purple. "So? You look worse than me," he said. "I don't need your charity, pirate. I need this duel, and that's it, so let's get it over with."

As he went for his knives again, I held up a hand as if I could stop him. "Killing me doesn't guarantee anything. If you'd just let us help-"

"I won't take anything from you! I'm not an idiot! I have to keep my sister safe, and that means fighting you. I don't give a damn about you, but you have to die for her."

Surely he would have been more willing to listen to reason if not for Gaia monitoring his every move. And because of it, I had to be careful with my own words as well. If I could have told him about Kei and how she might be able to help, I would have, but giving away her location to Gaia was a death sentence. Monono could know nothing of our hidden pawn, so he couldn't know of the small chance we had at finding where they held his sister.

Even if I could have told him, perhaps he still would ask to duel. I could make no guarantees at her safety, only his. If he stayed with us, I could protect him. But if he killed me and returned to Gaia…

"I won't fight you," I admitted. "We'll do anything in our power to aid you and your sister, but I just won't duel you. I'm sorry."

His eye widened in a moment's fear, as though I'd drowned him in a floodlight. But he didn't dither long. He shook his head, tossing away his doubts. "There's nothing you can do for me," he spat. "You're the reason Rebi's in danger, and you're the reason-" Gritting his teeth, he halted against his strangled words. His hands found his knives and tore them from the holsters. "You're the reason everyone else is gone!"

Those short legs were faster than they appeared, and he bore down on me just as I drew my saber.

Against two knives, I couldn't stick solely to defense. His quick slashes and jabs forced my hand to flick each knife away before the other could find my skin. I couldn't hold one off for long for fear of the other sinking into my arm. My only saving grace was his minimal range. He couldn't chance throwing one if it meant losing it, so our blades clashed in a fury, sharp screams of metal against metal.

His ability far surpassed most assassins, especially for his age, but he had one fatal flaw. My eye darted between his hands, which always flipped the knives as smoothly as the flick of his wrist, but it telegraphed each attack. As I learned his method for each strike, I saw them before they cut the air ahead of me in each turn of his hand. With a normal fighting knife, he could have corrected this mistake.

But the handles on these were odd, just simple plastic handles with no grip. The blades weren't serrated, not even curved in any way that might aid him.

I took a step back, batting another attack away from my throat. "Are you fighting with cooking knives?" I asked, baffled by the thought.

He jumped back, his knives still up and ready to slash. "What's it to you? These were all I had to defend myself with back home, so I had to learn to use them. Besides, I can kill you with them just fine. I don't need any fancy clip or needle blade."

Such a childish way to think. He rushed me again, and I readied myself for another slash. He tended to begin with those, followed by a jab using the momentum of his thrown balance when I knocked the first bade away.

But he appeared to know himself better than I did. Just as he came in range, he dipped under my guard. I didn't have time to think things through. I only knew I had to stop him from jamming a knife in my bad knee or my Achilles. If I lost use of my leg in this fight, I would have to go on offense to survive.

With my free hand, I snapped a grip around his wrist before he could jam a knife in my leg, but I wasn't quick enough to stop the other knife from burying itself into my forearm. I felt the blade grate against bone, rattling me all the way to my spine. Sharp pain gave way to jolts of red-hot agony with every beat of my heart. I grit my teeth to hold back a yell.

It appeared we'd both reacted on instinct. Monono's wide eyes focused on my crushing grip, one he must have thought spelled his end. Truly, I could have brought my saber down and finished him then; instead, I swatted my saber against his hand just as I released him. The startle was enough that he let go of the knife in my arm, and he rolled away without it.

Left with one short-ranged weapon against me, he stood little chance. My aching arm screamed at me to remove the metal jammed between my bones, but I couldn't chance the blood loss. Without my glove, blood had already begun to drip from my fingertips and and coated the inside of my sleeve.

"That was a strong attack," I said with a nod. "Risky, but effective."

Monono held his knife level with his chest, poised to strike again at any moment.

But I let the tip of my saber fall to the floor. "You're at a disadvantage now, but you must know that I don't want to hurt you. If I did, I had the perfect opportunity before."

"I don't care what you want," he said, flicking the blade my way like a baton. "It doesn't matter if you don't fight back. I'll still kill you. As long as I'm not facing your back, I can put a knife in your heart."

I cocked a brow. "You won't stab me in the back?"

"That's cheap," he huffed. "I might be an assassin, but even I have standards, not that you'd offer me the same courtesy."

"I wouldn't shoot you in the back."

His lip twitched with a snarl. "Oh sure, not while you're trying to win me over. But it wouldn't be the first time you shot someone's brother in the back, would it?"

My mind ground to a halt at that. His voice held such malice that I almost wondered if I'd killed his own brother. If I allowed this conversation to continue, he would only hate me more.

"Monono," I sighed. "I understand why you hate me, why you want me dead. After what happened with the other assassins and your sister, my death would be a fair price to pay. And if I thought dying would save your sister, I would duel you properly. But even if you were to win, I don't think Gaia will let either of you go alive at this point. They're just using you."

"You think I don't know that!?" he cried, his voice breaking with the strain. "But I have to try! I don't have a choice."

"But you do." I held out my bloodied hand, yet he took a step back as though I might strike him.

"They'll kill her for sure. I can't let myself live if it means she'll die." He shook his head, terror overflowing in his wide eyes.

I breathed a sigh and kept my hand outstretched despite the sharp ache running through my nerves. "If you go back to Gaia, neither of you have a chance. But if you'll let me help, I'll do everything in my power to save your sister."

Smashing his hands over his ears, he shook his head so hard frays of hair whipped at his cheeks. It pained me to see such a childish gesture. He truly was far too young for this. "No, no!" he yelled. "I won't listen! It's all your fault! Things can't go back to the way they were. All because of you!"

I didn't notice the mug of coffee in front of my face until I smelled it. It seemed to hover there on its own, so I reached up and took it, thanking whatever mysterious coffee gods were responsible. Usually I was the one bringing everyone coffee.

"Hey, Yama," a small voice greeted. "You looked tired, so I thought you might like that."

My eyes trailed over to find Tadashi sitting beside me, his legs crossed on the couch and his hands in his lap. He was a cute kid, definitely too young to be an assassin, but Uncle Warrius had grumbled about how that was the idea.

"Reportedly, Harlock has a soft spot for kids," he'd huffed. "So they think Tadashi will have a good chance to weasel his way into Harlock's trust. I don't care what the reason is, using a kid like that is disgusting, but I have no say in it. Best I can do is prepare the kid and hopefully keep him alive."

With my mind elsewhere, I took a sip of the coffee. It must have contained upwards of five sugars along with some milk. It was just about the lightest coffee I'd ever seen, but I took another sip, just happy to have something. "Thanks," I murmured around the rim.

Tadashi nodded with a smile, and I considered the best way to keep those pirates as far from the kid as possible. Sure, I'd seen him fight Marina in a flurry of clashing knives, and he could land a fatal blow against me within seconds, but he was also so small. I found myself wanting to ruffle his hair and squish his cheeks.

I might have, but Warrius already did it on a regular basis, and the kid swatted at his hand every time.

Tadashi leaned forward, peering up at my face. "You look stressed," he said.

I felt myself smile. "Sounds about right. I've just been thinking too much lately, I guess."

"About the mission?"

"Hm, yes, that's part of it." I took another tongue-numbing drink before settling the mug on one of my knees. "Just been thinking about my brother is all."

"You have a brother?" he gasped, his eyes glowing with the amazement only children can manage. "I'm a brother too. I'm doing this mission for my little sister. Are you doing it for brother?"

His little sister couldn't have been older than ten, so I had a feeling we weren't doing this for quite the same reasons. "Kind of. My brother's the older one though." I tried to return his smile, but I could feel the lie showing in my eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Do you miss him? I'm a big brother so maybe I can help!" He crossed his arms, nodding to assure me of his qualification. He was such a sweet kid. I couldn't drag him down with my problems. A breath of a laugh bubbled up from my chest, though I didn't find anything funny.

As I watched the milky coffee wobble in the mug, I found myself wishing I could be his age again. My life had been so much simpler than his, so simple that my problems would be laughable to him. I thought for a moment that I wanted him to laugh at me.

"Do you think you could stay mad at your little sister forever?" I asked, "if she did something really, really awful?"

He hummed in consideration, his head cocked to the side like a curious pup. "No," he decided before I even had time to take another sip of coffee. "I couldn't stay mad forever. I could be mad for a little while, and I am sometimes," he huffed. "But I'll forgive her. She's all I've got left, and I'm all she has, and I love her. I've lost a lot of other people, so I've got to protect her. Besides, she's my sister. She's supposed to make me mad, but we're supposed to love each other. That's how family works."

A smile lit up his face as he finished, seeming content with his answer, but it vanished when he looked to me. "Ah! Why are you crying!? What's wrong?"

"Am I?" Reaching up, I wiped a few stray tears from my eyes. "Oh, it's nothing. I don't know why I'm crying." I tried to force another laugh, but it sounded like a sob. God, I was crying in front of a little kid. I must have looked so stupid to him.

Small arms appeared around my middle, and I felt his temple rest against my shoulder. "It's alright," he said. "I'll be your brother too. It's really lonely here, so we can be each other's brother, and we won't be so lonely."

I wrapped an arm around him in return and crushed him to my chest. "Okay," I breathed resting my chin atop his soft frays of hair. "You'll be my little brother then. Thank you."

If the assassin hadn't already killed Harlock, I would do it myself.

Hell, if the assassin did already kill Harlock, I would still kill him myself.

That bastard. Thinking he could drug me.

At the very least, he could have had that conversation while I wasn't right next to him. I'd thought I was dreaming at first, but when I woke up to something new feeding the tube in my arm, I'd forced my heavy hand over to remove the tube. The needle port still stuck out of my arm, but it was the least of my worries.

I couldn't seem to walk. The drug made my more unsteady than any alcohol, and I could only hold myself up on the wall for so long before my knees would smash into the floor. Between my boneless legs and trying to remember how to get to the hangar, the trip was slow-going.

Sleep felt heavy yet comfortable. Every few seconds, my eyelid drooped and my legs threatened to give out. When they did, the cold slap of the floor against my face woke me up well enough. If I hadn't needed to go kill Harlock, though, I would have been happy to fall asleep in the middle of any hallway.

As I spotted a group of what appeared to be engineers loitering around a door, I allowed myself a mental cheer. They turned to me, but I couldn't quite make out their expressions around the blurry film on my eye.

"Yama!" the little one yelped. "What are you doing?"

"I'm here to kick the Captain's ass," I hissed.

They all glanced between each other, so I wobbled forward a few more steps. I didn't have time to chat with them.

"Um, maybe you shouldn't," someone said to my back. "He's fighting some kid. You might get hurt."

"Some kid?" I paused, my hand holding me up against the doorframe. My mind seemed to drift too much for me to make sense of his words, yet I knew they meant something. From behind the door, I heard the sharp shear of metal against metal, but the pitch was higher than that of two sabers clashing. "Knives," I gasped. "Oh God, Tadashi."

My attempt to rush through the door smashed me into the floor after three steps. I didn't have time to care about my crunched nose. "Tadashi!" I yelled as I dragged my head up. I could see a blur of his figure, seemingly smaller than usual next to Harlock. He seemed to be in one piece.

"Yama!" Harlock yelled, sounding startled.

"Brother!" Tadashi spoke through a sob. "It's really you! I thought you were dead!"

As I struggled to my knees, Tadashi's little shoes cracked against the floor. He seemed to materialize in front of me when I blinked away the blurry edges. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he spoke through stuttering sobs. "I saw Kodai shoot you! I thought you were dead! It was awful." He tackled my neck in a hug, sniffling beside my ear.

"I'm fine, little brother. I'm fine." He was no assassin, not when I had to hold him close and pat his back. He was just a little kid who needed protection. He was too young to have been the one protecting. "I've got you. It's going to be okay. You don't have to fight."

"But I do!" he blubbered, pulling back. "Gaia is going to hurt Rebi if I don't kill Harlock. I have to fight him."

I felt as though I was swimming through the air as I reached up and held his face in my hands. "I promise we'll take care of you, and we'll find a way to get Rebi too. I won't let them hurt you. I'm your big brother, okay? So I'll protect you. I promise."

He crushed his lower lip between his teeth, his eyes darting away from me as I let my hands drift from his face. "Trust me," I whispered, offering a hand. "Please?"

His hand trembled like a flower in the rain as he raised it toward mine. If I could just have him, not all of this would be Hell. If I could just have him, I could have family again. I could have a brother again.

I would have given anything to have that.

His hand retracted with a jerk, and he clutched his head, his eyes shut tight. "Tadashi?" I called, my voice weak with fear and confusion.

I didn't know if he heard me. Lines of blood poured from his ears and nose. He gave a soft cry, the sound a wounded bird makes before it falls. When his eyes opened, blood spilled from them too just before they rolled back into his head. I grabbed for him one more time, and he dropped against me.

"Tadashi?" I choked. "Brother?"

He didn't move. He didn't speak. He didn't breathe.

This wasn't right. This was a dream too.

I slipped his still form into a cradle. My lips still formed his name, over and over, so why wouldn't he respond? With a trembling hand, I wiped the blood from his face, and I waited for him to answer me.

But someone else said my name, and my head jolted up to find Harlock kneeling in front of me. "Yama," he breathed. "I'm so sorry, but-"

He reached a bloodied hand toward my little brother, and I screamed, pulling Tadashi close. "No," I sobbed. "You can't! Not him too! He's too young! It's not fair! He's not a threat. You can't take him too." I couldn't breathe through my tears. None of this was right. None of it was real.

"It's not fair," I gasped. "It's not fair."

"I know," Harlock said. "I know. I'm sorry."

Yama would be the best big brother, really.