A/N: Heads up for another chapter posting spree. The first of this set of chapters I posted yesterday is part 2 ch5 (listed as ch36 on the FFnet menu), so if you came seeing the update date, you can start there.

Chapter Seven: A Cold Case, Reawakened

Hakira hadn't been ready to have a child.

She had felt out of place in that mansion, with its large winding halls and expansive spaces, as she had transitioned from a young adult to an adult. She had been uncertain in that time, suddenly plopped into a different universe that she could not survive, suddenly upswept by a handsome young man who happened to be a young politician who could pour millions of jenny into her treatment. She had had her fantasies back then – before she and Toshkiyo had first kissed and some fantasies had become realities – but in that initial time, feeling out of place in that grand, rich mansion, she had felt young, and foolish, and out of place, and small.

Now, Hakira knew, staring at the sleeping brow of her baby boy, breaths puffing in and out shallowly, that she had been right in those feelings.

Her home world of heroes and villains had coddled her, made her unable to act. She had been a protected civilian and a nervous student trying to find her way about life, outspoken about uncertainty. Even seven years later being in that harsher world, even after training to have become a Hunter, after living years in a single-minded pursuit for revenge, in this moment her insides were no stronger than they had been and she knew the truth.

When Zezu had been born, she hadn't been ready to have him.

Maybe that was why I ran away.

The thought passed her mind, and she tried to dismiss it, but it grew and grew as she stared down at the softly sleeping boy. Six years. He had lived without her, without anyone but Natkiro and the errant occasional doctor, for six years.

She was a coward.

No, she wasn't a coward. She had returned, come back for him, as soon as she had known to. It hadn't been her fault. It had been -

Mabda's. Zoldyck's. For taking everything away.

Zezu breathed. In, out. His eyes were closed peacefully, but she knew that when he was awake, he might scream or yell or cry. She had tried to soothe him, and thought that he'd be better now that he had been treated in the hospital, but all that the white linens had seemed to do to him was bring panic at the unfamiliar. Or was it -

Before she could sink deeper into her thoughts, a flicker of the TV, which softly buzzed in the corner to provide the comfort of white noise, blessedly caught her attention. A sense of a raised voice, a sense of surprise. Or maybe it was -

A name.

Kobayashi Koshiro.

Her eyes widened, suddenly transfixed to the screen.

There he was, her old friend, wrapped in black and white clothing and pressed against striped paint like jail cell bars. He looked more gaunt in the face, more hollow, but his build was thicker, more portly than she had seen him before. He used to be a stick of a man -

He was now arrested. A video played, of police leading the man in cuffs, three more cuffed men behind him.

The headline read:

"YAKUZA ARRESTED FOR AIDING AND ABETTING ESCAPE OF KILLUA ZOLDYCK, POLICE INTERROGATIONS UPCOMING"

And her heart sank.

She found herself standing on her feet, padding her way over to the TV softly, until she set herself down and stared at it, eye-level, disbelievingly at what she was seeing.

Kobayashi - her Yashi - had helped, Killua Zoldyck? The assassin child?

The one who had killed him, torn her life asunder? The puppet monster assassin child? The one Yashi had surely known was the one she had chased all those years?

Hakira had felt out of place in that mansion, with it's large winding halls and expansive spaces. She had been uncertain in that time, suddenly plopped into a different universe that she could not survive – until fantasy became reality – but in that initial time, feeling out of place in this grand, rich mansion, it was Natkiro she had placed her trust in, who she had grown closer to, who she came to see as a friend who also hung in the shadows and saw how all the quiet things fell, like her.

Hakira had never been rich before then. She had lived in Hikone with her mother, a quiet but scenic town where tourists and students alike often visited. She had a broad grasp of the world, from having chatted to all the incomers, but she knew that they were all focused only on their own lives and would come and go, and she was quirkless. She didn't have many friends growing up, but with her and her mother, it was peaceful, almost, if she didn't consider all those moments where she had been indignant with the projected course of her life.

When she went to a somewhat-prestigious high school – nothing fancy – her mom and all her family were proud of her. Said she was elevating the family. Even in this modern world, most of her family retained traditional roots. She knew now, they would all scorn her for bringing shame on their family as a criminal, and make their association with her less known. Her mother was the only exception, but now her mother's memory was fading and it had become painful to visit her, when she couldn't remember her visits anyway. The only people she had remaining to her, now, were Zezu, Natkiro, and the few friends she had made in the Other World during her time as a Hunter.

Kobayashi was one of those precious few people.

And now he had been captured by the police.

Because he had helped her worst enemy.

She didn't know what to do. Nearly thirty years of life, and still she suddenly felt as helpless as a young girl, as she looked between her child and the TV screen where the scene of Yashi had already gone and faded and been replaced by some other nameless news.

After passing the Hunter's Exam together, Kobayashi and her had begun working as a team. It was how the two of them got through most of the Exam after all, finding each other in the examination room early on as some of the only ones that didn't seem like crazy monsters or didn't set off some bullshit meter. Kobayashi had been – earnest, he always tried, and so back then when he had asked to team up, in the midst of the worst of her rage and desire for vengeance, she had agreed.

They had both failed that year, shaken but alive, and the next year, they came back stronger.

After that, the rest was history. Kobayashi and Hakira had teamed up as Blacklist Hunters after learning nen and after Hakira had remastered her quirk ability when she had lost it upon unlocking her aura pores. When she came back bloody from the Zoldyck mansion, he and a few other friends had urged her to give up her quest. She had refused, then taken on stronger and stronger criminals in an effort to get stronger. Yashi got dragged in with her. They got older, stronger, faster.

Until one day, they encountered an opponent stronger than them. Kobayashi had taken a gut wound, deep and lethal, and Hakira had done the only thing she could have in that instant: transported him into the waiting room of a hospital in her world. It was a trump card she had prepared, but had hoped to never need. But after that – she hadn't been able to find Yashi again, he had nestled deep into some hidden underground, and every time she entered her own native world it seemed that someone was always hot on her tail for one reason or another. She had managed to get a message to him, once, she thought – but had been unable to live up to her promise of finding him when All For One and that Doctor had captured her and held her in that cell for weeks on end as a research subject.

This was her fault. She should have tried harder to find him. She was the one who had kept dragging him into fights, again and again. If she hadn't, he wouldn't be in this world at all. His mugshot had looked wan, unhealthy. He had surely suffered from being in this world for so long. She knew too well the pain she had put him in, but for so long, she had tried to put it out of her mind.

She had to get him out. At least now, finally, she knew where he was.

But…

She found herself looking to her side, where a sleeping boy laid nestled in bed, wrapped in blankets. She could – she could leave him here, in care of her mother. But her mother practically needed care herself. And – Hakira had promised to never leave him again.

She grimaced, tottering forward in her seat as she steepled her fingers together and hung her head. What a choice. To abandon a friend – or to break a promise to your child, just on the verge of finding him again. And what if – what if All For One found him here? What if –

She remembered that boy's, Gon's, words.

"He said, that you could choose sides in a war," the boy had recited after freeing her from the warehouse prison cell, obviously confused. "And that his side was still open."

Could she bid for her enemy's protection?

No, it was stupid. The man had locked her up to study her, figure out how she could still use her quirk even after mastering nen. Who knew what he would do with Zezu –

But Yashi –

She firmed herself.

Hakira wasn't the type of person to stand still and avert her gaze from a friend's troubles, not when she had finally gained the power to do something about it. She had many regrets from when she was young, thinking she was weak and quirkless and unable to do anything – she never wanted to repeat those mistakes again. Now, it was like her mind had been cleared – she had been burned by turning her face away from what she had seen as the truth of Zezu's death – now she would never make that mistake again. Already, she had been too complacent in finding Kobayashi, sunk into self-misery and easily turned away at the smallest obstacles. She was repeating the same mistakes of her youth. She - she had to think through this clearly.

She was no longer weak and easily turned away from her course.

She let out a deep, shuddering breath.

So. What was the right decision to make, here?

She couldn't continue to just live for herself anymore. There were other people she had to take care of.

If she left, she would need to make sure Zezu was well taken care of. Taking him with her was not an option. She needed someone she could trust, someone she knew could look after her even if her mission became even more dangerous than anticipated. Somewhere where she knew he would be safe.

Natkiro, she immediately thought.

She began arranging plans in her head. This time, it would be different. Hakira would arrange for the foods Zezu would need to remain healthy, and take some medicines back with him. Leorio, the Hunter doctor, would know what to do with them, or he would learn. He had already expressed an interest in the technologies and medicines of her world; if she offered him books and this information, she was confident he would take good care of her baby. Natkiro would tend to the practical aspects.

And Mabda…

Her fists tightened. What if he attacked them? He had already made attempts at Zezu's life, from what Natkiro had told her. Hakira couldn't rely on two strangers and Natkiro, a hapless butler, to protect him.

No. It was too dangerous. She balked.

And what if Hakira met her final end, on this mission? Her supplies from her world wouldn't last forever, and Zezu would be back to square one, coughing blood, without hope, without his mother or family.

No, she had to find another solution.

Suddenly, it came to her.

Her mother.

It wasn't ideal. Her mother was fading, and Hakira wondered if she could scarcely take care of herself, much less a child - and it was painful. But, Hakira had already been planning on visiting her mother again already. If she could also just hire a caretaker, that would let practical concerns be taken care of, for both her mother and her child, and her mother could then focus fully on tending to Zezu. Surely - surely, she could make it work.

She would have to make it work. There wasn't anybody else.

She wasn't running away.

Shit.

Looking at her baby breathing, in and out, there so peacefully on the bed, Hakira despaired as to what she would have to tell him. She wasn't running away again, she wasn't leaving him behind. Still, she felt her heart swell with fondness - and she reached out, stroking his hair, taking it out from his face. Still, it didn't ease the wrenching of guilt in her chest. She had promised to never leave him again. Yet, she knew that Yashi also had no one else to look after him here, and much like Zezu, she wanted - needed - to make up for having left him. She had to help him. She wasn't running away. If she had a choice, she would stay with Zezu, her child.

"Sorry," she whispered, then moved closer, pulling back his hair and settling down to sit on the bed. When he leaned into her, moving closer, the heavy feeling in her chest seemed to grow as if someone had lodged a heavy stone in her chest.

When he woke up, an hour later, a peaceful wake-up, eyes slowly drifting open, she told him that they were going to go see his grandmother. He was, at first, delighted and surprised, abruptly eager to make the trip, then cutely nervous. As they packed, there was a sullen remark or two, but it was what she had come to expect. But overall, she was happy for her child and afraid to tell him the full truth. Maybe she could plan for a quick venture - visit Kyoshi quickly and take him home - and return before Zezu had even realized she had left.

They took a train to Hikone, where her mother lived. Before they left, she cautiously strapped on a medical mask first on Zezu's face to prevent his delicate immune system from infection.

It was almost quaint to take a train; she was so used to just teleporting herself between worlds to get to place to place, or riding the blimps of the Other World. She found herself enjoying the view from the windows as the scenery dashed by, and watching Zezu when he pressed his face childishly against the glass. Trains were a rarer sight in the Other World, and confined to his bedside for so long, he took obvious delight in seeing the world. Truly, his condition had much improved from his stay at the hospital.

Then they arrived in Hikone. Her mother, confusedly, took them in, her eyes filled with a lack of clarity. It was painful to see. Her disease had only progressed over the years. It was what had kept Hakira away.

Now, it kept the questions away, when Hakira returned with Zezu. There was so much her mother didn't remember that she could easily accept Hakira having a child in the time she was away. While her mother prattled on and took Zezu by the arm, showing the wide-eyed child around the house, his bedroom, and how they could make a nice, relaxing cup of tea, Hakira went around to explore the house, making sure it was in a liveable condition, even though from the clean maintenance of the entrance she knew well enough that it was.

In the attic, she found what she was looking for.

She blinked, amazed as she stood in the doorway. Here, in the attic, there were all sorts of strange oddities and nick-knacks, seemingly thrown around at random. There, closest to the entrance, was an antiquated alarm clock. Further behind - a water glass, even parts of a bed-frame. Bedsheets, an odd pillow, a lamp. It was a strange set of storage, haphazard and unorganized. It was entirely unlike her mother.

Then, just by her feet, she spied a watch with silver gimlet linings spread across the floor, shining mutely in the dim light.

Slowly, she bent down, picking up the watch, raising it to eye level, a curious feeling pervading her. This was Kobayashi's watch. The very one she had asked Zezu to "disappear", before they had left for her world. She had thought it might appear by Yashi earlier - but it had come here instead.

Which meant…

She studied the surroundings with a new eye. Yes, those bedsheets, they looked much like the make of those at Toshkiyo's mansion, and the ones Zezu had in his room. Didn't that alarm clock look like a style typical of the Other World, in its antiquated technology?

Had all the items Zezu had disappeared over the years been gathered here?

It was a curious thing. Hakira hadn't truly believed Kurapika's proposed theory that the items might have appeared in a place with a bloodline or familial location. After all, her exploits in both worlds early on had seemed entirely random, even if her reappearances in her own world were often places she had already travelled to. Was there truly such a call to familiarity, to ancestral roots, even across the rift between dimensions?

She supposed, looking down at the silver gimlet watch in her hands, and at the items scattered around the attic, that there must be.

How odd.

At least, she mused, this means that I can finally give Yashi back his watch.

A strange filling still filling her, she walked back down the attic steps and returned to the kitchen, where her mother and her son were waiting. They were having tea, her grandmother prattling on and showing her son photos, and it was such a domestic scene that it made her stop in her tracks, watch forgotten in her hand.

"Hey, Mom," Zezu said, startling her out of her reverie as he turned to her with a grin. "This is really what you looked like? You were as young as me!"

Hakira blinked, then smiled, then came to the table to stand behind her son. There, there were pictures of her fifth birthday party, laughing with old friends in full color. She found that she could scarcely remember their names, except for one friend there, who had stuck with her over the years before everything had gone sideways. She had almost forgotten.

"Yes," she murmured. "Even your granny here was young once, too."

Zezu looked from her, to her mother, then said loudly, "I don't believe it!"

"Hey!" her mother protested, and it was so unexpected, yet so good to see her mother still acting snappish and alive, that Hakira found herself laughing.

Her mother joined in, and then Zezu too, after a moment, though at first he had looked confused.

It felt good.

Later that night, when all had been settled and Zezu had been tucked into bed, Hakira found herself reflecting on the moment. The fact had hit her like a bolt of lightning - it had been the first time she had laughed in many years, at least, genuinely. It was the first time that she had felt that light, bubbling feeling in her chest. The world, for so long, had seemed to be a long period of solid, muted grey, without color, without meaning, other than a blank, empty drive to keep going and lash out at the world for the pains it had caused her. Had she really forgotten what happiness had felt like? Had she really mistaken those pale colors and mute moments of differentness for true happiness, when it was a pale shade compared to this blooming, good feeling?

She wondered how deeply it had skewed her view of the world. How deeply her pursuit of revenge must have damaged her, to not have been able to see anything other than the deep darkness and anger inside of her. To not even have the time or patience for happiness - a thing, which upon feeling it once again, felt suddenly self-evident in its worth. Like a precious thing, to be treasured - and she knew that here, now, it had come from spending time with her family.

She thought, now, that maybe she had wasted all those years, chasing after darkness and revenge. Kobayashi had told her, in various ways, but it was only now that she began feeling that she understood.

That night, she resolved to herself, I will change. Seeing her child had made it clear to her that she needed to.

Only, she thought, as dancing thoughts haunted her and chased her to her dreams, her guilt and shame at her decision to leave yet again bearing down upon her, she didn't quite yet know how.

.

The next day, she quietly told her mother that she would be out for a couple of hours, possibly the whole day, and that she needed to look after Zezu for her. Her mother was at first confused, expressing her surprise at seeing Hakira, and Hakira first felt the plumettings of doubt. Then her mother regained some of her usual sharpness over the conversation, and they both agreed to call a caretaker, and Hakira was able to regain some confidence. She had the sudden feeling that if she didn't leave now, to find Yashi, she never would again, stuck in this slumber and sudden sweet lullaby of family.

The conversation with Zezu was more painful. He was scared that she was leaving him again, and another angry tantrum followed suit. She bore it, as best she could. She promised both him and herself that she would come back.

Then, she made her plan for infiltrating the police department.

It was simple. Her quirk made it possible to jump from anyplace in one world, to the other world - with some limitations. Generally, she had to have been in a place first in order to safely make the jump with any accuracy. So, she would scout out the police station on foot first, estimate where she expected the prison cells to be, jump to the Other World world, then jump back to where she expected Kobayashi to be.

Her first trouble was that she didn't know exactly where Kobayashi had been taken; the media didn't exactly advertise that for low-profile criminals. So she did her research by pretending she wanted to bail him out, calling different centers via a payphone to see if they could direct her to the right place. It would leave a trail, but she wasn't exactly the type for finesse work. Through the helpful efforts of tired call service workers, she was able to find the right place.

It got trickier from there, because she knew she had a history in this world from the disappearances of back-alley thugs when she was first experimenting with her quirk after Toshkiyo's death to get back to her new world. The police hadn't proven it was her, but it was safer to not show her face.

So before entering the police station to ask around, she went to a make-up store, buying a few items, and then carefully drew contour lines on her face to emphasize a crook in her nose, a non-existent but distinctive scar on her cheek, higher cheekbones. This she had done, several times, during her work as a Blacklist Hunter. If she could draw attention to distinctive features that didn't exist, it would make it harder for a target to identify her, as they would remember her best by the features that stood out. She finished her disguise by bundling her red hair into a workman's cap; her boxy appearance already lended her the guise of a man and emphasizing the rougher features of her face would only help with that.

Then, she was ready. She went into the police station and asked about Kobayashi and if she could bail him out. The receptionist checked, confirmed that he was there, but said that they were holding him for questioning. He could not be bailed. Hakira did not have money anyway, so this did not matter. She then asked if she could see Kobayashi, and cited a tearful story about him being a cousin who had meant a lot to her growing up, and that she could see him doing no harm. The receptionist was inappropriately disaffected and told Hakira to get on her way. Maybe her acting skills weren't very good.

Disgruntled, she was forced to leave the building and look around the premises, using Zetsu to check around without being as noticeable. This was annoying. Since this world relied more on security cameras and technical vision than human eyes, Zetsu was usually less effective, and without many obstacles in the open streets surrounding the police station, she had to settle on just looking inconspicuous.

Finally, having mentally mapped the layout and the location of the gridded windows, she had finally decided on a location at the very back of the police station. It was some guesswork, but lingering around wouldn't help her plan very much, so after walking away into a nearby alley with a sigh, she pressed herself against the wall and Jumped.

She felt greater resistance than normal, and it was painful, tumbling through the rift between worlds. Still, she bore it, and with another breath, carved another path between worlds, trying to forget her existence and only focus on the goal, as her quirk demanded. She thought of the police station, and the distance she would want to have moved from her previous location -

A dark, mute chamber filled her eyes. Cold rusted green bars were to her left, to her right -

"What the hell - " a man blustered, standing up. A companion beside him looked equally surprised. She had successfully landed in the holding cells section of the station - but in the wrong cell, and inside of it too, where it would be hard to walk around. She ignored the two men and looked down the sightlines of the cells, until she spotted a figure that seemed somewhat portly and matched her vision of what she expected Kobayashi to now look like.

She repeated the Jump sequence, feeling a headache build as she appeared in the new cell.

To her satisfaction, she had been right, and had even oriented herself correctly in the teleportation, to face Yashi. The now-portly man looked up at her, an expression of mute surprise filling his face, before it changed into resigned acceptance. Truly, he looked aged.

"Yashi," Hakira said, smiling, before crouching down and reaching out a hand. "I've come for you. I'm sorry I took so long."

The man, for a second seeming a stranger, stared at her for a long moment.

"Hakira," he said finally, throat dry, and she was reminded of her own imprisonment. His eyebrows furrowed, and he shook his head. "What are you doing here?"

She retracted her hand.

"I saw the news," she said flatly, meeting his eyes, voice more formal and serious. "I couldn't find you before. When I finally did find a way, and sent a message to you - I got captured. By a villain named All For One." Seeing his disbelievingly blank expression, Hakira shifted, then dug in her pocket. "Here."

Hakira held out his old watch back to him.

Kobayashi accepted it wordlessly, staring at it in what seemed to be mute amazement, before looking back up at her steadily.

"What do you want, Hakira? Did you just come here to give me back my watch?"

The words burned. "I came here to take you back," she said, but then Yashi laughed and shook his head.

"It's been over a year, Hakira. I have my life here. My boys. I can't just leave them, now."

She blinked at him. "But your health. If it hasn't already started, you'll -"

"I know," he interrupted roughly. "My bones ache every day and my ligaments are nearly gone. It hurts to move, Hakira. I'm already a far cry from our Hunting days."

"Then -"

"It's too late. Maybe if you'd come six months ago. But I've already gotten mixed up in my own mess and I'm determined to stick with it."

Hakira was silent for a long moment. She hadn't expected this.

"Then I'll bring you food from our world," she said. "I can at least get you out of this prison, and make it so that you won't get sick any more.

"No," Kobayashi coughed. "Can't. You know how it is. The rules play different in this world. If we make it - just twenty more days of this, then we'll get out scott free. And we need that, here, to live peacefully." He smiled wanly, seeming to suddenly recognize his coldness, and offered, "I wouldn't complain about the food, though."

It was like a weight lifted off her shoulders, and she nodded resolutely, though she still overall felt rather helpless. This hadn't gone how she'd expected at all.

Yashi sighed, then seemed to settle on his sitting position on the cell bed, against the wall.

"Look," he said. "How long do you have here? How about you tell me what's been going on on your end?"

And the story spilled out.

About being in her own cell for weeks, about being captured, prodded and asked questions about her quirk, and worst of all, experimented on. Left for dead, until a boy dressed in green - Gon Freecss - had come to let her out of the cell. How she had found out that Zezu was still alive. Mabda's betrayal. Leorio and Kurapika, who had been looking after Zezu the past weeks. She spoke earnestly for her admiration of the former man, before realizing she had gone on for too long, having been impressed with the fundamental idea of some goodness existing in someone, when she continued on to talk about Zezu and how she had taken him to the hospital to be treated. Now, he was back at her mother's house.

"So your boy's still alive," Yashi said, gaze somewhat sympathetic.

Hakira nodded.

"Sorry, Yashi," she whispered, voice hoarse, feeling genuine regret. "Sorry I left you here for so long."

The man's gaze softened.

"Can't say you haven't been an idiot in a lot of ways, Hakira," he said bluntly, "but I get that you had a lot of things to sort out. Truth be told - your gaze was always so narrowed on the sight of revenge and self-satisfaction, that after the first week passed I doubted you'd ever come for me. But I've made my own life here, now, and I suppose my own peace with it."

Hakira felt the burn of those words, and though she itched to deny them, with the feeling of her recent revelation etched into her mind, she found herself unable to. Instead, she felt branded with the shame of it.

He and her, they had brought each other from the brink many times over their Hunting years, both physically and mentally. Hakira was the physically stronger of the two, but Yashi had always had a steady inner strength that drove those in need to him like flies, even when his frame had been thin and shaky, way back when. Now he had filled out, but despite his large, square-shouldered figure, Hakira could still see the frames of his youth in his face and in her mind she picked out the features that had been most distinct then - gawpish large ears, sharp cheekbones, a pulled-back set to his shoulders - rather than the features that stood out now - his hook nose, curved cheeks, too-pale skin, and narrowed, intense eyes. She had failed him.

"Sorry," she repeated, feeling that it was useless.

Then, she had to harden herself. There was no use wasting more time on platitudes and feeling sorry for herself, when there was still so little time.

"Why did you help the Zoldyck?" she found herself asking.

Kobayashi's eyebrows raised.

"So he is the one."

"You knew." Her accusation lacked heat, and was instead cold as stone.

"I guessed."

There was a silence.

"He's a good kid," Kobayashi finally offered. "He tries. He got into this by trying to protect my family, even if he made mistakes along the way. He's young, only a kid, Hakira - you should forgive him."

"He killed Toshkiyo," her voice was harsh, flinty.

"He was ordered to. Is it the tool that is to blame, or the hand that guides it?"

"Both," Hakira said bitterly. "And I only know the name of the tool."

This was an old argument, brought to fresh life by recent events. It was almost a familiar ritual, bringing a strange sense of comfort to Hakira, in her worn-out, crooked ways. Yes, she had argued over this with Kobayashi many times, years ago, before they had both given up on it, in their own respective ways.

"Yet, his friend helped you freely," Yashi said pointedly. "Isn't that a favor worth paying back? Whatever you saw six years ago, Hakira… that boy's changed. Your hatred only hurts you."

Hakira was silent for a long moment.

"I've spent five years hating him, and pursuing revenge against him and his family," she said finally, trying to keep her voice level. "No matter what he is now - he and his family, they have done this to many families, to many people, rather than just me. What about justice? What about Toshkiyo? Maybe - if the Zoldyck family hadn't existed - Toshkiyo wouldn't be dead. They make their profit from the dead, Yashi. From coldly killing, tearing away future fathers and mothers from families. They are like - like machines." The disgust and anger in her voice leaked out. "Even if you say he changed, this boy - I cannot stop hating him for what he did. His hand tore into Toshkiyo's heart, his life, and ended it. I saw the body, that night. It was brutal. Not something a child could do."

It still stood vividly, in her memory. A terrible night where everything had come crashing down, just after she had birthed Zezu, a madness instilling itself in her head. It had seemed that after the birth, all her emotions had been magnified and every moment had been painted in a stark, bloody light. That night, she had been irrevocably taken from a world of innocence, one that had been cultivated by this sheltered sheep-like world that was ever so protected by heroes, into one of darkness - a world where only strength and the power to protect your own mattered, lest they be snatched away by cold shadows. She had never felt so weak and so terrified than in those moments, and she hated the echoes of those feelings that pervaded her mind, always trying to ruthlessly crush them down.

There was a distant sound, a jangle of keys against clinking metal. The door. Hakira abruptly realized she had overstayed her welcome. They must have seen her on the security cams, or this was a routine check. She hadn't planned to be here for so long.

"I'll be back," she said, meeting his eyes. "With food, and a way to stay in contact. If you need me… I'll be there."

Kobayashi inclined his head.

"Look after your kid, first."

And there, they were in agreement. After a last nod of goodbye, not knowing what else to say, Hakira Jumped again, twice in sequence, until she was back home, at her mother's place, a splitting headache filling her head.