A World Away

by ripitupgenki

Years after Mu's defeated the courageous seven have settled into their new lives. What happens when Genki hides a deep secret from the rest. How will the others react? How will they deal with his world and his problems when he finally tells them? Warning: Lots of drama and dark themes. Main pairing is GxH & TxGR; there will be HxGR and GxGR as well throughout this story.

2. Unexpected Visits

AAN: I'm currently bouncing between stories trying to get a good rhythm going of these. Though the extra overtime has not helped my writing at all, as it leaves me drained. Yeah I'm an essential employee so no extra time off for me unfortunately. I hope you enjoy this chapter; I will have a bit more happening this time around to set up the main plot.

Unexpected Visits

Genki had spent most of his Sunday looking through the files he was sent by his colleague. Though it wasn't what he wanted to be doing with his Sunday he had little choice. Once he understood everything that Saito had been working on, he set about making a list of what he needed to do to get everything settled for this coming week. It took hours to get everything in order and a schedule laid out. Once he had all of that settled, he began work on some spread sheets for his friends in the monster world to be able to record what was needed, how much, and what the cost would be for items. He then made a schedule for himself for the week, planning to buy the items they had already requested Monday and deliver them that night or Tuesday morning for them. He also would get the gold coin checked towards the end of the week; all in all he spent most of his Sunday on the computer. He went to bed early that night hoping everything would go according to plan but he suspected that something wouldn't work out correctly despite all his planning.

---

Walking into work Monday he was met by his team who were all anxious and full of questions. Genki did his best to answer their questions while asking a few of his own. He ran into a little dissension in the ranks as it were, two of his team mates did not like him as leader.

"Fuck this I'm not taking orders from a green horn!" Kasumi swore at him as Hiro nodded.

"Kasumi it can't be helped. Saito won't be back anytime soon with the injuries he sustained. This project is due in a week; we don't have time for your nonsense right now." Genki kept his voice even despite how excitable Kasumi was. Hiro snorted,

"Like you know anything about this project, you're no leader. Just an errand boy delivering the package."

"Yeah if you had any real balls you'd have been leading us in the first place."

"A civi pussy like you can't lead our group." The other members who were not veterans looked on unsure of what to do. Genki just smiled,

"Are you two children done throwing a tantrum? Us adults need to get some work done. If you want to continue your tantrums then leave." He then looked to Rika before speaking, "Rika did the final program come in at the size we estimated for this machine?"

"Yes, it's a few gigs under size actually."

"Great, let's get the hard drive loaded up then. Kakashi, you are with Hiro and Getsu. I need the communications hub connected to the main server and machine. Kasumi, you and I will be installing the camera PC software interface and connections. Let's move people!" He walked off towards the PC in question, leaving a couple of stunned people behind him. When everyone was settled they all got to work on their specific parts of the machine. It took most of the day just to get the program loaded and communicating with the various parts of the machine.

---

That night he stopped at the store on the way home to get the apples and wine requested. He found the group up and ready to receive the items when he finally returned home. He made a quick jump across to deliver those items and pick up any extra orders. When he landed with the items he saw Holly there to greet him, Tiger next to her.

"Hey Holly" He smiled to her as he set his bag down and began to dig around in it. "I have both the apples and wine for you"

"Genki, thank you for doing all this." Returning his smile, she took the bag of apples he offered her and placed them in the leather bag she had brought with her. He then handed her the wine which she carefully wrapped in burlap then placed in the bag.

"You're very welcome Holly. I made sure the apples are a hard tart variety, they should make a great pie for you." He saw her smile warmly,

"I guess I should have known you'd know which type I'd need. I was a little worried after I realized I never asked you about that." He chuckled at this,

"I learned all about that from my mom growing up. So don't worry about that type of thing." He saw her nod "Is there anything else you guys need for this weekend?"

"Yes, if you don't mind getting a couple more things."

"It's not a problem. What do you need?"

"Well we could use some potatoes and some carrots." Genki nodded,

"I'll pick those up and get them to you by Thursday, if that's alright?"

"That will be fine Genki."

"Did you want just regular potatoes or sweet potatoes?" He saw her ponder that for a moment before answering,

"We really only need the regular kind but I would like to test a sweet one if you can bring me one."

"I can do that. If you want I can bring a few other things for you to play around with and see if you like them?"

"You don't have to; I don't want to burden you." She seemed worried about him again,

"It's fine Holly." Tiger walked up grabbing his attention.

"How much do we owe you Kid?" He inquired,

"For now nothing, I suspect that you're money has more value than my own. I'd rather wait till I can confirm that before I take anymore from you." Tiger titled his head at this, Holly also looked confused.

"I don't understand. How would ours be more valuable?"

"Because yours is actually made of gold. The currency of my country is not." Genki reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Tiger and Holly both watched as he pulled out a 5000 yen bill. He handed it to Holly who took it and looked it over before showing it to Tiger.

"It's paper?" Holly inquired,

"A paper and fabric mixture. The cotton makes it more durable." He saw her nod, "That is a 5000 yen bill. The government prints the money and denotes its value. Supposedly there are some bills backed by gold and silver, but that one is only backed by the government's word."

"Can't it be faked easily though?" Tiger looked confused again,

"No, the ink used it a proprietary blend. It shimmers in the light, and there is a water mark and magnetic strip embedded in the bill. Hold it up to the light and you'll see it." Holly did and could see both; she showed Tiger who looked impressed. "Though counterfeits have been made it's really difficult and almost none of them are perfect." Holly handed the bill back to him and he put it away,

"What's that card?" Tiger asked, catching a glimpse of something in his wallet. Genki smiled and pulled out his driver's license.

"This is my driver's license Tiger." He showed the wolf monster, though Tiger couldn't read most of it.

"So that's the thing the government makes you get?"

"If I want to operate a vehicle, yes." He handed it to Holly to look over. She returned it after a few minutes,

"I wish I could read it, it looks interesting."

"I'll bring a translation when I come across next time." He put the card away then smiled to them both, "Anyway, I should have a value on your currency by the end of the week. It's my hope that it won't be too hard to find the conversion rate after I have that information." He saw them both nod,

"You get a handle on all that extra work Kid?" Genki nodded to the wolf monster, he knew they were all worried.

"Yep, and I have a plan for the rest of the week. We got the machine loaded up today and it seems to be talking with everything it's supposed to be. Should be able to run it for the first time tomorrow and see if it can do its job properly. The rest of my team seems to have things under control despite the rough start this morning."

"Rough start?" Tiger tilted his head,

"Oh a couple of the team members were... less than enthusiastic about me being the team leader. We had a bit of an argument; once they got all their grievances aired they seemed to calm back down."

"Sounds like a hassle..."

"It is... I don't think I have heard that many curse words in one conversation before... those two really are military veterans." He sweat dropped remembering the swearing ex Sargent that morning.

"So they don't like you?" Holly ignored the cursing comment.

"Yes and no, they like me as a team member but not as the leader. They are both a lot older and apparently think I'm not qualified to lead due to my young age; well that and I never joined the military. Veterans have this weird thing where they will always respect other military people but generally not civilians. I'm going to have prove myself if I want their respect." Tiger snorted at this,

"Too bad they never saw you lead us." Genki smiled,

"Don't worry Tiger, I got one of them starting to see it my way after I took their vitriol and simply asked them if they were done throwing a childlike tantrum so we could get back to work. I think the older of the two found it impressive that I didn't react to their insults."

"They were insulting you?" Holly seemed worried now,

"Trying to anyway. I was ignoring most of their nonsense." He saw Tiger smirk, "I'll whip them back into shape before weeks end. Don't worry." He checked his watch and sighed, "I should get going, I'll need to get some sleep before our first test tomorrow."

"Go get some rest Kid; we will meet up with you later." Genki smiled and nodded to his friend. He then looked back at Holly who seemed to have something on her mind.

"Holly, take care and feel free to call me if anything else comes up." She smiled and nodded,

"Take care of yourself Genki."

"I will." He walked back to the platform and waited for Holly to open the gateway before hopping back across to his apartment. He headed to bed soon after he returned; making sure his kitty was fed and happy beforehand.

---

The next morning came all too quickly for Genki, but he managed to drag himself out of bed nonetheless. Once at work he found his team ready and waiting to start the testing. He smiled at this knowing he had at least smoothed things over with the veteran's for now. The tests began and Genki's week began to get busier as things went on. The machine had failed to read correctly and was miss-sorting. After a few tweaks to the code it seemed to be working well until they got another anomaly. This time it was deemed as a mechanical fault. Genki called the mechanics for the machine and returned to his team. He found one of the veterans poking around in a lower compartment where there were high voltage breakers.

"Kasumi! What do you think you are doing?" He yelled at the female veteran, soon he saw what she was about to do. Genki ran to where she was as she called back,

"Fixing this damn piece of shit! We don't have time to wait for those fucking mechanics."

"Don't touch that!" Genki saw her throw a switch, before he could reach her but he didn't slow down, he just pushed her out of the way. A bright blue light flashed and a loud crack could be heard as an arc flash occurred with the bad electrical panel. Genki cried out as he was hit on his arm on the way by. He pushed her to the floor and held her there till he was certain the breaker had tripped. Though the incident was only a few seconds long it felt longer to Genki. Once he let her up he saw the damage to the machine, he also suddenly realized how hurt his arm was. "Dammit that hurts." He hissed as he inspected the area. Kasumi was still very shaken up by what had just happened, the other veteran Hiro came running to Genki's side.

"Easy Genki, let me take a look at you're arm." He looked at the other members of their team. "Rika get the medical kit!" She turned and ran off to do so leaving him to shake his head. He then inspected Genki's arm carefully. "This is bad, you need a doctor Genki." He glanced to Kakashi who took the hint and walked to the phone making a call.

"Do we have anything to treat it till the paramedics get here?" Genki asked, though clearly in pain.

"Yeah, our kit has stuff for severe burns. You're lucky, that could have killed you Genki."

"I'm aware of the danger." Genki stayed calm despite how much pain he was truly in. Kasumi finally came around and realized what had happened. Genki glanced her way to find her wide eyed with guilt. "What on earth possessed you to bypass protocols? You know we aren't supposed to touch ANY of the breakers or electrical panels!" Genki kept his voice even despite how angry he was.

"I… I thought I could just flip the breaker back on and we could continue." Her voice was shaking; Genki sighed and closed his eyes to deal with the overwhelming pain he was feeling.

"Those rules exist for a reason. High voltage breakers can easily short and kill you if you aren't wearing protection." He gritted his teeth, the adrenaline was wearing off and the pain was worse now. "Are you hurt?" was all he asked, by now Rika had returned with the medical kit and Hiro was busy treating his arm. Hiro applied the burn salve they had carefully after donning some gloves. He knew Genki could get an infection if this was handled badly. Genki did his best to not move but couldn't help but cry out as his arm was doctored. Kasumi watched off to the side, guilt and regret welling up inside her.

"No I'm not hurt Genki."

"Good, then I got to you in time." Genki spoke through his pain, he was indeed glad he had protected her. Despite how she and Hiro had acted in the beginning of the week Genki harbored them no ill will.

"There that should hold you till you can see a doctor." Hiro looked at the younger man clearly worried. "You know, you have a hero's spirit, you were willing to die to protect someone. I'm sorry for calling you a coward before." Genki shook his head,

"It's fine, but perhaps you should take this as a lesson not to judge others before you truly know them." The older man nodded, Kakashi had left to meet the paramedics and Getsu had gone to tell their boss what had happened. Their boss, Desu, came running in looking less than his usual self.

"Genki, are you alright?" Genki glanced to his boss, seeing him nearly panicked over this accident made Genki smile a little inside.

"I'll live, but the machine is probably going to be down for a long while."

"I don't care of bout the machine. I'm just glad you are ok or will be anyway."

"I'll need to get this checked out, but I will be back to work tomorrow." Genki noticed his boss quirk an eyebrow,

"I'll take you to the hospital myself then." Just then the paramedics walked in with Kakashi, they saw Genki and immediately came to his side. He told them what had happened as the others looked on. They then looked at the med kit and determined that the salve used was out of date making it less effective. They un-wrapped his wound and cleaned it with a special type of solvent. They then placed a silver gel all over the burn which instantly numbed the pain for him. After re-wrapping it with a special bandage to defuse the heat they took their leave, but not before recommending that he visit a doctor to get a prescription for some burn ointment. Once the paramedics had left, Desu spoke again. "Who was playing with the panel?" he asked Genki directly, but before Genki could respond Kasumi stepped forward.

"I was boss; I thought I could speed us up by flipping the breaker back on rather than waiting for the mechanics to get here." Genki watched his bosses face change from surprise to anger.

"You know very well what the rules are concerning mechanical devices!"

"I do yes, I wasn't thinking about that at the time."

"So noted, you weren't thinking about much from the sounds of it. You could have been killed or gotten Genki killed!" Kasumi sighed; she knew he was probably going to fire her for this. Genki cleared his throat to catch Desu's attention.

"Boss if I may have a word with you?" He raised a brow at Genki but nodded.

---

The pair walked into the nearby office and Genki closed the door.

"What is it Genki?"

"I want to speak with you about this incident before you go firing people." He looked mildly surprised but nodded, "Ever since I took over there has been... tension in the group. Our veterans don't appreciate being led by someone as young as me, especially since I was never in the military. We have this bad culture in our building about that. The veterans only really respect each other and not anyone else. They have never been made to do so. Saito was a veteran, so he never had the issues that others face with this. Kasumi in particular was not respecting me as leader, Hiro to lesser extent. I believe that the tension, the culture, cultivated here caused this incident. She believed she was more effective a leader than I, hence why she tried to fix said issue herself. She wanted to get this project finished, the package delivered on time as it were. I don't believe she realized how dangerous those panels were. After all she never had the electrical safety course that I and Saito took." He saw his boss mull this new information over before responding.

"You're right... I have allowed this culture to exist and she was not trained the way you were. That doesn't excuse her breaking rules though."

"I never said it did." His boss looked surprised, "Mistakes are things we learn from, and I believe she understands the dangers of disobeying safety protocols now. If you want to reprimand her than do so, what I'm asking is that you not fire her. People need time to change, and a vet with PTSD even more so. I don't think we will have this problem any longer within our group." He saw Desu close his eyes to think it over, Genki waited as he did so.

"Alright Genki, I won't fire her but she will be getting a letter of warning for this incident and be on probation for 90 days." Genki nodded,

"Fair enough."

"I can't say as I understand you're reasoning but then you have always seen things I have not." He sighed, "I'm going to take you to the hospital, and you'll need a prescription after all. After that I want you to take the rest of the day off. I'm going to get the mechanics to fix the machine overnight and check it over for any more issues. It should be ready by morning. Give your team instructions on what to do while they wait." Genki nodded, he then walked out of the room with Desu following him.

---

Genki's team gathered around him as he returned.

"Getsu, you said before you thought there might be a few more lines of code that were off?" Getsu nodded,

"Yeah, a few seemed wrong after we got a feel for the machines interpreting."

"I want you and Rika to work on the first section of code, Kakashi and Hiro will be working on the second section, Kasumi will work on the interface code that was bugging up earlier." He saw them all nod, "Desu is taking me in to see a doctor and make sure everything it alright. After which I'll check in with you guys." At that moment his boss was on the phone with the mechanics, which still were on their way.

"You aren't going to come back and work, are you?" Rika asked clearly worried about him, she had a thing for Genki despite his never responding that way to her.

"As much as I would like to, the boss will not let me. But I will check in before I head home. He said he'd have the mechanics work overnight on the machine and give it a thorough check over to make sure nothing else is wrong." He saw Hiro smirked,

"Well just get some rest; I think you have earned it Genki." Genki nodded, he saw Kasumi walk forward now.

"Genki... I'd like to apologize. I should have listened to you... It was wrong of me to assume you didn't know what you were doing just because you are a civilian."

"Apology accepted, just don't assume things anymore" she nodded,

"I'm actually surprised I'm not fired..."

"I convinced our boss not to fire you, there will be repercussions though, just not that." He smiled to her; she looked at him in shock. He could see the others were also surprised. "I don't throw team mates to the wolves Kasumi. I never have and I never will." He heard their boss finish yelling at the phone and turned to see him huffing in annoyance.

"Kami help me I'm going to go insane someday."

"You mean more than you already are?" Genki quipped earning him a halfhearted glare. "You done screaming at mechanics for today?"

"I am yes; let's get you to the hospital. I'm sure you'd rather not be there all night."

"Indeed I would not. My team knows what they are doing so I'm all set to go." Desu nodded then looked at Kasumi,

"You and I will be having a talk after I return." She nodded to him; He then turned and walked out the door. Genki waved to his team and walked out after his boss. Kasumi had indeed been spoken to by their boss and receive a letter of warning and 90 day probation.

---

When Genki checked in with his team before he went home for the night. He found all of them nearly done with what he had assigned them. Kasumi walked over to him as he was about to leave.

"Can I speak with you for a moment in private?"

"Sure." He waved her over to his office. Once inside Kasumi looked a bit uncomfortable, she then met his gaze and began speaking.

"Genki… I wanted to thank you for saving my life… and my job. I never expected you to do something like that for me after what I did to you. I certainly didn't deserve it." He smiled to her,

"You're very welcome Kasumi. This wasn't about whether you deserved it or not. I would rather you learn from an experience then be penalized by it. Just make sure you use your talent for good from now on and don't worry about who was in the military and who wasn't." she nodded,

"I will. Genki I feel the need to pay you back…."

"That's not necessary, I didn't do what I did expecting any form of repayment."

"Are you sure? I could give you some pleasure for while, you defiantly deserve it." Genki's eyes widened after she said that, he hadn't expected her to offer he body to him. "I'm sure I can find some way of making it up to you in the bedroom." She whispered, she had taken his stunned silence as an invitation to move close to him. Genki took a step back shaking his head,

"That's not necessary Kasumi. No offense but you're not my type, and I don't do one night stands." He walked to the door, "If you want to thank me then just do your job and stay out of trouble. There is no need to do anything else."

"I've never known a man around here to turn down sex…"

"You just found one." He left the room deciding to go straight home.

By the time Genki got home it was late. He had his prescriptions and was told to wait till the next night to change the bandage to allow the gel to work properly. Despite his pain he managed to stay up and speak to Holly and the others briefly. He then went to bed, hoping the next day would do much better.

To his relief the following day went smoothly; everything now working as intended. They we able to get the machine to do everything required of it and even got it up to the target speed. With all the kinks worked out they decided to do the recording the next day to prove it was working for the client.

---

That night he stopped by the store to get the rest of the stuff Holly needed. Once home he told the group he was ready to jump across but requested that Holly be present when he did. She readily agreed as she was already planning to be there anyway. Genki grabbed his medical stuff and placed it in his bag with the veggies. He hoped Holly would help him dress his wound as he couldn't do it well on his own. After ten minutes he jumped across the gap like normal, managing to land and not disturb his wound too much. Genki smiled as he looked around to find Hare and Colt also present.

"Hey Colt it's been awhile. What brings you here?"

"Oh I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to say hello. What's with the bandage?" Holly had come forward by now concerned, Genki hissed as he got his bag off his back. She took it and helped him set it down.

"Oh we had a bit of an accident at work... I'll be fine but it'll take a bit to heal." He looked over at her, "I was hoping you could help me tend it Holly. I can't do it very well on my own." He saw her nodded,

"Of course. It's definitely not something you could wrap with one hand. Though these bandages are... very different."

"It's a special burn bandage; it's designed to pulled heat out of a burn." He opened his bag and pulled out his medical kit. She took it knowing he had everything with him.

"I need some alcohol for my hands." she stated, he pulled out a small bottle for her.

"Use this, it contains alcohol. It's designed to kill germs and stuff."

"How'd you get burned?" Hare asked, Tiger too looked interested.

"I got burned by an electrical panel overloading on the machine we were working on. One of my team mates thought she could fix it... I realized what she was doing and got to her before she could get hit by it but I wasn't fast enough to get out of the arcs path."

"Did it explode?" Colt asked excitedly.

"Kind of, it definitely fried everything around it. If I hadn't pushed her out of the way it probably would have killed her." Colt looked in deep thought,

"I've seen lightning pop out of bad panels before... it can even make them explode."

"That's called an arc flash Colt. It can be lethal depending on how much power is behind it."

"You mean you could have died?!" Hare exclaimed,

"Yes Hare, if it had enough power it could have killed me. I'm lucky this burn was all I got." He hissed as Holly finished unwrapping his arm. Holly's eyes told him she would be speaking to him about his dangerous behavior.

"Damn Kid... that's really bad."

"Doctor said it'd be a few weeks before it healed fully." Holly carefully took the ointment and applied it to his burn; being as gentle as she could as to not damage his flesh any more than it already was. Once she finished she waited a few minutes before trying to bandage it, letting the ointment soak in.

"You really need to be more careful." She said at length, "I know you were protecting someone but still... I've never seen a burn this severe before." he could see by her eyes she we deeply concerned and upset that he could have died.

"I don't try to get injured you know that, but I couldn't let someone die; even if that meant getting injured in the process." He saw her search his eyes a moment before sighing and nodded her understanding.

"Well I hope those team mates respect you after that." Tiger stated at length. Genki smiled to him,

"Oh they do. Both of them do, one of them treated my wounds after the incident."

"And the other one?" Tiger probed,

"Was the one I saved." Tiger's eyes widened,

"Wait... but you said she right?"

"Tiger, women can join the military too in my world. She served over ten years in the military." Holly seemed a loss for words but Colt wasn't.

"Oh my phoenix! You're world sound so interesting. I never thought any military would let women serve." He smiled,

"There are no barriers on occupations in my world. Doesn't matter what your gender is, if you can do the job you get the job."

"So why was she disrespecting you the other day anyway?" Tiger asked growling slightly,

"She believed I wasn't a good leader, in fact that's what caused the incident today. There has been... a bad culture that's been allowed to thrive in our company. The veterans only really respect other veterans; anyone who didn't serve in the military is basically ignored by them. Even though I had told her and the others to wait for the mechanics to come look at the machine when it broke, she believed I was wrong. So she tried fixing it herself. I had electrical training so I knew how dangerous those high voltage panels were, she didn't have that training. When I realized what she was playing with I just acted on instinct. It was only after the thing arced and fried it's self that she realized that I did know what I was talking about."

"That's so stupid!" Tiger growled again, Hare now perked up.

"What about the culture thing though? Will this happen again?"

"No, I don't think it will. After the incident I spoke to my boss about it. He agreed that he had allowed it to go on for far too long; he apologized to me in private later for this even being an issue in the first place. He said he'd take care of it."

"Well that's good, hopefully nothing else will happen."

"She get fired at least?" Tiger asked, Genki looked at the angry wolf monster then shook his head.

"No, but not because my boss wasn't willing to though. I asked him not to fire her." Tiger looked shocked,

"WHAT? WHY?" he sputtered in disbelief.

"Because not all of this issue was her fault. Yes, she should have never disobeyed protocol especially concerning safety measures but people make mistakes. They can't learn from them unless they are given the chance to. Besides she can do her job just fine, in fact better than some of the others. She has talent; she just needs to learn how things are outside of the military." Tiger still looked shocked, Colt decided to ask a question in the silence that filled the room.

"So… she got no punishment then?"

"Oh she was reprimanded, got a letter of warning and is on a 90 day probation. If anything else happens, she will be fired on the spot. All I did was make sure a warning took place rather than a firing. Given her... issues I think this will serve as enough incentive to get her to focus on her job and not who is a veteran and who isn't."

"What issues?" Hare asked, Genki debated how to answer that.

"Well... She has a bit of … PTSD from what I understand from her time in the military. A lot of veterans have it, both male and female. It affects them on both a mental and emotional level depending on what caused it in the first place. I don't know the specifics of hers but I know she defiantly has some issues. I could see it after the machine arced, the loud cracking sound and flashing light seemed to trigger her PTSD a bit. It took her several minutes to recover even though physically she wasn't injured. The other veteran coaxed her back out of it with what he was doing nearby her. I'm sure he was very much aware of the problem."

"PTSD?" Colt inquired, seemingly interested.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anyone can get it from something traumatic but veterans seem to get it more often. It's actually hard to say what causes it or who is susceptible to it. Everyone reacts differently to trauma."

"So she was affected by the sound and light?"

"Yes, I believe it made her remember something bad. Probably being shot at or something. Like I said I don't know the specifics." Holly had wrapped up his arm as they spoke, silently working as she thought over what had happened.

"So... how was she disrespecting you before?" Hare probed out of curiosity.

"She was the most vocal about not following my leadership. Was cursing up a storm and throwing out insults."

"What insults?"

"Oh the normal, 'not a real man cause you never served' and 'you're a coward' stuff." he shrugged, "Honestly it's not the first time I've heard stuff like that. Probably won't be the last either." Tiger grunted,

"Seriously? She was calling your manhood into question?" Genki nodded,

"She was yes, so was the male veteran. I don't believe they will be doing so now though. Hiro especially, he not only tended my wound when I first got it but he publicly apologized for his behavior."

"Did she apologize?" Holly probed now,

"Yes, though she did so a bit later. She even pulled me aside to speak with me privately on the matter, offering to pay me back for the trouble." Tiger snorted,

"Well hopefully you won't have any more issues then."

"I don't believe I will. We will be recording the machines functions tomorrow. So when I come across for the festival I can bring that with me."

"Oooo I'd love to see how this machine works, the others told me a little bit about it." Colt excitedly exclaimed making the monsters and Holly sweat drop.

"Are you staying for the festival?" Genki inquired, raising a brow at her.

"Yep" she beamed at him,

"Then I guess you'll be in luck then." he saw her squee over this and turned his attention back to Holly as Colt had one of her moments. "Holly, I normally wouldn't ask as I know you're busy. Would you be able to assist me with bandage changes till this heals up?" Holly smiled,

"Sure it's no problem Genki. Just make sure you are careful not to injure yourself more." He nodded, looking over at Colt still joyously squeeing and hugging Hare. Genki sweat dropped as he watched Hare attempting to get her to let go of him,

"She sure does love machines." Holly giggled a bit and nodded,

"Yes she does, I'm sure she will love seeing this machine you are working on." He smiled and nodded hoping there would be less hugging though,

"I got the veggies you wanted and a few extras as well." He reached into his bag, first pulling out the carrots and then the potatoes. Holly took them and placed them in her bag. He then pulled out a bag with a mixture of things. He opened it to show her what each was, by now Tiger had noticed the hand off and looked curiously at these new veggies, but he was also trying to stay way form Colt who had a death grip on poor Hare. "This is a Uami sweet potato" He picked up the purple root, Holly took it and looked it over.

"It's very dense, is the inside purple as well?"

"Yes, and they tend to be more sweet then orange variety." He saw her nod, he then picked up a long white vegetable. "This is a diakon radish, they are a bit strong but work well in stews, soups, and stir-fry's." Holly looked over the strange root vegetable with wonder, she'd never seen a radish that wasn't round or red before.

"I'll have to try a piece to figure out how to balance it." He smiled as he saw her coming up with ideas already.

"I'm sure it won't be too hard." He pulled out some ginger, "This is a ginger root. It's super strong so only use a little bit at a time. It works well in almost anything as long as you like the flavor. It can get spicy if you put too much in. Oh and it works well to settle stomachs if put in tea."

"So it had medicinal affects as well as being a good ingredient? That's very handy." He smiled,

"This is a leek, it's related to an onion but it's not as strong of a flavor." He handed her the big stalky vegetable. She looked it over finding it interesting.

"And last we have a Kabocha." He handed Holly the small green pumpkin like gourd. "Like I said before it's similar to a pumpkin but it has a slightly different flavor." Holly nodded,

"I was thinking it'd be bigger than this."

"Some are, this is just a small variety." He saw her nod. She placed all the items in her bag, mentally already planning what she might try to do with these.

"Thank you Genki, these all look wonderful." she beamed a smile at him, which he returned. One thing he loved was making her happy.

"You're very welcome Holly. I'm glad to be of help." They glanced over after hearing Hare gasp for air; he had finally pried Colt off of him. Both humans and Tiger sweat dropped seeing him running away from her.

"So you're working tomorrow despite your injury Kid?" Tiger inquired,

"Yeah, most of my job doesn't require much physically speaking. Nothing I do at work should bother my arm." He smiled to the wolf monster knowing this was his way of showing concern.

"Hey Genki, Mocchi and I were reading about the various festivals in your world. Are you attending any of them?" Genki glanced at Hare a little unsure of why he was asking, noting the rabbit monster was hiding behind Tiger now, who looked mildly annoyed.

"Maybe, depends on my work load. I usually attend the Kurama Fire festival if I can. Though it does require a bit of travel to get to the shrine where it's held." Hare looked deep in thought a moment as he tried to place that festival name.

"I take it it's not a local festival?" Colt asked, she had finally recovered from her excitement.

"No, it's in another city at one of their shrines. Most of my cities festivals are in the summer. Though I did go to Fukuro Matsuri back in September, which was in my city."

"What city do you live in?" Hare asked trying to bring up a mental map from what he read.

"Tokyo, the nations capital."

"I assume it really large then being the capital?" Colt asked making Genki glance her way.

"The most recent count was over 13 million people within Tokyo's prefecture. Yes, it's by far the largest of all the cities in my country. There's over 39 million within the metropolitan area around Tokyo." He noticed he had stunned them into silence. Tiger shook his head,

"I still don't know how you don't kill each other…" Genki shrugged,

"It's just how we are, generally speaking most of us work very well together even if we don't like each other."

"Still that's a lot of people…" Hare said at length.

"It is yes, and there are a lot for jobs for them to do." He glanced around then smiled to Hare, "Anyway does that clear things up or do you have questions still?"

"I believe so… though I'll have to look those festivals up." Genki nodded,

"Genki your world seems so fascinating! It reminds me of the ancients, and how advanced they were." Colt glance to Holly then smiled, "Don't you agree Holly?" Holly looked mildly surprised for being included in that statement but nodded nonetheless.

"Yes, it seems like your world is on a similar path as the ancients." Genki nodded his understanding,

"I suppose that's true though we are no where near the ancients in the genetics technology department."

"Genetics?" Colt asked confused,

"The ancients used genetics to create a lot of the monsters in those labs we saw. My worlds technology is very lacking in that. We couldn't make monsters if we tried right now." He snorted "they can't even make a clone without running into major issues. It's going to be a long time before anything like that takes place. Assuming the populace at large allows it."

"Why wouldn't they allow it?" Tiger inquired,

"It's controversial to say the least right now. There are many that don't believe humanity should be playing God as it were." Holly seemed to be thinking about what he said, though she didn't know much about genetics, it seemed like something that was no longer possible in her own world. Colt decided to bring up another related topic,

"So I wonder if that factory we found in the south is a genetics lab? What do you think Holly?" Colt glanced to her friend, Holly looked over at her weighing her words.

"It is possible I suppose… I mean it was pretty run down and hard to tell what anything used to be." Genki looked confused now, he hadn't realized Holly had done any traveling. * good, she needs to get out more and see the world. She does enough work at home. *

"I take it you joined one of Colt's expeditions?" He asked, he was curious as to when this had occurred. Holly looked back at him realizing he hadn't been told about her little adventure.

"Yes, it was about a three weeks ago. Colt invited me to go, she thought that maybe with my abilities I could help her solve a few of the mysteries surrounding this particular site." Holy saw Genki nod his understanding.

"Did it go well?"

"Kinda, we solve a few but we ended up with more questions than answers."

"It's really too bad you don't have pictures, I might be able to figure out some of it for you… perhaps I will have to take a trip some time."

"Pictures? How? I mean we can't exactly cart a big camera around…" Colt replied very confused. Genki knew they had cameras but they seemed to be wet photography cameras which were very large and bulky.

"Tell you what, I'll bring you a gift at the festival Colt and show you how to use it. The cameras from my world are much smaller and very easy to use."

"OH MY PHOENIX! That would be so AWESOME!" Genki chuckled at her reaction.

"Well I hope you had some fun exploring Holly." He turned back to her as Colt bounced around excitedly again.

"It was very fun yes, I enjoyed being able to see this place without us being on the run from some baddies." Genki chuckled,

"I bet." He glanced to his watch noticing how late it was and sighed, "Unfortunately I have to get going. I still have 2 more days of work before the weekend." He notice Holly seemed deep in thought for a moment.

"Genki I was thinking, how about tomorrow I jump across so you don't have to almost injure yourself getting here." Genki was taken aback, Holly had never asked to come to his world before, in-fact she seemed a bit apprehensive about it.

"Sure if that's what you want to do. I don't have a problem with it." a smile graced her lips as she nodded,

"It is, I'd rather you not stress that arm if it can be helped." He smiled in return and nodded, then rose to grab his bag. Holly had placed his med kit back in his bag earlier.

"Alright, I will see you tomorrow," He smiled to Holly, "Colt you behave now, don't try to kill Hare anymore ok?" He teased the excitable girl.

"Hey I did not try to kill him." She glared putting her hands on her hips.

"I beg to differ" Said Hare making everyone but Colt laugh, who was now pouting a bit. Holly walked to the pedestal as Genki walked to the platform. Soon the gate was unlocked and he jumped through after waving. Genki landed on the floor hard, hissing in pain as he tried to get up. After placing is pack down he went to his room, more than ready for some sleep.

---

With Genki sent home the group headed back to the village, as they walked Tiger decided to probe Holly a bit over her decision.

"Holly, why'd you decide to jump across? I thought you said you weren't ready for that." He kept his voice soft and inquisitive though he was a bit worried about the young woman in question. Holly glanced down at him for a moment before returning to looking at the road ahead. Colt and Hare had both perked up as well waiting for Holly to answer.

"I decided that my discomfort does not outweigh his health. I would rather he not re-injure his arm traveling here more than he needs to. I know you didn't get the best look at his wound Tiger but it was very severe. I've never seen anything that bad before and I'm sure he was in a lot of pain though he never said anything." She glanced over to find him deep in thought now, "He's done a lot for us, and will probably do more from the sounds of it. I figured this was the least I could do in return for him." She gave the wolf monster a soft smile, before she looked away once again with a sigh. "Besides… I'm not sure I'll ever be "ready" as it were. I just need to do it and get it over with."

"Why is that Holly?" Colt asked not intrigued with the direction this conversation was going. "I'd jump at the chance to visit his world." Holly seemed to be weighing her words again for a moment before responding. Putting what she felt into words was not always easy.

"Colt it's not as simple as it may seem. We know that he can travel back and forth freely but what we don't know is if we can without any problems occurring." Hare decided to pipe up now,

"Holly is right about that, it is our theory that we too can go across but none of us have tested it yet. There could be complications that we don't know about." Tiger snorted,

"True as that may or may not be, we won't know doing nothing." He glanced to Holly who still seemed apprehensive about things; "Holly, if it would make you feel better about this I can jump across first. I don't mind trying it." Holly looked startled by his statement,

"Tiger, I appreciate that, I really do; but you could be in more danger than me. After all Genki has told us explicitly that there are no monsters in his world. What if the portal hurts you in the process?" Tiger barked a laugh at this.

"Well we won't know till we try." Holly didn't seem convinced though. Colt though keyed up on something else,

"Wait… so none of you have tried to go to his world at all?" All three glanced at Colt seeing her looking at them expectantly.

"No, none of us have." Holly confirmed,

"Why though? I mean hasn't Genki asked you to come before?" Hare gave her a sideways glance before elaborating for the group.

"He has mentioned it but he does so in passing. I think he doesn't want to push us into jumping across. He knows there is some danger just as we do, at least for us monsters. The unknown of what his world will do is the main reason we haven't tried yet."

"So… you're afraid of what the portal might do to you?" Colt asked for clarification.

"Yeah." She then glanced to Holly,

"Well that kind of makes sense for them but why are you so afraid Holly?" Colt was genuinely confused now. Holly remained silent for a moment before answering.

"I just… have a bad feeling about this. I can't explain why, but ever since he mentioned it the first time; it's been something I can't shake. It was before we even realized the monsters might have an issue crossing. It's not something I can explain very well. I already spoke to Genki about it a while ago. He's aware of my feelings on this."

"Then why jump across?" Colt asked, "It's not like he asked you to."

"I'm hoping that by doing this I can get past these feelings I have about his world. I'm still scared but I value his health and safety over my fear. For all I know this feeling is just irrational fear of the unknown, something that will never go away unless confronted. If I have learned anything from Genki it's to confront your fear and not let it control you." Tiger smirked at this,

"Very well said Holly. I'm glad you learned from him like the rest of us have." She smiled to her monster as he looked on proudly. She knew he was very happy that she had the courage to try to face her fears. I wasn't something that came easily to her, not after some of the tragic things that occurred in her life. But she was stubborn enough to not want her fear to hold her back.

---

After a few more minutes walking Tiger perked up suddenly and started to growl.

"Come out! I know you're there." they heard chuckling as a group of bandits came out of hiding.

"Not bad wolfy but it won't stop our plans regardless."

"Oh? And what plans are those?" Hare asked getting ready for a fight. Holly had her hand on her dagger while Colt was ready to draw her weapon as well.

"Give us all your money and no one gets hurt."

"How about you leave before one of you gets hurt." Tiger challenged back with a punctual growl, his horns lighting up with sparks. Several of the bandits stepped back but the leader just frowned. It was obvious he had thought this was an easy attack. He knew now this was not easy prey he was after. After a few tense moments, the leader decided to attack anyway.

"Guess we do this the hard way. Get them boys!" he and his group charged forward. Tiger wiped out 3 at once including the leader. Hare took out two while Holly and Colt worked as a team dealing with three others. The leader recovered and decided to go after one of the ladies, hoping to get a hostage. He ran at Holly who dodged him with practiced easy. She squared off against him as Colt took out his allies with the energy gun she carried. Holly's blade clashed with the leader's large heavy one, over and over, until he made a mistake. He lunged forward and Holly dodged. Soon the leader froze, he looked down and found Holly's blade embedded in his abdomen. Holly pulled back, jumping to the side before he could attack again. She tried to ignore the blood on her weapon as she waited for his next move; he lunged one last time slamming his blade into hers as she blocked him. Both blades breaking on impact, neither able to take anymore punishment. Colt stepped to the side and fired killing the leader, as soon as he fell the other bandits fled. After everyone had a chance to catch their breath Tiger walked over to Holly.

"You alright Holly?" She nodded to him still panting,

"Yeah, I'm fine. My dagger isn't though." Hare had picked up the front half of her blade, wiping it off on the grass he handed it back to her.

"We can see about getting a new one or fixing this one." Hare offered, though he planned to mention this to Genki, hoping he might be able to get her a stronger blade.

Holly took the pieces and placed them back in the sheath with a sigh. Blades weren't cheap; she just hoped it wouldn't strain their funds too much. They continued on their way home hoping for no more surprises.

---

The next day was pretty easy on Genki and his team. Recording the functions of the machine was an easy and straight forward task. Genki was left in charge of editing the footage after they finished. As he worked on that, his team worked on getting master copies of all the software burnt to flash drives. Desu walked over to Genki's desk watching the young man work.

"I know you're excited to finish this project but you don't have the rush the editing." Genki paused and looked at Desu with a playful smile,

"I know but I want to get this finished before the end of the day."

"Any reason why?" Desu probed now intrigued,

"I figured it would give our client more time to look it over and decide if they want an in person demonstration or not. Plus it gives us more warning if they want that second contract started or not."

"I wasn't aware you know of the possible second contract." His boss raised an eye brow at him,

"Oh Saito mentioned it in his email to me." His boss just sighed and shook his head,

"It figures he'd do something like that. Anyway, that all depends on if they like our work. Based on what I saw earlier they should like how the machine runs." Genki nodded with a smile, "You've done very well considering all that's happened. I'm leaving you in charge of any future projects we have." Genki's expression changed to surprise at this news, "And I'm giving you a pay raise… for having to overcome so much adversity."

"You serious?" Genki could hardly believe his ears.

"Yes, I'm raising you up to Saito's pay level."

"Wow… thanks boss. I never expected a raise like that."

"You've more than earned it." He smiled to Genki, "since you'll be done with that today. I'm giving you and your team administrative leave for tomorrow." Genki gave his boss a suspicious look.

"Not saying I don't appreciate it but are you feeling alright? I haven't heard of you ever giving anyone administrative leave before." Desu laughed at the young man as he received another suspicious glance.

"Oh I'm feeling fine Genki, don't worry. Your team has been through a lot and I want to make it up to everyone involved. I never should have allowed such animosity to grow within the teams of the company. It hurt everyone, not just those involved. I think you all have earned a little break, besides I'd like you to take it easy for a day. I am still concerned about your arm, and I know I'm not alone on that." Genki slowly smiled at his boss then nodded,

"I'm aware of their concerns yes. Though I appreciate that they are worried about me, I am fine really. I've had some pretty bad injuries before, I know how to cope with them and still get some work done safely." it was Desu's turn to be giving disbelieving looks,

"I have heard of your… extracurricular activities. You and Saito are like two peas on a pod I swear. Regardless, take tomorrow off. I insist." Genki nodded,

"Alright, thank you sir." Genki smiled to his boss, he then saw his boss nod and walk away to tell the others of their good fortune. Genki turned back to the screen, looking over what he was doing and then resuming the editing process. All the while thinking * Man, what a lucky break. I never thought I'd get a promotion, pay raise, and leave all in one day. Now what should I do tomorrow? I mean I still need to drop by the forge but after that… maybe I could actually play some games for once. I rarely get to do that much anymore. *

---

By the time the day ended Genki was more than ready for a day off. He had indeed finished the video and sent it off to the client. He just hoped it was to their liking so that his team could relax for a bit. He took a copy of the video and placed it on his thumb drive, this he would edit in a different way so his friends could see how the machine functions once he got home. On his way out he was stopped by Rika, her expression told him that she was very worried about him. She glanced at his arm then back to his eyes.

"Genki… are you sure you should be working so much?"

"I'm fine Rika, nothing we do here normally will stress my arm." She nodded, she then did something he hadn't expected, and she embraced him. "Rika?" he asked gently as he awkwardly held her. She didn't answer right away, but when she did he understood she felt more for him then he first realized.

"Genki… I was so worried you'd die when you protected her…. I don't even understand why you protected her…. Or why you saved her job! She was reckless…. She didn't deserve your kindness after what she had done to you! So why? Why save someone who only showed you disrespect and threw vitriol at you?" Genki held her a moment before responding.

"I know you may not understand but showing kindness to people who hurt you is a way of correcting them. Perhaps they don't deserve it. It takes real strength to show your enemy the correct path instead of writing them off as a lost cause. I'm not someone who gives up on others so easily. Besides you know as well as I do that she can program just fine, that was never an issue." Rika was silent a moment before asking her next question.

"You like her don't you? Is it because of how she wanted to repay you?" Genki looked shocked now.

* So she overheard that huh? Well this makes things awkward. * Before he could respond she suddenly pulled back.

"I can give you the same as her. I'm more than willing to bed you if it'll make you happy." Genki had only a moment to register what she was doing before she forcefully kissed him. He hadn't realized how desperate for his love she truly was. He pushed her back, ending the kiss and staring her directly in the eyes.

"Rika stop, I'm sorry but I don't feel for you that way. Nor do I like Kasumi that way either. She is coworker nothing more. If you had been listening you would know I turned her down on her offer."

"You didn't take her up on her offer?"

"No, I didn't." Rika seemed confused now; she wasn't sure what to do now that he had rejected her. "Look I know you care about me. I'm flattered really but you're just not my type. You'll find someone better than me; just don't throw yourself at them. It's not very becoming of a lady such as yourself." Genki gave her a pat on the shoulder before he left the building; he wasn't sure what else to do. Things in his team had just gotten every complicated.

* I'll have to be very cautious from now on. I don't want that happening again. Seriously, why are women always doing that around me… it's very annoying. * Genki wasn't a fool, he knew he was good looking but in his mind that didn't excuse such behavior. He sighed as he made his way home. * Yet… the one woman I really want to be with…. Doesn't want to try the long distance thing…this fucking sucks.*

---

Once he arrived home he fed his kitty and got a snack. He knew he had gotten home early so he would wait till his friends were ready. He sat down and decided to plan out his day off. He knew he needed to get the ring for his dad, get the gold weighed and tested, calculate an exchange rate, and then make up a list of possible non-perishable items for his friends. Then there was making his dessert for the festival. * hmmm… what should I make? Nothing too complex since my arm hurts enough as is… but it needs to be good. * he wracked his brain for a bit before it occurred to him that there was one thing that would be both easy and delicious. * That's it! I'll make Mushi Pan, I think both matcha and chocolate will work. Though I may have to tell them what matcha actually is. Shouldn't be hard, after all I helped mom make them all the time when I was young. * Now that he knew his plan he went to look for the recipe; finding he needed only two ingredients he wrote them on his to do list. As he finished up his list he heard Hare calling him. He transferred the call to his watch again, "Yeah I'm here Hare."

"Hey Genki, before Holly comes across I got a favor to ask."

"What is it Hare?"

"Well yesterday on the way home we ran into a bit of an issue. Some bandits attacked, we fended them off but Holly's dagger broke in the process. Do you think that lady friend of yours could repair it?" Genki's face held a look of shock, * Bandits? Since when are there bandits doing raids? *

"I'm not sure, but I can certainly have her take a look at it. We'll need all the pieces though."

"Ok, I'll make sure she brings them." Genki was still recovering from his surprise,

"Hare, tell Holly to be ready for a hard landing. The portal tends to throw you out of it. I put down some padding but I want her to expect what it'll do. The color will change to a dull gray just before you hit the end of the tunnel. That'd be when you should expect to pop out of the portal."

"Alright I'll tell her. Thanks for being willing to help Genki."

"I'll always help you guys when I can Hare." He heard Hare leave, Genki started his timer. He'd get the portal ready in 8 minutes on his side. It usually took 10 minutes for them to arrive at the shrine, and he doubted Holly would just hop through. * I just hope this isn't too stressful on her. I know she's terrified of this... *

Back in the monster world both Hare and Tiger were escorting Holly to the shrine. Tiger could smell her fear but said nothing to her. Instead he hovered close by her to make sure she felt his presence. As they walked, Hare decided to talk with Holly about what Genki had said.

"Holly, I was told some information about the portal for you. Genki told me to expect a hard landing on the other side. Apparently he has some padding but he wanted you to know the portal throws you out at the end. He said you'll see a color shift to dull gray just before you hit the end of the portal." Holly looked over at him with mixed feelings but nodded,

"I'll look for it then. I'm still not sure why you asked his help with my blade though."

"I figured his black smith friend might be able to help. That's assuming it's repairable." She nodded, she hadn't really thought of that. As they drew closer to the shrine the knot in her stomach became worse. She was putting on a brave front but Tiger realized she was terrified.

"Holly, are you sure you don't want me to go first?" Holly looked over at him startled.

"No, Tiger I'll be fine." He frowned, her stubborn side was kicking in but she was still afraid. He sighed, as he walked with her up to the pedestal. Soon Hare powered up the shrine and Holly walked to the platform. They both could tell she was terrified; she glanced back at Hare and nodded. Hare returned her nod.

"Unlock!"

---

Genki on his side could see just how scared she was, he could tell she was shaking as she walked up to the platform. "Holly…" He saw them exchange nods, soon he punched the button in time with Hare's unlock opening the gate. He moved to the side to make sure he'd be out of Holly's way. To his surprise Holly soon came flying out of the TV onto the floor. She managed to land on her hands and knees, the large yoga mat he'd put down taking the impact. Once she was there, he put his controller down and walked to her side. "You alright, Holly?" She looked around confused then saw him. He could still see the fear in her eyes. He knelt down and pulled her into a hug. Holly's dam of emotions broke and she sobbed into his chest as he held her. He could still feel her shaking, resolving to just hold her till she was alright; he shifted to sit down. It took Holly a good 5 minutes to calm down all the way.

"Thank you Genki…" her voice was just above a whisper as it came to his ears.

"You're very welcome, you feeling better now?" his voice equally as soft, holding concern for her.

"Yes, I'm fine… Sorry about that…"

"There's no need to apologize, I understand Holly." He pulled back to look into her eyes. He smiled and gently wiped some of her tears away with his hand. "Think you can stand?" she nodded, letting go of him she got up. He rose as well, he then indicated for her to follow him. She did so as she looked around his home.

"So the portal is right in your home?"

"It opens here, yes" he arrived in the kitchen, she noticed his receiver nearby. Genki had cleaned up some before she had arrived. He also made so tea as evident by the tea set sitting on the counter. Holly had to admit he had a nice home, it was definitely a lot different than anything she had seen before.

"HEY GENKI!" Genki and Holly both covered their ears at a sudden scream coming from the receiver. Genki walked to the device and activated it. Though he would normally use his watch, he knew Holly might want to talk with them as well.

"Suezo! How many times have I told you not to scream into the receiver?!"

"IS HOLLY ALRIGHT!" they both cringed and covered their ears again.

"Someone get him away from the device please before we go deaf!" He heard some commotion then heard Granity's voice.

"We got him."

"Thank Kami, Holly made it here just fine." He indicated for her to talk with them for a moment.

"I'm here guys, safe and sound."

"We're glad to hear it. Sorry about Suezo."

"It's fine Granity I know he worries about me."

"So how was it." Holly glanced over to see Genki pouring some tea and setting it on the table. She noticed his medical kit nearby now as well.

"Strange… kind felt like I was falling most of the time. Though I couldn't tell what direction I was going. It's rather disorienting honestly. But I was able to tell when I would drop out the other side, thanks to Genki's instructions."

"That's good, we'll let you go. Let us know when you want to come back and we'll have someone waiting."

"I will. Thank guys." With that Holly turn the microphone off. She walked to the table Genki was sitting at and took a seat.

"Have some tea, I figured it might help you relax. I know you were terrified. I'm honestly surprised you wanted to jump across, I never expected you to ask." Holly could tell by his expression he was worried about her.

"I was scared yes, but I wanted to face my fear so I could help you." She took a sip of her tea, enjoying the flavor. It was a light tea containing a lot of floral notes. "What is this?" she asked while taking another sip. It was definitely helping her to relax after such a scary experience.

"It's a white jasmine tea, which is a mixture of oolong and jasmine together." Holly wasn't sure what oolong was but she was enjoying her tea anyway.

"Well it's very good. Thank you for being so considerate." He smiled and nodded,

"Holly, I was told by Hare that you guys were attacked yesterday." She sighed,

"Yes, unfortunately we were. We were able to fend them off. I… was forced to severely wound the leader. Colt killed him, but he would have died regardless. My dagger broke during the fight, I'm just lucky Colt was there." She noticed he seemed even more worried about her now.

"Are bandits common now?"

"No, they are around but not common. Some villages in our area have reported attacks recently." He nodded then asked his next question,

"So what caused your dagger to break?"

"My blade and his were clashing… both blades broke actually…. When I blocked one of his strikes."

"Really? That's odd, though extremely fortunate from the sounds of it." Holly nodded in agreement; she knew she had been extremely lucky. Holly reached into her bag and pulled out the weapon in question. Genki set his tea down and began to look it over. Holly watched him, though she was uncertain of what he was looking for.

"Hey, you there Genki?" Hare's voice came through, startling the two. Genki rolled his eyes; he then lifted his arm and tapped on his watch. Holly noticed the lights flash then change on his receiver.

"Yes, Hare what is it?"

"I was wondering if you knew if your friend could forge a blade that size?" Holly looked startled to hear the voice coming from Genki's watch now.

"You mean a dagger? Yeah she does swords and armor even, though not as many." He heard a sigh of relief on the other sigh, which made Holly raise a brow.

"Hare is there a reason you are asking?" Holly spoke hoping they could hear her like she believed they could.

"I was just making sure we could get you a replacement Holly. So did you're trip across go well?"

"Yes, it was fine Hare, though strange."

"I'm glad." While Hare and Holly had been chatting Genki had been looking over the grain structure of the blade.

"Hare… I highly doubt this can be repaired. I may not be a smith but I have seen failed forgings before. Akame teaches a class on how to forge. If I recall what she told me correctly, this blades quench was botched."

"What do you mean?" He heard Granity ask, apparently the others were nearby as well.

"Well, the grain structure in the section that broke is enlarged. This means it was too hot when they were trying to harden the blade. In this state it becomes fragile; I'm also seeing an incomplete temper. Part of the blade chipped but part has rolling. Not all of this had hardened. But more troubling is the base of the blade where it broke. Not only was the grain enlarged but I'm seeing a clear delamination point. Whoever did this really needs to work on their skill."

"What's a delamination?" Tiger asked gruffly,

"It's a point where the metal didn't fuse to itself. Most billets are foraged from many pieces of metal, that metal is laminated together to become one solid piece. However, if you aren't careful scale can build up in between the layers and form a cold shut. This can cause delamination where the metal peels away from itself. Sometimes these are easy to spot others like this one are buried in the middle. But they are always a weak point in the metal. This was more of a when was it going to break than and if." Holly had looked intrigued as he spoke, he handed it to her so she could look it over. "It's not repairable but I can get another one made for you." He spoke to her now; she had seen the weird coloring in the blade but hadn't realized it was a problem until now.

"Thank you Genki."

"Well kid, you always seem to surprise me."

"Why is that Tiger?"

"You know so much on so many subjects. I swear there's nothing you don't know." Genki chuckled at this.

"Now you're exaggerating Tiger. There are many things I don't know. I just research things I have an interest in."

"Oh, you and I should totally date; we have so much in common!" Colt's voice burst through the speaker. Genki's eyes widened a moment before he sighed, his hand moving to pinch the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes. He spoke as evenly as he could to her despite how he felt right now.

"Colt, I have been through this with you before. My answer has not changed."

"Aww…" Colt pouted off to the side now. "But you never even gave me a chance…"

"Colt, seriously you are not my type. We have shared interests yes but that alone does not make for a good relationship."

"And why wouldn't it? I thought lovers were also best friends!" Genki looked like he was weighing his words. Holly had decided to remain silent and merely wait to see how he answered. She wasn't exactly sure what he viewed as a health relationship.

"Often times they are best friends yes, but that isn't the only thing that matters. My parents for example share very little in common interest wise but their personalities complement each other perfectly."

"Wait so they don't have much in common?" Genki snorted now at her confusion,

"Not at all. But they will do things for each other despite not sharing the interest. It's a give and take between them."

"I still don't see why you won't date me; I think we are perfect for each other." Genki sighed; he now realized he would have to be blunter. He glanced to Holly who seemed to be waiting for his reply.

"Colt whether you realize it or not our personalities clash. That is the reason I won't date you, I can tolerate you as a friend; but living with you would be a whole other matter." Holly noticed by his expression that he didn't want to be mean but couldn't find any other way of conveying it to her. "Colt you need to find someone who loves you for who you are. Don't try to change to meet what they want. True love doesn't demand change." He noticed Colt hadn't said anything; he chanced a glance to Holly who looked a bit surprised and worried. He heard Tiger clear his throat,

"Genki you really are something else... We'll let you go. I'm sure you'll find a suitable blade for Holly. Just call us when she's ready to return." He heard them shut of the microphone.

---

He sat quietly a moment before sighing.

"Holly… I hope you realize I didn't want to hurt her."

"I know. I can tell this was stressing you out." she noted he wouldn't meet her gaze right now. He seemed upset but she wasn't sure why.

"She may need someone to comfort her when you get back… I'm not sure how she'll handle this." Holly reached over and took his hand,

"Don't worry about that, I will help her if she needs it." she decided he needed to share some of his burden. It was obvious he wasn't handling this well. "Genki, I know you're upset. I'm willing to listen if you need to talk to someone." Genki smiled slightly,

"I should have known you'd notice…" he finally looked up at her again. As she met his gaze she realized there was pain in his eyes. She wasn't sure if it was physical or emotional and that bother her a great deal. "I'm not even sure how to explain… I've never been good with emotions." she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze,

"Just tell me what you think is important." she was well aware that he had issues expressing things like emotions. It was something she had noticed early in their friendship.

"Well it just seems that every time someone decides to hit on me it's for the wrong reasons. I already had an issue today with a coworker over this same thing. I've known for a while that she likes me and I've done my best not to respond to any of her advances. Wasn't enough to discourage her though, so I had to confront her today." Holly probed a bit now,

"What are the wrong reasons Genki?"

"My looks for one. I know I'm attractive, I'm not stupid but still that alone should not determine a relationship. Colt at least sees more than my looks but she's still not taking personality or compatibility into account." he sighed heavily and closed his eyes. "At least she hasn't tried to throw herself at me yet…. And hopefully won't now." Holly was confused, * does that mean what I think it does? *

"Genki what do you mean by "throw herself at you"?" She heard him sigh again,

"Rika offered to bed me earlier. I told her no; she had made an assumption that was what I wanted. She actually had managed to surprise me, pinned me to the wall and kissed me. It makes things very complicated for my team now. I'm not sure what the ramifications will be now that I turned her down. I'm hoping she will still be OK working with the others, I'll just be keeping my distance." Holly's face held shock; she had never imagined someone would offer that or practically jump him.

"Why would she assume you wanted that?" Holly's voice held confusion; she hoped he hadn't been soliciting such activities.

"She apparently overheard Kasumi and I speaking. It was when Kasumi offered to pay me back. She didn't hear the whole conversation though. Kasumi had offered to sleep with me for the trouble she caused but I had refused her offer. Honestly it's getting very annoying at this point. I'm sure Rika won't be the last, it's something I've had to deal with for a while now." Genki sounded exasperated; Holly now understood he hadn't slept with any of them. They were bothering him with how they were acting though. * I'm a little surprised… a lot of men would have taken advantage of that… but then he has never been like most others. *

"I'm assuming this is why you've remained single all this time?"

"It's one of the reasons yes… not the only one." her brow furrowed as she tried to piece together what he told her. * Well it makes sense, and he is very smart when it comes to these things. But what other reasons could he have… don't tell me he's still hung up on me? I thought we agreed to move on… though can I really talk when I'm single? *

"Genki… what other reasons are there for you being single?" Genki shook his head now; he pulled his hand away and stood up walking to the sink. He had grabbed the tea pot on his way and was refilling it.

"It doesn't matter Holly. This isn't your burden to bear; you have your own problems to deal with when it comes to that." The fact that he was refusing to talk to her about this startled her. She had never seen him reject her help in this way. * He is still hurting… * Genki placed the pot on his stove and turned it on. Holly looked confused when he turned around. "It has a striker built in to light the gas." was all he said. She sighed, deciding to change the subject for a while. Perhaps once he calmed down she could speak more about this with him.

"Genki I need to cleanse your wound or it won't heal properly."

"I know." He brought a bowl of warm water from the tap to the table with a cloth. Holly nodded her understanding the moved to grab his medical kit. Genki took his seat again, knowing he'd need it while he dealt with his emotions. He hated shutting her out but she had been clear before that she wouldn't budge on her decision. Holly disinfected her hands then slowly began unwrapping his bandage. When she finished she heard him hiss in pain and could see his hand clenching on the table. She carefully picked up the cloth soaked in warm water and began to clean his wound. He couldn't help the groan of pain that came from him; this pain was beyond anything he had dealt with before. Holly was as careful as she could be but focused on cleansing his wound. She knew it had to be done otherwise it wouldn't heal right. Genki somehow managed to remain silent for the most part during the ordeal. Holly patted his wound dry and gave him a few minutes before she'd add the ointment.

"Genki do you know if this ointment has a pain reliever in it?" it took him a moment to recover enough to respond.

"To my knowledge it only relieves the burning sensation. Don't worry I have a pill I can take to relieve the rest." Holly carefully applied the ointment, knowing this was extremely painful for him. It was hard for her to see him in this much pain, especially with how severe his wound was. After she finished she cleaned her hands while he dealt with his pain. It seemed to take him awhile to recover, when he finally opened his eyes he could see how worried she was about him.

"Genki… Are you sure a doctor shouldn't be attending your wound? I didn't even realize how severe it truly was until after I cleaned it."

"I'm sure Holly. I asked the doctor at the hospital and he said it'd be fine if I take care of it at home. He told me it'd look really bad for a while, it'll probably leave a nasty scar as well."

"I can see it leaving a scar, yes. It's too large to heal without scarring." She had prepped up the bandage as they spoke and was now wrapping his arm. She remained as gentle as she could but kept the bandage firm in her hands. Once done she put the items back in his kit.

---

Genki walked to a cupboard and grabbed a small bottle out of it. Opening it he took two pills out of it; he then threw them in his mouth and downed them with a glass of water. He placed the bottle back in the cupboard before grabbing the tea pot off of the stove. He brought it over to the table and poured them both another cup. "That was your pain medication?"

"Yeah, it'll take it a little while to kick in. It seems to work though." Holly took a seat again. Genki decided to see what kind of blade Holly preferred.

"As far as getting you a new blade goes I'll need to know if you want the same style of blade again or one more akin to your fathers blade." Holly looked at him confused,

"Wouldn't something like my fathers be more expensive?"

"I doubt it, unless it has the ornamentation your father's does. I know you usually don't like anything that flashy though." Holly smiled,

"I would prefer a curved blade like his yes."

"Alright I'll make sure we get you one then. Was that style of handle ok or do you prefer the style the broken blade has?"

"The grip on my blade has always felt better." He nodded,

"Alright, we'll go with that hilt then." She noticed that he seemed to be trying to distract himself for the pain. Deciding to give him another distraction she brought up a new topic.

"Genki, you mentioned before that you might be able to tell us more about the ancient ruins?"

"Yeah I might be able to; I need to be able to see them to know more about them."

"You could always join Colt and I on an expedition some time. I know she'd love the help in understanding the ancient's technology." He smiled,

"I will have to do that sometime though I'd like to give her time to deal with things first." Holly nodded in understanding of what he meant.

"You're still planning on coming to the festival right?"

"I am yes, and before you ask, yes I'm still bringing her that gift. I don't go back on my word, you know that." Holly smiled,

"Yes, I know and I'm glad you still have it in you to do this." Genki was about to ask why when his phone went off. He glanced to where it was charging, standing he went over to it. His intention was to silence the call but the number caught his attention.

"What the hell? Why is she calling at this time of night?"

"Who?"

"My sister…" He decided to answer it, hoping no one had died or anything. He glanced at Holly, she was nodding to him and telling him to answer it.

["Yeah what is it sis?"]

["Well that's a rude way to answer your phone."]

["Look I have company over, can we make this quick."] He heard her sigh,

["Genki something is up with mom, I don't know if you have talked to her recently but she's upset over something. She refuses to talk to me or Kai. We both tried. Dad's still out of town and I can't get him on the phone."] Genki had received a text form his father earlier that night so he knew he was fine. His mother hadn't sent him anything in a week though. Now that he thought of it, she had been acting odd lately.

["I'll call her, dad's fine he texted me a few hours ago. He's probably just sleeping. Besides it's not like you usually call unless you want something."]

["Shut it! I'm not that bad. Seriously I'm trying to help; I just don't have much time. Things are rough now."] He rolled his eyes, ["I don't understand why she won't talk to me about anything anymore. It's like she hates me or something."] Genki's expression changed just then, Holly could tell whatever was being said was riling him back up.

["Are you fucking serious right now? You don't know why?"] Genki was gritting his teeth trying not to raise his voice.

["Yes I'm serious."]

["You have never been there for her! You never answer her calls! Why would she open up to you?" ]

["Cause I'm her daughter that's why. She should tell me things so I can help too. You don't get to be the hero all the time."]

["This isn't about being a 'hero' sis. It's about whom she feels comfortable talking to."]

["Yeah but you're a guy."]

["So what?"]

["Somethings guys just don't get. She really needs a woman to talk to. I'm a well-seasoned lady I think I can handle anything she has going."]

It was at this point Genki lost it, his anger had been building this whole time and he could take no more. He slammed his fist into the counter startling Holly who was now concerned about his wound. He had just done that stunt with his injured arm. But what had shocked her more was the anger in his eyes and face. What had his sister done to anger him so? * I haven't seen him this angry in a long time. What did she say to him? *

["What would a whore like you know about being a lady?! You have never been there for mom, not even when she needed you most! She no longer trusts you, especially after all the promises you have broken and the things you said to her!"] Genki's voice was raised a lot louder then he normally would speak to anyone. He could hear her gasp and sputter on the other side of the line. ["I've had enough of your feigned innocence. You think I don't know about all the sleeping around you've been doing? You think I don't know about the crimes you've been committing?! You are a fool if you think the rest of us are OK with what you have done!"] Genki gritted his teeth and closed his eyes a moment trying to regain his composure.

["Brother… I…"]

["Enough lies Rei"] she seemed to sigh in defeat now. ["I will speak with mom in the morning… don't call me again until you're ready to tell the truth."] With that he hung up on her, he was still fuming but he had reigned it in a bit. His arm hurt pretty bad after punch the counter top but he would ignore that. He placed his phone back on the charge and leaned on the counter, his head on his hands as he tried to deal with everything that just happened.

Holly rose and walked over to him, she didn't say a word she just gently began to rub his back, hoping to sooth him in some way. It took a few minutes before he was able to respond.

"Thank you Holly. I'm sorry about that… my sister is the problem child of the family… we don't have a good relationship." His voice was soft, but she heard it.

"It's ok Genki… if I'm in the way..." she didn't get to finish that sentence before he turned to her,

"No, you're not interfering in anything, and you're certainly not in the way." He held her gaze; she could see he was firm on this topic. "I'm glad you came here, Holly. I know it seems like a rough night for me, but I do enjoy you're company I always have." Holly could see he meant every word he said and smiled in response.

"I'm glad I can help you in some way. You've done so much for us."

"You don't need to feel that you have to pay me back. I have never asked for or wanted anything in return."

"I know but, like you, I enjoy helping others." He nodded; he seemed to be lost in thought a moment before he spoke again.

"I don't want to tie up your day with my nonsense…" he trailed off, Holly smiled knowingly; this was his way of asking for help. He didn't want to burden her it was obvious.

"My day is free today; I took care of most of my chores yesterday. There's no reason for you to worry about that." He gave her a suspicious look for a moment then nodded.

"Then if you don't mind, why don't we head into the living room and I'll tell you what that was all about. I know you are worried about me… and honestly I could use the company right now."

"I'll gladly listen if you need to talk it out Genki. You know that. It's never a burden for me to help you with your problems." he smiled gently then moved to show her into the living room. He hissed slightly when he moved his left arm but seemed to ignore it after the initial movement he made. Holly wondered if he had re injured himself after punching the counter top like that, but decided not to bring it up at the moment. She had seen the anger in his eyes still, whatever was said on the phone had him extremely upset again. * Well I doubt I'll be able to fish the other thing I wanted to talk to him about out of him today. He is way too high strung now. Though I must say I never imagined he would have such a strained relationship with his sister. I wonder if that's why he never mentioned her or his brother before… * She followed him to the living room ready to help him bare his burdens.

AAN: I decided to break this giant chapter up, next part should be up soon. Enjoy Guys!