"All right then! I'll let you look up to me!"

Match won, Jenet turned on her heel and headed for the stairs. The view was nice, but she had more opponents to fight on the way to all the lovely treasure! Best to get a quick start!

"R-Really? Wait!"

Jenet turned around more out of curiosity than anything else. Her recent opponent was picking herself up off the ground - with great care and delicacy, true - but she was already on her feet and swaying gently. That was way faster than most people Jenet knocked down! Well, she could hang around for a bit longer.

"Huh? What's up, toots?"

"It's just...you seem so cheerful and confident all the time. I'd like...I'd like some tips, please!"

Oh, the poor dear! Looking at her as a girl and not an opponent showed someone young and cute, but shy. She'd been pasting a smile on earlier, but looking into the girl's wide eyes now made Jenet remember the cracks around the mask. She'd known a lot of girls like that back home. Empty-eyed little things that just did what they were told...not becoming one of those was why she'd run away.

Well she could help with that, or she wasn't the leader of the Lillen Knights!

"Of course! Well, the first rule to getting confidence - is to act confident!"

The girl's face fell.

"No no, it's true!" Jenet hastened to explain. "Just hold your head high. Like this." She demonstrated with her natural poise. "Chin up, chest out like you're going to take on the world! Come on, do it with me, there's a girl!" The girl obediently stood up straight and raised her chin, though the chest out...well, she was young yet. Those things had a way of taking care of themselves. "Don't hide your arms behind your back. Cross them if you have to, but on your hips is better. And then...walk like you're not afraid of anything. Like anything out there should be afraid of you!"

The girl took a few hesitant steps forward, but Jenet was pretty sure most of the problem was leftover from the fight. If she'd known, she would've gone a little easier on the girl...though thinking about it, going easy might've cost her the fight. The girl might be shy, but she packed a punch. That would probably help with the walk later. It was nice when everything worked out!

"...is that all?" the girl asked.

"It's the start!" Jenet rested her hand on her hip and considered. Shy, pasting on a smile...but a driven and skilled fighter. The real problem there was the shyness...or whatever it was. The girl was meeting Jenet's eyes with no problem, but there was something in there she just couldn't catch. "You just have to do it all the time, okay? Make it a policy to never back down, never stutter, and always speak your mind!"

"O...oh... Er, I'll try! Thank you!"

"Hm...what do you say to having some fun? Put all this into practice?" It might be a little underhanded, but Jenet was a pirate. Her mother had sworn by yoga and healthy eating for getting in touch with her true self, while Jenet had just never hidden it away in the first place. But Jenet had welcomed more than one shy, retiring young crewman into the Lillen Knights, and she knew one thing for sure.

There was nothing like a drink for breaking down barriers!

"Fun?" The girl blinked at her, then cast her eyes down. "That...I should be looking for someone..."

"Hey! What did I just say? Eyes forward! Speak up! Tell me clearly!"

"Ah!" The girl raised her chin and looked Jenet straight in the eye. "I'm looking for someone. I appreciate the offer, but-"

"No problem!" Jenet cut her off without a second thought. "We'll be going out with my crew! With all the boys keeping an eye out and hitting every bar in town, if the person you're looking for is here, we'll find them!"

The girl didn't seem to know how to react to that one. "Ah...wait, bars? I can't drink yet! I'm 16!"

"Don't worry, you can stick to beer and wine," Jenet said as she swept a friendly arm around the girl's shoulders. "Besides, our party pooping old man - Jacques, I'll introduce you - won't let you get too drunk. So come on! Have some fun! Live a little! Life's too short to be sad!"

"I don't think he'd be in bars...oh...oh fine! I'll come!" The girl was managing to keep up with Jenet's stride, which was pretty impressive. They were galloping down the stairs together and Jenet could already taste the rum she was going to have.

"Great! And if we don't find him here, you can join my crew! There's no life like the Lillen Knights!"

"W-what?!"

oooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooo

Gato was not sulking.

He paced the filthy streets of Second Southtown alone with his thoughts, cursing his failure and inadequacy, but that wasn't sulking. Merely recognizing the vagaries of fate.

He had come here to hone his skills and find the trail of his father in this world-class fighting tournament, and all he'd done was get knocked out by some skinny little punk that had the temerity to preach to him afterward. "You can't live by hate alone"? Nonsense. Gato had been living by hate for the past six years and it hadn't led him wrong yet. The hate made him, propelled him forward on his lonely road, gave form and function to his life. And it was by that hate that he'd achieve his goals. If not today, then tomorrow, or next month...however long it took to bring that bastard down.

He was stalking down the piss-soaked alley, listening to the rumble of the train and the whistle of the wind when he felt it. A dark presence, lurking nearby...not his quarry, but what did that matter? Beating a fool into the dirt would ease the shame of his failure. Gato stepped into the shadow of the underpass, ready for anything.

"That-That'sh him! My brother! Broooooooootheeeeeeeeeeeeer!"

Gato spun around, the familiar voice cutting into his dead heart, yet- strange. Hotaru wasn't that loud. Wasn't she?

The figure stumbling towards him was bigger than the Hotaru he remembered, but that was no surprise. What was a surprise was her dress, her attitude, her company...and the fact she absolutely reeked of alcohol.

"Brother! I misshed you scho much! Thiiiiiiiis much!" The figure - it couldn't be Hotaru, it just couldn't be - reached him, arms spread out wide. Her face was flushed a cherry red and she was swaying on her feet. The loose-fitting martial arts clothes he remembered had been replaced with- with scraps and rags. She was barely covered by a ragged old shirt that showed off her stomach, an equally ratty pair of pants cut off well above the knee, and a loose belt with - was that a knife?

"That's him? Great! I told you, didn't I? I did!" Some blonde woman ran up and grabbed Hotaru around the waist, spinning the pair around in a drunken dance. She was only slightly better dressed, but smelled even more strongly of alcohol.

"You did!" Hotaru was laughing and crying. "Brother! Come home with me!"

"Later! Right now, more booze! We gotta celebrate! Yahoo!" A chorus of cheers erupted from the crowd of seedy-looking men behind the pair of women, complete with wild barking from a mangy-looking dog. The women started cheering too.

Gato had no idea what to do.

His mother had told him, long ago, that it was his duty to protect Hotaru. He was older, he was the brother, it was up to him to look after her. He took that duty very seriously, and therefore had cut off all contact when he realised the path he had to take. The safest place for Hotaru was far away from the man he had become.

Except now she was drunk, in disreputable company, and he did not like the way the blonde woman was hugging his sister.

The dark presence stirred. Thank the heavens. This was something he could handle.

"All of you, leave. This does not concern you." He'd defeat the presence...and then quietly take care of the fools around Hotaru. Simple. An assassin's art was exactly what the situation called for.

Until the blonde woman rushed forward, yelling. "Who's there? You got something to say, you come out and say it!"

And then Hotaru grabbed him, nearly bringing them both down. "Wait, brother! Don't...don't go! You gotta schtay!"

The men were cheering the woman on, the woman was getting ready to fight Gato's prey, and Hotaru was crying into his shoulder with the free tears of a drunkard.

How had he gotten into this mess?