"Anija, please," complains Genji. "Think of it as a birthday gift. I turn sixteen tomorrow, have you forgotten?"
Fifteen-year-old Genji frowns at Hanzo Shimada. Eighteen-year-old Hanzo Shimada frowns right back.
"You think of going to festivals while our father is not well?" Hanzo raises the cup of tea to his lips, takes a long drink. His tone isn't accusatory, merely exasperated. Genji reckons that he may have a chance.
"It'll be fun, I swear," he insists. "Besides, Father gets sick all the time. And he always gets better, in the end." He shifts slightly; the jeans that he's wearing are a little too tight to kneel comfortably in. "If you let me go to the festival, I won't throw a huge party like I usually do. Okay?"
In sharp contrast to Genji's decidedly casual wear, Hanzo is outfitted in a new kimono, all sharp angles and creases. The boy's eyes flick unapprovingly from Genji's Nirvana t-shirt to the spikes of his green hair.
"Fun," he articulates dryly, as if he's never spoken the word before. "You think of having 'fun' while you should be currying favor with the elders. You realize how heavily they dislike your more recent… actions?"
"'My actions'? My, my, what crime have I committed?" Genji crosses his arms, resentment bubbling behind his (sort of) calm exterior. "I've done nothing but act my age. Going to the festival, it's- it's completely normal for me. For us."
"To act your age would be to listen to Uncle Takeshi when he speaks, to show up during the meetings, and to help run the Shimada clan!" snaps Hanzo, temper flaring. He sets down his cup of tea brusquely, which was, if he were any other boy, akin to flipping a table. "As you have stated, you turn sixteen tomorrow. You are not a child anymore."
He's had enough. "Yes, I will turn sixteen, and I am a child!" yells Genji. He swipes at the table, sending the cup of tea flying. Hanzo's gaze remains unflinching as it shatters on the floor, spraying them both with hot flecks of water. "And maybe you're not a child, not anymore- but you're still my older brother. No, wait-"
Genji stands abruptly, glares down at Hanzo. "You're not my older brother anymore, are you? You've become Shimada-dono, head of the Shimada clan, while I have remained as Genji."
He injects as much sarcasm into the sentence as he can, blindly trying (and failing) to tear down Hanzo's calm expression- to hurt him, to make him feel guilt, remorse, anger, anything-
"I am your older brother," Hanzo responds coldly. "Denounce me if you wish. However, that will never change."
"Then act like one, for once," seethes Genji. It's suddenly painful to think about the past, when he could prance around with Hanzo like a fool and nobody would give a damn. "You were- you never-"
Frustration overtakes Genji's speech, and he's left fumbling for words that cannot express how he feels. A vile feeling. As childish as Hanzo would deem it to be, all Genji really wants is to have just one more day with him where they wouldn't have to worry about the clan, or the enemy yakuza, or the inheritance-
His voice steadies, breathing evens. "Please, anija. Go to the festival with me tomorrow." For tomorrow was Children's Day.
Of course, he already knows the answer. He already knows the reaction. He's seen it a hundred times before- Hanzo's gaze will flicker downwards as he takes another sip of tea, brush his long hair away from his face as he looks up, wearing a carefully measured expression equal parts tired and disapproving. His lips will part slowly to form the shape 'no', but Genji won't be listening-
"Genji," he says, and he's so intense. Genji jerks up, his clenching hands freezing at his sides.
"H-Hai?"
"Genji," Hanzo presses on, louder this time. His voice- his eyes- they seem imploring.
"Anija?" asks Genji uncertainly.
Hanzo stands and reaches over the table. Clasps Genji's hand in his own. Genji doesn't dare move, nor breathe. There's a warmth in his palm that he hasn't felt in years-
"GENJI! Wake up!"
Genji blinks again.
There's a small girl standing at his side, dressed in waterlogged bunny-print pajamas, the fabric once pastel pink but now stained an ugly maroon. He's struck by how tired the girl looks as she reaches up to brush a dark lock of hair out of her face, lips are pulled tight with worry. She looks almost angry.
There's still an oddly familiar weight in his palm. He looks down to see the girl's hand holding onto his own, like a lifeline. It's an oddly sweet gesture, even given the fact that her hand and arm is streaked with still-drying blood up to the elbow.
"Genji, are you up?" Hana's usually sarcastic voice is tentative. Concerned. Genji's heart very nearly breaks.
"I'm awake," he rasps, the metallic taste of blood on his tongue. Her face crumples with relief.
"Babo. Don't you dare go scaring me like that again," she says, and Genji can tell how hard she's trying to sound mad at him as she lets go of his hand, turning to shuffle through the duffel bag, which lies open at his side.
He reflexively tries to sit up, and then winces as pain shoots through his body like a spear. Hana scrambles to keep him down, shaking her head. "You're still hurt. Rest while you can."
Genji vaguely recalls getting shot- the air being punched out of his lungs, and then the burst of pain. He remembers feeling like he was dying, knowing that he was dying as Hana dragged him off into nothingness. Forgetting that he was cyborg Genji and for a moment feeling completely, deathly human.
He shakes the unsettling feeing away- he doesn't have the time to dwell on such thoughts. Neither of them do. "It doesn't matter if I'm hurt. We need to get moving."
He looks around them. There's very little light in the room, though he can still make out the details of the place with his night vision optics. There's a large row of crates haphazardly pushed to one side of the room, and burlap sacks filled with something loose and grainy scattered around them- sand, or more likely, rice. Genji himself is lying on top of two crates.
"I think it's a storage room of some sort," says Hana aloud. "We've been here for… half an hour? Something like that." She tilts her head slightly, chewing aggressively on her gum. "What's an anija?"
What?
"Where did you hear that word?" he asks slowly. Hana's staring intently at him. There's flecks of a dark substance covering the right side of her face, scattering partially over her nose. Blood.
"You said that your body repairs itself, right? So I was going to just let you sleep. But then you started to, uh, fidget a lot. I thought you were having a bad dream," she says quietly. "So I was trying to wake you up, because it was kind of… scary. And just before you woke up, that's what you said."
He watches her dig a bottle of water out of the duffel bag and take a long drink, as if to avoid looking at him. The body language is clear: you don't have to tell me, if it's a private matter.
Now that she says it, Genji vaguely remembers saying the word out loud. He stares up at the ceiling, at the shadowed rafters. There isn't any point in hiding it, is there?
"Anija means 'brother'," he explains. Hana spits water all over the duffel bag.
After a bout of coughing, she runs her sleeve across her mouth and chokes out a "What?"
He suppresses a chuckle. "What, is this so surprising?"
"Well, yeah! You have a brother?" Hana props her elbows up on the crates, stares at Genji, utterly fascinated. "I can't imagine another Genji running around. What's he like?"
Hanzo. Genji can almost see him, sitting in that lonesome room at Hanamura all by himself. Frowning over some political document that was as important as it was boring to read. He was nothing like 'another Genji'.
"He was older than me, and much more serious. Always lecturing me- do this, do that, don't do this, don't do that! I'm afraid that I used to cause a lot of trouble for him as a child." A strange, foolish grin spreads across his face, behind his mask. "But he was still a great man."
Hana's face softens. "'Was', as in past tense?"
"'Was', as in past tense," Genji confirms.
She drops her head a little. "Aw, Genji. I'm really sorry."
"No need to be." He shifts, just slightly. Pain bursts in his upper torso like miniature fireworks. For a moment, he is thankful that his visor so effectively masks his grimace of pain.
Unaware of his struggle, Hana stares down at her bracelet. "Still, having an older brother is nice." She pauses, her cheeks flushing. "Sounds nice, I mean. What was your brother's na-"
There's a loud burst of sound from below Genji. Hana flies back with a surprised squawk. He tilts his head to look over the edge of the crates, at the transceiver lying on the ground.
Dee-dee-dee. Dee-dee-dee.
"What is that?" demands Hana, as she scrambles to pick it up. "How do I turn it off?"
"Press the red button," yawns Genji. The constant buzzing of pain around his injury burns and writhes; he wonders how he will be able to move around. No… he won't really be able to move around, will he?
And Talon would grow suspicious- or possibly already was suspicious at their absence.
Of course, Genji presumes, from the losses Talon had suffered in their little fight, as well as the lack of incoming status reports from the agent that had apprehended Hana, Talon would be far too cautious to immediately send in more soldiers. Not to mention that the place was probably crawling with police.
That would buy them time.
But not enough time.
Genji sucks in an experimental breath- and almost passes out from the pain, as white spots cloud his vison like floating dandelion seeds. He leans back against a rice sack, glad that Hana is too busy inspecting the transceiver to be paying attention to him.
In that split second, he makes his decision.
"-ji? Where are you, love? We haven't heard from you in ages!"
Hana's eyes grow round as marbles, and she drops the transceiver as if it is radioactive. Relief fills Genji as he hears the familiar, accented voice of Tracer piping from the device. Almost as if she were actually in the room.
"Lena," he breathes, grinning a little from Hana's reaction. Obviously she recognizes the woman's voice, who was, after all, one of the most famous faces of Overwatch. It was easy to forget Oxton's fame after living with her for over a year.
Genji tries to sit up, and immediately regrets it. Pain. So much pain to move. He forges on, wheezing slightly, determined to get his message across:
"The extraction has been compromised. Hana will continue on to Seoul on her own."
At this, Hana whips her head around to stare at Genji. He weakly performs a peace sign by his eye.
"WHAT?" she and Lena exclaim, together. There's a brief moment of confusion as Lena goes, "Wait, Genji, who's that with you?" while Hana stands up, stares down at Genji, and shouts, "Are you insane?"
"Yes," he jokes. And then- "No, I mean- I'm being serious." He turns his head towards the transceiver, which lies blinking red on the dusty ground, ignoring the anger and shock playing across the girl's face.
"Lena, I've been shot. Only once, do not worry," he hastily amends as Lena makes appalled noises on the other side of the transceiver. "N-nothing that my nanites cannot handle." Ah, damn. I stammered. "Unfortunately, they do slow me down quite… quite a bit. I'm afraid that staying with Hana will only endanger her."
"Are you certain of that?" There's an unbelieving tension to Lena's voice. After all, Lena was an intensely emotional person, always the first one to volunteer on rescue missions. Knowingly leaving Genji behind must crush her. But Genji trusts her, as an agent, to understand that this is the only way.
But Hana's not an agent. She's a kid, and she's scared.
"Genji, please," she says, and her voice is making his heart crumple into a little ball of cold, unfeeling metal. He tries his best to ignore her as he swipes the transceiver off the floor, that burning feeling in his chest flaring up in sync with his breathing.
"If we want any chance of Hana making it to Seoul, she needs to stay away from me." He should feel afraid, shouldn't he? It's strange, how he feels so comfortably numb. Just do what is right. Do what is logical. "I will rendezvous to Overwatch… somehow," maybe, "but in the meantime send as many agents as you can spare to Seoul. Prepare to extract Hana Song from there."
There's still that indomitable surge of optimism in Lena's voice as she begins to speak in earnest: "But, Gen-"
"That's the end of my status report." Genji presses the red button on the transceiver firmly, then tosses it at Hana. She catches the object but doesn't look away from him.
"Genji. What. The. Fuck," she spits, but Genji doesn't feel bad about making Hana upset this time. Not at all.
"Either we both die, or you go alone," he says, fighting to keep his voice steady, because God did speaking hurt his chest. Hana opens her mouth again, that crease between her eyebrows deepening, but he cuts her off, because this was important and Hana had to know that.
"Hana. Think about what you are about to say. Think about it carefully."
She shuts her mouth. Opens it. Shuts it again. She's blinking rapidly, and Genji can tell that her emotions and her logic are completely at odds. He understands the feeling, because it's not like he's perfectly comfortable with sending a young girl off into the city, all alone and hounded by Talon agents.
But Genji's confident that her logic will prevail, in the end-
"I'd rather we both die," she whispers, fingers curling around her bracelet.
With a pang, the cyborg wonders how many times Hana Song has broken his heart in the short time that he has known her.
There is a moment of silence as Hana bites her lip, lashes fluttering as she attempted to hold back tears. The mask she always wore was crumbling away, and for the first time Genji sees the vulnerable child that was Hana Song.
"You're assuming that I will die without you," he says, gently. "But I won't. I can hide." He raises himself up into a sitting position, ignores the screaming pain in his chest. "You can't, though. You need to make it to Overwatch as quickly as you can. It will be safe with them."
"I can't make it all the way to Seoul all on my own," mumbles Hana. Her fingers clench around the rabbit bracelet. "All I've done is play StarCraft my entire life. That's why you guys recruited me, right? To fly around in a machine, be the gamer that I am. I can't do jack shit without a fancy weapon, or somebody else to-"
"If you really believe that to be true, then you severely underestimate yourself," interrupts Genji. She cannot remind him of his younger self any more in this moment- confused, afraid, in pain, with nobody and nothing to stand with. That vile, frustrating feeling of disconnection- how could he possibly inspire her, make her braver, more confident? How-
The dragon stirs inside of him. He flinches in surprise as it speaks- they rarely attempted to influence his decisions, instead opting to let him choose his own path. Hana squints at him as he listens. "Genji, are you feeling okay?"
The sentiment the great green dragon voices is simple. Almost too simple.
Just tell the girl how you feel.
"Hana Song," he begins, ignoring her question, ignoring the twinge of pain in his chest, taking one of her pale, cold hands in his own robotic one. Her dark eyes flicker up to meet his. Like twin abysses.
His words come out plain and honest. "You are one of the bravest people that I have ever met. And I have met a lot of brave people." He cannot help but think of Hana's mother, of the gangster, of the small apartment, of the lingering smell of booze. She recoils slightly, but he holds on steadfastly.
"You have been able to cope with things that most people have never had to face, and never will." From an abusive household and missing family members, all the way to what remains unspoken, of what had happened to you when Mr. Seon came around I was not there to fend him off, of what happened to the Talon agent that had shot me. "They may have been difficult, but in the end, you overcame them, and here you stand." He scans her face, unblinking. She's silent, face impassive as a statue. "Still alive."
"But-" she starts, expression contorting in confusion, but Genji silences her with a raised finger.
"I think of you as," and here he chokes a little, because it was the truth and the truth hurt, "as a little sister."
He's aware that these may not be motivational words- perhaps they are completely wasted on Hana, someone who knows nothing about him or his past life. But he has to get the thought across- the silly, foolish thought that had been festering in the back of his mind from day one- that I can be Hanzo, and you can be Genji, and we can turn the tragedy upside-down, make up a happy ending to the story together.
There's a glimmer of surprise in Hana's eyes as he continues. "My- my older brother was not always the kindest to me. He was not always very understanding. But his presence always made me feel stronger, and more assured of myself."
The court ladies giggle and point. "See, see! The wolf and the sparrow walk together. The two little lords!"
Genji puffs up in pride, links his arm around Hanzo's, and though he tries to pull away Genji can see the briefest smile pass over the boy's face.
Genji's voice grows steadier. "From the day I first met you, I was hoping I could influence you the same way. Be the older brother that my brother was not allowed to be." Falling cherry blossoms, blood in the rain. Pain roaring in his chest-
"As you know, he is not with me anymore. And so, if I have done my job correctly- if I have indeed acted as a proper older brother… then I can safely say that I share the same pain you feel now, because I feel his absence each and every day."
The impassive façade is falling away. From both of them.
She's crying. He's never seen her cry before. It's a most peculiar feeling as he tries to piece the two Hanas that he knows together into a broken puzzle that doesn't quite fit- laughing, sarcastic Hana, and the Hana that was silently sobbing in front of him now.
"I have survived," he says softly, gently, "without my brother. And you are so much stronger than I." He clasps his other hand on top of Hana's, as if in prayer. "So I am confident- I know- that like me, you will be just fine. You-"
He's not quite prepared for Hana to launch herself at him, to wrap her arms around his neck, but the flare of pain in his chest from the sudden movement is nothing compared to the warmth the hug gives him.
"I'm scared," Hana whispers, burying her face into Genji's shoulder, and the words sound less like a statement and more like a confession. "We're going to be- in a lot more fights-"
And there it was. Hana's cleverly woven mask of indifference, finally falling to pieces. Genji sighs. "I know."
"Alone," she concludes, voice slightly muffled. Genji shakes his head, pats her back, closes his eyes. Shuts out the world with a curtain of black, until the only people left were him and Hana.
Hanzo grins, his nose cherry-red in the snow. He's eight, and Genji is five. "Just you and me, now, brother!"
"No, you're not. The same people that helped me when I thought I was alone will be helping you." He thinks of Tracer, the bubbly, laughing woman with the severe British accent. "You will take the transceiver. Overwatch may not physically be with you, but they will still be there to guide-"
Hana loosens her grip, draws back to glare at Genji, tear-stained cheeks and all, and all of a sudden, she has regained all of her spirit and twice the amount of fire.
"I don't mean me, you fuck! You're going to be alone!"
He considers this.
"I suppose I am." He sounds remarkably calm, though he knows that what he's doing is dangerous. He's had worse injuries before- much worse- but during those times, he had the rest of Blackwatch to back him up, as well as his Angela. This time, I will truly be on my own.
"Don't you ever push it this far again," scolds Angela, radiant even under all those cuts and bruises. Genji laughs and she shakes her head, ever the mother hen. "I'm not even going with you to Korea. Will you be okay?"
"Will you be okay?" The words are desperate. Searching. Hana's looking to reassure herself, not him, but Genji's perfectly fine with that.
"I will be just fine," he promises, though his skin prickles with guilt at the white lie. "What was it that you Koreans do again?" He clenches his hand, delivers a little fist-pump into the cold air. "Haiting!"
A small smile appears on Hana's face. "Haiting," she echoes sadly, also fist-pumping. And then: "Where'd you learn that from? I thought you've only been in Korea for a week."
"I watch this girl group called K-PINK on MeTube. They do that every time they end a music vid-"
Hana snorts with laughter. "You crazy fucker." She mock-punches Genji's shoulder. It stings his injury a little, but he's too busy laughing with her to notice.
"Watch your language, Hana! You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Hana mock-pouts, kicks her legs back from beside Genji. "I bite my mother with this mouth. One time, I bit her pinkie so hard that it broke-"
Genji can't tell if she's being serious or not, which he supposes is the truly scary part.
It doesn't take long for the exhausted Hana to fall asleep, curled up over a couple of storage crates. Her sides rise and fall ever so slightly to the telltale whisper of her breathing; Genji is stricken by how peaceful she looks when she is fast asleep. Completely relaxed, all traces of stress wiped from her face.
He rises painfully from his place on the crates, staggering as he regains his balance. Takes the quilt from the duffel bag, tucks it over the little girl. Steam wafts from his ventilation ports; the air is freezing and humid from the nearby ocean, and he's afraid she will catch a cold.
She shifts at the sudden warmth and mumbles something in incomprehensible Korean, he catches that elusive word oppa again, though he's still not certain what it means. He smiles and turns off his night vision specs, so that his lights flicker off and Hana can sleep in peace.
Leaving Genji alone with his thoughts. He beholds the girl passed out in front of him.
Hana Song. Just another girl. A girl that was exceptional in the field of gaming, sure. Someone who had been just another name on the mission board, less than a week ago.
Now? Now he'd noticed all of the little intricacies in her behavior- how she crinkles her nose and squints at something that confuses her, how she chews gum to cope with her stress, how she tangles her hand in that bracelet he'd gotten her when she thinks something terrible is about to happen.
It feels like they are family. He thinks, and it is a terrible thought, that Hanzo had once felt this way about him. Possibly even when the man had brought down his sword, straight through Genji's body.
He thinks, and it is a terrible thought, that he cannot bear to lose this girl.
Of course, Hana is a complex, emotional, and wholly different human being- one that would never be able to play the role of Genji perfectly. Yet whenever she and Genji shares that special moment of kinship, he cannot help but be reminded of that kinship that he had once shared with Hanzo.
His Hanzo. The wolf to his sparrow.
Then, Hana. The rabbit.
His rabbit.
There is a good chance, he thinks vaguely to the tune of Hana's laughter, the pain in his chest just a distant dream, that I may never see her again.
As he crouches there, the night seems to last forever, into the quiet folds of eternity-
-that is to say, until the sun rises in a blaze of red and Hana awakens to find that the sparrow has vanished into the morning.
Genji is very entertaining to write. He uses his relationship with Hana to explore how Hanzo felt about him in the past, and as a result understands how hard life was on Hanzo when he 'killed' Genji.
Comment response specifically to LOH- No, I don't have a beta haha. I usually spend 1-2 days on each chapter, depending on its length. And thank you for all the well-wishes and wonderful reviews! I've been feeling a lot better :)
Will Genji be back? Well, I did say that he is very entertaining to write… so take that as your hint!
And don't worry if you're still craving interactions between Hana and different members of Overwatch- Genji left her the transceiver that lets her talk to everyone' favorite time-speeding Brit!
Translation Notes:
Haiting!- 'Bastardization' of English word 'Fighting!', means to 'Fight on!'
Babo- fool, idiot, dummy
Anija- Japanese word for 'older brother', more archaic than 'aniki'
Note: Genji has a skin called 'Sparrow', Hanzo has a skin called 'Wolf', and Hana has a skin called 'White Rabbit' (as well as her logo being a cartoon rabbit), and so these animals are generally used to represent these characters, respectively.
