Disclaimer: Don't own King of Fighters or related characters. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

A/N: This chapter is gonna be really short. I haven't been writing much between my job searching and wallowing in self-pity. This chapter didn't turn out anywhere close to how I wanted it and I'm sorry for that.

I'm also sorry, but up-dates will be much, much slower from now on because I'm not writing as much or as regularly as I used to. I need to focus on getting a new job right now and fanficing will only hinder that.

After such a long wait I'm sure you're disappointed. I had planned for Obon to take up an entire chapter because it's an important holiday in Japan as well as a way to show Andy doing some good quality grieving. Unfortunately, neither Andy's grief nor Japan's culture are very relevant to the central plot and while it would have been some wonderful character development, I've decided to just skip ahead and get on with things. The next chapter (after I finally get down to writing it) will begin after a three-year time-laps.

I know it seems like I've been saying this for all my chapters, but if you feel you need to flame me go right on ahead, I probably deserve it.

-RenkonNairu

Sore ga Ai, Deshou?

Chapter Seven: Jackass – Mark of the Bad Author

There was to be no training on the first day of Obon (or any day of Obon for that matter). The three-day long festival was to honor the ancestors and so all typical daily practices were suspended in favor of offerings and prayer (and feasting, lost and lots of feasting). The tradition was founded on the belief of a follower of Buddha liberating the spirit of his late mother from the underworld of the "hungry-ghosts" and as such had just as much to do with eating and drinking as it did meditation and prayer.

Meals were casual and the food plentiful so there was n mad-dash to get there first or rush to eat quickly before someone else ate what was left. The atmosphere was generally more cheerful. For the first time since arriving on Hagi, Andy saw the Shiranui as an actual family and not just a group of people that shared common strands of DNA.

Hanzo joked about a beautiful girl he and Yamada Jubei had both met in Kyoto and pursued in their youth, only to find out that she was actually a beautiful boy. The family roared with laughter at their elder's expense. Shizune told some antidotes about when she was still courting Koinosuke's father (who had apparently passed away tragically leaving her and her son with a sizeable inheritance).

Kazutake even shared a story about his Study Abroad in America. Andy found it fascinating but a little too tall a tale to be believable. Hanzo-sensei commented that the story might have been more coherent had Kazu not been hopped up on Acid at the time. Kazutaka smiled sheepishly and reminded him that it had been America in the sixties and everyone was doing it. They all laughed.

It reminded Andy of some of the times when Jeff would have friends over and they would all share stories of their adventures or misadventures from their youths. Some things just seemed to hold true universally, regardless of what country you were from or what social class you belonged to. When family or friends got together, no embarrassing story was secret, and all confidences were shared.

Andy once again felt himself longing to belong. Jeff and terry had been the only real family he'd ever known and that family had been short-lived. He could fit in here, he thought. If he trained hard enough and studied long enough, he could find his own little nitch in this family. But then he remembered some of the members prejudice against Americans and remembered that no matter how hard he tried he would never truly belong here. It was just like his foster families back in South Town, they were a borrowed family, none of this was real.

'Don't get attacked, don't get hurt.'

Hanzo-sensei, Kazutaka-sama and Mai-chan all seemed to like him, but none of the others did. He wouldn't have a place here. No. It was better that he returned to South Town like he planned to and killed Geese. After that he didn't know what he would do, but he wouldn't come back here. There wouldn't be anything for him here.

…

Evening rolled around and lanterns were lit. A small wooden tower called a "yagura" was erected in the middle of the courtyard and everybody gathered around it to dance. Andy held back and watched, not knowing the steps and not wanting to embarrass himself or his master.

He watched them dance around the yagura, sometimes switching direction or turning to face the yagura before continuing in their circuit. It looked fairly simple and Andy was sure that he could do it if he tried but he didn't feel much like trying at the moment. He was enjoying the cheerful atmosphere and didn't want to jeopardize that by jumping into a tradition that he was foreign to and accidentally insulting his host.

So he watched as they danced, every now and again when Mai would pass by she would turn to face him, as if trying to catch his eye. Andy did his best not to notice. He didn't want her to think that they were friends just because they had a few things in common. He wasn't here to make friends; he was here to learn the skills he would need to avenge his father's murder.

For three days the festival continued and on the eve of the final day everyone one brought white paper lanterns down to the shore. Hanzo-sensei explained that they were to help guide the souls of the dead back to the afterlife. They were set adrift in the ocean's gentle current.

Andy watched as their light slowly faded over the inky-dark horizon, wondering if Jeff was following those lights back to heaven or if he had even ever visited during Obon at all. Andy liked to believe that he had. It was nice to think that his father wasn't truly dead, that he still visited him in some form or another. It would be nice if Jeff could see him and Terry bring his killer to justice.

…

The morning after Obon was busy. Everyone had gotten tired of all the time spent with one another and they were anxious to get back to their normal lives on the main islands. Everyone was furiously packing and double-checking to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything (they, after all, wouldn't be returning to Hagi until next year).

Andy mostly tried to stay out of the way. He hadn't brought much with him and so didn't have much to pack. He had offered to help carry things for others in an attempt to be useful and not offend the Shiranui by being lazy. But they had sneered at his offer, saying that a true ninja should be able to carry his own things and not need to go sniveling to others for help.

Andy had accepted this; it did make since to him, and had then barricaded himself in his room to keep out of the way. He trusted Hanzo-sensei would send Kazutaka-sama or someone else to fetch him when they were ready to go.

They didn't leave that day. As head of the family Hanzo-sensei was required to stay until the last member of the family had left. Andy came out of his hiding place to find Mai, Kauz and Hanzo all sitting on the doc, their bare feet dipped in the water and munching on sliced watermelon.

"We were wondering when you'd come out." Kazutaka said when he sat down next to them and began pulling of the tabi he had been wearing for footwear since beginning his ninja training.

"Its nice having the island to ourselves finally." Hanzo sighed.

Andy finished removing his tabi and dipped his feet in the water with the others. "Are we going to do some secret training now that they're gone?" He asked, half curious and half hoping.

"No." Hanzo shook his head. "But it's nice to have things quite again. You ever fight with your brother much, Andy-chan?"

"Oh, yeah! All the time." Andy nodded. "Master Tung would usually have us spar against each other."

Hanzo chuckled softly. "Not that kind of fight, puppy." Then he sighed. "I envy you and your brother."

Hnazo didn't elaborate after that but Andy could guess at what he was referring to. When he and Terry fought it was because they both enjoyed fighting, it was something they shared and could bond over, there was no malice in it. That was most assuredly not the case with Hanzo-sensei and his brother Nagare.

Was it really just because Hanzo was the head of the family, was for all intents and purposes "better" than Nagare? Andy tried to imagine what he might think or feel if Terry ever became "better" than him. He would like to think that he would be happy for his brother but there was a little piece of him that he thought might, just might be jealous. Thinking of it that way, he could almost understand Nagare's feelings, almost.

The four of them sat in silence for a time after than, watching the play of light on the water as the sun dipped low into the sea behind the island. The evening stayed warm long after the sun had set and night set in, but Kazutaka ushered them all inside saying he didn't want the "children" to get cold. Hanzo-sensei couldn't help but ask if Kazu was including himself in that statement.

…

It had been nice training at Hagi, to spite the quiet hostility of the rest of the Shiranui family, Andy felt like he had made allot of progress and was quite pleased with himself. Even so, he was delighted to return to Hanzo-sensei's house in Mino once again.

The moment he passed through the gate into the inner courtyard and heard the familiar sound of the stream, its clear water babbling over the rocks, he felt himself relax a tension he wasn't aware he felt. Andy briefly wonder if this was what coming "home" felt like. In just another few days he would have spent a year with the Shiranui, it was the longest time he'd ever spent with any one family.

Even with Jeff, he and Terry hadn't managed a whole year before he died. Andy had always believed that he and Terry could never stay anywhere for very long, they were just cursed, he guessed. But he had managed to stay here, at the Shiranui dojo for a whole year without incident. Even with the rest of the family's disapproval of Hanzo-sensei training him, he had stayed, they had kept him.

"Are you gonna stand there and stare off into space all day?" Mai humphed from behind him. She stood on the small step bridge, her arms crossed over her chest, her travel bag over one shoulder, glaring daggers at him. "You're in my way."

"Sorry." He stepped aside, nearly tripping himself and falling backwards into the water. She pushed past him without comment.

Even with her here, obnoxious little prat that she was, he had still managed to remain here without incident for a whole year. Maybe his luck was changing, or maybe he was getting better, or perhaps Hanzo-sensei understood him well enough to know that he wasn't really a "problem child". Maybe he could keep living here. Maybe after he and Terry had avenged their father he could come back…

'No.' He shook his head. Hanzo-sensei, Kazutaka-sama and Mai-chan might tolerate him, even like him, but Nagare and the rest of the family would never accept him. No, after he returned to South Town it would be best if he didn't return. There wouldn't be anything for him here anyway.

'Don't get attached, don't get hurt.'

As nice as this place was, as much as he thought, no, as much as he knew he would love to live here indefinitely, he couldn't stay. After he left, then he would be gone and he would not return, he would not form an attachment to this place, this house or its people. He would only be setting himself up to be hurt in the end. Bloody knuckles and broken bones he could live with, they healed quickly, emotional scars… those took longer to heal and never truly close.

He would take what he needed from these people and then he would leave them. He would study, he would train, he would learn, but he would not love. Love was not necessary to a live lived in devotion to revenge.

Thus, Andy's first year in Japan was passed.

…