For how long had he been sleeping?

Enough to see the ending of the world and the rebirth of one, at any rate.

Everything and everyone he knew, gone.

All the sins, the mistakes, the joys, the triumphs...washed away by the herald of the WEAPON Omega, only to be brought back as the Lifestream kickstarted an entirely new cycle.

An endless cycle of Death and Rebirth, all neatly rolled into one.

Except something was different this time, his mind distantly noted.

There was something wrapped around the Lifestream. Not dangerous, but unusual. It almost seemed to be shielding it, though how chains could pull that off was baffling.

But there was something wrong with these chains. They had been made with the best of intentions but something had twisted them, miring them in senseless tragedy and needless death. Another, darker chain lead away from the one with the most links and seemed to be feeding off the Lifestream. Not enough to cause damage, but certainly enough that he noticed it right away.

Chaos slept, until something could kick start it's vessel into waking. It would have to be someone connected to the mysterious chains, and maybe then it could get some proper answers.

Small feet tripped over long, long legs that were covered in vines.

"Oof!"

The small child teared up, before wiping them away. They had gotten worse owies playing with the other children.

Turning around, small brown eyes looked to find... a man?

The odd man was laying on the ground covered in old plants. He wore a lot of red and black, and there was something about him that would have screamed "vampire" to someone much older. He had pale skin, long messy black hair and a strange thing on his right arm. It almost looked shiny and yellow. He had thick boots on his feet that were really weird at the bottom.

The little child was full of curiosity. Strangely, they were unafraid at finding an adult here... something about him caused their blood to sing with joy and happiness, like they were meant to find him and that he wouldn't cause harm. If anything he was rather protective, though how they knew that they couldn't say.

Fearless, the little one shook the man's leg closest to them.

"Hey mister, wake up!"

It took a good minute of shaking, but slowly the man began to stir. Deep red eyes blearily opened...until it settled on the little one.

"Where... am I?"

The child crinkled their nose.

"Mister, you talk funny."

The man blinked and switched to something close to the language the little one was speaking.

"Where am I little one?"

Eyes brightened as it seemed the little child understood most of that.

"Namimori, mister! Did you fall and hit your head? Is that why you were sleeping on the ground under all these plants?"

He shook his head, and slowly started to get up.

"What happened to your hand mister? Did you hurt it?"

He gently lifted his right, clawed hand and ruffled the little one's hair.

"I am fine, little one."

The child pouted at him.

"I'm not 'little one'! I'm Kiseki!" the child said, stamping their foot on the ground.

"Kiseki."

"Mama said that I'm her little miracle since it was really, really hard to have me," said Kiseki.

He thought that one over and looked closer at the child. Upon proper inspection he realized the little one was a girl, which made the name 'Miracle' somewhat appropriate.

"I... don't remember who I am."

That was partially a lie. He remembered who he was called before, but he still needed to get his bearings.

The child frowned at him, almost like she could sense he wasn't being entirely truthful.

"Nii-san?" she said cutely.

"Nii-san?" he repeated amused.

"Nii-san," said Kiseki firmly.

Someone called out from close by. Kiseki brightened, as she clearly recognized the voice.

"Mama's calling me. I better go."

He ruffled her hair gentle, causing her to giggle. She scampered off towards the outside, where she found her mother from what he could hear.

The man slowly got out of the plants, before mentally asking 'Chaos, what just happened?'

You found a baby Cetra, or something close enough to it that it makes no difference. Keep an eye on her... she will become important later and I have the feeling that things aren't that different than last time.

Something in the way Chaos said that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Like there were things almost as bad as that thrice-cursed Hojo that were all too happy to snatch that innocent, bright little girl up and hurt her.

The man once known as Vincent Valentine walked away from where he had been found by Kiseki. He needed information and Chaos was unpredictable at best with it came to giving clear, concise answers.

Oddly enough it seemed that wherever he was happened to be very close to Wutai for some reason. It only took him a few hours to figure out the subtle differences thanks to an "English to Japanese" dictionary he stole. The language was almost identical, at least enough that he could understand what people were saying, and the writing was close enough that he could make a general guess.

Either that or Chaos was being unusually "nice" to him for some reason.

What he found was both disheartening and something of a morbid relief.

There was absolutely nothing familiar hear, and from what little he had gathered from a surprisingly helpful Chaos, everything had been quite literally wiped clean.

Nothing of what he knew remained. Nothing save the Lifestream anyway.

Listless, and without any idea of what to do now that he had been awakened after who knew how long, he somehow found himself near a rather quaint house among many others.

His ears quickly picked up the voice of the small child who had inadvertently woken him.

He settled in somewhere out of sight, but still within earshot.

And that's when he heard, or more appropriately felt it.

Kiseki was singing along with some random children's show...and the harmonics somehow slipped into something that started to resonate with not just Chaos, but the Lifestream itself. She didn't even realize she was doing it!

He sat up with shock.

It would seem that our need to watch the little one is even greater than I was lead to believe. If anyone were to get their hands on her or figure out how to use her ability...

Vincent didn't need to guess. If Hojo were still around he'd have stopped at nothing to get his hands on her and exploit her gift. And while everything he found said that the knowledge of the Lifestream and Mako had been completely lost, there were always going to be humans more than willing to push the boundaries purely to find out whatever they could...even if it was a subject that should have remained dead and buried, or better yet destroyed like JENOVA.

Nana was a kind woman, but she was not as oblivious as her husband would like. She knew he was part of something that wasn't exactly safe, and she hated the fact he was always lying to her.

She was also aware her daughter's new "friend" wasn't exactly normal, let alone her own age. In fact he appeared closer to her own age, but something told her he was far older than that.

Dropping Kiseki off to school for a few hours, Nana tracked this "man in red" down. They needed to have a long overdue chat about his intentions.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the man wasn't that hard to find. If anything he startled her by appearing without warning behind her.

Nana nearly had a heart attack.

Once she got over her shock, she had a proper look at the man.

"What are you intentions for my daughter?" she asked bluntly.

"Protection," he replied without any hesitation at all.

"Protection from what?" she asked baffled.

"For starters, those who would use her against your husband. He's not entirely honest about what his job is and from what I've seen he hasn't even bothered to put any actual defenses around you or her, thinking that anonymity would be the only thing needed to keep you safe. I've had to dispose of three idiots who were very informative about one 'Iemitsu Sawada' and the group he belongs with in the past two months since your daughter caught my notice," he replied.

Nana wanted to say he was lying. Except she knew he wasn't. Something had always seemed off about her husband and she didn't like how he was always cagey about his job or why he couldn't stay at home for very long.

"There's also the fact your daughter has a very rare gift...one that if the wrong people were alerted to it, they would stop at nothing to claim her or exploit it," said the man rather bluntly. "Surely you've noticed the same thing I did."

Nana would never admit that she did notice the odd things that sometimes happened around her daughter. Finding out that someone knew what it actually was felt like a relief. Especially since from what she could tell the man was entirely honest about wanting to protect her little miracle.

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't. Just trust in the fact I have absolutely no intention of harming your child and will take it very badly if someone tries," he replied.

Nana soon learned he wasn't joking in the least about people after her husband, even if it meant going through his wife and daughter. Seeing the man calmly capture the assassin (there was no mistaking his intentions when he had a gun to her head and made it perfectly clear why he was there) and keep it out of view of Kiseki had more or less cemented that he could be trusted in her mind.

Mostly because he admitted that she had no valid reason to trust him at all, save for his word.

Nana looked the man in the eye after the assassin was dealt with (she didn't ask and was glad he made sure her daughter saw nothing) and said "Tell me everything. Especially why I should trust you with my daughter's safety."

"My name is...was... Vincent Valentine. A long time ago I was part of an elite group of people with unique skill sets. However that training has a habit of removing one's moral compass, to say the least. So we're encouraged to find someone to act as that moral compass," said Vincent.

Nana didn't really like the sound of that at all.

"Besides... she's the only one in this town who wasn't afraid of me in the least the first time she saw me," said Vincent. "I believe I am the equivalent of a 'ronin', if it helps."

"It does, actually."

Ronin, or masterless Samurai, often bent the rules, but in general they still had a code of honor. And once they found a worthy "master" they tended to be very loyal and highly protective of them. However that also went hand in hand with not questioning orders, regardless of what they were.

From what she could tell of "Vincent", he was a mixture of shinobi and ronin. And he was utterly protective of her child.

"You're not going to influence her... are you?"

"Outside of acting as a general father figure since your husband is completely incompetent and doesn't seem interested and teaching her how to protect herself in a fight, no," said Vincent blandly.

She could live with that.

Which was why, shortly before her daughter was about to turn five, she found herself with an almost permanent house guest. Kiseki was beyond thrilled to have her "big brother" close by, especially since Vincent doted on her like a older brother or a father would.

It only took two weeks for her to drop her guard entirely around Vincent and her daughter. Even an ordinary woman like herself could see the man had zero intentions of ever harming her little miracle.

Even if it was slightly odd having a grown man in the house.

Nana was not ashamed of the minor rumor she created to explain Vincent's presence in the house. Officially he was her second cousin who had gotten kicked out by a very abusive girlfriend and Nana was the only one who had offered to let him stay and get back up on his feet. Of course Vincent refused to do so on charity, so he often acted as babysitter and was working part time somewhere outside the city to help pay for living expenses.

Vincent, after the first nosy housewife, made a point to avoid the neighbors unless absolutely necessary. The broken social skills he had hinted at were very obvious, to the amusement of Nana. Just as it was beyond obvious Vincent had great difficulty (and by that Nana meant almost nonexistent) telling Kiseki "No".

It was quite entertaining, to see the big, bad adult man having his hair braided by the almost five-year-old little girl and letting her do it without complain. Nana took pictures.

Everything had found a new normal, at least until Iemitsu came home with a few extras.

Vincent made himself scarce, as he did not want to alert the man of his presence in the home. Ever.

Something about the husband and the man that convinced Kiseki to call him 'grandpa' felt wrong to his senses, and the man next to the old one was the same to a much lesser degree.

Vincent POV

Kiseki pretty much ignored Iemitsu, much to his open dismay. It amused the older man, though she avoided him as well. For a while, the entire visit seemed benign. Innocent.

Except Vincent was a former Turk and far better at hiding his presence than the fools were at noticing him. That and their level of technology was ridiculously behind what he was already used to.

He had remastered his ability to hack within hours, once he familiarized himself with the level of technology...he had kept himself up-to-date with his hacking right up until Chaos took over completely and gave the planet a permanent clean slate to start fresh.

With that went the advances in technology, which he now found quaint.

In short he had the phones of the three men hacked within the first night and was less than amused with what he found.

Mafia. Of course Nana's idiotic husband would be part of the organized crime, rather than the deep cover operative he had hoped for... if only for Nana's sake.

From the looks of things Iemitsu only cared for his job, rather than his family, but stayed married to his wife purely for appearances sake and so his line would continue. He had likely done it to shut someone up, or because he had a crisis of mortality and feared for his bloodline.

The older man though... Vincent had him pegged as the Don of whatever family Iemitsu belonged to.

However Dons wouldn't just travel halfway across the world to visit the family of an ordinary subordinate. Considering the fact both the Don and the idiot (as Vincent had begun calling Iemitsu in his head) had the same broken connection to the Lifestream that were vaguely similar in feel, Vincent suspected Iemitsu was part of the Don's bloodline. Most likely an important cousin or connected to a past leader of the family.

Vincent did not like Iemitsu. Period. It had nothing to do with the fact he was never around. It had little to do with the fact he had been lying to his wife and didn't even have the brains to put in actual protection around his civilian family.

It had everything to do with the fact he was a narcissistic moron who had an 'inverted' feel to Vincent's senses when it came to his ability to tap into the Lifestream...which explained quite a bit about why Kiseki could do it, if it was inherited... one who had shown absolutely no regard to the safety or health of his daughter. He had been playing 'catch' with her, tossing her into the air for thirty minutes and had, at several points, almost forgotten to catch her in time.

Kiseki didn't mind being up high...she often begged rides on Vincent's shoulders and he was ridiculously tall...but he could see clear as day that she hated being tossed up in the air with no real certainty of being caught by the one doing it. After the first time she had lost any trust in her 'father' to actual catch her... the last time he tossed her up high enough she had clung to the nearest branch she could reach and managed to swing herself up into the tree.

She also refused to come down until Nana came and rescued her. That was pretty telling in Vincent's eyes that any trust the girl had in her genetic donor, he had lost quite a bit of it.

Then came the incident that forced Vincent to reveal himself. Nana was out buying groceries, thinking nothing would happen since her husband was watching their child. Despite his lying she still trusted him to protect their daughter.

Kiseki was playing with her ball and it got caught up in the tree when she kicked it too hard. Being a natural climber (Vincent showed her how, but made her promise not to do it without him or Nana there to supervise) she managed to make it up to the tree branch where the ball was stuck. Unfortunately the branch in question wasn't strong enough to sustain a five-year-old child, even one as small and light as she was. With the first crack, Kiseki slipped from the branch...and promptly erupted with orange fire from her hands.

It caught her fall, leaving her with little more than a bruise or two and a very tame case of shock which would pass with a nap.

But the reaction of the adults was very telling.

Iemitsu practically exploded over it, and while Vincent couldn't speak whatever language he was using (he had gotten lucky that this 'Japanese' was very, very similar enough to Wutain that he had been able to fake it, right down to having a similar culture and belief structure), he did know that the Lifestream was positively screaming at Vincent to get the girl far, far away from the old man who seemed resigned.

He only needed to see a similar, if much weaker orange fire on the man's hand with the ring that gave him a chill, before he reacted.

He knew instinctively letting the man touch Kiseki with that fire would only cause irreparable damage that would have consequences for the rest of her life. Chaos was practically frothing at the mouth to rip the adults inside to shreds for merely bringing that fire anywhere near his little one.

(Vincent was both amused and relieved that Chaos was equally possessive over the little girl. Kiseki hadn't even batted an eye upon meeting him.)

Their reaction upon seeing Chaos was rather predictable. Vincent found it very amusing that mafioso had become so complacent that they hadn't even thought to keep their guns on them and cheap knives were of little use against him.

Kiseki had zero reservations. Her entire body was screaming to get away from that orange fire and she trusted Vincent, her "big brother" implicitly.

She was safely shielded by Chaos even as the other men tried to kill it.

Vincent left the house with Kiseki firmly in his arms, and found Nana within minutes.

"What happened? I thought you were hiding until darling left?"

"That man is a fool. He did nothing to stop Kiseki from climbing the tree or even bothered to notice that the branch she was on was too weak to sustain her weight when she tried to get her ball from it. And when her gift physically manifested they tried to do something to it. I have no doubts they were going to harm her," said Vincent bluntly. He was pissed. "Never mind the fact the people he brought with him are organized crime."

"What?!"

Nana believed Vincent, if for no other reason than the fact he would never have dared to remove her daughter from the house unless something had gone very, very wrong. She knew he had been avoiding it ever since Iemitsu had shown up with his extra, if only to avoid awkward questions.

"I hacked their phones. Your husband is part of the mafia. More than that, the man who's with him is the leader of whatever family he's with. Which explains why I've had to deal with assassins that aren't native," said Vincent crossly. "You should return to the house and pretend you didn't see us. I'll bring her back when it's safe to do so."

It looks like Nana would have to put her acting skills to the test. She would do it, if for no other reason than her soon to be ex-husband had lied to her and put her daughter in danger. She was not blind to the fact Iemitsu paid her more attention than their own child, or the fact Kiseki had been afraid of him after the tree incident.