A/N: Before reading this, it might be a good idea to read to save the sparrow and Sunlight Through The Trees since Akemi appears in both of those and this is the end of her story.
Through a series of communications with the scattered remnants of the Shimada-gumi, it was decided that an ambassador of sorts would be sent to Watchpoint, Gibraltar to negotiate a mutually beneficial alliance with those splinters of the formerly formidable criminal empire not keen on the increasing influence of Talon amongst their ranks.
When the identity of their liaison was divulged, however, Genji straightened, whipping his head around to regard Morrison with confusion and conflict, while Hanzo rose silently to his feet and left the room. It was left to Genji to explain their connection to the Shimada-gumi's chosen representative.
Hanzo knew the implications. He didn't need to hear it said.
The Shimada-gumi had been made aware of his alliance with Overwatch, though whether through their dealings with Talon or through an information broker, he supposed it didn't matter - the result was the same.
He'd allowed his feet to carry him without thought, and now found himself standing outside the training grounds, agitated. Shifting uncomfortably beneath his skin. After slamming a hand against the palm scanner, the electric doors withdrew, and he shot inside to grab his bow, calling out, "Set difficulty to high, Athena!"
Drones flew from the walls in a swarm, their thermal detectors glowing like red eyes in the center of their metallic orbs, and he sprinted across the floorboards, pulling back his bow with the ease of memory and practice, taking out one before it could finish charging a blast.
Shooting the sparking metal heap run through with his arrow a feral grin, Hanzo sneered, "Too easy," then leapt, twisting to avoid a searing beam that nearly-
Hanzo-niisan!
The ground came up fast. His feet weren't beneath him, yet. Fire scorched his cheek.
Hunching, he allowed his back to absorb the brunt of the fall, grunting when the impact came, then rolling to a stand, breathless but unable to rest.
Later, Genji found him sitting amidst the evidence of his carnage, bruised and burned with his back pressed against the wall. He looked up at Genji's slow approach, saying nothing when the cyborg settled in beside him, and waited.
He waited for minutes that could have been hours, but eventually, the clouds in Hanzo's haunted gaze lifted. And then… they talked.
The Shimada-gumi's representative arrived two days hence.
Hanzo watched for a familiar face among the bodyguards. Once the escort was in position, a Japanese women in a white two-piece suit emerged from the small, sleek plane. Her silvery black hair was tied back into a stern bun, her features pinched and cuttingly sharp around the cheekbones and jaw.
She brushed herself off, straightened her blazer, then strode up to Hanzo, her gaze cold as a winter storm.
"Hanzo-sama," she said bitingly, bowing stiff and shallow.
Though he was certainly unbalanced by the blatant display of her disdain, he endeavored not to show it.
"There is no need for titles. I have long left that life behind."
She stared at him without emotion, reminding him uncomfortably of the elders, but he weathered it, keeping his chin tucked in slightly, his shoulders and hands relaxed. "In that case…" There was a flash of white, followed by sudden, hot pain as her nails raked his cheek, leaving three lines of beading scarlet behind. Ignoring the urge to cup a hand to the wound, Hanzo stared down into an expression of raw fury, struggling to reconcile the bitter, hate-filled woman with blood underneath her nails with the kind girl he recalled from his youth. "Where is Yui?" She hissed.
Hanzo shook his head. "I don't know."
The next blow made him flinch. "Worthless!" He thought he heard Genji cry out. "Think. Did any of the assassins sent to find you look like her? Did they sound like her?" She searched his face, looking for the answers he'd never wanted to know himself, and found what she was looking for.
He didn't reach for her when her knees buckled, nor did he make any attempt to touch her when she sank to the concrete, weeping openly after having her worst fear confirmed. And she had known, she must have, why her sister never came back. It was why she'd accepted the Shimada-gumi's offer to negotiate with Overwatch. All so she could get close to the boy she had loved once, and the man she now hated.
Unable to bear the sight of her tears any longer, Hanzo attempted to place a steadying hand on her shoulder, but when he leaned forward against his better judgement, the grieving woman reached into her sleeve and lunged, striking him across the chest and scoring his forearm The blade she'd concealed sliced through his gi, reaching the flesh beneath, and would have done more if Hanzo hadn't leaned backwards immediately after catching sight of glinting silver protruding from a pale fist. Gripping his arm to stem the bleeding, Hanzo grimaced as blue sparks sprang from the damaged irezumi. Scales shifted, moving with the dragons growing restless beneath his flesh, fighting to break free. Burdened as he was by suppressing the dragons, Hanzo was left open to another attack, something which Akemi attempted to take advantage of.
A shuriken knocked the blade out of her hands. "Akemi, please." A cyborg appeared on the tarmac, his segmented arms outstretched in a gesture of peace. "I do not wish to hurt you."
Though his vocal modulation made it difficult to tell, it sounded almost as though he were pleading. Akemi narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?" She shot a quick glance at the blade on the ground, visibly calculating whether she'd at least be able to plunge it into Hanzo's heart before the cyborg could interfere.
Just when she lunged, McCree, who'd realized early that things were going south and managed to position himself behind her while Morrison dealt with her bodyguards, knocked her out with a quick jab, making sure to catch her before her limp form could hit the concrete.
Gently, he lowered her to the ground. Shaking his head, he muttered, "I think I speak for all of us here when I say that could have gone better." There was so much to worry about now. Had the Shimada-gumi sent their representative as an assassin in disguise? Had they known her intent or simply hoped that Hanzo would be softened to her due to their history? Until they knew for sure, there was too much risk in severing negotiations.
At his words, Hanzo blinked owlishly, regarding him with a look akin to shellshock. Genji stepped towards him, glancing at the woman resting at McCree's feet – "Ha-" – but before he could get a word out, Hanzo strode off the tarmac, heading towards the treeline with a trail of crimson droplets marking his path.
"Jesse?" McCree turned to Genji, who shifted uncomfortably on his legs, like every second he stood still was killing him slowly. "I would rather not leave him alone at the moment, if that is alright?" Taking stock of Morrison holding his rifle on the bodyguards and the incapacitated woman on the tarmac, McCree scratched his head, then cocked his head towards the forest, giving the cyborg permission to do what he'd been going to do, anyway.
Nodding his thanks, Genji took off after his brother, catching him at the forest's edge.
Jesse watched him place a tentative hand on Hanzo's shoulder through his periphery, waited half a beat for the archer to shrug off the touch, then when that never happened, glanced away, giving the moment the privacy it deserved while he and Morrison got to work.
Akemi woke the to sterile smell of disinfectant, crisp sheets pulled over her chest, and a subtle, pulsing glow that painted the walls of the clinic she'd been placed in with splashes of water color. In the corner farthest from the sunlight streaming in through the window, and closest to the door, the cyborg from before stood with his arms crossed over his carapace, the one who'd disarmed her and protected a blood traitor.
She regarded him warily. "Are you here to defend him?" A strand of silver caught her eye, and she frowned at the freeflowing locks of hair curving over her shoulders. Either someone had undone her bun or it had come loose when she was carried to the infirmary. Both options were distasteful, the first moreso than the last.
At least they'd had the decency and sense of propriety not to undress her.
The cyborg shook his head, maintaining an eerie silence that set her teeth on edge.
She didn't address him again, not even after the heavy atmosphere began to cloy. Eventually, the door swung open, and in stepped Hanzo Shimada, the kumicho that murdered his brother and abandoned his people. His replacement gi hung loosely off his frame, revealing the bandages wrapped and tied around his chest, as well as the gauze taped to his forearm.
Deep inside, the memory of serving breakfast to a pair of young boys played itself out, but the man standing before her now, weary and cautious, bore little resemblance to the child she remembered. If anything, the general feeling he exuded reminded her of his father, except his father had been worthy of respect and admiration, not a villain wearing a mask of regret.
He regarded her with soul-deep sadness, and she hated him. "What you did today was dangerous, Akemi-san." She sneered, feeling an urge to spit at the false concern. As though reading her thoughts, he averted his gaze. "You could have died." Quietly, with his head lowered and his hands curling into fists, Hanzo asked, "Did the Shimada-gumi order you to do this?"
A chilling laugh erupted from her throat. "Order? I volunteered."
Somehow unsurprised, Hanzo nodded. "The revenge that you seek is well-deserved. However, achieving it will not grant you peace." He scoffed, as though at a private joke. "Or so I've heard." The cyborg glanced curiously in his direction, cocking his head slightly.
She sneered, the ghost of a bitter smile on her lips. "Is that judgment I hear, Shimada Hanzo?"
A flinch, barely noticeable to those who didn't know him, yet he was still so calm, patient in a way that rubbed and chafed. "Merely an observation born from experience."
He passed her something, then. Suspicious, she looked down to see her own blade in her hand, recognizable by the crest of the Shimada engraved at its hilt.
Gently taking her hands, he aimed the blade's tip at his throat.
The cyborg sprang off the wall, "Hanzo!"
"What manner of trick is this?" Akemi demanded.
Hanzo kept his body still, his dark eyes focused solely on her. "It is not a trick. The grudge you bear has burdened you long enough. This started with the spilling of our family's blood. Let it end with it, as well." Akemi gritted her teeth, and pushed the blade's tip into the dip of his neck, feeling through the hilt when he breathed and swallowed. Scarlet welled around the tip, and she thought of Yui, how desperately she'd fought to keep her. How it'd all been for nothing when the Shimada-gumi drafted her into its force of assassins and thieves, regardless.
She couldn't have been older than fifteen. She must have been so scared.
Hanzo's eyes widened as the blade began to dig, the scarlet pearl becoming a stream, flicking to the cyborg. She caught the look without understanding it, sensed regret and despair, and within it all, found the boy she'd witnessed become a man too young, desperate and afraid.
Her lips parted with the sound of a cry. The blade fell from her hands.
Hanzo stumbled backwards, a hand clapped to his throat that came away wet.
With the sound of her own harsh breaths grating her skull, she leveled a glare at him, "How did you know I would not kill you?"
For a moment, he said nothing. The blade with his blood streaking its surface laying between them seemed to speak louder than anything he could say, but not for the reason she believed. Feeling the weight of the cyborg's gaze, Akemi glanced in his direction, taking in the unblinking visor. She wondered what he thought of her, now that she'd failed to kill the Shimada's scion twice in a single day.
Hanzo, at least, seemed to think highly of the cybernetic soldier, as he exchanged a meaningful look with him. That on its own was a surprise. The Hanzo she remembered had struggled greatly with forming bonds outside the family. "I've learned much of forgiveness, though my experience has always been with killers." His expression and words unbearably gentle, he continued, "You are not a killer, Akemi-san."
She gripped the sheets in her fists, wanting to scream, to grab the nearest object and lob it at his head. She wanted him dead, but most of all, she wanted her sister back. In her heart, she had always known that killing what little remained of the family she had left in this world wouldn't change anything. "Did you know," she said in a whisper, "that one of the ninja they sent after you was my sister?"
In. Out. In. Out.
"By the time I suspected," Hanzo forced himself to swallow, "it was too late."
It was a grief that broke and bound them, sealing cracks without healing them.
The truth was they could never be what they were, but for the first time, Akemi wondered if she might be able to one day forgive.
"Brother," the cyborg placed a hand on Hanzo's shoulder, speaking quietly, "we need to talk." And he led Hanzo outside, leaving Akemi stunned. As their muffled argument grew more heated, tears welled, slipping down her cheeks like drops of rain. Her breath caught in her throat as the room began to blur, and by the time they returned, her face was buried in her hands, her slender frame shaking with the force of the sobs racking her body.
Thinking back on what he'd unthinkingly said, Genji reached to unhook and remove his visor. A short burst of steam from the suit's internal cooling system escaped from the gaps, getting her attention, and when she looked up, it was to stare in the amber-flecked gaze of someone she'd long thought dead.
"It is good to see you again, Akemi-neesan."