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Kiriko was 5-years old when she first met the then 14- and 16-year-old Shimada- brothers. Or more formally known as the heirs to the Shimada empire, or to her, just Hanzo and Genji. Her friends that she shared an odd cousin relationship with that could be thought of as a sibling bond.
She’d always been closer with Genji. Their want for mischief and tricks had made them grow closer while Hanzo’s infinite need to please the clan elders by sprouting absolute nonsense about honor had always left him out of whatever the two of them would be doing. Still, both of them loved Hanzo. Nothing could change that, and they knew that Hanzo knew that as well.
Kiriko herself had always been accepted as an honorary member of the Shimada family. Sojiro had always liked her and treated her like she was a part of his family, while both of the brothers treated her like cousin at most and a sister at best. Her and her family had always been accepted and treated well among the Shimada-clan ranks. Of course, a part of that was because her parents were respected members of the clan, but Kiriko had always known that both Sojiro and his sons cared about all of her family. Herself included.
That’s exactly why it had hurt Kiriko oh-so much when Sojiro had been assassinated by a rivaling criminal clan, the Hashimoto, when she had been 14-soon-to-be-turning-15-years-old. Had she never been as close to either Sojiro or his sons his loss wouldn’t have hurt as much as it did. But Kiriko wouldn’t have changed a thing, she’d realized that at an older age. Even if as a child it’d felt like things should’ve been different.
But Kiriko had known that Sojiro’s death had hurt two people more than anyone else, those two being Genji and Hanzo. His sons. Kiriko had been banned from seeing them for a month, but she had been waiting for that ban to be lifted ever since she’d overcame the worst of her own grief.
Everyday of that month she’d woken and sat up, only to stare at the flowery blanket covering her body with an empty head. How was she supposed to help Genji and Hanzo when she herself had no idea how to go on with her life? Sojiro’s death had changed so much. Both of her parents were constantly on edge and nervous, talking about something having to do with the clan elders’ plan. Kiriko hadn’t understood any of it.
Today was no different. Kiriko sat on her bed, stared off into nothing and thought about things. Mainly about the future of things, more specifically the future of the friendship between her and the Shimada brothers. She hadn’t understood her parents’ talk about the plan of the elders, but from what she could guess- that plan might just put their friendship in jeopardy- and she didn’t want that. At all.
Kiriko sighed and got out of bed, putting on the same outfit she’d worn yesterday and tying her hair up the same way before exiting her room and making her way toward the kitchen where her parents would undoubtedly be talking about the worrying future of the Shimada clan because they had just as little of an idea of ‘the plan of the elders’ as Kiriko did. And that worried them for some reason.
During the entire month it had always been the same, Kiriko would eat her breakfast in complete silence while her parents would discuss the Shimada clan ‘silently’ so that she ‘would not hear’. Kiriko had always been able to hear, but she hadn’t ever understood what they’d been talking about. She’d been trying to guess though- and so far, the best guess seemed to be that the elders wanted to take control over the Shimada clan instead of the Shimada brothers. That would probably be bad.
But today was different. Because when Kiriko entered the kitchen, instead of her parents suddenly starting to speak a lot quieter so that she couldn’t hear- they weren’t speaking at all. In fact, they hadn’t even noticed their daughter entering the same room.
Because they were both crying. Holding each other tightly- and crying.
Kiriko’s heart dropped and she could feel a cold numbness run along her skin even if their home wasn’t cold at all. Of course, her first thought hadn’t been the Shimada clan, if the elders had indeed taken over as she’d suspected her parents wouldn’t be crying over it.
Instead, her first thought was her grandmother. And that thought alone made her eyes sting with pressure and force her to fight back on coming tears.
“Mom? Dad?” She asked, making her presence known to the two who first flinched and then turned to look in her direction. Their eyes were filled with tears and their hands were shaking. Kiriko clenched her knuckles so hard that her nails dug into the palms of her hands. She was already fearing for the worst.
“Is something-“ She hesitated, did she really want to know? Would it be for the best to just remain in blissful ignorance? No. It wouldn’t be. “-Is something wrong?” Her voice shook and went quieter at the word ‘wrong’. She didn’t want everything to be so wrong anymore. She wanted things to return to the way they were. She wanted Sojiro back.
Her mother looked away and Kiriko could hear her breath violently shaking, like she was trying to calm herself and hold in a sob at the same time. Her father could only stare at her in sympathy.
Please no. Not her grandma. Anything but her grandma.
Her mother walked up to her and kneeled, setting a hand on her shoulder and looking at her straight in the eyes. “Oh, Kiriko. I am so sorry.” Please no. Please don’t say it. She didn’t want to hear it. Her grandmother was just fine. Nothing had happened to her. “For what?” Her voice shook nearly as much as her mothers. One deep breath later her mother spoke again. Kiriko truly wished that she hadn’t.
“Hanzo has ran away from the Shimada-clan-”
What? That, that’s impossible. Hanzo would never- why were both her parents crying about that? Why would that even happen- What? Why-
“-After he killed Genji.”
…
Kiriko’s whole world crumbled, as did her legs.
When she’d wished for it to be anything but her grandma, she hadn’t been asking for the world to take her best friend instead.
“WHY!? WHY WOULD YOU DO IT HANZO, WHY!?” Kiriko punched Hanzo in the face again, fury consuming her mind, her thoughts and most of all her fist. Hanzo fell on the ground but did not stand back up and instead only stared at the ground in front of him.
Kiriko had spent days trying to track down Hanzo just so she could ask him the simple question of why. Why had he killed Genji? Why had he murdered his own brother? Why had he… why hadn’t he done it quickly?
“You do not want to see him, Kiriko.”
“But he’s my friend! I want to see what Hanzo did! I want to see him!”
“Kiriko, Hanzo was not swift with his work. You do not want to see Genji.”
She had spent days trying to find him. Only to finally find him at the graveyard where Genji had been buried when she’d went to visit his grave. There the bastard had been, on his knees, honoring his brother’s memory like it wasn’t his fault that Genji was now just a memory.
Kiriko grabbed Hanzo’s collar and hoisted him upwards to her eye-level, only infuriating her more when he did not look at her when she looked at him. “Answer me, Hanzo! Why?!” She screamed as she threw Hanzo back down once more. Was this how Genji had looked?
Hanzo stayed down, laying on the ground while Kiriko stared down at him with disgust and fury. The man on the ground had once been her friend. Her brother, until he had killed his own brother. “Why?!” She yelled, a crack running through her voice. Only then did she take note of the tears in her eyes.
Hanzo still hadn’t talked to her, or even looked at her. Not once since she’d found him at the graveyard by his brothers’ grave. It was like Hanzo’s body was now just a vessel emptied of its contents. Kiriko couldn’t decide what she should think of that thought.
She couldn’t decide what she should think of Hanzo in general.
She’d once said that nothing could change her love for the Shimada brothers, including Hanzo, but now- now it felt like it was impossible to even look in his direction. It seemed like Hanzo didn’t want too either. Genji would know what to do. But he wasn’t here, and that was Hanzo’s fault.
“You disgust me, Shimada Hanzo.”
…
She hadn’t seen him since.
Now at 25-years-old Kiriko could only hope to see Hanzo again. Perhaps they’d be able to talk it out now that they weren’t as young and stupid and consumed by their grief. Now that Kiriko could understand that Hanzo hadn’t looked at her because he too was grieving.
Now that Kiriko knew that neither she nor Hanzo had known an answer to her question.
Kiriko doubted that she would ever see either Shimada brother again. She would see Genji once she would pass on, and she doubted that Hanzo would let himself be found by her once again. Maybe that was for the best, but she wished it wasn’t. She wished she could let them be separated on a better note.
Now at 25-years-old, Kiriko was sitting by the same grave as Hanzo had been ten years ago, eating a donut and trying to remember if Genji had liked donuts. She hadn’t discovered her love for them when he’d been alive, maybe they could’ve eaten them together if she had.
Kiriko took the last donut out of the box and set it on top of the grave, saying a quiet prayer and standing up. “Well, I’m off again. Hopefully you like donuts.” She smiled, not able to keep her voice neutral as she walked away from the grave once again. Knowing she’d return on his birthday. And hers too.
“I always preferred chocolates, but donuts aren’t half bad.”
Instinctively, Kiriko took out her kunai and dropped into a battle position. She laid her eyes on a stranger in a cybernetic suit- leaning against Genji’s grave like it meant nothing. “Stop that. Have you no respect for the dead?” She spat, her grip on the kunai tightening. The stranger raised his hands in defeat and stopped leaning against the grave- even though Kiriko couldn’t see his face, there was an aura of… mischief and sarcasm to him. “You wound me, Kiriko.” He stated.
“What do you mean? Who are you?” The stranger undid something behind his mask and grabbed it, removing the blockage in front of his face to reveal-
Just as they had once before, Kiriko’s legs crumbled underneath her once again as she stared into the eyes of none other than Genji Shimada. The man who everyone had thought dead, her friend, her brother. Kiriko stood up with wobbling legs and rushed up to the man to give him a crushing hug.
Kiriko could’ve said a million different things, but instead she could only smile and sob.