| [Dec. 1st, 2011|08:15 am] |
“You were the only one left,” Katsuko said, quietly. She’d gone days without seeing the lab table, when Kaminari had something else to occupy her attention. It’d been how she’d survived half a year underground —a week of experiments interspersed with anxious days spent recovering in the cells, ever-alert for the rattling squeak of gurney wheels. For Genma to have Iwa’s focus bent on him for weeks in a row, with no time to pull himself together between—
“Was it hard?” she asked. “Afterwards, I mean. With them telling you it’d just take some time, and you’d be fine.” She’d been fifteen, not stupid. The counselor they’d assigned to her had been a chuunin with kind eyes, round and soft from ten years of his wife’s home cooking. Katsuko had had nothing to say to him.
Genma gave a hollow laugh. "Is that what they told you? I got lots of pills, and a lot of… scrutiny. To make sure I really hadn't broken."
Katsuko snorted. “Stupid bastards.” She grabbed her canteen and popped open the cap, taking a long swig. “That’s no way to treat someone.” They should have been thanking Genma for everything he’d sacrificed, everything he’d suffered. Everything he’d held on to for the nebulous concept of ‘the village’.
"There was a kid there with me, actually," Genma said, giving her a sidelong glance. "Taisei. He was thirteen, I think. If it was five years ago, you were probably a kid, too, right? He was like you, I guess. A project for them, not a… Whatever I was. A prisoner." He tipped his head back and took a deep breath. "Taisei's in Konoha now. He's not a ninja anymore."
“Thirteen,” Katsuko mused. She smiled, crookedly. “There was a genin from Kusa in the cells with me around that age. Ichiba. Kind of like a little brother.” She shook her head, grimaced. “You said Taisei’s in Konoha? How is he?” Besides struggling with the nightmares, and the scars, and the memories.
Genma looked at her for a long minute. "Not even a little bit sane. But he's happy. Usually. Except when…" He shrugged. "You know how that is, I bet. I try to go see him every few months. Like a little brother…"
“It’s good that he has you,” Katsuko said. “Someone who was there.” She looked down at her hands and added, quietly, “He’s very lucky.” |
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