After the Rain

 "You did well, Roku-kun."

Oji's hand squeezed his shoulder, and he managed a smile back, patting it as he wiped his face. The old man chuckled. "This is the second time you've saved us. I'm making a good return on my investment of a lucky wolf!"

Lachlan laughed, slapping his shoulder. Thank god he was able to hear Oji make fun of him, that they'd managed to get out in time. "Have to repay you somehow, Ojii-san senpai. Don't think the first time was as bad as this, though."

"Ah." Oji peered past him at the house's ruins. "We can rebuild. The government gives us money when it's the oni destroying our lives, and not the yakuza. It could help me pay off the last of my debts...."

He snorted. "And help you make new ones."

"Bah, I have given up on gambling."

"We'll see if you make it to two months on that resolution this time."

Oji shook his head. "No respect."

He smiled, rubbing at the corner of his eye and letting out a long breath. Oba sat next to him on an improvised wooden bench that used to be the windowsill with Tobira on her lap, Aiko on his other side. His team hovered elsewhere, helping the other villagers and keeping a very unsubtle eye on him, in case he collapsed or burst into tears again, either-or.

Breathing out, he massaged at the vague headache behind his eyes. At least team One had been sent to the other side of the village to assist. He'd help, but with the exhaustion fogging every part of him, he'd likely end up hindering their efforts more than anything else.

"Are you feeling okay, Onii-san?" Aiko leaned against his arm, looking up at him with wide eyes.

He smiled down at her, ruffling her hair. "Hai, I'm okay now, Otoumo."

"Mm, you look tired." She rubbed at her eye, looking tired herself. "I saw your wolfie up in the sky. You stopped it from falling on us."

"That was just some fire the oni spat out. Couldn't let it flatten the house more than it already is." He absently patted her head. "And they call them Samurai."

"They look just like in the manga." She yawned.

"You should see Drake-san's in Spirit-state. He's a dragon."

"Dragon?" Tobira perked up, peering around one little fist rubbing his face.

"That's right. Just like the ones I make for you."

Tobira made little grabby-hand motions for him. "Want to see your wolfie."

"Iie." Oba tutted at him. "Let Roku-san rest. You can bother him later."

He huffed half a laugh as Tobira pouted, and set his hands on his knees, reluctantly pushing himself up. "Your kaasan's right. And we should take a look at that cut. Can't let it get infected."

_________________

"Are they okay?" Ariake couldn't seem to decide on eyeing the little family wrapped in blankets sitting on a bench in the town's hall, or him.

He ran a hand through his hair. "They're fine, just bruises and cuts."

Luckier than some of the others. They weren't sure if Taiki would make it: he, Ousuke, and a few others currently being shuttled off to the nearest hospital. Another of Sangoro's boys was dead, along with Eisuke, Mrs. Inori, and a few others. It could've been worse, but it could've been better, too.

"And you?" Eden also eyed him, coolly and at a distance.

He smiled crookedly. "Nothing a hot shower won't fix."

"It's good they're okay." Drake watched them. "They're a nice family."

He watched them sip hot soup, too, Oji murmuring something to Oba. "They are."

"Perhaps next time something like this happens, you should keep your helmet on so we can let you know we've found them," Eden said pointedly.

He gave him a lopsided smile. "'Course."

They fell silent for a while, watching the relief workers dole out soup, setting up beds for the night in the hall. It'd be cramped, but at least it'd be warm and dry.

"Will you be staying?"

"Not sure." He exhaled. "I'll have to sort things out with Kyubi-sama. Work out some kind of arrangement. Can't just dance off back to Samurai training and leave them to it."

"She might let us help out instead of doing Guardian assignments." Ariake folded his arms, gesturing at it all. "Relief work should still count for points."

Lachlan looked at him sideways, raising an eyebrow. "You'd help?"

"They need help," the lad defended himself, half-glaring. "And as Samurai masters we have a duty to our people, anyway."

"Kyubi-sama will approve. She may even make it obligatory for all teams to assist."

"And I don't mind," Drake put in.

It was enough to warm the cockles of his heart. He smiled, bowing to them. "Then on behalf of the village people, I thank you."

_________________

Kyubi-sama did approve. And so in addition to their standard training, they all spent their afternoons hauling wood and clearing rubble. The girls mostly assisted in the more domestic areas, helping dress wounds, cook food, and raise spirits. Apart from the second day, when they decided to compete with the lads, which wound up with the entire place cleaned up in an afternoon and the lot of them exhausted.

One worked side-by-side with Sixteen, Seven making friendly jabs at Twelve and earning fish-scale soup in return. The days settled into a busy rhythm, Spirit-state no longer closed to him, though frustratingly temperamental at times.

The Inoue family cheerfully heave-hoed into the rebuild, Aiko and Tobira doing little more than hitching a ride on the logs he hoisted around, giggling at his merry whistle, and pestering him to play wanchan. Though once they managed to finally get Drake to show them his dragon, old wolfie-chan mostly faded away into the background.

Sitting around a bonfire by the beach one evening, the chill in the autumn wind warring with the heat of the flames, he looked at all sixteen cadets laughing and joking with each other and the villagers, and he couldn't help but wonder at how they'd managed to get here.

"Have you heard him howl?"

Then Drake burst the warm bubble with a wickedly innocent smile, Aiko and Tobira's sights snapping straight back to him. Ah hell.

He managed to introduce them to sea shanties after their hilarious attempts to howl along with him, though, and that went down well.  A small price to pay for getting Ariake into Drunken Sailor, without the drunkenness as an excuse this time.

It all seemed to go so well, he should've known it couldn't last.

Before they knew it, the village had gone back up, wounds dressed and scars healing, a final dinner complete with Oba's cooking laid out in their honour, and they returned to their final period of training.

All this time, he'd caught his team throwing him glances when they thought he wasn't watching, something unreadable on Ariake's face, a shadow in Eden's eyes; a considering look from Drake. He'd thought that'd fade as the oni attack and everything that'd happened passed in the distance, but maybe he'd only gotten used to them.

In any case, they noticed when his heart wasn't in the Guardian missions, his telephone calls to the village made every other day, instead of every week.

And unfortunately, when he dreamed of the jagged splinters of a house strewn over white tiles, his hand catching a ragged black jacket and finding Oji's bloodied body attached to it, Aiko and Tobira buried under the rubble, their mother's sightless eyes staring up at a rainy sky, they heard him wake up.

Doors hesitantly opened as he sat at the table with his head in his hands, and he didn't look up when Ariake cleared his throat after a long minute. "Roku?"

He didn't reply.

"Look." A deep breath. "I don't think.... So, we've talked about it. We don't think you should go to Kaijan."

A faint snort came out. "What, planning to bench me? Can't make it on your own."

"If we win, we don't have to accept the Kaijan posting," Eden pointed out. "We can stay here, defending Nihon's shores."

"You", "we"—interesting dichotomy, there. He took in a deep, shuddering breath and ran his scalp down into his fingers, contemplating the pattern in the wood. "No. Can't do that. Much as I'd love to post myself at Shinkai and stand watch on the shore, I have to get to Kaijan. And I know you want it, whatever you say."

Ariake didn't respond, Drake's quiet voice breaking in. "Why? You'd be happier watching over them, right?"

"Because," he sighed, "there were people there who took everything from me. And there are people who could do it again. So no, I'm not staying here."

He looked up and met three pairs of eyes. "We're taking top of the class, and Kaijan with it, or nothing at all."