Redemption - A Hanzo / Genji Overwatch Fanfiction

Chapter 26: Dragons (Hanzo, Genji)

To be back in Japan felt familiar and strange at the same time. The announcements in the shinkansen, the sound of its opening doors, the sight of Fujiyama that close. The town started dressing up for the upcoming cherry blossom festival season. Even the billboards showed weather forecasts in a soft shade of pink with predictions when and where you should be to best watch the cherry blossoms. But still, Hanzo could feel that he did not belong here anymore. Not without Genji.
He did not care about his steps for just a few minutes and suddenly he stood there. The ramen bar in front of him and the pachinko hall to the right. Places, where he had to pick up his brother countless times. He decided to endure the rambling noises of game machines until nightfall. Surely there would be guards waiting for him. More than last year, but still not enough to overcome him.
Darkness came quickly and he didn't have the time to dwell in memories any longer. »Come on, let's make this quick«, he said and turned around surprised, when he did not receive an answer. Hanzo shook his head because of his own foolishness. Again he had forgotten that Ýri wasn't with him. Not this time.
He sighed heavily before he ran straight to the front door with the two tail-biting dragons. Of course it was closed. Hanzo did not hesitate and simply climbed the wall, all his training sessions here getting alive within him again. Nevertheless he was startled, when he just found minor guards and one omnic securing the area around the gigantic, ancient bell and the zen garden. There were four of them. No challenge at all. Ridiculous. Is that really all?
He shot down the omnic first, striking his main data base. Before the next guard could react, Hanzo was already throwing him down from the terrace into the dainty raked zen garden, where he remained motionless. While taking care of a bald-headed hulk, Hanzo realized another guard near the great bell about to call for back-up. He got the bald one into a headlock, choked him until he lost consciousness while hitting the cell-phone with another well-aimed shot. Its hopelessly overstrained owner ran right into the bell, head first. After a loud clunk, he fell to the ground. Poor fools ...
Hanzo went on, but highly alert at the lack of this year's security measures. Maybe they have been placing a trap somewhere else? Passing the gardens with its blooming cherry trees, Hanzo felt watched. There definitively was someone waiting for him, but he couldn't care less. Shall they come. Hanzo ran straight into the main hall to the shrine. It still looked the same as always. Since ten years the broken edge of the sword of the Shimada masters rested beneath the blood stained banner. Hanzo got down kneeling in front of the blade he killed his brother with. He thought, he would be saving the clan with his action, but he just killed an important part of himself. The wound was still inflicted and burned. Guilt weighed heavily on his shoulders. He placed a cup of sake and a single sparrow feather on the tatami and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to remember his brother's face. It was getting harder with every year passing.
A silent shifting movement in the roof beam made him open his eyes again. So there is the expected trap. »You are not the first assassin sent to kill me and you will not be the last«, Hanzo whispered, placing the incense.
Behind him he realized some green glow and a metallic figure landing on the tatami without a single sound. This is no common omnic ...
»You are bold to come to Shimada castle. The den of your enemies«, a mechanical voice answered as the omnic got to his feet again.
»This was once my home.« Hanzo reached for his bow. »Did your masters not tell you who I was?!« He turned around quickly releasing the shot, but the omnic dodged with ease.
»I know who you are ... Hanzo.« H-how? His eyes widened surprised at the informal address and he drew the bow once more. The omnic just dodged again, not even bothered. »I know you come here every year on the same day.« Who programmed this omnic?! Hanzo shot two more arrows, but the coward hid away behind a lantern. Still the bamboo could not shield him and he ducked down. »You risk so much to honor someone your murdered.«
Hanzo recognized the shuriken and deflected them with his bow, so they got stuck in the wall behind him. Fury was starting to burn inside him. What does this pile of metal know?! »You know nothing of what happened!«, he growled, running a few steps forward and firing again. The omnic deflected his arrow another time, but its force surprised him and he broke throw the bamboo lantern, landing on the lower levels of the hall.
Don't run from me, you coward! Hanzo got to the edge and shot a scatter arrow after him. He cannot possibly dodge that!
But Hanzo was proven wrong. With its back against a wall, the omnic deflected every single arrow split, flipped back on the higher grounds and vanished in a green flash on the balcony.
How?! How is that even possible?! Hanzo followed him, his bow drawn.
»I know you tell yourself, that your brother disobeyed the clan ... « The voice came from behind, so Hanzo turned around and shot without thinking. But he hit nothing. Just the blank wall. » ... and that you had to kill him to maintain order ... « Finally he located his opponent and swiftly turned again. » ... that you know, was your duty.«
»It was my duty ... «, Hanzo growled, grabbing another two arrows from his quiver and aiming the first. » ... and my burden.« He fired, but again the omnic blocked it with his short sword. So Hanzo readied the next and was drawing harder this time. »That does not mean, I do not honor him!«
The omnic's weapon sliced through his arrow like cutting butter. Hanzo stared at him in disbelieve and by his count he had run out of arrows too. He grabbed his Stormbow like a two-handed sword and attacked the strange being with a furious roar. I won't die today! I will get back to Ýri! But he had underestimated the omnic. Very much in fact. After a severe exchange of blows Hanzo had to realize that he was much too slow and in the end, he wasn't able to block the omnic's jump kick and crashed against the balustrade. The omnic – now up in the air – was aiming at him again. Hanzo was barely able to dodge him with his bow and groaned at the force of the strike as the omnic landed on him. He could even feel the wood splintering beneath him. His hands were starting to tremble while he still tried to hold against the furious stranger. He was trembling harder. Hanzo knew he wouldn't be able to withstand any longer, but he had to, if he did not want to get stabbed. He just had to. He promised her to return.
»You think, you honor your brother Genji with incense offerings?!« He barely realized the angry green light in the omnic's mask. Instead he was eyeing for one of his still intact arrows stuck in the solid floor. »Honor resides in ones actions!«
»You dare to lecture me about honor?!« His rage gave him new strength. »You are not worthy to say his name!« He grabbed the stranger in a headlock with the help of his bow. But where was the sense in choking a lifeless being? So Hanzo simply kicked the omnic away from him, slid over the floor to his stuck arrow and instantly drew his bow, feeling the familiar trickle and the blue glow in his arm as his dragons awakened. »Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!« The two large blue dragons emerged on command, growling at his enemy.
Now the omnic unsheathed his katana, whirling it in a complicated circle, shouting: »Ryuujin no ken wo kurae!«
His eyes widened in surprise. Hanzo couldn't neither believe his ears nor his eyes. A huge green dragon emerged from its master's sword, twirling around his own so they were ignoring his commands while the omnic made them change their path and charge back at him.
No way! Hanzo raised his arms in an attempt to shield himself with his bow, knowing it useless though. He stumbled back, feeling his life energy being drained from him. All three dragons vanished into thin air and Hanzo fell to his knees, still not getting what had happened the last few seconds. »Only a Shimada can control the dragons ... « He finally dared to look up at his enemy. He at least wanted to know one thing, before he had to break his promise to Ýri and leave this world: »Who are you?«
The omnic got to him in flash, setting his short sword at his throat. A moment of strange silence followed. Although it was awkward, the slight pink cherry blossoms in the wind were the first thing he realized after feeling the cold steal. He felt peace. The kind of peace, you feel, when you are finally getting what you deserve ...
Hanzo just kept kneeling there frozen, not daring to even move a single finger. »Do it then. Kill me.« He wasn't afraid of what was to come now. He just regretted not being able to bid her farewell – her, who meant everything to him in the mess his life had become since he murdered his own brother.
But the omnic did not do it. For some reason, he hesitated to give him the final blow. A few seconds nothing happened at all, then the omnic withdrew his sword, standing tall again. »I will not grant you the death, you wish for. You still have a purpose in this life ... «
There was only one face appearing in front of Hanzo's inner eye at the word purpose. There was only one. A stubborn blond viking's.
» ... brother ... «
It was nothing more than a mere, metallic sounding whisper. But the shock hit him deep. What did he just call me?! »No ... « Hanzo looked up, raising to his feet again. »No«, he weakly replied, staring at the stranger being. »My brother is dead ... «
The omnic moved both hands, taking off the mask with a clicking noise. The green light got pale and Hanzo was unable to look away. His heart stopped for a moment as he realized, that it wasn't an omnic. More some kind of cyborg. Even though it was just the eyes being revealed, Hanzo immediately recognized them. The same color and shape as his, but without the familiar mischief twinkling in them. Could that really be him?
»G-genji ... «, he whispered, feeling like he would faint any moment. He was unable to bear his brother's gaze. Guilt overcame him heavier than ever before. »What have you become?«, he asked weakly.
Genji put the mask back in place and the green glow reappeared. »I have accepted, what I am«, he replied with a calm voice, which was just partly his own. He was carefully stepping towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder. »And I have forgiven you.«
Hanzo looked up confused. Despite his expectation, his brother's hand did not feel cold. Still, how is this even possible? He can't be alive!