Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, or Byakuran, or his dickery.

Notes: This was written for Round 1 of KHR Fest on Livejournal; the prompt was Genkishi/Byakuran – unquestioning. Also, there are spoilers through chapter 252. Enjoy!

Discard

Contrary to conventional wisdom, loyalty can, in fact, be bought. Quite cheaply, too, provided you have the right bribe. The world is full of would-be followers just waiting for someone to come along and shepherd them. The trick is simply to find them in the first place. Once you do, the rest is easy.

Devotion, however, is a little harder to come by. True commitment, real willingness to put the leader and the cause above all else, even one's own life… that is not as easy to stumble upon. It's a selfish world, filled with selfish people increasingly unconcerned with anything other than themselves. Sad, but true. But even so, there are still people out there eager to dedicate their whole being to a higher purpose. They're simply waiting for the right leader, the right cause.

No, the thing that's really rare, the one thing that can't be bought or persuaded or forced is not loyalty or devotion, but trust. To have somebody take you genuinely at face value, accepting everything you say unconditionally, never doubting, never questioning—that is the prize worth having. Finding someone who's loyal, devoted, and absolutely trusting… the odds are one in a million.

Genkishi is one of them.

Byakuran is not above feeling a certain self-satisfaction at his own ingenuity in finding the swordsman. It took quite a bit of doing to locate a fighter with such a powerful Mist affinity, and still more to identify and recreate the vaccine that would cure him. But all the same, Genkishi deserves most of the credit. If he wasn't that one-in-a-million type, if he wasn't so unreservedly willing to carry out Byakuran's every order, no matter the nature of the request—even going so far as to betray his own family—he wouldn't have been half as useful as a subordinate. And he was useful, there was no doubt about that. As a key instrument in bringing Byakuran the Giglio Nero family (and with them, their Mare rings), and as a general tool—not the most powerful in his arsenal, not by a long shot, but still sharp enough to be valuable.

Just not indispensable.

Because the thing about existing in an infinite number of parallel worlds is that it tends to render matters of probability fairly trivial. When you're talking about millions, billions, trillions of universes, one in a million is not only good odds; it's no odds at all. It just doesn't matter.

And the other thing about Genkishi is that, useful as he may be—or was—he is also a failure. There's no doubt about that. For someone as weak and inexperienced as the Sawada Tsunayoshi from ten years ago to be able to push Genkishi so far is a clear sign that the Mist swordsman has outlived his usefulness. Again, sad but true.

It's a pity, because he was such a nice tool, once. But when Byakuran has so many others to choose from, to hold on to the ones that have lost their edge is simply pointless. More than that—foolish.

And in the end, he really doesn't care one way or the other. He orders Kikyo to have Genkishi killed, and laughs when it finally happens. Not because of the swordsman's death, but because of his insistence, right up till the end, that he'd actually been worth anything to Byakuran. Byakuran can't think of anything funnier, because the answer to that should have been obvious. More than just loyal, devoted, and trusting, if Genkishi had really wanted to remain in Byakuran's service, he should have been strong, too.

But he wasn't. Too bad.

There's a saying people use in situations like these. How did it go again? Something like… "Que sera, sera."

He laughs again; no, that's not right.

More like, "Easy come, easy go."