A/N: Those of you reading after Three Tails will obviously know that this is the fic that was promised at the end; those of you that are new readers WELCOME and I hope you enjoy it ^_^

On the subject of my previous fic; this character and story have been rolling around in my head since I was about half-way through Three Tails and just keep creeping back. I think it's more than understandable if you have reservations about whether or not I'll finish it considering how that went but I think if Three Tails has done anything it's taught me a lesson. I bit off far more than I could chew with that last fic and tried to jam so much in that in the end it'd either feel rushed or dawdling. Oki's story will be more along the lines of my original type (which I feel far more comfortable with) as in it will follow the character's lifebeforethe main storyline and add to the characters in Cannon, expanding on existing things in the Naruto universe rather than trying to upend everything. I'll also try to check over everything at least twice before posting and make the chapters longer rather than just putting up whatever I've managed so far.

One last note, I've left out honorifics and Japanese terms in this fic because more often than not I get them wrong anyway. But the characters will still refer to others in the same manner as they would if they were speaking Japanese e.g. 'Big Brother' 'Mr Whathisface' 'Lord Whathisface' ect.

I'm hoping you enjoy it and I'm hoping you give it a chance since the first few chapters will be rather slow and separate from Cannon characters since I'm trying to set up Oki and her childhood life. I'd seriously, SERIOUSLY appreciate any feedback while trying to get this up and running, so if you have any thoughts on the first chapter (any at all) a review or PM would be really, really welcome :]

Anyway on with the story…

Life on Nishihama.

The first time Oki Tachibana saw a corpse was at three years old.

She could (with a clarity that surprised even herself considering her age at that time) recall the encounter to every minute detail bar sound. Why the scene reran on mute in her head was beyond her, but it did and in an eerie, respect-for-the-dead manner it only seemed fitting.

The corpse in question had once been a man by the name of Akifusa Kirisawa. Oki had noticed very little about him when he'd been milling about with the other scarce, living occupants of her village; and now he was dead she could remember even less. He used to spit, that she remembered and only because the amount of violence he would devout into hacking and snuffling out his bad habit had made her wonder (at that age) whether or not one day Akifusa Kirisawa would spit out his skeleton whole.

They'd found him by the boats, tangled in one of their father's nets with brittle fingers and the brittle limbs they were attached to threaded through the ropes. The once-man's hair had been lank, curled about his bloated face by sea salt, and his stringy limbs had been strewn about him with all the lack of grace as a self-conscious teen. Oki remembered the odd way his jaw had hung, and how vibrant and suddenly exotic a bruise looked when dyed across the deathly pallor of his skin.

Her brother had flown into action immediately, fussing over her not to look yet making a grand show of dragging the corpse away. Kenzo Tachibana had-like many of the fishwives in their village-gained the majority of his entertainment by feeding familial drama into distended proportions. While her eleven year old brother fussed and clucked over the tragedy of a child so young having to witness something so obscene; Oki was hardly 'traumatised'.

In fact despite the small alteration the corpse posed to the daily routine of Oki Tachibana's life, she couldn't say that the human driftwood of Akifusa Kirisawa was even unexpected. She didn't know the reasons behind Akifusa's fatal beating, nor did she have any knowledge of the culprit. But the identity of the corpse did not matter; only the fact that it was there. It was as if Oki had been due to see a dead body, and prompt (as Oki preferred to be) the dead body had met her schedule.

So at three years old Oki Tachibana saw her first corpse. At three years old, she crouched to help her older brother untangle its fingers from her father's net. And at three years old she looked at it with neither surprise nor recoil.

…

Nishihama could not boast to be the richest village in the Land of Water. It wasn't exactly the poorest either; Nishihama-like many of the villages in the Land of Water-slipped into that coveted grey area of the unexceptional. 'Coveted' by its villagers of course, who had learned from their father's stories passed on from generation to generation about 'this one cousin' or 'this one younger brother of your great grandpa' who had ventured outside the safe monotony of life in the village only to meet a tragic and sticky end. Infamy was a word immediately linked to dangerous. And for a village full of people who considered a very good day, a day when they managed to go to sleep with three square meals; 'dangerous' was not something that they had the time or inclination to bother with.

Nishihama was a village built upon the ritual of eking into the next day. By the age of three, Oki Tachibana had grown so accustomed to having an almost empty belly that those rare days when they ate well in the household left her feeling uncomfortable and unfamiliar. It was a village that held a rough estimate of 114 people, 32 families and the 35 houses that lodged them.

It sat against a coastline of grey, wind-smoothed pebbles ringed by a swallow strip of sand and circled by the temperamental sea that threaded through the islands of the Land of Water. The village was an assembly of tin-roofs and water-warped wood constructs rising up on spindly slat legs; all grimly decorated with netting, wicker baskets and various small iron-cast charms that promised a good catch the next day. It wasn't pleasant-looking, even on those few days when the sun managed to bathe the place in a more flattering light, but it was familiar and there was a certain character to the salt air and sandy paths. In honesty, to Oki the village always looked as though it were expecting an attack, what with the houses huddled together like suspicious conspirators and its sour-faced shabby appeal. It made it comical, almost loveable in a pitying sort of way.

Because Nishihama was so close to the sea, and because teaching was passed on from senior to junior family members with the only subjects being those that put food on the table and roof over head; the vast majority of income was made through fishing. Kirigakure was only a strip of sea away from the island Nishihama, discontent and malnourished, perched on; and that powerhouse needed food. Nishihama joined many of its surrounding villages in supplying that demand. The few families who weren't casting and calling in nets from dawn till dusk owned business that aided the occupation. The Yuno's sold a few essentials but even those were usually considered gaudy, unnecessary expenses; and Oki could not remember a time when the Yuno family were doing well selling what people could get-by without or hand-craft themselves.

The Tachibana family did not break the mould in regard to this accustomed way of life in Nishihama. Oki's father, Kenji Tachibana, had been a second son; her older brother had been named after her grandfather who was long dead and buried before Kenzo was even conceived. After Kenzo's birth there had been a painful string of miscarriages for her mother until Oki was born. When she was four, her mother was pregnant again.

Despite being in the company of her older brother and her father for the entirety of her days as a child, Oki couldn't say she was particularly close to them. She and Kenzo had little to nothing in common besides a last name and the realisation that they had little to nothing in common. It had been decided between the pair through unspoken agreement that they would maintain their distance from the other's life whenever it was not forced on them. It was a cool mutual disdain Kenzo and Oki regarded each other with. As a younger child Oki could recall how much Kenzo had wanted a younger sibling to follow him about and hero-worship him and rely on his wisdom; those few years of Kenzo grabbing at her hands and Oki's cold reception of his attentions had made clear each sibling's disappointment with the other.

From what Oki could remember of her relationship with her father, it had been good before Kenki Tachibana (her younger brother) was born. She had distinct memories of sitting on his shoulders, so board then and so high up that Oki had girlishly clung to his forehead and given the gulls swooping above a challenging eye. She had memories of hands, weathered by callouses and smelling of salt and huge around her own, patiently teaching her own how to tie a knot or separate the tangles in one of his nets or sew the tears in her clothes that were occupational hazards of being a child. She had memories of a wiry beard brushing against the soft skin of her cheek and a laugh like thunder rolling out from the smiling mouth underneath. There would still be ghosts of the man Oki remembered from then in the years after Kenki's birth, snippets and still-frames repeated when Kenji Tachibana remembered the man he'd been or forgot the man he'd become, but those were few and far between.

In what limited memory Oki had of her mother, Nanako Tachibana formally Nanako Midorikawa, she had been a woman perpetually pregnant and perpetually tired. She would stay round and tired-eyed and swollen-ankled in Oki's memory because Nanako Tachibana did not survive the birth of her third child. Oki, in that callousness that children are capable of, did not believe she was missing out on much. Her father would become quiet when speaking of her mother (or more quiet than usual, considering her father) and if pushed either grow irritated that she was asking these questions or announce that Nanako had a kind soul in that watery voice that meant Oki and her brothers would have to leave the man be until he'd collected himself. When Oki asked her older brother, Kenzo Tachibana would shrug and mutter that he didn't remember much. If the woman couldn't even leave that much of an impression on her son after them knowing each other for twelve years; Oki supposed that she wasn't missing out on much. Besides it wasn't as if she was in a minority, most of the households in Nishihama had lost one or both parents.

In fact, Oki sincerely doubted that there wereany 'whole' families left in the Land of Water.

…

"So…what's going on in there?"

"Well, I dunno that do I?" Kenzo griped, throwing his younger sister a distinctly put-out scowl, "If I knew what was going on would I be out here with you?"

"You'd be out here anyway, even if you knew" Oki snapped, "Dad told you to stay put."

Kenzo didn't have an answer, folding his arms across his skinny chest he glared at his sister with as much venom as a twelve year old could muster. His nails were ripped and bitten, his hair unwashed and falling in lank clumps over his forehead and the bags under his eyes looked vaguely painful; in all the only visual effect Kenzo Tachibana could manage was that of a street rat with ambitions bigger than himself and a severe case of constipation.

"…shut up," Kenzo spat after a long silence.

Oki only replied with a brief sour expression before deciding that arguing with Kenzo wasn't worth the time it would waste. Her fingers skittered against the splintered wood of the windowsill, fingernails hooking under and stripping up any lingering peeling paint. Her mother had died last night. She'd cried when Kenzo and her father cried but she still wasn't exactly sure what it was she was cryingfor. The ambiguous explanation that she would not be seeing her mother again had been given but Oki was unsure as to what that entailed and what exactly it would mean to her.

With brutal honesty, Oki realised that she didn't reallyknow an awful lot about her mother and in fact she'd never relied an awful lot on the woman either. She couldn't reallymiss the presence of someone she'd never known or depended on, could she? Her father had been her sole provider in her life, her mother was gone but surely that was an absence that Oki could live with? So what was left to sort out? What was father doing in that room?

Oki gave the room her parents had shared in their diminutive four roomed house another glance.

She puffed air into her cheeks and out again. Her toes tapped an erratic beat against the round, threadbare rug that occupied the majority of the main room in their house. She counted the grains in the wood, reached 14 before she realised what she was doing.

"I'm bored outta my mind," Oki groaned aloud, "Is Dad done in there yet?"

Kenzo only gave her an aggravated look.

"Do ya reckon something happened to the baby?" Oki finally voiced, throwing another look at Kenzo before returning her gaze to the door, "Like it's got a weird head or something? Y'know like Genji Fujisaki's older sister."

Kenzo gave the door a speculative look. Brisk, biting wind pulled in from the sea, breaching what little defence the wood walls provided and washing into the room before curling at its centre like a smug-faced housecat. Oki shivered. Her eyes moved to the door again and the unnerving silence behind it. The mundane door guarding its mundane room had in these circumstances stepped away from the familiar. It was no longer the door Oki passed every day and the door her father emerged from before the morning's light had even broken. Suddenly it looked intrusive and attention-seeking that irritating relative that no one wants at the family gatherings but out of politeness no one asks to leave.

"I reckon Dad's killed it."

Kenzo's announcement broke the staring contest Oki had been participating in with a door. Kenzo's bottom lip was pushed out, a thin-fingered hand under his chin and the weight leaned back onto one leg. This was an expression and stance Oki recognised as Kenzo's-about-to-feed-me-some-bullshit-and-make-out-that-he-knows-a lot-more-than-he-actually-does face.

"Killed what?" Oki replied with a sceptical frown.

"Thebaby," Kenzo sighed and rolled his eyes, drawing out that last word like it was the most obvious thing in the world, then muttered, "duh!"

"Why would Dad kill it?" Oki glared (not keen on Kenzo treating her like the dumbass), "that don't make any sense."

"Yeah," Kenzo nodded giving her an expression that clearly showcased that he was shocked she could be so stupid, "it makes a whole lotta sense. The baby killed Mom so Dad will probably kill it now. That's the smartest thing to do."

"No," Oki frowned, "that's just stupid, and the baby didn't kill Mom."

"She died giving birth to it, so it kinda did," Kenzo scoffed, "don't you know anything? That's the same as killing her."

"No, it ain't nothing like that. The baby can't do anything yet, Mom decided to have it so if she died that's her own fault. It's got nothing to do with the baby," Oki countered, "you've gotta take responsibility for your own stuff. If Mom got sick or something and had to leave it's cuz she messed up, don't stick that on the baby."

Kenzo's tanned face bloomed an aggressive shade of red. Floorboards creaked and whined as he took one, two then three steps towards her. Oki scrabbled up from where she'd propped her elbows against the windowsill. She may be smaller and weaker than her brother but at least she gave harder than he could, though with how furious he looked Oki doubted any amount of viciousness was going to see her through this one. Just as Kenzo's hand darted out to snag her collar and Oki moved to duck away, thedoor opened.

Kenzo froze as their father's heavy steps reverberated through every plank in the main room's floorboards, and echoed dully in the empty space underneath their raised shack. Oki, to that point, had not believed in the timely rescues that illustrated stories with phrases like 'in the nick of time' and numerous amounts of 'suddenly'. Her pleasant discovery was short lived however when her father's vast, bear-like hulk paced past the lamp in the centre of their dinner table. The light was briefly swallowed by his profile then spat out again as his slow, measured steps carried him on through the room.

Like the door he'd emerged from, Oki's father had also managed to transform from the familiar into the alien within the space of 12 hours. The sheer size of him no longer comforting; rather than soft-spoken and somewhat submissive, Kenji Tachibana suddenly appeared sombre and fragile in a way that ate at his size. He passed them both without a glance as he made his way towards the door, his walk and newfound brittleness making Kenji a wraith, the funeral shroud passing through their house.

"Dad!" Kenzo called bursting with energy and noise to overcompensate for the silence, "Hey, Dad! Wait! Where're you going?"

"To make arrangements so we can bury your mother," Kenji's voice was dry and thin and hurt Oki's ears.

"What about the baby?" Kenzo skidded to the door shouting frantically, "Did you kill it?"

Their father stopped.

One of his sandaled feet on the last of the warped, rickety stairs and one foot among the tangle of thin, coastal bushes that choked them, Kenji turned. He stared at his first born for a long moment and Oki-being too short to peer around her older brother- had not the slightest knowledge of what exactly her father projected in that look. What she did know was that Kenzo flinched as if a feral cat had darted across his path, a whole body jolt that moved his foot behind him.

Their father drew in another breath. Turned around.

"Stay here."

And then he was gone, his shape disappearing into the early-morning mist and ramshackle of unkempt houses.

….

It was awhile before either sibling entered the ominous room. Kenzo made multiple muttered threats about finishing what their father had started but didn't move. Instead he brooded in a corner, nursing his pride. It was Oki who finally relented to curiosity and tired of inaction, nudged the door on its hinges and toed into the gloom.

Their mother's body was still on the bed but it looked out of place, covered from head to toe in the ratty blanket and carefully positioned in an unnatural repose. Oki stared at it awhile, debating whether to remove the blanket from her face and discover whether or not the foreign object in the room really was her mother. Apprehension held her back. She didn't really want to see its face, curious or not, and disturbing it didn't seem right on a half-hearted whim.

Instead Oki moved her eyes to the little bundled shape on the bed. It barely made a noise as she moved closer and for a good while Oki wondered if the baby really was dead. She'd seen plenty of babies before, and this one looked as indistinct as the others. It was pink, it was bald and it didn't really do much. Overall, Oki found the sight of new brother wholly unimpressive.

But maybe that's what she liked about it.

The baby was smaller than most others she'd seen, it also breathed with a wet, echoing rattle that didn't strike four-year old Oki as particularly healthy. There was spit in the corners of its little beaky mouth and angry red spots on the tanned skin around its fat little eyes. It was cold in the room, the baby shivered. The draft brought the scent of stale milk crawling up Oki's nose although she knew her mother had died before she could breastfeed her new born.

"I don't think you're very well," Oki informed the baby then felt foolish because the baby couldn't reply never mind understand what she was telling it.

It just continued to sit there, staring dumbly up at her as its podgy lips smacked against one another.

"I don't think Dad and Big Brother like you much, either," Oki continued, very matter-of-factly.

Of course, the baby did nothing.

Oki sighed, her eyes rolling across to the pokey chest her father and mother had crammed most of their meagre belongings in. It was a hearty thing, huge slats of wood and pot marked iron gripping each of its four corners. Oki had a respect for hard-lived things; she had a respect for survivors. She understood-in an accepted distant fashion-that the line between life and death was a thin thing, difficultly straddled and far too easily crossed. Anything that could bite, claw and dig themselves into another day deserved admiration. Oki tempered through things. It was what she did best. The rattling in the baby's chest seemed to swell in the silence.

"Look," Oki spoke to the baby, "I'll make a deal with you."

The four year old girl paced forward, rocking back on her heels as she scrutinised up, down, up again and finally resting on its eyes sharply. Like a drill sergeant she held the baby's stare, frowning until her reached decision was punctuated by a brisk nod.

"You survive tonight and I'll…" a moment to collect her thoughts, "I'll keep an eye out for you. I'm not gonna baby you or anything so don't expect me to, but I'll help you out. Alright?"

The baby said nothing. Oki left the room feeling vastly more satisfied.

…..

"See it's Oki, say it with me. Oh-kee. That's me," she pointed a finger towards herself then flicked it out again until it rested against the skinny, narrowed-shouldered space of her brother's chest, "and you, you're Kenki. Ken-kee."

"Oh-kee," Kenki sang, "Ohhh-keeeee."

"No,I'm Oki. You're Kenki," Oki this time placed her entire hand flat against the heaving of Kenki's ribs.

The movements of his diaphragm weren't like everyone else's; she already knew this. It was as if Kenki's lungs had already run far ahead of him and the rest of his body was struggling to catch up. He often lost his breath quickly and it deserted him altogether at other moments. She felt it move beneath her hand for a while, imagining the air pulling in and wheezing out from between little holes in his stunted body. He'd survived another day, she hadn't exactly been counting since birthdays weren't often celebrated in Nishihama and everyone relied on 'round-about' ages, but Oki was sure her younger brother had passed three now. That meant she herself was around seven.

"Oki, finish with those nets."

She glanced up as her father passed over her head and continued on into the house. The thin candlelight from the lantern on the bottom step offered an apologetic, stuttering glow, but it was enough for Oki to continue precisely weaving the damaged rope together. Kenki shrunk further into her back as their father passed. Oki neither comforted nor admonished her younger brother.

She enjoyed priding herself on her own ideal of an elder sibling; firm but willing to give credit where credit was due. Of course, she'd often fell sort of these standards on occasion and if Kenzo were ever to act in such a way with her, she'd likely tell him where to shove it. And she could guarantee he wouldn't be 'shoving it' anywhere pleasant.

Kenki, however, was different. Kenki was unimpressive. And he didn't pretend to be otherwise. She appreciated that honesty of character, she appreciated the way Kenki would openly exhibit how happy he was to see her and she appreciated how he confided everything to her. A narcissistic part of herself appreciated the way Kenki trailed around after her too. It's reassuring to be admired and more so to be needed.

She wasn't entirely sure if she would've had the same fondness for the subject if it hadn't been her stumbling little brother, fisting his hands in her shirt while he followed her about with careful footsteps. She just wasn't the nurturing, kisses on skimmed knees and lullabies before bedtime type. No, as an elder sister Oki tended to meter out sloppy hair ruffles and watchful eyes. But the youngest Tachibana tried so hard to please her and understand what she said and do the things she did, that Oki couldn't begrudge him for playing her second shadow. Thus far, Kenki was the only one in Nishihama to warrant Oki's rough affection. And maybe that was because thus far Kenki was the only one in Nishihama to want them, or thus far Kenki was the only one in Nishihama that Oki believed deserved them.

"You can stop cowering now, Kenki," Oki voiced, eyes still focused on the intricate tangle of rope as her fingers deftly pulled them apart.

Kenki Tachibana remerged into view through tiny phrases, clutching at his stern older sister's back and peeping out at the world with shy eyes. Oki finally grew impatient and with a sigh, roughly planted her younger brother in her lap and consequently out in the open. He squeaked at the display of force but quieted when he was staring out at the world through the cage of his sister's arms and the netting she was holding near her face. The world stared back at the boy, or what little the three year old knew of it. The Yuno matriarch was shouting at her husband about money again, Mr Mizuyama and his three sons were hauling their fishing boat between them (a tear in the side and a line scratched into the course sand of the path behind them) and close but sounding far away Kenki could hear the waves breaking against the shore.

The world he knew smelt of salt and brine, it was constructed with washed wood and rain on tin roofs, and it was occupied by gruff, desperate people with hollow cheeks and calloused hands. It scared him, just like the sea had when he'd watched Oki push off the boat with their father and drift out onto the wide, shifting surface. Large, unknown things scared him. And that was one of the reasons why the air that constantly fermented around Kenji Tachibana scared him.

But Oki did not scare Kenki. Oki was forthright in a way that was sometimes in itself terrifying. Kenki could look out at these things that made him feel frightened from her lap, and the fear would ease away a bit. Kenki glanced up at his sister and she glanced down at him.

"You finished shaking?" Oki questioned, dark eyes focused on Kenki's.

Kenki nodded.

"Alright then," Oki reshuffled herself and reverted right back to her task as if she'd never deviated from it to begin with.

It was quiet a moment longer; a particularly strong wind pushed sand up into their eyes and set the wind chimes hanging from their neighbour's awning into a brief frenzy. The youngest Tachibana watched his older sister work. She was far faster than Kenzo, even in the weak light, and she always brought in more fish when she went out with Dad than Kenzo ever did. Her hands were good, is what Kenki decided, quick hands with little brains in the fingertips to store all that memory. Oki had tried to tell him what a brain was but Kenki wasn't entirely sure he'd got it right, he'd tried but he didn't get why the other body parts just let it sit there and boss them around.

"I thought you thought I was the scariest person in Nishihama anyway," Oki murmured, breaking Kenki from his brain related confusion.

"Scary?" Kenki echoed with wide, disbelieving eyes. Had he really said that? Sure, Oki was a bit scary…sometimes, but not scary in the same way his father was.

Oki glanced down at him, dark eyes mirroring a brief flicker of the flame before inking out into pitch black again. A grin passed over her face as she tucked her head down further and then, quick and sharp, she snapped at him baring her pointed teeth as she did so. Kenki wheeled back, giggling with a sparking mixture of excitement and sheer panic. Oki grinned and growled, following his hand slowly as Kenki giggled and tried to push her face away. She snapped her teeth again and Kenki exploded into hysterical laughter.

The next squealing giggle caught in his throat, the air crawled out of his body and the blood pounded in his veins. Without batting an eyelid, Oki pushed him back against her chest and held him still with one hand while returning to her previous task with the other. Kenki felt a brief burst of frustration-the fun ruined by his own short-breath and once again he'd managed to showcase his weakness to his big sister-before the inevitability washed over him. There wasn't much he could do about it, so he might as well get on with it like his big sister did.

"You breathing right now, Kenki?" Oki murmured down at him.

He nodded despite still having to stuck air in through what felt like a single hole poked into a sheet of wet cloth.

"Good," Oki nodded, "You're not allowed to die on me, alright?"

"Alright, Oki," Kenki murmured back.

….

Kenki Tachibana was shy and polite; the type of person who was eternally apologising as if they were constantly sorry that their very existence put people out of the way. This was not an attitude his older sister approved of. It was understandable for Kenki to regard himself in such a way. Kenzo Tachibana treated his younger brother as if he was a distinctly embarrassing family pet, like the old dog that had long been incontinent but was tolerated because it was such a 'poor thing'. But this condescension and Kenzo's embarrassment on Kenki's behalf, was at least acknowledgement.

Kenji Tachibana was not a bad man; you couldn't rightly say he was a bad father either. He didn't beat any of his three children and in some areas of the Land of Water that was all it took to constitute a good father. But Kenji Tachibana was an absent father, he rose before his children, he worked beside his children, he ate sitting at the same table as them and he slept on a futon that was only separated from theirs by a thin wall. But Kenji was an absent father all the same. He had stopped being a man and became a breathing tombstone to his deceased wife, the day Nanako Tachibana died.

So Kenki's attitude was-to Oki- understandable, but that didn't necessarily mean it was something she approved of.

"You've got to look at it like this, little brother," she began.

Kenki blinked back at her, hands pausing in their task at casting the net out. She was nine now and he was five, almost six. Oki had recently decided he was old enough to accompany her in the morning ritual of dragging their father's boat out onto the sea and setting the nets. It was tough work and Kenki often had to hide his breathlessness from his sister. She'd told him quite clearly that if he drowned because he wasn't watching what he was doing, it was 'his own stupid fault'.

"Like what?" Kenki frowned with confusion as he feed yet more of the net into his sister's waiting hands.

She didn't answer immediately, leaning her wiry body back and to the side before casting the net into the ocean. The weights began dragging it down immediately, the morning chill and first, shy traces of the oncoming sun rebounding from the water.

"Like this," Oki repeated, jerking her chin out towards the dull disk emerging from the fog.

"Like the sun?" Kenki blinked.

"No," Oki sighed, "like the morning. You like waking up in the morning don't ya?"

"Well…" Kenki frowned, weighing his options.

"Alright," Oki huffed, clearly exasperated that she had to reiterate what she meant and that Kenki wasn't on the same immediate wavelength, "you like being alive when you wake up in the morning, right?"

"Course, I do," Kenki eagerly nodded.

Oki grinned, her wide, sharp-teethed grin that pulled you in as much as it pushed you away, "Good, good. Well how come-" she flung more net out then sat down to methodically row the boat to their second spot, dark eyes scanning the water with unnerving focus.

"Well, how come that is, huh?," Oki continued once she was finally satisfied with their location (Kenki had learnt that his older sister was fussier than senior about a lot of things and it was best to just let her get on with it).

"You mean…how come I'm alive when I wake up?" Kenki struggled.

"Yep," Oki nodded.

"Well…" Kenki slipped more net into her hands, "I guess it's because I was alive when I went to sleep."

"You're missing the-" a grunt as a large bulk of the net arched and fanned and sank-"point, little Brother. Why do you think you got to go to sleep alive and why did you get to wake up alive too?"

Kenki tried, he really did. He scoured every inch of his five year old brain for the answer he was clearly missing.

"It's because," and here Oki grinned again, wider than ever, "you wanted it."

"What?" Kenki was more confused than ever.

"Let's take an example. You gotta eat to live, right? So you go out and fish to get meat. If you get a crappy catch that day, do you lie down and go 'oh well, no eating, no living I might as well just wait to die', huh?" Oki prompted, enthusiasm for the subject growing.

Sometimes Kenki felt like Oki Tachibana thought she was older than she actually was. It was mutinous and Kenki's own evident hero-worship of his sister proved that even if he'd entertained the notion, he certainly didn't find it completely unfounded. Oki may talk like the rest of her peers in Nishihama and she may act like them and, despite any differences she displayed now, it was widely assumed that she would lead the same kind of life that they all would lead. But like most children, Oki Tachibana believed that she was different. She'd get it right where others had failed. She would be the one streaming off to those far places unexplored and those grand adventures unexperienced. Andthis was only the necessary waiting period for her to fully develop into this big, fantastic…thing she was destined to be. Both she and Kenki had already decided that she was meant for bigger things; they just hadn't exactly decided on what those bigger things entailed yet.

Still…Kenki felt like this was one of those times when Oki had decided she already knew what the world was all about.

"No!" Kenki defended and blushed at the institution that Oki thought that would have been his attitude, "That's just stupid, I ain'tthat stupid, Oki!"

"So you catch the fish or you man up and try again tomorrow?" Oki smirked as if she were a proud teacher edging her pupil towards the conclusion.

"Yeah!" Kenki nodded still frowning.

"Because you want to, right? Because you want to live, you want something and you take it," at this Oki plunged her hand into the water lapping against their boat as if she could spear a fish on her bare fingers, "you have to want it hard enough! Every other fisherman's gonna be out there next morning catching their fish, and areyou gonna just go hungry again? No! You wanna eat, you take the fish!"

"Er…big sister, are you telling me to fish better?" Kenki said, by now thoroughly confused with who the fisherman in the story was and what pearl of wisdom he'd missed between all the sharp-toothed grinning and splashing hands.

"No! Holy crap, Kenki," Oki sighed. She took a moment to regain herself and work through any lingering frustration before squatting down in front of him.

"Look here's the deal, right?" Oki's expression was serious and Kenki tried to reflect the sudden gravity of the moment as best he could, "Who's the best at filling the nets out of our family, no, out of all the other kids in Nishihama?"

"You, Oki," Kenki smiled tentatively feeling far more comfortable with this line of questioning.

"Damn right I am," Oki grinned, and Kenki remembered for a moment how the Rooster the Yuno's had kept in their yard for a week used to pull his head back and ruffle its wings.

And this was why Kenki believed Oki when she told him she was meant for better things. He'd never had trusted that someone could have so much unwavering confidence in themselves. He'd heard plenty of the grown-ups in Nishihama say something along the lines of 'well, I don't care what anyone thinks anyway'; but Oki honestly, whole-heartedly, trulydidn't. Every naysayer just added more fuel to the fuel to make whatever boast or claim she crowed about the truth. Of course, it meant that Oki wasn't exactly the best listener; but that didn't matter to Kenki. To him, his older sister knew everything and could do anything. He wanted so much to be like her Kenki could almost feel it, like a literal living existence in his chest.

"And why do you think that is, Kenki?" Oki continued.

"Because you're really smart," Kenki smiled.

"Eh," Oki tilted her head from side to side in a weighing-scales motion, "kinda but not what I was going for. It's because I want to be, I want to be the best at fishing here hard enough that now I am."
"It don't work like that, big sister" Kenki sighed, "….I want lots of stuff," to be as brave as you, to be as sure as you he didn't verbally add, "But that doesn't mean I just get it."

"Course it doesn't," Oki frowned, "You want enough and you do enough and you'll take it. You want it more than anyone else, you do more than anyone and you will take more than anyone else."

Kenki still looked unsure so with another long-suffering sigh, Oki swiped her hand forward and grasped his chin. Carefully she moved his head from one side, past her stern expression and then to the other.

"Do you see any other boats on the water?" Oki asked.

"Actually…." it was the first time Kenki had noticed, but no the sea was empty besides them, "…no. There's no one else here."

"You know why?" Oki continued.

"Cause…we got up earlier?" Kenki edged.

"Right!" Oki grinned, gaining her momentum again, "and do you know why I got up earlier than anyone else and scouted out a fresh spot later last night when the others had brought in their catch?"

Kenki waited. He didn't want to disappoint with an answer, so he scanned and rechecked and carefully picked about with the words in his head before committing them to his mouth.

"Because...you wanted it more than the others?" Kenki squeezed his eyes shut.

It was quiet a moment, the little boat bobbing against the water and the salt air whipping about Kenki's face. He could feel the first fingers of warmth from the approaching dawn and every wave that rolled up and under his feet. But without human voices, Kenki felt nervous. He could picture himself adrift when he opened his eyes, just alone in a little boat in the middle of a huge body of water. Slowly he peeled them open and his sister's triumphant smile pushed relief up and through him.

"Bingo!" Oki cheered.

Kenki with pride beamed as Oki heavy-handedly ruffled through his pale blue hair.

Oki was practically vibrating with her victory and passing the rope through her hands with renewed speed "so…what you gotta do?"

"…Want it more?" Kenki smiled hopefully up at his big sister.

"That's exactly right!" Oki grinned at him so hard, her dark eyes disappeared into crinkles, the black mark under her right eye (a copy of his own) squished into an oval rather than a circle and her jagged teeth flashed white in the approaching light, "And if it's any help, Kenki, I want you to win too! So that's like double the do and double the take, right?"

"I…" for some bizarre reason Kenki found himself laughing as Oki whistled and bustled about her work, "I guess."

…

It was raining. Hard. The world filtered through sheets upon sheets of bitter raindrops, sand giving with tired sucking sounds beneath their booted feet and the sensation of each coat of icy water pounding again and again in even, drumbeat tempos against their skin. Nishihama was painted behind blurring streaks of grey and sombre blues all outlined in indigo. Kenki's hands slipped against the rope. His fingertips had been numb with cold for so long he'd forgotten how they felt when warm.

A dark shape was hunched by his feet; Oki's thin fingers somehow managed to secure the sodden rope to another of the mollusc crusted rocks they used as anchors at night so the tide couldn't creep in and steal their boat away.

"Kenki, pass me more rope!" she had to shout over the relentless hammering of the rain.

Kenki nodded meekly, shivering so hard that his jaw wouldn't stop trembling. He scurried about for more rope inside the belly of their rowboat, glancing once at the sea of dark water hurtling its body against the coastline. To Kenki it looked as though it were at war with itself, uncaring about the aerial bombardment of cold rain.

"Big Sister!" Kenki hurried back over, slipped twice in the wet sand before finally presenting it to Oki.

She looked up briefly then immediately returned her gaze to him again. Her pupils and irises were so black in the blue half-light that they looked like twin holes pierced in her eyes. She looked at him carefully, expression intense and uncompromising before her face was ripped from view. Kenki didn't even have time to think about what she was doing as Oki pulled her sodden coat over her head and yanked it on him. The coat was wet and thin like his own but it was warm from Oki's body at least.

"You'll freeze," Oki muttered, returning to her task, "You need it more than me."

Kenki immediately began stumbling over himself for apologies and reassurances but was silenced by a single strictlook.

"I said you'll freeze," Oki frowned, "are you arguing with me?"

"I, ah no, Oki," Kenki replied.

"Good," Oki nodded and grinned, quick and sharp as a knife.

"Besides," she huffed finally securing the boat and hauling herself from her crouched position, "I ain't cold anyway."

And if Oki said it, to Kenki it must be true. So he followed as she scrambled up the rain-slicked pebbles first, tiny fingers clutching at the course material of her trousers. And he followed her over the golden whips of coastal grass flattened by downpour, and then he followed her out onto the sandy path. And finally he followed as Oki ascended the rickety staircase to their door and slipped them both inside.

It was not much warmer inside the house than it was outside it. A large puddle was already forming beneath their feet as brother and sister stood there and gathered their bearings. The stove was on at least, the little black cooking pot creating a homey, comforting noise as Ichiban Daishi was left to simmer. He wasn't keen on the watery soup but his stomach curled and expanded at the thought of food nonetheless.

Their father was already sat in the only armchair in the house; a threadbare affair with the tattered material thinned so extensively with age that you could feel every corner and hard surface of the wooden frame. He had a hand rolled cigarette hanging from one corner of his bearded mouth and he was staring sightlessly out at the rain through the strips in the wooden shutters. Kenki instantly felt on edge, awkward in the room and uncomfortable in his own skin.

"Stay here a sec," Oki ordered before marching off towards the tiny bathroom.

Kenki fidgeted. The sound of the rain pounding against the roof and slipping over its corrugated sides was deafening in the heavy silence. He counted seconds in his head like literal grains of sand, felt each one drop in and out of existence with agonising slowness.

"Erm…" Kenki began before wincing at how suddenly loud his voice seemed, "Dad, do you know where big brother Kenzo is?"

His father didn't reply. The sound curled around Kenji's worn face and billowed, vaporous and lazy, through the hard edges of his cheekbones. Kenki knotted his fingers. He wondered exactly which ghost his father preoccupied with watching through the smoke and rain.

Just when Kenki was certain that the heartbeat in his ears had harmonised itself with the rainfall, did Oki finally reappear. She dragged a tin pail behind her, water sloshing up over the sides and sinking into the large, musty rug. Oki grunted as she lifted it onto the stove then glanced at him. Kenki smiled with far more relief that he'd originally intended. Oki cast one perceptive look at him then another at the silent, brooding figure of their father.

"You alright?" was the brisk question.

"I'm alright, big sister," was Kenki's smiling reply, "ah, except do you know where big brother is? Is he already asleep, are we being noisy?"

"Kenzo?" Oki pulled a sour face before snorting, "That idiot, he ain't here," Oki replied, checking the temperature of the water with her finger before frowning and trying to crank the ancient stove's heat higher.

"Oh," Kenki breathed, "…But it's cold and wet, will he really be alright? Oki, did he tell you where he went?"

"Nope, I haven't seen him all day. His shoes aren't here."

Kenki glanced down, and sure enough one pair of waterproof boots were absent from the Tachibana household. He blinked back up at his sister. When had she noticed that? She'd barely looked at him when he'd asked and she'd left straight for the bathroom when they got in, so how had-

"Alright," Oki grinned, "clothes off and into the bathroom."

Kenki snapped back to the task at hand and slowly began peeling the sodden clothing from his shivering body. In the time it took him to remove his shirt Oki had already hefted the tin pail of now warmed water into the bathroom and was lounging about the main room impatiently. She took one look at his progress and sighed.

"C'mon Kenki, hurry up or I'll stick you in the soup."

Kenki paused, "….You wouldn't."

Smirking now, Oki looked his feeble frame up and down before grinning, revealing two rows of sharp little teeth, "….I dunno. I am pretty hungry."

Kenki wiped at his nose and sniffled around a laugh, "No, Oki you wouldn'teat me, right?"

Oki's grin grew, "Do ya know what these teeth are for?"

Kenki was grinning now too, recognising the beginning of a game when he saw one. He shook his head excitedly, already eyeing the distance between where he stood and the bathroom door.

"Eating little brothers!" Oki did not disappoint, she sprinted at him and laughing and shrieking Kenki ran away. Then when Kenki began to wheeze in breath, she slowed and bodily grasped him around one shoulder and under one armpit.

Kenki was still wriggling and laughing when she poured half the pail of warm water over his head, retrieved dry clothes while he washed then (when he'd been scrubbed raw) threw a ragged towel at him so he could dry. She was efficient in her own bathing (Kenki could easily imagine that Oki would have spent some serious thought on how to perfect her cleaning rituals, Oki's attitude was likely 'why scrub at yourself haphazardly when you could make even shivering around a bucket of lukewarm water as impressive as possible') while he wiped himself dry and scooped on the meticulously folded clothes she'd left on the bathroom stool.

He was just tugging on his shirt when a hand on his head made him pause.

Kenki blinked up through the head hole while his hands were still both raised up in the air. His arms were halfway through baggy sleeves and in the warmth and darkness of his (relatively) fresh clothes Kenki felt safe. Oki ruffled the towel through his wet hair. Her movements were an oxymoron of gentle and forceful. She glanced back at him when she registered his eyes on her.

"You alright, Kenki?"

"Yeah," Kenki smiled softly, "I'm fine."

…

It took Kenki Tachibana a considerably long amount of time to come to the realisation that his older sister was not as popular among the other children of Nishihama as he had expected. Because the population of the village was so small, the youth of Nishihama usually cavorted about in clumps of their peers of the relative age.

Kenki, at six, often spied his brother from a window or from the shore with a small cluster of teens ranging from thirteen up to nineteen. Kenzo was out the house more often than he was in it, and if he wasn't out there was without fail an acne-riddled, lanky teen calling at the Tachibana house for the oldest son. Although Kenki liked his big brother well enough, commiserative stares and the differences born of a large age gap aside, Kenzo Tachibana was no idol to Kenki like Oki Tachibana was. And if Kenzo was popular, Kenki was without a doubt certain that his big sister must have been regarded as some celebrity among the other children.

And in a way, Kenki learned he was right on one account. Oki Tachibana was famous among her peers, though in a different fashion than he had anticipated.

"You're finished with work early, Oki!"

Oki had just finished scaling the rise of grey, speckled pebbles that ringed the beach and was had begun hoisting Kenchi up with a firm grip on his elbows when the pair were halted by a cheery salutation. Kenchi peered shyly around her grip to see one of the village children, a girl nine to Oki's eight, smiling inquisitively up at his big sister. Her name was Momoko Koizumi and she had a reputation for being a bit of a cry baby, but she had a pleasant face and a pleasant countenance and (when she wasn't crying) a pleasant impression too, which was a rare thing in down-trodden Nishihama.

"Yep," Oki replied without looking at her but the grin at having her talents recognised was wide and unabashed.

"Do you wanna come play with us," Momoko pointed her smile backwards towards the group of children squinting at them from further up the street, "we're gonna go climbing, y'know that big group of rocks up the hill. Hiroya says he's going to get half way up this time!"

Oki finished pulling Kenki over the shifting mound of pebbles and plonked him back on his feet, before frowning speculatively at Momoko then at the children she'd indicated. Her gaze was direct, almost challenging, in the face of their slightly mortified expressions and Kenki could not understand why the other children appeared so wary of his sister.

He supposed she did look a little intimidating... if you weren't used to her. Unlike Kenki, who had always been small and sickly, Oki was taller than most children around her age. In fact considering her wiry proportions of reed-like limbs, stark androgynous facial features and shark-like teeth; Oki didn't radiate the impression that she was easily huggable.

Apparently the pointed teeth were hereditary. Kenki, Kenzo and their father all boasted the same characteristic but none of the three belonged to them like Oki's did. The softer toffee colours of Kenki and Kenzo's eyes made their faces more approachable than the bottomless black of Oki's, a feature that was only further highlighted by the small dark dot that decorated the space under Kenki's right eye too. Any innocent charm Oki's appearance could have clawed back with her kinder olive complexion was promptly ruined by the girl's habit of slicking her shoulder-length hair away from her face. The style of made her light blue hair instantly made her seem that much more direct. Kenki and Oki (besides eye colour) had the exact same palette and yet Oki managed to look impressive and challenging while Kenki looked small and soft.

So caught up in his comparison was Kenki that he hadn't noticed that Oki had rebuffed the girl's offer on account of his more…fragile health. And now they were both looking at him, Momoko with big, hopeful eyes and Oki with candid attention.

"Why?" Momoko tilted her head in the same manner as a little songbird, "What's wrong with him?"

"Ain't nothing wrong with him," Oki scowled, the bite in the word 'wrong' illustrating that Momoko had committed some grievous faux-pas, "Kenki'll just push himself too hard trying to keep up with everyone and end up getting hurt."

Kenki cast his eyes down, a little flattered that Oki knew him so well and a little embarrassed that she was almost certainly correct in her prediction.

"Besides," Oki crossed her arms and widened her stance, "he ain't as strong as you lot and you'll all probably be too rough with him."

Momoko gave Oki a strange look at that, a darting expression of dry, incredulous humour that suggested she believed that statement was hypocritical coming out of Oki's mouth.

"We won't," Momoko pleaded, "I promise! We'll be really careful!"

Oki just frowned and stared at her before sighing, "It's up to little brother. You're askin' him anyway."

Momoko released a girlish squeal of excitement and rapidly squatted down to Kenki's height. Kenki gasped and ducked further behind his older sister's leg, blushing and staring back at the girl with one timid eye.

"Hi there Kenki," Momoko smiled cutely, "do ya wanna come play with me and my friends?"

Kenki glanced up at Oki for some form of approval or denial but she only quirked a brow and smirked at him in a way that seemed to say, 'well go on, it's up to you so give the girl an answer'. Kenki ventured a shy nod but immediately secluded himself further behind the protective wall of Oki's legs when Momoko chirped excitedly again. The girl shot off, up the street with her thick brunette plait streaming behind her and imparted the information to her circle of friends in the same cheerful tones.

Oki chuckled to herself and shook her head before she began sauntering towards them.

"C'mon little brother," she called over her shoulder and Kenki scrambled after her.

The group consisted of Momoko, Jinpachi (a boy with a bored expression and startling green eyes hidden beneath their constantly half closed lids, who was three years older than Oki and Mr Mizuyama youngest son) and Hiroya Kobiyashi (a boy a year younger than Oki, with mousy blond hair and one of his front teeth half-chipped).

Jinpachi lazily leaned his body back as if actually turning when he addressed Oki was far more effort than he was willing to commit to. Hiroya shot her a look before glancing quickly between his other two companions. Nods of greeting were exchanged all round before the children started walking.

"We're goin' climbing right?" Momoko queried when the group set off.

"Yeah," Jinpachi nodded.

"I'm getting half way up," Hiroya grinned, "you stay at the bottom, Momoko, and watch me, okay?"

"Oh, er," Momoko wavered but recovered herself and nodded cheerfully, "Okay!"

"Well," Oki grinned, "I'm getting to the top!"

"What?" Momoko gasped, "No way!"

"It's too high," Hiroya scowled, "Ya won't make it."

"I can do it," Oki smiled, unashamedly self-confident.

"Sounds like lotta work for a bunch of rocks to me," Jinpachi sighed, "What do ya think little Tachibana?"

It took Kenki, who'd been attentively watching the older children converse from behind the safety of Oki's legs, a few moments to realise that Jinpachi was addressing him. As soon as he did, however, Kenki coloured and ducked further behind his sister.

Jinpachi blinked then laughed, "Shy, ain't he? Ya sure that he's related to you, Oki?"

"Well he sure as hell don't look much like you, Jinpachi. Kenki got a nice face and awesome teeth," Oki's own identical teeth flashed pearly-white as she grinned, "If I do say so meself."

Oki's chest inflated and she wiggled her eyebrows challengingly at everyone present, an action that went on for a bit too long than was strictly necessary and made her look somewhat demented. The youngest Mizuyama cracked up again and even Momoko giggled at the pair.

Kenki relaxed as they walked, from the unsure looks that had passed between Hiroya and Jinpachi he'd wondered whether the interaction would have nose-dived into a fight within minutes. But no, Oki could converse with them just fine. She was, in fact, charming in her own cocky frank way; that little kid with the bandages over their nose and a thousand outrageous stories to tell. She wasn't as strict with them as she was with Kenki (even if her attitude was sometimes more standoffish with them than it had ever been when directed towards him) and his big sister seemed to be lapping up the attention. What Kenki did notice however was the underlying tension between his sister and the other children of Nishihama. Oki clearly enjoyed the conversation and the opportunity to be entertained, but that's all the other three (and on a whole, everyone in the village bar him) were to her.

No one appreciated being a prop in a waiting room.

"So," Jinpachi drawled as they came to a stop at the foot of a cluster of large rocks. The weather was unusually sunny for the Land of Water, fat-bottomed bugs buzzing lazily in the dry air and the sand was warm beneath the cracks in Kenki's sandals. Hiroya had removed the socks from his feet before putting his ratty, off-white trainers back on. Kenki watched with a horrified sort of fascination as the older boy wrapped the socks around his palms while eyeing the mound of rocks, assessing his route.

"So what?" Oki spoke between broken laughter; Momoko was still giggling uncontrollably behind her hand despite the fact Oki's attention was now elsewhere.

"You still think ya gonna get far away from Nishihama. Still gonna go on to 'bigger better things', huh?," Jinpachi said it as if it were an old joke shared between friends.

Oki clearly didn't see it that way.

"Yeah, course I am," she replied as if it were an indisputable fact.

Jinpachi smiled slyly then exchanged a look with the other two children. Oki, who appeared oblivious or maybe undaunted by their attitude, snorted as if she'd found Jinpachi's question amusing and turned to survey the rock pile.

"What about your little brother then?" Jinpachi drawled. Kenki's heart stuttered and he pushed himself closer into Oki's leg. He decided he didn't like Jinpachi Mizuyama's smile much.

"What 'bout him?" Oki replied still calculating how exactly she was going to come through on her earlier boast about reaching the top.

"Ya gonna just leave him here?" Hiroya frowned distastefully at the notion.

"No!" Oki glowered, "Course I ain't. He's comin' with me. Where I go, Kenki goes," a hand absentmindedly ruffled through his hair, "ain't that right, little brother?"

"Aww, that's sweet," Momoko cooed, clearly uncomfortable with thealmost brewing confrontation between Oki and Jinpachi and therefore eager to steer the conversation onto more accommodating terms, "You two are really cute!"

"Cute?" Oki echoed in confusion between Kenki and Momoko for some clarification, "how come?"

"I ain't seen you look after someone like that, Oki," Hiroya smiled, his expression was softer than Kenki had seen it thus far.

"I'm his big sister," Oki replied frankly in yet another tone that suggested it was the most obvious thing in the world and she was surprised none of them had caught on yet.

"Ah, I guess," Momoko shrugged and smiled.

"So, we gonna do this then?" Hiroya looked up at the pile of rocks eagerly.

Kenki surprised even himself by managing to match Momoko's cheering in not only vigour but volume too. This wasn't until, of course, a good twenty minutes into Hiroya and Oki's climbing and only when Oki's foot slipped for the first time of many. She grunted and Kenki gasped, squeezing his eyes closed so tightly he could little white spots dancing in the darkness. Oki laughed and at the noise he'd opened his eyes to find her shaking her head at herself and continuing on with the climb. After that Kenki had shouted himself hoarse cheering her on. His participation seemed a relief to Momoko, who until then had been frantically alternating between cheerleading for Hiroya and Oki in effort to ensure one or the other wasn't left out. Jinpachi was nowhere near as energetic or supportive. He lounged about at the foot of the rocks, sometimes shouting questions or remarks up at the duo but mostly humming and staring out at nothing in particular.

"That's it, Big Sister!" Kenki beamed and threw both arms up in enthusiasm, "You can do it! You're almost there! C'mon Oki! Go, go, go!"

Momoko, distracted by Kenki's shouting, turned away from where she trying to encourage a now panting Hiroya into scrambling those last few rocks to reach the halfway point. When she spied how much farther Oki had managed she immediately drifted over to cheer beside Kenki instead, much to Hiroya's chagrin.

"Stop showing off!" Hiroya bellowed up at her.

"Then move, jeez, Hiroya ya so slow!" Oki called back, panting heavily too, sweat dripping down her face and her hands decorated with a collection of scrapes but she even looked more impressive with her grin and challenging lift of her eyebrow, "I've seen grannies-"pant-"with more hip action than ya!"

"Shut up, Oki!" Hiroya growled.

"Better-" pant, grunt, pant,"-smellin' grannies too!" Oki laughed then squinted down at Hiroya with mock suspicion that was utterly ruined by the smile curling her lips, "you ain't a granny in disguise are ya?"

Hiroya coloured violently red and renewed his past efforts with more viciousness than ever.

"You tryin' to get down with us kids, eh Granny Hiroya?" Oki called, "tryin' ta pinch our cheeks when we ain't lookin' or something?"

Kenki laughed.

"No!" Hiroya yelled, "Course I ain't!"

"Then catch me at the top!" Oki called and with that she swung herself up that last distance and proceeded to preform her victory dance at the top of the rock pile.

Kenki had been so busy celebrating with his sister that he hadn't noticed how quiet Jinpachi and Momoko had become until they started whispering.

"This is how it always starts," Momoko looked up at Hiroya and Oki with concerned eyes, "she always goes too far and someone always gets hurt."

"Yeah," Jinpachi grunted, "maybe we oughta-"

"AH!"

A thud and a shout and Hiroya was suddenly curled up on the floor, nursing his arm and wailing so loudly Kenki was surprised that everyone in Nishihama hadn't heard him. Kenki winced, that instinctive empathic reaction to seeing someone in pain, but could only stand there dumbly while Momoko rushed over. She tried to pry Hiroya's injured arm out of his own death grip but the boy sobbed and pulled it closer to himself.

"What happened?" Oki shouted down, peering over the edge.

Kenki never saw the precise moment Momoko's demeanour changed. One second she was hovering anxiously over her friend and soothing reassurances, and the next she was glaring up at Oki as if his sister had pushed Momoko off the rocks herself.

"You happened!" Momoko replied with an amount of venom Kenki hadn't previously expected from the girl, "why you always gotta play so rough, huh?"

"Hey!" Oki bellowed, "How the hell is this my fault? If he ain't up to getting to the top, that's his problem not mine!"

"You're the one who was goin' on about beating him!"

Kenki stood there, completely at a loss as to what he should be doing. He wanted to defend his sister of course, but there was a boy hurt and arguing about culpability didn't seem right. The atmosphere had drastically shifted from the joking competition to a united accusation; and Kenki suddenly felt every ounce of the height, weight and age difference between him and the other children.

"Maybe ya should just go, Oki," Jinpachi looked at her with hard eyes.

Oki glared back for a moment before she 'tut'ed and descended down with more speed than she'd ascended with. A final jump and she was already stomping towards Kenki before both feet had even properly reached the floor.

"C'mon, little brother," Oki muttered, "Let's go."

Kenki nodded, throwing one more hesitant look back at the still sobbing boy and glares of his friends before he followed after her. Kenki felt nervous,targeted even when his back was turned to the group of children, but Oki just kept walking towards their home as if the entire incidence had latched on only to slide harmlessly from her, water off her back. Kenki didn't enjoy the knowledge of being disliked, no one did and he felt somewhat irate that the children would hate him now if only because of his relation to Oki.

Not that he blamed her either. It was all just unfortunate, and Kenki didn't really feel as though he had any right to blameanyone for anything.

Everything right with his big sister, everything that made her strong were the same characteristics that summed up everything wrong with her. She was the big cat prowling around her pen. Her determination and her durability and competiveness, everything that Kenki admired so strongly only made those around her more fragile.

Yes, in ways Oki was more than capable of callousness and inconsideration and impatience mainly because she pitted herself against others and didn't have the nature to bother trying to hide it. Kenki knew that in Oki's mind she thought whyshould she limit herself? If she wanted to do better, become better than everyone else in Nishihama why not be upfront rather than pretend otherwise? To her, lying about it wouldn't change who she had already decided she was and what that involved. Oki had always possessed a strong awareness of what she was about, so why try to hide it? Kenki knew that she should, really. If she ever wanted to find some semblance of truce between her and her peers she should try to act as though she belonged to the same life they did.

Watching her back as she strode on, Kenki came to the realisation that dream or not Oki needed to get out of Nishihama. He had no doubt that Oki could adapt here…eventually, but she'd never really be happy.

Big fish don't stay in little ponds forever without suffocating.