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Port Arthur should've been the last time Ogata saw Yuusaku. He was the one who shot him in the back of the head and watched as Yuusaku's body dropped to the ground in the middle of the group of soldiers. The flag fell a bit but was caught by another man who carried it in Yuusaku's stead. Yuusaku was replaced the moment that he could no longer hold up the flag. It was a cruel world they lived in. Even someone as pure and blessed as Yuusaku couldn't escape death.
Ogata had prepared to aim towards some of the oncoming Russians when he saw it. He saw Yuusaku's body shift a bit on the ground before it stood up once more like nothing had happened. Yuusaku turned back and looked directly at Ogata. It was like he could see him even from such a far distance. Blood poured out of Yuusaku's eyes rolling down his face and staining the front of his uniform. There was blood flying out the back of Yuusaku's head waving around in the wind just like the flag once had as Yuusaku ran off into battle.
This wasn't right.
Never once had Ogata missed a shot. He would never waste a bullet so carelessly when they were already fighting for their lives on the battlefield. In between the rations of bullets and food. He couldn't afford to be wasteful. Not if he wanted to live to see another day.
Yuusaku lifted up his hand and waved at Ogata. He seemed not to care about the battlefield anymore. No one else around him held any meaning beyond what was happening in the moment between them. There was this soft smile on Yuusaku's face. It was the exact same one that Yuusaku wore the night that he cried for him. It was pathetic then to be held by his crying brother, but that same smile was haunting now.
Yuusaku was still alive. Painfully alive.
"You've done quite a good job, Hyakunosuke," Tsurumi said.
Ogata stared down at the dead body. It was Yuusaku's. The bullet had entered through the back of Yuusaku's head and exited through his eye. Blood and mud stained his clothes from where he'd been trampled and defiled further. The longer Ogata stared at Yuusaku's eye the more he could see through it. He could see the jumbled mess of an organ that could be called Yuusaku's brain. Some of it was hanging out of his eye, but the rest was stored securely inside of his skull. The lack of blood and mud on Yuusaku's face told him the other men went through the effort of cleaning him off.
There wasn't much that could be done to make a corpse look any less like a corpse.
"I just did as I was told," Ogata shrugged.
Tsurumi smiled, "I'm certain that without his shining star Lieutenant General Hanazawa will acknowledge you."
That was what this was all for at the end of the day. His father's acknowledgement.
Ogata looked up from Yuusaku's body. Instead of his gaze being fixed on Tsurumi, it landed on the figure that stood a bit back on the hill. The man stood proudly with his pale skin standing out clearly from the stars. Blood whipped around in the wind behind him and his cap was pulled low enough hide his eyes. The uniform the man wore was one that Ogata was deeply familiar with. It was Yuusaku.
Yuusaku remained at a distance watching Ogata. He raised his arms into the air as if he was thrusting the flagpole into the air so that the flag could be seen clearly through all of the bloodshed and explosions. His arms waved around. There was that awful smile again. That condescending smile that made Ogata feel less than human. It was plastered cleanly across his face as he continued his display.
Looking back down at the body, Ogata held the corpse's hand tightly. It was real. Yuusaku was dead. Yet that figure on the hill continued its display.
"Hyakunosuke, I didn't think you were so... sentimental."
Ogata had almost forgotten that he wasn't alone. Tsurumi was still there with his back facing towards the flapping entrance of the tent. Outside of the tent was Tsukishima who always seemed to be trailing behind Tsurumi like a lost dog.
"I'm not sentimental," Ogata said. "He was going to die anyways. His position was a vulnerable one."
"But a brother's love is like nothing else in this world," Tsurumi sighed.
"Yuusaku didn't love me. People like him shouldn't exist."
There was no word from Lieutenant General Hanazawa after news of his son's death reached him. He didn't attempt to reach out to his only living son. There was no fated reunion like the one Yuusaku would dream of openly around Ogata. It was quiet. Tsurumi was quick to decide what needed to become of the Lieutenant General. If he was refusing to be useful then he needed to be killed. It was only right.
Ogata had a feeling that he'd be the one to do it. He hoped so.
"Ani-sama, why aren't you looking at me?" Yuusaku asked.
There were more pressing issues left for Ogata to handle. This thing, Yuusaku, was hanging around. It followed him everywhere and continued to claim to be his younger brother. It acted just like him as well. It would fret over him and pestering him just like a mother hen. At first, Ogata was under the impression that everyone could see it, but that was quickly disproven. Tanigaki had tripped over its legs, but he didn't spare Yuusaku a single glance when he attempted to apologize. Ogata drew his attention and Tanigaki spoke as if he'd tripped over the uneven terrain before insulting Ogata.
Ogata was the only one who could see Yuusaku. This was the worst thing that could've happened to him.
"Ani-sama," Yuusaku whined. "Please say something. I know you can hear me."
It wasn't until Yuusaku died that Ogata realized just how clingy he was. Death seemed to have amplified all of those emotions. He followed Ogata everywhere he went, begging for crumbs of attention. His brother would openly whine if he went too long in between the times that he gave Yuusaku attention, despite them being out at war. He almost wished that he'd left Yuusaku alive just to avoid the difficulty that came in keeping his brother quiet. The only reason that Ogata hadn't been caught yet was his poker face and how most people ignored him. If they weren't having sex or talking behind his back, there was no reason to even spare a glance at Ogata. Not even if he was talking to the air beside him.
"Ani-sama, why do you look so sad?" Yuusaku asked, standing in front of Ogata. He leaned down to Ogata's level nearly entering Ogata's personal space. "Are you upset with me?"
"I don't know, Yuusaku-dono," Ogata mumbled under his breath.
"Don't call me that," Yuusaku pouted.
"What should I call you then?" Ogata asked despite knowing the answer.
"Call me 'otouto'. We'll match then."
"Alright, otouto."
Yuusaku smiled for the first time since he died.
It was wide and showed off a good amount of Yuusaku's perfect teeth. This was one of the few times that Yuusaku's face was devoid of any signs that he'd died before. He looked almost innocent and pure.
But he was still nothing more than a corpse.
When he inevitably killed his father, Yuusaku was there too. He frowned from the corner with his arms crossed over his chest. It was a look that told Ogata that Yuusaku wasn't angry, just disappointed. Both of those emotions were the same in his book.
Hanazawa looked up at him as he bled out on the ground. "I wish my son came home rather than someone's bastard child."
Those words should've hurt him, but they didn't. It just further cemented his theory that he never had a chance to be a normal person. His mother might've loved his father, but his father didn't love her. There was no way that a functional child could've come from a relationship like that. He wasn't blessed the same way Yuusaku was.
"Otouto, do you still think he's worthy to be your father? A pathetic man like this?" Ogata asked.
"Who the hell-" Hanazawa started but was interrupted by a coughing fit.
"Ani-sama, this was wrong," Yuusaku said. "You shouldn't have done this."
"Does it make you hate me?" Ogata asked.
Blood ran down Yuusaku's cheek from the eye that Ogata had shot out. "I still love you, Ani-sama. I could never hate you."
Ogata rolled his eyes. His little brother was a saint. He expected nothing less than this from him.
"Then you're a fool in death as well," he said. "Maybe were both fools since I'm the one still seeing the image of my dead little brother. Are you haunting me?"
"I...just want to see you happy."
Yuusaku truly was a saint. Even in death.