That had been where Jr.'s luck kicked in. He remembered his sister's nonchalance about U.R.T.V.s that had died, and he was sure his father would have done things differently if he knew the mission would be abandoned moments before its completion. Of course, he wasn't alive for it then, anyway - something else he would have stamped out if he knew that Gaignun was going to pull a gun on him. Of course, he always did have backup plans for that sort of thing, so Jr. wondered if he cared in the long run that a wrench had been thrown into his plans, he just went information hunting for what he had missed when he returned, anyway. It had been simple luck that they had survived through the war, but even that luck was drenched in blood and guilt.

He thought about Zouichi's words. Familiar words, all words he told himself over and over again. They definitely weren't unfamiliar, but sometimes he wondered if they were just there to keep him going, to be a cushion at his back for when he'd stumble and fall in his long trek to keep moving forward. He shook his head slightly, a smile on his face, but it wasn't the usual one he flashed to everyone. It was self-loathing, in a way. He hated to even acknowledge that the power was there, even when it was always ever-present. "I can only subdue it until it shows itself. And then I can't really control it much at all."

He knew it was just his mind focusing too much on it, but he could almost feel the imprint on his hand tingle, as if it knew what they were talking about. "I don't care," he admitted. "I never wanted to go to war, I always wanted to see more than the place I was born and raised in." Especially after meeting Sakura, after gaining a reason to really live. "That's why we moved forward after the war - me and Gaignun. But no matter how far I go or how much I try to pretend it isn't there, it's always there like a shadow, the longing in my blood to fight, to do what I was made to do."