[In response, Gai slides his own arms around her to hold her close, partly to reassure her and partly to anchor himself while he tells his story. These memories aren't pleasant ones to be bringing to the surface, even after almost a decade.]

I told you before that I was a soldier as a child... after Lost Christmas, I fled Japan, determined to become stronger so that I wouldn't be unable to protect anyone should anything happen again. Eventually, I ended up in Africa. I had no family or guardians, which made me the perfect recruit for a militant group there. They wanted child recruits, I wanted to become stronger. It seemed like the perfect arrangement to me at first.

[Oh, how naive he had been...]