Yeah, suppose so. I remember I couldn't quite believe how nice everyone was. You know, my first instinct was to wedge myself into some gap in storage and hide, but he set up a hammock for me in his quarters for the trip back, and everyone kept giving me food.

[He laughs a little, shaking his head. Best way to a starving kid's heart, that's for sure.

It also makes him wonder, as he's wondered many times, what the crew thought. Sengoku doesn't just adopt children left and right. They couldn't have known what had made the admiral take pity on this one in particular, but they played along.]

I wanted to repay him for that kindness, and I saw how much good the Marines did for people like me. The best thanks I could give was to enlist and pay it forward.