It was a small fish that had blood, dirt, and sweat on it. It had seen broken limbs, gunshot wounds, knife slashes, and worse. It had witnessed Hibana's first child, from conception to c-section. The c-section was, incidentally, carried out by Doc, Finka, and a few other surgeons, for the simple fact that they were nearby and Thermite had called them. He had texted Doc, who immediately drove to the hospital, dragging Finka with him. The pair had arrived and flashed medical licenses before being almost denied and being saved by Thermite seeing them arguing with a nurse and calling them over, saying, among other things, phrases along the lines of 'thank god you're here' and 'Hibana is over here.'

Her child had been named Curiosity, as she had bright blue eyes that shone with fierce intelligence and a desire to learn. This desire had manifested in a great many ways- Curiosity would be fluent in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, English, Japanese, and Portugese. She would also be talented writer, and an excellent strategist (both in real life and games- she was great at chess).

But for now, she was seven, and she was being bullied at school for being so smart. Hibana and Thermite didn't know about this until one day she came home with a bruise on her cheek.

"Oh, Kokishin," Hibana said, seeing the nasty black-and-blue on her daughter's cheek. Kokishin meant Curiosity in Japanese, and Hibana tended to use it as a sort of pet name. "What happened?"

"Matt punched me again," Curiosity said, sadly.

"Again?" Thermite said, having just entered the room. "How many times has he done this?"

"Um… ten times…" Curiosity said.

"Ten?!" Hibana and Thermite both said, incredulous.

"Yes," Curiosity said simply. "I don't like it."

"Well, neither do your parents. Yumiko, I'm going to go call the school," Thermite said. "Can you…"

"I've got it," Hibana said. Thermite walked out of the room. Hibana led her daughter over to a couch and took off the fish she wore around her neck.

"Kokishin, do you know what this is?"

"A necklace. A… fish necklace."

"Mmhmm. But it's much more than just a necklace," Hibana said. "You see, your father got this for me a long, long time ago, and I wore it all the way from then until now. This necklace, kokishin, has seen me rescue people from being scared, seen me practice with my friends thousands of times, and has seen me charge into a fight to save someone. It's seen me break bones and be hurt really badly, but most importantly, it's seen me live through that. It even saw me give birth to you. And all of my friends have poured a little bit of them into it. So I'm giving it to you, okay? And the next time Matt attacks you, draw strength from it. And then tell him that you have parents on Team Rainbow."

"I did. He didn't believe me."

"Well, then. I'm going to call Caviera, okay?"

"Aunt Pereia? Really?"

"Yes! And she's going to give you something really special. Don't forget it."

Caviera arrived a while later, with Buck in tow.

"Hey, Yumiko. What is it?"

"Code One-Dash-Papa."

"Child being bullied. Alright. I got it."

Caviera produced a photo of her, with full skull makeup on, with Hibana, Thermite, Buck, Zofia, Kapkan, Frost, Ela, Bandit, Blitz, and IQ, all standing together, taken so only one side of their face was displayed. Each had a determined glint in their eyes.

On the bottom, Caviera had personally written, "Curiosity has these people as friends. Team Rainbow looks after their own. Don't test us."

Brutal? No. Effective? Yes. Morally compromised? Probably. But then again, so were bullies.

The photo got passed to Curiosity quickly, who was now wearing her mother's fish necklace.

To Caviera's credit, the threat, while someone cold-hearted, did work. Matt the bully did in fact lay off. But more importantly, Curiosity kept that necklace, putting her own strength within.

And when her child was bullied, she gave the necklace to Tomas Cutera-Trace to draw strength from. And so the tradition continues forever.

As Hibana once said at a Special Forces summit- "Don't disregard symbolism, for a necklace I once wore has allowed me to push through the worst pain- and if a little fish can do that, it can do anything.