Author's Note: New story. This one will be very different from my other work in a couple ways. One thing I have been intrigued by for a long time in regards to City Hunter is Ryo's past: before he met Kaori and even before he returned to Japan and was living as a guerrilla in Central America. Thus, I decided to try my hand at a fic that explores the possibilities of Ryo's childhood after the plane crash and until he went to the US with Bloody Mary's father. I won't try to cover everything that did or could have happened, but instead, I thought I'd focus on what I think could have been "snapshot" or "turning point" moments in how Ryo turned out and why his life unfolded the way it did along with the lives of the people he grew up with and the effect Ryo had on them. Again, I know this isn't usually the kind of subject explored in City Hunter fic, but I hope at least a couple of my readers might find it interesting anyway. :)

I do not own City Hunter or any of its characters.

Thank you to everyone who reads/favorites/reviews this. It is always appreciated. :)

-Additional Notes

-Okasan: the Japanese word for addressing one's own mother.

-Musuko: the Japanese word for referring to one's own son or address one's own son.

Chapter One—Prologue

Shin Kaibara stood quietly in front of a pond he had found behind their new home, watching the reflection of his face waver in the water.

Two days previous, he had had no idea that he would be moving here. His father had come home one evening and announced that they were taking a prolonged vacation and had instructed Shin to pack his bags that night. Even at twelve years old, Shin had learned that there was usually something behind his father's words, and his suspicions grew as his parents made hurried and secretive preparations. It wasn't until they had settled in their seats on the plane, however, that his father had told him the truth.

"Say goodbye to Japan, Shin," he had told him. "As of today, we are beginning a whole new life overseas. It will be a fresh start for us."

Shin had remained silent and tried to smile at his mother, who had tears glistening in her eyes. He was sure that he knew the real reason why they were leaving Japan: his father had made too many enemies, and they were running for their lives.

Shin picked up some stones and dropped them into the water, watching the ripples disrupt the smooth, liquid mirror below him. His father never told him what his work was, but he knew that it was far from honest or clean. That idea was driven home one afternoon when he was about ten years old, and a man looking for his father came by the house while his parents were gone. The man held a knife to Shin's throat for almost ten minutes until Shin was finally able to convince him that he didn't know where his father was. He never mentioned the incident to his parents, but on that day, he stopped believing in his father.

As he crouched down near the water, Shin could see slight movements from the insects and fish that drifted by him. Now, they had moved from a nice house on the outskirts of Osaka to a cottage on the edge of a small town somewhere in Central America. He knew that he and his parents would stand out and be gawked at for being Japanese, and Shin did not look forward to the prospect of enduring that sort of treatment. Fortunately, his father knew some English and Spanish and had been teaching Shin both languages for years even though his mother forbade the both of them from speaking either language at home.

"You are Japanese," she said to them. "So in our house, you will speak Japanese."

Shin sighed and stood back up, his eyes not leaving the water. He was marginally grateful that he would at least be able to communicate with the locals even if they were sure to want as little to do with him as possible. He then smirked slightly as he realized that his mother would probably still make sure that he and his father only spoke Japanese while at home.

"Shin, where are you?" his mother's voice rang out. "Come help me with the chores."

Shin nodded and trudged back toward the house. He agreed with his father that the three of them would have to start over.

He just wasn't sure it if would actually lead to anything good.

Months passed slowly into years with little incident as Shin and his parents settled into their new life. He ended up going to a school in the city and impressing his teachers with his language skills and his sharp mind. At first, he had endured near daily fights with his classmates, but the years Shin had spent learning karate back in Japan started to pay off, and soon his reputation as a tough, resourceful fighter made it so that the taunts and attacks soon changed into a tendency for most his peers to avoid him as much as possible. This tendency only increased as Shin grew to be taller than many of his classmates, much to his parents' surprise.

About five months after moving to their new home, his father began his secret meetings and mysterious trips again, and Shin knew that his father had gotten involved in the same kind of dirty business that had made them flee Japan.

It was also around this time that his father started to teach him to use a gun.

"Now I don't want you to think that you can start carrying this around everywhere," his father had said to him. "This is not a toy, Shin. I just want you to be able to protect yourself and your mother if need be. We are strangers in this place. We can't always rely on the law here to help us."

Shin didn't bother telling his father that he knew that this had nothing to do with where they were currently living and everything to do with the things his father continued to get involved with. Instead he threw himself into the lessons, practicing until his hands were numb and calluses appeared on his fingers. Soon, his abilities vastly exceeded his father's, and he knew that this frightened both of his parents a little bit. Therefore, he made sure to practice in places far from their supervision and made sure to never mention his gun usage to them.

When he wasn't practicing shooting or fighting, Shin developed a passion for shogi and go, sometimes playing these games with his parents, but just as often playing them by himself. He continued to excel in school and showed an interest in history, particularly military history.

During all of this, his mother grew frailer and smaller with every month that went by. One day Shin came home from school to find her hunched over the sink, sobbing as she tried to do the dishes. Not knowing what else to do, he put his arms around her waist.

"Oh Shin, oh musuko," she cried as she clung to him. "I don't know what to do. I feel so alone in this place…and so afraid."

"Don't worry, okasan," he told her. "I won't leave you alone…and I will protect you. I promise."

As the years went by, however, Shin realized that his mother had more than one reason to be afraid.

At one point, Shin had finally managed to form loose friendships with a couple of boys from his school who were outcasts much like him. One day, he came to school and was startled when one of his friends, Pedro, told him that their friend, Rafael, and his family had disappeared some time the night before. Neither Shin nor Pedro said it out loud, but both of them suspected that it was because Rafael's father was a vocal dissenter against various government officials.

"And that was his own fault," his father had said when Shin told him what had happened. "That idiot should have known better than to try to disrupt the status quo. It just leads to suffering."

That comment did little to change Shin's opinion about his father, but it was enough to further plant the seed of disgust against the dictatorship government they were living under into his heart.

Around the time Shin turned fifteen, a mercenary who went under the name "Old Jack" moved into an abandoned shack a short distance from his home. Jack soon became polite and friendly with both Shin and his mother. One day, after seeing a demonstration of Shin's fighting and shooting skills, Jack took him aside.

"Boy, if you continue down the path you are going, you are sure to become a dangerous man," Jack had told him. "But if you want, I could teach you how to be a deadly one instead."

Shin contemplated Jack's offer many times, but always hesitated to go through with it. He knew that becoming a mercenary would break his mother's heart, and he also continued to worry that his father would not be able to protect her.

Mostly because, Shin knew that his father was starting to go mad.

It did not happen all at once. It was a far more insidious process than that. But Shin had noted the gradual changes in his father's behavior and demeanor: the way his father became hyper vigilant while walking around outside, the furtive movements that became habit even at home, the long evenings spent drinking as a way to quiet the random fits of high pitched laughter. More than anything else his father ever said, did, or was involved with, this slow madness scared Shin.

Partially because he was afraid that someday he might also share the same fate.

"You see Shin," his father said to him one night, his eyes shining with mania. "In the end, there is nothing good, nothing pure in this world. Men will keep killing each other for any reason, including no reason at all. Sometimes…sometimes I think I did you and your mother a great disservice by choosing to leave Japan. Sometimes…I think it would have been better if we had met out fates there….Maybe some night, I will give all of us the release from this horrific world that we deserve…."

Ever since that night, Shin slept with his gun under his pillow at all times. Jack had once told him that, sometimes, a person could learn to develop the ability to sense not only the presence of opponents who could not be seen, but to even sense their murderous intent before they could act. After getting some initial instruction from Jack, Shin began to focus his mind and his senses on this task, and after months of intense concentration and practice, he began to be able to detect when his father was around before he actually saw him with his eyes. As time went by, he was even able to know if his father was in one of his dark, paranoid moods before even being in the same room with him.

A year later, Shin turned sixteen and had managed to graduate early from his high school due to his academic prowess. There was talk of trying to send him to one of the larger neighboring cities so he could attend university, but he was always reluctant to leave his home and his mother behind.

Instead, he used his increased spare time to continue to sharpen his survival skills and to focus on the newest relationship in his life: the one he shared with Leticia.

He had met her in his last year of school and soon, time spent tutoring her in a variety of subjects turned into long walks and trips to the local café to share coffee together.

It was on a moonlit night three months later that he shared his first kiss with Leticia while they sat by the pond near his house, and Shin knew that he had fallen in love with her.

After they had kissed, they held each other quietly for a long time before Leticia finally looked into his eyes again and smiled at him.

"Shin…what do you think you will make of your life?" she asked him.

"What will I make of it?" he echoed.

"Yes. I mean, what do you think you will leave behind?" she said. "You know, your legacy and all that." Leticia reached down and smoothed her skirt down over her legs, and Shin watched the moonlight make her dark hair glow.

"My uncle had a friend who died this last weekend," she continued. "And he kept talking about the legacy that his friend had left. This man had helped to build an orphanage, helped a village rebuild itself after it had been ravaged by a fire, and had had five sons by the time he died."

Shin put his arm around her, his face thoughtful.

"I suppose I never really thought about it," he said. "Ever since I can remember, I've been focused on getting through each day."

"I suppose that makes sense given what you've said about your father," Leticia replied. "Me, I don't know if I need anything as lofty as my uncle's friend I think just raising some children and having them grow up to be good people would be enough." She then smiled at him.

"I think you would be a good father," she said.

"Me?" Shin replied, astonished.

"Sure," she said as she put her arms around his waist and squeezed him. "You're tough, you're brave, and you are the smartest person I have ever met. I bet that you would raise strong, intelligent sons…sons who could really blaze a path in this world."

Leticia put her head on Shin's shoulder and moved even closer to him.

"Maybe someday," she said. "When my father finally approves of our relationship, we could find out if I am right."

"I don't think your father will ever approve of us," Shin laughed ruefully.

"Don't be so sure," Leticia beamed at him. "I can be very persuasive."

"I can vouch for that," Shin grinned at her.

The two of them ended up holding each other for hours, watching the moon make the pond sparkle just like the stars above them.

It was a month after that night that it happened. Shin had spent the afternoon with Leticia at the café and had stopped to visit with his old friends from school before going home for dinner.

The moment he approached the house, however, he knew that something was wrong. Instead of the usual faint sounds of his mother in the kitchen by this time of day, there was silence. He then felt a spike of something dark touch his heart and he knew that there was someone else there besides his parents…someone threatening.

Shin quietly crept in through an open window at the back of the house and went to his room to retrieve the gun from under his pillow. He continued to sneak around his house, looking and listening for any sign of his parents. Eventually he made his way into the kitchen, and that is when he found them.

Shin gasped and began to pant at the blood that had pooled on the floor. His mother and his father were lying within feet of each other, and their still forms and wide, unseeing eyes told Shin that they were dead.

He went over to his mother and knelt down beside her. Her features were frozen in terror, and even though she had only suffered a single gunshot wound to her chest, Shin was certain that her death had been far from peaceful or merciful.

Shin only glanced briefly at his father and had to swallow hard in order to stop himself from vomiting. There were far more wounds to his father's body, and he was sure that whoever had done this had made sure to punish his father for some transgression before he died.

Shin stood up and grabbed a cloth to place over his mother's face before kneeling beside her again, his head down. He thought again about the promise he had made to his mother years before to protect her and soon guilt formed a hard knot in his stomach and tears stung his eyes.

His mourning was immediately disrupted, however, by the sound of footsteps approaching him. Shin dashed over to a corner of the room behind a cabinet and listened as the sound grew louder and closer. He watched a man holding a gun walk into the room and waited until he could sneak up behind him before pulling the hammer back on his gun. The man started at the noise and turned to see Shin pointing his gun at his chest.

"Don't move," Shin blurted out. The man blinked in surprised, but then began to grin and laugh.

"Who are you kidding? You don't know how to use that thing," he taunted. "Put it away and maybe I'll make your death a quick one."

"You killed my parents?" Shin replied softly.

"Your father was warned about what could happen if he crossed the wrong people," the man sneered. "But he refused to listen to reason. So, he got what was coming to him."

"And my mother?" Shin said, his voice trembling slightly. "Why her?"

"Collateral damage," the man said, shrugging his shoulders. "Just like you will be. So you might as well stop struggling."

The man walked toward him, and Shin's hands trembled as his finger moved closer to the trigger.

"I will shoot," Shin told him.

"I don't believe you," the man responded. "You don't have it in you. Just like your old man." Shin narrowed his eyes at him.

"You're wrong," he said. "I am nothing like my father."

As soon as those words left his lips, Shin fired twice, the bullets striking the man in the chest and in the head. The man fell lifelessly to the ground with a thud and did not move. Shin watched him for a full minute to make sure that he was dead before running back to his room and collapsing on his bed, his entire body shaking.

His mind raced as he tried to figure out what he should do. He thought for a moment about going to the police, but then he knew that he would more than likely be in some kind of trouble for killing a man even though it was in self-defense. Shin figured that he would be facing prison or even worse.

Shin took a deep breath and stood back up. He didn't like what he was about to do, but he did not see that he had much of a choice. He rushed over to his closet and took out a large backpack. He then stuffed it with some clothes, his hunting knife, and some additional ammunition for his gun.

He then dashed out of the house, running as fast as he could. He did not stop running until he reached Jack's house, and once he was there, he pounded on the door.

"What is going on?" Jack said as he opened the door. "Shin? What has happened?"

Jack ushered him inside and after sitting on the floor and panting for several minutes, Shin explained what had just happened. After he was done, Jack nodded his head, his expression grave.

"You did what you had to do, kid," he said. "Don't ever feel guilty about saving your own skin that way. But…you are right in thinking that you can't hang around here. Not after that. Luckily for you, I was getting ready to move out of here soon anyway. You might as well come with me. After all, nothing's keeping you here now, right?"

Shin shook his head and did not say another word for the rest of the night. Eventually, Jack went to bed and instructed him to get some sleep before they got ready to leave later tomorrow. Shin ended up lying on the couch and spending very little time actually resting.

The next day, Shin helped Jack prepare to leave. Jack then went back to Shin's house alone to gather more supplies and to survey the scene himself. The two of them then gathered their things into a beat up jeep and Jack sped off down the main road.

"Don't worry," Jack had told him. "I made sure that someone will be coming by your place before long so your parents won't be left to rot there like that. Your mother…she didn't deserve an end like that. I'm sorry, kid."

Shin nodded and turned to stare at the road behind him. He thought again about Leticia and wished that he could explain things to her and say goodbye, but he knew that it wouldn't be safe for him or for her to do so. Instead he had to be satisfied with a silent vow he made with himself to write her at some point to let her know what had happened to him.

"I'm not going to promise you an easy time," Jack continued. "If you're sticking with me, you're going to have to learn to survive. And I'm going to warn you now that I am not going to be soft on you just because you're a kid. Do you understand?"

"I understand," Shin replied, still staring at the road behind him.

Jack nodded and focused on his driving. Shin blinked and felt tears slide down his face as he watched the house he had spent the last four years in disappear from view.

At that moment, Shin Kaibara knew that he would be starting a whole new life again. This time, however, he was determined to make sure that he would be the one who decided the path that he would follow from now on.