PROLOGUE
A lone boy stood at the train station crying.
"Father"
"Why did you leave me Father?"
"Father, come back"
A duffel bag lay near him, holding his worldly possessions no doubt, ready to be picked up and carried in the future life of this miserable, pitiable little human. The pair of deep, electric purple eyes was glaring at it. 'This little one is too young to be alone, why is he here?' The wondering thought brought by curiosity motivated the observer to move toward the crying child. "Such sorrow, what the hell could have happened to this kid?' the next thought formed as concern poked its head.
"Hey, kid!" a male voice rang out," What are you doing here?" The child offered only a terrified gaze in response, clearly afraid of the stranger. 'A different approach then' – "It's ok, don't be afraid. Tell me what your name?"
"S-shinji. Ikari Shinji sir." Replied the kid, distress clear in his voice. He took in the sight before him – a tall young Caucasian man with black hair, purple eyes and a very pale complexion, wearing a black trench coat, red shirt, black jeans and black combat boots.
"Ok Shinji, why are you here?" the stranger asked
"M-My Father! He abandoned me. He said he didn't want me anymore!" the child broke down in sobs again.
"And he just left you at the train station?" the man sounded surprised, outraged even.
"Uncle is supposed to pick me up" said the boy in between sniffles, "But he's just like Father, he doesn't want me!" more crying ensued.
"Just like him, eh? ' Bastards the both of them' he thought in disgust. The stranger looked deep in thought "Look Shinji, my name is Sesshomaru Shin, how would you like to come with me?"
"Come? With you?" the little boy clearly didn't understand.
"Yes come to live with me." he continued "We'll have adventures, we'll travel a lot, I'll teach you a lot of cool things – it'll be fun. What do you say?"
"But, but Uncle and.."
"You said yourself your uncle doesn't want you" interrupted Shin
"And you do?" young Shinji had difficulties with the concept of someone wanting him.
"Yeah, sure!" Shin responded light-heartedly "I was thinking about taking it easy in the future decade, you know - have some down-time. I can bring you along no problem."
Shinji's eyes lighted up with life "Sure, I'd like to come with you Mr. Shesshomaru, Thank you very much sir!" the 4-year old bowed deeply then grinned as the man hefted up the duffel bag on his shoulder. "Come on then, let's go" The child started along the black-clad man, matching his leisurely pace. 'He's that polite, eh? Well we'll just see about that.' A thin smile promising chaos and mayhem spread on Shin's face. "Oh and Shinji? My name is Shin, so call me that. You keep calling me sir; Mr; or anything like that and I'll name ya after some dung beetle. Got it?" Shin's amused tone showed he was joking, his young charge grinned "Ok Shin!";
A short trip later and both were now sitting in a cobalt blue convertible. Shin strapped in the small boy"Hey Shinji, are you hungry? I'm famished! What do you say? I think a nice big lunch is in order.'
"Ok I'm hungry too. Where are we going?" Shinji turned to the older man.
"To a restaurant, where else?"
"But aren't restaurants for rich people. Father always said that things are too expensive in a restaurant."
Shin laughed at the little boy and tussled his hair" Don't you worry about things like that."
The duo sat outside the "Red Laguna", their bellies happily filled with food and drinks. The waitress looked skeptical at first, thinking she won't get a big order. A couple of sentences later she looked even more skeptical. After Second Impact the number of restaurants had dwindled greatly as few could afford the prices. After Shin waved a thick wad o' cash under her nose she grinned like an idiot and rushed to get the food. For a whole hour the two clients engaged in small talk in-between ravaging their respective meals.
Shinji had his head propped up on an elbow and was busy watching clouds, while Shin sloshed in his chair with his hands behind his head. Suddenly the glass which held the remainder of his whiskey moved through the air and, without looking he grabbed it and took a sip.
"Whoa, how did you do that?" Shinji was staring in awe.
"Easy, telekinesis." He shrugged.
"What's telekenesese?" asked the boy.
"Telekinesis. Basically you use your mind to move stuff around." was the second half-baked reply. Shinji decided that he won't get anything else from the man right now. He turned his gaze to the empty soda can on the table. He concentrated.
Shin heard something faint. A scraping noise. There it was again. He opened an eye and looked for the cause for annoyance. What he saw nearly made his eyes pop out.
" What the fuck!?!" Shinji was moving an empty can of soda around, on the table's surface, without touching it. The kid inclined his head to the left and the can scraped to the left. Head to the right – can go right. 'This is ridiculous.' He thought shocked 'No one can do telekinesis that young. He's got more potential than I gave him credit for. A lot more potential. I've never seen a human that talented at psionics before.' The possibilities were swarming in his head. The kid was talented enough to begin at least 3 forms of training if not more if he could handle the stress.
"Shinji are you full?" The boy stopped with his mental game and looked up." Yes, I am. It was very tasty. Are we going now?"
Shin dropped a several bills on the table." Yes we are." They headed back to the car.
"Now, Shinji, we are going to live for some time in my beach house in Okinawa. You see my job is very fun but also dangerous. I'll have to train you a bit before we can start traveling around. Understand?"
"Umm ok I understand. But what's training?" the little boy looked confused
"Oh that" Shin smiled in a peculiar manner "You'll see"
The next three years Shinji went through a great deal. After learning a lot in both kung-fu and Jiu-jitsu from katas and whatnot he began sparring with Shin. Which meant street fighting. He became a close friend of pain, stubbornness and determination. That along with a good diet and daily exercise - running; push ups etc. - got him a strong, well formed body. He was taller than most kids his age and could easily beat anybody in a fight. But that wasn't all they did. Shin insisted that while the body was important, the mind is absolutely indispensable. His mentor educated him in the most common languages – English, French, German, and Russian; along with teaching him to read, write, play the electric guitar, use a computer and giving him basic understanding of biology, physics and chemistry. But The most important training was harnessing his budding psionic potential. Telepathy, telekinesis, energy sensing and discerning different types of psi; levitation, combat energy techniques, the whole shebang. While he was still very weak, he was also very young. Such a mind, body and ability at the frail age of seven were rarely found, more so in a human child.
"Shin, I've had something on my mind these past few weeks…" They were on the front porch, enjoying the sunset.
"Shoot mon ami"
"Well we've been here training me for 3 years. While I'm incredibly grateful, I'm also confused. What kind of a job would require such training, even if I'll be on the sidelines? The only one I could come up with is "mercenary". So I ask – are you a mercenary?"
"Yes and no. I'm a private contractor that travels around dimensions, helping people solve problems with their worlds, helping on quests and other assorted jobs and missions."revealed Shin in a flat tone, as if commenting on the weather.
Shjni raised and eyebrow. " Travels around dimensions? Yeah right! Next thing you're gonna say that you are extremely powerful and you were training me because you saw 'potential' in me"
"Pretty much" he sipped from the whiskey.
"Ok now there's no way I'll believe…"Shinji trailed off as he felt an insane level of energy build around his mentor. It just went up and up.' How can anyone have so much energy!?' The older man was just standing there, leaning on the porch, the waves of power winding and flowing from him. Shinji's eyes were as wide as saucers.
"Ok, Ok, I give, you are, I believe you!" The smug gaze did little to calm the boy "So now what are we gonna do? I assume my 'training' is complete oh wise master Yoda." The overflowing sarcasm wasn't lost on Shin.
"True, young one. But much to learn you still have. Travel to complete your training, you will." Shin croaked out in his best Yoda-voice. The duo shared a glance, then chortled with laughter. "We'll pack and leave tomorrow."
"Aye Aye."