Disclaimers: See prologue for details and timeline history.

Disclaimers: See prologue for details and timeline history.

LEGEND:

"Talking"

'Thoughts or emphasis'

(...Chris...)

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Chapter One:

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FAST FORWARD SEVERAL MORE YEARS

It's been two weeks since Leon picked up his sixteen year old baby brother from Italy's International Airport. His plans had been a complete success and now he had a permanent home near Venice with an apartment condo in Rome.

Both places were fully paid for by the extra cash he earned from very grateful and private individuals from several prominent families. Some of the families were in China and others were from the rich elite living near the Riviera in France.

Most of his work was under cover or sleuthing, but since he won his position at Interpol and had passed his P.I. (private investigator) exams for all the countries of his choice, he was able to work his own hours and at his own rate.

Leon was amazed by the changes in the youth. Chris had grown and was now almost a foot and a bit shorter than himself. His eyes were forever the same sky blue as his own, but the kid's hair. He still caught himself staring at the extreme colour change because now Chris' hair was a two tone mix of black and dark blue. Often the hair was tied up in order to prevent it from falling into his eyes while he was working on his paintings, most of the time it was just down a loose, falling just below his shoulders.

His style of clothing was another major change that Leon felt he needed to get used to. However, it wasn't that bad. Chris found a love of cargo or combat pants due to the multiple pockets that were deep enough to carry most of his drawing articles. He also wore lots of plain coloured T-shirts and sometimes when he was in the middle of painting he wore something like a dancer's halter that cut at his mid-riff with just the low hanging cargo pants and no shoes.

Leon didn't really care about that, but what he did care about was the extreme measures and the lengthy fight he had with his family concerning Chris and the boy's permanent future placement. Chris did go somewhat extreme in his rebellion, even to the point of not communicating verbally with anyone. However this time when he was brought before family court and he was able to write out his request to the judge and the lawyers. He wanted Leon to have full guardianship of him and that was all he wanted.

He didn't care that his mother had left a sizable account for his upkeep and he certainly didn't care if his aunt and uncle got the money in exchange for the years that they "raised" him. All Chris wanted was to finally live with his brother and his brother was more than capable of supporting him now, without the need of extra incentives, unlike his money grubbing Aunt and Uncle.

Chris won and after selling off everything that was considered his, he had his passport ready and all the official paperwork was finalized. The embassies were aware that Leon Orcot would now have a dependent that was solely his responsibility. They were not pleased with this, but they felt it would not affect his work, so they allowed the multi-citizenship to come through for the teen without a hitch.

If the truth were really known, Sofu D and Baby D (who was now a lively six year old) were playing with the minds of the officials in order to reunite Count D with Leon and Chris. Every time they did this, they were grinning madly at one another, as though it was a game to be played. In reality, to them it really was a game. To move the pieces and players to achieve the best possible outcome.

So, with the mind manipulations, Sofu D and Baby D accomplished the fastest multi-citizenship passport process ever known to anyone who ever worked in those departments and just for one young Christopher Orcot. No one was the wiser nor did they really care.

All that remained to be done, was to re-unite Count D with Leon in such a fashion as to trigger the detective's memories. Then again due to the fact that all agents involved in the Law, Police or Investigative Professions in the country of Italy had to pass psychological evaluations, it was going to be easy for Sofu D to become the doctor performing those evaluations on our favourite detective. Baby D was enjoying the new changes in his upbringing and hoped that one day all of them could be re-united... period.

On top of the evaluations, Sofu D and Baby D were also playing with the dreams and memories of the Orcot brothers in order to bring forward specific memories into their rightful location within their minds.

The final blow will be to give them a system shock, but those two wonderful plotters had a nearly foolproof plan. His grandson was not going to like this and to be honest Sofu D and Baby D were a little apprehensive about how the brothers were going to react as well.

--

FOUR WEEKS AFTER CHRIS HAS BEEN LIVING WITH LEON

Count D was going through his mail for the day, when he found the door to his shop flung open by a very gusty breeze, followed by the sound of small feet running down the stairs into the Pet Shop.

"Q", Q-chan came in flying furiously and squeaking, he launched himself at Count D.

"Q-Chan, no fair, you're supposed to...", a young voice said from the open door. "Oh... Hello," a small purple-eyed boy observed Q snuggling against Count D's shocked cheek.

"Q-chan?" Count D whispered to the babbit. He lifted him from his shoulder in order to get a good look at the little yellow creature with bat wings and mini-horns on his head. "It really is you, what are you doing here?"

"We were playing a game of hide-and-seek, but he ran away from the designated play area that we had decided on. Oh, cool... a Totestu, may I pet him?" The small child asked crawling on all fours, watching the strange mixed beast of goat-tiger-man peering out from under nearby furniture.

"T-chan, you may come out, if you want," Count D said. "I think now is a good time for tea. Right...Q-chan?" The Count looked at the babbit in the eye and was wondering what exactly was going. Q-Chan was his grand-father and was now here with a young boy, who must be his father turned child and who was sitting on the floor petting a contented T-chan behind the ears.

"Sofu...", the Count began.

Q-chan sighed and changed back into his human looking form. He sat down across from D and kept an eye on the young one as other animals came out to enjoy tea and sweets. "You've certainly hidden yourself well this time. How are you to cater Dreams and Wishes, if the Shop is not in a better location? You've practically hidden yourself away."

"Grandfather, please," D responded. "Those that need to find this Shop will, in fact there have been quite a few people visiting the shop lately that I haven't finished with all of my correspondence."

"About that," Sofu began. "You may not like part of it from the Chinese Embassy. We got a letter from them ourselves a few weeks ago and I came by to see if you had accepted their assistance."

"Assistance for what?"

"You haven't read it?" Sofu asked in a shocked tone, but he was far from shocked inside.

Count D stood up and went to look over his mail. There it was in bold black and gold lettering. It was a letter from the Chinese Embassy.

--

Honourable Count D

We have received startling news from mainland China and from more than a few other countries. There has been a rash of killing sprees against some of the more prominent Chinese citizens in the "Chinatowns" of those countries.

We have compiled a list a suspected targets and you happen to fall into the killer's victim profile. We humbly request that you accommodate a member of Interpol or our choice of Investigator to be your bodyguard and protector during this strange time.

He is very well known in China and France to be very effective in this kind of position. However, he does have a dependent that will have to stay with you, as well.

If we do not hear from you within a week, we will assume that you accept our humble request and we will make sure that our operative is at your location by Friday July 8th.

Please be assured that he is one of our best and that his brother will not pose any problems to you or your shop. We have had both of the them evaluated by our good Doctor and he was impressed by their knowledge and resilience.

With sincere regards,

Ambassador Lao Chin,

Chinese Consulate, Italy

--

"July 8th, this year??" Count D was a little bit in shock, as today was the 7th of July.

Sofu started chuckling, "My son it looks as though your instincts were quite on target. My wayward grandson, did you not even notice that letter until today?"

Count D went back to his chair and sat down hard. He was stumped. He would normally have opened such mail, but of course he had decided to put it off and then he guessed that he must have lost track of it.

"Interpol, police, and a youth, ugh... This a respectable place of business not a day-ca...", he stopped himself from continuing that sentence because it brought with it some rather testy memories of his detective and the detective's cute look-a-like younger brother.

"Looks like we're right on time then, we can help you set up rooms for them," Sofu said.

The youthened D nodded, stood up and walked over to his son. He placed his small hands into the soft ones of Count D and said, "We'd love to help you. Will you let us my son?"

D looked into the violet eyes of his father and smiled. "It is strange to hear you speak to me like you were my father. Of course your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Where do you think that I should set them up?" He asked, looking from one to the other not quite noticing the calculating looks that were passing between the two.

"Well, as it happens I know that the dependent is a teenager...", Sofu D put up one hand to stall D's protests. "The boy is quiet and he is also an artist, preferring to draw and paint rather than be loud. In fact he is also mute, although I think that is by choice."

D blinked at that statement, he had never encountered anyone mute by choice except for young Christopher Orcot, but that boy started speaking again, losing his ability to see the animals.

"Very well, I will accept your assistance," he said graciously to his Grandfather and father.

"We're going to be staying near here as well," Sofu stated. "You see we were asked the same thing from the Chinese embassy and I've decided to open my practice next door. That way we would be assuring mainland that two of the prominent citizens are well protected. I hope you do not object to the two of us living as your neighbours?"

This was a highly unusual set of circumstances for the Kamis. They never lived close to one another before and certainly not under such strange conditions. D looked at his grandfather and found that something had changed. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was evolving.

D bowed his head in respect to his elders and said, "It would be my pleasure to have you as my neighbours. Where are you located?"

The youngest D stood up suddenly and shouted, "Yay, we get to stay." He began to run around the room in circles, his young kami magic affecting a few of the older creatures.

T-chan had been older, but now was youthened by the child to an older teen appearance. Pon-chan, who had aged gracefully was youthened even further, back to the way she was when she first met Chris. Her relative aging process was faster and shorter than T-chan, she was due to pass on soon. T-chan had lived a lot longer then Pon-chan. A few others were affected as well until Sofu caught the little whirlwind and settled the magic in him.

"We have the store entrance on the left of the shop and we'll be living in the apartments above, but we will connect to the magic of the shop in order to be able to live comfortably and to visit without having to step foot outdoors." Sofu then heaved a sigh, looking down at the changes in the animals and at his excited son. "One of the other reasons we need to be near here," he started to say, but then was stopped by D raising his own hand.

"I understand. Something in him has changed his magic."

"I think it was when he manipulated the DNA strands of his weapon," Sofu said.

D just nodded, "Very well let's get started. We'll find rooms for you and then we'll find rooms for the Policia."

--

TBC...