Creation began on 01-03-21

Creation ended on 04-26-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Calling in a Favor: An interesting find

Opening the door to the attic, a young man climbed into the small space where several relics from his family's past lay in storage bins. He had ebony hair and brownish eyes. If one from a previous lifetime had any recollection on him, they would've said something like, "Hey, isn't that Shinji Ikari, the son of Yui and Gendo Ikari?" But nobody from a previous lifetime had any recollection…because that lifetime no longer existed, and this young man was no longer Shinji Ikari, despite having his appearance. He was just a guy by the name of Yami Mokuzai, the youngest child of Aki and Sora Mokuzai, a pair of junk shop owners.

"Mother did say that we had some things up here that were just incapable of being given away," Yami told himself as he looked around the space. "But she never elaborated on what kind of things we kept up here."

He opened one of the smaller bins…and saw something that caught his eye. It was a small, orange, crystalline object the size of a baseball with red stars. He picked it up and held it in his right hand, counting the stars. There were at least five, like the members of his family; his parents, his elder brother and sister, and himself.

"Some sort of gem?" He wondered, taking the object with him and going to find his father.

-x-

"…I knew I had the book here somewhere," said a petite man to Yami as he pulled out a large book with a picture of an eastern dragon. "This is what you're looking for, Yami. The mythology surrounding the Dragon Balls."

Yami opened the book and found a picture of the object he had found in the attic, except there were seven of them instead of one, with varying stars on each one.

"According to an old legend, a stranger from beyond the stars came to Earth and gifted the human race with seven gems," Sora told his son, showing him the story surrounding the object. "When brought together, the Dragon Balls would summon the great dragon that slumbered within them and bestow upon the person that gathered the balls three wishes. Once all three wishes were granted, the dragon would return to its slumber until the next time the balls were brought together."

"Wait, what do you mean, until the next time the balls were brought together?" Yami asked his father, confused. "Do the Dragon Balls…scatter?"

"That's right," he answered, flipping to the next page that detailed the reasons behind the aftermath of a summoning. "Once the dragon grants all three wishes, the Dragon Balls scatter across the planet and become no different from regular rocks, hiding from the world and people to keep from being misused and abused. According to how the dangers were written by the author of the book, the Dragon Balls contain a limited amount of negative energy generated when a wish is made for something positive, such as restoring a forest or a city, bringing a number of people killed back to life, or trying to prevent a calamity from happening. For every wish, it takes one-hundred years for the negative energy to dispel harmlessly to ensure that the next time they're used, they will be able to hold another limited amount of negative energy and scatter to dispel the negative energy during the next one-hundred years."

"Incredible, Father," Yami expressed; the balls scatter after three wishes were made by a dragon, they store negative energy for a century, which should imply that it would take a long time to find even just one of them. "Do you think anyone believes the legend?"

"Your mother and I tried to find the other Dragon Balls, but we never could. They're either still hiding somewhere out there in the world…or probably collecting dust in some museum someplace, with nobody knowing what they can do."

"What would you have done if you had obtained all seven?"

"It would've depended upon the type of wishes the dragon could grant, and there are wishes that can't be granted; the dragon can't create love in people that don't exist, it can't kill someone or destroy some enemy, and some benevolent wishes can have negative impacts on people that don't agree with the person that made the wish. Personally, I would've made a wish for wealth to last a lifetime because when I was younger, I hated being broke. I don't remember what your mother would've wished for, but it was probably for a mansion."

"They both seem to be…a little selfish, Father."

"I know. What would you do if you had three wishes?"

"I…don't know what I'd wish for. I guess I'd have to find all seven balls first. Are there other wishes that the dragon can grant?"

"Just about anything from a private island to eternal life."

"Maybe just an adventure."

"Why wish for that?"

"My birthday was yesterday, and I feel like I haven't lived."

"You sound like Miyu; even she doesn't feel like her life has much meaning in it. Maybe that's why she's trying the whole goth thing."

"I heard that, Dad!" They heard a young woman with goth makeup on her face as she walked down the hallway. "You try feeling good when you have nothing that enriches your life!"

Yami sighed as he knew his sister was right. Lately, there was no joy in their lives. But now that he found one of the Dragon Balls and learned about them, he did feel a little reinvigorated. He had some passion returned to him.

"Hey, Miyu!" He called to his sister. "What would you do if you had a wish from a dragon?"

-x-

It was just a crazy question, but one that had some measure of possibility. If the other Dragon Balls were out there in the world, they were just waiting for someone to find them and summon the dragon to grant them a wish. All they had to do…was find them, wherever they were out there.

"What if we're not going to be the only ones looking for the remaining Dragon Balls, Yami?" Miyu asked her brother as she started searching for the balls on the Internet.

"We can't be the only ones that want to find them, but if we're the only ones that know that a dragon that grants you three wishes when you gather all seven appears, we can probably make a deal with whoever else is interested in them for the pursuit of having a wish granted."

"Well, here goes."

On her laptop, Miyu awaited the search results for anything related to the search parameters she set up: Gemstones with stars that were the size of baseballs. It wasn't an expected way to find anything, but they had to start somewhere, and there were people that put things on the Internet to be looked at and found for varying reasons.

"You still don't know what you'd wish for?" Miyu asked Yami.

"I wouldn't want to make a selfish wish," he told her. "I'd just want an adventure, something to get me out of the mundaneness of my everyday life."

"You better hope that there aren't any other people interested in these balls."

Yami held the Five-Star Dragon Ball in his left hand and had to hope for the same thing; it was only because their family had this one ball that gave him hope that they would eventually locate the other six.

To be continued…

A/N: How do y'all feel about the new incarnation of Shinji? He's part of a family that owns a junkshop and they had one of the Dragon Balls, and now he's interested in finding the rest of them. Do you suspect that Asuka's new incarnation will appear in the next chapter?