Disclaimer: Trigun does not belong to me. I am just borrowing the characters for this story.

----------------------------------

Training with Chapel, in the complex, wasn't that different from living with my uncle. There were still beatings, but they were less severe and less frequent. Though I guess looking back, many things were different, small things, but they were there. Chapel fed me better for one, when I was with my uncle he'd eat a steak while I ate a sandwich, made on stale bread, when I was with Chapel whatever he ate, I ate the same.

Chapel seemed to care about me more than my uncle. It was a relief not to wake up each morning dreading getting beat from a drunk man who hated your guts. My uncle looked on me with eyes colder than the air in the dead of a desert winter night, and though I couldn't see Chapel's eyes I know that he looked at me as an equal being under God.

Chapel looked at most people like that, there was two men who came, late in my training, that he looked on as more than just equals, almost as superiors. One was a young man who wore a white coat and a skull on one shoulder. His name was Legato. His eyes were even colder than my uncle's, like he had a contempt for all living beings. The other was evil, no other way to describe the aura he eminated. He had platinum blond hair that he wore slightly spiked, and wore a strange white body suit. He called himself Knives. It was a name that fit him. His eyes pierced to my very soul like searing hot knives. striking me with a sense of fear and awe.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself again. I don't meet those two for quite awhile.

When we first reached the complex, I stood in awe, we were right near the city of Neo Philadelphia. But, what was really important was that the complex, was a ship that survived the fall. I had trouble adjusting to the lost technology that surrounded me. As a man of the church how could Chapel just... horde all of this away from the people?

The day after we arrived my training began, he gave me a simple handgun, not too powerful, but he thought it best for me to start with something weak. As time went by he would keep giving me new guns, more powerful guns, but I was to keep the old ones in memory of the times when I was weaker and untrained.

With each new gun I received I felt a great sense of achievement. Something I can't really find the words to describe. But, it was the third gun that brought with it the greatest gift of all.

With my third gun, still a simple handgun, I received a Bible. Chapel said, "Nicholas my boy, now that you are able to properly defend yourself, it is time I teach you about God. God is a powerful ally to have on your side, and as long as you use these guns to punish the wicked, then He will always be on your side."

I didn't really understand what he meant at the time, I was only eight and a half years old. But as time went on, I learned what it truly meant to fight for God. Or what Chapel wanted me to believe it meant. He always told me, "Nicholas, the evil people in this world need to be punished for what they do. It is our place, as men of God, to punish them."

I took this in and put the duty upon myself to punish those that would bring harm to children. And also to protect those same children from harm as best I could. I took that oath at the age of thirteen.