The next day they all went to the nearest town that was five miles away. Shiryu had his walking stick since he never went into town without it. Not wanting to bump into anything when walking. As they got to the police station and told an officer the story. Mushu doing most of the explaining of his childhood up until yesterday. The officer was pissed since most officers including himself hated child abusers but then again criminals hated child abusers over all else. It was an ethical clause to all beings.
The officer said, "I'm at a loss of what we can do. I know that we at least must wait a week to see if anyone claims the boy as missing. Then it's in the courts hands but most courts think that they have a year to show some finical support to the child before they consider letting the child be adopted."
Shiryu thanked the officer and told them where they were living if he did indeed find the child and had to give him back to his relatives.
Over the year no one even reported missing a five-year-old boy. They had talked to the courts who had agreed that they could adopt the little boy. They also went to the ministry of magic and had adopted him from them too. Shunrei had told both Shiryu and Dohko that she wanted to make sure all the bases were covered. Shiryu who knew that magic was real since his wife was a witch and showed him her skills when he was thirteen. Shiryu just figured that his wife had a feeling that he was not some muggle with a high cosmos. Then again were the Knights of Athena even muggle. I mean when you think of it, they could do things no one else could do with or without armor.
Two months after the adoption had happen Mushu woke up and noticed that the house was eerie quiet. Usually, he would wake up to some light chattering downstairs. Like his mom would be singing in the kitchen as she cooked or his papa and grandpa would be talking about what they would be doing today, or his papa would try to complain about what they would be doing, and his grandpa would tell him to shut up now or he would be punished for complaining about his training. As he walked downstairs, he noticed that his mom was outside hanging up laundry that must have been done earlier. He knew that it was only nine in the morning so it must have been a rough morning for them to have laundry this early.
Earlier this morning around six o clock. Shunrei was forcefully woken up by the bed moving violently. At first, she thought it was an earthquake but seeing as only the bed was moving as all her pictures were still on the wall. She looked at her husband who was shaking uncontrollably and with each shift the bed would be moved. She sighed knowing more than likely he was trapped in a nightmare and it was going to be one of those mornings; they will get no sleep for the rest of the morning. She moved towards her husband and put his head in her lap as she combed her fingers thru his hair and talked comfort words to him telling him that he was safe.
Suddenly Shiryu jolted in a sit up position completely freaked out by the nightmare. Shunrei just rubbed his back and told him that he was safe, and no one was hurt. Shiryu tried to calm himself down as he put his head in his hand. He knew that he had nightmares from some of the more brutal fights when he was a teenager. It seems that it happened yearly around the fall that the dreams came. The time always seem to be around when the Galaxy Tournament was held. He had talk to both Dohko and Shunrei about the nightmares, but nothing worked to make them go away. Dohko normally made him train harder during that time so he would be too tired to dream.
Since they both knew that they weren't going to go back to sleep they decided to get some chores done. Shunrei went to do laundry while Shiryu did his morning workout. When Shiryu was done Dohko took him to the waterfall to start his training for the gold cloth even though there wasn't really anything left to teach him. It was more refining his technique then anything. Since you couldn't learn patience's it was something you had to teach yourself.
Mushu walked to his mom and said, "Hey mom, where's papa and grandpa?"
Shunrei turned to her son and said, "They went to train at the waterfall. If you want, we can go and watch for a little bit."
Mushu smiled at that thought he had only seen his papa train once and he really wanted to see it again, but normally they were only working on martial arts when he was awake. As the two walked toward the waterfall Shunrei told her son a little about what a knight's duty to Athena was. She had a feeling that Mushu would want to become a knight and she figured if she couldn't fight them then she might as well join them. She hated the idea that Shiryu was a knight. She had wished that he could just stay home and live his life peacefully without any fighting; but she knew that if he never became a knight then she would have never met him.
Once they got to the waterfall Mushu was once again awestruck by the waterfall. It was always so peaceful, and he wondered how both his papa and grandpa ever got work done. Dohko was sitting on a cliff near the waterfall with a smirk on his face as he told Shiryu that he needed to be patient to make the 100-dragon fist work. Shiryu sighed he knew that his sensei would tell him that. He didn't have a hard time learning the technique. It wasn't that he couldn't do the movement right. It was that Shiryu always used too much cosmos to get the attack to work. The problem was that he needs the patients to listen to what the cosmos would tell him. Since the attack was so high and you need a certain amount of cosmos to pull it off to the point that you won't be exhausted. Sadly, Shiryu wasn't there just yet.
Shiryu went into the position once more and tried again. As the dragons descended Mushu was awestruck by how many dragons were rising it was inspirational to see what he could do with enough training. Then he noticed that his papa was panting. It was like he was out of energy. Dohko jumped down from his spot on the cliff and went over to Shiryu to make sure that he was okay. Mushu and Shunrei also ran to make sure that Shiryu was okay. It wasn't normal for him to feel this out of it. Dohko looked at his long-time student and said, "Shiryu take a break. Go sit and rest spend time with Shunrei and Mushu and we're come back to this later today."
Shiryu nodded as he sat with his back to the tree as Mushu and Shunrei went to sit next to him as Dohko decided to also join them. He enjoys these times where all they did was sit around and talked like a family should do. Mushu looked up and said, "Papa, you remembered when we first met, and you told me about your role as Athena's Knights."
Shiryu replied, "Of course I do son. I told you to really think about it and when you got your answer you may tell me. I'm guessing that you finally came to a decision."
Mushu replied, "Yeah. I want to become a knight just like you and grandpa. I want to protect Athena and the world. You both have told me the stories of what you went through, and I feel like I should also contribute to the cause."
Shiryu looked at Dokho and asked, "What do you think Sensei?"
Dohko smiled as he replied, "Mushu brings up a good point and his cosmos is strong. As he wants to do the training then I don't see why he can't. I will go and let Athena and Pope Shion know."
Shiryu replied, "Okay Mushu from this day forth you will be under mine and Dohko's student to become the next Bronze Dragon Knight. I may teach you the most but Dohko will make sure you got the technique down."
Shunrei smiled at the family since she wasn't too keen on the idea but hey if you can't beat them then you might as well join them, and it also will make Mushu that much stronger. She knew that in the mountains they lived in you must be strong to survive. The family decided for the rest of the morning to talk and enjoy the peace that had befallen on them recently.
After lunch Dohko teleported to Sanctuary in Greece. It had been decided that Dohko would be the one to tell Pope Shion and Athena as he was a gold knight and could go to them without having to tell the gold knights anything. Dohko had tried to get Shiryu to go and tell Athena and Pope Shion but Shiryu had brought up the point that it would be weird if he had gone to Sanctuary without Dohko and there was no reason for both to go. Shunrei and Mushu had laughed when Dohko had realized the Shiryu brought up a vailed point.
As he quickly made it toward the Pope's temple, he thought how to word his proposal about training Mushu. They had decided that until they knew what Mushu wanted to do they would keep him a secret from the others. Not that it was hard to do since Shiryu seem to forget to keep in contact with his brothers. It wasn't that he meant to lose contact, but he always kept himself busy that he sometimes forgets that there is other outside of China that care about him.
Dohko wasn't surprise that nobody stopped him as he wasn't a regular at Sanctuary. The other gold knights seem to know that if Dohko was at Sanctuary then it was probably either Athena or the Pope called him, or he had news to give to them. Before long Dohko was in front of Pope Shion and Athena. He smiled at them and said, "I bring news from China. It seems like Shiryu has finally found someone to train as the Bronze Dragon."
Athena and Pope Shion were shocked they knew that Shiryu wanted to train the new dragon knight and he had also told them that he didn't want to become a gold knight unless there was a student worthy of the Dragon cloth. It seems like he found that student.
Athena asked, "Tell us about this young student?"
Dohko replied, "Well Shiryu found a young boy in the woods and when no one declared the boy missing Shiryu and Shunrei decided to adopt the youngling. Since the boy didn't know his true name, he named himself Mushu. He is six years old and wants to continue to hold the believes of Athena's Knights. The only thing that doesn't make any sense is that his cosmos is exactly like Shiryu's was when he was six. I mean the exact same if I hadn't known it was Mushu who was giving off that cosmos I would have thought it was Shiryu."
Athena looked at Shion and said, "Shion, have you heard anything like this before. I mean I know that Ikki had stated that he knew the difference between Kannon and Saga because of their cosmos even though they are identical twins."
Shion replied, "You are correct Athena. As far as I know this is the first instance that this has ever happened. Then again, we don't know much about the dragon cloth since Shiryu either can't or won't tell us anything about it. All we know is that Shiryu is the only one who knows what the cloth is truly capable of and can use the full potential of the cloth. For all we know the cloth may need a strong cosmos and since Shiryu was a strong force the cloth picked a strong host and decided the cosmos had to be changed to fit Shiryu. I think only Shiryu knows the secrete and I doubt that he will be willing to tell us."
Athena sighed since she knew that Shion was right. She had tried to get Shiryu to tell her a little about the cloth since it was such a mystery. Shiryu had just smiled and told her that a cloth is just a material that the truth comes from the cosmos and if you tell all you're secretes then how can you honestly think we can protect you. Think of it this way the best way to beat an enemy, is if you tell no one your, secretes. The enemy can always be watching you at any given moment.
She said, "We will allow Shiryu to train this boy Mushu, but we want him to be tested for the gold cloth no more than three years. He has had enough time to be up to the task."
Dohko nodded as Pope Shion smiled at the thought it was about time that someone kicked that boy into gear. It wasn't every day that Athena would send an order out. Then again, she and the other bronze were waiting for Shiryu or Hyoga to gain the gold cloth. Since those two have been trained by a gold knight since they were eight it was only right that they get the cloth first. The only problem was that they were both stubborn and wouldn't go after the cloth that they clearly deserve.