Chapter 3

"Gaston…can I ask you something?" A lovely, feminine voice asked from the man's right side in their shared bed.

Gaston's eyes were shut and without looking he replied, "hrm?"

She sat up from the bed and looked at him in the eyes, "I want you to stay with me. Here, in Novigrad."

Gaston looked up at her eyes from his position. Yellow cat-like eyes meeting green. He considered her words for a moment before sitting up himself and answering, "Fringilla you know I can't. My work as a Witcher-"

Fringilla cut him off by placing one of her fair colored hands on his bare chest, "I know. By god I know…but even still we can have a place to come back to every night, a bed we share and…a place we can really call home." She was looking down as she said this but soon looked up with tear stricken eyes and a sad smile. "Isn't that what we both want? To have somewhere to return to?"

Gaston couldn't answer her. They both knew the truth about a witcher's work. Almost on instinct, he recited the words told to him so many years ago, "A Witcher never dies of old age or laying in their own bed, Fringilla. I love you, I truly do…but I just can't."

The black haired woman rested her head on Gaston's scarred chest, wrapping her arms around him with him doing the same. "Then just for tonight…don't leave me." Came her soft, sad voice in a whisper.

"I promise Fringilla." Gaston found himself holding something back, something that wanted to claw itself out at that very moment. He strained his eyes for he had to be the strong witcher Fringilla came to know.

"Wake up!" Shinji shot up out of the chair he was napping in and realized where he was. His head snapped to the voice that awoke him.

"You've been here for the past six hours, Shinji. The library is closing soon, go home and get some rest huh?" The elderly woman informed the boy.

Indeed he had been here a long time, the sun was already setting, and with it came an almost heavenly glow around the village. The boy sighed to himself, "yea you're right Mrs. Kamizuki thanks again for all the help today." He packed the four books into his bag, flashed a smile to the elderly lady and headed to the door.

He gave one look behind and saw a look on the bespectacled woman's face that made him stop.

Mrs. Kamizuki was hesitant about wanting to ask her question. However Shinji had been repeating the name in his sleep and she was dying to know.

"Who's Fringilla?" She asked with a coy smile, trying to be playful. However she was a little saddened when the boy she had come to know over the past years face had fallen and darkened to an extent.

"Just a dream. A figment of my imagination. Goodnight Mrs. Kamizuki." Shinji then rushed out of the building

She stared at the boys back as he left in a downtrodden mood. She knew what sadness looked like. When her husband died in the second war, it was the same look that adorned her face from the moment she awoke in the morning to when she slept at night.

Yet the question still remained, what happened in young Shinji's life to make him this upset?

Mrs. Kamizuki sighed to herself, "I hope you get some sleep tonight." She muttered to no one in general.

Shinji found the walk home to be unbearably quiet. The question the nice librarian asked him took him out of left field and had him remembering his last meeting with Fringilla.

"Dammit!" He shouted to himself. Whatever people were near at the time looked at him as if he were crazy but he didn't care. Instead, he rushed home.

After a few minutes he opened the door quietly so as to not awake his fathers ire, however he was already awake and in a moment of clarity stood to face his son.

"Where have you been?" He asked with the slight twang of alcohol on his breath.

"Studying at the library." Shinji made to go to his room however he was stopped by his father.

"Don't you lie to me brat! What the hell is this?!" Akuma got in his son's face and showed him the paper that showed his soon to be admittance into the academy.

"How did you even get that?!" Shinji proclaimed loudly.

"That doesn't matter, you went behind my back you ungrateful little brat!" Akuma was now furious with his son and moved to strike him.

Shinji, being too young, was unable to move away in time and received a vicious backhand to his cheek that sent him to the floor.

"You're nothing you hear me brat?!" Akuma was crouched over his son who stared up at him impassively. "I let you stay in my home, you leech off my food, you steal my money! Maybe your mother was lucky to die that day."

The boy's eyes changed at those words. They went wide and his pupils dilated. He never had a mother, either in this life or his last one as Gaston, but this man…he dared to call him lucky? Lucky to deal with this abuse day in and day out? He asked to be reincarnated sure, but he never asked for this!

'I'll kill you.' He repeated in his mind. His face seemed to have the same sentiment as it revealed his emotions.

"Oooo scary look brat! Cmon then! If you think you're so tough, common then!" Akuma got up from his hunched over position and raised his arms as if inviting his son to strike him.

Shinji also slowly got up. He gave his father a stare that if he weren't inebriated, would've felt the killing intent radiating off the boy. "I bet moms real proud of you." Shinji had said on instinct.

In the next moment, all hell broke loose in the Sato household. "You son of a-!" Akuma was livid at this point. So livid to where he leaped across the room and moved to punch the boy in the face.

However he was not expecting to be dodged and landed face first into the ground. That did not stop him as he lunged once more at Shinji who didn't even move and instead received the punch to the center of his face at full force.

The four year old boy was sent careening to the ground, nose now bleeding and face red with pain and anger. 'That…really didn't hurt too much.' This thought stayed with Shinji as he got up and stared at his rotten father.

"Again." Shinji said with nothing but venom and hatred within his voice. Akuma though, only obliged by throwing out his left hand and hitting his son once more. His angry face expressed his displeasure when Shinji was not sent to the ground and only stumbled back a few steps.

"Again!" Shinji repeated to which Akuma, once again obliged. To Shinji, his father seemed to move in almost slow motion. Between him training for the entirety of the past year and with his father only growing worse with his addiction, it only made Akuma's skill rust to such a magnitude that allowed Shinji to do what he did next.

As Akuma's fist slowly reached Shinji's face, he reacted by grabbing his fathers arm, twisting it and redirecting all of the energy his father put forth into the hit, launching Akuma through the nearest object which just so happened to be the front window.

Shiji looked out of the window, seeing his father slowly start to get up. "You little bastard!" the man cried with pain evident in his voice. He turned his face to his son, who stared impassively at the form of his father. There were shards of glass sticking out of his face and with the blood running down from his head, it made for a terrible sight.

"You're going to regret that, you little shit!" Akuma reached into the pouch and pulled out a kunai and rushed for his son. Shinji could only defend himself the best he could as his father rushed forward.

However before Akuma could reach Shinji, he stopped dead in his tracks with fear plastered on his face.

"How far you have fallen, Akuma." Shinji's head snapped behind him to reveal, Oni of all people standing there, flanked on both sides by two masked shinobi to his right and one to his left. All of their masks resembled demons of some kind.

Akuma went to defend himself however was silenced by a hand raised by Oni. "Silence!" he went quiet for a moment before pulling the blade from his waist.

"Akuma Sato, under order of the Tsuchikage, I hereby place you under arrest." Oni moved forward only for Akuma to start running, that was his sentence however before the three other masked shinobi rushed forward and tackled the poor excuse of a father to the ground and placed his hands behind his back.

"Get the fuck off of me! Don't you know everything ive done for this village?!" No one answered him as cuffs were placed around his hands and he was taken away by the three other shinobi. The only ones who were remaining were Oni and Shinji, staring at the carted off form of his father, no, of Akuma Sato.

"As of this moment you will be stripped of your rank as Chunin of Iwagakure, effective immediately. Get this pathetic excuse of a shinobi out of my sight." Oni stated with such venom in his voice it made Shinji take a step back.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, runt." oni said after a moment of silence. He looked to the boy and instead of seeing anger, sadness or anything of the sort. The boy had a face of pure peace.

Shinji wore a slight smirk as he watched Akuma go. 'I hope you rot, Akuma.' The boy looked up to Oni who was still looking down on him. "Thanks for coming when you did…it might've gotten ugly."

Oni handed the kid a rag and gestured to his nose region to which Shinji swiftly cleaned himself off. "Do you know what youre gonna do now?" Oni asked with an almost softness to his voice.

The boy looked confused at the question, "what do you mean? I have two days of studying left for my test! I have to touch up on some of the chakra theory stuff but-"

Oni half listened to Shinji as he rattled off the subjects he needed a touch up on as he continued looking at the boy. 'Four years old and already subjected to the darkness of this world. Yet, he's not sad or angry. No, he picked himself back up and is pushing forward with a fervor. Keep going Shinji, I know you'll go far, runt.'

"Hey, stop ruining my hair!" Shinji cried indignantly and swatted at the hand rubbing his head. Oni was startled as he realized just what he was unconsciously doing and ceased his behavior. The masked shinobi started to walk away before turning back once more.

"Get plenty of rest and study hard, runt. I'll be seeing you in two days." the man disappeared right in front of Shinji's eyes in a swirl of dust, just as he did when he recommended him for the academy.

"Fuck i have to learn to do that one day." he said to himself with a smirk and with that, the boy turned to his house and walked back inside, intent on getting a nice full nights rest.