42PROLOGUE PART 1: BRAVE NEW WORLD
Fifteen year old Shinji lamented not thinking ahead and packing some thing with a hood on him or scarf, something to hide his face. Glynda had always told him to be prepared for any kind of situation, it was one of the first things she had taught him after he had decided to become a huntsman a decade ago...then again being prepared for this particular outcome would be a sign of unhealthy paranoia.
Well still, lesson learned. Shinji noted to make sure that his combat outfit from this point on will contain something with a hood. Now that he thought about it it would be useful in a lot of situations. It didn't even have to be for hiding his identity. If he were standing in heavy rain it would help keep himself dry or at least keep the rain out of his eyes, he could use it to protect himself from the sun in super hot weather and if anything he could use it to try and hide his face.
Yup, he would definitely have to get some made when he got back home. But right now he needs to focus.
He's the only that can act in time after all. Luckily he had some clothing on him that was appropriate for fighting at night. Hence his current attire of a gray long sleeve shirt, gray jeans, black running shoes and a black scarf to hide the lower part of his face and a black cap to hide his bright white hair.
Contrary to popular belief black is a terrible choice to wear at night. While its true it would absorb what little light there is out at night, the surroundings one is hiding in is usually a colour other than black and would still reflect some light therefore making one stand out. Grey being a neutral colour is a much better choice to blend in with. While he had never been taught that he knew anyway thanks to the memories of some of the JSSDF commandos he had gained during Third Impact.
He'd never had thought he would be thankful for the...things that had happened to him during Impact.
'Focus Shinji,' he reminded himself.
Shaking his head to empty it of unnecessary thoughts he turned right and casually walked out of the street he had been walking in and into an alley. Even though the street was empty, with it being almost midnight that wasn't a surprise, especially in the part of the city he's in. With any clubs or restaurants that may still be open this late being in a completely different part of the city he knew he didn't really have to worry about bystanders but it never hurt to be extra careful.
As he reached a dead end he made sure he was alone and hadn't been followed before he took off his messenger bag, opened it and took out his weapons. They were a pair of single edged short swords and just like the weaponry of many Huntsmen they were of his own making. They were identical twin swords, Arondight and Harpe, named after swords of legend from his old world.
Most weapons his classmates owned usually had fancier names, with one kid that reminded him a bit of Kensuke having a pair of gauntlets with names so long that Shinji had never been able to remember them. That said most names were only two words in length. Alas he was never the most creative person in the world and he had always liked the name of the swords of his old world's legends and fairy tales, they just sounded...well legendary.
The twin swords currently rested in their sheaths which he had attached to a low profile combat belt with both swords having their edged facing downwards so no matter how he unsheathed them, either in a traditional upright or revers grip, he could also cut in the same motion. An inspiration from his old world's Iaido.
Quickly putting on said battle belt he gripped the hilts of his swords, with Arondight on his right side and Harpe on his left as he steeled himself, finding comfort in the familiar feeling of the weapons in his hands.
He slung his bag over his shoulder before channeling some of his Aura and jumping onto the roof of the two story building in front of him, making sure to land in a crouch to lessen the noise. Glynda, Lily and Weiss had always been impressed with how quiet he moved but to Shinji it was nothing worth mentioning, it was just natural to him at this point.
Quickly moving behind the chimney on the roof of the building to hide he eyed the tall warehouse across the street with two people, guards he correctly assumed on the roof. He had tracked the kidnappers to this site earlier and now he's prepared to strike. All that's left is to wait for the right moment, the gap between guard shifts.
He would be lying though if he said he wasn't nervous. He hadn't seen combat in a while after all. Hell hee isn't even old enough to take the Beacon Academy entrance exam yet!
As he waited for the moment to strike he thought back to that fateful day. The day when he first arrived on the world of Remnant and he couldn't help but smile a bit.
11 Years Ago
Kingdom of Vale, Vytal
"Ugh…" groaned a young boy as he slowly opened his eyes to get used to the light. "My head…ow…I feel like I just got spiked through the head…again."
Looking around he noticed he was…in a forest of some kind from what he could see, which was strange. He'd never actually been in a forest in his life as far as he could remember.
'Oh wait no, there was that time I went hiking with Kaji-san,' he remembered as he continued to look around. His head was hurting with one of the worst headaches he'd ever had, he was dizzy and his ears were ringing. 'But other than that I've never been in a forest before, not really…unless stomping through them in a 80-metre tall biomecha counted.'
In fact it dawned on him that he'd had plenty of opportunities to visit the forest that lined the bottom of the underground cavern known as the Geofront. He kind of regretted never going now, heavens knows he spent a lot of time at the Geofront anyway.
He found he really enjoyed the cool feeling of resting on the grass and the soft breeze blowing through the was relaxing and he idly wondered if he would had been a bit more…mentally stable through his stay in Tokyo-3 if he actually took time to relax like he was doing now.
He took a deep breath and enjoyed the fresh air, as someone who spent a lot of time in a city like Tokyo-3 which had almost no green space or stuck in an entry plug full of LCL that tasted and smelled like blood it was a pleasant change to say the least.
It really helped to make his headache and dizziness dissipate faster.
"Yeah...this is nice," he murmured, "I'll think about what happened and where I am later."
So, if just for a moment, he put thoughts of death, of his failures and of the end of the world behind.
As he closed his eyes sleep quickly claimed him.
"Yui please go home. It is getting late," a blond woman told her friend as they walked through the forest.
"Oh come now Glynda, I won't keel over just because of a bit of a chill," her friend retorted with a childish pout.
Glynda couldn't help but shake her head and massage her forehead in frustration. She had been friends with Yui for years, even before she became a huntress and her friend had never been one to back down. She knew her friend's body was weak, getting sick often even when they were kids and as a result Glynda had always been very protective of her friend.
Which was why she's so frustrated at the moment.
"Yui please see reason-"
"No…wait, no I will see reason. I'm a scientist Glynda, my job is to see reason and logic in my research."
"Then please! See some reason right now," Glynda pleaded with her best friend, "it is late and somewhat chilly now. You're going to get sick again, you live out here in the country; I know you love walking through the forest but you can just come back tomorrow."
"But Gl-"
"Please Yui," said the blond, "I have a few more days off so I can go with you tomorrow. So please, rest your body." Yui had always loved the peace of the forest Glynda knew and while she was against her friend living in a place where Grimm may lurk nearby she, in the end, had to give in when she found a place that was safe enough.
That didn't stop her from checking up on her friend on a regular basis though.
Most of the time Ozpin also came with her to visit their mutual friend but he had been busy on this particular occasion. Glynda herself almost didn't come but had bludgeoned her way through the bureaucracy, her friend always had a sick body and she really did fear that the next time she would hear from her friend would be the last.
"Five more minutes," Yui said in a childish pleading tone, like someone who just didn't want to get out of bed in the morning.
"FIVE minutes Yui," Glynda said sternly, she knew that when it came to her friend, five minutes quickly became ten, then fifteen minutes then the next thing she knew she had been a part of one of Yui's experiments for three whole HOURS.
'Oh god the teeth, so…much…teeth,' Glynda remembered with a shiver. Her friend had a bit of a mad scientist streak sometimes…well most of the times when she was working. Glynda herself is a powerful huntress and no stranger to dangerous enemies but some of the things her friend had made on a whim were things that were better left destroyed, unsaid and unremembered. And more often than not she found herself as a test subject.
Panzerhund was what she called the monstrosity that she had her 'test.' That particular incident ended up in her fighting and destroying said creation.
...After that ordeal she found that she had picked up a slight dislike of dogs.
Idly the huntress wondered if it was her friend's strange semblance that always managed to make her cave, one that seemed only to work on herself and Yui had just never told her about it.
"Of course! You can count on me Glynda!" Yui exclaimed as she pumped a fist into the air with a smile on her face. Glynda couldn't help but give a wry smile to her friend, sometimes she couldn't believe that the woman in front of her ended up on death's doorstep around once a year. The woman never failed to amaze her with her energy.
As they walked through the forest, with Yui enjoying the twilight and the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind while Glynda was a bit on guard. She knew there shouldn't be anything dangerous but she is an experienced huntress and as the saying goes, old habits die hard.
*gasp*
Glynda heard her friend give a quiet gasp in surprise and was about to jump into action when she saw what her friend was staring at.
It was a boy, a very young boy. Both women guessed that he was around four years old but what got both of their attention was his peculiar appearance. Even in the twilight they could tell his hair was an unnatural white, not the shade of white one gets because of stress or age, it appeared unnatural, like it had been dyed or bleached. He wore a white long sleeved shirt that was a tad too big and his hands were hidden in the sleeves, he also wore black trousers and black shoes and had a peaceful expression on his face as he slept.
"An albino?" Yui mumbled to herself as she looked at the sleeping child.
"Why is he out here?" Glynda asked with a bit of an edge in her voice. "Where are his parents?" she wondered out loud.
"I'm more worried about if he's ok," Yui said as she knelt down and started to gently check him over, feeling a healthy pulse and steady breathing. After feeling no dampness from any obvious wound she made a move to pick him up but felt a hand on her should so she turned her head.
"I'll move him Yui," she Glynda told her friend and gently picked up the child. She was livid inside, she had always been a dutiful woman and leaving a child so young in a forest, Grimm presence or no, did not sit well with her.
"Mmm…too bright," Shinji moaned as he could see light through his eyelids and had started to return to the world of the waking.
Even half-awake he could tell he was no longer in the forest, he could feel that he was on a bed. From the feel of it he knew he wasn't on a futon but was on a western style mattress, a really nice and probably expensive one. 'I've been forced to stay a few nights in the staff sleeping quarters after late night tests at NERV, and after spending way too much time on infirmary beds I KNOW what a cheap mattress feels like and this feels…soo nice.'
"Glynda! Come, he's waking up," he heard a female voice half whisper and half shout…a voice that was strangely familiar to him but he couldn't place where he had heard it before.
Thinking back to his memory he remembered…running away…the MP Evangelions and Asuka dying. Then Third Impact happened and for a split second he was one with the rest of mankind. He remembered the beach, white sand, a blood red ocean, red skies, the constant smell of blood and death and a blood stained moon. All because of him.
He hated it.
Hated his decisions.
He hated himself.
He wanted to run away but he knew already that it wouldn't solve anything. It never did and he was a fool to turn to it every time something tough like an angel, the good kind, she appeared.
Rei, his fellow Eva pilot and half-sister, the girl who possessed the soul of The Second Angel and the mother of humanity, Lilith.
He remembered how she looked at him and something in them clicked, and she understood him. He didn't know how or why but he knew. Then with a sad and knowing smile on her lips she asked him one important question.
Do you accept this?
He thought…and thought and he realized how empty this existence would be. How wrong it was.
He then proceeded to tell Rei that humanity was totally fine the way it was. That individuality was a good thing even if it could hurt you sometimes when someone doesn't understand you.
That was just a part of the human experience.
'Well look at me being all philosophical,' he thought with an internal chuckle.
Then he remembered Rei apologizing that she didn't know what would happen to him and him saying he didn't give a damn about what happened to him. He was so sick of acting like a spoiled selfish brat. Then there was a huge surge of energy and he awoke in a forest-
He heard a sound and that snapped him out of his thoughts. He could hear someone else walk into the room, he guessed it was the Glynda person and he decided to open his eyes and learn where he is, 'come on Shinji, didn't you tell Rei that if all you do is run away you'll never be happy? Fortune favours the bold and all that.'
Opening his eyes and waiting a bit to let his eyes adjust he saw a white ceiling and couldn't help but mutter, "an unfamiliar ceiling…again."
Pushing himself up to a sitting position he noticed his body felt…odd, it felt off in a way not too different from connecting with his Evangelion. It was the feeling of going from a normal height fourteen year old kid one moment and then a 80 metre tall biomecha the next. It was the feeling of going from a kid of less than average physical strength to a monster with the strength to rip warships in half with its bare hands. It was the feeling of being too large and having muscles more powerful than you actually had.
This was similar but different.
He looked down and saw his body and his school uniform except…everything was smaller. Chibi sized even, his arms were shorter and so were his legs and body. He seemed to have been given the body of a small child, around four years old. 'Well…this is the exact opposite of being in Eva. Smaller and weaker than I was…this will take some getting used to.'
He wasn't really shocked, surprised of course, but after experiencing something as mind-opening and bizarre as melding with the consciousness of all of humanity during the brief instance of instrumentality it would take a LOT to shock him now.
"Hello?" the female voice from before called out and he turned to his left as to his right was nothing but a wall and window.
The first woman was a beautiful woman with a stern look on her face that vaguely reminded him of when Misato was at work and in her 'Major Katsuragi' persona. She was dressed casually which made him wonder if she lived…wherever the heck he was. She had a comfortable looking white long sleeved button up shirt and black skirt. She had short-ish blond hair but was slightly longer on the left side of her face as there was a short braid there. Her eyes seemed to be a very light green almost yellow and she wore thin frame glasses with oval lenses.
He then turned to the second woman, the one who called him.
The woman looked like Rei but older and she seemed to be somewhat…frail for a lack of a better word. She had the same brown hair he had and emerald green eyes full of life that contradicted her frail appearance and wore a simple blue shirt and black pajamas.
A memory flashed.
"Mom?" he said as his eyes widened in shock. There she was, the woman who brought him into the world, whose love for him was so extreme that even when trapped in the monster that was Unit-01, she still protected him.
He couldn't help stop himself from crying.
This...is too good to be true, he had to ask her. To make sure this was real and not another bad nightmare or him going crazy...again."Y-you…you…you're a-alive?"
When the boy opened his eyes the two women could see his eyes were like rubies, almost ethereal, bright shining red, it seemed Yui's hypothesis that the child was an albino was true.
Then they heard him talk.
Glynda raised a brow in curiosity and since she was standing and Yui was sitting (she insisted her friend rest at least) looked down and pondered, 'mom? Yui has no children, I don't think she's ever dated anyone after that last bastard of a man…Gendo something. Good thing she dumped him, good riddance, too clingy to be healthy in the future.'
Yui on the otherr hand, for once in her life, had no idea what to do. The look the boy was giving her was a mix of emotions, she blessed the stars she was a people person and could make them out. She could see overwhelming joy, sorrow, and sheer disbelief. He seemed to be pleading to the universe itself that she was his mother, afraid that if he stopped staring to blink...she would go away.
She was afraid of this boy…no, she was afraid to learn what happened to him and his own mother. 'Why were you in that forest alone? What happened to your family? What happened to you?'
She shook her head, while a genius she was a person who acted on her emotions first of all. So she followed her gut and leaned forward, pulled him close and wrapped him in a gentle embrace, conscious of the fact that he may have unknown injuries.
It was quiet at first, nothing but quiet restrained sobs but the boy quickly cried loudly. If it was out of happiness, grief, or shock none of the women in the room knew for sure but they had a feeling it was all three.
Glynda smiled, curiosity fueled experiments aside, her friend is the kindest person she had ever met. Heck that was how they met, she had lost in a spar back when she was still very young and in training, so she had went to town to cheer herself up. She had met Yui while looking for a place to eat and she seemed to sense her own sour mood and had spent the whole day dragging the blond around to help fix her mood. They had been best friends since.
"Shhh, it's ok, it's ok. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. Let it all out," Yui softly said to the boy as he cried into her shirt, his small hands clinging onto her shirt tightly as she rubbed his back soothingly. To her joy it seemed to work as the crying started to subside, she didn't know how she knew what to do, she thought it was her maternal instincts kicking in but didn't really care.
As he finally stopped she pulled away and gave him a warm smile while he proceeded to wipe away the wetness on his face with the sleeves of his shirt while making a few soft sniffles, somewhat resembling a cat. It took a lot of her will power to not jump him while he was busy collecting himself, he was adorable.
Shinji smiled a little, he'd been comforted before by Misato when he lived with her at her apartment but his guardian was awkward at doing it. 'This…this felt so…natural? Real? Is this what having a mother is like?' As happy as he was though, now that he had collected himself he got his logical mind working. He may be four now but he had the intelligence of someone much older. 'Well…Shinji looks like you're not in Kansas anymore. Parallel universe? Has to be, she looks too much like mom does. If anyone looked that much like her then fa-no, then NERV's Commander would have found her and taken her. The delusional bastard. l also I saw a shattered moon out the window, I'm sure we didn't damage Earth's moon THAT badly.'
His mood brightened seeing the woman's smile though.
"Hello," she greeted him with a smile. "My name is Yui Ikari, a scientist and researcher extraordinaire!" she introduced herself with a flourish of her arms.
"Ahem," he heard the blond woman clear her throat and got his attention. "I am Glynda Goodwitch, huntress," she introduced herself in a business like matter.
'Ah,' Shinji realized in amusement, 'they kind of remind me of Misato-san. Mo-no, Yui-san…wait no they seem to be speaking English…wait when did I learn English? Oh…must have picked up the knowledge during Instrumentality. So Miss Yui seemed to be the energetic and somewhat childish 'Misato-san' and Miss Glynda seems to be 'Major Katsuragi' huh?'
After being stared at for ten seconds he realized he hadn't returned the favour.
"M-my name is," he stuttered a bit, even after rejecting instrumentality he was for the most part still the same shy Shinji. He thought quickly, he couldn't tell her his real last name, he was sure that this version of his mother had no child that looked like him. He didn't want to give her a fake name either. The thing is though if he was to be honest he didn't want to be separated from this dimension's version of his mother.
"My name is Shinji…that's uh, all that I remember."
Glynda and Yui shared a look that said 'uh-oh' as they feared he had amnesia, which was what Shinji was planning to make them think. He couldn't just tell them what he did, he would seem like some crazy kid at best. Or at worst he was afraid they would hate him or pity him, while he did the right thing in the end he had let a lot of people be hurt with either his actions or his inaction. Although he did hope that one day he would come to terms about what he did and one day be able to talk about it.
But now the wounds were too fresh.
Glynda kneeled in front of him, she wanted answers not a scared child. "What can you tell us?" she asked trying to sound as gentle as possible, she wasn't really used to acting like this to people outside of Yui and private moments with Ozpin.
"Uh…" Shinji muttered, being an amnesiac was easy, he didn't have to tell them much but he was never good at introductions.
Seeing his confusion Yui spoke up in a caring tone, "how old are you Shinji?"
"Um…four" he answered. 'I look four, so let's go with that.'
"Are you sure?" Glynda asked with a raised brow. Shinji just nodded.
"OH!" Yui exclaimed gaining a curious look from the child and her friend. "Shinji do you know how you ended up in the forest?"
"Um…no," he answered somewhat truthfully, he could explain that a pseudo-god that used to be his friend, half-sister and co-worker undid the apocalypse but he couldn't really explain past that. Not that he expected them to believe even that much.
"Well in truth when you woke up Glynda had just placed you on that bed so may I check you for wounds? I'm a doctor."
Shinji smiled at her, "of course." It seems like his mother really was a big nerd, not even the multiverse can keep her from being what she is.
Yui lifted her arms vertically and gestures for Shinji to do the same. Shinji enjoyed being treated like a child for some reason so he complied with a smile while Glynda stood ready to assist. Yui gave him another small smile and started to unbutton his shirt, slowly so as not to startle him. Shinji idly noted that she was a lot more gentle than Dr. Akagi, when the faux blonde gave the pilots exams she had been cold and distant.
And now he knew why, he had some of her memories now, so he knew she thought of the pilots as nothing but tools, as part of the Evas on a good day and as cannon fodder on a bad day.
Once Yui was done she lifted his shirt up, arms through his sleeves and put it down beside him.
*gasp*
Yui, hearing a soft gasp from her friend she turned around to give a curious glance to her best friend, she'd never heard or seen her friend be caught off guard before…well outside of her experiments and creations. Seeing Glynda staring at the boy she turned around to look at him and she gasped and almost fell out of her chair in shock.
Around his neck, hanging on a fine silver chain was a blood stained metal cross necklace.
What really got their attention though was his body. His body was covered in scars, horrible scars, and both women knew the wounds had been grievous and some looked like they should have killed him outright.
Looking over him both women could see a horrible large scar in the middle of his chest, it was roughly circular with jagged edges.
"A burn scar?" Yui said in quiet horror, she meant it more for herself but Glynda heard her friend anyway.
On his lower abdomen was another scar but this time it was a clean perfect circle and looking over his small body to look at his back she was shocked to see another identical scar on the other side and cringed. Whatever had hit him had made an oddly clean puncture wound.
'And had gone all the way through,' she grimly thought. Glynda saw the cringe and she didn't need her friend to tell her what she saw, she could infer that much.
Noticing no other scars on his back, much to her relief, she put her attention to his front. On his left bicep, at the half way mark, there was another nasty wound where it looked like the arm would have been blasted or burned off at that point. 'But that doesn't make sense, that much damage would make it impossible to reattach.'
Tracing down his arms she noticed another scar, a jagged line that rapped around the mid-point of the left forearm like it had been snapped by something. On both forearms there were numerous small scars that looked like cuts. And on his palms were circular scars with matching scars on the back of his hands…like they were pierced all the way through. She looked up to talk to him but she noticed that his right iris was slightly discolored, being a slightly lighter shade of red. She had a hunch and turned his head around and scowled when she saw another scar on the other side of his head, it was easily visible once she got some of his hair out of the way, luckily the scar tissue managed to still grow hair so he at least didn't have a bald spot. Still, if he had been pierced through the head like she thought then he shouldn't have survived that injury.
Shinji saw the scars too and while he was shocked to see them, it was mostly because he never had them before but seeing as his body had already taken a big change, being a kid now and all, he wasn't too surprised. Plus he knew the origin of his scars, they were the worst injuries he had taken fighting the angels…well the worst his Evangelion suffered but he felt them all the same.
The burn mark on his chest was from Ramiel's particle beam cannon. The scars on his abdomen were from Samshel's cutting tentacles. The scar on his left bicep was from Zeruel's particle beam canon. On his left forearm the scar was where Sachiel snapped Unit-01's arm, his first 'wound' from an angel. The small scars on both his forearms were from the damage Unit-01's arms received when they started to shatter from the force of stopping Sahaquiel's kamikaze drop from orbit, funny enough those were wounds that actually manifested on himself and he had to have bandages on his arms for weeks after. The scars on his hands were from where he was impaled with the Lance of Longinus replicas. And from the way Miss Yui had stared at his right eye he knew something was off about its appearance. That meant he had to have a scar on the back of his head, another gift from Sachiel, this time from when it lanced Unit-01 through the cranium.
After finishing her check-up Yui sat back down and slumped in shock.
The room was silent after that, no one knowing what to say. Shinji awkwardly picked up his shirt and threw it over himself before pulling it close like a blanket. The shuffling of small hands and soft fabric was the only thing that could be heard as the atmosphere in the room was tense.
Yui was numb with shock, she was starting to tear up. 'What in the world happened to you Shinji?'
Glynda walked over to her friend and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Yui had always been a softie in her opinion and knew her friend would need her help. She could see that Shinji wasn't telling them the exact truth but after seeing those scars she understood, those scars aren't something you get from playing with children. Small scars from falling down and roughhousing she would understand but this?
'Child abuse perhaps?' Hell, she hadn't seen veteran huntsmen and huntresses with scars that bad since they would usually be forced to retire from the damage.
She. Was. Furious. Whoever did that to a child, she would make them regret it if she ever found them.
Shinji on the other hand had already accepted the scars, they were proof of his previous life. He could never run away from it now and a part of himself , a very big part of himself, still blamed himself for...everything. Every. Single. Sin. If the scars were the price of those sins then that side of him would be happy to pay.
A constant reminder of his sins.
What he didn't like was the looks of pity he was getting from the two women in front of him, also the killing intent from the blond woman was frightening. He knew he wasn't the target but he'd never really felt it before, the angels didn't exude any intent, and if they did they were too alien for him to understand.
*Ahem* He cleared his throat to get their attention which worked and two heads snapped to him. "I'm ok, they don't hurt!" He reassured them and hoped off the bed and ran around for a bit before getting tired, 'damn the stamina of a four year old!'
Yui giggles while Glynda gave him an approving look, satisfied with the lightened mood he went to go to the bed but was picked up by Yui (although she struggled to do so) and plopped him on her lap.
"Do you remember anything about your parents? You mistook me for your mother…" Yui trailed off as she looked down on the smaller boy while Shinji just crooned his head back to look up at her.
"My m-mother…died. I don't know her name, I don't know why or where or even when but I know she looked like you."
"And your father?" Both women were surprised to see the boy's face darken instantly, it was a look of pure hate and disdain. He had seemed to be a nice if shy boy so seeing that look on his face spoke volumes.
"I have no father!," he snarled, venom dripping from his voice. "That…that man abandoned me after my mother died like some disposable tool. Like a thing. I can't remember their names but I had a mother and I have no father."
Both women were shocked at both the tone and what he said. Yui contemplated creating another Panzerhund and sicking the armored beast at the man if Shinji ever relearned his father's name. Glynda had similar thoughts but also made a note to get some people to watch her friend's home. If his father was such an abysmal individual and if he was the one who hurt the boy and left his own son in the forest to die then she would ensure he would not get close to her best friend and ensure him captured. She would deal with him herself afterwards.
Shinji though was oblivious to the violent thoughts as he remembered something the blond woman had said earlier while he mentally cursed the short attention span of his young body. While he still retained his previous memories it had become obvious to him that he'd have to learn to live with the limits of a four year old body. He turned to her with a curious look, head cutely tilted to the side, a gesture he absent mindedly noticed was something Rei did.
"Yes?" she asked when he noticed her look.
"What's a huntress?"
"WHAT?!" Both women shouted in surprise.
Huntsmen and Huntresses, were the greatest warriors in Remnant who fight against the creatures of Grimm, putting their lives on the line. Brave men and women who protect the peaceful lives of their fellow men and women, some were like celebrities and were often regarded as heroes.
Everyone knew who and what they were.
Shinji just clamped his hands over his ears in pain and gave the women an annoyed look once he removed them, a look he had shot at Asuka from time to time when she really got on his nerves. Didn't they know children are sensitive to loud noises?
"Sorry," the two friends replied in unison.
"Shinji," Glynda asked in a serious tone, "are you serious?"
Nod
"Do you know what the Grimm are?"
"No."
"Do you know where you are? What region? What kingdom?"
"No."
Glynda sighed, he was being completely honest, she could tell.
"Well he's not lying, Yui."
"Mhm, what are you going to do, Glynda?" Yui asked her friend.
"Hmmm, well I can take him back with me, drop him off at an orphanage, he'll be well taken care of."
Yui felt Shinji stiffen on her lap and when she looked down she saw the fear on his face, the fear of being alone in a world that was for all intents and purposes completely alien to him.
Again, acting on her instincts like always, she made her choice.
"You are my son now," she warmly told him and turned him around to face her and embraced the small boy as he stiffened in shock then cried into her shirt again although this time out of pure joy as what she said sank in.
Soon enough his four year old body couldn't take being awake anymore and eventually he fell asleep in his soon to be mother's arms.
"Yui," Glynda told her friend as she sat down on the bed, "what do you think you're doing?"
"Doing the right thing Glynda, something about him tells me he's…special. And this feels…right. He's alone Glynda and while I won't be around for long-"
"Yui-"
"No, let me finish. I won't be around long, you know that but if I can be there for him during that time then…then I think I can live and die without regret," Yui said with conviction. "So when this body fails me, please look after him."
Glynda looked at her friend and saw the conviction of a huntress in her frail friend. In truth she knew, while she didn't like to admit it, that her friend was on borrowed time. Medical research was making no progress on her particular condition and Yui herself, while possessing a medical degree she was no medical researcher, she specialized in engineering and dust research. In truth Yui only got her medical degree on a whim and had not done anything with it after receiving it.
And she had to admit, Yui is perfect mother material, just seeing her with the sleeping boy on her lap and in her arms seemed…right. And if she wants her to look after her son when she no longer could, then so be it. It was the least she could do.
"I promise."
"Glynda wake up," she heard a voice whisper to her.
"Mmm…Yui?" Glynda asked as she opened her eyes, "what time is it? Something happen to Shinji?"
"It's four in the morning and he's right here," she replied and Glynda propped herself up onto her elbows and she could see a very sleepy looking child dressed in a purple shirt and green pajamas.
Shinji himself was still half asleep, suffering the effects of the increased sleep demands of his young body.
Glynda thought for a second and remembered the events of the night before when she and Yui found a boy in the woods, a boy who seemed to have been abused, and Yui had decided to adopt him.
'Ah yes, after he fell asleep I went back to town to pick up some clothes for him,' she remembered. "So Yui, why are you two in here? I thought he was sleeping with you?" she asked her friend. Yui's home had another spare guest room so she insisted that her sickly friend needed good sleep, not the possible interruptions of a small child so suggested he sleep there. Yui though, already in mama bear mode, refused to let her new son sleep alone when he seemed so confused and lost.
Needless to say Glynda could never say no to her best friend, and it was a good point she had to admit.
"I just got a call from work, something's come up and I have to go to the lab. Can Shinji sleep with you?"
Glynda let out a sigh, she really wished Yui would tell her employers not to call her late at night for the smallest things. "Fine."
"Thank you!" Yui thanked her friend. Glynda scooted over and lifted the blankets, thankful that all the beds in her friend's home were large. Yui helped her son up onto the bed, and he quickly fell asleep as soon as Glynda put down the blankets, covering them both.
Yui smiled, kissed her son lightly on the forehead and whispered him goodnight before telling Glynda she expected to be back in the afternoon and then leaving.
Shinji rolled over in his sleep, facing Glynda and she smiled when she saw the peaceful look on his face. This was one of the reasons she became a huntress, fighting to keep innocent children like the boy she was sleeping with safe.
Waking up, Glynda opened her eyes and when she turned to her side she expected to see a tuff of white hair and to her surprise….there was no one there.
'What?' she put on her glasses before she looked around and she could feel her heart beat a bit faster. She knew he was in the house somewhere, she could hear something coming from the lower floor so she wasn't afraid he had gone and disappeared. But she was afraid what her friend would do if her new son, so new that she hasn't had time to do the adoption paperwork yet, would get hurt. Her friend's pet projects could be terrifying enough when she was happy, she did not want to imagine what unspeakable horrors her friend would put her through when she was angry. 'As the saying goes, do not get in between a mother and her child.'
Walking downstairs she could hear…'cooking? Oh no, burns, knife cuts…'
Running into the kitchen she saw Shinji holding a knife and her eyes widened, not wanting to waste time she moved to grab the knife but was stunned when she saw Shinji twirl the knife in his hand and proceed to chop whatever he was chopping with the speed and efficiency of a well-oiled machine. Still a bit confused, and somewhat thinking she was dreaming, she took a good look around the kitchen.
Yui's kitchen was actually large and modern. It had a large gas stove, a large oven, a stainless steel hood, an island in the middle for prep work, granite counter tops, and the best and newest appliances. She never understood why her friend owneed a home with such a large and well equipped modern kitchen. While Glynda herself could cook well enough, Yui's cooking skill was non-existent. The first experiment Yui had convinced her to take part in was sampling Yui's cooking…it was and still is the single most frightening thing she had ever experienced. Creatures of Grimm be damned the monstrosity that Yui had dubbed 'Bad Juju' was the toughest opponent she had ever seen.
Shinji was currently chopping some vegetables on the island; he had a smile on his face and was clearly enjoying himself. Glynda assumed he was standing on a step ladder to reach high enough, behind him on the stove was a pot of hot liquid, some kind of soup she guessed.
"Good morning, Goodwitch-san," Shinji greated her with a smile. Personally Shinji was having the time of his life, the kitchen at the Katsuragi household was only a small apartment's kitchen. His new mother's kitchen though was like a playground, all kinds of dishes swam through his head. Oh he knew there would be ingredients he wouldn't be able to find, he'd have to compromise on some but that mattered little to the former Third Child.
"San?" She questioned.
"Oh," he muttered to himself, "maybe I was a foreigner? A part of my old tongue perhaps?"
"Possibly. So you can cook?" she asked him as she walked over to the stove.
"Oh yes, it seems it was a hobby of mine and," he had to pause for a second. Mother was such a foreign word to him. He'd never really said it in his old life much and he still associated that word with his mother, the Yui that was trapped in Unit-01. So he decided to use a title for his new mother that more matched his age. "Mama left a note, said you could use anything you want to make breakfast. I didn't want to wake you so…"
"It's fine," she said with a smile, "you seem to be doing a better job than I would." Which was true she believed, after lifting the cover of the pot she could smell the heavenly aroma and she admitted to be looking forward to trying what her friend's son had made for breakfast. All in all she was impressed with him this morning, from the way he spoke to his body language and cooking skills he seemed to be mature for his age, whether that was just his natural personality or an effect of having to grow up faster to withstand the abuse she did not know but she was impressed all the same. "So what's for breakfast Shinji? And you can call me Glynda or something similar, you're my best friend's son, no need to be formal."
"Ah ok. Well um…Miss Glynda," he told her shyly, his traditional Japanese sensibilities making him uncomfortable with referring to someone he had just met with their first name. "We're having vegetable omelette, along with some light soup called miso soup," he explained. In truth he had to improvise with the miso soup, no tofu in the house for one, that wasn't a problem though because he managed to receive some memories from a few of the NERV cafeteria's chefs during Instrumentality. If anything they were masters at improvising since Tokyo-3's intake of supplies could sometimes be unreliable due to Angel attacks.
Glynda decided to help him out, mostly just lifting pots and pans for him and moving the step ladder around the kitchen. It was obvious to her that the boy really enjoyed cooking, which was good news for her, she was always worried over Yui's diet when she wasn't around. From the healthy breakfast the boy was preparing she knew that diet was one thing she would never have to worry about from now on.
After setting the table the two sat across from each other, with Shinji propped up on top of a few books to reach the table.
"Itadakimasu," Shinji said before he started eating. Glynda raised a brow in curiosity and Shinji saw this so decided to explain, "ah-um it means 'I humbly receive' or 'let's eat' um…sorry I don't know the name of the language."
"It's fine," Glynda waved it off and took a sip of the soup. Her eyes widened and she could have sworn she saw golden light shine on to the table as she stared at the seemingly simple broth in awe. Shinji saw this and smiled; he always enjoyed cooking and enjoyed seeing people enjoy his food, it was the one thing he managed to never mess up.
The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, Glynda too busy taking her time savouring every bite and sip while Shinji was mulling over what he wanted to do with the new chance at life.
While he was happy to have a new chance at childhood, he knew he would still grow up again. What did he want to do with this new life? If he was sent to a world where he needed to pilot Eva again he wouldn't hesitate anymore, he was willing to fight to protect people now. But angels didn't seem to exist in this world, no mention of Impact when they were questioning him on important known facts last night either.
He knew how important a peaceful life is, peaceful everyday events were the best parts of his life in Tokyo-3, if he could fight to protect the everyday of others he wouldn't hesitate to fight.
He would fight and fight and fight and die if he had to.
To make up for his sins he had to stop running away.
'Wait…' he thought to himself, 'Miss Glynda said she was a huntress, are there huntsmen? What do they do?'
Shinji finished first, his smaller body needing less food, and so he decided to put away his dishes and get a cup of coffee for his mama's friend and a glass of milk for himself.
Hearing a cup being placed in front of her Glynda looked up, meal finished and satisfied. Seeing a cup of coffee she smiled at Shinji in thanks and took a sip.
*gasp*
"Sweet nectar of the gods, where have you been all my life?" she muttered. 'Oh, Ozpin you need to meet this boy, you need to try…THIS.'
Shinji couldn't help but chuckle from her reaction. He knew his coffee was good, it had to be, if not Misato would have drank nothing but beer every morning back in his old life. Also Asuka would never let him live if he ruined a cup of the expensive coffee beans she always bought. If anything he had plenty of practice, he didn't even know how many cups he averaged whenever it was his turn to be the on call pilot.
Needless to say the coffee maker at NERV HQ's command bridge was used often, almost as much by Asuka and himself as the bridge crew.
"Um Miss Glynda, what is a huntress?" he asked.
Glynda smiled and answered with pride. She explained that huntresses and huntsmen were skilled warriors who defended humans and faunus from the Grimm, which also resulted in her explaining what the faunus are.
Shinji mulled over what he had heard from the huntress. They were elite highly trained warrior, men and women, humans and faunus who faught against monsters called the Grimm, soulless monsters that roam outside the borders of the four kingdoms and posing a constant threat.
While he still had a lot of questions, about what exactly are the Grimm, what dust is, what aura is, what semblance is and all kinds of questions about his new world...
He did know one thing.
He knew what he wanted to do now, no running away from danger anymore. Now, unlike before, he will CHOOSE to fight.
"Miss Glynda?"
"Yes?"
"I want to become a huntsman."
NEXT ON SNPR - PROLOGUE PART 2: Swords, Grimm & Faunus
AN:
Updated with corrected spelling and grammar.