Author's notes. Chapter 1.

*This will mark the very beginning of my second story for ; if you compare this one to my only previous work on the site I'm sure you will notice a drastic improvement in quality upon multiple levels of readability. Aside from that, you can expect the same level and feeling of nihilism as well as vulgarity especially considering the universe that of which this story takes place in. I hope you enjoy the read.*

Superduper awesome sauce incredibly distracting line break version 2.

Shinji Ikari was a young man not typically known for being merciful, in fact quite the opposite, this claim was especially being proven true as the young man held up to full grown men from one of the local gangs by their necks, pressing them against the wall as a small crowd watched. The two brown haired men struggled intensely only to provide no relief to themselves.

Ordinarily, Shinji Ikari would've ignored them no matter what they would've done… However they had made a serious and quite possibly fatal mistake. They had involved him. More specifically they had involved him in an argument turned violent inside of a small restaurant within the dirty city he lived in.

At first Shinji had been minding his own business, ignoring the two men as they attempted to hustle their way out of their bill. However once one of the grubby scoundrels pushed the waitress backwards in an act of defiance and inadvertently caused her to spill several drinks on him they had sealed the deal.

For all intents and purposes they were screwed.

Although Mr. Ikari was only 15 years old that by no means diminished his physical strength. Most of it was unnatural of course, but that didn't stop him from exploiting it.

"All right Fuckers! I expect an apology from each of you!" Shinji yield angrily as he tightened his grip on both of the men causing the color on their faces to turn a unique shade of blue.

All he received in return was two week gargling sounds as they desperately struggled to breathe.

"I can't fucking hear you! What's a' matter! You were more than happy to scream and yell when you were trying to get a free meal from this dump!"

One of the men went limp in Shinji's grip causing him to raise an eyebrow disinterestedly, the other man followed suit shortly afterwards displaying a similar state of forced unconsciousness.

Upon losing his avenue to vent the misplaced anger he held inside he dropped both of the men roughly onto the poorly kept floor of the dingy establishment eliciting a soft THUD as both of them displayed a ragdoll effect.

Looking over at his half eaten meal and then to the frightened customers he decided it would be best for him to leave before someone called the police. Primarily because he really didn't want to have to kill another police officer today.

Placing the money on the table along with a slightly generous tip he angled himself towards the door while saying stoically.

"Sorry about the ruckus, but there shouldn't be a next time with those two." He said as he gestured towards the two men with crushed windpipes lying on the floor indignantly.

Pushing open the grimy reinforced door he made sure to leave behind no fingerprints as such had become a habit for him.

Shinji was in a good mood surprisingly, despite smelling of watered-down soda due to his most recent escapade. The money he had managed to acquire from his most recent slave trade had been far more than he had previously received. Not to mention he had more men working the streets than any other gang in the entire city.

If a seller that wasn't one of his own saw him on the street, they did one of two things; they ran very, very far away, or hid somewhere and hoped for the best.

One might ask the question, why be so afraid of an individual man when all you would need is a gun? This question had been answered wordlessly time and time again by Shinji's seemingly miraculous ability to sustain all but the most horrific of injuries and still manage to walk away. Although there had been several if not dozens of close calls, he had lived this long. An additional side effect of his unnatural strength and size was a nigh upon unholy ability to heal in an incredibly short amount of time.

Given these physical abilities one might speculate that the young man who is Shinji Ikari could be called a God among men… This was not something he himself could in all honesty claim. For despite his physical prowess, regardless of his unnatural abilities, no point be given to a third and unmentioned power.

Shinji was still alone, mentally at the very least.

If one asked he could reluctantly claim that he had no real family, no real friends, not a single person to rely on other than frightened allies who upon pain of death or even worse worked for him in order to keep his wallet stated.

The boy seemingly at peace walking down the disheveled streets of the city known as Filth could still, if he so chose, remember his horrific entrance to the beaten-down wasteland that he had begrudgingly begun to call his home.

Back before he had known a place as dirty as his city he was but a young boy no older than five years old. Abandoned by his father to live with his reluctant aunt and uncle; the very same aunt and uncle who treated him unkindly, as if a boy with no control over his situation had forced himself upon them and deliberately become a burden.

There were times when his mistreatment would go beyond harsh words and neglect, namely when his uncle became drunk and began lashing out at anything around him. Over the few months he had lived with them Shinji had learned to make himself scarce when his uncle pulled out a bottle of liquor.

However despite the abuse and the pain he went through with his aunt and uncle, just six short months after he had been living with them he learned of an even worse agony… The agony known as money. Being as young as he had been he knew not the value of the often times paper substance. However within his dysfunctional home it had been a serious problem.

Aside from his drinking habit his uncle had acquired several debts both throughout his life and through his failed business ventures. Because of this, many collectors, both by calm phone call and by violent home invasions had attempted to recuperate their own losses by taking anything of value from his aunt and uncle…

Unfortunately, in the city of Filth he was considered an object of value, especially at such a young age.

Impressionable, vulnerable, a clean slate... All of these were qualities both drug runners and slave traders kept on the lookout for when dealing with human merchandise.

He had been a victim of one such collection as a result of a particularly aggressive collector who had broken into his home one day and demanded that his uncle pay up or suffer consequences unmentionable. And in an extreme act of inhumane cruelty, his uncle had offered up the boy, the boy we know to be Shinji Ikari.

It wasn't nearly as traumatizing as when his father had abandoned him; he hadn't liked his aunt or uncle very much, so at the time he believed he was getting the better end of the deal.

Both his hopes and beliefs were viciously shattered once he had been cuffed to the inside of a beaten down van and had a burlap sack tied around his head.

He had asked who the men were and where they were taking him, pleaded even, pleaded for some type of explanation, some type of care or comfort.

All he received in return where bouts of mocking laughter and vicious sneers.

Once he had wrapped his young mind around the fact that he had been sold as a slave he immediately attempted any and all forms of rebellion. All of which were succinctly followed with a harsh beating coupled with near starvation.

After he had submitted to his circumstances the men who he had been purchased by explained to him that he would be running drugs and other such questionable materials throughout the entire city.

The man who taught him everything he needed to know, and quite easily the only man who Shinji had come to love and knowledge as a friend was a thin, red haired man named Draco. He had never given his last name; in fact, it was quite possible Draco wasn't his real name at all considering the strangeness of the title. But regardless Shinji had come to feel him as an older brother.

Draco had taught him how to steal, how to lie, how to fight, how to take a punch, how to avoid the police, which gangs territories he was allowed in, and most importantly, how to make a drop without getting shot.

Unfortunately, within the gang that had purchased Shinji , Draco was not a member with significant influence and often times Shinji was forced to deal with men who best be labeled as 'The scum of the earth.'

They would send him on runs into other gang's territories, where if he didn't successfully make the drop undetected, he would be killed without a second thought.

After he'd gone through his brutal initiation and learned all he needed to learn in order to survive in Filth Shinji had begun noticing things, things that a six-year-old boy should never see.

Women being forced to work in a brothel, regardless of age, men being silenced in the most unwholesome of manners, the effects that the drugs he ran had on their users. And worst of all, the overall and irreversibly deep-seated corruption throughout the entire system running the city known as Filth.

After a few years of hardening himself to these gruesome elements Shinji found himself simply not caring anymore, whether it be a man shot right in front of him, or a woman raped and ravaged directly before him.

It all stopped affecting him.

Although Draco had expressed his concern for Shinji's lack of expression the other gang members took advantage of it. Forcing him to perform hits on rival gangs, most of which involved poisoning someone or waiting in a dark corner in the middle of nowhere and shooting them in the back. After a while he had gained a bit of respect due to his cutthroat attitude and actions.

If one would've paid attention to the young boy during this stage in his life, they would notice that the only time even a ghost of a smile would appear on him would be when he was spending time with Draco. Regardless of the situation, be it recreational or 'business' Shinji found a connection with the 23-year-old man whom he viewed as his brother.

But unfortunately the city soon preformed one of its most common debacles.

It took the life of a human being.

More specifically Shinji's best friend and brother Draco.

All it took was a rivaling gang to simply see him on the street in their territory for them to start a fight, Shinji had been there, he had watched. He watched as the fight escalated into a horrific beating. And despite Draco's pleas for him to run he stayed and watched while being held by a man twice his size as the other men slit Draco's throat in a nasty display of brutality.

That had been the borderline for Shinji's sanity; his mind simply didn't register any fear, any restraint, and any sense of self-preservation… Not at the time.

In a tattered state of mind Shinji squirmed about and turned his head to bite down fiercely onto his captors forearm causing a massive chunk of flesh to be pulled and torn from the man's arm. Turning and tackling the bleeding man to the ground Shinji flailed his arms about in search of a weapon amongst the man's clothing, completely ignoring the Swift blows to his head and face he was receiving from his injured captor.

After reaching around the small of the man's back, he struck gold, literally. For the object he had grasped turned out to be a 357. caliber gold plated Desert Eagle. Screaming in the most bloodthirsty of animalistic rages Shinji tore the weapon from the man's possession and smashed the barrel into his chest pulling the trigger several times. The resounding GUSH! GUSH! GUSH! From the high-caliber pistol deafened him as the rounds bore their way through his previous captor's sternum and out of his spinal column effectively rendering him instantly dead.

Shinji turned around like an animal cornered and aimed the weapon at the four remaining men who had yet to draw any firearms of their own. All of them turned tail and ran. Releasing another bloodcurdling screech Shinji pulled the trigger another six times securing him only one kill from his mindless spamming of ordnance.

Still holding the weapon the young boy dropped to his knees and crawled over to the body of his fallen brother and screamed into the polluted sky. Tears falling as he picked up the body shakily and returned him to 'his' gang's hideout as fast as his young feet could muster.

After arriving at the supposed abandoned building where the leader of his gang dwelled he numbly presented the body of Draco to his leader along with the story of what had happened.

After demanding retribution on a scale of borderline genocide he was answered with a simple.

"No."

As a result the boy finally lost all form of sanity and violently lunged at the bald tattooed man before him.

The following beating had been the worst of his young life.

The next three years of his life consisted of him doing what he had been taught to do.

To steal.

To lie.

To kill.

And most importantly for the gang itself, to run drugs.

During those three years of Shinji's life he found himself simply dead on the inside, and so he contemplated killing himself on multiple occasions. He even attempted to do so several times only to back down at the last moment.

He found himself transporting more questionable items, particularly to a man who claimed to be a scientist named . Although he never questioned it due to his newfound lack of emotions, many of the other gang members found it particularly odd some of the things requested.

Most of the things he requested were nearly unheard of substances primarily consisting of a powder or liquid substance.

Never any drugs, simply a vast amount of unknown chemicals and the occasional piece of equipment.

Of course nobody in the gang complained considering the incredibly high payout. But as Shinji would find out, some of the things Dr. Melford was requesting should've been kept under wraps.

It was just another ordinary run for Dr. Melford that day; Shinji was 14 years old at the time. Wearing a blue backpack containing a cylindrical canister wrapped in brown paper. He was taking the least traveled roads and alleyways to Dr. Melford's so-called 'lab' in order to maintain the utmost of secrecy.

As Shinji was rounding a corner into an alleyway when he noticed three men in baggy clothes standing before him. Out of instinct Shinji turned around abruptly and attempted to walk away but found himself face-to-face with two more men wearing similar attire.

He was trapped.

He reached for the Desert Eagle that he had kept from Draco's killing and attempted to unholster it. But before he could so much as grasp the weapons grip he was seized by the collar of his shirt and slammed roughly into the wall.

"This is our part of town you little shit stain, wacha' think you doing around here?" Shinji provided no answer for several seconds causing the muscular dirty blonde holding him to slam him against the wall once more eliciting a cracking sound from within his backpack that only he Shinji had heard.

"Huh! Answer me fuck face! Or maybe you don't like having fingers!" the man asked as he removed one of his hands from Shinji's shirt and moved it over to his left arm where he then proceeded to bend back one of the fingers on Shinji's hand until it would go no further and even still applying more pressure.

Even after a loud SNAP! Was heard from his smallest digit Shinji made not even the slightest sound or movement, not even a wince.

None of it mattered to him anyway.

Seeing his lack of reaction the dirty blonde picked him up once more and slammed him onto the ground eliciting a full blown shattering sound from the inside of Shinji's backpack.

Suddenly Shinji felt dozens upon dozens of pinpricks into his upper back; at first he ignored it just as he had ignored all other forms of pain up until now. However this pain was different. He soon felt as if something was forcing its way inside of him through the multitude of holes in his back. He tried to fight it off until it began to burn immensely as his bloodstream circulated the fire through his system.

For the first time in three years he began to scream. Ignoring his assailants he began to wiggle and writhe on the ground until he flipped over only to find that once he did, more of the burning sensation splashed onto his back due to gravity.

Shinji began to convulse violently as his world began flashing colors and inverting rapidly.

Then he passed out. Unfortunately that was not the end the pain for Shinji, far from it. As he was unconscious the burning sensation became white-hot and coursed through his veins even faster as his heart rate spiked rapidly to levels most humans would consider incredibly unsafe.

Throughout the agony he felt a particularly distinguished bout of pain that coursed through his neck area. But it quickly subsided as is the entire world became even darker.

Shinji had awoke in the same alleyway he had fallen unconscious in, he found that his backpack had been thrown to the side of the alley; all of its pockets were wide open revealing a broken glass canister along with an orange liquid residue. He tried to stand but couldn't due to a massive careening headache.

Looking down he found that the front of his shirt and pants were covered in a massive amount of blood, he checked himself over briefly and found not a single visible injury. Dumbfounded, he tried to stand once more.

Once he had managed to finally gain his bearings he scuttled upwards and out of the alleyway only to go back to his gang leader in order to tell them what had happened.

After his headache had subsided halfway through his walk he found he was feeling significantly better than he had ever felt before. Alive, energetic, happy almost, however his feelings were short-lived once he explained the situation to Ron, the gang leader.

He had not been punished for what happened, no… Instead Ron gathered up his men and prepared for retribution. The very fact that he would expend resources on finding the culprits because of drug money and not the loss of a good man reawakened something within Shinji.

Anger…

A wave of painful memories washed over Shinji, being abandoned as a young child, being abused and resented by his aunt and uncle, being sold as a slave and shipped off to Filth, Draco being murdered right before his eyes, and finally… The same man who would refuse justice for Draco but would enact it for the simple matter of losing money.

The same man who had denied him justice for the only person he held dear.

And then his rage… Broke.

Using an ungodly strength he knew not he had he murdered both Ron and all of his men using either his hands or the gun he had kept with him. Shinji still to this day recalls to the utmost of satisfaction all of the tiniest details of their bloodthirsty and gruesome murders… All of them by his hands, the hands that had found a new strength, a strength that he would put to good use in the future.

Another year crept by and Shinji's physical growth exploded along with his extra abilities, by sheer accident one day he had grown angry and somehow caused a spastic burst at electricity to come from his body. Utterly shocked at what had just happened he tried again and again, repeating the results with similar success and found that this ability would stay with him for as long as his body could handle the strain. Upon later experimentation he found that the electricity he could generate was far more than necessary in order to kill an ordinary man in less than a few seconds.

Needless to say he was delighted to find such an unwholesome power in his arsenal, although it required physical contact or some sort of conductive material to successfully electrocute another object or person, it was an ability he flaunted regularly.

Using his power, his physical strength, and regenerative properties the 6 foot tall brown haired 15-year-old young man found himself rebuilding what Ron had created. And for all intents and purposes it could be called a business of sorts. The amount of effort it took to get the materials and keep them safe all the while finding area to sell them in safely was surprisingly exhausting, both physically and mentally.

However with his ability to intimidate and kill so readily available, he found that people would simply fall in line behind him as he gave the order.

And so we find him now, walking across the street with his hands in his pockets, deliberately neglecting to look both ways as he calmly and purposefully strode to his moderately sized apartment in the city of Filth.

He observed his patrons and sellers idly as he passed them by, giving them slight nods of approval as he passed them by along his walk. It'd been a long day; he had been forced to kill a police officer in an attempt to cover up a particularly large deal he had made between his gang and a large number of independent buyers who had decided to bunch up in order to maintain safety.

He was just across the street from the building his apartment was in when a man in a black suit and sunglasses walked over to him and asked a simple question.

"Shinji Ikari I presume?" The Brown headed glasses wearing man questiond formally.

"If you're asking you probably already know… So what do ya' want?" Shinji replied with, trying to keep a threatening tone out of his voice for now.

"This is for you." The man said calmly as he reached into his jacket causing Shinji to step back and reach for his firearm.

Only when the man produced a simple envelope with a red maple leaf adorning it did Shinji relax and snatch the letter out of his hand.

"You need anything else?" Shinji practically spat at the man.

"No Sir, I just came to deliver the message. I'll be on my way now, good day to you Mr. Ikari."

Shinji eyed the man warily as he walked away and rounded a corner. Once the odd suited man was out of eyesight Shinji tore open the envelope and then unfolded the piece of paper inside.

The letter read as such.

FROM: Cmdr. Ikari of Nerve, Tokyo 3.

COME.

Shinji read in disbelief the same two lines of text over and over again.

My father… Shinji thought to himself, completely flabbergasted.

However the feeling did not last long, for after all the time he had been left on his own, for Gendo to request his presence now…

He felt…

Numb…

To be continued…