Page 1 of Shinji Takahashi: Into the Heart of the Storm

TO NICK

The thugs were closing in.

Panting, Shinji gazed around the crowded marketplace. It was hard to see through the press of bodies meandering aimlessly among the dozens of stalls and booths, but he caught glimpses of the pursuers through the crowd. And they were coming right for him.

“This way!” he hissed at Lucy, and darted between a goat and a stall selling chickens. Lucy followed as Shinji pushed deeper into the square. The throngs of the marketplace surrounded them, getting in his way and blocking their path. Shinji ducked and wove between bodies, darting under

limbs and slipping through tight spaces, but he could still see the dark sunglasses of their pursuers bobbing through the crowds, getting ever closer.

Heart pounding, Shinji ducked behind a fish vendor’s booth, pulling Lucy with him, watching the group of men comb the marketplace. Lucy was breathing hard. Her blond hair had come free of its ponytail and was sticking out around her face. Her cheeks were red, her blue eyes wide as one of the large men stalked past their hiding spot. Shinji and Lucy hunkered down and held their breath until he had passed.

“I think the exit is that way,” Lucy whispered, pointing across the marketplace square. “If we can just get past those booths, we can hide in the city and escape.”

Shinji peered in the direction she was pointing. He saw the opening, but he also saw a pair of large men standing menacingly under an overhang nearby. “There are two agents blocking the exit,” he said, ducking back. “If we run that way, they’ll catch us for sure.”

“Well, we can’t stay here,” Lucy whispered back. “We have to do something. Come on, Shinji.” She gave him an encouraging look. “You have guardian powers now. You should be able to pull something off.”

“Yeah.” Shinji took a deep breath. She was right. He did have guardian powers. Or he wassupposedto, anyway. It had been a few months since a legendary winged serpent that guarded a mystical font had gifted him with magical powers.

The tattoo of a serpent with huge golden wings still graced his forearm, marking him as special.

There was just one slight problem.

Ever since they left the jungle, Shinji had been having a really hard time accessing any type of magic at all. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t tried. Back at SEA headquarters, he would routinely try to call on the wind, or to communicate with different animals, or to summon a giant snake with magnificent gilded wings. All things that he had done in the Mexican jungle, when the Coatl had first granted him its power. Back then, when he and his friends had been in danger, he had been able to use the magic without thinking about it. Now he couldn’t even summon up a slight breeze.

“Shinji!” Lucy’s voice pulled him out of his memories. One of the agents had noticed their hiding place and was stalking toward them with a murderous gleam in his sunglasses.

“Run,” Shinji said, and they bolted from behind the stall, trying to lose their attackers in the crowded marketplace once more. But this time the agents seemed to converge around them. Everywhere Shinji looked, there was an enemy closing in on them.

Desperate, he darted around a booth and plunged down an alley with Lucy behind him, only to be met with a high brick wall.

“There’s no way out,” he panted. “Turn around. Go back.”

They spun, only to find two of the men standing at the mouth of the alley. Another pair joined them, guarding the exit while the first two began stalking into the alley. Shinji’s gaze darted from side to side, as he searched for a way out, but there was nothing. They were trapped.

“Up there!” Lucy grabbed his sleeve as the men came forward, pointing to something above them on the roof. Shinji looked up and saw several potted plants sitting precariously on the corner of a balcony railing. If he could make them fall somehow, the heavy pots might hit the men and give him and Lucy a chance to escape.

Taking a deep breath, Shinji searched for the magic inside him.I’ll only get one shot at this.As the men stepped forward, closing the distance, he exhaled and flung out a hand toward the plants overhead.

There was a pathetic puff of wind, barely more than a fart, from his open palm. That was it.

The two men closed in, trapping Shinji and Lucy against the wall. One of the men raised an iron club overhead, sneering with contempt. Shinji felt Lucy tense beside him and braced himself for the club to come smashing down.

The lights suddenly flickered, and the two men froze, as did the world around them. A voice, flat and robotic, echoed in Shinji’s ears.

Pause. Simulation ended. Please remove your headsets and wait for further instruction.

Beside him, Lucy slumped in relief. Bowing her head,

she pulled off the thick VR goggles she had been wearing, shaking out her hair as the headset came free. Shinji reached back and did the same, stripping off the goggles and the headset attached to it.

Reality came into focus as the goggles were removed. They were no longer in a crowded market square in some far-off, exotic country. They were in a very large room with no windows and smooth walls that stretched up more than twenty feet. Stalls and booths were scattered about to resemble a marketplace labyrinth even though they were indoors. The “agent” in front of Shinji was now a highly mobile robot holding a plastic stick in one metal clamp. But if Shinji peered at everything through the goggles, the men, the crowds, and the sunny marketplace overlaid reality, making him really feel like he was somewhere else. It was just a skin, though. An augmented reality designed to make everything feel real. And it had felt real, up to the point where Shinji had failed to call on his powers. If this had been the real world, he and Lucy would have been captured. Or dead.

A familiar voice echoed over the speakers, the same speakers that had been playing marketplace and crowd noises in the background. “All right, kids,” said Oliver Ocean. “You’re done. Come on back.”

Oliver didn’t sound angry or disappointed, but Shinji clenched his fists. Lucy gave him a look that was both worried and sympathetic, which only made him angrier. Glancing at the now-immobile robot, he resisted the urge to

kick it in its tanklike treads. A sudden breeze rattled a vase sitting on a nearby stall, which made him grit his teeth. He hoped Lucy didn’t notice.

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