1 Humble Beginnings

Shi Saisei had an extremely average childhood, his parents divorced early on in his childhood and his father won the custody battle. His mother got to see him at least one weekend a month and he enjoyed his visits to her. He went through school with slightly above average grades, but he had no passion for anything.

That was until he started his first world history class. He wasn't drawn in by the formation of human civilization, or politics. He was fascinated by war. The tactics used, how people would give their lives for seemingly nothing, it was all strangely intriguing to Shi.

Shi wanted to become a great general. Once he finished school he immediately joined the military hoping to work his way up. Shi worked hard for 18 years, bleeding on the battlefield for his comrades and his country.

But before he could get any kind of leadership position, he was shot in the leg. He was bleeding out on the field and was only barely able to get to a medic."My apologies for being late." said a medic "We couldn't get to you." "God d*mn evac, you couldn't f*cking get to us, there was an open area a few hundred feet away from us!" yelled one of Shi's fellow soldiers "Shi might die from your f*cking cowardice!".

The evac team and the medics looked at their feet in embarrassment. They were too cowardly to try and get into a war zone so they had just sat back until the fighting was over.

Shi's life was saved, but he was unable to continue his military career afterwards because they had to cut off the blood flow to his leg while waiting for the medics so it needed to be amputated. Shi was given a few medals for his bravery but they seemed like empty gifts, for what good is a hunk of metal when you can't fight.

Shi decided to spend the rest of his life learning all he could about war and weapons, the things that had fascinated him since childhood. He first learned how to use a bow, using a gun only brought back memories best forgotten so he decided to go with an older generation of weapons.

He spent years mastering the bow, getting to the point where he could shoot 3 arrows at three different targets dead-on in the time it took to exhale. After he was satisfied with his mastery of the bow, he started to learn the karambit.

A knife made to look like a tiger's claw, being double edged and having a terrifying point. He trained to the point where if someone threw an attack at him, when they withdrew their arm, their tendons controlling their hands would be cut and their wrists would be slit.

After Shi mastered both the karambit and the bow, he studied war strategy, mainly The Art Of War by Sun Tzu learning all he could about battle strategy and tactics. He then spent the rest of his years in peace as a blacksmith, smithing blades that made even master smiths weapons look like dull pieces of wood. As he lay dying on his bed, he was saddened that he never got to fulfill his dreams of being a great general, but he was joyful at the peaceful life he had led near the end.

"It's a boy!" exclaimed a blond nurse dressed in a ridiculous medieval outfit. Shi wanted to laugh at her but he felt like his whole body was on fire so his laugh was forcefully choked down.

As he looked around he realized that not only was his vision exceptionally blurry, but everyone around him was giant. He then realized that his body wasn't very responsive and it was slimy, Holy sh*t I'm a baby Shi thought.

"Congratulations Kea!" exclaimed the nurse, handing Shi over to a beautiful woman with long brown hair and an ample bosom, "He's as healthy as a bear!". The woman named Kea, or Shi guessed his mother picked him up gently and gestured to a burly man behind her with thick eyebrows and a barely tamed beard, "do you want to hold him Toishi?" asked Shi's new mother.

Shi's new father picked Shi up in a surprisingly gentle but still firm way a great smile forming across his face. Holding their son Kea and Toishi returned to their home. As they passed the people and houses throughout the village, Shi started to realize that these people weren't just dressing up for a medieval fair or something, it seemed that Shi had somehow been reborn in a pre-industrial world.

He even noticed wisps of wind and water moving in ways that seemed to defy the laws of physics. As he watched further he realized that people were controlling the elements. This world had magic!