Slade nodded along with Jin’s summary of how school had been for her so far. It wasn’t hard to see why she would assume everything would be the same at the new school, even if she had yet to hear anything about what school it was that he had in mind. “Perhaps” He would allow, it was after all, possible that H.A.E.Y.P. would prove to be no different then any other school in some regards, but he doubted it. “and fair enough we can talk about the school I have in mind later.” 

He took a moment to gather his thoughts as he met the determined look on his niece’s face. This conversation had a lot of potential to hurt after all. “I never officially met your father actually” He would answer after a short moment. “We saw each other a handful of times, but never spoke and had never been formally introduced.” He would shrug at that admission. It wasn’t a personal thing, more of a safety thing. That and the fact that Slade was still a hired killer and Edgar was a police detective. Granted he did marry Yumiko, so perhaps they could have gotten along, they would never know now.

“But I did meet your mother on a business trip.” He would go on, a wry smile tugging at his lips. “It was in Russia, years ago. I was after a target for the KGB, a matter of state secrets having gone missing.” He would explain his gaze not leaving Jinny’s as he spoke “Yumiko was doing much the same, though she was looking for a target from the Triad if I remember correctly. Never learned if it was a revenge contract or a retaliation one. But then again I never asked.” 

Slade would wait only a beat or two before continuing, he knew what he was saying wouldn’t make much sense without more context but even then, he did not doubt that young Jin’s ability to infer some truths from what he had said already. “Our targets were hold up in the same building, though different floors. The protection around her mark assumed I was after them, and vice versa for my mark’s protection to her. We teamed up because there was no reason not to, and every reason to do so. She saved me from getting shot through the leg, and I stopped her from getting her arm cut off.”

It was nostalgic to think back on those times now that he was. Back when he was younger and foolish. Back before he became a living legend. 

“It took some time after that meeting for us to actually exchange names, but we often ran in parallel back then.” Thankfully they also never seemed to run against each other, as it would have been a shame for Slade to have had to kill her back then.

But sometimes that was just how business went.