Bring Me To Life

By Riko Ozaki

December 24, 2004 (Original idea and draft)

Disclaimer:

The characters portrayed herein are copyrighted to Anno Hideki and Studio Gainax. They are not my creations. If asked, I will pull this prose from the internet if it offends them.

Please excuse any mistakes which I may have made due to syntax and punctuation; English is not my primary language.

Thank you for reading, and please review. It helps me to progress in learning a new language, and prods me to be a better author.

This story was pre-read by 94Saturn and Jintsu.

June 6, 2001 Shinji Ikari's birthday

July 11, 1991 Maya Ibuki's birthday

March 30, 2001 Rei Ayanami's birthday

December 4, 2001 Asuka Langley Soryu's birthday

December 8, 1986 Misato Katsuragi's birthday

Italics: Thoughts or Journal entries.

Normal: Regular speech between persons.

Journal entries have the date at the end of the entry; normal dialog has dates at the beginning.

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I have been holding on to this story for over ten years and trying to smooth it out and get the best words on the screen. Unfortunately, 94Saturn passed from us before I could publish this. He always thought highly of my effort and pushed me to put this out for your enjoyment.

I can no longer hold on to this, even though I still do not have an ending for it. Many things have happened since I first had this idea and I want to put this out to the community.

Jintsu has been pushing me to publish for ten years, and I think he is finally right.

This story will terminate at Chapter 4 for FFN. Chapter 4 and later are too radical for FFN. Chapters 4-10 will be published on AO3.

I have lost my imagination and ability to write as I did at this time. I wish it was not so. This story is very important to me from the time period it was written in. My time period. My experiences. My life. I felt as though I was Maya at the time and tried to write a better ending for her, as my own life had gotten a better ending.

We always wish a better ending for our heros.

Riko Ozaki February 07, 2019.

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This story is an alternate universe tale; the effects of Third Impact have been reversed somewhat. There is no huge crater from the black moon rising and no widespread destruction from the attacks of the JSSDF.

The story is done in a journal or diary type format from Ibuki Maya's point of view. There will be narrative throughout the story, but the diary entries will give the reader some sense of what is going on in her head.

Asuka fans, this story may not be for you. She will be mentally unbalanced from Third Impact and do some very repugnant things to Shinji.

This tale is rated M for adult situations, and rape. It is not all bad, but with Shinji involved, you are going to have some angst.

This is also a coming-of-age type of story: A what-if Shinji had been given a chance to be normal and live a life like anyone else.

Also Maya is given the spotlight here, because I thought she deserved some happiness after EOE. And a lot of the fan fiction I have read has painted her as a lesbian or worse. I see her as a timid soul who had no one, and who might have had bad experiences from the male of the species.

I know some will scream about out-of-character actions, but remember: It has been three years since Third Impact, or as it is called in the story 'the event' and these people have grown and changed.

Some other changes in the world:

I have changed the age of majority to eighteen for owning property, driving, and drinking. I would think that our government would want to get the population and businesses back up to speed quickly after the event, hence my lowering of that age barrier.

Music has stagnated since the Second Impact. Too much death and destruction have put a damper on creative, positive music. So most people hark back to the earlier times for their music.

Tokyo-3 has taken-up its old name of Hakone once more.

No one speaks of NERV or any thing to do with it because of the subconscious memories retained after the event.

I give Shinji a guitar to play instead of a cello. This is to break from his past, and to have a more positive attitude around others. Besides, it is a little difficult to drag a cello to a park to serenade someone!

This is a romance story between the two most unlikely characters within Neon Genesis. It has its humorous parts, along with the sorrowful ones. It is a tale of joy and misery.

It is a snapshot of what life might have been like, if things were different.

I hope you enjoy it, for I enjoyed creating it.

Riko Ozaki

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I never thought that I would leave that place of comfort and peace. After having Sempai in my arms in the aftermath of the destruction of the Human Race; otherwise known as Third Impact, and living with her in that make-believe world, I thought that I had everything that I could ever have wanted. After a period of time which I could not measure, I found that I was not really happy with my choice that I had made.

Oh yes, I was happy,... but everything was so... perfect. Ritsu and I never had any arguments, no disagreements; my world was a slice of heaven.

I guess that is why it started to become pale and unrealistic to me. I even experimented with having Ritsu do things that I knew she would never do in real life. This then brought me to the realization that I could not stay here. This dream world was for narcissists who could not envision a world without themselves in it. I have never been a vain or self-centered person, so this revelation forced me to leave the warm and comfortable world whichI had created for myself.

Isn't it wonderful how the mind can play such games upon itself?

I woke- up in a wash of moon glow, on a white sand beach and forcefully vomited up the contents of my stomach. After my short period of nausea passed, I looked around to see where I had been placed. A blood-red sea and petrified Mass-Production Evangelion units confronted my sight of this area. I also noted two sets of footprints winding their way towards the interior of this landmass. Carefully rolling away from my spew, I flopped onto my back and studied the star patterns. Everything seemed to be in place; no differences from what I was used to seeing in the skies over Tokyo-Three. Ergo, I must be in Nippon about the same time and place that I left.

Journal of Ibuki Maya

January 3, 2016 (?)

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I could hear them arguing again. Her nasal voice with that way she pronounced our language. His voice in counterpoint; a soft rebuttal yet strong in his beliefs. This had been going on for the past two nights. I wish I could bring myself to walk up to them, but I seem paralyzed every time I try to do it. Almost as if some outside force was preventing me from revealing my presence to them.

It is so lonely here in the city I once knew. I have not encountered another soul since I awoke on that beach, except for them. I wonder if we are the last remnants of humankind. A sorry lot to rekindle the human race, if true:

The spoiled and obnoxious girl from Germany. The abused and lonely boy that had the responsibility of saving the Human Race.

And myself; the mousy little tech that never made a decision on her own.

Humanity is in a world of shit if we are to be its new founders.

Now they are arguing about...NO! Don't say that about him! He protected you, and he obviously loved you! How can you be so callous and blind to his feelings for you!

Good...leave him.

He is better off without you; with your constant berating of him. At least he will now grow without you bending him to your will.

I just wish that I had someone that cared as deeply for me as he does for her. Why couldn't I have been happy to stay where I was? No friends, no family, and the constant haranguing of him by her.

I feel I could die from the loneliness and despair.

Journal of Ibuki Maya

January 6, 2016 (?)

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Things have progressed since people started coming back. I got together with some of the military troops from what used to be NERV, and we started to get this so-called city back on its feet. Some of these military-types were not security. Some were in a field something like the building trades, and were able to get the infrastructure back on an even keel. We now have the basic needs of a community up and running. I helped out with my meager skills of programming to start up the municipal utilities.

One of the soldiers has been very kind towards me, and I do feel something for him, but I still cannot get the images of the slaughter in Central Dogma out of my mind. I know I am hurting him by my reticence, but I am still scared by anything in a military uniform.

Journal of Ibuki Maya

Sunday, March 13, 2016

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Tanaka Yoshi and I have come to an agreement. We should just be good friends. I tried to bury the memories of the past and be happy with him, but it didn't work out. I tried, Kami-sama I REALLY TRIED! Yoshi was so patient and caring towards me. He cradled me in his arms as I told him my story. He dried my tears and held me tightly as I relived those horrible memories in Central Dogma. He then told me his story, and I wept again. That night he took my virginity and made me his, but I still had a faint unease about him. We stayed together for almost a year, a very happy and loving year, but my unease kept building. I could smell the leather from the harness and holster when he came home from work.

And the gun oil.

The worst was the stench he reeked of after he came back from the firing range.

I think he knew before I did that it just wasn't working out. I think he could see that small amount of fear etched in my eyes. He was the one to bring the subject up about our relationship. Yoshi was so caring and considerate of me that he wanted me to be happy. And he said that he could see that I was still traumatized by my experiences. We talked for hours and in the end, I led him back to our small bedroom. I gave myself to him fully, knowing that this was to be our last time together. I cried on his shoulder after we had exhausted ourselves, knowing that my treacherous mind had put me in this place of no reward. By the time I woke up in the morning, he was gone.

So why am I so unhappy?

Because my nightmares walk the streets in military uniforms;

Or perhaps the first man to ever care for and love me wears a uniform.

Sometimes I wish that I had died and never came back.

Journal of Ibuki Maya

Saturday, April 30, 2017

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It's all Yoshi's fault! We went out for dinner and some drinks, like we do every month or so, and he started in on me again about being single. Compared me to a Christmas cake! I was about to bash him with the microphone from the karaoke bar when he slyly mentioned that he knew someone like me that was alone also. He had his heart broken, and he just lived to work. Said that the guy wasn't ugly, but couldn't get him close to a razor. Wore his hair in a ponytail. And he just recently opened a bistro downtown in the shopping district.

Unshaven and a ponytail...alarm bells went off in my mind. I was remembering a certain person who was just too suave and debonair for my likes back then. But I remembered snatches of conversation that led me to believe he was dead.

Way before the event.

So it couldn't be him.

Could it?

If Yoshi was trying to fix me up with him, it couldn't be Kaji. Yoshi had chased-off some undesirables that had been sniffing around when they found out that we weren't together anymore. He actually beat one guy for an off-color remark that the asshole pitched at me.

Very protective and caring for an ex, if I do say so myself.

So...this guy must not be too bad, if Yoshi approves of him.

If I could just get over this military-nightmare thing, I'd take Yoshi back in a heartbeat. But from what the doctors tell me, I'll have this for the rest of my life.

Traumatic- Shock Response, or some such.

But it still makes the nights cold, dark, and lonely.

What the hell, I guess I'm not getting any younger.

DAMN YOU YOSHI, FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS CAKE JOKE!

Journal of Ibuki Maya

Saturday, June 1, 2019