Creation began on 05-08-10
Creation ended on 06-01-13
Neon Genesis Evangelion
My Special Keeper, Part One-B2
-x-
"It's great to be home," said Rumi, standing in front of a path that led up a mountain littered with trees and flowers.
"But we're not home yet, Rumi," Shinji told her, walking ahead of her now. "Shall we hike this path until we reach the temple?"
"How many times are you going to call it a temple when it's an estate?"
"Estate, temple, shrine, they're all the same, Rumi. But it's still home to me; the only real home I've ever had in years."
They traveled up the path, stopping periodically, for five times to catch their breath, before moving again. It was a tough ordeal for them; Shinji, for his leukemia, and Rumi, for her current age, but they persevered due to their need to show that, just because of their respective conditions, they were able to perform what they dubbed a minute task as getting there. By the time they reached more than halfway up to the Tokyo Tower-sized mountain, the air felt thinner, causing them to breathe slower to adjust, and their surroundings below the mountain looked like tiny dots or puzzle pieces. Such a travel up a mountain this tall and with oxygen this thin would've harmed or killed an ordinary person, but they and the people that lived near it were used to it, having learned the principal terms of survival of the fittest; only Shinji and those that came to see the family were the exception to the rule.
"I know you two can still walk the other half of the two-mile trek to home," said a man's voice to the pair, "but maybe you should consider letting me lend you a ride."
They looked up at a tree and saw an elderly-but-well-built man with dark hair with bits of gray poking around, hazel-colored eyes, dressed in a monk's attire and was armed with a bo staff, smiling down at them as he stood on a thin branch that there was no logical way capable of supporting his weight.
"Well, if it isn't our great Bumi Rokubungi, here to see us," praised Shinji, dropping to his knees to kowtow to his uncle.
"Now, Shinji," went Bumi, "how many times have we been through this? You don't need to show respect in that manner. We're all good friends here: We live together, we train together, eat together, and even settle conflicts through peace together."
Shinji rose back up to his feet and uttered, "Heh-heh, it's an old habit, Bumi. You're the one that taught me how to kowtow in the first place."
Bumi leapt from off the tree and onto the ground, chuckling at his nephew, and then asked, "So, how was your trip to that city?"
Shinji and Rumi looked at each other and then back at Bumi, answering with, "We wish we never went to begin with."
"It was that bad with that man there, wasn't it?" He asked them, and they nodded back. "Come on; let's get back to the temple."
Rumi sighed, unsure of whether or not to say that their home was more like an estate than a temple or shrine, and followed Bumi with Shinji further up the path. By the time they reached the front gate, it was already sunset, and the sky was cast into a beautiful shade of red and pink.
Bumi knocked on the large, iron-clad doors and waited for a response of the other side.
"Who seeks entrance to this sacred sanctuary?" A female voice asked them, coming out of a hidden megaphone around the gate.
"Members of a great family that has endured over five decades of great efforts to help others and maintain balance, not just within the world, but within oneself," answered Rumi to the voice.
"Permission to enter this sacred sanctuary has been granted." The voice told them, and the old gates opened up for them to enter.
They were greeted with a marvelous sight in front of them; the sunset sky had bathed the expansive garden of the estate with a wondrous glow, with some butterflies flying over the flowers that flourished on the large walls that made the sealed-off grounds of the sanctuary, with their home itself looking like a miniature temple of sorts that was updated to look new instead of unkempt, with its seven pagoda towers, positioned with the first one in front with the remaining six in two rows of three behind it, reaching only three stories into the air above their heads. It was a unique blend of different cultures, particularly the Asian ones (the Japanese, Chinese and Tibetan) spliced with the western ones that made up the appearance of the Rokubungi estate, their ancestral home.
"Ah, it feels good to be back," Shinji said, breathing in the better air that was now around him.
"It sure is," Rumi agreed with him.
-x-
"Ooh, throw away your hidden scrolls, evil shoguns and black priestesses," said a young girl with long, dark hair with a silvery tint to it and a wooden sword in her hands, looking over at Shinji and Rumi, "the scatterers of the future's darkest shadows have returned."
"Mayo," Rumi said, as she leaned against one of the large, sand garden stones, "you know Shinji and I don't like it when you call us that. We're not trying to change the world on a grand scale. Who would want to, anyway?"
Pointing her wooden sword at her boy cousin, Mayo responded, "He, who has rejected everything he has ever learned of our family's expectations and traditions, to be better people, aimed to change the world, and pays nothing of the consequences of his actions. He, who questions the will of an authority greater than any that have ever existed…or will ever exist on this life-bearing planet, never thinks to look before he leaps, and whom we have had no contact with for many years. Is that man still the same, arrogant moron that he was when he left…or has he changed?"
"He has not changed, Mayo," Rumi answered. "He, who can never return unless he intends to go back to the old ways of our family, remains the same…only worse than before I met him. He, who's hands are stained with sins, wanted his only son with whom he left within his heart a pain so great that it nearly destroyed him to serve his twisted wants as though he were a puppet on strings, held up by a cruel puppet master. His answer to my question of why it had to be so was that there no one else that could fight a monster that a city was sacrificed to try and drive it away to the land of the dead."
Mayo gasped, and then pulled her sword away from her cousin.
"Our elders will not be pleased by this discovery," she told Rumi.
"No, they will not be pleased," she agreed, for she wasn't.
The four of them, Rumi, Mayo, Shinji and Bumi, entered the internal confines of the estate, set foot into a large room with a few large pillows scattered about the floor, and saw a pair of women that appeared to be of over thirty and forty years of age, based on their appearances, lying on the floor, facing the ceiling. The eldest woman on the left had the appearance of a beautiful Chinese from the ancient past, wearing purple and red robes in the manner of the people that practice Hindu, while the other, younger woman was clearly of Japanese descent, wearing the traditional attire of a miko, though her blondish hair at the moment was a contrast to the other woman's dark hair. They were Shinobu and Kanami Rokubungi, the upper-middle and lower-middle-aged elders of the Rokubungi family's female side, respectively.
"Mother," went Mayo to the one that was Kanami, "Shinji and Rumi have returned from their sojourn journey to Tokyo-3 and are back again."
Kanami turned her head to face her young, twelve-year-old daughter and smiled at her.
"Thank you for telling me," she uttered out, and then got up onto her feet. "Shinobu, they're back."
Shinobu then got up and kowtowed to them before saying, "Believe it or not, we've been worried sick about you two, especially when you didn't call."
Rumi bowed in front of her and replied, "For forgiveness, the place that man was in had no reception, and we couldn't leave till the next day."
"Heh-heh, I always knew that jerk preferred the isolation that can be found wherever you make it," Kanami uttered in disgust. "Not like the isolation of this mountaintop and the town built down below it, though, just the empty isolation; the kind where there's no one else but you."
"If isolation were a different dimension, he would enjoy it," said Bumi to them. "But what of you, Kanami? What would you prefer instead of the isolation?"
"Me? Why, I would prefer a world that just had people, regardless of how stained it is with past sins. If people are willing to change for the better, then, by all means approved of by the greater forces at work, they should be allowed to change. It's part of the philosophies that everyone tries to embrace."
"And the philosophies of one's own existence and the existence of the whole of mankind?"
"That one must find the reasons to why they exist in the world…and that life must be lived within the time that it's allowed to. However, if given a proper chance, a person can deviate, and live for an extended period of life. But, no matter what you say or do, regardless of how much you may want to beg for mercy, plead for more time, in the end, the end of your life, your expiration date, the curtain that must fall on your stage of present history…is inevitable."
Shinji sighed as that philosophy of life had once been a tragic blow to his mind ever since he found out about his illness. While he disliked the belief, he never hated it entirely, never spat on it or questioned it longer than another soul probably would. Of course, there was no denying that he accepted his approaching death on the other hand, either, but he still wanted to leave his mark on the world with the remaining time he had left before his body quit on him. Three friends of his outside the family have already died a year ago, each one either younger or older than he himself had been prior to their deaths, and he was certain that this year would be his last one to live out. The last year to make an impact on the people he loved and that loved him back and to be remembered as someone the rest of the world would just forget.
Rumi looked at the empty and hurt expression on her nephew's face and could tell that he was upset that he could die before this year was over. She was upset, as well. All of them were. From all the stories they told her of, it was still hard to believe that a good kid like him was born to a miserable man like Gendo and whoever it was that was his mother, cursed with a condition that they were unable to discover if it came from either of them, since it was possible that it was a recessive gene, and harder to imagine how they'd be forced to move on when he left them forever. She'd give anything she could part with willingly to keep him with them. Anything.
"Shinji," she told him, and he looked down to her, "let's go see your grandmother. She'll be bound to smile at the sight of your return."
Shinji removed his wig and replied, "Yeah. Let's see Grandmother."
"You'll find her in the south-east training chamber," Mayo informed them. "She's been upset ever since yesterday when you were unable to call."
"Knowing her, she's very upset and will vent her fears with her martial arts," added Bumi, praying that these two children would be alright facing her alone.
"Maybe this time, she'll teach me that ancient art she promised," Rumi responded, showing no fear.
-x-
There was always something so relieving about being surrounded by one-thousand candles as you practiced a delicate art that was as old as the Egyptians and their gods were…and wearing a gray cloak had the added element of making you a mysteriously calm person.
When Shinji and Rumi arrived to the room, they saw the cloaked woman practicing her skills of self-defense, and Shinji had his little aunt keep quiet, not wanting to interrupt his grandmother.
She moved her arms and legs quite well for an elderly person, as though her vitality, what gave her the youthful energy that she possessed, was still with her, and then, by gathering up something that couldn't be seen by the naked eye, she pushed what almost looked like a small streak of air at a few candles she aimed her wrists at, blowing them out without ever touching them.
Incredible, they both thought, seeing her pick up a staff that didn't resemble a bo staff quite well; it looked thinner and like it had been chewed on, all the while being carved.
The woman swung it around as any martial artist would a regular bo staff, but seemed to focus more on her hands than the staff itself. Twirling it around before holding it firmly in her left arm, she sent out a gust of air with her right arm that blew out a larger collection of candles. Resuming her twirling of the staff, she uttered out, "Balance and salvation are the links…between the people that live…and the universe that they live within." before holding it up with both arms before she kept it tight in her right hand. Slamming it down, hard onto the dirt, she sent out a wave of air on all sides of her that blew the remaining candles out before she took in a new breath of air. Removing her hood, she revealed not the face of an elderly woman in her late-seventies or eighties…but the face of a young woman that appeared to be in her mid to late-twenties or early-thirties, with long, raven-black hair, sea-green eyes, and an aura that burned with an unfathomable amount of kindness.
Shinji and Rumi, then, with wondrous awe at her would-be performance, applauded her.
"Well, if it isn't my special duo," the woman said, seeing the two in front of her. "How was your trip?"
"Awful," they answered.
"Nothing good came out of it?"
"No good at all," Shinji told her. "I never want to see that man again."
The woman smiled and hugged both children. She couldn't say that she had some hope that Gendo would change after several years away from home. But after being confronted with the letter addressed to his…addressed to her grandson, she couldn't say that his current behavior toward him was unexpected, either. Gendo, despite the way that he was raised properly in the beginning, like the other members of the family, could be quite the unpredictable troublemaker at unpredictable times. This was part of the reasons to why he was nearly disowned before he chose to leave on his own.
"Were there any good people there when you arrived?" She asked, wanting to switch subjects on the trip to Tokyo-3.
"Well, there was just one person that seemed nice enough," answered Shinji. "A woman named Misato Katsuragi, a member of the paramilitary organization with purple hair."
"Purple hair?" She questioned. "I knew four people in the past with purple hair. Was she, by any chance, the woman in the photo?"
"Yes," answered Rumi, knowing that she was disappointed in the woman's apparent lack of modesty.
"Please, tell me that she was dressed modestly when you met her in person, Shinji, Rumi?" She asked.
"She was…dressed nigh-appropriately," Shinji answered, unsure if seeing said woman wearing a black dress that barely reached below the knees was appropriate and modest.
The woman chuckled, although she knew better than to think that Shinji, of every person that has ever lived, or will ever live, on this estate, had a dirty mind like that. Ever since she met him when he was four, all she ever saw was a young boy that had been dealt a bad hand. She knew Shinji was a noble individual with a good heart and mind, not deviating from his original thoughts half the time in a day.
"…Um, dinner is ready, you three," said a female voice to the trio.
The new woman, younger than Bumi, had long, sparkling red hair tied into ox horn buns so that said hair's leftover strands reached only to her neck, pretty blue eyes and wore a green hanbok with a white apron around it.
"Okay, Miaka," they replied, and followed her toward the dining room.
-x-
Instead of arriving to Tokyo-3 in thirty days, Unit-02 and the Second Child were immediately told to come to said city as fast as possible, and the Second Child was fine with that. To fight Angels was what she lived for, and she would prove her worth to NERV. As nigh-calm as it was to travel by sea, travel by air was quicker, and Asuka Langley Soryu wanted to make a grand appearance to where she would be transferred to. In addition, she wanted to know who the pilot of Unit-01 was so that she could show them that she was the better pilot, having trained to do so at an early age.
Her guardian, Ryoji Kaji, was also curious as to who the pilot had been, but knew more than Asuka did; she only knew that the person had achieved a seventy-two point five percent synchronization with the Eva with no prior training, which shouldn't have been possible, and then rising up to seventy-nine point five percent. The only other part that he knew about was that the person that piloted the Eva wasn't the pilot that was originally intended, but a different one…with a different reason for doing so, and only once. Mr. Kaji wanted to know what kind of person was only willing to pilot an Evangelion once and then leave when informed that the fate of the human race was endangered by an enemy of unknown origin. He could've said that the person was a coward, but then that would've felt wrong, since he assumed it was just another unlucky fourteen-year-old that didn't remember much about their mother. Also, he had a package to bring: A suitcase that contained a very important item that could be used to benefit the world if used properly…or spell disaster if misused.
Fifteen hours, he thought calmly, as that was the time they'd be on the plane until they reached Japan. Fifteen long hours until we get there. Well, better fifteen hours than over a month's time at sea.
Drifting off into a deep slumber, he let his imagination run wild, visualizing whoever it was that defeated the Third Angel and left NERV a large corpse that they could take samples of and study, along with what had really intrigued the organization: The mysterious S² Engine, which had been ripped away from the Angel, depriving it of its life and power. It was mostly intact, based on the reports he'd discovered, and, if possible, could be repaired and installed into an Eva in the future, eliminating the external power requirements. This person, whoever they were, had lent NERV quite a grand hand in leaving a useful, scientific salvage.
-x-
"…Maybe I'm not blessed," said Rumi to Mayo, having failed again to produce a reaction toward the four items present on the table in front of them after they had finished their dinner: On the far left stood a lit candle, next to it was a pair of stones that did nothing, after that was a jug of water and on the far right was a simple hand fan. "Or maybe I'm still too young to know."
"Don't doubt yourself, Rumi, my dear auntie," Mayo told her. "Age is irrelevant, an unimportant issue. Grandmother Akira believes you may have the blessing. Besides, I love the fact that it's actually true. I could hear the words of it for a whole day."
"I know, Mayo, 'The power to control the elements…is bestowed only upon those that are chosen to bear them.' It's one of the oldest traditions of the village of Akira."
While there were still several other traditions that she was unaware of, Rumi was well versed in the history of the village town built around the mountain, since its history spans over a century and a half.
"Maybe our Little Rumi needs a little stimulation," went the voice of Miaka to them, having changed into her blue pajamas before deciding to go to bed. "Water, the flowing element that allows for change. Earth, the enduring element of stability and substance. Fire, the passionate representation of power, and Air, the evasive representation of freedom."
Rumi and Mayo sat down on the floor, the four items forgotten, wanting to hear the story they grew up knowing about.
"It's probably as old as history itself," Miaka started. "Before the modern societies took control, before regular histories were ever recorded, there were just four cities, four ancient cities, placed on all four sides of the planet, each with its designated element to govern them. Before and after they fell into the abyss of the past, the people that lived within each city would embrace their home: The Lunar Ocean City, the Spring of Mountain City, the Volcanic Ash City and the Winds of Freedom City. Each lived separated from each other, but were connected by a series of pacts, built on love and trust. Bridges, even. The people could harness the elements by harnessing the energy within themselves to do great things. But like all great powers, some wanted more…and some desired justice. Those that couldn't harness the power, however, were indirect casualties and never felt safe in the same place for more than a few days or weeks, always moving to safer parts of the world untouched by violence that they had no methods of defending themselves without having to resort to murder. The Masters, the head authorities of each city, could no longer stand what some of their people were doing to others because they felt they could, prayed to their God, a universal consciousness, for a miracle of their salvation. Their prayers were answered, in a way, by the arrival of a group of civilians that were quite the special few. While those that demonstrated their control over their unique element, these unique few were able to control more than one. Some could control two, others could wield three. Only a married pair could manipulate all the elements. They were the mysterious ones of the whole group. They could end in mere hours what others took longer to suppress for good. But arguments became feuds, feuds became battles, battles became wars and wars became slaughters. They couldn't end them forever…so they, without the authorities permitting them, buried the four cities in piles of ice, rock and ash. The events became legends…and, eventually, legends became myths. Not many believe in the story…or dare to remember the days that had transpired in those ancient times. The people of this village, however, believe the story, along with those that come here looking for a fresh start…just as I did over twenty years ago. But the rest of the world, they know not of the societies that had existed before them…and may never exist again."
Rumi and Mayo sighed, as they always did after hearing such a long story. It was great to hear it, but it drained them to hear it all the time.
"What became of the couple?" They heard Shinji, standing by the open door, deprived of his wig and wearing a green bandanna. "The ones that could bend all the elements?"
Miaka turned to face him and answered, "Some say they died. I believe so, as well, but not before they had children that inherited their powers…and their children and their children's children throughout the ages. I'm sure that some of them are out there somewhere, living peaceful lives, waiting for their time."
As the time became eleven at night, all residents of the estate were set to go to bed, but Rumi had been called by the head of the house, Akira, whom, despite her age, kept her room decorated with several items that looked as though they were from different time periods and worth a small-but-wealthy sum to the highest bidder if they saw them, for each item was very old but were kept in good condition.
"Yes?" Rumi asked, kneeling to the older woman, who sat by a wooden desk, wondering why she was asked to come see her.
"I had asked Shinji what else happened while you two were at that Tokyo-3 city…and I didn't like everything I heard."
Rumi kept her head facing the floor as she said to Akira, "I can explain my actions."
"Maybe, but answer me this first: Did Gendo really try to make Shinji pilot a monstrosity that he had never seen before in his life before he became aware that he was sick?"
"Yes. Yes, he did try to make Shinji pilot a monstrosity, but I told him that he couldn't do it at all."
"And then?"
"He sent for a girl named Rei, who looked as injured as people from large casualties do, and told her to pilot it after calling Shinji a useless spare."
"A useless spare?"
"Mm-hmm, but she could barely stand, let alone pilot, with her body in such a terrible state. Then…he did one of the newest of the worst things he's ever done: He asked me to pilot the monstrosity."
"This must be where Shinji told me that you cut a deal with him. Is this true?"
"Yes. I made a deal with him: I'd pilot the thing and fight some creature that was attacking the city if he left Shinji alone." Rumi explained, having left out none of what had happened that day and the day after. "I'm sorry if I have shamed you."
"You haven't shamed anyone, Rumi. You've actually done the opposite. You put your life on hold to preserve Shinji's, even when Gendo saw no worth in him, and you came out of the battle in one piece. You live up to your responsibilities as his guardian whenever you're with him by yourself, even when you don't take 'em as serious as others would. I'm proud of you, Rumi, you and Shinji."
Rumi looked up at her and had tears falling out of her eyes. She went over and hugged the older woman tightly.
"Rumi, you haven't cried like this since you were four," Akira chuckled. "You really are a mama's girl. Correction: This mama's girl."
-x-
"My apologies, Commander Ikari," a man in black said to Gendo, handing him a folder, "but nobody from that neighborhood has seen or heard from Bumi Rokubungi a month after he, his wife and the Third Child left, which was nearly eleven years ago."
After Gendo took the file and had the agent leave, he looked over it and wondered where Shinji had been for most of his life and why there was so little information on him. Of all the people that he could've left Shinji with, Gendo had to choose the one man that was his reason for leaving the family. Bumi…and his wife, Miaka. And if that wasn't the oddest of things, he had to go over the money that he gave them to look after Shinji, only to find that no a single ounce of it had been used at all.
Always the self-sufficient one, eh, Bumi? He thought, recalling the rumor of somebody making a large sum from salvaging an abandoned military ship in Chinese waters before the year Two-Thousand even began. You moved out of the ancestral home three years after you and your wife got married, and it was easy to find you after Second Impact. Well, there's only one place you could've run to, and that's back to that small town of Akira.
Fuyutsuki, who looked out the office windows, couldn't help but be curious at his other former student's sudden interest in knowing where his son was, along with the girl that might've been his former student's little sister. All he ever really knew about his past before he met his prized student, Yui, was that he hated one of his brothers, and by extension, the rest of the family. So he was curious as to why this was so, and what his real reason was for wanting to know where they were now. He had learned from Yui herself that there were often times where learning from the past makes the present clearer, but there were also times where the past was just as painful as the present and future.
Surely, they could've been as far off as he is, he thought.
-x-
Recalling the past was an easy thing for Bumi, since he specialized in the martial arts of Hung Gar and the Southern Praying Mantis with flying colors, and the Earth having memories of everything that has ever happened. As he lied on his and Miaka's bed, he visualized the cloudier days of the even cloudier years.
It's still hard to believe, let alone imagine, he had thought, that there was a time before all of this happened. It was the twelfth year of our marriage, and Gendo had, out of the blue and quite carelessly, abandoned his only son at our doorstep in the middle of a rainy afternoon. It was terrible to know that this is what he does to a child of his own blood…but surprising to know that he actually had a child. He was so small and helpless, with very little of anything. I wanted to think of it as nothing more than a sick joke to try and get back at me for what was never my fault but was attempted by him to begin with, only to realize that by abandoning his own son, he was getting back at me for what was never my fault. But I hold the contempt on Gendo alone, not on Shinji, since he was as much of a victim than those that lost their lives to that bogus Second Impact crud that I could never believe was caused by a meteorite so small that it could move at tremendous speed.
Remembering the third month of their nephew's presence within their home, as well as Miaka's four-month-long pregnancy, Bumi continued to relive the pain of the past.
"Good morning, dearest," he had greeted his wife when he entered the kitchen, and saw her sitting down at the table with a sad expression on her face. "What's wrong?"
"I think there's something wrong with Shinji," she had revealed to him. "I tried to get him up out of bed, but he won't respond."
Bumi then marched right over to his nephew's bedroom, seeing him lying there on his bed with his back facing him. Shinji had been known to do this whenever saddened, and he was still questioning why his father had left him that day and what had become of his mother, whoever she was. Originally, they had assumed his mom was dead because Shinji couldn't recall the last time he saw her alive.
"Shinji-Kun," he greeted the boy, shaking him to get him up from his slumber. "It's breakfast time, Shinji-Kun. Time to eat…"
He looked down at his shirt and saw a bruise-like marking that ran up to his nape. Tracing it up and down, he became very concerned that somebody might've been abusing him at the daycare center they took him to whenever they had to be somewhere else for a whole day that didn't take kindly to children, as they never saw this on him when they met him that rainy afternoon.
"What in the name of…" He questioned, but soon realized that his nephew needed to see a doctor to confirm what it was.
"It's some sort of anemia, right?" Miaka had asked the doctor when they took Shinji to be checked that same day. "But children his age shouldn't be able to get mono, should they?"
"It could be some sort of virus," responded the doctor to her as Bumi held his nephew's clothes while he wore only his underwear while laying on an examination with an expression of sadness mixed with an uncaring attitude. "I'll need to draw some blood and run some tests to be sure."
It wasn't until about two hours later that the doctor had some incomplete news for them; incomplete because he had no idea what was wrong at the time himself.
"Shinji's white blood cell count is much lower than normal," he explained to the couple as Miaka held Shinji on her lap.
"What could that mean?" Bumi asked him.
"Shinji could have an autoimmune deficiency," he suggested, handing Bumi a card, "or it could just be a lab error. We're running the tests again to be sure."
But when he looked at the card, he was unprepared for what he had read.
"Oncology?" He had questioned, looking at both his wife and the doctor. "But, Doctor, that's cancer."
Nonetheless, they went to see the oncologist that he recommended for them: Marlene Hanabishi. She had looked over his test results and gave them a further-to-the-point answer.
"Shinji's white cell count is very low, which does indicate an autoimmune disease, but he's also presenting ten percent promyelocytes and four percent blasts, and that indicates a leukemic condition." She revealed, which worried them.
"Leukemic?" Miaka asked, confused.
"A cancer of the blood and bone marrow," she explained; luckily, Shinji had fallen asleep at that time so he didn't hear a thing being said about him. "I'll need a bone marrow aspiration to confirm, but it looks like your nephew could have the subgroup condition known as Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia."
Miaka had covered her mouth while Bumi had a look of despair on his face. It wasn't long after the bone marrow aspiration, which confirmed of Shinji's cancer, that the couple tried to contact all of their relatives, which, to the disgust of Bumi, included Gendo, as well.
I still can't believe Gendo blew me off that day I tried to call him and tell that his only son was really sick, not even bothering to call me back to ask why I called, just to tell me, "Don't call me unless it's important!" before hanging up. Everyone else managed to show up, but not him. He thought, turning his head to look over at a family photo that had been taken three years ago, which had Shinji, with less hair of his head, having a heartfelt smile on his face, one of the happiest moments of his young life.
-x-
The next day, as Miaka and Shinobu were preparing breakfast for the rest of the family, the former was recalling the day the family had gathered to discuss Shinji's predetermined status.
"It's been too long since we all saw each other," she had said to Akira, when all the current family of that time, excluding Gendo, had shown up at her and Bumi's house a week after receiving the calls about what they had found out about.
Akira, who had helped put Shinji to bed after conversing with him for the first time in their short encounter on the day that they met, was pleased to have met another grandchild and even more pleased to have gotten together with all of her other children. Well, most of her children.
"Yes, it has been too long," she had agreed with her. "I had nearly forgotten your faces. Almost thirteen years, give or take a year or two, and yet…I see all of you standing before me…as though it were only yesterday. And I see you and Bumi have finally found the time to settle down."
Miaka placed a hand over her swelling belly and responded, "Yes, though it would be disappointing if Shinji couldn't be around to meet the kid, because that isn't what I want."
"You think Gendo knew about this and decided to leave him so that he wouldn't have to do anything about it?" Kanami, who was rocking her then-two-year-old daughter, Mayo, in her portable rocking crib next to herself.
"Whether or not he knew or didn't is irrelevant at this point," Bumi responded, not really wanting to talk about Gendo's absence at the moment. "I still want to believe that it was just a mistake and what I saw on Shinji's back was nothing more than a bruise he got from some other kid that decided to be a bully. Now, I've made my fair share of decisions after Miaka and I moved out to make a nice living outside the town, but when it comes to a decision like this that revolves around a person I've only started to get to know a little, I don't like making it by myself."
"You won't have to," said Shinobu to him, placing a hand on his left shoulder. "I'd do the same, calling the family. So…what must we do to ensure that there is nothing too serious that it can't be mended?"
"The doctors all suggested we put him through chemotherapy," Miaka had told them, "but they also said that without a bone marrow match, he'd… He wouldn't make it past his eleventh birthday."
"A part of me would say that his end should be without pain," went the then-twenty-two-year-old Nemo Rokubungi, speaking his mind in a way that was the opposite in which Gendo would usually speak his own, "but I just met my nephew and want to know more about him, no matter how long he has. We should find a way to help him live for as long as possible."
Miaka could've probably kissed him for that, viewing life, regardless of its outcome, as the ultimate gift anyone could ever receive.
"I wouldn't let any of you die before your time," Akira told them, showing that determination she always had in her eyes. "I wouldn't."
"Hey, Miaka, sis?" She heard Shinobu break her out of her train of thoughts. "Could you pass the butter, please?"
"Oh, sure. Here it is." She gave her the saucer of butter and resumed her chopping of various carrots and cucumbers.
"You were thinking of the past again, weren't you?" Shinobu asked her.
"Yeah, I was. Don't you?" Miaka asked back.
"Yeah, but not too much. If I did too much, I'd be reminded of how much it hurt to know such things that couldn't be resolved. I often talk to the kami, still. I ask if what we tried to do was the right decision, despite it doing some great good, and I'm still waiting for an answer."
"I thought you were also waiting for an answer from the kami about your relationship with…you know, the sister of that guy you helped."
"Hey, easy on the volume; I don't want any young ears hearing about it just yet."
"Akira found out and she was okay with you two seeing each other. She just wished you'd consider having kids later in your future."
"I intend to, but not until I decide on a number of how many I'd want to have. Akira is the only one in the family to gone past the regular numbers."
A yawning came from behind them and saw Shinji sitting at the table, wiping the eye boogies from his worn-out face.
"Good morning, Shinji-Kun," Miaka greeted her nephew.
"Good morning," he greeted back.
"Looks like somebody, like every one else around here, needs his morning fix," Shinobu said, walking over to the coffee pot and pouring a cup for him.
"Thank you," he praised her as she handed him the cup and drank his fix.
"Any good dreams last night?" Miaka asked him.
"Well, there was one, but I can't roll it out as a good dream; it ended in a cliffhanger for me," he answered her. "I think it was a dream I had three years ago that I couldn't make out much of. There was this room that looked like modern version of the kinda place that Dr. Frankenstein would be comfortable living in. There was also a boy looking through a glass wall at something large, and a lady's voice saying, "I want him to see how bright the future will be. The bright future ahead for humanity." and then an alarm went off. I don't really understand the dream, probably the result of watching too many sci-fi and monster films. Uncle Nemo does have an outstanding collection."
"Eh-heh-heh!" The women laughed in agreement; Nemo did have a habit of acquiring films of the science fictional category, and, at first, it was nothing more than a hobby of his, outside of his martial arts training meant for the future when he would have to defend himself, but it eventually grew into a friendly addiction that always had to be satisfied. "Nemo's always been the fanatic when it comes to the realm of make believe."
"Are y'all talking about me?" Their conversation was broken by Nemo himself, who, despite his different hairstyle and facial features, looked like a younger, more carefree and innocent version of Gendo in his early-thirties, albeit without the, somewhat, dark demeanor that was always on Gendo's face; a true child of change, like the water itself.
"Your hobby gave Shinji a rather unusual dream last night." Shinobu explained.
"Uh, Dracula or Dr. Jekyll?" Nemo asked, chuckling.
"Neither," answered Shinji. "Coffee?"
"Yes, please."
Soon enough, the rest of the family arrived, each member talking of many things, most particularly the festival that would be happening in less than a week: The Festival of Fú ('Luck' in Chinese). It was just another peaceful day with the Rokubungi family. Or as peaceful as it could often get when most of the members could be seen together by many other people and be looked upon as a group of people with different backgrounds, different base cultures outside their Japanese, and completely different appearances. But despite all of these factors, they were a family in and of themselves and nothing, absolutely nothing, could change that for them.
-x-
"Wow, Asuka, you've gotten bigger since the last time I saw you," Misato greeted Asuka as they met at the airport.
"Not only that; my figure has filled out, as well," the redhead responded to her.
"Hey, Katsuragi!" Kaji greeted, and Misato gave a look that, obviously, meant only woe and disappointment. "Surprised to see me?"
"Am I ever happy to see you?" She questioned him, irritated that he barely shaved that face of his. "Just what are you doing here?"
"Other than escorting Asuka here, NERV business," he answered, but almost missed the look in the purple-head's eyes that seemed to show some unusual doubt that wasn't supposed to be there.
As they walked out to go to NERV HQ, Asuka questioned Misato on the whereabouts of the Third Child, wanting to speak with them.
"He's, uh, not in the city," she told her, not really wanting to discuss the past predicament. "He went back home."
"Another boy, huh? Atypical. I bet he was scrawny and weak."
Weak, maybe, but it wasn't like he had a choice to be that way, thought Misato.
It didn't take long for Asuka to get settled into her apartment at NERV; try nearly a whole half-hour to cram eight boxes, six filled with clothes and the last two with her hygiene materials and laptop, into her assigned quarters. While during that time, Kaji was trying to stir up a conversation with Misato, who, apparently, had something else on her mind.
"So…you wanna tell me what happened when the Angel attacked the city," he asked her, "and why NERV has a large, inhuman corpse to work with?"
In her office, Misato sat by her computer, going over various pieces of information, until she turned to face her old flame and explained what she knew from that day the Angel arrived.
"Commander Ikari sent for his son, whom he hasn't seen or heard from in over ten years after he left him at a relative's place when he was younger," she started. "I was assigned to pick him up, which I did, but Shinji had a relative of his along with him: A little girl of five years, who, interestingly enough, is one of his aunts."
"It's not all that surprising," Kaji stated. "Older men often end up marrying younger women, and if they have had kids from before they get remarried, then the new wife might be younger than the stepchildren, who would be older than she is."
"Yeah, but the relationship between the boy and his aunt is a bit more complicated. Commander Ikari and Ritsuko both wanted him to pilot Unit-01, but the little girl was against it for several reasons: The first being that she thought it was wrong to use children as soldiers in a war they know very little to nothing about; the second being that Shinji had never seen or heard of anything relating to NERV or the Eva, even when he was, originally, given a packet containing information that he couldn't read because he was dyslexic, and the last reason being that he was already dying from his leukemia…with the girl being his only lifeline."
"You mean, the girl's a donor for him?"
"Yes."
"Okay. And then what happened?"
"When Commander Ikari found out, he sent for Rei."
"The First Child?"
"Yeah, and he told her to pilot the Eva again, but she couldn't, either, on account of her own injuries sustained from an earlier activation attempt on Unit-00."
"Oh."
"And then, probably outta desperation, he asked the girl, Rumi, if she could pilot the Eva."
"He asked a five-year-old to pilot?"
"That's right, but she wouldn't do so unless he agreed to leave Shinji alone, so he had to honor his end of the would-be deal. The pilot that left the Angel a husk for NERV to study and dispose of…was Rumi Rokubungi…and she was operating the Eva like she actually had, in her possession, some skills worthy of a pilot."
"So, she was the one that achieved the seventy-two point five percent synchronization with the Eva with no training, whatsoever. I had always suspected it to be another fourteen-year-old that didn't remember their mother as much as they should've."
"Believe me, a part of me wishes that it was back then. The next day, those two left to return home. I don't think Commander Ikari actually tolerates Rumi as much as she and Shinji can't stand him."
"Well, not many people can relate to Ikari; he's not exactly friendship material. People don't know him but know of him and have personal opinions, and those that don't want anything to do with working with him…usually end up just disappearing."
"Disappearing?"
"They just never get seen or heard from again." Misato looked at him like he had something to hide from her. "Hey, you asked. I only found out about that from a co-worker back in Germany's NERV branch, and he found out through a co-worker from the NERV branch in Nevada."
After a long, two-minute pause, Misato spoke up again.
"What would you have done if you were Commander Ikari?" She asked him.
"If I were him? I'd check my kid's medical history everyday, kept him with me so he could be properly instructed, and tell him everything that was going on, holding nothing back." He answered her.
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
"That's good to know."
"So, what now?"
"Well, the Marduk Institute is trying to locate the Fourth Child, but they can't seem to find a perfect pilot, Asuka just got here and Rei's still in the hospital recovering. So, as long as no Angel thinks of showing up after the one we're still dissecting, we should be fine."
"But I don't believe that the Angels are going to be laying low after fifteen years of patience just because one of their own was defeated in less than a day."
"Either way, we got some time before the next attack."
-x-
Shinji always knows where to find me when he discovers I'm not in the house, thought Akira, as she practiced her usage of throwing stars, or shuriken knives, at seven distance targets on the estate's training grounds. I can hear his heart as he runs to find me.
She holds back from throwing the knife in her left hand when her grandson arrives ten feet away from her. There was always a way for Shinji to locate his only grandparent of his immediate family (immediate family means relatives that live with you, just in case you didn't know), either by asking another relative or just through looking. Ever since he could remember, Shinji has kept Akira at the top of pyramid of family relatives, with Rumi underneath her with Bumi and Nemo, Miaka, Mayo and Kanami came after them with the others; it was almost impossible to say why someone like his own parents weren't involved in the pyramid; if one didn't know anything or have any positive feelings about their own parents, then they had no rights to be part of the pyramid's internal structure, whatsoever, and one often had a large family of immediate relatives like Shinji did.
"Hey, Grandmother," he greeted her as she turned to face him.
"Hey, Shinji-Kun," she greeted back, putting the knife away. "How are you feeling this afternoon, if you mind my asking?"
"I'm fine, thanks," he told her, sitting down on a medium-sized rock that was behind him. "You don't…think I'm being wrong or selfish in my choice of this year, do you, Grandmother?"
"No, Shinji. You've always done the right thing your entire life."
"Not always. I have made wrong choices before."
"And you're forgiven for those choices." Akira sat down on the grass in front of him. "Despite everything that we've tried to keep you with us, science is imperfect, filled with flaws and false starts. You and Nemo would probably think me wicked for saying such things of it."
"No, we wouldn't; Nemo's a science-fiction-loving warrior-in-training over his blessing, and I'm a guy that wants to enjoy what little time he has left with the people he loves and loves him back. For me, where science can't fix all, family succeeds."
"Eh-heh-heh! Thanks, Shinji. You know, I still see you that day you told the doctors and I that you didn't wish to continue with any would-be large procedures. I was always wondering when you were going to make such a choice."
"I thought of it the last time I needed bone marrow. Three years ago."
"Might I ask why?"
"You remember when my kidneys almost quit on me?"
"Yes."
"I knew the doctors were gonna try and transplant one of Rumi's kidneys into me, but I refused. I couldn't let that happen, not even after I asked the doctors what could've happened to her if she went through with it."
"I asked the doctors the very same question."
"Rumi would have to be careful for the rest of her life…but I don't want her to be careful. Who would want to live that kinda life? I mean, is Rumi not allowed to participate in martial arts tournaments…or try out for cheerleading positions when she's a teen…or do what you've done for as long as you have?"
"And what have I done for a long time?"
"You're a mother, and I don't want to deny her that rite of passage to be one herself one day when she gets older and meets the one for her."
A small tear fell from Akira's left eye and she wiped it clean from her face. As they continued to converse, she couldn't help but think back to the choices that she had made when the family had all agreed on trying to help Shinji live as long as humanly possible when they were told that he'd need a bone marrow match from a compatible donor. It was like a door that had been closed off for a long time had been forced open again for her, and she had gone through it in order to help another person.
"None of us are compatible?" She heard Miaka say to Shinji's permanent oncologist, Dr. Gyatso, when they all came back to the town of Akira, explaining the trouble they were facing when Shinji had turned seven after almost four years of chemotherapy keeping him in remission. "Well, I get that none of us are entirely related, but don't we have to be a little?"
Doctor Gyatso, who was well into his late-sixties at the time, with over thirty years of practice in medicine under his skills, as well as being a close friend of Akira's for over twenty years, explained the situation to them as clearly as he could at the time of learning about their ill relative that he had come to admire for his family trying to keep him alive.
"You see, everyone inherits different sets of chromosomes that contain genes relating to HLA," he told Miaka, "but there's only a one in a one-hundred-fifty to two-hundred percent possibility that unrelated relatives will be perfect matches."
"What are the chances of an unrelated donor transplant?" Nemo had asked him.
"There's a fifty-fifty possibility that it works out right…or it doesn't." Gyatso explained.
"You mean that it's dangerous?"
"Yeah, and Shinji's case is becoming time-sensitive, and sometimes that's all we can work with."
It was almost getting to a time that Akira and Bumi were getting the same idea to go find Gendo and drag him back home to help save his son from his illness, but it was nearly impossible to even know where he was or if he was even interested in seeing his son. And with Shinji's condition becoming time-sensitive, meaning that his leukemia could come back and cause bigger problems any time soon, they had no honest clue at how long chemotherapy could keep him in remission until his body just gave up on it, as APL was much stronger than the regular forms of cancer.
"Could I suggest something completely off the record, though?" Gyatso requested from them. "There have always been many cases, small ones, where your immediate relatives aren't a match for something, but a new relative turns out just right. Have any of you considered having another child?"
Akira, Miaka, Shinobu and Kanami, along with another woman that was part of the family, Tsukiko, who had turned twenty-one just a few months ago, looked at him with suspicion.
"Not to be forward, but my new studies have shown that cord blood can sometimes be effective in treating leukemic patients. Some of the doctors say that it's almost like a miracle."
"But…how would you know that the new child would be a match?" Tsukiko had asked.
"We can make sure of it," he answered.
Bumi and Nemo, along with Kanami were all familiar with AI, IVF and PGD, more so since Kanami had taken the AI route after her boyfriend had died in a boating accident prior to Second Impact ever happening, just when they were becoming serious about each other; her daughter, Mayo, was even named after his grandmother to honor him.
"So, it'd be a donor child, then?" Nemo questioned, unsure of this suggestion of Gyatso's.
Nodding in the positive, the aged doctor explained, "It's not for everybody, and legally, even I can't officially recommend it. But, like I said, cord blood would be invaluable."
"Then we gotta do it," said Miaka, "or at least try."
The only question at that time was who would play the role of the mother of the donor child; Kanami had her hands full with just Mayo, Miaka and Bumi had only planned for their daughter, Taeko, and Tsukiko and Shinobu weren't looking to have children of their own just yet.
"I've been meaning to have another kid, eventually," they heard Akira say. "Still young, fit as an assassin, and willing to go to extremes to save a life."
"Are you sure about this?" Miaka asked her, concerned, and received a positive nod back.
And that was it, thought Akira, returning to the present. Grown in a tube and altered by the latest in science, Rumi was my only in vitro child, and the only person that could help keep Shinji alive longer.
"Grandmother," went Shinji, "just…why was it…that…he who turned his back on the family and became a traitor and severer of ties…left the town and hasn't been back ever since?"
She knew he was asking about his own father, and explained the past problem to him as clear as the sky was right now.
"He…tried to start a relationship with Miaka," she started, "except that she was already happy in her relationship with Bumi and didn't wish to be with any other man. I guess since he was turned down by her, he has always had contempt toward Bumi, whom he probably felt an unnecessary rivalry with like how he did with everyone else he felt a had a rivalry with. There was never even a competition between them; each had their strengths and weaknesses. Like most rivalries, the heart can be tempted, even by a mere glance at a person that you believe is beautiful and assume the would-be belief that you were meant to be with them in some way."
"But Aunt Miaka was meant to be with Uncle Bumi, not him," said Shinji.
"That's right. However, he was unwilling to let go of his obsession of her, and even tried to initiate the relationship with her…against her will. Bumi found out and simply asked him to stop, not wanting to settle the problem that Gendo himself started with unnecessary violence."
"But he refused to accept that she didn't love him."
"Yes, and in the end, there was only a subtle violence. In self-defense, Bumi left an impression of rage on his abdomen…with a mere piece of jade."
"How do you leave an impression with a piece of jade?"
"By embedding it within your opponent."
"Oh."
"Anyway, because he was unable to defeat Bumi or have Miaka to himself, and before I could probably even consider disown him for his behavior, he chose to leave, saying that we didn't kick him out, but that he left. We've not seen or heard from him around here since…until he sent you that letter. I'm surprised that he actually made a living by working with the government."
"The government…the United Nations, which the town of Akira doesn't answer to much of the time in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts with the rest of the world because we're one of the only places left on Earth that hasn't been changed by the Second Impact."
"That's right. What else has that teacher of yours been teaching you, Shinji?"
"Tai-Tai? Other than how to use Mace, she teaches the importance of learning properly from history, and that those that fail to learn are doomed to repeat their mistakes. A single individual is capable of making right choices and wrong choices, depending on their predicament; if the person thinks what they're doing is right, without the aid or opinions of others, then they don't know that later in the future, they might've made a wrong decision that had unexpected drawbacks, and if a person makes the wrong decision, intentionally, they are forced to accept the consequences of what drove them to make that choice to begin with. In the end, despite how far we've come as a people and as a society, we are ruled by our choices and actions. We have the power to change the world, but to do that, we must change ourselves by a slight amount…and by doing that, we, the people that change, gain a sense of insight of who we become later on."
"That's right, and it is by learning from these, we have always striven to do the right thing. Or, in the case of those less fortunate than we are, try to."
They looked over at the edge of the of the smaller wall that made less than half of the estate's south-eastern side and gazed down the mountain at the part of the town below, marveling at such a primitive construct that hides its secrets from the rest of the world to prevent such secrets from being abused for unnecessary desires, such as power.
"Grandmother, I really love this place I've been living in for the last ten years," Shinji told her.
"I know what you mean," she responded. "This town has been all I've known ever since its founding."
"Ever since?"
"You know I keep no secrets from you guys. I've been around long enough to know what there is to know about the town."
"And many of the people look up to you as their leader."
"And only their leader; titles such as those of a queen or a goddess are meaningless because they are the titles of mere figureheads. If war came to our home, our very priorities would be the survival of its people first, culture second and the very town itself as the last objective."
"And…if a monster were to attack the town?"
"It'd be the same thing. The people here are used to things like that, even if it's just a rarity."
"Grandmother?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks again for everything that you've all done for me over the years."
"Anything for my family and friends. Anything for trust, acceptance…and acknowledgment."
-x-
The very next day, the small town received quite a surprise as a few black cars had suddenly shown up on their little roads.
"Mommy, government cars," a little girl had cried to her mother, who picked her up and rushed inside their home.
When the aged Gyatso saw the cars, he felt like he almost had a heart attack, reached into his coat for his cell phone and called Akira to inform her potential trouble.
"Seven black cars just drove into town, and they each had a logo that isn't too popular around the world. That NERV logo." He told her, as she herself looked down at the streets from her son, Nemo's telescope, and noticed the cars driving further down the street, right to where the Rokubungi Self-Defense Training Dojo was…and that was a mere four blocks away from the west side of the base of the mountain the estate was situated on.
"Thanks for the Intel, Gyatso," Akira told her friend over the phone. "You'd best head home now and wait till it's safe to travel the streets again."
After hanging up and looking at Nemo, who was curious as to why some government cars would suddenly show up in their small village without so much as showing a sign of good reason, she asked him if he had something to say about this.
"Will we have to fight if they try something that isn't permitted around here?" He asked her, worried that these people might try to use force against them if they had a demand or series of demands.
"If it comes to that," she answered, "but, being the protective mother that I am, I won't risk any harm befalling any of you guys."
"I'm not worried about myself; I'm actually worried about every one else," he explains his fear.
"So far, all they've done is just drive into town without an invite. We'll keep our distance and play along for now."
"And if they have a demand that we can't or won't meet?"
"Then we simply ask them to vacate the town…or we'll just make them vacate the town."
"Without any deadly force?"
"Without any deadly force."
As Bumi, Shinji, Rumi, Taeko and Kanami were finishing their breakfast after hearing some cars pulling into town, Miaka was outside the gate and waiting for whoever it was that would be foolish enough to come to the estate unannounced. When she was informed, her first suspicion was that Gendo was coming to display his government authority, which had no place here. It would've been similar to his uninvited advances on her when they were younger and when she had found her soul mate in Bumi.
I don't know what his problem is this time, but enough is enough. We've all grown up and moved on with our lives and we try to live them as content as possible. She thought, now seeing a few men in black suits, wearing oxygen masks on their faces. To think that even outsiders would have to show their flaws.
Once they were within speaking range, Miaka told them, "I believe it's safe to remove your masks."
They did so and breathed in a good breath of air.
"How can you survive, let alone live up here?" One of them asked.
"The power to commune with nature, of course," she responded. "May I help you?"
"Yes, we're looking for a one Shinji Ikari," another of them asked her.
"There ain't no Ikaris around here."
The guy then pulled out a photo and showed her a picture of Shinji and Rumi, upsetting her.
"He should look like this kid in the picture," he told her, "with this little girl."
Then, she bowed her head and uttered, "I must apologize for what I'm about to do to you, sir." KICK! She had kicked him in his ball sack so hard he fell to the ground, wheezing like an old man. With the rest of them in shock, she back-flipped over the gate and was back in the estate's garden.
Wow, she thought, watching Nemo's live-action Guyver tapes really worked wonders.
As she rushed back to the house, the other men in black called their superiors and requested suggestions on how to deal with the current situation.
-x-
"…It would seem that your idea of sending Section Two on a 'simple visit' of your former home isn't going well, Ikari," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo, who had recently decided that SEELE's suggestion of the little girl being an Eva pilot might tip the balance of things in humanity's favor…at least until they had a time to setup the Dummy Plug System. Their only concerns were the fact that they didn't even know if the girl's mother was even dead, who else stayed with her, how she was actually able to achieve such a high synchronization rate with Unit-01 and without bringing out the Eva's true power.
"As long as she can synchronize with the Eva, it'll be adequate enough," said Kiel to him when nearly the rest of SEELE came to the same conclusion: Rumi Rokubungi had to be acquired for Eva training if she could synch with Unit-01 with relative ease.
-x-
"…Excuse me, gentlemen," went a woman that appeared to be in her early-twenties or thirties, with brownish-blond hair and hazel-colored eyes, wearing a simple blue shirt and black trousers. "What seems to be the meaning of this?"
"Ma'am, we're here on official NERV business," one of the men told her, which didn't please her to hear at all.
"NERV? As in that UN-controlled and funded, paramilitary organization charged with the purpose of defending mankind?" She asked.
"That's right."
"And with that logo with the fig leaf and the words, "God's In His Heaven. All's Right With The World", which comes from Robert Browning's poem called Pippa Passes?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Well, unless you were invited by the residents of this grand estate, you won't get in. And most governments don't have many rights to come to this town unannounced, whenever they want, and expect its people to cooperate. We're one of the only places left unscathed by the Second Impact or wars brought upon by it…and we wish to keep it that way for our future generations. Besides, what could be so official about seeing the family that lives here that has done so much for others that live here, anyway? It's not like they'd be interested in a job position you have."
"We're just here to pick up a little girl. We were told she might live here." The agents told her.
They must mean Rumi, the woman thought. "Still, you'd have to be invited by them to gain entry. I was invited, so I'll need to ask you to move aside."
Meanwhile, inside the house, Akira was gathering up her shuriken and katana swords, in case the common subtlety wasn't enough to drive these men in black away; she had always believed in never taking part in a fight unless someone else starts it, similar to what her son, Nemo had found in a cartoon series he saw on television that featured turtles acting like people.
Shinobu, however, was disappointed; she had invited over the girl for a proper introduction to her family's older members, along with lunch, and these men in black show up to cause trouble. It made her feel nothing but a swell of pity for every poor soul that comes to either the family estate or the dojo just to find trouble. If this was a NERV-related issue, these men were ruining her opportunity to show her relatives how wonderful this person was to her before she would take her to the Fú Festival for a nice time…and maybe even more than a nice time. Maybe, in the near future, there would be a greater moment spent with her.
RING-RING! Her cell phone started ringing, catching her attention, and she answered it, seeing that it was the girl she had invited over.
"Hello?" She asked her.
"Hi, Shinobu, it's me," the girl said. "I'm right outside the gate, but these men in black suits are…very persistent on getting in to pick up one of your younger relatives. They've been informed that they can't get in, but they refuse to leave until Rumi comes with them to Tokyo-3 for some program."
Having all heard from Shinji and Rumi of what had gone on in Tokyo-3, Shinobu assumed that this 'program' was piloting one of those abominations called Evagelions, and fighting giant monsters hell-bent on destroying the world.
"Shinobu?" Akira went, concerned about her daughter's woe over the girl she had invited over being outside with the MIB right.
"Kagura…have these men threaten you in any way since you arrived at the gate?" Shinobu asked her.
"Yes; I'm a would-be hostage for them," Kagura had answered.
Shinobu and Akira exhaled in woe; taking someone as a hostage was one of the highest crimes in Akira Town, punishable by either banishment, a ceremonial duel…or imprisonment.
"Have they said anything else?" Shinobu asked.
"Only that they want Rumi; they're willing to trade me for her, but I'm telling you not to do it, that it's an unfair exchange to begin with. Who would trade a thirty-five-year-old woman invited over to have lunch with the family of a fifty-one-year-old woman that you like to be with for a five-year-old girl that gets to save her nephew's life?"
Nemo heard this conversation, as well, and said, "These men have no honor. They don't play fair, taking a woman as a hostage."
He rushed out onto the garden path heading to the gate and jumped up to the top of it, looking down at the men and seeing Kagura cuffed and leaned against a tree with one of the men holding her phone against her head.
"So, let me see if I got this," he told them. "You want us to just give you Rumi, my little sister, for some bogus program in Tokyo-3, in exchange for one of my elder sister's invitee for a proper introduction to the rest of the family here?"
"That's right," they answered him.
"But what if Rumi isn't interested in going anywhere with you, people that she doesn't know, or isn't interested in going back to Tokyo-3?"
"We're under orders to escort her to the city, either way."
"So, then, she has no choice in the matter at all?"
"That's right."
"And who authorized this action?"
"Commander Gendo Ikari."
Nemo then leapt from the gate and onto the ground, slowly approaching them. Then…he let all of Hell break loose on the agents: He broke fingers, knocked out teeth, and left quite a handful of bruises on some of them, but left them stable enough to escape. He grabbed one of them by his shirt's collar and brought him close to leave a clear message.
"You tell my black sheep brother this: If he wants something to even happen for him around here, he needs to come in person and talk with the family about it. We don't take orders and we don't take kindly to many government officials or whatnot. In addition, neither Rumi nor Shinji want to go back to Tokyo-3, regardless of the reason. You tell him all of that. Do I make myself, in any way, whatsoever, clear to your ears?" Nemo told the agent.
"Yes, sir," he responded, terrified by this man who beat down all eight of the agents with just his bare hands. This isn't good.
Releasing the man, Nemo made him leave with his fellow agents down the path, leaving the keys needed to free Kagura from the cuffs binding her to the tree she was on.
Outsiders, he thought, going over to the woman now and freeing her. You'd think they would learn to tolerate us by now. I guess this saying's really true: 'The more things change, the more they don't stay the same'.
"Thank you," Kagura praised the man, rubbing her wrists. "I apologize for making you save me."
"No apologies are needed; I chose to do so. So, you must be the young lady that Shinobu invited over for lunch with us. With your permission, I would be happy to escort you into the grounds of our home."
"Thank you very much, sir," she praised him again.
The gates opened up and Mayo poked her head out, asking them, "Is the cost clear?"
"Yeah, Mayo," answered Nemo to her, "they're gone now."
"Then we should begin our lunch time, as well as have our introductions."
Kagura was led by the two into the gardens and into the house, where she was greeted by the others, and was quite happy to see Shinobu again.
"I apologize if my being captured caused you any trouble," she told them and bowed her head.
"It's okay," said Akira, having finally met the young woman for the first time. "It was out of our control. As people would say, we must expect the unexpected."
"Well," Kagura had decided to introduce herself after seeing Shinobu's mismatched family. "I'm Kagura Mikage, a friend of Shinobu's, and it's an honor to have finally met all of you."
"Welcome!" Rumi, Mayo, Taeko and Miaka greeted in their cheerful way, much to the embarrassment of Bumi and Shinobu.
To be continued…
