Creation began on 05-08-10
Creation ended on 06-01-13
Neon Genesis Evangelion
My Special Keeper, Part One-C3
-x-
All things considered, Ritsuko thought that what had happened today could've gone better. She had just heard from Section Two that some of their agents had been beaten down by a young man that looked almost like Commander Ikari, only with a lot of innocence and with a fluid-like way of the martial arts that he used to defeat them when informed by Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. That seemed, almost, impossible to believe, considering that all of Section Two had extensive self-defense training, themselves, but then their psyche evaluations would tell, otherwise, when they returned to Tokyo-3. A so-called 'simple visit' to a town that, interestingly enough, is hardly on any maps and has no record of being involved in any conflicts or wars that have gone on since its founding. And even stranger, still, was what had interested her the most about this place: It had been completely unaffected by the Second Impact; there were even women with teenage children living there, as if Second Impact had never happened at all. There was also the possibility of snow reports, which meant there was a series of weather changes that occurred only in that town.
I should probably see this place myself, she thought, typing away on her computer, running a diagnostics check on the MAGI. Is such a thing possible? A place unchanged by the wrath of the Angels from fifteen years ago?
-x-
"Bathing usually cleanses the mind and soul, not just the body," says Mother, thought Rumi, spending her quiet evening taking her third bath of the week. But sometimes, just like Shinji, some of my worst memories always manage to find me in the bath…even one as big as this one.
Sitting by one of the edges of the large, spring-like bathtub, the five-year-old girl found herself with some time to reminisce on her short visit in Tokyo-3, despite wanting to forget about it. She wasn't comfortable with the fact that such a city, with its high-tech and unrivaled…classiness, could appear so soulless and unable to bring a sense of harmony to a person like her. Was it all because Misato had explained that it was designed as a fortress city to repel the creatures NERV had dubbed Angels…or maybe it was because of something else that felt far worse than a case of unknown creatures coming to a city for reasons yet to be known by people? Or…maybe she was just being picky or questionable about other places.
It's not like the time we went to the ruins of that city by the bay, San Francisco, a once-proud city that attracted many people like fireflies, she thought, recalling her conversation to her nephew about the former city and the very trip they took last summer.
"Rumi, why question such a nice place to be in?" Shinji had asked, responding to his little aunt's question of how he could enjoy being surrounded by the remains of tall buildings that stuck out in the ruins by the water.
"But this place is just a bunch of old buildings that stick out of the water with large hills and rusted pieces of metal, weeds, grass and grime," she had told him, sitting on an old car that overlooked the large beach of steel sand that was made by the formation of cars that were piled against each other. "It's not really a good place of interest to me."
"I don't know why I like it," he had told her. "I just feel a calmness being here; like it's a big open space where you can just forget about your worries. Besides, this is one of the only, non-violent places I've ever been to outside of Japan, Rumi."
He's right about that, the girl chuckled as she stared at a small candle that was placed two feet away where she sat in the bath. San Francisco's one of the only, non-violent places he's been to outside of Japan; non-violent because it's been abandoned for years since its ruination. Everywhere else was changed forever by the Second Impact. Hearing about how others had to suffer makes you, who still lives in a place unchanged, think about how lucky you are that your life hasn't been taken or your home destroyed. I don't like suffering, but pain teaches people many things that are true: We learn to never be boastful of our abilities and never take what we get or have for granted. I like to think that, everyday, my family has been blessed with good fortune and love.
As the candlelight faded from her perception, Rumi couldn't help but think about that giant machine she piloted to defeat that monster. She had only felt pain at first when it grabbed her arm, but only at first; she'd even told her mother about this fact, and then beating it became similar to how she and the others would train in the martial arts daily to get stronger in the future where they would have to protect themselves and their loved ones. The Angel felt like a walking doll, almost like that girl Gendo summoned after seeing that she wouldn't allow him to use Shinji like some tool; Rumi found herself, while she was able to show sympathy for the girl's injuries, unable to show sympathy toward the whole of the girl herself, like there was something missing from her.
That girl, Rei, she then thought, now getting up and wading over to the center of the bath to float about. She didn't seem like a regular person… She looked almost like Shinji in one way: Sickly. Her skin was very pale, like chalk; without a doubt, she doesn't get enough sunlight or maybe suffers from albinism and requires medication. But what really bothered me about her was her eye; the very redness of it wasn't normal at all. Who was she? What was she?
As she continued to bathe, Shinji was spending his quiet evening working on his scrapbook that was part of his goal of leaving his mark in the Rokubungi family history. Akira had, more than anyone else, encouraged this and made sure he had what he needed to fill the large book he had that was, initially, empty and bare: Markers, color pencils, photographs and drawings that you could cut out of other books. It's even funny how it started: He was only eleven years old, he had required lymphocytes from Rumi, who willingly donated them, despite his initial belief that she was being forced to do so when finding out from Akira, after he had told her that he didn't want any other donations from his little aunt, after the cord blood requirement that had helped him out after she was born, against her wishes, that she had simply asked her to help him live longer, which she had also wanted, and after he had come out of the hospital, he noticed a little girl with a picture book that wasn't so different from one he used to look at when his mother was alive, filled with talking animals and fairies. He had become inspired to make a book of his own that he could share with the family when he finished it, and so far it had about seven pages left that needed to be filled up with the few remaining photos and scraps. And although he was dyslexic, he could understand some words, large or small, as long as they were big enough and spaced out so that each letter was clear to his perception.
Fantastic, he thought, having glued two pictures of Nemo and Miaka under and over the three pictures of himself, Akira and Taeko. This is coming out better than I had pictured it to.
Looking over at his copy of the family photograph, he found another piece of the solace he gained from living here with people he didn't know, initially, but grew to love them as they explained their wants for him to be in their lives; people that actually gave a care about him and wanted him for him. It made his dislike for Gendo, whom he couldn't even call any fatherly title after their recent and short-lived reunion, all the more less hard for his heart to endure.
Thank you again, he thought, resuming his work on the book.
-x-
Misato, finding out through Kaji about what had happened to some of Section Two's agents when she saw them sporting bandages and casts, wasn't too happy to find out that an order was made to go to the town that didn't exist on many maps (and, strangely, doesn't show up on many GPS systems, either), ignoring the facts of why they weren't supposed to go there in the first place, to pick up the five-year-old Rokubungi girl that had protected the city from the Third Angel in order to protect her fourteen-year-old nephew from his ruthless father…just to pilot the Eva again when they already had Asuka, who was willing to do it, and Rei, once she recovers from her injuries.
Why the sudden interest in a little girl that wants nothing to do with us because of the way we operate? She questioned, looking at the piece of paper that Rumi had given her before she and Shinji left to return home, containing the address and phone number; the address, although, wasn't very proper, as it didn't have a number or a street name; it was located atop a mountain that their town was built around and, interestingly enough, was named after its founder: Akira Town. Well, it couldn't hurt to try and contact them for a conversation. Maybe even an invite.
She picked up the phone and dialed the number in, waiting for the other end to pick up. It buzzed and buzzed until the other end was picked up.
"Rokubungi residence, this is Miaka speaking," the person on the other end responded.
"Um, hello," Misato uttered, "this is Misato Katsuragi. I'm trying to reach a one Rumi Rokubungi. Is she there?"
"She's taking her bath right now. Can I take a message for her? I'll make sure she gets it."
Before she could utter her next word, a sound on the other end came: It sounded like a door opening and footsteps approaching.
"Big sis," went a little girl's voice that sounded like Rumi's. "Out of curiosity, just who are you speaking to?"
"Someone named Misato Katsuragi, who's interested in speaking to you."
"Oh, well, let's see, then."
After three seconds of what appeared to be an exchanging of hands, Misato heard the little girl speak up in the receiver.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Hello, Rumi?" Misato responded.
"Hey, Misato."
"How are you doing?"
"I'm doing fine. You?"
"Work is alright. The reason that I'm calling is…did your family receive any unwanted visitors in the last few hours?"
"There was an unwanted visit from some men in black suits. Their reason for being here was unjust; they wanted me for what that man that turned away from all the good ways of living was trying to make my nephew do for him. Did…you have anything to do with it?"
"No, I didn't; I had just found out about it. That decision was made without even informing me."
"I believe you. Look, um, there's this special festival that's going to happen on the Fourth of July in another three days. Would you like to come to Akira Town to attend it? You're welcome to bring friends if you wish. It's almost comparable to a tourist attraction, except most of the people that attend the festival are all residents of the town."
"Um, sure, but…isn't that day an American holiday?"
"Yes, but not here in the town. While independence is important, it's embraced all the time. Come see it, enjoy yourself there; you might even get blessed with some luck."
"Okay, I'll come. That day will be my day off, anyway."
"Great. When you arrive, a guard will be there. Let them know I invited you over. Bye-bye."
She seems like a nice girl whenever she talks like that, like a real girl, Misato thought as she hung the phone up. I guess I might as well ask Ritsuko and the others if they'd like to attend with me.
-x-
Setting the phone away, Rumi sighed. She had just invited to the Fú Festival a woman that sent her nephew a provocative picture of herself and worked for the same organization that her outsider of an estranged big brother controlled, and that very man had sent people to come take her. And while it was true that she believed the older woman was being sincere when she said that she had nothing to do with the MIB that arrived earlier, she couldn't help but wonder why such an organization would be interested in her at all; their original interest was just Shinji, but now it was directed at her. She, like Shinji, didn't like being the center of any unwanted attention; time in the hospital in Shinji's case, and admirers, stalkers and the like in Rumi's case.
Sitting in the chair beside the counter that held the phone, she took a few breaths to calm her pulse, following the practices that her mother had instructed her to perform when she first started her martial arts training at the age of three years.
"Rumi?" She heard her mother's voice and looked up at her. "Are you okay?"
Clutching her bathrobe to keep it closed, the little five-year-old responded, "Yes, Mommy, I'm fine."
Akira chuckled, not buying that for a second, but knew her daughter would confess in her own time, and decided to change the subject.
"Looking forward to the festival?" She asked her.
"Very," Rumi answered back. "I have every right to be excited about it, right? I mean, the festival's good for me, as it is for every other child that drew their first breath on that day."
Akira knew what she was talking about; the Fú Festival had also been, oddly enough, Rumi's birthday.
-x-
Fú Festival of Two-Thousand-Nine
It wasn't a way that Akira wanted to enjoy the day, but what choice did she have? What choice did any other members of the family have? Doctor Gyatso, who also had a few degrees in prenatal healthcare, had informed her, once Rumi had been conceived and designed to be a perfect match for Shinji's failing health, that she'd probably be due on the Third of July, the day before the American holiday, and, as any expecting parent, was packed for her stay in the hospital a month early. To add a different wrinkle to how she was living each day in her pregnancy, she had to deal with Shinji's tormented state of emotions almost three months ago when he threw a large fit.
She had walked over to his room, which had been sparse and bare because he didn't show much interest in having any possessions, despite Nemo's insistence that he should act like a spoiled brat every once in a while (but Akira got the feeling that Shinji ignored him out of slight fear because of his subtle, facial similarities to Gendo, the very man that discarded him), knocked on the door to question Shinji on why he'd been playing loud music that seemed to promote unnecessary violence, but she got no response.
"Shinji? What are you doing in there?" She called out to him, but only heard him making a noise that didn't seem normal. "Shinji, come on. Let me in! I really need to talk with you."
Knock-knock!
"Aaurgh!" She heard him in his room, and then a crashing sound.
"Shinji!" She shouted, now banging on the door. "Shinji, you let me in this instant, please!"
The door suddenly opened and revealed Shinji with a bad expression on his face; he looked like he'd been crying all day and was wearing a wig that showed a wilder range of hair, unlike his traditional wig that showed the kinder version of his younger self before it started falling out due to his chemotherapy.
"Shinji, are you…" She started to say, but smelled something that reminded her of Bumi's adult lifestyle a bit. "What's going on in here? You smell like alcohol, Shinji. What are you doing?"
"Nothing," he said to her, but she knew he was lying to her. "I'm just…having a little party."
"But your birthday isn't for another two months."
"Not a birthday party, Grandmother. A going-away party."
"What?!" She gasped, and saw him holding one of Bumi's beer bottles in his left hand, indicating that he was, or had been, drinking a little before she found out, and threw it against a wall, shattering it. "What are you doing, Shinji?!"
"I'm leaving!" He yelled at her, having trashed his room and was now ready to finish the job with himself, holding up a bottle of sleeping pills that Shinobu had asked about because they went missing a few days ago.
"Shinji, no!" She cried out as she jumped him to the floor, seeing that he had just taken a lot of them in front of her. "Spit them out, Shinji! Spit them… What is wrong with you?! Spit them out!"
He kicked and struggled, even hitting her distended abdomen, but she took the pain and held onto his neck and made him cough out the pills as he cried out in sadness. When he was down coughing each and every one out, she let him go and dropped to her hands and knees, cutting herself on some broken glass by the fallen radio that Miaka had gotten him for his seventh birthday, and turned it off so they could converse on equal hearing grounds.
"You were gonna try and kill yourself?" She asked him, wanting the reason to the why. "You were gonna take your own life?! What's wrong with you?"
"My father doesn't want me around, anymore. My mother's gone! And it's not suicide if you're already dying!" He told her, still crying.
"You think we're happy about what has happened to you, Shinji? We're upset that he walked out of your life, too, but we're happy to have met you. I'm happy that you're here with us. But I'm not happy that you don't see that."
"You're already replacing me," he had pointed to her stomach, indicating potential jealousy of the unborn Rumi to Akira.
"She's not going to replace you, Shinji; that's not why I'm having her." She told him, placing her left hand on her belly.
"Then, why?"
"To keep you here with us because we don't want you to die. Most importantly because, even if it's true that your father doesn't love you, we do, back then and still."
"Are those the only reasons?"
"No, Shinji, but they are the most important ones."
"What are the other reasons?"
"Because I'm a mother, and I'd do anything for my children, even my grandchildren."
"Who would give a care for a sick boy like me?"
"I would, Shinji. You didn't choose to be sick twenty-four/seven, and I didn't choose for your parents to no longer be a part of your life; it's not so different from me not wanting my husband to die over a century ago and leaving me alone to raise my two daughters of that time."
"Over a century ago?"
"Yes, I might as well tell you more about myself. Everyone else knows, so it'd make no sense not to tell you about it. Shinji, I'm over one-hundred years old. I may look like a young woman, but I'm actually old enough to probably be your great-great-great-grandmother. Maybe older than that, but I've lived long enough to have had many children, but in the beginning, only two of those children were of my own blood. Before my husband died, he told me not to grieve on him, that I had too much love in my heart to wallow in despair. He told me that to live for our children…and any other children that existed out there in the future, even if they weren't mine. And he was right; not many of those children I had in the future up to the present were related to me by blood. Your uncles and aunts, even your father, they were all adopted, but I love them enough that blood and genes don't mean a thing to me. They know who they are to me and to each other, that this home is theirs as much as it's mine, and that it's even okay to feel the way that you probably feel right now. If there's something bothering you, you can tell us about it and we'd listen. We don't ever neglect our family, and if you can't always see me as a grandmother, I hope you can see me as a friend. Okay?"
Shinji nodded and hugged her, apologizing for what he had done and almost did, as well as trashing his room. Akira didn't pay the damages any mind, since the walls were mostly smooth and polished rock instead of wood and some of the material possessions he had could easily be replaced. It was the people in your life that you feel for, however, that could never be replaced, no matter what you did.
It was after that day that Shinji became a changed boy; he didn't dwell on his past with what could've been and lived each day with a better clarity that was provided to him by Akira. He even felt more comfortable talking to her about things that hadn't happened yet, like when she told him that when Rumi was born, he might never be sick again, which is what all of them were hoping for.
It felt like all of that was only a year ago, thought Akira, as she looked outside her patient room window at the lights that lit up the streets for the eve festival that she and the others were missing out on. "You know, you guys can go enjoy yourselves out there. I'll be fine."
"Right, and miss the arrival of our new sister?" Nemo asked, taking his eyes off his book to look at her from across the room. "Forget it, Mother. We're staying here with you."
"You couldn't send us away, even if you tried to, Mom," went Bumi. "Besides, you're not the only woman that's missing the festival that shouldn't even be happening until midnight, so what's going on out there is like a Fú Festival Eve. There are at least six other women expecting children, and half of them are holding out until midnight. Something about a Fú Festival baby getting things."
"The first baby born on the day of the Fú Festival is entitled to twelve packs of diapers and baby wipes for free and five-hundred dollars for some far-off college life," explained Kanami to them, while reading the newspaper of the day. "Oh, it looks like some Pyro Channelers are getting involved with the fireworks at the festival tomorrow."
Miaka, being the quiet woman that she usually is half the time during events like this one, uttered, "So, um, anyone wanna say what they'd want to say to Rumi when she grows up?"
"I thank Rumi for coming into our lives when things became boring," said Nemo.
"I thank my sister for enjoying my meals when I cook them," Kanami added, "and being a kind playmate to Shinji, Mayo and Taeko."
As they each said what they wanted to say to Rumi when she was old enough to understand, Akira could only think of two different things that were going on here: Herself with her contractions and Shinji going about his checkup and potential chemotherapy since he was up in the night with Tsukiko, since she wanted to make sure that none of the kids were being neglected when she went into labor earlier that day. Tsukiko had even informed her that Shinji was more concerned about her and Rumi than he wasn't with himself right now.
Looking at a clock, she registered the time as being eleven minutes until midnight, and then she started to feel pain in her stomach again.
"Ow! Ow, ow, ow!" She groaned. "I think I need the doctor. Now."
Nemo and Kanami both got up and went to retrieve the doctor assigned to her. Both started asking each other questions about what could happen.
"What do you think?" Nemo started.
"I think our new sis might be entitled to free diapers," Kanami answered him.
"And about those three letters that everybody refers to as hate mail?"
"The people that found out don't understand the seriousness of the situation we were all facing. They think that we're all trying to have a designer baby, but that's not like we're trying to achieve a…a…"
"Artificial perfection?"
"Yeah, Nemo, that. Thank you very much."
"Yeah, we're not trying to do that, even though we asked for specific traits, but they were only some of our nephew's traits in order to do the nigh-impossible: Try to keep him alive for as long as possible because he deserves to live as much as any other person that suffers from a cancer does."
"It's probably better that we try to do so for Shinji than that jerk that never did."
"Yeah, it is better, because if he leaves a message that says not to call him unless it's important when it is truly is important, then it only means one or two things: One) He doesn't really care about his only son if he left him at Bumi's when he was four. Two) He might have a god complex and family pales in comparison to power. I'd like to believe in the second possibility, but my soul tells me it's the first one."
"Nemo, once again, I take your beliefs and opinions seriously."
When they found Akira's doctor and brought her back to her room, she checked her cervix and said she was only eight centimeters along and had to wait a while longer for the other two centimeters to catch up before anything happened.
"All the other women are still holding out," she told them, her disbelief in the expectant mothers' desire to have their children born on the Fourth of July practically nonexistent now. "And midnight's only six minutes away now."
"Oh!" Akira groaned, unsure what was worse: The pain or the waiting. Short time till the birthing…but a long time to wait for it to happen.
After three more minutes, Akira's doctor checked her cervix again, and declared that Rumi was getting ready to crown.
"It might not even matter if you hold out or not. Your kid's gonna be very popular after midnight, another two minutes away," she told her.
"Oh, and I wasn't trying for any popularity at all," Akira groaned, as the nurses came and carted her off to the delivery room. "Oh!"
It wasn't even until fifteen seconds after every clock in the hospital struck twelve at midnight did people hear a new baby crying. That was Rumi, the newest addition to the Rokubungi family, and the youngest girl with the designation of being an aunt. The doctor, being reminded by Bumi and Miaka, who acted as the conscious behind what was supposed to happen after Rumi was born, made sure not to dispose of the umbilical cord that still possessed the blood required to, hopefully, put Shinji into permanent remission. She cut it from Rumi's body, gave it to one of the female nurses that would take it to be frozen for later use, and went back to tending to the nigh-timeless mother and her new daughter.
"Congratulations, Akira," she told her as she handed her Rumi's wrapped form. "Rumi's the first Fourth of July baby in town this year, which is also the day of the Fú Festival. She's very special right now."
"Yes," Akira had spoken her first words about her new daughter after her birth. "She is special."
-x-
That was most difficult for me to handle, two things at once that required a lotta energy, thought Akira, carrying her daughter to her room, which was across the hall from Shinji's. "Did you have anything planned with anyone, Rumi?"
"Just Shinji, Mayo and Taeko," Rumi answered her, being set down so that she could go put on her pajamas. "We're going to go watch the channelers a little before eating hotdogs, noodles and cotton candy, try to win prizes from the games, maybe even a fish or two, and then rest up before doing it allover again. Though, with my inviting a few outsiders, I may have to alter the schedule a little."
"Well, tourists do have a tendency to need to be shown around in order to understand how our home functions differently than other towns and cities."
Rumi placed on her lingerie, which consisted of gray, cotton panties and a blue undershirt, and then her pajamas of the next clean period, which was an oversized, green shirt.
"I'm hoping Shinji has a nice time at the festival," she told her mother.
"Same here," Akira responded. "Goodnight, Rumi."
"Goodnight, Mother."
-x-
"…And what's so special about this festival that's going on that day?" Asuka asked Misato, sounding uninterested in attending a good event.
"In the town, it's called the Fú Festival, celebrated every Fourth of July," explained Ritsuko for her, having read up on whatever information on Akira Town was available, known scarcely as the only place in Japan to avoid the massive devastation caused by Second Impact. "The festival was created sometime after the town was founded, though it wasn't due to the federal holiday; it was due to their belief that good luck and fortune would be blessed to the people on that day. It became a treasured gathering for the town people to embrace luck and good fortune."
"It sounds like something you see every year in other places," the redhead uttered, still sounding uninterested in going.
"Festivals like that never happen in Tokyo-3," Misato told her, and then sighed, "and I asked Kaji if he wanted to go, as well…and he said he'll be there."
That lit up the girl's face and she said, "I'm there."
Figures, she'd go if he was going, thought the purple head as she had now invited six people to come to the festival she'd been invited to (now, six people, including everyone's favorite animal mascot). I wonder what they'll have that'll be good to enjoy there?
As she was gathering up her invited guests, Gendo, having heard from Fuyutsuki, was also thinking of attending the festival, despite knowing that it would mean going back to Akira Town, the one place he had sworn not to go back to, no matter what. And the reasons to why he wanted to attend weren't because of the possible luck that people tend to get while there; his reasons were more personal.
-x-
"…So, what will you get Rumi this year, Bumi?" Miaka asked her husband, as she was preparing lunch the day before the festival.
"I might get her another stuffed animal, except that I've gotten her a stuffed animal every time," he answered, wanting to think of a good gift for his baby sister. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"Well, we could probably try getting her a book; Rumi does read in half of her free time."
"Yeah, and she surrounds herself in the literature of family dramas, which makes up a third of the genres she enjoys. What was that book you got her last year?"
"Looking for Home, and she told me she enjoyed it. I looked around the bookshops and found another book I think she might like, My Sister's Keeper, which also has a film adaptation with it."
"Why that one?"
"Well, despite it being fiction, it focuses on a family's struggle to save one of their own, kinda like how we try to, and how the family goes to many extremes to ensure the family that lives together stays together. In a way, it almost mirrors our own family; we're just real."
Bumi then looks away from her, toward a small rock that was just laying on the counter near his right arm, and he raises his left arm…which, like a magnet, attracts the rock as it shoots right off the counter and into his palm. He chuckles as he holds it in front of her face.
"You still got it, a sign that age and stress haven't gotten the better of you," she told him.
"In the last ten years, we've all barely aged; I only look four years older, and you're only two years older, half the years I've gone through already."
Suddenly, Nemo showed up and asked if they've seen Shinji.
"Yeah, Kanami and Mayo took him to the hospital for his monthly checkup," Bumi told him.
"I can see why," Nemo chuckled, but it was only a half-hearted chuckle; they all knew that Shinji just wanted to confirm if he was well enough to attend two events instead of having to face the possibility that he may have to spend another period of time in the hospital again because of his illness. "Where did he pick up his sense of precautions again?"
"Uh, I think he got them from you, Nemo," Miaka told him, tossing him an apple. "You did show him that film Monster House when he was ten…and he wanted to see Virus."
"The latter film was too scary at the time, and the former film was the lesser of the two horrors." Nemo confessed. "Have you ever seen the sculptures I keep in my floor closet? They're not always pleasant to look at when you're at a young age to know fear. Anyhow, I wanted his opinion on a gift I wanted to get Rumi at the festival."
"Oh?" Bumi and Miaka went.
"A yukata with a panda pattern on it," Nemo told them.
"Oh, that's really sweet," Miaka said. "Next to tigers, Rumi loves pandas the best."
-x-
"…Well, Shinji," said Dr. Gyatso to the fourteen-year-old boy that sat on the examination table as the aged man looked at his test results. "With all things considered, you're as fit as you were when you came back from your short trip to that city. Your CBC shows that your blood count is normal, your breathing exercises have done some good to your lungs and your kidneys are still in good condition. And how do you rate your pain of a scale of one to ten?"
"I'd say about three," Shinji told him.
"And your nutrition hasn't withered. My prognosis: You are fit to enjoy the festival and your aunt's birthday party."
"Thank you, doctor."
As Shinji got up off the table to leave, Gyatso stopped him.
"Aren't you forgetting something, Shinji?" He asked him.
"I don't think so," he answered back, and noticed Gyatso pointing to a plastic jar of cherry and grape-flavored lollipops. "Oh! How forgetful I am."
"You're never too old for one of these," Gyatso told him, and gave him a cherry-flavored one. "Have fun tomorrow."
"You, as well, Dr. Gyatso," he gave his thanks and left out the room to return home with his elder aunt and cousin.
Of all the good people that live here, he had to be part of the two percent of the population that we strive for to live long lives, thought Gyatso, putting Shinji's now-current medical form away with the rest of his file that was part of the collective documents of the Rokubungi family's medical history over the years of their existence. I had always hoped that he would be part of the few that could beat the odds all the time. Sometimes, I feel that I've failed him on every medical scale for the last five years after Rumi was born. I know my studies on cord blood were accurate; it was just that it was effective in some cases. Just some cases and I had hoped…we had all hoped…that it would help him recover and beat the odds of a short life. And for two years, it did, until he went and relapsed. I never stopped blaming myself for that happening.
The stroll down memory lane was often tormenting for the aged doctor; it was filled with many failures and false starts. But it was his memories of having to see Shinji suffer each time he relapsed that made him feel that he was unworthy of being a practitioner of medicine. He was always trying to ensure that there were always two paths for someone to take when suffering: The path of relief and the path of less suffering. But it always seemed that there was a third path for Shinji: The path of the hopeless, which was a path that Gyatso hated himself for, unintentionally, and, quite possibly, providing him.
He remembers the week after Rumi was born that Shinji was prepped for surgery to transplant the cord blood into his system in the hopes that Rumi, being his perfect match, would put him into permanent remission. Shinji seemed, somewhat, hesitant that he was getting a transplant from his newborn aunt; this stemmed from having the philosophy that when something is willingly given to you by another person, it has value, and this was taught to him by Kanami Rokubungi herself. Even though Rumi was too young at the time to actually say anything to anybody, it wasn't something she was going to miss or need later on. Shinji accepted, albeit reluctantly, and confused when he looked at certain picture books that belonged to medical practices; he became confused at how such a substance from the bones of a person could be called an organ to help another person.
It had been about two weeks after the transplant and it looked like the cord blood was doing its job; Shinji was more active than when he was on chemotherapy, and his hair was growing back to the way it was before it fell out during said therapy. Gyatso was proud that he had helped out in saving a life; it was always in his interests that young people lived to see the rest of the world. Although, unlike the many doctors that never lived in the town of Akira, he always had the troubling feeling that he couldn't let go of his friend's grandson's health just yet, and after two years…he was right.
It's bad enough that he's the only person in town that has APL; everyone else has AML or the other common forms of cancer, but it's hard to keep finding ways of extending his life. If it's not the requirement of bone marrow, it's lymphocytes or granulocytes. The only other thing that prevents him from receiving any operations that delay the inevitable is his unwillingness to accept a donation from Rumi unless it's of her own volition. Gyatso thought, deciding to look over at Shinji's medical history to review everything that has happened in the last ten years. What really bothers me about his unique case is that we needed to start getting whatever it was that we needed for him from Rumi the moment she was born, but it's like there's some god out there that's trying to say that, regardless of what we try, no matter what we do…it'll never be enough to save him. But I can't fully believe that. If there is something that can save him from the inevitable, without having to sacrifice another person, then people that are familiar with his case are sure to find it, eventually.
Looking over it, it was easy for him to see how the boy's medical history had intertwined with that of his youngest aunt's history; whenever he was in the hospital, she wasn't too far behind him.
-x-
…Something very bad is happening out there in the rest of the world, thought Rumi, having difficulty gazing up at the beautiful sky above on the garden grounds of the family estate, and I can't stop thinking about what happened in Tokyo-3…along with what almost happened here at home.
It was the day before the festival, and the future six-year-old girl couldn't help but wonder if something wrong was going to happen on her birthday.
"Rumi?" She heard her niece, Mayo, standing three feet away from where she laid. "It's almost lunch time. Bumi sent me to get you."
"Oh, well, thank you, Mayo," she praised her.
"Are you okay? You seemed bothered by something?"
"I, uh, well… It's that man again. Gendo."
"What he tried to do to you?"
"Yeah. I mean, what could possess a man to send people in black suits to go after a five-year-old girl that wanted only to protect her fourteen-year-old nephew from him, just to go and… Am I making any sense to you, Mayo?"
"Perfect sense. I can understand where you're coming from, and the only answer I can give you about what kind of man that would do such a thing is the guy we don't like."
"I'm also reconsidering going out to the festival the day after tomorrow."
"What?! But it's your birthday! Why wouldn't you wanna go have fun out there in the town?"
"He might try something on that day; just because he hasn't been here since he left doesn't mean there's no guarantee that he'll not be here this year."
"But Shinji just came back from the doctor to confirm if he was in good condition to attend the festival with us; he wants to have fun with you more than anything on that day."
Rumi got up off her back and asked her niece, "He…went to see Dr. Gyatso for me?"
"Yeah. We all know how he feels about being in the hospital every time he has an infection or when he relapses; he becomes depressed and unhappy, like he's ruined a good day."
Rumi then took off her dog tags to look at them; they had been engraved with her and Shinji's names the day after she had received them. They were meant to demonstrate to her, each and everyday, how special her nephew was to herself. Their very lives had been intertwined the second she was born; she cared too much about him to let him suffer from his illness.
Kami, please, just spare my nephew from any further agony, she thought, dangling them in front of their faces. He's already been through too many operations and they hurt those that care about him.
As she placed her tags back on and got up off the grass, Rumi took a deep breath and told her niece, "Okay, I'll go to the festival and embrace my birthday, but if something does go wrong, we're going home, right there and then, where it's safe."
"I can live with that; you're my aunt, therefore, you're responsible."
"I'm only responsible…when I need to be, but I'm no different from a regular child… I just have a set of genes that make me a suitable match for my only nephew."
"Hey…you know nobody treats you like… Well, what that man called Shinji, right?"
"Of course. There's never been a day that I view the way you treat me being any different. Like I said before, I'm no different from y'all."
Mayo smiled, saying, "That's right. You're no different from us."
-x-
"…Doctor Akagi-Sempai, we've been getting strange abnormalities from Unit-01," said Maya to her teacher, examining the core of the purple Eva.
"Really? How unusual?" Ritsuko asked.
"Well, internal scans show that there's nothing actually wrong with it; no contamination or such, but it would appear to be… I don't know, like it's unhappy."
Unhappy? Ritsuko thought, now curious to this change in the Eva's development. But Evas don't feel the way we do; they shouldn't be able to feel at all the way we do.
Now that she thought about it, the purple monstrosity did seem to appear different than before it went into battle with the Third Angel; it seemed to be depressed ever since the Third Child and his little aunt left to go home, afterwards. And she guessed it had a good reason to be depressed after hearing that he had a condition that was killing him very slowly each day; normally, young children afflicted with a terminal illness like leukemia almost never made it past the age of five. She assumed it was by short-lived advances in medical science (like the little girl herself) that allowed him to survive this long, not because of some hopeful miracles.
"It might be nothing, but just to be sure, we'll double-check the readings," she told Maya, her mind being focused more on the Eva now than the festival they were invited to by Misato, who had been invited by the little girl. I wonder if a boost in scientific advancement is part of the festival, as well.
As the women continued to work on the purple Eva, said Eva did indeed seem depressed. It was due to its spiritual resident, Yui Ikari, wallowing over all that she had seen in the little girl, Rumi's memories of her own son, Shinji; how he'd been living with his terminal illness ever since he was diagnosed with it, and how she had been conceived to try and save his life. All this girl had were happy days with her ill nephew that she cared about more than herself, wanting only for him to live and have a good life; Rumi had even been asked by him many times of what she pictured her future being like, and she would always answer in the same way: She pictured a good life in the town named after her mother, who was a well-respected centenarian of unfathomable wisdom, strength of body and mind, along with a history of adopting children and teaching them all that she knew and cherishing them as though they were her own, despite the lack of blood ties, meeting new people that came to either visit the town or to live within it in order to obtain a new lease on life, meeting that future somebody that was the one for her and then, potentially, starting a family of her own. The little girl was like his best friend in a way, always there to give him praise…or whatever it was that his body required to live because she never wanted him to leave the family while so young.
The only thing that really pained Yui was that when it came to the more secretive memories of the girl (which weren't hidden away from the Eva itself), it was the memory of when her son's kidneys had nearly quit on him and she knew she would have to donate one of her own to save him, only Shinji would have none of that happening; he believed that if he were to die from the loss of his kidneys, then it would have to be that way. He was tired of living just to see his inevitable death, having lived past many expected days and years where others had thought he would die, only to bounce back yet again. It wasn't only that, but because he didn't have any faith left in another operation, since a kidney transplant wasn't a guaranteed procedure, as it was potentially hazardous to both himself and to his young aunt. "Beyond that, I don't want my aunt to have to be careful for the rest of her life. Who would want to do that, anyway?" He had asked the other members of the family. Though Yui could see, from Rumi's point of view, that they had to accept that such words he used were true, Rumi wasn't entirely convinced because she still hoped to see him live a long life without the pain of his illness, even going so far as to wish for a massive amount of luck for him to be rid of his condition on an upcoming festival in their town.
Shinji…I hope that you may find it in your heart to forgive your parents for what they've done, thought Yui as she 'slumped' in misery. I never did take into account any of the possible risks of what could've happened later.
-x-
Tweet, tweet! The singing birds that lived in the town and on the mountain brought a series of irritated groans from many of the people that lived in Akira Town, particularly Rumi, who still wanted to sleep some more. She praised not requiring an alarm clock much of the time when the birds that had survived Second Impact in the town had the task of waking up her home.
"Oh! Ah…another day, another moment of life," she yawned, and then recalled what today was. Happy Birthday to you, Rumi. You're officially six years old today.
She got out of her bed and slipped her feet into her panda bear slippers. Stepping out of her room and walking toward the kitchen and seeing her mother asleep at the table.
"This is new," Rumi told herself, never seeing Akira asleep at the table before. "Mother?"
Akira stirred and opened her eyes; she, apparently, had an all-nighter again, which explained why she slept in her daily clothes instead of her pajamas.
"Oh," she yawned, seeing her daughter in front of her. "Good morning, Rumi."
"Good morning, Mother," greeted Rumi back.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, I did. Did you?"
"No, not really. I had an unusual nightmare about you."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. You see, I saw you in a city that was probably Tokyo-3, but you were bound in shackles and standing in front of people wearing military uniforms and cruel expressions. Do…do you remember my telling you about the special ceremonies that only occur here when a task or duty is given to a person or group of people to carry out?"
"Yes, Mother. It's one of the town's oldest traditions."
"My nightmare was kind of like that, but with a flaw. You see, the people in the city were waiting for you to swear an oath for them that you would help them change the world for as long as you would live, that you would remove the weak and unworthy, among other things and people. And then they bowed to you, like how the ceremonies here are done…except that when they bowed…"
Rumi saw the look of hurt on her mother's face and cut her off, saying, "Except that I didn't bow back, unwilling to accept the task or duty they bestowed upon me."
"Yes."
Rumi then placed her head on her mother's lap to soothe her. It was always a rare moment that she ever saw Akira bothered by something other than what was tangible…and what could've occurred in the past or future. She didn't like it when her mother was pained by such worries; it troubled her with the possibility that something terrible could happen later on.
"I know, how about you come with Shinji, Mayo, Taeko and I to the festival," she suggested.
"Maybe, but I'd have to do something important for you first," Akira told her. "This year, you get four toys from me on your birthday, dearest."
"Yay," she cheered, though it was quiet to avoid disturbing the peace of the others that were still asleep in their rooms. "Thank you, Mom."
As her daughter retreated back to her room to change out of her pajamas, Akira went back to recalling her nightmare; she didn't tell Rumi of the detail in which she saw her being forced into a creature that could've been described as whatever it was that she piloted back in the city. And then, in the process…the thing had somehow eaten her, body and all. She didn't want that to be real; it would've been too much to bear upon her soul, and as much as it hurt her to lose any of her children, it would've been awful to lose her daughter at such a young age.
I won't let her get hurt like that, she thought, deciding to go to her room and change out of her clothes from yesterday and clean up. I won't.
-x-
The sci-fi stores were probably some of Nemo's favorite places to go to in town; they were like a haven for many otaku like himself, though he didn't consider himself much of an otaku, even if he was sometimes; he usually preferred the term 'addict', since it was like a drug for him that he didn't require any negative requirements for, such as a needle. It was also where he was looking for something to get his baby sister. His first idea was to get her an action figure, but then had to smack himself on the head; Rumi didn't have much of a thing for action figures, as they were more for boys than for girls. He also thought of a toy for her, but realized that this was the year that their mother would be getting her four of them, so he didn't really have to. Another option was a movie, since they all liked movies. So, spending some time looking at the collection of DVDs of all genres, from action to comedy, Nemo wanted to get one for her that was right about her age in mental development, had the right amount of fun and adventure, and not so much of any horror. His eyes stopped upon an old film that promised such an amount: Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.
Okay, he thought, reaching out to get it, but his hand made contact with another hand. Okay, who's the wise one to think they can get this from me?
Looking toward the hand's owner, he gazed into the hazel-colored eyes of a lovely young woman with brownish-red hair and an elegant appeal. She looked back at him and lowered her arm down.
"I'm sorry," she apologized to him.
"Gomen nasai," he also apologized. "Were you reaching for Little Nemo, too?"
"Um, yes. Yes, I was. I had looked at comic strips of it and had been searching for the film of it. Were you going for it?"
"Well, yes. Today's my sister's birthday, and I thought she'd enjoy that film. Oh, where are my manners? I apologize, ma'am, I'm Nemo Rokubungi. And you are?"
"I'm Camille, Camille Moto."
"Wow, what a lovely name."
"Believe it or not, my father wanted to call me Sagi; he said I reminded him of a liar at first."
"Now, that's terrible. You don't look like a liar; you look more like the princess in the cartoon that has the same name as you."
"Say, were you named after the boy from the comic strips?"
"Nope, I was named after my late great-great-grandfather, Nemo Souma."
"Huh? I thought your last name was Rokubungi."
"It is; I was adopted when I was three."
"So…you mean you're one of Elder Akira Rokubungi's children?"
"Yes."
"Wow, I almost didn't recognize you because of your aura; you seem so innocent."
"Yeah, that's what people tell me. Um, you can have the movie if you want it; I'll find another one."
"No, no, you go on ahead and have it. I mean, it's for your sister, isn't it? She'll enjoy it. Is she a sci-fi lover, as well?"
"No. Uh, wait; you're an addict of science fiction, too?"
"Yeah, I enjoy the wonders of the world of make believe. My favorite film of all time is Perfect Blue."
"Are you for real? Perfect Blue? The one made by the great Satoshi Kon himself?"
"Yes, that one."
"I loved that film, too. Even the American film Red Planet was great."
"You saw that one, as well? Kami, you must have a great collection at your house."
"I consider my collection very small, though my sisters and brother say that it's huge."
"Maybe I'll see you at the festival tonight?"
"Yes, yes."
"Okay, then," she said, and then selected a different movie off the shelf and left to purchase it. "It was nice talking to you."
"It was nice talking to you, as well," he told her, and then looked at the DVD in his hands. Wow.
-x-
Akira became very concerned over her youngest daughter's future now. It wasn't the nightmare that was bothering her now; it was the toys that Rumi picked out. They were a stuffed dragon, a kite shaped like a bird, a mask shaped like a catfish's face and a carrying case that looked like a well-made, oversized mole. They bothered her because they represented the four elements most of the town could channel through themselves: Fire, Air, Water and Earth, respectively. The problem wasn't just that she had picked them out for herself, but the fact that, long ago, Akira herself had picked out four toys that used similar specific animals that her daughter's toys had been used to represent the elements. All four elements. It was a common factor among the town's traditions that when you don't know what element your child will embody, you allow them to pick out four toys that they like; it was a method used to show if they were blessed with such a power or not. Except Rumi wasn't told of this yet, and this was the primary reason for Akira's concern over Rumi.
Her toys aren't that different from the ones I used to play with…which were no different from the toys of others like me. She thought, driving Bumi's hydroelectric and solar-powered jeep back up the mountain path to their home. Should I ask her why she picked them out, why she chose them and not some other toys?
Rumi didn't like the silence, wondering if she had done something wrong to cause it.
"Did I do something bad, Mommy?" She asked her.
"Oh, no, Rumi," she told her. "You still surprised me with the toys you picked out. Why did you pick out these specific toys, anyway?"
Rumi tried to find an answer, but it was difficult; it was like there was a voice in her head telling her to find those toys and acquire them. The last time she checked, she didn't even like dragons very much…or moles or fish as much as she liked pandas and tigers.
"I…I…I think I did something wrong," she told Akira.
"No, Rumi, sweetie, you did nothing wrong. It was me. There was another tradition that I didn't tell you of that I probably should've said earlier."
"Which tradition?"
"One of the traditions used to find out what elements children will channel and which ones they won't. You see, when you can't tell for sure what element a child is blessed with, you give them a test by placing them in front of a large selection of toys, often asking them to choose four. If a child selects two or three toys that represent the same element and the other ones representing different elements, and that's only if they don't choose all four under the same element, you'll know which one they've been blessed with. But you see, you chose four toys that pertain to all four elements. So, assuming what you did was no coincidence, you may have the power to channel all the elements…just like I can…just like there have been others that were blessed with such a gift."
"You mean…you can channel the other elements? But…I only ever see you channel air, so I've always assumed you were an Aero Channeler."
"That's because air is my commonly-used element. It's also the element I started off with. I didn't train with the other three until I became of proper disciplinary age, which varies among many channelers. In my case, it was sixteen, the standard age that all channelers that can control all the elements begin to learn the other practices."
"Have you seen others that could…like you?"
"No, Rumi, though I wish I did. I was lonely before I met the love of my life long ago; I devoted my time to maintaining control over my blessing, which took me a total of eighteen years to master. Out of everyone in the whole town, I'm the only one that is stronger than the rest. I'm always at my peak."
They reached the gate and got out of Bumi's jeep, once again thankful that he acquired one that ran on water and solar energies instead of harmful substances like gasoline and oil. Rumi became concerned about knowing all of this; if it was true, then it also meant that she might not have a good life if there were those that might try to exploit such a wondrous gift she had been blessed with.
"Mommy, what if I just made a mistake?" She asked her as they walked inside the gardens. "And…if I didn't make one, which element would I have to learn first?"
Akira looked over at the concern on her daughter's face and explained, "Mistakes like this don't happen every generation, Rumi. And don't call it a mistake. A mistake is calling a blessing a curse. And the first element that you'll start with…depends entirely on you. You alone can choose which one to begin with; no one else is allowed to choose for you. It's your decision. I chose Air and once I mastered that element, I had to continue with Water as the second; Earth was next and Fire was last."
"Does it have to be in that pattern? Why does Water come after Air? Why not Water and Fire and then Earth and Air?"
"It's in that pattern because the different principles and disciplines will help you. If you tried to learn an art out of order, you'd end up causing trouble for yourself. I made that mistake once when I was the physical age you see in front of you. I tried to learn the arts of fire after I had mastered air, but my instructors from the past told me never to deviate from the pattern. "Water and Earth must come after Air, Akira, not Fire. Water is cool and soothing, it brings relief. Earth is hard and enduring, it brings stability. But fire…fire is alive, and when misused, it causes great harm to both yourself and those around you." One of my teachers told me…and I didn't heed his warnings when I still attempted to learn fire; the lack of understanding created for me a layer of my grief."
"W…what happened?"
"I had burnt the left side of my back, receiving a third degree burn that would've required months to heal if not for one of my Hydro Channeling instructors healing me. "The inexperienced hunter doesn't leap until after he looks," he told me. "When the apple falls hard from the tree, you had best look up before trying to evade potential harm." After that, I took the disciplines hard and never deviated again, mastering fire last."
"Will I…have to start learning them now?" Rumi asked her.
"No, not now. Maybe when you're sixteen…or in another year or two, once you build up more self-control. Just not now. Besides, it's your birthday. I want you to have fun today, not wallow over what you'll need to do in the future. Besides, learning to control the elements can wait as long as you wish. I'd never force you to learn them against your will."
"Thank you, Mother, and I think the first element I'll want to start with is air."
"Okay, Rumi. Now, let's go get changed for the festival, yes?"
"Okay!"
-x-
As the sun went down, the town came to life with lanterns, music, games, dances, kimonos, yukatas and people walking the roads. This was the Fú Festival that the town enjoyed each year. It even attracted several out-of-towners that had time to waste…and they found some luck of their own.
"Nemo!" Nemo heard Camille call out to him. "Over here!"
Nemo, swapping his casual street clothes for a navy-blue and black kimono, saw the young woman wearing a bluish-green yukata that reminded him of the princess from the cartoon movie he had acquired for his little sister.
"Wow," he uttered, "you look…so beautiful."
"Wow, thank you very much, Nemo," she praised him. "Well, is there anything you wish to do?"
"Well, there's the ring toss game. Do you care to try with me?"
"Sure."
As they fancied themselves to the game, at the front of the town, Misato, Ritsuko, Maya, Asuka, Pen-Pen, Kaji, Makoto Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba (Shigeru had been invited because he had nothing else to do, other than play with his guitar) had arrived toward a guard that had been posted there; what really bothered them, though, was that the town seemed very difficult to find, even when they had a good map of how to get there.
"Um, Rumi Rokubungi invited us here," Misato told the guard.
"Katsuragi, Misato?" He asked her.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"Ah, yes, she did mention you'd be here and that you would have friends. Welcome to Akira Town and the Fú Festival. We hope that you do enjoy yourselves and may you be blessed with luck on this pleasant night."
After passing the guard and stepping foot into the supposedly-unchanged piece of civilization, Misato found that parts of the place seemed like it was modern enough, but there were other pieces that stuck out a little too far back in history; there were some buildings made entirely out of stone and/or wood, transportation consisted of bikes, skateboards, scooters and those horse-powered carts, and, to her stunned eyes, it looked as though some of the performers they saw were manipulating large amounts of water and fire in front of others without any sort of optical illusion equipment needed.
"Whoa," went Kaji, interested and curious at the same time. "We're probably the only ones that stick out, too."
It was only partially true; the group was dressed in regular clothing, but none that blended in with the crowds of larger people that wore kimonos and yukatas of various styles and colorations.
"You outsiders look like you need to blend in," they were told by a elderly couple operating a clothing stand. "Most people that come to the festival often come ill-prepared."
Pen-Pen jumped out of Misato's arms and waddled over toward a small yukata with a fish pattern on it and pointed his left wing to it.
"I guess he wants you to get that one, Katsuragi," Kaji joked.
"Ooh! They got red!" Asuka cheered, seeing a red yukata with a rose pattern on it.
"It looks like two people got lucky enough to find something they like after arriving," said the elderly man, and he gave Asuka the yukata. "Go have fun, ma'am."
When they were informed that the festival was of the only ones they embraced that was devoid of any economic wants (meaning that much of everything was free for the day), they each acquired a kimono or yukata to blend in; some of their new clothes reflected some aspect of the four elements that was part of the town's culture: Misato's yukata represented a stubborn, demanding stability that was often shown by the Geo Channelers (it was also the color of her favorite beverage mixed in with some white flowers sewn into the waist and wrist portions of the outfit), Ritsuko's yukata showed a different aspect of the Geo Channelers, which consisted of the purified version that was metal, indicating a harder-than-normal outlook on life with its silver and white colors (and not many channelers of the Earth element could control metal as good as they could do with the regular ground), Maya's yukata was ruled by the flowing adaptability that comes with the water element that Hydro Channelers were blessed with, its blue and white colors representing the water and the moon, Makoto and Shigeru's kimonos were based simply on the red and orange colors of fire and air, respectively; Makoto's was red due to a, somewhat, hidden desire for what he almost believed he couldn't have, while Shigeru's was orange to represent the detached nature he possessed, and Kaji's kimomo was also reddish-brown; it represented the short-lived drives of fiery desires ("I think they suit you people just right," said the elderly man to them after they had tried the clothing on).
Once they acquired their new duds, they continued with their observation of the festival; many of the people there looked as though they belonged and could delude themselves with a belief of war being a lie, while others looked just like Misato and her group: Invited outsiders.
Asuka looked around and saw some people with balls of fire above their unbound hands, turning into burning shapes; she was curious as to how they could do such a thing, but chalked it up to optical illusions. There was no way that people could perform moves like that without advanced technology.
Kaji, helping himself to a cigarette from Ritsuko, he became ever curious as to how a town like this could survive Second Impact unscathed. Was there a foreign power behind it…or did the Angels decide that this place was one of the only few that was deserving of being spared.
"…I only recognize one person with purple hair!" He stopped walking and thinking and turned to see a little girl in a blue yukata with a panda pattern on it; he'd also recognized her face from the camera photos NERV had acquired when she had visited Tokyo-3 with the former Third Child.
"Rumi?" Misato asked, seeing her, along with Shinji, two other young girls and a young woman sitting by a ramen stand eating noodles. "This is…quite a place you live in."
"A blend between the ancient and the modern, but it's my home, all the same," the girl, Rumi, responded, impressed by their kimonos and yukatas. "Are you enjoying the festival?"
"Yes, thank you for asking. Friends of yours (Misato pointed to Mayo, Taeko and Akira)?"
"Nope. They're family. Since you already know Shinji, meet my nieces; Mayo and Taeko Rokubungi." Rumi introduced her nieces to the purple-haired paramilitary captain.
"Hello, ma'am," the graceful, twelve-year-old Mayo greeted her, setting her bowl of shrimp-flavored noodles down.
"Konnichiwa, Katsuragi-San," Taeko greeted, not so curious about the redhead behind Misato, but concerned; it was like there was something wrong with her personality.
"And this is my mother, Akira," Rumi introduced her mother to them.
"Such an honor it is to have met you in person," Akira greeted Misato, extending out her left hand.
Misato accepted and shook hands with her, though she was now curious; this woman's name was the same as the town, and she felt that it was no coincidence, either.
"I get that look many times when people think what you're thinking," Akira told Misato, shaking her out of her train of thoughts.
"Excuse me?"
"You were wondering if I was named after the town, which is actually the opposite; the town was named after me. I helped to build it…over a century ago."
At that moment, Ritsuko was surprised; she always looked at the world from a scientist's perspective, never believing that there was such a thing as magic.
"You…you're the founder?" Misato, gasping for air, asked her. No way! She'd have to be…well…she'd have to be really, really old by now.
"Granny Akira was blessed," said Taeko, all too familiar with her grandmother's age and appearance to be surprised.
"May we offer you some ramen?" Akira offered the group. "Questions and answers can wait a while as we eat."
With nothing else to do yet, Misato and the others joined the five by the stand.
"Thank you again for inviting me to the festival, Rumi?" Misato praised Rumi.
"You're welcome," Rumi responded, wondering where their future conversations were going to lead them. As long as no party crashers come around, it'll be okay.
"How about you introduce us to your invitees, Ms. Katsuragi?" Akira asked Misato.
"Uh, sure," she responded, looking over at Ritsuko. "This is my friend, Ritsuko Akagi. She's the head scientist at where I work. Something of a polymath."
"Oh?" Taeko went. "What is a polymath? Does that have something to do with shapes?"
"No, that would be a polygon," Ritsuko explained. "A polymath is a person of encyclopedic learning…or knowing many different things at once."
"Like a child prodigy, then?"
"Yeah."
"I'm a child prodigy," Asuka butted in, sipping on a cup of fruit punch.
"This is Asuka Langley Soryu," Misato introduced Asuka to them; since there was a possibility that Rumi's relatives weren't very pleased with how NERV works, just like how Rumi herself was displeased, she kept quiet about the Evangelions, and hoped that Asuka would, as well.
"A child prodigy, you say?" Rumi asked her.
"Yes; I went to and graduated out of college just last year," Asuka revealed.
"What degree or degrees were you aiming for?" Akira asked.
"Physics and computer technology."
"Oh, ha-ha-ha! Computers. I'm sorry, but you just reminded me of my son, Nemo; he needed three weeks to teach me how to use a computer since they were so modern. And he's a follower of the science fiction, which has partial roots in science."
The two groups became quiet again, allowing Misato to continue her introductions.
"This is Maya Ibuki," she pointed out the young woman that seemed to have a timid young mind to match her boyish features.
"Bunny," said Taeko to Maya, pointing at her head. "Bunny, bunny, bunny (she had then pointed to Makoto and Shigeru)."
"Taeko!" Mayo gasped, forcing her cousin's hand down to her side. "It's not nice to point and call names, you know that."
"They remind me of bunnies," Taeko defended her reasons for doing so.
"I apologize for Taeko," went Rumi to the three people her niece pointed at.
"No offense taken," said Shigeru. "We get called that at work many times. 'Bridge Bunnies', they call us, even when there are other workers there. We're pretty much the main Bridge Bunnies."
"That's Shigeru Aoba," Misato introduced the Bridge Bunny. "He's the only one at work, so far, that has an affinity for the guitar."
"Guitar?" Mayo asked, sounding displeased. "You mean, those loud instruments that make that rock and roll music that young people today listen to?"
"Um, yeah?" Shigeru answered her.
"You should demonstrate your prowess on it; I'm sure it'd be good." Mayo then told him, smiling.
"She had a bad experience with the instrument once because a classmate of hers played the thing too close to her ears," Taeko revealed. "She's still a sensitive girl."
When Misato introduced Makoto and Kaji (though her former boyfriend's introduction was rather forced), she introduced Pen-Pen (mostly because Rumi became interested in the animal that seemed to glow with near-human intelligence).
"…He's a warm-water penguin," she explained bits of his existence; she hoped they didn't question why he had a metal backpack on.
"Heh-heh-heh," Akira chuckled. "I've never known a person that took in a penguin before. This is a first for me. Pen-Pen, huh? That's rather adorable. He's very rare; not many of the penguins here are as cute as he is."
"Yeah, well… Wait a minute?! Other penguins? Here? But…the Second Impact should've wiped most of them out fifteen years ago." Misato gasped.
"Before that day came and went, Akira Town had a penguin boom; there were at least forty-seven newly-hatched penguins running around." Shinji told her, drinking his herbal tea. "Then, there were the tiger, rhino, elephant and giraffe booms that also occurred before and after Second Impact. We had to expand a little just to provide space for the new baby pandas and hippos that came two years later. We're a lively and quiet town that's still small, despite its population. I just love it here."
Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji could probably understand why he did; the place just seemed to be completely untouched by the negatives of what had happened fifteen years ago while nearly everywhere else suffered. But here, people, and animals, continued to thrive. There was still a culture that was unscathed by wars and conflicts, even children that still possessed their mothers in their lives.
"How did such a place as this survive Second Impact?" Kaji spoke out. "Out of curiosity."
Swallowing her piece of chicken that was in her noodles, Akira uttered, "Do you believe in the power to control the gifts of the planet…with just the strength of one's will, young man?"
Kaji was left confused by her question; he had never heard such a question before.
"You see people…and see that they're worried, confused, frightened and praying for salvation. The blue skies becoming an enraged red, like a demon that looked down upon those as weaklings to be picked on. Your friends…your family…and with so little time left to act, you look to persevere and survive, along with wanting those you don't know very well to live, as well."
Somehow, Akira had swept the groups into her voice as she could recall that fateful day that the whole world that this town was a part of almost going away.
-x-
Second Impact
The skies were indeed a shade of red, with people running up the mountain to the Rokubungi estate. They were worried, confused, and desperate for answers to their questions. Running up to the gates of the estate, they made their presence known to Akira and the few Rokubungi family members that remained, which included the then-eighteen-year-old Nemo, the grieving Kanami Rokubungi, upset over the recent loss of her boyfriend, the then-thirteen-year-old Tsukiko and a worried Shinobu, who had just returned from shopping for food.
"Mother, what's going on?" Nemo and Tsukiko asked Akira, concerned and worried.
"I'm not sure, sweeties," she told them, seeing something rising from far away.
Suddenly, the head of the estate and founder of the town saw what might've been the cause of the people running up the mountain: A giant wall of water, thick in its gallons, strong in its speed, heading straight forward their home.
"Oh, God," she gasped, never expecting something like this to happen, but recalled a previous dream foretelling her of a great danger to her family.
"As a channeler capable of wielding all the elements, you're not meant to cause suffering to others, Akira," her mother had told her in her dream, just as she had in life when she was younger. "To save the ones you love…as well as the people you know deserve to live out their lives, you must embrace the gift the world has given you. Let the elemental souls flow through you like how water flows down a river; allow them to guide you…so that you, in the future, can guide others toward a new path."
She recalled her oath that she made to her husband a year before he died; he had made her swear to live on and give the children of her future, including the ones that weren't hers, a kind family that included her so that she would show them the way to a better existence, and so far in her years, she hadn't failed in teaching them that there have always been ways to seek better results in your life when things don't go the way you want them to. Her family, which had been large in her past, had slowly dwindled down to a mere few ever since the dawn of the Twentieth Century, taken not by the violence of war caused by those that don't understand each other, but by age and sickness. But she kept those sons and daughters alive in her heart, unwilling to let those bonds go, no matter how much their absence hurt her; it was those bonds that enabled her to move on and take in others that were without a proper future, families or relations that were present, teaching them how to live in a world that had lost much of its guidance in the hopes that it would, one day, regain it again.
"Please, Mommy," went Tsukiko, scared. "Do something."
Akira looked to the top of the mountain and saw a solution to their predicament.
"Open the gates and let the people in," she told Nemo, "let them know that there's nothing to worry about. I'll handle this situation."
Nemo ran over to open the gate and then, as the people from the town poured in, Akira leapt over their heads and ran out, straight to the peak, where she obtained a grand view of not just the small town but the world around it, along with a bigger view of the approaching tsunami. This was something she'd never attempted before, but it wasn't something she never thought of doing to help others; it'd been an opportunity to demonstrate how strong her will was.
"Okay, spirits of the elements," she spoke to the intangible forces around her. "Guide me so that I may guide others, please."
She then performed her Tai Chi practices, which were to enhance her ability to channel the power of the water, evoking the souls within the tsunami. As she performed, she envisioned herself in a meadow, standing before a large army of outsiders that refused to accept the flow of balance that she and the other channelers shared, and performed her stances to intimidate them with her power. In the process, the ground around her raised her higher into the air, granting her a closer contact with the approaching tsunami; the closer she, or any Hydro Channeler, for that matter, was to water, the stronger the will to control it became. Seconds later, her eyes flared an intense gold and silver, magnifying her power.
The tidal wave, as it came ever closer to burying the town and erasing it from existence, within moments of reaching its primary gates, came to a complete halt; Akira's will froze it! A face then manifested in front of her and the mountain through the wall of water, a seamless face, shaped similar to that of an infant…and it spoke to her.
"Why have you stopped me from fulfilling my purpose?" It asked her, neutral in gender; it spoke in what sounded like dozens of voices, all speaking at once to her.
"Your purpose?" She counted, her eyes still flaring gold and silver. "Your purpose seems to be in the way of my home and loved ones and the rest of the world. I ask you this: Why are you doing this? What have we done to deserve this fate which I'm trying now to prevent?"
"It's not what you have done; it is what those that have brought the ruination of your race into play. The whole of Antarctica, a place of perpetual nothingness, a wasteland of ice and snow, has been reduced to a dead zone; nothing, not even a life-form so tiny, it may as well be under your heart, can exist there any longer. The members of your species, which have instigated a game of suffering, wish to achieve a power they do not deserve." The wall of water told her.
"People with god complexes," she uttered. "I've seen and heard the type; they're not so noble or idealistic. Are you going to persist with your so-called purpose of destroying my home?"
"I have no choice in that matter," the wall of water told her.
"Then I have no choice to put you out of your misery," Akira told it, and raised her arms higher into the air; the water then evaporated off the ground in front of the town, becoming vapor and light snow. "I pray that you find peace in the next world."
As the snow fell upon their faces, the villagers of Akira Town, never seeing this much of the elemental power that their founder and leader had, expressed their gratitude in her protecting them from sure destruction. They cheered and congratulated her for her seemingly-easy effort in dealing with a large tsunami of devastating proportions, but what they didn't know that it wasn't entirely easy for Akira to hold off a tsunami; she had never done so in her years of mastering the flowing element of water.
Nemo and Kanami, who put aside her grieving to help their weakened mother, helped Akira walk down the path back to the estate where she could rest and regain her strength.
"You're a Superwoman, Mother," Nemo told her. "When will any of us be able to do exactly what you did back there?"
"You keep practicing your basics for another two years, you'll be able to control situations like that…but not in the same degree as myself," she told him. "I've had more than enough years to master and hone my control…over…the…"
Her train of words had been broken by the sight of the villagers gathered around in front of her, all of whom had proud faces. They then lowered to their knees and bowed their heads to her, as if she were to be worshiped as a goddess.
Kanami then remembered the reason to why they were bowing.
"Mother, they gave you a task to carry out," she told her mother, letting go of her left side once she was able to stand on her own. "You carried it out; you saved them from a catastrophe. A bowing of gratitude has been given to you…and you deserve it a lot."
Her children joined them in the bowing, which only had value when and if she bowed back…and she did. Kneeling before them, she accepted their thanks, grateful that she was able to protect them. But what concerned her a little was what caused the tidal wave to be created; if what it said was true, then there were people responsible for making it, and possibly many other waves of gigantic proportions. Everywhere else, people weren't so fortunate as the people of Akira Town; their homes were taken, lives ended, their very existence changed by what other people had done, just to obtain something that they didn't earn or deserve. She pitied their misfortunes, hoping that they, like the Geo Channelers she had known and seen, would retain their hope and endure, for in the end, that was what all of the rest of the would could do at a time like this.
-x-
"…And after the story came out, nobody here, not even me, bought the whole truth that was printed in the papers," Akira went on. "A meteorite so small and moving almost at the speed of light, colliding with the icecaps and melting them, raising the ocean-levels and burying coastal cities and removing more than half the planet's population? Don't make me shed a tear on that. Such a possibility exists only in the realm of the sci-fi. Something…far worse than a meteorite happened that day, something that should not have happened…and many innocent lives were the unfair tribute to survive."
Rumi and Shinji, also having heard the story in the textbooks, were just as disbelieving of the story as Akira was; being as young as they were, they preferred the truth as opposed to hearing flat-out lies.
"So, you people never believed the public story at all?" Misato asked, recalling her own experience in the Second Impact that claimed the lives of her parents. "Not once?"
"Never," Shinji answered, drinking a cup of herbal tea. "If there is a truth to the public being told a lie, the people responsible for causing such devastation to the world are the ones that have hidden it…and need to repent for their sins, dragging in people that had absolutely nothing to do with the dire state of present-day things. I've been to other places outside of town and the country, whenever I'm well enough to travel, that is, and I've never enjoyed how some of the places that are seemed so…unlike the places that were. Heh, even Tokyo-3 bites."
"But you were only there for a day," Misato tried to defend the fortress city, even though she had to agree with his and Rumi's belief that it wasn't so pleasant a city to live in, let alone visit. "Why not visit the city again and take in the sights?"
Shinji set his cup of tea down and said, "And see that man's face and hear his cold-hearted voice again? I'd rather explore the ruins of San Francisco again than to risk that possibility."
"You've enjoyed that old place ever since we went there on vacation two years back," said Rumi to him. "I've never…seen…"
The sight of a torch from afar burning bright blue instead of yellow-orange caught her off and distracted from what she was trying to say to him. She'd never seen fire change color like that before; it was normally impossible for fire to burn that color…unless controlled by those gifted with the power over such element that you couldn't truly hold without harming yourself. And worse, only one person alive was able to make fire burn blue…and that person used to live in the town.
"M…Mommy," she told Akira, pointing to the torch, now accompanied by three other torches burning the same color. "Look over there."
Akira saw…and was displeased; she had thought that this was going to be a peaceful night of fun and conversation between neighbors, villagers and outsiders, but now it seemed that something was either amiss or something was about to go amiss.
Shinji looked at the torches, wondering why they were burning such a color that he found very disturbing, and asked, "Grandmother, are the torches supposed to do that this year?"
"No, Shinji," she answered, getting up out of her seat. "You guys continue to enjoy yourselves while I go see what's wrong."
As she left, Asuka looked at Shinji and wondered why he had been in Tokyo-3 briefly, curious as to whether or not he was the one that piloted the Eva without any training, only to leave later when the Angel was defeated.
"So, you went to Tokyo-3 only once?" She asked Shinji.
"Yes," he answered, wondering where she was going with this conversation.
"A man with a cold-hearted voice, huh? That sounds like Commander Ikari to me," she said, after which Shinji choked on his sip of tea; was she trying to start something with him or was she trying to bring up the past, which he wanted to leave buried?
Rumi, Taeko and Mayo looked at the girl like she'd done said something wrong.
Misato, able to see that this was bad, said, "Asuka, that's a subject that's best left alone."
"Why? I was simply goin' to ask if he was related to him, that's all." Asuka defended.
Once Shinji regained his composure, he uttered, "What would make you assume that I'm related to that man that has a chunk of ice where a heart once resided? It takes more than blood and genes to be related to somebody that you barely even know directly. You need past experience, understanding and recollection of events that transpired in the days long gone up to the present with a person or group involved in your life to be related to them in some way or another. No, I'm not related to him at all. Who'd want to be related to him in more ways than one?"
His aunt and cousins agreed with him; not many of the people in the neighborhood wanted to be related to Gendo unless he had a full intention of wanting to absolve his past crimes and seek out forgiveness and salvation from the Rokubungi family.
"But…he is your father…isn't he?" Asuka asked him, just wanting to know that much.
"He was his father," Rumi answered for her nephew. "He lost that right to be such a long time ago."
"You…really don't like him, do you?" Maya asked them.
"We all have a reason not to like him, even when they're often the same reason," Taeko told her. "I would never mean any disrespect toward my cousin, but I'm glad that man's not my father."
"No disrespect even taken, Taeko," Shinji told her.
"So…um, Rumi?" The unshaven man, Kaji, went. "Do you have any interests in larger-than-life-sized dolls made of metal and you can sit in them?"
Misato grabbed his right ear, wanting to drop any subject relating to the Evangelions immediately before things got worse than they didn't need them to be.
"No, Mr. Kaji," she answered him, understanding what he meant by his question. "I don't like those type of dolls. I don't even call 'em toys. I only…played with one…and only once did I play with it. It wasn't even fun when somebody that didn't like dolls of that sort, as much as I didn't, wanted to break it, along with everything else for that matter. If I wasn't in the toy at that time, I'd let 'em break it all they'd like, but there was something I had to keep out of harm's way. Someone I didn't want to see hurt by other people because they thought they could dictate his existence; when you mess with a prize of mine, you're messing with me…and I don't really like to be messed with."
Ritsuko and Misato could, literally, feel the girl's major dislike of the Eva; it wasn't this strong when they last saw her, but now it was full-blown and being expressed in a very subtle manner.
The Bridge Bunnies could also feel this hatred, reminded that the only reason she ever piloted the Eva before was to protect Shinji, who wouldn't and couldn't due to his hatred of Commander Ikari and his illness, respectively.
Asuka then realized that she'd been mistaken; she had always thought that it was the boy that had piloted the Eva, defeating that Angel on his first attempt without any training involved, only to see that the former Third Child…was the former Third Child's young relative that piloted the Eva and defeated the Angel, both confusing her…and enraging her.
But…that's impossible, she thought, shaking a pointing finger at Rumi with her mouth open. She's not even fourteen! No way could she pilot the Eva just once without any training! It's unheard of!
"Never underestimate the power of Rumi Rokubungi when she's in her aunt mode," said Mayo to them. "She's a protector of sacred objects, and we're her treasures."
For Misato's group, it was still a little difficult to see that this little girl was their aunt, but it wasn't a little difficult to see that Rumi was the only one that could keep Shinji alive whenever he was rendered in poor condition by his cancer.
Rumi inhaled and then exhaled before saying, "In a war with that which you don't entirely understand, why must it be children that are the first to suffer? The pure violation of not being able to live a childhood of happiness and being given a childhood of suffering. The hurt of having your life taken from you before you even get the chance to live it and enjoy it. The torment of never having people simply care about you for you and not for what you can do. Why are children without a guide of light? A ray of hope? No salvation? Is the life that people caught up in war have for them is that of war, violence and self-destruction? Such isn't the way that people were meant to live. I've always heard stories of the ancient days. Times of total harmony, when balance between different places was unbreakable and people of different understandings and cultures understood each other and accepted each other without the need for violence. I've always believed those times to be when there was no need to do something so unjust that it held terrible repercussions for many innocent lives. Only the fragments of such a past exist in some form of history or another, and we try our best to express such a wish that there was no war happening outside the town, that people elsewhere would learn to understand and tolerate each other and that in the end, the rest of the world was as lucky as us."
Asuka, now hanging on those words, could recall her own childhood, the very childhood she'd done her best to keep buried in the past where it belonged; she had suffered when her mother had taken her own life…and even more before when she tried to take hers after something bad happened to her. After her funeral, her life went down a dark road; where she had tried to make her mother notice her, she had tried to outdo others to escape the pain of her past. The seemingly-endless hours of the equally-endless days of Eva training just to obtain an unobtainable acknowledgment, all for naught. And then there were her stepparents; not once did they try to open up to her…nor did she try to open up to them. She now envied the sick, dying boy and his youngest aunt; they seemed to have the kind of life she had once longed for.
To be continued…
