Cruel Angel's Thesis

Dislclaimer: I own nuthin'.


She sighed, gratefully putting down her pen and notepad. It had been a long day of work for both her and her patient; being the most stoic and tolerant man she'd ever worked with her life didn't help him with the therapy she was putting him through. Looking up, she absently noted that the sun was shining. The scientist in idly her wondered how exactly did the sun shine in what was effectively a land of the dead. Not that it felt appropriate. Ever since she'd arrived, she had been searching for her Treasure, her raison d'etre, the reason why she had sacrificed herself to her very own Frankenstein's Monster.

"Ikari!"

The woman stopped in the mostly vacant hallway. She looked up at her addressee with an icy glare. Green eyes like Hitsugaya-Taichō's worst moods lanced out at the one who addressed her.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri-Taichō visibly flinched.

"Yes, taichō?"

Shaking his head, Mayuri started in on the woman. "Why aren't you at your station? The testing of the artificial souls won't run th-"

"They are perfectly capable of running themselves taichō," interrupted the woman. "I was over in 4th Division for the gene therapy for Ukitake-Taichō. Something I had informed you of numerous times already?" She raised a brow.

Mayuri fumed. "These experiments are important Ikari; whatever you're doing in the 4th can wait!"

"What I am doing is working to restore one of Seiretei's strongest captains to fighting condition," the woman said coldly. "Your obstructing that process could be considered treasonous."

Mayuri jerked as if slapped. Treasonous!? The very idea! For a moment, he gaped at the accusation.

"If you're quite done, I have to return to my offi-"

"Don't take that tone with me, Ikari!" Mayuri growled, getting up into her face. "I am taichō of 12th Division and you will follow my orders!" With that, Mayuri continued on his way, slowly disappearing into the gloom.

She sighed in frustration. She'd never had this problem when she had been alive!

She slowly made her way to the 5th Seat office and apartment, her current home. The past century had been relatively kind to her and her new friends. After waking up in Rukongai, she'd learned enough to start a small medicinal practice. She'd done that for what felt like three years before she'd found herself in the Shinigami Academy. Apparently, one of her patients had been a minor noble and a captain of one of the 13 Divisions of the Court Guard and had sponsored her entry. On top of that, who should she run into on her first day but her old teacher, Fuyutsuki Kozo.

To make a long story short, she'd graduated near the top of her class; decent with zanjutsu but a prodigy with kido and hakuda. Finally, she had to choose a division. Split between the 4th and the 12th, she eventually chose the 12th; while she was all for practicing medicine, she was somewhat less enthusiastic about cleaning sewers. As a Shinigami, she had eventually met up with the Children of Tokyo-3 as they called themselves: Rei, Asuka, Toji and his sister, Kensuke, Hikari and her sisters, and Mana. She'd also come to know Misato, Ritsuko, Kaji, Maya, Makoto, and Aoba, who had all become Shinigami after 3rd Impact.

Finally reaching her office, she quickly entered, shutting the door and locking it, as if to lock out the rest of the world.

Her reactions to them were varied, but friendly; in a way, Shinji's synchronizing with EVA-01 had given her a decent idea of what each of them were like while they'd been alive. More than a few them had been surprised to see her when she had initially introduced herself. Understandable, really; it was one thing to know that restless spirits sometimes ended up in Soul Society, even those from long past, but to see someone you never expected to see–for lack of a better term–alive?

Then she'd met him. After decades of festering in a personal oblivion, only faint sensations of moments her only solace. In the time since he'd arrived, Rokobunji Gendo had also become a Shinigami eventually being chosen for the 2nd Division.

It had hardly been a happy reunion for them; for all his devotion to her, his loyalty, his obsession with her, he'd forsaken the very thing that had given her happiness. As such, Yui had given him some choice words (and bruises) about his treatment of her little Treasure.

But the one reason for her perseverance, the one reason for her finding the strength of will to survive beyond Evangelion.

Her little one was nowhere to be found.

For years, decades, a whole generation, she had searched every nook and cranny of Soul Society that she had access to. In that time, her son had never appeared.

Ikari Shinji had never made it into Soul Society.

In the cold desolace of her office, Ikari Yui broke down and wept.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Rei sat down blankly on the chair, her mind whirling away in confusion.

Why?

Why did that Arrancar seem so familiar?

And why did he not use the abilities that were commonly associated with Hollows? From what she remembered, the Arrancar had apparently not made any use of cero, and only apparently unconscious use of sonido. Oddly enough, it hadn't seemed to have any hierro at all, particularly when it intercepted Kurosaki-san's Getsuga Tensho; it had nearly cut through him.

"Oi, Wondergirl!"

She looked up towards the approaching redhead. Nearly a week had passed since their effort to capture the Arrancar; in that time, Rei had spent the first two days in 4th Division, as Asuka had several days prior, breaking up an 11th Division bar brawl.

Rumor had it that Aramaki still had a black eye.

"Soryu,"said Rei, looking up at her guest. Asuka blinked.

"Geez Rei, what's with that blank look? I haven't seen that since Tokyo-3."

"This," answered Rei, her hand resting on a long, wrapped object sitting next to her. Asuka blinked.

"I didn't know you were interested in the lance, Rei," said Asuka, sitting down next to her friend.

"Ice-Shard-of-Night is a naginata, Soryu. A lance is not so different."

"Wow, Rei! You already achieved shikai?"

Asuka turned towards the newcomer, a bright smile on her face. "Mana! I thought you were still sparring with Madarame-san." A big shit-eating grin appeared on Asuka's face. "Are you telling me Kirishima Mana, former JSSDF covert operative, giant robot pilot, and 10th Seat of 11th Division, has yet to achieve shikai?"

"Asuka!!" Loosing an indignant screech, Mana blushed as everyone in the little ramen house turned to look at the three of them. "Ehehe, sorry."

"No Asuka, I haven't achieved shikai, thank you very much! Which is pretty par for the course for being a Shinigami for a few months!"

Asuka winced at the embarassed hiss. "Sorry, Mana. I forgot that you didn't apply until long after we did."

"Yeah Red, don't forget that Zaraki-Taichō actually hugged her," came a male voice from over Mana's shoulder. Said former agent squeaked in surprise.

Asuka growled as the short-haired young man sat down at their table with a cup of green tea. "That and she kicked 3rd Seat Madarame's ass in bare-handed combat." Remembering good times, Suzuhara Touji chuckled. "Heh, to think we'd have paid a fortune to live like this when we were alive."

"Can it, Stooge!"

"Bite me, Red."

"Thanks no, I'd probably get hives."

"What was that?!"

"Oh get a room you two," came another newcomer.

"Oh great! Stooge number two," griped Asuka as Aida Kensuke sat down next to Touji. "So Rei, what do you think?" he whispered to the unusually quiet girl.

Taking a shallow sip Rei put down her cup, setting it gently on the laquer table. Her hands were shaking, shivering as if exposed to arctic chill.

Touji's eyes widened as she sipped, his jaw dropping as he smelled the liquid. "Rei? Are you drinking?" He glanced at the innocuous wrappings lying next to the cushion she sat upon. "Just what the hell is it, then?"

Gently, she placed her hand on the wrapped object. A low, subsonic rumble made itself known. In a panic, many of the restaurant's other patrons swiftly vacated the premises. The Children of Tokyo-3 only sat in terrified awe.

"This is the Lance. The Lance that He held." Her quiet voice wavered, a poignant counterpoint to the bandages peeking out from under her shihakusho. Slowly, she turned to Kensuke. "Where did you get this?"

"Let's just say that if Kurotsuchi-taichō finds out I took this, he will ass-rape me," said the bespectacled man. He shivered at the thought. "And I won't even mention what Yamamoto-Sotaichō will do to me if he finds out."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The ceiling. It was the first thing he noticed, lying there on the bed. It wasn't familiar.

But then, they rarely were for the former Third Child.

He was dimly aware that there were several dozen...things...sticking out from obviously artificial openings in his body.

Nothing unfamiliar.

It had been in June of 2016 when they first cut him open. "For the good of the human race" they told him. The smug hatred on their faces brought it all home.

He had become the enemy of humanity.

At least the others were no longer around to see it, having moved on to their well-earned rest in 3rd Impact. They'd eventually lost interest in him, literally throwing him to the dogs.

For a little over a year, he'd simply existed as nothing more than just another scavenger in the City of Death.

And then he'd died, slowly fading from hunger and thirst. At least he had lay down for what seemed an innocent nap.

When he awoke, he wasn't what he was when he first closed his eyes.

But that was then; this was now. And it looked a lot like NERV-01 Medical Division's med-lab, where he'd wake up after fighting the angels.

A soft tone sounded to his right; a small light blinked on a machine he didn't recognize.

And then the door slid open.

In the doorway stood a willowy young woman. Pleasantly formed, her shortened kimono accentuating her long, slender legs. Large, dark eyes were like those of a deer, or a rather attractive 'Bridge Bunny'. Eyes which spoke of a tainted innocence.

"H-hello?" Had he felt capable, he would have grimaced; his voice came out scratchy and weak, like a vinyl record left to rot for a year in the rain and snow. "Hello? Are you a nurse?"

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Kurotsuchi Nemu was taken aback by the Arrancar's quiet civility. According to past experience, Arrancar were highly dangerous, hyper-evolved Hollows that consumed everything and anything in their path; this particular Arrancar was acting uncharacteristically submissive for a being so powerful. Not only that, but it apparently had a human-like awareness of its surroundings that seemed to include the idea of the modern medical assistant people the world over called 'nurses'.

"No, I am not," said the woman. She gently ruffled his short hair, a dark brown in color. She didn't know why, but it felt natural. The Arrancar's breathing slowed as he relaxed with the gentle contact.

"Sorry," he said with a sigh.

Nemu retracted her hand. Odd, it felt...cold, uncomfortable, now that it was no longer touching the quiet Arrancar. "Now that you are awake, I shall fetch 6th Seat Akagi; she has been authorized to study you.

He started, almost sitting up in the bed. "Akagi? You know Dr. Akagi?"

The petite 12th Division fukutaichō nodded at the Arrancar. "Dr. Akagi will be here momentarily."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"I have an odd feeling about this, Taichō."

Hitsugaya glanced up from his desk at his 5th Seat, a thoughtful frown on his face. "I know, Katsuragi. Yamamato-Sotaichō has classified all information on this unusual Arrancar and its place of origin." He scowled, putting down his writing brush. "An entire world had died there! With so much death all at once any Hollows forming there may born as a Menos! Shouldn't at least the captains have access to the information?" He scratched his chin. "Where did we go, anyway?"

"With all due respect taichō, why don't you tell me? You had me busy coordinating with 4th Division," said Misato as she looked up from her notepad. She glanced at it again with a frown. The capture op had been a disaster from the first! Working with Unohana-taichō and the 4th, they were lucky that there hadn't been more casualties. If she were only a lieutenant or a Captain, she'd give the old man running this place a piece of her mind!

But the strangest thing had been Rei. Out of all the Shinigami that had participated in the capture attempt, Rei had gotten off the lightest. For a given value of lightest, since she still needed a full ten minutes with that Orihime girl, another two days in recovery, and was still in bandages nearly a week later. Even with the constitution of a large iceberg, Hitsugaya had been forced to endure four days of repeated sessions with the redheaded human girl.

His resulting temper hat yet to *ahem* cool.

Eyebrow twitching, Hitsugaya turned to his sometimes-flighty 5th Seat; for all of her tactical and operational genius, Katsuragi Misato was disturbingly similar to his fukutaichō, Matsumoto Rangiku. It was only a moment before he forced his temper down; for all of her irritating qualities, Katsuragi had a good reason to ask, for knowledge was power on the battlefield.

"The senkaimon opened in what I can only describe as a giant hole in the ground," he said after awhile, his eyes distant. He shivered. "It was as if the Earth itself had Hollowed."

As he was talking, Hitsugaya didn't notice Misato freezing, her eyes riveting themselves to him. There was only one place she knew of that could even vaguely resemble Hitsugaya's description.

"Katsuragi? Katsuragi?" Twitching, Misato snapped out of her daze. "Katsuragi, this sounds familiar to you?"

The purple-haired woman nodded somberly. "Its where I died," she answered.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Did you dye your hair?"

Puzzled, the auburn-haired woman looked up at her subject. Even with a dozen holes cut in it and scores of probes and sensors sticking out of it, the Arrancar seemed immune to the resultant pain. Yet he was still conscious enough to make note of his surroundings, up to and including recognizing people. How interesting.

"No, I haven't." She raised a brow.

The Arrancar seemed to shrink down somewhat. "Sorry. You...look like someone I know," it said quietly.

The woman briskly went over to one of a number of machines, reading off information and jotting notes. Brown eyes quickly scanned the data, no reaction escaping her professional demeanor. "I see."

For several minutes, the only sound was pen on paper and the beeping of the numerous electronic devices in the room.

Finally, the Arrancar spoke in a soft voice. "Did we beat it?"

Curious, the woman glanced at her subject. Going by the glaze over its eyes, it wasn't entirely conscious. "Beat what?"

"The angel."

The pen stopped as if frozen, leaving a jagged tear in the paper. Time seemed to stop for Dr. Akagi Naoko as her consciousness tunneled down to one semi-conscious Arrancar on a restraining bed.

"Is everyone else okay?" continued the weak voice, oblivious to the good doctor's mental shock. "Where's Rei and Asuka? Are they here too?"

The good doctor's mood instantly darkened at the mention of her ex-lover's little toy. Thanks to that damn proposal from 10th Division, she had to deal with the little bitch every week. Not even death was a respite from that reminder of her failure!

'He must have been from Tokyo-3,' the more logical part of her thought as she tried to rein in her more vengeful nature. So she had a rather fractured personality; it wasn't like Kurotsuchi-Taichō or Zaraki-Taichō were the most sane examples of people, right? Blame that Gendo and his little blue doll of his for her three-part personality!

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"N-nani? What is that?" asked the strawberry-blonde woman as she looked at the long object in Rei's hand. She could feel it, weighing on her soul like an endless ocean of nothingness, calling to her to unite, to merge with the One-Who-Is-All..

Rangiku Matsumoto shook herself before scooting away. What was that thing!?! She had walked in just as everyone had run out screaming; just as Kensuke had begun to explain exactly where he'd gotten the odd artifact. "You stole this from Kurotsuchi?" She turned to the sandy blond man in glasses, an incredulous look on her face. Kensuke winced.

"Weeell, I wouldn't say stole..."

Matsumoto still gaped at the artifact as Rei slowly unwrapped it. Slowly, the distinctive crimson helix of the Lance of Longinus was revealed, its concealment removed. Save Rei, Matsumoto, and Kensuke, the gathered Children gasped in awed terror.

Even growing up in the harsher districts of Rukongai, Matsumoto new enough about this infamous Lance to know that whoever wielded Longinus had the powers of Genesis and Entropy at their fingertips. Had the traitor Aizen known about this...

The Children jumped their cell phones started buzzing in their pockets; most Shinigami never bothered to use their phones in Soul Society, whereas the Children never put them down.

"Major. What is it?" asked Rei, who'd picked up first. Rei nodded for several minutes as she listened to Misato, intermittently speaking. "Yes, all the Children are here." Rei nodded, glancing at the still-silent Rangiku "Matsumoto-fukutaichō is here as well," she said, eyes narrowing slightly. Both Mana and Kensuke let out a gulp; aside from Shinji Misato and Yui, no-one could read Rei's expressions better than they could. They knew that whatever was going down, it was going to be serious business.

"Hai, we'll be there." The small clack! of the phone's closing was like a thunderclap in the silence.

"The Major and Hitsugaya-Taichō have requested our presence," said Rei as she turned to the assembled Children of Tokyo-3, giving a nod to the now-serious Rangiku. "They have found something pertaining to the recent expedition to suppress the rogue Arrancar."

"Ive kinda been wonderin' about somethin," said Touji as he stood, getting ready to meet with the 10th Division captain. "Where did you guys go anyways?"

"Tokyo-3."


Author's Notes:

Another couple months, another chapter.

But seriously folks, this isn't like thowing words onto a page. My muses are frequently turning up AWOL nowadays, as they seem to be out whenever I sit down to write. At any rate, I'll try to answer your comments and critiques as best I can.

To All:

Yes, Shinji the Arrancar is a bit OP; as the focus of 3rd Impact, I think he would be! According to SEELE, 3rd Impact was supposed to elevate them to the level of the Gods on High; seeing as Rei pretty much told both the Old Men and Gendo to piss off, I think Shinji got the lions share of it. Basically, he's a Divine Seed right now.

And honestly? It was Shinji's tragic circumstances at EOE that made me thing he'd make a perfect Hollow.

To 6th Child:

Both the issues of conversation and chapter length are concerns of mine. I want the characters to sound genuine. However, I have to try and factor in the facts that they are dead, are a century older and wiser, and have gone though Soul Society in general and Seireitai in particular; all that plus their experiences as Shinigami are going to alter their perceptions to variying degrees.

As far as length goes? All I can do there is just crank 'em out and hope for the best.

To Venomancer:

As you saw in this chapter, Asuka is *ahem* alive and mostly well, having shrugged off an 11th Division bar brawl. As for Unit01? I have plans for that one. Heheheheheheheh! Actually, to answer both yours and Genisyn69's question regarding Unit01... What? You actually thought I'd tell you at this stage in the game?! Psh!

To James Ray's Guardian:

Thank you! That was exactly what I was trying to accomplish. Good to see I'm doing something right!

To Alowl:

Shinji didn't block Ichigo's Getsuga because of two things. First, Ichigo was in overdrive, his mask up and putting his all into that particular attack. Secondly, Shinji wasn't thinking as a Hollow would at that moment; he knows AT Fields, but only on an unconscious level. He was thinking human, and humans can't block an energy attakc bare-handed.

As you can see from the chapter, Shinji did survive, if a little battered. He also has his first run-in with one Dr. Naoko Akagi, a woman who has a serious grudge against his mother (Yui), Rei, and him by extension.

And talking? A Shinigami to an Arrancar. No way is Yama-ji going to allow that; gotta keep tradition and all!

To Invincible Shinji:

We've traded a few emails, so you already have some of my thought process down. I will say that Ch4 is going to get a little interesting for the Shinigami, and Shinji himself.

To Fifth Horseman:

Yeah, there's no Shinigami in all of Soul Society that could stop Shinji if he really wanted to break some heads. Lucky for them, Shinji isn't like that.

As far as Hikari goes, I thought that Unohana could use a little assistance with keeping those rowdy 11th Shinigami in line, and Hikari fits the bill perfectly. Not to mention the occaisional captain or lieutenant that needs some additional persuasion to stay in bed.

As for Misato? I put her in the 10th because she herself is something of a prodigy, and prodigies do well with intellectual tasks like tactics and strategy; I figured her similarity to Matsumoto was a comedic bonus!

And Rei? The albino female Byakuya? She's perfect for Kido in my mind.

Next up in Ch4:

The special significance of 3rd Impact to Seireitai is revealed!

The Bridge Bunnies get in on the act, as well as the other NERV01 adults.

Yui gets a nasty surprise!

Shinji gets told something he doesn't like. Look out soul Society!