VII: On the Road Again
The wind howled most of the night… and it became so loud at one point that Shinji could have sworn that there was a hole in the building though which the winter air was entering. However, the air temperature wasn't anywhere near cold… in fact it was comfortable. Of course, Shinji realized he was holding Asuka, whose primary element as Envoy of the End was fire. She was generating a decent amount of heat and keeping him warm. This was ironic to him, since he knew that normally, girls get cold faster than guys do.
But Shinji knew she was squandering energy by doing so, energy she would need in the coming days. He would have to talk to her about that later…
Nearby he caught a bluish light and shifted himself a little so he could see the source. Rei was awake, in her light clothing and appeared to be creating a blue ball of energy between her hands. As she did so, Shinji could see angelic symbols on the ground and walls around him. They were spaced widely apart but the markings were somehow connected to each other in a series of intricate spiral patterns. He surmised that they made up the warding spell she mentioned yesterday, though he knew nothing about how it worked.
Rei opened her eyes and examined the ball of energy between her hands. She almost appeared to be scrutinizing it, examining it for flaws or imperfections. Eventually she frowned slightly and stopped concentrating on it, allowing the energy to disperse and fade. Once it was gone, darkness reclaimed the furniture store, but the glyphs still glowed with a pale light.
"The spell is degrading faster than I had anticipated," Rei said in a low voice.
"How did you know I was awake?" he asked her.
"I sensed it." The sound of fabric shifting could be heard and Shinji surmised she had stood up. "Shinji, you can sense the state of the weather I assume?"
"Yeah," He replied. In fact, he had a dream about it. The cloud mass around the planet was beginning to thicken further. What little thermal energy was left on the planet stayed for the time being, but more of the sun's rays were now being deflected back out into space. It was going to get even colder now, and he wasn't sure just how he was going to handle it.
"Then you know the difficulty that awaits us."
"How much does the enemy know?"
He expected an "I do not know" from her as how would she have any ideas herself, but that wasn't what she had said.
"Though I am uncertain as to the extent of their knowledge, they know of the existence of the Envoys and wish to divine their purpose. Undoubtedly, if they knew what we were going to do, they would do everything they could to stop us now, while we were stationary." She paused. "The enemy found me after my arrival on this world and captured me while I was weak. I was delivered to a demonic scientist named Cyclos. He attempted to extract the information from me but I regained some of my strength and fought my way out of his laboratory."
Shinji took it in, unblinking and silent.
"But his meddling proved more difficult. He had installed some form of limiter into me in the form of a curse. I had to break that curse with a ritual but I did not know the ritual. My first priority was to find the two of you."
"Don't you think we should wait until Asuka is awake before we go into detail about this?"
Rei smirked slightly in the darkness. "What makes you think she isn't already awake?"
"Aww," Asuka whined. "You spoiled my fun Wondergirl. I should be used to that though."
"May I continue?" Rei asked.
"Go for it," the red-head replied. "This is getting interesting."
"Well, I arrived at Tokyo-3 but you had already moved on by the time I arrived. There I was met by one of the original messengers… Tabris."
"Kaworu?!" Shinji said surprised. "But… I killed him!"
"You only killed his manifestation Shinji," Rei replied. "Tabris is closer to the evolved angels that left Earth long ago… as the Angel of Free Will, he was able to evolve with them. He is not the only one of the original messengers that survived the war. I know others did as well."
"I see."
"When I met Tabris, he told me of the cure and also told me that the two of you went to Tokyo-2. I wanted to go after you knowing what awaited you there, but Tabris told me to leave the two of you to deal with your situation and deal with my own. At his direction, I climbed to the top of Mount Odake to a hidden chapel… there I found what I needed, but two Reaver-class demons followed. Though I defeated them, I was injured and needed time to recover. I didn't take much however before I performed the ritual and released the curse. Once I did, I knew where I needed to go. A vision showed that you were heading here, to Suzaka. I set out and arrived barely in time to save you and Asuka from your fate."
"Impeccable timing by the way," Shinji replied.
"I hate being rescued," Asuka complained, "but in a way, it didn't hurt my pride as much as it could of… I guess."
"Do not fear Asuka," Rei whispered, "your true strength has yet to surface. It is only a matter of time."
Asuka let go of Shinji and sat up. As Shinji moved to sit up with her, she conjured a ball of fire in her hand, floating it just above the palm where it could shed light and heat into the room.
"And now we're on a psycho quest to restore the world by kicking the scumbag demons off of it with the help of the very things we were fighting against for the past year," Asuka commented. "Jeeze, why don't we ever get the easy jobs?"
"Hey," Shinji retorted, "at least we don't have to do something really stupid like chop down the largest tree in the forest with a herring, or something like that."
Asuka laughed, recognizing the reference immediately.
"I had no idea you watched comedy movies from the west," she said with a surprise.
"Kensuke told me about it and showed it to me in pieces over the course of a week a while back."
Asuka chuckled lightly, but the mention of one of the stooges brought a question to her mind that she needed answered.
"Rei," she started, "when all this is over… will our friends come back?"
"I believe they would want to return," she replied. "I know you must miss our Class Representative a lot."
"Yeah… I loved Hikari… you know, not in the les way or anything… but she was like a watchful sister to me. I just wished I treated her better in the end."
Rei frowned slightly. "I do not believe Representative Horaki would be pleased with you degrading yourself in this manner."
"You're right Rei, she wouldn't. But I can't help but be a little regretful for some of my actions before Third Impact."
Shinji poked her lightly in the side. "I thought we agreed, no more regrets." His words were meant to be inspirational, and Asuka tried her best to feel that way but she couldn't help but think maybe things would have been different if she hadn't allowed herself to waste away pining for a life she couldn't have at that time.
"I know Shinji-kun," she replied. "I'll be okay."
Rei stood up and spoke. "Since none of us are apparently getting further sleep, I would suggest we make our preparations. We may need a few days to work this out and recover from our previous injuries before we can continue."
"Agreed," Shinji replied.
The Children remained at the mall for a further three days, stocking up needed supplies and resting most of the time. They would need all their strength for what was to come. While at one of the stores, Shinji found a map of Japan. Though it didn't show anything in the surrounding area, he started to devise a route to get to a point where Japan and its nearest neighbor on the main continent were closest. It was the first step in what promised to be a long list of steps in order to reach their ultimate goal of Rome.
Using the maps Shinji found, he put together the first steps of their quest. Their primary goal at this point would be to leave Japan. He deliberated about how to go about that but was still unsure.
"Rei," he asked as she entered the bookstore he was in looking for more books to burn for heat for Asuka. "How strong is your control over ice?"
"Strong, but I lack full control over my abilities, same as you," she replied.
His face grimaced at that. "We have to find a way to cross the Sea of Japan."
"That should not be a problem Onii-san," she replied. The honorific was not lost on Shinji as he looked up. "The ice age has more than likely frozen the sea over completely. We should be able to simply walk across it."
Shinji hadn't considered that. "Then I have the first leg of our journey planned. Our first goal should be South Korea. I'll explain over dinner… Imouto."
Rei smiled gently, accepting the honorific of "Younger Sister" just as she called him her older brother. It was just another example of how close their sibling relationship has become.
Canned food was so much better when it was cooked by Shinji. At least, this is what Rei and Asuka believed as they were served the meal of canned meat and vegetables with Shinji's skill and spice choices. Rei of course abstained from the meat as her system, even now, could not handle it. Shinji figured it had something to do with Lillith herself.
"Ok," Shinji started between bites. "This is the plan. We need to get to Rome as soon as we can, though the trip is likely to still take the better part of a year. With luck we can get there sooner but the way our luck has been going lately, the best we can hope for is getting there just in a nick of time.
"The first leg of our journey, indeed the first major goal is going to be to get to South Korea across the Sea of Japan. Rei-san said that the water is likely frozen over so we can effectively walk across the sea. Based on that..." he opened a large map, "… this is how we're going to work it. We're currently in Suzaka, we'll take this highway out of town to the south west which will take us to Kyoto. From there we'll follow the roads to the city of Kobe, then to Okayama, past the ruins of Hiroshima, then to Shimonoseki and finally to the water-logged ruins of Fukuoda. From there we'll walk across the ice of the Sea of Japan roughly westward until we reach Busan, South Korea. I figure this will take about 35 to 40 days of hard travel including the 8 days needed to cross the ice."
"I'm a little worried about Okayama," Asuka said at length, "I know it's not as big a city as Kyoto, but it's still a decent sized city and is likely to attract some demons in the same way Tokyo-2 did."
"I agree," Rei replied. "However I believe the danger is minimal. Regardless of what we do, we will need to stop places for supplies and shelter. Inevitably, this means we may need to fight."
"I'd like to avoid confrontations if possible, but Rei is right," Shinji agreed, "there will be times when conflict will be unavoidable. Besides, we may run into more celestial animals."
"Or fiendish," Rei added.
"Oh great," Asuka replied with a groan. "So not only can these animals be like angels but they can have demonic properties as well?"
"Entirely possible," Rei replied.
"How did this happen?" Shinji asked.
"The celestial energies of Third Impact mutated some of the animals left behind. With demons and daemons ripping into the world though the weakened barriers between Hell and Earth, the residual energy left behind can mutate creatures the same way."
"Meaning the more demons cross over, the more fucked up the world becomes," Asuka commented.
"Essentially."
"Terrific."
"What comes after the crossing, Onii-san?"
Shinji pulled out another map, a rudimentary map of the world. "The path I'm thinking will take us though some rough territory but not nearly as bad as if we took the longer routes. I don't have specific routes planned yet since I need more detailed maps for that, but, the general idea is this; Japan to South Korea to North Korea to China, then India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, though Kuwait and across Saudi Arabia, then to Egypt, Libya then somehow cross the med to Malta then to Sicily and finally arrive on the southern shores of Italy. From there we just go north."
"Much of this route takes us away from any cities I've noticed," Asuka said. "I hope we can carry enough provisions for this."
"I'm only worried once we hit Western Pakistan," he replied. "From there until maybe Malta, we're gonna have problems keeping supplies up."
"With luck, you will evolve beyond food by then like I have," Rei replied. "I can subsist just off my core. The two of you will be able to do so eventually."
"That's comforting," Asuka replied. "Let's hope it's before we run out of food."
The Next Day
Early that morning, the three began to gather the needed supplies and pack them into large hiking backpacks. Though Rei needed none of the supplies, she had no qualms about carrying a share of the supplies in order to ensure that they had enough to continue their journey.
"It appears we are just in time Onii-san," Rei replied. "In roughly one hour, the wards over the mall will fail. After that, any demons in the area will reclaim the mall."
"Good thing we'll be long gone by then," Shinji replied as he shrugged on his pack. As he could carry much weight, it was filled to capacity. Asuka's own pack was similarly filled and together, the three of them exited out of the south entrance of Suzaka Mall.
Through the howling wind and driving snow, the three children pushed forward. Though Rei was the only one of the three who could see well in the white haze that was the Japanese landscape now, Shinji and Asuka both could see just well enough to keep Rei in visual range at all times. Communication was difficult with the nearly gale force winds as loud as they were. Shinji noticed trees that were iced over before many of their leaves could fall out. It was as if the trees had forgotten after the endless summer how to shed their leaves in preparation for the colder months. But perhaps they simply had no time to do so before the snow set in, Shinji remembered that it was only a few days after they had awoken on the beach before the first snow fell.
Regardless of the reasons, the trees were almost terrifying in a way, their branches low to the ground covered in ice and heavy snow; some branches were stripped clean and seemed to grasp at the sky like huge skeletal hands in the white haze while others formed macabre shapes on the ground.
The children tried to ignore this creepy scene and pressed on.
Okayama, 12 Days Later
Although there were no signs of potential demonic forces in the area when they arrived, Shinji still didn't trust the scene before him. Okayama was dark and deserted on the surface but something didn't seem right at all.
"I smell a trap," Shinji commented as they looked over the city.
"Agreed, Onii-san," Rei replied.
Asuka walked up to his right side and looked down over the city. "So what are we waiting for?"
"It may not be wise to go down there," Rei clarified for her hot heated associate.
"Then what do you suggest? Shinji and I are going to need to get rest soon, and we're not going to rest well in this weather. It's gonna be like this all night isn't it?"
Shinji nodded. "We could hit a small town, but we should take every opportunity to stock up on supplies we use on route. Besides, we might find something else useful, like perhaps a way to transport more material. Hard to find anything like that in small towns, right?"
"So you agree with Asuka then?" Rei asked.
He nodded in response.
Sighing, she nodded once and began the walk down the hill towards the city below.
They made their way down the main boulevard of the city noticing the state of the buildings and the frozen state of the entire town. Though they could find supplies here, Shinji was certain it would become harder and harder to find viable supplies as the world literally froze to death.
Rather suddenly, the wind died down causing the snow still in the air to flurry to the ground rather than race by them in sheets. The children sensed the presence of demons nearby and immediately dropped their backpacks, going into a three way back to back stance. Rei held her lance before her, while Asuka called out her gauntlets, boots and warblades. Shinji summoned his greaves and Talons. This time, as they summoned the items, what they normally wore in their place was not obliterated by their appearance.
Goat-men of several different power ranks appeared around them, moving from out of the buildings and alleyways while gargoyle like demons landed on the tops of the buildings around them.
"I assume this is what you were expecting Imouto?" Shinji asked.
"Yes," she said in deadpan. "I'm sure you were expecting the same."
"I knew we were going to have to fight at some point," Asuka said, "but I wasn't expecting it to be our first day out of the mall."
"So… three angels walk into my town," a voice said above what little wind remained. The tone seemed to be one of a man about to tell a joke. The children looked in the direction of the sound and saw a bird-like daemon land on one of the nearby vehicles frozen in snow and ice. "If you were looking for a shortcut… you found only your untimely deaths."
"And you are?" Shinji asked in deadpan.
"Call me Valketh. I'm one of the Generals of Avarice, and I bid you welcome to the town of Okayama… or should I say, demon nest of Okayama. I must say, we never expected to find sentient prey here."
"He must not realize who we are," Shinji thought.
"The thought had occurred to me," Rei replied mentally. "That being said, the less we say the better. If we give his men a bloody nose, maybe he'll call them off."
"Just so we know," Asuka replied. "I'm liking this telepathy stuff."
"If you're looking for prey, you should probably go out into the wilderness and look for something more your skill level… like say, a Jack Rabbit."
Valketh hissed at the insult and the demons around readied their weapons. Like most goat-men, they carried polearms and spears as their primary weapons.
"That is your last mistake angel. Take them!"
"Let's do this," Shinji said aloud and the three suddenly launched off the pads of their feet in three different directions. Valketh wasn't expecting the angels to suddenly go on the offensive considering they were so horribly out numbered. He was even more shocked when the three reached the surging lines of demons converging on them.
As Asuka hit the line she was aiming for, her blades lit on fire and she started hacking her way though, slashing quickly and fluidly, spinning, dodging and weaving as she continued her path of destruction. The demons trying to stop her couldn't even so much as slow her down as they fell to pieces around her, horrible shrieks that sounded like goats being slaughtered echoed over the main street.
Shinji's path of destruction was of a similar vein, though in his case it was even closer and even more personal. Rather than slicing them into pieces as his love was doing, Shinji instead tore into them with taloned gauntlets maiming and butchering as he went. He pounced from target to target like a rabid animal, clawing at the face, chest, and stomach, whatever it took to bring them down. Some had their guts spilled while others bled out from veins and arteries torn wide open. Still other bled to death from gaping sockets where their limbs used to be.
On Rei's side, her mastery of Ice turned this city into her personal playground. Walls of razor sharp blades of ice tore up in lines away from her as she causally walked forward. Demons that did manage to reach her were quickly countered and run though. A spin here and another demon fell to the floor, tripped up by the lance then impaled upon massive frozen spikes. A slide to the right, and another demon went sprawling into a frozen trap.
Valketh got over his initial shock and ordered counter offensives from his back up forces. He knew he still had a major numbers advantage over them, but he couldn't believe the sheer power at their fingertips.
Shinji launched massive bolts of lightning into the air to fend off the gargoyles as Asuka simply dodged them to keep attacking the ground forces. She summoned a wave of flame, incinerating a swath of them before additional reinforcements could make themselves known.
Suddenly, she felt an approach from above and behind. She spun in time to see Valketh drop from above with both of his icy swords out. Asuka blocked the attack from above and her wings ripped free of her back. She thanked Shinji silently that he knew enough about sewing to sew the Velcro slits into her cloths this time so she could call her wings without destroying her clothing. The very wings themselves seemed to light aflame as she pushed back against Valketh.
"You picked the wrong angel to fight," she said with a wicked smile.
"You overestimate your powers," he countered, "and I'm going to make you pay for that mistake."
"Be careful my love, he's a General," Shinji said in her mind.
"Don't worry, I got this."
Asuka pushed off and began to press her advantage, attacking with a series of slashes and swipes that put a lot of force into each blow. Valketh kept up with her blocking each blade in time but he could feel the strength of the strikes against his blades. Having enough of this, he kicked her back hard causing her to back flip. As she flew back, he crossed his blades in front of him causing a large amount of frozen energy to focus around the blades.
"This will cool you down," he quipped.
He ran his blades across in a motion of a cross slash in Asuka's direction, causing the energy to burst into a shotgun like spread of icy spikes. Since she was still airborne she did the only thing she could do; crossed her blades, tucked her knees in and shrouded herself with her wings. While her AT Field was being nullified, the flames on her wings melted and rendered the ice useless as it struck. Her wings whipped back open as she landed throwing off steam and water that was becoming steam into the air around her. The steam quickly turned back into snow as it descended.
She flipped her right blade in a reverse grip brought it up and slammed it down into the ground in front of her causing a line of flames to fire out in a direct line towards her target. Valketh dodged the attack though he was shocked she was able to survive a move he normally never failed to kill with.
"Nice try," Asuka replied to his quip, "but I like it hot." She flipped the blade back into a normal grip and launched forward again, this time seeming to skim over the ground as a single wing beat propelled her into a midair dash. Valketh was almost beheaded by the attack but managed to dodge it in time to turn around and see Asuka dropping on him from above. He blocked the attack but the force of the hit threw him backwards.
Shinji landed outside the battle area, as the demons remaining in his area were now staying back from him in pure terror.
"We should help her," Rei replied as she walked up to his left side.
"No," Shinji replied. "She can take him. She needs this."
Valketh stopped in time to see that the armor over Asuka's arms was now up to her shoulders. Plates of red metal angled into almost flame-like patterns formed the mantle of her armor, and two leather straps crossed her chest over her coat to hold the plates in place. Her upper arms appeared to be partially plated and partly protected with thin red chain mail. Flames seemed to lick all of the armored parts of her body and her wings, yet nothing flammable on her was catching fire.
"What in the name of Hell are you?!" he cried out, now fully terrified of this apparition.
Asuka's eyes glowed with red flame. "I am the destroyer of demons, the purifier who cleanses this world of the filth of your kind. I am your doom, for I am Asuka Langley Sohryu, Envoy of the End."
Without another word she rushed at him, slashing in such a rapid fashion that she eventually broke through his defenses and cut deep into him. As soon as the pain of the burning wounds set in, Asuka finished the job, reversing her grip on her left blade and slicing up from crotch to crown as she reversed the grip on her right blade as well. Before he could slide apart she slashed horizontally with her right successfully cutting him into quarters.
As his pieces hit the ground and began to burn away, the remaining demons in the town turned and fled into the storm, no longer desiring to fight such losing odds. Asuka watched them run with only disdain and hatred on her face.
Later
Inside what used to be a grocery store, the three children had a fire going in the middle of the floor controlled by Asuka's manipulation of the flames to keep the floor of lighting a blaze. Though they ate canned meat and in Rei's case, vegetables, they were none-the-less enjoying the meal.
"Feel better?" Shinji asked.
"Like a million yen," Asuka replied. "And you were worried Rei."
"I see my worries were misplaced," Rei admitted. "Forgive me for doubting you; however we didn't know the true strength of the forces here. This could have gone differently."
"Rei is right about that," Shinji pointed out. "From now on, we better take more precautions before trying a stunt like that again."
"I know, don't worry," Asuka replied. "You did see the way I killed that so-called General right Shinji-kun? And you only killed a Lieutenant so far!"
Shinji smirked a bit at her superiority complex. It reminded him of the old her. Of course he wouldn't mention the fact that Valketh was probably far weaker than Jhorgandahar was despite the rank since the later worked directly for Asteroth himself, but she needed this ego boost. He let her have the victory.
18 Days Later
Fukuoda was a major fishing village before Second Impact. Now most of it was underwater, and with the oceans beginning to freeze over, it was entombed within many meters of ice.
The children spent the last 24 hours on what amounted to a forced march across southern Japan. Now here at the coastline, they stared at bleak white field that was the Sea of Japan.
Shinji checked his compass before looking out over the endless white plain. "We camp here. In the morning, we'll start across that endless stretch of ice."
"Wunderbar," Asuka groaned. "This was actually the part I wasn't looking forward to. If we get attacked out there, I'm going to have to be very careful about how I use my powers."
Rei turned and started forming up the ice into an igloo of sorts. The trio entered the rude fortification of ice and snow. Inside, Asuka used her power to create a ball of warm energy that extended only a small distance around them.
"I'm sure you'll be alright Asuka," Shinji said as they entered and watched Asuka prepare the ball of energy. "It's at least two days to cross the sea of Japan. We're not going to have any cover from the elements at all as we cross."
"Terrific," Asuka said. "At least Wondergirl will be fine."
Rei looked at Asuka and actually smiled gently at the moniker. "Indeed, I seem to have an unfair advantage."
The trio ate, slept and regenerated. Early the next morning, at least they believed it was the next morning as the exact location of the sun was unknown, they awoke and had their breakfast.
As Rei made the igloo go away the three stared across the frozen Sea of Japan.
"I've heard an old saying," Shinji began. "It's said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. We've come a ways since Tokyo-3 Asuka-chan, but now, now we're leaving what's left of the country we knew behind. Now our journey truly begins."
"Of course," Asuka replied, "a 9700 kilometer trek equates to just over six of those thousand mile journeys."
"If we can do a thousand, we can do six thousand," he said confidently.
"So long as we stay together," Rei replied, "we will be fine."
"That's the idea Imouto," Shinji agreed. "Asuka-chan? Shall we?"
Asuka nodded. "So it begins…" she said ominously.
With that, the three began walking down the edge of what pretended to be the shoreline here in Fukuoda. A rolling thunder was in the far west as they stood upon the sea of Japan, and the occasional lightning strike was visible in the distance, lighting the darkened skies up on the horizon in white. Though "thundersnow" was rare, Shinji had a feeling he would be seeing a lot of that over the next year…
And so we began the long trek across the Sea of Japan, leaving our once beloved homeland behind us… Well, it wasn't Asuka's homeland per se, though she traced her roots to it. It was the place where our lives were shaped forever.
We fought so hard to keep Tokyo-3 safe from the Angels, but in the end, the city was lost. The entire country of Japan was now locked in ice, and political borders were now rendered moot. It was tough on us as we realized all of these little things. Even Rei was saddened, as she could trace her happiest moments, her time with me, back to that place. Of course, it wasn't like we were going to stop making moments. I have a life with Asuka now, and Rei is just as important to me as she ever was.
Ahead of us on the horizon, we knew many battles loomed. But it wasn't the demons that scared us so much anymore. Asuka proved in Okayama that we were strong together, and that we could always find a way to survive against the demons. But every battle we fought would ignite our path to the likes of Legion and Cyclos.
I had no choice but to assume at that point that they knew that the Envoys had been united and that they were now on route to do whatever it was we were meant to do. We soon discovered that something was hounding our every footstep. We were being tracked across the wastes by something, and every so often it would find us.
It made for a very harrowing journey…
Shinji Ikari
January 2nd 2018
The First Act's End