Creation began on 05-08-10
Creation ended on 06-01-13
Neon Genesis Evangelion
My Special Keeper, Part Three-A1
-x-
"…How can you stand to eat this stuff?" Sachiel asked his sister, picking at his bowl of rice in his cell, whilst Shamshel sat against the wall of her cell and read a good book while eating a dumpling.
"Is it that terrible to you?" She asked him.
"Yeah, it's terrible! How can you stand to eat something so bland?!"
"You can ask the guards to add some flavor to it. You don't have to eat rice plainly."
"I cannot believe you sound like this."
"Sound like what?"
"Like the Lilin! Listen to yourself!"
"Brother, whether we like it or not, we are a part of the culture that exists independently of the rest of the planet. We are a part of the race we tried to get rid of to avenge and find our father, and we must accept our fate. These people could kill us if they wanted to and not care, but they have a strict law against murder. They view life as sacred, and it's why they won't end ours, even if we still wanted to hurt them. We can't forget we ended up this way because you were defeated by a little girl protecting someone she held most dear. We had someone to fight for, just like she has someone to protect."
"I don't believe you, sis. They've practically tamed you."
Shamshel couldn't deny such a possibility; her temper against the girl that she was originally after had cooled down and she didn't think about her as much as she used to. What was the point of thinking about somebody you couldn't harm if you were in a place where you couldn't get out?
Suddenly, the alarm bells were being rung outside the building.
"Attention! Attention!" The siblings heard someone shouting through a megaphone. "Please, vacate the streets and get to your nearest shelters! A large, unidentified creature is advancing toward the town!"
They stopped doing what they were doing and thought the same thing, Could it be Ramiel, finally here to do what we failed to do?
The guards showed up and opened their cells up.
"Come on, you two," the one that was a regular to Shamshel said and grabbed her off her cot. "We gotta get to the shelter underneath this place."
"Why are you getting us? We used to be giant monsters," said Sachiel.
"Yeah. You used to be. Past tense. But we don't see two giant monsters. We see two fellow people that, just like everyone else living here, need to be protected from harm." The other guard told him.
"I've killed people before," Sachiel told him, trying to convince the guard that he wasn't worth saving.
"You can tell us about it all later."
Outside on the streets, people were fleeing from the thing that was the new invader: A large, nigh-translucent diamond, floating high in the sky. This was Ramiel, Angel of the Thunder, one of Adam's strongest children, but also one of the largest and most passive. Once he became informed of Shamshel's humanization and loss by the other Angels that remained, he came to deal with the little girl, but would also take care of other loose ends before going to Tokyo-3 and handling business there with the usurper.
-x-
"Wow," went Nemo, looking up at the new Angel through a regular pair of binoculars. "That's one weird creature. It doesn't even look alive."
Akira took notice of this and wondered what this creature was doing so high up in the air. If it was an Angel, then it would face the same fate as its siblings had. She looked at her bracelet, wondering why it hadn't done anything strange yet.
I wish something like this had come with a manual guide, she thought, having Bumi take the others to the shelter within the mountain.
"Akira, I know that I should be heading to the shelter, as well, but do you really think you can handle that thing? This ain't like fifteen years ago."
The centenarian picked up her staff and opened up its wings.
"Which is why I gotta try something different with each opponent," she told him, and took off into the air to get a closer look at this creature. This creature mirrors one of the events Shinji spoke of from his nightmares. Even that red Eva, Unit-02, was seen in his nightmares. Was he having premonition-like nightmares of events yet to happen?
-x-
"…This must be the Fifth Angel," said Fuyutsuki, observing through a satellite monitoring system with the rest of the staff at NERV, after being informed by the UN of an unidentified object located in the sky.
Misato became concerned about this predicament. As the Angel was being viewed, it wasn't anywhere near Tokyo-3 or even on the ground, attacking any towns or cities. But as she took a closer look on the main screen, it looked like the Fifth Angel was somewhere in Japanese airspace over the town of Akira, as the mountain shown on the screen was much taller than that of Mount Fuji, which meant that the Angel was high above said town, possibly to keep safe from the Angelbreaker's power to humanize it.
She said that she'd keep her people safe from them with that thing that picked her to preserve the future so that mistakes aren't echoed. She thought, wondering if Akira could actually do such a task, regardless of the danger.
"Hey, what's that?" One of the technicians uttered, as they all saw something tiny flying directly toward the Angel. "It looks like a…a glider."
Gendo observed and recalled that Akira was the only person he'd seen with a glider; not many Aero Channelers elsewhere in Akira Town could demonstrate enough discipline to use a glider and were often stuck riding on miniature tornadoes for sport. Was this what she meant when she said that if the Angels attacked her home that they would fall under her authority? He wanted to send an Eva out there against the wishes of a town full of people he cared nothing for, but wanted to see where this would go with Akira trying to defend a little village from a servant of God.
Let's see how well you fare, he thought, having some hope that the Fifth Angel dealt Akira a fatal blow; it would serve himself as revenge against the woman that stood against him.
-x-
So, you're the mother of the little bitch that defeated my brother? Akira heard a voice rang inside her head, coming directly from the giant diamond-shaped being.
She stopped flying toward it and manipulated enough air currents to keep her floating in front of the giant creature, six feet away.
"Who are you?" She asked it.
I am Ramiel, Angel of the Thunder, the creature answered, sounding more like a man, but a very passive one.
"Ramiel?" Akira questioned, recalling something about a being named Ramiel that existed in some religious culture she looked into when she turned one-hundred-forty-five years old. "But aren't you the person that governs the souls of the deceased that enter the heavens on Judgment Day? Today cannot be that day. You're here to pass judgment on my daughter, aren't you? But that cannot be made a reality, either."
She has stained the pride of Angels by dealing a fatal blow to my brother…and then avoided dying at the hands of my sister…only because you interfered. And now not only the girl must be dealt with to restore pride to our status as Father's faithful children…but they who defend the girl must be dealt with, as well.
"Your brother's not dead, anymore," Akira tried to reason with him; since he spoke in a male tone, he had to be a man, not wanting to fight unless she had to. "Sachiel's alive once more and Shamshel's alive, as well. I don't want to fight with you, sir, so I must request that you, as a person first before anything else, cease this vendetta against Rumi. Whoever caused harm to your father are the ones you should be angry with, not my daughter who did only what she had to in order to protect her nephew from harm."
In the end, all humans are a threat to the whole of existence, Ramiel responded. No one is innocent of a crime as harsh as the one Father was the victim of. If you continue to stand in the way of greatness…the restoration of the dominion of Angels over the planet that had been taken from Father by the bitch known as Lilith, then you will suffer the same fate that awaits the little girl.
"Please, reconsider. There's no need to fight somebody that doesn't want to pass judgment on anybody. There's no need to bring bloodshed and twisted desires for revenge to people that don't want to get involved."
There is no reconsidering of anything I've decided, woman, Ramiel responded, and then fired his energy beam toward Akira; it was weaker than it shouldn't have been due to her half of the Angelbreaker limiting his strength, but it was still high enough to use in its offensive/defensive ways.
Akira was hit in the stomach and sent falling, but, strangely, she wasn't hurt as much as she expected the attack to do much damage to herself; she felt protected from the brutality of the beam, as though she were wearing an armored dress.
-x-
Rumi, in the mountain shelter with the others, couldn't help but wonder why her stomach hurt a little, but she wasn't screaming in pain. It just hurt, like there was an injury that never existed to begin with on her. She sat crouched away from her elder siblings and nieces and nephew, wondering if it was even right for her to sit and do nothing while her mother tried to deal with an Angel that was interested only in getting rid of her. She looked at her bracelet and wondered if she could speak with that boy again like she had the first time. It was worth a shot.
Takeru, she called out to the representation of the strength of men inherit within the Angelbreaker. Takeru… Takeru…
She then found herself back in the place she met him, seeing him sitting atop a jagged rock.
"You called me?" He asked her.
"An Angel has shown up in my town that hasn't been humanized," she explained. "My mother's fighting it right now, but I have my concerns."
"You should help her if you are concerned for her safety."
"I know, but she told me to stay with the others in the shelter. I do want to help her, but they'll see me leave and try to stop me, and I don't want to endanger them."
"Sometimes, you have to bend rules in order to avoid breaking them…and there will be times where you have to break rules in order to achieve a goal that is necessary. Akira, your mother, told you to stay in the shelter with the others…but she didn't say for how long, which should allow you to bend the rule in order to help her. As you both wield the Angelbreaker, you must both be involved in dealing with the threat, unhindered by the fear of being defenseless. The gauntlet protects its wielders from whatever level of danger they're in. Go, save her and help her, defeat this Angel without murder and protect your home and loved ones."
The mist gathered around them again and Rumi felt herself being pulled back to the mortal coil of existence. She looked around and saw the others either sitting against the cave walls that had been sculpted by Geo Channelers to eliminate rough edges so that people could press their backs against them without feeling irritation or standing against them while watching out the only accessible path to gaze at the sky. Two feet from was Shinji, who seemed to worry about Akira getting hurt, since he himself confessed that he wasn't worried about her getting killed.
"Shinji, what do you know about the manipulation of rules?" She asked him, getting his attention.
"The rules?" He asked. "Well, uh, only that they've been abused by others for hundreds of years. Why do you ask?"
Suddenly, she got up and ran out the entrance to the shelter.
"Rumi!" He cried, getting up, but falling back down. "Rumi, come back!"
Bumi, Kanami and the other older siblings became aware of Rumi's quick getaway and went after her, but her head start gave her more time to keep away.
"The Angelbreaker has powers. Many powers. The power of the Angelbreaker, its true strength, is, ultimately, yours to decide." Takeru's voice repeated in her head, as she ran toward the edge of the path that led to the shelter. Okay, Rumi. Whatever powers this gauntlet has are up to you to decide upon.
As she came closer, she took notice of her mother falling in the sky, which prompted her to simply think and believe what the gauntlet would do for her to help save her mother if she didn't save herself.
"Rumi, stop!" Bumi called out to her. "Sis, don't you dare jump!"
But she did. She jumped off the mountain and into the air. Her brothers and sisters thought she'd made a critical error in her judgment, but were silenced by her half of the Angelbreaker acting up and forming around her right arm and back. Rumi was quite surprised to see a strange pair of what looked to be organic, metallic wings sprouting from her armored back and a large, armored right hand.
"Whoa!" She gasped, the wings now flapping gracefully and taking her up towards her mother. "I'm coming, Mama!"
Ramiel, who had assumed that the girl he was intending to kill had decided to take her own life to save him the trouble of doing it, but became concerned when he saw her sprout wings and a large claw. This was something he only felt around the older woman that he shot down, but this little girl was radiating the same energy the woman had, and it made him shudder.
No, he thought, seeing Rumi catch her mother. Not that weapon! I barely got away from it last time, hundreds of thousands of years ago, before I was fully developed!
Within seconds, he felt his body decrease in size and mass, shrinking down. But still, due to the distance he was keeping away from the pair, his strength remained substantially high enough to still be dangerous to them…so long as he remained a safe distance away.
-x-
Kozo felt relieved. At first, he thought the Fifth Angel had shot down whoever was flying the glider and fell to their death, but then somebody else showed up and saved them, but what caught his attention about the mysterious savior was that it looked like a kid with a large, right hand and wings made of living metal. Was this Rumi?
Gendo, on the other hand, wasn't pleased. He thought the Angel had dealt with Akira when it blasted her, but now someone else got a hold of her and saved her from potential death.
"Can we try to get an ID on whatever saved that person?" He asked the technicians below him.
Fuyutsuki became curious to why he wanted an ID of the person, if it was even a person to begin with.
Misato was also curious, since she was starting to believe the person with the wings and large hand was Rumi, wielding her half of the Angelbreaker.
As the camera from the satellite zoomed in, both the captain and sub-commander got a good look at the winged savior: It was Rumi, wearing some strange thing that granted her flight.
Asuka was freaked out! The town that specialized in using the four classical elements wanted the Evas kept away from their homes in favor of something that flies around and saves falling women?!
"Surely, the Evas could handle something like that," she muttered.
"Believe me, I wish I could believe so," Misato added in.
-x-
Akira regained consciousness and found herself being held in the air, by a large claw with wings. She looked up and saw a face belonging to someone she was certain should've remained in the shelter where it was safe.
"Didn't I tell you to stay in the shelter where it was safe?" She asked her daughter.
"Yes, you did," Rumi answered, descending down to the streets below. "But you never did say how long I was to stay in the shelter, and it looked like you needed my help."
Once they were on the ground, Akira became upset and said, "When this guy is taken care of, you're so grounded, Rumi. No 'ands', 'ifs' or 'buts'."
As the wings and claw retracted and disappeared, leaving Little Rumi with just a gauntlet, said girl nodded that she would accept her punishment…but only after this Angel was dealt with. She then noticed that her mother's gauntlet was acting rather strange, the same as hers was. Then, she looked up and cried, "Watch out!"
Akira looked up, but it was too late! A blast of energy had struck the ground they stood upon and left a burning dome of black fire where mother and child once stood.
Ramiel was pleased. He'd taken out two enemies in one, concentrated, bolt of energy, along with what threatened his status as one of his father's greatest children. Now, nothing stood in the way between closure, justice and revenge from being obtained.
The Lilin…truly Lilith's worst descendants, he thought, but became concerned that his great powers hadn't restored completely to where they were prior to meeting the mother. Is this permanent?
Within the fire, two figures, one tall, the other small, rose from the ground and walked out of the inferno, revealing themselves to be Akira and Rumi, deprived of their casual attire and dressed in what looked like gold, silver, black and purple armor with a scaly, reptilian theme to them, but it was a sort of armor that could've been designed by men for women of the darker side of love. Akira's predominantly silver-colored suit of armor revealed the flawless, upper curves of her sternum and the lower half of the graceful mounds of her breasts; her slender waist armor showed her belly button and armor on her upper thighs revealed some of the flesh but covered the lower half of the waist; armor covered much of the lower legs, ending in armored shoes modeled after high heels called stilettos while her arms were wrapped in the armor that made up her half of the Angelbreaker gauntlet, her left arm had a gauntlet identical to the predominant one on her right hand; tendril-like strands were on her facial cheeks and forehead, forming a strange helmet of sorts that allowed her hair to flow out, and her eyes were now a glittery silver, like how most of the armor was. Rumi's predominantly gold-colored armor was similar to her mother's, except that it covered more of her front, since she was still a child under ten years of age, allowing her body some more modesty, while her footwear resembled sandals; her eyes were a molten-gold color like parts of her armor were. For some strange reason, one section of their bodies that wasn't completely covered in the armor were their bottoms; the armor covered part of the front of their pelvic areas and extended to the bottoms of their backsides, but the flesh that made up their rear ends was still highly exposed to the world.
What?! Ramiel gasped, seeing them alive. Impossible!
They both looked up toward the Angel of the Thunder, now reduced in size to that of an average human, but still in the shape of a large crystal, and sprouted wings similar to those Rumi had once sprouted and flew upward. The power of the Angelbreaker now spread across the air around the Fifth Angel, eliminating the remainder of his power and immortality, including his levitation ability to keep him airborne, causing him to descend.
Rumi's left arm protruded a large, jagged blade and she used it to cut off a part of Ramiel's bottom diamond piece off, forcing him to bleed a little, and his blood was red, just like a human or animal's.
Akira's left arm produced a hand-held jagged axe, which she used to leave a jagged gash on the left front side of the Angel's body; though neither mother nor child cared about which sides of the being were his front sides, they all were the same.
Ramiel tried to at least change from his diamond form into his five-pointed star form, but he could only manage to produce two of the five points, one on each side, horizontally. He accepted this and tried to concentrate enough of his energy to fire at the little girl; if he was going to be defeated, he'd go down taking her with him.
For our honor! He shouted, and successfully fired a small beam at her, aimed at her belly, which was partially exposed to reveal her belly button.
But Rumi, due to being a safe distance from the attack, simply lowered to being below the beam and it missed her, making Ramiel's final attempt a failure.
Akira then shifted the armor on her right arm into a large sword modeled after a scimitar and flew toward Ramiel again, not only using it to cut his body in half so cleanly, but exposed his weak point; it would seem that all of the Angels had one other thing in common other than the desire to get rid of Rumi, and that was a red sphere.
Ramiel's sliced body fell to the ground, but instead of shattering into pieces or crumbling to dust, he was reduced even further until he became like the Lilin: His new body was that of a blond-haired young man with bronze-colored eyes, a bulky muscle build on his chest and arms, was dressed in black and blue sweatpants and silk shirt, a grayish-blue skin tone, and was armed with what looked like a large bazooka. He groaned as he got up from his fall, seeing the pair descend toward him. Angry and terrified, he picked up his weapon and ran.
When Akira set her feet on the ground, she Geo Channeled and sent a streak of energy toward the former Angel in the form of a fissure, knocking him off balance and burying his left foot in a hole of softened sand.
"Aaurgh!" He ground, aiming his weapon toward the town leader. "You bitch!"
BLAST! He fired not a missile, but a ball of electrical energy at Akira, who channeled fire directly from her hands and sent a larger ball of fire to defend herself and Rumi. The spheres of elemental energy collided, but instead of another explosion, they just disappeared.
"Energy, my dear Ramiel," Akira uttered, but her voice sounded like it belonged to a seductress instead of a town leader or a mother. "Positive and negative cancel each other out, like how when four souls come together to form a perfect balance that can be used for great good or wrong."
"You…urgh!" Ramiel grunted, and prepared to fire again.
He never got his chance, as Rumi raised her left hand and fired something that looked like a needle, and it struck the former Angel of the Thunder in his heart. He felt his strength leaving him; the muscles relaxed, his breathing became taxed, vision was blurring and his hearing was fading.
"Who…are you people?" He asked them.
"Guardians of the past and future contained within the eternal present," answered Rumi, her voice sounding just like Akira's altered voice, as well. "Tormentors to some of twisted desires… Saviors to others of desperate needs. Sorry for the beating we gave you, but, as a person full of hatred and dark desires… You don't do it for us."
Ramiel then fell to the ground, out cold, hoping the next Angel could succeed where he had failed.
They approached him and Akira found where his only mark as a former Angel resided: Unlike the necklaces of Sachiel and Shamshel, Ramiel's red sphere was placed onto a bracelet that was set on his left wrist, mounted on bronze, interlocked 'A's that were shaped like chains. She had assumed that with each humanization of an Angel, their mark as former Angels was unique to each one, as they were different from each other.
-x-
"…Kami, did y'all see that?" Nemo asked his siblings, having run down the mountain, seeing Ramiel being changed, defeated, and by their mother and little sister, whom were dressed in armor after being attacked from above by him.
Shinobu, wishing to capture this moment, took out her camera and got at least two photos of Akira and Rumi in their armored guises.
"I know they said the Angelbreaker could humanize a threat like these Angels, but I didn't think they could do all of that," said Kanami.
"Their armor's too revealing," sighed Tsukiko, and her siblings looked at her like she had a problem with it. "What? You can see their bottoms and Akira's bust sticks out a bit."
Miaka sighed and said, "Who cares that they're half-naked? They beat the Angel."
"Hey, did Mommy say that Granny Akira and Auntie Rumi were half-naked?!" They heard Taeko yell out to them, as she, Mayo and Shinji were coming down the path. "Are they alright?!"
"Half-naked, huh?" Shinji questioned. "I hope they're properly covered."
By the time they made it down to where the siblings were standing, Akira and Rumi, and checking to confirm that Ramiel was unconscious, were shifted from out of the armor that retracted back into their bracelets and back into their regular clothes…or rather, what remained of their regular clothes: Akira's baby-blue dress and white, baggy pants were partially burnt and shredded, while Rumi's black skort and yellow shirt were accompanied with burnt edges and a rip on the midriff area of her blue undershirt, but still very modest than the armor was, partially. Then, they fell to their knees, exhausted from what had happened.
"Are…you okay, Rumi?" Akira asked her daughter.
"I'm…in one piece," she answered her. "You?"
"I need a drink of OJ, a nap…and my glider/staff." She explained, before passing out.
"Yeah," Rumi added, before passing out herself.
You two did well, Rumi, she heard Takeru's voice in her fading mind. You did well.
-x-
"…It would seem that a picture isn't worth a thousand words," said Kiel to the other members of the SEELE council, reviewing some photographs taken by their organization's own special satellite system. "Four pictures, altogether, are priceless."
The pictures in question displayed the Fifth Angel, Rumi with armored wings and a large claw, the humanized Fifth Angel, and an armored Rumi and Akira prior to the Angel's defeat.
"The girl is definitely the 'young' the scrolls foretold of, while her mother is the 'timeless guardian', but they both seem to have the 'Breaker'," said SEELE 13 SOUND ONLY. "Whatever this 'Breaker' is, it allowed them to defeat the Angel without having to worry about its AT-Field."
"And to think that this Angel was the second one not to be defeated by an Evangelion since Second Impact," uttered SEELE 10 SOUND ONLY, sounding upset. "Now what? If the Angels are made human, as our contact within NERV has informed us, the threat that they oppose is completely negated. Even if we did kill them, nothing that has changed would be undone."
"So…we may be stuck where we are," added in SEELE 06 SOUND ONLY. "This…'Breaker'…this…Angelbreaker…is the direct cause of our plans not working properly. Along with the girl and her mother. What must be done with them?"
"They should be eliminated," suggested SEELE 03 SOUND ONLY to the others. "They've interfered with our plans, so their lives should pay the forfeit of this war!"
"Further translation of the scrolls tells that when the Angels are placed on the same level as humans, the path to the future that is needed will be shown…and the path of desires, perfection…will be removed from the hearts of those that remain." SEELE 08 SOUND ONLY added. "This could mean that the Instrumentality Project will never be realized. We have yet to procure the Spear of Longinus from Antarctica's dead waters. Without it, we cannot use Lilith to achieve our goal. And even if the Angels were defeated by the Evas, we may not be able to use Unit-01 in place of Lilith."
"None of this might have happened had Ikari kept a perfect leash around his son's neck," said SEELE 10 SOUND ONLY.
"Yes. Had the boy not developed cancer to begin with, none of this would've happened, and now he should be dealt with, as well." SEELE 02 SOUND ONLY added.
"We should leave the boy be," said SEELE 09 SOUND ONLY, the most quiet of the council. "He should be allowed to die of his own accord. He's of no use to anyone, and he has no intention of piloting an Eva. Why waste time on him if he's going to die soon, anyway?"
"You know, ever since we found out about Ikari's son, you've been rather quiet lately," said SEELE 03 to him. "Care to explain?"
"Every man has his reasons," SEELE 09 expressed. "The boy should be left alone. From an earlier report from our contact, he hates Ikari as much as the people of the town he lives in do. And he remembers nothing of the Evangelion, knows nothing, and cares nothing for it. Please, leave him be."
"A dead boy avenges nothing…nor achieves anything," says Kiel to them all. "Let's see if we can deal with these keepers of this…Angelbreaker…peacefully."
-x-
"…You think she'll suffer any side-effects from what happened?" A man's voice uttered.
"No way, little brother," another voice responded. "She's as tough as we are."
"She might start aging again like she did before she turned twenty-eight," a female voice added in.
Fluttering her eyes, Akira's vision perfected until she saw the faces of Nemo, Bumi and Tsukiko around her and said, "I doubt I'll ever age again. If I did, I'd probably end up as a shriveled, old lady that surrounds herself with cats to pass time."
Rising to a sitting position, she found herself in a hospital room and asked Bumi what had happened.
"After you and Rumi took care of that new guy that used to be that giant diamond, you both passed out from exhaustion," he explained. "You've been asleep for almost half a day."
Placing her left arm over her forehead to steady her still-dizzy brain, she asked, "What about Rumi? Is she alright?"
"She's in the room next door," Tsukiko answered. "The kids and Kanami are with her. She woke up half an hour before you. That's only because Shinji was holding her hand, though."
"Oh, really?" Akira uttered. "That's impressive, really."
"Yeah, better than the photos that some of the people not in their shelters got of you and Rumi wearing that racy armor." Bumi sighed, revealing a piece of detail that made Akira's eyes widen.
"I'm sorry. Racy armor?" She asked him.
"You mean, you don't remember? You and Rumi were wearing armor when you defeated the guy that calls himself Ramiel. It was racy and everything. Well, partially racy in Rumi's case and extremely racy in your case. Even Shinobu took a picture and had it developed."
Tsukiko then took out a photo from her pocket and showed it to her mother. The picture showed the town leader and her youngest child dressed in the armor that left almost nothing to the imagination, both front and back.
Akira flushed with embarrassment; she had never seen an outfit that seemed, somewhat, seductive and violent…or herself wearing one, for that matter. Her partially-exposed breasts looked one size larger than they really were and her midsection was exposing her navel, and just by judging at the way the waist armor was positioned, her backside was only partially covered, but left very little to the imagination as the cheeks were exposed.
"Oh, my God," she sighed, handing the picture back to Tsukiko, "and Shinobu took this?"
"Yep," they answered her.
In the room next door, Rumi, having seen the photo already, was wondering when she'd be allowed to leave the hospital now that she had recovered from her initial exhaustion. She was also embarrassed that her nieces and nephew saw her wearing armor that exposed her like that in her fight with Ramiel. It was like when she was two years old again when Akira tried to get her to take a bath, and that ended up with disastrous results that were her running around the house naked after her clothes were taken off.
Why me? She thought, looking over to her left side of the room, staring not at the window, but at the small Get Well card that Shinji had gotten her. And it was supposed to be me worrying about Shinji, not the reversal.
-x-
"You two are disgraces!" Ramiel yelled to Sachiel and Shamshel. "You get beaten and tarnished by two members of the Lilin, and now you get to spend your days behind bars!"
"Yeah, look who's talking, brother," retorted Sachiel. "I was only here for less than two days until you showed up and got yourself beaten and tarnished by the two Lilin! Nice skin, by the way."
"Why, you little… I should kill you two myself! Oh, wait. I was going to do that once they were dead!"
As her brothers argued back and forth, Shamshel ignored them as she continued to read her book; their bickering was common among the other Angels, except to their big brothers, Sahaquiel and Zeruel, who bickered on who was the strongest of them all. She didn't want to argue over anything they no longer had any control over and just enjoy the fact that she was still alive. Her nightmare of Ramiel killing her was set aside.
How can the Lilin in this story not get along when the cover of the book shows them being happy together? She wondered, the romance novel that she was given by the guard that was her regular being very interesting.
"…And they were half-dressed! You got beat by half-dressed girls, Ramiel!" She sighed at Sachiel's reminding of Akira and Rumi wearing revealing armor while defeating their brother.
-x-
The Twenty-Seventh of July came and Akira and Rumi were allowed to go home, but the fact that one of the photographs of them in the armor was in the paper was something the people weren't going to let them hear the end of it. Akira had already received several letters from some of the town cops that knew her from years past that asked where she got a suit of armor like that or how Rumi got a similar suit tailored to her body.
"I can't believe we wound up in the newspaper," she said to Rumi as they got home.
"I can't believe we wound up on the front page in the newspaper," Rumi responded, sitting on a stool in the kitchen. "Why did Shinobu really have to take a picture of us wearing that armor? So our butts were showing. We didn't know!"
"Our butts? She wasn't the only one that got a photo of us in that armor, Rumi. Almost twenty-seven other people that weren't in their shelters had cameras on them, and they were using them. The one that made the headlines in town got a perfect view of my chest."
"Mama, your chest is supposed to be like that. You're a bigger girl."
Since they had a copy of the newspaper everybody was immortalizing, Akira showed her daughter the picture and asked her to compare her bust size from said picture to her bust size right now.
Hmm… She examined her mother's boobies and then looked at the ones she had in the paper, and could see the difference: The armor made them look one size larger, explaining why she was so unhappy about it, being large and quite subtle for a simple B-cup. "Oh. The armor makes your boobies bigger than they really are, like melons."
Akira sighed and gave up on the photograph, since it was going to follow them for a while, regardless of what size her bust was, and tried to pick up on their regular, day-to-day activities and routine.
"You're still grounded, Rumi," she reminded her daughter of her penalty for endangering her own life.
That made her slump as she asked her, "For how long?"
Never having thought of a time frame, Akira sighed and answered, "Until the Tenth of August, fourteen days from now."
"No hook swords?"
"No hook swords."
"No martial arts?"
"Exactly."
"And no…that?"
"No that."
"Aww!" Rumi whined, knowing that 'no that' meant 'no playground', either.
"But explain to me one thing: Why did you leave the shelter where it was safe?" Akira asked her.
"I needed to protect you from harm. You weren't the only one wearing the Angelbreaker, need I remind you? We were both chosen by it; therefore, we both had to deal with Ramiel."
"I could've handled him alone."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, really."
"Oh, and if you did go at him alone, where would you be right now, if not in the hospital?"
"I'm responsible for y'all, Rumi, and parents are supposed to protect their children."
"Just like how children are supposed to protect their parents…sometimes."
"What?! Where'd you hear some craziness like that?"
"Nemo and Miaka, they told me once."
"I'm gonna have to really chew them in when they get back. That's not always true, Rumi. And I…I promised Shinji I would keep you safe."
"I know, Mama. I eavesdropped on your conversation with him. He doesn't want me getting hurt because of these Angels…but that's a promise that had to be bent or broken. I can't always be some…tiny flower or lotus that has to be supported all the time. Yeah, I'm not entirely mature sometimes, I can say things that might be harsh to people, make mistakes and so on. No one's perfect. You needed my help…and I needed to help you. What's the point of being chosen to wear something like this to protect people or the future (holds up her wrist to brandish her half of the Angelbreaker)…if you're not allowed to get involved in a situation where your services are warranted?"
Akira sighed, wanting to question why fate chose her youngest daughter to wear one half of an ancient weapon that belonged to her side of the family for a long time since it came into their possession, but had to accept that sooner or later she would be needing Rumi's help in dealing with the Angels…and any other threat that she couldn't handle on her own. But to see one's own child or children placed in danger by something that thinks and feels almost like regular people…it almost made Akira desperate to keep them all safe from something only she should be placing own her life on the line for. She was older than she looked, not worth any amount of currency, and a mother figure of over fifty different children over the years since before the town was ever founded. She knew she wouldn't live forever and nothing was forever, but she would've given up her own life to do the right thing for the people she loved, instead of seeing them give up theirs.
"Mother," she heard Rumi say to her, "if you got my back, I got yours. I protect you… You protect me, and we protect every one that lives here from the Angels and anyone that comes looking to bring trouble. Yeah?"
She nodded in the positive; it was either they worked together to deal with the situation regarding the Angels or they'd just have problems with each other later on.
As the modern saying goes: There's no 'I' in 'team', she thought. "Okay, Rumi. The next Angel that comes here, we'll both take care of it."
"Okay," Rumi agreed, and then got up off the stool.
"Oh, and Rumi?"
"Yes?"
"You're grounded…until the First of August."
"Okay."
-x-
The evening night was once more pleasant. The streetlights were beaming, the few people walking about the streets were conversing and the aura was well-balanced between light and darkness.
Nemo was enjoying such an evening, even more so because he was spending time with Camille, just as he had planned to before the Fifth Angel showed up to cause trouble. And while he did have concern for his little sister, Rumi had told him to go out and be with his love interest, since she could see that, as he was getting older, his perception was swinging toward the girl he met prior to the festival.
But for some reason, it seemed that Camille wasn't thinking about the evening aura…or Nemo. It was as though her thoughts were aimed toward the newspaper from earlier.
"You don't seem happy, Camille," he told her.
"I saw your mother and baby sister in the paper today, and it got me worried about things," she explained a little bit of her concerns. "I tried talking to my grandmother about it, but she didn't know how to reduce the tension I was feeling."
"But what about your mother or father? Why not talk to them?"
"Believe me, I wish I could, but that's not a possibility…unless you believe in contacting the domain of the spirits. Because that's where they reside now."
"I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay. They passed away a long time ago. I was eleven years old at the time… They just got sick. Bad things like that happen. Nemo…there's something I really need to tell you, but I fear that if I do…you won't like me, anymore."
"How could I, possibly, not like you, anymore? You haven't done anything wrong."
They stopped walking down the street as Camille leaned against a wall, sighing.
"I've been keeping a terrible secret from you. I've been dishonest with you, and if my grandmother ever found out, well, I'd hate to think of how she'd react."
"What…what do you mean, Camille? What…does your grandmother have to do with any of this?"
Camille inhaled and exhaled, looked him in the eyes and uttered, "The day that girl attacked your sister at the museum… My grandmother had foreseen it. She dreamt it would happen and told me the day after the festival when you brought me home. She asked me to be her eyes and ears to make sure it either happened or didn't. And she knew about the Angelbreaker gauntlet…that it would choose your mother and sister. That is what I've been keeping quiet about. That is why I've been holding this newspaper displaying the photograph that everyone's whispering about in this town. This…is why you won't like me, anymore. There, I said it all."
Not waiting for a response from him, she turned to leave, but was halted by her left hand being grabbed, not in a forceful grip but in delicate one that offered no pain.
"Camille," Nemo had uttered, "your grandmother knew this was going to happen in the form of dreams…not you. Yes, you've been keeping this secret, but I don't blame you for any of what has happened. Why not introduce me to your grandmother? I would like to see her."
"Nemo…I hid the truth from you. I'm guilty."
"It's called taking responsibility for one's own choices. We're all responsible for our own decisions. That's part of faith and fate, which are also part of destiny, which is also linked to the soul."
Camille nodded in agreement and led him down several blocks until they reached her home. Unlike some of the more-urban newbies that had moved to Akira over the years following the Second Impact, Camille's family lived in a small, two-story house, not so different from regular people that lived in small homes instead of apartment buildings. One of the few things about regular houses in Akira Town was that they were so plain, so common, and thus so indifferent. Just regular homes, nothing supernatural or sci-fi blended in with their structures.
But Nemo was a little fearful of meeting Camille's grandmother; he'd only walked Camille to her doorstep, but had never actually set foot in her house.
Camille opened the door and stepped inside.
"Grandmama? I'm home. I've brought along a friend from the Fú Festival over." She called out to her grandmother, but got no response. "That's odd. She hardly ever leaves home."
She invited Nemo inside, and he asked her, "Did she have a former profession?"
"She used to work at the museum, probably spent some time studying up on the ancient myths and so on," she explained what she knew and assumed, as they walked up the stairs. "Grandmama? Are you here? I'm home."
They entered the living room and found an elderly woman lying asleep on a sofa in front of a television set, but what surprised Nemo about the woman was that next to the sofa was a wheelchair; Camille's grandmother had been disabled for some time.
So, that's her grandmother, huh? He thought, not disappointed, but curious about how long it has been since she stopped working at the museum.
Camille went over to check her grandmother's pulse and sighed to find that she wasn't dead yet, and shook her from her sleep.
"Huh? What? What?" She uttered out, seeing Camille as her vision perfected…but also seeing a young man behind her that looked like a younger and gentler version of the Rokubungi family's cruelest brat and modern nightmare brought to life. "Camille? You're home… And you brought a man over."
Camille looked behind to see Nemo, who remained quiet.
"This is Nemo Rokubungi, Grandmama," she explained to her.
"Your…boyfriend?"
"If that's how you wish to perceive him."
Nemo turned his head away to hide his blush; ever the innocent, he might've been, but when it came to strong emotions, blushing was one of many things he couldn't control.
"So, this is Nemo? It's hardly even a challenge to try and compare him, in appearance, to the rogue; they look nothing alike. Your boyfriend's a regular gentleman and rather delicate, just like hymens and booties." Her grandmother said, which made Camille gasp with a large blush of her own.
"That's 'diamonds and rubies', Grandmama," she corrected, ceasing her blush as she helped her into a sitting position. "And there's a reason to why I invited him over."
She looked to her granddaughter and then to Nemo, who, having ended his blushing, had a look of concern mixed with seriousness.
"I knew you'd tell him," she told Camille. "I had dreamt that, as well."
Camille pointed over to the other chair behind Nemo and waved for him to sit down, which he did.
"Camille tells me that…you knew about the Angelbreaker gauntlet attaching itself to my mother and sister after splitting itself between them," he told her grandmother. "Where are my manners in this first introduction? I am Nemo Rokubungi. And you?"
"Akane. Akane Yami. Pleasure to meet you."
"Yami?"
"Maternal grandmother."
"Oh. That explains everything."
"Not everything. The Angelbreaker and how I knew it would do what it has done."
"Heh-heh…yeah."
Akane sighed and then uttered the first beans to be spilled, "On the first day of July, I had this first of a recent string of dreams that were hard to make out until the night before the creature dubbed the Angel arrived and trashed the museum in the failed attempt to off your little sister. I saw events playing themselves out in different ways, different from how they're being played out right now."
"Like…like an alternate timeline, a different sequence of events?" Nemo asked.
"Yes. But in the penultimate dream so far, your family's rogue had done horrible, unforgivable acts that resulted in a terrible trauma for Akira. In my dream…or vision…he killed your little sister and then your only nephew after hearing of his son's renal failure…"
Suddenly, Nemo could picture the scene in his own mind as if he had seen it happening for himself: Shinji, lying dead on an operating table with his abdomen cut open in an operating room with a single light in the darkness, and in another room laid Rumi, deprived of both her right hand and some of her insides; the doctors, or whoever it was that cut her open, had possibly taken more from her than just one of her kidneys in a cruel attempt to save Shinji's life against his will, as he'd never take his child aunt's irreplaceable organs, even to save himself from the inevitable.
"…Drove Akira to kill him in a blind rage of temporary insanity…"
He saw Akira, wrapped in similar armor like the one in the photos and newspaper, except that it covered every inch of her and looked more like traditional samurai armor, her face contorted with rage as she willed the armor around her right hand to retract so that she could use a regular katana sword to behead Gendo, right in front of a large creature that reminded him of the purple Eva he'd been informed about by Rumi.
"…And then Akira, somehow, used the Angelbreaker to pierce the boundaries of time…rewinding it to the very beginning of a day that something was supposed to happen that would end up resulting in violence. The day this Angel showed up, the Angelbreaker was supposed to bond with Rumi in a violent way, making her brutal, and Akira was supposed to get hurt badly by the creature, but none of that has happened, just like what was supposed to happen with the previous monster; the day at the museum was supposed to be extreme, but it wasn't. Not in a loss-of-life way."
Then, Nemo saw Akira using the gauntlet that had been in her family's possession for God-knows-how-long to pierce an intangible force around her, sending the very planet into a psychedelic super storm of blurs and rapid movements.
"I think I've seen what you've explained to me just now," he told her. "I saw my nephew lying dead with his waist cut open and Rumi's insides hollowed out, Gendo's head was sent flying by my mother after she had found out that he killed them, and then she pierced the veil of time and causality."
"It's a wicked dream…of a wicked omen," Camille sighed. "It hasn't happened. If it did, it happened in a different timeline. The Angelbreaker hasn't done anything it might've done before to people, and nobody we cherish is dead because of that NERV agency or whoever foots the bill to keep it alive."
"Rumi and Shinji kept the pamphlet they were given the day they showed up in Tokyo-3, the same day they saw the creature that ended up as that guy Akira brought back with her to be rehabilitated like Shamshel, the girl that trashed the museum. It said that NERV is a clandestine organization, semi-public and under the direct control of the United Nations… But I don't always believe what I see on the paper. It didn't speak of its top project revolving around giant, man-made monsters called Evas or their…former purpose of dealing with the Angels, as they're so-called. The pamphlet makes the organization that was supposed to be in charge of rebuilding the path of the future of mankind sound like crazy…and false…advertisement, which is as worthless as a petty criminal."
"That fortress city, Tokyo-3, isn't even meant to protect people from the Angels," Akane told him. "It's only meant to draw them toward it for the purpose of killing them, regardless of the cost of lives that wind up in the crossfire. If anything, that city of artificiality doesn't compete with this town of elements, possibly the only place left on Earth that has any real balance, any real life left in it at all."
"Can the Angelbreaker stop the Angels…for real?" Nemo wanted to know, but also if that gauntlet would protect his mother and baby sister.
"It can, for it needs to," Akane told him. "Tokyo-3 draws them in for the purpose of killing them; the Angelbreaker draws them here to Akira Town for the purpose of humanizing them, eliminating their threat, permanently. It's basically a fate worse than sudden death, the lesser of two evils."
"How do you know so much about the Angelbreaker?"
Akane sighed before showing Nemo a strange mark on her right hand; it was shaped like an egg or teardrop, with an interlocked pair of circles almost resembling the horizontal infinity symbol under it.
"When I worked at the museum, I spent much of my time studying up on the Angelbreaker," she explained, "but one day, my curiosity got the better of me and I couldn't resist the urge of wanting to wear the gauntlet myself. I believed in it having incredible powers that it could bestow upon its chosen bearers to fulfill the world's needs. Unfortunately, I didn't know of the darker side of the Angelbreaker, that it would be cruel to those that weren't supposed to wear it and don't understand its reasons for not wanting to be worn by them until they get the message."
"Wha…wait a minute, cruel to people that aren't supposed to wear it?" Nemo asked, confused right now about the gauntlet.
"It's sentient, Nemo," Camille told him. "It may look like a gauntlet, but it has the capacity required to think, feel and make its own decisions about something. It's a weapon of protection that goes only to certain people that are able to wield it…and it chooses the people that it wants, for better or for worse. Maybe it was a basis for the whole plot of that American comic book series we both look at because there's a living gauntlet in it, as well, but have different backgrounds. However this gauntlet came to be, it was meant to preserve our future."
"A part of me still wants to believe that it's just a damn piece of metal and stone sculpted into a glove…that divides itself in half and turns into a pair of damn bracelets…but I can't let go of what I saw it do."
"Trust me…for I still wish to believe that the gauntlet didn't do what it did to me until I developed the will to take it off." Akane told him.
"How bad was your experience with it?" He asked her.
"It was late at night. I was on night watch, and I decided to place it on my hand to further my studies on it. That's when I felt my hand burning. As much as I wanted to take it off at that moment, I couldn't let go of my curiosity. The Angelbreaker burned me, punished me so severely that I finally got the message it was sending through to me and ripped it away from my seared wrist. But even my brief exposure to the weapon was enough to enable to see some of what it has done over the years, to explore the past that it shared with its previous wielders, how it defeated creatures that inspired nightmares and fairy tales, saved villages and brought balance to people that had none. It was like living several lifetimes in that one moment." She answered him. "It's been both a blessing and a curse. The Angelbreaker's a grand mystery, locked in a maze of many questions and very few answers."
"A conundrum…charted in unknown terrain."
-x-
GASP! Shinji awoke, drenched in sweat. It was another nightmare, one that revolved not around the Angels, but by one of the people he'd seen at NERV. He was certain of that.
Just when I thought I could look forward to happy days, he thought, lying back down on his pillow. I don't know which is worse: The Evangelion, the Angels, Gendo or the Angelbreaker. The Angelbreaker doesn't seem too dangerous; it just shows up, attaches itself to my grandmother and aunt, turns a monster into a person and then turns itself into a pair of bracelets when not in use. Gendo…that madman uses people. The Eva…it uses people. The Angels…they take lives…but the Angelbreaker… It needs people to help it…to do what it can't do by itself…and protects. So…why did my dream show that girl with the red eyes wearing a gauntlet just like it?
In his dream, he saw that girl he and Rumi encountered at NERV when Gendo summoned her to replace Shinji after calling him a useless spare, Rei Ayanami, fighting against his grandmother, wearing a gauntlet similar to the Angelbreaker…but almost dangerous, not like the actual weapon itself, which was a weapon of protection, not destruction. And the girl herself…was completely devoid of emotions, no sense of identity, whatsoever. She was as frightening as she was dangerous at the moment. And the setting of their battleground: Tokyo-3, the city of the soulless, the artificial, a desolate place without a shred of hope…in the silence of the night.
Creak! He looked up at the sight of his door opening and…there was Rumi, with her eyes half-open, standing there at the entrance.
"Uh, Rumi?" He asked her, but she didn't respond; she stayed quiet, but walked over to the other side of his bed…and climbed in.
Rumi was sleepwalking again, and once more, it was always her nephew's room, as well as his bed, that she always went to. Once she tucked herself in, she laid on his pillow and remained quiet.
Okay…this is odd, he thought.
-x-
The First of August came, a month of new events to replace the events of the previous month. But in the last three days at the rehabilitation center in Akira Town, Sachiel and Ramiel bickered and tried to beat each other each time they were let out of their cells for external recreation. Only Shamshel remained the calmer and more tamed person out of the three siblings that had been humanized. It might've been due to her lack of motivation to maintain her anger against the little girl that caused all of this, initially, or maybe it was because she found the time to start embracing the positives of being part of the Lilin society (or at least the society of Lilin of Akira Town), as she had all the time she could ask for when it came to having nothing better to do. Whatever the true reason, she was now spending a pleasant afternoon in the sun, reading a new book in the yard of the rehab center, while her brothers were made to vent their anger out against the guards, who were able to deal with them due to their extensive martial arts training.
"Whaaah!" She heard Sachiel scream, being thrown back onto the ground by the guards. "Aurgh!"
"Aaaaahh! Aaah!" Ramiel cried like a girl as he was thrown to the ground.
Shamshel tore her eyes from the book and looked at them, seeing them covered in bruises and scrapes. It was almost impossible not to laugh at them, seeing them for the weaklings they had been shown to be without their powers, their blessings, and how she got off by not picking a fight with any of them.
"You could bother to help, sis!" Ramiel shouted at her.
"It wouldn't get me anywhere, big brother," she told him. "Just sit back and relax. Help yourself to a cup of lemonade, eat some dumplings."
"Traitor!" Sachiel called her. "This planet was ours, billions of years before they showed up!"
She closed her book and uttered, "They had no say in the matter. They're here now, they've been here, and they're still here. These people here, they're not fighting us, killing anybody, or trying to spread their beliefs upon the world. If you want to blame somebody for everything that's happened, blame the people that captured our father! Blame the woman that took dominion over the planet from him! I blame them, but you two seem to claim silent, meaningless victories over hating a little girl that thought you, Sachiel, were originally a monster, and a woman that you, Ramiel, did shoot because you couldn't see reason or solution."
The brothers looked at her and then at each other, wondering how tamed she'd become.
"Well, you do," Shamshel told them, turning away to resume looking into her book. "We've been invited into their town. They're taking a big risk in sheltering us because we used to be different from them, and I thank them for their hospitality."
-x-
It would seem we have competition in getting rid of the Angels, thought Ritsuko, typing away on her computer. Three have been humanized…and, supposedly, there are still eight that haven't been beaten yet. The Committee are already angry with the lack of progress with the Evas, I wonder how they'll respond to the lack of the Dummy Plug System since we have yet to check Rei's synch-ratio.
"…We're ready to begin, Sempai," went Maya, reminding the pseudo-blond that they were now about to attempt reactivation with Unit-00, which had been repaired and checked for further instabilities before they were to start.
Rei, fully recovered and in the Entry Plug, awaited her instructions. At first, she had thought they would attempt to activate Unit-01 and have her pilot it, but Commander Ikari had declared that the purple Eva was to be used as a last resort if reactivation with Unit-00 didn't work out. Rei had also seen the satellite footage of the Fifth Angel's defeat at the hands of Akira and her daughter, Rumi, wondering how they were able to do so when it was discovered that only an Eva could fight the Angels. It was like flaunting one's ability to do something to show that they had ways of achieving success.
Even Asuka was both impressed and disgusted. She had spent her life training to deal with the Angels and now she couldn't because of a bunch of mishaps caused by the actions of a little girl's actions. While she could vent out her rage through facing simulations, it wasn't the same as the real thing, and she lost to the Fourth Angel when it showed up and then left. If she could defeat one Angel, just one, she'd be content that she could do her job right. Was it too much to ask the gods for one Angel to face and defeat herself?
"Did you hear about some of the people leaving the city?" The redhead overheard some NERV technicians talking to each other. "It turns out that even after the Third Angel was defeated and no one got hurt, some families still wanted to leave."
"Yeah, 'cause somehow, the knowledge of a little girl being inside the Eva got out and made some civilian women quite disgusted. They're questioning how the army could resort to using kids to fight in wars." The second technician responded to the first. "But is it true? Was the girl that piloted Unit-01 related to Commander Ikari?"
"Definitely," the third tech answered. "There was even a rumor that he tried to burn the girl for not wanting to pilot again. He even called her a brat once."
"What kinda man tries to put his hands on somebody else's child in front of them?" The fourth tech, a woman, had asked. "He should be tried for attempted child abuse."
"He already abandoned his own son," the second tech told her. "He didn't even bat an eye when he found out he was sick twenty-four/seven. Maybe that's why he tried to get the girl to pilot: He was looking for a replacement for the boy. I heard the Marduk Institute hasn't even found anyone qualified to be the Fourth Child yet."
"I don't see why they even bother looking," the third tech uttered. "The Angels haven't been here since the Fourth Angel left. They go to some other place and try to cause problems there. Did you see that footage showing the woman and the little girl? Where'd they get such armor like that?"
Asuka couldn't understand how fate dealt her a bad hand with the Eva being unused for the betterment of mankind. She was a chosen being, a special person, meant to ensure their future with Unit-02, and yet she was being put to the sidelines as a watcher of events instead of being a part of them.
Suddenly, the alarms went off! Something had caught NERV's attention!
Misato showed up at Central Dogma and demanded information.
"An AT-Field was detected off the shores of the Kii Peninsula, south of Tokyo-3," said Hyuga to her.
"What is the name of…" Aoba uttered, as the image that appeared on the screens made several people want to vomit.
"Is that it?" Asuka asked. "Is that the new Angel?"
The creature on the screens looked like a giant, bone-white and red, prehistoric fish-like manta or shark on the shores of the peninsula. It was partially out of the water, but appeared to be stuck on the ground, immobile due to its new environment. It didn't even look to be alive, as its body didn't move, despite its organic appearance.
"The Sixth Angel…is that thing?" Asuka asked again.
To be continued…