Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Disclaimer: Birdy the Mighty is the creation of Masami Yuuki. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Ten: Windows to the Past (I)
Yes, Shinji-kun, it's me, Yui spoke softly from her place inside Shinji head. I don't know how I got here, but it's me.
Shinji passed several moments in complete, thunderstruck silence. He didn't move, didn't speak. He barely breathed, so deep was his shock.
He had sensed his mother's presence in EVA before, and he had never forgotten his experience with the Twelfth Angel. However, he hadn't believed for a moment that she was actually inside of it. He'd suspected there was some echo of her trapped within EVA, at most.
He abruptly got up and silently moved the room's lone chair to just below the surveillance camera that was hanging from the ceiling. Climbing up onto it, he unplugged a wire from the camera, and the little red light on it winked out.
One of the extremely few things he felt he knew at the moment was that he did not want NERV to be watching him right then.
"Mother," he spoke as he returned to the hospital bed and sat down on the edge of it, "I…"
Shinji swallowed, finding that he had no idea what to say.
He frowned, realizing that wasn't true at all. There were a thousand—a million— things he wanted to say, and he had questions without number he wanted to ask her. There was just too much for him to pick any one of them.
So it wasn't surprising that Yui spoke first. Shinji-kun, my baby, I'm so sorry, she said, suddenly sounding like she was on the verge of tears. It was never supposed to happen this way! Things were never, ever supposed to happen like this!
"What wasn't?" Shinji asked.
Everything! Yui exclaimed. Nothing went the way I expected it to after I was absorbed into EVA. If I had thought your father would react the way he did…I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! It's all my fault! I never should have—
"Mother!" Shinji hissed as it became obvious that Yui was descending into hysteria. He paused, then added. "Uh, sorry."
He hadn't wanted to speak sharply to her, but her flood of apologies hadn't been helping anything at all.
Then, suddenly, it hit him like a bolt of lightning. Oh my god…is this where I get it from?
He didn't have much time to dwell on this possible revelation, however, as his mother took a deep breath and began speaking again.
It's all right, and I'm sorry for going to pieces like that, Yui said, now sounding much calmer. It's just that it's broken my heart to have known what was happening to you all these years and not have been able to do anything about it.
"How have you been able to know what was happening?" Shinji asked.
Your father goes down to the cages in the middle of the night sometimes, when they're empty, Yui explained. He talks to Unit One sometimes. I hear it.
This inevitably led to his next question. "How did you get inside Unit One?"
Yui sighed. It's a long story, Shinji-kun.
Shinji looked at the clock that sat on the tiny bedside table. It was one o'clock in the morning. He wouldn't have to worry about a nurse coming in randomly to check on him.
"I have time," he said.
Yui was silent for a moment, gathering her thoughts. I guess the chain of events that resulted in me being inside EVA all started in 1999. That was the year I first started dating your father, she said. A lot of people believed he was only pursuing me because of my connections. You see, at the time, my father was a member of SEELE.
"SEELE?" Shinji asked.
It's a secret cabal of people—very powerful people—and NERV's hidden beneficiaries, Yui said.
Okay, why not? Was Shinji's first thought.
NERV had always seemed like a shadowy, conspiratorial type of organization. Secret cabals actually didn't feel all that out of place in relation to it.
"Those people might not have been wrong," Shinji said darkly. "The ones who thought he wanted to use you for your connections, I mean."
No, I know that wasn't it, Yui replied. Though now, I wish that they were right.
"Huh?"
Let me finish the story, then it will all make sense.
"Go ahead," Shinji said, laying back against the bed's metal headboard.
Gendo was quickly able to get into SEELE's inner circle. The man has a gift for that sort of thing, Yui continued. Not long after, he found out that SEELE intended to begin working toward the fulfillment of a prophecy found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Shinji frowned; even for NERV, that sounded a little out there. "Prophecy?"
A prophecy about the so-called reunification of Man and God. A tale of how the world ends, Yui answered sorrowfully.
Shinji felt himself pale. "The end of the world?"
Yes, Yui said. Shinji-kun…NERV doesn't exist to prevent Third Impact. It never did. It exists to create one of their own design.
Meanwhile, blissfully unaware that they were being discussed by a boy who shouldn't know of their existence and a "dead" woman, the SEELE council assembled in their virtual meeting room.
"We are all in agreement, then?" SEELE-07 asked.
"On the issue of Ikari's intensions, yes," SEELE-03 answered. "There is little doubt that he desired for Unit One to attain godhood."
"Something which runs directly counter to our scenario!" SEELE-11 added shrilly.
"Yes, but we are not agreed on how to proceed," SEELE-03 injected.
"We need do nothing," SEELE-04 snorted dismissively. "Ikari made his attempt to reshape destiny and failed."
"Ikari is not the sort of person to try once and then surrender," SEELE-01 said. "And he is not the type to fail twice."
"If anything, Ikari's recent failure may make him more dangerous," SEELE-07 put in. "It will make him more difficult to predict."
"What would you have us do?" SEELE-04 asked.
"Terminate him," SEELE-07 answered flatly.
"No," SEELE-01 said flatly. "Not yet, at least. Killing Ikari would be like beheading the hydra. Remove one problem and several more will sprout up in its place. For now, we will employ the bell we placed around Ikari's neck."
It was two in the morning, but Shinji wasn't the least bit tired. He was far too horrified to be tired.
Over the course of the past hour, his mother had told him how SEELE had found the Lance of the Longinus and then arranged for the Katsuragi expedition to use it to awaken the slumbering form of Adam.
"Second Impact was…deliberately set off?" he whispered, feeling a wave of nausea sweep over him as it truly sunk in that the accident that had killed Misato's father had never been an accident at all.
Yes, it was, Yui said sorrowfully.
"Why didn't you try to stop them?" Shinji asked.
It was a question he had absolutely no desire to pose; he feared the answer, feared discovering that his mother was no better than his father, but he had to know. He couldn't just leave the matter up in the air. He'd given his father the benefit of the doubt, and that had turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes he'd ever made.
Because I believed, Yui sobbed. Gendo and my father were both for this plan, and I was just young and stupid enough to let them convince me it was a good idea. I came to believe that the world was a horrible place that was never going to get better, and that the Dead Sea Scrolls held the only key to improving humanity's condition. That we could create a world where no one ever knew pain, or fear, or loneliness and that it would be for the best. I believed all that.
Shinji was silent, feeling overwhelmed by this rush of information.
Shinji, Yui spoke up in a small voice. I'll understand if you hate me for this.
"No!" he said, more sharply than he'd intended. "No, I don't hate you, mother."
He was tempted to add "I could never hate you" but he knew that wasn't true. He hated his father, so why should it be impossible for him to hate his mother, too?
However, hating his father hurt, and he was certainly in no rush to despise his mother as well, not after he'd longed for her for as long as he could remember, and certainly not for making a mistake.
He knew he had no right to judge, even if he'd wished to. He'd been guilty of failing to do anything at times when he really should have acted more than once, he knew. Besides, even if she had tried to stop SEELE's madness, she almost certainly would have failed.
"But what happened?" he asked. "To change your mind, I mean. You obviously don't still believe in all of that."
Two things, Yui said, sounding calmer now. The first was the way the world pulled itself together after Second Impact. I was amazed by how well humanity dealt with such a terrible disaster; a lot of the old animosities and barriers started to fall in response, once the initial hysteria passed, and there were a lot of acts of great generosity and courage in those days. It helped restore some of my faith in humanity that Gendo and my father had destroyed.
"And the other thing?" Shinji asked.
I had you, Yui answered simply.
"Me?" Shinji asked, surprised.
Yes. I remember holding my baby boy in my arms and suddenly being so sure that not only was the current state of the world acceptable, it was worth fighting to preserve, Yui said.
A lump formed in Shinji's throat, as his mother's simple, unquestioning affection acted as a balm for his soul. "So what did you do?"
Well, first I had to convince your father that the world was worth saving, Yui said.
Shinji snorted. "I bet that went real well."
Better than you'd expect, Yui said softly. He wasn't always the man you know now. Once upon a time he was quite…sweet.
Shinji couldn't imagine that, but he decided that there was probably little point in arguing with his mother about it. "So you changed his mind?"
Eventually, yes, Gendo came around. After that was done, I started trying to get SEELE to see reason, and I began questioning the Dead Sea Scrolls, Yui answered.
2003
"This is quite a claim you're making, Ikari-san," SEELE-07 spoke, his voice oozing contempt.
Standing within a single pool of light and surrounded by the faceless monoliths of SEELE, Yui had to use all her willpower not to flinch. Or to glance at the monolith of SEELE-05, whom she knew to be her father.
"I've studied the Dead Sea Scrolls night after night," Yui said. "Hundreds of hours. I keep coming to the same conclusion: that the prophecies contained within the scrolls are essentially self-fulfilling."
"Blasphemy!" SEELE-02 barked.
"I am only reporting on what I have found," Yui said as levelly as she could.
"It's quite impressive that you have the time to study the scrolls between your work at GEHRIN and nursing that brat of yours," SEELE-08 sneered.
"Enough!" SEELE-05 snapped.
Thank you, Daddy, Yui thought
"Additionally, all my work on Project-E has only further served to convince me that the Angels, and the Seeds of Life in particular, are simply forces beyond our ability to comprehend with current human knowledge," Yui continued. "Is it really wise to play with such things, using only ancient, cryptic texts written by mystics to guide us?"
"We have sacrificed half of mankind on the alter of this ideal, this perfect world we plan to create," SEELE-10 hissed. "Would you have so many deaths be in vain?"
"No," Yui said, "but I also wouldn't like to see the other half of humanity follow because of us playing with Adam and Lilith like a group of children playing with matches."
There was a great uproar as several members of the council began to yell and shout at once, enraged by the comparison. At last, SEELE-01 called for order, and the others reluctantly quieted.
"I believe that we have heard enough on this matter today," Keel said. "Ikari-san, your contributions and opinions are always welcome here. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today."
The monoliths winked out of existence, leaving Yui standing alone in a dark room.
"Then what happened?" Shinji asked.
My father died in early 2004, Yui said. Without his influence protecting me, it soon became clear that my days were numbered. I had objected too strenuously against SEELE's scenario; they were afraid I might try and sabotage it. So, I decided to become the soul of EVA Unit One.
"What?" Shinji gasped.
It's true, Yui said. Research on the EVA's was showing that they needed their own soul in order to function. Since I was as good as dead anyway, I thought it would be best if I was absorbed into one of them. At least that way I would live on in some fashion, possibly forever, and I might be able to exert some kind of influence over the future.
"What did father say?" Shinji asked.
He…wasn't exactly in love with the idea.
2004
"This is insane!" Gendo shouted.
"Shh! You'll wake Shinji," Yui chided. "I just got him to sleep a half an hour ago."
Gendo rubbed his temples. "Can we please talk about the issue here?" he asked in a softer but no less vehement tone of voice. "You cannot allow Unit One to absorb you!"
"Yes, I can," Yui said firmly. "That way, it'll be one less person who needs to die in order to make Evangelion work. I'm as good as dead already."
"No, you're not!" Gendo hissed.
"We both know that's not true, dear," Yui said sadly. "Without Dad on the council anymore, they're going to have me killed."
"They may try," Gendo succeeded, "but with GEHRIN's security—"
"You really think they can protect me from a group of men that plays dice with all the nations of the world?" Yui asked incredulously.
"Yes," Gendo said stubbornly. "You'll be fine if you stay down in the Geofront."
Yui scowled. "And live my entire life like a mole afraid of its own shadow?" she asked. "No, absolutely not. This is the only way. Now, I expect you to watch after Shinji when I'm gone, and to—"
"Stop talking like that," Gendo growled.
"No. Gen-chan, we have to face reality," Yui said. "I can't remain with you and Shinji for much longer."
"Stop it," Gendo said, a wild look in his eyes.
"Listen to reason!" Yui said. "SEELE has—"
"Stop it!" he shouted, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her hard.
Yui winced in pain as she felt his fingers digging into her. "You're hurting me!"
Gendo's eyes widened and he removed his hands from her as though her skin burned him. "I'm sorry, Yui," he stammered. "I…I need some air."
With that, he withdrew from the house in a great rush, heedless to Yui's attempts to call him back.
Once it became obvious that I wasn't going to convince your father about that, I told him I wouldn't allow myself to be absorbed into EVA, Yui said.
A very old memory came back to him for the first time in years and years. He remembered being a small child, amazed at the sight of the "big mecha." His mother said it was for the future of mankind or something like that—he'd been too young to really understand the lofty little speech—and that she was going to pilot it for some test.
After that, all he could recall was his mother's scream and a feeling of horrified disbelief.
The Third Child suddenly got up and started to pace about the little room in agitation.
"But you planned to be absorbed, anyway," Shinji said. It was not a question.
Yes, but it wasn't supposed to happen the day it did, I swear! Yui said. If I'd expected it would have happened that day, I never would have brought you to watch. In fact, the point of that whole day was to convince your father that I'd given up on the idea. I knew he'd believe I wasn't planning to do it if I brought you.
"So what happened?" Shinji asked.
I don't know, Yui said. Either we really didn't understand EVA as well as we believed, or SEELE basically had the same idea I did and sabotaged Unit One.
Shinji ran his fingers through his hair. "So you've been in there all this time?" he asked.
Yes, and all this time, your father's been trying to figure out how to get me out, Yui said. He ignored my own wishes and dedicated his life to that goal. Shinji-kun, he intends to invoke his own Third Impact just so he can extract my soul from EVA and be with me forever.
"And everyone else?" Shinji asked.
I don't think he knows what will happen to them or cares, Yui said.
"God," Shinji breathed. "I knew he was evil, but I never believed for a second that even he could…"
He trailed off, feeling unable to list his father's crimes. They just seemed too great in number and atrociousness to put words to.
Shinji? Yui spoke up. There's something I really don't understand. How did I end up inside of you? No normal human body should be able to contain two souls.
Shinji couldn't help but chuckle slightly and sat back down on the bed. "My body…this body," he corrected, "has been altered in order to contain two souls."
How? Yui asked, shocked. Why?
"That's also a long…" he was suddenly overcome by a huge yawn, "long story."
It'll keep until tomorrow, Yui said softly. You're exhausted, Shinji-kun. Get some sleep. I have a feeling that you're going to be needing your rest for tomorrow.
"Yeah," he agreed, "you're right."
The Third Child plugged the surveillance camera back in, then shut out the lights and got into bed. "Good night, mother," he whispered.
Good night, Shinji-kun, Yui replied warmly.
Almost immediately, he sensed the relative silence within his mind that let him know the other person he was sharing a body with had gone to sleep. He couldn't follow her example, however. His mind was whirling with thousands of different thoughts, and he was still reeling with the horrifying things his mother had revealed to him.
All in all, it was not the joyful reunion he would have wished for, though he supposed it still beat the first meeting he'd had with his father upon arriving to Tokyo-3.
Then there was the matter of Birdy, whom he'd nearly forgotten about entirely while speaking with his mother. It was obvious that the Federation officer was no longer inside his body (which was, in reality, her body), which meant there was only one place she could be: trapped within Unit One, as his mother had been for a decade now.
I can't just leave Birdy in there, but…
He had a pretty good idea what getting Birdy out would require, and he didn't want to pay that price, didn't want to allow Unit One to claim his mother once again.
Ugh! Forget it for tonight! He commanded himself sternly. Just go to sleep!
He tried to push all his worries about nefarious cabals and doomsday scenarios from his mind so he could rest. Unsurprisingly, it proved a near impossible task, and Shinji tossed and turned in the hospital bed for over an hour before his weariness overwhelmed him and sleep finally claimed him.
Yet when it did, he was faintly smiling, despite everything.
Shinji woke at roughly 9 o'clock the next morning, which was far earlier than he would have liked to have arisen, considering how late he was up last night. However, once he was up, everything that had dogged him the previous night returned with a vengeance and further sleep became impossible.
"Mother?" he whispered, feeling irrationally afraid that she wouldn't be there any longer.
Ohayo, Shinji-kun, Yui answered sleepily.
He thought that he should say something after this brief greeting but didn't know what. Now that they had stopped comparing notes for the moment, he felt awkward having in her inside his head. It seemed strange and wrong, feeling so awkward with his own mother, but he supposed it was unrealistic of him to have expected anything else.
Wordlessly, he pressed the button to call the nurse, and in a few minutes one of the professional but utterly emotionless and unsympathetic nurses that NERV Medical seemed to hire exclusively arrived and briefly examined Shinji. She soon proclaimed him healthy and left to inform his guardian.
"Hopefully, we should be out of here soon," Shinji said quietly.
Good, Yui said. Much as I'd like to spend the day just getting caught up with you, we just have too much to do.
Shinji just nodded at that. He truthfully had no idea how he should act upon the knowledge his mother had shared with him last night, and just thinking about it threatened to give him a migraine.
A few minutes later, the door to his little room exploded open and Misato rushed inside before Shinji could even try to react, releasing a rather high pitched squeal of joy and throwing her arms around him in a crushing hug.
Of course, thanks to the height difference between the two of them, this resulted in Shinji's face getting smothered by Misato's considerable bust.
Shinji's face turned crimson. As if the whole situation wasn't embarrassing enough by itself, he immediately found himself wondering just what his mother would have to say about his guardian and what she might assume he'd been up to in her absence.
My god, is that Katsuragi's daughter? Yui asked instead when Misato released him.
Shinji frowned. "Huh?"
"I asked if you felt well enough to get out of here," Misato said.
"Oh!" Shinji exclaimed. He hadn't even realized that she'd said anything. "Yeah. Absolutely."
Misato gave him an odd look. "Are you sure that you're feeling all right, Shinji-kun?"
Shinji nodded vigorously. "Yes. Totally."
She smiled at him. "Well, if you're certain, then here, take this," she produced a set of his clothes from somewhere. "There should be plenty time for you to get yourself cleaned up, have something to eat, and still make it to school on time for the second half of the day."
Shinji blinked, surprised that Misato intended to have him back in school before the day was out.
Damn Japanese work ethic, he thought.
The Third Child didn't bother protesting, though. He knew only too well how implacable Misato tended to get on issues like these. Indeed, his first encounter with Birdy had ultimately been caused by Misato's drive to see her wards properly educated in spite of any and all EVA-related interruptions to their schooling.
"Uh, okay, sure," Shinji said.
About a half an hour later, Shinji sought out Misato, now clean, dressed and very red in the face.
The Ops Director frowned at him. "Are you all right, Shinji-kun?" she asked. "You look a little flushed."
Shinji just nodded, neither willing nor able to let Misato know why he was currently doing his best impression of a cherry.
Over the months, bathing and such with Birdy in his head had eventually ceased to embarrass the hell out of him and had become routine. However, sharing his body with a new person had made all of that fresh again, and because it was his mother, it was ten times worse than it had been with Birdy.
Shinji had been so mortified, in fact, that he'd attempted to shower with his eyes closed. He had refused to admit how foolish this was and open his eyes until he'd slipped on his bar of soap and had fallen on the hard floor of the shower.
Yui's reassurances that she'd seen him naked before—had even changed his diapers when he was a baby—had done nothing to make him feel better about the situation.
"I…I'm fine, Misato, really," he stammered.
She frowned and pressed the palm of her hand to his forehead. Once satisfied that he wasn't feverish, she smirked at him. "Why, Shinji-kun, do I still get you all hot and bothered even after all this time?"
"What? N-no…I….I mean…" Shinji sputtered frantically before finally giving up and trailing off.
Misato laughed, but Shinji immediately noticed that it seemed a little forced.
"It's good to have you back," she said cheerfully. "I'm swamped right now, but as soon as I have a little time to breathe again, we're going to have a party to celebrate your return!"
Shinji forced himself to smile back, but his eyes narrowed slightly. Again, he could tell that Misato's enthusiasm was at least somewhat forced.
What's been going on while I was out? He wondered, then shook his head slightly, realizing it was just one more thing he was probably going to have to put on the back burner. Overwhelmed? Me? Nah!
Of course, he had no way of knowing that the reason she wasn't quite her usual, cheerful self was because Kaji had up and vanished, something which had occurred very recently.
"Well, let's go," Misato said.
She set off, and Shinji fell in step beside her.
So, Yui spoke up. She's your guardian?
Shinji nodded.
You've led a rather…interesting life lately, haven't you, Shinji-kun? She asked in a dry tone of voice.
Shinji just blushed again and said nothing.
What part of the school day that Shinji managed to catch passed in a blur to him, and he found himself paying even less attention to the teacher than usual. The moment they were dismissed, Shinji bolted from the classroom and then the school as quickly as he could, since he wanted nothing less than to be confronted by Kensuke or Hikari about Toji.
Fortunately, his mother didn't seem to realize the reason behind his hasty retreat, as she said nothing.
Once he was clear of the danger zone, the Third Child set a course that would take him to the more run down section of the city, and a certain dump contained within in.
Where are we going? Yui ask once the neighborhood started becoming visibly more seedy. NERV doesn't have you living around here, do they?
He couldn't help but smile at the indignation he heard in her voice. "No, mother," he replied. "There's something here that I need to show you."
Shinji arrived at the dump a few minutes later and began climbing into the car where the entrance to Birdy's ship was located.
Be careful! Yui exclaimed worriedly. This pile of cars looks like it could fall any second and…what's that?
Shinji wordlessly opened the airlock and entered. Moments later, he was sprawled out on the floor of Birdy's ship.
Ugh. One of these days, I am going to figure out how she manages to get in here without falling, he thought.
What is this place? Yui asked softly.
"It belongs to the person that I was sharing a body with before I was absorbed into EVA," Shinji explained.
Yui tried to nod, then discovered, as Shinji had dozens of times over, that it was impossible to do so while riding in the backseat of someone else's body. She had known that there was something besides Shinji inside of her son, but she had never quite been able to tell what; her link to the second entity had been practically nonexistent when Shinji piloted.
Why were you sharing a body with someone to begin with? Yui asked. And how?
Shinji sighed and approached the glass pod where his own damaged form lay. The lights within it went on as he drew near and Yui gasped.
"That's why," Shinji said. "I was fatally hurt, so I had to share a body with someone else to survive until this can be repaired. We're not actually in my body right now. This one belongs to someone else."
Yui was silent for several moments, just trying to take in what she'd been told. I think you'd better start from the beginning, she said.
Shinji nodded and did so, explaining what had happened, starting with that fateful night he encountered the Federation officer and going all the way to the present. He made certain to omit only details he deemed completely irrelevant—such as the incident at the onsen and Birdy's photo shoot with Kensuke.
My god, Yui said after he'd finally finished, a couple of hours later. Gendo told Unit One that he'd gained some 'unexpected allies' but I never would have believed they were aliens.
Shinji nodded. "I know what you mean."
He had been sharing a body with an alien for months, and even he still found it hard to believe at times.
"Hey, can we try something?" he asked. "I want to see if we can switch places."
Like you and Birdy do? Yui asked.
"Exactly like that," Shinji said. "If Father's doing all this to get you back, and we can change into you, then you can tell him to stop."
I'm not sure it'll be that simple, Shinji-kun, but if you want to try and switch, then I'm all right with it, Yui said. How do we do it?
Shinji deflated slightly. "I don't know," he said. "Birdy always handled it. Why don't you just try and will us to become you?"
All right, Yui said.
Shinji looked down at his right hand, hoping to see it shift and transform, but that didn't happen. His form appeared to be static without Birdy.
For the next several minutes, Shinji and Yui tried everything they could think of to invoke a transformation, but nothing they attempted worked. It looked as though they were stuck being Shinji.
"Great," he sighed, giving up at last and sinking into Birdy chair. "This means we can't make anyone believe us, except maybe for the people who would want to shut us up. What are we gonna do?"
I'm not sure, Yui said worriedly. If not for Revi, I'd have a few ideas, but she throws a huge x-factor into the equation. We need more information before we can try anything.
"Where are we supposed to get that from?" Shinji asked. "Birdy and I have been trying to figure out what's going on for months."
Don't worry, Shinji-kun. I think I can actually be a little bit more useful than Birdy in finding NERV's darkest secrets, Yui said, sounding bemused.
Shinji arched an eyebrow. "Well, it's going to have to wait until tomorrow," he said, checking his watch. "I have to get back to the apartment. Besides, I'm exhausted."
That's right, you didn't get much sleep last night, Yui said. You poor thing.
"Mother…" Shinji tried to wave off her sympathy, but he was unable to suppress a smile as he did it.
Not much later, the Third Child returned to the apartment and was pleased to find it empty. Wasting no time, he quickly cooked a simple meal, then put most of it in the oven to keep it warm. He then retreated to his room with his own portion, leaving a note to tell his house mates where he'd stowed dinner and claiming his absence was due to fatigue.
This was partially true, since he was feeling completely wiped out. However, his real motivation for disappearing was that he simply didn't want to deal with either of his house-mates at the moment; he felt too overloaded to deal with, well, anything or anyone else.
So, after he'd eaten, the Third Child lay down on his futon, started up his SDAT, and was soon asleep.
Author's Notes: Ugh, I hope you can all forgive the rather info-dumpy nature of this chapter. I couldn't have her inside Shinji's head and then not go over the events that led up to the current situation with NERV, Gendo, and SEELE from her perspective. Simply cutting away to a different scene and then saying Yui had conveyed everything to Shinji when the story returned to them would have felt plain lazy, and it would have denied me the chance to inject the loving-mother comments from Yui.
By the way, trying to make all the little pieces of Yui's past fit together is surprisingly difficult to do, but that's neither here nor there.
Anyway, Windows to the Past was originally supposed to be one chapter, but it just kept growing and I'm having difficulty making the second half work right, so I decided to split it in two. Don't worry, part two has less "stuff we already knew as told by Yui instead of Fuyutski" and more stuff that's my own invention. Oh, and things will actually happen. Yes, they will. If my muse is willing, part two should make its appearance in a day or two.
Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. Now for a little fun.
Omakes!
Worst Practical Joke Ever
Within the confines of his head, he heard a woman groan, then gasp. Sh-Shinji?
The Third Child's eyes widened hugely.
That wasn't Birdy's voice.
"Mother?" he whispered.
Nah! Birdy said, speaking in her normal voice again. April Fool's!
Shinji balled his hands into fists and began to tremble with rage. "Damn it, bitch! Don't do that sort of thing!"
Hey! Don't you call me a bitch!
She sent one of his fists flying toward his face, and the Third Child knocked himself back down onto his bed.
"Damn it," Shinji groaned. "I thought we'd already run this joke into the ground…"
TMI
This really isn't necessary, Shinji-kun, Yui chided.
Shinji ignored her, keeping his eyes firmly shut as the warm water from the shower cascaded over him.
Then he happened to take a step back, and his foot made contact with the bar of soap he'd lost early on.
Shinji lost his balance immediately and went sprawling backwards, landing painfully on the hard floor.
Groaning in defeat (and pain), Shinji reluctantly opened his eyes and kept them open as he got up and continued to shower.
Of course, he eventually looked at himself, despite his best efforts not to.
And Yui giggled.
Shinji blushed ferociously, suddenly wanting to do nothing so much as crawl into a hole and die.
Oh, I'm sorry, Shinji-kun, Yui said. It's really not a big deal. Besides, your father told me he was rather inadequate in his early teens, too.
Shinji paled. "Mother…"
But by the time we got to know each other, she continued, not having heard him. Well…
"I DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THAT!"
Misato blinked and turned to look at the door of the male pilots' locker room and showers. As Shinji was the only male EVA pilot, she knew he was alone in there.
"Crap," she muttered. "He seemed like he was still sane at first, too."
