The Present

Ooishi grimaced and stretched. They had been talking for more than two hours and the elderly man was stiff and restless.

"So how did you afford the services of the Lagoon Corporation?" he asked.

"Well, my aunt and uncle were paid rather well for taking care of me. They had been saving some of it aside for unexpected expenses. That was how they paid Lagoon."

"Forgive me, but my joints are in need of some exercise. And don't you need to go to work soon?"

"In a few hours, yes. But I do have a few errands to run, so I'll walk with you for a bit. Come over for breakfast again tomorrow, and I can continue my story."

Shinji helped Shion clean up the dishes quickly, then put on his shoes.

"Here's the shopping list," Shion handed him a piece of paper. "You might as well get groceries if you're going out. I'll see you later tonight. I'm going out for dinner with Mion."

"Nn-fu-fu, looks like you have to fend for yourself today, Shinji," the old man chuckled.

"Yeah," Shinji replied. "It's no big deal. With all the groceries on this list, I'm sure I can make something for myself."

Shinji kissed his wife goodbye, and then walked out the door with Ooishi.

After parting ways with Ooishi, Shinji walked to Kasai's house for sparring practice. The lead bodyguard to the Sonozaki family, the older man showed no signs of slowing down with age. After giving Shinji a particularly hard punch to the ribs, Kasai stopped the match.

"You seem distracted by something, Shinji."

"Well... yeah, I guess I am. My past has caught up to me."

"Oh, is this in regards to that ad in the paper today? What exactly is worrying you?"

"I don't know. I know that my father wouldn't do something like this unless he needed me for something. Yet on the other hand, he's only trying to get a hold of me because he needs me. It's not out of regret or any sense of missing me. He wants something from me."

"And you think this is enough to ignore him?"

"Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. In my gut I feel that I have to go back, and I have this strange feeling that I have been back, but I don't know what I should do."

"Shinji, how long have you been running and hiding from your father?"

"Six years, if you count the two years I was in a coma."

"And never once did you think that you might face your father? Did you only think of running away?"

Shinji went silent as he directed his thoughts inward under the piercing stare of his mentor.

"..." He sighed, "you're right, of course."

"Good, then we shall get back to our match, if you are thinking straight again."

Shinji deftly turned aside the fist that was directed towards him.

"As you say, old man."

After being thoroughly trounced by Kasai, and thinking hard on what they had talked about, Shinji moved on to the grocery store. Taking out Shion's list, he grabbed a basket and began walking through the aisles, trying to find sales on things and poking through the produce, checking for quality. Forty minutes later, he was walking down the street to the bank. He withdrew his savings and closed his account.

He returned home, showered, and got dressed. Now wearing a black suit and dark glasses, he checked that his pistol was holstered safely in its shoulder holster, and hidden under his jacket. It was a low calibre weapon, but he knew how much damage it could do to a person. He had been training with Kasai as a bodyguard for Shion's parents for the past year and a half, and was knowledgeable about many weapons, though he preferred hand-to-hand combat if he was training.

Shinji left the groceries in the fridge, put his savings in a box and put it under the bed, and then left the house to go to work.

That night, the Sonozakis were meeting with a business associate, which meant another yakuza group. Shinji didn't expect anything to go wrong, though. Not many people thought about crossing the Sonozaki family. Those that did usually didn't survive long enough to remain a threat, their remnants being incorporated into the Sonozaki group or turned over to the police.

The meeting was uneventful, and both groups went on their way without quarrel. After the Sonozaki group had rendezvoused back at the mansion, Shinji met with Akane and her husband, the heads of the family. With them he discussed his intentions to go to Tokyo-3 with Shion. After listening carefully, they both agreed to let him leave their employ.

Back at home, Shinji showered, and cleaned up after making dinner for himself. He began to pack a duffel bag and organizing things to be moved out, labeling things that he and Shion could give to friends and family members who would appreciate such things. After a while, he undressed and crawled into bed.

Soon he slept.

The Dream World

He opened his eyes. Again he was in that strange place that was real and not real. Again the voice came to him.

"You must learn."

"Learn what?" he asked, bewildered.

"You must learn how to protect your very soul. You have heard the term AT field, but now you shall understand its meaning."

"AT field? That thing that the Eva projects?"

"Yes, the Eva's can produce an AT field. But we shall train you to use one without your machines."

"Then I will listen." Shinji sat cross-legged on the ground, and closed his eyes and opened his mind.

"The AT field is the area which contains your soul. AT stands for Absolute Territory. The field protects everything that makes you individual and unique. For most people, all it does is prevent them from assimilating with one another. In the Evangelion, you can use it as a shield against attack. We will show you how to project it without your machine to create it."

Sometime later

A shimmering orange hexagon hovered in front of him as he focussed his will.

"Good. You will continue practicing this technique until you have mastered it."

The sky flashed red, and Shinji felt a weight on his arm and then the world went black.

The Present

Shinji awoke to find Shion asleep on top of his outstretched arm. He looked at the clock and grunted.

*Ooishi will be here soon. I've got to get ready*

He struggled to get his arm out from under his wife without waking her. Finally succeeding, he sat at the edge of the bed and thought back over his dream.

He focussed his mind and thought, *this is my soul and nothing will take it.*

A small shimmering hexagon appeared in front of him. Startled, he lost concentration and it disappeared from view.

"Heh, guess that wasn't just a dream. I guess Lilith really does think I can help."

He got up and washed his face. Putting on a t-shirt and pair of jeans, he went to the kitchen. He made himself a quick breakfast, then checked the mail and picked up a copy of the paper. He returned to his apartment, sat down, opened up the paper, and looked in the Classifieds. Finding the ad that Ooishi had pointed out, Shinji picked up the phone and dialed the number.

"Hello. Matsushita speaking."

"Hello, I'm calling about the ad in the paper regarding Shinji Ikari. Is this the correct number?"

"Yes, this is right. What do you know?"

"I know that he'll be at the Angel Mort cafe in Okinimoya at three p.m."

"I see. Thank you for the tip."

The other man hung up. Shinji looked up at the sound of a knock at the door. When he answered it, Ooishi stood at the door, leaning against the wall.

"Good morning, Tetsuo. Or Shinji, I guess."

"Good morning, Ooishi."

"Is your pretty wife still asleep?"

"Yes, she was out late last night, so I'm letting her rest."

"That's a shame. I was looking forward to seeing her. She's much easier to look at then you."

Shinji laughed at the shameless old man.

"I was about to walk to the park. Would you care to join me? I can tell more of my story there."

"That sounds good. After you then?"

The two men headed out after Shinji left a note for Shion. They walked in silence, enjoying the clear weather and ambient sounds of the town.

After arriving at the local park, Shinji and Ooishi sat down on a bench.

"So where was I?"

"You had just left the boat in Old Tokyo."

"Ah, yes. After leaving the boat, I…"

The Past

Shinji made his way through the ruins of Old Tokyo. He had never really thought of himself as out of shape, but hours of picking his way through what was left of the city began to take a toll on him. Resting for a few moments in a partially collapsed bookstore, he almost regretted leaving his aunt and uncle. His eyes began to droop and within a few moments he was asleep.

Shinji's eyes opened slowly. Disoriented, he thought he could hear voices. Making his way to a window overlooking the street, he saw two men dressed in black suits talking to a group of shabbily dressed people. He recognized the two men as those who would come by his aunt and uncles' house to check on him every year. He decided that he'd spent enough time in Old Tokyo. He quickly grabbed his bag, and then looked for the back entrance. As he made his way out, he passed through an outdoor living section. He grabbed a book on outdoor survival, and then fled the building.

Over the next several weeks, Shinji wound his way on foot east across the country. The first few days were hard on him, as he had no experience with living outdoors and the cries of the cicadas kept him from sleeping. But gradually, he began to learn from the book he had taken, and soon could make tools and find food for himself, and the cicada's cries became less bothersome. Many times he felt like giving up and going back to his aunt and uncle, but every time he did, his burning hatred for his father flared up and he moved on.

After several weeks, he came out of the forested area and into a large field. He stopped to rest for a while, leaning against a tree. A young girl was running through the field, her blue hair fluttering out behind her. From where he stood, it looked as if she was playing with somebody, but no one else was to be found in view. He closed his eyes briefly and when he reopened them, the girl was coming towards him.

"Hello, sir!"

"Er, hello?" he answered her. She looked blankly for a second, and Shinji got the feeling she was listening to someone else.

"Welcome to Hinamizawa, sir!" she beamed at him.

"Thank you." He'd never heard of this place. "I'm Tetsuo."

She looked intently at him, as if staring through his body. He couldn't quite shake the feeling that she was not an ordinary child.

"Is there a hotel here?" he asked.

She snapped back to her childlike demeanour and smiled at him again. "No, sir. There's one in Okinamoya though. It's in that direction," she pointed.

"Thank you very much." He ruffled her hair, and a faint "nipaaaa" escaped her. "What's your name, little one?"

"I'm Rika Furude, sir." She stared up at him. "Are you going to stay in this area for a while?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Well, come by and visit Hinamizawa again! We'd love you here for the festival, Shinji," and she ran off.

"Wait, what?" Shinji asked confusedly. But she was already across the field. *I could have sworn I used my false name.*

He picked up his bag and made his way across the field in the opposite direction. After a couple of hours, he found himself at the edge of a small town.

"This must be Okinamoya. Guess I need to find a clothes shop," he muttered, looking at the shabbiness of his current clothes. He found a shop, and walked in. He walked out twenty minutes later wearing a new white button-up shirt and black pants. In his bag was another change of clothes. He walked several blocks, reading the directions to the hotel that the cashier had given him. Finding it, he checked in, brought his bag up to the room, and collapsed on the bed. After nearly two months of sleeping outside, the bed felt like heaven to him. Soon he was asleep, a contented smile on his face.

He woke early the next day, showered and changed into his other set of clothes. He reserved his room for another two nights and went and walked around the town for a few hours. Late in the afternoon, he ended up at a dessert parlour named Angel Mort. He decided to go in, and was greeted by a young woman with green hair who directed him to a booth in the corner.

After eating, he left. As he exited the building, he heard a crashing noise. He looked around the corner towards the parking lot and saw the green-haired girl standing next to a trio of motorcycles that had fallen over. Harassing the girl was a trio of large men, who appeared to be the owners of the motorbikes.

The man in Shinji immediately wanted to go help her, but the coward in him urged him not to get involved. He struggled internally for a bit, until one of the men went to grab the girl by the arm.

"Stop that!" he shouted, mentally cursing himself as he walked around the building.

"Huh?" the three men turned around at the sound of his voice. "Who the hell are you?"

"J-just a passing stranger," he answered weakly. "But you should really stop harassing her."

"Oh? And what about the damage to our bikes? She has to pay for that somehow."

The man holding the girl shook her about a bit. Shinji tensed. They noticed.

"So you want to play hero? Fine, then," the man dropped the girl and all three advanced on him.

He managed to dodge the first blow, and tripped one of the others as he advanced. The two of them collapsed into a pile together. The third hit him in the side with a punch that felt like a brick. Shinji doubled over and tried to back away, but the other two had untangled themselves and boxed him in from behind.

Time and time again he went down, and time and time again he somehow found it in him to get back up. The three men eventually left him, picked up their bikes and left. He watched them go, and then collapsed on the pavement.

When he came to, he didn't recognize where he was. He was lying on a bed, and the ceiling above him was painted white. He glanced over to his right, and saw a man with short auburn hair sitting at a desk in the corner. The man was wearing a lab coat and seemed to be intent on some paperwork. Shinji looked to his left and saw the green-haired girl from earlier sitting next to a blonde boy roughly his own age. On the other side of the boy was a young girl, roughly the same age as Rika, the girl from earlier. She was staring intently at a spot on the floor.

"Urgh," he tried to speak, but found his mouth to be wrapped in something. He tried to sit up, but a stabbing pain in his chest forced him back down.

"Dr. Irie, he's woken up," this came from the green-haired girl. The boy and the young girl merely looked at him with curiosity.

The man in the lab coat looked down upon the bed he was in.

"Hmm, he recovered from that fairly well. You should be better in time for the festival, young man. You have a bruised rib and your jaw was fractured, but both of those will heal with time. We can give you something for the pain, and we can do physiotherapy to help regain your strength. You seem to be quite fit for your age though, so it will all go well."

Shinji tried to nod in agreement, but the motion made him dizzy and he felt sick.

"Oh yes, you also have a concussion from when you hit your head when you fell. Mion there was kind enough to try to bring you here to my clinic. Fortunately she ran into me when I was driving Satoshi and Satoko home from baseball. I'm Dr. Irie."

Shinji tried to grunt out his name and a thanks.

"Thankfully you had ID on you, Tetsuo. Otherwise the paperwork would have been too much for me to take," the doctor kindly joked. "As it is, we need a place for you to stay."

"Um... maybe he could stay with us," the boy spoke up.

"Are you sure about that, Satoshi?" Irie responded.

"Yeah."

"Alright then, I'm going to keep you here for another day, Tetsuo, and then we can let you go. I'll take you and Satoko home, Satoshi. Takano will take care of the rest. Mion, you go on home, too."

They all filed out of the room. Mion gave him a lingering look as she left, but he was oblivious to it. A few minutes later, an attractive blonde woman came in with a clipboard and some paperwork to fill out. He assumed this was Takano, the one the doctor had spoken of. After he finished filling everything out, she carefully unwound his jaw and gave him a pill and some water. Then she expertly wound his jaw again, and made to leave. He stopped her, and made motions for something to write on. She brought him a sheaf of paper and a pencil.

"Where am I? What exactly happened? Is the green-haired girl okay?" he wrote, then put the pad beside him on the bed and fell asleep again.

He awoke again, feeling the presence of someone else in the room.

"You're awake again. That's good," Dr. Irie said. "I noticed your notepad. In answer to your first question, you are in the Irie Clinic, located just outside Hinamizawa. Your second question can best be answered by Mion. In answer to the third, yes, Mion will be perfectly alright. She had some mild bruising from where they grabbed her, but you took the worst of it."

Relief was visible on Shinji's face.

"So then Tetsuo, we're going to see how much you've recovered," the doctor spoke. "Takano, could you help us please?"

The nurse came into the room, and stood by the bed, ready to help if needed.

"Tetsuo, I'm going to ask you to slowly try to sit up."

Shinji tried to sit up, but he moved too quickly and a searing pain lanced through his chest and he felt dizzy. Takano helped him back down.

"Try again, when you are ready, but slowly. The dizziness is due to the concussion, unfortunately, but slow movement should be alright."

Shinji tried again, slowly. Once he was upright, Takano propped some pillows behind him. For the next while, the doctor and the nurse ran him through some exercises, and then they left him alone again in the room after changing the dressings on his face. He found he could talk after they did, though his speech was still slurred. He passed the time reading a book the nurse had found for him.

Mion came by to visit him in the morning the next day. She explained that she had run into Dr. Irie when she ran for help during the scuffle. He had been taking Satoshi and Satoko out for a treat after baseball practice, and Satoshi helped him get Shinji into the car.

He realized something.

"Um. I had a room reserved at the hotel in Okinamoya. Also, my bag was there with my stuff in it."

"Oh? I can get that for you on my way into work and bring it by after. It's the least I can do in thanks for your help."

"Thanks."

"Do you know when you'll get out?"

"I think the doctor said I should be good to go today."

"Oh. Well, that's good."

"Yeah."

They sat in an awkward silence for a bit.

"I have to go now," she got up and left for work.

"Okay. Bye."

Afterwards, the doctor came back in and ran him through his exercises again. Shinji slowly walked outside after that, and took in the fresh air for the first time in two days. His jaw ached slightly, but it wasn't terribly painful. He walked around the building a few times, and then sat on a bench overlooking the front lawn.

"Oh, hey, Tetsuo," Shinji looked up to see the blonde haired boy and girl in front of him. They were carrying baseball equipment. "Good to see you up and about."

"Thanks... Satoshi?" he thought that was the boy's name.

"Yep, I'm Satoshi. This is Satoko, my little sister. We're heading to baseball now," he hefted his equipment. "You want to come and watch?"

"Sure. Dr. Irie says I can get out of here today," Shinji agreed.

Mion and Dr. Irie came from opposite directions at the same time. The doctor took them all to baseball in his car. Dr. Irie began getting his team into playing mood. Satoshi was practicing swings while Satoko, Shinji, and Mion found seats on the bleachers.

Author's Note: I'm truly sorry for the lack of updates over the past year. I'm also sorry for the ending of this chapter, or lack thereof, but I got a tad stuck on it for several revisions now. I am looking for help on that from some acquaintances of mine. It doesn't help that my laptop and notebook got stolen, so I need to start from scratch for a lot of it.

I am still writing, though. My next update should be in the next couple of months.