+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Sunday + 8)
Kyoko stood at the center of a large table, drawing out needed fortifications and deployments on a topographical map of the hill she was now defending. Small marks and annotations sent runners from her remaining Marines and Sailors off in different directions to gain insight for her on things she needed to know, larger marks sent various youkai moving to begin building structures or digging entrenchments, all the while her tone remained unhurried and detached from the drama of the moment. "I was tasked to come and coordinate support for him, and that order does not become invalid because a new enemy arrives. He has, so far, proven to be the only weapon capable of killing those 'Angels', which means allowing him to be overrun and killed by these 'zombies' would prove strategically suicidal. The MoD knows that, and intends to bolster our position as he can while still providing for the general defense of the nation. As soon as we can locate the rest of the possible exits from Elysium, we'll have a better idea of what we need to do. Until then, this rock is as good as any other to plan a defense around."
"…I suppose it's just my natural aversion to being around large, armed, groups of humans." Suzuhara continued his observations of the delicate balancing act being performed between the youkai and humans present, amazed at how nonchalant the humans were being around creatures that they should not have known about half a day prior.
"That and your ignorance of Project Y." She briefly turned to a passing Mujina. "Excuse me, could you ask your kin working on the main steps to include gutters alongside the stairs themselves and the fortifications they're building? We're going to need to use fire to eliminate the corpses if this turns into a siege, and I'd rather any liquidized remains go down towards the street more easily." After the badger woman nodded and changed direction, Kyoko looked back at Suzuhara with a frown. "Project Y was a closely guarded secret effort by several global powers to reach an accord with youkai, youma, and yousei. When we discovered what we did in Antarctica, we realized that there was a very real possibility that we might not be able to defeat something that powerful. Our Prime Minister had been briefed on the Osaka Accords, as every PM before him had been, and took a risk. Reliqui was open to being approached, and dedicated several youkai to helping us plot a path forward with the intent of eventually introducing humanity to our hidden neighbors."
The powerful kitsune pressed his hands against the table, leaned into them, closed his eyes, and repressed a great deal of angry sounds that he wished desperately to make. "I'm going to guess that one of those youkai was the Denmother?"
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Sunday + 8)
Mizore was honestly grateful that she hadn't been given a duty more strenuous than she had been. She was sore, she was tired, and she needed to do some serious thinking. Sitting in the refrigerated mess tent was the closest thing she'd have to a spa treatment at the moment, and it felt wonderful. Organizing the efforts to feed, heal, and house everyone that would be defending the Shrine required little by way of input from her, and mostly just required that she use the skills Tsukune Aono had drilled into her during those precious few years she'd had him in her life.
Off to one side she had the two human women who had been responsible for creating the situation which led to the death of a man that would have been a valuable asset working on sorting and checking what food, medicine, and toiletries had been salvaged from the surrounding area. The younger, apparently the sister of Tsuruko Aoyama, was making much greater progress than the elder. It was evident from even a brief glance that she had realized exactly how badly she had erred, how much of her own fault it was that she was in the situation she was in, and how far from the woman she'd believed herself to be she was. A powerful swordswoman in her own right, she used the strength her practice had granted her to heft and carry grueling loads of items to where they had to go after she'd checked them for rot, damage, or other imperfections that might harm people. "The top layer above the towel have some dents in the cans, Maehara-san," she said as she set a large palette of canned food down in the makeshift mess tent nearby a few other humans and a single youkai, "I made a mark with a permanent pen where I located the damage."
Shinobu Maehara had initially struck Mizore as a liability. She had no great physical strength, weaker than even Sarah MacDougal who was her junior. She seemed poorly emotionally suited to surviving conflicts between individuals, to say nothing of the grander wars and battles that were coming over the horizon. She followed, lacking any significant leadership skills that her schooling should have imparted to her. What she did have, and what allowed her to remain in Mizore's area, was a large heart. "Thank you, Motoko. I'll make sure to examine them carefully before use." She was not even a few days removed from the trauma that had led to a rift between her and the swordswoman, and she already showed signs of wishing to extend an olive branch. "If you could please keep doing that, it would be a huge help. We don't want to give anyone botulism."
Yuko Miyamura, the only other youkai in the kitchen at the moment, gave Motoko a stern glare from behind Shinobu. The once and future Tokyo University student had been briefed on what happened at the Hinata Inn, and had quickly taken Shinobu and Sarah under her wing. Disrespect would not be tolerated, nor would previous power structures be maintained. "If you could also remind Narusegawa-chan that time is something of an issue, and that she should stop sulking and do her job, I would appreciate it."
Megumi Hayashibara, too optimistic to be bothered with the interpersonal squabbles around her, continued her lessons for Sarah MacDougal, "You see, when he was at the restaurant, I noticed he preferred this." Guiding the younger teenager's hands in the proper fileting motions, she pushed out a wall of positivity to the gloom behind her. "So I'm confident that he'll enjoy what you make. We'll tell him you made it to cheer him up, and that'll help him enjoy it even more. Ikari-sensei is an actual good guy, not just a pretend good guy, and is one hundred percent someone you can trust."
"He needs something to cheer him up." Sarah was a conundrum for the yuki-onna. There was anger lurking in the corners of the blonde sparkplug, wrath that had been robbed of its target. In a typical woman that kind of trap would mean there was a serious risk of an explosion at the single most inopportune moment possible. For this child who had become a woman too soon, however, it just seemed to be an aspect of her life that she'd long since learned to cope with. She threw herself into tasks with unflagging energy, took instruction from women that were not that much older than her without complaint, and defended those she saw to be weaker than her with all of her heart. She was a good kid with a bad hand, in short. "If what Miyamura-sensei said is true, not that I think she's lying, then his life has been one big kick in the dick after another. That's not acceptable."
Just as Mizore finished tabulating the distribution chart for the medical supplies, she had her attention pulled to the one woman that wasn't doing a good enough job of pulling her weight. Motoko had, as requested, approached Naru Narusegawa regarding the latter's seeming inability to get over herself. The swordswoman had even done so in a polite, neutral, tone of voice without any of the inferred or implied insults that Mizore herself would have included for the sake of reminding someone who had caused the death of allies that they were currently occupying a deep, dark, hole kept free of falling debris only by virtue of the lingering vestiges of the kindness of her former friends. "Miyamura-san has asked me to urge you to increase your output, Narusegawa-san. I believe they want to use the fresher produce you're working on for tonight's meal." With her hands calmly folded before her, the recent high school graduate was a far different woman than the nearly rabid wildcat Mizore had seen attack Shinji outside of Elysium.
Naru, however, appeared determined to pick up the slack left when Motoko had abandoned that rope. "I don't give a-" The rest of her sentence was cut off as her jaw was forced to distend painfully by a frozen ball-gag. The shock of the suddenness of that caused her to be still, and most of the eyes in the room shifted to Mizore.
"Perhaps this will help you understand better what it is that Aoyama-chan has asked of you, dear." Setting aside her own work, the 'Frostmother' drifted around the table on a silent wave of snow to float over to where her prey had been muzzled. Projecting an air of menace without her face or tone changing from a dull, bored, conversational, she placed the rules out for all to see. "She was asked, politely, to encourage you to take some form of responsibility for the common defense. To set aside the past for the moment so that the future can be made available for our younger members to pursue as they'd wish to. To, and I cannot stress this particular portion of the inference enough, tamp down on the raging bitch everyone in your life has allowed you to become so that you might see a better path to walk. I laud her penitence, and her sense of duty. You?" The shift in her voice summoned images of Cocytus, the change in her aura brought forth the frigid hand of Death itself, "I'll feed your stupid, ugly, ass to the enemy myself if you so much as raise your voice to another person in this Shrine again. I will bind you naked to the cross you seem to want to throw yourself on for them to tear limb from limb, and leave your reanimated corpse there as a lesson to everyone that walks past it in what happens to people like you." Resuming her previous disinterest and allowing the room to return to what it had been, she straightened the younger woman's hair and turned to be about her own tasks. "Now if you would please get a move on, we have a timeline to adhere to."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Sunday + 8)
Hera patiently answered the barrage of questions Ritsuko had for her, as she had little else to do while waiting for the arrival of the warriors that she would protect as best she could where they were destined to die. "Faith, if I had to use any single concept or term to describe the source of my abilities. Faith would be the best to use, in my opinion."
Ritsuko tilted her head slightly to the side. "So, the fewer followers you have the weaker you become?"
"Oh, no no," she laughed with good humor, "nothing so base. That was where my former husband made his biggest mistake…well, his second biggest. Forcing himself on me was his biggest mistake. He'd probably still be alive if he hadn't done that." She shrugged, dismissing the past. "You see, having people believe in you can grant you power, but it is mostly cursing you with weakness. When you accept that your worth is based entirely around how others see you, you allow those others to control who and what you are. What you can and cannot do. You cede any and all control over your life to the whims of madmen. Do not confuse that with the good opinion of worthy companions, however. The knowledge that someone you trust with your whole heart stands at your back, ready to guard you just as you would guard them? That too is a great source of power…but no, I would never weigh my faith against what others thought of me."
"Then you mean self-confidence?"
"No, I would have said that had I meant as much." Leaning forward in her chair, she summoned an apple from nothing and held it out where it could be seen. "Self-confidence is useful in knowing that the path you are on is correct. In understanding what has been and how it informs what will be. In accepting that if I drop the apple," she did so, "it falls." The apple paused in its descent. "Faith, however, allows me to do what I wish to do," reversing its motion, the fruit returned to her hand, "instead of what previous experience tells me I must do. I have faith in myself, in my capacity and capability, and the self-confidence to trust my judgement on whether I should or should not do it."
Frustration was evident in Ritsuko's reply, "There has to be a scientific explanation for your abilities! It's observable, it's repeatable, so it has to be measurable!"
The goddess nodded amicably. "If any is capable of finding out how, I have faith that it will be you."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Sunday + 8)
"She's still…angry." Noriyasu Seta sat outside of the hospital room the woman he loved lay within. He hadn't expected a visit from Daphne, and was struggling to not be rude at the moment. Both of the women he loved were hurting, and nothing he could do would improve either of them. He knew Haruka Urashima was apoplectic that her cousin had died less than a meter away from her. He himself hadn't yet had a chance to lament the death of such a force for good. He knew Sarah was latching onto Shinji Ikari as a way to process the latest in a long line of losses the young woman had faced. He himself would love to see that relationship blossom into something beneficial for both parties, the type of familial bonds formed by a past filled with pain. Anything he did would backfire. Both women had told him, without telling him. Now he was not to have even the peace of sitting in a quiet hospital without someone coming to bother him. "Your healers did far more than I thought possible, but she's probably at least a few weeks away from even being able to sit up on her own."
Daphne was uncertain about her place in the world, following the events in Elysium. She trusted that the man she loved would do everything he could to keep her safe, just as she understood that he had obligations that went well beyond that of any normal man. She carried, somehow, the child of a powerful kitsune. She had been ready to leave Elysium to move to Reliqui, with Suzuhara having gained permission from 'The Denmother' to move her into 'enemy territory', but she hadn't anticipated the move being pre-empted by…everything. Had thought that what she had known as 'home' would always be there for her to visit or return to if things went poorly. "That's…understandable." Fidgeting with a blanket she'd made that was woven with specific flowers and herbs that would promote healing and peace, she haltingly offered it to a man that she knew she was bothering even if he wasn't impolite enough to say so. "If…uhm…if you could give this to her? As…as a token of bereavement."
The habits and practices of the Ancient Greeks rolled through the archeologist's mind as he took the offered gift, the inconsistency too odd for him to not tease out the truth. "You aren't a member of the deceased's family. Your people only give death gifts to family members, to avoid displeasing the gods."
"O-oh, b-but I am…. Kind of…. Distantly." Twining her fingers together before her, she willed several of the nearby potted plants to blossom and flourish. "I'm a Dryad, a Wood Nymph."
Noriyasu frowned thoughtfully, his brow furrowing in perplexity. "I'm afraid I don't follow."
"Are you…uhm, familiar with the story of Achilles?"
"Are you saying that Keitaro-kun was somehow descended from Thetis?" He sat back into his chair hard when Daphne nodded slowly. Several facts clicked into place at once, and he let his eyes drift closed to stop himself from crying. "Do all descendants of Thetis suffer from that weakness?"
"…They do."
"So at some point, in the past, she travelled here for some reason and started a line that…."
Daphne felt compelled to give voice to the rest of the thought, "…That ended with my distant cousin dying heroically. Killed because someone had compromised the tendon of his left heel, breaking the seal that maintained his immortality."
He had, from his frame of reference, lost someone he'd hoped would be a good influence on Sarah just a few days past. He sat several floors below another man who could have used someone with the kindness Keitaro demonstrated. He lived in a world that was surrounded by magic, drowned in tragedy, and held back from the brink of an eternal pit by a dwindling number of people willing to do what had to be done. "That explains Granny Hina, then." Sighing, he opened his eyes and stood up. "A Sea Nymph…of all the damn…." A few other facts came into focus. "You said Ikari-sensei is a Titan?"
'Y-yes?"
Rolling his hand and raising his voice, he began to lose his patience with her stuttering. "Of what? Each of the Titans according to the Theogony and the Titanomachy had some sort of principle attached to them. Cronus was time, Gaea was the Earth, things like that. What's his?"
Faced with someone who was extremely powerful, for a human, and aggressively angry, Daphne engaged the defensive mechanisms that had ensured Dryad survival from time immemorial: she vanished with a burst of laurel leaves.
+++++ Tenou-Meiou Apartment, Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Sunday + 8)
Rei and Minako had intended to offer what comfort they could give to their peer. After they had left Shinji to rest, their very next stop was the Sailors for Neptune and Uranus to see what had been learned about the former's condition from the latter. All Haruka Tenou could say was that the healer from Reliqui said the malady was mental, and that rest was the only possible cure at the moment. That led to discussions regarding the upcoming trip, which led to a surprise three-way disagreement as to how to move forward.
"I don't know if I can summon him!" Rei felt she was on the firmest ground of them all. "Ami-chan clearly had a huge crush on him, something you undoubtedly share," she jabbed Minako with her finger, "which is why when you were worried you were going to die you called him to you."
"I called him to me because I wanted him to help calm Maria-san down!" The blonde Sailor of Love stamped her foot, leaning forward with her fists on her hips. "I couldn't think of what to do, and she seemed to be all gaga over him, so it made sense that if he was there, she'd calm down. Haruka needs to stay here to take care of Michiru, and the last thing I want to do is go on a trip with a bunch of military guys alone!"
"I don't want either of you going anywhere." Haruka was too tired to put any volume into her voice, and instead relied on the fact that she was bigger than the other two to drive the point home. "Mars needs to stay here to defend her home, and you need to stay here to defend the idiot next door. I'll go down there and feel the situation out myself. I'm pretty confident that he and I are close enough that he'll answer if I crook my finger."
Rei and Minako turned their ire on Haruka simultaneously, "You keep your hands off him!" Looking back at one another, blushing, then looking away from everyone in opposing directions, they crossed their arms under their chest and huffed out a displeased breath.
Without the tempering presence of her lady love, the Sailor for Uranus had nothing to stop her from provoking the two younger women before her. "Why should I? It seems like everyone else gets to touch the goods. I'll tease him with a little hug from behind," a seductive lilt entered her voice, "press him towards the bedroom," a breathy purr partnered with a slasher's grin, "and show him just what kind of ladies Michi-chan and I can be."
"That would be very unwise." The presence of a new voice, one that carried more than a hint of displeasure, brought all three warriors around to face it with weapons drawn. When they saw who was speaking, they grew nervous. "Shin-Shin does not belong to you." With skin as pale as the brightest full moon and hair that had changed to a black as ominous as the darkest new moon, Usagi Tsukino glared at Haruka without any of the normal hints of comical mischief about her. The transformation of her Sailor Uniform had grown gloomier; blacks, greens, and yellows that did not speak of heroism or life but of necessity and death. "If you try to force him, I will stop you."
"U-Usagi-chan," Rei was the first to break past the shock, "what happened? Are you ok?!"
Pale blue eyes lost the barest touch of ice as they moved to the Maiden of Flame. "No." She allowed the single syllable to remain hanging in the air for a span of heartbeats. "We have all been played for fools, and repairing the damage that has been done will require greater sacrifices from us all. If we are to have any shred of hope against what is to come, he will require everyone." She glanced through the walls separating her from Shinji, her heart growing heavy and her voice growing soft, "They've hurt him terribly…they've nearly killed him." Whispering to herself, her next statement went unnoticed by the others, "I can only hold up half of the sky."
"Yeah, it might have been nice if he had more backup." Haruka drove the point of her sword against the floor, leaning on the hilt with her palms. "Since you had the time to get a dye job and a new tailor, I have to wonder if that backup might have been more available than we'd thought."
Though her voice hardened again, her eyes remained on where Shinji lay recovering, "It might have been, had your friend upheld her responsibility instead of playing her own game, instead of abandoning her post and leaving both future and past free to be molested at will. The three of you sat in this very room, discussed what was to come, and still did not think to summon Death? Or, perhaps, she left that particular memory out when she returned all of the others."
"…She who?" Minako set aside her sword, moving closer to the woman she'd long thought of as a sister. Placing what she thought would be a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder, she asked gently, "Usagi-chan, what's going on?"
"We're fighting far more enemies than you think we are," she replied with quiet confidence. Finally removing her gaze from where it had been, she locked eyes with the woman that had once looked to be her twin. "Chaos has abdicated its position. Another foe is grasping for the throne. His Angels are sacrificing themselves to drive him towards making a terrifyingly bad decision, and our Angels have yet to even awaken. The living are about to be outnumbered by the dead," her control slipped, her attitude growing harsh with self-contempt, "and I still cannot find the mastermind behind all of this!" With her opposing hand, she reached up and gripped the hand Minako placed on her shoulder firmly, her tone now conveying a dire warning, "He's wrong. Hope exists." Squeezing twice in an effort to drive through the fact that she still loved the other woman, she took her hand from her shoulder and moved towards the door. "I wish I could fight with you, but my duty lies elsewhere. You are all far more powerful than you know."
+++++ Akagi Apartment, Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Sunday + 8)
The Vixens had not, when most everyone else had, left the apartment. Shinji had asked them to stay, and so stay they had. An alternate interpretation of his request, of course, might have been that he was afraid of losing their friendship, but they weren't going to bother themselves with such trifles. In their opinion, when a handsome, awkwardly charming, talented young man asked them to hang around, far be it from them to ignore his plea. The sudden increase in magical energy from the adjacent apartment, however, gave them more than enough cover to explain their presence if anyone asked. When that energy grew closer, all three resumed their semi-human form and readied themselves to defend him. Instead of the horrors they expected might be making a surprise appearance, they were caught off guard when Usagi walked through the shared door.
The Queen of the Moon Kingdom strode purposefully over to stand before the trio, stopping at a polite distance to assess them for some quality or another. Her eyes took them in, from toes to spirit, while her mouth remained impassive. After several heavy seconds, she nodded once. "Satisfactory. Come, he'll need your support."
"Satisfactory?" All three scoffed, looking at Usagi as she walked past then at each other. "Bitch, we're easily adequate, thank you very much." Strutting down the hall towards Shinji's bedroom, they welcomed the excuse to interject themselves into whatever was happening inside it.
The merest hint of the woman she had once been radiated out as Usagi put her hand on Shinji's door. "Please…do not lose that spark. No matter what you see. No matter what you hear. No matter what he says." Who she now was subsumed who she had been. "Billions of lives for a chance to save a handful…a diseased mockery…." Pushing the door open, she stepped through with the Vixens hot on her heels.
Inside, the trio saw Temple probing the scars and bruises that Shinji had earned over the past week. The corpsman only briefly glanced at the interlopers before returning to her task. "It's interesting to me that you managed to purge yourself of that blood, but you can't seem to heal these properly. They're tender, because I sorely doubt that you're the kind of guy who whimpers at a stubbed toe and I can feel you flinching away."
"That would be because Shin-Shin does not like being touched by others, not because he shies away from pain." Usagi eyed Jakob and Carla, gauging the meaning behind their presence as she moved to stand by Shinji's head. "Please don't take it as an insult, it's a reflex."
Shinji frowned at the changes Usagi had undergone, displeased to see the shining beacon of life now diminished to what she had become. How?
"The same way most things have happened in my life," combing her fingers through his hair, she luxuriated in the feeling of absolute trust he radiated, "magic." The way he looked at her, angered at the thought that she had been harmed, would give her power in the darkest moments to come. "We will all visit his soul. There are truths that we must come to terms with, and questions that he would not think to ask until it was too late." Her eyes moved to bore into Jakob. "I can kill you just as easily in there, so I would ask you to not play word games."
The blue-skinned youma held up his hands to his shoulders in faux-surrender. "I have confidence that given the particulars, the Silent One will make the choice that serves both of our needs, Your Majesty. Should he choose otherwise, it would impel a tragedy great enough that I would welcome death at your hands to be rid of any other potential experiences."
Temple was able to determine the change in the wind well enough to guess that she would soon need to leave. "If you'll allow me to draw those blood samples, Your Majesty, I'll be on my way."
With her free hand, Usagi pressed down on Temple's left shoulder. "No, please. I believe that having you come with us would be beneficial for everyone. Your people occupy this world, as does my own, as does theirs," she tipped her head towards the Triplets, "and theirs," then towards the youma. "Shin-Shin should not have to stand as the lone human while forced to deal with the unfortunate truth…and it is better by far that the human to stand with him have an unbiased position on such matters."
"That might not be the wisest decision, all things considered." Clara motioned with some concern towards Temple. "There are certain truths that human minds are simply not designed to contain. She is cursed with an unfailing memory, and what she experiences inside of him might well do serious harm to her."
"Or, it might possibly allow her to help him remember what comes to pass." Jakob gestured to Temple himself, using his book. "She is notoriously honest, exceedingly professional, and has managed to develop something of a rapport with the Silent One without being demonstratively flirtatious. A calm, steady, friend should always be a welcome presence in the life of one who must suffer."
"We flirt with him because we're interested." The Triplets changed back to their fox forms, hopping up on the bed and sitting between Shinji and the youma. "Not once have we lied to him."
"Just withheld the facts that might have been inconvenient," he parried.
"Enough." Usagi's aura swelled out, smothering the flames of conflict before they could gain traction. "We will leave the decision to those it would impact." Looking between Shinji and Temple, she made it clear who she was referencing.
Before Shinji could say anything, Temple shook her head and moved to pull out her phlebotomy kit. "Then I'll pass. Whatever is about to happen, it sounds like you need someone with a much different perspective on life than I have." A quick alcohol swab of Shinji's arm and she inserted the needle to draw out what she needed. "I'm not the most devout of the Holy See's children, but I believe enough to know that I don't belong in a man's soul that I'm not married to." Four quick vials drawn, she had the needle withdrawn and the wound covered with a bandage quickly. Standing, she looked down at Shinji with a commiserating smile. "You're a good man. A man who knows right from wrong. If you ever need an ear to bend, I'll be glad to give you one." Without waiting for anyone to attempt to dissuade her, she turned on her heel and exited the room with all due haste.
Whatever language Lithion used when the door shut behind her, it wasn't spoken by more than one other present. His intent in the choice of that single word, however, came through perfectly clear. "I do not believe it to be too much to ask that he be granted counsel by a woman who has only a professional interest in the functionality of his biology below the navel." He eyed Tungsram askance. "Are you perhaps hiding another such woman somewhere? Maybe wherever it is your uncompromising optimism is stored?"
I wouldn't have allowed it anyway. Shinji worked his right hand into a fist, clenching it tight for a moment before letting it release then repeating the cycle several times to tamp down on the anger that had begun to rally once more. Let's get this over with.
+++++ Shinji's Soul. (? + ?)
Now standing within the endless dark that composed most of the essence of one of the most terrifyingly powerful entities on the planet, any and all arguments or protestations were quickly silenced. Lithion was of the belief that Tungsram had brought everyone in without warning anyone. Tungsram believed it to be Lithion. The Triplets were unified in shock at the true condition of the man they were keen to get to know, and considered the matter of guilt regarding their travel accommodations to be a distant second to that more pressing matter.
Ultimately the one responsible, and the one most capable of enforcing peace within Shinji, Usagi moved over to where Shinji stood and worked her way under his arm. After securing his grasp on her person, and leaning against him, she looked to everyone else and declared, "Each of you understands that only truth may be spoken here. Each of you also knows that there are ways to bend words to imply something while meaning something else. I state this unequivocally: I love Shinji Ikari with all of my heart. He is no 'replacement', no 'second option'. He is a gift to the world, to the universe, to Creation itself. Whether he returns that love, or not, my love is his. Everything I have done, from the very instant I left his side, I have done in an effort to pursue the capacity to help him save everyone from themselves."
Listening to the woman at his side speak, the words she used took a back seat to the realization Shinji had that her touch no longer caused the pain-filled ecstasy he had experienced so many times before. She held him close, gifting him with the joy of unconditional love. She hadn't lost any of her beauty, in his eyes, despite the coloration changes, but there was still doubt present as to whether or not those changes were something to be looked upon favorably. …Why?
"Because, Pet," a new voice was filled with irritation as it approached the gathering, "she reaches for the proverbial apple from a tree she's been told to steer clear of." Maria sauntered out of the darkness, glowering at him with a hint of a pout about her lips. "Did you really have to do that?"
You were choking Venus-san. He wasn't surprised that she had shown up. He was irritated, but not surprised. I told Suzuhara-san that I will kill anyone who threatens someone I'm protecting.
Crossing her arms under her considerable bosom, she lifted her chin enough to demonstrate that she was not pleased. "So, you're protecting the ones who have doomed us all? I suppose I had thought better of you."
"The actions of one Sailor do not implicate the others by association, Music Lover." Lithion still had cards in his hand to use, and he intended to use them before anyone could seal off his opportunity. "You attacked without provocation. You ignored their offers of parlay. It is your kin that have muddied the waters with half-truths, not Her Majesty's."
"She is not my sister." Maria turned her glare on Lithion. "She is a pale echo of a far greater being, a necessity born of the minds that sprang into existence within the shard he came from. She is not Lilith-"
"No," Usagi cut in blandly, "that would be my role." She held one finger up when Maria's head whipped back to face her. "If it were untrue, I would not be able to speak it here. We have had enough mysteries and intrigues, Naamah. You were not, and are not, powerful enough to grasp what you were offered. You have failed to protect this world from what is to come, as you were charged with doing. You, just as much as Uranus and Neptune, were given the chance to stop Pluto from doing what she has done. Do not speak to me of forbidden fruits when I am the only one who has even made the effort to-"
Stop…. Squeezing Usagi's side, Shinji shook his head slowly. He was angry, he was tired, and most of all he was confused. Time doesn't progress outside as fast while we're in here, right? He looked to Tungsram, the woman who'd done this with him before. Right?
"It does not, Silent One." It was obvious from her stance that she wished she could enfold him in an embrace as well. "We would need to be here for years, as you would measure them from your perspective, before any appreciable time has passed outside. It is different when you are not present, of course, but that is a superfluous lesson at this particular moment." She plead her case to the Triplets, seeking support to do what he was asking without having spoken the words. "We should all sit down, start from the beginning. He cannot be expected to understand uncounted millennia of war, of death, of conflict, in little more than a week. Your universities take months to impart the barest essential facts regarding the events of a decade, surely we can take the time we have now to prepare him for what is to come?"
The three foxes trotted over to Shinji, their decision to remain in their vulpine forms giving them a much different aura than had they chosen their human guise. Sitting down at his feet, and facing the others, they wrapped their tails around his ankles. "We, too, have strong emotions for the Silent One. He does not look on us as 'freaks', or 'objects'. He does not give in to his lusts, or his base desires. We declare in this holy place that we are his for the taking, and that we only ask that Mother Moon share his bounty with us as well." With their piece said, they nodded in agreement with Tungsram. "The time for subtle action is over. Our names are his, and we will hide nothing from him."
"Some minds are not so easily prepared for such truths," Lithion cautioned. Feeling the instant disapproval of several of the women present, he motioned for patience. "I have no doubt that he will be well served by being granted the knowledge, what I doubt is the prudence of charging into these lessons full of righteousness and anger. There are, present here, at least four different versions of our history. He brings here with him another history with far different causes. Perhaps instead of the beginning, we could address the more salient issues at hand. Places where we possess common ground?"
That makes sense. Shinji's opinion of Lithion was far different than the others, and he recognized a man attempting to avoid stepping on toes while also trying to be heard. If we go back too far, all we're going to be doing is arguing over who said what and when.
Tungsram nodded her agreement to both points. "An adequate compromise, and a point well taken." Approaching Shinji slowly enough that her actions wouldn't be construed as a threat, she stopped when she was able to lay her hands on his chest. "Concentrate on the type of room you would host company within, χρυσό μου. Allow your soul to build a place that we may sit and be peaceable within." After an initial moment of hesitation, a room shimmered into existence around them.
The room itself was familiar to him, and known of by several others present. The sitting room had one standalone seat, a ratty couch, a tea table, and a television. The attached kitchen hosted a table with four chairs, and a seeming lifetime of memories. A simple apartment in an unassuming building in a war-torn city in a world ravaged by the consequences of unchecked hubris. It wasn't truly a place he'd thought of as peaceful, but it had been the only place he'd ever known peace. I'll…uhm, I'll bring chairs over from the kitchen.
Lithion waved him off. "No, no. Please. Sit down where you will, allow me to bring them over. This will go over much easier if you are able to find calm amongst the storm."
"I'll prepare some tea." Maria's anger was being restrained by the thinnest of margins, and seemed mostly directed at Usagi. "Despite what some might say, I have given a great deal of effort towards preventing harm to him. I offered my heart before any of you, and I do not hold it against him that he has been turned against me by-"
Why can't I feel The Nameless? Shinji was already spooling up to kick everyone out of his soul, and wanted the fighting to stop. He allowed himself to be dragged to the couch by Usagi and the Triplets, and found himself seated on the middle of the three cushions with Mika laying across his shoulders, Misa lying on his lap, and Miwa tucked against his right side. Usagi had carefully placed herself on his left, with her feet tucked up beside her on the couch and his arm behind her so that she could lay his hand on her hip. He was surrounded by comfort, and that was the only reason the conversation continued. I've been trying to find them for a while.
"Because the pretender you're holding purged them from you, Pet." Willing a tea service into existence, Maria set it on the table far more gently than she dropped the bombshell on Shinji. "Before you were tricked into destroying that particular corporeal form of mine."
"It was using the souls of my friends, their family, his friend." Usagi leaned down and poured Shinji a cup, holding no fear in her heart that he might become angry with her. "The 'echo', as you called it, was put in place by the wicked monsters that forced him to fight in the Eva. It absorbed their souls into itself. It attempted to use them to convince him to fight for your side." Setting the rim of the cup against his lips, she urged him to drink some as she shared a look of sorrow and disgust with him. "None of which is the topic at hand."
"I'd say it's pretty germane to-"
"Nothing at all. They were not the people that the Silent One believed them to be, and should not be lamented by him any differently now that their souls are at rest." Lithion set down two more chairs, offering the first to Maria as the gentleman he sought to be. "Since his arrival here, everything has been both pre-ordained and unrelentingly stochastic. We have entities coming and going through the Spiral Staircase, uncounted timelines colliding together, and a rather pressing deadline set forth by a being nobody has a chance of holding at bay should he choose to act." Taking his own seat, he summoned his book and set it on one knee before facing Shinji with a solemn mien. "You were brought to this world by mistake. The woman known as Asuka Langley Soryu was the actual target of the being you know as the Twelfth Angel. The first iteration of this sequence of events was a failure, in much the same way as this one was. It had intended to trade the life of Her Majesty for the life of Miss Soryu. Instead, Ares was set loose on your world and we received you."
"You fought valiantly." Usagi kissed his cheek, lowering the cup now that it was half empty. "We were overwhelmed by The Beast."
"The second iteration, Keitaro Urashima's corpse was expelled in your world."
"The Beast tore the cosmos in half."
"The third, the woman you know as Rei Ayanami came through. In her place, Ami Mizuno."
"She initiated Second Impact two days later, it erased ninety nine percent of the universe."
"The list could go on, for quite some time, but I believe you get my point." He drummed his fingers idly against the book cover. "Some few of us have either retained memories of previous resets, or have regained them through other means. Those of us who remember noticed a pattern developing. When you came through, the resets took much longer to arrive. When anyone else came through, it was less than half of a week. Whatever It wanted, it wasn't you. Whoever pushed for Pluto and Galaxia to reset the timeline did so because you failed. It…unfortunately remembers much of previous resets. The aggregated experiences, the random patterns you create, they have pushed It away from remaining as Chaos. It now sees a chance to grasp a greater power, and has dethroned our Chaos in an effort to destabilize this reality."
"In short," Maria cut in, "this version of reality is running out of time. Our best option is to use the Black Mirror to save those few we can. We can survive in The Ways, at least long enough for me to contact Eisheth or Lilith."
Maria…shut up. Shinji kept his eyes on Lithion, studying the man's demeanor even as he continued to address the woman in question. He could recognize someone with a really stupid plan, he'd lived with Misato long enough to know the look. The problem was, he knew that 'really stupid plan' was not always synonymous with 'failure of an idea'. You've known far more than you've let on. You've known enough that you could have warned me about any number of pitfalls. You didn't act because the people you saw as competition were dying off. We'll get to you and your family soon enough, for right now we're going to focus on why we're here. Finally taking his eyes off the blue youma, he looked over to Tungsram.
"Carla, χρυσό μου. It named me Tungsram. I don't want to be affiliated with It anymore. Allow me to claim this name in your mind, become this woman in your heart." She sat demurely in the only other piece of natural seating in Misato's apartment, holding a saucer, teacup, and spoon with uneasy hands. "Yes, I know what it is you're thinking. I know what it is you'd say before you say it. I wish I couldn't, but I can't stop it from happening. It is, and will always be, a part of who I am. There are several entities of varying levels of strength vying for the chance to initiate Second Impact and guide Instrumentality towards creating a splinter of reality that suits them. What none of them realize is that Creation will simply wipe everything from existence if they do. We will die either way, and there will be no time reset to grant us another chance. We, or at least these versions of us, will be no more."
"The progenitor of the Angels from your reality," Usagi urged Shinji to take another drink, "the progenitor of the Angels from my reality, the entity that had once been Chaos from the first reality, the entity that was dethroned from this reality, and Namaah."
Instead of the angered frown he'd directed at Maria, Shinji simply scowled with irritation at the woman hydrating him. Don't poke at her. I'm angry with her, but I'm not going to sit here and let everyone attack her either. Not until I hear what she has to say for herself.
"Shinji, dear," the Triplets lightly kneaded their paws against his body in various places, "she wasn't poking at her. The Wicked Song seeks dominion over this reality, through you. She wishes to teach you the joys of lust while wielding power behind the throne." All three heads snapped over to stare daggers at Maria when she went to speak. "Yes, just as our forebear intended to. We discovered her plan just before she sent us to be killed. When we failed to die, she sent assassins. Fortunately for us, they sucked at their job."
"I do not 'seek dominion'!" Maria slammed her fists against her knees, her volume rising as she stood. "What I 'seek' is to tie myself to the strongest mate possible! At his side, I can help guide us above the millions of other shards. I can teach him how to make reality a paradise instead of this unrelenting death march. Just because I'm intelligent enough to recognize that we can't save everybody does not mean I'm actively aiming to kill people close to him. When I found out what that echo of my sister was doing inside of him, I began searching for a way to stop it. Then I was attacked by their kin," she gestured to Lithion, "and had to find a way to defend the artifacts I'm researching. I was the one who gave Noriyasu Seta a chance to save those children he holds dear. If I wanted to eliminate competition, why would I have allowed a few more contenders anywhere near him? Hmm?"
So you want to use me as a puppet? Shinji's jaw clenched, his mother's poisonous words careening through his mind. His father's actions playing counterpoint in the symphony of discordance. You want to 'mate' me for your own purposes? He wanted to stand. He wanted to loom over the woman before him as a pillar of wrath. It was only the gentle caresses from Usagi, the firm weight of the three kitsune, that kept him in his seat. Incidentally doing something helpful does not change that you were in the middle of doing something hurtful. He wasn't sure who to direct the question to, and so he just looked at Clara.
"You did not 'kill' her, in the sense that you believe you did." Carefully setting the teaspoon down on her saucer, she took a small sip to buy herself time to choose her words carefully. "To…terminate one of the Four…there are more than a few additional requirements. I do not doubt your capacity, mind, simply your desire. You are very, very angry. You are confused, hurt, tired. If you truly wish her gone, you will still wish her gone when you are calmer and in a more…balanced frame of mind."
Usagi reached up and drew his face towards her with two fingers under his chin. When she had his eyes on her, she gave unto him Truth. "You. Are not. A murderer." Lifting her own chin slightly, she pressed a soft kiss to his lips. Moving back only far enough to speak without brushing her lips against his, she let the other shoe drop. "If anyone is to kill her, it will be me. Now let us stop focusing on distractions. We have to help you understand Our problems before we can accept your help in addressing them."
+++++ Shinji's Soul. (? + ?)
After several long days of education, at least from the perspective of those within his soul, Shinji stood before a large whiteboard that he'd created specifically to keep track of the wide array of factions, motivations, and conflicts that had formed the world he'd been sent to. Twirling a dry erase marker between his fingers in a subconscious display of manual dexterity, he reviewed several points mentally before shaking his head in disgust. This…this really isn't my world. The Potsdam Declaration serving as cover for the actual sticking point of negotiations between youkai and yousei? Atomic bombing in an effort to eradicate entrenched youma positions? Gesturing to a portion of the map containing what had been the USSR, he snorted out a laugh. Stalin was actually some sort of demonic, magic-wielding, metal worker youma?
"Yousei," Lithion corrected blithely. "Our kind had long since abandoned our claims and territory that far west. We were already well past decline by the time of the first Great War, those few of us that my former master uplifted were intended to attempt to reclaim territory from the yousei by using humanity's own negativity as our source of power. Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili, or as you knew him, 'Stalin', was a ქაჯი. He was a terrifyingly powerful," perusing his tome of random knowledge, the blue spirit being had far more confidence that headway was being made than his student did, "how was it you put it earlier?"
Bullshit space wizard, Shinji responded with a rueful chuckle before capping the marker and tossing it down onto the tray at the base of the board.
"Yes, quite. Peace has been maintained on this planet for thousands of years, despite the existence of 'bullshit space wizards', because this reality operates around The Laws. As powerful as Ioseb was, as single-mindedly ruthless as he was, he was not insane enough to attempt to flout The Laws. Whether he agreed with the Decree of Three Lights or not, he understood he would have been little more than a puff of air against a typhoon if he went against it."
The Vixens pushed, tugged, and teased Shinji back over to the couch while in their human guise, sitting him down with two cuddling against his sides and the third laid across his lap on her stomach so that her tails tickled him every time he tried to stand up again. "Minor scuffles, ok. Major outbreaks of violence around humans, not ok. If humans wander into our territory and begin poking around, they're fair game. If humans leave the Masquerade alone, no touchy-touchy."
Pushing Mika's tails down so that he could see past them, earning a shuddering moan of pleasure that he ignored in the process, Shinji gestured with his other hand to the part of the board that they still hadn't focused on. So the Academy Wars…didn't those violate that Decree?
"The Academy System was situated in extra-dimensional pockets throughout the Earth." Maria had accepted that Shinji would allow her to speak if she was talking about the topics at hand, and had attempted to use that to her advantage. "Inter-factional violence inside extra-dimensional space doesn't threaten the human world. Elysium's mistake, and the reason for its rapid loss of territory, is that one of their own injured a human who was attempting to broker peace. Human diplomats are very clearly designated as non-combatants according to the Decree, and there is a Zero Tolerance policy in force regarding the matter. So while Mister Aono was 'poking around', it was due to the machinations of an Elysian and in an effort to attempt greater integration of several different worlds. The Elders died, Elysium lost the majority of its backers, and the yousei that were aligned with them suffered a heavy blow to their capacity. The youkai expanded to fill the power vacuum, Japan's global influence surged back towards what it had been before the Pacific War, and life may well have continued on that trajectory were it not for a handsome young man being yanked across dimensions against his will."
Shinji nodded slowly, accepting that the explanation was not simply a veiled plea for attention and affection. So the politics have different reasons, but the way they have affected the world haven't changed that much. This world is now dealing with Angels because the Elders, or Titans, or whatever, aren't around to stop them from running about causing destruction. Second Impact is approaching…because of a young man who loved the wrong woman. Closing his eyes and letting his head drop back against the couch, he wished, and not for the first time, that he'd never heard of Evangelions. So, Jakob, now that I'm at least in the same time zone as the truth of the situation…can you share your outrageously stupid and yet somehow brilliant plan that's likely to save as many lives as possible?
Briefly glancing up from the pages of his tome, he shrugged. "Have you declare yourself Chaos, defeat my former master, the First, the Angels, and then restore what life we can to the planet after that battle devastates the environment." Frowning slightly, he amended the plan, "Afterwards, convince you to take on a few willing wives. Three, maybe four, to help you produce some darling little ones to defend future generations against their own village idiots."
I take back what I said about 'brilliant'.
"The position of Chaos is not one of evil," Carla leaned into Shinji's view, attempting to help him see reason, "there are very few primordial forces that can be wholly described as evil at all!"
The next to argue the case was one that he thought would be on his side. "If you want change, you have to have Chaos. The balance of power is always maintained by the status quo. Always. Old management passes the torch to new management who upholds the old policies because they benefit the power structure that brought them into power. Topple a leader, and you'll most likely end up with someone else using the same levers of power to manipulate the system. Topple the system, and you buy yourself a chance, only a chance mind, of building something different. Chaos is powerful. It is necessary to bring about change. Don't demonize it, but remember to respect the fact that 'change' is not a synonym for 'improve'. The adversaries you will face still have great power to bring to bear, and will seek to restore their positions. Lighting the torch is only the first part, the harder part comes afterwards." Usagi placed herself firmly before him, leaning forward at the hips to place her face in line with his own. "Who would you rather have in control of that power? Who would you choose to not use it for personal gain? Who, of everyone you know, has the blood of an Elder being, the blood of a human, and the blessings of the Kami? I asked you once, the first time we visited Elysium, and you did not answer me. So, I will ask you again: will you help me defend what good is left in this life, no matter how long that might be?"
They wished him to become something…different. They wanted him to change. To accept a power he did not want, to assume a responsibility that he could never possibly manage. He was an Elder. A Titan. A Pilot. A Child. He was human, youkai, and a million other things. He had begun to have control over flora, over mineral, over ice…. Shinji could feel the answer forming in his heart before his mind even began to consider giving voice to it. No. His gaze drifted over to Clara. You were the one that told me, 'The more defined something is, the harder it is to properly define it.' All of these descriptions of Chaos miss the point, you can't define something that is by definition indescribable. 'We are, none of us, so simply defined,' you said. You're asking me to become a thing that has no descriptions. You're asking me to become unbound by logic, by reason. If I become Chaos, who's to say that I'll still be on your side? Who's to say that I won't decide to turn the world into a watermelon? You want me to defend what you believe to be good, while becoming something that can't possibly be good!
"Then redefine the term," Maria cut into his rant, one immaculately sculpted eyebrow raised slightly. "Pet, I know you are smart enough to understand that any word you choose can have multiple meanings. What Seventy Four there," she gestured to Carla, "meant when she spoke to you about being 'simply defined' was that there are precious few words that have a single definition or distinction. In English, 'the' can mean any number of subjects depending on context clues alone. You can write a grammatically complete sentence using only 'buffalo'. Do you honestly believe that by becoming Chaos you'll automatically become some moustache-twirling villain?" With her legs crossed at the knee, she leaned forward and set her crossed wrists atop them. "Do you honestly think that any of us would be coming to you for help if we believed all you would do is murder us for a laugh?"
"Will there be changes? Yes." Jakob spread his hands, disinterested in hiding the truth. "Will they be painful? Possibly. But if I am to have any chance at all of salvaging what is left of my race, I'd be a fool to believe that I would find it at the feet of a maniac. Dying on my feet next to a man that at least understands honor is a far better fate than carving my own tombstone on my knees in supplication to a tyrant."
They made it sound so easy to him. Shinji looked off towards Asuka's room, frowning as he thought through counterarguments. If you needed someone to become Chaos, I think you got the wrong pilot. Asuka would have-
"Never listened to advice, never attempted to reach consensus when the path was unclear, never allowed others to become close enough to comfort her when things went wrong." Usagi hadn't moved from where she'd placed herself. Immovable, unyielding. Despite the changes to her appearance, and the changes to her approach to life, she still remained unwavering in her dedication to doing what was best for the people under her protection. "How many times these past few days have you had your feet under you, hmm? It has been nonstop madness, hasn't it? Each time something went wrong, you listened. Each time you didn't know where to go, you sought out help. You have sought out help from your fellow warriors, help she would never have accepted. Our enemies are ruthless. Remorseless. We are not going to win if we fight separately. We are not going to win if we allow them to continue picking off our allies by leaving them with the upper hand. As much as I despise her, I still need Pluto to guard the Door. As badly as I want to hold you close and heal your wounds, to give you all of the love and comfort you were denied growing up, to make your world a paradise-"
It wasn't anything that Shinji said that stopped everything cold in the room. Instead it was how he was suddenly no longer sitting on the couch buried under kitsune, but was standing with his back to the old closet he lived in with fear and mistrust radiating off of him. Any internal debate was silent, without form or function, before he expelled everyone else from inside of his soul to remain standing alone in the hollow void that remained.
Was…was it her? He had to hope that they wouldn't be able to immediately force their way back in. That voice. I was surrounded by the plants, losing the bad blood, it said it wanted to…to surround me with love, heal me, and make my world a paradise. It sounds like Usagi wants me to submit to her. To take control of my life. That same voice told me to submit…several times…. I…. The worrying thought that she had killed her own friends, again, inside of him took a dark turn. She claims to be taking the role of Lilith. Taking it from Maria? Did Maria want to be Lilith? Is she manipulating everyone? Sitting down heavily on a floor that didn't exist, he stared blankly at a point well beyond any possible horizon. What do I do?
+++++ Author's Notes:
Guest: RE: Title Drop.
I honestly debated rewording that several times when I was speaking the whole diatribe aloud. Ultimately, it just fit too well to not risk the trope.
Ghost Man:
RE: Comic Book Universe.
Yeah, I've been worrying about that lately. There are a lot of stories to be told with what I've set up, and this has every chance of going horrifyingly wrong quickly. Like..."All New All Different" wrong.
RE: Suzuhara.
Yasuji Suzuhara, Toji Suzuhara's father in the main continuity, is a male kitsune of no small power in this reality. He is mated with Daphne, the Dryad from Greek Mythology, who is expecting their child eventually according to Shinji. That child won't be Toji, however, because Dryads don't birth males.
BloodStasis: RE: Wanderer and Hope.
I'm going to give a big 'No Comment' here, in an effort to avoid spoilers in either direction, just like I tried to do in YA(N)C.
