+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Friday + 13)
Shinji was attempting to explain how he had figured out the method he was using to create a stable portal between Japan and Greenland when he noticed an unexpected visitor approaching unhurriedly. "…is that…oh, Aoyama-san." He bowed politely, surprised that she would be out and about. "Good afternoon."
"Good afternoon," the willowy swordswoman replied with a slightly deeper bow than the one he'd given her. "I noticed that you were working not half a day after being returned to us in ill-health. I inquired with a few of our spirit friends and they stated that you would likely require additional nourishment." She lifted up a cloth-wrapped bento, offering it without insisting he take it. "I have some experience in preparing meals for students who have sizable calorie requirements, and Tenou-san gave me permission when we first took shelter in her home to use her kitchen as I saw fit. I do not believe she would be upset at my using it to ensure you have the energy you need."
Clare blinked, surprised to hear such formal and clean English from someone younger than her. "Wow. Your English is fantastic, ma'am. You must practice a lot."
Shinji's stomach began to growl at the scents wafting from the boxed lunch, and he frowned in thought as he attempted to determine whether it was appropriate or not to accept the offer. "It does smell delicious, Aoyama-san. I'm sure whoever you've cooked for in the past must have enjoyed it immensely."
"I never said I prepared a meal for another student," she replied, a soft smile of embarrassment amplifying her blush. "To perform the feats that my honored sister and I had to in order to attain the level we had, I required far more calories a day than a typical woman of my age and stature."
"No doubt," Clare agreed. "Working in the bike shop I always had to eat extra, because if I didn't I'd end up eating the crap the guys brought in and that just sent all the wrong signals." Seeing Shinji hesitate, and then looking at the meal, she frowned. "Is there some cultural issue here? I can hear your stomach talking, and Miss Aoyama seems to be a good cook. You should eat."
"I…I'm not sure myself." The admission cost him nothing, since his pride wasn't worth much at the moment anyway. "It smells great, but I don't want to make it seem like I'm demanding someone who's sworn to me has to cook for me. If she's giving this as a gift, or because she wants to, that's one thing. But I can't figure out how to ask her that, and so here I am just spelling out the entire situation awkwardly hoping someone will save me from my own stupidity."
"I chose to cook for you, and this is very much a gift." Motoko shook it slightly, emphasizing that he should accept it. "My debt to you is not paid, and will not be paid in food. I saw an opportunity to get to know you better, a situation where you are already attempting to come to know another warrior better," she tipped her head towards Clare, "and acted."
"Well, I'm going to head off actually." Clare read into the situation enough to see that she might be unwanted by at least one of the players on the field at the moment. "Would you mind keeping an eye on the big guy, ma'am? Just make sure he doesn't over-exert himself. They've got a good feel for what needs to be brought over, and they've got at least as much experience there now as I do. I should check on my camp, make sure people aren't trying to hang one another."
"I would be glad to make certain he remains unharmed, Miss." Pressing the meal into Shinji's hands and bowing in farewell to Clare at the same time, she demonstrated genuine gratitude that the other woman understood her desire for privacy for a few moments. It wasn't that Motoko was dismayed that Shinji would speak to the foreigner, quite the opposite in fact, but it was more that she truly had need of him for a time and this was an opportunity she couldn't afford to pass up. With both the food out of her possession and Clare out of their area, she stood back upright and turned to tackle the next issue. "I beg your permission to be…blunt."
Shinji was picking at the knot at the top of the bundle with one hand, being careful not to damage anything. "Of course. I'm sorry that…well, the only time I've ever spoken aloud to you that I can remember, I forced you to be something. I'm…uh, I'm also sorry that I…Tsuruko-san seemed like an incredible woman. Someone I felt I could trust to do the right thing, and be in the middle of any bad situation trying to make it better." His eyes flicked towards his tree, to the portrait of the fallen swordswoman. "I only knew her for a short time, and…I feel her loss deeply."
"As do I." Her heart settled completely, having heard exactly what she'd hoped would be true. This wasn't a man who was capable of lying, nor was it a man who sought out the affections she could see him being showered with. He likely scarcely noticed the women doing so, and if he did, he misinterpreted their actions. "I thank you for the permission to speak bluntly, as I…do not have a positive track record with regards to communicating with…the opposing half of the population."
"Opposing sixth, if Redfield-san's numbers are right." With the knot finally free, he lifted the lid off the box and took stock of what was on offer. Everything looked wonderful. Well-presented, prepared, and filling. "I…uhm, I hope you don't mind, but I have to sit down if I'm going to eat." Willing two seats to be formed from the stones beneath their feet, he tipped his head towards the one he'd made for her. "Please, if you would do me the honor."
Smoothing her clothes beneath her legs, she sat down with a growing smile. "It appears that I truly did completely misread the man beneath the monster. Your manners are nearly too formal for even my own expectations, thank you for thinking to provide me with comfort as well."
He set the boxes on his right knee, closest to her. Everything was intended to be eaten using his fingers, which he was grateful for as it meant less balancing of everything, and he gestured to the meal with an open hand. "Please, if you're hungry I'd be glad to share what you made." Taking one of the items that were in greater quantity, avoiding those things that were fewer in number and potentially things she might prefer, he bit into it and took a moment to appreciate the flavor and texture.
"I have eaten, and must insist that you finish the entire meal. Tenou-san was very, very displeased when she came upstairs last night. You had pushed yourself too hard, too fast, and ran out of energy because you…well, you show no traces of excess weight."
Permission now received to indulge himself as he would, he began to tear through the offering with gusto. "Scrawny stupid Shinji, that's me." His lips curled up to the side in a rueful smirk. "Always have been, probably always will be."
Motoko coughed politely. "That…was not my intent. Though I can understand how you would draw that conclusion, especially with the precedent that I have set for myself." She watched how he ate, noticed how he critiqued everything openly without once saying anything aloud, and ultimately enjoyed how his manners weren't just an enforced paradigm but actually a tangible part of his personality. "You have a lean frame, with a surprising amount of corded muscle for how you carry yourself. To see you walk, you project a level of physical frailty that is not present in actuality."
He paused between bites, looking at her askance. "You've been watching me?"
"My life is yours, until my debt is paid." She watched him carefully, to see how he would react. "You have little need of immediate physical protection, for the most part. So long as you are appropriately maintained, you are strong enough to see to your own defense. That eliminated the most appropriate course of action, in my eyes. I was raised to…protect. In my childish naivety, I failed to remember that this included protecting others from my superior strength. I allowed hatred to blind me, fear to guide me, and that brought ruin down upon the heads of everyone I believed I was protecting. I would, given my own preferences, see to your protection…which leaves my mind roaming in circles. So I watched you. I watched what you did, watched who you spoke to, watched your aura as it drew others in and pushed others away. I watched, I waited, and I hoped that there would be some sign of what I could do to," there was a long hesitation as she searched for the right word to use, "to help."
That made sense, to him. Watching from afar, making sure that you wouldn't be unwelcome…it was how he'd lived the bulk of his life. He took several more bites as he thought on the matter. It seemed, to him, that she was coming to him to ask directly how she could pay off her debt. How she could set the balance back to neutral and be free of him. "Well…the wording of the Prayer specified that you were the one who would consider your debt fulfilled. If you think guarding me for a while would help with that, I'm not foolish enough to think that I'm able to look in every direction at once."
Her laughter was both sudden and unexpected, but truly heartfelt. "You are an odd man, Ikari-dono. I am sorry that your life has become so complicated. You likely would have thrived in far simpler times, given the guidance of a good woman."
"Uhm…please, just…just Shinji." He couldn't explain why she laughed for the life of him. He wouldn't disagree that he was odd, it was hard not to be when the most human companionship he had prior to the last few months was an abusive recluse. "I…don't know how well I would have done in simpler times, either. I have a tendency to miss the obvious while looking for what people mean."
"That much is evident." As he moved to the second tray of the box, she noted that he hadn't spared a crumb. That information was important, in its own way. "If I am to call you by your given name, I would beg of you to do the same in return. It would be unseemly for me to accept your deference, considering."
His head bobbed as he continued to eat. Fair was fair, after all. The discussion had hit an awkward phase, for him. He wasn't certain what she was looking for, anymore, and he wasn't sure why she'd been amused. She hadn't shown any signs of making fun of him, and he hadn't been able to turn his words into anything 'funny'. The potential for his newfound Intent to create miscommunications, as it had earlier with the Redfields, became the only explanation, and it wasn't one that he needed to pursue. Now he was just sitting with an attractive woman his own age, one who was beholden to him until she believed she wasn't.
"I believe I shall be blunt, now." She stifled a giggle when he looked back at her with a slight worry in his eyes. Her sister must have adored teasing him, with how easy it was. "I see you as far more comfortable with Tenou-san than you are with any of the other women around you. Is this, in your opinion, because she is 'safe'? Her love for Kaiou-san is beyond reproach, and her love for you is firmly set just below the first. You don't see her as vying for your attention or affection, because she is comfortable in the knowledge that it is hers to have as she wishes it. Yes?"
Shinji's chewing slowed as his mind mulled over what she was asking. He'd said, earlier, that he loved Haruka. Through all the various qualifications that people had expressed at some point in time or another, he was certain that she had an immovable place in his life. She might, at some point, hurt him terribly or even leave his life forever…but he would still feel then as he did now. It was just how he felt. "I…think it's a little more complicated, but yeah. I prefer knowing for certain where someone stands. I do better when people express how they feel without…confusing me. I know why Haruka tells me she loves me. I know that it's not…other things masquerading as love."
"And what of romance?" If he wanted bold, she would present to him bold. "I have noticed that a great host of women surround you, and many even have seemingly declared themselves as a paramour, even if in potentia. But what I have noticed more than anything is that you lack romance. You lack someone seeking to win your favor through word and deed, instead of by proximity and passion. Someone who will show you why you might wish for them to be by your side, instead of simply asserting their presence as justification enough."
His brow knit as he tried to piece together what she was inferring. "I…don't know that I need Haruka to be romantic. She prefers to…tease, or joke around."
"…And the other women in your life?"
"I'm not-"
The roof! Quickly! The Crystal's voice broke into his conversation with such force that it caused Shinji to stand up and look around for an incoming attack.
His eyes followed instructions, and drew his attention up to the roof of the apartment complex. What he saw there, even a few days prior, might have caused him to feel something other than what the sight wound up inspiring in him. "Oh, for fuck's sake." Stepping up onto the half wall surrounding the apartment building, Shinobu Maehara apparently had designs on 'opting out'. Disgusted, Shinji created another portal just below her as she stepped off into open air, connecting it with a portal right in front of Motoko. After the bluenette hit the ground much sooner than she anticipated, stumbling into a skidding fall, he gestured to her with an open hand and laid his eyes on the swordswoman at his side. "Are we going to have to put a leash on her for you?" The portals were banished, leaving only the one to Greenland being supported. "Is this typical for her? This type of conceited self-centeredness?"
Motoko was shame-faced. She had left Shinobu alone with explicit instructions to take the day off and try to unwind. She had explained in as much detail as she was capable of employing that the reason she'd been so hard on her was that the young idiot had been seconds away from obliteration. She had been working her hard, praising her when appropriate, and had felt that she'd finally turned the corner. And now, of all times, she'd decided to-
"Why?" Shinobu slowly picked herself up from the ground, turning and facing Shinji with a flat, disaffected expression. "Why did you save me?"
His temper was already up, his thoughts on people taking their own lives dark, and her question gave just the right push for him to begin spooling hot. "Because I don't like it when people die. Because I really don't like it when people make a mess and leave it for others to clean up. Because, despite whatever it is you think I am, I'm not someone who allows people to be hurt!" The last third of the meal Motoko made had been tossed to the side, forgotten as he moved forward to loom over Shinobu. "I kill who I must, when I must. I do not, and will not, simply murder someone for giggles! I have spent the past six months engaged in one long, protracted battle between human stupidity and alien bullshittery, and the last thing I want to have to do is clean someone off the fucking pavement with a mop! I don't know what your fucking damage is, but I really doubt that you want to try and compare scars. Here," he grabbed her shoulder, and turned her to face Motoko, "we'll have her be the judge. I'm going to guess she's at least vaguely aware of whatever history of trauma you have."
The blue-haired former resident of the Hinata Inn looked down. "I'm not going-"
"To say another fucking word, unless you're a huge fan of being spanked," Shinji cut in ruthlessly. "Ok, Motoko-san, what I'm going to do is tell you what has happened to me in my life. I'd like it if you would tell me if she has something comparable. Not, 'Well, I realize you've lost an arm, but she stubbed her toe once' comparable, but real, honest to goodness, apples to fucking apples here. Yes?"
To say that Motoko was mortified would be underselling the situation. "As you will it, Shinji-dono."
"Great. When I was three years old, I watched my mother willingly walk into an experiment that ripped her soul out of her corporeal form and grafted it into a giant murder robot. Later in my life, I was forced to pilot said giant murder robot by my father, who neglected to inform me that part of the interface between me and said giant murder robot was my mother's soul. Following a series of life or death engagements with gigantic aliens determined to eradicate what was left of humankind, during which I was forced to kill creatures I couldn't understand, and during which I was responsible for more than a few human deaths myself in an effort to keep the majority of humanity from dying, I was thrown through a hole in reality to a completely different universe, forced to wear the giant murder robot as a suit of armor, and had my mother's soul grafted into me. She then taunted me with the fact that I'm a weak-spined idiot who was nothing but a raging disappointment to her, attempted to use the armor to murder a number of people that were in her way, wanted to ensure that humanity died so that she could become a testament to a species she hated, and left me no choice but to kill her, again! Let me know if she's somewhere near that level on this first point."
Shinobu stammered out, "F-first-" She was cut off when Shinji swatted her on the rear with a heavy wooden paddle he summoned using his connection to the Kodama clans.
He glared pain into her eyes. "Wasn't joking. You're going to get spanked if you talk out of turn. Motoko-san?"
"I…would not rate her parents divorce, or the arguments that preceded that event, as equivalent to your history." It was clear that she was trying to be balanced, which raised her stock in Shinji's eyes.
"Great. Second point," he spun the paddle out in front of him, tapping it against his quadriceps as he continued. "Following the original presumed death of my mother, my father abandoned me at a train station with a man I only learned was my great uncle by accident when a neighbor, who I never spoke to again, asked me how I was doing. This quote-great-unquote uncle, supposedly related to me by blood, beat me no less than three times a day, every day of my life from the age of three to the age of seventeen when I was recalled to Tokyo-3 to pilot the giant murder robot. I was beaten for not washing the dishes properly, I was beaten for making a mistake while playing the cello, or the piano, I was beaten for not hanging the clothes properly, I was beaten for not scrubbing the floors properly, I was beaten because while he couldn't prove I had done anything wrong he was fairly certain that I had still not done what I was supposed to do. That's not even the worst of the things he did to me, but I'll leave it at that for the purposes of this discussion. Motoko?"
"I would not rate the time that Keitaro Urashima…tripped, and accidentally wound up in a basket of Shinobu-chan's private garments as equivalent to that, no."
"Fantastic, we're making good progress I think." He could feel Shinobu looking at him with growing horror, and it just fed his anger further. "After fourteen years of…well, we'll call it 'absentee parenting', my father sent me a letter for the first time in my entire life. It had one word on it, 'Come'. Included in that letter, at the behest of the woman that was going to pick me up from the train station, was a picture of my Tactical Commander and a far more friendly greeting. From a woman I'd never met, as opposed to the man involved in my birth, supposedly. When she picked me up, it was just after an alien the size of Tokyo Tower crushed a building three hundred meters away from me. Driving me through a battlefield, diving over top of me to shield me from broken glass when they dropped an N-Two mine, a non-nuclear bomb with a similar destructive yield, onto the alien, she managed to get me to the gantries where the giant murder robot stood in time for my father to put the only other person capable of even starting the giant murder robot, who was dealing with severe injuries due to a training accident that nearly cost her an arm, a leg, and three internal organs, out in front of me before telling me, 'You pilot, or she does'. No reunion, no greeting, no attempt at reconciliation for fourteen years of hell, no. 'Get in the giant murder robot, Shinji', 'go fight the alien that the strongest military force on the planet can't even slow down, Shinji', 'go get your ass kicked so badly that you spend most of a day unconscious as your body, which experiences every ounce of pain the giant murder robot is inflicted with, tries to cope with not only facing combat at seventeen but also piloting via maternal interface, Shinji." He held up a hand to stop Motoko from speaking. "You know what, I'm just going to assume that no. No, she hasn't had to deal with all of that. That no, no she hasn't had to deal with any of that! And, considering all of this is some of the tamer shit I've had to handle, I'm going to guess I can just fucking stop here and have my point be clear!" Spinning around and throwing the wooden paddle hard enough that it smashed against the domed ceiling he'd created around the Shrine, over half a kilometer away, he roared out a wordless howl of impotent rage.
Shinobu was a deer in headlights. "I-I…I…."
Shinji was the armored personnel carrier attached to the headlights. "I do not fucking care what pointless drama was allowed where you came from, you ignorant little child! Not fifty fucking meters from you, right now, there are three-year-olds handling this shit better than you are! Two nights ago, I made a blanket to help a sixteen-year-old refugee comfort her fourteen-month-old brother while she processed the fact that what used to be her father ate her fucking mother! You escaped in the company of at least two warriors that I would have sacrificed my entire fucking external plumbing to have around where I came from. You escaped in the company of a man who stood toe-to-toe with literal giants in an effort to keep you safe. You have had advantages and opportunities that ninety percent of the remainder of humanity would feel overwhelmingly blessed to have, and you choose to leap off a fucking building because you made a mistake?! Either you kindly get the entire fuck over yourself, or you're going to dream fondly of that brief moment where you thought that your life might have ended in a several story drop! This bullshit ends, now! Have I, in any way, shape, form, or color, been unclear?!"
While he had not noticed, a large number of the residents of the Shrine had stopped what they were doing to watch and listen as the man most responsible for their safety spoke. With his capacity for universal speech, it did not matter where those residents were from on Earth, they understood him. They heard the brief history of a legend, the short summary of affairs that led to where he stood, right then. The pain, the suffering, the string of tragedies that shaped who he was…and the rage that hid just below what they had believed was a sad, lonely, surface. Murmurs sprang up, people speaking to each other about what they'd seen or heard leading up to this explosion. Several of the military members nodded in appreciation, or winced in sympathy, for what was in their mind the type of ass-chewing that could only come from someone who had worn the uniform at some point. More importantly for the immediate moment, however, was the youkai, yousei, and other non-human life that felt the unshed tears of a living god. He spoke from within, and he had taken a human to task without killing it. The Elder lived, and that was cause for joy.
Among all of that, Shinobu began to cry. The stress, the lack of preparedness to handle everything life had thrown at her, and her relative immaturity could not be expressed in any other way. She was too young, too sheltered, and too lost to know what else to do.
Motoko sucked in a sharp breath when she saw Shinji's fists clench. She had felt his unbridled aura unfurl itself as his rant gained steam. Had felt the pain, the anger, the sorrow. While what she felt at that moment was not aggression, the physical signs present spoke of a need to harm. When he clenched his eyes shut, and let his head hang forward, she relaxed. This was not a man that was preparing to engage in violence against someone else, it was a man that was engaging in violence against himself. "With your permission, I'll make sure she is…placed somewhere safe." His eyes opened, flicking over to stare through her. The deepest of blues pierced her to the core as a man who had overcome worse than anyone else she'd yet met…silently begged her to help him stop himself from being what he felt himself becoming. "And…with your permission, I will return once I am certain she is safe."
"If…that's what you want." Shinji Ikari, or whatever it was he'd become, would remain a servant at heart. Looking at the portal, and the stream of goods coming out of it, he swallowed his anger enough to do what he felt was right. "I'm…sorry for…not minding my volume, Maehara-san. I shouldn't have yelled like that." There was no intelligible response as Motoko gathered the bluenette under her arm and escorted her towards the medical annex, and so he accepted that now he had another boulder in his rucksack. He had lost control, and that was unacceptable.
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Friday + 13)
"Welp, can't say she didn't earn that one." Mizore had stopped the search to watch as Shinji devastated an overly indulged young woman. Looking down from the branch she sat upon to where Naoko Akagi was watching the same event take place, she noted that the woman had a now-overwhelming scent of lust about her. It was more than slightly worrying. "How is it going in there?"
Naoko's response was delivered in a natural speaking tone, "As well as can be expected, considering she lost husband and child in a single day. To say nothing of watching a demigod be crucified, though to be fair to her I believe that is lesser in her mind than the first." Looking back over her shoulder to the yuki-onna above her, she presented a demeanor that was nowhere near her scent. "She also does not know where Maria went after the woman hid her here. At least now we know that she was not directly involved in the killings. A sister to Lilith, the basis for Unit-01 in our world, would not be someone I'd eagerly go to war against right now."
"Hmm. She seems weak, to me. Certainly not someone that would rate as large a danger as Shinji, should he truly lose control of his temper. I doubt even the oddity would stand much of a chance of defeating him."
"Still waters run deep, as they say. It would not surprise me to see that Maria was biding her time, playing a much longer game than you believe she is. Few men want a woman who outstrips them in power, and she wouldn't be the first to misunderstand an Ikari." With the show over, and Shinji now standing alone staring at the portal to Greenland, she turned around to head back inside. "Sarah-chan will be moving in here. If you want to put in your petition, I'd be happy to give you a good reference. I don't think there'll be many spots left, before long."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Friday + 13)
Shinji had finally sat down again as the sky behind the barrier grew dark. Japan was well and truly faced away from the sun by the time the last materials were recovered from Greenland, and even after closing the portal off he remained seated in the chair he'd used while eating Motoko's offered lunch. After thanking everyone for their efforts, and assuring the concerned military and civilians that she'd make sure he was ok, Haruka took the seat that had been vacated by Motoko and watched him watch the world. He appreciated that she didn't force her way into his thoughts, that she let him try and assemble a cogent explanation. And while it wasn't what he'd wanted to lead with, it was something he could use to start the discussion that was about to happen, "I wasted food."
The Sailor for Uranus nodded, understanding what he was doing. "Which is a shame, I caught a whiff while I was working. Smelled like she did a good job."
"It was good, yeah." His eyes hadn't moved from the point on the Shrine's wall he'd been watching, and wouldn't move until he was certain of what he needed to know. "Do you…do you really love me? Me, not the man that you met repeatedly through any number of time resets."
"Yeah." There was no need for her to embellish the truth. No reason to be flowery with a man that lived in a world of logical consequences of logical actions.
He exhaled slowly, releasing tension that had built up. "I…really lost my temper today."
"Saw that, too."
"She…she was going to throw away everything we've done. Everyone's sacrifice who got her this far. Tsuruko, Suzuhara, Ami, Makoto, and Minako…even Hera. The list goes on and on…and all because she said something stupid, she was going to kill herself."
"Not the best decision she could have made."
His eyes finally tore themselves from where he'd been looking, his head turning to face a woman he knew in his bones would always be there for him. "I look at her and I see me. I see how I'd given up. I see how I'd allowed life to dictate terms to me, how I didn't give a shit if I lived or died in the Eva, how I never once worried about the sacrifices of everyone around me that put Unit-01 in my hands to go forth and save their lives…what kind of monster am I?"
"The human kind." Reaching over and tugging on his hand, she pulled him into her lap and held him close. "The kind that makes mistakes. That needed time to mature, time that he wasn't given help during the expending of it. The kind that uses his strength to keep people safe. That hates himself first and foremost when life is lost. We're all monsters, kid. But I'd take you and Michi over everyone else on this wretched mudball in a heartbeat."
He wrapped his arms around her torso, leaning into her embrace. "I'm going to die in that armor."
She felt a sort of sadness that the only other human she ever truly loved was born male. She really wouldn't have minded trying to improve Shinji's mood with a little recreational DNA exchange program, had 'he' been 'she'. "But you won't die alone. Michi-chan and I will always be with you, even if just in your heart."
"You'll always be here with me in person," he growled darkly, "or there's not going to be much of a world to worry about."
She smiled sadly, knowing that there was nothing she could say to make him think otherwise. "You say the sweetest things, sometimes."
"Ika…Shinji-dono," Motoko's voice was apologetic, she did not intend to interrupt the situation but she had promised she would present herself once her charge was safe, "I thought you might like to know that she is currently with the medical staff. Several of the refugees you saved had degrees or experience in medicine, and they've congregated where their skills might be of use."
Shinji squeezed Haruka once, then stood up from her lap to do what he felt was most appropriate. Facing Motoko, he bowed slowly in penitence. "I apologize for losing my temper, earlier. I yelled at your friend, and not only because I hate what she attempted to do. I was, after a fashion, yelling at myself as well. Thank you for ensuring her safety, and thank you for being brave enough to return and tell me that she was safe."
She waited several seconds, pondering what she ought to do with the information she'd just been given. Shinji had saved Shinobu's life. He had put fear into her in service of stopping her from attempting to take her own life again. He had publicly berated her, and shown everyone else that he had experienced a horrifying life but was still leading from the front. Had he been rude? Yes. Had he been unkind? Only if the person judging him had no spine worth speaking of. "I believe, earlier, you had given me permission to speak bluntly. Do I still have that permission?"
"Always." Standing upright, he prepared himself for the rebuttal he believed was both forthcoming and appropriate.
"You were far kinder to her than I would have been. I doubt I would have been able to prevent myself from flipping her skirt up over her back and paddling her bottom until both it and my hand were bleeding. I was terrified when I saw you react, horrified when I saw her step off, relieved when you acted to prevent her death, and finally mortified as a woman I am responsible for now received a public dressing down that has been far too long in coming. The residents of my former home attempted to raise her with kindness, and clearly only stunted her maturity by sheltering her from the harsh realities of her impulsivity. I am even further in your debt, now, and despite your preconceptions of the matter…I do not mind being in your debt one bit." Stepping forward, she pulled him into a hug and let all of her emotional barriers down. There was genuine fear and sorrow hanging off of every word. "I have lost not just one, but two entire families. All I have in this world, now, is Sarah-chan and Shinobu-chan…and I don't know if I'm strong enough to be what they need." His grasp of her was awkward, though only in the social sense. His inexperience in returning hugs was obvious, its origins evident, but it was the way that he meant the hug that made it perfect for the moment. She knew that in his arms there was a chance for everything to be better, eventually. "Please…don't push me from your service. Let me grow at your side, let me learn how to serve you best. I was beyond fortunate to find the second family I did…bless me with the chance at a third…please."
He allowed the Prayer to hang before him for a time. Somehow, the force of it was neither as painful nor as urgent as some of the others he'd heard. There was a cleanliness to it, a sense of orderly appropriateness that stopped it from grating against his core concept of 'right'. His eyes moved to ask Haruka for advice, and the taller Sailor's reply was a soft shrug and a slight nod. She'd spent enough time around the young swordswoman to know her heart, and she had nothing pejorative to say against her. All he'd ever wanted was a place to belong…a place where he was wanted, where he could be who he was. Was that what she wanted, too? "Are you sure you want this? I…I'm not sure how to undo it, once it's done. The wording is…. There's not a lot of room for interpretation or subordinate clauses if I'm going to do it right."
With tears in her proud, fierce, eyes she looked up at him and nodded firmly. "I do not fear death. I do not fear life. What I fear, more than anything else, is failing to do everything I can to make the world right." Her gaze softened. "I will not lie to you and say I love you. I will not lie to you and say that we were meant for one another. I swear to you, on my sister's honor, that I will do everything I can to be the woman you deserve…if you will give me the same honor you have given those few others."
"Let me get clear of the splash zone," Haruka teased gently. "Last time someone did this, I had to nearly pick my teeth out of my hair." Blowing Shinji a kiss, she winked and turned to walk off. "I'll see you tomorrow, kid. I'm going to go talk to Michi-chan before I hit the sack."
He realized he was still holding onto Motoko after Haruka jumped up to the floor with her apartment in it, and when Shinji tried to release the woman, she only hugged him closer. "M-Motoko-san?"
She replied, her cheek against his chest, "It is cold, and you are warm."
"Oh. O-ok." That made sense, at least he thought it did. He closed his eyes, and let the Laws guide the Words. "By your design, your wish made known; our lives entwine, no more our own." The soft release of his power flowed around him and the woman in his arms, a familiar clank reminding him of the time that Hygieia swore to serve him forevermore. The feel of her presence against him shifted, adapting to him. Melding against him, joining with him. Soft. Pleasant. Wet….
"The funny thing here, when you stop and think about it," Mika's voice was resigned, and when Shinji opened his eyes and saw her covered in Motoko's blood, it grew sad, "is that despite what I'm about to tell you…you'll never understand why we have to do this."
He was holding onto another headless corpse, the second in as many days. Yet another woman slain in his grasp.
Miwa flanked him to his left, her voice no different than her sister's, "'You will not choose this for them, they must decide this for themselves.' We heard what they said, all while trying to calm you down."
Shinji was, again, covered in the blood of an Aoyama.
Misa finished the triangle around him. "Light draws strength from itself. The more you gather, the greater it becomes."
He had used the wrong words, had forgotten immortality was necessary to keep someone with him forever. He had, as he so often had, interjected logic and reason into emotion and intentions.
All three women spoke as one, a holy trinity both unified and discrete, "We would have fought alongside you to the bitter end. We would have endured the endless echoes of light to spend eternity by your side. What we do now, we do so that others may choose."
Shinji took a slow, deep, breath. He'd made a terrible mistake by thinking that he was free simply because he now knew what he was. There was no freedom in knowing what you were, there was only a different form of slavery. Labels, identities, all they did was delineate one concept's boundaries from another's. He'd attempted to be human. Attempted to cling to a conceit that was both foolish and fatal.
When he released his breath, the dome he'd created to protect people from the zombies outside the Shrine tolled with a sound that could be heard for miles in every direction. A pillar of incoherent madness erupted upwards, solidified nothingness erasing everything in a fifteen-meter radius around him. The counterforce blasted skywards, striking and obliterating the shield far above, sending fragments rocketing outwards and away from those he'd promised protection to at the Shrine. Once the air pressure equalized again, he looked idly around to ensure that he hadn't left anything untouched. Verified that there was no longer such a thing as the Triplets. His next breath was by far the calmest he'd taken in his life.
"…Unfortunate." Yukiko's voice held none of its typical joy, "I had-" Her throat constricted as Shinji unhurriedly turned his head to face her. What existed in him now was far more horrifying than a misguided Hope, or a ravening Beast. His eyes told her everything she feared, everything she had hoped to prevent, was nothing when compared to what was yet to come. She stood, rooted in place, as he looked away and began walking towards the boundaries of the Shrine. She watched as he exited the safety that walls provided. Silent and still, she said nothing until she heard the sound of gently falling snow, "I…was mistaken."
"I doubt it's the first time." Mizore moved to the lip of the crater Shinji had carved into the stone floor, examining the residual energy and shuddering. "Even Alucard never managed anything quite this…dark."
"Unit-01, that wretched beast…it was not contaminating him." Yukiko's eyes trailed over to where the darkened carapace lay in pieces, slowly healing itself now that it had vices holding its component pieces together. "It was containing him."
+++++ Knossos, Crete, Greece. (Saturday + 14)
He sat on a stone bench, looking towards a throne, made of similar stone, carved out of a wall in a room that had been painstakingly restored by talented archeological artisans. An enormous bowl of the same stone sitting two paces before it, a ceremonial atmosphere permeating it. He'd read of the civilization that had originally crafted the room, once. Marveled at the knowledge that all over the world, humans had been constructing wonders that would have lasted millennia. It wasn't just Japan, or China, or any other Asian nation with a long history. Europe, the Americas, humanity had, once upon a time, striven to built things that could rightly be seen as eternal. The feel of another presence entering the room disrupted his musing, leading to him quietly acknowledging it, "We will begin when all parties are represented."
Ireul smoothed out her hair, the form she'd chosen one that had a lineage descended from the throne room they stood within. "I am surprised you aren't sitting upon the throne."
"It is not mine to sit upon; I'm not Grecian, Cretan, Aegean, or Minoan." He never spoke above a murmur, his intent being not to disturb the sanctity of the room he'd chosen for purely symbolic reasons. "The bench, here, is comfortable enough."
"There is wisdom in accepting the strength of others, and not seeking to belittle that strength through flexing your own superior might." Lithion ducked into the room next, his tome closed and tucked under one shoulder. "It, at least, improves one's chances of successful mediation with disparate parties."
"Carla?"
"She…has gone on a journey of some form." The blue-tinged man shrugged helplessly. "I haven't been able to get in touch with her either, so I hope you don't take her absence personally."
His only response was a muted sigh of disappointment.
Another portal spun open, disgorging the four-armed demon that had been making efforts at taking control of the direction of the universe itself. Having shrunk himself down to a size that would fit in the room, he glared at Ireul while speaking to the man that summoned them all, "I wish to extend my apologies. It seems that one of my subordinates has used the letter of my statement to continue engaging in recreational slaughter. I had intended to not attack you, or your allies, for the one week period. I am open to accepting proposals for appropriate compensation to your allies."
"I'm not going to waste time on that." Standing from the bench, he lightly clasped his hands together and let them hang down in front of him. "The area previously designated as Hikawa Shrine, and all territory immediately adjacent to those lands, are now inviolable. Both Angel and Demon will, without delay, recall any and all forces set within a twenty kilometer distance from the outermost wall. Failure to do so will result in an immediate, and overwhelming, response. What you do outside of that area is your own concern, so long as it does not disrupt the capacity for this planet to sustain the life forms I am providing shelter to. As the population of the Shrine increases, I will be annexing increasingly larger amounts of land to safely harbor that population. The twenty kilometer distance rule will remain in force as the outermost wall is moved to support that growth. Eventually, yes, that will mean that there is no room for you to maintain your forces on this world. It might also mean that, eventually, there will be no room in this universe for your forces. I am giving both of your armies time to find other accommodations, because I do not want to have to damage this world any more than it already has been. If you do not believe this agreement to be satisfactory, say so now. I will make it my first priority to annihilate you and everything allied with you."
Ireul half lifted one hand, careful to not make it seem like an attack. "I will continue to strive to keep my extended biomass away from the entire nation of Japan, but his pet has been coopting that biomass and using it to attack you. I remain open and eager to build an alliance with you on behalf of my brothers and sisters. I think we have much we could learn from one another."
"By our very nature, I will not be able to guarantee my forces will not attack you or your allies past the week I've already promised. I have them searching for…objects of importance. After a few more days, they'll want to search Japan in its entirety." The demon spread two of his hands helplessly. "Chaos is chaotic, you know that as well as I do."
Lithion coughed into his fist, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Perhaps, then, you might detail what your response will be? You know that I will not be attacking you, and I hope that the reason I'm here is to act as a witness to the Accords. Leaving nothing…undefined, so to speak, might help ease the impasse."
"For every ounce of biomass I discover in the territory I outlined, I will eradicate ten times as much. In addition, one of your brothers or sisters will join those Angels I already have imprisoned, chosen at random by me." His gaze swept over to the demon. "For every one of your kind, I will eliminate forty of a similar stature. In addition, two of your higher ranking will be given similar accommodations to those of the Angels I have imprisoned. Or, as I stated earlier, you can opt out of this agreement and I'll simply resolve this entire situation right now." His calm tone made the threat all the more chilling, "I don't fear oblivion anymore. Neither of you can stop me from killing either of you, and both of you combined couldn't hope to stop me from killing myself. Agree to the terms," he gestured to the large stone bowl in the center, "and make the oath to abide by them…or see what lies beyond the veil."
Ireul didn't hesitate at all, stepping over and making a flicking motion with her hand. A respectable amount of blood, untainted by the virions that made up her composite being, sloshed around in the bottom of the container. "I shall continue to recall as much of the biomass as I am able to. Any that attacks you or your allies has been contaminated by this 'Khlorya', and does not act with my will or designs." She watched as he inclined his head respectfully towards her, and relaxed as she waited for her true enemy to make a mistake.
"…You've acquired one of the five." The demon scowled at his necklace, at the crystal set amongst the coins. "That already puts this agreement on shaky ground."
"The other four will be together before too long, they were never meant for your kind." He shrugged, uncaring. "From all appearances, it seems that I have a potential ally that also seeks your destruction. If you want me to remain neutral in your squabbles, you'll swear the oath. I don't care what you choose, but my patience for the matter wears thin."
"And to whom am I making this agreement? You?"
"The Laws bind even you. Squirm, wriggle, writhe, it does not matter." His gaze went flat, his ire raised. "This universe was crafted by Law and Word, and by Law and Word will it be destroyed if you continue to fuck around." He watched dispassionately as the demon lifted one of its arms over the bowl, slicing a vein open with the nails on an opposing hand. He never took his eyes off of him as the wound healed, as the four-armed creature turned and walked through a portal to be about its business. With the portal sealed, he looked back down at the mixing of species within the ceremonial container, then added a drop of his own blood to seal the bargain. "Was it ignorance, or malice, when the Angel infected Makoto?"
"Confusion and misunderstanding," Ireul replied, a hint of sorrow in her voice. "An ill-advised attempt at using an irrational being to communicate an inhuman offer. When the second attempt was made, the thought was that the first failed due to how emotionally demonstrative the host was. As it turns out, attempting to enmesh our corporeal forms with those of even our distant relatives is not an easy task under the best of circumstances. The way we operate, the way we think…I have some small advantage due to being what I am, and even I wouldn't dare attempt it. How she managed it with The Wanderer is a mystery."
Lithion reminded both that he was still present, "Because she is as far beyond you in power as you are beyond your distant cousins. An ant does not understand the machinations of the elephant that stomps on the entrance to its home. The elephant does not understand the impetus that drives the strange hairless apes that make strange smells and noises. Both might understand territorial disputes, neither would understand the desire to seek the pretty lights in the darkened air." He smirked when Ireul looked at him in contempt. "Not even The Wanderer is the pinnacle of life, Angel of Terror. Your knowledge of him is imperfect, your connection to your counterpart purposefully incomplete."
"It doesn't matter," the eldritch being in the shape of a human man waved away the topic, "it wasn't malice that guided them. Makoto, Ami…they're dead. They're not coming back." He looked away from the bowl, considering the throne nearby. "It wanted to bring Ritsuko into itself, wanted to speak with her…communicate with her."
"Leliel didn't understand how frail she was," Ireul agreed with a frown. "She held such an outsized importance in your mind, the daughter of humanity. Surely such a being would be able to survive without air for a few moments, right?"
"Confusion and misunderstanding," he quoted her. "When their debt to me is paid…I'll release them to your care. So long as you keep your word, of course."
"Of course." She recognized a dismissal when she heard one, and dropped into a florid curtsey before sweeping back out into the slowly brightening Mediterranean morning.
Lithion waited for a time, watching Shinji watch the throne. Eventually, he asked a question he already knew the answer to, "And me?"
The note of disappointment from earlier grew again in his voice, "I want you and Carla to go with them. When you arrive, do not allow them to come find me."
"She…isn't terribly happy with you right now."
"I don't remember asking."
+++++ The Space-Time Door, Luna. (Saturday + 14)
For nearly a week Setsuna Meiou, Sailor Pluto, Guardian of The Space-Time Door, and genuinely distressed woman had alternated between struggling in vain to close the portal she was tasked with guarding and murdering anything that attempted to approach the door itself. She could not, for the life of her, understand why nothing was coming back through the door anymore but she was not going to look gift horses in the mouth. The lingering ache of her failure, the knowledge that she had been the person most responsible for what was happening to the man she loved, and the emotional fluctuations of a woman as young as she was all piled onto her already high levels of stress, leading to her violent reaction when yet another portal opened nearby.
The entity that had, at one point, been the target of her affections walked through the portal and casually stepped out of the way of the shimmering blast of energy that had been intended to destroy something else entirely. There was now, where the Greek Parthenon once stood, a smoldering crater. His disappointment increasing further, he looked back at an aghast Setsuna and shook his head. "Have you considered checking your targets before firing? That was one of the first lessons I received when they finally got around to training me in Unit-01. That building can never be replaced."
"Sh-Shinji-kun?" One of her feet moved towards him before she remembered that she couldn't risk leaving the immediate vicinity of her task. When his portal closed, leaving him standing there frowning, she blinked in confusion. "I…h-how did you get here?"
"Through the inclusion of a specific scalar field that was minimally coupled to the geometry of space-time that had coupling polarity opposite to the orthodox polarity of this dimension."
Her confusion only increased. "I…w-what?"
"Would it move this conversation along if I simply said, 'Muffin Button'?" He walked towards The Space-Time Door, gesturing to it and looking at her. "Has anything come out of this in the past…two, maybe three days?" Once he was within arm's reach of her, he allowed himself to be hauled into a deep embrace. His tone hadn't changed, and he did not return her affection, "Anything?"
"I'm so, so, so, so sorry, my love." Only tangentially aware that his arms hadn't really moved, she clenched to him tightly. "I screwed it all up! I…I let it get out of hand, I never meant for-"
"Setsuna," he snapped, "did anything come through this portal in the past three days?"
"N-no." Stumbling back from him, she finally saw what she had believed to be the timid, gentle man she loved. "I don't…what happened?"
He had the answer he'd wanted. "Step away from the Door," he pointed one palm towards it, "I don't want you to get caught in this."
"No!" Placing herself clumsily between his hand and his target, she spread her arms out and shook her head. "You can't, please! I don't know what happened, but we can fix it!"
"That's what I'm doing." Opening a portal of his own beneath her feet, he placed another just beside him so that he could catch her as she passed through and keep her from interfering. Once she was safely corralled by his arm, he closed those two portals and then clenched the hand he'd extended into a fist. The surface of the wormhole deformed violently, jutting out in all nine directions unevenly as it reacted to his will. The color it radiated flicked rapidly through the entire visible spectrum, past colors that no human eyes could ever hope to look upon, before settling on a golden glow just as the entire surface settled back into a comfortable glass sea. "There…that should do it." Swallowing hard, he let go of Setsuna and limped over to the doors, easily swinging them shut. Slumping against them, keeping himself upright with his grip on the handles alone, he grated out, "All this fucking power…still limited to this useless fucking body." One hand groped backwards towards the Sailor. "Please tell me you have a long ribbon or something."
Setsuna gawked at what had just been done, disbelief slathered all over her features. "That's not possible. That's not possible!"
"And yet, as if through magic." Willing a lengthy coil of rope into being at his side, he made an effort to reach for it and lost his balance, tumbling down to the ground and landing awkwardly by smashing his face against one of the steps. Without even enough oomph to swear violently, as much as he wanted to, he laid there on his face and imagined nasty thoughts towards the universe in general.
Usagi appeared, hurrying over to help him sit up again. "Shin-Shin…I really wish you hadn't done that." She reached his side, and levered him to where she could see his face. "What would have happened if I hadn't heard it? You could have suffocated up here!"
"The same thing that will happen because you're here," he sighed out, "nothing. I'm not allowed to 'leave you', remember?" Getting a solid grip on the rope with one hand, and an equally solid grip on one of the door handles with the other, he lunged up to slide the rope through the handles. This, intentionally, forced Usagi back away from him. "When this is done," he grunted with the effort of looping the rope in an alternating pattern through the openings, "nobody will," another grunt, "be able to," a third grunt, "open this." Tying off the rope with trembling hands, he held onto the knot and let his eyes close. "With corded braid and loops of three, you will not open to any but me." The groan of agony that followed the spell was the result of the feeling that someone had reached inside of his belly and crushed his stomach with a fist of iron. But now he knew that he couldn't die so easily, and that knowledge gave him some small measure of freedom. His task complete, he opened another portal that sent him and him alone somewhere he could recover.
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
Naoko was, to put it mildly, angry. Multiple layers of skilled trackers had managed to not only miss Daphne's presence in Shinji's bedroom, but also apparently had been unable to determine that it was a trio of Kitsune that had been responsible for the murders. She had felt, for a brief instant, another woman's presence share the link between her and her Master. Then she had felt the explosion that followed Motoko Aoyama's untimely demise. Sitting in the dining area of Shinji's tree, glaring at a cup of tea that had long since gone cool, she tried to think of a way to salvage anything out of the mess they were in now. Her ability to sense where he was, generally, had kept her appraised of his movements, and had given her enough of a warning to lift that cup up off of the table so that it wasn't crushed beneath his arrival.
The portal opened and closed in a fraction of a second, depositing an aggrieved and agonized eldritch being on the floor via a shattered wooden table. Sucking in air through pained gasps, his eyes radiated frustrated anger. "Hi."
"You're a fucking idiot." Setting the teacup on the nearby stove, she maneuvered herself under his arm and helped him stand. "I know you'd be the first to admit it, but I reserve the right to remind you when appropriate."
"I'll allow it." He hobbled towards his bedroom door with her aid. Once inside, alone with Naoko, he looked around and scowled with concern. "Where?"
"The makeshift hospital." She had him in bed and was pulling his clothes off in short order. "They're doing what they can for Daphne, and Sarah-chan didn't want to sit around and glare at tea with me."
In normal circumstances, he would have been incredibly embarrassed with the increasing levels of nudity he was experiencing at a woman's hands. The circumstances were no longer normal. "Pretty sure the tea didn't do anything worth glaring at it over." He coughed out a dead chuckle. "You realize what I'm doing…don't you."
"What has to be done," she replied, hauling off his underwear and throwing it at a wall with a slight curse. "That doesn't mean I like it. That doesn't mean I'm ok with it. And it certainly doesn't mean I'm going to not put you over my knee and spank you if you don't stop hurting yourself, you inconsiderate oaf!"
Dredging up mud from the bottom of his well of energy, he lifted a shaking hand and grasped her own. "I would send you, if-"
Her eyes snapped down to his, glaring a hole through his skull. "You would kill me in the attempt. Listen very carefully to the words I use here: my place is here, with you, doing everything I can to help you save what's left of this world. If we fail, then my place remains with you, going wherever we have to go in order to avenge this world."
"I'm not human."
"Neither am I!" Setting one knee by his hips, she swung her other leg so that she was seated astride him, pressing his hands down against the mattress and demonstrating exactly how infuriated she had become. "I've never been human! The walking, talking, sacks of meat that I've been cursed with dealing with? That's all they are! Mobile bags of fleshy water!" Her voice quieted down, though her vehemence did not, "From the first day I met you, as a babbling little munchkin, I saw you as something more. I saw, in you, the same thing I saw in myself from a young age. You weren't content to drone out the kana, weren't happy with limiting yourself or your perspective to less than a meter from the ground. When you reached your hands out to be held, you wanted to be held so you could see further than before, so you could attempt to understand the parade of blind incompetence meandering through their pointless lives. Why do you think you adapted so quickly to these abilities? Why do you think Unit-01 responds so cleanly to you? You've never been human either!"
The rise and fall of his chest, the pain coursing through him as his energy flagged, the crushing memories of the past two weeks, everything inside of him went against accepting that he was in any way special. "What is it you want from me?"
"For you to not forget about why you and I fought our entire lives to be something we weren't."
"All that's doing is killing people."
"And you giving in to the monster inside of you won't?"
"I can send you to safety."
"I'd rather stay here where I can fulfill any number of fantasies."
His resistance died, his energy too low to fuel even the paltry attempts he had made. "…Love doesn't exist."
"Maybe not," she smiled with cocky self-assurance, "but sex does, and that's more than enough for me." Biting on the right corner of her bottom lip, she slowly rolled her hips against him experimentally. "How about I offer a deal? I say nothing about your plan to anyone you don't authorize me to, and in exchange, you let me show you why remaining human can be all sorts of fun."
Within him there was neither interest nor disinterest for the offer. He honestly, deeply, did not care. "Whatever makes you happy."
"Great," she rocked forward and kissed him on the tip of the nose, "then you stay here and don't move anywhere. I'm going to go get you some more of what I made earlier today, and feed it to you."
+++++ The Space-Time Door, Luna. (Saturday + 14)
"The rope won't even budge." Setsuna had applied as much force as possible, risking significant injury in the process, making an effort to move the knot that had been tied. "In, out, up, down, the rope has enough slack that I should be able to climb through the damn thing, but it's so stiff I'd have an easier time moving the damn moon!"
Usagi was physically present, though mentally she was nowhere near the Door itself. Something had happened, something terrible. If there was any trace of Shinji Ikari left in the physical presence that had just left, it had not made itself apparent. The only man she'd ever love looked at her as little more than an obstacle. The only emotion that she had felt from him was anger at the rope. Neither she nor Setsuna warranted so much as a mild thrill anymore. He'd always felt at least a slight blush when he looked at any of the Sailors, the merest hint at times but at least enough to make a woman feel appreciated! She'd felt more passion from a tree stump than he'd just given her.
"I…I think I'm…." Setsuna looked back towards the main entrance, and beyond towards the Earth. "I'm going to go find Uranus and Neptune. I have an idea."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
Contrary to what she'd just offered to Shinji, sex was the last thing on Naoko Akagi's mind at the moment. The offer had been a test, one that he had both passed with flying colors and had proven to her that even the mightiest beings in the universe would eventually succumb to depression. Slowly stirring the soup, intending to heat it all the way through so that it wasn't congealed anywhere, she tried to think of ways to fortify his supply of interest in human activities while feeding him anti-depressants and continuing her scouring of the camp for anyone that had taken even a one day primer course on therapeutic counseling. Her only hope at the moment was that the youkai she'd tabbed to go find 'backup' was both successful and circumspect enough. As was typical of late, hope was a very limited product, and none was available for purchase.
"I'm going to ask you, beg you if I must, to get him to talk to me." A very bedraggled Maria stood in the doorway leading out into the main hall. "I have answers to some of his questions, he has answers to some of mine, and the only reason that Dryad is still alive is because I gave her time to run away." With her clothes rumpled, her hair tangled, and a distinct lack of energy in her eyes, she no longer cut the charming figure she typically had. "Please."
Naoko considered the other woman for a brief second, then returned to her stirring of the soup. "What do you hope to accomplish?"
"Talking. To him." Her frustration with everything had boiled over before she even entered the tree. "For the love of miniature poodles, child, if I was interested in being antagonistic to him do you think I'd be asking to walk in that room? He can't kill me, I wouldn't kill him even if I could, and there's nothing but basic manners keeping me in here chatting up the help."
She was neither moved nor fazed. "Winding him up right now is not going to help our situation out."
"Neither is standing pat and hoping that he leaves enough of us behind to stop him from arriving then in any fit condition to live around." Stalking to the edge of the broken table nearest Naoko, she set one hand down on the remnants and repaired it to what it once had been. "This plan of his, as…Shinji as it is, has become our best bet for salvaging what's left of the races here. What he won't do, but we can do, is make certain that the people left behind are people that will help him in the ways he needs, and not leave him alone like he wants."