+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
Haruka was mostly asleep in the chair she'd set by Michiru's medical bed. She'd decided to try to go to bed after having discussed what had happened with Mizore and Yukiko, accepting their opinion that nothing good would come of pursuing anything with everyone as emotionally compromised as they were. Truth be told, she was having a hard time keeping an even keel herself. She didn't have her ladylove to lean on, couldn't stop the broader situation from hemorrhaging talent and blood, and hadn't slept well in well over a week. Her patience with everything was pretty low, her patience for the woman she felt walk through the balcony door was even lower, "I swear, if you've left the fucking Door unguarded again-"
"He closed it." Setsuna was wringing her hands as Haruka opened her eyes to look at her incredulously. "He…he changed it, and then he closed it. He tied a…a rope, around the handles, and then cast some sort of spell, and now it…it won't open. He closed it!"
"Ok…." From what she knew, the only person capable of manipulating the entrance to The Space-Time Door stood in front of her looking for all the world as if she was about to fly apart at the seams. "Ok, that…that's bad and good."
"We need to summon her."
"Summ…no." Haruka snorted out a disbelieving laugh. "No, we are not going to summon the end of the world to try and convince her to cut a rope. You need to get some sleep." Waving one hand towards her bedroom, she dismissed the other Sailor. "Go use my bed, lay down, we'll talk about this later on this morning."
"If she uses the Silent-"
Clapping her hands loudly, she made it clear that the topic was over. "Bed. Go. Now." When Setsuna disappeared, Haruka rolled her eyes and laid back in her chair again. Her opinion of the woman had diminished a great deal of late, though she'd always found the laconic Sailor Pluto to be an asset when things inevitably came to blows. She'd track her down after she'd had some sleep, try and talk some sense into her.
The two missing objects in the room, however, would have told her that she didn't have time to spare, if she weren't too tired to have noticed their absence.
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
Shinji was propped up on a bunching of pillows Maria had pulled out of thin air, accepting food in his mouth that Naoko cautiously spooned into it, and listening without much interest as two more talented women tried to get him to change course. Forgoing verbalizing his thoughts so that he didn't screw up his feeding he asked what, to him, was the most important question of the moment, Why is it that you think I'm leaving anyone behind with me, if I can help it?
"Because unless you plan on engaging in parthenogenesis, you're going to need some people around to perform tasks. Those people will need to breed, in order to have enough people to hold down everything for the duration." Her finger flicked back and forth, indicating his torso. "Unless you have hidden minions in there that you haven't told me about?"
This area is not going to be safe. I'm going to be going to look for the other Crystals, and I'm also going to be ejecting those fake Crystals into space. I won't be here to stop stupid from happening, and I only have one shot at saving everyone. I can't set up some form of back and forth without disrupting everything and forcing that asshole's hand. His hand clenched into a fist. The entire point of the plan is to ensure the safety of everyone.
She stamped her foot, her frustration with him boiling over, "And unless you've suddenly developed a god-complex, you know damn well that you shouldn't be making people's decisions for them! I sure as fuck am going nowhere until you and I hash out the problems we've had with one another. She," her finger flicked towards Naoko, "doesn't deserve to be kicked away after swearing that oath to you! Whatever it is I may think of her decision, I have to at least respect the guts it took to hitch her soul to someone as aggravating as you are."
"It's not as terrible as some believe it to be," Naoko asserted, a touch defensively. "He listens to me when I say something, but he doesn't always go along with what I want. He understands that I listen to him when he says something, but I'm not always going to do what he wants. If I had to guess as to your problems with him, that's probably where they start. You either expect him to 'take charge' and sweep you off your feet, or you expect him to accept your manipulations and go along with what you believe to be the greater good."
She's mostly right, Shinji agreed. I'm tired of people dying, Maria. I'm tired of not being able to save anyone. I'm tired of people being hurt, of people suffering, of sitting back and playing defense. I am going to move everyone out of harm's way, and then I am going to remove the sources of that harm while I don't have to worry about their safety. Inside Unit-01, nothing is going to be able to stand against me while I do what I must.
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
Setsuna worked feverishly to set up the ritual. She knew it wouldn't be long before either Haruka noticed that the Space Sword or the Deep Aqua Mirror were missing, or Usagi realized that she'd left the Door. Using her Garnet Orb as the third component, and setting everything up out of sight in the grove of trees within the Shrine's walls, she dreaded each second wasted while measuring the needed distances between runic emblems. After half of an hour that felt closer to half of a day, she stood back and gave the entire setup one last lookover. "Ok…ok, ok…here goes…."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
"Then you're going to have to kill me and shove my spirit through the damn gate!" Maria was not backing down. The matter at hand was far too important, and things had gone far too wrong, for her to allow him to get his way this time. "Because the only way I'm-"
The sound of an explosion, followed by Shinji's Tree shivering, interrupted everything. Naoko could no more stop Shinji from leaping out of bed than she could stop the moon in its orbit, and all Maria did was beat him to the door. Whatever it is, for fuck's sake stay behind me! He felt Unit-01 hurtling towards him, answering his call. With the black carapace surrounding him, he let his emotional guard down briefly, Please, Maria…I'm tired of people dying.
"I can reincarnate myself, if you haven't noticed." Her response wasn't flippant, or hostile. That small crack in his guard had shown her that he still worried about and cared about her, and she needed him to see that her presence could be a net positive for him. "But I'll let you lead the dance. Whatever this is, though, I'm not going to sit on my thumb."
An enormous pillar of purple light pulsed in time with an unheard heartbeat. The creation of that pillar had devastated many of the Kodama's trees, as well as flattened a number of the nearby tent cities. He'd promised these people safety, and nothing was going to stop him from showing that he was a man of his word.
Reaching his side and keeping pace, Rei Hino had her bow out and her game face on. "That doesn't look like something Angelish." Her eyes promised they'd have words later, but her presence promised that she still regarded him fondly. "I thought the youkai had some magical wardings set up to help us detect any youma nearby?" Dodging through the first several rows of trees, those that had avoided only the most terrible destruction, all three warriors came to a halt as they saw Setsuna gesticulating wildly and speaking to a Sailor that none of them recognized. "Meiou-san?"
Usagi landed near Unit-01, prepared for battle herself. "Pluto…what have you done?!"
"Abused our trust, repeatedly," Haruka growled, landing near Rei, carrying a woozy Michiru. "Saturn, there's no need for you to get involved."
"To be completely honest," the purple-haired warrior at the center of everyone's attention replied with a haunting sense of calm, "I disagree." Holding a two-bladed glaive in her left hand, she slowly pointed it directly at Setsuna's chest. "One." Then, without looking, to Usagi. "Two." To Rei. "Three." To Haruka and Michiru. "Four, five." Spinning it idly, slamming the butt end of the long spear into the ground, she thumbed her own chest. "Six." When Setsuna looked down to the ground, trembling in fear, the new Sailor slowly turned and faced Unit-01. "Black. Haven't seen that one before, actually. Mercury turned you a frosty blue or an off white. Venus turned you transparent, or a greyish tone. Jupiter turned you yellow or green. Mars, there, would turn you red no matter what she did. Moon…." Her eyes narrowed, taking in Usagi's form. "You have got to be kidding me."
Unit-01's inhuman speed was the only reason the first attack failed. It saw the woman Haruka had called 'Saturn' shift her trailing foot and began moving at the same time as the woman launched herself at Usagi. Its A.T. Field extended outwards just enough to protect against a possible feint, and it ignored several shouts of fear and worry. When the Sailor's glaive sliced cleanly through the A.T. Field, it clapped both hands against the flat blades, abating its forward momentum completely. The pressure exerted against it slowly grew, as did Unit-01's growl of anger. It did not know this one, the Shinji did not know this one. That put it as an enemy.
"You know, Pup," Saturn smirked with feral joy as she spoke caressingly, "I had kinda thought you'd recognize her. Each time around, you've had an artist's eye for the details."
The ground around them began to buckle as each fought to overcome the other. Unit-01's strength against Sailor Saturn's. The air itself began to spark and sizzle, miniature cracks of thunder rippling outwards. The immovable force that was the Eva dug deeper, shifting its task from simply stopping Saturn towards pushing her backwards.
"So, what do you think?" She appeared capable of holding her pressure against him for days, her posture indefatigable. "There can only be five. I wasn't supposed to be summoned while there were more than four, to avoid just this situation." Leaning into her thrust, she seemed to enjoy the contest of wills in a visceral way. "My thought was to cut the millstone from your neck, but if you'd rather that I kill the idiot who summoned me early…I'm willing to bargain."
Unit-01 noticed a series of attacks bouncing off of the sphere their conflict created. Each of the combat effective personnel that had shown up were doing what they could to affect the outcome, and none of them were having any success in the task. It could feel the misery inside of the Shinji. The agony of flexing immortal power inside of a mortal shell. The brief touch of a mind against its own caused it to turn its eyes enough to see Yukiko observing the fight with increasing sorrow. Its existence was being threatened, not by the Concept which stood no taller than its knee…but by the suffering that the Shinji endured as he struggled against growth.
"C'mon, think." Saturn drew Unit-01's attention back to her in total. "There's only five Crystals. Spreading the power any flatter than that is only going to increase the total body count further. I know you're not going to sacrifice Uranus or Neptune, and I doubt you're eager to be rid of Mars for how strong she is. You know you need me. You know all of those dreams are just lies. You know all of those nightmares are the truth. We don't have free will, Shinji…so stop fighting your fucking destiny."
The variation of one of the sentences he'd heard standing in Makoto's kitchen was enough to bring Shinji back to the fore, forcing Unit-01 to relinquish control of their shared form. Where the Eva could only think in 'offense', he was far more flexible in his approach to situations. Since the fight had become one of an immovable object against an unstoppable force, he changed the physics at play. Increasing the gravitational constant at the midpoint between him and his foe, he added a third body to the contradictory philosophical paradox.
Sailor Saturn's feet began to drift towards the miniaturized black hole, as did the central portion of the Glaive of Silence. Changing her target, and therefore her force, she wasn't able to lift the spear out of the way and recover her defensive posture before Shinji dismissed the black hole, charged in, and rabbit-punched her in the side at her kidneys. Now that he had both hands on the haft of her weapon, she'd lost all of her momentum. When he yanked upwards, leveraging his superior height to force her arms to extend skywards she had no way of bracing herself for his knee driving up into her gut, and didn't anticipate Unit-01's helmet slamming down into her face.
Now in control of a weapon he was far more familiar with using, Shinji spun his hands into the proper position to use it and set the point just under Saturn's chin as she lay on the ground groaning. "I'm really, really, tired of people dying. I'm well aware of the irony of being willing to kill to stop that from happening. Right now, what you're going to do, is calm the fuck down and talk…and I'm…." He felt the Crystal hanging from the thong around his neck glowing, saw the inside of his helmet begin to radiate a powerful blue light.
You have reached a semblance of balance within yourself, again. You are right to seek out the others, just as she is right to limit who it is that they will power. The voice of the Crystal echoed throughout the minds of everyone present. Sacrifices have been made to offer a chance at success, further sacrifices must be made so that chance can grow. Death is a natural part of life, Warrior of Dark. Their time will come again, the grand cycle summoning them back to the mortal coil for a time before granting them rest.
Rubbing her nose to ease away the ache his headbutt had caused once the Crystal's presence faded again, Saturn tapped her fingers against the blade of the Glaive in the same motion. "I'm done fighting for now, Pup. You're back in control, that's all I need for the moment."
Shinji was capable of sensing hostility through the band Usagi had given him, able to feel the complete lack of tension in Saturn through the Crystal at his neck, and was somewhat surprised at the sense of familiarity he had at looking at her. Lithe, with shoulder-length purplish-black hair, she looked nothing like the powerhouse she was. Imitating her initial motion with the glaive in his hand, he spun it back to a neutral position and slammed the butt end into the ground…then offered a hand to help her to her feet. She wasn't going to attack, she'd said as much.
"Ever the gentleman." Taking his hand, and accepting his aid in getting to her feet, she slapped her hand hard against Unit-01's chest plate a few times with a grin. "Easily top five 'wake-up calls'. You're always someone I can go to in order to get my blood going." Spinning about gracefully, she laid her back against his front and laced the arm he'd offered around her neck to hold her close. "So…the Metaphysical Concepts are in play, this planet is covered in walking abominations, one of the Crystals was found prematurely, Moon's become Sailor Slut, and Pluto's gone batty-nuggets. Really managed to fuck up the time stream, this time around."
"That won't be a problem anymore." Holding her the way he was felt right in a way that few things had in his life. "The Space-Time Door has been closed, and I've tied it shut with a spell only I can undo."
Her head tilted back, her eyes glowing hot and her lips carved into a predatorial grin. "Perfect. Then whatever way this ends, we're ending it this time around?"
"I pride myself on knowing things, so you'll hopefully understand that I dislike being at a loss." Maria walked around them both to stand in front of Unit-01 and glower at Saturn. "Who the hell are you?"
Lowering her head back to a neutral position, her features took on a much less pleasant demeanor as she responded, "I am an emissary from the abyss of Death. Protector of Saturn, the Outer Planet of Destruction, the Guardian of Silence. I am Sailor Saturn," the tone of her voice became playful, "his wife."
"The hell you are!" Everyone, including Rei herself, was somewhat surprised that she was not only the person to respond first, but also with the vehemence of her statement.
"Found her," Saturn snorted out with a laugh. "There's always one."
"She was his self-proclaimed wife, more than once." Michiru's voice was weak, but she was at least now standing on her own two feet, having been brought by Haruka after the blast had awakened her from her torpor. "Through the rapid-fire restarts we've been dealing with, those of us who can remember him have grown to adore him more and more each time we've seen him. Several times, she simply chose to be aggressive from the start when we found our numbers had dwindled to fewer than five. She'd arrive, grab him by the collar, drag him to a room somewhere, and 'propose'."
"With gusto."
Shinji flexed the arm around her neck, making clear that he was not interested in starting a verbal altercation to replace the physical one that he'd just ended. "That will not be happening this time around." Unit-01's gaze turned to Setsuna. "How long, and for how many people, can you slow time down?"
The panic-stricken woman's reply was limited to a stammered, "I…I…."
He allowed a sigh to escape, frustration and disappointment overwhelming him. "Ok. Saturn, if I give you your toy back, do you promise not to hurt the other children with it?"
Saturn looked back up at him again with wide-eyed innocence, "Cross my heart that's made of glass, stick your manhood up my-"
His elbow shifting upwards forced her jaw shut. "Stop. Now." He shoved the glaive into her grasp, pushing her aside to free himself up so that he could walk over to Pluto. He needed her calm, which meant that he needed to keep his anger from infecting his voice. Setting Unit-01's gloves gently on her shoulders, he squeezed just enough to show that he wasn't going to be hostile. "Pluto…Setsuna, I'm not going to let her hurt you. I didn't let her hurt Usagi. I don't know what you just did, I don't know why you just did it, but right now I need your help."
The green-haired Sailor couldn't make eye contact with Unit-01, could barely stand to be looking towards his torso. "Y-you…y-you're…."
"We need time to get our heads around what's happening." Gentle. Calm. Breaking her is not going to help us. "How many people, and for how long, can you slow time down for?"
"I-I…eight…maybe." Her trembling grew worse. "Th-three hours?"
It was more than he'd thought she could manage, and he shifted his grasp so that he pulled her into a soft hug. "That's great. Start, now, with just you and I."
"Waiiiiiiiiiiiiii-" Usagi's voice slowed down to an imperceptible droning buzz as Setsuna used her birthright.
"You…you're scaring me." The admission itself seemed to hurt the Sailor for Pluto greatly.
Cautiously releasing her, stepping back away from her and dropping down to one knee, he lifted Unit-01's helmet free of his head. The young man beneath that mask seemed gaunt, lifeless. Something had died within what had once been filled with determination, the shambling corpse of what was left forced to wander for all eternity. "I'm scaring me too. I've seen what I am capable of, what's been done to me, and it terrifies me that anyone would think it was a good idea to give me that power. I can't die. No matter what happens to me, I can't die. Everyone was so worried about my safety, so scared that my death would be the end of everything…and no matter how hard I push myself this body just…won't die."
Even without the helmet on, Setsuna could barely manage to look directly at him. The blackened carapace of Unit-01 fit him far too well now, making the man she loved seem like a complete stranger to her. "You've chosen to…to be…that."
"I've chosen to no longer be a victim." He had to be perfectly clear with his words, make his intent match his statement. "The universe, or whatever it is that empowers it, has decided that my life should be filled with pain. That's fine. It can believe that, if it wants to. Everyone that has told me they love me has wound up dead. Everyone that says they want to become whatever I want or need has made me feel as if I'm a monster. No more." A deep, cleansing, breath drove out the anger that had begun to grow again. "Let's get those few people I want to speak with, and get this train moving on the right path again. The future isn't going to make itself happen, after all."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
Shinji created enough seating for everyone inside the large medical chamber, and felt honest gratitude that everyone he'd chosen was smart enough to keep quiet about any problems they had with what he was doing. Whether it was because they understood that Setsuna would simply revoke their membership in the club, or because they actually respected his wishes, the end result was silence as he chewed on a slab of smoked meat that Mizore had given to him for energy. This tastes far too good.
"An old family recipe. It predates the rise of modern man." Mizore had taken the seat to his immediate left. She recognized power, and the wielding of it, and respected that Shinji had stopped pretending he had none to wield. "I've never actually made it for anyone outside of my clan, so I'm pleased that you enjoy it."
His jaw worked on the toughened flesh, his tongue savoring the flavors. Once things are settled, I'm going to find a way to reintroduce livestock. Living on a vegetarian diet is not going to be an option for a lot of people, and I can't do this and not set them up for success.
"Which predicates the question," Michiru had the seat to his right, and spoke while laying against his shoulder for support, "what are you doing?"
Swallowing a large, well-chewed, chunk that refused to be flattened any further, he paused his eating for the moment to use his most powerful weapon. "Daphne…I'm sorry to drag you through this, and if it becomes too much I swear I'll have Setsuna set you back to normal time. Was it the Triplets that killed your husband?"
Too many thought that the Dryad's timid nature was a result of cowardice, or weakness. Most failed to remember that those creatures that controlled the flora of the planet had to be harder than steel when necessary to outlast time and tide. "I am grateful that you thought to include me in your council, and doing what I must will never become a burden too great to shoulder. Yes, after whatever madness drove them to matricide my dearest Suzuhara made an honest effort at stopping them. He fought bravely, and died…a worthy death."
Maria, sitting next to Daphne, laid her hand on the Dryad's arm in commiseration. "A tragic loss. I counted him among the few that I completely trusted, despite his being a kitsune." Her mouth quirked into a thoughtful frown. "It is difficult to say how long she'll remain dead. Being who and what she is, her reincarnation will happen sooner rather than later, but if we're going to be honest 'sooner' has to be viewed from a cosmological scale."
"Made all the more difficult by the hemlock she is bound with," Yukiko added. The tiny being was able to exist within the time bubble they were meeting in owing to her own powers. "I am loathe to say that she would have been of much assistance in repairing the damage done to the world. Despite her benevolent tendencies, I believe she would have pushed for culling humanity and retaining the entire world for the spirits themselves."
Shinji had returned to eating, and interjected his thoughts into the conversation, She would have run into a wall on that one. I'm not going through all of this to limit life to any one branch of the tree. The youkai have their place at the table, and I'm not going to allow humanity to chase them back into the shadows to live off of scraps. That doesn't mean I'm going to shove humanity back into caves to live in fear of the night, either. Swallowing, once again, he looked to Daphne for more information. "You're the last."
"I am." Daphne's admission made the statement all the more terrible, the way that she accepted it, the way she braced for what would come of it.
Shinji was no less accepting of what would be. "Do you want to be?"
"My love," Maria coughed delicately, "the only way that-"
"I'm aware," he interrupted flatly. "We have less than three hours to set the course of the future to one that is not full of ass and recoil. I'm well aware that I'm going up to the widow at the funeral and asking if she'd like to get a beer. If she decides that the Elysian line ends with her, then that decision is made and I don't have to worry about it. If she needs time, I need to accommodate that. If she wants to have children, I need to accommodate that."
Hotaru, who had been swinging her legs side to side from her perch on a nearby desk, eyed Daphne curiously. "It's a lot of pressure, being the last of anything. I was the last Sailor after the end of the Silver Millennium. I've been the last woman alive…at least twenty of the resets we've gone through. He's not trying to be hurtful; this is just who he is."
"I do not wish to be the last, no." Reaching over with the hand not being held by Maria, she patted the woman's arm herself. "He is not a child anymore, Nightmother. He knows his duty, but he shows great kindness to me by offering instead of demanding. Given his preferences, there would be no more Elysians. That he will sacrifice his own preferences, that he would defer to my needs, is the greatest gift he could give me."
I will be grafting your tree to the one I made myself, as naturally as possible. We'll go in with a team of Kodama to trace out the entire root structure, and I'll have a team of Mujina prepare a place to plant it beside mine. We'll let the roots intertwine, and the trunks merge as they want to. His jaw worked mechanically, independent of his thoughts sorting things into place. You realize this means you're going to be left behind with me?
She smiled wanly, understanding what he meant. "You offered me xenia, my place is with you."
"Ok, I've been busy trying to find answers to a lot of our questions. What do you mean 'left behind'?" Maria looked around the room after having asked the leading question she needed him to answer so that they could see the truth, seeing several blank faces, some with marginal confusion on the matter, and some that, like her, knew exactly what he had meant.
"If I had to guess, Pilot Ikari is intending to transplant as many personnel as possible to a safer AO." Kyoko, being possessed of a military mind, could see the reasoning filling itself in with everything she'd overheard. "Get those people that cannot survive in an apocalyptic setting to somewhere safer, engage hostile forces with those personnel capable of doing significant damage, prepare the battlefield for a peaceful transition back to habitation once the enemy is pacified. Anyone that stays here, is here for the duration. If this turns into a protracted engagement…that could mean generations of civilians that aren't aware of this as 'home'."
Close enough. He'd expected the General to see the logic behind his decision, and wasn't disappointed by the manner in which she accepted what she believed to be the plan. Ripping another hunk off with his teeth, he drummed the fingers of his other hand against Unit-01's helmet, sitting on his knee. This isn't something that I'm going to be talked out of. I have the capability to simply send everyone where I want them without asking, but I'd really rather this be an orderly event to limit the harm to an already shaken populace.
Mizore nodded slowly, piecing various issues together for contemplation. "Myself, Leafmother," she ticked off names on her fingers, "Doctor Akagi, Mother Moon-"
He shook his head firmly. No. She goes. I can't send Daphne away and keep my promise. If you're choosing to stay, to represent the youkai, I'll accept your decision. I tried to convince Naoko to go, she told me that I'd have to kill her in order to send her away. Considering my plan, the last thing I want is to have a woman that's tied to me by magic have however many centuries worth of anger at me return to the Shrine ready and eager to make my life worse.
"Wisdom," Hotaru agreed with a laugh. "I'm obviously staying as well. If we're sending Princess Perfect Pants away, then that solves the problem of having too many hands here."
Setsuna goes as well. Shinji looked at the long-haired Sailor, the way that she seemed defeated and terrified. I'm not going to send her to her death just to have five Sailors here. If the Crystals need people to empower, they can empower me.
"But…but my…." Setsuna looked at him, confused.
No, he stated with unwavering finality. Your head is not in the right place, and I was not joking when I said I'm tired of people dying. He swallowed what was in his mouth. "I don't have to believe in love to not want people dead. I don't have to think love exists to want good people to live. I don't have to trust that love will find a way, to understand that Death finds a way faster. My decision on this is final. You're going."
Michiru backed him up, looking at her friend with empathy, "He's right. You need time to heal, body and mind. What I saw when I looked into the future…he's not wrong to limit who is exposed to this." Rapping one knuckle against Unit-01's thigh, she drew Shinji's attention down to her. "Haru-chan and I are staying."
"If that's what you want." He wasn't going to win the argument, so he wasn't even going to make the attempt.
"I'm staying as well," Kyoko declared, after consideration. "No offense to anyone present, but none of you have as many years of military leadership experience as I do. He's good for tactics, to a point, but strategy is out of his remit. If we can't find someone I can train up to stay behind as well, I'll do what I can to train him."
I can't guarantee a lot of breathable atmosphere.
"I can't guarantee that my head won't explode in the next ten minutes, either." She shrugged. "I stay."
Maria was tapping her fingernail against her lower lip, thinking intently as she spoke, "What would I have to offer in order for you to consider keeping a few key people here as well? No more than a handful, but enough to take over some tasks that I think you're overlooking in your desire to protect everyone."
You already owe me seven things from when I stayed away from Usagi, Shinji gestured towards her with the remainder of his meal. Anything you offer me would go to paying that down, unless you aren't a woman of your word anymore.
"…Humor me."
"You will not leave the Shrine, and you will be the one primarily charged with its defense." Yukiko broke the stalemate, seeing a chance at pulling Shinji out of the depths he'd fallen into. "You will make yourself available to him each night so that he might alleviate himself of what burdens him, and you will do so without prodding him in any direction. He will choose his own fate. You will keep whoever remains behind from overwhelming Naoko Akagi or Sarah McDougal-"
Shinji motioned towards where the blonde spitfire sat, unaware that the conference was happening. She's going too.
"No, she's not." Her eyes shifted from Maria to him, a flare of power surging to demonstrate her seriousness. "You gave her a promise, and you will keep that promise." The way his brow knit demonstrated that he hadn't put it together yet, and the way he didn't fight her statement showed that her word was still good in his mind. "She asked to move in. In her culture, that's a commitment to a relationship. Like it or not, you agreed to her intent."
A low growl grew into a violent slam of his fist against the armrest of his chair. "Damn it, Haruka!"
Michiru asked Yukiko the obvious, "She was there?"
"Let it happen," the small lady affirmed.
"Oh dear."
Shinji's lip twitched as he reevaluated everything he was intending to do. "…Any human that stays behind takes the same oath as Naoko. I will not risk another defenseless life." He let his eyes close, strangling his temper back into line. "Daphne, when you are ready we'll take our vows as appropriate."
The Dryad felt sympathy for the man beyond his understanding, she knew he had never known love as she had. If he had been shown it, if he had seen it in others for what it was, he never would have stated so unequivocally that he didn't believe in it. "As you will it. Neither of us takes joy in how this has come to pass, but I do hope that we might grow together as our trees show is possible. With proper care, and in our own time. This does not need to be a burden upon either of us."
"I…It should never have been your burden to begin with." Sorrow overwhelmed anger as he thought of what had been done to her. "You should have had a full life with a loving husband and a beautiful little girl. You should have been able to hold her, teach her, show her how to be a good woman. And because I lost control of my temper and took the rings away from the Triplets, you lost everything. I'm tying you to me because my actions led directly to you losing everything!"
"If kitsune weren't naturally tricksters, prone to acting as spies and informants, and had you been raised around them as you ought to have been so that you could see through their deceit, you would never have trusted them with such intimate access." Maria cursed Inari for what she'd done. "Suzuhara was…I mean no offense, dear," she looked to Daphne, stressing her sincerity, "but he was an aberration. A trustworthy kitsune is like dry water or dark light. Sure, it exists somewhere, but you aren't going to be stumbling across it in your lifetime."
"I take no offense, Nightmother." Daphne smiled through tears. "He was an oddity in everything he did. Honorable despite a trickster's tongue. Loyal despite a wanderer's heart. He did everything he could to teach those three…women…." Anger rose and fell in the same breath. "Tried to show them how to be better. How not to fall into their forebear's trap. Their trust was abused, their shock at receiving what they had from an Elder too great to comprehend, and their loss of the same too much to overcome."
Shinji looked between the two women, his emotions too chaotic to form into words. He had forgiveness from Daphne, and it baffled him. His actions, misguided or not, had stolen everything she had. Maria had encouraged him to listen to Inari, and now she was telling him that kitsune couldn't be trusted? "They told me they killed Motoko 'so that others may choose'. They talked about how Light becomes stronger the more of it you have. How I will not choose this for them…."
"Well, nurr." Saturn tilted her head quizzically. "You're the Warrior of Dark, you dork. That's why you're chucking all these others overboard, so that the Light is shining a little less on you. Whoever they killed was probably way too bright."
"I'm going to duct tape your mouth shut, Hotaru-chan, unless you put a little more effort into returning to being the retiring young woman I remember thinking fondly of." Michiru's glare was not lessened in the slightest from how she lay against Unit-01's shoulder for strength. "Shin-kun is not 'chucking' anyone anywhere. He is sending them to safety so that we can do what warriors do. He cares for them, greatly, and hurting them hurts him as much as it hurts them."
"Not really, no," she snorted out. "I swear, all of you have really misunderstood the nature of the beast. The only thing between him and full-on berserker rage is a lifetime of beatings. Strip that away, like life has been, and what we'll end up with isn't someone who's going to give two ounces of digested food for what any of you lovey-dovey types feel. Mark my words, at the end of what's coming…you'll all be better off with him and I away from everyone living in a forest with clearly marked boundaries."
"He, just like you, can be better than you are," Yukiko cut in, her tone chilled with frost. "Now, back to the agreement with the Nightmother." After staring down everyone but Shinji, she continued on, "You will keep whoever remains behind from overwhelming Naoko Akagi or Sarah McDougal, who are primarily charged with stopping him from running himself into the ground. You will keep his musical instruments in proper order and working condition. And last, you will share nothing of what he tells you when he chooses to confide in you. You, and you alone, will bear the burden of his heaviest fears. Have I given her a fair bargain, ძვირფასი?"
"…Whatever." He turned his attention to eating once more. None of it made sense, but the people he couldn't seem to convince to go to safety had the right to make reasonable requests of him. Choose your handful, Maria. Bring the names to me before mid-morning. I'm not waiting any longer than that to get this done.
"So, Maria and her retinue, myself, Mizore, Michiru, Haruka, Hotaru, Daphne, Yukiko, Naoko, Sarah. Anyone else?"
"Rei Hino," Michiru added. "She's one of the best in a scrap that we have available to us, and we'll need her help before the end." She patted Shinji's wrist. "She won't agree to leave, and you know it. This is her home. You are her friend, if not more. I…agree with sending Usagi and Setsuna to safety. If everything goes terribly wrong, at least humanity will have guidance and protection. Rei should come."
Whatever. He shrugged one shoulder, depression dragging him back down. …What was Inari doing, spying on me? It nagged at him, making little sense. It's not like I was hiding anything. Why send her granddaughters to…to what? What were they doing?
"In my career, we would call it 'shaping the enemy', or 'preparing the battlefield'." Kyoko desperately wanted to get him alone, so that she could plead with him to not give in to fatalism. "I'm positive that anyone with eyes would agree that those three were rather fetching young ladies. Any man, no matter how strong he may be, can be drawn towards a woman's allure with the right pressure. If any, or all, of them managed to sleep with you…well, you might have been given reason to accept other kitsune's affections. You would eventually grow to enjoy what they did for you so much that they would have a better chance of convincing you to allow other clans to join in. My assumptions, and they are only assumptions, are that those three weren't prepared for someone who actually saw them as individuals. As worthy of honest affection. As worthy of more than you might offer. Your chastity became your greatest defense, whatever its source."
"I'd say she nailed it," Maria agreed. "They were sent to prime you. To make it easier for someone to lay on a heavier seduction. To wear down your defenses just enough so that a woman with a lot of charm could put a crack in your wall." She spun her finger I the air. "Ultimately, they misread who and what you are. Just like damn near every other person on either planet you've lived on."
His scowl grew longer as he chewed. The concepts didn't quite seem to fit together in this instance. There was something they were missing, and it was probably something important. Let's get moving. I'm going to go transplant Daphne's tree so that we can send the Mujina to safety. Standing up carefully, making sure that Michiru was balanced in her seat, he looked at her for several more seconds before letting go of her shoulder. His voice low, so that only she could hear what he said, he begged her for understanding, "I'm sorry."
Michiru's smile washed over him with scouring flame and soothing water. "We'll talk later. We'll have enough time to do so, where we're not interrupted."
The door to the room opened. This was both unexpected, considering the nature of time's passage at the moment, and unwelcome, as whoever was entering was unlikely to have benevolent intentions for the main occupant of the room. Shinji was less than inclined to allow anyone he did not approve of near Daphne under the best of circumstances. Considering this was not the best of circumstances, his reaction would be considered unavoidable after the fact. Noriyasu Seta's entrance into the room, the way he held out a hand that was glowing with magical runes, and the sound of his voice as he spoke both cemented what would happen, "O wretched beast of mindless slaughter, stay away from my fucking daugh-"
Too many violent happenings around Setsuna prevented her from exercising the limited control she had over time's progression to prevent anything. Too many people dying around him prevented Shinji from engaging with a 'unified response' in mind. A sudden burst of insight predicated Kyoko's decision to draw her sidearm, take aim, and fire. Shinji's quick reaction informed Saturn's decision to act as well. All of this collided with terrible results as Unit-01 forced Noriyasu's jaw shut.
Setsuna screamed, curling into a compact ball in the chair she occupied, restoring time to its normal flow. The bullet that Kyoko fired ricocheted off of Unit-01's shoulder as the Eva interposed itself into her line of fire, returning back along a slightly altered trajectory and smashing through the General's skull, killing her. Saturn's attack was more effective, in that it succeeded in striking her target. The Glaive of Silence lopped off the top half of Noriyasu's skull, causing the magical energy he'd begun to summon to explode outwards, blowing the door off of the room and knocking most of the occupants to the ground.
Shinji, once more, was holding a corpse. Sarah's scream of confusion and fright, triggered by the sudden appearance of a room full of people followed by a quick fight, rang in his ears. He could feel the beginnings of it. The Laws had been violated, and now he would have to adjudicate the response. Ignoring what everyone else was saying, and doing, he cautiously laid the body of a man that had been doing what a good father likely was supposed to do on the ground with as much dignity as possible. The series of violations played through his mind, and he noted with a surge of wrath that Kyoko had already been 'punished' for her actions.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Maria's shout blasted outwards, managing to quiet down most of the chaotic cacophony of voices. Hurrying over to where Shinji stood, she made slow, soothing, motions with her hands. "Just…just hold it in for a few more minutes. Let's find a way around this, ok? There's always a way around them."
The Call grew louder, ignoring it became more painful with each breath he took.
"He offered her xenia," Daphne said from her bed. Somehow, she'd managed to haul Sarah over to her, sheltering the young woman and doing what she could to help from where she lay. "That offer extended to her family, by the nature of the offer itself. He accepted her into his home, and they just…violated xenia. This isn't a grey area, Nightmother. The Laws couldn't be clearer on this."
His arm began to shudder, physical resistance to the act growing more impotent.
"He doesn't have to make it worse," she retorted hotly. "He can…he can just set a very painful punishment."
His Will held the guilty in place, awaiting the Word.
Yukiko pushed the paralyzed Saturn away from anyone else. She knew there was no preventing further tragedy, and only wanted to ensure that what happened was as contained as possible. "There is only one punishment for a crime of this magnitude. Your constant flouting of the Laws is what has led to your disgrace, after all. Whatever you may want to call him, he is not someone who is constitutionally suited to disputing authority." With Saturn away from everyone, she forced Maria by sheer presence to move clear. "Make it as painless as possible, Shinji. Let's get this over with and move on."
He remembered enough about this woman that he knew she felt 'right' against him. That while he'd put his arm around her to keep her silent, it was also there to comfort and shelter her. He knew she had suffered something, though he'd never be able to remember what that was without someone explaining it. There was nothing he could do, now, except follow Yukiko's advice. The Laws demanded that he punish her for killing someone that had a claim to his protection. Placing his hand around her throat, he snapped her neck without even a hint of resistance. Unit-01's gauntlet was covered in two people's blood; Saturn's head dropped to the floor and rolled awkwardly towards Noriyasu's body.
Furious did not even begin to describe his emotional state. Deadened, numb, nearly paralyzed emotionally in all other venues, that one overriding concept continued to roar in his mind. Urging him, begging him to just end everything. He could destroy it all. He could punish everything. All it would take…. "I'm going to wash my hands off, and move her tree. Our timeline just compressed greatly, you have until I'm done."
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
"The number of people we could confer with was very limited," Michiru sat next to Daphne, who was holding Sarah in her lap. Those that had nothing to prepare, or no way to assist in the preparation for the mass migration, were sitting in what they'd begun to simply call 'The Tree'. The Sailor for Neptune had shoved her tears down deep, needing to be strong for others at the moment. "It was not an intended slight to you, Sarah-chan. Even Akagi-sensei was left out of the conference."
"The roster of people you mention makes sense, to me at least." Naoko was keeping an eye on the injured, serving drinks or snacks as appropriate. "It sounds like you had six people you could invite because two were taken up by the person holding time in place and Shinji, and it sounds like he used those slots well to represent groups instead of people. Mizore-san was able to speak to the youkai's needs, Daphne-san was necessary so that he knew what to do about her, General Soryu…she would have been a good representative for humanity's interests."
"I was there to speak to our capabilities," she nodded, accepting that a utilitarian explanation might succeed where an appeal to emotion would fail, "Hotaru-chan…was there because he needed to know what she was doing. 'Maria' was there because she knows far more than she lets on, and he recognized the value in that knowledge."
Sarah soaked in the attention that Daphne was pouring upon her, and though she didn't know it was also in turn helping the Dryad's heart begin to heal. "Yeah…I can see the logic there. I just don't like that he's suffering like this. I don't like looking at him and seeing myself ten years ago. I don't like how he's shoving everyone away while heaping more shit on his own shoulders."
"Sometimes, it is heaped upon his shoulders against his wishes." Daphne stroked Sarah's back, rocking her slowly from side to side. "He now has responsibility to you and I, and while you chose this fate…I did not. Both of us are here because we have lost family, and neither of us wishes to see the man who now shelters us hurt." Sarah's brief grunt in reply was one of anger and acceptance. Daphne knew that she had listened intently when the situation with Suzuhara was explained, and she took comfort in knowing that such an angry young woman was still capable of feeling both empathy and sympathy for the tragedies of others. It made it so much easier to hold her like she was, to take a distant maternal joy in comforting her. "He did not mean for your father to die, I know it in my heart."
"He was…not the best dad in the world." She knew her emotions were conflicted on the situation. "But he tried to be better."
"That, of anything you could ever ask of another, is the best thing to hope to receive." Michiru had seen the future when she looked into the Deep Aqua Mirror. She had seen much of what was to come, and what could not be prevented from happening. None of them were prepared for what he was about to do, and none of them could do anything to prevent it. Their best hope remained empowering a connection between him and mortality, convincing him that trying to be better was a far safer alternative to futile attempts at perfection.
+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Saturday + 14)
Shinji had personally gone through the portal while wearing Unit-01, setting Yukiko to keeping everyone else out while he determined the safety of the situation. He knew the tree was safe, otherwise Daphne herself would be dead…or worse. The Angel's virus might have infected birds, rodents, bugs, or any number of mythological oddities that would choose a nice, comforting tree to roost in while they waited for larger creatures to clear a path out of Elysium. Too many things he could think of personally, none of them incredibly comforting to him. The land he walked upon was dead. The life, the purpose, all had been scoured from it by fire, by virus, and by neglect. The passage of time was far different in this land, and the decay had been given far more time to work than it deserved.
What he found the most disturbing, out of a great many disturbing things, was the complete silence of the world around him. The crunching of dead earth beneath his boots, the stagnant whisper of dead air around him, nothing moved, nothing breathed in this forsaken place. Nothing, he thought with immense gratitude, except for you. Daphne's tree stood proud, resolute, unshakable. Glowing with an orangish-brown glow, it seemed more regal than he'd believed it could be.
The next thing he noticed, however, was a source of some small amount of pain. Three skeletons, stripped bare of flesh and blood by war and time, lying near one another at the base of the enormous growth. He recognized, from what to him was only days past, the armaments of the three Olympians that had stayed behind to do what they could to redeem their lineage. Ares, as he had been named, had either been propped against the trunk of the tree in a seated position, or had fallen there as he died with his mighty axe in hand. Artemis, the smaller of the three, laid across his lap, her bow clasped in what seemed to be a last desperate attempt at attacking something. Apollo, with a bow that matched Artemis' in all but coloration, had been impaled with an enormous spear. With his corpse held onto the weapon by friction and physics alone, he seemed forever destined to be kept away from the other two heroes.
No. He was too angry to think of any other action to take, and so he went with the one that he thought of first and trusted that it would be 'right'. Shifting the portal closer, now that he could see no reason to be wary of assault, he looked through it to Yukiko. I want a burial detail. We put them to rest at the Shrine. They don't deserve to be cursed to rest in this…pit. Turning back to the tree, he knelt down by Ares and Artemis. He hadn't understood at the time, but these three died to give him time to be taken to safety. Ares himself had given him advice that he would not be able to use until after the man had died.
His voice was synthesized through the odd system Unit-01 had developed, but his intent was clear, "I'm sorry. I wasn't strong enough to keep Hera safe." Tugging off Unit-01's gauntlet, he grasped the large-bladed labrys the warrior had wielded in life to make certain it would not be lost or mistreated by the burial detail. Firing out from the tree, another Crystal attached to the necklace he wore, joining its mate. The weapon itself disappeared as soon as he had a firm grasp on it, lighting a jolt of flaming agony up his arm via his palm. He was forced to try and catch himself, unbalanced by the surprise and vehemence of the event, and accidentally grabbed Apollo's bow as he toppled. When hand and bow struck the ground, another flare of pain cooperated with another flare of magic to blast him back in the other direction. The weapon had vanished, like the axe, but the pain remained.
Yukiko appeared over him, kneeling down on his chest and pushing him to stop him from trying to get up. Her voice conveyed more than simple words, her intent slamming against his own, "Stop!" While his body didn't stop seizing and writhing, she knew that he was trying to abide by her request-slash-demand. Shouting over her shoulder to Mizore, who had come along to keep an eye on Shinji, she sent the woman racing away, "Get the miko here, now!"
His body was awash with contradictory impulses. Parts of him rejected Unit-01's presence, parts of him rejected the new presences that had injected themselves into his being. Parts wanted to move, to be about setting things right. Parts wanted to stop, to heed the wisdom of the woman he respected. It was only when his anger rallied, yet again, that order began to be restored. Anger that, instead of attempting to respond to every random impulse it was faced with, attempted to prevent what he saw was about to happen.
"Take up that bow," Yukiko directed Rei as she ran into the area, Haruka hot on her heels. "Keep it away from him."
Rei Hino, fearless, elegant Rei Hino was about to be taken from him. Shinji knew, deep in his bones, that he was about to lose another beautiful life that had tried valiantly to stop him from being beaten about the head and shoulders from sunrise to sunrise. In desperation, he tried to get his right arm to listen to him long enough to take up the bow himself. She should never be subjected to what he now faced, he would not know peace ever again…she didn't have to suffer that fate.
Rei, seeing his motions begin, jumped over both him and Yukiko to snatch the silvery Bow of Artemis up from the ground. Dancing back a few steps, she even went as far as hiding it behind her back like a toddler that had something their parent did not wish them to have. "Got it…what's going on?"
It was the lack of reaction on her part that shocked everything into stasis. Every part that had been fighting for command authority over the whole ceased the struggle and went limp. Shinji, now covered in Unit-01 which was itself a glowing golden aura surrounding a dull metal grey, finally had enough control over his lungs to cough out, "Helmet…off…please…."
Haruka was quick to accede to his wishes, worried that he might be suffocating somehow. She knew, from having watched him perform the task, how to slide the two latches upwards to allow it to fit over his head properly. Slipping it free and setting it aside, she looked down at him, upside-down from his perspective. "Talk to me, kid."
The air itself stank of decay, but the freedom it represented was far sweeter than anything he had available inside of Unit-01. "The…the tree. Crystal, it had a Crystal. Check Daphne!" He was still numb from what had happened, and at the best of times he had a very limited ability to sense anything in the place he'd declared his home. Anxiety played poorly with anger, and he tried to sit up only to be shoved back down by Yukiko and Haruka. "I need-"
"Stop, please," it was Rei who spoke, not coming any closer with what she believed to be an object that would be harmful to him. "Shinji, please, listen. You can't see from where you are, but at least ten people just ran off to try and find Daphne-san, including Mizore-san. If something's wrong, you are not a healer! Slow down, let people do their jobs, and tell us what just happened."
"You can come closer, child." Yukiko motioned Rei closer. "Now that you've taken up her Bow, it will not bond with him."
She didn't need any further prompting, taking three quick steps and dropping to her knees beside Shinji's head. "Is that what happened to him? Why did it hurt him, but all I felt was…warmth?"
"Because you aren't like him," she waved away the topic for the moment, "and what happened to him was a lot more complicated than what happened to you."
Mizore rushed back, bringing what she hoped would be news that would calm Shinji's roiling emotions, "She is safe. Confused, and more than a little startled, but she did not expect an entire group of people charging in looking for someone suffering unduly."
"Though she is pleased that her host is, despite his dark thoughts, still the type of man to send an army to see to her well-being." The woman in question appeared from behind Mizore, walking easily across the ground. Daphne considered her tree, and the skeletons that adorned it, a grief-filled pride radiating outwards from her. "I am honored to know that they thought to protect it in my tree. That they thought enough of me, a woman who many considered to be a traitor, to give me this doom to carry." Kneeling down opposite Rei, and taking Shinji's hand in hers, she prayed to him in full faith that he would smile upon the request, "It would please me beyond words, if you would grant them their eternal rest within the interlocked roots of what will become our Tree. That our children will know their tales, and share their memories with the world we will forge."
This time, the pull of the Laws was easily managed for him, and Shinji nodded. He didn't need to put words to it, and he continued to feel like he'd been beaten yet again. Her idea was as good as any, and he would make sure that there was a proper crypt built to house those few that might still die trying to save the world. "Get me out of the way. We need to move."
"What's the rush?" Despite her protestation, Rei helped the others carry Shinji further away to free up room for the workers. "We have enough food for months, long enough for crops to grow. This isn't the greatest spot for a picnic, but there's no reason we can't at least relax and watch the tree be exhumed."
"There is reason enough, my sister," Daphne answered for Shinji's sake. "To stop a potential mess from growing messier, might I beg of you the favor of your silence? What I would tell you, I would tell you only in the strictest of confidences. If others heard, and learned of what was to come, we would risk losing much."
Shinji noted that Rei assented quickly as he let Yukiko and Haruka help him sit upright. He watched as her jaw dropped, then clacked shut. He watched her eyes go from anger, to understanding, and finally to acceptance. Then he watched as she looked to him with a grief and empathy that hurt far worse than the pain he was already processing. "Each hour we waste, more people are going to find ways to die. If I'm this 'Warrior of Dark', and these Crystals are somehow important, this has to happen. I need to move as many people off the board as possible so that I'm free to go on a rampage without having to sit around and try to stop them from dying. I'm not insisting you come with me. I…." He stopped, realizing that what he was close to saying would prejudice the discussion irrevocably. "I want you to make your own decision."
"And that decision is that you need me." Rei's shared sense of grief flowed through the hand she stroked his hair with. "You, my Dork Knight, are not fighting this battle alone. Each one of us that stays will be there because we feel that facing death at your side is preferable to sitting back and hoping that those we fight will gift us mercy. If I die, I intend to die in the service of doing what's right. You are correct, my decisions are my own…but I also agree with sending her away. She hasn't been as reliable as she usually is, and considering how flighty she is that's saying something."
He hated how relieved he felt. He hated that this woman was putting herself at risk. He hated how she made everything seem so sensible. He paused his hatred, and frowned. "Where is she?"
"Currently attempting to do something with Hotaru-chan's weapon," Haruka answered. "Don't know what, but she's serious about it. She has a Mujina and the guy that was working on your armor with her."
"It seems everyone has him well in hand," Yukiko asserted suddenly. "I am going to go begin searching for the few remaining 'surprises' like the one he just experienced. Until we know where they are we're risking losing them, and I can move faster alone." Floating up to give Shinji a kiss on the top of his head, she shared a tender look of collective pain with him and then vanished to be about her task.
Chihiro, the young Kodama from the grocery store he'd visited with Makoto what felt like a lifetime ago, moved over towards him in an almost ostentatiously obvious way. She was making it intentionally clear where she was, and that she was coming, so that she didn't upset who she viewed as vastly superior predators. The memory of his first meeting with the young woman, then the meeting where he received the branch he'd given to Rei, softened his darker emotions. This was not a young woman who'd done anything wrong, and she did not deserve him glaring near her. "Good morning, Chihiro-san. Is the tree ready to go?"
Her eyes widened slightly, then shot downwards to look at the ground as she blushed. "Y-you remembered…uh, uhm yes. Th-the tree is safe to transplant now. Granny wanted me to uh…to tell you."
"Chihiro-san?" Rei tapped her cheek, then snapped and smiled. "Yes, you were the one who gave him that lovely branch! I asked around, after everyone moved here to the shrine, and your friend told me how proud you were that your branch would be used to make protective charms. It was truly a quality cut, I'm thrilled with how they turned out."
Wonder and pride brightened the young woman's demeanor, hearing such exuberant praise from someone she regarded as royalty. "Th-thank you! I-I'm working on g-growing a b-better one, I'll be s-sure to make it p-perfect." Hearing her name called, one of her clan urging her to come help, she bowed farewell quickly before running back to her tasks.
"That is why I'm doing this," Shinji stated with finality. "How many stories, just like hers, were cut short? Not. One. More."