+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Sunday + 15)

Shinji looked around at those few that had gathered to talk over the day's plans. Each person had volunteered to be here, had volunteered to stay and fight against a world that had crumbled to the foundations around them. He looked at them through the lens Rei had shown him last night, and found that he still didn't understand his own feelings on the matter. It was her statement, though, that taking time was the right decision, that kept him from despairing. If she thought going slow was the right idea, then he couldn't be completely wrong.

Yukiko finished describing the area she was leading him to, "It's a long chain of mountains, and they all echo with the song he and I have been hearing. Because they're connected, the Crystal we're looking for might be anywhere along them. He's going to put up another barrier to keep everyone safe, and we'll be gone for as long as supplies can support him, or until we find it."

"I don't like the idea of you being gone that long," Sarah stated firmly. "You're not recovered from yesterday, you look like you barely got any sleep, and now you're going mountain climbing? Even as strong as you are, there's still the thin air and exposure to the cold. Could you please think about making multiple trips instead?"

It was a rational argument, one predicated on balancing the need for finding the Crystals with the need for maintaining his health. "Four days." Shinji felt that it was a good compromise, and hoped that she would see that he was trying to reach out partway.

"I'd've taken five, but you said four so that's the deal." The blonde sparkplug tapped his shin with her cane, giving him a huge smile. "Thanks, big guy."

Maria waggled a finger. "How are we going to get in contact with you over that distance, in the event one of those Adamites shows up, or someone breaches the barrier?"

"You are strong enough to call out to me," Yukiko stated blandly.

"You, yes." Her finger shifted to Shinji. "Him? No."

Shinji's eyes narrowed. "If you have a request, spit it out. The longer it takes me to start, the longer I'm going to be at this."

Phrasing her request as a statement, instead of a prayer, she worked around the Laws to avoid what he'd just risked, "I would like it if you allowed me to mark you. Nothing world-altering, just a simple charm that lets me know, give or take, how you're doing and where you are. It also has a side-effect of allowing me to reach out and speak to you."

"And feed on his emotions," Yukiko added.

"It's imperfect, but yes that is also a side-effect." She threw a challenging gaze at the diminutive lady. "It also will allow him to feel how I'm doing, and draw some strength from my own emotions. He'll find that he has an easier time seeing in the dark, that his sense of taste heightens, and that the color orange separates slightly into the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum closer to either yellow or red. I could continue to list the more pointless portions of this charm, or I could not waste his time with trivial issues so that he can make his decision and get on his way."

Daphne intervened, laying a soft hand on his elbow and drawing his attention down to her. "It would…make me less anxious if you would allow this." She knew well enough that there was history behind the antagonism growing behind what seemed to her to be a harmless cantrip. She also knew that one day she would be tied inextricably to Shinji, and that giving him proper guidance would rightly fall onto her shoulders as such. "I can feel you through the ring," she set her fingertips against the band dangling from her necklace, "but I have no ability to summon you, yet." The slight hesitation there was intended to show Maria that there would be a pecking order established. "The Nightmother does not intend you harm, and there are creatures in the dark places that we cannot defeat alone."

Watching a more mature woman deftly handle Shinji's hang-ups, Rei made a mental note to pick the Dryad's brain later for how to accomplish what she just had. She watched his face revert back to 'standard Shinji' from 'growing angry Shinji', and then caught a quick glance in her direction. Her lips wanted to break into a huge smile as she remembered telling him that he needed to treat Daphne better than as an 'obligation', but she bargained them down to a gentle upturn. Victories all around, it seemed.

"Ok." Shinji nodded slowly. "If she keeps her word to Yukiko, I'll agree to this."

Spreading her hands slightly, Maria took the win. "You allowed those few needed to help you succeed, and so I will keep my word to not only the letter but the spirit of the Laws. If I may?" He motioned for her to come closer, and she tugged on his shirt so that his head was low enough for her to reach while she was standing on the ground.

With her fingers on his temples, she closed her eyes and he felt a small tingle of warmth spread throughout his face. It was not as hot as if he were blushing, nor as sharp as if the sun were beating down on him. Instead, it felt more akin to a shirt that had just come out of the laundry settling against him. Looking around once she let go, he couldn't immediately sense anything different. "…Ok?"

"I wish I had been given permission to do this when we first met, but yes. I can sense you more clearly now." Her own frown grew deeper. "I'm…very sorry, Pet. For everything."

Everything was a very broad term, but an apology was offered and so he politely accepted it with a nod. "How far out should I place the barrier? I want to make sure that you have room to do what you need or want to do."

"That was kind of our question for you, boss." Chris had stood back behind most of the others, his superior height and build out of the way. The big man wasn't interested in usurping leadership, or upending the pre-existing hierarchy, and certainly didn't want to appear to be doing so in front of the man that he hoped to connect with on a peer-to-peer level. "You want this place cleaned up, which we can manage. But after that…what's your vision for it?"

"That's not my place to say, Redfield-san." Shinji was slightly nervous with Chris, uncomfortable around confident men, and was eager to push his question off to someone he trusted would know better than he did what should be done. "This is Rei's home. So long as it doesn't hurt the tree, or the bodies buried in or beneath it, she's the one to look to for rebuilding it."

"Ok, fair enough," he pressed gently, "but what about the surrounding area? What are you thinking should be done to prepare this place for after we win?"

Clare came to her brother's aid, recognizing what he was doing from her long history of having it done to her. Walking around Maria and patting Shinji's upper arm, she gave him the famous Redfield Smile. "Remember, we have to plan for after victory, or I just end up having to drag you back into a room where they pour boiling soup in your mouth." The nearly bashful chuckle she got from him just endeared him to her even more. "You sent everyone to the future, so we need to prepare the present for them, right?"

Shinji nodded, agreeing that his intent had been understood. "I want to make sure that when they arrive, there's enough…everything. Food, water, shelter, medical care, work…I remember Misato-san telling me that people needed to be kept busy, or they'd begin to suffer emotionally and mentally. I…I guess we probably need stuff for those people who are either too old or too weak to work. Something that they can do to help? I really don't know what specifically to say, Redfield-san. I know I want my…our tree left alone." He looked to Daphne, receiving a smile that was both encouraging and grateful. "I'd like a…a main building built where the apartment is. Someplace for whoever is in charge to listen to people's problems, to organize that government you were talking about."

She bounced happily, clapping him on the arm and taking note that he hastily found a new location for his eyes after her breasts jiggled like she'd intended for them to. "You do listen to people! So, you want Miss Hino to have primary say over what happens in the walls of this shrine, and you want us to make sure we have space to house and care for six-ish thousand people?"

"Uhm…yes. That's what I promised myself I'd see done. I'm not the best person to look to for how, I'd meant to go find a library and grab a lot of books and just do some reading once I'd cleaned everything."

"Ok, then," Chris motioned to the area around them with a pleased grin, "for six thousand people, with a ratio of fifty people per hectare…you're looking at around one point two square kilometers of level surface to house that population."

Clare chortled. "Nerd."

Her brother shrugged. "Civil engineering was basically all Barry talked about, when he wasn't tinkering with that land cannon he used." Looking back to Shinji, he emphasized the communal nature of the decision-making, "We all have things to bring to the table, I think. We're not looking to you for specific direction, just a general idea of the world we're trying to build. If you want a nice cozy city for everyone, why don't we set a perimeter of two kilometers so that we have room to dump the broken stuff out of the way of…whatever it is you want to call the city we're building."

"Neo-Tokyo?" Rei looked around to everyone else, feeling out the idea. "I mean…keep it simple, right?"

"As long as it's not Tokyo-2, I don't care." Shinji's face grew dark.

Clare shifted how she stood, lacing her arm behind his back and looking up at him comfortingly. "Something wrong with adding a number?"

Yukiko answered for him, "It was at one point the capital city of Japan, in the world he came from. The fact that there was also a Tokyo-3 should fill in the rest of the dilemma."

"…How about we workshop some names, then." Chris had seen enough to know Shinji wasn't being overdramatic. "For now, let's get the perimeter set up for about two square kilometers of flat space."

"That will not be as easy as you think it will, Son of Farms." Daphne held up a hand to caution everyone. "In the immediate area there are streams and waterways that flow freely. If the barrier is to be impregnable, and nature's presence to be respected, then we must account for those. I can create a map that will allow us to analyze the problem, while he leaves to search for a few days. When he returns, we can walk the areas to gain a feel for what must change."

"Fine." Shinji knelt down, setting his palm against the stones lining the courtyard. Erecting the same barrier as he had before, he used the materials from the surrounding structures and natural features to accomplish it to save energy. His temper was gaining traction, as the issues everyone was bringing up were not things that he felt empowered to decide. He was not a leader, he did not want to be a leader, and he was not going to get in the habit of pretending to lead. Standing up and moving away from everyone, he announced his departure as the portal opened to the Andes mountains, "Do whatever, I don't care."

When the portal slammed shut, Yukiko was sitting on his shoulder, lightly combing her fingers through his hair. "Give it time."

Standing in calf-deep snow, in clothing not intended for the experience, Shinji fought a vicious battle for control over the anger building within him. With only the small, pale, woman beside him, the pair alone for thousands and thousands of kilometers, he felt that for once he could try to unleash his temper without destroying anything. "What the fuck do they want from me?!" His words echoed in the air, the frustration clinging to the snow around him. "They know everything they need to do, they know more about how to do it than I do, and they have heard me say, repeatedly and specifically, that I do not give a shit what they do!"

Remaining on her perch as he sat down heavily, she was grateful that at least he was in control enough to not be levelling the local area. "They want to be certain that they don't disappoint you. That the future you're dragging the world towards includes everything you want it to." After he grumbled wordlessly, she sighed. "They're trying to get to know you. You're the second closest thing this world has to a divine being. They feel a compulsion to make you happy, and they don't understand how…because you don't understand how."

Shinji let his head slump forward, closing his eyes as the listlessness he'd felt after Motoko died crept into his veins. "I don't get to be happy, Yuki-chan. Life won't let me."

"…Give it time, Shinji-kun."

+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Sunday + 15)

Standing under a pavilion that had been erected by the Mujina and Kodama that stayed behind, Daphne was carefully recreating the area around the Shrine inside a three kilometer radius. "There are many avenues to approach this holy place, which was most likely why it was chosen. It would be my preference for it to maintain a centralized location, a sort of destination for future generations to journey towards to share in the glories of life with one another. While mortal beings may bend knee to rulers, they are more fulfilled in opening their spirits to the ephemeral."

Haruka stood behind Michiru, the latter sitting in a travel chair and taking in what had happened before she had been ready to face the morning. The tall Sailor for Uranus made her opinion on the issue of the placement of the Shrine clear, heedless of the people standing around her, "It's going to be awful entertaining watching the more boisterous adherents of the varying antithetical religious groups converge on a holy site and 'open their spirits'. Are we going to enforce this new religion you're espousing, or are we going to let the Inquisition be more of a grassroots thing?"

"Any who spends enough time in his presence will come to understand how violence will be treated." The Dryad looked askance at Haruka, her gaze chiding. "The evolution of people's beliefs, much like the evolution of their societies, will be as gradual or sudden as they wish to make it. Either they will embrace the safety of numbers, or they will strike out on their own to die alone. Enough people will come to feel what he has given them as special, and as that number grows so too will the importance of reminding everyone of their common history. The cycle of mindless violence and retribution ended yesterday, Skymother. We would be best served in ensuring that it does not begin again."

"So we're forcing Shinji to live surrounded by thousands of people?" Sarah motioned to the area around them. "He's feeling cramped when there's less than two dozen of us. You think we can convince him to hang around five hundred times that for long?"

"Hadn't intended to, no." Chris reasserted himself into the conversation, "I want to put fortifications around those trees, something nice and ominous. Sort of a multilingual 'stay out' vibe. He's a walking weapon of mass destruction, and from everything I'm seeing he has anger management issues created by a history that I don't know nearly enough about to address. Where I'm from, we hang warning signs and put guards around those…things…." His head lifted, and he looked off towards the East. "Oh. Oh, that's just great."

Everyone looked in that direction, combat nerves far too tightly wound to not prepare for the next incoming beating. When nothing made itself evident, all of those eyes swiveled back to him. Michiru was the one that self-selected to break the silence, "Would you mind terribly sharing with the rest of the class, Redfield-san?"

"I'm trying to count how many days it's been since the last person input any codes to prevent dead man switches from launching every nuclear weapon on Earth towards pre-programmed targets." He shook his head, his brow knit in concentration. "Everything's been happening so rapid fire, MAD never occurred to me until I started talking about defending weapons of mass destruction."

Sarah quirked her head to the side, "You just said he has anger issues. How did it not occur to you until right now?"

"Mutually Assured Destruction." Haruka quickly grew just as concerned as Chris, worrying that beyond the barrier Shinji had erected could possibly lie global hellfire at any second. "The Soviet Union and the United States were both…rumored, and possibly found, nobody really knows, whatever…. Lots of nuclear missiles all ready to launch if nobody tells them not to for some period of time."

"Rumors in the Air Force had the count set at anywhere from one day to a week. At least, that's when I was in." Chris began to flex his hands rapidly, plans on how to prevent a global disaster growing in his mind. "It feels like it's been forever, though. Did the failsafe fail? In both countries?"

+++++ Andes. (Sunday + 15)

Shinji stood near another pillar, similar to the one he'd ejected into space near NHK's headquarters. Surrounded in Unit-01, he lingeringly touched the surface, listening to the opening of the song of the Crystals play on an endless loop. "It stops ten measures in, and then restarts." Pushing on the pillar gently, feeling it wobble ever so slightly, he began to drum his fingers against it. "Something's wrong."

Yukiko was simply glad he'd regained interest in anything. "With the song?"

"With what it's doing." He could feel a revulsion, as if being in the presence of the pillars was the most disgusting thing imaginable. "These aren't…well, they're not actually doing something. They're stopping something from doing something. It's like they're broadcasting something…gross. But it's not gross. I really don't know how to describe it."

She couldn't feel what he was feeling, and that began to worry her. "Could you be more specific? Maybe less specific?"

"Not really." He backed away, and the revulsion remained the same. "Why put this here?" Taking in the nearby buildings, all hardened against the weather and seemingly designed to withstand attempts at breaking in, he couldn't think of anything that would tie a random outpost in the middle of nowhere South America to a television and radio station in the middle of a metropolitan city in Asia. "Is it just chaotic? Just, you know, drop them wherever?"

"Is this important to you?"

"…Yeah. It bugs me." He turned his head enough to look at her. "Misato-san told me to trust my instincts around danger. If something felt wrong, it was my body telling me that I was missing something important with my mind. That I was too focused on the mission, and was missing the ambush."

"A wise woman, and practical advice. Should we put aside the matter of the last two Crystals for the moment?"

"…No. I don't need to stand here and stare at this to think about it. We've got a lot of walking to get done, and the Crystals are just as important as this…I think."

+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Sunday + 15)

Everyone in the Shrine was on edge. Some because they were now worried about imminent nuclear fallout. Some because Shinji was somewhere far away, potentially exposed to any number of dangers. Some because everyone else was on edge. The reality of their situation had, despite their initial thoughts on waking up that morning, managed to become even more grim. Dinner came and went without much socialization, and everyone retired to their beds with doubts beginning to grow that what they were doing would have any practical results.

+++++ Andes. (Sunday + 15)

The sun was beaming down on Shinji and Yukiko as they moved towards what seemed like the most likely direction that they would find the Crystal in. Trusting to his 'feel' for everything, the pair said little to one another. It wasn't that Yukiko was disinterested in spending the time getting to know him, or that she didn't believe that she might be able to talk him through his issues, but more the fact that with the problem of the pillars back in his mind, there wasn't any room for the self-destructive apathy that had consumed him the night he'd terrified her. It was better, in her mind, that he feel as if he were accomplishing something. A victory there might lift everything up.

+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Thursday + 19)

The return portal opened once again, four days after he had left, depositing Shinji and Yukiko back into the cold Japanese evening. Dismissing Unit-01, Shinji looked around at what had been accomplished while he was gone. Most of the stone, wood, and general debris from the broken walls and buildings was now neatly stacked off in one corner. The tunnel that the Mujina had dug was filled in, the displaced paving stones smoothed out as if they'd never been disturbed. The walls were once again intact, with improved height and fortification. The large gate itself was even thicker and imposing, set to hold against anything but giants. "They've been busy."

The first sentence he'd spoken since leaving the pillar behind the first day they'd spent in South America was, in Yukiko's contention, classic Shinji. A layer of understatement covering over a feeling of inadequacy. She could feel the disappointment he had in himself for how he'd left, and for his lack of participation in repairing what he felt was only damaged because of his presence. "They had better have been. After all, it's been four days."

The mock-severe tone she used caused him to chuckle. "That's true. I…I guess it's good. Like I said, Misato-san told me that people don't do well with nothing to do." The walk towards The Tree was quiet, the air around him speaking of an almost manic need for silence. "Does it feel…strange, to you?"

"Everyone is asleep, and we did just return from the side of the planet facing the sun."

"…Do me a favor, go check on the Redfields and the youkai." He wanted to trust his instincts, if for no other reason than to disprove the sense that something was 'wrong'. If they turned out correct, then he gained insight into himself, after all. When Yukiko floated off, he jogged over to where he knew Rei tended to sleep. Why he chose her, he couldn't really say. But he had to start somewhere after all, and the woman that tended to speak truth seemed like as good a place as any. Reaching the door to her small single floor bunkhouse, he knocked loud enough to wake someone, but not loud enough to wake everyone. He could apologize to her, and limit the damage his paranoia might cause.

After a few seconds, the door opened enough for the raven-haired miko to see who it was, then opened wide enough for her to step out and gather him in a hug. "Shinji! Oh, thank the spirits, I am so glad you're ok."

Pressing against him was a beautiful woman wearing an overlong t-shirt and a hastily tied robe that barely kept itself on her shoulders. The desperation in her voice clanged off the state of her person, confusing him enough that he had no idea what to do with his hands, and so they hovered and shifted around between returning the embrace and pushing her back so that he wasn't taking advantage of the situation. "R-R-Rei?"

"Come in, come in." The switch from hugging to hauling him was as rapid as everything else had been, and she pulled him into her small apartment and shut the door in a single spin of her shoulders. "You are ok, right?" Two quick steps put her before him, her fingers gently probing the few bumps and bruises he'd gained while walking along the mountaintops. "Right?" Her eyes flicked up to his. "Shinji, say something, you're worrying me."

"I'm worrying you?" His anxiety had wound ever tighter as she continued acting as if four days had been four years. "Was there an attack here? Why are you acting like I've been gone for centuries?"

"Because she's worried that you were near where nuclear weapons may have exploded." Mizore had entered the apartment near the end of Shinji's statement. "She doesn't trust the Nightmother, which ultimately isn't an unwise stance to hold."

"Nuclear…." His brow knit. "Ninety two. Right. The world still has nuclear weapons." Shinji shook his head, negating the idea. "No, I didn't come across any nuclear silos that I saw. Were you having a nightmare, Rei?"

"The world was, and still is." Mizore retained control over the dialogue, firmly cutting in over the top of the Sailor. "The major powers have nuclear weapons that might be tied to launch mechanisms that will send them towards their 'enemies' if they don't receive updated codes. The Son of Farms seems to think that they should have triggered by now, if they were going to, but isn't conversant enough in the issue to speak with authority."

"Damn it." The tension went out of his body, now that he knew why the area had seemed on edge. "No, Rei. I didn't see anything explode. A couple things collapse, yeah, but nothing that I was near. Watching a mountainside collapse is…kind of awe-inspiring. Snow and rocks and dirt just…whoosh." He smiled at Mizore, his lips curling upwards in a grim display of a veteran who knew that his war would never end. "Guess I have another project to take care of."

Mizore walked over to him, and tapped his lips with the tip of her finger. "We, not you."

"I'm not-"

"I've been working on methods to prevent viral transmission, and you're walking around mountaintops. My people come from mountaintops, and I control ice and snow. I don't want to die, and I don't want you to suffer. The Shrine maiden was worried, and rightly so, that this area might come under nuclear bombardment. Tokyo is…was a major military target during the Cold War, as a Western foothold in Asia. 'Yukiko' needs to stay here, to use her powers to keep what you intend to be a safe harbor exactly that. We cannot place both our most powerful weapons to one task, not and expect stability. I will accompany you, she will stay here and mind the farm, everyone will stay safe." Her tone did not indicate that she was open to debate on the issue. "You do not wish to make decisions that impact everyone's lives, and yet you act as if all decisions must flow through you. It must be one or the other, Shinji. With me at your side, everyone else can shelter under 'Yukiko'. That is what shall be."

He blinked, taken aback at the vehemence with which she set out their plans. "…Ok."

"It's a good plan, Mizore-san." Rei smiled with relief that someone had managed to put into words what she'd been thinking with regards to their overarching plans. "I'll feel safer having him go into mountains with someone familiar with them, and I know the Redfields will feel more comfortable with someone who can pass through the barrier and look outside."

Shinji frowned, thinking through what had happened when he left. "Could…could you two try and explain to people that I really don't know what to do? That it would…you know…be easier if more people put it like Mizore just did?"

"We will try to find a good balance," the yuki-onna crossed over to where Rei and he were standing, placing her hands on each of their hips to create a small circle, "because you do have to make some decisions yourself. It is unfair to our Shrine maiden here, for example, if she must always choose what you two will do on dates. It is unfair to me if I must always be the one to make plans to spend time with you. It is unfair to you if we do not assist you with doing either of those tasks. I do not feel it is too terribly forward of me to state that I would much prefer the three of us to cooperate happily on making your life less stressful, so that we may become part of your life far easier."

Rei mimicked the gesture, placing her hands on the waists of the people beside her. "There's an irony there, you know. My flame, your frost."

"Balance, as you well know, is of paramount importance in matters of spirituality." She smirked in self-deprecation. "You're going to have to be the diplomatic one, though. As you can tell, my idea of diplomacy is best described as an avalanche in motion. It works well for our dear friend here, but not so much for those who expect more tact."

"It comes with the job description, actually." Her laughter was earnest as she looked between the other two. "It's why I get so angry around men. I had to be diplomatic when they were trying to grope me. Enforced lessons in manners made me want to punch boulders."

"Next man that tries to grope you is losing limbs," Shinji growled. "Nobody deserves to be touched if…they…." His scowl went from angry to introspective. "Oh."

Mizore looked to Rei for answers, and the Sailor mouthed 'later'. "You asked, at one point, why anyone wants anything to do with you. This, Shinji, is why. You're not perfect, but you do listen and try to act on what you hear."

Opening his mouth to speak, he instead yawned uncontrollably. "S-sorry." His cheeks turned pink, embarrassed at such a display. "I was going to say that I'm sorry, for snapping. I should probably go lay down, since I have to start again soon." Both Rei and Mizore tugged him down, pressing a kiss to either cheek. When he regained his balance, he blushed much harder. "O-ok."

"I'm going to lay back down, myself. I'll sleep much better knowing that you're safe." Rei acted as if nothing important had happened, turning her back and moving towards her bed. "I'd like to see you in the morning before you leave again, though. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, and that made me sad."

"O…k…." Shinji felt himself being pulled towards the door, following Mizore as she walked out into the cold night air. After she placed herself beneath his arm, so that he held her about her shoulders, he felt a sudden protectiveness install itself in his chest. "Someone hurt you."

Her response was placid, the surface of the waters of her heart undisturbed, "Yes."

"A…kraken."

"Yes." Her head tipped over to lay against his torso. "Your Elder side is enveloping me. You're reading my past. I'm safe, now. There's no need for violence."

His anger was calmed, but his position on the issue grew to include Mizore as well. "There is, if anyone tries that again."

"Mm," she hummed noncommittally.

The door to The Tree opened up, revealing Daphne serving out a few plates of late supper. The Dryad, without looking up, greeted Shinji with equal warmth to the steaming dishes, "It is lovely to see you home again, My Protector. I know you must be tired, but I hope that you will allow me to fill your belly and wash the dirt from your travels away."

His stomach rumbled at the smell of the meal, reminding him that he'd eaten nothing but cold, dried, food for the past several days. "I…uh, y-yeah. It's good to see you too, Daphne-san." Mizore placed him at the head of the table, then took a seat to his left to leave the place to his right open for Daphne. "You, uh, you don't have to wash me, though. I know it's-"

"What is expected of me," setting a cup of something thick next to his plate, and something thinner next to Mizore, she looked at him meaningfully, "you offered me xenia, you gave me permission to do what I believe to be best. You need to be fed, the mortals need sleep, and I will not send you to bed with the dust of the world clinging to you where it will disturb your rest." Her tone, much like Mizore's, brooked no dissent. Offering a damp cloth for his hands and face, she raised one eyebrow with just a hint of challenge.

Taking hint and cloth, he began to carefully clean those areas that would touch food. "I guess I did do both of those things."

Forming a comb out of mossy wood, she began cleaning his hair without wasting water. "My culture, which I hope will become a part of our culture, places great emphasis on the role of guests and those who give them shelter."

Mizore had taken a few bites of the varying offers on her plate, nodding in appreciation for what apparently was a well-made meal. "This is also a piece of your own history, Shinji. You are Titan, as much as Elder. You would be wise to listen to an expert on how you could better endorse that portion of your life."

"A guest would be expected to have free usage of whatever they wished in the house, so long as they did not shame the host and they would provide the same to any other guest who called upon them in the future. Boorish louts might think that included things beyond that which polite society would deem appropriate, and some hosts who were either too timid or too disrespectful to the women of their home might have allowed such louts to do terrible things." With his hair properly managed, she set some tendrils of vines to remove his shirt so she could wash his torso. "The reason that I am so eager to serve as a model houseguest is that you are so eager to serve as a model host. You gift me everything I could ask for, you hold nothing in reserve, and you think nothing of your own comforts." Tracing her fingers along a dark bruise he'd received, she let a frown enter her voice, "Much like my Suzuhara, you think to conquer evil all by yourself. You ignore the slings and arrows, the pains and aches, and all because you are too damn proud to ask another for comfort." A twisted branch of shoots lifted his fork up to where he couldn't help but see it, making it clear that he should be eating. "If something is not to your taste, I would appreciate it if you were honest with me."

Retrieving the fork, he shifted his shoulders slightly. "Am I really making things harder on everyone?" The first bite showed that the woman washing him off was a fantastic cook, and was not shy about encouraging flavor. Carefully swallowing what he'd bitten into, he gave his honest opinion, "This is good…."

Her tone returned to the pleasantly neutral that had started the conversation, "But a bit too rich, I see. I suppose you have a preference for more subtle flavors?"

"I-it's not bad," he looked towards her in confusion.

"I didn't say you said it was. Something can be both good and unpleasant. Or painful and joyous. Life does not limit itself to any single palette of paint, and that affects our experiences within life." The same hand that had been tracing the bruise caressed his cheek with a maternal touch. "I promise, I will not shove words in your mouth, only meals. We'll learn how to communicate, in time."

His heart grew heavy, knowing that she would much rather another man be sitting where he was. "I'm sorry."

"As am I, but not nearly as sorry as I would have been had you not accepted me into your home with an open heart." Slipping around behind him, she hugged him with her arms around his neck. "I am not the only one to lose, nor am I the one who has lost the most. I am grateful to know that you care, grateful to know that he was well regarded, and grateful to know that this was not my story's end." Lowering her voice so that only he could hear, placing her mouth against his neck and shoulder to further muffle the words, she added, "Please…do not fill our garden with sorrows. We face a future that will shower them upon us with abandon, we need not amend the soil with our own."

Refocusing himself on eating the meal before him, Shinji thought on what she'd just said and what she'd just asked of him. She knew there were bad times to come, she accepted it, and she insisted that they press on without letting it weigh them down. She wasn't telling him to do anything, nor was she pushing him towards something without giving him reasons why. In all, he left the table with his belly full of warmth and his mind filled with things that he had to find places for. When he arrived at his bed, clean and ready to drift off to sleep, he realized that he wasn't alone in his room. His head turned slightly to face Mizore, who'd simply walked through the door behind him. "…Is everything ok?"

She had, the entire time he had known her, looked like one of the most confident and cold-hearted professionals on Earth. The woman before him now had set that mask aside, and was approaching him as a lost soul in search of comfort. "I am lonely, anxious, and sad. I would like to sleep here with you, so that I can…let go."

He was about to set out on another sojourn beyond the walls with this woman. He was going to be facing dangers that might kill her. He was going to be responsible for her life, and held responsible for her death. "If you want to."

"I would, thank you." Pulling at the belt that kept the thin robe she wore closed, she let the entire thing pool to the ground around her feet to reveal the soft, comfortable, underclothes she wore beneath. "I find myself more comfortable when I sleep like this."

Shinji's cheeks blazed with heat, his head snapping down to look at the jeans he was wearing. He was now very aware of a conundrum developing, and each way he thought about resolving it wound up with more of his blood rushing to one of two locations on his body. The woman before him was amazingly youthful for how mature she seemed, and her body revealed that she was either genetically blessed or physically active. "I…uhm…I…."

"Huh." She had crept over to stand before him, looking up into his face with a sappy grin. "You know, not once did he ever react like this. He'd turn his back, or he'd close his eyes, but he'd never blush or freeze up."

With a more than pleasant view of her form near him, he struggled to figure out what to do with his hands. "H-he?"

"Tsukune Aono. The man I thought was the future father of my children. The man who ended up being too weak to set down ground rules for the chaos around him. The man who was put down like a rabid dog because he was, ultimately, just a man." Undoing the button and zipper on his pants, she hooked her thumbs into the belt loops and pushed the jeans down. "He never stood his ground. Never pushed back against that bitch. You are not, and never will be, like him." An almost predatorial look entered her eyes. "The worst part about feeling love, Shinji, is realizing that what you were feeling wasn't actually love." Gripping his boxer-briefs and pulling hard towards her, she toppled them both onto his mattress and began to kiss him with urgent abandon.

There was a moment of hesitation, where he responded weakly to her desperate push for intimacy. Around his neck, the coins and crystals began to resonate with him and the woman beneath him, and he could feel his awareness of her inner conflict grow. She had judged herself against other species while in school, finding herself too flawed to draw the man she had just spoke of. She had judged herself against the other women in her village upon the destruction of her school, and felt inadequate for not attracting a mate as they had. She had judged herself against the Sailors, against Maria, against Inari, against Daphne, and had found herself supposedly unable to attract him. He was an Elder, he was the Elder. What she wanted wasn't sex…it was affection. She wanted to know that he saw her, that he appreciated her, and that she might have a future with someone that she could respect. Stealing a set of motions from what Usagi had done, he flipped them both over so that she was atop him so that he could push her up slightly without harming her.

She was breathing heavily, she could see he was too. She was aroused, and she could feel that he was too. The look of fear in her eyes that she was about to be rejected spoke far more eloquently than any words she might have thought to use, and her lack of diplomatic acumen meant that she was only able to whisper a broken, "Please."

He himself wasn't feeling particularly loquacious, with both his hormones raging and his mind flooded with her desire, but he had to make an actual effort at creating clarity out of a broken situation. "You…uh…you don't need…." He closed his eyes, fighting back the terrifying urge to tear off what remained of their clothes. "I see you, Mizore. I see you."

"So why wait?" Shrugging his hands off her shoulders, she took them and pressed them against her breasts, hard. "I won't become pregnant, we won't have to worry about a baby until we're safe and ready for one, I have no diseases or sicknesses, I'm fine with sharing your time, what reason is so damn important that you can't just give me this one thing?!"

"…Because I'm afraid." She felt so wonderful against him. Hot and cold at the same time. "What if I choose wrong? What if doing this makes everyone unhappy? Not…not with you specifically, but at all! I'm surrounded on all sides by talented, powerful, beautiful women that any other man would probably kill me to go on a date with, more than a few of which want…this. I want it too, Mizore, but I'm terrified that it's not the right thing for me to do!" Her body went slack, the overwhelming pressure she was exerting against him vanishing into thin air.

"Ok." Sliding her arms between his, she flopped down so that she was laying against his chest with her arms around his neck. "That makes sense."

"W-what?"

"It makes sense," she repeated. "You want to be certain before you step past a boundary you haven't even really explored from a distance. You want to make sure that whoever you're doing this with will be there for you in the morning. You're not repulsed, you're cautious. I can respect that, and at least now I can understand it." Clenching her arms tighter, she took a deep breath and stretched her leg muscles out. "Even if I could, I'm not going to force you to do something you aren't comfortable with."

"…You really do suck at diplomacy." He placed his arms around her torso, hugging her close to his body.

"I haven't been quiet about that point. You've given me proof that you're interested, you've shown me that I can at least spark a reaction in you, and you've given me a reason that makes sense why we're not doing anything. I'm not going to wait forever, and I'm not going to let you dwell in your worry on the issue forever. Eventually, it'll happen. Right now, it won't. So, as I said, 'ok'."

She had a scent about her that he couldn't have placed before he had stepped foot on the snowy mountains of South America. The lingering hint of a frozen morning. Where he had been born there was only endless summers. Here, in his arms, was a true winter. "…Thank you."

+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Friday + 20)

In the morning, Shinji sat at the dining room table surrounded by people eating breakfast and enjoying life. By some unspoken agreement, nobody was directly speaking to him unless he interjected a comment on anything in particular. They weren't ostracizing him, nor were they ignoring him. Frequently people would look at him after making a statement that involved something he was interested in, and give him a warm, welcoming smile. Or a wink. Or a nod. He was included in their discussions by reference or aside, never forced to become an active participant.

Daphne, once again, was seated to his right. She, just as much as he, was not directly included in conversations. She, just as much as he, seemed to enjoy the atmosphere far more 'from a distance'. From time to time, she reached over and squeezed his wrist, or created tendrils of plant-life to make a point or urge an action to him without verbalizations. Never once overstepping her bounds, but always with a distinct eye towards making certain he was prepared for whatever it was that lay ahead for them. She was friendly, without limiting herself to being a friend. Motherly, without becoming his mother. The one time he, without thinking, reached over and took her hand when the topic of 'bad dates' came up between Naoko and Clare, she grasped just slightly harder than he did, drawing his gaze to her so that she could give him a sad smile of gratitude.

Sitting to his left for the morning was Sarah. The young blonde was a much more active participant in the conversation, playing a form of 'social defense' to keep both topics and comments from directly landing on Shinji's lap. In continuing the trend of being a form of anti-Daphne, she would tap his shin with her foot under the table from time to time to get his attention. Only ever with enough force to do the job, but always just as he was about to lose himself to angry thoughts. When he'd glower over towards her, she'd keep her face neutral and simply raise one eyebrow challengingly. Her place was here, and she knew it. His anger was too much for any one being to cope with, and she knew it. She'd told him that she would help him however she could…and he knew it.

Next to Daphne sat Rei Hino, the fierce and lovely shrine maiden a partial step up in eagerness to socialize, managing to both hold her own in conversations and deflect interest in certain topics without making it seem as if that was what she was doing. She had both an air of relief about her, as everyone else had, and a reserved laugh that belied unspoken concerns. Not once, when she looked back at him, did she have anything but a look of warm commiseration for the levity about them.

Across from Rei, and beside Sarah, sat Naoko. Naoko was in her element, pretending without anyone thinking she was doing so that she was truly interested in the course of human events around them. Small anecdotes, offhand asides, a string of little touches to each conversation that came her way that provided far less than it seemed to with regards to her thoughts and feelings. The one thing she hadn't done was look at Shinji, not in the awkward 'I'm angry with you' sense, but more in the 'you know how I feel, and that's all that matters' sense.

Next to Rei sat Maria, equally gregarious, and just as equally taking far more than she gave from each interaction. Her constant looks towards Shinji were where she differed from Naoko. She seemed to be sensing something from him that she didn't like, and it came through cleanly both via the link between them and in the set of her lips.

Haruka and Michiru were actively engaging in conversation with Chris and Clare, the quartet busy planning the day's expedition out beyond the shell to get a direct look at the planned boundaries for the first stage of construction. Yukiko was entertaining those youkai that had stayed behind to help everything function properly, helping to ease their transition into being more actively involved with the group that already had Shinji's 'approval'.

He had finished his food far faster than anyone else, by virtue of not needing to use his mouth for much else but eating. When he stood to take his dishes to the sink, he was poked in the chest with Sarah's cane and tugged back into his seat by Daphne's vines. "I…I need to wash my dishes."

"You need to let people do their duties, big guy," Sarah set her cane back down when he was safely back in his chair. "We've got a chore distribution all arranged, and having you throw it off by randomly insisting on doing something that isn't your job to do is going to cause friction." Presenting the entire issue to him with the same tone of voice someone would use to ask for the pepper, she patted his knee and picked her own fork back up. "I'd like it if you'd let me ride on your shoulders today. I'm still a lot wobbly from how I landed after Naoko-san joined up, and I don't want to cause you to feel like you're wasting time."

Shinji's first thought was to deny the request, his left shoulder was where Yukiko belonged. "Oh…uh…."

"I will be staying here to ensure that nobody attempts mischief while so many are away," Yukiko called across the table to him. "I do not mind her sitting in 'my spot'."

"Thanks, Yukiko-san!" Sarah expressed her gratitude to the powerful being with an enthusiastic peace sign. Looking back to Shinji she tapped him with her boot again. "Good catch. If someone expects that something is reserved for them alone, it is always best to check with them before you do anything, right?"

"Y-yeah." He shifted one of his shoulders uncomfortably, suddenly feeling very awkward. The promises that Yukiko extracted from Maria suddenly rolled through his thoughts, the unexpected intrusion clearly pushed into place by someone other than his own manic anxiety. "Maria…I'd like to speak with you for a minute." Standing, he made it clear that he was leaving the table one way or another.

The beautiful shopkeeper stood up without complaint or comment, and followed Shinji into his bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she turned and faced him with an emotionless mask on. Whatever it was he was about to say would be incited by him alone.

"…I don't remember being this angry, back home." He worked the thumb of his right hand into the palm of his left, worrying at the creases and folds like a stress-stone. "I don't understand why I am angry, half the time. I don't know why frustrations have started boiling over with every minor nothing that happens. I don't know what to do, I don't know what I want to do, and I don't know what others want me to do. I can't…I can't understand why Daphne sits there so…calm. I know she loved Suzuhara. She was beyond thrilled to have a child on the way! Why, suddenly, is she…treating me like she is?"

Retaining the mask, she waited a few heartbeats before asking, "Is that a question you wish an answer to?"

His frustration manifested itself in his fist impacting the wall of his room, a last-minute effort to control himself failing. "Yes!"

"Because she needs a place to put all of the less-negative emotions she feels. Because, of your own choice, you've placed yourself as her only available suitor. Because, even though in her heart she is weeping constantly over the loss of her beloved…she realizes that life will not stop because she wants it to. She faces each day as it comes, does her best to tend to the man that shelters and protects her, goes to sleep each night crying inconsolably, and wakes up to begin the process over again. Not everyone wears their emotions on their sleeve, Pet."

It was her lack of reaction that caused him more embarrassment than his loss of control had. "I'm…I'm sorry."

"I appreciate your apology, but I do not require it." Her eyes briefly flicked to the hand that had struck the wall of the room. "I understand why you're angry, I even empathize. One of the most frustrating positions to be in is where you know what needs to be done for everything to work, but you know that nobody is going to listen to you. If we left you alone, you would be free to go about murdering anything that needed it. You would then rebuild a place for Her Highness to arrive at. You would then go and find a place to hide for the rest of your eternal existence. A…functional plan."

"But you disagree with it."

"I promised that I would not guide you to any destination. Whether I agree, or disagree, is meaningless."

"…So I can't ask you your opinion on things?"

"You can ask, but I won't answer if the truth would push you towards my preferred path. I'm a woman of my word."

Sitting down heavily on his bed, he let his head fall into his open hands, his elbows braced on his knees. "There are moments where I wish I had just…found you first. Where I wouldn't have had to think, or plan, or try to balance everything. Where you could have just told me what to do, and I could have just focused on doing what I was told."

"People often wish that their burdens were less than they actually are. It is the nature of those who are both capable and willing to lament either or both of those conditions."

"I wouldn't say I was capable. A capable person wouldn't have let so many innocent people die."

"An incapable person wouldn't have been able to save nearly as many, if any."

"Six thousand?" He scoffed. "Dumb luck could have done better than a millionth of the population! For all I know, I worsened the entire fucking situation by losing my temper."

"Doubtful."

"But not impossible."

"Neither is Jupiter exploding. It takes more than 'dumb luck' to tear open portals in space, time, or both. It takes more than 'dumb luck' to fight an esoteric concept made manifest to a standstill. It takes a touch more than 'dumb luck' to push on despite an unceasing barrage of aggression from entities intent on ruling over a broken universe. You're not unlucky, you're unfortunate." Crossing over to where he sat, she crouched down on her haunches and looked up into his face with a sad smile. "You ask yourself why people are drawn to you, and yet you ignore that you have suffered and will suffer tremendously to do what's right. You say that they could do better than you, and yet you refuse to be worse than anyone else. I understand your anger, Pet. I empathize with your frustrations. I'm oathbound to not push you towards any specific path, but I am also oathbound to tell you the unvarnished truth: you are strong enough to carry your burdens alone…but I think you're also smart enough to realize that you really shouldn't do that."

Looking through his fingers into her eyes, he frowned in thought. Her statement might have been capable of being turned to favor her most of all, if she had known what he was thinking right at that moment. "…How does it feel?"

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask that you be a little more vague."

"Being a succubus."

"Oh, that." She smirked, fully breaking her mask of stoicism. "It's kind of like being an Elder, except instead of being fueled by the trust others have in you you're fueled by the lust others have around you."

"Wait…what?" He blinked rapidly, trying to recover his mental footing. "Trust?"

"What did you think was keeping you alive? Potato and carrot soup?" She snorted out a laugh. "Lets assume that you ingest two thousand calories a day, just to throw a nice round number out there. That's around eighty three and one third calories an hour. The sun provides around one point nine five-ish calories, per minute, per square centimeter, to anything capable of utilizing that energy. There was a study done at Toudai, a while back, that estimated the amount of energy required to make a wormhole around ten centimeters in diameter to be roughly one hundred million times the amount of energy the sun exudes across all six point zero seven times ten to the eighteenth square meters of its surface in a single year. I'll let you work the math out for yourself, but I haven't seen you eating that much personally. You eat, it produces enough energy to stop it from hurting. It gives you enough to heal minor injuries. It does not give you enough energy to rip open a hole in reality for people to safely walk through."

He hadn't really thought of it that way himself, but it made far too much sense to ignore. Scientifically, what he was doing was impossible. Involving magic, what he was doing made no sense. Either way, he focused on doing it and not thinking about it most of the time. It was instinct, reflex, not training or aptitude. "Ok, but trust?"

"You're thinking with your science mind, you need to think with your magic mind. If you dropped an apple, and it stayed where it was, you'd immediately not trust the apple. You'd not trust the apple because you trust that gravity is going to do its job. That those things you believe to be immovable laws of physics and nature will remain in play. Your trust for the apple is instinctively less than your trust for something as powerful as gravity. What do you think might happen if you trusted the apple instead?"

"The apple would be able to violate…it would be able to ignore physical laws."

"You are so sexy when you correct your own errors," she purred. "So why do you think you're able to do what you do?"

"…Because I'm the Elder, or a Titan, or even just the person using Unit-01," he whispered, growing more terrified by the word. "Because people believe in me, and not the world around them."

"Why shouldn't they?" Raising herself slowly, she moved to kneel astride his lap, resting on his knees. "You are not what you think you are. Just like reminding you that you're smarter than you think you are, telling you that you're better than you think you are is not me guiding you to any path. It's a reminder that, despite everything that we've done to and around one another, I still have faith that you're a better man than anyone else…including Lilith's husband."

He swallowed a thick lump in his throat, and made an attempt to move the conversation back to his previously intended track, "What…uhm, what does i-it feel like…when you're hungry?"

"It's an ache," lifting herself up slightly, flexing her body so that instead of sitting on his lap she was resting against his torso, "right here," she put his fingers on the flesh between her stomach and groin. Her voice became breathy as he began to blush deeply, "It's not…unmanageable. But it has become a lot harder to manage of late. People have been too scared, or too angry, to give in to their lusts. It's meant I've had to forgo feeding, which," she sighed, sliding back down his front and keeping his hand between them, "is a sacrifice that must be made. I'm not going to go around seducing others, since that's something you don't wish for me to do." Subtly shifting his fingers lower, she made certain that he felt the heat radiating from her body. "I'm not going to use magic, or trickery, to seduce you either. You deserve better than that. You deserve to want what I can give to you." Rolling her hips slightly, she pressed down against his fingertips and let out a small gasping moan. "You deserve to choose."

The cords of his neck were taut. "Y-you're f-free t-to s-s-seduce…o-others…."

"Mmm, yes I am," she pouted playfully. "But just because I can doesn't mean I should. I want you, Pet. The price for being part of your bedroom is loyalty, and I don't find that price restrictive."

"Th-the o-others…."

"Oh, I'll enjoy broadening their horizons too." Her eyes became pained, and she leaned forward to hug him tight. "I swore that I would not push you down any path. I believe that means this one as well, sadly. If you…just can't be with more than one of us, then I will respect that decision. If you can't be with any of us, then…I will respect that decision." She stomped on the remaining embers of her own arousal, trying to keep her word without the Laws interceding. "Nobody should ever have taken that decision from you. I'm…I'm sorry that I wasn't strong enough to stop her from doing it."

The second woman that was speaking to him about this, and the second woman that had the same general story to tell. With her hugging him in a comforting way, as opposed to a seductive way that he might very easily have capitulated to at the moment, he rumbled out the same question he'd asked Rei, "Who else should I have sent her to?"

Sliding her hands up his back to hold the sides of his head where the jaw met the skull, she sat back on his knees and looked at him with sincere compassion radiating through the bond between them. "She didn't need to feed. I've gone over a month now without any real sustenance, and I'm much more of a succubus than she is. That means I would need to eat before she would, to clarify. She wanted to do that, Shinji. Not 'had', not 'must'…she chose to take advantage of what she was to convince you to let her be with you. If I truly turned on my inherent gifts, if I really wanted you to need me, I could manage the same thing. She doesn't think I can, but I don't care what someone like her thinks. I care what someone like you thinks. What someone like the shrine maiden thinks. I'm not vying for your touch to accrue power, I have more than enough strength to stand on my own. I'm vying for your touch because you are one of the only beings that can stand with me for all time. Because of those few beings, you're the only one who I don't have a violent desire to murder from time to time." She rolled her eyes coyly, and wiggled her shoulders. "I do want to put you over my damn knee and paddle your ass sometimes…but if I didn't care about you, I wouldn't become this frustrated by you."

"…I'm…I'm not trying to imply anything here-"

"Every woman that has attempted to…encourage you to lay with them has done so with the express belief that you had every right to say 'no'. I, despite what you think, have been even more determined to make sure that I have an emphatic 'yes' from you before I go any further than flirting and a few kisses. I felt what the yuki-onna did last night, and I felt her stuff it in a sack and tie it off when you said 'no'. I've felt the way that 'Yukiko', as she calls herself for now, makes her awkward attempts at seduction, and I've felt her not use anything more than her own charms to do so. Each woman I've felt come on to you has been respectful of your boundaries. Each woman, except for one selfish, stuck-up, little girl."

He looked away from her to improve his chances of thinking clearly. He had to trust that she wasn't lying when she said that she wasn't using any of her 'gifts' to compel him towards her. He also had to trust that the physical reaction he was having to holding her close was based off of genuine attraction to her. "The thought of you…of any of you dying…." He had the thoughts, he had the words, but what kept his tongue from flapping was his complete ignorance of his intent. "Each woman I…thought of…."

"Remember what I said about trust?" Gently turning his head back to face her, she did what she could to help him help himself. "You are so conditioned to expect abandonment that the world around you has capitulated to your neuroses regarding the matter. The reason that Naoko Akagi was able to tie herself to you was that you've become accustomed to magical contract law. The Laws have worked consistently, and when the Words were applied you accepted them. The reason you were able to save Daphne, when the tender moment you were having with her might otherwise have ended in her death, was that you had taken such extreme steps to keep her with you and safe. You have options available to…ameliorate some of these issues. I can't, and won't, spell them out for you, though." She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "But like I said earlier, you're smart enough to figure them out."

The implication that 'trust' was what powered his abilities, the knowledge that the Laws and the Words held unstoppable power, and the unfortunate repetition of the accusations made towards Usagi had given him a great deal of material to ponder. Maria had kept her word to him. Had continued to speak the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it was. Had listened to him, and hadn't judged him for his weaknesses. Leaning forward, he pressed a soft kiss to her lips of his own volition. There was still some residual anger in him regarding their earlier interactions, but he was willing to admit that he himself wasn't in a position to be told everything right off the bat. Breaking off the kiss after a span of heartbeats, he made the offer he felt was best suited to what he'd learned, "If…if it becomes too uncomfortable for you. You know…being hungry." He paused, unable to look her in the eyes as he spoke, "Come see me…if I can help."

She felt a surge of strength in her body that further helped to explain why her sister loved The Wanderer so much. Being near Shinji when he offered of himself was such a sensual experience that it bordered on spiritual. Keeping her enthusiasm from her voice, she amended his offer and hugged him close, "I will come speak to you. I'm not going to talk out of both sides of my mouth, Pet. I know you can help me, but can and will are not the same word for a reason."