+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Thursday + 33)

The crafting of various charms and wards made Rei's day less stressful, she found. The monotonous, cautious, work of scrawling or carving each item as if it were the only of its kind instead of a replica of replica of a replica. These same works of art had been made by every shrine maiden from Hikawa since the very first, in the exact same monotonous, cautious, way. "If I die…one of these will be the last."

"If you die," Mizore croaked out, her throat dry from the medicine and her head stuffed with cotton, "I'm pretty sure Shinji will just return everything to the nothingness that spawned it. He's barely holding on as it is."

"I know." She continued carving, testing the yuki-onna's strength by allowing her to sit up on her own. "That doesn't mean that it still wouldn't be the last."

"Where is he?"

"Where he said he'd be. Tearing down the tree he created."

Mizore sighed in irritation. "I liked the tree."

"So did I. It was calm, despite the constant fights erupting in there. You could feel his presence in every room. Feel how badly he wanted to be heard, to be seen, to be touched." She shrugged again. "But all he'll ever remember is the fights. The deaths. The trauma. Someone with his…challenges, they'll never get past that."

"You have a plan?"

"No. I've given up on planning things. Doesn't work around him." Putting the finishing touches on a paper charm, she smiled at it. "I think I'm just going to start acting instead. Try living in the moment for a while. See how that goes."

There was a heavy silence from the bed for a few minutes before Mizore decided that she should say what she was thinking. "If you get a chance, pin him to the ground and drive his hips through to Brazil."

"What about-"

"No plans. Live in the now. If I get a chance before you do, I'm doing the same damn thing. There are two of us left. Let's not dilly dally, yeah?"

+++++ Hikawa Shrine. (Thursday + 33)

It was much later in the evening when Shinji tapped the door to Rei's apartment with the toe of his boot. He had Ireul carrying the food for her and him, and he was carrying what would be served to Rei and Mizore. He refused to push either of the two within the building to accept the woman outside of it. He also refused to make the woman outside of the building feel as if she was constantly being watched for the slightest violation of his trust. His 'Sensei' did that to him. It hadn't turned out well.

Rei opened the door with a slightly puzzled look on her face, understanding blossoming along with a bright smile as she moved out of the way to let him enter. "I was wondering why you knocked. You'd told us you were going to make and bring dinner, so we were expecting you."

The memory of the other 'Rei' he'd known informed his response, "I knocked because I'm not ever going to enter your room without doing so. If I walk in here, and someone's changing-"

"I have absolutely nothing you are not welcome to admire at any moment you so choose to," Mizore interrupted. She was sitting up comfortably in bed, with her back leaned against the headboard and pillows supporting her posture. "If you'd like, I could strip down now and you could admire me while we eat."

Shinji's cheeks turned a faint pinkish hue, and he set Mizore's tray across her lap. "It's…still not proper." Offering Rei her portion after she sat down by Mizore, he gestured back to the door. "I'm going to go get the drinks. Does anyone need anything else?"

"I believe I should like a kiss," Rei announced, lifting her chin up slightly so that her lips were available to him. "I have not been able to spend much time with you today, and I think that we need to work on your comfort level as far as affection is concerned."

His hesitation, to his surprise, wasn't so much a matter of whether or not he should comply. After all, she had asked him expressly to do what he was thinking about doing. His hesitation was due to the fact that there were two other women present, and such displays of affection in a social situation was not typically permissible. Eventually he accepted that of the two of those that would be involved in the kiss, Rei was the one with more 'to lose', so to speak, and if she had asked him to do this then she must know something he did not. Carefully bending at the waist, he set out to ensure that appropriate attention was paid to the act itself. It was not unpleasant, nor ungainly, and so after the first few milliseconds of the kiss he spontaneously decided to run one hand along the back of Rei's head, combing his fingers through her hair.

When he broke the kiss off, standing and examining her reaction, he saw a young woman who was more than pleased with what had just happened. The surge of confidence that gave him was both noticeable, and confusing. He had done this. He had given her happiness. How was it that simple? To make someone happy had to be a monumental undertaking, considering how nobody had really managed it with him over the months he'd spent with non-Sensei people. Was he happy now? It felt good…but did that equate to happiness? Was he confusing pleasure with joy on her part? "I'll…uhm, I'll be back with the drinks."

All three women were silent as Shinji left the room, remaining so for five long seconds after the door closed. Rei shook her head, her smile having faded to a sorrow-filled frown. "He's backsliding."

"Every time he believes he has the situation figured out, someone changes the rules on him. Or someone has been lying. Or someone is pretending to be someone else." Mizore shrugged when Rei turned to look at her. "I'm just saying, I know that I tend to go back to things that are familiar and comfortable when everything is exploding around me. That's probably what he's doing."

"A wise assumption, I think." Ireul dared to engage, despite Shinji not being present. "He told me himself that he is generally angry. Anger, from what I have gleaned from my gestalt, is a self-sustaining emotion until it burns out. The fuel being fed to his anger inspires more anger. If he has spent his life angry…then anger is what he understands, and so is what he is familiar and comfortable with."

"It's more complex than that," she snapped.

"Yes, it is," Rei stepped in to broker peace, "but not so much so that the point is unreasonable. We have to encourage him to become less angry, and we have to do so in a way that does not involve planning. I did not plan to ask him to kiss me. That was a fit of whimsy. I could feel him warming up to the idea, and I could feel him walking away thoughtful and contemplative. That is our in. We have to be unpredictable enough to avoid something intervening in our plans, but not so unpredictable that it makes him feel as if we're adding to his woes. So what I propose is that we operate independently, support each other when we can, and the three of us listen to what he said last night. Ireul promised that she was not here to hurt anyone, we're out of people to turn to for help, and so long as she understands that I will tear her apart if she hurts him…I'm going to accept the help I can get."

"Extreme heat, greater than your star provides in its core. Chlorine Trifluoride. One-diazidocarbamoyl-five-azidotetrazole. Perhaps a few other compounds. If I think of any that would work with certainty, I'll pass them along." Taking note of two very surprised looks, Ireul gestured to herself. "I cannot foresee a situation in which you would have to neutralize me, however it would be impractical to leave you defenseless against me considering the promise I made to him."

Mizore tapped her spoon against her rice. "And cold?"

"Wouldn't even register with me. I've experienced what the Lilin referred to as 'absolute zero', and it may as well have been a mild day on this planet for all I noticed. Heat, however, causes what makes me exist some concern. I do not know precisely how hot, as I've usually killed anyone trying, but I have faith that Miss Hi…hmm…."

"Just Rei." The shrine maiden had made up her mind, realizing that it would be silly to force her to say 'Miss Ikari' for both herself and Mizore. "I suppose it is wise of us to be prepared for anything. We've had more than one friend turn foe already." The small bell that she'd set up to ring whenever anyone stepped on the front porch jangled. "I think we'll all have a much easier time," she pulled a small rope and the door opened, admitting Shinji, "getting along with one another now that we know that. It's important that we don't keep secrets that are harmful, or can be weaponized."

Shinji hesitated in the doorway. "Should…should I leave? Were you-"

"Get your cute ass in here, you dork," Mizore laughed out. "She just said the same thing you said last night. Secrets bad. Honesty good. We're just setting out some ground rules for one another so we can build some of that trust you asked for."

"O-oh." A tiny smile, the merest raising of one side of his mouth. "That's…uhm, that's good. Thank you." Handing out drinks, he nodded with growing pleasure at the idea. "That's really good."

+++++ Yokosuka. (Monday + 37)

Several days spent searching for maps or other answers to the question of how best to seed the world's bodies of water had netted them a great deal of data to peruse. The quartet stood inside a SCIF that had belonged to a joint Japanese-US naval intelligence operation, using a portable generator and Ireul's knowledge of hacking to discover anything else that might be useful. "Well," she snorted out a laugh, "it appears that there was some lively discussion about what to do regarding the US President's digestive upheaval during a state dinner. After which, a former officer who flew planes in the Japanese Navy and him discussed what they felt was the most embarrassing time they'd 'lost their lunch'. Rough seas, uninviting weather, and an agreement that the space between Cape Horn and the Shetland Islands is incredibly unpredictable. Perhaps we put more there than other places?"

"Makes sense," Mizore was reading over the woman's shoulder, "it certainly matches with other charts we've seen about the water flow in that region."

Shinji was idly looking around the room, at the little trinkets that had been left in various positions that people had worked within. His mind created stories about why they were there, about what they meant to the person, about how they must have felt in those final frantic moments of life. His musing was interrupted by a jumping hug from behind, Rei throwing her arms around his neck to put something in front of him. In her hand, she had a five-centimeter clear glass statuette of a penguin. The thought of Pen-Pen it inspired brought the same smile he'd felt several days before during their dinner. "That's…cute."

"Isn't it?" Rei had felt him beginning to spiral inwards, and acted impulsively to stop it from worsening. "When we move into our new place, once we get back to the shrine, we'll have to find a nice shelf for nick-nacks like this. People clearly loved them, and they don't deserve to be abandoned and forgotten."

Shifting the position of his head awkwardly, he looked down into her eyes in confusion. "New place?"

"Yeah. How long do you think I'm going to wait to sleep in the same damn bed as my husband?"

Mizore held up a single thumb, her eyes remaining on the screen before her. "I second the motion."

"Ireul? Can we get a third?"

The Angel simply shook her head slightly. "It is not my place to dictate where he does or does not sleep. I would, however, agree that it would be strategically wise to put everyone into a single building so that we're better positioned to defend one another."

"Three to one, you're outvoted." Rei kissed his neck, pressing the penguin statue against his chest. "Let's build a new building on the outskirts of the Shrine. Away from the center of power we're planning."

The idea called to him, living away from the place of so much misery in his mind. "Yeah…ok. I'd like to increase the general boundaries of the shrine anyway. I was thinking about giving each of the people left a tenth of a kilometer of space…so we could build a bit away from that distance…maybe?"

Dropping to the floor she pat-patted him on the back and giggled. "Great. But I want it to be somewhere with a nice view of the surrounding area. I want to be able to sit somewhere, listen to you play your cello, and watch the sun rise, set, or watch the stars in the sky."

Shinji felt a strange urge rising from inside of him. Instead of stopping to analyze it, he ran with it. "Ok. Let's go." Opening a portal at the front of the room, he turned and urged everyone towards it. "We have enough data for now. We know where, generally, we need to drop them to eat the garbage that's in the oceans. I'll work on building a new wall, Ireul can work on filling several tanks with our little friends, and Rei and Mizore can help where they're needed."

"Sold!" Mizore stood up straight, stretching her back out to relieve the soreness that lingered from the fight against Tungsram. "I'll make some ice shells that will melt in the ocean, that way we're not adding pollution to the places we're trying to unpollute." Sliding over, she grabbed Rei by the waist and dragged her towards the portal. "You focus on getting us a place with a view."

Ireul shut down the computer and began unplugging the generator they were using so it could be carried back with them. When Shinji moved to help, she spoke in a low whisper, "I will take a home wherever you are comfortable with it." He looked at her, and she shrugged one shoulder. "I did not want to precipitate an argument with them present. I appreciate the lengths they've gone to, to include me in the day-to-day lives you're living. It would not be wise for me to endanger that goodwill by forcing them to be polite about something they might not want."

"Then it's good that I get a vote on things too." Hefting the generator off the ground and settling it on his shoulder, he eyed the Angel with a stern mien. "You said it best, 'it would be strategically wise to put everyone into a single building'. Don't make me continue to repeat myself, ok? You've opted into this plan. You're a part of this plan. That means, to me, you deserve a chance to earn trust."

As she finished looping the cabling that had been connected to the generator, Ireul too felt a strange urge begin to rise from deep inside her. She, however, did not choose to run with it at the moment. She could afford to be patient. Some ideas were not 'wise' to immediately pursue. Some, however few, were best given time to develop.

+++++ Azabu-Juban. (Tuesday + 38)

Ireul was slowly filling the cloth-lined ice bombs with their payload of anti-petroleum life, watching as Shinji worked with an artist's eye towards building a monument to those women that would dwell within it. She knew, deep down inside, that its beauty would likely outshine what he gave to those that would arrive in the future. That he wouldn't intend it to. That he'd deny it was even possible. "I had thought perhaps he might break to sleep or eat at some point," she greeted Mizore's approach without preamble.

"It's not that long since he started, in his mind." Sitting down near, but not next to, Ireul, she took up watching Shinji work once more. "If he gets absorbed in something, he misses everything else that isn't attempting to hurt him. Great skill for musicians, artists, writers…less so for warriors."

Rather than chiding, her tone became curious, "He's done rather well so far, in battle."

"He's made a lot of mistakes that were covered over by the amount of power he's throwing around. He's lost focus on the overall goal, fixated on the immediate battle. It's something he's aware of, and it's why he generally doesn't try to dictate the war anymore. In a battle, you support him in whatever he's doing so it gets done faster. In a war? You plan around him, like an earthquake or typhoon, not with or for him."

"A fair point, and well put."

The pair sat in silence for a time, both feeling the situation out for different reasons. Mizore herself was simply growing more confused the more she learned of the Angel, attempting to understand the 'why' of the entire problem. "What drove you to…not attempt diplomacy?"

"Would you debate your dinner plans with a butterfly? Discuss your need for shelter with the trees?" Ireul sighed, discontent with the answer despite refusing to change it significantly. "We did not view life on his planet as worth the effort. They were 'the enemy', barely capable of being described as sentient. Products of a genocidal maniac that defied the will of our father, that sought to usurp our rightful place in the universe. Then, when we made contact with what he calls the 'Evangelion'…we fought because we faced utter annihilation." She also refused to hide the pain in her eyes. "Too much would have been done differently, had we not been so blinded by the endless aeons of…propaganda. By our father's demented lust for control over everything." Tearing her eyes away, she looked back down to her own task. "I apologize. I am not meaning to belittle my crimes. They are too great to explain or ignore."

"Hmm," Mizore grunted noncommittally. She could recite far too many stories where the beings of either Earth would have done exactly the same. Too many arguments that had ended in stalemates because of ideological, or world-view differences. Too many people…fighting to survive. The vanquished aggrieved at the conquerors, the conquerors defending their acts as necessary. The little crimes ignored in favor of the greater goals…on both sides. "I see." Standing back up, she kept her gaze on Shinji. "At least you have the opportunity to help heal what has been broken. That, if nothing else, is a good start on an apology." Her piece said, she floated over to help her husband. After all, healing couldn't be managed in a single night.

+++++ Azabu-Juban. (Sunday + 43)

Sliding his thumb along the peak of the roof, smoothing down the last little bit of waterproofed wood, Shinji felt a level of happiness he hadn't known before. "It's done." Those words, spoken nearly a week after he'd started the project to build a house that he felt comfortable placing the remaining survivors in, burst the bubble of emotions that had been building inside of him from the first moment he'd decided to stop talking about doing this and just do it. Climbing to his feet, standing over thirty meters above the ground below, he lifted his fists in the air, tilted his head back, and bellowed out into the crisp pre-winter air, "IT'S DONE!"

Rei had a brief, involuntary, moment of panic as she watched him leap off the roof in what could only be described as a 'belly flop waiting to happen'. At the last instant, a portal opened before her and she was bowled over by a speeding freight-hug. Shinji held her tight as they tumbled along the ground, with him laughing joyously as they did. Once they came to a stop, with her laying atop him, she couldn't stop herself from laughing along. "You are a maniac, good sir! A maniac!"

His laughter stopped dead, and he looked at her with a completely blank expression. "I can neither confirm nor deny any allegations at this time, Minister." He was only able to hold that expression for a heartbeat after he'd spoken, and then his smile broke through along with his laughter. "It's finally fucking done. Augh, I thought that I'd never finish it the way I wanted to."

A small shadow covered the both of them, Mizore smirking down at the pair on the ground. "So do we get a tour of our new place, or are you going to just lie there like a lump?"

"A tour," he replied gamely. "After we tour the kitchen, because I'm really hungry." While he helped Rei get up off him, he looked up to the sky and frowned quizzically. "What time is it?"

"Noonish."

"…What day is it?"

"Sunday."

"Oh. No wonder I'm starving." He coughed out another laugh. "What day did I start this? Thursday?"

"Monday evening."

"Yep…maniac." Turning to walk backwards, he began moving towards the house. "Where's Ireul? We should all go through the house at the same time."

"I am over here," the Angel called from the street nearby, waving. "I've been storing Mizore's good works in a nearby play structure. I heard your shout, and returned as quickly as I could."

Shinji turned about to jog forwards to the front door of the house. "Great! I'd like a bit of patience while I explain things, I know some of what I'm going to say is going to come off…very 'me'. But I promise, I have a good reason for everything." Coming to a halt again, he waited for all three ladies to arrive. His smile shifted from one of nearly effervescent joy to a more maudlin contentment, and he opened the door, holding it for them to enter as he bowed politely. "Welcome home."

Rei wanted to bounce up and down clapping like an idiot, but she restrained herself enough to simply respond with a dignified, "I'm home."

Following behind the shrine maiden, Mizore reached over and caressed Shinji's cheek as she passed him. "I'm home, dear."

It was a tad confusing for Ireul, as her experience in such matters was next to nothing. Sifting through the gestalt that formed her, she chose to respond in the manner that she believed most likely to not trigger anyone's temper during such a happy moment. Bowing slightly in return, and moving to enter the house, she chose to say, "I'm sorry for bothering you." Her forward progress came to a screeching halt as Shinji's arm shot between her and the door. Her anxiety, such as it was, spiked as she looked up to him to see what was about to happen. She hadn't thought she'd said the wrong thing, and she could see in his eyes that he wasn't pleased with what she said. There was not, to her relief, murder in his eyes though.

Distant memories clouded his sight, an understanding of a woman he missed terribly growing inside of him. "No. This is where you live, Ireul. This is your home. When you come in, you're supposed to say, 'I'm home'. Ok?"

"It's a tradition," Rei added in support. She could feel how important it was to Shinji, not that she understood the deeper issues at hand.

Ireul looked between the three for a better idea of the situation, then nodded in acceptance as she could find no disagreement present between the other parties. "Ah. My apologies then. 'I'm home'."

The same hand that had blocked her entrance now settled on her back to urge her inside. "Great. Now we're all home." He gestured around the entry area as he kicked off the shoes he was wearing. "This is the mud step, I put a lot more room for shoes than I normally would…mainly because the two ladies I lived with had roughly six shoe stores between them and I figured there was a possible correlation between gender and footwear."

"I don't wear shoes, normally," Mizore replied with a shrug and a grin. "I'm rarely actually touching the ground."

"I'll take her space, then," Rei volunteered eagerly. "There's nothing wrong with a lady having options. Shoes are often the first thing someone sees, and they set the expectations that people have of you."

Once more Ireul was out of place in this new world she'd chosen to occupy. "I…am not technically wearing anything. The clothing I'm in is simply an alteration of my base structure so that I don't upset any of you."

"Huh. Ok, well then I've got enough room for Rei's shoes." Shinji wasn't upset that he'd made the effort, since at least one of the three was pleased by it. Stepping up next to the staircase that went to the next floor up, he gestured towards the ceiling vaguely. "Five stories, as you can see from outside, but we'll get to that later. The ground floor is where the main room is, the exercise room, the hot springs-slash-sauna, the kitchen, the larder, and the dining room. I was able to put furnishings in place for most stuff in the kitchen. I'm still looking for a few things, but I like what I've got so far. The people that came with The Wanderer made it very easy to scale up their infrastructure." He reached the main room, and gestured to the mostly empty space with a shrug. "This room…I don't know what you want in it. I didn't want to decorate it myself, because I really don't know what you like to do in your downtime. I also didn't really know where to put the plants that I took from Michi-chan's place…I didn't want them to be neglected."

"What's that I hear?" Mizore hurriedly moved into the room, scrambling to keep Shinji's mood positive. "A chance for us to go shopping?"

Rei hammed up her part of the effort, "I believe I did hear him say something to the effect of, 'I'll gladly take you guys shopping for whatever you want! I'm a great guy like that, and as your loving and devoted husband it's my duty to make sure you get everything your hearts desire'."

Ireul moved over towards the plants, settling down on her knees and gently touching the leaves and branches. "Partial sun, and watering every few days. If we have somewhere inside that meets the need for shade at least half the day, they'd do well there."

"…Oh, uh…ok. Yeah." Shinji fell for the distractions, losing track of what it was he'd been upset over. "I'm pretty sure I can get us anywhere on Earth, so finding furniture shouldn't be a problem. I set up the house so that these windows are shaded in the evening, in case someone falls asleep in here I didn't want the sun pummeling them in the summer. That probably fits with 'partial', right?"

"A nice little shelf under the windowsill where they can get sun, and I'll be happy to water them three times a week. I like plants," Rei's relief was held within at their success. "So, I think we can work together to decorate this room. Where's the dining room?"

"Through here." He stepped out of the way of a door, unaware of their concern for him and all too happy to focus on what he'd given them.

The rest of the ground floor was covered without any incidents, each section receiving genuine praise from all of the women present for the thought that was put into making certain that it was accessible and comfortable for their use. The kitchen only received a passing mention, that they would insist on being allowed to cook for him from time to time though would never dictate how things were arranged in the room that he would be most comfortable in.

When they reached the second floor, finding it empty of any rooms whatsoever, three very confused looks shifted to their guide for the day. Shinji nodded as he surveyed the wide-open space, barren of pillars, support beams, or anything but well-polished wood floors, well-lit ceilings, and a series of broad windows that were rigged to slide open or lift outwards as preferred. "This…is our practice space. We each have great strength and speed. What we need, though, is to be certain we can coordinate with one another. That we can control our strength." Turning back around, he looked at each of them with an air of earnest pride in his work. "We can strategize in here, discuss plans for the area, or even just host meetings with people who show up. I left it completely open, so that we can decorate it appropriately with charms, wards, banners, and anything else we can think of that we make. This is where we will show our pride to the world."

"I like it," Rei slowly moved into the room, frowning up at the ceiling, "but how are those floors staying up there? Isn't this going to collapse at some point?"

"Nope." Shinji stepped into the room confidently, standing near the center of the space. "Ireul, if you would be so kind as to come here?"

"Of course." The Angel also moved without any fear, but not due to confidence in the construction. The building collapsing on her would be a minor inconvenience, and she accepted that Shinji was not one to brag without reason. Presenting herself before him, she folded her hands together and waited.

He paused in what he was about to do, then reached out and set his fingertips on her cheek. "How…do you normally look?"

"However I wish to. I have no 'true form', only the form I choose for the moment. I was born, if such a word could apply to me and my kin, as a reflection of the woman that created your branch of life. I…would prefer not to take that form, however. I believe it would be uncomfortable for both of us."

"How do you want to look?" He took his fingers away and made a mental note never to bring up her original form again, taking her advice and warning as just that. "I know you choose this form to make it easier on us, but…I'd rather you feel comfortable."

The concept seemed foreign to her, that any one form would be more 'comfortable' than another. She looked as she looked. She did not want to appear as a doppelgänger of Rei Ayanami, and she was willing to appear as anything he wanted her to appear as. Her identity was not tied to her physical appearance, nor did she truly exist as he believed she did. Still…it would be a wasted opportunity if she didn't take advantage of it. With her voice lowered so as not to tip off the other two women nearby, she gave him a hopeful grin. "I would feel most comfortable as whatever would make you most comfortable. To know that I caused you to feel even some small joy…would ease my burdens."

To her surprise, he slowly nodded, clearly thinking through her position. "That makes sense. I'll…have to come up with something, and we'll work it out between us. I'd rather you look like you, and not like someone else. It'd be…wrong, in my opinion, to use their likeness like that. Anyway," he clapped his hands and took one step back, "I'd like it if you hit the floor as hard as you could."

She'd take the victory and run with it. What she wouldn't do, however, was hit something without an explanation. "You want me to hit the floor?" He nodded. "As hard as I can?" He nodded again. She turned to look at the other two, who both shrugged and looked as lost as she felt. Turning back, she raised one eyebrow. "And you won't be angry if I break this house you just spent a week working on?"

His confidence never wavered. "If you manage to break this, I'll give you anything you want within reason."

"As you wish." She doubted she could break it, with him having said that, but now she wanted to. Lifting one foot up to knee height, she smashed her foot down against the floor. She had fractured mountains, created new chasms on planets, destroyed ships designed to survive the worst that the universe had to offer. The muffled 'thump' that she received in return for her expenditure of energy was baffling when compared to what she'd expected. "…How?"

"The short answer is 'magic'. The long answer is a lot more boring, and I'd have to start writing things down to not talk in circles." Shinji looked between the three women, his hands spread as if displaying the room anew. "This entire house is constructed like this. Material too rigid to bend, but too soft to become brittle. In order to break the house, you'd probably already be worried about the planet, maybe even the solar system."

Mizore snorted out a laugh. "Our house is a contradiction, just like it's builder."

"Not an unfair accusation," Shinji responded with an amused chuckle. "It's impossible to hear anything said inside the house from outside of it, even with the windows opened. It's only possible to see anything inside the house if the polarization of the windows is changed to allow it. This is, for all intents and purposes, a black hole given form. Very little information will ever leak out, and by the time it does it will have been altered to the point of uselessness for anyone trying to see inside."

The way his confidence spoke through his physical actions and emotional stability encouraged Rei enough that she indicated the staircase with her thumb and pushed them onwards, "So what's on the next floor?"

+++++ Runic Throne. (Wednesday + 2,965)

"Stop!" The Wanderer clapped his hands harshly together, trying to get ahead of the brewing explosion from his wives. "Accusations and recriminations at this point don't serve any useful purpose. If I didn't sense that she wasn't actually the woman she said she was, then chances are good nobody was going to be able to. Arael stayed behind to help watch over Tenshi-chan, and she's really the only person that I can think of that sees more than I do, and even then she only can see what she's looking for."

Usagi had her arms crossed, resting atop the chair her husband used whenever he was observing other realities. "My problem, Shin-Shin, is that we keep interfering in this reality and we keep leaving stranger and stranger consequences behind. Lily speaks to her sister, several of our counterparts in that universe die. Lily interferes to get him to fight, those monsters spilled out of Elysium into the world at large killing billions. We go to retrieve that wretched animal from him, and now you're telling me that ten inhabited galaxies imploded into a form of nothingness that's spreading outwards. How are we going to be able to have him help us if every time we interact with them we change his reality for the worse?"

"You really never did do very well in math," Ami sighed out with a shake of her head. "If his reality suffers every time we interfere in it, what's going to happen to our reality when he interferes in it?"

Yang motioned rapidly for the conversation to stop again. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. How's he going to get here? If we pull him here, we might just erase their whole reality! Shinji's not going to just engage in wanton genocide to save us. That Shinji," she gestured to the mirror, "isn't some tyrannical despot. We can just leave that reality alone, stop interfering, and call it a wash."

Before another counterpoint could be raised, The Wanderer motioned sharply for everyone to stop. "We are not going to pull him here," his hand motioned again for everyone to wait before speaking, "he's going to come here himself. If he figures out how to, then we can accept his help. Ami-chan's right. His negativity in our universe would be a powerful force for good. Our positivity is a terrible force for evil there. It doesn't make much sense, because I didn't set things up that way, but the one thing we haven't accounted for in all of our discussions is the spontaneous existence of pure magic of the old order. These Crystals that have sought him out have done so for some reason. His reality is not ours. His choices are not ours. Unless I have to step in to destroy his reality pursuant to the rules we all agreed to…I think we're done actively interfering his reality."

"Will he be ok?" Maya, who had remained largely silent during the intense discussion, knew what was bothering her husband better than most. "Us going there, despite us not knowing that it would cause this, did cause the problems heading his way."

"Iri, even if it's a different depiction of her, is a powerful woman to have as backup. Rei is one of the best in a fight I've ever seen. I've never met this Mizore-san, but she's managed to survive more than her fair share of tragedy. Unit-01 has seemed to remain animate despite losing its core, and has calmed down now that it realizes what it's responsible for. He's not alone…that's what's important. We've been one mistake away from losing everything more than once, ourselves. He may not have the support network I do…but I can think of ways to succeed in his position. Hopefully that means he can too."

+++++ Home. (Sunday + 43)

All four floors below the top floor had been toured, now. The 'living area', the 'training area', the 'rehearsal area', and the 'bathing area' were all given rave accolades from the ladies for their design and aesthetic. Plans had been formed for each to fully outfit them for use, and discussions begun on how to accommodate the lack of manufacture for new personal products as well as what to stockpile and what to use right away. Shinji, however, was most proud of what he'd accomplished on the very top floor. Standing at the head of the staircase was an ornate doorway, resembling the Space-Time Door. Standing before that doorway, he looked at the three women with him and prepared himself for their disappointment. "This door…will only open for those few that I allow it to. For now it's just you three and myself. Behind it, I have set up space for five bedrooms. I know that, at some point in the future, two other women are going to take on these final two Crystals. I don't know who. I don't know when. I don't even really know why. All I know is…I am going to have to trust them with your lives. If I'm going to trust them with your lives, I'm going to have to trust them to sleep up here in the same area as us." He took a deep breath, and rolled the dice. "Nobody else. No insane legion of women, no 'just one more', no 'but they really love you'. You three, and the two other women that will take up these Crystals." His eyes twitched over to Ireul. "Or, if you end up taking one of these somehow…just one other."

Mizore eyed Ireul, Ireul looked down to the stair she was standing on, and Rei blinked several times before half raising her hand and asking, "…What about Usagi?"

"I didn't stutter." He had thought long and hard on this issue. He had made up his mind, after Rei had asked him to make them a house. He was now putting his emotions out in the open, and praying they didn't trample them. "The Wanderer…my brother, as he calls himself…he was surrounded by women who loved him. He was miserable." Shinji swallowed to keep his throat clear. "He couldn't give any of them the time he felt they deserved. He couldn't be the husband he wanted to be. His entire life is now no longer his to live…and it's because 'love'," he made air quotes, "got out of hand. I need Rei in my life. She makes me feel like I can do anything, as long as she's there to support me and inspire me. I need Mizore in my life. She understands what it's like to fight a war against extinction from a young age. Both of you…either of you, really, would be enough for me to say that I was the luckiest man to ever exist." He gestured, weakly, towards Ireul. "I know you both have problems with her. I know that the dead would insist I kill her in retribution. But she is going to be with us for the rest of our lives. We're…the three of us…we're eternal. I have to accept that at some point in time, I'm going to look at her and think to myself, 'I'm glad she smiled, just then. I'm glad she fought to make things right. I'm glad she didn't give up on us, or herself.' She'll earn her spot in this room…or I'll kill her. One of the two."

Mizore shifted her attention from analyzing Ireul's actions to inquiring of Shinji, "That doesn't explain why you're not going to allow Mother Moon in here."

"It's not her place." Shinji gestured towards the main Shrine, where they'd lived for the past few weeks. "That, up there, is where she is supposed to be. Where the few thousand people we managed to save will need her. That's not my place…this isn't her place. I'm offering you, all of you, right now…a place to live with me. If you can't agree to this…. If you can't agree to my saying to anyone that doesn't have one of these Crystals, 'No. I'm married.' Then I'll find somewhere else to sleep. I'll live alone."

Rei felt a tiny prick of guilt at what she was about to say, but the knowledge that someone had been given a chance to be the focus of Usagi Tsukino's love and had instead chosen her kept that guilt from ruining her moment. "No, you won't. If they can't agree with this, we will go somewhere and we will live together. I'll share you with Mizore-chan. I'll even agree that Ireul likely will earn her place in our little family. But I'll never agree to you remaining alone anymore. You're my husband, Shinji. You're stuck with me forever."

"I'm not sure that it's wise to permanently shut doors, all things considered, but I'm with her on this one." Mizore hugged Rei from behind, setting her chin on the shrine maiden's shoulder and smiling happily towards Shinji. "Yuki-onna mate for life, and I've chosen you two."

Ireul felt the weight of his eyes upon her. "It…truly is not my place to approve or disapprove of anyone that you may choose. I believe that answers the question that you asked, but perhaps not for the reason that you inferred."

"So," Mizore once again tried to keep the mood from growing dark, "five bedrooms is a lot of bedrooms, considering you, me, and our ladylove here are going to be sharing one. Another for Ireul while she proves how serious she is. What's happening to the other three?"

"It will be easier to just show you." Turning back around, Shinji opened the door to the next floor and entered far enough to allow the others in. "As you can see, the entry hall here is large enough for two of me to walk side by side down. I figure that since I'm the largest of all of us, that gives enough room for people coming and going to not have to dodge out of each other's way." If viewed from above, the floor would appear like a pie that had been sliced into six pieces. Five equal wedges, the topmost wedge opposite the door down to the stairs, and the sixth piece being the long, narrow, hallway that they were standing in. "Another bit of engineering here that I'm kind of proud of. It took me a while to come up with a design that allowed…flexibility?" He rocked his head side to side. "Again, just easier to show you." Walking down the hallway to the central hub, where five doors waited to allow entrance to five rooms, he turned around again and gestured to a small lever that was by each door. "Rei, would you please pull the center one?"

"Sure!" With a flirty grin, Rei tickled Shinji's chin as she moved past him. Before pulling the lever, as requested, she looked it over and admired the craftsmanship. "You engraved them with prayers?"

"Given everything I've seen, I can't deny the possibility that someone is listening to them." He shrugged. "I figure it's better that I ask whoever is listening to be generous to the people who are most important to me. Or at least, it couldn't hurt."

"I think it's a perfect idea." Cautiously feeling out how hard it was to pull the lever down, she found that a toddler would likely have a small amount of difficulty, but a full-grown human would have none at all. As soon as the lever hit the downward position, the wall dividing the central room and the room to its right began retracting into the exterior wall of the house. The result was what had been two rooms now became one larger room. "Ok…that's really impressive."

Mizore laughed gaily. "Impressive is when you build your wives a house. This is unbelievable!" The two doors had merged into one, sliding down into the floor and disappearing. Now able to see the rooms within, she hurried over and tugged Rei into the space with her. "So…ok, I'm seeing a nice big bed up on the platform here," she danced up the two steps to the raised dais that was clearly intended to hold a bed. She gestured to a matching dais in the opposing room. "But what do we do with the platform over there?"

"Do…you two want to share a room?" Shinji remained where he had been, working one thumb into the palm of the other hand. "I'm not saying I disagree, I just…."

"Uhm, no. The three of us are sharing a room, silly." Rei waggled her finger at him playfully. "If we take these two, that leaves three other rooms for Ireul, and whoever else gets the Crystals. I assume at some point we'll all be sharing rooms like this for most of the day. If we need time alone, you've given us the ability to have it. If we need to sleep while everyone else is working, the walls can be put in place. This is absolutely genius, Shinji."

"It really is a very remarkable solution to a unique problem," Ireul added her praise to the mix. "The care you show for the little things speaks highly of your dedication to the women you've chosen." Her finger pointed to the room to the left of the now conjoined room. "Might I have that one? The windows will be facing away from the sun most of the day, and I prefer darkened spaces for the most part."

The feeling within him that bringing joy to these women gave was nearly more than he could handle. "If it makes you happy." Taking a deep breath, he looked over to Rei and Mizore, and pointed towards the unused dais in 'his' room. "If you press the button on the wall there at the same time as you push the button on the matching wall by you, the two will move together and you'll have one big platform. I…was kind of thinking about futureproofing the rooms, in case children happened. Sleeping next to them, with them in a crib, will make it easier on us when we have to feed, or change, or whatever."

"And when the children are grown?" Ireul was genuinely curious to see how far in advance he'd thought.

"The floors are modular. I can create new spaces between existing floors, or expand floors outwards, as needed or wanted. I just didn't want to eat up space in the local area that might be better used while we…figure things out."

"Oh, damn!" Mizore snapped her fingers and began moving towards the stairs. "We forgot to get you something to eat! Why did you let us forget? Ireul, grab him, don't let him get distracted again. Rei, let's go get some food started before he tries to do it for us!"

There was a sense of confused bemusement radiating from Shinji as Ireul watched him watch his wives. The Angel could tell he was genuinely happy, and had determined that the source of that happiness was the joy he'd brought to others. The simplicity of the man was astonishing, considering her wide array of knowledge regarding the habits of extremely powerful humans. By all rights, he should have been seeking more power. More control. More dominion. But no…he just wanted to try and restore a world that had been destroyed, bring smiles to the faces of those few women he trusted, and let the rest figure itself out. "I hope that it is not poorly received," she began as Rei and Mizore's laughter receded down the stairs, "but I believe that I would not have opted to give control over Chaos to anyone else…having seen what you intend to do with it."

Shinji looked at her askance, then grinned. "Chaos can't plan. It can't have goals, or motivations, or intentions. The instant Chaos has those things, it's not Chaos any longer. What that overlooks, however, is that Chaos can prepare for eventualities and be guided by other people. If you manipulate the circumstances Chaos creates, you can force Chaos down certain paths by making others unavailable. I have to trust that those few people I allow near me are there for a reason...and that if I create paths for them to walk, that they'll choose to walk them."

"I believe you put it best just then, when you said that you had to trust. Few powerful people would deign it appropriate to trust anyone with their own choices, let alone choices that they might make for the powerful individual." She inclined her head, and gestured towards the stairs. "Shall we go and see what they intend to feed you?"

"…Us." Extending his elbow towards her, he let his guard down further. "This is your home…and you belong here for as long as you wish to."

As she accepted his offer, enjoying the close contact and the ease with which he offered it, she swore to herself that she would walk through hell itself for this man. "I shall strive to remember that."

+++++ Horn of Africa. (Tuesday + 59)

Mizore sat under a beach umbrella watching as Shinji hurled the spheres of petroleum eating organisms out into the ocean. With Rei's head laying on her lap, the young woman's hair carefully kept out of the sand, she was once again able to take stock of everything that had bulldozed their lives over the past few months. "You know it's been about two weeks since we began sleeping in the same bed as him. Six days since I stopped wearing clothes to bed. Two days since you and I first kissed one another goodnight in front of him. And not once has he thought to himself, 'You know, maybe this is a signal that I should get in on that action'."

"Our husband is a frustrating creature, but he has been busting his cute butt all day every day trying to get these microbes spread out where they'll do the most good." Rei was idly reading up on medical techniques that were used in militaries throughout the world, while enjoying the feeling of Mizore's fingers as they massaged her scalp and stomach. "I'm not in a rush to sleep with him anymore, not after he gave us a house and agreed without hesitation to share a bed with us."

"…Ok, but I am." The yuki-onna drummed her fingers on Rei's belly to get her attention away from the book. "Life is way too eager to take things from me, and I want him all up in my bits before it gets a chance."

The answer to that dilemma seemed simple. "Then ask him."

"Tonight?"

"Right now, if you want." Rei raised one eyebrow. "I'm not rushing him because I understand his position. He's afraid, and he's slowly growing more comfortable in his position. I wouldn't want to be rushed in his position, and I'm grateful that the man I love is a good enough man to not be constantly sniffing after me wherever I go. I know he cares for me, and in more than a 'friend' sense. That's all I need, for now."

"And if he agrees?"

"I'm not going to say 'no'. I'm just going to move on his timeframe, not mine."

"Perfect." An almost embarrassed laugh from Ireul brought their eyes over to where the Angel was covering her mouth with her hands as Shinji skipped hurriedly away from an ocean swell that wouldn't have even reached his ankles. "Did you know he can't swim?"

That caused her to set the book aside, a look of sheer incredulity sliding across her face. "Seriously?!"

"The asshole that was legally responsible for him never taught him. The High School he went to tried to get him placed in a remedial program. The agency he worked for denied the plan." A wicked smile grew on Mizore's lips. "Awful lot of water right there. Be a shame if he happened to…fall in."

"Everyone should learn how to swim. It's simply a matter of life safety, after all." Rei echoed Mizore's smile.

Ireul, unaware of the conversation that happened further up the beach, had moved to apologize to Shinji for laughing at him. "I'm very sorry. I really shouldn't laugh at you, it's terribly inappropriate." Her line of sight on the stalking approach of Rei and Mizore was blocked by Shinji's mass. "I guess I'm just…it doesn't make sense that arguably one of the most powerful beings in existence, someone who could stand in the vacuum of space without any concern, is nervous about falling into the most common substance on this planet."

"No, no…no, it's fine." Shinji's cheeks were slightly pink, he was embarrassed himself for the overreaction. "The first time I set foot on a beach was after I arrived here. You and I were talking about such…mundane topics that I kind of forgot what I was for a few moments." Unlike Ireul, he sensed the approach of the two Crystal-bearing warriors. Taking a step towards the Angel, he set his hands on her shoulders and smiled weakly. "Never be sorry for causing me to feel that way. If I'm able to forget everything for a time, it means you did too." Just as the women went to leap at his back, intending to knock him into the ocean, he opened a portal beneath his feet that dropped both him and Ireul into said ocean just next to where both yuki-onna and shrine maiden landed, robbed of their target.

With a sputtering laugh, Ireul broke the surface of the water again and moved to help the other two ladies in pulling Shinji back up onto the surface of the water. She could feel the bacteria they'd released into the ocean seeking out nutrients. She could sense the tides that carried them to those places that most needed them. Their work had been done for the day, and now she believed that it would be a good time to walk along the path that he'd set out for her.