+++++ Home. (Wednesday + 60)
The change in temperature from the beaches of Somalia to the early winter of Tokyo was powerful, but not powerful enough to dampen the moods of the four travelers. Laughter, camaraderie, and playful banter rolled back and forth between them freely as they stepped through the portal to in front of their 'new' house. Shinji pushed the door open and urged everyone in and onto the mud step. "We are absolutely covered in sand," he announced as he closed the door behind them. "I'm not sure how we're not going to track this all through the house."
"Easy," Mizore declared brightly, "once we take off our clothes here, you open a portal to the showers and we all step through. Once we're clean, I'll come back here and stuff everything into a bag and take it to that lovely washing machine you bought us."
Rei, who was standing behind Shinji where he couldn't see her, tensed up in anticipation of Shinji shooting the idea down. She watched, entranced, as his head slowly rocked side to side in thought, and then felt a thrill up her spine when he nodded slowly.
"I guess…it is about time that I…accept…I guess? This is your decision, and you have made your decision, and so I should support that decision." Pulling his t-shirt over his head, he tossed it towards the door away from the wooden flooring. "But I'm going to help you wash them. It's only fair, since I dragged you along to the coast."
Ireul had already dispensed with any foreign particulates that she'd drawn back with them. Standing in the entry hall, she motioned with both of her hands to draw attention. "I'll wash them, don't worry. I'm sand-free, and so I'll take the time you're in the shower and bath to get your clothes cleaned and dinner started. Relax," she urged him as he began to protest, "and enjoy some downtime with your lovely wives. I'm going to give some more thought to ways we could clean the Arctic and Antarctic ice shelves, and start working on the plans to reintroduce fish into the oceans. It'll be easier to do, with it being nice and quiet."
Mizore hugged Shinji from the side, leaning into him and giving a grateful smile to Ireul. "Thank you. Whenever you need a favor from me, don't be shy about asking for it. Fair is fair."
"That it is, Frostmother." The Angel bowed, then turned to walk towards the kitchen. "I'll come back and get those after I've set the water to boiling. Enjoy the evening."
The fact that Shinji watched Ireul as she left did not upset Rei. The typical sense of jealousy that she would have experienced was clubbed to death before it could even start thanks to the way that her husband was open with his emotions. He wasn't 'longing' or 'pining'. He was genuinely concerned that a potential rift might form between two different 'factions' and didn't want anyone to feel ostracized. It was commendable, and it was very, very Shinji. "That really is very nice of her," she began, drawing his eyes with the sudden break in silence. As she spoke, she slowly undid the straps on the swimsuit she'd worn, "You were right to insist that we give her a chance to prove herself. That despite everything she'd done, she wasn't evil." The top of her two-piece fell to the floor, and she took a deep breath to both accentuate what she was showing him and steady her own nerves. "I'll find a way to thank her, later."
His eyes dared not travel further down than her hairline. Even still, he could see the outline of a pair of majestic mounds. "That…uhm, th-that would…be nice."
"Dear," Mizore reached up and tilted his head so that his gaze lowered, "our wife is showing you something no man has ever seen. Do be polite and admire the art, hmm?"
"I-it, I-I-I…." His body shivered as his head twitched with competing impulses. "Th-this is har-harder than I-I th-thought."
"But you're doing fine." Stepping up and against him in a hug, Rei poured all of her confidence into him. "We're offering ourselves to you, like this. We've chosen to let you see us this way. There's no need to be upset."
Mizore quickly tossed off her clothes, intent on not losing any more momentum. "You were right earlier; this is our choice." Dropping down to one knee, she 'helped' him take off the rest of his clothes. "Why do you find it hard to appreciate someone as beautiful as she is?"
The sensation of a phantom palm striking his cheek caused him to flinch. The sound of a red-haired woman shrieking how perverse he was. "Because I was told that it was wrong to…that…that it was…."
"She's not here." Rei refused to say Usagi's name out loud, not at that moment. She could easily see her former ally poisoning the well with Shinji by saying that he shouldn't admire other women. She could see Shinji pushing past that to ask for friendship, and despite his attraction never asking for more. She did not know that she was wrong about who had poisoned his mind, but at the moment the sentiment applied regardless. "We are. There is nobody, outside of this house, that has any right to tell me what I can and cannot share with you." Stepping out of her shorts, she threw them at the door and held her chin up proudly. "You are our husband, Shinji. I am proud to share myself with you like this. Now let's go take a nice shower, a warm soak, and enjoy the evening."
A portal to the showers opened without a sound. Shinji allowed himself to be escorted to where they would cleanse themselves in preparation for a soak. When he sat down on the bench, the memories of Asuka receded some. "S-sorry."
Mizore placed herself on his knee, kicking her legs over his and giving him an eyeful. "Don't be. You can't help your past. You can grow, you can learn, and you can overcome it…but it's not something we can expect you to just do on your own. I certainly haven't managed it."
"I appreciate that you feel like you've hurt us, or angered us," Rei had grabbed a variety of soaps and cloths before joining them at the bench, "but I agree that you don't need to feel sorry. We can overcome this, together."
His chest felt squeezed, two women of unearthly beauty making him their central focus. "I…I need…."
"You're not the only one," Mizore purred. "Why don't you," she plucked a bottle and cloth from Rei, "work on feeling out the situation." She dispensed some soap onto the cloth and placed it in his hand before shifting how she sat so that she was astride his legs instead. "Just for a while. See how happy you make us. Listen to our voices, instead of hers, hmm?"
The one thing he was truly incapable of doing was not being who or what he was. It wasn't that Shinji never changed, when you viewed his actions over a long enough timeline, but those changes were a natural result of trillions of calculations made while weighing consequences and repercussions of what had come before. In short, a poor word to use to describe him would be 'spontaneous'. It was that truth that allowed him to upend the coordinated actions of his two self-proclaimed wives. With a controlled twist of his hips, he dropped Mizore to the floor and swept Rei off of the bench to join her. In short order, he had two washcloths covered in enough soap for each woman, so that he could demonstrate what a pianist was capable of with regards to controlling both hands independently of the other.
Rei couldn't honestly claim that she was upset at his eyes being closed as he explored her body while washing it. In a way, it prevented him from seeming inattentive to either of them, or overly attentive to either of them. His fingers slid, scrubbed, and caressed her in ways that she'd longed for. His hints of hesitation when he encountered a new portion of her physical form, his strain to overcome that hesitation, his dogged efforts to do what she clearly had asked him to do, it was all making a magical moment she'd remember for the rest of her days.
Where her wife was content to move at a slower pace, Mizore was only becoming more determined to move with greater haste. A man, greater than any she'd yet known, was doing for her what countless generations of her family had needed to do for a man. She had prepared herself for the day that she had to 'convince' her husband that he belonged to her. She had read every book, magazine, and ancient tome available to her so that he wouldn't escape her grasp. Now, at the end of a self-imposed chastity, she impatiently waited 'her turn'. She was desperate to show him what she could offer…and he was delaying that pleasure in the most aggravatingly satisfying way imaginable.
He felt clumsy. Oafish. Completely uncoordinated and unprepared to accomplish the phenomenal task that had been placed before him. Shinji knew in the rotten recesses of what had been his soul that he was disappointing two women with his naïve fumblings, the war against his anger growing lopsided with each passing moment that he failed. He wasn't married. He wasn't a husband. He was a boy in a man's body, tripping over his own disgusting desires to force himself upon two women that deserved gods. They said they loved him…and all he felt was rage.
The scales balancing the event were given an unhelpful nudge as Rei was the first to experience the joy of completion through his touch alone. She felt safe, sheltered, desired, and appreciated. Her body had relaxed to such an extent that her orgasm was as inevitable as it was raucous. A whimpered moan became an overwhelmed cry of wordless pleasure, misinterpreted by one of the two other participants in the festivities as an expression of the polar opposite sensation. The feel of his hand vanished, the sense of his presence disappearing along with it, and her eyes fluttered open enough to see that Mizore was equal parts angered and confused…and that they were the only two people in the showers. "W-what?" Fighting against her body's inclination to relax, she pushed herself into a seated position. "What the fuck?!"
+++++ Triton, the Seventh Moon of Neptune. (Wednesday + 60)
The frigid surface of the largest of Neptune's moons was insufficient to cool his wrath. He stood within the ionosphere of a dwarf planet orbiting a gas giant so far from the planet he'd come from that it would take the light reflected off of it over four hours to make the journey back to Earth, and he still did not feel as if he was far enough away from where he'd been kneeling. The thin atmosphere he was breathing would have been poisonous, were he human. The radiation would have been devastating, if he weren't a monster. The howl of impotent self-loathing would have been heard for lightyears in each direction…were it not for the vacuum of space.
He struck himself, and felt no pain. He scratched and tore at his flesh, and did no damage. He picked up a shard of the frozen planetoid and began to stab himself, trying desperately to atone for everything he had done in his life, and did not bleed. After hours of futile efforts, he threw the makeshift weapon towards the closest planet and began cursing everything he could think of. Through it all, what he had interpreted as a cry of pain from Rei echoed in his heart giving fuel to the fires within him. His thoughts were so tangled and tattered that he couldn't form a cogent plan that would have actually managed to allow him to self-terminate, and it was only after hours more of screaming at an uncaring universe that he was prevented from continuing on by an unexpected arrival.
He could no more smell the woman belonging to the arms that enveloped his head than he could smell the star they orbited. With her blinding him, he could not see her form. With the atmosphere around him he could not hear her words. With the ashes of everything upon his tongue he could not taste her. But oh how glorious was her touch to feel. Despite everything else being kept from his senses, he knew her touch in an instant. …Michiru?
Who else would be here, of all the worlds in our solar system? A voice he hadn't heard in far too long echoed in his slowly clearing mind. It took you long enough to come here and get me.
Trembling hands carefully worked her from his head, arms made unsteady from hours of pointless attempts at self-harm found the strength to hold a prize beyond imagining out before him. H-how?!
The same winsome smile that he remembered her first giving him when they played their impromptu duet graced her lips, her seemingly frail fingers that he knew were capable of a strength beyond imagining tickled under his chin. I thought we had made it clear when we told you earlier, dear…you're ours. We're just loaning you to the others for a time until we can find that island. She watched as concern, then worry, began to blossom into fear. It hurt her to let it happen, but she knew it was for his own good. Just as he seemed about to set her down and back away, she rolled her eyes and took his face in her palms. You. Are. An. Idiot. If you ever, and I mean ever try to kill yourself again I swear to sashimi that I'll do worse than scare you.
The fire in her eyes reminded him of what he had just been about to do. The dawning realization that she had scared him into thinking she was an impostor in order to get him to not only start thinking but also to get back at him for his idiocy caused him to flush in shame. I…I've-
Your lack of familiarity with the female orgasm is, in my opinion, insufficient grounds for a death sentence you colossal moron! She shifted one hand to jab him on the tip of the nose with her finger. You. Me. Okinawa. Now. She was not displeased when he kept her in his grasp. Nor was she upset by the alacrity with which he deposited them before an exorbitantly expensive beachfront hotel on the island she'd requested. She was, however, still disappointed in him. Exhaling the last of the poisonous atmosphere they'd just been breathing, she brought in enough air from a far more hospitable climate to speak aloud, "You know that I'm a little hurt that you've told Haruka this time around, but not me."
A million potential bits of information he might have given one but not the other of the two women he felt safest with flooded his mind. He took in enough air himself to try and further clear his mind, then realized what she'd intended to hear when her lips shifted to a playful pout. Here, in his hands, was both a gift and another thing for the universe to take away. But the only reason he feared losing her again was the very thing she wanted to hear from him, "I love you so much…I-I thought…." Tears began to flood down his cheeks, coherent statements fled the field. All he could do is make various gasping whines as he collapsed to his knees and clung to the Sailor for Neptune like a lost child.
All the Sailor for Neptune wished for, at that moment, was the capacity to be in two places at once. Her dearest man had been very poorly mishandled by some exceedingly overeager women. While she believed that her ladylove was more than capable of informing them of their shortcomings…she wanted to get her blows in too. With a sigh, she plucked the Crystal of Water from his necklace and set it in the pocket of her dress. Directing her thoughts to the consciousness within the gem, she restrained its power enough so that it didn't interrupt what she was doing at the moment. Are we going to have difficulties coming to an understanding?
No. There was relief in the Crystal's reply. Each facet of my essence has not meant to harm those he was near. Were we able to choose from a wider variety of Warriors, none would have been harmed at all. Necessity dictated events, not desire. Few of you who were designed to join your cause to our own are left, and your return is a fortune beyond description.
Feeling the back of Shinji's neck, where the blackest crystal had embedded itself, she frowned in distaste. This does not suit him at all.
Necessity. We could no more call him a Warrior of Light than we could call you a Warrior of Dark. What he is, and what he is fundamentally suited to be, matter little in the face of what is yet to come.
+++++ Azabu-Juban. (Wednesday + 60)
Haruka Tenou spent several moments admiring the architecture of the house Shinji had built. From an aesthetic standpoint, it was worthy of display in an art museum. The complex and interwoven feelings he had for those he would allow inside of it were projected outwards as if they'd been written in the stars themselves. The loathing he had for himself, however, was the most apparent of all. "He's not proclaiming himself a resident. He's just shouting to the heavens that the women inside are inviolable." With a disgusted sigh, she finally walked over to the front door, and knocked. After around ten seconds, the door slid open to reveal a worried and slightly confused woman with bright red hair and a pleasant physical form. "So. You're the Angel."
Ireul blinked, clearly wary of who was standing outside of the house she would protect to the death. "I am."
"Thanks for not getting pushy with my man." She flicked a finger towards the door. "Can I come in? I have a message to deliver to the two idiots upstairs."
Her head tilted slightly to the side. "I doubt that he would be pleased with me allowing you to interrupt him at the moment."
That bit of information was filed away for later use. "He's not in residence at the moment. He's very much not in residence at the moment."
"If you would be so kind as to explain?" Worry and confusion were replaced by anger and protectiveness. Ireul was quite ready to depopulate star systems if that was what was necessary to ensure Shinji did not come to harm.
That attitude carried weight with Haruka. "He's currently standing on the surface of Triton, being talked to by my Chickadee. While there is technically further space available away from the Earth right now, I'd say he's really as far from here as one would anticipate him capable of being."
"I see." Her hand clenched the door tighter, though her demeanor did not shift any further towards aggression. "What did they do to him?"
"You're not there yet, lady," the words were delivered sweetly, though her posture was anything but. "You still have sins to answer for yourself. Let me in, let me handle this, and if you're nice about it…I'll tell him you were worried."
Ireul released the door, stepped backwards, and inclined her head respectfully. "My apologies. You are correct, this is not my place to act."
Haruka stepped inside and tapped under Ireul's chin with the knuckle of her right forefinger, clicking her cheek with a grin. "None of that, now. Michi-chan tells me that this entire situation is fucked over a bramble patch. Keep your nose clean, and keep minding your manners around Shin-tan, and you'll be ok in my book."
It was difficult to remain either dour or angry in the face of such confidence. The Sailor for Uranus' greatest strength was clearly in her ability to accept what was in an effort to bring about what she desired, which was something the Angel of Terror could appreciate. "Fourth floor."
"You're a doll. I'll come back downstairs before I leave, if you want to write him a note for me to pass on." Closing the door behind herself, Haruka took the stairs two at a time. She wanted to get this over with so she could get back to Michiru and Shinji. If they were going to survive what was to come, they needed to get him back into a useable state. As she rounded the stairs past the second floor, she heard Mizore and Rei arguing with each other on their way down from the bathroom. A quick peek into the empty second floor room and she decided that interceding there would give her greater odds of keeping the slapping to a minimum. Her course set, she leaned against the doorframe and waited.
"…saying is that we don't know what caused it, then we shouldn't be wasting time bitching about it!" Rei was clearly struggling to not yell at Mizore as they stamped down the stairs. Neither noticed their visitor. "He's hurt, and I know he didn't mean to make this awkward. I'm not upset at you for encouraging him to be more physical, I'm just trying to get you to understand that this was why I wasn't eager to jump him."
Another useful bit of information secreted away, Haruka took advantage of the pause in Rei's monologue to spring her trap, "Well, I guess I shouldn't have been quite as disappointed in you as I was at first, Hino-chan." When both of the other two looked at her with different emotions dominating their bearing, she stood up from where she'd been leaning and motioned for them to follow her into the empty room. "Repression is a hell of a drug, and I'll admit I was worried that you'd finally snapped and lost the composure I admired."
Rei hung back, disbelieving yet daring to hope that what she was seeing was the truth. "Uranus?"
"It had better be," Mizore snarled as she moved to a position that would force their visitor to guard both flanks at once. "Where is he?"
The decision of who to answer first was made based on who had been less rude. "It's me," she turned to face Rei, shrugging her shoulders and smiling sadly, "and before you ask, the answer is 'retrocausality'. Michi-chan saw what was going to happen before it happened, kept it from everyone so that what we're doing now was possible, and is currently trying to convince Shinji she's real on the surface of Triton."
Doubt, and anger, dripped from both words Mizore spat out, "Prove it."
It was obvious that Rei wasn't going to be a threat. Lolling her head around so that she could glare at Mizore, Haruka snorted with disgust. "You want me to provide proof of the effect preceding the cause? Or you want me to prove he's standing on a moon orbiting a gas giant four hours away at lightspeed? You're going to have to declare your dangling participle there."
Rei stepped quickly into the room, motioning for the yuki-onna to calm down enough to listen to reason. "Mizore, this is actually-"
Mizore wasn't having any of it. "Yeah. So was 'Daphne'. How many times are we going to fall for this?" Her eyes had never left Haruka. "And Ireul just lets whoever this is walk on in."
"Which is probably the best evidence available that I'm who I say I am. After that stupid stunt the youma pulled, do you think she didn't take a peek under my skirt to make sure that I wasn't another impostor? Or would this answer your question…." Sliding one foot to the side, she made a show of her transformation. "Uranus Planet Power, Make Up!" A vibrant glow radiated outwards, stripping her of the clothing she'd worn for comfort and replacing it with the Sailor Fuku of blue, white, and yellow that heralded her as the Princess of Uranus. Idly twirling her sword, she dared the youkai before her to deny who she was now.
"…Fine. Then if you know where our husband is, ta-"
"Husband?" She scoffed. "Sweetie, he's not your husband." Gesturing towards Mizore with her sword, she caught the interruption before it could happen. "I wouldn't. I'm very pissed off right now. You come at me, we're going to have bigger problems. You pushed an emotionally vulnerable, mentally unstable, eldritch god in the shape of a young man into advancing way too far into physical lust before he even vaguely understood emotional love! You put your desires and culture above his desires and culture! Is getting in his pants really of such paramount importance to you that you're willing to ignore the problems fucking him is going to create?"
Once more attempting to keep things from devolving into a brawl, Rei slowly moved between the two potential combatants. "It's not that simple. Really, it's not," she pleaded. "We've spent weeks with only each other alive! We've spent days where the only thing we did was get to know one another. It's not like she just saw him across the room and walked over to introduce herself with, 'Hey, nice shoes. Wanna fuck?' She wasn't moving at his pace, no, but she also wasn't intentionally pushing him onwards."
"Flip the genders, tell me you'd be defending her." The point itself was bad enough considering Rei herself had been the first to make it weeks prior, but the delivery was like a sledgehammer to the face.
"And where the fuck were you?" Mizore moved closer, disgusted with what she'd just been accused of. "Huh? The body count we've experienced, the one we believed included you, didn't really make us feel as if we had all the time in the world to give and receive a physical reminder that we mattered to one another!"
Haruka retorted scathingly, "In the human world, we use these things called 'hugs'. It can be a bit scary, putting your arms around someone else and exposing your torso, but I promise that it does a really good job of reminding the person you're 'hugging' that you matter."
"That's cute, did you come up with that yourself or did the brains of your operation figure it out for you?"
"Please," Rei motioned for both of them to take a few steps back, "we shouldn't be fighting one another! This is just a misun-"
Mizore wheeled around on Rei with a snarl, "Why are you taking her side?!"
"I-I'm not, I'm just-"
Haruka's intent, when she reached for Rei, was to ease her gently aside. She appreciated what the former shrine maiden was attempting to do, but she would not allow her junior to come to harm. The reaction she provoked from Mizore, unfortunately, negated her intent.
Mizore sliced out with a set of claws formed from ice, attempting to take off Haruka's arm. "Keep your hands off her!"
The nudge became a shove as Haruka twisted her hips to dodge the strike. Redirecting the claws away with her sword, she felt her arm tingle as the power disparity was made apparent. Dancing backwards two steps, she brought her guard up and shook her head slowly. "Jealous much?"
From where she'd landed on her posterior, Rei kept up her attempts at reducing the temperature of the room, "Mizore, stop!"
"I'm not losing anyone else!" The yuki-onna's green plugsuit surrounded her as she flicked the hand she'd struck out with over to the woman she loved. A thick dome of ice climbed into existence, protecting Rei from what she believed to be a significant threat to their family. Icy talons extended from the fingers of her other hand, her human mask slipping free. "Last chance. Are you going to take me to my husband?"
Haruka had seen everything she needed to see to make the call she felt needed to be made. "No."
Rei was preparing to break free of the icy dome, hoping that Haruka was able to fight off the enraged youkai long enough to allow the use of force where words had clearly failed, when Mizore lunged forward and shoved three of her talons through Haruka's chest. The Sailor for Mars was baffled, frozen in place by the absurdity of what she was seeing. Despite her guard having been up, despite her obvious preparations to defend herself…Haruka hadn't moved an inch to try and avoid the attack.
Honest sorrow coated her words, even as her face remained angered and disappointed, "This could have been avoided if you had learned the right lesson from what happened to Tsukune Aono." The blueish green of Mizore's plugsuit began to fade as Haruka's Sailor fuku began to shift and transform into a similar plugsuit. "We do not take love from another. We do not force love from another. Your impatience has now cost you everything…and I wish I could stop this from happening."
It was over in an instant. A swell of silence, a burst of light, and an explosion that would have devastated any other house in the galaxy. Rei protected her face as the ice crumpled inwards towards her, the wave of pressure slapping her across the floor and against the wall. Her eyes took several seconds to refocus, the jarring slam of her head combining with the bright flash of the Crystal of Wind changing hands effectively blinded her temporarily. By the time she could see again, all there was left to see was Haruka standing there in a familiar plugsuit, her head hanging forward in silent regret. "M-Mizore?"
"Dead."
"You…you killed her?"
"No, she did that to herself." Opening her eyes and crossing her arms, she turned to face Rei and raised one eyebrow chidingly. "I know we haven't known each other that long this time around, but do you really think one of us would just up and murder someone if we could avoid it? Did you not keep your eyes open? I made zero aggressive moves."
Wobbling to her feet, her emotions a wreck, Rei didn't know what to think. "I didn't think that Usagi would force herself on anyone. I didn't think that Ami would lose control of herself. I didn't think zombies would take over the Earth. I didn't think there was such a thing as benevolent youkai. What am I supposed to think, when you march into our house and…and…."
"She hurt him," Haruka growled. "She hurt him." Dismissing the plugsuit easily, wearing the Crystal on a small chain dangling from a snug choker around her neck that contrasted with the thigh-length tiered peasant dress she transformed back into, she leaned forward and pointed in the vague direction of Okinawa. "He is bawling his eyes out, clinging to Michiru while begging her to not punish him because he thinks he hurt you."
Rei blinked a few more times, trying to put together a logical reason for Shinji to believe that he'd hurt her. "Hurt?" She couldn't deny that there was a little pain laced around the intense pleasure he'd provided. She hadn't been ready for her body to feel so…alive. It wasn't a bad pain…but it was pain. "I-I mean, ok, yeah…everything kind of cramped because I hadn't…you know…."
"Oh, for fuck's…." Standing tall, she pinched the bridge of her nose and blew out an irritated sigh. "No, you twit, he thinks that bringing you to climax hurt you. That you didn't want someone like him touching you. That he was forcing himself on you. That by taking pleasure in feeling you and your now-deceased friend, that he was hurting you! He fled Earth in a panic because you finally unknotted your knickers after blithely missing the visual cues he was providing you that all was not right in Shinji World."
"You…h-how do you know any of this?" Shaking herself, bringing her mind back to the moment, she threw her arms wide and struck at the heart of the matter, "How the fuck are you alive again?!"
"I know because he tells me." Pain lingered in Haruka's eyes. "I can't tell you how I'm alive. Retrocausality only works if nobody's around to circumvent the future cause. Three people know how, and none of us are interested in undoing it."
"Four, actually." Ireul stood outside the doorway, within the stairwell. "But only because I'm adept at puzzling out solutions to the type of…happenings that are frequent around Shinji."
"Keep it to yourself."
"I had not planned on sharing the information." The Angel looked over towards Rei, and inclined her head politely. "You have my sympathies. She was…a well-meaning, if misguided, woman. Her inability to overcome her nature, as is so often the case with living beings, is lamentable."
Rei strangled back an angry retort, taking several seconds to breathe and calm herself before replying, "If you would please expound upon that?"
"She's a youkai, kid." Haruka checked herself over, seeking any imperfections in the outfit she'd chosen. "They're hyper-emotional beings whose entire culture is fixated upon singular conceits. Kodama protect the woods from external impurities. Kitsune tease and test mortals to see who is worthy of transcending flesh. Yuki-onna…they hunt for, and mate with, strong masculine beings that will create stronger yuki-onna. Their entire existence is an allegory for how hard it is for humanity to remain true to their word. Getting between a yuki-onna and her prey is fatal."
"She wasn't-" Snapping her jaw shut, she once again took several seconds to refocus her mind away from how embarrassed, angry, and hurt she was. "She loved him."
"They all love their prey. That's what makes it so sad when their prey falls short of their needs and expectations."
Ireul interjected, hoping to help, "The decisions she was making, while seemingly both benign and benevolent, were becoming increasingly focused on…species propagation. From an…unbiased perspective, it was beginning to seem as if she was increasingly willing to…force the issue."
A library of previous conversations between Mizore and Rei flooded the latter's mind. "She…she was just lonely."
"Does that excuse the pressure she was putting on someone who wasn't ready to take that step?" Content with how she looked, Haruka clasped her hands behind her back and finished what she came to do. "I know you know the right answer to that one. I didn't come here hoping that this would happen…but I'm not going to hold back when someone is threatening to violate someone I love." Three steps put her right in front of Rei, and she kissed her on the forehead with a sad smile. "That includes you."
The less charitable interpretation of her statement was shoved in a sack and kicked off a cliff. Rei knew that Haruka was saying she'd protect her from someone attempting to hurt her, and not that she had meant to hurt Shinji. "…Can I see him?"
"When he's calmer." Pride in the younger woman infected her voice, "I'd never keep him from you, not so long as you remain the woman you are." One step backwards and she tipped her head to the doorway. "Go write him a note. I'll wait long enough for you to tell him that you're ok. It'll help me get his head on straight, and help you see him sooner, if it's as polished as you."
"Thank you." Gathering the tatters of her pride about her like a cloak, she kept her tears at bay until she was through the door and up the stairs. A part of her knew that she wouldn't be judged for crying, that part wasn't going to be listened to at the moment.
Haruka waited patiently until Rei was safely out of earshot, then looked at Ireul with an open question.
"You are not the only one who is not going to hold back when someone is threatening to harm one they…enjoy the company of." The Angel of Fear stood with her hands folded and her back straight. She was deferential towards those Shinji cared for out of love for him, but she would not be cowed into submission. "I allowed you entry believing that you would be chastising them. I will have to account for my decision, and would appreciate a better explanation."
"Fair enough." She could appreciate the diplomatic threat, if nothing else. "These Crystals are part of a single, complex, entity. We Sailors were meant to be given guardianship of the fragments, intended to use their strength to supplement our own in defense of…certain concepts. Each time we've gone through this cycle, too many have died, or the wrong Sailors died, or we failed to find 'our' Crystal, or we couldn't synchronize our efforts with the right…entity. This time, Shinji made a few choices that…broke the cycle. Trusted different people. Didn't trust others. As much as I hate to admit it, you and your kind played a role in this as well. I don't know why you got dragged here with him, or what that did to you, but the attempts at communication have given us a chance that we never found on our own. This one," she flicked her finger against the Crystal of Wind, "was always meant for me. Rei found hers too. Michi-chan has taken hers from Shinji."
"And there was no peaceful way to retrieve it?"
"She could have surrendered it willingly. Or proven worthy of it."
"Worthy?"
"Murdering someone in the middle of an argument about who belongs to whom isn't something that the Crystals smile on. Controlling our darker impulses is a large part of why we're what we are. It's why Usagi left. Why she took Setsuna with her. To be frank, we're still kind of fucked." Haruka held up four fingers, and wiggled one. "We're still minus a Sailor. Makoto couldn't interface with your kind, and Minako got ambushed by Khlorya's corruption of your RNA."
"I apologize for both of those," she responded with genuine remorse.
"Yeah…just keep working on fixing things. Shin-tan wouldn't want me to make a big deal out of something that can't be changed. Regardless, we're still minus one. I'm not sure how we're going to fix that, but without all four of us working together to keep him contained, we're all going to lose."
Ireul frowned in thought. "You failed to mention the others that have passed. Are the two you spoke of the only chance at success?"
"Each Crystal has a connection with a specific 'element', for lack of a better description. Makoto and Minako were the only two attuned to the proper element for the fourth Crystal. Each of us is generally tied to a pair of elements, and Ami-chan would be a poor fit for the last Crystal."
"…I see." The Angel looked out the nearby window, contemplating what she'd been told and putting things into context. "You know that retrocausality only functions with a linear timeline, yes?"
"Or under the guidance of a power greater than any we've seen."
Rei hurried into the room, holding an envelope made of the finest quality paper. Coming to a halt just out of arm's reach from Haruka, she looked her in the eye and demanded, "Swear to me that there was no better way."
"I didn't attack her, specifically to give her the chance. She failed. We lost another ally." Haruka held out her hand, palm up.
"Now do you want me to take that to him, or not? The sooner I get to where he is, the sooner I can work on calming him down."
Haltingly, she extended the envelope to her fellow Sailor. "I…think I might…."
"And there's nothing wrong with that." Plucking the paper free of Rei's grasp, she gave her a wry smile in return. "I'd think of anyone left, I'm the last person you'd need to try and explain it to. The right person, with the right characteristics…love is love, kid. Take it where you can find it, and ignore people who tell you that it's wrong because of a specific unchangeable accident of birth."
"Wise words." Ireul offered her own letter to Haruka, while directing her words towards Rei. "After all, I have come to care about you for what it is that you've tried to do. It may not be love, as I am still learning of what would define the concept, but I know that I would be deeply pained by your death. We are not from the same reality, yet I feel it all the same."
Her emotions were still frazzled from the sudden loss of yet another friend, and while Rei held herself together well…she hadn't been ready to hear from the sole representative of a branch of life that was responsible for the deaths of billions that said representative enjoyed her company. The absurdity caused her to lose her grip on her tears, which caused her to lose her upright posture, leading to her falling to her knees and sobbing.
Haruka and Ireul shared a look, the former allowing the latter to go and soothe the young former shrine maiden. After all, friendships were often built on the bones of tragedies and the Sailor for Uranus had places to be.
+++++ Okinawa. (Wednesday + 60)
Michiru sat on the bench she'd maneuvered Shinji towards, looking at the ocean waves rolling towards the shore, combing her fingers through his hair, allowing him to sleep for a time with his head in her lap. Nothing cogent had been uttered after he had lost control over himself. His anger had waned enough that the waxing of his sorrows were allowed to grow full, the draining of which she had given a higher priority to than the soothing of. Her presence was enough to settle him down, after a time. Her love for him, and his love for her, would keep him from the brink.
When Haruka arrived, quietly walking in mid-air, the Sailor for Neptune shook her head sadly. That Haruka had the Crystal of Wind meant that the previous bearer was no longer among the living. Meant that more souls had been lost. Meant another heavy burden for the man that was already drowning in them. Michiru nodded in agreement when Haruka motioned to the resort hotel behind them, it would be better for them all to be inside when Shinji awoke. He did poorly out in the open, preferring the mental security of walls and ceilings.
Relinquishing her hold on Shinji was painful, watching Haruka scoop him up into her arms and look down upon his face was heartbreaking. Michiru never doubted her position in her ladylove's eyes. Never felt jealousy when she flirted with others to make them uncomfortable. The way that Haruka looked at Shinji showed clearly that love was growing beyond the familial, and that it was possible now that two might become three. All in its own time, she thought to herself as she stood.
After removing the Crystal of Water from her pocket, Michiru set it against her forehead where it formed a shimmering tiara to remain in place. The gentle azure glow it emitted provided enough light for her to help Haruka navigate the hotel's darkened halls. The structure showed signs of a desperate struggle, overturned luggage carts and scattered belongings needing to be moved aside or broken doors that had spread wood and metal needing to be kicked clear. Progress was slow to the top floor, but the view they found once they arrived was worth the journey.
One of the VIP suites had been fully cleaned and prepared for someone's arrival before the chaos Ireul had unleashed made itself known. Inside the untouched room was a clean bed, neatly folded towels and bathrobes, and an uninterrupted view of the moonlight reflecting off the ocean. Without speaking a word, the pair had Shinji undressed, cleaned, placed in bed, and were lying on either side of him before a handful of minutes had passed. Snugly cuddled against him, holding Haruka's hand, she allowed herself to enjoy the slightly illicit feel of the other two people's nudity against her own. It had been far too long since she'd been able to share affections with those she loved…and because of another woman's haste it would have to be longer still.
+++++ ? (?)
She'd waited long enough. Really, she'd waited longer than long enough. Nobody was going to stop people from taking from him. Nobody was going to keep the women that claimed him as their own from ripping things out of his life to create space for themselves. Nobody was going to give him the love and safety he needed. Nobody was going to see the lies for what they were until it was far too late, and nobody was going to stop her from fixing it.
Nobody.
+++++ Okinawa. (Thursday + 61)
Shinji's eyes snapped open, the world not where he'd left it. Part of his mind returned to its normal state of panic, the controlling portion of his mind merely questioned why he felt so calm. The answer to his question only required he turn his head in both directions slightly, leading to him attempting to reprocess the prior day's events when he saw Michiru and Haruka holding onto him and each other. Escape became the next impulse, his still unfocused mind attempting to puzzle out a method by which he could extract himself from where he was without touching anything he shouldn't or waking anyone up.
He didn't have enough control to create a portal that wouldn't just dump all three of them somewhere with how they were pressed against him. Haruka's grip on his hand, and its place between their bodies, prevented him from using the most obvious route of sliding upwards. Even if he managed to overcome that, he was fairly confident that even if he was coated in LCL there was no chance of him removing Michiru from his right arm. Surgical intervention might be required to accomplish the most basic motion, when he looked at it closer.
His thoughts were interrupted by Haruka placing her free hand over his heart. "You dressed yourself unconsciously, last night. You were wearing the same uniform you wore to school every day, in your old world. We didn't want you to wake up in that, and we didn't want to scavenge up clothing to try and dress you. Fair being fair, we stripped down too. So keep calm, ok?" Her plea was delivered in a warm, quiet, voice. When he looked back towards her, she kept her face neutral. "Don't run. We're not upset. You're not in trouble. We all need to have a nice, calm, talk."
"But first," Michiru asserted from his other side, moving so that she lay half atop him in order to hug them both, "we're going to take a nice, warm, bath."
Shinji's brow knit. He'd fled-
"No." Michiru released the hug, moving up to her knees and frowning down at Shinji. "What you left, like we discussed last night, was not your fault." It was evident that she was seeing his thoughts, as she tended to, from how her face changed expression several times as he reviewed the conversation she'd mentioned. "Bath."
"There's…." He couldn't argue against her. Not and win. "There's no hot water. Probably no running water."
Haruka flicked his ear, then stood up and moved towards the bathroom. "No, but there are two incredibly powerful women capable of working with an incredibly powerful man to fix that." Stretching as she moved, she was a little hurt that not once had Shinji's eyes moved lower than her throat. She tugged slightly on the choker she wore. "I have to wear the Crystal, unlike you. Yours melded to your body, mine does best as jewelry."
"Mine is going to keep my hair out of my eyes." Michiru took his hand, backing off the bed and tugging him along with her. The tiara remained in place, the magic required to do so insignificant in comparison to what it was capable of. "Come on. Nothing that's happened is going to unhappen by you sitting here like a lump." His eyes landed on hers, and despite wanting to scream at what she saw in them she kept her smile in place.
"…Ok." Shinji cooperated, giving in easier for him than resisting.
His intent and actions did not go unnoticed by either of the two Sailors, and the look they shared with each other contained an entire conversation worth of subtext. It wasn't going to be an easy day. Haruka lit the room with a controlled lightning storm in each corner. Silent electromagnetic discharges illuminating the clouds and giving a soft glow to work by. "Are you uncomfortable with our nudity?"
"No." He shook his head, stopping where Michiru had let go of his hand. "You don't mean anything by it. You're not asking me for anything. I'm not sure why you're not upset about it…but I'm not sure about much of anything." He looked down towards his feet. "Did she…suffer?" Both women froze. "The Crystals are connected. I could feel it switch to you. I also felt her anger, before it did."
The emotionally dead tone he used hurt Haruka's heart. "I don't think she suffered. She stabbed me, and the Crystal took her protections away. The power transfer did the rest. The scientific potential of studying what someone feels when they stand next to a nuclear bomb going off is somewhat limited…but the best guess available is that there's no way for the pain to actually reach their brain before they simply don't exist any longer."
"I see." With a thought, he was dressed again. A set of clothes that one would wear for a workout, and not for a bath or to flee from everyone. "I…I think I want to go for a jog. If I promise not to leave the area, would you leave me alone for a while?"
Michiru inwardly sighed, though she kept her frustration clear of her voice. "Of course. Please don't be gone too long, we do have a great deal to discuss."
"Two hours," Haruka amended. "We'll wait on you for breakfast, and in return you won't keep us waiting on breakfast forever."
Shinji's head bobbed in agreement, and he turned back to the hotel room and left via the outside balcony. A long drop to the ground allowed him the time to take in the surrounding area and decide that jogging along the ocean shore was probably the better option. Far less debris to move around, and lots of material for him to practice with. Opening a portal at the bottom of his drop, connecting to another portal above the sand, he landed lightly and took off running. Any and all trash he saw was dropped into a growing pile in the parking lot of the hotel via portal, giving him something to do while his body worked through the knot of emotional baggage losing Mizore to gain Michiru and Haruka had created.
The crunching of sand beneath his feet, the movement of thousands upon thousands of tons of water, the wind as it passed by him, and his breathing. No other physical sounds were heard, nothing that would cover over the growing incoherent babble of his internal monologues. Hundreds of Shinjis all speaking at once to and around one another, each reminding him of how they'd done nothing but failed. He'd promised that he wouldn't try to kill himself, had he not done just that? How could he return and face Rei? What had happened to Ayanami? He hadn't seen or heard of her or Asuka when Amaterasu had shown him the world he'd come from. His leaving that world seemed to have been the best thing to ever happen to it. Would it be the same for-
A small trench was dug into the beach as he planted his left foot down to stop his forward motion. He'd asked to be left alone. He'd wanted to be alone. His desire, expressly, was to be allowed to let his mind do what it would do without any external stimulus whatsoever. Despite that, and seemingly to spite that, Shinji was now blankly staring at someone he'd never thought he'd see again. He might have been angrier, were it not for the seeming impossibility of it all. The impulse to open his mouth and speak to her was ignored, mainly because he might have been hallucinating and if he were to be honest with himself he didn't need to give any further ammunition to the part of his own mind that enjoyed tormenting him with everything he'd ever done wrong on a nonstop loop.
She stood at the top of a long stairway that led from a series of bungalows down to the beach. She'd seen him, that much was fairly evident by the way that she remained still and unblinking as she looked in his direction. She, unlike him, did not seem inclined to remain locked in stasis, however. Taking the stairs down to the sand five at a time, she bounded over to him with a flowing grace that was the product of long years of practice with martial combat. Slowing to a halt, only a meter from him, she looked him over from up close, clearly amazed that he was standing there. "Are…are you real?" Extending one hand out, she took a step closer before recalling that hand. "N-no. No, you can't be real. I'm…I'm just hallucinating. Too much time alone. Too…oh, to hell with it." Reaching out, she set her palm flat against Shinji's chest, then yanked her arm away and took the last two steps towards him, jumping up, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him close while laughing out, "You're real! You're really real!"
There was no possible way for him to know how to react. This situation was never the subject of idle daydreams, or wishful thinking, or even something that he'd contemplated being possible. The socially-driven programming in his brain put his arms around her torso to stop her from toppling them over onto the beach. Here, in his arms, was Naru Narusegawa. Somehow, she'd managed to escape the Shrine, flee from the main islands, arrive at Okinawa, and survive on her own for almost two months. His touch around her body precipitated a shift in her demeanor. Not from amazement to rage, as he'd thought likely, but from relieved laughter to tears. Once again someone was looking to him for comfort…and despite himself he couldn't stop himself from attempting to give it. Shifting his shoulders slightly, he worked one arm under her knees and picked her up into a bridal carry. He didn't want to go back to the hotel yet, he still didn't know how to feel about Mizore's death and he didn't want to try and figure that out with the women there waiting for him. Deciding that the stairs were the best bet to sit down and let Naru cry it out, he moved them through a portal to reduce the distance he'd need to carry her, then sat down and settled her on his lap.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she sobbed. Variations of the statement were all she got out between heaving breaths. She clung to him, her fingers tangled in his t-shirt, trying to both reassure herself that he was truly a living, breathing, person and to say the words that she had evidently been thinking for what must have been incredibly long days of isolation.
Shinji, whether through inborn humanity or simply because it was what he himself would have desired to have happen, slowly rocked her side to side and gently patted her back. His mind had become too distracted to work on his own problems, and instead was focused on processing all of the information he had available about the woman he'd found. About the last human on Earth. Anger didn't seem like the right word to use when he attempted to describe her. She wasn't angry at the young man she'd been abusing, not really. Perhaps angry at herself, or maybe even afraid. All he had available was observational data, he really couldn't remember ever actually speaking to her. He'd been forced into silence, forced to communicate through others. She had a story…and it was only fair that he listened to it. But how? He wouldn't lie to her and tell her everything would be ok. He couldn't think of where to begin explaining that he could count on one hand the number of living beings other than the two of them remaining. After ten minutes of listening to her apologize, he decided to start with the obvious, "Is this where you're from?"
Whether it was the sound of his voice, or the fact that she wasn't prepared for him to say anything, the question startled her out of the cycle she'd become stuck in. Leaning back, she looked at him in wonder. "Y-you're real…."
Unfortunately, he thought. "I am."
"And…you can speak?"
"Long story. 'Magic' is the short version."
She nodded, her head bobbing unevenly. "That makes sense. I didn't think we were going to find logical explanations for everything." Her eyes refocused on his. "Are we the only ones left?"
"…There are only four others that I know of." At least this will make it easier to broach the topic. "Rei Hino, Michiru Kaiou, Haruka Tenou, and…someone that came from a long way from Earth."
"Magic and aliens…I guess I shouldn't be surprised about that either." A sudden giggle escaped her lips. "The world really has gone mad." Her stomach gurgled, and she blushed in embarrassment. "S-sorry."
He felt a surge of gratitude that he was at least given a problem he could address. A fit of whimsy took him, and instead of drawing from the stocks of food he knew of, he chose to try and use the same magic he'd just alluded to, "Large and juicy from a tree, an apple for the lady." A perfect apple, the type given by powerfully rich executives to high performing employees as a holiday gift, settled in his hand. "Do you need me to cut it up?" The hesitation she experienced was an apparent battle between letting go of the first person she'd seen in weeks, and grabbing the apple to tear through it. He could feel her hands twitching, not willing to let go but desirous to have the food on offer.
"P-p-please?"
An emotion he honestly hadn't anticipated feeling grew in the base of his gut: pity. Nobody deserved to be abused by someone they love…and nobody deserved to be isolated from any contact. A gentle tone crept into his voice, the cold grip of his own problems melting away now that he had someone that truly needed his help, "How about I feed it to you, that way you don't need to let go."
"That would be wonderful." Her lips twitched into a disbelieving smile. "Y-you really are here…."
Four contiguous portals sliced the apple into eight equally sized chunks, followed by eight more portals that scooped out the difficult to eat center and the dangerous seeds. Remembering the conversation he'd had with Maria about how physical laws only applied insofar as he felt they did, he let the slices float in the air before them, plucking one with the hand that wasn't supporting Naru's back, and offering it to her without touching her lips. "I am here, that I am."
It was evident by the way she aggressively chewed that she hadn't been eating enough, and it was only because Shinji set the pace of her feeding that she didn't cause herself harm by attempting to gorge herself on what he offered. Between slices, her body twitched in much the same way her hands had been. "I…I'm sorry."
He set another slice where she could reach it with her mouth. "What for?"
"For being a bitch." She took a smaller bite, wanting to speak and eat at the same time but not wanting to be rude to the man that was offering salvation. "For…for not seeking help for my problems. For letting the bitch in my mind run the show. For being angry at you for things that I was responsible for. For-"
Setting the rest of the slice against her lips, he silenced her and shook his head. "I understand," he replied with a gentle laugh. What amused him the most was that he did actually understand. He hadn't really thought much on the matter, but he saw so much of Asuka in Naru that her explanation of what she'd been doing could easily have been applied to the redheaded irritant he'd lived with for months. "Believe me…I understand."
She chewed slowly on the latest slice, exploring Shinji's face with her eyes. "…You really do, don't you?"
"Unfortunately."
"…Do you think you can fix it?" She jerked her head towards the apple. "With the magic?"
The thought hadn't occurred to him to try. "I…don't know? I wouldn't even know how to phrase it." He set the last slice of the apple where she could reach it.
"Maybe just…ask the chemicals in my mind to be appropriately balanced?" She shrugged one shoulder, lingeringly drawing out the juices from the final slice. "That's what personality disorders are, right? The different chemicals in our brains not having the appropriate amounts?"
"But that might change who you are," he cautioned.
She scoffed, catching the bit of apple that threatened to fall out of her mouth, then speaking through her hand, "Considering how much I hate myself, I don't see that really being a terrible thing."
"But…do I have that right?"
"Who's going to hold it against you?" She finally removed one hand from him, holding up four fingers. "There are four other people on this planet. One of which is an alien, according to you. I don't want to fuck up, lose my temper, and do something that makes you banish me somewhere! I don't want the bitch in my mind to tell me that the only reason you're letting me sit here is because you're getting off on it! I don't want to think that everyone hates me all day every day for the rest of the days I have left! I don't want to be alone anymore!" Reclaiming his shirt with the hand she'd used, she jostled him slightly. "Please! It's my mind, and I'm begging you…at least try!"
Were some people simply not capable of withstanding solitude? He'd spent years without any real contact, and he didn't think he'd cracked. She'd spent weeks, and she was begging him to alter her in a way that might do irrevocable harm to her. "I…don't want to mess up the phrasing. The words are just as important as the intent."
A smile that sang of an escape from the headsman's axe split her face. "Ok. Ok! Let's write it out in the sand. We'll tweak things until it's right. It…does it have to rhyme? Like when you gave me the apple?" Standing, she kept her grip on his shirt as she tugged him towards the damp sand closer to the ocean.
His inability to say 'no' was, quite likely, going to get him in trouble again.