Chapter 9: Premonition.
"I knew I could count on you." Mari cheerfully exclaimed as she kept her hand on Shinji's shoulder while gently gazing into his blue eyes with a whole new level of admiration. "Nothing can stop us if we work together. We can finish what your mum started, together"
"We can. I know we can. The only question is how? How do the two of us go against two groups as powerful as NERV and SEELE. We're just two kids. Even if we use our EVA's, they'll just smash us like a bug." Shinji's sudden surge of confidence begun to die down as he finished his bleak opinion.
"That can come later Shinji. Right now, you need to rest. You need a break from all the hard work NERV has put you through so you can recover your strength again. No use trying to do anything when you clearly aren't in top shape after all you've been through."
"But if SEELE are planning to kill everyone, don't we have to start trying to stop them as soon as possible? How can we possibly relax at a time like this, Mari? You said yourself that my friends are already in danger, so we need to help them."
"There's no rush Shinji. There really isn't." Mari said soothingly. "If we run out there guns blazing without first getting all our strength back, we'll be shot before we've gone a yard. Not to mention, you can't synch with your EVA if your mental state isn't good enough. You cannot and I repeat, you cannot pilot effectively in your current frame of mind after the horrors NERV has put you through. "
"So what do you think we should do next then, Mari?"
"For now, nothing. You need to take a few days off. Don't worry Shinji. I have plans. But right now, you're in no shape to do anything."
Shinji had not noticed the sky getting darker and darker outside as his first friendly conversation in years had continued. He now knew so much he didn't before, and that in itself made things different for him in a good way.
Now his superiors in NERV could no longer catch him in the web of lies he'd spent too long for his own good trapped in.
Now he truly could begin to rebuild the world for the better with a true good friend beside him.
But he concurred with Mari's suggestion completely as a gargantuan yawn slipped uncontrollably out of his mouth. For now, he did need a break from saving the world.
Even God rested on Sunday after all.
"You should go upstairs now. Sakura's probably finished preparing the bath for you. Take your time there and then you can get ready for bed. There's a room upstairs we've reserved for you. Sakura will show you to it."
"I'll do that." Shinji's tired brain was already dancing at the prospect of finally getting his first warm wash in weeks. Asuka and Misato always used up all the limited water in their apartment which had recently restricted its water supply to save on money which it had to pay to NERV.
NERV's high prices had taken its toll on his hygiene too.
Everything was going his way today.
"Well, I guess this is goodnight then Mari."
"I guess it is, but I'll see you again tomorrow morning."
"That sounds good."
Shinji had nearly left the room to begin the luxurious ascent up the classily carpeted staircase to the next floor when Mari addressed him.
"And Shinji. One more thing which you need to know."
"Yeah?"
"Your mother, Yui isn't dead. She's still very much alive and with you. She has been all this time."
"And what exactly does that mean?" Shinji tried to ask before another mammoth sized yawn interrupted him.
"I'll explain in more detail tomorrow Shinji. But for now, you just need to know that your mother never really left you. She still loves you very much and there is a chance we can still get her back. But all that will come later."
"Um, alright then. Goodnight" Shinji yawned as he wearily lumbered out the door and up the stairs unsure of what to make of this unexpected revelation which came off as being stranger than even the other off the wall information he was still struggling to digest.
His mother died in a lab accident from what he officially heard from his NERV superiors.
And even if he was willing to believe everything else Mari had told him, he could not grasp the idea that the dead could come back to life.
But he had promised Mari he would try to believe her. Whatever Mari was trying to imply here, her intentions could be nothing less than noble. And that was all that mattered. If she believed that his mother was somewhere out there not beyond saving, he would believe it with her.
If everything else she told him was indeed true, it wouldn't come as a surprise for NERV to have once again lied to him. But his tired state was not the right mindset to try and puzzle this problem out further. The hot steam escaping from under the beautifully carved doorway before him was beckoning him and he quickly threw all his remaining questions aside as he happily opened the door.
A lovely aroma wafted through the luxuriously spacious bathroom the dirty and tired boy now found himself inside. The smell of expensive herbs reserved for only the wealthiest elites of the finest five-star resorts being placed into a perfectly heated large tub of water.
The boy felt full of life here taking in the refined odour of herbs at the perfect temperature amidst the fog of extremely calming steam. Another one of the few truly happy memories he would think back to when he was sitting crippled and bleeding in his cramped and noisy EVA trying not to be eaten alive.
"Leave your clothes on the chair Shinji. I'll take care of them for you and I'll get you some new clothes by the time you're finished." The melodious voice of Sakura Suzuhara gently instructed as she appeared from a corner of the room obscured by the steam. "We hope you enjoy your stay at the Makinami Spa. The bedroom Is just on the right next to this room."
She politely gave another one of her signature curtseys and courteously exited the room allowing Shinji to change uninterrupted. Shinji cracked a grin as he put his old and filthy clothes which had not been washed for weeks on the chair near the doorway as instructed.
Just as Mari was not another Asuka, Sakura was not another Misato. His Major would have given him no privacy as she undressed to her underwear right before his eyes not realizing the psychological damage this caused a sensitive introvert such as himself.
She'd also never have offered to do anything as kind as finally taking care of the chores in the house for a change after noticing how badly knackered his daily battles had left him.
Misato never was and never would be a replacement for his late mother Yui. This was a cold, hard fact which Shinji had tried without success many times to come to terms with and was still unable to fully accept even now as he finished placing his clothes in a neat pile on the chair and delicately lowered himself into the refreshing herb infused waters of the spacious bath allowing the perfected combination of moisture and heat to caress his injured and filthy body.
At least as many of the injuries came from Asuka's constant beatdowns against him as from his fights with the Angels.
It felt even better than he thought it would as he gently closed his eyes, as much to stop another fresh flow of joyful tears as to enjoy the hot and comfortable bath he thought he'd never get to have. This was the life. And while he had told himself that he'd stay here just one day tops, he felt this was one promise he could consider breaking if this was the excellent treatment he would be receiving here.
Asuka and Misato clearly didn't care about him enough to value his company so he would give them exactly what they asked for. He would leave them alone so they would not have to endure his presence a second longer if it caused them so much pain. They could have the entire apartment to themselves and do their own thing without him being a third wheel.
He resolutely vowed to himself as he took a few of the body cleaning fluids placed by the side of the tub and rubbed them carefully onto himself that this time, Asuka really had used up her last chance with him. He would not take her back or go back to her no matter how hard she begged or pleaded or cried.
She could say she was sorry a hundred times in a row, and he'd not buy a word of her bull anymore.
Actions spoke louder than words and Asuka's punches clearly demonstrated she did not want him around.
As an old song of his went, now that he had found a real love she would never fool him again.
Asuka had given him nothing but her utter contempt and violence while Mari and Sakura promised him the world, the galaxy and beyond.
Comparing Asuka with Mari was like comparing a black tooth full of cracks to a glistening white one without a single dent in it.
Like trying to pick between a red box with the words "STAY AWAY!" printed in bold on it and the much prettier white box next to it with "Safe" on it instead. Only an idiot would pick wrongly there and as much as Asuka liked to think he was one, he wasn't.
There was still Rei's place to determine in this equation. Rei genuinely seemed to be at least a reasonably nice person unlike Asuka and she did regard him with a soft smile during the few times they were lucky enough to meet when his father wasn't using her for his own selfish ends.
It would be unfair, thought Shinji as he sank back into the bath now that he was fully cleaned from head to toe, to put her in the same boat as the brutal German Redhead he now had no respect for.
She'd be thrown overboard by Asuka to drown before the boat had even gotten a yard from the docks.
The blue haired girl had bourn her tragic past much better than Asuka and had never insulted him the way Asuka did. That was worthy of his respect.
Whether that was enough to make her good girl friend material to him was now the question.
Before tonight he would have said yes but now, he was once again stuck at a crossroad.
And it went without saying that unlike his father, Shinji could not simply choose more than one romantic partner at a time.
A few comfortable moments later spent soaked in the bath, Shinji finally thought he had constructed the perfect mental image of Rei's position in his current life circumstances.
If Asuka represented the black and badly cracked tooth in his mouth which was doing nothing but causing him a lot of pain while doing no good whatsoever, then Rei was the slightly chipped yellow tooth between Asuka and the undamaged white tooth representing newcomer Mari Makinami.
He could chew with a slightly damaged yellow tooth but not take confident and comfortable bites as he could with a pearly white one which had never suffered wear and tear.
And if in the pile of Christmas presents some good and others bad Asuka represented the danger box of "Stay away!" and Mari the only good present given by a trustworthy friend of "Safe!", Rei could best be summarized as the suspect and mysterious grey container of "Maybe" sent to him by neither friend nor enemy but a completely anonymous third party he had never met in his life and who had never met him.
It sounded straight of a bad and cheesy movie. But "Maybe" wasn't going to cut it for Shinji in these desperate times where each day could easily be his last.
It wasn't good enough and he would be lying to even himself if he insisted that "Maybe" was better "Safe!". When every day his chances of returning from the EVA vs Angel battlefield got lower, "Maybe" was the worst word his friend let alone his partner could tell him about their relationship together even worse than "Stay away!" since at least those words were honest if nothing else.
"I'm sorry Rei, and I'm not sorry Asuka" he whispered as he finally begun to rise from the now slightly cooled lukewarm water to reach for the large towel Sakura had placed for him on a hook nearby.
"But Mari is the one for me. I can't wait any longer for either of you. Not when I might die tomorrow. I gave you both more chances than I can count and you both threw them away."
He wiped himself clean and expectantly found a fresh pair of soft and silky striped pyjamas waiting for him on the chair where he'd put his old clothes. They fit him like a second skin.
After a quick but thorough brush of his teeth which had also gone uncleaned for many days thanks to his salary cuts from NERV, he walked to the bedroom which was conveniently located just beside the bathroom he had just been in to find Sakura waiting for him on the big and colourful bed.
"Please lie down and let me give you a massage, Mr Ikari Sir." She said. "It will help relieve your stress greatly."
Usually this would be where Shinji worriedly shook his head too afraid to take off his clothes to accept something he knew would benefit him, but Sakura's earnest voice and expression gave him the necessary confidence to strip off his pyjamas leaving only his pants as he sank his now much cleaner but still very stressed and tense body into the sheets which were as exquisite as everything else in the mansion.
He said nothing as Sakura placed some cream onto her hands and begun to roll it firmly but soothingly onto his back, followed by his neck and then his shoulder. It was not necessary. The peace and contentment in his face said more than a library of books.
The tension left on him by repeated assaults both physical and verbal from Asuka as well as the standard battle scars typical of all EVA pilots made worse by his virtue of being the best pilot given the hardest part of every mission, was becoming just a faint bad memory he wasn't sure was even real in the first place.
Every rub of his skin made him feel younger. He wondered if these were the sensations a baby him would have enjoyed from his now dead loving mother.
If only he had been mature enough back, then not to take his babyhood for granted and fully savour every second knowing now what would come later.
His feet were next. Sakura proved to be as much a master paediatrician as she was a master firefighter and butler as she massaged the pressure points on Shinji's feet with uncanny skill which made him sob and sigh quietly uncontrollably in blissful euphoria.
She kept this going for the next half hour, clearly waiting for Shinji's stress level to be lowered far enough for the usually sleepless and overstressed war hero to finally fall asleep.
She knew that without this, he'd spend another night stirring and fidgeting unable to fully rest himself despite his tiredness.
It was only when the quiet sounds of Shinji's tranquil snores begun to echo that she finally stopped, put covers onto the boy who was for once in his life sleeping peacefully and gave him a gentle pat and a peck on his cheek.
A very daring and perhaps even slightly inappropriate action but Sakura could see from the emptiness in Shinji's hollow eyes even when he was content and truly happy that he hadn't been kissed or hugged enough as a child.
She needed him to know that even if his dad openly despised him and his mother could no longer be with him that there were still kindred spirits in the world who would love him the way a good parent should love their children.
"Sleep well, Shinji. We love you." She whispered before tiptoeing out the bedroom to take one final glance back at the pleasantly asleep hero of the world before silently shutting the door.
HHHHHHHHH
While the boy's expression remained peaceful and his body still, his mind was far from empty as he passed into the land of dreams.
Even asleep and not paying full attention, he knew that this was no ordinary dream from how clear the images were. It was like he was sitting in bed watching a movie play out rather than receiving a blurry set of subliminal blurs transmitted to him by a not fully conscious mind which was simply playing games with him.
He somehow in his dream managed to shake himself awake enough to pay close attention as the visage of a small and malnourished girl in a purple skirt, purple boots and a white Sailor outfit with a dark purple collar appeared before him. In her left hand she carried a comedically large glaive with a dark purple pole and a razor-sharp edge which looked like could cut steel like butter.
A dark sky illuminated by a few shining white dots surrounded them both. The cold and almost empty vacuum of Space, the final frontier.
Her short but very pretty hair seemed at first to be black but as she drew closer to him, Shinji could see it was in fact very dark purple. The same purple as a large part of her outfit.
And as the dream ended and reality begun, this mysterious girl fixed her until now downward gaze upon Shinji looking him straight on.
Her frown slowly became a respectful smile as she locked her sight upon the shocked and flabbergasted dreamer.
HHHHHHHHHHH
He briefly caught sight off a golden sphere behind her surrounded by what appeared to be a thin ring as reality finally caught him and he jolted awake.
"What was that?" he asked unable to think of a better choice of word to say to himself after this unworldly spectacle which had somehow entered his dreams.
It all felt so real despite the fact it was not real and it didn't leave him with the discomfort and muscle pains a nightmare would for he felt wide awake and refreshed despite the confusing dream he had just had.
The sky although still dark was beginning to dawn. Shinji could see that the sun was beginning to show its first rays upon the still nearly pitch-black Tokyo 3 outside the window.
He would usually at this time start his tiresome daily routine as the errand boy of the household, making breakfast and cleaning the clothes for his two ungrateful roommates and co-workers.
But jokes on them, he was not in their apartment today and thus didn't have to pick up their slack for a change.
For the first time in his life, he could perform his daily schedule his way without objection.
And the first item on his schedule was quite simply to go back to sleep until his body was fully rested.
"I wonder what that dream was about" he muttered more curious than anxious to himself as he walked back to the bed to get some more sleep before the first truly pleasant day of his miserable life fully begun. "It felt so real."
As he made his way back to bed, his eyes slid briefly past a large mirror placed near the wall by his bed.
It was still very dark but there was no mistaking that the reflection peering back from the other side of the glass was not his own.
Shinji's heart slammed as he dared himself to draw a little closer for a look.
The girl from his dreams, was there, in the mirror, LOOKING AT HIM.
And the ringed golden sphere he had only had a brief moment to see before his dream concluded was still there behind her.
It wasn't an ordinary sphere at all. It was a planet.
The planet Saturn.
Please enjoy and review. And props to James Birdsong, fictionelement77 and StraightedgeEpyon for reviewing and giving me so much encouragement. Thank you so much you guys.
