Chapter 22: The morning of comic con day.
Note: Get ready to laugh your head off.
Chief Gendo Ikari had spent the entirety of the previous evening in his money vault, counting up the night countless stacks of notes and coins he had amassed from a lifetime of extortion and thievery.
He counted and counted till he grew tired and could count no more and he drifted off to sleep on a throne made entirely out of money notes.
It was only the next morning when he would awaken to find that Rei was not in her usual bedroom.
The reaction of the grown man and CEO of the world's second largest business, would have made the spoiled one year old baby of the bespoke Kardashian family, shake their head in disbelief.
He dashed madly through every room of every last one of NERV's official buildings, screaming her name as he made a huge mess turning the furniture in each room upside down, breaking the door of a metal safe with a chainsaw when he couldn't get it open by kicking it down.
He was frothing at the mouth like he had drunk ten times his weight in coffee. The staff members unlucky enough to be in his way quickly ran for it, some of them hiding under tables or in wardrobes which did them no good when he threw open their hiding places anyway and tossed them aside when he saw they were not Rei.
"Hey chief, are you alright?" one poor soldier had tried to ask only to be shoved down a flight of stairs as the chief shouted in a deafening roar "YOU'RE NOT REI!".
The soldier fell to the floor below with several cracked ribs and multiple fatal head injuries.
"I was only trying to help" he sobbed quietly.
"Find me Rei" the chief of NERV eventually ordered in a soft but deadly voice upon reaching his desk as luckless as when he began his search. "Find her. Or I'll throw every last one of you in the torture chamber and have you killed as slowly and painfully as possible for mutiny."
"Erm. Sir. We haven't seen her. We swear, we've checked every last camera feed but there's no sign of her here." The security guard in charge of the camera's piped up only to be grabbed by the collar.
"You are going to search every last inch of the city if it's what it takes." He roared as the man in his grasp shook and shivered. "And if that's not enough, you are going to search every inch of this country. And every corner of this planet when that doesn't work. Find me, my Rei. Find her, or suffer the consequences."
He pushed the security guard backwards so forcefully that he crashed into a wall.
"Y, yes sir. Whatever you say, Mr Ikari. Just please, don't hurt me. I haven't seen her, I swear." the man sobbed as he rushed away only to be stopped by Gendo menacingly raising a hand.
"Assemble a squad of personal guard for me before you go. I'll search for her personally myself." He said as he put on the dark purple overcoat he kept on his chair.
"You are going to come back to me, Rei, you little bastard" he threatened as he gruffly stood up "You are going to do your job and unite me with my Yui."
He peered at a picture of Yui he had on his desk. "And you Yui. How dare you disobey me by leaving me like that. You are mine and mine alone. And this time, when I get you back. I will never let you go."
He had dreamed countless nights about what he would do with his wife when he eventually got her back after going so far to revive her. He would give her a warm welcome back into the world of the living, before giving her a ferocious beating so severe that she would never think to abandon him again.
And if she tried to escape after that, the maximum-security prison cell that not even his guards liked to go near, did have its uses.
The reinforced door to that cell (which could withstand a rocket launcher) had twenty separate locks each requiring a different key. And when all twenty of those locks were unlocked, there was still a twenty-digit code machine that gave anyone who inputted an incorrect code, a fatal electric shock. No one, not even Yui would be getting out of that one anytime soon. Especially with cuffed hands and in a strait jacket.
Though hopefully the beating would be enough to remind her of his eternal supremacy over her. Needless to say, that his son Shinji would have outlived his usefulness long before then.
…
It was comic con day in Tokyo 3 as the sun came up, rousing every resident inside the Makanami mansion, recently renamed the Ikari mansion in reference to its owner's new status as Chief Ikari's son's wife.
The three Ikari's and their butler Sakura had been up since the crack of dawn, busy readying their costumes in a desperate attempt to impress the others.
Each wanted to be the one with the most eye-catching appearance and yet to have an outfit true to themselves and what they stood for, for this was the true meaning of one of the few annual festivals Japan still maintained after the Impact devastated much of the world.
It was said that the one who dressed most accordingly to their inner self this day, would be rewarded with eternal bliss and cheer as long as they should live. So sayeth, the sacred church of Anime. A new but rapidly growing religion which was set to overtake Christianity and Judaism soon in the near future despite the initial flak it had gotten.
It was Mari Ikari who was first to open the door to her room. Her usual red glasses had been replaced with contact lenses so well designed, one would have to use a magnifying glass to know they were there. Her attire was surprisingly humble for one usually flamboyant.
It consisted of only a yellow blouse worn outside a plain white shirt, with a black skirt lined with a bit of white and dark leggings. Nothing that would have seemed out the ordinary in any run of the mill school.
The three remaining aspects of the outfit were what really sold its worth of the price of admission.
One was a simple white nametag on which the sentence "Hello, my name is: Mami Tomoe". The second was the red bowtie Mari wore just beneath the collar of her uniform, which despite fitting in beautifully with the rest of the her clothes, was in reality a high-tech voice modifying device which perfectly modified the tone and pitch of every word Mari spoke as long she wore it.
An invention that would have baffled the greatest minds in NERV and SEELE combined.
It's current setting: "Confident leader girl, ready to rock and roll."
The third aspect which really completed the look that perfectly expressed the full personality of confident and easily excitable Mari Ikari in her entirety, her dyed blonde hair, the two tails of which had been adjusted to curl in a spiral rather than straight.
"I love comic con day" she cheered as she strutted confidently downstairs to wait for the two remaining Ikari's to be ready. She couldn't wait to see what they chose.
Shinji was next. He had spent the past half hour obsessively looking into the mirror again and again in the hopes he had gotten everything right. After searching the entirety of Mari's very expansive costume cupboard, he had come to the conclusion that his current choice would suit him best even if it was clearly an outfit designed for a girl and not a boy.
A good thing he was not the racist and sexist bigot his dad was.
His clothing was virtually identical to Mari's in every way, down to the skirt, bowtie and nametag.
Only his short hair was dyed pink and tied into two much smaller tails by two slightly more dark toned pink bows. The writing on his nametag wrote: "Why hi there, my name is: Madoka Kaname. I only wish to make the world a better place, through any sacrifice necessary."
The sentence that clearly outlined through text, what his outfit intended to make clear about his overarching intentions in his life.
His voice setting set firmly to: "Suicidal masochist girl, determined to make a positive difference regardless"
He rubbed his head as for the last time, he headed back into his room to take a peek in the mirror at his handiwork. He never guessed he would be such a great fashion designer with how rarely he was allowed the cosmetics and body clean closet with Asuka hogging it.
It would be some time later before the until today very introverted Rei finished her preparations. As would be expected, she had the exact same school uniform like outfit.
With one difference. Rei now sported a purple pair of reading glasses which were completely unnecessary to her eyes, sharp as they were with her being an artificial human. They simply added to the motif provided by her voice setting of: Angsty bookworm of kindness level 9 quadrillion out of 100.
Her nametag had written in bold: "Homura Akemi at your service, I'm mostly harmless but harm my dear and precious friends at your own risk."
The "mostly" was underlined and written in extra bold in a fancier text.
Her waist length hair now dyed midnight black, was tied into two intricate braids which took far more work than the tails in the hair of Shinji and Mari. A very dark purple hairband made her already very out of the blue hairstyle stand out only more.
A single hair flip could cause fainting if it came from her.
For Rei as she headed down the stairs to join the two people who had become her precious family yesterday evening, she congratulated herself for being able to select an appearance that would flawlessly communicate her newfound pride in life now that she had finally been declared a sister of her beloved Shinji-kun, as well as the sheer sorrow she had felt in the years she spent separated from him as Gendo's puppet, doing evil thing she knew were evil.
She was not at all envious that it was Mari who would end up tying the knot with him. So long as it made him happy and so long as she took good care of him.
To be frank, she was sort of relieved it had ended this way. She loved Shinji but wasn't in love with him in that way. The problem wasn't so much that they weren't similar, but that they were too similar with almost identical strengths and weaknesses.
As strange as it sounded, Rei had instinctively known since their first meeting that any marriage between them could only have been short and unhappy.
Rei was graciously pleased to accept the title of "little sister" instead, gaining a big brother in Shinji and a sister in law in Mari.
She did a hair flip as she elegantly waltzed into the dining room where Shinji and Mari in their costumes were already seated. She was getting rather good at making a grand entrance and it was becoming a hobby of hers.
Shinji had been able to keep his nose dry from her previous makeover, but nothing could protect him this time from Rei's radiant beauty as red begun to leak from the gaps of the hands, he used to cover the two holes in his nose.
"Good morning, starshine. The Earth says hello." Mari greeted in his place, beckoning for Rei to sit in the seat right next to Shinji at the round table they would be dining at.
The circular shape emphasizing that in this family and household, none would have precedence and all opinions were welcome.
"Um, hello Mari." Rei begun only to quickly be interrupted as Mari shook her head in a slightly amused manner, stroking the blonde spiral tails in her hair.
"For today, you will address me as Mami Tomoe, senior magical girl." she giggled.
"And you shall refer to me as Homura Akemi. Most powerful magic girl to ever walk this Earth." Rei quickly replied, giggling as well. "As well as the only one to beat you once in a fight, fair and square."
"Which makes me Madoka Kaname." Shinji added also in his modified voice, now that his nose was beginning to stabilize a little.
"Shall we go to the outdoor festival today, girls?" the so called Mami asked after they had finished a scrumptious breakfast of sausage, baguette, olives and fromage. "It will be a spectacular event with a lot of people and fun."
"I would like that very much." Homura immediately answered.
"As would I" Madoka shyly but eagerly agreed.
"Then what are we waiting for. Let's go already. We're going to miss the best part of it if we don't hurry." Mami shrieked as she leapt up and headed towards the door with her two companions and new family members following closely behind, Homura leaning on Madoka's shoulder.
This would be the best first family trip that the world had seen in an age.
…
Misato woke up feeling even groggier than usual. "I must have overdone the drinking last night" she nonchalantly mused to herself as she then tried without success to stand. It was then that she begun to realize that her hands were tied behind her back and her legs were also bound tightly together by very thick and sturdy rope.
She felt a slight searing pain in her left shoulder with each movement she made, as if something sharp had pierced her skin there.
This odd sensation only added to her alarm further as her vision cleared to reveal that this wasn't even her apartment. She had been moved during her sleep.
The one explanation she could think off, was that all this was the doing of a petty but sizeable group of hippies who called themselves "WILLE".
Who claimed to stand against everything NERV and SEELE stood for and had the audacity to accuse them of being the ones to cause the Impact as well as already planning to cause another one.
But even as that thought passed her mind, Misato still felt something was wrong. This room was too tidy and felt too lived in to be simply another generic prison. The rug spread on the floor in front of her was too well arranged. There were pots and pans on a counter next to a sink, visible in a room that Misato could see but couldn't reach.
There were pictures on the wall and on a mantle not far from her. One of them was a photograph of two smiling brown-haired women with a cool and scholarly gleam in their eyes.
The eyes of the Akagi's.
Memories of last night begun to come back to the purple haired Major of NERV, first in a trickle and then a flood. Memories of a sternly frowning Ritsuko looking at her with disgust as her vision dimmed and she blacked out as a sharp object lodged itself through her skin from behind.
Unable to free herself after repeated attempts hindered by her alcohol atrophied muscles which had progressively weakened over years of irresponsible drinking, Misato took to screaming as loudly as she could. Hopefully someone else in this building would hear her plight and have it in them to rescue a high-ranking officer of a respectable organisation that kept them safe.
"That won't work, Misato" she heard an all too familiar voice of shrewdness sound from a room nearby.
"I soundproofed the walls and severed the door intercom system so that no one would hear you."
"Ritsu? What do you mean? What is happening?" Misato asked in sheer bewilderment as a complete stranger clad in a yellow blouse, white shirt and black and white skirt stepped into the room.
"Feel free to shout as loudly as you like. No one will come for you." The woman quipped as she stroked her long, purple-pink hair. Though her voice was slightly different, Misato could still tell that this was undeniably Ritsuko even if she was speaking through a voice modification device.
As Ritsuko stepped a little closer, pleased with how her hair growth formula which had until recently been a failed prototype had turned out well after all with a few tweaks, Misato could see that she was also wearing a white nametag.
It read: "What up, You can call me: Kyoko Sakura. I'm hip and sassy. Woohoo."
What Misato did not see was that the setting on her voice modification bowtie had been set to: Coolest hipster tomboy to have ever lived.
"Why are you dressed like that?" Misato could not help but ask despite her usual no-nonsense attitude beckoning for her to escape as soon as possible so that she could arrive at work in a timely fashion expected of her.
"It's comic-con day. You can wear whatever you want as long as it suits you. Do you like it?" Ritsuko nonchalantly stated, crossing her arms.
"Let me go right now, Ritsuko. This isn't funny."
"Err. I know this seems like an odd thing to ask of you, but for the sake of today being comic-con, can you call me Kyoko? I'd appreciate it."
Misato's face got redder as she rocked about helplessly in the black armchair she had been placed upon. "Fine. Ritsuko. Kyoko. Whatever. When I get out of here, I'm going to grind you into chum. Now, get me out of here."
"I'm afraid I can't do that. The way you've been treating your adoptive son like he's nothing more than a slave and a punching bag, disgusts me. Do you not see what poor Shinji has had to go through all these years? All the struggles he already faces on the battlefield fighting Angels in his EVA? And you never once thought to cut him some slack, or at the very least, do your duty as a Major properly and punish Asuka for assaulting a fellow pilot, which is one of the most important laws of NERV?"
Misato opened her mouth to complain hotly but Kyoko wasn't done with her disparaging admonishment yet.
"All you care about Misato, is who you can assert your dominance over. You're perfectly happy to take all your negative emotions on soft and kind Shinji, and you let Asuka's worst actions slide just like that?
And you didn't even have the guts to acknowledge how useless you were as a guardian and give Shinji to a more caring home when you had the chance. Well now, you have no choice. Now, you're going to stay here and think about what you've done while Shinji gets sent somewhere where he can receive the better treatment he deserves."
Misato said nothing. Every one of Ritsuko, err Kyoko's points hit bullseye. Not a single word was made up. Despite her remaining anger at being kidnapped, she was beginning to look shamefaced.
"I'm only doing this so that Shinji can be moved to another home." Kyoko explained, still smoothing her long adorable hair. "I can't let you go until Gendo agrees to transfer Shinji after he declares you missing. I have to go now, but I'll stop by after work. Until then, my good friend Sayaka, Maya to you, will take good care of you. I'm sorry, but this has to be done."
Taking her white lab coat from a hanger on the wall, Kyoko began to head towards the door. She paused upon turning the handle to open the door to leave.
"Oh and Misato. Maya takes comic-con day really seriously. Even more seriously than I do. So remember, she won't answer to Maya today. You need to refer to her as Sayaka."
Misato only sighed in defeat.
"Sayaka." Kyoko called into the room. "Make sure our guest is well treated during her stay here. You know what Homura will do to us if she isn't."
To which another voice cheerfully replied. "You got it, Senpai. Excellent treatment and nothing less."
"Well then" concluded Kyoko after a quick glance at the clock on the wall. "I have to go. Enjoy your stay in the paradise prison, Misato." And with that, the chief scientist of NERV left the room, the door quickly shutting behind her.
The second Kyoko's footsteps had finally died away, "Sayaka" waltzed giddily into the room. Misato had to admit that Maya looked pretty neat in a French maid outfit of black and white with her short hair painted the same pale blue as Rei's.
Though she could not see it, Misato could tell from the way Maya was talking that her voice setting had been set to: "Completely calm."
The interesting message on her nametag reading. "I'm Sayaka. It's nice to meet you. I love meeting new friends."
"Can I get you anything to eat or drink?" she politely asked the still tied up Misato.
"Let me go, Maya…" Misato started only to cower back in terror when usually soft-spoken Maya shouted at a volume that could shatter glass. "MAYA'S NOT HERE! ONLY SAYAKA!".
Misato had to tremble in silence for a few seconds to recover from that sudden tirade.
"Well then, let me go Sayaka. I need to go to work and get on with my life."
"I'll untie you when I can trust that you won't try to escape." Sayaka replied, dropping a bow as she did.
"And if you do try to escape at any time…" Here she took out what to Misato was the worst torture device ever to exist in the known world. Worse than the gas chambers that the Germans used to gas prisoners of war. Worse than the stretching machine used in medieval ages to stretch a convict's limbs till they snapped. Worse than every known toxin used by the most cold-blooded interrogators to exact information from captured spies, combined together.
A long wooden pole, with a feather attached to the end. A very fluffy and feathery white feather, which Sayaka put to Misato's exposed skin and begun to lightly brush against it.
"Ha ha. Stop. Ha. I can't take it. Please stop." The Major pleaded as she convulsed while laughing uncontrollably. "Okay, I'll be good. Ha ha. Just stop."
"I'm glad we understand each other." Sayaka agreed as she took the feather away. "So can I get you anything to eat and drink in the meantime?"
"Some beer would be nice, and a nice seafood noodle soup would hit the spot too."
"You have very particular tastes my friend, but I will get that started for you. Until then don't go anywhere." The blue haired maid teasingly stated as she disappeared into the kitchen.
Misato was left alone to reflect on the confusing mess of emotions now pulsing through her mind.
Perhaps she had been a little harsh on Shinji after all. After all, for Ritsuko and Maya to conspire together against her would have taken something to make them very enraged.
Maybe it was her who was the traitor after all, and not Ritsuko or Maya. Their words did make it clear that they had nothing against her but everything for Shinji.
And maybe it was time that she started taking her duties of giving discipline to only those who deserved it, more seriously.
"When I get my hands on you Asuka, expect no mercy." Misato said to herself in spite of everything.
…
"Can I ask you a question, Asuka?" Kaworu asked the very instant a yawning and stiff-eyed Asuka lumbered out of the bath, still only in a bath towel.
"What is it?"
"Why are you so evil, Asuka?"
"W, what" Asuka stammered incredulously . "I'm not evil. I do lots of good things. I keep the world safe with my piloting skills and I risk my life on a day to day basis."
"Perhaps so. But that doesn't excuse your sadistic behaviour behind closed doors. It doesn't change the fact that you chose to attack a completely defenceless friend while taking advantage of his feelings for you. What do you have to say for yourself about the way you've abused poor Shinji all these years?"
Kaworu didn't raise his voice but his voice was still pure venom. It was clear that were he one bit less of a pacifist, he would be swinging his fist into Asuka repeatedly by this point.
Asuka swore she could hear the theme tune of Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice playing in the background as sweat ran down her forehead and she gulped nervously.
This was the point where she was completely cornered with little hope of escape. Curse you, Rei.
"Well, I didn't have it easy you know" she spat, trying any means possible to stall for time. "I had a bad childhood. My dad killed my mum and left me all alone. It's not as if I could help Shinji even if I wanted to."
"But Mari had a bad childhood too" Kaworu pointed out. "She grew up starving in poverty, barely living from one day to the next. She never even got to know her mum since she lost her mum when she was born. And then she had to do nothing as watch as her dad was killed right in front of her, and she barely got away alive herself. And I didn't have it easy either. I also had to do nothing and watch as both my parents were eaten alive by an Angel which then proceeded to eat the village that I grew up in with all my loved ones in it. Do you think that was pleasant for me, Asuka?"
"Not exactly, but…"
"But I don't go around beating nice and decent people up simply because I feel like it. I at least try to make peace with my past and look for friends who can help me get through it all, and who I can help as well. The past is done, Asuka. Time never looks back. And the sooner you, NERV and SEELE realize that, the sooner we can really begin to rebuild the world as it was."
"I'm a good person" Asuka weakly tried to protest. "I do good things. I do"
"You do good things for those you protect with your EVA. I will admit that. But as for what you've done to Shinji, I'll leave you with just one question. How would you feel if someone did those things to you?"
"I've given him a lot of things." Asuka was grasping at straws now, as her voice got weaker and weaker and she begun to shiver despite the high temperature the heating in the room had been set to and the fact she had just come out of a steaming hot bath. "I've given, I've given the world a lot of things."
"But you don't give in" Kaworu wisely explained. "And that's not how the world works. The world began to improve when the first two human's became friends and agreed to work together to ensure a better future for them both. It is the reason man no longer needs to evolve any more. Not because they've hit an evolution barrier, as SEELE insists they have."
Kaworu took a look at the clock on the wall.
"I have to head out now. But I'll leave you with a card to my room so you can go in and out as you wish. As well as one more thing for you to think about."
He cocked his head slightly as he looked the German straight in the eyes.
"The harsh truth of life, that those who fight alone, die alone. And the only way we can win this war, is with your help. If you can't even put aside your differences with Shinji, then you'll have no future either. We'll all die together, and it'll be all your fault. And we'll be sure to remind you of it when we take our last breaths."
He placed the card in question on a nightstand, along with some money before silently leaving the room, not even bothering to close the door behind him.
This time, Asuka did not cry. She had used up all the tears in her eyes staying up all night in self-pity.
Instead for the first time in her life, she sat in silent contemplation the way she often saw Shinji do so, thinking deeply about all the things Kaworu had told her.
He was right. Of course, he was right. Even from a pragmatic point of view, her mistreatment of Shinji was what was causing them bitter defeats that could have easily been valuable victories.
Even saying the words "I like you Shinji" could have gone a long way in making her and everyone else's life easier.
She could think of countless times her actions had made Shinji cry, but not one time where Shinji's did not make her smile.
The blood ran cold in her veins as without rhyme or reason, the girl still wrapped in only a bath towel staggered back to the bathroom and began to look at herself in the mirror.
She was having a nervous breakdown.
Her reflection transformed into that of Shinji staring upon her in great fury. "Ugly" she heard his voice mockingly intone. "You really are the ugliest thing I've ever had the misfortune to see in my life."
And then the reflection changed back into her own, except that the Asuka in the mirror was covered head to toe in streaking blood.
It leered at the now truly regretful and repentant Asuka, revealing a razor-sharp row of teeth.
It was the killing blow for Asuka's now completely shattered psyche.
Her hands instinctively closed upon an object on a shelf in front of her. A keen pair of scissors.
Now with instinct in complete control of her body instead of her brain, Asuka brought the scissors to the long and attractive red hair that she spent an hour every day grooming to perfection, melding it into the priceless commodity that made her the eye candy of her school, whose milkshake brought all the boys to the yard.
First a snip.
Then a clip.
Snip, clip, snip, clip.
Such a lovely rhythm. How she loved the constantly repeating pattern. She just had to do it a little more.
A snip, then a clip, then another snip, and another clip.
She began to laugh crazily as she continued to cut away at her hair, which she once hit Shinji over when he had slipped while carrying too many dishes, causing a teeny tiny drop of sauce to go onto her head.
It was the aspect of herself that a perfectionist spent the most time perfecting.
And now it had to go. It just had to. No reason, no justification and no excuses. It had to go. She didn't deserve it.
Rei had chosen to grow her hair out longer instead. Heh, another way in which they were polar opposites. This was Rei's reward and her punishment.
The bathroom floor and sink would be covered with strands of red by the time Asuka regained enough control of herself enough to stop cutting. Her hair would be just slightly longer than that of Shinji's, giving her a much more innocent and nonthreatening appearance, which would make the more perceptive kids who had once ran away from her on sight, want to come near her as often as possible.
It would make Shinji rethink everything he had known about his violent and abusive roommate, but nothing would make him forget the cruel things she had done to him. Nothing.
…
And as the three Ikari's in their costumes, arrived just in time for the huge festival in the park, Homura Akemi's last wish had been finally granted. She was spending time side by side with Madoka, as the best of friends.
…
Author notes: Don't really know what to say here. But special thanks to fictionelement777, StraightEdgepyon and Darkscythe Drake and my other reviewers for reviewing. Please keep the reviews and favs coming if you wish to support me and thank you guys all for reading. I love you all so, so much.
And stay tuned for the next chapter which should come soon.
Bye for now!
