Creation began on 08-11-18
Creation ended on 01-24-19
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Beast adapts
The Third Child didn't show up for synchronization testing. While this was bad for NERV, it made them suspicious as to why the boy didn't show up. Security was sent to his quarters…and found a note that read, "Yuki-Onna and I have left to learn how to teach her to fight back."
"He skips training just to teach his pet dinosaur how to fight?" Ritsuko questions while in the testing chamber monitoring the First Child's synchronization.
"That seems to be the case right now," said Misato to her. "Section Two is searching the city for them right now."
"And what happens when they find them?"
"They're just to find them, not interfere with whatever they're doing."
"Commander Ikari will have my ass if this becomes a habit of theirs."
"At this point, he should probably be reminded that he approached his son with piloting the Eva, not the other way around. He didn't give Shinji a choice, but Shinji found his own loophole in this obligation. So long as Yuki-Onna is allowed to stay with him, he'll put up with piloting the Eva until we find another pilot to replace him. After that, he walks away from this, and he takes the creature with him."
"Well, finding a pilot here will be difficult; half the personnel here have families, and they don't want their kids anywhere near the creature. One worker even said that he wouldn't let his daughters out on the streets knowing that it was loose, even if it had all of its shots."
"What about pilots from overseas?"
"All we have is the Second Child, and she's still in transit."
"Will anything straighten out after we get her and Unit-02?"
"Not likely. Commander Ikari wants three-four pilots available, so we'll need a Fifth Child to go along with a Fourth Child."
"It's not like we can just bribe Shinji to stay if he hates his old man and would rather have nothing to do with our mission to deal with the Angels."
"I doubt that we could even bribe him at all…not that I'm willing to try."
"No disrespect, Dr. Akagi, Captain Katsuragi," went Maya to her superiors as she turned away from the console monitoring the albino girl, "but many of the personnel here would rather take their chances with finding a replacement pilot for the Eva as fast as possible and remove the boy and his dinosaur from the base rather than see them both around for the long run."
"Et tu, Ibuki?" Ritsuko asked her.
"People are afraid of her, either wanting her dead or in a cage."
-x-
Despite the fact that the city was playing host to a dinosaur for the time being, it didn't stop some elders from performing Tai Chi in the park, something Shinji and Yuki-Onna took notice of as the former was showing the latter some of the basics regarding self-defense.
"Watch them carefully, Yuki-Onna," he told her, pointing to the elders.
"Watching," she responded, taking in the sight of the elders as they swayed their arms and legs on the ground.
"You have claws, fangs and a tail, but you're more than the sum of your body parts. You can think in ways that an animal couldn't. You can use punches and kicks, grab things to use as weapons, use your tail to trip an adversary, climb walls to escape from danger, hide in places others wouldn't think to look and whatever else you can do when you use your mind."
Yuki-Onna nodded her head and they continued to watch the elders until Shinji led her to the lake for their own practice.
"I'm not a person that has ever fought against anyone before those two giants that required the Eva, but I've seen how fighting happens on television, and not many people are adherent to any rules regarding self-defense," he explained to her. "There are different styles of fighting, both subtle and aggressive. Some styles that don't require you to raise a fist at all and some that prefer the use of physical force or a weapon. There are even some styles that resemble dancing, like capoeira or Tai Chi. Are you ready?"
"Ready," she responded, and then watched Shinji sway his arms around as he moved around her in a circle.
"You try," he instructed her. "Do as I do."
Yuki-Onna raised her arms up and began imitating Shinji, keeping her legs spread out and even so that she didn't trip or bump into him.
"This would likely be seen as subtle, for when you don't want to hurt anyone," she heard him say to her, seeing his hands close into fists, "and this is rough, for when you have to forceful with someone that doesn't want to resolve conflict peacefully. You must be quick and as precise as possible when you choose to hit them."
Shinji punched the air with aggressiveness, followed by kicking it with the same force.
Yuki-Onna imitated his moves and found that, just by kicking the air, her legs would probably need more work to land kicks properly.
"Sometimes, one hit is all it takes for someone to back off," he told her, "but it'll depend upon where you hit them…and how hard you hit them. Hit them in the right spot on their bodies, with the right amount of force…and they'll remember how much it hurts to have experienced the pain…and they'll most likely not want to endure it again. If it becomes necessary, you hit the person attacking you in the shoulders, the knees, forearms, back, or chest if they're available to be assaulted. You may even hit them in the groin or rear end, too."
"Hmm!" Yuki-Onna grunted as she memorized Shinji's lessons to her…and then realized something on her own in the process. "Want friend to do something for me."
"What is it?"
"Want friend…to hit me."
"What?! Yuki-Onna, I…I can't hit you. I don't want to hit you."
"Friend must hit me. Remember pain…to adapt."
Shinji raised his right hand into a fist, but hesitated from wanting to do as she asked of him.
"Yuki-Onna…you know that you can kill me, right?" He asked her.
"I won't hurt you," she told him, lowering her head to him. "I want you to hit me…as hard as you can."
Pulling his fist back, Shinji still hesitated from doing what Yuki-Onna asked of him.
"No hard feelings after this, right?" He asked her.
"No…hard…feelings," she responded.
Then…Shinji swung his fist at her head, hitting her on the right side, hitting her with more force than he dared to unleash upon her, watching it snap back.
"Aaaaurgh!" She cried, baring her fangs at him, snarling. "Thank you."
Then, probably because it wasn't really personal, she shoved him back lightly with her head.
"Even Steven," she told him.
"Ah-heh-heh," he chuckled. "Yeah, we're even Steven now."
-x-
"…He's teaching her how to fight," Ritsuko informed Gendo in his office after Section Two reported to her and Misato that they found the Third Child and Riptor at the park.
"Since it was attacked once before, it's natural to want to know how to defend oneself from future assaults," Gendo responded.
"Except now he's learning with her," she explained. "She told him that he should also learn to defend himself from people he doesn't like. Section Two reported that she mentioned you being among those that he didn't like."
"He knows better than to try and assault me."
"Does he?"
Gendo didn't respond to this question; he didn't expect the boy to try anything with him.
-x-
"…I can't believe I agreed to meet each of you a second time," Sabrewulf told Jago, Orchid and Hisako as they met with him in his hotel suite; as an aged member of the aristocratic society, he still had access to tremendous wealth that allowed the former werewolf to be entitled to luxury that he couldn't have during his reclusive exile.
"You know, it's easy to get in these buildings and do whatever," said Orchid to him, sitting in an armchair. "Also, if what Hisako says is true, then what Jago and I agreed to consider may be our only solution at a time like this."
"You want us all to work together to overcome and survive what is to come? And if what the ghost girl said is true, you're likely going to have one issue with that idea."
"We know," went Jago, standing against a wall by the window. "Are you sure of this, Hisako?"
Hovering above the bed in the suite, Hisako, radiating an aura of coldness from her ghostly being as she held her father's naginata, looked at the three and uttered, "The restless source of darkness that dwells within this godless city calls upon every shadow to its abyss. To cut it down, we must be of the light…and we need to be allied with the one born of nature…and damned by science."
"Meaning we need the Riptor," Orchid stated.
"Oh, you mean the very same Riptor that escaped with that kid you saw it with when you two attacked it?" Sabrewulf questioned. "I doubt that it's willing to side with you after attacking it and almost killing it."
"If we need the hybrid, then we need the hybrid," said Jago. "Nobody said that getting it to help us would be easy. Do you ever think you'll turn back into a werewolf sometime?"
Sabrewulf frowned as the thought never escaped his conscious. Ever since he took the cure Ultratech possessed and restored him of his humanity, he savored his freedom that came with it with every fiber of his being. If he ever turned back into that animal that consumed a little more of his soul every now and then, he feared he'd be nothing more than the very animal that had once damned him on the inside worse than it did on the outside.
"If you can recruit the dinosaur, then that will be one less beast to worry about," he told Jago, making no hint that, despite his age, he was bitter over the very thought of becoming a werewolf all over again was something he never wanted to discuss with anyone.
"If this darkness is allowed to grow any bigger, both in strength and influence," went Hisako, "then all of our demons will manifest to undo all that we were…and all that we could be."
-x-
The shopkeeper was pissing his pants right this minute, seeing the dinosaur in his store, looking at the merchandise on the shelves.
Some of the people also in the store were scared because of its presence, wondering why it was there and why it hadn't tried to eat any of them yet.
Yuki-Onna could smell their fear and tension, but paid them no mind. They weren't really bothering her and she wasn't trying to bother them.
"What is this?" She spoke, earning some fright from the people when the boy that walked in with her came over and examined the item she pointed her right claw at.
"That…is miso soup," Shinji answered her.
"Can I have this?"
"It shouldn't be an issue."
"I have been getting stared at by people just because I walked in here with you."
"If they want to make a big deal of the way you look, which is ridiculous of them to do so, I'm pretty sure they can't charge you with disturbing the peace just because you don't look like them. And miso's a good choice. It's healthy."
They walked toward the shopkeeper, who was beginning to soil his pants.
"Um, you just want the miso soup, you two?" He asked them.
Yuki-Onna bowed her head.
"Yes, please," Shinji told the guy, paying for the item. "Thank you."
As they walked out, Yuki-Onna turned to face the patrons and shopkeeper.
"Uh…don't do drugs," she told them and left.
Shinji chuckled as he shook his head.
"You're getting smarter, girl," he praised her.
-x-
"…I doubt this was to prove a point that she was harmless, Ikari," Fuyutsuki told Gendo, observing the footage of the minor incident at the convenience store where Shinji and Yuki-Onna were. "The creature never left his side once or even spoke to anyone else there…except for when she left with him after buying only one thing."
"Now, people are going to be further on edge because of its presence in the city," Gendo stated what he believed to be an obvious fact. "It will drive them away and NERV will be questioned over this inconvenience that should've been resolved a long time ago."
"You would call it an inconvenience…while some would probably call it time spent between a boy…and his hybrid dinosaur that he calls a friend."
"How long before the Third Child attends the school to resume his education?" Gendo asked him, changing the subject a little bit.
"The day after tomorrow," Fuyutsuki answered. "You think she'll follow him there?"
"NERV needs to reassert control over the matter and regain the public's faith."
Yet, you make it sound as though you're willing to cross the line your son set when it comes to Yuki-Onna, Fuyutsuki thought as he got the feeling that Gendo was up to something that would make the rift between father and son progress further into irrefutable strain. He has no faith in any of us…and if we cause something to happen to his friend, they'd both be right to hold us accountable for our involvement.
-x-
"That…was a mistake," Shinji and Yuki-Onna heard the man say to someone else in the old film trailer after a narrator said that whoever this Romeo person was had to die, followed by action scenes related to the film in question on television.
"Ro…me…o," Yuki-Onna said, trying to pronounce the man's name. "Rome…o… Romeo."
"That's right," Shinji praised her. "His name is Romeo."
"Romeo…lives."
"Not in an old story, but in some versions that don't really relate to the story, he and Juliet survive and move on."
"Who is…Juliet?"
"Juliet is the girlfriend, and later wife, of Romeo."
"Romeo's…mate?"
"Uh, yeah, that's who she is."
"Friend have mate?"
That was a personal question, and one Shinji felt he needed to answer for Yuki-Onna, who was curious about anything that pertained to him. And it was really the first time anyone ever bothered to ask if he had someone in his life.
"No, Yuki-Onna," he answered her, "I don't have a mate. I doubt that I ever will. But it's okay, really. I don't really…think of anyone like that."
"Friend…should have one like that one day. Friend deserves to be happy."
"Friend would be okay if you could say my name just once. I appreciate it when you call me a friend, but you can also call me Shinji. That way, we'll always know how to find one another."
"Friend… Shinji… Friend…first friend…only friend… Best friend, Shinji is."
Shinji smiled at hearing her say this. To be viewed as her best friend, even if he was her only friend, made sense to him if he was the only one to actually spend his time with her, to not see her as some sort of monster or an experiment gone wrong.
"You're my best friend, too, Yuki-Onna," he told her, meaning every word spoken.
-x-
"The MAGI found something else that relates to Ultratech," Ritsuko informed Gendo that evening in his office. "They weren't just tinkering with science and toying with nature in unethical ways like with their Riptor Project. According to some old rumors that still circle the Net, this old corporation also supported a select clientele with a form of entertainment meant to serve as a way to test their products and people's reactions to them."
"What sort of entertainment?" Gendo asked her.
"An underground, no-holds-barred tournament they called Killer Instinct or KI for short," she answered him. "It was during the early-nineties, before they went out of business. They attracted a lot of people from across the world to participate, some from places considered so extreme or unremarkable that nobody would ever think of visiting, even appealing to certain individuals that were either desperate or lost causes."
"They attracted the worst of humanity."
"More like everyone the rest of the world overlooked. Mercenaries, assassins, people with rare diseases, contract killers, gangsters, former celebrities, etc. The best of the best and worst, the incurable, the despised, the discarded, people that had potential for greatness, but were unable to show it. Here is a list of people that participated in the tournament along with the products Ultratech used the tournament to test for flaws."
Ritsuko handed Gendo a printout of the list of former participants from the KI tournament and he read the names to himself. While there were dozens of people that joined, only a handful of them ever survived it. Many of their names were marked out as deceased, either as a result of the tournament…or as a result of Second Impact, with at least two names marked differently to indicate that they were unknown, but were confirmed to be alive.
"Who is this man?" He asked Ritsuko, pointing to a name from one of the only participants that were still alive. "Tyler-Johnson Garrett."
"He's a former boxing champion from America," she revealed. "He once had a relationship with Ultratech when they helped him to rise above the ranks of his impoverished life to fame and fortune by giving cybernetic implants in his arms. When he refused to throw a match for them, they severed their relationship with him and outed him to the world. He lost his fame and fortune, but they called him back to join the tournament. If he could win it, they would restore his lost title and everything that came with it. It's unsure if he did win, but since Second Impact and its aftermath recovery period, there has been an increase in the number of people in America learning boxing and MMA from the man they know only by his nickname, Combo."
"Was it ever mentioned if he fought anything like this Riptor creature?"
"If he did, he didn't tell anyone about it. Likely, he was sworn to secrecy about it or he chose not to disclose this part of his past to anyone."
Ring! Gendo's desk phone rang and he answered it.
"What is it?" He demanded. "Where is the Third Child? Is he in one piece? Keep me informed."
When he hung up, he looked at Ritsuko, who was curious as to what was going on.
"Ten minutes ago, the Riptor vacated the residence of the Third Child and left out onto NERV grounds," he informed her, "where it is, apparently, practicing martial arts by itself."
"In what condition is the Third Child in?" She asked him.
"Security reported that he was asleep and unharmed."
"Maybe she didn't want to disturb him as he slept and wanted to train on her own before turning in for the night herself."
-x-
Despite her body not being designed for human-based combat, Yuki-Onna, with encouragement from Shinji, refused to let the side of her that was the animal get the best of her. From watching old films that involved fighting to watching Shinji move his arms and legs, the hybrid found motivation to make her own body move in a similar fashion as these…martial artists that were revered among the people of the past and present in order to protect herself and Shinji from future threats. She shifted her weight from right to left as she swung her arms in the air and jumped quickly on her feet, keeping her steps light, even striking a nearby tree as a sparring dummy to harden her claws.
"When you're able to fight back to defend yourself and others," she recalled Shinji's words in her head, "you become someone others can look up to, no matter who or what you are…or were. And when you can stand up to your tormentors however you can, they can no longer torment you…and you can escape from the demons of your past."
And there was no denying it; Yuki-Onna, being what she was as a result being created in a lab by whoever it was that made her and those like her, had her personal demons that were always lingering when she stopped to actually think about her past. Being a person of two different races, but unable to belong to either without retreating back to the other, she found her only solace being Shinji treating her like a person, a human, and not a beast, a thing. If she could be treated like that with him, she wanted to believe in something that only applied to humans, since she herself was half human, and that was hoping she could be more than just a hybrid. What was the point of making her like this if she was going to desire what wasn't intended for her to desire? Why did her creators make her like this if she didn't live up to their expectations?
"Why was I made?" She and Shinji heard this girl say on a commercial he showed her on the Internet. "Who made me? And what did they make me for?"
She felt the same way when she was able to think about it because of Shinji; she wanted to know who made her and for what reason.
-x-
Being an exception to the wandering damned, Hisako looked down at the city below her bare feet as she sensed the unrest growing stronger in the shadows of the night.
"It won't be long before the unrest is strong enough to spill out into the daylight," she told herself. "It's difficult to track this evil when it's spread across the entire city, like a plague that only started days ago."
"Aaaahh!" She heard a woman scream down below, and flew towards the source.
But when she arrived to a back alley, she was too late; the woman and two small children were already dead.
"I fear the signs of this restless evil are already beginning to make themselves known," she sighed, looking at the woman she assumed was the mother of the two boys and wondered what could've killed them. "Wait a minute… Something…old was here."
"Hey, you," She turned around and saw a policeman shining a light at her. "Put your hands up! Drop your weapon! I'll shoot you!"
Hisako instead vanished from his sight; whatever killed these three, she would have to find out later, but she knew one thing was for certain: They now needed the Riptor creature among their numbers more than ever if they were to stand a chance against whatever was now in the city.
To be continued…
A/N: Sorry to do this you guys, but I need to challenge your imagination. Who or what do you think committed a kill against a woman and two boys? And what can you think of that inspired the small moments with Yuki-Onna learning to fight from Shinji and her questioning of her own existence? Read and review. Peace.