Soft Is (Not) Weak

by BardInTheForest

(Pax Ikari vol IIIS) Shinji, during the Evangelion story, comes across a woman that has different ideas regarding his potential and his current living situation. While navigating the trials of standing on the cusp of adulthood, the fight against the Angels, and his first year in a public school, he will be forced to find his place in the broader universe.

8. Chapter 8

+++++ NERV Tokyo-3. +3

What had been introduced to him as a 'plugsuit' had become the center of a number of reactions. Sasami, as she tended to, had simply smiled encouragingly and told him that he looked just like a heroic pilot should. Maya, as he began to become aware of, had started to fuss over the particulars to ensure that future productions would fit more comfortably and give proper cushioning to prevent injuries. The interplay between Misato and Ritsuko had confused him the most, though, as the dyed-blonde scientist gave Misato a significant look leading to Misato approaching him and taking a closer look. A discussion of food, and how much he should be eating, followed. The previous day's trip had given him something to add to the discussion, and the foods he commented on enjoying the most earned good acclaim from his Tactical Commander as things that would 'put some meat on him'.

Now that he was inside of Unit-01 again, waiting for the enormous machine to be brought to life for the 'activation test' as it had been called, he noticed something specific that he decided he should bring up, "Ritsuko-sensei…why does this taste like blood?"

"The chemical solution we're using is designed to bond to your red blood cells in a way that helps them transfer the necessary oxygen through your body. It tastes like blood because the same compounds found in your blood are in the LCL itself." Ritsuko did not seem outwardly fazed or annoyed at the question, quite to the contrary she seemed happy that he was interacting of his own volition. "I know it's not the greatest thing to sit in, but the last thing we want to do is add in artificial ingredients to improve the taste without knowing what that might do over the long term to your lungs, your throat, your sinuses, all of the squishy stuff inside you that is normally protected from those ingredients by your skin and by not breathing in liquid."

Chiming in as well, Misato teased gently, "Wouldn't do us a whole lot of good to kill the savior of humanity with misguided kindness now, would it?"

Shinji nodded eagerly. "Yes, please don't do that. I can't keep people safe if I die or get sick."

"Which is why we're going to fix your diet, Shinji-kun," Maya added. "We're at the threshold, senpai. Waiting on your go."

"Ok, Shinji, just like the first time I need you to sit back and relax. We have all the time we need to take this slow, and we won't be actually deploying you anywhere. Just sit back, think happy thoughts, and let us get a baseline on your psychograph." Ritsuko waited for him to nod in understanding, then gave him a wink. "Ok, Maya-kun, flip the switch."

Tingling in the back of his brain told him that the machine's brain had made contact. A brief flash of white washed his vision clean of anything but the overwhelming sense of…wrongness. Questions were asked, and answered, in a manner that predated the spoken word. How had he come by the scars? How had he come by the broken bones? Why did he believe himself to be worthless? Why had he not been given instruction in battle? In poetry? In science? Why had someone attempted to kill him? Each query was answered so quickly that the next piled on top of the first before he could verbalize the reply to himself. Pure thought moved faster than human speech, and Shinji began to have a headache from the effort of keeping up with the beast.

Strands of emotions he had long forgotten were ripped to the surface of his ocean. Anger at the inhumanity of his life. Grief at the knowledge that he would never be more than a 'thing' to anyone. Despair at the unwavering truth that his life would never be without pain. A gyre of negativity swelled into a maelstrom of fury, wresting control of his conscious mind from him and setting alarms throughout the facility to screaming that any who could hear the alarm did not have long left to live.

+++++ NERV Tokyo-3, Gendo's office. +3

Minaho scowled at the alarm, the pulsing red light mixing with an automated feminine voice intoning, "ALERT. ALERT. ALERT. CODE ONE, SIX, TWO, SEVEN. ALERT. ALERT. ALERT. CODE ONE, SIX, TWO, SEVEN. ALERT. ALERT. ALERT."

Unlike her stoic companion, Washu tried to make sense of what she was feeling coming from several hundred meters to their southwest. "Use very few words," she directed to Gendo, "and tell me what that code is."

"Matthew, Sixteen-Twenty Seven." Gendo couldn't believe that he was actually awake and living. He was either dead, in hell, or both.

"Which means? I'm not familiar with anyone by that name."

"For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds." He smirked, accepting that the scouring to follow would be better than what he'd just been shown was the future. "Unit-01 is about to trigger Third Impact."

Backhanding Gendo and muffling him again with another band of light, Minaho pointed Washu towards the problem. "Go. I'll handle this, you keep Shinji safe!"

+++++ NERV Tokyo-3. +3

Sasami watched as Unit-01's eyes grew brighter and brighter. She saw the sickly neon green highlights turn pure blood red, the color pulsating with menace. She stared, unblinking, as the monstrosity's jaw restraints shattered, its mouth opening wider and wider to display a very human mouth with very human teeth. She was then bathed in the ruined remnants of the glass that separated the bridge from the Evangelion hanger as Unit-01 released a deafening roar of righteous indignation, shards tearing across her skin and through mere luck barely missing her eyes and slackened mouth.

Working frantically together, Ritsuko and Maya were speaking as rapidly as they were typing. Their control, if they'd ever had any, over the Evangelion was optimistically minimal but realistically nil. Misato was doing what she could from her position just behind them, trying to get something, anything, from the young man that was staring blankly at a point lightyears from where he sat. None of them were having much success, and all of them were so busy that they didn't notice the new arrival on the bridge.

"…Well, that's not terribly optimal." Washu brushed pebbles of glass off of Sasami's shoulders and out of her hair before helping the relatively young woman close her mouth again. "Don't look directly at the eldritch abomination, dear," she snapped her fingers, breaking Sasami out of the trance she'd been shoved into, "it's bad for your health."

Sasami blinked rapidly, starting to register the pain from the hundreds of cuts she'd received. "Washu?"

"Put these three to sleep, if you would?" The brilliant redhead flicked her sister's nose, chiding her for allowing herself to be overwhelmed in a crisis. "Give them a nice happy memory of a successful test, and let them wake up in about ten minutes. I'll get Shinji and we'll get out of here."

"R-right." Blushing furiously, Sasami gestured to the trio of ladies that clearly only wanted the best for Shinji while begging him to protect them from a war they didn't invite upon themselves. A butterfly of light circled above them for several seconds, draining any outwards semblance of consciousness from their eyes. Encouraging them to generate memories of a positive interaction with Shinji, a successful test, and a fond farewell, she then looked up to where Washu was attempting to enter Unit-01 without much success. "Washu, stop admiring the work and get him out of there, please."

"I would love to," the scientist retorted hotly. "Something is stopping me."

Landing near Sasami, Minaho was already assessing the controls the humans had been using. "He is keeping you out, I think."

Sasami shook her head slightly. "He's not doing anything, he's in some sort of trance, or fugue…."

"He's not consciously doing anything, sis." Washu knew that it wasn't Sasami's sphere of responsibility to be aware of the more ephemeral scientific principles, and didn't hold that ignorance against her. "His subconscious is…beautifully obscene. He's pushing everyone away from him to keep them safe."

The sirens terminated, though the flashing lights did not. Bent over a terminal, Minaho was typing with surprising dexterity, "Got it…ok, broadcasting the alert as an error created by that asshole. We need to get him out of there, should I just break in?"

"If you think you're stronger than me, knock yourself out." Washu turned around from where she was floating and rapped the back of her knuckles against an impermanent gossamer membrane. "I just hit this thing hard enough to send your father into orbit. If you get in, put him to sleep and let's get out of here."

Hopping over the bay of terminals, Minaho planted one foot on the remnants of the windowsill and launched herself up towards where she felt Shinji's power radiating from. The merest touch of concentrated will brought out a sword crafted of the same light she'd used to silence Gendo and with a warrior's skill she smashed down with every ounce of force she could apply against the monstrosity keeping her from the young man she'd sworn to keep safe. The sword's arc stopped with a hollow thud against the same shield that had stopped Washu. There was no recoil, no rebound, not even the satisfyingly bone-jarring feel of impact, the attack simply stopped.

Sasami sighed in frustration, then moved over to where Misato had been trying to coax Shinji down. Looking over the controls, she determined what was needed to allow her to try her hand at psychology, "Shinji-kun? Shinji-kun, can you hear me?" There was no indication of any success or failure. His eyes remained fixed on a point far, far away and his body remained stiffly immobile. "Shinji-kun, I really need you to let me know if you can hear me." The last thing she wanted was to manipulate a man that would, if nothing else, be a good friend. The buildup of energy she could sense, combined with the increasingly fruitless attempts by Minaho and Washu to force their way into Unit-01, left her with no better options. In a voice carefully pitched to seem 'small', she begged him, "Shinji-kun…you're scaring me. Please, please come out…I don't want to lose you."

+++++ NERV Tokyo-3. +3

The storm about Shinji's mind slowed. Imperceptibly at first, but with increasing speed as the joining of his mind and Unit-01's grew separate from one another. The beast radiated the impression that their actions were scaring someone Shinji thought well of, that there was no immediate danger to his health so long as she stayed by his side. Once the man was halfway towards full awareness of the world, the animal encouraged him to reach out to the three non-humans. Encouraged him to not think of himself as less than he was. Lastly, it ordered him to remember that victory was never possible without pain…but that pain need not be all there is.

"…ase, Shinji-kun? Can you hear me?" Sasami's voice echoed in the stillness of the entry plug, prodding Shinji the rest of the way towards full lucidity.

"S-Sasami?" The connection between him and Unit-01 fell apart, the Evangelion losing power with its head slumping forward. That lack of connection created a lack of power to keep the system running properly, which threw him into total darkness for a few seconds. "Uh…uhm…." The sensation of a pair of hands sliding under his legs and behind his neck coaxed a panicked 'meep' out of him.

"Shh, shh, shh," Minaho's soothing inflection stopped the problem dead in its tracks. "I've got you. Don't worry, close your eyes and let yourself relax."

Following instructions, Shinji slid his eyes shut, relaxed his muscles, and felt himself begin to float. A few seconds later, he felt another set of hands begin an evaluation of his medical vitals.

His teacher, who he knew as Hakubi-sensei, spoke in a rush, "Ok…ok, his pulse is slowing down. Hold him still, I'm going to evacuate that amateur hour sludge out of his body." There was a brief odd sense of weightlessness, of his volume decreasing, and then a wet splat. "While he's unconscious, we need to decide how to handle this. Messing around with his endocrine system and healing the bone fractures is one thing, but tinkering with his memories is just abusing the trust he's given me. This isn't trying to save lives by hiding what we are, because he'd sooner cut off his rather impressive genitalia than see us come to harm."

"I agree that he would not 'out' us willingly, but there is too great a chance that he would slip up. He doesn't have the same discipline that the others that know us do." Sasami's voice sounded more mature than normal, carrying little of the caring she'd offered the past few days. "We have to take their lives into consideration too."

Minaho scoffed, clutching him tighter to her, "He has enough discipline to pilot this abomination. He has enough discipline to not use it to crush the miserable lout that sired him. He has enough discipline to throw himself bodily across a woman in a wheelchair to protect her from bullets that he had no idea couldn't have touched her. If we ask him, and explain the necessity of it, he has the discipline to go to his death without whispering a word about us or Jurai."

"We have no doubt that he would give his best effort, child," Sasami's voice turned into pure hoarfrost. "We also must balance the lives of trillions against the life of one."

"Steady on there, sis," Washu positioned herself between Sasami and Shinji, from what he could hear. "You're making it sound a lot like an either-or here. I'm sure we can find a decent compromise if we put some thought into it."

"Does this seem like 'non-intervention' to you, Washu?" Sasami's voice dopplered as her head turned from side to side. "Assaulting this base, killing over three hundred humans, extrajudicial punishment of his father, brainwashing seven thousand non-combatants, tampering with their official records, and manipulating the biochemistry of their only defender? We have gone far past our remit here, and at the moment our best hope is to wipe all memory of our presence from everyone's minds and-"

"And what," Minaho barked, handing his body off to Washu, "leave them to fight the Adamites alone? Suppose they lose. Then this entire system will be a beachhead for the Adamites to launch attacks on the local cluster. Suppose they win. What happens when they develop spaceflight beyond their upper atmosphere? What happens when they build an army of these monstrosities and send them to attack other systems? Our fight is here, now, not when the choice has been foisted off on future generations who lack a great deal of critical information that the three of us have gained."

"He is not a replacement for your-" The sound of flesh striking flesh, a slap that echoed throughout the hangar, cut her statement short. There was a lengthy silence, then a quiet, "I apologize. That was rude of me."

Still roused to anger, Minaho snarled out, "There can't ever be a replacement for him. My intent here is not to replace him. This man," Shinji felt her grip his knee tight, "doesn't deserve to be treated like that. The very thought disgusts me."

Washu, playing the role of peacemaker, asked a less-loaded question than she wanted to, "Falling for him, Minaho?"

"…I watched his dreams. I have watched his thoughts. I have watched his actions." Her next words were filled with pride, "His thoughts of me are pure. Untarnished by lust, greed, or avarice. He looks at me and wishes that I could forever be at his side. He wishes that I could be there…because I take the pain away. He enjoys my voice. He enjoys my sense of humor. He enjoys thinking of ways to make me happy." The pride drained away, replaced by hurt, "He is terrified that he will somehow fail me."

With a sigh, Washu agreed, "I hate to say it, sis, but I'm with Minaho on this one. There's something about him that just…compels me to keep him close. If this is too much for you, head on home. Minaho and I will handle it from here, we'll support him until he fails or wins naturally. We'll send reports, we'll give the Royal Council the unvarnished truth, and we'll let them handle humanity from the safety of Jurai. But we'll do that while trusting Shinji to be the man he's shown us he is. The UP3 isn't a straitjacket, it's guidelines to help navigate bad situations to stop them from becoming worse. I think if you asked him, he'd agree with us. Humanity doesn't deserve to be thrown to the wolves."

"I, uhm…I won't be mad, or…or anything if you need to take away my memories to protect yourselves," Shinji commented, keenly feeling the need to stop the argument that seemed to center around him. "Especially if…uhm, if that would mean you could stay here for a bit longer. I-I'd…I'd…uhm, I'd miss you. All of you." The sudden gravid silence around him caused him to begin to worry that he'd said the wrong thing. "I-I'm sorry, if…if that…."

Washu exploded with sarcastic fire, "What part of 'put him to sleep' eluded you?"

"I did!" Minaho, on the back foot, was just as incredulous as her friend, "I wasn't even really that gentle about it! He should be gone."

"Here," Washu handed him back to Minaho, "you two take him to Sasami's place. I'll finish up here and join you in a minute."

+++++ Sasami's home. +3

Shinji sat very still on a chair that was floating two feet above the ground. He had no idea how the chair was floating, or what the two women he was facing were trying to do, but he did know that he had been asked to sit still. Sitting still was easy. He'd been sitting still for a decade and a half, after all. From time to time, Sasami or Minaho would gesture towards him, and after the gesture would look as if they expected something to happen. When, after a few seconds, nothing happened they both seemed even more frustrated. The sudden appearance of a hole in reality, through which Washu stepped, brought his eyes but otherwise caused no motion in his physical being.

"Hey Shinji," crossing in front of the other two women, the redhaired teacher-slash-scientist-slash-alien pulled him into a warm embrace, "I'm sorry that I had to keep some stuff from you. It wasn't personal, and I really am happy that now I don't need to hide it from you anymore." She waited a beat. "Please put your arms around my waist and hug me like I'm hugging you." After he mechanically followed instructions, she giggled and kissed the top of his head before pushing him softly back to arm's distance with her hands sliding up to his cheeks. "We'll get you used to doing that, don't worry."

"N-no," he couldn't move his head without breaking the strictures of not moving, but he hoped that answering someone wouldn't trigger a punishment, "you were doing the right thing. If that many lives are in danger, my life doesn't matter in comparison."

Minaho came around his side, removing Washu's hands and taking his chin between her fingers to turn his head to face her. "That is not correct, and I would appreciate it if you'd stop thinking that you're worthless." Manipulating his head into a nod, encouraging him to agree with her, she pressed the point home, "Trillions of lives are made up of trillions of individuals. If we let ourselves start to think of them as bland, faceless, numbers then we're no better than the people who would seek to hurt them. Each life matters in its own way, and is no less deserving of protection for being another face in a crowd of faces."

"What we cannot do, no matter how much you wish to dress it up," Sasami declared, "is act as if the calculus is always the same. Shinji is quite correct that in comparison to the lives of those threatened by the existence of this abomination, our lives are ultimately a small price to pay." Weathering the glare from Minaho, she looked to Shinji directly. "I am also sorry that I haven't been able to tell you the truth. My name is Sasami Masaki Jurai, Imperial Princess of the Juraian Royal Empire…and I am here on your planet to see how suitable your species is for admittance into the Empire as a protectorate."

Looking between the three women before him, Shinji nodded slowly. "That…uhm, that does explain some things."

Washu grinned with amicable curiosity. "Such as?"

"Y-your hair." He motioned with his hands as if to apologize, "I-it's beautiful, b-b-but…."

"But it's not something you would find on your planet naturally, no." Taking her hair down from the ponytail she typically wore, the scientist scrubbed her fingers through it. The motion caused her already breathtaking features to become heartbreakingly attractive. "Even Minaho's hair has the hint of Masaki Blue from her father hidden in its depths. What else didn't add up?"

"We…we were shot at, but you acted like it was completely expected." Rubbing the pad of his thumb into the palm of his other hand, he looked down and shook his head. "I-I-I…I wasn't scared because…because I don't care if I die. But all of you acted like it was nothing to…to kill someone. Like they weren't a threat to you."

Minaho crouched down so that she was back in his line of sight, gently taking his wrists and massaging them with her thumbs. "They were a threat to you. I don't want to even imagine what they would do to you at the direction of your father. If they had backed down and left, we wouldn't have hurt them. If they had kept everything civil, talked to us, we wouldn't have harmed any of them."

"But we're not going to let them abuse the one person on this planet that can defend innocent lives against the Adamites," Washu declared. Scratching the top of his head with the fingertips of her left hand, she emoted understanding of his dilemma, "It's never a good thing to take lives needlessly. The reason we were so…glib, is that the men we killed had the worst of intentions. They were going to hurt you to 'remind you' that you didn't deserve anything good. Worst of all," she grimaced at the harsh truth, "they weren't going to stop until they were killed."

"You…couldn't have just put them to sleep?" Shinji found that he was simply not cut out for the harsh realities he was being faced with.

"For how long?" Minaho, like Washu, had a better understanding of the philosophical conundrum and was equally inwardly overjoyed to see that he was truly the type of man to look for peaceful resolutions first. "If we knock them out, and keep them unconscious, aren't we just killing them slower? If we change their personalities, aren't we killing the people they chose to be? We can't just use our powers to make everyone be the people we want them to be, and we can't risk the validity of our analysis of your planet in the vain hope that people will engage their better spirits."

Sasami cut in coldly, "Better that we kill them, wipe their memories from existence, and pretend that we're doing so in an effort to spare greater suffering in the long term. After all, we know what's best for this planet, don't we?"

Both Minaho and Washu slowly turned their heads towards Sasami, the first incredulously angry, the second disappointedly angry. Before either could begin to admonish their family member for apparently losing the plot entirely, a powerful voice stomped on the atmosphere in the room, "That is quite enough, ladies."

Shinji turned to the new voice, and saw a holographic representation of two regally dressed women. One with notable similarity to Sasami, and the other appearing oddly similar to him. Whether due to instinct or intent, he slid off of the chair he was on and dropped to his knees. Prostrating himself on the floor, as he would before his uncle, he prayed that what little honor he could offer to them was accepted without pain.

"I had almost forgotten the old ways," one of the two women announced, her voice balanced between loss and fond reminiscence. "You may arise, Shinji of the Ikari Clan, the old pacts have been honored."

The process of getting back to his feet was arduous. The amount of movement he'd engaged in had been far in excess of 'reasonable', and his legs were quick to inform him that his vote regarding what he could and could not ask them to do was in real danger of being ignored. Pushing off the ground gave him just enough momentum to rise up to one knee, then leveraging himself with support of the leg attached to the foot that was flat on the floor gave him his other foot to use. Some wobbling later, he was upright with his eyes respectfully lowered.

Stepping alongside Shinji, helping him remain upright and disguising it as affectionately wrapping her arms around his right arm, Washu addressed the two highest ranking royals of the Juraian Empire as if they weren't anything more than old friends, "I'm surprised to see you Funaho. Did Misaki scare you that much with what's happened here?"

"I do admit to some concern, yes." The woman, now identified as Funaho, spoke with the grace and wisdom of ages, "The reports I have received have not been…encouraging."

"My Lady," Minaho placed herself on Shinji's left, taking a similar position as Washu, "my report covering today's events has been delayed while we have explored-"

Misaki interrupted her junior's attempt at explanation with a disinterested accounting of what had happened, "Primary target came under effective enemy fire, forcing a counteroffensive and close air support to eliminate the threat. Nineteen antagonists neutralized. Primary target was escorted to the primary facility of interest. During attempted negotiations, three hundred and twelve antagonists were neutralized. Primary target climbed aboard unknown weapon system for standard testing. During test the threat of a Class X reality instability event manifested. You engaged, disarmed the threat, and brought the primary target back here to determine the best course of action. Unless between there and here you killed anyone else, I'm well aware of what has transpired."

"It's my fault, ma'am," Shinji declared before anyone could say anything. "I should have been better."

Vehement disagreements arose from both sides of the self-effacing young man, and once more the powerful voice silenced them, "That is enough." Who he now recognized as Funaho didn't shout, or yell, or even significantly raise her volume. By virtue of who and what she was, she stopped the hue and cry before it ran away from them all. "Do we have permission to address you by name, Shinji, of the Ikari Clan?"

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"Thank you. I would appreciate it if you looked towards us while we spoke with you, Shinji." She waited for his eyes to slowly finish the journey to her own. Her own eyes narrowed imperceptibly, what she saw before her not pleasing her greatly. "How should you have been better? What did you do, or fail to do, that created this situation?"

Long black hair framed a pair of coral green eyes, a single dot of the same color adorning the space between her eyebrows. Her face displayed a boundless serenity and unbreakable confidence, a state of pure zen without anger or joy to disturb it. To look upon Funaho was to face an inquisition from which there could be no escape, and Shinji knew that nothing short of the total truth would be acceptable. "I accepted an invitation from Masaki Jurai-hime and Horaki-san to go to the marketplace last night, instead of insisting that my duty required me to go and train on how to control Unit-01. If I had been more diligent in my practice, if I hadn't been selfish with my time, I wouldn't have been in a position to fail."

"So, you would claim to know better than my daughter how to spend your time?" The second woman, Misaki, asked with offhanded curiosity. More stern than serene, with floor length hair as blue as the vast sky above and ruby red eyes measuring him from toes to nose, the pair of dots that echoed the single dot upon Funaho's brow shifted slightly as she arched an eyebrow. "You believe that with only a few more hours of training that you could control this 'Unit-01'?"

At the word 'daughter', Shinji's eyes darted briefly between Misaki and Sasami. The longer he compared the two women, the more he came to the opinion that he must have misunderstood the relationship between them. He would place all of the money he had that they were sisters, and that the affectation of 'daughter' was something esoterically 'royal'.

Misaki's eyes grew dangerous, her mouth falling into a deep scowl. "Is there something you would like to say?"

Holding up one hand to silence Shinji, Funaho answered for him, "He is struggling to understand why a woman that, to him, appears to be only a few years older than he himself is calling our dear Sasami 'daughter'."

The shift in demeanor Shinji saw in Misaki nearly gave him whiplash. The regal warrior's face shifted from displeasure to rapture, her hands suddenly clasped beneath her jaw and her eyes sparkling with ecstasy. The dissonance worried him even more than the thought that she was angered with him just seconds before.

"Such a darling young man!" Misaki flapped her hands playfully, her tone bright and cheery, "How old would you say I am, Shinji? Thirty?"

With no idea how to respond, Shinji chose honesty, "N-no, ma'am…you…uhm, you don't look a day over twenty-three."

A squeal of joy led to Misaki bouncing up and down like a child of five. "Oh, he is such a wonderful young man, Funaho! We have to go see him in person, we simply must!"

Sasami stepped between Shinji and her parents, attempting to express her concern that the situation was rapidly devolving out of any hope of containment, "Mother, I do not think-" Snapping her jaw shut when both Funaho and Misaki's eyes flicked over to spear her through the soul, she couldn't prevent the anxious swallow that followed.

"We anticipate our arrival within the next fifteen standard hours," Funaho intoned flatly. "Prepare to receive us." The feed was cut from the other end, leaving the room in silent contemplation for a span of heartbeats.

Practicality won out over social pressure, and Shinji broke the silence by asking Washu, "Sensei…how long is a standard hour?"

The redheaded scientist responded abstractedly, "About forty-three minutes from your perspective."

"Oh, ok." He frowned in thought, "So…forty-three times ten is four hundred and thirty, four hundred and thirty divided by two is…uhm…."

"A little over ten and a half hours," Minaho interrupted him, with a soft squeeze of apology. "Washu, I'll take him back to his hotel and help him get some sleep. Can I leave the clothing situation to you? We don't want him to meet them in this…gaudy thing."

Washu nodded, stepping up on her tiptoes and kissing Shinji on the chin. "You'll want to be well rested, tomorrow's going to be an event."

"Uhm…ok." Shinji looked amongst the three women he was with, Minaho looking back at him with some unidentifiable emotion, Washu with determination, and Sasami with a vague sense of regret. Feeling Minaho's pull on his arm, he turned and walked through the strange portals they used to travel around and hoped that he hadn't just made a bigger mess of things.