Disclaimer: I own neither Evangelion nor the aforementioned board game; therefore I am not using it for any commercial purpose.
Greatest Fear
Chapter 4... "Hunted"
By: Oblivious
"Shinji, please take care of Asuka and Kaworu…" Said Rei as she readied herself.
"Be careful Rei!" Called Shinji as Rei, anxious for Asuka's release, leapt off the wooden platform and sprinted fast toward the snake-like fiend, drawing out her bloodstained sabre with a brandish. Ignoring the long grass whipping at her jeans, her shoes pounded the soft earthy field rapidly as she closed the distance for the fatal slash.
Shinji was distraught; no amount of shaking and calling could awaken Asuka from her trance. Cold sweat had broken out all over her face, which was beginning to become paler than Kaworu's and her pulse was racing perilously quickly.
Asuka… what should I do?! Shinji held Asuka in his arms as he wracked his mind in vain for a solution.
I'm so… useless… He thought to himself as he helplessly felt the life slip out of Asuka's fidgeting body, through his fingers.
Sensing a movement on the edge of his vision, Shinji turned his head… all there was to be seen was the grass around the gazebo and the mansion they left behind. Nothing.
Screaming out a spirited battle cry as her target entered the reach of her sabre, Rei focused every ounce of her momentum and strength into a single upward swing with her blade… before careening headlong into a virtual wall of concentric, glowing polygons that seemed to distort only slightly under the force of her charge. She gasped as her breath and a measure of her resolve was knocked from her body by the intangible barrier.
What the… that's not fair… She complained inwardly, feeling increasingly frustrated by the eccentricities of the game.
Shinji looked toward Kaworu's unmoving figure, then into Asuka's white, unseeing eyes. Feelings of dismay brewing maliciously together with despair and a sense of inescapability were starting to drive Shinji over the edge… when he remembered his father's words…
Son… when you have a problem, you face it like a man! Said the unshaven face of his father as it stared with those hard, black eyes of his over its orange tinted spectacles at Shinji's face.
So you can run from responsibility?! Screamed back Shinji at the time… his father could be such a bastard sometimes.
Shinji thought that he'd be flayed within an inch of his life, he had seen the kind of wrath his father was capable of… but the blow never came… he even thought, maybe even imagined that he saw a tiny, devious smile curl in the corner of his father's mouth… but that was impossible, it didn't make sense. For the life of him he couldn't fathom his father…
Well whatever… I'll never become like him… I'm not like him. I mustn't run away! Shinji resolved determinedly. But… what do I do?? He wondered helplessly. He looked back into Asuka's unconscious visage… and remembered all the times they had fought over such petty things, all the times they had stuck up for each other, and what his life would be without her… he couldn't bear to think of it. At this moment, an inspiration, and a realization hit him with the force of… something forceful… Shinji felt warm emotions well up in his heart. "Forgive me… Asuka." He said purposefully.
==========
"Say Yui… how long has it been since our son left for that trek?" asked Ikari Gendo as he snipped a leaf off a bonsai plant he had on the dinner table.
"Quite a few hours." replied Ikari Yui, sitting opposite him from behind some upheld newspapers.
A thoughtful moment of silence passed as the grandfather clock behind them ticked away.
"Since when did that kid learn to trek?" Asked Gendo.
"Don't worry, he's with Asuka, he should be fine. He's really lucky to have her as a friend." said Yui reassuringly.
"If you say so…" Replied Gendo.
Reaching to the side without looking to take his cup, Gendo accidentally knocked over another empty one. It fell off the table and shattered into many tinkering pieces.
"That was Shinji's cup…" said Gendo as he stared down at it expressionlessly.
"Oh dear… I'll go get a dustpan." said Yui, setting down the papers before standing up and walking off towards the closet.
Setting down his tiny pair of bonsai trimming scissors, Gendo stood up and took his coat off a nearby chair.
"Yui, I'm going out! I'm out of cigarettes!" He called to Yui as he walked towards the front door.
"You don't smoke dear." called Yui from inside the closet.
"I'm leaving." announced Gendo, opening the front door.
"Have fun dear!" Yui called back, smiling into the dim closet as Gendo closed the door behind him.
==========
Rei let loose a shout of frustration as her latest attempt to make a breakthrough failed. She had expended much of her will struggling to break the luminescent, ethereal obstruction barring her from cleaving a bloody path into her adversary… barring her from saving a friend… even though she had only known her for awhile she felt as if she had known her for a long time.
What would Sensei do…? She wondered as she closed her eyes and endeavoured to calm herself… fury seldom wins a true battle.
As she cleared her mind, she sheathed her blade, not releasing the hilt of her grasp after it clicked metallically against the guard, and slid a foot slowly forward. In a few moments, a feeling of focused serenity swept over Rei… whether it was simply blind hope or pure inspiration, she knew with certainty that this demon would fall… in more than one piece.
This is Zen.
"BAKA SHINJI!! WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING??" screamed a voice somewhere behind Rei.
NOW!!
Time slowed just as Rei's eyes opened wide to catch a glance of the monster, reeling as its concentration shattered before Rei, with complete meditation, leant forward as she took a running step, brought her elbow down… and drew. The crimson tainted blade sadistically sang its metallic note of fated doom as it sprung from its guard, carved through the air unstopped by any shield, intangible or otherwise, and gouged deep into corrupted flesh, erupting a thick shower of burgundy.
Shinji felt the world spin around him as he clutched the sizable bump on his head. Sprawled over the ground, he groaned as Asuka stood over him, fist shaking uncontrollably.
"You…" growled Asuka.
"I'm sorry Asuka! I won't do it again! I SWEAR!" Shinji pleaded as if his life depended on it, which it might as well did.
"DARE…" Asuka continued menacingly.
Shinji forgot about Jumanji, about his father, forgot about the horrors he had seen that day… the wrath of the Red Devil before him had wiped all of that from his world. He prayed.
"CALL ME UNCUTE???" The words spewed from her mouth with more fury and intensity than lava from a volcano as Shinji tried his best to squeeze himself into one of the gazebo's corners.
"Block that… bastard." Snarled Rei in a strangely adorable way as she held her blade, which was once again soaked with blood over the neatly bisected, dying demon on the floor. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she watched as the severed lower body of the angel flipped restlessly, struggling against its inevitable death. It bore a striking resemblance to a freshly separated lizard's tail, except that it spewed blood by the bucket and made a general mess of the place. All its upper body could do was thresh its claws around in vain and howl in agony.
Rei slowly lowered her dripping blade.
"Still alive?" she whispered softly as she surveyed the ghastly scene with tranquillity. "I feel sad for you…"
Asuka grabbed Shinji by the collar and pulled him close. This might actually give Shinji a blush if Asuka's eyes weren't flashing like death rays.
"I'll… kill you…" She said in a dangerously soft whisper.
At this moment, Shinji remembered something.
"Rei… she went after the monster!" Shinji informed urgently.
"Rei…" Asuka repeated with anxiety in her voice, looking around frantically, she let go of Shinji.
"Where is she?" Asuka wondered.
Shinji breathed a silent sigh of relief at this narrow escape.
Asuka clapped eyes upon a blue haired, lean figure, drenched and dripping in blood, just before it stabbed a long and pointy metal object into the shiny red orb of the wasted fiend.
"Oh that must be her." Asuka said with an uncertain sense of familiarity.
"Yup… that's her." Confirmed Shinji with certainty.
Suddenly, Shinji's heart skipped a few beats as he felt the gaze of murderous eyes upon his back. He spun anxiously around to seek out the dread beholder… in vain, for there was no dread abomination, no vicious predator to be seen anywhere within the mansion's shady windows, the surrounding grassland, or the derelict ruins of forgotten statues. He scanned the area more thoroughly, he was certain he had felt something… but where…?
"Shinji what are you doing?" Asuka inquired curiously, as she shrugged away a sneaking feeling she had forgotten something… annoying.
"There was someone, something staring at me back there…" Shinji said with terrified certainty.
Asuka passed a casual glance over the building and the surroundings.
"I don't see anything…" She said.
All of a sudden, a familiar voice was heard.
"I sense… a thirst for blood." it said.
Elation filling his heart, Shinji turned toward the voice's direction. Kaworu was sitting up with his hand in his white hair, messaging his aching head.
"Kaworu!" yelled Asuka in surprise.
"Kaworu! Are you alright?" asked Shinji anxiously before hurrying to Kaworu's side.
"I heard your voice calling to me from within that dark abyss Shinji… I thank you…" said Kaworu, smiling at Shinji.
"Kaworu's up already?" asked an exhausted sounding Rei.
"Rei?!" exclaimed Shinji. The haphazardly splashed blood on Rei's white skin and attire coupled with her emotionless face seemed to have a much greater impact up close.
"Rei you don't look very good…" observed Asuka, who seemed to sound somewhat concerned.
"Rei… what happened?" asked Shinji, the concern in his voice deepening.
"I killed that thing." said Rei expressionlessly as she squeezed her sword harder, careful not to betray the burning guilt that was eating away at her heart.
Once a murderer, always a murderer Rei. said an all but forgotten voice in her head.
No… no it didn't have to end that way… thought Rei as she grasped her forehead in frustration, unable to hold back old, painful memories.
You didn't have to do that… why did you…
Kaworu stood up and studied Rei's eyes, which were now narrowed, methodically. Silence reigned as the four of them just stood there, staring at Rei. Her entire front was streaked with blood, and her face and blue hair was dappled with red droplets.
Could Kaworu have been talking about Rei just now…? Scary girl… Asuka thought to herself as she took a step back.
What's this sense of unease… wondered Shinji as he gazed at Rei's poker face.
Shinji looked closer… he thought it was just splashed blood at first, but the fluid flowing upon her cheeks didn't comprise solely of blood…
Kaworu took a few steps toward Rei and took her into an embrace.
"Kaworu what are you-?" Asuka tried to ask, before Shinji put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head at her.
"Good girl… it's alright…" said Kaworu in a soothing voice as he stroked her back. "Just let it out, you don't have to hold it back…"
Rei was silent for a moment… before holding tightly onto Kaworu, weeping quietly into his shoulder.
"Take as long as you like, you have all the time in the world."
As Rei pressed her forehead against Kaworu's shoulder, her tears mixed with freshly drawn blood to form streams of red pouring down her face.
"That's what makes Kaworu such a great guy." whispered Shinji admiringly to Asuka. "He really understands people."
"T-thanks for saving me Rei." said Asuka with gratitude.
And… sorry… Asuka thought remorsefully as she looked toward her shoes.
"Hey what about me?!" Shinji asked indignantly. He immediately regretted it. "Oh bugger…"
"Oooh… r-i-i-g-h-t…" said Asuka, smiling dangerously as she grabbed the collar of Shinji's orange jumper.
It's lying in wait… I'll have to keep my eyes open… thought Kaworu as he continued to stroke Rei's back, prudently ignoring the sounds of agony behind him.
Before long, the reunited party of four was once again sitting around the exposed playing field of Jumanji.
"Someone tell me why we're out of the house? Better scenery?" inquired Kaworu.
"As we speak the mansion's foundations are probably being eroded away by a rapidly expanding colony of micro-organisms… it was my roll." Rei reported promptly. She seemed back to her old self.
"… Ahh…" replied Kaworu, seemingly unsurprised.
"Ready Shinji?" Asked Asuka.
"I'll just go ahead…" said Shinji, steeling himself for whatever horror was up next.
Shinji picked up the dice and flung them across the ivory pawn paths into the corner of the playing field… landing on five, three.
The four watched as Shinji's purple piece slid forward another eight spaces, which heralded the coming of the next hazardous challenge.
"Dark as dusk, black as night." Asuka read. "If you live you'll truly value your sight."
At this moment, the sky promptly turned from the bright of day instantly to the dark of night. Plunged into almost absolute darkness, the four of them blinked. Though it didn't make much of a difference. To the unadjusted eye, the darkness was complete. For just a moment ago, it was midday.
What they didn't notice was the enormous black sphere striped with white floating over the roof of the gazebo.
"Son of a bitch…" muttered Asuka into the gloom as she squinted around.
"I think I have a torchlight somewhere around here…" said Shinji, feeling blindly about his backpack.
"Take it out Shinji, but don't turn it on…" said Kaworu quietly, with utmost caution in his voice.
"Huh? Why?" Asked Shinji, puzzled at these instructions.
"If there's anything out there, we don't want its attention." Rei was heard saying in the same vigilant tone as Kaworu.
"Not until we have a plan…" said Asuka.
A few tense moments of silence passed.
"Shinji did you hear?" asked Kaworu.
"Shinji." called Asuka, the anxiety evident in her voice.
"I'm here! Sorry if I worried you…" came Shinji's voice.
"Don't do that baka!" scolded Asuka through gritted teeth.
"Cold… it's cold…" gasped Shinji suddenly.
A flowing, sticking substance had slithered up Shinji's arm, draining the warmth of life from it at an alarming rate.
"What the hell is this?? Someone help!!" exclaimed Shinji in panic.
"Eeah! It's on me too!" came Rei's frightened voice.
"Shinji! Your torch!" Asuka yelled.
Sounds of fumbling were heard for a second before a streak of light burst out of the murk, lighting up the gazebo once more, revealing a huge, nightmarish mass of black slime invading the gazebo under the cover of shadow and silence. Rei let out a shriek.
"Out. Now." said Asuka before proceeding to pull Shinji out of the liquid shadow's grasp.
"Rei give me your hand." said Kaworu calmly.
==========
Shinji heaved and panted as he struggled to keep up his pace. Asuka had led him away from the gazebo and was leading a way into the all-encompassing gloom. They had split up from Rei and Kaworu to escape the encroaching slime creature. It was very hard to see… only Asuka's outline was visible to him.
"Asuka… Asuka! Wait up!" Shinji called to the running shadow of a figure in front of him.
"Hey Rei, any idea how to stop a hell spawned wave of life consuming sludge?" Kaworu asked Rei conversationally as they beat a hasty retreat.
"I could try gradually whittling it down with my sword." replied Rei, trying to sound helpful.
"Okay seriously, when we blew that Popsicle stand I saw this huge zebra like orb thing floating over it…" said Kaworu.
"Want to try throwing magnesium bombs at it? I have a few." said Rei.
Kaworu stared at Rei.
"I guess that's a plan." He said.
Shinji bent over to catch his breath just as he reached the dark figure of Asuka, which had its back facing Shinji.
"You finally stopped, I was almost about to break down…" said Shinji, moving his hand to place it on Asuka's shoulder.
"Shinji?! Where are you Shinji?!" called Asuka, Jumanji in hand, scanning around helplessly in the dark abyss.
"I swear! He was just behind me…" She muttered furiously.
"There you are Shinji!" said Asuka when she saw a Shinji shaped shadow walking away in the distance. "Don't walk away like that… hey are you listening??"
She ran hastily after it.
Shinji placed his hand on Asuka's shoulder that felt strangely like… cold slime, which immediately latched on to his arm, sucking the heat from Shinji's body.
"AAAAHHH!" exclaimed Shinji, trepidation filling his heart, just when he felt a substantial hand place itself on his shoulder.
"Asuka there you-" said Shinji, turning to look.
It was at the same moment when fate reared its ugly head in the form of… Unit one.
Shinji just stood there, staring at the maniacal green eyes of the purple abomination, smelling its putrid, steaming breath, feeling the life draining entity creep up to his shoulder. Shinji wanted to run, but his body had been paralysed by a suffocating fear that threatened to beat his heart to death.
"…are."
"HWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Author's notes:
I hope you enjoyed that one =D it really took some time to write, with my O levels and all.
Seriously, I just can't write a chapter without writing about Rei opening at least one can of whoopass.
And yesss Unit one is alive and scaring the daylights out of Shinji again… like she didn't do that already. Didn't think being impaled a few times through vital places would kill her did you? Maybe I'll make her regenerate a head next time. Just kidding =p
AHEM… maybe I'll make it AHEM RAIN. Wonder if it's a good thing to do o.O;;
Yea Shinji looks as if he's really finished… yes how will I get his ass out of this one…
Anyways… next chapter will be called 'Bonds' no not 'Bond' its 'Bonds'. Look forward to it =DD