THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER SIX
In which a man finds his hidden regrets
A young athlete feels the loss
And a mother begins to realize what an asshole she married
The King of Dreams sat on his throne and contemplated.
He did this often, as deep thought is required in ruling the King of Dreams. There are new dreams and nightmares to create, relations with other realms to consider, the basic needs of his bizarre subjects.
Dream looked up at the massive stain-glass windows that lined his throne room. The windows shined; they were always shining with the brilliance of Dream's creativity, his raw power…and his madness…
He stood. A tour was required, he had decided…
Kozo Fuyutsuki was working late. He was also falling asleep while doing so.
Finally he gave up.
Fuyutsuki dreamed…
Fuyutsuki was dressed in a hiking outfit, complete with a walking stick. He was walking on a path through a fog-enshrouded forest. There were no signs of nature: no birds singing or flying, no chipmunks or squirrels darting across the path before the intruding human could arrive, not even ants going about on their pre-ordained missions in life.
There was no other sound than that of his hiking boots crunching against the ground.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching from ahead, but because of the fog Fuyutsuki couldn't see the man until he had gotten about fifteen feet away.
"Hello, Kozo!"
Fuyutsuki blinked.
"Ichara? Domeki Ichara?"
The man—who looked to be in his mid twenties—grinned and nodded. He was dressed in a sweater and slacks that looked soaked; he also had some strange protrusions on his neck.
"How the hell have you been?" asked Ichara, approaching the professor, his hand outstretched. Kozo happily took it and pumped it.
"Just fine, Ichara, just fine! Why, the last time I saw you was in…"
"1999," declared the grinning man, "I brought my wife to see you at the university, remember?"
"That's right! Weren't you expecting?"
"Yes, professor; a girl: Yuki,"
"Well, how are they?"
"Oh, they're dead."
Silence.
Kozo Fuyutsuki's mouth was open slightly, and his eyes were wide.
"Yes, dead for…oh, fifteen years now, I suppose; I think the wife was in Tokyo when it was flooded and my daughter was with me,"
"Y-you survived?"
The man chuckled, "Oh, no; I broke my neck. We were in a car, see, and the bridge we were on suddenly wiped out and tossed us into the river." The man rolled his head back until most of his neck went down with the head.
"It was quick, not like Yuki, I'm afraid; her head was smashed into the windshield. She was still alive after that, by some miracle, but she drowned soon enough,"
Kozo paled.
"I…I'm sorry…"
"Oh, don't worry about it; nothing you could do…say, you wouldn't happen to know who did this, would you?"
Kozo gulped.
"No…"
Ichara sighed.
"Damn…oh well, nice to see you again, professor. Bye,"
And Ichara went on his way.
The professor, still pale from his experience, continued on his way.
Again, he heard approaching footsteps. This time, it was a young woman sporting tropical clothing who was gazing into a small jar that contained a small frog.
She looked like she had come from America and her greeting confirmed it.
"Oh, hello,"
"Hello," replied Fuyutsuki, "What's that you have there?"
"This? This is a Red Poison-Tree Frog, of the Amazon Jungle. It was found mostly in trees in a small area in Northern Brazil. I was studying it for a medical institute back home,"
Fuyutsuki blinked, "'Medical'? What interest would a medical…?"
"Because a local tribe had been using the venom secreted by this frog to treat skin diseases for years; I found that this frog had particularly useful effects on eczema, warts, and—to a certain point—skin cancer."
"Remarkable…"
"Yes, it probably would have been the high-point of my career so far if I wasn't killed,"
The professor froze as the woman continued.
"I was two days away from leaving when suddenly the Amazon rose up…I was caught up in the force of the flood and drowned,"
"…and the frogs?"
She looked at him gravely.
"Extinct, like hundreds of other species, animal and plant, that had yet to be discovered in the Amazon."
She frowned and sighed.
"I don't suppose you would know who did this?"
"…No…"
"Oh," the woman sighed again, "Well, nice to meet you,"
And she went on her way, the now extinct frog still being examined by her scientific eye.
Kozo Fuyutsuki was hardly surprised to see another person emerge from the fog in front of him. But what surprised him was that the man approaching was searching through a file folder, muttering to himself. He wasn't paying attention to his path and bumped into Fuyutsuki.
"Oh, oh sorry, sir," said the man.
"Quite alright, what are you reading?"
"A list of the items from my museum," the man showed him the list, "Artifacts from Greece, Egypt, Norway, and Libya. Antique and irreplaceable!"
"I suppose that you lost them in Second Impact…"
"Indeed! I was dusting off a Viking display and water flooded and destroyed my museum! Historical items chronicling the story of the pasts of some of the most important civilizations were lost forever! I shudder to think what other museums look like…or the sites themselves! What a waste!"
Still muttering to himself, the man vanished into the fog…
In a room decorated with trophies and sport posters, Touji dreamed…
The cheers were like a volcano bursting, roaring and seeming to rip open the sky.
"JAPAN IS AHEAD FIVE TO TWO OVER FRANCE AND SHINJI IKARI IS TEARING UP THE TRACK! ALL THAT SHINJI'S TEAM NEEDS IS FIVE MORE POINTS AND THEY WIN THE GOLD!!"
Touji Suzuhara tensed up as Shinji approached the half mile mark. Another few minutes and the baton would go to Touji, who would finish up the race while Shinji would go and take a well deserved rest.
He risked a glance into the crowd, and saw all his friends up there.
Kensuke and Misato were shrieking their approval, their faces colored up with white and red and waving massive finger-gloves.
Hikari blew the athlete a kiss and continued cheering.
Even Rei was there, sitting calmly in her seat waving a pennant.
Shinji was coming up now, behind Touji. The boy turned to grab the baton from Shinji, sending a smile to his friend.
Then, the baton was in his hand, and the crowd stopped cheering.
Touji looked around; the racers had stopped running, the fans had stopped cheering.
There was not a sound, only the movement of the wind.
Touji looked at Shinji then, and gasped. Shinji was slowly disappearing, right where he stood.
The Third Child was silently crying, tears running down his face. He looked up at Touji, smiled, and said, "Good luck…"
And then he was gone.
In her apartment, Ritsuko dreamed…
Gendo Ikari, dressed in the fine clothing of a European nobleman, bowed graciously to Ritsuko. She curtsied, and the dance began.
"Oh, my lord Gendo," she purred, "Your ball is magnificent,"
"Yes," he replied, in a dignified and refined accent, "I hoped you would like it, my dear,"
She bumped into someone.
"Oh, how rude! Sir," she looked up at Kaji Ryouji's hanging corpse, "If you don't mind, Lord Gendo and I are waltzing!"
With that she hmmphed and continued dancing.
"Would you care to go hunting with me on Saturday? The pheasant are particularly numerous this season,"
"Why, Lord Gendo! I am a lady!"
He chuckled, then looked over and frowned.
"Oh, I must apologize, my dear, but that one is still twitching."
"Oh, how horrible!"
"Don't worry," Gendo produced an elegantly crafted pistol, "I'll take care of it,"
Blam!
The twitching Rei Ayanami finally went completely limp.
"Oh, I was so frightened, my lord!"
"Hush now, its good and done,"
And he drew her into a deep kiss among the hanging corpses of everyone she knew…
And sitting at her desk, Maya dreamed…
"Good work, Maya,"
Maya Ibuki looked up and smiled at Ritsuko before returning to her work. With her shovel, she picked up the limp form of another teenager and hurled it into the burning furnace of what looked like a massive Eva-01.
And the King of Dreams continued his journey through the dreams of others. He watched a crowd of faceless girls bounce up and down in acclamation of the musician on stage. There were no cheers, because they had no faces, but they seemed to enjoy it.
The King of Dreams then observed a young man driving a tank that was as large as a building, blasting everything around it to rubble.
He watched the angst-ridden land where a man walked on a path, between a light and a dark area. Birds were flying out of either side and letting loose their waste on his head.
The King of Dreams rode a large hamster into the dreams where a young woman danced in a field with flowers and cute animals, while around her cities burned, throwing black smoke into the sky except for the circle where the sun shone down on her.
He was growing bored when he noticed another dream…
Yui Ikari dreamed…
She was in her kitchen, humming to herself as she warmed up a bottle of milk.
"Gendo? Could you go check on Shinji? It's about snack time…"
"Yes, dear,"
She heard his heavy footsteps go up the stairs and sighed happily.
Life was turning out wonderfully for Yui Ikari. She had a loving husband, a handsome little boy, and a great looking future.
She tested the milk for one last time. Satisfied, she headed upstairs.
"Shinji? Lunchtime!" she cooed, "I got your…"
She went into the baby's room to find her husband standing before the cradle.
"…milky-milk?"
Gendo turned around. She gasped; Gendo had suddenly aged and grown a beard. He wore a black and red uniform, and white gloves…which were stained red. In his left hand he clutched a knife stained with a red liquid.
"Yui," he said, as if he were seeing her for the first in a long time, "You're back."
"I…was right here…" she said, approaching the cradle.
"And I am so glad…I had to make some sacrifices…"
Yui looked into the cradle, and saw her baby's little body sliced up, his blood spattered all over the covers.
"…but it was all worth it to see you again…"
And Yui, locked inside Unit-01, screamed…