/Welcome to the Real World/
- lawless priest -
0.3 - a victim's hope
'They should have been back by now.'
That was all the young girl in the pink and white dress with the short cut brown hair could think about as she stood in front of the flower shop as the citizens of Tokyo milled about a bit worriedly, wondering as to what could have caused the scene.
'They should have been back by now. They said they would be back soon. That it was nothing to worry about.'
The sounds of struggle and the ringing of gun shots echoing from somewhere within the anxious crowd of humanity that waited with held breath as the drama played itself out didn't do much to calm the young girl's nerves.
Somehow, she couldn't help but think that it was her fault that they were late. Her father had attempted to hurry them along, knowing how long it would take for her and her mother to shop if left to their own devices. But on their way out, with her father letting go a thankful sigh, a nearby article had caught her attention.
Thinking back on it now she wished she hadn't asked her mother that simple question. Maybe then they would never have stayed, maybe then her father would have prodded them along to some store closer to their vehicle and a step closer to the safety of their home.
But she did ask. She had no reason not to.
It was just a flower. A pretty, purple, gay little flower. One of a variety that the young Maya Ibuki had never laid eyes on before. So, with a innocent smile and her eyes filled wide with wonder, she made an inquiry on the subject which made her father only try to steer them along again, but a quick look from her mother and a peck on the cheek as a bribe, the young girl received her answer while her father stood there flustered with a blush that passers by only smiled at.
But now, she wondered if the answer was worth it. She could hear the sirens coming closer as the public sought to relocate themselves from the unknown menace hidden somewhere in their mist.
It was a wonder that those around her still didn't know what was going on, almost as if they had forgotten the incident even after they themselves had played a part in it.
Their shouts and angry yells had rung clear in her young ears, the scene still fresh in her memory, yet the others... they did not seem to remember at all.
How could they forget. It wasn't every day you saw a woman dressed in black leather from head to foot being chased by government agents as they barreled through the heavy crowd, their weapons going off without hesitation even with the large number of people around.
Maya's parents had seen them coming and had pulled her back to the flower shop's wall least she be tramped as the darkly dressed woman ran by.
The desperate look in the woman's eyes as she glanced at her while dodging those slower to move was something that Maya knew that she would never forget.
Along with the distracted, yet coldly determined look her parents had given her when the government agents stopped in front of them, giving them a nod as they told her to say where she was, and that they would return soon, while they headed off with the dark suit men.
The image of her father straitening his tie that she had never seen before as he patted her head absently while her mother fixed the dark shades over eyes, ones that had not been there before was still stuck in her mind while those around her looked on with dumb expressions, walking along almost bewildered, lost with no direction as more darkly suited men moved within their mist, unnoticed by all except for one small, dismayed eight year old.
But that had been some time ago. And somewhere deep
within her told her that they would not be coming back. And the final depressing echo of the police sirens only emphasized her train of thought.
Later when the cops made it to the scene of the crime they found no sign of either the woman who authorities claimed to be a terrorist or the Government agents who were sent to capture her, only the bullet riddled bodies of her parents and that of an business man who his co-workers said just up'd and walked out of one of their companies board meetings, who's office was miles away on the other side of town.
What was even more strange was that no one, not one of the local witnesses remembered really seeing the agents or their faces enough to identify them. Most never remembered them ever being there at all.
They were as ghosts, like a campfire tale told to scare little children. So like any child her age, the only witness who knew something was amiss said nothing, least she anger the ghosts that took her parents away from her and destroyed her innocent little world.
03 - questions?
There was silence in the room for some time. 'Her parents had been murdered some time around the same age I had lost my own' I thought to myself but I wondered what that had to do with me. 'The suited men... could they be the same?'
"I know you must be wondering what any of this has to do with your story, but I needed you to understand how things started out." Maya said as she walked to the kitchen to pour herself a drink.
I had never tasted alcohol but I was starting to get an idea of why adults seemed so attracted to it.
"I was only eight when my parents were killed and I had no real family anywhere near Tokyo in those days and even less after 2nd Impact, but that's not the point."
"After the police investigation, I ended up living with my neighbor in her apartment across the hall, who I used to joke around and call the Oracle because she just seemed to know everything. She was very nice and was a very close friend of my parents so she took full custody of me after then.
And It was from her that I learned about the truth of what happened that day, about who those men were and why my parents went off with them like they did."
"The truth?"
"Yes, Shinji. The truth. You see... " She paused to sigh., looking about for something to help her tell her tale. "How do you explain this, part?"
Apparently the 'truth' was a rather difficult thing to explain, but it couldn't have been anywhere close to what I had to go through trying to explain to her what happened to me.
She finally throw up her hands and just went for it after shaking her pretty little head in frustration.
"Shinji, have you ever felt as if you couldn't tell if the things around you were real, as if you were dreaming and the world was your dream? I know that sounds weird, but please be honest."
"You mean, if I was awake, but unsure if I was still dreaming?"
"Yes, that's it exactly!"
"Um... well, yeah. All the time. And every since this whole thing started I've been kind of hoping it was all a dream."
"I'm afraid not. To be totally honest with you, I doubt we'll ever know for sure, but I do know why this is."
"You do?"
"Yes, Shinji. I do. It's because of the Matrix."
"The... Matrix?"
"Yes."
"The Matrix is..." another pause. "To put it simply the Matrix is the world around you or a way to control the world. Before, we had believed it to be some type of highly developed interactive virtual reality program constructed by a group of very powerful people. But we were only half right."
"What do you mean and who's we?"
"I'll get to that another time, but as for the first question, the code that you have been seeing was Matrix code."
"Wait, but that would mean that..."
"Yes... that this world is that program that I was talking about."
"But that can't the possible! I mean, I think we would know if this were a program!"
"That's what we said, but even if it were true, we'd still be wrong. The Matrix isn't a program. Like I said before, this is only what we had originally believed."
"So what is it? What's the Matrix?"
"That I can't really say, but I will tell you this. The code that you have been seeing, it's real. Without a doubt, it is as real as you and me. It's like pre-described rules that define how we interact with the things around us.
"Then it's what I had figured from the start. This place, it's made up of the code."
"Yes."
"But that can't be right."
"And why not?"
"Wouldn't that make us programs then. Just bits of data thrown around for someone else's entertainment?"
"Almost, but we aren't programs Shinji. You could say that the code... the Matrix itself is only there to bind us, restrict us to certain moves, actions. It's a cage Shinji, the Matrix is a trap to imprison us behind daily routines, confined hours and convenient social beliefs. Its a prison for our minds."
"But why? It doesn't make sense."
"Of course it does. It we knew what the Matrix was, we'd figure out how to use it, how to go beyond such heavy boundaries as oh.. I don't know, say gravity."
"Gravity?"
"Yes Shinji. Essentially, the Matrix is a master program or at least acts as if it were one, only it exists in the physical realm."
"How can that be true? How can any of this be real?"
"I don't know Shinji, but I do know that Nerv has something to do with this and the Angels as well."
"Nerv, the Angels?"
"Yes, Shinji. I joined Nerv because the men who killed my parents, worked for the people who started Nerv."
"But who ar..." The ringing of my cell phone cut me off from what I was going to say.
"Um... hello? Oh um... hello Asuka. Oh, no. I'm fine. No I didn't bump my head on my way home, why? Oh.. Um sure, I'll do it on my way back, I... just decided to make a stop along the way. Don't worry, ... sure... sorry, of course you wouldn't. I'll be home soon. Good bye."
"It seems we'll have to continue this conversation another time." Maya was saying. She looked disappointed. A part of me thought she looked cute when she pouted that way, but my mind was focused elsewhere.
"Miss Ibuki I..."
"Please Shinji, just call me Maya."
"Um... ok. Ma-Maya, it's just that... I... sigh." Holding my head in my hands, I sighed in frustration. "I just don't get it. Why am I seeing these things? Are there other people out there who have seen what I have? Have you?"
"I'm sorry Shinji, but no. No one is supposed to be able to see the Matrix for what it truly is without help."
"Help?" What kind of help could she be talking about? The smile she was giving me sorta threw me off and it only continued to get winder.
"Don't worry about it Shinji. I'll show you personally next time we talk. But you should be going now, or Ms. Sohryu might get upset."
She was right. I had stayed too long and no doubt Pen Pen and Asuka were probably duking it out in the kitchen. They were going to have my ass when I got back for making them wait, but I was used to it.
You could say it was pleasant, in a sort of bizarre tortured kind of way, for its normality, at least as for as my life went, compared to the way things had been going of late.
"Oh and Shinji..." I was at the door to her apartment about to head out. "You can stop by anytime you need to talk, or just call me if you have any questions. I know I had plenty when I found out about the Matrix."
"Um...ok." Actually calling Maya Ibuki, or for that matter calling a girl, scratch that, a woman... scared me a bit. I was starting to feel lightheaded.
"Wait I'll drive you. No need for you to walk all the way." I was deeply grateful, but not because of the distance and the pistol I caught her slipping into her pocketbook out of the corner of my eye said that she was thinking along the same lines.
Neither us wanted to be caught unprepared again. Our past had taught us the danger in this.
/WRW/
"I can't wait until our next meeting." The bright eyed technician said with another killer smile. That amount of gleefulness should have been illegal or at least marginally distributed with care.
"Don't worry Shinji. I'll show you all of the fun stuff next time." And with that brightly lit show, drove off, her smile still wide. I tried to control the little twitch at the corner of my mouth. I didn't feel like smiling, but sometimes I just couldn't help it around Ms. Ibu... I mean Maya.
'Maya... how did you become the person you are today, even with your terrible past? Why can't I be as happy as you are?'
I received no answers as I made my way up the elevator, only a bit of sappy music and a depressing silence. The small bit of optimism I had gained while with Maya had fled and I was back where I had started, but at least I had learned a bit about what was happening to me and Ms. Ibuki had promised more answers next time.
"Maybe things are looking up?" I said aloud, but the ping of the elevator doors opening and too very irate looking individuals and an abashed Hikari Horaki in the background were staring me down as I dashed to hit the down button shattered that dream.
"Man... I can still hear their screams and squawks through the doors and I'm five floors down now." I said with a small smile
After catching my breath I stood up when the elevator pinged again as the doors opened but the sight in front of me did a excellent job of slapping that smile off of my face.
It was him. The man I had saw early, still in his suit and tie standing there not a foot away from me. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. I couldn't do anything.
Or maybe I could... I don't even remember pushing the up button as the doors closed and the car headed up. The sight of my terror stricken face must have put an end to whatever rants the bird and the red head had as they saw me standing there frozen.
I'm not sure how many times they called my name because I wasn't listening. Only when I heard the ping of the elevator again down I snap out of my trance. The doors were closing. Someone or something had called the elevator down.
The doors closed with a hiss but I grabbed them and ripped them open and was down the hall in my room in no time. The girls probably thought I was crazy, but I didn't give a damn. I wasn't going out again. I wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't ....
'They followed me here. They know where I live. No, they had to have followed Ms. Ibuki. Oh god, they followed Maya! The people who killed her parents know where she lives!'
I had to warn her.
Hikari was at my door trying to console me into letting her in but I ripped the doors open again and was past her in the living room, rushing trying to phone Maya.
Asuka stood there to the side watching me with a strange look on her face. Her suspicion was obvious. But I didn't care. And the shooked expression she gave as I yelled Maya's name over the phone was to die for, but like I said, I didn't care. I wasn't even really aware of her presence.
"They followed me! The men from before, the ones who chased me, they followed me here. They must know where you live now too! Calm down? And how am I supposed to CALM DOWN DAMNIT!" I screamed to the woman on the other end.
I hadn't meant to do that, but emotion took over. I just hoped she'd take my apologies when I had time to gain control... but that was going to be a long time from now.
"First theirs that angel that swallowed me and quite possible killed me, then there's the code and every time I see it I think I going crazy, and now this? I don't even know what the Mat... ?"
The ringing of the doorbell shattered every thought process in my brain, causing a massive error, crashing my system. I only remember turning my head towards the door as my body began to drop with Maya yelling my name over the phone.
The code... it was ...everywhere. And the thing outside my door, it's code was as corrupted as my Eva's.
/WRW/
I was starting to get tired of this fainting mess.
I was sure Asuka would have had something stinging to say about the whole thing, but as far as I knew she wasn't around to say it. But then again, I didn't think anyone was around to say anything.
At first there was nothing, a pitch black nothing, making me almost believe that I had gone blind again, but then that darkness burst with a blinding light, bright enough that I could still see it with my hands over my closed eyes.
Eventually the radiant glow became soft enough for me to open my eyes and instead of floating in an endless shady sea of a sinister gloom I was left there in a white so stark it was scary.
Turning around only showed me the same scene and after a while I found my self wondering if I was even moving at all or if I'd ever be able to tell the difference.
'Maybe I'm dead. Would I be able to tell the difference from that either?'
I would have mused a bit more on the odd circumstances that my life had become but the scene changed again but at a rapid pace, as if someone was rummaging through my head like it was a filling cabinet searching for some top secret report, leaving me with a massive head ache and filling my mind with half formed images who's meanings were only barely clear after they had been replaced by another.
Some I recognized as my memories from before Nerv, but others were all together new. Places I had never been, people I had never meet and deeds done that I 'knew' that I could never do, they were all inner mixed with my own that at some point I began to wonder where I began and whoever memories the others were beg...
But before I could even sort out my mental confusion the emotions of those memories hit me and the weight of their combined knowledge left me staggering, or as much as one can stagger while floating in a sea of white nothingness while one's head is being tossed about like a soccer ball.
And with the speed at which it began it ended. I don't even remember the white room or whatever it was returning to ebony blackness. But the foot in my side more or less brought me back to the present as my eyes, along with my mouth, exploded to explore my surroundings. - after screaming out a bit first, of course -
"About time Ikari. I always knew you were one of the lazy types."
"Asuka! You shouldn't do that. He could really be hurt?" The class rep reprimand her friend.
"Whatever. It'll take more than that to take down the Great Shinji Ikari." The German girl said with a toss of her hair.
"Was that actually a compliment from you?" The pigtailed girl couldn't hold back a giggle.
"What? What are you talking about? I'd never...!" I would have laughed at how wide her eyes were as she tried to find a way to save face, but the pain I was in didn't allow for many distractions. It kinda wanted me to keep all of my attention centered on it.
"Calm down Asuka. It was just a joke." Another giggle escaped her lips.
"And a sorry one at that, but whatever."
"Hikari... Asuka... you two, you're not hurt?" I was able to force out, between breaths. They certainly sounded unhurt, but the suited man?
"Worry about yourself Third. What was that all about anyway? That punk just came in like he owned the place. I swear only a stooge would piss off Section 2. They are here for our protection you know? You shouldn't get on their nerves with your stoogeness." Typical Asuka, but this was probably for the best.
"Um Shinji are you alright?" Hikari asked while giving her friend a weird look. "I'm not sure what just happened either, but you hit the ground pretty hard."
"I.. I'm fine." I wasn't, but they didn't need to know that. Standing was a task, but eventually I managed. I did notice Asuka and Hikari giving me strange looks and the slightly worried expression on the red head's face was a little distracting but like I said, I managed.
"So, you going to explain what just happened?"
"Yes, and... could you tell us... what's the Matrix?"
That put a stop to my movement.
"What?"
"The Matrix. All the while that guy held you all I could think about was the Matrix."
"Yeah. I couldn't even move, it was like I weighed a ton, but the dumb word kept repeating itself in head." Asuka also replied.
"I.. I don't know what you are talking about." I knew that wasn't going to fly, but I just needed to get to my room and lock the door before they got wise and stopped me. I really needed time to think.
...sigh.
But of course that didn't happen. I'm not even sure how I ended up on the floor, but on the floor is where I ended up.
"You weren't thinking of skipping out on us, now were you Shinji?" The red head was on my right looking at me with an innocent expression that would have had old men falling all over themselves.
"Of course he wasn't Asuka That would have been quite rude of him, now wouldn't?" And her brown haired compatriot was on my left as if they were trying to flank me.
"And we all know Shinji isn't the rude type." The German continued.
"So... how about you be a good sport Ikarii-kun and explain to us what all of this was about like a good boy."
I could tell that my escape plan was not going at all how I had planed it and the closer the two girls got the less likely I was of getting away.
"I mean, you wouldn't want to disappoint such beautiful young girls like ourselves who were gracious enough to bless you with our presence and allow you the opportunity to help us with our small problem."
"We would be oh so thankful, wouldn't we Asuka?"
"Oh yes Hikari, we would."
Their smiles were as fake as Rei's hair color or at least I thought it was fake.... 'She couldn't really have blue hair now could she? Ken kept saying he knew of a sure fire way to tell, but that gleam in his eye had a bit of a hentai sheen to it. So it would probably be a good idea to be elsewhere if he every tested out his theory.'
"So, you can go right ahead and tell us Shinji." Hikari was saying.
"Yes, you wouldn't want to keep us wai..."
RING RINNG RINNNG
It was the telephone.
Maya.
I made it in record time.
"Maya! Maya is that you?"
"Um... no. I'm pretty sure my name is Misato. So you're with Ibuki now is it? Well I don't think Rei is going to take a liking to this new development, Shinji-kun. Playing the two like that isn't really a nice thing to do you know?"
"What are you talking about Misato? Whatever, I have to call Maya, so hold on and I'll call you right back, ok, Bye."
"Hey, but wait! I'm not..."
Click.
I didn't have time for the Major's antics. Maya could be in very serious danger.
"Maya, hello? Are you there? May..."
Click. "We're sorry, but the number you have dialed is temporary..." Click.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
"Wow, Shinji. I've never heard you swear before. You alright?" Asuka and Hikari were at my side and made me jump a bit, but I recovered quickly.
"No I'm not alright. Do I look alright to you? Whatever, I don't have time for this." I said, heading for the door.
"Hey, wait." Hikari was saying. "You can't just go. You haven't even told us what just happened."
"I don't have the time. I need to get to Ms. Ibuki, before something bad happens to her."
"I what do you think you're going to do about it if something does happen. You can't just go there on your own, you know?" Asuka called out from behind me, but I wasn't listening.
The cops wouldn't be of any help and if Nerv was involved with the suited men then talking to them would only make matters worse... 'so I'm on my own.' I told myself as I went out the front door.
or so I thought.