+++++ Tokyo-3. (Tuesday, August 31st, +10, Waning Crescent 1/4)

Walking along the paved path skirting the man-made pond decorating the center of the natural park, Shinji was furious. He had millions of things he wanted to shout at the woman walking alongside him, things that would do little more than provide a disgusting satisfaction that he'd 'won' by pushing the anger he felt off onto her. After a quarter hour of silent contemplation, he came to a halt well out of earshot of those not magically linked to his thoughts. "What am I missing?"

"I likely would have asked that you wear a light jacket, but whoever dressed you did a fine job otherwise. I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific as to the nature of our conversation." Miyuki herself was unhappy, deciding that total honesty with him would serve her needs far better than attempting to beg for his forgiveness.

"Yuka-chan," he answered with a slight shrug. "She offered me a coat six times, but I'm too warm even with how cold it's become. I'd be sweating, and I hate sweating." Turning to face her fully, he chose not to hide the scowl he wore. "Meroko-sama was at least as intelligent as my mother. She knew, without reference materials, a lot about a lot. Nothing she did was ever done without some ulterior motive, and I was usually able to figure it out after a while. You…you fucked me, and I'm trying to understand why you did that when you have to know you could have just talked to me."

For this, she let her eyes drop in shame. "Because of what she did to you. I felt the risk of losing any opportunity to discover the truth outweighed the pain I feel at having to hide it from not only you, but a woman I've called a friend for decades."

"What truth?"

"How familiar are you with the fugues you know about?"

"I've had them…for a long time. I'll wake up, or whatever, somewhere I wasn't before. I remember vague impressions about what I was doing before I wake up again, sometimes I can piece together what happened while I was out, but I can very rarely remember any of it unless it's…important."

She nodded, his description matching with what she had been told about the issue. "While some of the fugues are due to the trauma you've had to endure, just as many, if not more, are because she programmed you to react to a specific phrase. I will not speak that phrase here; it would trigger the conditioning, and it would risk others finding out what it is. Right now, an extremely select few are aware of it. The more that know the phrase, the more likely we would have to take catastrophic measures to ensure that the only person capable of defending us from alien terrors isn't suddenly directed to pilot a giant death machine in an effort to murder us all."

"She…." His left hand clenched into a fist. "I'm…." His anger was forced to stutter for a second as he was swiftly subsumed in a hug from the woman before him.

"You will be free of her." Lacing her fingers in his hair with one hand, gripping the back of his overshirt with the other, she anchored him to the present and kept him from losing control again in the only way she could think to. "I am more sorry than you'll ever understand that I had to make the choice I did. I'm even sorrier that I would make the same choice again knowing that it might cost me a place in your life. Please, understand that what I did, I did so that you could eventually be free from her…filth. I will do anything, give anything, be anything to earn your forgiveness…except risk the lives of everyone I care about, including you."

Several calming breaths whittled down the edge of his wrath enough that he was able to return the embrace, to an extent. His left hand remained in a fist, just atop her hip, and his right trembled in a desire to destroy something so that his opinion would be known by the world, settling in the small of her back. Lost for words that weren't some variation of 'I want to kill everything until the pain stops', he instead chose a much less globally destructive, "You smell…like cinnamon and fudge."

While it wasn't what she wanted to hear, it was a far cry better than she thought she would hear. Resting her temple against his chest so that she would be speaking audibly, and so she could hear his heartrate, she quipped, "Odd, I haven't had either for several days. The perfume bottle stated 'ocean mist', which doesn't strike me as either cinnamon or fudge. But at least it's not a bad smell."

"It…it means I…I…." He spent more effort on keeping his breathing even, his anger controlled, and his body from shaking. "It means I'm…you're…."

"The idea is not repulsive to me, in the slightest." Her arms remained loose enough to not give him the sense that he was trapped, tight enough to know that she was there for him. "Should that day come, you will not find me opposed…so long as my daughter is not upset by the thought."

"Don't lie to me again," he breathed out. "Please."

"Never…so long as there's a way to keep us all alive included."

"…Yeah, fair enough."

+++++ Tokyo-3. (Tuesday, August 31st, +10, Waning Crescent 1/4)

Having returned the mother to the others, Shinji now walked with the daughter on his arm. Waiting only a fraction of the time he had before, he led with something much more cogent, "We'll have to get used to a lot of…unhappiness."

"In every life, some rain must fall." Mitsuru smoothed one hand around his wrist comfortingly. "I believe we'll also have to get used to a great deal of joy. You work so hard to find ways to see the best in us, you should let us show you the best of yourself in return."

He grunted, not willing to commit to any viewpoint in particular for the time being. "Chie-chan, Yuka-chan, and Isako-chan all volunteered to join with me. They're all looking for ways to help us protect everyone, sacrificing…offering themselves to make it possible."

"An understandable sentiment from your perspective."

"I want y…I need you to understand that I would have been the luckiest man on Earth to have any one of them by my side."

"It is good that you feel that way, as any one of them would have been extraordinarily lucky to draw your attention." Squeezing his arm to draw his gaze, she looked at him seriously to press her point home. "You are not an appendage to the mission. You are a human being, placed in the same situation as the rest of us, doing what you can to be the man you yearn to be. If you ever begin to go astray, you should know that I would speak with you about that fact. Neither of us, you and I, are inclined to enable abuse."

There was no room for him to disagree. "I want you…with me."

"I did say I was moving in with you," she declared with a teasing grin. "But I appreciate that you're stating it plainly."

"N-no…I mean…."

"I know what you mean, and I meant 'moving in with you' in a far broader sense than simply changing my address." Pulling him to a stop, she moved to stand in front of him so that he held her close. "None of this is what any of us thought would happen. Our ability to change what's going on is quite likely to be non-existent. If it is my fate to stand by your side, to speak for us in one voice, then there can be no doubt in my mind that I might have been dealt far worse hands to play." She could feel his heart pounding, and even without the bond she knew that he felt deeply for her. "Tie us together, so that none may tear us apart."

He shuddered with ecstasy. "As you wish."

+++++ NERV. (Tuesday, August 31st, +10, Waning Crescent 1/4)

"I cannot stress enough exactly how much I despise everything about this entire plan!" With Shinji sitting on the couch, Chie leaning against his right side, Yuka sitting on his lap with her legs over Chie's, and the rest of the seating mostly occupied by women who could neither disagree with Rise nor express a better idea than what Shinji had decided on, the red-headed former idol was venting loudly for those women who were not predisposed to extreme emotional displays. "We are asking Shinji-kun, whose history I do not want to or need to repeat, to just go and sleep with random women until they pop up with a kid?! How is this a world we want to save, again?"

"Because it has all of you in it," he replied. Exhaustion hung heavily from him, despite the buttressing of several women with a fulltime pass into his very being. "If it meant saving all of you I'd go back to living with-"

"Not happening," Yuka interrupted him gently.

Isako agreed, "We appreciate that you are willing to sacrifice, Shinji. We also appreciate that you are honest enough to feel as terribly as you do for what has to happen." She looked to Rise, attempting to meet her more as a peer than an instructor. "He hates this more than you do, I promise you. The difference from where you are standing and where he is standing, is that he can do something to try and save everyone. All we can do is try to keep him from falling apart, and be ready to help the rest of you when Tartarus comes calling."

"That is a lot easier to say from your position, sensei," Yukiko challenged without rancor. "The two of us sitting here not able to feel what he feels have a much harder time feeling confident that we're doing everything we can."

"Do you want to?" Shinji had his cheek resting on Chie's head, slowly looking between Yukiko and Rise. "It won't give you the magic they have from Sachiel-san, Grovemother-san, or Amara-san…but it will tie you to me."

"Yes!" Coughing delicately when everyone turned to look at her with either amusement or embarrassment, Yukiko shrugged and looked over towards the door of their shared living space. "I mean, since everyone is going to have the chance to now, I don't really see a reason to wait anymore."

"Are the three of you ok with this?" Shinji was neither giddy with excitement about tethering Yukiko to him, nor dreading the act. A part of him was happy, knowing that she wanted to be with him in that manner. Another part was sad that it was another woman to disappoint in the end.

"If it's a lady from our class, I'm totes cool with it," Chie replied, squeezing his knee.

Yuka pet his cheek softly. "I agree, totally no reason to be upset about any of the other girls."

"Thank you for asking," Isako smiled appreciatively, "but I think it would be a good idea to go with your heart more than mine. I'm here to keep everyone safe, and enjoy coming to know a man with a good heart. They're far more suited to-"

"No!" Shinji smashed his fist down on his knee, avoiding both Chie and Yuka. "If I am not supposed to talk about myself like that, then neither are any of you." Glaring at Isako, he pointed with the same hand he'd used to emphasize his disagreement. "If I didn't look at you and think to myself how wonderful it would be to come home every day and see you smile, you wouldn't be here. At any point I can reject the bond. I learned how to, and I am not afraid to do that if it means saving any of you…." The temporary ire faded, replaced by a plea from a wounded animal to a place of hope, "Don't treat yourself that way…I need you to help me understand how to do the same thing."

Looking down at her hands, chastised dread hung off of her. "You are quite correct, and I am very sorry. It's an easy trap to fall into."

"I'd like to join up as well, then," Rise moved to shift the conversation away from troubled waters. "It seems like you've started to make choices about what you want out of life, and I'm not interested in sitting on the sidelines hoping you have another availability open up."

"Besides, turns out it's really not as bad as I was afraid it was going to be," Chie chirped happily. "Can't feel a thing if he's showing affection to someone else, except for a general sense of contentment. When Maya-san and I tested things this morning, we found that there's no…gross emotional weird stuff."

Rise made a face. "Really, Chie-chan?"

"Hey! I thought you'd like to know that when he and sensei decide to practice loving each other, we won't have to sit through it feeling everything. He's very active when-"

"Chie!"

"No, seriously, it's like this long," she held her hands out to the appropriate distance, "and like this big around," once more using both hands to demonstrate the other measurement involved, "and it's like a garden hose when-"

"Chie!"

With his cheeks burning beet red, Shinji hid his face behind Yuka and silently begged for a meteor to hit him. "When…whenever you're ready, I'll try to bond with you."

Huffing out frustration and crossing her arms, Chie groused as she snuggled under Shinji's shoulder, "I don't see what's wrong with letting him know how much I enjoy what he can do with his-"

"What is happening in your punching-bag of a brain, you sex drunk animal?!" Rise stormed over to Shinji, taking his hand and dragging him out from between their two classmates. "Ok, how does this work?" Coming to a stop next to Yukiko, she focused entirely on him and not on Yuka whispering salaciously with Chie. "What do we need to do?"

Along with the lesson he'd received on how to perform the trick came the memories of what he'd gone through and what he'd done. Remorse and regret punched him in the gut, and the fires in his face withered away entirely. "Just…keep your mind calm." While physical contact wasn't essential to the task, he felt that it might make it easier if he already had some sort of 'contact' with the person accepting a place in his being. His hand engulfed Rise's shoulder, causing a stray thought about how truly small the often-larger-than-life young woman was. Lessons on perception, and how the brain distorts what the eye perceives, rippled across his own sense of calm.

Between heartbeats, he felt an awareness of Rise form. The place where there was nothing that he had not even known was present was empty no longer, and without him having to force the issue that space was becoming filled with that which she was. The way Chie fed him energy, or Yuka fed him confidence, he now held a sense of potential in his grasp. Isako promoted wisdom in his actions, Mitsuru awareness of his actions, but Rise pointed out where those actions could truly take him if he dared enough to actually act.

A trill of bliss launched up his spine, his grasp on her shoulder becoming a necessary point of support as his knees weakened. "You…you're…." He felt the other three women that were present and bonded to him take note of his physical state, and he motioned that he was ok. "I don't know how, but you feel…different."

"Different good or different bad?" Rise practically threw him onto the arm of Yukiko's seat, placing her forehead against his to gauge his temperature and feeling for his pulse. "I need you to talk to me, babe."

Yukiko eyed Rise askance. "Babe?"

"It's a good different." His body began to adjust to the difference, and his eyes flicked side to side with his racing mind. "You…there's…. I-I'm sorry," he shrugged, lost, "I don't know how to put it into words." Shaking off the curiosity, he found it far easier to bring Yukiko into his life. There was pleasure, and happiness, but nowhere near the mind-breaking level that he'd garnered from Rise. In the long-haired innkeeper, he found the strength to endure whatever it was that life would throw at him. Worry that she would react poorly to the lack of a repeat of what he'd felt for Rise suddenly sparked in his thoughts, and he moved to show her that he was by no means upset to have her in his life.

What he saw, instead of condemnation, was tears of frustrated sorrow. "Why?" Taking his hand and pulling him over onto her lap, she clung tightly to him and began to sob. "Why do you hate yourself so much?!"

+++++ Kirijo Manor. (Tuesday, August 31st, +10, Waning Crescent 1/4)

"Seriously?" Ulala blinked, genuinely surprised by what had been declared by Mitsuru. "He doesn't want to just stay here?"

"Last place I'd want to rest my head is somewhere that had been occupied in any way by someone who'd raped me," Sumire declared with an eyeroll. "If we're moving into our own place, I'd better get to packing."

"No need," Mitsuru motioned for her to stay, "the Kirijo Group will have professionals handle that while we're at school tomorrow. After school we'll all head to our new home, argue with one another about who gets what room, and not have to worry about who is and is not 'closest' to Shinji-kun." That statement perked the ears of all three young ladies remaining in the Kirijo Manor. "He has learned, somehow, to give anyone he wishes the same connection to him that Chie-chan has." Intending to both warn them and temper expectations, she added, "He has also learned how to remove that connection, should anyone choose to make such a nuisance of themselves."

Eriko gasped, then clapped happily. "That's great! That means if Tartarus shoves someone else on him, he can undo it!"

With a short nod of approval, Sumire agreed, "He'll have control of his life, at least more control than he had before. That is absolutely great."

Glancing over at the clock in the library, Mitsuru moved to clear away from the door. "Let's take what time we have left today to prepare for returning to the building tomorrow. Ulala, could I have a quick word with you?" When the young woman in question eyed her warily, she amended, "Nothing is wrong, I just don't believe you'd like to discuss something personal this broadly."

"Fair enough," Sumire popped up out of her chair, "let's go talk fashion, Eriko."

"Absolutely. We must remind everyone else that our class is without peer." Smoothing out her skirt, the fencer accompanied the ballerina towards the door. "I'm thinking I might try a kerchief, or maybe an ascot. Retro-futuristic."

Waiting for the door to close, Mitsuru continued her campaign of stopping Ulala from sabotaging herself. "I presume you intend to ask him tomorrow?"

"…Later, when we're at home." Ulala looked down, rubbing the thumb of her right hand into the palm of her left. "If he accepts my apology, that is."

"He will. He's forgiven worse people for more." Inwardly hopeful, she moved closer and sat down next to the boxer. "I do not doubt the apology will be genuine, which is why I want to help you if you'll allow me." Ulala looked over at her cautiously. "In the morning, I'll help you talk to him before class. You need to know, though, that what you say won't be limited to the two of you alone. Whatever he knows is…able to be known by anyone bound to him. There are exceptions, but the confusion and concern he'll feel at an apology will draw attention."

"Oh." She blinked, pushing the information she'd just been given to various ends. "So…when he and…."

"No, it doesn't work like that. Chie-chan told me when she hopped off the aircraft and pulled me away from everyone that she can't 'feel' when he's intimate with anyone. She can feel when he's angry, or hurt, or upset, but not when he's 'doing things', as she put it. She wanted me to pass that information along, because she knew that it would help ease everyone's fears."

"That is probably the best news I've had all day." Her jaw tightened, and she broke eye contact again. "It'll help with the stupid jealousy, at least."

"It is not 'stupid'." She set her hand on Ulala's knee, trying to comfort a woman that she hoped would find peace once Shinji could let her in his life. "I absolutely dread how I will react the first time I see him lying nude in the arms of someone else. It is bound to happen, simply because he has the most wretched luck imaginable, and I can only hope I handle it with enough grace that it doesn't lead to months or years of hurt."

Barking out a laugh, Ulala shook her head. "No, I know you'll handle it better than I will."

"That might not be the highest bar to cross."

"Maybe not, but it's still better." She took a steadying breath. "You promise?"

"I will do everything I can to give you the moment you need to apologize. I cannot promise it will happen, because I do not know if we will even make it to school tomorrow without something exploding, burning down, or forcing him to do something none of us want him to do."

"Or, just to keep us on our toes, all of those things at once."

"I can only pray that does not come to pass." Standing up, she offered her hands. "Shall we go discuss our own attire for tomorrow?"

"…Sure." She could not say that she got along with Mitsuru, but she also couldn't say that it wasn't for a lack of effort on Mitsuru's part. "Sounds like fun."

+++++ NERV. (Tuesday, August 31st, +10, Waning Crescent 1/4)

"I don't think it's a bad idea at all," Andreja's supervisor admitted with a hint of a shrug. "What I'm saying is, this isn't what you yourself have told me that you were looking for. It's my job to make sure you're in position to succeed at your goals, and if those goals have changed then they've changed."

The giant engineer blew out a heavy sigh of frustrated energy. "Yes, yes, I know…I just wish that I knew what I wanted anymore, yes?"

"Do you think it's more likely that you're going to find it with him? Is it the potential from a promotion?"

"Bah, I do not care for pay I will never spend." Andreja waved off the idea. "I think it is because I will be near him, yes."

A subtle heft of one eyebrow was paired with, "Getting caught up in the latest craze?" She endured the scowl that was levelled at her for the accusation. "Girl, I was married to my Tanaka before you were even a twinkle in your mother's eye. I recognize the signs of a young woman with a target."

"Thirty-eight is too old for him, even if I did have an eye towards marriage, yes it is." Losing some of her bluster, both out of respect and out of discipline, she looked down at her lap and frowned instead. "Besides, he already has a soulmate. This is part of my fear, I think. I swore to him that I would be there to support him, and I know that God put me at his side to help him carry his burdens, but how? Here, where I can craft the armor that protects him from these false prophets…or closer to him, where he might…unintentionally end up stuck with me at his side for eternity."

The 'surrender' was both accepted and irritating. "That is your decision to make, of course, but it would make more sense to me that if your god wanted you to carry his burdens in any capacity you would be better off with him as often as he'd let you be."

"And if…." She hesitated, more out of fear of the answer than worry over the woman who might give it. "If I become bound to him, as Miss Chie has? Is this not a test of my faith?"

"Would your god let you become bound to him if they didn't want you to be bound to him?" While it was not her faith, she understood enough of the particulars to try and help a woman she felt more than an obligation towards. "Do they not govern your soul?"

"They do, yes," she agreed with far less fervor than she might have in 'better days'. "I wish…I wish the chaplain had not…." Standing from her seat, she bowed politely. "Thank you for your advice, ma'am. I need to see to the gauntlet regardless of if I stay or leave, I do." Turning on her heel, she walked quickly out of the room feeling no less lost than she'd entered.

+++++ Tokyo-3 High. (Wednesday, September 1st, +11, Waning Crescent 2/4)

Standing inside the courtyard of the high school, Shinji waited for the ladies from the Kirijo Manor to arrive while watching the slow trickle of the rest of the student body make their way from the dorms to the classrooms. With his back to the thick brick and mortar wall near the compound's main entrance, he was protected from being approached by anyone through an arc of his classmates paired off in idle chatter with one another…and the comforting presence of his eldest 'wife' standing in front and just to the side of him.

"I'm…honestly not sure how I feel," Isako stated following a long moment of introspection. "It's odd, but still as familiar as ever. I'm surrounded by students on the cusp of adulthood who need me to be more than just someone who teaches them calculus. The difference is obvious, though, in the fact that I now have to also feel how the trees lining the school grounds enjoy watching the students come and go. They're…proud? They view everyone here as a part of a garden they're tending to, and the flowers their growing are sacred to them."

The concept of his fellow students being flowers sat well with him. "That's good. It wasn't what I meant, but I'm glad you're not unhappy about returning."

She frowned minutely. "What did you mean, then?"

"I meant how you felt regarding the principal's enthusiastic approval," he clarified his earlier question in a way that kept the topic vague. The last thing he wanted was the entire student body making her life harder.

"Oh, that." Crossing her arms under her chest, needing to warm her hands between limb and torso, she bounced her head from side to side slightly. "I think everyone's lost their minds, but I can't act like a hypocrite and pretend that I didn't make the decision that I did. I'm a part of something greater now, and considering what I…hear, I will happily admit that for as aggravating as this will be from time to time I wouldn't go back and make a different decision. I'm afraid we're stuck with each other."

The way her emotions shifted closer to happiness helped him better understand her laconic sardonicism. "What do you think about…offering this to…."

"That's between you and her," she replied firmly. "She's a great teacher, a good woman, and we've had a lot of conversations about how best to help you. This entire situation is fundamentally insane, and my gut reaction is to tell everyone else to stay away from us, but that's one hundred percent predicated on a lifetime of social expectations, norms, and professional training." Choosing to admit her fears instead of hide them, she amended, "That and she's prettier than I am, so I'm jealous which means I shouldn't answer for fear of either ignoring my jealousy or being guided by it."

"I don't think she is," he replied, distracted by the raucous cheers of a small group of students who'd gathered together near the doors to the school. From what he could tell, they were approving of the talents of one of their peers who was currently demonstrating an ability to juggle. "You can't compare people like you can compare cars. Cars are all built off of a model, so you might find thousands of the exact same looking car with the only difference being the color. Humans have way too many possible differences based on the basic 'model' of eyes, fingers, feet, whatever." Looking back to Isako, he smiled softly and shrugged. "The more women I've been exposed to, the more I've realized that even two ladies who look similar can wind up being on different ends of what I view as pretty."

A part of her hated how good that made her feel. "Then I guess I was right to accept the offer, if my husband is wise enough to know the difference between physical beauty and true beauty."

There was a similar, but less specific ache at her praise. "I think I'm going to make the offer before we start class, just so that it's not hanging over my head all day…would that be ok?"

"I don't see a reason to say 'No'." Pulling one hand free, she waved to someone he couldn't see. "They're here."

He'd felt the approach of Mitsuru, and had kept himself from turning eagerly to see her so that he didn't upset Isako. He might not be able to be there for all of them all of the time, but he would do everything he could to help them understand how important they were to him. "I know, thank you."

Hearing his thoughts, Isako was glad that the temperature outside made her face reddish already. The students didn't need to see a teacher blushing over her student's charm. "I'll have a quick talk with Kawakami-sensei." Before she parted ways temporarily, she set her hand on his upper arm and spoke in a quiet tone, "I would give you a hug, but I have to set a good example. I…can't explain why I feel the way I feel, but I know that the thought of being with you for the rest of my life is making me want to smile."

"Ah, Toriumi-sensei!" Sadayo Kawakami came over with a large, and largely fake, smile before wrapping her arm around Isako's neck and hauling her towards the school building. "I hear that you got a bonus! Come tell your bestest bud all about it."

"Shinji-kun," Eriko was the fastest to approach on the heels of their teachers leaving, "I…would like to apologize for my part in making you uncomfortable." With her long hair pulled up into her traditional horsetail, and her pale skin glowing, she managed to outshine nearly every other woman present. "I hope you do not regret our time together."

He couldn't recall any specific instance in which she'd caused him to feel uncomfortable. When she'd come downstairs and kissed him, it wasn't…uncomfortable. In all honesty, he wouldn't be directly opposed to more greetings from her involving kisses. "I…n-no? I enjoy spending time with you." Greeting the next closest woman with a smile and bow, he hoped to keep the greetings short enough that they'd be able to go inside and discuss any bonding they'd be interested in. "Good morning, Yoshizawa-san. I…made a lot of progress on figuring out what I want. Thank you for pushing me to think about it."

Sumire's smile was content and happy for him. "That's great! Just remember to keep thinking, ok? Wants change, grow, or even sometimes solidify entirely. But we can't know unless you put some thought into what you like and don't like."

"I will, I promise." Taking note of Rise and Yuka coming over, he went to ask if everything was ok but hesitated when the two ladies took Eriko and Sumire by the hand to pull them towards the school after Yukiko and Chie. His next thought was that they must have meant for everyone to head into class, which was then disproven by Mitsuru and Ulala stepping around in front of him and keeping him in place by blocking his escape routes. "O-oh, good morning Mitsuru-chan," looking over to Ulala, he had a brief pulse of thoughts about what she'd nearly been tricked into doing, "good morning, Ulala-chan…I'm really glad you're not hurt. I'm…uhm, I'm sorry for thinking that I could trust…her."

"No, no!" Ulala waved her hands in front of her rapidly. "There's no way I'm letting you take the blame for that. Everything was all…goofy, and we didn't know we couldn't trust someone who'd not only fought to keep you alive but tried to heal you! I…I really shouldn't have been so…me. I was dumb, and I shouldn't have been dumb, and I'm trying really hard to not be dumb, and-"

"I-I can't blame you for that! You wouldn't have been in a position to be manipulated by her if I hadn't-"

"But that's not fair to you! If you hadn't accepted-"

"We don't know that for-"

Stamping her foot, and setting several pleasantly shaped portions of her body to jiggling, Ulala glared at him hard. "Would you shut up and let me apologize to you?!"

"But…but it's not your fault." He couldn't keep eye contact, and so he looked down at the ground. "I-I'm sorry."

Mitsuru clamped down on Ulala's shoulder, unseen by Shinji. The beautiful boxer looked at her student body president in anger, then frustration, and finally regret. "I'm sorry too. I…I just got frustrated, thinking you'd never look at me like…."

Looking around their little group quickly to make sure they were still alone, Shinji leaned in and offered quietly, "If you want…I can…you know…. But we have to go up to the classroom first."

"YE-" Cutting off herself, she coughed into one hand and shifted her shoulders happily. "Sure, sounds great! Let's, uhm, let's head on up then." The struggle she underwent to stop herself from grabbing him and physically hauling him into the school building was titanic. "Thank you for asking."

Walking between Mitsuru and Ulala, Shinji could feel the eyes of everyone else that was walking towards the same building on him. The normal part of his mind, the part that knew who and what he was, screamed in terror at the potential people might think he was anything but a person that was given an undue prominence based purely on his birth parents. The newer part of his mind, the part that was gaining confidence in being repeatedly told that he had more value than as a physical counterweight against the potential that any chair he sat upon would lose its proper connection to the gravity that bound them all to the floor, wanted to put one arm around each of the two ladies beside him to announce to the world that yes, he did actually belong alongside two of the most popular women in school.

When Shinji moved quickly ahead to open the door for them, Mitsuru urged Ulala ahead and then halted in front of Shinji closer than was likely acceptable for someone of her station. "Why thank you, dear sir." With her face mere centimeters from his, she willingly risked public gossip to smile charmingly and then lightly kiss him. "I do so enjoy knowing that my paramour understands good manners." Watching his cheeks burn with a mixture of adoration and fear of being judged, she felt the thrill of victory and moved to follow Ulala.

"Ah, Ikari-kun!" Waving from near the administrator's office, the school's principal gave him an attempt at a disarming smile as he entered the building himself. "I hate to bother you before class, but I was wondering if I might have a few minutes of your time."

"Good morning, ma'am," Mitsuru flowed into a supportive posture next to Shinji, grateful for Ulala's silent arrival on the other side of him, "I am afraid we do not have an abundance of time this morning. What can we do for you?"

"Oh, I really only need to speak with Ikari-kun, Kirijo-chan. You and Serizawa-chan can go to your classroom, he'll be along once-"

Ulala, barely, kept both her tone and statement civil, "If it involves Shinji-kun, it involves us, ma'am. I'm sure you appreciate the fact that he tends to get into all sorts of trouble whenever he doesn't have us around to keep an eye on him."

Now being directly challenged by two of her students, a fact that was being noticed by dozens more of her students, the principal shifted from her attempts at disarming joviality to a more direct use of authority, "I have complete confidence in my capability to handle any issues that may arise, ladies, even if it seems the student leadership has somehow lost confidence in me. Head to your classes. Ikari-kun," she stepped aside and gestured into the office, "if you would please?"

"I'll be ok," Shinji took a step past Mitsuru and Ulala, turning around and lowering his voice. "If I can handle your mother," he looked to the former, "I should be able to handle whatever the principal has to say. She's afraid, not angry, and if I need help I'm pretty sure you'll come running."

"Just make sure that you do call for help, ok?" Ulala frowned in worry. "We're a team, or so I'm told…teams call for backup when things go wrong."

"I'll be listening," Mitsuru added with a nod of agreement.

Turning back towards the principal and moving into the office, confident in the support he would receive if necessary, Shinji allowed a touch of his own irritation to show in his tone and posture, "I'm sure that whatever it is principal-san needs is important." He hadn't anticipated the woman quailing in response to his actions, only serving to increase his confusion and irritation. She was an adult! Adults were meant to have the ability to manage their emotional state. Even worse, she was an adult in a leadership position. He could never imagine Misato acting the way the principal now was.

The principal's office was currently occupied by a number of non-Japanese women, not enough to crowd the room but more than enough to make it evident that this would not be a 'quick' meeting. A woman of a height with him, her painstakingly coiffed blonde hair falling in an artistically beautiful waterfall over her right shoulder in such a way as to draw the eye naturally to cleavage that was on the cusp of being socially inappropriate, looked him over as he entered in the manner of a sculptor appraising a block of marble. "Pas mal," she mused in her native tongue, "passablement."

"Pardon?" Shinji positioned himself in a vaguely defensible portion of the remaining office space, replying politely to a woman he didn't know from Eve. "Qu'est-ce qui est passable?"

Her eyes widened slightly, a hint of a grin growing. "Tu parles Français? Encore mieux!"

"I'm sorry," the principal looked to a woman standing closer to the first woman who'd spoken, "I'm still lost."

With a thick French accent, the apparent translator did her best to speak in understandable Japanese, "The ambassador offered Monsieur Ikari a compliment, which he responded to with an appropriate demur. She then approved of his knowledge en Français."

With more confusion than wariness, Shinji analyzed the other women in the room. It seemed that everyone was paired in a way similar to the two French diplomatic staff, an individual who was here for some reason, and someone to help them understand what was being said. "…I speak more than a few languages. I am curious as to why I'm speaking something other than Japanese, though."

"The surviving members of the UN delegations showed up this morning to speak with you," the principal answered while their words were translated into several languages he recognized. "Their request to have you present yourself to their headquarters was…not answered with sufficient speed, I…hope."

He realized that it was all together possible that their request was flatly denied by NERV, or the Prime Minister of Japan. That they'd taken it on themselves to simply show up at his High School might have made sense, if it weren't for the fact that he'd decided yesterday that he'd wanted to come back. There aren't any guards, he thought. "Principal-san, please contact whoever is in charge of security this morning."

"I, uhm," she balked at the request, clearly attempting to find a polite reason to decline.

Threats weren't something he was excited to have to express, he had very little interest in killing or hurting anyone. The situation he was in had, however, all the hallmarks of a trap of some sort. "In five seconds, I will walk out of this office unless you call for her. Any attempts to stop me from walking out of this office will result in the application of as much force as is necessary to allow me to leave." His hands clenched into fists. "Five."

One of the other women, her healthy olive skin placing her ancestry somewhere in what had remained of South America, clicked her tongue in frustration and picked up the principal's phone to dial a series of numbers. The line connected quickly, and she asked in a terse Brazilian Portuguese, "Você poderia mandá-la entrar, por favor?"

"Obrigada," he stated gently, relaxing his hands as she hung up the phone.

"Of course," the woman replied with a hint of frustration and an abhorrent accent. "To be sincere, we had wanted to meet you without anyone in the room. The principal insisted that she be present, and the bodyguard agreed to wait outside after searching us for contraband."

The door opened, and in walked one of the women from the Kirijo Manor that he recognized. "Hey boss," she moved towards him, a shark causing the fish to part out of her way or be eaten, "would have given you a head's up, but you were standoffish this morning. Who am I evicting?"

He realized that he had been far too introspective, and it likely would have translated to the women guarding his classmates believing that he didn't want to be approached. He'd allowed his anger too much lead, and now he was paying the price. "The principal. She hasn't done anything wrong, but if they want to talk to me alone for now, I think we all understand that there's very little that will stop me from leaving if I want to."

The security expert barked out a laugh. "Short of an N-two, I can't really think of anything that would." Her smile never faded, but her voice lowered enough to only be heard by him. "You give the word, I'll bounce the foreigners so hard they hit Okinawa dry."

"If you hear anything get smashed, get everyone clear of the exit." He eyed the diplomatic envoys again. "They're all afraid, but determined to do what they came to do. I think we're ok, for now."

"Oh, c'mon boss," she smirked with a wry wink, "we're at least fantastic on our worst day." Raising her voice, she motioned for the principal to leave, "All right, lady. The boss says he wants to have a chat with the foreigners alone. We'll go grab a cup of coffee and wait for him to hear them out."

Shinji waited for the two women to leave, the security expert giving everyone remaining a warning eye and the principal seeming to deflate entirely. Once the door closed, he looked at the arrayed women and asked simply, "Is there an easier language for everyone? I'm pretty flexible."

"Unfortunately, no." A woman of indeterminate descent answered with a polite shake of her head. "Before we came, we spoke amongst ourselves and found that there is no single language that we can all use. Our Japanese, as I am sure you have noticed, is lacking greatly. Much of our translators were male, so when the world decided to kill them we were left trying our best at a language we were not here to speak."

"You are not what we were told you would be," another woman, this time with an accent from a nation south of China, offered. "We did not expect that you would be as fragile as we were led to believe, no one who willingly courts death to save lives is that weak." Waiting for her ambassador to continue, the woman nodded slowly to indicate she understood what she was to say. "Are your countrymen not treating you properly, that you would walk around with such anger?"

Am I really that angry? He looked down, noting that his posture remained aggressive. "There have been a lot of…misunderstandings."

The Brazilian diplomat laughed musically, then urged her translator to relay her thoughts. "We think that might be the most bland way of expressing that the world has gone insane we have ever heard, sir."

Everyone noticed when he relaxed slightly, unable to remain tense in the face of someone laughing at the world in commiseration. "Yeah, I don't think it's polite to put it the way I actually feel." Another quick scan of the room showed that there was more than enough seating for everyone. "Could we sit down? I…get the feeling you're needing to ask me something serious."

Seating themselves in a clear hierarchal structure, they left more than enough room for Shinji to not feel crowded. The French ambassador was positioned where her authority was more evident, the Brazilian next to her, then the rest seating themselves more casually. As he expected, it was the French woman who spoke first, "We were told, yesterday, that you have agreed to willingly participate in a series of experiments intended to replenish Japan's population."

"More or less," he hedged.

"You hesitate," the fellow Asian asserted. "Are you under duress?"

"Not really. I'm just…I understand that I'm the only one who can help. If I can help, and I don't, then I would be directly responsible for the death of what remains of humanity." Shrugging, he smiled with a 'what can I do?' expression. "How could I live with myself if I let everyone die because I'm afraid?"

"You are afraid?" The Brazilian asked the question with both genuine surprise and worry, "What is it you fear?"

"A lot." A litany of concerns offered themselves as part of the explanation. "I'm worried that people will be pressured into having sex with me. I'm worried that we'll fail, which would make the sex pointless and harmful to women that only consented because the end of the world was staring us in the eye. I'm worried that we'll succeed, and there won't be any males. I'm worried that we'll succeed, and that an entire generation of humans will wonder why their 'father' never participated in their lives. I could keep going, but it doesn't matter. We won't know if I don't do it, and I can't let my fears be the death of…."

One of the others, a pale woman with no real discernable heritage, nodded slowly. "He shows wisdom. We should stop wasting his time, so that he may share that wisdom with his peers."

The French translator's services were not needed for Shinji, but he still let her speak first so that the other translators had an opportunity to perform their functions. While she was not uncomfortable with what she was saying, she clearly was concerned about how Shinji would take it, "We are currently involved in efforts to canvas your nation for non-Japanese peoples. While we understand that it is not something that would reside at the top of your government's list of concerns, we ourselves must take such things into consideration. If there will never be a chance for us to return to our nations, we must beg that you help us at least salvage what we can of our culture, history, and peoples. Should we find those willing to…would you acquiesce to giving those women a chance to carry their flag, their lineage, their legacy in what way you are able?"

"Nous vous en supplions, mon bon monsieur," the French diplomat begged. "Devenez aussi notre héros."

Sitting back, looking around the room at the women eyeing him with cautious hope and fiery determination, Shinji asked a question to buy himself time to think, "What if a way is found to go back?"

"Then a few children will be granted citizenship in both Japan and the nation of their mother's birth," another of the smaller nations' representatives replied quickly. "We will draft contracts to that point, as a part of your compensation for your aid."

Each other diplomat nodded in affirmation, unified in their position. That further pushed him along the line of agreeing, not that he truly believed he could ever say 'no'. While he didn't honestly care about Japan, after Japan had spent over a decade apparently not giving a shit about him, he had to accept that there were people from other countries who cared deeply about such things. "I've…asked my mother to have Ritsuko Akagi create a list of women, so that I can get to know them a little before I…." There was something wrong, to him, about putting words to what they would do. "If you'll give me a second, I can give you her contact information."

"We already know how to reach the good Doctor," the Brazilian translator's relief was palpable. "For the moment, most of us here in this room will be cooperating with you. We will make sure that she has appropriate CVs for us all, and we'll fill in some background information on us in a more informal sense."

He blinked, looking around the room again. None of the women were over their early forties, that he would venture. None of them were younger than thirty, either. That he would likely be focused on women that would be too old to have children before too long struck him square between the eyes, and he sighed and let his head drift downwards. "I apologize."

The pale translator got an earful from the woman she served, "Mówiłem ci, że nie chciałby starych kobiet!"

"Nie to nie to. Chciałbym być lepszym człowiekiem, nie czuć...ulgi." Opening his eyes, and looking at the handsome woman with the amount of loathing he felt for himself clear to see, he switched back to Japanese to make everyone's job easier, "None of you are 'old'. None of you are 'unattractive', or 'unpleasant', or even people that I look at and don't think I would enjoy…." Closing his mouth and thinking of what to say, he shifted gears, "You might end up carrying a child I helped create. You'll be sore, tired. You might die giving birth! The entire time you live with our child in your body, I'll be somewhere else, with someone else. I won't be there holding you when it hurts, or helping you when you're sick. I sit here and think about numbers, about how often I can attempt getting women pregnant. All I have to worry about is having sex. You have to worry about life afterwards."

+++++Author's Notes.

Thank you. Thank you for the statements of support, and for the encouragement. I actually let myself play some Destiny 2 earlier this week, with my daughter and her friends, and it was the weirdest feeling realizing that I had somehow magically become the 'cool dad who understands memes and has a positive K/D in Crucible'. I hadn't realized how much I missed the simple joy of making people laugh until I was doing it.

Life's weird, man.