It was like a gate had opened. People were crawling out of the sea in droves.
All of them recognized him. He could tell by the glares they were giving him.
It was all justified. Shinji committed the crime. Now it was time to receive what was due.
No one was saying anything directly, though. People were all showing up and moving on and ignoring his existence.
This was the way it was meant to be.
It was a long while till the wave of people had left, and not one person spoke a word to him.
Asuka had made her way between the crowd and sat away from him. Far away enough that she wasn't with him but close enough to get to him.
He didn't complain, nor did he even think to.
As usual, Asuka, instead of Shinji, took the first action.
"You need to eat, moron. Don't think I can't hear your stomach from over here." She had stood up sometime when he was deep in thought and now had her hands on her hip.
"Look, everyone's gone, just like you wanted. Even their footprints are gone. The water washed them away."
Shinji didn't believe it at first, but he glanced and saw that they had washed away. The footprints past where the water could have reached were also gone.
It didn't matter anymore, Asuka was right, and he needed to eat. Maybe some food would help with the headache that decided to make its presence extra pronounced just the".
"Y-you'll grab something. Do you want anything?"
Shinji wasn't going to say it, but he was worried. Ever since she came too, Asuka hadn't eaten anything from what he had seen".
"Hmph, unlike you, I already ate, and I made sure to put my trash where it belongs." The superior tone aside, it set aside Shinji's worries.
Deciding something easy on the stomach would be good, he grabbed a granola bar to snack on while they decided what to do next.
There was at the same time a lot and very little to do. Them needing to move from the beach was their only main issue, but there was the issue of food. They didn't have enough for a long time, maybe enough for a few more days.
Clothing, water, and heat were another issue in the long run, but they had enough for a few days.
Rarely did Shinji ever decide to do anything on his own, but he knew that Asuka would eventually bring up that they were still sleeping outside.
So he stood up.
"Where are you going?"
It was a good question, but he didn't know, "I'm gonna find somewhere we can sleep in."
"Oh? And where are you going to find that? There's not much of an opening in the housing market if you didn't know. You made sure of that, didn't you?"
He knew that what she was saying was true. Maybe that's why it hurt so much because he couldn't deny it".
"I know, but you can't keep sleeping out here in the open, and-and you probably…probably should-" sleep somewhere away from me, is what he would say if he had the guts to bring that up.
"You're right, and I should sleep somewhere with a door I can lock, just in case."
He was an open book to her. She didn't need to say the whole sentence because she knew what he meant. Instrumentality made sure of it.
Shinji set off, determined to do something right today with nothing left to talk about.
It wasn't much longer till they stumbled across a mostly intact house. There was only one big hole in the front of it.
At the very least, it had four walls and a roof.
So far, the other options had only three walls, and not all of those had a roof to go with it. Who knew real estate in a post-apocalyptic world would be hard to come by"?
"Not bad. This one has a roof this time. Better than the other hundred we walked by. You didn't hold back, did you?"
Shinji felt like he had no right to defend himself after everything he had done but this time, he did. It wasn't his fault that Lilith or Rei or whoever the hell was in charge decided to cause so much destruction".
"I didn't do that. It wasn't me. It was Lilith."
"Well, you're not wrong. Wondergirl did a good job of destroying it all, but who was it that gave her the power to do that?"
Was it Rei or Lilith who caused all of the destruction?
Not even Shinji, who had been in direct contact, knew there were only assumptions. It didn't help that he hadn't been in the best of mind when in control.
Asuka didn't get the answer she wanted from Shinji, and he moved inside before giving her anything more.
Shinji didn't need to give her one anyway. She was making sure he remembered who was at fault, but wouldn't forget, couldn't.
There was no future of Shinji being completely absolved of his crimes, just making peace with them.
There were two floors to it, the base floor not to be confused with a basement, something it was lacking, was intact with little to no damage to it.
The second floor, however, was in a much more damaged state. The floor had a hole in the middle of the hallway, which you could see through it but looked like you would be okay if you stepped around it.
From a quick inspection, all of the rooms were still in liveable conditions, not that they'd need all four, but maybe other people they knew would come back"?
"Well, it looks like you managed to pick out a half-decent place, not too bad for an idiot like "ou."
It even had the stamp of approval from Asuka.
Next was some general goods, which were already taken care of. It was just left at the beach now.
Putting extra effort into remembering the address, Shinji followed his footprints back to the beach, hoping that the food and blankets were still there.
The way there wasn't nearly as long as the trip there, probably because they weren't searching for anything on the way back. They were looking forward to going back to the food.
It was no surprise that the food was there. No one had any intention of coming back. The look in their eyes was enough to tell that no one else wanted to talk with Shinji, apart from Asuka.
With food in a blanket held over his shoulder, he followed that train of thought with Asuka to his side.
Where was everyone else?
Where was Asuka?
She was beside him not even seconds ago, spinning around to try and spot Asuka. Shinji saw the red sea, an empty beach, and Lilith staring back at him.
"What are you doing? Any more spinning, and you might break something else, not that you left much else to destroy."
Where did she come from? At that moment, Shididn'tdn't question the sight of Asuka and her yellow dress. He only took relief in the fact that she was still here.
"I-i was seeing where, where everyone else went."
He must have looked stupid, spinning in place, because she just gave him an incredulous loo".
"Everyone else? Who are you talking about?"
