+++++ Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

Something Shinji hadn't expected, and certainly wouldn't have dreamt of, was the idea of the limo being some kind of cat youkai transformed into a vehicle. The footman and Rei coordinated field treatment for his injuries, the former ignoring any questions posed to her by the other passengers and the latter keeping a calm stream of soothing words flowing to try and ease the pain she knew he was feeling. It made sense, in a weird way, that they'd need an unusual car like this. You couldn't ask a limo to move through rough terrain. You could ask a six-legged cat to slink its way over and around that rough terrain without problems.

She's inside of me.

The sudden urge to flee embarrassed him and shamed him. He couldn't run away from the three conjoined women in his soul. He couldn't escape them, or the responsibility they entailed. Several questioning looks were aimed towards him, as well as a concerned query from the footman who was cleaning his wounds. All he did was shake his head to negate the concern from her and let everyone else continue to wonder if his statement had any more to it.

The destruction that had been brought to Suginami, Setagaya, Meguro, Shinagawa, Chuo, Chiyoda, Shinjuku, and the northern half of Shibuya gave way to a mostly still intact Hiro-o. In the distance he could see that Minato had also been spared to a large degree, though neither did much to lighten his mood. He had failed to prevent any of it. He hadn't been able to bring enough force to bear to stop the Sixth Angel. He hadn't been able to be present to try and save Ami from the Seventh Angel. And now, three hours away, the Eighth Angel is probably growing inside of Mount Asama.

Letting his head fall against the headrest, he closed his eyes and shut out everything else. He'd failed. He had failed, and now far too many people were dead. It wasn't only Ami. It wasn't even Ami and Makoto and Hygieia. The people of Chuo, Setagaya, Shinjuku, Meguro…so many were dead. There weren't any Anti-Angel shelters. There were no evacuation procedures. Less than a few hours past, the blissfully ignorant masses hadn't believed they shared a world with monsters larger than the tallest buildings. They hadn't known their death wouldn't come from missiles, or bombs, or terrorism. He had failed.

The limo came to a stop on the road outside of the apartment building, and he declined to wait for anyone else before exiting. He had no shirt on, the garment had been removed to allow access to the wounds along his torso, and he was still coated in blood and worse. There were small groups of people outside, the thunder and fury of the nearby battle enough to keep anyone awake and encourage them to seek whatever information they could find. He felt each of their stares as they watched him hobble towards the building, he didn't care that they might think him insane, or deranged, or dangerous. Inside of the building one of two things was true. He hadn't heard anyone mention the elder Mizuno, and he had to know one way or another exactly how deep his penance had to cut.

A Tengu opened the main door for him, its partner joining the doorman in a deep bow of honor for the returning warrior. Shinji didn't take note of it, and likely wouldn't have understood if he had. The yuki-onna from the restaurant had the elevator open and waiting for him, intentionally blockading the other ladies from climbing aboard with her. He didn't hear a word she said on the trip up to the seventh floor. The elevator doors opened, and his heart lurched. Several crews of youkai were doing their best to clean a trail of devastation. Broken and shattered bodies, equal numbers of Angel, human, and youkai were strewn about the hall in mute testament to the brutal fight to save or take lives.

Swallowing past a lump of fear, he limped off of the elevator and barely maintained his footing as he moved towards the Mizuno apartment. People attempted to speak to him, none of which brave enough to stand in his path, though he didn't hear a word of their pleas. The door to the Mizuno apartment was closed as he reached it. The quantum state waiting for him to observe it so it could collapse the waveform into the version of reality he would be forever forced to live through. Was Saeko Mizuno alive, allowing him to offer his head to her for his failures? Was Saeko Mizuno dead, forcing him to carry another corpse around with him for the rest of time? Another wave of indecision urged him to flee; another wave of indecision was crushed violently beneath the heel of obligation.

Before he could reach for the doorbell, the portal itself slid open revealing the truth of things. "If only my ex-husband had possessed an ounce of the sense of duty you do." It was plain to see that Saeko had been crying, and just as obvious that she had the ability to turn off such things as emotions when needed. "Inside, inside," she waved him in hurriedly, "I won't have you bleeding out on me, silly man." Gently taking his arm, she guided him over to the dining area and kicked a chair out from under the table for him to sit on. "Sit down, sit still. If even half of that is yours, we're probably going to end up at my hospital." With that, she disappeared down the hall into the dark of the back half of the apartment.

Shinji followed at least half of the orders he'd been given, confusion gaining ground over every other emotion he had limited access to. His head bobbled slightly as he looked around for something to write on and with, the need to apologize still present if slightly askew. Without any real luck, he grabbed a paper towel that had been left on the table for some reason, wet his finger in the blood from his shoulder, and carefully drew the most abject apology he could think of upon it. The snap-hiss of a shower being turned on drew his eyes back towards the hall, and to a now swimsuit-clad Saeko Mizuno.

Her jaw tightened when she saw the blood-scrawled apology, before relaxing again as she closed her eyes. "From what I have been told, you are the last person who needs to apologize." When her eyes opened, there was shared grief within them. "She asked me if I would be ok with giving her some money to go on a date with you. She wanted to take you to see the Tokyo Philharmonic Autumn set, said that you were a cellist and might appreciate an evening of calm." The offer of shared grief mingled with an open offer of comfort as she extended her hand to him. "Come. Let's get you cleaned off."

+++++ Kaiou/Tenou apartment, Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

Minako and Rei joined Setsuna, Michiru, and Haruka in the latter two's apartment, all ignoring the high likelihood of Ritsuko being in the adjoining apartment angry and anxious. The blonde Sailor of Love did not want to spend time calming the woman's fears when she herself needed to get out a great deal of anger and anxiety. Currently, after hearing the short version of how the three elder Sailors had come to exist contemporaneously with her, that anger was directed fairly squarely at one of them in particular. "You're telling me that you are from the future, and yet you never thought to give us so much as a cryptic note to help us prevent our friends dying?"

While upset, Rei had slipped some of the same medicine she'd used to calm herself after Makoto's death. That helped her use her brain instead of her heart in the attempt to defuse the situation. "Everything changed." Minako's head whipped around to face her, and she shrugged. "If I go back in time and tell past you how Usagi was going to steal your birthday cookie, and you acted to prevent that, she would change how she acted to accomplish the same end. Foreknowledge only helps to prevent a specific action, not a specific result. If Ami-chan died in the timeline Meiou-san comes from, the cause might have been entirely different. If we weren't already on guard against threats against our lives constantly, the warning might have been mildly useful. As it is, it's just a part of our lives as warriors."

"The longer that our enemies don't know that we have seen a future where we failed, the greater our chances are of using what little we can of that experience." Michiru was grateful for Rei's patience and moved to back her in vying for calm. "In the future that I remember, we had all five of you helping us fight these abominations. Shinji-kun arrived far later. By the time he was on the field, Chaos had managed to enslave three of you. You…were not yourselves."

"Which is a polite way of saying that you took liberties with his person," Setsuna growled out. "Liberties that I spent decades helping him recover-"

"If everything changes," Haruka snapped, "then they didn't do a damn thing to him." The tallest of the Sailors was finding more and more reason to dislike her peer. "I'm not sure what your damage is, but they don't deserve blame for this shit any more than you do!"

Minako imagined any number of scenarios she'd comforted herself with over the past week, and was disgusted with the very thought of forcing him to help her with any of them. Turning bodily away from Setsuna, she looked to Haruka instead. "So what did you find in Korea, then. Since that's where you were."

She accepted the change of topic as needed, and scrubbed at her hair in irritation. "If the pillars aren't broken, like the one at NHK, they hum. You can barely hear it, even standing right next to it, but it's there."

"C add ninth, A minor add ninth, C add ninth, A minor add ninth, F add ninth, G add ninth, A flat major seventh, B flat major seventh, and then it repeats that progression over and over." Michiru scowled, remembering the irritation she had felt at the song and how it ate at her on the flight home. "It begs for something to come after it, like…like a bowl resting under water that refuses to fill itself with what surrounds it."

"I don't really care about the stupid pillars," Minako stamped her foot, her emotions running riot and dragging her back to the root of the issue, "why did Usagi kill Ami?!"

The question that had been avoided by everyone was now staring them all in the face. Each woman looked inwards first, wondering if they had even a vague idea of another way that fight could have ended. The ability to heal properly was truly only invested in the typically flighty Sailor Moon, but that ability hadn't been properly responding to her needs of late.

Eventually, Rei broke the taboo on speaking with honesty, "Because there was no other way to stop the killing." Her thumb traced the outline of where she'd had Shinji's blood on her palm before washing her hands. "Because whatever it is that…that took Ami-chan and Makoto-chan away from us, it's permanent."

+++++ Mizuno Apartment, Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

Shinji sat stoically as Saeko sewed him back together. His healing, aided he now knew by Hygieia's presence in his soul, was still not up to the task of repairing the trenches dug into his being by the possessed Ami. He listened to Saeko speak, nodded or shook his head where appropriate, but otherwise allowed himself to be manipulated about like a posable mannequin.

"You are worrying me," her head tilted into his view from the side, concern coloring her eyes, "you know that, right?" After he blinked in honest confusion, she moved her body over so that she wasn't leaning and took his hands in her own. "I haven't used any numbing agents. No lidocaine, nothing. You haven't told me that anything hurts when I'm cleaning these wounds or when I'm suturing them. I haven't used any, because I need to know about nerve damage. So either you're punishing yourself, and are very good at hiding pain, or we need to go to the hospital now."

…It isn't punishment enough. Here he sat, with the mother of the woman he'd failed, and she was comforting him. He wanted to cry. He wanted to curl up into a ball and weep like a broken toddler for the deaths his arrival had brought to this world. He wanted to scream to the uncaring sky above that this world didn't need to suffer any more. That the Truth they had sought was that he was a failure. He couldn't protect his own world, and now he couldn't protect this one. The Truth would always be that Shinji Ikari was a colossal fuckup.

Saeko was adept in reading people, a skill trained over the course of a life of practicing medicine. Reading a mobile billboard like Shinji was probably the easiest task she'd ever been given responsibility for. "I see." Still seated, she turned herself around and laid her back against his front, wrapping his arms around her. Two deep breaths later…she began to sob. With her fingers clutching for him to hold her, for him to provide her with any comfort at all, she finally allowed the woman to breathe again and the doctor to rest. She trusted that a genuinely good heart would find a way to see that he wasn't alone in grief.

Confusion only lasted a heartbeat before duty won out and he allowed himself to curl protectively around the woman in his arms. That, he soon discovered, kicked the walls he'd built around his own tears down and led him to joining her in crying, if quietly. With grief's release, he started to see the other truths that were laid before him now. Saeko-san doesn't hate me…. She wasn't healing me out of responsibility. She wanted someone to cry with. She wanted someone to hold her, to help her as she…as she….

The broken warrior gave what comfort he could to the grieving mother. His wounds weren't important, they'd heal eventually. He now had a calling of his own, one he did not mind fulfilling. He couldn't save Makoto, he couldn't save Ami…but he could hold someone the way he'd wished someone had held him after his mother had died. He could be the pillar for her to lean against for a time, he could stop the world from harming her. Somehow the world had set it up for him to give her what he would never have…and that, he accepted, was punishment enough.

+++++ Reliqui, Roppongi, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

"Holding onto the mother of the recently departed." Miwa was tired and leaning over the back of a chair, instead of sitting in it and falling asleep. She and her sisters had held the line against creatures that would not die no matter what was done to them. She had watched as her allies were torn apart, as innocent and unaware humans had been torn apart, and wanted nothing more than to go with her sisters to Shinji's side and sleep for a week. "The yuki-onna says that he has finally begun to release his grief."

Inari nodded, making a few marks on the map she'd been designing. "Then she stays. If she's managed to get him to let down that stupid guard of his, we'll position enough guards around her to keep her alive. Another doctor won't hurt, regardless."

Mika was absentmindedly running a brush through her hair, cleaning away the sensation of blood and ice. "That's three apartments out of thirty in that building." She was fairly certain Shinji would forgive her for dragging him into bed. "The Mujina will probably erect a shrine to him for the work they'll receive redesigning twenty-seven apartments."

"With worship comes strength," she shrugged, "he'll need more of it before this is all over."

"Would I have Kitsune, or Elder babies?" Misa was lying upside-down in the chair she occupied, too tired to care that she was off topic. "Would they be a mix?"

"Unless you find another Elder, you'll have to wait until I find out." Inari set down the final orders for the new fortress they were planning. "Because after tonight I'm going to strangle him to my side with the red string if I must."

There was a flare of power from all three vixens, the unmistakable scent of death flowing freely from each. As one they verified what they had heard, "We're sorry, dear Denmother, what exactly did you just say?"

"If you three aren't going to force him to get busy repopulating his species," the progenitor of the Kitsune didn't change her tone of voice from the previous statement in the slightest, "then I am going to. I already have a list of ladies seven leagues long volunteering for the duty, and all you have done is play second fiddle to a group of witches, most of whom haven't bothered to even kiss him yet!"

"His friends have died!"

"So did at least fifteen point four million other people today alone." She would not be swayed. "That's not counting the millions more around the world that weren't murdered by the White. One of those might well have been him." At that, she let her own power smother everything else in the room. "I would kill every second human on this planet to keep him alive, ladies. We. Need. Him. To. Breed."

+++++ Akagi/Ikari Apartment, Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

As badly as Ritsuko had wanted Shinji to come home, wanted to know where he had gone, when she had been informed that the Sailors were congregated next door and he was downstairs informing Doctor Mizuno of the loss of her daughter she shut off those previous desires. The television was muted, the camera shots and still frames more than enough information for her at the moment. "Official estimates are between six and eight million dead, with millions more unaccounted for." Speaking the numbers out loud did not help her process the enormity of the event as much as she'd wanted it to. "Total injuries…less than a hundred thousand. Statistically, they either died or escaped. Is this what his world was like?"

"His world built shelters, though they were only designed as a thin veneer of stability rather than an actual effort to prevent casualties. More of a corral for cattle than any real protection from the wolves." The presence of a male voice off to her side caused Ritsuko to jump reflexively. Standing near the end of her couch, Lithion was considering her the way a biologist considered a new species of plant life. "There were other powers at play that limited any other avenues of salvation."

Tungsram lingeringly touched the neck of the cello near the far corner, fatigue hanging off her voice, "We are not here to fight. We came here to ask that you present an offer to the Silent One."

"Who are you?" Ritsuko had never heard of mythical youkai that looked like either of the two before her. "Either of you?"

"My name is Tungsram," she introduced herself with a slight nod. "This is Lithion. We…represent a concerned interest. This catastrophe was not our design, nor was it our desire. We would like an opportunity to speak with the Silent One, and will offer appropriate compensation for the privilege of doing so."

Lithion waggled the book he held. "We have the same end goals in mind. We want to prevent these attacks, find and eliminate the one masterminding them, and restore the natural order that existed before his arrival heralded this new unfortunate chapter of history."

Tungsram summoned and held out a fairly large box, displaying it carefully before approaching Ritsuko and setting it down on the coffee table. "This is the first portion of the payment we intend to offer, his to do with as he will for simply considering our request. We know he is not motivated by material goods, but we hope he will understand the intent behind providing it."

The more masculine, and far more enigmatic, stranger had turned to consider the television. "I would ask that you exercise caution, Doctor. This excursion your matron intends will only end in tragedy. You have no power to stop it, not with the array of support she has. You do, however, have the power to limit the destruction it will unleash. He will listen to you." His eyes returned to her, one eyebrow raised. "Make certain that what you say to him is not colored by baser emotions."

Their piece said, both entities vanished, leaving Ritsuko alone to now contemplate the blank outside of the box adorning her table, the hidden meaning behind Lithion's words, and what her mother was going to do that would worry people so much.

+++++ Mizuno Apartment, Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

Tears still occasionally trickled down Saeko's cheeks, but the heavy sobbing had come to a halt for the time being. Two hours had passed with her sitting on the floor in front of the shower stool Shinji sat on. An hour and a half since he'd managed to reach a bathrobe for her to use as a blanket against the cold that he still didn't feel. An hour since he had begun to slowly run his fingers through her hair. A half of an hour since he'd closed his eyes.

A lifetime of him never once receiving this seemingly basic compassion had won the war against the anxiety of touching and holding a woman he only vaguely knew. He had felt her emotional guard fall to the floor when she laid herself in his arms, felt her let out genuine agony in a far more constructive fashion than he had ever managed himself. If his holding her somehow gave Ami's mother relief, then that was his highest priority for the foreseeable future. When her hand cupped his knee, he stilled his motions and looked back down towards a beautiful face displaying a range of emotions he had no familiarity with. Without the ability to vocalize, he tilted his head slightly to get across the fact that he was both listening and ready to act.

"I have to-" Saeko turned her head away and coughed a few times in an effort to clear her throat. Her voice was hoarse and raspy from crying, but still held dignity and poise despite the blemishes. "I am sorry-" She smiled apologetically towards him, stopping short once again when she saw him shake his head. Several thoughts traveled across her face, though none of which he'd understand any more than the emotions. A soft sigh led to her eyes shifting away from his, down towards the scars across his abs. "When I apologized, I was meaning that I was sorry for coughing on you." Without eye contact, she seemed to have an easier time expressing her thoughts. "I…I hurt. My daughter is not only dead, but even her body is beyond my reach. I have nothing to cremate. No ceremony to hold. I have lost the most precious gift the world has ever given me to a war that makes no sense." The beautiful doctor took a few steadying breaths, then regained eye contact. "I have to call my hospital. I am in no state to practice medicine today, even in this emergency. I have to call my ex-husband." The clear distaste for the necessary conversation was apparent on her lips, though her face returned to a state of neutrality before she added, "And I…would like to have you stay here for a while." This was not a woman accustomed to being seen as weak, nor one who frequently asked for favors. "All of my friends work in my hospital. I can't ask them to risk lives to help stop me from destroying my apartment. I can't ask them to…." Her volume lowered to a hollow whisper, "I can't ask them to…hold me."

It wasn't an incredibly difficult decision for him, as he'd already decided to do whatever it was she'd asked of him up to and including launching himself off of the roof to the ground below, then climbing back up the building and repeating that until she was satisfied he'd suffered enough. After giving his answer in the form of a firm nod, he carefully stood up, offered his hand to help Saeko stand as well, and remembered something that he had been far too despondent to contemplate thus far. He wasn't wearing anything save for the necklace of coins.

Whatever else might be said regarding the situation, the way in which Saeko handled it changed the entire dynamic of the affair. The bathrobe she'd been using as a blanket slipped to the floor revealing that her swimsuit had grown loose, she placed her left hand in the right hand he'd offered and her right hand took his left in exchange, and she slowly stood up while keeping eye contact the entire time. Once she was standing again, she continued to pull on his hands, bending him forward until he was down at her eye level. With her face a hair's breadth from his, and no judgement whatsoever in her voice or eyes, she asked him a simple question, "Were you attracted to her?"

His nod was very cautious, he had no wish to accidentally bash her head with his own.

Somehow, she managed to move closer to him. "…Did she have a chance against the others?"

The better question would be did I have a chance with her. Still, he answered the question posed of him, his nod even more careful than the first.

One knee slipped between his legs, caressing along the inside of his thigh. Pointing her toes, she tugged the bath stool to where she could stand on it. "I…hurt." As she gained height from the stool, she noted that he drew back but kept the same distance between them. "You…also hurt." Moving his hands behind her, she set them in place to where they held her at the small of her back. "If I ask you," her hands then shifted up to cup the back of his neck, "would you come lie with me? Hold me, until we don't hurt as much as we do now?"

While he couldn't really understand human motivations as a general rule, Shinji was especially ignorant of any semblance of flirtation. Her behavior confounded him, making no sense in the moment. His confusion was clear in his body language, the natural blush that was prompted by a gorgeous woman holding him and the knitting of his eyebrows as he attempted to craft reason out of a situation that offered no supplies towards the effort.

She is, in her mind, a failure as a mother and a wife. A quiet whisper urged patience in his thoughts. Her husband left her for someone younger when she refused to set aside her career as a medical doctor to be a mother. Now, she has lost the daughter that cost her that husband. She is desperately clinging to the idea that she might, in some way, still have value as a woman. She is not inviting you to procreate, at least not yet. She wants to feel the touch of a man with a good heart, wants to feel that she has comforted someone in their time of need, and wants to forget about the world for a time.

A subtle motion in the upper corner of the bathroom placed the voice: the Jorōgumo who had outfitted him. While something seemed very wrong about going along with this request, he had already set his course when he decided that he would come here and present himself to account for Ami's death. He nodded a third time. Do you think this will help her?

It couldn't hurt to try. The spider youkai's voice carried confidence, I wouldn't let you stumble into a minefield, Silent One. Comfort her, let her know that she does not suffer alone. We'll make sure that she's safe.

Saeko tugged enough on his neck to bring him into range of her lips. The kiss she gave him wasn't like any of the others he'd received of late. Setsuna's spoke of desperate hunger, Usagi's of unrequited affection, Ritsuko's of earnest desire, Minako's of…something, and Maria's of generous offerings. This kiss…spoke of a far different need. It wasn't amorous or sultry, it wasn't friendly or kind. He wasn't experienced enough in such things to diagnose it, and so he made the effort to return like for like.

After a long span of heartbeats, Saeko broke off the kiss enough to give him a sad smile. "Come, you can…hold me while I make the calls from bed."

+++++ Kaiou/Tenou apartment, Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

"We have placed a mimicry of you in your bed." Inari had arrived to begin both gathering permission from the necessary individuals and evicting those she felt would be safer far away from Shinji. In the process of finishing her explanation to Minako about the cover she'd set up, she scowled down towards where she'd become aware that Shinji was being maneuvered nude into a woman's bed. "It will act similarly to you, only listless and sad. That should allow you to finish your tasks here before returning home."

Minako followed Inari's gaze, growing worried. "Is something wrong with Shinji-kun?" Her eyes flicked to Rei. "I still think we should have gone with him."

"He's fine." The kitsune matriarch would deal with whatever had happened later. "His mind has gone to some odd places, nothing more. I'm simply more skilled at reading it from this distance, before you start."

Setsuna continued the trend of disliking the women who meddled in Shinji's life. "He's confused, anxious, and determined. I can 'read him' just fine. Whatever he is doing down there is none of your concern."

"Down kitty." Haruka clapped her hands twice, drawing everyone's attention. "We're all stinging right now, and we're all worried about the big lug. Let's focus so we're ready to act if he needs us. Now," she looked directly at Inari, "you said something about moving the building?"

Inari agreed that fighting was useless when the prize wasn't present to argue over, and so she accepted the truce. "He is comfortable with this building. We are not comfortable with this building's location. It's exposed, and difficult to protect with the other apartments so close. We are in the process of buying out all of the residents except for you, the good Doctor next door, and the dearly departed's mother. Once everyone is adequately compensated, which shouldn't be more than an hour from now, we are going to move the building itself onto the hill containing the Hikawa Shrine."

"You what?!" The Sailor for Mars was on her feet and incredulous at what she'd just heard. "You can't just-"

She held up her hand, cutting the rant short. "Who is it that the shrine is consecrated to?" Accepting Rei's jaw dropping as enough of an answer, she shrugged and moved on. "If you didn't want to give me the land, you shouldn't have set people to worshipping me there. We'll place the building where it won't interfere with the shrine's operations, and we'll disguise it from people's eyes. Air traffic is forbidden over that area anyway, so there won't be any problems."

"I have difficulty believing that these Angels will simply ignore a target of such importance." Michiru's frown was one of caution and thinking, not anger. "It seems ill-conceived to place ourselves at such a strategic disadvantage."

"The idea is to create a strongpoint and evacuate non-combatants to the degree possible. We will move the Queen of Hearts' parents there, explain to them carefully what she is doing and why it is far more important than anything else conceivable, and that should remove any further chances for mischief from the Pale Moon. With you ladies physically close to him, he will sense any spawn before they can strike. We will sense if corruption or sickness is spreading from him to you." Her tone grew deathly serious. "This was not the final act. Over fifteen million died today, and before the end far more will share their fate. We are not capable of going on the offensive against a target we do not have a location of. My intelligence assets are doing everything they can to find strategic or tactical targets for us to strike. Now, on top of all of that, the nations of the world are aware of the existence of sentient life beyond humans. Japanese officials will begin to disavow previous treaties. Youkai will begin to become hunted again. We are taking the blame for his attacks on our people. I want to make this perfectly clear: I am not asking you to move. I'm telling you. This building is moving there today. The Silent One will go with it. If you do not join him, then Reliqui will consider you a threat."

Michiru held her hand up to her shoulder, pre-empting everyone's retorts. "Twice now a member of our sorority has been corrupted, turned against those with common interests, and created havoc. It is neither uncouth, nor unwise, to be cautious about a third effort succeeding where this last one barely failed at eliminating Shinji-kun." Lowering her hand back to her lap, she shook her head in disappointment. "We have lost two good women to madness. Haru-chan and I will not allow either of us to become a third. We will move with the building."

Haruka wasn't pleased with the way the ultimatum had been delivered, and certainly wasn't pleased with anyone thinking that she'd allow herself to become so enamored with Shinji that she'd try to murder millions. Regardless, the woman she swore to love until the end of time had made a decision, it was her duty to support that. "Do we have to clear our stuff out? Tether down breakable items?"

"Shinji-kun could have had to go to my house tonight, instead." Minako was glaring at the door, angry at what had happened, angry at what would have to change because of it. "He could be sitting there, having to write on a blackboard to tell my parents that I died while trying to explain that it wasn't actually me that killed several million people." She wanted to go down and join him, wanted to lend him her strength. "I'll get my parents to move. One way or another."

"I have no idea how I am going to explain all of this to Grandfather." Rei let her head slump back against the wall behind her. "The fact that we're even considering turning the area around the shrine into a warzone is enough for him to set me to cleaning the entire grounds with my tongue!"

Inari snorted a laugh out. "Who do you think the first person I paid was?" Her smirk grew larger when Rei's head popped back up, her eyes bulging out of her skull. "Child, he has known about your association with your fellow Witches for quite some time. He knew about the Silent One's power the instant he saw him in person. He did not become a priest by happenstance."

The last Sailor to voice her opinion remained steadfast in her opposition to placing such a heavy burden on Shinji. "You do realize that he will most likely take this as an indictment of his presence, right? My husband will fall further into despair knowing that he has upended this many lives."

"He is not your husband," Michiru reminded her firmly. "The night has been challenging, Setsuna-chan. You may one day reclaim the position of wife, but as of now he deserves the right to live the only life he's ever known as he sees fit." Her tone hardened as she felt a rebuttal building, "He is far stronger than you believe him to be. He will understand, after he and I speak on this. Of anyone present…I would say I know his mind the best."

+++++ Mizuno Apartment, Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

"Yes…thank you." Saeko sounded like she looked: heartbroken. Now just as nude as Shinji, lying on one of his arms with her back pressed firmly against his front and the other of his arms around her waist, she finished up the conversation with one of her fellow clinicians. "I will make every effort to come in tomorrow. I understand that my own personal tragedy is-" She paused, the person on the other end of the line loudly disagreeing. "…Thank you, Tanaka-san. I will call first, if that's what you would prefer." Another pause. "No, no I'm not alone. I have a dear friend here with me, sharing my grief." Pause. "I will. Please, be safe. Goodbye." Hanging up the cordless phone with the press of a button, she set the device down in front of her on the bed and used the hand that had held it to grip the hand upon her waist. "She told me to thank you for not leaving me alone."

Shinji felt the pressure she began to put on his hand, setting it to massaging her stomach as she focused on slowly moving it towards her pelvis. The combination of actions she took and sounds she emitted continued the trend of confusing him. Her breathing was heavy, a product of both anxiety and anger to his mind. Her tone, when she spoke to him, was warm and open, indicating that she truly desired his company this evening. Her touch begged him to caress her, where their bodies touched invited him to hold her. There seemed to be nothing more than a lack of drive on his part stopping things from moving along a similar path to the one he'd been on before his date with Ritsuko. Her…her daughter just died. I can't be reading this right. I can't be understanding this right.

"I can feel your heartbeat." With him now moving independently of her urgings, she picked up her phone once again, toying idly with the antenna. "You're confused. You don't understand why I would ask you to lay here with me." Collapsing the antenna violently, she slammed the phone back onto the charging cradle before clenching her fists against her eyes and growling angrily. "You want to know why a worthless wife, why a failed mother, would take advantage of a vulnerable, handsome, young man with a strong sense of duty!"

Did he want to understand those things? Probably. He couldn't explain for the life of him why any of the women around him were interested in a spending time around a damaged idiot like himself. When Misato was sad, she drank. When Asuka was sad, she lashed out at everyone around her. I just shut everyone out and drowned the world out with my S-Dat. Is it really so strange that someone would…would want to be held? Want to feel like someone thought they were worth being around? He changed his attentions from passively stroking her stomach to actively clutching her against him. From simply laying there to instead holding her in a way that made it clear that he felt that she was worth holding. I don't need to understand why this helps her…I just need to accept that it does.

"She hated me," the words came out as a hissing rasp. "I was never around. Never there for her achievements. Never available to give her advice on how to approach boys." Her muscles clenched so tight that she began to shake violently. "I refused to leave my position at the hospital to satisfy my husband. I refused to push for a normal shift arrangement to spend more time with Ami. When I found out through Project Y that Ami was imbued with magical powers, I was relieved! Relieved!" She struck herself with both balled up fists several times before he could stop her. "I'm worthless, damn you! Treat me like-"

With control over her wrists, he struggled to find anything else he could do to calm the situation and her down. She's not useless. She's not worthless. She's hurt. She made mistakes. She doesn't…. His eyes drifted closed as irony bitch-slapped him. Oh. Since he had just described his own self-cognition, only without any trace of self-awareness, he now had even less of an idea of how to help her realize the truth of things.

Her fit of anger only lasted a few more seconds before she seemed to realize that if he did not want her to do something, it was probably quite unlikely that she would be able to do it. Her arms went limp, and she sighed in frustration. "I had expected you to leave." Shifting her weight, freeing her hands calmly, and rolling over to face him, she pushed him so that he was laying on his back and set her upper torso atop his at an angle. "I had thought that taking your hands would disgust you."

The way her bare breasts felt against his chest was exciting in a way that worried him.

"When I asked if you thought Ami was attractive, I believed you would back away." She reclaimed the hand that she hadn't pinned beneath her body, toying with his fingers. "When I asked if she had a chance…I thought you would be too shy to answer."

Her hair had become unkempt, draping itself down across half of her face. The effect only increased the excitement he was feeling. Why…why am I…?

Contempt for herself, an emotion that Shinji was intensely familiar with, dripped from her words, "When I asked you to hold me, the only thing I wanted was to drown out reality by…." Lowering her head down, she set her chin on his chest in shame.

By running away. The more he heard from the woman, the more he recognized his own mode of 'problem solving'. Freeing the hand she'd trapped beneath her body, he thumbed her hair away from her eyes. You're not worthless. You're hurt. You're scared…and you deserve better than life has given you.

Saeko watched him for a time, observed as the wheels in his mind turned slowly towards something. "It's been a very long time since anyone has looked at me like you're looking at me." She coughed out a self-deprecating laugh. "I'm sorry…for thinking you so shallow. You're clearly beyond the reach of an ugly, wanton, middle-aged woman."

Sitting on the nearby nightstand, he spotted a notepad and pen. He'd begun this odd night by attempting to treat her the way he'd wanted to be treated. He'd continued it by giving in to her request with the intent that whatever she wanted of him was worth any price to pay down his penance. Now, he had an idea of how to at least make her smile. Pulling the writing materials over, he scribbled out a compliment that was both honest and heartfelt, 'You are not ugly. Any man would be beyond wealthy to have a wife half as intelligent and beautiful as you.' After he tore off the note, handing it to her to read, he started on the next, 'I don't know enough about your past to judge you. My parents wouldn't have done what I saw you do for Ami-san. I…I think you're being too hard on yourself.'

She read both notes more than once, attempting to respond in a way that wouldn't further her shame. After it became apparent that there was no real path towards such goals, she allowed her confusion to show clearly. "You do realize that I've been trying to entice you with the possibility of physical intimacy to use it as a cheap high, yes? A crutch to help me push off the pain for another few minutes." There was sorrow, curiosity, and pain flowing freely through her mind. "I mean…I certainly would be in favor of a long-term arrangement where we came to each other for solace and comfort. But why are you being so nice to a-"

He was rather tired of people degrading themselves. He was also aware of the irony there too. Setting two fingertips against her lips before she could finish the sentence, he shook his head. Once he was certain she'd let him write without saying something else, he picked the pen back up and explained himself, 'Where I came from the woman I lived with used alcohol to hide from pain. Another used anger. I would use music.' The pen spun between his fingers for a moment as he tried to phrase the rest of his response while she read what he'd written. Just rip off the bandage, I guess. 'I'm used to being a replacement. If giving you what I never had will help you recover, then that's what I'll do.'

When the realization that he wasn't entirely aware of what she had been attempting processed, she bit her lower lip as embarrassment added itself to the mixture. "I…believe there has been a miscommunication." She had become aware that the longer she lay with her body partly atop his the more certain portions of his anatomy had responded. She had thought, in her haste, that this meant he understood her need and was at least considering going along with her desires. What she had not expected was the degree of mental innocence that the young man possessed. "I had hoped that you would be amenable to engaging in sexual intercourse." Couching the terminology in a more clinical fashion helped her smother the mounting dread. "Something I am coming to realize you had not been aware of."

Shinji's face froze. He had a sense that the Jorōgumo hadn't gone far and hoped that it was still 'listening'. I thought you said she wasn't interested in procreation!

She's not, the spider youkai responded without concern, perusing the cabinets in the bathroom. She's currently using birth control, at least according to the pill bottle in her medicine cabinet. Though they're probably for mental health more than prophylaxis. The information we've gathered on her indicates that she hasn't had any action since around the time of Ami's birth.

I don't need to know that! He clenched his eyes shut, the sensation of his face turning bright red as embarrassing to him as the recognition of the fact that he'd been naïve enough to not catch onto the point of the spider using the euphemism she did. I came in here to hold her. I accepted that my not having clothes on meant that it would only be fair that she didn't either. I don't deserve to hold her in any form or fashion, but I can't just say no when it's what she wants!

There was a hint of exasperation in her response, Would it really be so terrible to just tell her that you find her attractive? To just allow this to happen? Is there anything so spectacular about waiting? Is this an ideal situation? No. Is she beautiful, charming, and alluring? Yes! I can smell your emotions well enough to know that you're only stopping this because you hate yourself.

"…Shinji, please look at me." Saeko's voice was level, but not stable

When he opened his eyes, Shinji was reminded that nothing the Jorōgumo had stated was false. The woman lying partly atop him was beautiful, charming, and alluring. The fact that she had no clothing on, and that those bits of her that society demanded be kept private were only kept so by being pressed against his body did cause his own weak flesh to react to a noticeable degree. Doing…that didn't feel 'right', though. It felt like he'd be taking advantage of her grief. Like he'd be using his own sorrow to…to demean her.

"You are far too easy to read." Pushing up from her position and exposing portions of herself that she felt had lost value in age, she crawled to where she could lay in the crook of his arm. In one motion she captured the phone again before settling in and bringing the blanket up over them both. With her body turned sideways facing him, one leg stretched across both of his, she set the phone down on his chest. "I am about to call my ex-husband. I do not care that he might be asleep, I do care that he hasn't called. We live close enough to the mayhem that he should have been worried about his daughter. I may not have been the best mother, but the only reason to call him a father is that he was the one who provided part of the genetic material to begin the process." Reaching back, she shifted the hand of his arm she was laying under to where it held the hip of the leg she had thrown over him. "We still hurt. I…would still like you to comfort me." She smiled weakly, hope hanging tremulously over a deep, dark, pit. "After you hear what I have to say to him, I'll ask you properly."

+++++ Hikawa Shrine, Azabu-Juban, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

"I do apologize for interrupting your sleep," Inari offered a genuine apology to Rei's grandfather. "The sooner we move him, the sooner we'll be able to begin a more active defense of him and those associated with him."

The old priest chuckled, waving off the apology. "Nobody guaranteed that the kami would only need our attention when it was convenient, my lady." Escorting the physical manifestation of the spirit the shrine was dedicated to around the grounds that would be used to house a man that was their only hope of saving lives, he remained steadfastly optimistic. "I am happy to see that the Kodama are not pained by having to transplant the trees."

"Indeed, they are actually exceedingly eager to play their part." She checked a few more items off the list of tasks as she witnessed their completion. "They'll also help consecrate more after the transition. They're only really waiting to hear from the Silent One regarding what strains of ash, maple, and cedar he prefers."

"Several homes have already been tried." While he was optimistic, he wasn't blind. "What are we intending to do to make certain that this place where people come to find peace does not instead induce the opposite in him?"

It was a more than fair question, after the week of clear victories for 'the enemy'. "Create a bulwark." Flipping back several pages in the notebook she carried, she showed the entrenchment plans. "Despite the momentary reprieve in hostilities owing to the American soldiers somehow proving war averse, I expect authorities to make a play to come and capture him. What's left of Minato and Shibuya is going to become Reliqui-held territory. I'll push out the official Japanese government, and we'll set up barriers to prevent human entry. It will be for their protection as much as our own."

"And those humans that still live in the area?"

"They'll be offered an adequate sum to move, and informed that the area will likely become a battleground." Switching back to the work of verifying everything, she shrugged. "I am calling all youkai here. Those spirits from foreign lands that wish to aid us, will be welcomed into the fold. None of those converted by the White were non-human, which means those few who remain will have to be carefully watched. I already have overtures from the Chinese yāoguài, those yousei both here and from the West, and some few of the unaffiliated clans that remained neutral during the Academy Wars."

"Is there any chance that your honored mother might involve herself?"

Her denial was firm, "Allowing access to the heavens for anyone but the Silent One's spirit is a recipe for disaster. His…naïveté, if I am to be honest, drags no corruption along with it. He is not corrupted. It's what has come along with him. The monstrosity, as well as the machine."

The old priest freely admitted his confusion, "Is there another aspect tied to him, beyond the suit of armor and his mother?"

"I was referring to her when I stated the former. The latter is nothing more than a machine limited by his capacity to utilize his status as an Elder." She frowned at a portion of the work crew that seemed to be working against their segment of the timetable. "He is capable of being more than Death given form. Death, as you well know, is neither Animus nor Anima, Shadow nor Self. It is. He will recognize it, eventually. Until he does, we must take care not to push him into any form of cognition regarding it. If we color what he is, we color what he becomes."

"All my years of study, of thought and wonder…I truly never once believed that such a being could exist. I had thought them nothing more than fables. Ways to explain those forces that remained unified across cultures." He too began to see the oddity happening in the area where the building was to be set. "Should they be…."

A greenish haze began to grow around the series of warding stones that had been placed to prepare the area for consecration. As fast as Inari was, being who and what she was, she was still not fast enough to prevent what had happened directly under their noses. Dashing over to the younger priest that had set events in motion, she gripped it by the throat and snarled, "What have you done?!"

There was no fear in the supposed priest's eyes, simply a self-satisfied smirk. "Helped."

+++++ Mizuno Apartment, Hiro-o, Japan. (Sunday + 8)

"Our daughter is dead, you miserable excuse of a man!" Saeko was now shouting, levelling a full-throated assault on the absentee parent on the other end of the phone line. "Do you really think that I give a flying fistula about the child support?! I called you because I thought you might at least want to be there for her funeral, not because I was worried about being sued!"

Shinji was no longer holding her. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but more that she had stood up to stalk back and forth alongside the bed while she gesticulated and articulated her points to the man that had once been her husband. She had been calm, for the most part, as he'd held her while she was speaking to her fellow doctor. She had even been able to calm more easily when he held her as she'd begun to physically abuse herself. There was a reasonable likelihood that he could calm her again, given the opportunity to. The level of self-consciousness he was feeling stopped him from reaching out, and the level of anger coming from a lady in his presence cemented his stasis, leaving him sitting up with his back against the headboard of the bedframe.

"Oh, yes, of course I wanted to make sure to disrupt your busy schedule of doing anything but being a parent to the child you abandoned! Thank you for making our daughter's death all about you. I appreciate the reminder that you were the biggest mistake I ever made." Whatever her former husband stated after that clearly indicated a similar opinion regarding the dissolution of their marriage, and likely appended commentary regarding other perceived failings of hers. "Oh, sure, that's why you're currently on wife number four. They just keep growing up, don't they? Maturing enough to realize the lies you spout! At least the type of man I've managed to attract wants to take his time and get to know me better! He, unlike you, doesn't just jump at the first hole that opens for him!"

Is…is she talking about me? He'd tried his hardest not to watch her as she moved back and forth. There was absolutely no doubt that the view was phenomenal, but the last thing he wanted to do was ogle anyone, ever. A slight droop to his lips deepened his frown. She's not even really…I mean, I guess I don't know how people grieve. How did I grieve? I remember beatings. I remember cleaning everything. I…I know I missed her. Or…who I thought she was. The sudden realization that his own mother remained inside of him and had made it very clear that he should have abandoned this world to search for a way to return to a planet that had aged ten years in a single week reduced his own capacity for sorrow. I have to know. Picking up the pad of notepaper and the pen, he scribbled out his question, 'If you're sad about Ami-san, why are you yelling at someone who doesn't care?' Holding it out, without turning his head in her direction, he assumed that she stopped moving as she became quiet. The paper was gently removed from his grasp, allowing him to place his hand once again in his lap.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go, Mizuki-san. That good man I mentioned has just made an excellent point. I'm sure your lawyers will be in touch to get me to sign something pointless, since you don't have the balls to present the documents yourself."

The back casing and internal rechargeable battery for the phone sailed past his vision to impact the wall on the other side of the bed from Saeko. The hollow thump of something heavy being dropped to the floor told the tale of the fate of the handset itself. With his eyes still on the safe zone that was his thumbs, he didn't see her motions until she swung herself astride his legs. The angle of his eyes, thereby, now included one of the places on her body that he had intentionally been avoiding looking at. Snapping his head up, he overcalculated the amount of force required and bounced the back of his skull against the cement wall above the headboard. Reaching up with both hands to massage the sore spot, he groaned out a mental, Guh….

Saeko slid further up into his lap, her hips against his with only portions of the sheet between them, and firmly moved his hands to probe the wound with practiced care. "If I hadn't wanted you to see me naked, I wouldn't have placed myself before you without clothing." The way she had to lean to check the integrity of his skull managed to press her not-insubstantial breasts against his chest. When she breathed a sigh of relief, physics mandated that they heave upwards as well. "No blood, and nothing feels broken." She slipped her fingers into his hair, and pulled his head back so that he was looking directly into her eyes. Her voice had moved back towards clinical, her emotions under control for the moment, "You are absolutely correct. I was wasting my time attempting to gain some sort of petty satisfaction from a man that will forever be the source of the greatest regret and greatest joy of my life. Ami-chan, not him, is where my mind should be." Her fingertips massaged him, her sad smile bolstered his confidence. "I made a mistake, earlier tonight. I allowed my decision making to be driven by raw emotions and not reasoned emotions. I can't take back what I've…talked you into doing. I can't undo the time you've sat here naked with me. I don't deserve your trust as a doctor."

When he went to shake his head to negate her statement, he found her grip too firm to move at all. With only his eyes available to communicate with, he scowled his disagreement of her statement.

"If I were to have you fulfill my desire, there is every possibility it would leave you with a broken and stilted view of what sex should be." She neither wilted nor relented under his frown. "You might very well enjoy the intimacy. You might even find relief in it." Another pause led to another deep breath. "I know I would enjoy it. I…don't know if I would find relief in it. At worst, it would be a cheap high that led to the loss of the companionship of a good man with a good heart. At best…." She trailed off, looking towards the notes he'd written her. "At best, it might enable me to spend a couple of decades as the partner of a good man with a good heart." When she looked back at him, her eyes showed fresh tears. "I think that my daughter would have been more than a match for any of the others in the competition. You and she…would have been exceptionally good for one another."

For once, Shinji realized the correct move to make. Snaking his arms around behind her back, he pulled her close into a hug. He didn't know if he'd be able to follow through if she'd pressed her case for intimacy. Part of him recognized, however, that he wasn't sure he wouldn't be able to either. She was more than pleasant to hold, she smelled of lavender, and his body had responded more than enough that he could not deny the physical impulses were present. Still, holding her as she cried gently into his shoulder, stroking her back with one hand and bracing her with the other…it didn't feel 'wrong' anymore. I shouldn't have tried to punish myself through her. I think I kinda understand what she means now. We were using each other, not offering ourselves. He added his own sad smile to hers, resting his head back against her hands. I'll make sure she's safe, Ami-san. That…that's what I should have done instead. I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I'm sorry that-

The world around them both shuddered violently. The room became misshapen, warping and folding at odd angles. Sound inverted, reversed, arrived before it was caused, and then began the process over again. Nothing was where it should be, when it should be, or how it should be. Red became blue, green became plastic, and the air itself solidified.

An instant that had drawn itself out to infinity collapsed before it had ever existed, and Shinji sat on the bed of the mother of a dead woman he'd not known for nearly long enough…encased in Unit-01's protective shell, coated in what had once been the blood and flesh belonging to Saeko Mizuno.