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

Unit-01 encapsulated Shinji as soon as he decided that staying in his soul alone would get him nowhere. He couldn't afford to risk staying in the room either, as either a fight or an argument stood every chance of destroying Ritsuko's apartment and the structural integrity of the entire building. Asking Usagi anything was out, as he knew that he was too gullible and would believe any potential lies she gave him. Displaying a surprising degree of athletic talent, he rolled at a diagonal off the bed towards the sliding glass door between two of those he was evading. Listening to Maria was out, because she had a vested interest in seeing Usagi fail. Springboarding off of his left hand, he went feet first through the exit with an aim towards vaulting over the balcony railing and descending to the ground below. He might be able to trust Jakob, he could probably trust Carla. With nothing but empty air under him, he turned the half of his attention that was enabling escape towards limiting the damage on impact. The Triplets were a wildcard, by their very nature, but he hadn't once seen them actually insist on anything from him. Halfway down, he spied Tsuruko looking up past him from the ground with her sword out and her eyes promising death. The time he'd spent in Elysium gave him a path forward.

As soon as Unit-01 impacted the ground the Demon Slayer was beside him, her guard still raised. "Is our foe still inside?"

'Gentle' was a concept that took far more focus to apply than normal for Shinji, as Unit-01 seemed to respond to his panic with increased strength. The light tug on her traditional outerwear toppled her towards him, his impatience led to him simply picking her up and running towards where he saw Kyoko Soryu had been speaking with Suzuhara. Cradling her with her posterior in the crook of his elbow, and his forearm under her legs, he managed with ease what no other man could have done with an army at his back. He made the swordswoman blush.

Kyoko, of course, already had her pistol unholstered and was moving with Suzuhara to meet him partway. The General's calm helped far more than she believed. "Pilot, SITREP."

Shinji moved to put the two between him and the pursuit that had not as of yet materialized, setting down Tsuruko and apologizing using Sign to her before begging her to translate. 'I need help. I need Usagi and Maria to stay away from me. I need…I may need the other Sailors to stay away too. I don't know. I can't trust anyone. I can't trust me.'

"I'll make his request clear to our host," Suzuhara offered quickly, keeping his voice steady despite his pulse being anything but. "I am assuming, Silent One, that you are comfortable in the presence of these warriors?" Unit-01's shaky nod prompted him to reach over and grip Shinji's upper arm. "I'll handle it. You stay here, where everyone can see you, and talk it out. You must know that every one of us that has remained here are here because we believe in you. Reliqui is not one person, we are a family. Promise." Patting him twice, he nodded to Kyoko and jogged off towards several of the Tengu that had edged closer to do what they could to protect Shinji from harm.

"I'm afraid I'll have to split my attention, Shinji." Placing her sidearm in its holster, she resumed the charm offensive that she'd begun several days prior and urged him towards her planning table with a hand against his lower back. "I'm not incapable of planning a defensive stand and listening to you, though. Just don't think I'm ignoring you if I'm not looking at you, or if I stop you to give orders from time to time."

Tsuruko took up Kyoko's spot as soon as the other woman took her hand away. Wrapping her arm around his waist, she smiled up at Shinji with the smooth confidence of someone who had won the right to live another day several hundred times over. "Whatever it is that is bothering you, I am certain that we can overcome it." Tapping his chest over his heart with the pommel of her once more sheathed sword, she continued, "You may or may not believe it, considering how this is racing at the moment, but it beats with an earnest desire to do what is right…not what is easy. Your aura screams with the pain of a life strangled with horror, and the strength of someone seeking to overcome that."

Resuming her position at the topographical map of the local area, Kyoko nodded in agreement with the other woman. "I've seen others like you before. People pushed hard, not given a chance to rest, to recover. Most end up breaking, shutting down and shutting out the world around them." Her eyes flicked to his for a brief instant. "Some few rise to the occasion, dig deeper, and do what has to be done. So…what burdens can I make easier for you today?"

It pained him to let go of Tsuruko. It wasn't that he believed he deserved a spot next to her, or that he thought she was doing anything but trying to calm down a frightened child. It was the manner in which she held him that hurt the most. He wasn't 'a burden'. He wasn't 'a failure'. He wasn't 'a disappointment'. She held him like he'd always believed a good friend would hold someone having a tough time. Giving without question, comfortable in the fact that when she needed him…he'd be there. Somewhere between reaching Kyoko and that moment, Unit-01 had slithered back into his soul. Facing two fearless women who weren't judging him in the slightest for his panic, he began to haltingly explain what he believed to be true.

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

Suzuhara walked into an argument that made his job both easier and harder at the same time. The entry hall of the apartment structure hosted several beings that wielded power beyond all but a few entities he could think of off the top of his head, and one that he was almost certain he'd heard had died.

"-because it wasn't until you said whatever it was you said to him that he lost control of his fear!" Maria, in the flesh once more, stood at one corner of a triangular showdown, glowing with menace and staring hatred at the Queen of the Moon Kingdom. "You want us to stay away from him, yet you're the reason he's not listening to advice from us anymore."

Blocking everyone from exiting the apartment complex were his three finest students in their mostly human guise. Mika's tails were snapping angrily to and fro in the center of the line, with Misa leaning lazily against the wall to her left and Miwa digging under a nail for something that she felt didn't belong there to her right. All three asked quietly to avoid interrupting the quarrel before them, "Is he ok?"

"He's scared. Wants Tsuki-no-Hime to stay away from him, as well as the dead woman." The side of his mouth shifted towards a thoughtful frown. "Didn't say anything about the demons. Until he does, one way or another, we'll ask them to keep clear. The others, however, he was very specific about. No witches, no queens, no information brokers."

Miwa glanced over at him for both of her sisters. "Us?"

"Didn't say one way or another, and considering what's going on I'm not going to tell you to stay away from him. I've seen you three keep him calm. Keep doing that, but be prepared for him to not be eager to be interrupted right now. Might give him a bit to get his feet back under him." Patting Mika on the shoulder as he moved past and dismissing them to be about what they would, he let his seven tails unfurl as he approached the fight to do what he had to. "All right, folks. I've received several complaints from the residents around here that you're making it hard for people to sleep. You want to raise a fuss, you do it somewhere other than this hill."

While Usagi turned to ponder the new litigant with the same calm that she'd held since he entered, Maria maintained her fiery displeasure by practicing it on the new target. "You were her Right Hand! You of all people want to talk to-" She cut off her rant as he raised one hand lazily to waist level, wreathed in a glowing jade flame.

"We're standing on a site considered holy to my kind." His voice was reasonable, his face unconcerned. "I trust that Her Majesty still has the honor to do as she is asked, despite her…disposition. I harbor no doubts that…our two other guests," he looked towards Carla and Jakob, "do not wish to upset the Silent One by being disagreeable." When he looked to Maria, everything he was hardened. "I do not know how you've managed to reincorporate yourself so quickly, but I'll make it much harder for you to do next time if you don't shut up and listen. He has asked that both you and Her Majesty, and those Witches associated with Her, stay away from him for the time being. If, or when, he chooses to allow you to speak to him again we, or he, will let you know. Until that point, there are a lot of other places where he is not…find one of them and try not to cause a scene."

Carla's interjection was as apologetic as it was desperate, "My most humble apologies, Caretaker, but did he specify that I must remain apart from him? I will promise to not seek to change his mind, to bind myself to an oath to support whatever decision he makes, if that will ease your concerns."

"I won't," Jakob shrugged, "and so I'll engage the better part of valor and abide by your rightful authority while remaining on this hill. He won't hear from me, and will only see me if my path and his intersect, and only for as long as it takes me to excuse myself to find another area to read in."

Suzuhara wasn't a fan of either youma, but he did recognize why Shinji hadn't evicted either of them. Both were honest, neither were mindless, and keeping your enemies closer was simply a good rule of thumb. "He was not specific about the request for the two of you, so I'll accept your offers in exchange for your follow-through. Same penalty applies. Here, in this place made divine for Amaterasu, I am much stronger than either of you. Let's not force me to prove it, yeah?"

Jakob bowed politely in a Western fashion, then turned to walk away deeper into the apartment complex while reading his book. Carla spoke hastily, "My oath be given, my bargain be made. Where he be driven, by my mind unswayed."

As far as promises went, he hadn't expected one so unforgiving. She'd left herself no wiggle room by including the fact that her thoughts would be included in the same promise as her words. Suzuhara gestured behind him towards the door. "Keep to that, but give him a few hours with the ladies. Whatever happened got him nice and riled up, he trusts those two to not steer him wrong. They'll bring him around to an even keel where we can get a better picture." He made a quiet promise to himself to reassess his opinion of the woman as she dropped an obedient curtsey before becoming invisible and leaving through the front door. Having heard from three of the four problems present, he looked over to a woman he'd long admired and recently begun to fear for to see what she had to say.

"My word choice, or perhaps my tone. Based on when he reacted, the answer lies within the statement, 'As badly as I want to hold you close and heal your wounds, to give you all of the love and comfort you were denied growing up, to make your world a paradise'. It may have something to do with the contents of Pandora's Box residing in him. It might have to do with this damnable mirror-world idiocy. Whatever it is, please, give him this after you have verified that it is harmless." Usagi presented an unsealed envelope, heavy with good paper holding both words and a gift. "I am pained to know that I have hurt him, somehow." Her eyes drifted towards where Shinji was speaking to Kyoko and Tsuruko. "I…am happy that he is reaching out to others for help, regardless. He needs more support, not less."

His heart eased, knowing that he wouldn't have to raise his hand in violence against Usagi. "As you wish, Mother Moon. Thank you for abiding by his wishes, and demonstrating for everyone what it means to be a truly powerful woman." He offered her a professional bow, so that she would know what he was doing was not personal, his relief complete when she returned the gesture without hesitation before vanishing herself. Taking a few seconds to consider the duty she had given him, feeling the weight of the envelope and the lack of anything remotely antagonistic involved, he finally glanced at Maria. "Don't you have a store to break into?"

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

Shinji had been maneuvered onto a stool while he'd relied on Tsuruko to translate his motions into an understandable language for Kyoko. His anxiety had receded slowly, trending back upwards only briefly when the powerful swordswoman stepped up behind him and set the back of his head against her sternum before gently placing her arms around his shoulders. She hadn't changed tone or pitch in her speech, and he had been forced to admit that he really was calmer when he was being held. His thoughts came further and further apart after he'd reached the end of the discussion in his soul, after he'd explained that the number of voices in his head was worryingly not limited to his own, and after he fearfully admitted that he stood every chance of becoming a bigger threat than the Angels or the monsters they'd fled from in Elysium.

"Unlikely, but I take your meaning." Kyoko used a few Yen coins to visualize the interlocking fields of fire she could rely on with the topography available. "The few times you've lost control have been because you have been pushed too far. Under my command, you are not going to be fielded as often. My kids and those non-Human beings present will take the forefront of the defense against the 'zombies', you'll be used sparingly to avoid possible contamination or worse." She gave him a sad smile, locking eyes with him meaningfully. "You're what is referred to as a 'conscripted soldier'. You shouldn't be forced to carry the world on your back, and as long as I have a say in it you won't."

Tsuruko didn't bother translating the words she saw before she calmly took his hands in her own, looking down into his worried gaze with a confident serenity. "If the situation becomes unmanageable, she will not prevent you from engaging. Any warrior can be pushed too far. Some have a much higher threshold, others can scarcely step on the training field without collapsing under the weight of their own anxieties. She is right to ask that you remain in the rearguard with her." Folding his arms so that he hugged himself as she hugged him, she prevented him from interrupting with more 'what if' questions. "I believe that it might be best that you and I meditate together on what has passed. You have been given little to no opportunity to speak your mind, and now having divulged everything that the 'now' has presented to you, we should seek what the past has done to set it in motion."

"Not a bad idea, Aoyama-san." Kyoko nodded approvingly. "Why don't you two go get some chow from the mess, then step over to where they've set up my command tent. I won't be in it for another few hours, and the sun's well past the horizon. You'll find a few spare mats and sleeping bags, feel free to make use of them if you need."

Shinji made an earnest effort to say that he had no intention of forcing her to sleep in the same tent as him, and that he certainly wouldn't be so presumptuous as to sleep in the same tent as Tsuruko, but with his hands held in place by the surprisingly strong latter woman, the former had to rely on the embarrassed facial expressions he made.

"We will do just that, General-san." It was Tsuruko's turn to show Shinji how strong she was, hefting him up and placing him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Perhaps we shall see you before the new day greets us?"

"Not if you're good kids and go to sleep when you ought to." Kyoko's final comment carried just enough teasing to remind any onlookers that rumors were a poor glue to hold a fledgling team together.

Directing her words to Shinji in a subdued whisper, she set him on his feet halfway to their initial destination, "It has been quite a number of years since I last was carried as if I weighed nothing more than the air around me." Slowing their pace to give him time to find his footing, and to give her time to assess his mood, she placed her arm in his to maintain the soothing contact she'd been noticing worked well. "It is ironic, after a fashion, that I feel no urge to tease you. Normally I feel an overwhelming compulsion to poke and prod someone as powerful as you are. To see what lies beneath the masks we all wear."

It was a bit more difficult to 'speak' with her holding his arm, but he managed well enough to be understood, 'I'm glad that you are not teasing. I am….' He drifted off, not sure what word to use to describe himself. Fragile? Tired? Scared, angry, alone? …Weak.

Mizore opened the door to the mess tent from within as they approached it, one eyebrow cocked as she looked at the pair. "Weak is not what I would call someone who is tired of having people prod at them for being different. Everyone expected something of you that you were not capable of providing, and teased you in ways that you simply could not understand. It is not weakness to be frustrated at your own inability to voice your discomfort at that." Nodding in friendly greeting to the demon hunter, she pre-empted what was about to happen inside as best as she could, "Sarah-chan has been working very hard on a meal for you, Shinji. I know you'll say it's wonderful even if it tastes as if it had already passed through someone twice, but I honestly believe she's expecting a factual critique. She wants to be seen as a peer to the other teens here, to be given the opportunity to prove her merits, so don't go overboard on being polite."

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

Back at the strategy table, Kyoko felt the approach of Temple well before the woman spoke anything. She'd long since perfected the art of sensing a troubled member of her units, and the foreigner was no exception to the archetype. "How long until we have those samples analyzed, Corpsman?"

"A few hours, ma'am. Checking for all of the typical contagions local to the area will go faster, checking for anything out of the ordinary is going to give the mobile lab a bit more of a problem." Moving to stand at attention across the table from her superior, the medical NCO performed her duty as she believed necessary. "I apologize in advance, but I have to report an indiscretion involving Pilot Ikari."

That drew the General's eyes off the board. "Huh…. He already made a report himself. Is this regarding the impromptu meeting upstairs?"

"Yes, ma'am. Permission to speak freely?"

"At ease, Petty Officer." Motioning for the woman to relax, she picked up the coins she'd been using and returned them to her pocket. "Proceed as you need to. I'm interested in your perspective, after hearing what he had to say."

"I…doubt that he was…entirely forthright regarding the situation." Temple knew it was unlike her to hesitate, and that she was drawing a great deal of attention to herself by not engaging with her typical wrecking ball-esque devotion to bluntness, but the last thing she wanted was to cause additional troubles for a good man that seemed to lack appropriate support. "He most likely attempted to direct all of the blame onto himself."

"He did."

"I would not attach any blame to him, myself. What happened was inappropriate, to the point of dereliction of duty, on my part. I know better than to allow such things to happen, I was acting as his medical care provider, I am his senior by nearly a decade. He cannot be expected to know up from down with all of this madness, various people forcing things on him without any regard for his health, mental or physical. I will not say that I did not enjoy his touch, quite the opposite in fact, but what I did…what I nearly allowed to happen, goes well beyond bedside manner into the realm of abuse of my station. I doubt he reported the near violation he suffered at my hands, and certainly not the violation he suffered at the hands of-"

The longer Temple spoke, the less certain Kyoko became that they were having the same conversation. Lifting her hand slightly to ask for a moment, she cautiously phrased her question to avoid further embarrassment while fighting to maintain her military bearing against the desire to sigh. "You said he touched you?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"In front of our youma guests?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And you touched him?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"…Where?"

"In my capacity as field doctor, I checked his lymph nodes, his wrists and ankles, his chest and back, and along his orbital sockets. The last was because of the heavy darkening around his ocular cavity; while it did not look to be anything but fatigue and stress, the bruising might easily have been caused by heavy impacts which might have led to vision damage."

"Yes, yes…but where did you touch him in your capacity as a young woman?"

"On his forearm."

"I see."

"He gripped my arm to stop me from referring to him as 'Pilot', asking through Miss Scheele that I instead use his given name. I…enjoyed having him hold my arm, and so I in turn held his. When we spoke, after each examination, I repeated that act."

"And…the 'near violation'?"

"When Mister Berzelius offered to assist me in entering Pilot Ikari, to touch upon his most holy of places, I…was sorely tempted to assent." Her head drooped forward, shame slathered across her features. "I was offered an opportunity to experience a degree of closeness with him that would never be acceptable for someone in a position of authority like myself. He is…." Her voice grew quiet, "He is a victim, and I nearly became another victimizer."

Kyoko looked off towards the newly constructed wall lining the north face of the Shrine, to the merrily dancing flames of a series of torches that had been added to appease the kami. Part of her wanted to castigate the NCO for being so terrified of the faintest whiff of romance that she unknowingly projected what had happened as sexual in nature instead of as theistic. The leader in her, however, needed to address the greater failure first. "If you do not mind me…paraphrasing the issue, to ensure that I understand your report?" She waited for the idiot before her to nod in assent. "You were offered the opportunity to provide counsel to a bourgeoning god by beings that, on a whim, could have decorated the walls of his room with your entrails." When Temple's head snapped up, she allowed a touch of anger to enter her tone. "He trusts you enough to allow you to hold his arm. To use his name. To help him remain, in his own mind if nowhere else, human. When the offer was made, according to his report, you declined and fled the room. You abandoned a pilot in need of assistance, a violation of more than a few articles of your UCMJ, if I remember correctly. He believes you made the right choice because he has spent a lifetime being abandoned by people who should have known better. People that should have put service before self, as your sister service would put it. That should have been able to recognize an opportunity to support our war effort by setting aside sexuality long enough to engage with their opposing gender as a fellow warrior." Flicking her hand towards the makeshift barracks, she made her position clear, "I have no need for someone who can't get over their own hang-ups regarding affection and the displays thereof around Pilot Ikari. Pack your gear. When our relief element arrives, you'll be released back to your unit. Dismissed."

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

"Sensei!" Megumi energetically bounced and waved when she caught sight of Shinji being ushered into the cafeteria pavilion. "I was just about to ask Yuko-chan to go find you. Sit down, sit down, we'll get your dinner set out."

Tsuruko moved away from Shinji, leaving him to walk over to the table Mizore indicated would be used. He noted that her destination was her younger sister, but Motoko had either not noticed or intended to do what she would regardless. By the time he reached his chair, so had she. Pausing before he sat down, he used Sign reflexively to ask, 'Can…I help you, Aoyama-san?'

Whatever anyone might have expected, whether it be an explosion like some feared, or an aggrieved half-apology like some hoped, the young swordswoman caught everyone off guard. Lowering herself to her knees, and bowing with immaculate poise, Motoko intoned, "I brought dishonor upon my school, dishonor upon my family, and dishonor upon myself by attacking you as I did. My lack of self-control had already cost the life of one who had placed the lives of others above his own this day, my inability to learn from that lesson nearly compounded that failure many times over. I humbly beg that you lay a fitting punishment upon me, so that I may begin to demonstrate appropriate remorse."

She, uhm…. Shinji looked between Yuko and Mizore, the two who would hear his thoughts easiest. She can't be serious? She was trying to keep her friends and family alive! Suddenly I arrive in…in Unit-01, what else is she supposed to think?!

"It seems my little sister has done some thinking." Tsuruko stepped into the sudden silence with mild relief resting in her eyes. "Still hasn't learned how to read a man worth a spoiled turnip, but at least the brain has been engaged." Reaching the table easily, she urged Shinji to sit down and took a chair at his side. "Shinji is a very dear man, you see. His first thought, and I'd bet the lovely dress I'm wearing right now on this, is that you'd done nothing wrong. That your efforts were in the service of defending others, and that his monstrous appearance would unnerve anyone."

"Different words, but it's the right melody," Mizore bantered.

She sighed, giving Shinji a slightly pouty smile. "Shame. I kind of hoped to have to pay that bet off. It'd have been interesting to see how you'd react to being the one of the two of us fully dressed for once."

Shinji had found the table in front of him intensely interesting as soon as Tsuruko had started moving. He'd seen movements like hers before, from Misato when she was ready to pounce on a hapless victim. 'Teasing' whoever it was until they divulged everything to her. The best defense, the one that came reflexively, was to stay perfectly still and not look at anything. Since he wasn't the target of her teasing, he was not obligated to say anything in defense. Silence, normally, would have been maintained. It just wasn't in him anymore not to defend another, though. His hands moved cautiously, asserting, 'There's nothing wrong with…with assuming noble intentions. She isn't evil. She was scared that more people she wanted to protect would be hurt. That she'd fail. That her best would never be enough.' His eyes drifted up, looking over to where Sarah, Megumi, Yuko, and Shinobu stood watching. 'I know that feeling. I know it very, very well.'

"That didn't stop her from beating up on Keitaro-san every time he was a klutz," Sarah announced with her eyes appraising Motoko. "She didn't listen to his explanations, never 'assumed noble intentions', and never apologized. She even forced him to lie to her sister about everything."

The memory of their conversation in Elysium, of his explaining that might did not always make right, came to mind. That, in turn, led to him seeing a path through the situation that did not involve needless trauma. Turning purposefully towards Motoko, he asked, 'Who was it that broke Urashima-san's leg?'

A flame of rage swelled and died in an instant, the younger Aoyama winning another battle with her temper. "Narusegawa-san. Urashima-san had been the recipient of her anger over some matter at Toudai, and with his head hanging low and his shoulders stooped he did not see where he had been walking. We…came around the same corner at the same moment, and his head collided…with my person." Small sparks of anger attempted to light the embers further, but found no purchase beyond forcing her speech to be slowed. "I…slapped him across the face, and declared him a pervert. Narusegawa-san punched him back through the front door, where he eventually struck the family shrine in such a way that his leg became broken."

The same type of ill luck had been the cause of the outburst at the University, he remembered. Without anyone to catch him, Keitaro would have unintentionally grabbed Ritsuko's posterior. The rest of the story filled itself in, in his mind. A lone man living with a bunch of women, suffering from a lack of agility and a propensity for momentary lapses in spatial awareness. 'Managing an inn, going to University…he couldn't afford to get the prescription for his glasses updated often enough. Too much to do.' Signing as he thought, he nodded to his own logic. 'Kensuke was always uncoordinated without his glasses on. It distorted the world around him too much.'

After listening to Tsuruko's interpretation, Shinobu's quiet whisper was filled with tension, "Are you…excusing what she did, Ikari-sensei?"

"He's explaining what she did." Yuko soothed her junior's fears by rubbing her back. "He's placing everything into context, trying to see what motivated what. Good teachers do that, before they pass any sort of judgement. He doesn't want to just punish her because everyone is blaming her for something, it wouldn't be fair to anyone to do that without examining all the evidence."

Shinji looked back to Tsuruko. She'd asked him for his opinion once before on this issue, the same time he'd tried to help Sarah and Shinobu understand that life's complexities couldn't be resolved by violence alone. Now, he got the feeling that she was testing his convictions. 'I think she's genuinely remorseful. If she wants to be punished for attacking me, then it'd probably be best to have her protect them,' he tilted his head towards the two other former Hinata Inn residents. 'She's a capable fighter, from what I've been told. If things are going to be as dangerous around here as we think, who better to make sure they aren't harmed?'

As he 'spoke', Tsuruko's aura of teasing faded away towards genuine pleasure. She'd read the man before her correctly, read his heart correctly, and could take confidence that she wasn't wasting her time. "I agree. That is just, and surprisingly wise coming from someone who believes themselves an idiot." His slight flinch and the way his head lowered down hurt her heart. "As Headmistress, I declare it so. Motoko Aoyama, you are hereby ordered to ensure that Maehara-chan and McDougal-chan remain unmolested until relieved of that duty."

"…Fine," Sarah huffed out. "But she's still got a long way to go to earn any mercy. Now let's get him fed. He's pretty big for how scrawny he looks. Don't want him wasting away." Turning back to the kitchen area, she began dishing what she'd made especially for him with help from Megumi.

Mizore took a seat on Shinji's left, speaking low enough that only he, Tsuruko, and Motoko could hear, "At least, now, she'll have the opportunity to earn that forgiveness. Well done, Shinji. It's a shame that you weren't there at the Academy when everything happened. We could have used someone who understood the purpose of diplomacy."

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

Suzuhara stood in the doorway leading into the Sailor's apartment, internally wishing that he could be granted the power to dropkick Inari across space and time. After having politely asked after the unconscious Michiru's health, he explained that Shinji wasn't presently trusting anyone after the recent attempt at convincing him to accept a heavy responsibility. Uranus' silent scowl said far more than any rant would have, expressing a deep-seated fear that Shinji had been harmed by Usagi. Mars had quickly run over to a nearby desk to grab a pen and paper, frantically writing out a letter that he knew he'd be asked to deliver. It was Venus, as he expected, that decided to express her displeasure vocally. At great volume.

"It's not like any of us have any damn idea why Usagi-chan looks like she's going through a goth phase! Why is he taking this out on us?! He should know better! He does know better! If he didn't know better, he wouldn't be able to be summoned by me! I mean, you can't have actual, heartfelt, love for someone unless it's reciprocated, right? I mean, for it to work he'd have to-" The blonde Sailor of Love stopped mid-rant as she realized what she'd just admitted aloud.

"One would hope that was true, yes." Keeping a stranglehold on his calm, he motioned for Mars to bring the letter over. "I'll take that to him, after I verify it's not magical in nature. I won't read it, just ask one of the Tengu to sniff it, promise."

Rei rolled her eyes as she passed Minako, offering the neatly folded letter to the kitsune. "Thank you. I'm positive that he's worrying at shadows, but I'm also positive that he needs some time to decompress. He's had a lot thrown at him, and unlike us he wasn't born for conflict."

"It's good that you recognize that, Warmaiden," he approved. "I'll make sure you know when he lifts the embargo, and I'll make sure he gets this after it's examined. I've got one from Mother Moon as well, so he'll get them at the same time."

Haruka was biting nervously at the fingernail on her right thumb, too many things not adding up right with the Shinji she remembered. "She seem right, to you?" When Suzuhara raised one eyebrow, indicating his uncertainty as to who she was speaking of, she clarified, "Tsukino. You think she's playing with a full deck?"

His eyes grew distant for a second, his free hand rubbing against itself in a minor display of anxiety. "She's set a course for herself, Skyliege. Whatever that course is, she's certain of it." His gaze refocused, and he shook his head in doubt. "I wish I could say for certain that I knew the answer to your question. I wish I knew anyone capable of stopping her, if she decides to go rogue, except for the one man that we should lean on the least for the task."

Minako scoffed, "Shinji-kun is not the kind of man to-"

"He might surprise you," Rei cut in, agreeing with Suzuhara's position, "I said that he wasn't born for conflict, not that he was incapable of prosecuting war with unrelenting determination. Please, make haste Suzuhara-san. I can't feel comfortable until I know that he's read that letter. We need him just as much as he needs us, and he's possibly the best example of your gender I've ever seen. We can't afford to lose his trust right when we need it the most."

After the man left, shutting the door behind himself, Haruka looked to Rei anticipating an ally in the long-haired shrine maiden. "If he cracks, there's probably not going to be much left for us to guard."

Minako turned her irritation on the taller woman, "He's not going to-"

"Which is why it's important that he reads that letter." Rei ignored her friend's displeasure, her contention being that it was not the time to delude themselves. "I've made my offer, told him that I was open to negotiations without any preconditions or reservations. We need his help to save the world, he needs our help to stop himself from destroying it. A few of the others that showed up, maybe. Hera looked powerful enough. That trio of foxes…maybe the General."

"He's not going to like that idea," Haruka groaned out, dismayed at the nature of the man they had to save. "The one thing that I can remember, that I'm pretty sure I can trust, is that he's hyper self-aware. Any small mistake he makes becomes a scar on his psyche for the rest of time. He'll never let it go when he stumbles, and he'll never let us take the blame when it's our fault. Asking him to do that? Might as well ask a fish to fly to the sun."

Summoning a set of clothes to sleep in, she shrugged confidently. "We don't get the easy tasks; you know that as well as I do. We'll get him there, even if I have to drag him there by myself, we'll get him there."

Minako looked between the two women as they moved in different directions, Rei to the water closet to get ready for bed and Haruka to her bedroom to worry over Michiru, completely lost as to what the other two had just actually been talking about. When she was the last woman in the sitting room, she looked out the tall windows to the starry horizon with fewer answers than she'd entered the building with that day. "…He…he knows I'm into him. He has to."

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

It was an accidental meeting that brought Shinji and Ritsuko back into the same area again, the former heading to Kyoko's tent with Tsuruko holding onto his arm, the latter returning from the medical tents after checking on several patients. It was Ritsuko who saw Shinji first, the sight causing her to hesitate in her motions before changing her course to intercept him. As much as she wanted to deny the truth of the situation, as much as she wished to maintain an air of acceptance that Shinji should have the opportunity to date other women if that's where his tastes lie, seeing him walk with the tall, dark, and confident warrior stung her heart badly. Every single one of her attempts to draw his attention to her had ended with more of the ever-escalating conflict building around them. Every minute that ticked past was one more minute closer to their world possibly ending. She wasn't settling for someone, like so many people said she'd eventually have to. She had found someone who could stand on a level with her, someone who could take pride in their own accomplishments as much as she did…someone who could take pride in her accomplishments as well. Finally reaching a point that her approach was noticed, she let out the smile she practiced every morning and every night in the mirror, the smile that lied to the one receiving it. The one that said she was confident, capable, and carefree. "Hey, you! It's good to see you up and about. How're you feeling?" Another fresh hurt lanced her heart when Shinji looked pained to let go of Tsuruko so that his hands were free. Nearly no one else on Earth would have noticed the look, hidden by the typically dour countenance he had, but she'd spent more than enough time analyzing him to know it was there.

'I'm….' Hesitating after that first word, he looked up and away from either of the other women for a second. It was obvious that he was trying to find the right word to use. The right way to express his emotions. He was a pain machine attempting to output something he'd never learned to give to the world. 'Trying to understand my mind.' Even after choosing his words, he still picked them apart. He was nervous, anxious, ready to be castigated. 'I was…tired. Scared. Hurting. I was so angry that my body stopped working.' There was a brief flash of a smile, a new happy memory he treasured galloped across his mind. 'Sarah-san's cooking helped calm me down. She needs a lot of work before she's kitchen ready, but you could tell that she put her heart into it.'

Tsuruko hid a polished, ladylike, laugh behind one graceful hand. "I believe that is what is referred to as 'damning with faint praise', Shinji-dono." Holding every centimeter of her feminine frame with the ease of a woman that knew she could murder everyone in the surrounding prefectures without breaking a sweat, she flirted with a man that wouldn't notice the act if it were broadcast on a billboard. "I have heard that he has some talent in the kitchen himself, Doctor. He said he's given you several opportunities to enjoy it."

"He has." Is this what he wants? Someone who can protect him physically? Someone who shows no signs of doubt? Ritsuko argued with herself, with the part of her that wanted to move over and hug him close. They'd kissed! He clearly enjoyed it, he even seemed to struggle with stopping himself from going along with more…. The memory of what had happened with Saeko Mizuno taunted her with the knowledge that he was most likely unable to stop anyone from doing what they might with him. He wasn't a player, oh no…he was a doll. He was the thing women played with. Having performed the polite acknowledgement of the woman's statement, she tried to speak to Shinji about what she'd learned. "I was speaking to Hera, earlier…." Guilt hung off of him at the name. Another powerful woman. Confident. Superhuman…he doesn't want someone like me. "We…we were talking about faith."

Both women could easily see that whatever good humor Shinji had was decaying rapidly. They were confident that the cosmonauts aboard Mir in the heavens above them all could see it easily. "I hope you will forgive us, but we were on our way to a private area nearby. It's our hope that some meditation exercises, along with more intimate conversation, might be able to begin to lift the cloud of negativity that is polluting his mind."

…Ah. "Of course," Ritsuko lied fluently, "maybe I'll see you later tonight, Shinji? I can stay up until you come home, if you think talking might help?"

The final nail was driven through his reserves, and the young man that she'd become attracted to spoke what had become his catchphrase through the translator next to him, 'I'm…I'm sorry.'

"Of course…." A polite bow, as if between colleagues, accompanied her words of parting, "Have a good evening, then." Turning back to her apartment, she dared anyone in her way to say anything at all to her, just like she dared the tears threatening her to make the mistake of moving past her eyelids.

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

Shinji was an absolute mess as he reached the interior of Kyoko's palatial tent. His hands barely agreed to cooperate with him, let alone each other, as he attempted to express to the woman he'd been walking with the insanity that consumed him. 'I don't do! One, another, at least four dead! Home, nothing, here all woodworks!'

Tsuruko made certain that they were alone, that the wards were in place to let her know if anyone approached to eavesdrop, and then finally reached out and firmly took Shinji's hands to 'silence' him. "Please, stop. We came here to help you find peace, not to let you wind yourself up into a ball of twine." Taking a step closer, turning his hands so that his palms rested just beneath her breasts, she took a deep breath. "Breathe in time with me. Slow. Steady. Breaths."

Trying to not focus on the fact that his hands were a slight cough away from touching a bounty he had no right to even consider, he locked eyes with her and followed instructions. He knew he had been trained to respond to the commands of a woman in charge, that he was already falling back into old, bad, habits, but that counterintuitively worked to help him relax in the way she wanted him to. It was rote, familiar. He was back in the LCL tank, synchronizing himself with the strange harmonics of Unit-01. With the foreign brainwaves of…of the mother he'd killed. His eyes closed, the mnemonics already past the point that the suddenly intrusive thought had any capacity to interrupt them, and he allowed his hold on his A.T. Field to relax.

Tsuruko gasped silently, completely unprepared for an already powerful aura to go from raging festival bonfire to a star going hypernova. She doubted that even with warning she might have been able to prepare for what he had unleashed. She doubted she would have wanted to. Pressing his hands against her as hard as she could, she did everything in her power to absorb as much of the heat he radiated as possible. The pleasure of lingering in his aura balanced on the knife's edge between chasms of unthinkable agony, the unrelenting belief that everything that happened around him was his fault blasting her from all sides in an effort to dislodge her. She had, in her grasp, a young man who could either save their world or tear reality itself asunder. A young man who needed more than comfort, more than a warm body next to him at night…he needed…. "Shinji," it was as if she were fighting a dragon just to breathe the words out, "are you ready to try speaking again?"

His eyes opened slowly, a modicum of calm restored. What he saw, instead of someone struggling to stay upright as she was, was a pillar of strength that held him on his own feet. She had given him a chance to speak his mind, much as she had earlier, and his gratitude shone through the worried smirk that existed as the only form of smile he had to offer. A single nod allowed his hands free of her person, and his first statement was earnest in its sincerity, 'Thank you.'

"It is what companions do, is it not?" She would not quake at the knees like some simpering maid. He needed her mind, not what lay between her legs. "We bolster one another during the inevitable moments of weakness life delights in gifting us. I'm quite sure that the next time I want to tear my hair out over my sister's inability to grow up you'll provide a shoulder to lean against as we sit on a bench and watch the sun rise over the horizon." The light blush on his cheeks, the way he tilted his head to stare down at his own feet, forced her to realize that she'd allowed the space between her legs to phrase some of the statement instead of her brain.

Before she could correct her course, Shinji asked her an honest question, 'Have…have you been…are you…flirting?'

She refused to lie to people as a rule, and doubted that there would be anything gained by muddying the waters further in any event. "Does that make you feel uncomfortable?" His cheeks darkened to a much brighter red, worrying her.

'I.' He hesitated, his thoughts on lies neatly mirroring her own. 'I don't understand why.'

"Why it makes you uncomfortable, or why I would display interest in you?" She saw in the way his shoulder squirmed the difficulties he'd survived, the lack of affection or friendship, the struggle to connect with anyone. After he held up two fingers, indicating that he didn't know why she was interested, her gut began to relax. "Hmm…. Let's sit down, and I'll try to help you understand my perspective. Ok?"

Shinji quickly turned around, looking for any available seating. The only thing he could see without moving everything around was a lone three-legged stool by a folding writing desk. Grasping it and setting it out for Tsuruko, he gestured to it and prepared himself to sit on the ground nearby. He was startled when, instead of accepting the seat, she pushed him to the ground and placed herself where she could rest against him under his shoulder. Forced to lean against one hand, with the other hand unable to find anywhere to rest that wasn't on her body, he couldn't express his confusion at her act.

Even the comparatively dull embers of his unrestrained aura were candy to her soul, and it was with no small delight that she began toying with the fingers of the hand he wasn't using to keep them from falling backwards onto the floor. "I might have mentioned, though perhaps not, that I am a widow." His answers at the moment were unimportant, and keeping him from interrupting allowed her to offer trust to him so that he would know he could do so in kind. "My husband…is the impetus for the questions I asked you on our arrival at Elysium. He took his own life, unable to manage his own inner turmoil after losing a number of those subordinate to him in an engagement gone wrong." While Shinji's body stiffened, she could feel his aura grieving for her. His physical reaction was because he didn't know what to say, not because he was judging her or her late husband in any manner. "A demon, a youma that had gone insane, had attacked the lands belonging to his family. It had possessed several children, driving them to do all manner of unspeakable acts, things I will not pollute your mind by sharing the truth of. He was…confident. The trait that drew me to him, at first."

I guess that explains why she understood what I was trying to say. He appreciated that she was sharing this with him, it helped him begin to form his own thoughts so he could reach for help. I still want to die. I just….

"The man that returned, two weeks after he left to be about his grim task, was not someone I would say I recognized." Where he expected sorrow would be the primary emotion in her voice, instead existed a cast-iron wrath that had not changed since the day it had been forged. "I sought to help him, as headmistress of the school, in arranging assistance for the families of the fallen. I thought to give him the space he seemed to ask for, to order his thoughts and process the emotions of grief and loss as men are wont to." The edge in her voice could have sheared Unit-01 in half, given physical form. "I discovered his lifeless corpse in our marriage bed, his wedding ring cut in half, his belongings burning in the firepit. He had taken a poison intended to ease terminally ill patients to the other side of the river, enough that it is unlikely he lived another ten heartbeats afterwards. He, apparently, believed he was freeing me of the 'burden' of marriage to a failure." Lifting up her left hand, turning her fingers so that a nearly invisible scar was displayed on the inside of her ring finger, she traded anger for irritation. "When I cut my own ring off, I was careless. I ruined any possible interest another man might have in me by maiming myself beyond hope." The rapid blinking of confusion that overwhelmed Shinji brought a string of pleased laughter from her heart. "A jest, good sir. To restore the mood. Whenever I speak of him, I am overcome with a need to find the nearest breakable objects and reduce them to as small of pieces as is practicable with my bare hands. Things such as dishes, furniture, or inconveniently placed cities. He is the only man to ever truly wound me, and I promised myself that I would not sit idly back and allow another to suffer in silence believing them 'too strong' to succumb to that final weakness. If for no other reason than to spare another from feeling as I do at the loss of one they had believed they loved."

Would my death hurt someone that bad? Lifting his head to look at a patch of shadow that drifted across the top of the tent, he wasn't prepared for Tsuruko to spin towards him, spreading her kimono's lower half to allow her to sit astride his legs. His reflexive reaction of moving to catch what he believed was a falling woman meant that he gave up the support of his hand against the ground, leading to his back and head contacting the ground with an audible thud.

Smiling playfully down on him, Tsuruko lifted one eyebrow in a bold declaration of victory. "I find myself interested in you, Shinji Ikari, because I can see confidence in how you act when the health, safety, and feelings of others is on the line. The drive and motivation to jump out of a helicopter to save a family, or charge a living tree with only a knife as a weapon to save a young woman from harm. You are not a man to think of yourself, not your needs or wants, before you act to improve the lives of those around you. You serve, when you could just as easily use your strength to command. You suffer, when you could simply look the other way. You have thrown yourself against horrifying odds, not because you believe you will die but because you accept that death is a worthwhile price to pay so that others might live." Placing the index finger of her right hand against his chest, she raised one eyebrow in challenge. "Your motivations are that you believe yourself at fault for those tragedies, that is the lie I will root out of you." That finger began to trace a rune, her musing trailing off of such heavy topics. "Your aura, the presence that all living beings possess, burns with a fervor that I have never seen before. It is an odd counterpoint to your thoughts. Your mind seeks a way to twist everything around you towards darkness. Sees cruelty, suffering, and malice where the idle whims of life are far easier to blame. Your mind is hardening your heart…and I would grieve deeply to see such a heart fall to that darkness."

'But…why?' On his back, his hands free to speak for him, Shinji tried to spit out what he'd failed to say when they entered the tent. 'Where I'm from, nobody was interested in me. Nobody wanted to talk to me, to hold me, to tell me that I was important!'

"Which is far more telling of the depravity that the world suffers through than it is illuminative of your value as an individual."

'So why? What changed? What's so different that suddenly a bunch of women want to get to know me?!'

The flaps of the tent shuddered as a bulky, black, fox trotted through the flaps. Seven tails flowed outwards behind him as he approached, a bundle of letters balanced on his back. There were no signs that he cared that Tsuruko was perched atop Shinji, her legs bare to the world, or that Shinji was blushing furiously at having someone interrupt their conversation and catching him in such a state. "Well, based on my guesses, the difference is that here you're no longer under the oppressive thumb of the people that shoved you in that armor. Can't imagine they were eager to have someone as powerful as you running around doing whatever you wanted, and instead of trying to teach you right from wrong, they just beat you with a stick until you were amenable to their demands. Now that you're here, that means you're able to let who you are inside out to play, rather than shutting it all away so that you don't get beaten more." Shaking his shoulders, dropping the letters down by Tsuruko's knee, Suzuhara sat down and idly beat his tails against the ground behind him. "My apologies for interrupting, Hunter. I promised to get these to him as soon as I could, and I needed to ask your permission to either kill or constrain the Narusegawa girl."

"I would not be the one to seek permission from, I think." Picking up the letters, and remaining where she was, Tsuruko tilted her head in the direction of the hospital wards set up on the first floor of the apartment. "Noriyasu Seta is her former instructor, and therefore the one with the greater claim to responsibility for the child. I would have left her to die in Hinata, were it my choice, which rather biases my judgement against whatever she has done now."

"Fair enough," he sighed. "Silent One, you are asking a woman who is sound of mind, of spirit, and of health why she is interested in a man that pursues peace when possible, protects the innocent from the guilty, and has enough honor to feel shame at being the center of so many people's attentions when any one of those people is worthy of your own individually. In our society, it is not uncommon that someone as powerful as you would retain several mates, and before you get all huffy you need to remember that you were raised in a human world. You're at least partially a primordial being that transcends past the youkai, past the Elysians, past what humanity may eventually accomplish if we can keep enough of them alive. The more children you have, the more chances future generations have of living under the protection you offer to us now." His head tilted slightly to the side, his nose indicating Tsuruko. "Her kind take nearly a year to gestate. Kitsune take less than a fifth of that time. Yuki-onna take at least eighteen months, not that anyone can ever tell when they're pregnant anyway. My lady won't see our child for anywhere between nine months and two years! Imagine what a family composed of so many different bloodlines could accomplish, if you took the time to grow one. Imagine the peace you could grant the world! Bonds of family are far stronger among youkai, and with all manner of families tied to you it could single-handedly end interspecies violence by offering a truly diplomatic solution to any problems." Sitting back on his haunches, he lifted his front paws and scratched at his throat in frustration. "I'm not interested in forcing you to do anything you don't want to, not that I could if I wanted to. I just don't think you're approaching a problem that is pretty unique to you with all available information. If the Hunter has no problem with sharing you with the witches, or with my students, or with the Frostmother, then don't you think you should at least listen to her opinion?" Settling back on all fours, he flopped his ears side to side. "Or don't. I'm not in your shoes, and I can't say what I'd do if I were…because I really love my lady, and I don't want to imagine a world where I'm not with her." Turning around, he trotted back through the tent flaps and out into the night, leaving behind a Shinji frowning in contemplation and an amused Tsuruko watching wheels turn.

+++++ Maria's Market, Azabu-Mamianachō, Japan. (Monday + 9)

Maria stood outside of her shop, considering the marble stone Shinji had created from nothing to keep looters away from what lie inside. The craftsmanship he had managed both impressed and terrified her, considering she knew better than any of the others that knew him exactly how close they had come to him simply erasing all of reality. "I need to fix his anger somehow." Pressing her hand against the barrier, she found that her guess was correct, and that it wasn't permeable to anything she could summon. "He wanted to kill everyone. He wanted to bathe in blood. Locking down his body, stopping himself from doing it, that's a weakness that's going to be exploited."

"Or a strength to be leveraged." Inari slunk into the open, having spent several hours attempting to enter the shop herself. "Instead of attempting to put a leash on a typhoon, why not work to degrade the barriers along the path you wish it to travel? Create a situation where it's useful."

"I honestly don't know whether I should be impressed by the unmitigated gall you have to show up here after what you just pulled, or pleased that I'll get to offer your head to him as a gift." Maria's form was wreathed in black flame as she stalked closer to her prey. "I'll have to try and determine which is which later."

The Mother of the Kitsune held up a scroll of parchment, waggling it with a cunning grin. "Uh, uh, uh. No violating contracts. We both know how that will end, don't we?"

She stopped, remembering handing that particular form over as a means of apology for striking Hygieia. "That is a waiver to free you from paying a specific fee for an investigation, not a means for you to keep your head attached to your shoulders."

"And since I'm using it to hire you, you can't kill me until the deal is completed." She made the paper disappear, to avoid it being stolen from her. "Your job is to find out who is responsible for the strength of the woman known as 'Khlorya'. I know it is not the Unbound Desire, nor is it the Silent One. The new pretender to the Throne of Madness is as afraid of her as it is of him, and it is very unlikely that these Angels, as he calls them, had anything to do with her. Someone empowered her with enough strength to fight the strongest of the Witches to a standstill." Her carefree demeanor faded, her nine tails unfurling in a display of how serious she was. "There are those on that hill that wish to kill him. There are others that seek to enslave him. All I want is for him to fuck as many women as we can get him to, to rebuild the Elders so that they can protect us from what lies in the Yawning Abyss. I would give him anything he asked for, if he would simply give me that one thing. Until he listens to reason, you and I are going to work together to find this hidden puppeteer so he can rip its damn throat out."

"…You're crazy, you know that, right?"

"Like a fox," Maria announced with a performer's bow. "Neither of us are getting in there until he lets us in. So let's go find a reason for him to do so."

+++++ Author's Notes:

Guest1: RE: Rei Ayanami.

Yeah, lacking the controlling influence held within the Chamber of Guf in her own world Rei/Lilith/Yui saw that there was an opportunity to do serious damage.

Guest2: RE: Maria v Lilith.

They are far closer to one another than they are to the other two sisters, which means that they tend to view their men in similar fashion. However, where Lilith created The Wanderer, The Wanderer created the Silent One. He's the reason that things aren't just playing out in a cycle endlessly, after all.

Ghost Man:

RE: Bullshit Space Wizard.

Shinji calls them like he sees them.

RE: Saturn/Pluto.

Nice catch on the last two chapters. I'm clearly getting older.

SPECIAL NOTE: I am now looking for prices regarding a piece of fan art that has been requested. The first (maybe only) is going to be a rendition of the Triplets. I'll provide a much more detailed description of them when the piece is commissioned. Please note, however, that I'm not exactly rich and I'm not looking to bankrupt myself over this. If you are, or know someone who is, talented enough to draw them to a degree that you feel confident I would approve of, feel free to PM me. Many thanks.