Chapter 26: Let it go
Sailor Moon's mother: Get the heck up and go to school. You'll be late.
Sailor Moon: But I don't need to go to school.
Sailor Moon's mother: If you don't go to school, you can't get a good job and you can't make money. I refuse to have anything to do with a useless daughter who can't make any money.
Sailor moon: But I already have a job. I save the world from the dark kingdom. Without me and my powers, the dark kingdom would have taken over the Earth and killed everyone including you at least a hundred times by now. I did a job that would take every army combined on Earth to do otherwise.
So, no. I don't need to study to be useful. The government has already sent a big cheque for me and my friends who also have superpowers. If you try to ground me and stop me from hanging out with them, we won't be able to work together to stop the dark kingdom since we can only do our job right if we work together. Now please let me rest. I need to be ready for when the dark kingdom strikes again.
Sailor Mars: You are a bad leader Sailor Moon. You should let a clever and sassy chick like me do the leading instead of a useless meatball head like you.
Sailor Moon: Go ahead.
Sailor Mars: What?
Sailor Moon: You don't like your position as my follower and you want my position? I only want what's best for the team and what gets the job done for the greater good of everyone 's lives I'm responsible for. If you think you'll lead better then I won't stop you, Mars.
I for one think you'll do great. You have a good head on your shoulders and your fire powers are so much stronger than my moon tiaras. The others seem to listen to you a lot better than they ever did for me.
You are thrilled when we get a chance to fight while I run away crying because I don't like violence.
Go and tell the others and let them know you have my full blessings.
Sailor Mars: I see now why I liked you so much despite your flaws. I will never call you bad names again and I am sorry I was so mean to you before.
World government: Save the world Sailor guardians or we will kill you. The world doesn't owe you anything.
Sailor Moon: Well, it works the other way round too. We also owe you nothing. If we don't eat then we starve. If we can't get a vacation every now and again, we'll collapse. We are not asking to be paid much, just enough to stay alive. It is far cheaper to pay just the few of us than to pay the massive army of people who'd replace us if we stopped doing our duties. They would not even be as powerful as us.
World government: We can just hold you at gunpoint and make you work for free.
Sailor Moon: We can just refuse to work and let the dark kingdom win even if you do that. And we have superpowers so if you try to attack us, it won't be as easy as you think.
Sailor Moon: Why do I need to study a bunch of stuff I will never use anyway. I should be practicing hits against a dummy instead. If I do that then my accuracy will improve and the others won't criticize me for being weak anymore. It's not my fault I'm bad at fighting when I don't even get a chance to actually practice.
Sailor Mars: It's not our job to give money to our parents if they are just going to act ungrateful and blow it all away on a bunch of junk. Our hard-earned money is ours and we should get to decide what to do with it. It was kind of our parents to bring us up but even so, they should not just leech our hard work. Love should not be conditional. If it is then at best it's a deal and not love. My loved ones become my bosses and I become just a numbered worker who can be replaced on a whim. I don't want that kind of relationship.
Rei POV
One of the aspects Shinji loved about his old partner Asuka, was that to be frank she had a pretty good singing voice even if she didn't use it often and spent most if it shouting in Shinji's face instead.
Her "Fly me to the moon" cover was quite the banger and I still couldn't get it out my head.
The only reason I never sang was because my commander never allowed it.
Speak only when spoken to and all that bunch of bull.
But now he had no control over me anymore. Now I was zipping and zooming over the magnificent snowy peaks of some tourist trap mountain range as I coasted to the place my heart desired.
Every single passenger on board was an eternal friend I'd not part with for the world.
Well maybe except one but I was ready to give her a chance. It was my high point over Asuka that I believed in second chances at least when it mattered. Not to brag of course but it made everything a little easier.
"Shinji-kun."
"Yes. Rei-chan."
"Could you please give me one more song on that cello you play so well? I know your fingers must be tired after the last one but please, do it for me."
"How could I possibly say no! Just say the major and it will be yours."
"Is it not obvious Shinji. The one major that can bring my soul to inner peace and only when you play it, is E minor. Solitude in E minor."
Shinji grins a heart-warming Cheshire cat grin that would give even the cheery Mari a run for her money.
"Yeah. E minor. Alright yeah!" The grand maestro of Cello musicianship cheers as he strikes up the sweetest round of notes that I have ever and will ever hear in my existence.
Nothing will ever surpass this masterpiece as much to his great amazement, I take in a mighty gust and begin my first ever sung and not spoken words.
I need Shinji to know that by abandoning Asuka, he misses out on nothing. Soon my regrown hair will arrive to cover up yet another of my shortcomings.
That musical culture is not an aspect lacked by the new waifu he's chosen to risk his trust upon.
It helps that away from the tense presence of my quick-tempered commander, my lyrics are able to come from my heart and not my head.
Let it go
The snow glows white on the mountain tonight. Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of ice-solation, and it looks like I'm the queen
I was with my close friends now which indeed made me unified and cured me of the aching loneliness that had made me feel so hopelessly powerless for much of my life at NERV.
But for all this camaraderie, it did not hide the fact that this wholesome union could not have been achieved had I chosen to stay in line doing everything I was told by his truly.
Or to put it more simply, my true friendships began with the decision to cut away from my toxic ones.
Sometimes togetherness began with isolation. No day without the night. No light without the dark.
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in. Heaven knows I tried.
Don't let them in. Don't let them see.
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal don't feel. Don't let them know.
Well now they know.
I tried to keep in my love for Shinji. My real love.
I did my utmost to hide my bad feelings for Asuka and the way she frightened me every time her name was even brought up in conversation.
I didn't want to have to use my Angel powers to speed my reflexes and deflect the bullet that the city guards shot at us, or to boost my aim to mow down the platoon sent to capture us flawlessly.
I called it my byakugan, which I now planned to hone to perfection.
Hinata Hyuga's perfect counter for when she got picked on relentlessly by Sakura Haruno and her almost equally evil "brother" Neji and her other "white" Klansmen.
Since white was quite literally "Hiashi" her Klan chief's literal meaning. Irony didn't begin to describe the travesty.
This Dandere's last line of defence against the myriad of Tsundere's bound to come after her thinking her easy prey because of her vow against unnecessary violence or rudeness of any kind.
Because she knew the humiliation of being endlessly judged and so decided to take advantage of her bad childhood by never judging anyone.
Let it go. Let it go
Can't hold it back, anymore
Let it go. Let it go
Turn way and slam the door
I don't care. What they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway
Each time we got into our EVA's and fought off another Angel, an explosion of gigantic proportions seemed to ensue no matter what we did.
When we brought this up to the commander, he only shrugged it off and told us to ask no questions. That we were doing perfectly well and that we should continue as we were.
It was as if he wanted these explosions to keep happening.
Like he was glad that they got bigger each time we faced off a more challenging adversary.
Like how he knew one of them would finally be big and destructive enough to create the next impact.
I should have known even without Mari's prompting. I should have seen the signs.
Shinji did but he was too good a son to want to disobey his father.
My love really sent the benchmark for sons everywhere.
Forget father of the year award, Shinji should have earned the son of mankind's history award several times over.
It all made so much sense now. Hindsight was 20 20.
Well with my byakugan eye and my new life's purpose to protect Shinji as he protected the world, soon foresight for me would be as well in the literal sense of the word.
It wasn't Shinji who ended up most uplifted by my first song.
Doctor Akagi was forced to make repeated vigorous smudges to her eyes with her sleeves as the entire cabin rang with her sniffs and sobs.
Her entire lab coat was moistened with her dews of lamentation and it was clearly taking all her willpower not to scream.
The force with which she gritted her teeth, stamped her feet and clenched her fists made it seem like she was having injection after injection.
And that she was being injected with the most lethal toxins known to science.
Her eyes looked like they were looking at Cthulu himself.
It's funny how some distance. Makes everything seem small.
And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at all.
It's time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right no wrong. No rules for me
I'm freeeeee!
The only rules that still existed as far as I could tell now were the standards, I set for myself and those Shinji held for himself which because of our union, almost matched each other's word for word.
I was no longer helping others and extending myself because I was forced to but because I wanted to.
I was no longer a prisoner or even a conscript but a free volunteer.
This was the main difference.
Before, being a pilot and a bodyguard for humanity was a chore.
Now it was my free choice to also protect the things and people I held dear.
I could say yes. I could say no.
But how could I say no to the sweet hearted saints who had been with me through thick and thin, seeing me at my best and at my worst?
Shinji. Mari. Angelo. Lola. Sherwood. Candy. Maya. Even Ritsuko you.
I'll never stand idly by when you, any of you need me the most. Standing by while abuse flew under the radar was old Rei's shtick.
Just as pointless bickering and plain unpleasant behaviour was the downfall of Team fortress 2 and the antithesis of Shinji's newly founded Team fortress 3.
Let it go. Let it go
I'm one with the wind and sky
Let it go. Let it go
You'll never see me cry
Here I stand, and here I stay
Let the storm rage on
I don't know what happens to Tokyo 3 without us. I do know however that it at least has a tiny chance of survival whereas before it had zero. Nill. Null. None.
Everyone was going to die and it was only a matter of when.
Now it really had a future as long as everyone there set aside their differences.
Leaving was the right answer. A one percent chance, even a null point one chance was far, far more reasonable for everyone than zero percent.
My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul (hah. Rei means soul) is spiralling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystalizes like an icy blast
I'm never going back. The past is in the past
Soon my powers would be so much stronger. As well as a force for good or as much good as I could manage in the great adage of not being able to please everyone no matter what I did.
Players were going to play. Haters were going to hate.
I was just going to shake it all off.
Shake off the past events so that I could start walking towards the future.
Some characters of dubious morality and not to mention legality, didn't hate you because you wronged them or because their traumatic experiences had made them too crazed to see reason.
They would hate you even if you weren't you and if you so much as breathed in their direction, their hatred would only intensify.
Your mere existence signified their reason and if you ceased to exist, their bitterness for you did not change one bit.
Here in the Anime Otaku community which me, Mari and Shinji saw as our one true religion to spread far and wide, we called them Tsunderes.
A type of ingrate who at our first glimpse of them on the big white silver screen, we slammed the channel button faster than the speed of light.
Their true reason for hatred was that they wanted something to hate.
It was my paper-thin justification for my past unpleasantness towards Shinji when he saved my life and slaved after me every second Asuka wasn't making him her personal slave and punching bag.
I shouted at him to relieve my tension and I insulted Doctor Akagi's mother because I myself was insulted endlessly.
I knew a Tsundere so well because I was once one myself.
At least it wasn't too late to save others from my former mistakes so that there was some good in the horrible things I once took in stride.
Let it go. Let it go
And I'll rise at the break of dawn
Let it go. Let it go
That perfect girl is gone
There was no perfect being or entity. It was arrogant to presume otherwise.
I could feign perfection but that only served to malign my imperfections even more terribly and in a malicious way that could but hurt those I wished least to be hurt.
I once shifted blame to everything I did to the commander. It was him that ordered me. It was him that put my insults in my mouth.
I was wholly guiltless. I was just an autonomous machine to do his bidding.
It was naturally his bidding when I slapped Shinji even when he mentioned no command of the sort.
Obviously, it was him that told me to drive "the old hag" to suicide and push her once very optimistic daughter down a slippery slope. A steep downward spiral that even now I could sense her sliding further down unable to stop.
No. I was no so perfect.
I had flaws. I was going to start telling everyone about my flaws and stop pretending everything was alright. Since the only path to improvement was to identify a flaw with which to improve upon.
"Perfection" made it impossible to climb any higher.
Eternal imperfection on the other hand which was the way of each and every one of us, meant room for infinite improvements.
It was the great gift of humankind that without my Shinji, I too like most would have been too blind and fearful to realize I had been holding in my palms all this time.
No victory without defeat. No solution without a problem.
Now I knew why Lola despite being Asuka's first victim still thanked her and why Shinji repeatedly insisted that he still loved Asuka.
Asuka had so many faults for me to look upon and improve. I needed to put aside my hatred for her to do that.
Here I stand. In the light of day
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway
Something in the way of having not one kindred spirit to turn to even in your most pressing time of need, made it feel like of the days I spent alive that only those I spent with Shinji and Mari felt like a true day. The rest were to me, an unending night.
The sun may have been shining brightly outside but when my words went unacknowledged by anyone even when I was screaming my heart out, it felt as bleak as the dark of the blackest night.
Like a prison with no exit. A maze with no prize.
I was never going back there again. It felt far too relieving to be answered when I spoke. Even when some of what I said would be but selfish drabbles with no intrinsic value to anyone but myself.
Now it felt like even night turned to day. Like the sun never set.
The cold should not have bothered me. As a part Angel, I was supposed by genetic design to be far better insulated from the ravages of extreme temperature than any ordinary human.
However, because I was fed so poorly and given the cold shoulder so often, this very rarely came into play with how much of my energy was wasted each second by my constant shivering that I could never stop. Now with my Shinji and Mari to live for along with all the other rebels, I could laugh in the face of the coldest blizzard.
It was as I ceased my first ever song and bowed that someone rushed me.
They barrelled right into me and held me down firmly despite my initial attempt at resistance.
They did it so suddenly while making me blink so hard that I needed to look twice to realize that it was not the love of my life Shinji, though I wished it was.
The emotionless blonde scientist who by all accounts should have eternally cursed my existence was snaking her arms and legs around me so tightly as she let out such cries and wails of heartache.
I wondered which of us was really the kid and the adult.
Though a little taken aback, I was able with a little perseverance to let her continue her gesture knowing she had no murderous intent.
As I'd been taught well by Asuka, I believed in second chances.
I said nothing as she continued to fall further into my chest and I let myself fall futher into her arms.
A dandere did not speak that which was not necessary and which would not benefit the listener in the moment. They understood decorum and courtesy in the way Tsundere's could but dream off.
There was an old saying that Earth was humanity's cradle which they could not stay in forever.
Well now the Otaku cult had its own version of that statement.
You could start a meaningful relationship a tsundere.
But if you were looking for true bonding and spiritual growth, you could not stay a tsundere forever.
From this point of view, I was a marine in bulletproof ceramic armour toting a fully automatic assault rifle while Asuka had chosen to remain the cave man staggering around waving a club.
My base was an immaculate several storey tower of solid titanium while hers was but a mess of fragile stones. Easily breached and even easier smashed to rubble.
Especially when each floor of my far superior hideout was rigged with the same calibre of automatic firearm as I, while her one floor den did not even have a rooftop guarding post to lob even the tiniest of pebbles.
Like you doctor, I love science and the amazing possibilities it offers mankind.
Ritsuko POV
I'm so relieved she didn't just swat me away thinking I was going to strangle her the way mother did.
It was completely unintentional that I decided one second just to spring forward so immaturely.
I'm certainly no Yandere and even if I was, I already have my Maya as my Gakusei.
I tried to say no but my soul kept on telling my body yes.
Everyone here is looking at me. But none of them are judging me or trying to pull me away.
They must understand that I'm no fan of causeless conflict and that every word of my apology was fully meant. That if someone so much as harmed one hair on Rei's head right now, an Evangelion's prowess would be insignificant next to mine.
Be a grown ass woman and cease this stupidity, brain tells me.
Keep going. You have to keep going for you'll never have this opportunity ever even if you live to a hundred and more. Says heart.
Sorry brain but even for a scientist, logic must occasionally give way to humanity.
This harmless and childish hug is not enough.
Rei has gone too long without knowing the common human right of having a true parental figure.
It will take my whole lifetime to give back to her what I tried to steal but this will be a start.
I connect my lips with her right cheek and before this exhausting exertion robs me of my consciousness, I give it a delicate peck. In my final blink of lucidity, I let off a light and carefree giggle. The likes of which I've not brought myself to do so since my mother's untimely end.
Unlike Gendo, I am not a robot. None of us are.
I can cry, I can laugh and as I desperately pray, I've now shown you, I can love.
You will never see another one of those "robot" again Rei.
If anyone tries to force you into one of those again, they will have to come through me.
I'll put my useless life between you and the Evangelions.
But if I do live long enough despite the growing danger now tailing us to infinity and beyond...
My brain with its photographic memory capability loads up one final mental image as consciousness fails.
-Age of war units-
Stone age
Clubman = 15 yen
Slingshot man = 25 yen
Dino rider = 100 yen
Medieval age
Swordsman = 50 yen
Archer = 75 yen
Knight = 500 yen
Renaissance age
Dueller = 200 yen
Musketeer = 400 yen
Cannoneer = 1000 yen
Modern age
Melee infantry = 1500 yen
Infantry = 2500 yen
Tank = 7000 yen
Future age
God's blade = 5000 yen
Blaster = 7500 yen
War machine (ie: The stupid Evangelions) = 20,000 yen (which is draining Japan's treasury dry)
Super soldier = 150,000 yen
The Evangelion gave anyone who could pilot one without being instantly consumed by its soul rending energies, superhuman powers.
They healed faster, aged slower and could lift gigantic loads that no normal human could manage.
It explained why Shinji didn't tire nearly as easily as his classmates. It was why Rei could withstand enough injuries to not simply give out, despite being hopelessly outmatched in the suicidal match where Shinji saved her and proved her worth to him.
This applied whether the pilot was human or Angel.
They were in every way, shape and form: super.
Of course, Japan didn't have 150,000 yen to spare.
If you starved every last citizen to death and took the clothes off their back, you'd still not be one fraction of the way to the budget needed.
But Gendo had at his disposal three very selfless heroes which he did not truly appreciate the value of. I say three because the fourth is one that has for lack of better words, gone rogue.
It was not simple sentimentality that drove me to be willing to lay down everything for Rei's ensured prosperity. It was base self-preservation of the uncaring denizens that I was bound by my Hippocratic oaths as a doctor to shield, regardless of their ingratitude.
So, I had to make sure Rei lived but surely there was more that I could do than just be a human shield.
My brain responds once again with its photographic memory.
Heart may have been right for once but that didn't mean I was going to neglect brain.
-Age of war defence turrets-
Turrets fire at any hostile attacker that comes near the base they are built upon. Though they cannot target the enemy base, they do very decent damage for their price and cannot be destroyed unless their base is also destroyed unlike units.
Stone age
Rock Slingshot = 100 yen
Egg automatic = 200 yen
Primitive catapult = 500 yen
Medieval age
Catapult = 500 yen
Fire catapult = 750 yen
Boiling oil = 1000 yen
Renaissance age
Small cannon = 1500 yen
Large cannon = 3000 yen
Explosive cannon = 6000 yen
Modern age
Single turret (sniper rifle) = 7000 yen
Rocket turret = 9000 yen
Double turret (Gatling gun) = 14000 yen
Future age
Titanium shooter(Infared sniper rifle) = 24000 yen
Laser cannon = 40,000 yen
Ion ray = 100,000 yen
It was blindingly obvious from this diagram that I'd handily filed in my head what part I would play in mankind's survival now. It certainly wasn't to go crazy and start taking my petty vendetta on helpless children who needed my love more than ever.
My cheapskate partner Kozo had forgotten the blessings of science which could reveal the first rule of existence itself. How it was not meant to be wasted on the baying of merchants and bankers lying in bed all day.
Science was not an occult enterprise like alchemy.
It was not for royals in their castles or even monks in their cathedrals.
All the dark ages of starvation, sickness and misery?
Science could bring us out of that.
But what good was this wonderful gift if not spread throughout a quickly decaying globe closing on extinction.
Stick with Senpai, dearest Maya.
The world is waiting for the blessings of science and together we can deliver what it needs.
Kaworu POV
Rome wasn't built in a day. This was a hard fact.
It was also not developed by layabouts who snoozed around doing nothing for several years.
So, while the fact remained that it had taken less than a whole day to oust the majority of NERV and establish a mostly firm over the larger part of Tokyo 3, the long and short of it was that we got off our butts and got something done.
We did not wait for a miracle to arrive. We became the miracle we wished to happen.
Why was this happening, I wonder as I wipe salty black ink from my face.
Why has everyone stopped applauding?
Why are they looking at me with bloody murder in their coal like slits for eyes?
Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.
The world has changed.
I feel it in the water. I feel it in the air.
Then the unthinkable happens.
An ordinary white collar worker's stomach bulges to bursting point. He cries in agony but he is helpless as a slew of slithering green tentacles burst from a gap in his now ginormous redounded form
The other features in his once normal body have swelled out too.
His screaming stops as he begins to take unusual solace from the transformation, he so dreaded just a second ago.
He bursts into a massive grin as his already gaping mouth opens wider to reveal two rows of razor jaws.
Without another word, he charges forward as more holes start to appear on his skin but Miho Nishizumi manages to nail him with a cannon shot.
By now he stands twice the height of our panzer, and he shows no signs of stopping to expand as of yet.
As I grimly predicted, it fails to faze the former human in the slightest as more of his brethren follow his example. The guttural gargling each man, woman and children lets out as they transform into horrors that are best let up to your own imagination, still haunts my nightmares to this day.
A few lucky souls remain unchanged but their luck soon runs out as they are eaten, ripped and crushed alive by their no longer human fellows.
I cannot help but notice even as in a panic, I order my crew to retreat their tanks right away, that those who failed to maintain their original form in favour of their new eldritch one tended to be dressed head toe in stuffy and clearly discomforting tight fitting uniforms. Designed but to appeal to an overbearing boss who was willing to do anything to preach conformity and mediocrity, that they themselves did not practice with their cushy positions.
At worst, the unlucky transformers have ripped rags or even no clothes at all.
The most destitute among them, don't even have socks and shoes.
There are no athlete sufferers of this mysterious affliction.
All the victims are either overweight, some by a little and some by a morbidly frightening margin while the rest are grossly under. To the extent where their bones are bright as daylight through their almost non-existent layer of shrivelled prune-like skins.
It seems that only relative wealth and to a lesser extent, fitness plays a part in deciding who keeps their Homo sapien makeup.
This pandemic has no disclination between races and age.
I would almost find this admirable if it wasn't so awfully disturbing.
I remembered the billowing stacks of thick smoke coming from the row upon row of haphazardly rushed factories on my way to this pavilion.
I memorize with perfect clarity that the Evangelions could not go far from the headquarters because the commander had not the foresight to make the simple adjustment of adding wireless power transmitters to mankind's last hope against the Angels.
How the Angels always had to be met within Tokyo 3's perimeter after an inordinate multitude of important structures and more importantly livelihoods, had been reduced to mush and molten slag because of this short-sighted limitation.
Not to mention the Evangelion's very limited set of attacks besides punches, kicks and bites which made them very predictable and easy for even the animalistic Angels to exploit. Never mind that even my panzer had cannons and mounted guns that could reach a thousand paces and more even without the now widely available radar technology that won Germany Naval Supremacy through its U-boats.
Which meant that a dead Angels residue was flooded across large blocks of streets before the clean-up crew could arrive to do a half assed job for a half-assed wage.
Forget Chernobyl. Put aside the tragedy of Fukashima.
This was the greatest travesty of incompetence.
You didn't want one Angel disturbing your beauty sleep Gendo?
Now you've got a thousand and counting.
How are we ever going to get out of this one? Shinji's gone. Our cannon didn't do jack and Squid girl is having another emotional outburst that I have to attend in spite of my own paralyzing shock.
Great job Gendo. Relying on an Angel to clean up an Angelic mess. Really shows how tough you are.
Squid girl POV
What the kraken is going on?
The inkvasion that was going so smoothly a single wave ago is kraken up in the slap of a tentacle.
It's obviously not the fault of my faultless tank commander who has more than proved his worth many times over. I planned for a huge banquet to be feasted upon in his honour but now this.
How dare these ferocious fishes interrupt our party time.
I only hope squid's are not on their menu and that the odour of the ink I uncontrollably emit when frightened will deter them from me.
Hold me Kaworu. Hold me.
The one bright spot in this sad story are the two special hostages I freed from NERV's main HQ holding cells. Two other creatures of the deep blue sea. Red haired Ponyo with the crimson dress and pink tentacle haired Anemone with the shockingly sexy grey plug suit.
Not clear why NERV captured them. Maybe they just had it out for the sea. Good thing I came to inkvade.
Good to see I'm not the last squid person and that there are more than just squid people left as the fully sapient living beings of the sea.
Me. Ponyo and Anemone.
We are of one mind.
We each believe strongly that the sea must be protected for the continued existence of all life. Not just us and other sea life, but those on land that we cherish with our hearts.
Me. Ponyo and Anemone.
We're two times better than most.
Especially those pathetic landlubbers who never seem to realize the consequences of their stinginess till too late.
Me. Ponyo and Anemone.
With our shared gratitude to the sea for birthing us, we are three of a kind.
Misato POV
"Please child protection services. Please pick up. Please!" I shout into the cellphone with every bit of fervor I can muster up. "I need to report a fatally serious abuse of the premiere EVA pilot under my command Shinji Ikari. I am his major and his legal guardian. Major Misato Katsuragi."
A momentary weakness seizes my chest and one of the Oorai girls has to steady me.
"His abuser's name is Asuka Langely Soryu. She is the second child and also under my legal protection.
She has been beating him to near death and caused him several wounds that have both physically and mentally traumatized him for life. Please..."
A scream and then nothing but static.
The line was dead and so was the call service.
"What the hell is happening!" I incredulously ask, beginning spreading my arms wide only to quickly have to retract them as another wave of agony strikes my heart.
Ow. My heart.
One particular girl walks up to me.
Her short bob hair colour is dyed blue and her very plain nametag bears the title "Ami Mizuno". She is wearing what appears to be a uniform but not an Oorai uniform.
Instead, it consists of an orange sweater and a long, dress like skirt accompanied by blue mary janes and navy stockings.
She is wearing a tie and crisp starched shirt underneath her collared outer layer sweater.
She addresses me with a respectful salute despite my complete lack of honour.
"Major Misato. The very citizens of Tokyo 3 are becoming afflicted by a strain of a virulent plague that is turning them into the very beings' we humans sought to safeguard ourselves from.
Those who are not turned are unable to seek any kind of shelter as their former humans turn on them and kill them without mercy or reason. Some of them are not even eaten but simply abandoned after being killed. It is pandemonium."
Before I can open my mouth to thank her for the news or to pay respects for those affected (the television line was also hijacked), another considerably taller girl barrels into the room, nearly slamming into the wall before she steadies herself in a position just beside "Ami".
This one is very different in both attire and appearance. Her hair reaches all the way down to her waist in the style of a fairy tale princess.
Her outfit however is very serious. A navy constable's cap along with a similarly coloured buttoned yellow uniform and jeans combine to create the ideal representation of a no-nonsense enforcer here on urgent civil duty.
She bears a slightly more decorative tag of yellow showing her shield number, as well as her signature which despite its slight messiness I can read with some difficulty as "Minako Aino".
"We believe that this domestic disturbance was caused by the flagrant disregard to environmental concerns such as the cutting of corners on sewage treatment facilities not directly linking to NERV and SEELE. As well as the use of cost-saving chemicals being added to the diet of Tokyo 3 without proper testing and naturally without their label in the packaging process."
"Minako" adds not once letting one bit of emotion either positive or negative show.
I can tell despite her air of toughness that she is falling to pieces from her occasional shudders.
"The turned humans have (sniff) already eaten my cats Luna and Artemis in one mighty gulp."
A third much higher pitched girl joins the conversation.
I had not noticed her at first with how quietly and passively she slunk in with her hands over her face.
She is far more casual in her dress code. A white hooded jacket and grey tracksuit along with a slightly broken in set of purple-pink trainers.
Like her companions, despite her far less serious outlook she also sports a tag.
I have to slap myself lightly in the forehead to check I read it right.
"Usagi Tsukino."
I give my eyes a forceful rough as she takes her arms from her face to reveal two long tails of a slightly deeper blonde than Minako's attached to her main tuft of hair by two meatball shaped bangs.
"I couldn't find Mako. I've searched her house and I've run myself ragged going all the places I could but with no luck. I'm sorry girls."
The final name among the trio causes my forehead to go briefly read in spite of the seriousness of this tragedy. When NERV started taking control of everything, they cancelled my favourite Anime series and discontinued the manga counterpart to hoard more ink, screen time and printing presses to display their propaganda fake news.
News I swallowed hook line and sinker, fisher man and the bone till Kaji came to lift the blindfold from my arrogant sight.
It made me want revenge on my superiors on this dumb principle alone.
So, the fandom hadn't died out completely after all.
I had always wanted to go to one of the conventions, but always believed that since I was a middle aged major that I'd only be made fun off.
As Walt Disney would put it, there was an age where their imaginations knew no bound.
I was long past that age since the first day I was old enough to chug my first can of beer that got me messed up.
Was it too late to dream that it be brought back on air if only for my sake?
Was God really answering my prayers even if in the most unfortunate of times?
Could this really be happening. Obviously not the dying and the turning into angels but...
"What do we do major?" Ami humbly inquires breaking me from my selfish disregard to reality.
"We have no good leadership. The higher ups higher than you are all scum who can't be trusted as far as they can be thrown and other than you, every other meaningful figure of authority has fled or died. Usagi is too shaken up to lead and obviously I can't do it since I've wasted far too much of my precious time studying and not socializing like I should have been doing. "
"Why not the good officer Minako?" I dare to ask now that I'm certain this is still reality.
"I'm a constable. I investigate and I shoot. If I could do anything else then I would have made sergeant long ago even with how stingy the police department have been getting with their promotions"
The tallest and longest haired of the constables gruffly replies with an upheld palm.
Leadership clearly makes her uneasy beyond discomfort.
"It's your call. Love." Kaji pipes up as he returns bearing my evening meal of my request.
Kale and tomato salad with carrot juice. No alcohol. I made him sweat that if I asked for such to deny it to me. "Ball's in your court."
I take one more glance at the bizarre but comfortingly quaint outfit Kaji got for me from the Anime department.
I spare a glance at one of the Oorai students put in charge of attending me and the beautiful arts and crafts kit she sees the need to carry around.
It naturally contains raven black as its darkest available choice in its palette.
What I was about to suggest was dangerous.
It was risky. One might even call it stupid.
But stupid was giving it credit it did not deserve.
Some would say an idiot would go through with this plan.
That would be an insult.
An insult to all idiots everywhere for even they would refuse it from the first syllable described to them.
But stupid and reckless was exactly how my darling son Shinji survived impossible odds all these years.
Every single one of his manoeuvres had been described with those two exact insults, and he'd racked up the longest streak of the most impressive victories of anyone.
Not just in NERV but throughout the entire military tenure mankind had partaken in.
"Go fetch me the painkillers. Kaji. Get the strongest ones you can find and tell the hospital staff to mark me as cured and discharge me."
I confidently order as Kaji leaps to obey without hesitation.
I turn to my makeshift team of ragtag heroines who have already proven themselves beyond deserving of an excellence grade in my squadron showing the initiative they had today.
"Once the nice man gets back, all of you follow me. I know a secret trove of weapons NERV keeps hidden somewhere in case of emergencies such as this one which I also know they have stupidly decided not to use."
Most of my team listen attentively but the until now most withdrawn member "Usagi" has been eyeing up the outfit I plan to change into after I shed my now very sweaty hospital gown.
She soon snaps to attention as I roll my eyes a little, but soon relent in my annoyance as she returns already holding out a makeshift red nametag.
I begin to think about asking for a pen but I soon find that this is not necessary.
For she has already scrawled in leaky biro the exact characters I would have thought to inscribe anyhow.
The calligraphy is a little poor for she confesses as she hands it over that she couldn't go to school young.
But the overall gist of "Rei Hino" still remains intact enough for me to consider it acceptable to take with a grateful nod.
You think you're hot stuff Asuka but now I'll show you that you really are not.
You think you're the girl on fire who burns everyone and everything to cinders.
Go ahead and dream, you conceited bully.
Soon a lot of things will be scorching up in the most ferocious of hellfire. But I'll be the one fanning those flames.
Shinji. Rei. Mari. If you have even room for one more member in your marvellous fan club that I was so arrogant and uncultured to diss so insipidly.
Please count me in right now. I may not be in position to help you where you are but I'm certain I can still be perfectly useful right here and right now.
I'm not old. I was never old. I still carried good aim in my sight and rapid reflexes in my close quarter brawls. Anymore alcohol and I would have lost those. The carrot juice and salad did wonders for them in the stead of the toxic drug I now kicked.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I acted like a child.
The only thing I had to do to return to those glory days I kept moaning were now long past was to do it again. Shinji, Rei and even their friend Mari understood this and now I did too.
It had nothing to do with not growing up or even selflessness.
It had to with going on an adventure for the sake of adventure and more vitally for fun. The greatest motivation for man to survive.
If NERV wasn't going to give me my anime adventure that kept me from the curse of the bottle, I was going to create my own.
...
It a recurring theme in many films and stories for multiple factions to be constantly warring over who is best at a time when the safety of everyone's lives is on the line. This is done to create added drama.
However, if you look, most disasters in said films are not caused by the main world ending phenomenon itself. It is caused because humanity decided to fragment into multiple factions.
Then the factions fragment as well and soon it becomes every man for himself.
Each faction has different talents and drawbacks. It thus only makes sense that they cooperate as closely as possible to ease each other's weaknesses and ensure the best chance of survival for everyone.
Sometimes the main character refuses to take a much weaker character as their sidekick.
But here is what I have to say to that. 60 + 1 equals 61.
As long as the sidekick is not a burden, they can still be helpful in their own ways.
A samurai cannot go to war without his armour, his weapons, his food and his medicine and friends to encourage him along. So, it takes more than warriors to win a war.
Once again kudos to fictionelement777, neoWarkid4, bandiras, An enemy of the state, Fantasian, Kycosoccerref and every other unnamed guest for your kind and generous reviews.
You are all great people. Thank you for reading and see you all next time and bye. Each review really does help me out so much and bring tears of joy to my eyes.
All of you make me so happy and thankful in a way I cannot describe to you.
