Creation began on 12-02-22
Creation ended on 12-06-22
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Evangelion: Lament
Present day, five years later
It was a mystery that was never taken seriously by the police or anyone else that found out about it. Well, almost so, except for two people that had very little to do with the case at all.
Gendo Ikari, the father of Shinji Ikari, questioned how his son, who he left with his late wife's sister and her husband, could lose the boy like they had. But it was a strange mystery that barely had any punishment for the couple; there was no evidence of foul play, and nothing to indicate that Shinji had been killed by the two. All they got was a slap on the wrist for negligence.
Kozo Fuyutsuki, who barely saw the boy when he was around, had asked for the case file and looked into it himself, seeing nothing that made any sense. If the boy had gone missing from the couple's attic, why were there no signs of a struggle? Even a nine-year-old would struggle against a kidnapper. But there were no signs of kidnapping found in that house; in fact, all that was found in the attic, alongside the various items that were up there for storage, was a speck of blood which forensics said was Shinji's, but because it was only a speck, they deduced that it wasn't from struggle, more than likely an accident. And it made no sense for him to be kidnapped by anyone and no mention of his existence made public.
Most children that were kidnapped were usually by men and women that were in the business of human trafficking and exploitation, sometimes even to return them to their families after a ransom was paid once their families were contacted. But this hadn't been the case with Shinji; there had been no contact from anyone with a ransom demand and no reports from anywhere in the world about a boy from Japan.
Fuyutsuki had even gone as far as to check unidentified corpses of young men, hoping that none of them were Yui's son, only to find that none of them even match the kid.
Where did you go, Shinji? Fuyutsuki wondered as he sat in his small office that was a contrast to Gendo's dark and gloomy office; unlike the leader of NERV, whose office was depressing and adorned with equations and glyphs, Fuyutsuki's office was a regular space with mediocre stacks of paper and basic lighting, nothing out of the ordinary, being almost welcoming to people.
Knock-knock. A knock at his door broke his train of thought and made him sigh.
"Enter," he uttered, and the door opened, letting in a woman in her late-twenties with purple hair, dressed in a red uniform. "Captain Katsuragi."
"An update from the US," the woman, Misato Katsuragi, informed. "The Nevada branch mysteriously returned with Unit-08 intact."
"Any human casualties?"
"More than seven-hundred."
Fuyutsuki sighs in disgust over this revelation. More than five months ago, the Angels that they had been preparing to fight for fifteen years had returned, and within those five months, NERV had been met with issues regarding their personnel. With the Third Angel, it was only the First Child, Rei Ayanami, who was injured in an accident with Unit-00, to pilot Unit-01, and she nearly died as a result of the Angel self-destructing. And when the Second Child and Unit-02 arrived, the situation with the Angels became progressively worse when the Fourth and Fifth Angels showed up in the same week, resulting in the Second Child ending up in a coma due to cranial trauma.
Toji Suzuhara, the Fourth Child chosen to pilot, resigned after learning that his sister died in an attack caused by the Seventh Angel, shortly after Kensuke Aida, the Fifth Child, lost his legs in the Sixth Angel attack when it evolved to come onto land.
"These Evas aren't safe! They're not safe at all! They're just as hazardous as the monsters you built them to fight against! Who the Hell builds giant robots that can only be operated by kids, anyway?! Who was the chickenshit that built these things?!" He had uttered prior to leaving.
"Orders, sir?" Misato asked Fuyutsuki.
"Keep me posted on the situation with the Nevada branch," he responded.
Misato turned to leave, but then turned back to face him, holding an evidence bag.
"There was also this that came today," she informed him. "I was instructed to give it to Commander Ikari, but he's not here. The guy that dropped this off said something about it possibly connecting to an unsolved case."
"Alright, just leave it on my desk, please."
Misato left it on the desk in front of him and then left out the office.
Fuyutsuki looked at the bag and felt the contents inside it. It felt like a block or something. Opening it, he found something unusual and intricate.
"A box?" He questioned, taking it out of the bag and holding it up to illuminate it; it was a bizarre combination of black and brownish gold coloring, with strange markings etched all over its sides. "Why would this be connected to a case?"
It didn't appear to be made of wood or plastic, but rather metal. The markings made no sense in any way he held the box.
Click. Something caused a side of the box to move, and Fuyutsuki wondered if it was damaged.
He moved the section of the box around and it clicked back into place, but the pattern on four sides no longer looked right. It was then that he saw that the box was likely a puzzle box; it had pieces that were movable. What was stranger about it…was how he suddenly felt curious about what could happen if he solved the puzzle aspect of it.
Why would a puzzle box have anything to do with the disappearance of a boy? He wondered as he found a hole in the center of one of its sides, sticking his right index finger into the hole, feeling a circular space inside that felt like a button. What would happen if you're solved?
He pushed the button-like spot, causing the box to expand its top and bottom.
"Oh," he gasped, realizing that he pressed a switch that caused the box to become a new mystery to him. "What is your deal here?"
He twisted the two halves, feeling them click into place and not moving any further.
"Keep your palms away!" He heard a voice as he was about to try and close the halves back together. "Hold the edges only!"
"Huh?" He responded, and them removed his palms from the sides, holding the edges by his fingers. Did I hear someone talking to me?
Snap-click! The box snapped closed…and on the side held by his left hand…was a curved blade.
"Aah!" He gasped, tossing the box away. "What the Hell?!"
He was starting to wonder if this thing was at all connected to Shinji's disappearance…or someone's idea of a sick prank. Getting up from his chair and going over to where he threw the box, he carefully picked it up to examine it. He rummaged through his desk and found a rubber ball and stuck the blade through it; he hoped that by making it so that the blade was obstructed, he could protect others from it when he gave it to Ritsuko Akagi for her to examine.
Who puts a blade inside a puzzle box? He wondered as he vacated his office to look for the head of Project "E".
As he walked down the hall, he never noticed someone watching him.
"That blade," they spoke, "was meant for you. If not you…then another."
To be continued…
A/N: I'll have a poll to decide who will be the first victim of the puzzle box. Fuyutsuki, Misato and perhaps one of my own characters won't be victims. At least not yet. I hope you'll enjoy the results once the poll has been voted upon. Until then, you must endure in order to experience greater delights.