Creation began on 01-12-17
Creation ended on 01-23-17
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Different from You: One Year Later for Hope
Tokyo-3's population and economy reached a standstill during the month of October of Twenty-Fifteen and hadn't gotten any better or worse. It was bad for a lot of businesses, including Tendo's tea shop. But on a brighter note, there hadn't been any further Angel attacks since the last one that nearly blew up the city into an extension of the Pacific Ocean. This, unfortunately, put NERV on constant standby.
-x-
Ring-ring-ring! Tendo's house phone rang, and the elder picked up.
"Hello, Rokubungi residence," he greeted the caller.
"Hello, Tendo," responded a female voice to him. "It's Yui."
"Oh, hey."
Tendo really didn't have much apathy for the wife of his brother like he did with him, but did pity her for her association with him. But even he had his limits and wouldn't cross lines that were laced with deception or betrayal.
"How are things with your tea shop?" She asked him.
"Not many people come for tea, but I thank my employees for their time and service."
"The city's lost a lot of people in the last few months. But things are sure to get better, sooner or later. The film industry has gotten better with their recent films."
"I've seen Godzilla Resurgence three times this week already, and I still don't understand why I prefer the previous film incarnation from two years earlier over the latest incarnation."
There was a short silence between the two before Yui spoke up again.
"Putting the economy aside," she said to him, "the reason I'm calling is because of… I've gone over his medical records again and… I'm sure you know as well as I do that there's no way that Shinji could have survived for over a year due to what happened the previous year."
Ever since her return from wherever she was after a so-called story to explain that she had faked her death because she was threatened, Yui had looked over her son's last recorded medical records at NERV and concluded for herself that the extent of Shinji's Eva-related injuries were more severe than anticipated and would've shortened his life severely to just another year before he succumbed to them.
"Some people manage to beat cancer when they're told they have only a few months and live for three-six years or so," he countered her assumption that Shinji was likely dead. "Only inoperable conditions have severe repercussions on people, such as brain tumors or failing organs that can't be replaced. What makes you think he can't beat the odds against him?"
"Nothing, really. It's just…with the recent discoveries and revelations that relate to the scientific field of longevity and life extension… Only now, everyone's trying to put a price tag on the methods used to improve one's quality of life."
"I wouldn't know, not concerned with my quality of life. I eat well, I exercise regularly… If I'm lucky, I'll die a natural death at age one-hundred-one."
"But…suppose that…by some miracle…that Shinji is still alive…and he were to try to contact you… You would let me know, right? You would…tell me?"
"No, actually," Tendo answered her, needing to be honest with her and himself. "I wouldn't. Not because of a lack of trust, but because of concern for his well-fare and that of his daughter's. After what happened last year with my brother and his willingness to go to extremes, I saw just how much family means to him. It doesn't mean a thing to him. Of course, even if I didn't tell you or anyone else, there's always the chance that I probably wouldn't have to. Any paramilitary agency such as NERV would have resources to deal with trying to find people through other people. I mean, I'm sure you're monitoring all of my calls, have my computer bugged to check for any emails or have my place under surveillance in case I get visitors. But I will tell you this. If Shinji were still alive wherever he is, I hope that it's somewhere far from Japan where he can be free from the violence he found himself surrounded by and he can just be a good father for his little girl whose only real crime was having a criminal for a mother. And I hope he doesn't try to contact me because…as much as I wanted to get to know him and Shado…I wouldn't endanger him by giving up his whereabouts. Just because someone leaves or is let go of…it doesn't mean that anyone else's done with them if they decide they still see a reason to…reassign them."
He heard her sigh and respond, "I am sorry about what my husband has done over the years…and what my own family has done. I am…very sorry."
"I know you are. Me, too."
He hung up and returned to his kitchen table, where he picked up a letter he received in the mail earlier that day. It was a letter that must've confused some people because of the return address being from an island nowhere near Japan…and Tendo didn't know anyone by an American name. Fortunately, nobody went through his mail or probably did a background check.
"Hey, Tendo," the letter read as he silently read it to himself. "We're hoping the weather is at least tolerable in Japan. Here is…well, it's not like anywhere else, that's all I can say. All I should say, really. We think the new tea remedies you had suggested are helping in his recovery. He's never seemed more alive and his little girl has her father who doesn't have that many problems, anymore. He and my little boy get along well, too, so I think we're gonna be alright where we are for now. The language is challenging, but it's not all that different from learning about tea. We do hope to see you again someday when we're ready to come back. We owe you everything for getting us here. May your tea warm your heart on the cold nights…and may we meet again."
Tendo knew the risks of signing with your name and why Rumiko (he recognized her handwriting, having seen it many times) didn't put anyone's name in the letter, but the coding was clear when you looked at the way it was written. He read that Shinji's health had improved because of tea consumption and he was able to take care of his daughter better and he and Toya were able to get along. Chuckling, he was about put the letter away when something else fell out of the envelope that he didn't expect to see.
It was a photograph, taken inside a cave, and there were four people in the shadowed background. Two older kids and two younger kids. Apparently, Shinji and Rumiko took a small risk by taking a picture with their children to send to Tendo so long as there was recognizable place that could be traced. And even in the shadows, the tea shop owner could see that Shinji, despite still having the scars under his eyes and on his cheeks from the previous years, looked more alive than when they first met.
"Heh-heh," he chuckled again, and put the picture and letter away. I hope we do meet again one day, you four. But until then, distance is best.
Hiding the letter and drinking the rest of his tea, Tendo let himself how those kids were doing where they were.
-x-
"…He probably still believes he's alive," said Gendo to Yui in his the former's office; the call to Tendo's home had originated from there.
"If he does believe this," went Fuyutsuki, who was also present when the call was made, "he'll likely keep his distance and not divulge wherever they might've gone to when he left the city last year out of concern for their safety."
"And he's right about how people have been able beat their odds at living longer," added Yui, who confirmed that tea consumption helped to improve one's lifespan.
Although Gendo was obeying the will of SEELE to have no contact with the Third Child, he was trying to find a situation that would enforce the necessity of his son's involvement with NERV against the Angels, who haven't made a move or appearance in Japan since before the Third Child left after the last Angel was defeated. So far, there was no need to bring the boy back unless an attack by the Angels reduced their chances of surviving.
What only a select few knew, however, was that each Angel's presence, their very arrival and downfall…were dependent upon the Third Child being around to pilot the Eva in Japan…and so long as he wasn't in Japan to pilot the Eva, the remaining Angels wouldn't appear, rendering NERV and the Evas virtually unnecessary for mankind's protection. This was something that Yui suspected Shinji also knew and was able to take advantage on by possibly fleeing the nation if he was still alive, keeping the people safe…by simply being away from his point of origin. If he was dead, it was no different than if he were alive.
"Still, we're just assuming a possibility," she enforced, for even she didn't know if Shinji was alive or not.
-x-
The sounds of the waves crashing against the beach were a soothing comfort the sounds of traffic jams and people shouting at other people. There was just something about living by the water that, while inviting a sense of danger, gave a feeling of tranquility. That and the taste of tea most of the time.
"Hmm…" A young man heard a female voice near him mumble as they both stirred from slumber. "Hmm… Did you sleep well again?"
"I…I slept well," the young woman heard him respond as they both got up.
"We should probably sleep in today."
"No, no, we'd be neglecting the kids."
The young man, a fifteen-year-old Shinji Ikari, more alive after he had more time to mend from his injuries and consume much tea over the last few months, got out of his and Rumiko's bed and walked out of their room.
Ever since that night in the Geo-Front, the two teens had pretty much solidified their relationship after the hurt his father inflicted upon her, Shado and Toya to get him under his control. The maternal incest victim helped the paternal rape victim through his recovery…and he helped her through her recovery and rehab after it was discovered that his father grazed a lot of muscle tissue in both her legs when he shot her.
Rumiko, almost sixteen now, hadn't really expected to be in a relationship with Shinji, or with any man that was…for all intents and purposes…not a blood relative or solely interested in her just for her body. Not to mention he was the first romantic relationship she had that was healthy for her. She almost freaked out when she was going through rehab because she feared someone had tried to get in contact with her mother and inform her on where she and Toya were. It took both Shinji and Tendo to calm her down; with her father and brother incarcerated and she and her mother not getting along, all Rumiko had was her son…and a possible endangerment to her life if her mother knew where she was and tried to come see her.
"Good morning, you two," greeted Toya to them as he stepped out of his room.
"Good morning," greeted Shado as she came out of her room, covering her mouth as she yawned. "Will you two be working today?"
Shinji and Rumiko looked at each other and both decided that it was bound to be too nice a day to spend indoors or several hours at a small business.
"…And we both rotate our work hours, so there's no need for both of us to be out and about," Rumiko told Shinji; it hadn't been too long that both of them were able to find some stability between working part time at a tea shop down the street in the small town, picking up on their education every other day and just being parents to their children and exploring where their relationship was going.
"…And it's the day before the weekend," Shinji told Rumiko. "We should spend the day at the beach or something. We live right near it."
"Shinji, it's a tropical island with no large cities," said Toya. "The whole island is one, large beach. We just don't surf."
"We need to be adept at swimming before we even take a chance at surfing," Shado stated, which she and Toya had in common because they never had much of an early opportunity to learn until after they left Japan.
Grumble! The four heard a stomach growling.
"Okay, tropical food is not a good substitute for what we're used to," Rumiko declared. "We need toast and cereal."
"And miso soup," added Shinji, who missed the taste of such a simple dish.
-x-
"…I don't think these Angels will ever appear again," went a frustrated, fourteen-year-old Asuka Langley Soryu to Ryoji Kaji during lunch time in the NERV cafeteria, venting her anger at not having anything to do beyond the synchronization testing and upgrading of Unit-02.
"It could still happen, Asuka," went Kaji to her, though even he wasn't sure if the Angels would return after the last one tried to detonate over the city in an attempt to destroy Unit-01 (or Shinji, more specifically) last year. "The Angels spent fifteen years waiting for their opportunity to strike against mankind a second time, then several weeks at a time, seemingly when we least expect them to."
"But a whole year? That's something I would expect from certain people, but not an Angel. And we can't even find them to make dealing with them easier."
"When you say 'certain people', are you referring to anyone in particular?"
"Yeah, that baby daddy Third Child."
"You know, he had every right to resign. The medical and science personnel all came to the same conclusion that if he got into the Eva once more, the high synchronization would've killed him. And his father crossed lines to get him to pilot the Eva again, even after he was duly informed of what would happen. He actually kidnapped his granddaughter and his son's girlfriend and harmed her, resulting in him getting a bite mark in his neck and two broken ribs by his son and elder brother because they were pissed with his behavior. Even if he were still alive, Commander Ikari would be prohibited from having any access to his son or granddaughter after his indifference towards them. It's a wonder he hasn't been incarcerated yet, because nobody's seen or heard from his son since he, his granddaughter, the girlfriend and her son up and left last year. These are three families that are, more or less, broken and can't be mended."
"Three families?"
"The Ikaris, Rokubungis and Gaidokus. The Ikaris because the son and granddaughter were hurt by relatives and criminals. The Rokubungis because a younger brother shattered his family out of jealousy over a nonexistent favoritism with the elder brother. And the Gaidokus because a father and son manipulated a daughter and then her mother manipulated her after she found out her daughter was pregnant. Broken families that can't be mended."
-x-
Walking down the beach after putting their kids to bed, Shinji and Rumiko just felt the need to be alone and under the night sky after a long day playing in the sand and water. It was mainly Rumiko's idea because she wanted to ask Shinji an important question.
"Say, Shinji," she started, "before we left Japan, you called me your girlfriend after you found Shado and I at that base underground. That was the first time I heard you call me your girlfriend. What made you say that?"
"Well, you were kidnapped by someone I dislike for personal reasons," he explained, actually thinking about why he said what he said when he did what he did. "He was willing to hurt you and Shado, and if anything happened to either of you or even Toya… Even I was surprised when I said it. With the exception of Shado, you're the only older girl I've ever felt comfortable talking to. I don't get tense, I don't feel my daughter being endangered by being near you… And I don't feel like I have to be cautious around you after what happened to me years ago. I actually feel safe around you."
"I feel safe around you, too, Shinji. I feel like Toya's safe around you. You and Tendo. Two men in my life that haven't hurt me or pursued me for other reasons."
Shinji knew what she meant by "other reasons". It was just like with himself. Neither was interested in the other in just a physical way, though both were attracted to each other. The young father thought of her as being beautiful, but in an appreciative way, different from how he thought of Shado as being beautiful, but in an innocent way. While the young mother thought of him as handsome in a caring way, similar to how she thought Toya being handsome in a gentlemanly way.
"How do we move beyond that measure of grief we have difficulty escaping from?" Shinji asked her, meaning what they were supposed to do when and if they had to cross that particular line.
Rumiko raised her arms up and slowly placed them on his shoulders…and tilted his head down to meet hers because he had gotten taller than her over the last eight months. She was probably crossing a different line, but she needed to let him know the extent of her own feelings for him. The young man didn't even hesitate when he felt her lips press against his; it was actually his first kiss in his entire life…and it meant a lot to him. She felt him slowly wrap his arms around her back as he came closer to her.
If only they knew that they were being watched by their children, who had snuck out of their rooms to peep at their parents through the banisters of their porch. It was the first time either child had seen their parents kiss.
"Your mother really likes Daddy, doesn't she?" Shado asked Toya.
"Yeah, she does," he answered her. "I like him, too. You think he really likes Mommy?"
"I don't think he'd be kissing her if he didn't. I don't know who really said it, but I want to believe in it. That love is true, that two people are just meant to be together."
"When love is true, nothing can tear people that care about each other apart."
They watched as their parents separated and resumed their walk down the beach as the waves came and went near their feet.
-x-
"…The UN is considering shutting NERV down within another year," Kaji told Misato on the bridge in Central Dogma.
"Oh, really?" She questioned.
"Yes. I don't blame them, though. It's been, what, over a year-and-a-half now, and no Angel alerts at all. They have their doubts that they'll ever return, that maybe the ones that did show up were the only ones that would."
"Only five Angels? While I'd be grateful for that, I wish I could stand convinced that it's all over. Unfortunately, it just seems…too easy and too early to just throw in the towel just like that."
"Same here, Katsuragi. Same here."
Sitting at one of the consoles in front of them was Ritsuko, who was running another program to update the MAGI with new information (as well as improve its search program to locate the Third Child under Commander Ikari's orders, just for the sake of ascertaining his current whereabouts), who had also heard that the UN was considering shutting the paramilitary agency down due to the lack of Angel activity. She had also been aware of the real reason the Angels had stopped coming and held a minor disgust against Shinji for walking away, even though it was his right to do so, favoring a life with his daughter over the fate of mankind. And she knew it was Commander Ikari's fault for putting his granddaughter and the female teen he had kidnapped to use as leverage against his son. Still, to have to choose between your child and the world, it was a difficult choice for some…but not so difficult for the Third Child when crossed, pressured and driven to keep a promise he made to his child that he would stop if things got too difficult for him to handle.
"…Some of the workers actually thought to go to the tea shop owned by Commander Ikari's elder brother," she heard a male worker below her say to someone else, "but they found out the shop was still closed because the owner left to take some personal time off. This left his employees with free time to relax and catch up on their school work."
"Still, you gotta admire a guy like Tendo Rokubungi for being willing to hire teens and young adults looking to learn something new, even if it's something old," a female worker responded. "My sister has a friend that works there and she says anyone looking to do something good with their usually find tea to be a good first step in the right direction. I heard that one of the men that work there has a record and is now just looking to keep out of trouble. It's being hoped that it'll open back up in about another week."
"Any guesses on why the owner decided to take a vacation?" Another female worker asked.
"One belief is to find a new strain of plant that could be used to make tea," the male worker answered, "while another is just to attend an event out of the country."
Ritsuko decided to look into this…just for the sake of knowing the whereabouts of Commander Ikari's elder brother.
-x-
It was just a small commitment ceremony. Not exactly a wedding until they were both much older, but still, Tendo didn't want to miss it after receiving another well-masked letter from Shinji and Rumiko inviting him. He had hopes for the two teen parents' relationship, wanting to believe that they could make it work out for the long run. Plus, he missed them after seeing their picture and seeing that his nephew was progressing well in his recovery from all that tea consumption he'd been doing.
"Were you nervous about today?" He asked Rumiko, seeing her standing by the banister of the front of the porch whilst watching Shinji playing with Shado and Toya.
"Very," she answered him as he came to join her. "But if I can survive a commitment ceremony, then I'm sure to survive the real thing when we're older. How are things with the tea shop?"
"Business is smaller than it was last year, but I still see people come and go for tea and pastries. I couldn't ask for more."
As they watched Shinji get pushed to the ground by a wave, Shado laughed at how her father got partially soaked.
"You know, if what Shinji believes to be true," she told Tendo, reminding him what her future husband informed them of last year, "then all we have to do is wait another year-and-a-half before we can come back to Japan."
"I've not forgotten," he assured her, "but it's a huge gamble, though. Two-Thousand-Fifteen and Two-Thousand-Sixteen being the period where all this insanity we found ourselves where unforgivable things happen just to satisfy a few madmen. But if it's true, and those two years are when this craziness occurs…then the years that follow Two-Thousand-Sixteen will be the years we can expect for things to no longer be a problem."
"Imagine it if it were true, though. No more giant monsters, no more end of the world. Just people going on without much fear of the unknown. And all we have to do…is keep Shinji away from Japan until that bad time passes, then his parents can't exploit him, anymore. I hold onto that hope."
"Same here, Rumiko," he told her; if it was true, and they could all come back after all this time away, they would both be free from what tied them to the past.
Shinji would be able to walk away from the cruel destiny his parents tried to force on him that was to decide the fate of everyone on the planet (something Tendo couldn't help but feel was the craziest of expectations any parent could have for their child)…and Rumiko would at least be of age where she didn't have to put up with her mother any longer because she would be old enough to officially live on her own and keep her son away from her. All he could do was hope that would all happen in the months to follow.
"Say, Rumiko," he uttered to the young woman as she looked down at the small ring on her finger that Shinji got her two weeks ago. "I'm thinking of stepping down as the owner of the tea shop in a few years."
"Really?" She asked him, concerned. "But why?"
"I guess it's just a sign of old age," he confessed. "Maybe seven years from now. But when that does happen, I'm hoping that someone else would care to run the shop when I do step down. Do you think you and Shinji would be interested in it?"
Rumiko smiled and responded, "I'll ask Shinji what he thinks about it. Seven years is a long time. Many things can happen from now into the next day. But I'm sure he'd be interested. It's a simple life. Nothing means more to the both of than a simple life for our family."
"Yeah. The simple life."
They then looked at Shinji as he and the kids came back from the beach, both toddlers on the young man's back.
"Hey, you two!" Rumiko raised her voice. "You know he's not strong enough to carry the both of you yet! Why are you tormenting him?"
"It's okay," Shinji told her as he stepped onto the porch and let Shado and Toya down and catch his breath. "It was my idea. My chest and shoulders have healed up well, so carrying people isn't much of a problem, anymore."
Rumiko came over and dropped to her knees and hugged Shinji.
"My knight in shining armor," she called him.
"Please, you two," Shado kindly pleaded as she wrung her hair of water onto the wooden floorboards. "Get a room for that."
"Uh, yes, please," added Toya afterward. "Get a room."
The teens looked up at Tendo with some degree of accusation. All the elder did was wave his hands and shook his head in the negative; he didn't want to get involved in this petty nonsense, no matter how trivial and humorous it might've been.
-x-
"…We have to consider the possibility that the Third Child is alive out there somewhere," said Ritsuko to Gendo and Fuyutsuki in the former's office.
"If he's alive, he's staying away from the city," went Fuyutsuki. "Maybe even the whole country if he claims to be aware of what's going on."
"If he knows what's going, then he also knows we're critical of time here," Gendo stated.
The three were aware of the scenario that Gendo had that required the boy to be around NERV from at least the summer of Twenty-Fifteen to Twenty-Sixteen, when the Angels would be around and then the Instrumentality Project could take place afterward. But if the Third Child knew, then he was purposely keeping away until that time passed and their window of opportunity was no longer accessible. All they had now were a few months until Twenty-Seventeen, and nothing in the Dead Sea Scrolls stated anything about the years following Twenty-Sixteen, which meant that there was, quite possibly, nothing in store for mankind that dealt with either the Angels or Human Instrumentality, not even a prophesied Third Impact. Mankind would be in a virtual dead-end for all eternity, and all because of a damaged boy that couldn't follow orders.
But Fuyutsuki was considering being relieved because of Shinji's unwillingness to do as instructed or follow his father's orders, regardless of what the future brought in the next few months. Ever since he showed up with his daughter, he felt nothing but sympathy for the young man that just wanted to protect his daughter from harm and keep her close. And then, there were the young girl he met over a year ago and her son…and how Gendo treated all four with the aim of manipulating his son to get back into the Eva, knowing it would kill him. He and Gendo could barely be in the same room for more than an hour after turning the commander in for his unlawful actions against his son and granddaughter and their friends.
Ritsuko, on the other hand, was left at a standstill with this discovery. If everything continued to go the way they were going, then everything they did would be for naught. NERV would no longer be necessary, and neither would the MAGI. The Third Child would put them out of a job with his absence.
"I recommend we bring in the tea shop owner and interrogate him for the location of the Third Child," she suggested.
"The chances of him telling us anything are slim, Dr. Akagi," Fuyutsuki informed her; he respected Tendo Rokubungi and didn't want to cross him for as long as they both might live in their respective old ages. "Plus, we have no authority to question a simple tea shop owner."
This meant that NERV was under orders from SEELE to not bother with Tendo after learning he and Gendo were estranged brothers and that there was bad blood between the two. Even if Tendo knew something, messing with a tea shop owner that was going to bite the dust sooner or later was not worth the hassle.
Gendo was silent throughout the bickering. He had lost all control over the situation, and had no means to rectify it.
-x-
Burst! Shinji, now adept at swimming, surfaced in the ocean water after spending nearly seven minutes underwater, being timed by Rumiko.
"That was good!" Rumiko shouted as he swam back to the beach with a small wave. "Six minutes and fifteen seconds."
Then, they both looked down at his chest, which no longer looked so different from a regular teen's chest that had recovered remarkably from the scarring and left only a faded discoloration that would've healed up with more time and tea consumption. Even the awful, star-shaped scar that was originally there had faded almost to nothing. It was something Shinji was most relieved about; he didn't feel much shame and the need to cover up.
Their children, several feet from the water, building sandcastle sculptures and a trench to bring in water from the ocean waves every now and then.
"How long until you think he's all better?" Toya asked Shado, building another castle structure with a pale.
"Maybe several more weeks," she answered him. "You can't rush healing any faster than possible. You can't heal a broken leg unless you let the bones set first. The same applies to old scars like Daddy's. He can only heal at a steady pace."
Toya looked at their parents and how Shinji placed his arms on his chest and smiled.
"…I'll watch Shado and Toya at the tea shop tomorrow while you're at school," he heard Shinji say to his mother, who then kissed him on his lips.
"Eh-heh-heh," Toya chuckled.
"Whoa!" The children heard their parents gasp, seeing them get washed to the ground by a large wave. "Aw, come on!"
"Eh-heh-heh!" They snickered at their soaked parents.
-x-
Tendo found it odd that Ms. Katsuragi, once he returned from his time away from Japan to open the tea shop, would visit the shop and stay until closing time, and order three different types of tea. When the last of his employees signed out for the day, he approached the purple-haired woman.
"I take it you're not here for just the tea, Ms. Katsuragi," he told her. "What brings you here?"
"I needed to ask you something personal," she responded. "Something that only you would know, being a personal person."
Gathering her empty tea cups, Tendo uttered, "I'm pretty sure whatever questions you have for me are impossible to answer due to the personal boundaries surrounding. My relationship with Gendo is permanently strained because of what he did to our family over twenty years ago. I had a wife and daughter that didn't survive Second Impact. The thought of getting married a second time never came across my mind. What is left to tell?"
"Do you think your nephew is still alive?" She asked him.
"Why ask me that?"
"Because I'm not sure what to believe. I know that NERV crossed many lines by forcing the boy into a situation he had no understanding of…and we didn't know he had a child until after she raised her voice out of concern for him."
"Blame the people that don't do what they're supposed to do when they have children of their own. Blame the ones that don't review all the information there should be available on someone. Knowledge isn't power, it's a tool to help us when we need it. It grants freedom to those in need of guidance. If it's kept from others, if it's manipulated for reasons immoral, then it serves no other purpose than to prove one's cruelty."
Misato was then reminded that Gendo was likely the very reason that NERV had lacked many details surrounding Shinji and absolutely no details surrounding his daughter until after the fact, after the Angel battle. And even then, it seemed like the lack of information had been manipulated, like they weren't supposed to know anything about them, that the boy had been kidnapped for ransom, that one of his kidnappers raped him and later had his child in prison before dying, almost similar to the absolute lack of knowledge on the First Child, Rei Ayanami. Even to this very day, Misato didn't know anything about the albino, blue-haired girl like she did Asuka, the only child whose file NERV had that wasn't lacking.
"…I just believe that he's somewhere far from here and trying to enjoy life with his daughter," Tendo told her. "If it means staying away from his parents and others, then it must be a tolerable life where he can…be healthy."
"You make it seem like a terrible thing to be near his mother."
"I won't comment on that."
"Hey, we all have our issues with our parents."
"One of them…or both of them?"
"It depends on the person with the issues."
"Well said."
Misato then took out her wallet and threw down some yen, paying for her tea.
"The jasmine and ginger tea were great, by the way," she explained to him as she got up. "I may have to quit drinking."
"If you wish to live a long life, you should," he told her. "Alcoholism leads to liver and kidney failure if done in the long term."
"Ugh," she shuddered, now picturing herself in a hospital bed hooked to machines in order to stay alive. "Have a nice night."
-x-
Shinji awoke in the silence of the night and found himself unable to bear looking up at the wooden ceiling above him and Rumiko. He moved to get out of the bed and stepped out of their room to go to the kitchen for a cup of milk.
"Can't sleep, either?" He heard Shado ask him, seeing her sitting at the countertop with a cup of milk in front of her.
"I woke up from an old dream I had a long time ago," he told her, taking the carton of milk out of the refrigerator and pouring himself a cup as he sat beside her. "What got you up?"
"A recent dream I had," she explained to him her reason for being up so late at night.
"Oh? What was it about?"
"I saw you…or I saw someone like you. A little boy with a sword. You were facing a lady that wasn't very nice to anyone…and you were being supported by several people to do something about the lady. And there was something being said several times by everyone. They kept saying, "There can be only one". It seemed like a sort of battle between good and bad…and you were the side of good…only little."
"A little boy like me, with a sword, facing an unfriendly lady? That seems like a cool dream, Shado. What happened in the end?"
"That's what got me up a while ago. I woke up just as you and the lady were about to face off. I didn't see who was likely to be the winner or how the battle ended. But I was hoping for you to be the victor. There was another lady in the dream that seemed to like you a lot called you something that seemed to fit, but I don't know what it means. She called you Little Ronin. What is a ronin?"
Shinji recalled an earlier time in the past, from before they went to Tokyo-3, where she asked him something one of their relatives had called her that she heard once. His daughter asked what a bastard was, not knowing yet that the word referred to her status as the child of an unmarried pair because her mother, or rather, the woman that carried her for eight-nine months before dying, had harmed her father. But it was a child's nature to be curious and want to know the meaning behind certain words, something he couldn't fault her for.
"A ronin is what you call a samurai or a swordsman that wanders around without a master to serve," he answered her. "A samurai without a master, devoted only to their sword."
"I kinda like the designation in the dream I had," she said after a short while to think about the revelation of the word's meaning. "And you seemed very calm. Hey, we're ronin ourselves, aren't we?"
"Yeah, Shado," he realized after she asked him. "Yeah, we are ronin."
Or rather, Shinji and Rumiko were ronin; they both didn't listen to their parents or guardians…and were disinterested in reconciling with them due to personal pain.
"Daddy…you're going to be alright now, right?" Shado asked her father.
Her question came from a place of devotion and concern.
"We'll know for certain in about another week," he told her; Shinji had a private doctor that kept his identity confidential to keep anyone looking for them from finding them, and also to confirm for themselves that Shinji was recovering from his Eva-related injuries and would be able to live a full life, whether or not he stuck to his current diet of tea consumption. "Until then, I'll say this to my baby girl. I'm doing my best not to go anywhere I know I shouldn't just yet."
Shado smiled and finished her milk.
"This little ronin is going back to bed now," she told him, getting up and putting her cup in the sink. "Good night."
"Good night. I love you." He told her, still drinking his cup.
He thought of his own dream he woke up from earlier. In his dream, he saw himself, looking at a large city that seemed desolate, standing beside a white horse with a horn on its head. The strangest thing was how he looked in the dream: He was dressed in a variation of traditional Japanese attire, something like a hakama comprised of black pants and a coat with a white undershirt, as though he were attending a funeral, but had several weapons on him that made him seem like a strange sort of thug. A shotgun on his back, two pistols at his waist and a bandolier of shotgun shells and some spiked knuckles on his hands, the person he saw in his dream had to be a force to be reckoned with if crossed.
I wouldn't mind being a little bit tougher, but not a killer, he thought, the last thing he saw in his dream before waking up was the guy that resembled him in the company of a little girl he had never seen before, looking like she was Japanese, but her hair was blond.
-x-
"…It would seem that what we have planned for all these years has been for naught," went SEELE 01 to the other council members during their next meeting to discuss the lack of time to achieve their grand design.
"The Human Instrumentality Project is impossible to implement without the destruction of the remaining Angels," said SEELE 06, "and their arrival was dependent upon the presence of the Third Child, whom we cannot locate anywhere."
"Even if he hadn't piloted an Evangelion again, his presence alone would have attracted the Angels to Tokyo-3," added SEELE 10. "This is all Ikari's fault. He crossed lines, withheld information vital to our agenda, all to manipulate his son, which failed when things got out of hand with the dangers of using the Eva with zero guarantees of it being safe to use long-term."
"Only because it had never been thoroughly tested to work with a male subject like it had been with female subjects," went SEELE 03. "Since the Third Child abandoned NERV, there have been no further attempts to use boy pilots to operate the Evas."
"And the Dummy System was never implemented due to the lack of research done on the synchronization testing between the Third Child and the other two pilots," added SEELE 12. "Everything has been either postponed or delayed beyond our capacity to achieve. Even by some miracle we were able to resolve these problems, only the years Twenty-Fifteen and Twenty-Sixteen were our window of opportunity to make our goal a reality. We cannot achieve such with only two months left out of this year."
"What can we do?" SEELE 02 asked.
"We've done all we can," responded SEELE 01 in a defeated tone. "Disband NERV. Shut down the Evangelion Project and all other projects relating to it."
-x-
"…The UN is finally shutting NERV down?" Misato asked Kaji.
"I just found out myself," he responded as he sat down in the cafeteria to eat. "They don't believe the Angels will return and see no further point in funding NERV and the Evangelions."
"We're basically out of a job because of the lack of Angel activity."
"Yeah. Honestly, though, many are feeling relieved, that what happened sixteen years ago is finally over. Not everyone wanted to deal with the Angels for the rest of their lives…except for Asuka, perhaps."
"She's going to be upset when they shut down Unit-02."
But the worst part of this for Kaji was that with NERV being disbanded, he wouldn't be able to get closer to his personal adjective to discover the truth behind what caused Second Impact and why a lot of people were killed in the process. Even with the lack of Angel activity after in the weeks following Shinji's resignation, the furthest he was able to get were the discovery of the creature that he believed to be Adam hidden down in Terminal Dogma and salvaged records of the Katsuragi Expedition in the Antarctic. And now, he was likely to never get the full truth.
-x-
Adam, once an almighty behemoth from which the Evas take their physical appearance, the source of life for the Angels and rival and equal to Lilith, was more or less useless now with the time wasted by the lack of the remaining Angels appearing. He had deteriorated into pulp in the last few days. And this left Gendo even more displeased with the fact that his original scenario was now impossible to achieve; even if Yui had returned some time after Shinji left, there was still the chance that she could be taken from him a second time, and wanted to achieve Instrumentality to prevent that from ever happening to him again.
"With Adam no more, there's no reason for the remaining Angels to bother with us," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo, looking down at the case where Adam's remains resided.
Even Yui's Adam Project, which designed the Evas themselves, had been dependent upon Adam more so than it had been on Lilith (who hadn't deteriorated just yet), since purely mechanical constructs paled in comparison to the cybernetic organisms the Evas represented.
"There's no way to move forward now," went Yui, who was also present in Gendo's office.
-x-
When Rumiko went to the mailbox and took out the mail present for the day, she found a letter addressed to the alias Shinji used from the doctor's office. This was most likely the letter that she and Shinji had been anticipating for a long time. Sighing, she rushed back to the house and found Shinji sitting at the kitchen table, eating a grilled cheese sandwich.
"Shinji, it looks like your letter has finally arrived," she told him, sitting across the table from him and placed the letter in front of him.
The young man set his sandwich down and picked the letter up.
"Here's to hope," he uttered, opening the envelope and pulling the folded piece of paper out. "Oh, boy."
Rumiko watched him unfold it, hoping that her love interest could enjoy life without having a troublesome chain attached to him. She believed in him doing right by all of them, that his will to just be there for his daughter, Toya and herself would suffice for the unwritten future yet to transpire for them. A short moment came and went as he read it, leaving the young woman mentally grasping at straws as the suspense was pounding at her heart. And then she watched him set the letter down.
"Well, Shinji?" She asked him, worried.
He slid the letter over to her and expressed, "Apart from just another month of tea consumption…I can expect to live a full life with all of you."
She looked at his results…and smiled at his clean bill of health.
"I'm gonna go check on the kids now," she told him, wiping a tear from her left eye.
"Rumiko," he stopped her for a moment.
"Yes?"
"I love you."
It wasn't everyday any girl like her heard those words from a man that loved her. Really loved her and not for selfish or depraved reasons. She smiled again and him.
"I love you, too," she told him.
-x-
"…So, Asuka," went Misato to the redhead as they stood beside the gate to the latter's flight back to Germany, "what will you do?"
"That's the thing of it," the girl responded. "I have no idea what to do."
With NERV getting disbanded, Asuka was infuriated to know that Unit-02 would be placed in storage to gather dust. Throughout her entire life, she had been enforced to devote herself to the Eva, and now she had to find something else to pass the time.
"Well, you're still young, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to find your future career," Misato assured her.
"What of you and First?"
Misato would likely transfer to a military branch far from Tokyo-3…while Rei would…just continue her schooling until she graduated.
"Who knows?" She responded.
-x-
It was funny how Ritsuko seemed cut loose from her mother's successful MAGI. She just shut it down, and already she was ready to leave NERV to pursue other interests. At least she wouldn't have to see Rei's face again if there was nothing scientific to achieve.
"…See you around," she heard Maya say to her co-workers as they left Central Dogma.
-x-
"…Ugh, that bad man is going to hurt a lot of people," went Toya as he responded to his mother's expressing of some guy running for president.
"At least we don't believe in him or political parties," said Shinji as all four of them sat down for lunch. "If this former First Lady doesn't win, we can always hope for a short run since this guy isn't very popular with the majority of the nation. Rumiko?"
"I want to believe in a little bit of girl power, but then I'd have to hope for someone to dig up dirt on this guy that's actually true," Rumiko told him as she set down Shado's bowl of miso soup. "Nothing hurts a person's chances at success more than their dishonesty."
"What is dishonesty?" Shado asked.
"It's when a person or people lie about things instead of telling the truth," Toya answered her. "Except certain people tend to get away with dishonesty rather than honesty sometimes."
"Only if others let them get away with it," Shinji explained, taking a bite out of a dumpling.
"May the lady win," said Rumiko.
"To the lady," the other three agreed.
-x-
Rei Ayanami looked at the dismembered remains of the former Dummy System, suspecting that Dr. Akagi had a hand in this devastation before she left the Geo-Front. She was one of the few people left down at NERV HQ that had yet to leave, and she was among the rare few that had no other purpose than what she had initially been intended for before the Third Child abandoned them all. With no Angels, there was no longer a need for the Evas, and without the need for the Evas, there was no longer a need for her. The girl was at a loss for what to do with the rest of her life deprived of purpose.
"Rei…" She heard Commander Ikari behind her and turned to face him. "I knew I'd find you down here."
She walked over to him and stopped two feet in front of him.
"We'll be relocating to Fukuoka in a week," he told her.
Rei didn't say anything, but it was understood that Commander Ikari and his wife would be taking her with them when they left.
-x-
It was a new year…and Shinji Ikari, for all intents and purposes, felt that he was finally free of the cruel destiny his parents tried to manipulate him into fulfilling against the world. Twenty-Seventeen, a clean slate for everyone to move on. No more Angels to face, no more Evas to pilot, no more lies and arrogant behavior to hide a darker agenda. And the USA had their first female president to lead them over a guy that seemed completely ill-suited for the important duty to serve the people.
Standing out on the front porch of their house, the young man caught the first glimpse of the rising sun with his girlfriend and their children.
"So beautiful," said Toya, covering his eyes from the full sight of the hot star.
"Ah," went Shado, glad she had washed her eyes out before stepping onto the porch and sitting on the banister. "The brightest I've ever seen."
"The brightest any of us have seen," claimed Rumiko.
Shinji chuckled as he leaned on the banister left of Shado.
-x-
Three years later
As Tendo felt weak in his knees and sat down, he thought back to the three years after the end of Twenty-Sixteen that the business got back to booming for the tea shop. Yet, he still felt the shop was understaffed because a lot of people came in for tea and pastries after they got wind of some new flavors. Even with the minor expansion by building a second tea shop just further down the street from the primary shop and being able to afford more staff, the elderly man still felt outnumbered. And a depressing factor of the customers was that the majority of them were adults and rarely any of them had any children with them; rarely any people had children these days.
"…What can I get you?" One of his female workers asked someone he wasn't looking at.
"Uh, one jasmine, two ginger and one ginseng, please," responded a man's voice, which sounded familiar to the elder. "And four muffins, please."
"I don't think this place has ever been so lively with customers," a second female voice uttered.
"After the uptick in beverage sales and filming, Tokyo-3 has changed drastically over the last two-and-a-half-years," the female worker explained. "Even though we added coffee to our beverage options, people love tea more. We're overwhelmed by the supply and demand for tea."
"Whatever happened to Tendo? Tendo Rokubungi? The elder that started the tea shop?"
"He's been managing, but now he's barely getting around."
Tendo sighed and picked up his cup of tea.
"Why do you ask?" The worker asked.
"My mother was hoping to get rehired by him after having to leave a few years ago," a little boy's voice expressed, to which Tendo turned his head to face the source, seeing a little boy…and a little girl…and two young adults that were definitely familiar to him. "He had saved her from making a bad choice when she left home a long time ago."
The little girl, sporting longer ebony hair that was tied into a ponytail, looked up at Tendo and uttered, "He looked like you do, sir."
The other three looked at him.
"Rumiko?" He asked the young woman.
"Tendo?" She responded.
"It's been a long time. I didn't think I'd see you or Toya again."
"What about us two?" The girl, Shado, asked, referring to herself and Shinji.
"Heh-heh. Look at you four. Look at you, Shinji. You're…you're so enduring."
"A lot of tea, a lot of time away to recover…and a will to stay with loved ones goes a long way," the man, Shinji, explained his full recovery. "But what of you? How have you been?"
"I've missed each of you. I kept hoping you'd come back one day. I'm glad you did."
"I'm glad we came back, too. Is there any chance you're hiring?"
"What happened to that other tea shop?"
"We were let go of," said Rumiko, still bitter about the reason they were let go of.
"But I thought you two were doing well over there."
"That's the thing. We were doing just fine. It was the managers that were doing wrong. Who continues to commingle funds? Nobody commingles funds, anymore…except perhaps those that try to."
"Everyone was let go of," Shinji revealed, much to both his and Rumiko's embarrassment and disappointment. "I got my degrees in home economics and culinary arts and Rumiko got her degrees in economics and agriculture."
"We both have our successes," Rumiko sighed.
"Eh-heh-heh," Tendo chuckled. "Shinji, I would hire…but Rumiko was never fired or resigned from here. She still has her job."
"Really?" Rumiko questioned. "I… Thank you, Tendo."
"Don't mention it."
-x-
Epilogue
The cemetery used to be so desolate, like a giant desert or scar that held not so much as a weed, but that was long ago. It was now carpeted with grass and flowers, with a few years worth of snow that had returned turning the obsidian grave markers grayish and like marble stone. Standing in front of one such grave marker was a man in his late-thirties, holding a bouquet of flowers, accompanied by a woman in her early-forties, holding his right hand.
"A lot has changed in Tokyo-3," the man said in front of the grave. "The government actually reopened the Geo-Front after so many years, but for the purpose of trying ways to recreate the Antarctic and reclaim the coastal areas of the world."
"Some people that work down there have actually employed evaporation techniques and artificial lunar gravity to actually push and pull the waters…with some success," added the woman as she let go of the man's hand so that he could place down the bouquet in front of the grave. "Our kids are still arguing over what they will be when they grow up, but something tells us that Shado is going to win the argument with being a people doctor."
The man, Shinji, turned to face her and chuckled.
"Pediatrician, Rumiko," he corrected her. "Still, there is nothing wrong with research into renewable energy sources. We no longer need nuclear power plants after the creation of plasma energy plants to replace them. And we're cleaning up the ocean of the garbage from years of buildup, too. People are actually trying to leave behind a better world for everyone."
The grave they were in front of was Tendo's; it was three years ago that the estranged brother of Gendo Ikari had succumbed to natural causes, triggered by an unexpected heart attack. Both Shinji and Rumiko were devastated by his death; he was the first adult they felt they could trust and was the first person that had any belief in their being victims of others and had every right to a good life, no matter who disagreed with them. But with Rumiko, it was like losing the closest thing she had to an unrelated, sympathetic grandfather who saved her life. With Shinji, it was losing an uncle that really cared, never put him or his daughter down or anything.
"Rumiko and I… We're considering building a third shop because everyone's tea-crazy these days," Shinji told the grave; before they got married, Tendo left his nephew and employee the tea business, entrusting it to them. "And there's something else we wanted to tell you. Uh, Rumiko?"
Rumiko carefully lowered to her knees onto the soft grass and placed her left hand on the grave marker, sighing.
"Shinji and I are having a child together soon," she said to the grave, then chuckled.
Both parents were nervous…and worried. Mostly because Rumiko, just like Shinji in the beginning, had been bothered by the fact that they did it only three times after getting used to being that intimate with her husband. While Shinji just wanted for there to not be any jealousy between Shado, Toya and the new baby, even though they were older and knew they weren't being replaced.
"What do you think it'll be like?" Shinji asked Rumiko, wanting her opinion about the baby's future. "Rumiko?"
"What do I think? Well, I think if I know the men and women in my family, the baby will be a great person, just like their father." She answered him.
"Thank you."
As they stood back up in front of Tendo's grave, they bowed their heads in respect to their deceased elder and turned to leave the overgrown cemetery.
Shinji turned his head to the left of a bunch of the graves…and thought he saw a woman standing in front of some. She had a pageboy hairstyle and…at first seemed familiar, like he had seen her from somewhere before.
"Shinji?" Rumiko got his attention, turning his head to face her. "Is something wrong?"
He turned back to look at the woman, but she was gone.
"No," he responded, turning back to face her. "Just old memories."
"You're sure?"
Seeing nobody else nearby in the cemetery with them, Shinji nodded in the positive.
"Just thought I saw a ghost from my past," he explained. "A woman that left me before her husband did for a future I didn't believe in."
Rumiko knew her husband was referring to his mother, Yui Ikari, whom she couldn't help but feel pity and disgust at for leaving her son alone just to serve as a meaningless soul for the cybernetic monster she and her husband forced him to pilot against other monsters just to ensure two different futures that were as cruel as any of their other relatives before they had their children were to them. If anything, she felt that Yui was in a similar boat to her own mother, forcing Shinji to suffer like how her mother forced her have Toya just so that there was another man in their family. Her husband confided in her about everything he recalled and discovered from his damaged past and how much it affected him to want to keep from following in the cruel destiny they had outlined for him.
There were times during her rehab to walk properly again where she could hear him cry at night, and she would have to use crutches to carry herself to his side of the room just to hold him like she would Toya whenever he cried at night. These were the times where she had to remember that Shinji, despite his maturity, despite his concerns for his daughter's well-being, was still a boy that had, in many respects, lost his mother and couldn't connect with her.
She gave him a small smile and hugged him.
"Come on," she suggested to him, gently pulling him her way. "We still have four hours before our kids come home. That can be time spent either serving tea at the shop…or having fun someplace fun-related."
As they walked away, they were being watched by the same woman that Shinji saw, who merely hid behind a tree that had grown over the years in the cemetery after vegetation started to sprout and spread across it. If they had stayed to wander, they would've noticed that it was Yui Ikari, unchanged since the day of her return, cursed to walk the Earth until all of mankind was gone, as a literal testament of their existence.
At least he's happy, she thought, having discovered that her son was still alive, and now he was more alive than he had been when he was a toddler. And with a family of his own.
She could've made an attempt to try to get near him, to talk to him, but she chose not to. If he was happy with the way things were, then that was that, even if she felt they were all wrong; there would always be times where children would disagree with their parents, and they were no exception to that belief.
Standing in front of the graves of her losses, Yui wasn't sure if this was her punishment for leaving her son or a twisted variation of her original intention, to live as eternal proof of mankind's existence, and was just being shown by the higher powers that be what was in store for her until the end of existence. In the years following her return, she had lost her husband to a car accident, her former mentor to natural causes brought on by his advancing age, and her surrogate daughter to a mysterious sickness brought on by her hybrid nature as a human/Lilith organism. And perhaps, when she thought about the depths of how far she had been willing to go with the Adam Project before it was shut down with everything else NERV and SEELE had been doing, a little bit of her own sanity. And if this was her punishment by the very deities themselves, then she knew she deserved it all.
"All of this for a bright future for all of mankind," she heard someone say behind her, and turned to face them.
It was Shinji…and his wife, who had decided to make sure what her husband saw was a ghost.
"It could've been great," she claimed to him.
"No, it wouldn't," went Rumiko to her. "Say it did happen? Say you managed to pull it off? What would the outcome be? How would it affect everyone? I keep having nightmares where the world is empty, all save a few people. Mostly just children that don't know what happened around them. I see one of them is my son, and he can't find me anywhere. How do you know that wouldn't have happened?"
"Another possible outcome is that the world doesn't change," Shinji told her. "The world doesn't change…but everyone that exists in it gets removed for a time, only to come back with absolutely no memory of anything before they were taken. No memories of loss, of joy, not even of people that matter to them. Just…nothingness. You can't guarantee that wouldn't have happened, either, or that the world would've just turned into a barren wasteland if I had stayed all those years ago. You were playing a dangerous game where not everything was guaranteed to go your way. I found out without even wanting to, and did what I did to stop being a part of that game. When you're caught between one dangerous choice and another dangerous choice, a rock and a hard place, that is, you either choose the lesser of the two evils…or you walk away and hope nothing really happens if you do."
"And nothing really did happen…and won't happen," Yui responded. "Fate was intended to change everything in Twenty-Fifteen and Twenty-Sixteen. When you left, you prevented every alternative outcome from happening. The Angels stopped coming…and won't ever be seen again. Your absence shut down an entire paramilitary agency tasked with defending the world…and all you did was walk away,"
"I had to keep a promise I made to my daughter when I turned away. If things got bad, no matter what everyone said, I was done with NERV. Well, things got bad…and I was done. And look at the way things have changed because of a different choice made. Things are getting better now."
"Maybe not the way you or your husband had intended," Rumiko expressed, "but at least we can find happiness in this life now."
And Yui believed her son's wife. They had found happiness together, even if it meant throwing away an ideal plan that had been made before their time and had required the suffering of countless lives in the beginning. And in a world that was slowly-but-surely rebuilding itself from the brink of ruination.
"And we get to see our children smile all the time," Shinji told her, and then the two turned to leave, but Shinji stopped to turn back at her. "For a very long time after that day we left Japan, I've hated the both of you for what you did and tried to do. Even after the years you intended to be the deciding fate of everyone's future, whether they agreed with your ideals or not, had come and gone, I tried to find a reason to continue hating you afterwards. But I can't go to my grave in the future while continuing to hate you…because I'd be damaging my relationships with my own family as time goes on. So I'll just say what needs to be said. As much…as I resent you for trying to use me in the beginning…I forgive you for your transgressions, Mother."
It sounded like it was hard for him to say those words, but Yui felt that he had to so that he wasn't weighed down by further emotional baggage. Even when nothing went the way they were supposed to go, he had at least forgiven her.
When she bowed her head to him, he turned and left with Rumiko, leaving her alone with her losses. Her losses, not his losses.
"How do you feel now?" Rumiko asked him.
"Released from all that hatred I kept buried," he answered her. "Was it wrong of me to forgive her for her wrongs?"
"No, Shinji," she told him, meaning every word. "You weren't wrong. I just wish it was easy for me to forgive my parents and brother for their wrongs. But…some things are better left unsaid and undone."
"Maybe one day, Rumiko. Just hold onto hope. There's still time before Shado and Toya get out of school. Shall we go home and watch a film?"
"Yeah. Or…we could just…go back to bed."
"Really? And I thought we both agreed that we were uncomfortable with that part of our lives."
"I guess some habits really do die hard."
"Eh-heh-heh. Okay, I just hope it isn't something that becomes addictive as we get older."
"I just hope nothing bad happens to you or our children as I get older."
Hand in hand, they walked out of the cemetery and back towards Tokyo-3, which was still going through the debate of whether or not to rename it into New Tokyo to get away from the numeral system after new techniques into neutralizing nuclear radiation had cleansed more than half of what the original Tokyo had been left as due to Second Impact. The happy couple, once a pair of children maimed by the people of their past, looking into the future full of hope with each passing day.
The End…or it?
A/N: I'll leave it at that until I hear from all of you what you think I should do about it. Create a new story based off this one or create an entirely new alternate to the original story? Also, what do you think should happen later on? Should Yui be permitted to pass on and not be eternal proof of mankind's existence? Should I reveal what became of Misato, Ritsuko, Kaji and Asuka? Should there be a chapter of Shinji and Rumiko at the hospital with their baby? I leave it up you.