Before we start, wanted to get a couple things out there. Doing this story has been super rewarding for me. It is huge amounts of stress relief to write, and your comments, criticism, etc, have made it doubly so. I have never done this before, I thought my writing would be complete shit, but to have people say they not only like it, but that they like it for the writing has been… just, wow. Thank you very much.
I made a couple of rules when I started this thing:
First, no retconning. If I make a mistake, I have to live with and deal with it. No going back and changing, no leaving the thread dangling, no leaving things unexplained or dropping.
Second, try and keep a consistent, quick schedule. Thus my approximately once a week for the past few months.
Both of those force me to battle two things I hate seeing:
The latter, authors going months or years without updates. I hate that shit. I have succeeded into keeping up with what I would call a regular level of output with consistent quality.
The former, stories getting away from authors and just getting too wacky. It is not the out-there-ness of the subject matter, but rather just keeping the story going in a consistent direction. I have failed badly in that. This story has gone utterly off the rails from where I intended it to be. And it is killer author fatigue because aside from a very basic outline of where we are going to end up and certain big events, I know about as much about what is going to happen two or three weeks out as you do.
Where had I intended it to go? Going to save it for another story, probably after No Life King.
All of that out there, I am not going to abandon this fic, kill it, whatever you want to call it. You are getting a worthwhile ending and a full story. Dead fics are another thing I hate, most especially if they are just left to rot with no message saying if its dead, dormant, whatever.
So, in the interest of giving everyone the good bits of what I had planned, Trishula is going to continue, with some plot changes so it can be its own story, and not an attempt to conform to a structure it is no longer suited to. Expect this story to wrap at chapter 40.
In other words, it is time to light this candle at both ends and ride it all the way to third impact. Yeehaw.
Chapter 30
It was not a long walk to the audience hall, and the corridors had been cleared to prevent… distractions. When they got to the hall, which by the time was hung with banners and other decorations, far from the storage vault it had once been, four dozen staff were already seated in two long columns. Tonight was special, and so several city residents had made the trip out. Shinji released his grip on Misato, who reached out for him before Rei brought her to heel and led her to an empty spot in the front row, next to the woman known as Rabbit. Shinji mounted the platform and took off his shirt before facing the crowd.
"My friends…" He began "Tonight we are here to say welcome. First we say welcome to a new member of our flock." Shinji nodded towards Misato. He noticed the intensity with which she watched him. Here eyes were wide open and he could see the muscles of her jaw clenched and the slight part of her lips showing her teeth locked together. The rise and fall of her shoulders betrayed her heavy breathing.
"And also to welcome a friend into the next stage of his destiny." Shinji said and raised one hand straight out in front of him with palm upturned.
Toji Suzuhara broke ranks at the rear and marched up the aisle, tearing his uniform blouse from his body. Somewhere in the room, a drum beat started, and the gathered began to bang out the beat against their legs. When he tossed the shirt aside, it did not fall to the ground, but rose on the whistling air currents that now filled the room. As he came to face to face with Shinji, the smaller boy's face was washed out by the three glowing lights upon it. When Toji took a knee, he slammed his fist into the deck hard enough that those assembled could hear the loud clang even over the now howling winds.
Shinji laid one hand on Toji's right shoulder.
My brother, become of one mind with me.
As Misato watched, the normally stoic Suzuhara's whole body went tight and he struggled for a moment before the scream of pain escaped his mouth. Even over the drums and the wind in the room, she could hear the agony and ecstasy in that scream. As it went on, tendrils of light reached out from the figure that was Shinji and yet not him. As one touched Misato, she experienced clarity of mind like nothing since her first moments waking from a coma after second impact. Everything was absolutely and totally real and without inference or innuendo. Things just were.
All around her she felt soft warmth, and the touch of another's thoughts. All of them, each a little point of light in the vastness of space around a blazing star.
She realized that the points of light were each another person like her, sitting in this room and touched by His presence. A chorus began, and it took her a moment to hear her own voice among the multitude.
"I am created, Shiva, the destroyer…"
When Misato opened her eyes again, she was seated in on the floor in the captain's cabin. Shinji and Rei were staring at her curiously.
"Okay, before you say anything, I want to apologize. I didn't think you would believe us if we tried to tell you any other way… Misato, you okay, you there?" Shinji said, waving his hand in front of her eyes.
"Uuuuuuh."
"Well done m'lord, you've created a zombie."
"Not helpful, Toji."
As Shinji was looking at Toji, something grabbed him. "Braaaaaaaaaaaains…"
The god of destruction squealed like a little girl as he fell to the floor, Misato's arms locked around him. Misato giggled and nuzzled her cheek against his neck.
"Whatever you are, whoever you are, I love you all the same Shinji." Misato said softly into his ear and went back to squeezing and nuzzling him until there was a very sharp clearing of breath above.
"Oh, um… want?" Misato said, looking up into crimson eyes.
"Mine."
"But…"
Mine
"Okay, okay, both of you stop it." Shinji said, rising from the floor then helping Misato up. "Ken, lets give the galley a call, see what they can send up. We have a lot to talk about."
"Aye aye, m'lord."
Over coffee and various snacks, Shinji and Rei explained what they knew and Kensuke explained MSF.
"You are of course welcome onboard at any time now, and you have freedom of the ship. We will give you the heads up before we do anything too…" Ken said then smirked. "… loud."
"Okay… this is a lot to take in. I still have questions though." Misato said.
"Ask away." Shinji replied.
"What happened to you back there Suzuhara?" Misato said, looking at Toji.
Toji shrugged, arms across his chest. "Stuff, kind of private."
"Oooookay… so whats next?"
"The troops are coming back Friday, and I am pretty sure an angel will appear soon afterward. Fortunately, we are taking a lot of pay for these missions in goods and services, so we can at least help out and keep NERV limited to managing the evas."
"Oh is that all we are good for?" Misato said with mock indignation. It made Shinji smile, he liked that they could still joke with everything at stake.
"No, its just all I can trust NERV with until we have you in charge."
"Wait, me in charge? Really? Come on Shinji, I can't even keep my own shit together without you at home." And like that, the levity was gone.
"Yeah about that… Misato, in any other circumstance, I wouldn't ask this of you, but do you want me to fix that?"
"What do you mean by 'fix'?"
"Think of it as painfully fast therapy." Kensuke said. "All your hang-ups, your regrets, the stuff holding you back, all gone."
"Painful like emotionally?"
"Literally." Toji and Kensuke responded together.
"Okay, if you are so nervous to ask about it, what is the downside?"
"Do you really know who you are without your flaws? Are you even the same person?" Shinji solemnly asked. "Look at us." He said, waving around the room.
Misato looked around at the children and thought about it. Shinji had been a depressed wimp. She hadn't known the other two boys before but could only imagine that it was not a dissimilar change. Rei hadn't even had a personality a few months ago.
Then she thought about herself. How much of her self-identity was her flaws? Messy, drinks too much, no work ethic, can't keep a man, hates daddy, in love with a fifteen-year-old boy… scratch that, in love with a god in the body of a fifteen year old boy. Okay what was wrong with that? She had claimed to love a god she couldn't see most of her life and he never even talked back.
Woah go back, she thought. When did this become in love with him? I love him, but like he is my kid, not that way... well okay that wasn't true either. Add lies to self to list of flaws.
Okay, so without all that stupid crap, who was she? Who was the real Misato Katsuragi?
"Can I think about it?"
"Of course Misato, I won't force this on you, just remember what is coming. We are going to have a special service for the returning troops on Friday. If you want to go through with it, you are more than invited."
Misato elected to sleep in the XO quarters that night. It was a big step from executive officer to captain apparently. The room had a toilet, sink, bed, closets, a desk… and was roughly the size of one bedroom in her apartment. She would have rather slept on the floor in Shinji and Rei's cabin, least they had lots of cushions, this bed was like sleeping on concrete… Hmmmm, Misato thought. Made to sleep on the floor while those two… dammit, no, bad, dirty dirty dirty, baka hentai, go to sleep.
Misato grabbed at the pillow and stuffed it under her head, coming down on the bed with a huff.
The next morning, Misato was surprised to find Warthog at breakfast, along with Ken and Toji, but more surprised to not see Shinji and Rei.
"Rei and Shinji busy?" She asked as she slid onto a bench beside the fat german, across from the two boys.
"The lord and lady are sleeping in." Ken said before going back to stuffing scrambled eggs in his mouth.
Misato was not sure if it was what happened last night or what, but she didn't really get that revolting feeling from Warthog anymore. Of course any man fresh back from a mission had a certain charm to him, even through the dirt and sweat.
The German had rather bad sunburn, making a shocking farmer's tan. His desert cammies were still spilling sand from the seams when he shifted.
"Sleeping in? Shinji never sleeps in, not unless he fought an angel the night before."
"Suppose that's one way to put it." Toji said before popping another sausage in his mouth.
"What was that?" Misato said
"Nothing." Toji quickly replied through a full mouth.
"Uh-huh."
"So Frau major, Herr Snake tells me you have… joined out little cause."
"I am on the childrens' side Warthog, just like I have always been." Misato said, sipping coffee.
"Ah, vell, good to know. You are going ashore after breakfast, ja?"
"Yeah, have to get back to work. Probably going to be late once a boat gets me over."
"Zat is vere you are wrong Frau Major. Vait till you see our new toy."
MSF's new toy turned out to be eighty five hundred kilos of Russian aerospace engineering.
"Oh for… Who even sells these?!"
"Oh the Russians let us have it for a song, just had to take care of some issues in the Caucuses." Ken said, looking up at the huge helicopter taking up half the landing deck.
"The Hind is perfect for our operations. We don't have the pilots or the budget to field separate attack and transport aircraft fleets. This gets us both, at the same time if we want. They offered us more but we negotiated to get the top-tier models instead of those crummy export editions. Got another one on the way. Want us to drop you directly at NERV's airfield?"
"Naw, my car is still at the docks"
"Gimme your keys, I will have it brought up for you. What time do you usually leave?"
"About 1700."
"I will see that it is waiting by the north personnel elevator."
Misato handed over the key and whipped out her phone.
"Hey Rits, I am getting a ride into work…"
The whole flight took five minutes from rotors still to wheels down. She could get used to the chauffeur service she thought as she waved good-bye to the chopper pilots.
She took one elevator down to the geofront, then had to take a hallway across to another elevator. The system had seemed stupid at first, but without having bendy tracks, you had to have the personnel elevators (really funiculars, but whatever) come down, then folks transfer to the less resource intensive office elevators.
Misato was waiting for her office elevator. She was not pleased when the door opened.
"Hey there Misato-chan."
"You know Kaji, I'll take another." Misato said, already reaching for the call button again.
"No, you won't. Get in here, we need to talk, Major." He replied. Misato huffed, perhaps a little immaturely, and stepped into the elevator. If he was going to pull rank, might as well deal with it. Misato took position leaning against the far corner of the car.
"So, I have reports that you stayed over on that little yacht last night."
"Yeah, meeting went late. I ate a bit too much at dinner, didn't feel like driving."
"Right. What are they up to over there? These MSF guys, what is their agenda?"
Misato shrugged. "Honestly Kaji, I think it is exactly as they say. They don't trust us to look after the pilots."
"But they trust you to come into their fort?" Kaji said dismissively.
"I wouldn't call it trust. The pilots like me but they have armed guards escorting me everywhere."
"Sure. So who is really in charge over there?"
Misato shrugged. "Dunno, I just talk to that Warthog guy and the kids." How much longer is left on this stupid elevator?
Ryoji Kaji slapped the stop button then turned and slammed his open palm to the wall just inches from Misato's face.
"Kaji, what the fuck?!"
"You know Misato, I like this elevator, you know why? Because it's the one Shinji and Rei's little bodyguard fried all the sensors in, so we can have private conversations, in private. So you are going to give me some straight answers about what is going on over there. Now."
Misato had jumped when he slammed the wall, but she had steeled herself since and looked straight back into Kaji's eyes.
"Kaji, turn the elevator back on and back off."
"In case you don't remember, I am your goddamn boss Katsuragi. Fall in line. Or…" Kaji said and leaned closer. Misato grimaced when she smelled his breath. "Do you want me to make you? Think about the f-"
Misato jabbed her thumb into the nerve cluster in the upper right arm and watched him screech and back away.
"Don't be such a baby, it stops hurting as soon as the pressure is off." Misato said, folding her arms over chest as Kaji was clutching his arm.
"Fuckdammitfuck Misato. I got hit there last week, that still fucking hurts!"
"Oh really, last week? You got hurt in the fighting? Kaji, I didn't even see you out there."
"Well I was, fuck this hurts."
"I told you everything I know Kaji. Only other thing I got is that they are getting some new equipment in too, they gave me a ride over in their new Hind and say they have another on the way. It's all being paid for by doing mercenary work, which we already knew about." Misato said and pulled the button out to restart the elevator.
"You know Kaji, there was one other thing." She said as she felt the elevator start to slow. "Every man on that ship was an absolute gentleman to me. And as for the women, if you tried that with any of them, well, I don't know if you'd be walking out of this elevator." Misato said and walked out herself.
First stop was her office. She was glad the doors slid here, because she doubted she there was room to open one. Right, coffee first then dive into the paperwork that had been accumulating since that battle on the fleet last month. Course if she was out for coffee, she might as well go bug Ritsuko.
When she went to the lab, she didn't find Dr. Akagi, just her assistant.
"Heya Maya, is Ritsuko around?"
Maya looked up from her reports. "Oh hello Major. Dr. Akagi is meeting with the commanders. Can I help you with anything?"
"Oh no, I was just dropping by to say hi." Misato thought on it for a second then asked."Watch'a up to?"
"Oh just signing off reports, Ma'am."
"Isn't Ritsuko supposed to do that?"
"Yeah but Dr. Akagi had me copy her signature the first day I started so I could get the paper done while she works." Maya said, signing off another paper and setting it aside.
"Maya, do you mind if I ask a personal question?"
"Well I guess I would have to hear it before I knew whether I minded or not, Major."
"You called Ritsuko Dr. Akagi, what happened to Akagi-sempai? I know I am probably just making a storm in a teacup here, but, I dunno you used to sound super excited every time you even said her name."
Maya sighed and gathered her papers into a neat stack. "We… well we were, you know."
"Dating?"
"Yeah, and now we aren't and its been kind of weird. Ma'am."
"Aww, you two were cute, what happened?" Misato said and sat down on the edge of Maya's desk. "Come on, we are friends, tell me what's up."
Nothing better to avoid working in the workplace than good ol' workplace gossip.
"We tried… I tried to have a civil conversation about faith."
"Oooo." Misato said with a wince. That was one of those subjects they had always agreed to avoid. Ritsuko was something of what you might call a hardcore militant atheist. Even Misato's modest attention to faith drove her up the wall.
"Yeah… she said some things that… that I were cruel and unnecessary. It wasn't so much that we disagreed, just the way she said it, I couldn't see us continuing a respectful relationship after that."
"Oh I am sorry Maya, that's tough."
Maya nodded before a little smile came to her lips. "You know what though, I am passed it, no point dwelling, you know?"
"Yeah. Well, I should get going, you have stuff to do and I shouldn't foist my procrastination on you." Misato said, sliding off the desk and heading for the door. "I'll see you later Maya, let me know if you want to talk."
As Maya raised her hand to wave goodbye, Misato noticed the yellow, twisted cord bracelet on her left hand. Misato had been ready to push the button to open the door, but pulled her hand away.
"Maya, can I ask you one more question?"
"Sure Major."
"What's your name?"
"Cazador, Frau Major." Maya replied with a smile.
"Thank you lieutenant, tell Dr. Akagi I say hi."
"Of course Major."
Misato attacked her paperwork as best she could, but heart wasn't in it. She had at least made a path to her desk by early afternoon. She hadn't realized she had worked clean through lunch. By five, she didn't really mind skipping lunch. Asuka's food tended to be heavy anyway.
When she got to the surface, two MSF corporals were there with her car. It had been washed and had a full tank. Both saluted sharply. Why wasn't NERV like this? The whole organization treated their people like crap, and there was so little morale most didn't care. Uniforms were wrinkled, when they were even worn. Gendo always had his jacket open; Kaji and Ritsuko didn't even wear their uniforms. Misato looked down at her dress as she sat down. She wasn't helping things either. This was not professional; this was something to wear out on a date, not to work.
When she got home Asuka had made a chicken alfredo casserole. She had also cleaned the entire apartment and aired out the tatami. Even Pen-pen's fridge had been cleaned.
"Going a little stir crazy?"
"Yeah, school can't start soon enough."
"Well…" Misato said as she hung up her coat and her jacket. "Shinji thinks there is going to be another angel by the end of the week."
Asuka snorted. "Can he predict the future now?"
"I wouldn't bet against him." Misato said as she sat down.
Asuka opened the fridge and got a canned juice for herself. "Beer, Misato?"
Misato was going to say yes, she usually needed her beer right after work to be human. Paperwork days like this were just mentally exhausting too. She wanted it, just a reflex tendency to reach for it.
"Misatooooooo?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want a beer?"
"Oh, no thanks."
While Asuka was cleaning up, Misato's phone rang.
"Hello, this is Major Katsuragi"
"Hello Misato, sorry I missed you this morning."
"Oh its alright Shinji." Misato said. Asuka flicked her hair back with a huff when she heard who it was on the phone
"So it seems like every time this guy gets involved, parties break out, but we want to turn Friday's ceremonies for the last of the returning troops into kind of an event. Honor those returning, that sort of thing."
"Sounds fun." Misato said, twisting her bangs around her finger. She heard muffled talking in the background, like someone had his hand over the phone.
"-What? Since when? Oh right now, oh great, making this up on the fly are we? OW… Yes I will tell her… Hey Misato, you still there?"
"Yep."
"So Rabbit wants all the local girls to dress up. I guess that's presumptive though, I was actually calling to see if you will be, uh, joining us?"
…
"Yes. Yes I will."
Friday night, Misato was frustrated. She was in her room, her closet and drawers thrown open and clothes everywhere, still only wearing her laciest underthings.
It was a dressed up thing, she wanted to look nice, but not like stiff and stuffy, it wasn't like she was wearing her dress uniform. But her wardrobe had a gap between a nice night out and class A formal. Everything that bordered that gap also fell into either matronly or skanky as well.
With a frustrated sigh, Misato reached for her phone and dialed.
"Hey Kodama… yeah its Misato… What are you wearing tonight?.. Do I have a yukata? No I haven't worn one since high school… You sure?... Okay, should I bring anything? Okay, see you there."
Misato put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She wore her tennis shoes and grabbed a pair of platform wedges from her closet.
"Hey Asuka, you ready to go?" Misato said as she came out of her room. Asuka had gotten a quite nice invitation to attend but had refused, and so had elected to spend the night at the home a friend from church.
"Yep." She said and hauled her duffel over her shoulder. She handed Misato a note paper with the address and looked her over. "So going for the casual look then?"
"No my friend is going to lend me something… Asuka, whats your friend's name?" Misato said, looking at the address.
"Horaki Hikari, why?"
"We are going to the same place, does she have a big sister?"
"Uh, yeah, she mentioned something about sisters. Your friend then?"
"Yep."
It was a short drive to the Horaki residence in the suburbs. When the door opened, the middle sister quickly tugged Asuka inside and Misato only had a second to look around before the elder pulled her down the hall to her own room.
"Hey Kodama, what gives, I thought we had plenty of time?"
"HA! I have someone else to dress up for once, and I would feel horrible if you looked anything but amazing for tonight. Sit!" She responded, pushing Misato down by the shoulders in front of her vanity.
Christ, Misato thought as Kodama started pulling things out of her closet, cackling away. No wonder even the warthog listened to this girl.
"Oh don't worry I just-" Misato started then jumped a little as the younger woman dropped down a make up bag on the vanity bigger than most women's purses.
"I said, I would feel horrible if you looked anything but amazing for tonight. You don't want me to feel horrible, do you Misato?" Kodama said, leering just on the uncomfortable side of too close to Misato's face.
"Um, no?"
"Good answer."
An hour later, Asuka and Hikari were in the living room when they heard mumbling from the hall.
"Come on Misato, you look great, lets show the girls."
"Kodama, I'm not so sure maybe we can try something else, GAH!" Misato yelped as she got shoved out of the hallway into the living room. Kodama was quickly behind her, holding her by the shoulders to face the young ladies seated on the floor.
"Hey girls, doesn't the major look great?"
Asuka had to admit, Misato looked really really good. She was wrapped in a yellow yukata with white lilies printed on it, with the collar folded down so it sat around her bare shoulders. Her hair was lifted up high with two long pins holding a tight bun together with a thin wave of strands falling just above her neck.
Misato was almost embarrassed. Even covered as she was, something about her bare shoulders and her chest being pushed up by the wide obi belt made her feel exposed. She had worn things that were more air then fabric and it didn't make her feel like this. It didn't help that Kodama had done her make-up far and away over anything she did herself. Misato was fairly sure this was the most dressed up she had been in her life.
"Wow Misato, you really cleaned up well." Asuka said, elicitng a raised eyebrow from Misato.
"And just what is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing! Really, I just meant I haven't seen you dressed all fancy outside your uniform before." Asuka said, waving her spread hands to ward off the hostility.
Asuka was saved from further interrogation by the doorbell ringing.
"Oh that will be the car… oh crud, I still need to get dressed, shit fuck mother- Hikari, cover your ears!…"
Not taking time to experiment like she had with Misato, Kodama was ready in another ten minutes. Misato noticed that Kodama's shoulders were covered. Any time she tried to adjust her yukata, she got swatted at by the elder Horaki.
"Hey, its cold." Misato said, only to have Kodama reach out and flip the heater on.
"I want you to look that way for Lord Shiva, do you want to disappoint him?"
"No!" Misato blurted out without thinking. This was Shinji, was she really that obsessed with him?
"Then leave it."
The car took them to the docks, where an MSF Hind was waiting. There were other locals there, including Suzuhara. Misato had to admit the kid filled out a suit well. The other four were all women, mostly young and wearing bright colored yukatas, though there was one older woman wearing a beautiful dark robe with patterns in gold thread and her steel colored hair cropped close to her skull.
The ride was short, not even a minute, and before she could even stand, Suzuahara was there, offering his hand.
"Shinji has some duties tonight, so he asked me to be your escort for this evening, if you'd like I mean." Toji said. Misato smiled and took his hand.
"It would be a pleasure to have such a handsome young man on my arm, thank you Toji." She said.
As Toji helped her down to the deck in her high wedges and long robe, on the far side of the city, a lone musician was climbing a high hill.
"You and I in a little toy shop… do do da do da do do doooo…"
"Frau Major, you look vundabar! Und Mr. Suzuhara, you clean up nice too."
"Hey, what is that supposed to mean?"
Kawaru Nagisa hummed to himself as he tuned his guitar.
"Alright my friends…" He said as the swarm of little red lights circled and spiraled around the hilltop. "Ah ah ah, that's enough, its almost time, settle down. You'll have all the time you need to get your energy out."
The converted cargo hold was packed tonight, with all the troops returned. Even so, there was a small aisle down the center and at the very back stood Misato Katsuragi. There in some of the best clothes she had ever worn, the similarity to a bride at her wedding was not lost on her. When she had walked all the way to the front and knelt before Shinji, she realized why her shoulders were bare and her hair up as he placed his hands on her shoulders.
Become of one mind with me…
Misato closed her eyes as the energy flowed through her, then gasped as it arced over her spine.
... my warrior mother
"Alright everyone, places. One last practice." Kaworu said, one finger in the air. The swarm of lights formed a circle and rose to head level. "and go…"
The lights began to dance around as he tapped out a beat on his guitar. After a while, Kaworu saw one starting to lag behind and beckoned it over with a finger. He let his instrument hang on its strap and cupped his hands beneath the little red light.
"Hey little guy, having trouble keeping up?" He asked, and the little light bounces like it was nodding. "Okay, well tell you what, I have a special job just for you."
He guided the little bouncing light to sit on his shoulder and picked up his guitar again.
"Okay, just one more run through…" he said and got a chorus of tiny groans in response. "Oh come on, we all want this to be perfect, right?"
A roll of tiny squeals answered in the affirmative and he smiled.
"Okay my little chicks, and one, two, three…"
Within her own mindscape, Misato looked over her compulsions. Those things she did not because she wanted to. Even if she enjoyed them, she had no choice whether or not to do it. Day to day, they felt so big, so powerful, but here they seemed small, inconsequential.
She could do better than this. All she had to do was take control of her life, not let her life control her.
"Is it really that easy?"
Yes
"What about when I mess up?"
I'll be there
"Can't you just make it all go away?"
Yes
"Then do it. Take this pain from me."
It would make me happy to free you from your burdens. Without knowing what it is to walk the fine line, to constantly struggle against your impulses, would you still be able to do what you do?
"I don't know."
Nor do I.
"And that's why you won't do it?"
Because you are important. Who you are, where you are, and what you do. These things make up your identity and to alter them would be to change who you are.
Misato nodded, feeling the comforting warmth of his presence surround her.
"I love you…"
And I you, you are my mother as if we were blood
"Not like that… I want… I mean…"
I understand
"What can we have, what can there be of us?"
Misato sat at one of the many benches laid out along the deck for people to sit and look out on the warm autumn night.
She was happy and had clarity, a sense of things, that she had forgotten ever having. It was like being a child. The world just was.
"Ahem, Frau Major, I am sorry if I am interrupting."
Misato turned her head and saw the german with a big package wrapped in brown paper and string.
"Not at all, Warthog. Come to sit with me?"
"Oh, vell I vould never decline the invitation." He said and slid down on the bench next to her. "Ve ah, that is some of the men und I, vanted to make a little velcoming present for you."
He held out the package for her and she took it onto her lap. It was soft, but surprisingly heavy.
"Ve received our first batch of uniforms, und of course zis one is badged for NERV, but it ist more of a proper uniform. Forgive me for saying but…"
"We are mildly military at best?"
"Ja, you say it better than I vould have."
Misato unwrapped the paper and ran her fingers over the olive green uniform. The cut and stitching looked decidedly retro, especially compared to the ultra-modern look most NERV uniforms had. This looked like something out of the first half of the twentieth.
"Also, ve thought you might appreciate a little somezing from ze armory. I picked it out myself."
Misato pulled out a smaller package from the folds of fabric. It was heavy, the source of most of the weight. She tore off the paper and found gleaming stainless steel wrapped in leather.
"Zis ist ze famous…"
"Colt Python. Four inch barrel, holding six rounds of .357 magnum, it is less a pistol than a cannon. American in every sense, properly loaded, a single round can put down dangerous game a hundred meters away, to say nothing of what it will do to a man." Misato intoned as if it were a prayer. She looked up with an embarrassed smile after a few seconds. "Sorry, little bit of a fan."
"Oh quite alvight, though I zink I may need a cigarette after hearing you say it like zat."
"So who did you talk to, or was it a lucky guess?"
"Ah, vell I remembered something my grandmother told me, about ven she met my grandfather. He vas organizing resistance to the advancing Russians und ven she declared she vished to fight, he put her on und ocht ocht anti-tank gun und my grandmother said she fell in love when she heard three words from him… Hounden Leiben Kannonen."
"Which means?"
"Vell…"
Before he could explain, sirens began to sound all over the ship. Warthog sprang to his feet, running to grab the rail and stretch his neck to look out over the city.
"Ha ha, zat zound, zis ist it!"
"Whats it, what the hell is going on, what does that siren mean?"
When he turned around, the look in the fat German's eyes could only be called lusful. He was grinning from ear to ear, and his hazel eyes were like fires behind the glaring lenses of his glasses.
"Var, Frau Major. Var beyond any scale I had ever hoped to see. Zat siren, it is the trumpet to herald a battle that vill shake heaven und earth." He said and raised his hands to the sky.
"Blue. Pattern. Detected!"
"Alright everyone, for real this time!" Kowaru said, and his little army of lights danced around him.
You and I in a little toyshop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we got
Set them free at the break of dawn
Till one by one, they were gone
Back at base
Bug in the software
Flash the message something's out there
Floating in the summer sky
As 99 red balloons go by
End
Song is of course the English version of 99 Luftballoons by Nena, commonly known as 99 red balloons.
FYI, going forward, Trishula should still be getting weekly updates, but expect more stuff in my other work as well.
Also first REAL chapter of No Life King of Tokyo-3 will be up soon. That story will be more violence and dark humor, and will be quite a bit shorter (10 chapters and about 50k words). Following that, or rather posting concurrently with the latter half, once Trishula is complete, will be the next full reboot story, which will be using the original plan that ended up spawning trishula but was VERY different, even from the start. I also feel better about telling that story now because I feel like I have my bearings with storytelling.