Creation began on 07-16-23
Creation ended on 08-27-23
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Choices we Make
The last thing Shinji remembered was finding himself in a hospital room, laying in a bed, hooked up to machines and clutching onto his sack of Magiswords. Now, here he was, out on the streets of a city shrouded in mist, with no clue as to how he got there or why he was there to begin with.
"Shinji?" He heard a female voice call out to him. "Shinji, is that you?"
He recognized the voice and turned around to find a woman standing several feet away from him with a man, both of whom he recognized.
"Vambre? Prohyas?" He responded, surprised to see them. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Prohyas replied. "We thought you returned to your world."
"I did return to my world. What is this place?"
"This is Displacia," Vambre revealed. "It's some sort of city that exists in between the land of the living and the realm of the departing."
"The realm of the departing?"
That's when Vambre had a look of woe on her face.
"Shinji," she spoke, "what is the last thing you remember before you ended up here?"
"I was…attacked by my father," he answers. "Do you mean to say that I…that I'm dead?"
"No," she tells him. "At least not yet. As long as you still have breath in your body, as long as your heart continues to beat, you're not dead yet, but you are dying unless the people in your world can save you."
-x-
Asuka found Shinji's grip on his pouch of Magiswords to be remarkable. Even though he was unconscious, his body refused to let go of them due to his fear of never getting them back, that someone could take them away and use them for wrongful purposes. But at least she could keep watch over him and his swords until he regained consciousness.
"What happened?" She heard Rei ask as she turned to find the albino girl standing at the entrance to the room.
"His…his father hit him with his car," she answers her.
"Why?"
"It could've been any reason. Shinji could've been in the wrong place at the wrong time, his father could've blamed him for losing his job, maybe the guy just wanted to kill him, any number of reasons… Or even no reason at all."
Rei found this to be confusing. There was no way that anyone would just…do something like this…for no reason. If Gendo had attacked Shinji, there had to be a reason for why he did so. To not have a reason for such…was to not be incapable of doing wrong.
"Will he…wake up?" She asks Asuka.
"I don't know, but the doctors are optimistic," she responds. "All we can do is wait and see…and hope that he does wake up."
Rei then noticed that the unconscious and injured Shinji was holding onto a pouch in his hand.
"What is that in his hand?" She pointed out to the pouch.
"Something precious to him," Asuka answers.
-x-
Shinji couldn't believe that his consciousness…or rather, his unconsciousness had returned him to the alternate universe that Lyvsheria was in, and where this strange city that existed between life and the afterlife. The worst part of this discovery was that all he could do, aside from reconnecting with the Warrior siblings, was wait for his body to either recall his mind and soul…or give up the fight to live.
"How did you two find this place?" He asks Prohyas.
"We're on a mission to acquire a Magisword that is said to reside here," Prohyas explains to him as they walk across a bridge over a lake. "It's supposed to be rare and powerful."
"Supposedly," went Vambre, "this Magisword is capable of enabling travel between the borderlands of the living and departed."
Shinji stopped and looked over the railing, seeing his reflection in the water, but it was only partially there. He could see his skull under his muscles and nerves. It frightened him a little, because he was a transient guest in this city…until fate decided otherwise.
"So…your father attacked you?" Vambre asks him.
"The worst part is that I didn't see him coming at me because I was…distracted by a recent victory that only matters because it kept people safe from a different type of threat," he answers back. "That's probably on me because I let myself be distracted by such a minor issue that I treated as a major one. But if I had to do it all over again, I'd make the same decision each time so long as it meant people could see the next day of their lives."
"Spoken like a true hero, Shinji."
"Thanks, Vambre."
She looks down at his reflection in the water, her own unaffected because she was alive and whole, not a transient guest like he was.
"People around Rhyboflaven and across Lyvsheria still ask about you," she reveals to him.
"Really?" Shinji wants to know.
"Your presence was…beyond what we thought we could expect from you. Some of them still find it difficult to fathom why you would…do what you did for us whenever things went south."
"You mean, revive you from death? The same way that I revived others from death whenever they were met with danger by creatures that were not easy to best? I value life more than I can ever admit. People should get to live fully and enjoy their days down to the final second. It's when a life that is cut short…and can't be brought back, despite all the best efforts made to save that life…is when I feel less than whole."
"What is that?" They heard Prohyas say as they saw him further up ahead on the bridge, looking at something that was probably not supposed to be there at all.
But then again, Displacia was likely a city that was constantly shifting due to the very nature of its existence, meaning that nothing there was whatever it seemed to be to the perception of the living and the living impaired…or whatever the designation was for those momentarily stuck in between life and death. As the two came over to where Prohyas was, Shinji noticed the source of confusion…and was taken aback by its very presence. The object in question was a statue of sorts, resembling (in Shinji's mind) an Evangelion that had been crucified and decapitated, its arms extended out on its left and right side, its legs wedged into the ground, and its entire body in a state of fossilization where it looked like it was made of charred rock or obsidian. It made the young man shudder in disgust; he was reminded of a nightmare he had before the week before he left to return to his world once he had put his affairs in order.
-x-
Misato identified Gendo to the police as Shinji's father, the culprit responsible for hitting him with a car in an attempted murder move.
"Are you sure that's him?" A police officer asks her as she stood in front of the observation window, staring at least five men with similar facial features, but the woman pointed to the culprit she recognized.
"The one holding the card with the number four on it," she pointed out. "I've seen his face enough times to know that he stands out a mile away. What else do you need?"
With that said, they had what they needed to charge Gendo for his attack on Shinji. But Misato still wanted to know one thing: Why he did it. Of course, she could comprehend why, but just because she knew more than she did because of Shinji, started on this pursuit of the truth by Kaji, it didn't make any sense for Gendo to try and kill Shinji…unless it was because of spite. To kill out of spite was just senseless violence, no different from running over a dog in the street if you viewed it as just something in your way.
"I want to speak to him," she told the police.
Less than twenty minutes later, she was in front of him in a small room, seeing he was cuffed to the table in front of them. He didn't seem the least bit concerned about his predicament.
"They have you dead to rights," she tells him.
"It's irrelevant," he replies. "Nothing else matters."
"Why'd you do it?"
"He no longer served a purpose."
"That's why you ran him over? Because he wasn't piloting the Eva? Because he resigned? That's just twisted and wrong. He told his truth, which got you removed from command. It's not his fault you couldn't accept the Committee's decision to relieve you of your position."
"He was hiding something."
"If he was hiding something, it was clearly how much contempt he had towards the likes of you. If I had known this was what you were going to do against him, simply because you felt crossed by him, I would've gotten a restraining order against you."
"It doesn't matter, anymore. What's done is done. You can't undo what's been done."
"No…but I can make sure that you can't do it to anyone else again. Even if it's only less than Murder Two, you'll be in a prison cell long enough for Shinji to recover from his injuries and move on with his life."
"He's as good as dead. I ran him over hard enough to leave him at Death's door."
"You don't know Shinji like I do. He's a lot stronger than you'll ever know."
"He's weak."
"That's what you think."
Then, just for good measure, Misato slapped him in his face!
"I will hope that you get locked up in a place you can't get out of," she told him before she left the room.
-x-
Successfully crossing the bridge and reaching the other side of the lake, Shinji and the Warriors came across a building that Prohyas claimed was where the Magisword was located. The building had a sense of being older than the others due to its fossilized appearance, and resembled the pyramidal structure of NERV HQ, but on a smaller scale.
"I don't understand this place," Shinji tells them.
"Displacia isn't a city bound by natural laws," Vambre explains. "It's not rigid or set in place. It's fluidic and like a maze, with every step we take, it shifts, becoming more difficult to navigate because we're never sure of which direction to take."
"It just feels like it's messing with me a little. I mean, on the bridge, there was a statue that looked like an Eva without a head, crucified like a perversion of a holy being. Now, there's this building that echoes the headquarters of where I used to go before I finally resigned and closed that chapter of my past for good."
"We were given a warning before we came here, Shinji," said Prohyas to him. "Don't be enticed by all that you see inside the city. Displacia is a place outside of our understanding. It has a will of its own, able to get inside your head and throw off your perception or affect your emotions. It's essentially a city devoid of any sense of heart. It gives neither hope or knowledge, nor does it care if you were benevolent ruler or a tyrant. Should you ever come for a visit, whether of your own volition or through an accident, make sure your stay is brief."
Shinji sighs and looks at the building again; he wasn't sure how much more he could take of being in the city if it was going to mess with him, but he wanted to help the siblings find this Magisword while he was around.
-x-
Nobody was around, but Asuka still worried about trying to use Shinji's First Aid Magisword to heal his body. Even with the curtains pulled shut to isolate them, the redhead worried about someone coming by and seeing her attempt something that could be misinterpreted as something else entirely. But the First Aid Magisword was present, secured within Shinji's pouch, just waiting to be used to help someone get better faster. And there was the temptation she felt, knowing that all it required was using the Magisword on him and knowing his life would be spared from its current agony of these medical instruments and stimulants needed to keep him alive until he recovered enough to no longer require them.
"I can't say it doesn't suck right now," she says to the unconscious teen, "but you being in a hospital right now…is definitely a lot better than you being in a grave. At least, I hope it is. Whatever it is that you're dreaming about…or thinking about in there…I truly hope it's peaceful. Everything right now feels like it's anything but. I certainly hope you wake up soon."
The privacy curtain was pulled away to reveal Misato, holding a can of coffee in her right hand.
"Any change?" She asks Asuka.
"No," Asuka answers. "Is there anyone out there in the hall?"
"Just seven people, but none of them close by; they're helping other people with minor problems, like sprained wrists or dislocated legs."
Asuka then tried to reach into Shinji's Magisword pouch and extract the First Aid Magisword; if everyone outside were preoccupied with other people, then now was the best chance to help speed up Shinji's recovery.
"Could you keep watch out there?" She asks Misato, who turns and stands outside the curtain.
Managing to pull out the required item from his pouch, Asuka held it up in her hands and aimed at Shinji.
"Please, let this work," she prays.
-x-
"…Is that it over there?" Shinji asks Vambre as he and the Warrior siblings notice an object held up in the air by several statues of people, at least twelve from the looks of it, as if trying to fight each other for it.
It resembled a sword, but instead of a blade, there was a strange, blade-like construct that, to Shinji, was reminiscent of the Taoist symbol; it was black on one side and white on the other, with a circle of the opposite color on different ends.
"Yes," Prohyas expresses. "It's the Legendary Afterlife Magisword!"
"Legendary Afterlife?" Shinji repeated, wondering how powerful this Magisword was that they'd be after it in a place like this. If it's able to enable passage between this world and the realm of the departed, it must be powerful.
"That sign," he hears Vambre say, and their attention was pointed to a sign in front of them with some writing inscribed upon it. "It's a warning."
Shinji looked at it, but didn't recognize the writing; it looked like some form of ancient language that was beyond his comprehension without the Legendary Knowledge Magisword.
"What does it say?" He asks her to translate for him.
"It says, 'Beware, all those who seek the power to traverse the world after life. For, in order to harness it, you will have to do battle in the passage…to the damned'," she translates, and Shinji and Prohyas felt like they were facing a challenge that was beyond them due to either being unprepared or feeling like they were met with an alternative to walk away.
"Well, that's a nice way of saying that anyone after this Magisword can't have it unless they go through a trial of sorts," Shinji states.
"Aah…annoying grunt," Prohyas expresses.
Smash! The twelve statues fractured into pieces and began to reassemble themselves into three new beings, each about seven feet in height and wielding a different weapon; the one of the left carried a spear, the one on the right wielded an axe, and the middle one brandished a sword.
"What…" Prohyas went.
"Even…" Vambre added.
"Dread," Shinji finished.
"Those who seek the power to traverse the afterlife," the statues uttered, "must battle with the damned and survive."
Vambre brandished her Tomato Magisword while Prohyas brandished his Dolphin Magisword.
Shinji, who didn't have any of his Magiswords, simply raised his fists up.
"This one," the statue wielding the sword spoke, pointing its weapon at Shinji, "doesn't belong here. His soul is in limbo, a wandering spirit caught in between life and death. Oh, and no Magiswords? Such a shame."
Shinji was about to ask Prohyas for one of his Magiswords when he felt a jolt in his heart, causing him to clutch onto his chest.
"Shinji?" Vambre questions, noticing that he was becoming see-through, as if he were disappearing. "Shinji!"
"And his body recalls his soul," the sword-wielding statue informs as the other two statues walk towards the trio. "It is time to fight."
Suddenly, Shinji felt a hand tug him backwards, pulling him away from the Warriors.
"Vambre!" He yells, his vision becoming obscured. "Vambre!"
Seconds later, he was in the darkness.
-x-
The First Aid Magisword healing Shinji's maimed body had an unfortunate effect on him when Asuka used it. It caused the boy to gasp, as if he were struggling to breathe because his lungs weren't getting enough oxygen. The doctors rushed in with Misato and Asuka managed to get the pouch out of Shinji's hand and put them in her uniform's left pocket.
"He's developing a tension pneumothorax!" One of the nurses informed.
"What's that?" Misato asks.
"One of his injuries is letting air into his chest cavity, but not back out, causing pressure to build on his heart."
Asuka worried that this was her fault for using his Magisword as a doctor inserted a large needle into Shinji's chest and pulled a cap off it, causing a hiss of air to be heard and Shinji breathing a little better than before.
"He's lucky," another nurse informed Misato and Asuka. "Most kids don't make it because of a tension pneumothorax after getting hit by a car."
"Hold on," a third doctor went, looking at the IV bag. "Looks like this was the culprit here. There's minute traces of adrenaline mixed in, but it was too much for his heart to handle."
The doctor removed the IV and replaced it with a new one with saline to flush Shinji's blood of the adrenaline.
"Minor medical error," he tells the women.
Cough! Shinji revived from unconsciousness and puked up a little blood, gasping as a nurse tried to stop him from removing his mask, his eyes wide with woe.
"Stay calm," she tells him, getting his head back down on the bed.
"Aah…ahh…" He breathed, his heart slowing down to a steady rhythm. I'm alive.
-x-
It wasn't until later that same day, after the sun went down, that Shinji was confirmed to be stable enough to be aided out of bed; the doctors were stumped because they were certain that earlier when they were operating on him, some of his bones were broken, but now he was confirmed to be fine. This enabled Asuka to help him walk to the gender-neutral bathroom; she needed to talk to him.
"It was my fault," she told him as she turned around to give him his privacy as he relieved his bladder. "I used the First Aid Magisword on you."
"You were worried," he tells her. "I would've done the same. But that's not what has me upset. While I was unconscious, my soul wind up where Vambre and Prohyas were, in a city that was between life and death. They were looking for a Magisword that was there, protected by some guardians…and I was forced to leave them to face the guardians on their own. I don't know if they're okay."
Asuka then reaches into her uniform pockets and pulls out something other than his Magiswords. It was Shinji's Magi Mobile.
"The doctors found this when they took your clothes and couldn't make heads or tails on what it does and assumed it was out of power," she reveals to him as she hands it over. "Can you find out if they're okay now?"
It turned on as he held it up, hopeful that the Warriors were fine. The screen was static for a while…but then it connected to another Magi Mobile and showed Prohyas' face.
"Shinji!" He expressed. "You made it back!"
"Prohyas," Shinji responded. "Are you and Vambre… Did you get out of that city?"
"Just barely! After you disappeared, the three golems merged into two, like they had to even the playing field or something. They were tough, but we managed to prevail. Vambre won the Magisword; she hit harder than I did."
"Legendary Afterlife. That's…that good to hear."
-x-
It was a close call, but after two more days of observation, Shinji would be permitted to leave the hospital; the medical professionals concluded that Shinji was a fast healer because earlier when he was brought in, he was as close to Death's door as any young person hit by a car could be…and was later examined to be almost in perfect condition. Even if he had a reduced stay in the hospital, he would have deal with his father later on, someone he would have to deal with sooner or later. But as he lay in his bed, Shinji found sleep to be eluding him right now. He looked at his pouch of Magiswords and Magi Mobile on the stand beside him near the window, and then he looked out at the city in front of him. Oh, how he wanted to fly on his Hoversword and feel alive.
Beep. His Magi Mobile came on and he picked it up.
Vambre's face appeared on it, sporting a minor bruise on her left cheek.
"Vambre?" He spoke, surprised that she was sporting a minor injury, but relieved that she was alive. "I spoke with your brother, and he said you both made it out of Displacia."
"Yeah, but only barely," Vambre explained, but then Shinji noticed that she was looking around someplace, confusing him. "I think I made a mistake I shouldn't have, Shinji."
"What do you mean?"
"I tried using the Magisword we got from Displacia…and may have ended up displacing myself. I have no idea where I am."
"Well, are there any sort of landmarks nearby that you can show me? A building?"
Vambre used her Magi Mobile and showed Shinji where she was…and his eyes widened; he recognized the red metal cross in the background.
"Vambre, you're inside Terminal Dogma of NERV HQ," he reveals to her. "Did you use it tandem with another Magisword?"
"Yes, my Legendary Hyperspace Magisword; it created a similar means of transportation as the combo you used to return to your world."
"Not just a similar means, Vambre; somehow, you ended up in my world."
Shinji reached into his pouch and pulled out a Magisword that was similar to his Legendary Hyperspace Magisword, but looked like two of them merged together to form a strange blade.
"Two-Way Gateway Magisword," the voice revealed the identity of this Magisword, and Shinji used it to cut open a tear the space in front of him, revealing Vambre standing in front of him.
He wouldn't have been able to use this Magisword unless there was another person that used Magiswords was around.
Vambre walked through the portal and was inside the hospital.
"What are you doing here?" He asked her.
"I had to see for myself that you were fine," she answers him. "When you disappeared from the city, I had thought the worst. I… What is this place?"
"Tokyo-3 Memorial Hospital. You're in Tokyo-3."
Vambre looked out the window and saw the city they were in. She was mesmerized by the structures and streets below. It was an incredible feat of ingenuity. Possibly larger than that of Rhyboflaven, give or take.
"It looks…amazing, Shinji," she tells him.
"Thank you," he replies. "I'm still one adversary away from keeping it safe against a potential threat of large proportions, though, but…it's part of why I'm protecting the people from the monsters most of them know nothing about."
It was a surprise for Shinji to see Vambre Warrior here in his world, and so recently, as well. While it had been a small boon for him to be able to contact her and Prohyas through the Magi Mobile, even in his world, it was a different sort of boon for one of the Warriors to come to his world. In fact, Shinji worried about her being here now that she was here; he didn't know how to explain her presence to people that didn't know her. But Vambre wasn't clueless to this predicament; she, too, knew that it was a different world with a different set of rules that Shinji had to live by. Any wrong step she took could've resulted in inescapable consequences beyond their way of thinking…
"I should probably go," she tells him, and Shinji notices her left hand.
"Your hand," he pointed out, seeing that it was discolored and withered, possibly a consequence of her using her Magiswords to get here. "You need to recover first."
He pointed her to a chair nearby and sat beside her, taking out his Ointment Magisword to treat her arm.
"You…look tense," Vambre pointed out.
"That's because I got a lot on my mind," he explains. "After I get out of here, I may have to testify against my father."
"Because he tried to kill you?"
"Because he tried to kill me."
"But…you defeated him…didn't you?"
"I removed him from power…but I didn't kill him. But I don't have to save him from the fate he will be dealt in the future."
Ever since they found out about how difficult and uneasy his relationship with his father was, Vambre worried over the likelihood that Shinji would repercussions from this Gendo person if he was the type to hold onto a grudge when he was one to inflict grievous harm to his own son for something he chose to get involved in that made him cast Shinji aside in favor of pursuing. And Shinji was the only person they knew that had a difficult relationship with his parents because of their absence and lack of actual involvement in his life after the day his mother chose to become a monster; neither she or Prohyas could imagine any mother choosing life as a monstrosity over their responsibility as a parent, even if some of them tried to justify the reasons for why. There was simply no way that anyone could ever fully forgive and forget something so cruel.
"What will you do when it's all over?" She wanted to know at least that much from Shinji. "After you save the world? What will you do?"
"When all's said and done?" He responded. "When all is said and done, when the world is no longer in any danger by any individual or group dedicated to ensuring its end in one way or another… I guess anything that is worth doing…because it will not relate to any sort of heroism, just a guy living in the world and trying to make his way in it."
"Maybe you could come back to Lyvsheria."
"That's also a possibility that I look forward to."
The ointment took effect and Vambre's arm started to look better.
"You know, before and after you left," she says to him, "Morbidia continued to suggest something that was very unlikely between us."
"Which is?"
"She continues to demonstrate her arrogance in claiming that you have personal feelings for me."
"Didn't she say once that her dark magic, while versatile, doesn't show her what lies in another's heart? Even if she says something like that, it's not something she can prove without concrete evidence, and emotions, feelings, aren't concrete like a diary or a recording."
Shinji then noticed that Vambre was looking at him differently than from before. It was…pretty disturbing to him.
"What?" He asks her.
"I don't think she was entirely wrong," she tells him.
"Why is that?"
"Because people change over time."
"Some people change over time, Vambre. Not everyone changes. I mean, some people change for the better and others change for the worse. I try not to let that bother me because in the end, my life will be lived however I choose to live it, regardless of my personal feelings."
"Do you still think about that day we were after the Revival Magisword?"
"It's not a day I can forget. Why do you ask?"
"I think it affected you a little more than you let on or tried to deny."
"When someone gets hurt or dies, it just reminds you that the profession you chose comes with risks. But if that Magisword came with limitations that make saving people impossible, I would've regretted that day for the rest of my days. I would have gone to whatever extremes I could to undo that day."
"VAMBRE!" Vambre, only because she was brought back to life after Shinji obtained the coveted Magisword, recalled his scream; it was the first time she had ever heard Shinji scream with such fear and anger in his voice. "So, then…you don't think about what might've been if you hadn't left? If we had been unable to help you find your way back?"
"I do, just…not so much. What would you have done had I been unable to come back here?"
Now Shinji was looking at her the same way she looked at him; if she was trying to get him to say something he was trying to refrain from saying, both were trying not to say anything to troubleb the other because of whatever reason or another.
"Even if there were something else going on, there were other factors that would have complicated matters," he told her.
"Such as?" She wanted to know.
"Well, there's…the age difference."
"Huh?"
"I was fourteen when I showed up. You were in your twenties or so; there's a stigma around something like that."
"And?"
"Relationships have to be based on something that benefits the people involved. There has to be, like a…a mutual respect or trust between them; one has to accept and respect the other's feelings and views on where they were going. If they don't respect boundaries, then they won't be able to accept one another."
"Go on."
"And even if there was no issue from other people…I didn't want to trap anyone in a life that wasn't to their benefit. She might've wanted more than I did not at the time…and I wasn't going to hold her back from doing what she wanted."
As the ointment finished mending her arm, Vambre asks, "And how could you possibly know what she wants?"
"I don't," he responds. "I just wasn't going to hold her back."
"That's very selfish of you…in a selfless manner."
"Well, what would you have done?"
"I would have done this."
Shinji was surprised by Vambre moving towards him…just to kiss him on his lips. He was really surprised by her action…and his reaction; he kept his personal feelings close to avoid some measure of embarrassment to anyone he was with, but he grabbed Vambre by her left shoulder and kissed back. When they broke it off for a new breath, Vambre sighs.
"Yeah," she says. "I would've done that."
"And just so you know," Shinji replied, "I would've allowed it."
To be continued…
A/N: There was going to be a little more, but my head is spinning and my cough is making it hard for me to get anything done, so I'll end the chapter here. I just tested positive for Covid, so I gotta be careful until I feel better. It's a downer, but I refuse to let it beat me. It's mild, I've been vaccinated and I'm hopeful for recovery. Until next time.