Creation began on 05-30-20
Creation ended on 06-21-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Talismans: Ōta becomes Ground Zero
NERV was not facing the greatest of hardships regarding the sudden restoration of the planet to pre-Second Impact conditions. With former coastal areas no longer underwater and capable of being expanded upon, several countries ravaged by Second Impact were wanting to begin reclamation operations for major reconstruction and re-habitation goals, large moves that, in the eyes of the public, had more interest than funding a paramilitary group tasked with fighting a force that hadn't been seen or heard of for fifteen years. And for Misato Katsuragi, the new operation to find the Third Child and bring him back to NERV HQ had hit a stopgap when she had arrived in Ōta to help find him. There didn't seem to be any place of significance that he might try to hide from his father or the paramilitary, except this antique shop his file spoke of.
"So, this is Auntie's Rare Antiquities, huh?" She wondered aloud, standing in from the shop, seeing some people that appeared to be working there. "Hello?"
A teenage girl by the counter looked up at the woman from her magazine and responded, "Welcome to Auntie's, where we try to hold onto the past to not lose the future. How may I help you? Buying or selling?"
"Neither," she told the girl. "I'm looking for someone. Shinji Ikari. I was told he works here."
The girl, probably in her late-teens, with short, black and silver hair, green eyes, dressed in a blue blouse and red skirt, looked at Misato like she was irritated just to know the reason behind her presence here.
"He ain't here," she told her.
"It's really important that I know where he is," Misato expressed.
"He ain't here, and I don't know where he is, lady."
Suddenly, Misato was backed up by four men in suits and shades.
"Do you have any idea where he might be?" She asked the girl, and then noticed her name tag read "Serpentina". "Serpentina."
"I don't know where that kid is…and I really don't care where he is as long as he doesn't bring his family madness here. I hear the name 'Ikari', and I know the whole family is nothing but bad blood, and anyone that associates with those people is just asking to sell their soul away for pyrite and broken hearts."
Okay, this lady clearly has no interest in telling us anything, Misato thought.
-x-
Shinji, astral projected once more, watched from the sidelines as Serpentina told Ms. Katsuragi that he wasn't here; Auntie had to explain that Serpentina had very little respect for authority figures due to her father's abuse to the point where she had to run away and ended up in Ōta and establishing her new life after meeting Auntie. Avoiding a life of crime by a mere thread, Shinji believed Serpentina to be one of those bruisers that use force only when necessary to protect themselves and others close to them. He then noticed that she was looking his way, probably seeing his astral form.
"Anyway, the last time I saw Shinji was the day before he left to that Tokyo-3," she told the woman and the suits, "but if you see him, please let him know that he still owes me eighty yen. I will break his nose if he thinks he can avoid paying me back."
Of course, Shinji knew that this was a lie. He didn't owe Serpentina any money; the girl was just trying to get Ms. Katsuragi to leave the shop.
"You don't like him, do you?" Misato asked her.
"It's nothing personal against him. I just think his relatives, and I mean all of his relatives, are a bunch of A-holes. I keep telling him to that he needs to wipe away his past if he wants to be completely free of them. I mean, sever all of his ties with them, get his number changed, throw away that family name that people say his lousy father tarnished and find a new one, change his whole identity if he has to, even."
Shinji sighed as he got the message she was reminding him of to get his last name changed.
"I take my lunch break for an hour, and I come back to find some peace being disturbed?" They heard Dragon say as he entered the shop. "Are they buying or selling, Serpentina?"
"Neither, they just wanted to know where our youngest co-worker was."
"Well, he ain't here. You'll find him at the park. The water fountain there has a calming feel to it whenever he gets pissed."
The woman and suits then left out the shop, and for two minutes, it seemed like everyone could breathe again.
"Honestly, where does NERV get off thinking they can walk in here and expect us to tell them something?" Serpentina questioned.
"Screw them," Dragon responded. "But we told them the truth. Shinji isn't here."
"Yeah, that's right…at least not physically."
Dragon then looked over at Shinji's astral form and chuckled.
Shinji got the message and sank into the floor, back to his body.
-x-
"…It doesn't seem like anyone at that shop will tell us anything about where the Third Child is," Misato told Ritsuko over the phone. "It's like they closed ranks or something regarding him. We so much as ask for his whereabouts and they deny knowing anything about where he might be hiding."
"Well, I've sent you everything we found about Historia Rekishi," Ritsuko responded. "She probably calls all the shots regarding the work staff there, meaning she more than likely looks out for all of them, including the Third Child. In addition, it would seem that some of her employees had bought desired artifacts off her some time ago, but they still choose to work at her shop, either as janitorial or as security, even."
"What, does she have some kind of hold over them?"
"No, they merely choose to work there. Some of them did some time in prison and couldn't find much employment with their records held against them. This woman allowed them to work at her shop so long as a second chance was what they desired. Sometimes, they need someone willing to give them a chance to redeem themselves."
Misato was parked down the street from where the antique shop was, on the lookout for any sign of Shinji, if he was there.
"Were you able to find out anything on her employees?" She asked Ritsuko.
"Mainly just the ones with criminal records," Ritsuko responded. "They're all model parolees with no further run-ins with the law. The only thing wrong that isn't even a crime is the flexibility that Ms. Rekishi allows with their names."
"What about their names?"
"None of them really like to go by their real names. They're in their employment records, but the woman allows them to go by whatever name they want to be called so long as it's not offensive or derogative. One of her female employees goes by 'Serpentina', for example."
"Yeah, I met her at the shop. She really doesn't seem to care about the boy's whereabouts. What did she do time for?"
"She was charged with attempted murder in the second degree for trying to murder her father who was abusing both herself and her mother. She was twelve when she was arrested. Would've served twelve-and-a-half years were it not for her mother defending her actions, so her sentence was reduced to eight. She was paroled three years ago and has since relocated to Ōta."
"Do all of her employees have names they use over their actual ones?"
"All except the Third Child. He probably hasn't come up with a name he likes to replace the one he was born with."
Tap, tap. She looked to her side window and saw a man with green hair and a fang-like tattoo under his right eye.
"Hold on a minute," she told Ritsuko and then lowered her window. "Yes?"
"If you're going to do surveillance on Auntie's shop," the man told her, "you might want to try using a car that doesn't make you look conspicuous. You stand out a mile away."
Then he left her alone, apparently heading towards the shop.
"I think I just got made, Rits," she told her friend. "The shop probably has countersurveillance for anyone trying to find someone."
-x-
"Hey!" A man with green hair and a fang tattoo under his right eye cheered as he walked into Auntie's. "Cobra Moss is back from the parole office!"
Serpentina looked up from a magazine on the counter and gave him a small smile.
"You're the only one I know here that got ten years for robbing a convenience store, and you didn't even steal any money," she expressed. "Cobra Moss, did you see anyone out there that didn't belong?"
"A woman, late-twenties, early-thirties, purple hair, kinda hot, drives a blue Renault and whose breath reeks of alcohol. She was parked down the street from here, clearly looking for someone."
"She's looking for our resident brat, Shinji."
"I thought I was the brat, Serpentina. Sheegwa and I. Shinji, he's the only one that I know doesn't find me funny."
"Maybe if you said something to make him laugh once in a while, he'd find you funny. Until then, you're resident prankster instead of a comedian in the making."
Cobra Moss, another parolee that was now serving community time after spending his teenage years behind bars for robbing a store for the equivalent of eighty-six dollars in food stuffs because his guardians had neglected to feed him for almost a week, sighed as he got behind the counter with Serpentina and put his name tag on his shirt. It was his miracle that he was able to find employment at Auntie's shop and begin his road to redemption and being his own man of independence. He hadn't been able to make Shinji laugh at any of his jokes yet, but he was getting better every time, and he was able to begin the harder steps to living on his own due to Auntie's aid. He chose Cobra Moss as his name due to his actual name being a weight on his chest that he had to escape, inspired by an old picture he had seen of a cobra slithering on a tree trunk covered in moss, and thus making his chosen name more than just his designation.
"How'd it go with your parole officer?" Serpentina asked him.
"He was impressed that I was able to stay out of trouble for the whole year," he answered.
"You've had the motivation to stay out of trouble."
"I owe Auntie everything."
"What you owe Auntie is your conviction to find the balance between the light and the darkness. Don't forget the prize you seek that awaits you on this path."
"Hard work and patience pays off in the end."
-x-
"I found another name to add to the list, Auntie," went Shinji as he scrolled through the old books listing dozens of demons. "Po Kong."
"Same here, Shinji," she responded, writing the name down. "Tso Lan."
"That makes eight."
"And now the picture is clear. Bai Tza and Shendu. They're siblings in a group of eight demons that ruled the ancient world. They used magic derived from fire, water, earth, wind, moon, thunder, sky and mountain. They ruled with brutality and viciousness until they were banished by the Eight Immortals of China."
"So the woman that turned into a mermaid-like creature was the Bai Tza of the Demon Sorcerers of China."
"Which would mean that it's likely she and the other seven demons are in this world, as well. The question is, will we see them if they decide to come here?"
"She wanted my Sheep Talisman. But can they find where the talismans are hidden?"
"It's unlikely. Only Shendu would know where they are, as he had the means to find them. But if Shendu is here, and the talismans are separate from him, then this old tale is also true: Shendu's former subjects betrayed him and took the talismans from him, scattering them to the four corners of the globe in the hopes of insuring that he could never return to power, imprisoning him in the form of a statue. I have nine of the talismans. You have one, which leave two unaccounted for."
"The tiger and the dog."
"Neither of which would suffice for the Fire Demon. The Dog Talisman affords the holder immortality while the Tiger Talisman affords balance. Predominantly spiritual balance. If magic-wise, then the Tiger Talisman must also serve as a way to balance out the other eleven talismans when Shendu has them. The Rat Talisman, however, would provide Shendu, if he's still a statue, with animation."
"Power-wise, Auntie, I wouldn't suspect anyone other than myself of wanting the Rat and Tiger Talismans. Animation and spiritual balance aren't useful powers for someone wanting to make power grabs."
"Mainly because, unlike you, Shinji, others that think solely of power for the sake of establishing some form of dominance, aren't open to the possibilities of what can be achieved with abilities that can't be used the way they would desire them to work. What of you and the Sheep Talisman, Shinji? How do you use an otherwise 'useless' power in a way that benefits you?"
"In the beginning, it was just to get away from the people I couldn't stand to be around, then it became a means to get lost in the world without ever getting caught, just to explore the places I may never go to, to be around people I may never meet in person, and now, I can just gather information without being seen or heard, know things I wouldn't know otherwise without the talisman. Where some see it as a useless power, I see it as a way to escape. Where some choose to view it as an unappreciative ability that could serve a cause, I choose to view the ability as a means to serve a cause by being the one that can get close to someone as possible without being seen or heard. The sheep that can observe more than others anticipate without harm…is greater than the wolf that hides in sheep's clothing."
"Well spoken, Shinji. I think that's why the sheep finds you the one most suited to possess it."
Shinji reached under his shirt and pulled out the talisman, seeing it glisten for a second. He was like a sheep, being that he wasn't a combative person, despite his zodiac sign being a snake, which meant he was more likely to be whatever his zodiac sign stated he was to be. Why would he be a snake when he was akin to a sheep, the kind that people could overlook and ignore? He didn't need the attention that he was getting from NERV because his father couldn't accept that he wanted nothing to do with their agenda.
"There's a chance that they'll come here for the talismans if they're out in the world," he told Auntie; if this Shendu was around, he'd likely want to get the talismans back, as well.
"I may be half-Japanese and half-American, but I know all things Asian and beyond, Shinji," she told him. "Now that we know who and what we're dealing with, we know how to send them back to the realm they were originally banished to the first time round…and the way to send them back still works, regardless of how many times they've been banished before."
Shinji nodded in acceptance; he trusted Auntie, so he respected her confidence in being able to safeguard the talismans and other ancient relics that were…not for the unprepared or inexperienced that sought them out.
"If Ōta becomes ground zero, then we'll be prepared to defend ourselves from whoever dares to threaten us, be they human or demon," she declared.
And I'll help in any way that I can, Shinji decided.
-x-
Misato was fortunate enough to find a motel in Ōta as she crashed for the night. Her orders still were to locate the Third Child and bring him back to Tokyo-3, but the lack of aid from those at the antique shop left results to be expected. She found it difficult for that brat to accept that he was needed to defend the human race against the Angels or risk being exterminated…and he'd be held accountable for his refusal.
"The Hell with fate," she recalled Shinji say to her before he got on the train and rode off after the riot ended in the favor of the people that wanted to leave the fortress city after that creature attacked. "I will not go back to NERV, no matter what that man says!"
As she got ready to shower, a knock at her door came, and she went over to answer it.
"Who is it?" She asked.
"Just dropping off a message, Katsuragi," a female voice responded outside, and Misato saw a piece of paper get slipped under the door. "You shouldn't try to pressure Shinji into doing something he doesn't want to do. It just proves that NERV is a soulless agency that swallows the innocence of children by feeding them into a life of conflict. He's among those that are lucky enough to escape it."
"What?!" Misato gasped as she opened the door, but the person had left before she could identify her. "What was she talking about?"
She reached down and picked up the paper.
"Shinji's better off left alone by his father and anyone associated with him. Just back off and walk away. Bury the past, because no good can come of it."
As much as Misato wanted to believe that, she doubt Gendo would permit Shinji to walk away from NERV so long as he lived.
To be continued…
A/N: Honestly, I felt rushed to complete this chapter as I try to update other stories while revising other stories. Now that the poll for this story had a positive outcome of what should happen with Shinji, it can progress towards that choice as time passes. Until next time.