Sokila, idly eating from a bowl of noodles, quietly looked between her two new paintings.
"Hmm..."
One depicted Ryoji Kaji, wearing a noose(?); the other showed a faceless woman with a computer monitor for a head, with scales of justice hanging from her hand.
"...I wish Kaji-san didn't have to be sad...and why does the Computer Lady keep asking such hard questions...?"
She suddenly frowned.
"I...have to go potty...?"
The girl looked around with a sudden panic.
"When's the last time...?! Oh no, I'm a big girl, gotta be a big girl, we need a potty in here...!"
There was a sudden shift. Adjacent to the open-air kitchen, a door had manifested in the wall, bearing recognizable symbols.
Sokila's eyes brightened. "YAY!" In the blink of an eye, she had occupied the restroom, closing the door behind her.
On the stage, Igor chuckled. "Another shift...I wonder what synchronicity inspired this new change...?"
The faint haze of blue began to brighten-
xxxx
/Wednesday: September 2, 2015/
/Misato's Apartment, Tokyo-3/
Shinji Ikari abruptly sat up — idly noting the digital clock which read 05:57 — with a bewildered sense of panic. "Wha...?" Snapshots of the previous evening came back: having dinner at Misato's place; Kensuke and Toji returning to the Academy dorms; Misato offering to let him sleep on the couch in the living room, so that they could leave for the old research lab more quickly once morning arrived; all of that seemed secondary to the pressure in his lower abdomen. "...bathroom, bathroom, bathroom," he hissed under his breath. Vaulting over the back of the couch — barely landing on his feet — he speed-walked through the kitchen and past Pen-Pen's refrigerator, all but diving into the washroom. Fortunately, the water closet was empty; he barely had time to put the toilet slippers on before taking care of business. "Ugh..." That was a close call...
Once he was finished, Shinji drearily entered the washroom to clean his hands.
Right at that moment, the bathroom door opened.
Boyish and girlish screams of equal volume sounded throughout the apartment.
xx
Fifteen minutes later, Misato Katsuragi looked at the screamers with an amused expression. "Maybe I should have warned you that Mayumi-chan's a real early riser..."
Shinji refused to look in Mayumi Yamagishi's direction; the bespectacled girl was returning the favor, her bangs overshadowing her forehead.
Mana Kirishima, eating from a bowl of toasted oat cereal with dried fruit, looked at the two with confusion. "What's the big deal? So you accidentally walked in on each other in the washroom. Whoopty-doo."
"Oh, but that's precisely the big deal," joked Misato, enjoying the unexpected bout of mutual embarrassment. "At least their screams were loud enough to wake both of us up."
"I thought we were under attack," griped Mana, glaring at both Shinji and Mayumi. "You even had a towel on, so it's not like you were completely naked."
"That's not the point, Mana-san," whispered Mayumi, glancing at Mana without even daring to look in his direction. "It's...embarrassing..."
Misato suddenly grinned behind her coffee mug, taking a sip before asking, "Tell me, Shinji-kun: what do you think of Mayumi-chan?"
Mayumi's whine was muffled by her hands.
Shinji wisely took a bite of his ochazuke, chewing the cooked rice slowly so as to gather his thoughts...
(Little did he know: at NERV HQ's barracks, Asuka Langley-Sohryu suddenly sat up in her temporary bed, her lips contorting into a frustrated pout. "Why do I feel the sudden urge to smack a baka...?")
...and, having dealt with plenty of teasing amongst his friends (plus some important lessons in what not to say from his experience with Toji, Kensuke, and especially Kaworu), managed a decent answer. "Yamagishi-san is an important friend to me. We've been through a lot, both together and with our other friends."
Misato wasn't buying it. "I'm talking about what just happened."
"...well..." He briefly glanced in Mayumi's direction; she still wasn't looking at him. With her mortified expression in mind, he knew what to say. "...I don't think she's comfortable with this topic, Misato-san...and I don't think I am, either..."
Misato's gaze was strangely shrewd; only the sound of Mana chewing her cereal and Pen-Pen eating from a bowl of sardines filled the awkward silence. Finally, she leaned back with a satisfied expression. "A very respectable answer: not bad. If you had tried to be lewd, I would have had to teach you a lesson in manners."
Shinji blinked. "...but that would have been rude-"
"I still remember what being a teenager was like, you can't fool me!"
Mana shot Misato a curious expression in response to the woman's outburst. "Well, I have no idea what you're talking about; maybe you were the lewd one, or whatever."
Shinji decided to turn back to his breakfast, ignoring the betrayed look Misato shot towards Mana. Looking back at Mayumi, he noticed her quietly mouth 'thank you' at him. So as to spare Misato the opportunity to launch into another bout of teasing, Shinji settled for silently nodding instead of answering.
(Little did he know: Asuka Langley-Sohryu suddenly felt the odd feeling pass. "...huh. Maybe it was just a weird dream..." Sighing, she lay back down on her bed to at least get a bit more sleep in...)
All things being equal, Shinji felt like he had just been surprisingly charismatic...
Once the quartet of humans in Misato's kitchen finished their breakfast, the woman slammed her hand on the dinner table. "Okay. Here's our itinerary for the day." Pulling out an old road atlas of Japan, she opened it to Tochigi Prefecture. "Mt. Nyoho is about a hundred and eighty kilometers from Tokyo-3," she said, pointing to the forested peak in question. "Based on Kaji's notes, there's an old road leading from Prefectural Route 169...but given the change in the political situation, I think travel between prefectures is being closely monitored now, so I figure it would be best for us to just head there through the Metaverse. We can hop back into reality once we get close to the vicinity...hopefully it isn't in a cognitive void, because Tochigi Prefecture got hit by a lot of them in 2010..."
"...are you expecting to run into something?" asked Mayumi.
Crossing her arms, Misato sternly remarked, "I honestly don't know...I never really thought that deeply about how Kaji saved Pen-Pen all those years ago...but with him, his Shadow, the association with Mister P...and the uncanny resemblance..." She trailed off, looking down at her pet.
The penguin in question looked up quizzically, a sardine hanging limply from his beak. "Wark?"
"...I just want answers. And since Kaji decided to bail, this is my next best bet." Looking at the trio of kids, Misato forced a grin to her face. "So: if it's a simple milk run, we can take the time to train afterwards. If it turns out there's something gnarly that's snooping around...well, live combat beats training anyhow."
Mana smiled grimly. "At least it's a change from the usual mission."
Shinji simply nodded, accepting the circumstances for what they were. (Plus, he couldn't deny being interested in potentially finding out more about the mysteries around Kaji and Mister P.) "So...do you want me to try and teleport all of us?"
"Nah," immediately said Misato, waving her hand back and forth. "I'd rather you be fresh instead of spending energy trying to move us to a place you've never been. Anyhow, I know you've got that Titan Persona, so I was figuring we could just ride on him." When Shinji's face went slack, Misato's eyes narrowed. "...you do still have him, right?"
"...well, not right now."
"...I feel like I should be questioning this more, but do you have any other Persona that could serve as a lift?"
Shinji thoughtfully looked up at the ceiling. "Well..."
xxxx
Shortly thereafter, within the Metaverse, a giant stone cow with flesh that felt like paper mache was walking through the woods, ignoring irritated Archetypes as they fled the vicinity of its hooves.
Misato, sitting in Tokoyo's lap upon Akabeko's back, couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, I'm not even gonna pretend I know how your powers work...but they're sure convenient."
Mana, standing atop Akabeko's head, gazed towards the horizon; though there were isolated pockets of empty voids here and there, the majority of places reflected the local cognitions of people and places: a hodgepodge of mental diversity in a homogenous society. "At our current rate, we should make it there in a couple of hours!"
Mayumi, kneeling between Akabeko's shoulder blades, quietly ran her fingers along the Persona's red 'skin'; Armisael's halo lazily spun, while the black stone above her head chimed every so often. "Hmm...despite its size, it has a lot of Support Skills...resistances and weaknesses are...hmm. I see..." The girl briefly adjusted her monocle. "I wonder what correlations there are between its abilities and the Aizu legends..."
Shinji, lying on his Persona's beefy yet meatless neck, simply stared at the red and black sky of the cognitive world. I wonder what we'll find at this place, he wondered to himself. Although the back of his mind idly focused on walking through the woods (for he was Akabeko, and vice-versa), his conscious went in numerous different directions: what would they find at this research facility; how were Toji and Kensuke doing; he still needed to finish his summer homework, too; the next term was starting next Monday...and on and on. Well, at least I still have a little while until I have to worry about school...
xxxx
/Principal's Office, Junior High Branch, Hakone Academy/
"...this song feels a bit forced," remarked Asuka Langley-Sohryu, arms crossed beneath her navy blue cape.
Principal Keel Lorenz, hands folded in front of his face, simply remarked, "My enjoyment of classical music remains regardless of your presence, Miss Sohryu."
"...I suppose that's a fair enough."
"I must admit, your outfit is quite striking," observed Principal Lorenz, visor briefly whirring with the subtle whine of electricity. "Custom-made?"
Asuka grunted, adjusting the brim of her peaked cap. "You could say that."
Sister Mary Makinami lightly tapped her on the head. "Behave," she said, with less heat and intensity than usual. The religious sounded...tired.
Then again, given the news that had broken yesterday, Asuka mused that the woman deserved to be worn out. So this 'Smiling Traitor' tried to whack the Pope. Which said volumes about the strength of Tohru Adachi, because her 'spar' (if it could even be called that, instead of a largely one-sided beatdown) with Namatame had shown the man to be powerful in his own right. I wonder where he'll attack next...?
Her Other quietly tapped at her arms.
"Be honest with your motivation."
The Beast quietly cracked her knuckles.
"You want to show that your suffering has meant something."
Keel picked up on Mari's gloom. "I heard the news about what happened in Italy when I woke up this morning. A tragedy, what happened to Taro Namatame; I sincerely hope that he recovers soon," he said gently, the perfect picture of diplomacy.
"...you used his name," acknowledged Mari, briefly wiping at her eyes. "Do you know him?"
"Only in a professional sense," explained the principal. "I had looked into establishing an educational institution around the turn of the century in Tokyo, after my successes in Russia. I was even willing to accomodate the Archdiocese of Tokyo on the matter of religious instruction, since they had been the most amenable at the time to my proposals...unfortunately, when Second Impact happened, those plans didn't materialize. It was only after setting up new schools in America and China that I tried my hand once more with Japan, with this very institution."
"You sound quite dedicated," kindly said Sister Mary.
Keel leaned back in his chair, mildly grimacing from the effort. "There are few things I take pride in. Being able to help the next generation see to their true potential is one of them...the occasional difficulty aside. But making sure they have a chance to see it is an imperative."
"Which is why me attending is a waste of time," grumbled Asuka. "I'm more useful on the battlefield. Making me attend school alongside a bunch of children keeps me from doing what I do best."
"Ah; you're one who has embraced the title of 'child soldier' with some vigor, haven't you? More heated than Ayanami, less reticent and meek than Ikari." Asuka didn't know if he was criticizing her, but she kept her mouth shut nonetheless. "But you also don't come across as a brute or a ruffian...which is why, more than most, you should be aware of the limitations of man."
Asuka arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Keel's sigh was a tired thing, almost rusty in character: the sound of age made manifest, trying to continue on in a vehicle that was way past its warranty. "Men are not gods, no matter how hard they try. We are incapable of abandoning our weaknesses and faults in their entirety; children often dream of perfection, only to fall short time and time again. Helping them understand that their best is still exceptional, even if imperfect...that is something I can be content with, as a principal. And you should know that lesson as well: a young girl like yourself, thrown through battle after battle without reprieve? That sounds like the recipe for madness."
"He speaks wisdom, Miss Sohryu," whispered Mari.
"...can I at least have a waiver from attending every single class?" grumbled Asuka, already sensing that trying to resist any further would be a lost cause.
"Ayanami and Ikari have no such waiver, and neither shall you," bluntly said the principal. "Fortunately, our educational staff is quite flexible, and you will doubtless find peers to help you with the material...even if I half suspect that the only subject you'll find difficult is Japanese language."
Asuka huffed. "Hiragana and katakana are syllabaries, so they shouldn't be too difficult. The kanji...I'll manage." Stupid squiggles. Having a symbol for each freakin' word is so...inefficient!
The principal couldn't help but chuckle. "You are not the first European to express distaste with the Japanese language. I'm sure you'll find a way to persevere." He pushed forward a pamphlet containing numerous notes about the Academy, its layout, the schedule, and numerous other tidbits of useful information. "You'll be assigned to Class 2-A with your fellow Evangelion-users; Fuyutsuki-sensei will be here shortly to give you a tour of the grounds. By tomorrow, you'll have your assigned dorm as well."
"It's not ready?" asked Asuka with a frown.
"We generally process room changes in the week before the next term begins; there are those who transfer out; those who transfer in; students who request room changes because of 'irreconcilable' differences...and so on and so forth. The students will all be notified of any changes tomorrow."
"...I'd be just fine in NERV's barracks." I've been practically living by myself for years, with only Mari as my minder. I'd be fine.
Keel seemed unconvinced. "A child like you, in the prime of her youth? You should be interested in forging connections, and establishing bonds; after all, man was not meant to be alone."
"A wonderful reference." Sister Mary suddenly grinned, looking more akin to her perky self. "Imagine if you were finally whisked away by the winds of a youthful romance!"
Asuka's nose curdled. "Ew. I bet all the brats in my year will be too busy falling over themselves to try and actually pursue me." I'll be too busy fighting to waste time with that nonsense anyhow.
Her Other and the Beast were both silent.
The principal, surprisingly, loosed an amused chuckle at her bravado. "It is the way of youngsters, to be so cocksure about their path, to believe they know where they'll be going...yet the road is long and winding. Take yours truly, for example: in my early decades, I founded think tank after think tank, using the returns on my investments to try and pave the way to the future through funding of scientific investments, advanced research, and social renewal initiatives...and yet, a bit of charity work at one school was all it took to realize what I wanted to do with the rest of my life." With a tired sigh, Keel Lorenz gazed at the ceiling with a strange sense of longing. "The man of my youth would consider me unrecognizable...yet the proceeds I gained from selling off my various research institutes enabled me to pursue this unlikely path. So don't be too set in your ways, Miss Sohryu: you never know what unusual opportunities will cross your path."
"...I'll consider it," said Asuka, relenting on the matter. Letting him think otherwise won't do any harm...just so long as I can eventually get out of here. "Do you ever wonder, though? About your old life?"
Keel Lorenz shrugged. "I bothered with it, for a time: watching which policy institute did what, observing as NGOs merged and fragmented and changed...but by the time I was founding my third academy, I simply lost interest. They had served their purpose to me...and now, I had something more important. Whatever became of those organizations...is in the hands of those who followed in my footsteps. Yet I certainly wouldn't dare to think that I could control where they ended up walking."
"They probably wouldn't listen to a 'mere' school principal," joked Asuka.
Keel chuckled at her verbal jab. "Such is the way of things: an educator — even a successful one — is rather droll in comparison to the Director of a research institute, or a Senior Fellow at a public policy think tank, or the Board Member of an NGO...but those days are long behind me."
xxxx
/Meanwhile, in Tochigi Prefecture/
The sight of numerous cognitive voids dotting the forested mountains of northwest Tochigi had prompted Misato, Shinji, Mana, and Mayumi to return to the real world. After emerging outside of Nikko's city limits, they had gone on foot along Prefectural Route 169, eventually finding the old road Kaji's notes had mentioned. The mountainous path was overgrown with vegetation; combined with the occasional roadblock and warning sign that they were trespassing on private property, it lent a distinct, dystopian vibe to the area.
"...should we really keep going...?" wondered Mayumi aloud.
"This place was shut down back in 2008, so it's not like there's anyone here to complain," remarked Misato, walking with a steely sort of confidence.
Eventually, they came across a plaque that had been bolted into a large boulder, serving as a landmark; Mana used the tip of LABRYS to clear away the moss and thick overgrowth, revealing a discolored and rusted sign; however, there were both Japanese characters and Latin letters on it. "What does it say?"
Shinji leaned forward, eyes squinting as he tried reading it aloud. "...You are now entering the Himmel Research Institute...a proud subsidiary of...SEELE...?"
His Other looked up with alarm.
The Beast trembled with excitement.
"Yup. That's the place Kaji investigated," said Misato with a confident nod, her eyes turning back towards the road that sloped upward along the mountainside. "Kind of hard to forget an odd name like that."
xxxx
A certain trio calmly traversed through dimensions; the primal chaos of the Sea of Japan hovered beneath them, a cross between roiling waters, empty nothingness, and orange color without light.
Suddenly, the one in the lead blinked, as a voice filtered through the back of his head. "...huh." His confusion gave way to a sudden grin. "I know where the Boy Wonder is...out in the wild, eh? Might as well have some fun."
The other two nodded wordlessly, and the trio veered onto a vector towards Tochigi Prefecture.
xxxx
/Outskirts of Himmel Research Institute, Tochigi Prefecture/
Mana Kirishima had briefly entered the Metaverse to scout ahead; whilst waiting, Misato had been reading up on HRI and its parent organization of SEELE, cross-referencing Kaji's notes on her phone and whatever public records were available. "Interesting...not a lot of stuff available on Japanese websites, but SEELE still has some web presence in Europe...albeit archived on old historical websites."
"Archived?" asked Mayumi.
"SEELE was apparently a rather big NGO in the last few decades of the 20th century, bankrolling various think tanks and research institutes in various areas of interest...huh. The founder of SEELE was apparently your school principal."
"Principal Lorenz?" said Shinji with a blink.
"Yeah; however, he had sold off his controlling interest to bankroll his educational institutes by the early '90s...might have dodged a bullet too, because it was headquartered in Vienna during Second Impact," Misato said with a grimace.
Mayumi's face immediately curdled with grim knowledge; when Shinji asked what was wrong, the bespectacled girl remarked, "Vienna was the capital city of the country of Austria...but after Second Impact, there was only a Dead Zone left in its wake."
"...oh." Nothing more needed to be said; the great sphere of blackness shrouding Tokyo-1's cognitive form in the Metaverse came to mind. "I see..."
"SEELE's various subsidiaries — those that survived, at any rate — apparently split off after that, continuing their work, trying to secure funding through other means. Himmel was apparently one of them...but I guess around 2008, their research projects weren't panning out. Kaji...he was an inspector working for the Japanese government at the time, charged with looking into various contractors to make sure nothing shady was going on. Real 'hush hush' kind of stuff."
"...how did he get into owning a bar, then?" asked Shinji.
The older woman huffed, her expression immediately evoking a confrontational aura. "That's...a story for another time, kid. Anyhow: Kaji was sent to this place to look into their finances, because the government wasn't getting results in return for their grant money. Their animal cognition experiments hadn't gone anywhere, either...this was the place where he found Pen-Pen, rescuing him before he could be euthanized." Placing her hands on her hips, Misato looked ahead down the winding road, her face becoming surprisingly melancholy. "It's weird...I'd always wondered what sort of place Pen-Pen had come from. Hard to believe I'm finally going there." Before she could say anything else, the edge of LABRYS broke through the air ahead of them; as Mana stepped out into reality, Misato asked, "How does it look?"
Mana grimaced, rotating her shoulders to get the tension out. "There are some voids, but it looks like the interior is largely intact..." She trailed off, briefly glancing over her shoulder towards her shield. "...I think AIGIS can tell me which spots to avoid."
"Well that's handy. And how's the cognitive condition of the place otherwise?"
The child soldier shook her head. "Probably best to stay in reality for now. The place is crawling with Gashadokuro Archetypes."
Recognition flashed over Misato and Mayumi's faces. "Yeah, not in the mood for the Bone Zone," said the former.
When Shinji tilted his head with confusion, Mayumi was quick to explain. "In folklore...they're giant skeletons, born from the souls of ghosts that died with anger and pain in their hearts. But..."
"But what?" asked Shinji.
"...in those old stories, a gashadokuro usually only formed from mass graves, such as on battlefields, or in plague-stricken villages, where there weren't enough people left behind to give the dead proper funeral rites..." Looking ahead along the path, the girl muttered, "So...if that sort of cognition is present...what could have caused it...?"
The implications were not lost on anyone. Even if this place was going through hard times...would that have been enough to cause this, mused Shinji as he look at the overgrown road; the overlying canopy of the forest, shading them from the sun, all of a sudden seemed unsettlingly sinister. What happened after Kaji-san took Pen-Pen away from this place...?
There was only one way to find out.
With Mana at the lead, the four humans quietly made their way past an old gate, eventually finding the Himmel Research Institute itself: next to a small parking garage appeared to be a U-shaped office complex, with three stories in total. However, the base of the U seemed to delve further into the adjacent mountainside for at least a hundred meters. As such, the courtyard between the two prongs was overshadowed by the overhang, lending an oddly ominous air to the structure. The angled solar panels along the exposed rooftops seemed to have done little good; whatever lighting had been in place to alleviate the oppressive air was long defunct. With weeds growing through the stonework and vines crawling over the exterior masonry, the aura of human decay reclaimed by nature was palpable.
It would have been less foreboding had there been any wildlife. The lack of birdsong, squirrels, deer, or other forest fauna spoke of ill tidings.
"...this place is creepy," murmured Mayumi. "I feel like we're in a horror novel..."
"That's called a jinx, Mayumi-chan," muttered Misato, even as she quietly pulled out an HK USP handgun and a combat knife from her red bomber jacket. She held them in a 'close quarters combat' pose, with the knife pointed down from the grip. "Slow and steady."
Shinji quietly kept his eyes and ears open, wondering why such a place seemed so empty.
Mana led them around a few seemingly empty spots ("Void," she would say aloud, as her shield seemingly glistened for an instant) before bringing them to a side door; Misato was able to pull it open, as whatever security systems had been present were no longer functioning. The security station was empty, and the sliding doors — their magnetic locks inoperable — gave way with ease. The interior wouldn't have been out of place in a downtown office building, save for the thin layer of dust covering the floors and fixtures. Save for ambient light leaking in through the exterior windows, "...so, where to?" asked Mana.
"If this place was conducting cognitive experiments on animals, there has to be a monitoring station somewhere; that'll be our first stop. If the power from the solar panels isn't reaching them, then we'll have to look for the backup generator...and if none of them are working, then we'll just loot the place for whatever's of interest," she said, jostling the straps of a backpack she had brought along for just that purpose. With a joking wink, she added, "Just don't get inspired to become a mad scientist from whatever we find, okay~?"
"I've honestly never seen a scientist get mad," remarked Mana. "Cocky, arrogant...cold, aloof...frightened out of their minds whenever I went berserk, early on. But mad? Not really."
That idle comment darkened the entire mood. "...do...do you mind if I give you a hug, Mana-san?"
"Go for it if you want," she muttered, not resisting as Mayumi briefly embraced her from the side.
Misato huffed, lowering her weapons for an instant so she could pat Mana on the head. "Let's keep going. Keep an eye out for any directions."
They quietly moved along, eventually entering a larger foyer that served as as an open break room of sorts; between stairs and elevators leading to the upper floors, old vending machines, and comfortable furniture, it would have seemed pleasant...were it not for the scattered papers and the fact some of the chairs had been overturned to form impromptu barricades. "...people must have been in a hurry..."
Mana, without asking for permission, promptly took the sharp edge of LABRYS to pry open the vending machines; with harsh snaps, she broke the locks, unveiling the contents to them all.
"Mana-san, what are you doing?" asked Shinji.
"Grabbing whatever's good," said Mana, ignoring foodstuffs that had doubtlessly spoiled without refrigeration, focusing instead on dry snacks, water, and various sodas. "Why let it go to waste?"
"Mana-san, that stuff has to be so old!" protested Mayumi.
"No no, she has a point." Misato promptly pulled off her backpack, opening it up. "Old stuff looted from an empty building that may or may not be haunted? Definitely has a bigger cognitive oomph than what you buy at a store," she joked, watching as Mana grabbed for packages of crackers, dried fruit, hard candy, and gum. "Not too much though, we need to leave some space." Mana grunted in affirmation.
As the two continued, Shinji dryly whispered to Mayumi, "They're kind of alike, aren't they...?"
"In certain bizarre ways, I suppose..."
"...isn't this technically stealing, though?"
While Mayumi hemmed and hawed, Misato retorted, "Finder's keeper's!"
"Yeah, what she said!" agreed Mana.
Shinji and Mayumi could only sigh.
With the brief detour complete, they moved on; fortunately, there was a nearby map on a wall, detailing emergency exits and areas of import. "Main security station is on the third floor, deeper into the mountainside," murmured Misato, trailing her finger over the hard map bolted into the wall. "Animal holding pens are on the first floor...and some place called the 'Auditorium' on the second floor...hmph."
"What's wrong?" asked Shinji.
Her expression was suspicious. "A euphemistic name for a room in a research facility? I don't like it." Patting Mana on the shoulder, Misato gestured for the girl to head up the stairs to the third floor, with the others following.
As they delved deeper, the ambient outside light faded, leaving only dim LED emergency lighting; Misato instinctively turned on the mounted flashlight hanging beneath her handgun's barrel, pointing above Mana's head to illuminate the hallway ahead of them.
(Shinji tried his utmost to ignore how Mayumi impulsively grabbed at his shirt from behind as the light got darker; wisely, he didn't call attention to it.)
However...they eventually got to a point where floor itself had collapsed, leading down to the second floor. The ceiling itself had caved in further beyond, cluttered by manmade materials and rubble from the interior of the mountainside. "...guess we have to go down," murmured Misato.
Mana shook her head. "Can't. There's a void in the way."
Muffling a curse, Misato looked around, trying to think of some way to proceed. Finally, she motioned for them to double back to the nearest office door, which she promptly broke into. Pointing at the adjacent wall, she ordered Mana to open a portal into the Metaverse. "We'll go through the adjacent offices to get around the obstruction...any voids in that direction?"
"None that I can feel," remarked Mana.
"Then let's head into the Metaverse. We'll be quick about it."
Mana did so, slicing into the air and opening a tear in reality.
Shinji briefly glanced around the dark office — the desk with all of its drawers open, revealing papers that had been scattered about; an old computer, which had been smashed onto the floor; an old photo of a man with his family, smiling with such gentility that it mocked their current situation — before entering the tear...
The Beast inhaled.
"What a WONDROUS scent..."
...and coming out into a sepia-toned area which was much more visible, yet subject to much more decay.
The entirety of the complex was akin to a hollow ruin that had been blasted away, with a skeletal frame of steel holding it in place within the mountainside; although some places looked like reinforced bomb shelters from the outside, the whole structure had seemingly rotted away otherwise. This allowed them to see the various cognitive voids that surrounded the facility, the smaller ones that lingered through the inside...and, more importantly, the gigantic human skeletons that walked through the courtyard.
Burning red eyes turned to look at them from afar, with toothy maws stretching wide in ravenous desire.
"Quickly now," calmly said Misato, maneuvering them through the practically nonexistent walls and around the void that Mana mentioned, eventually pulling them back into a decrepit hallway. "Quickly, quickly." The numerous Gashadokuros were now leaning against the frame of the building, reaching in with grasping hands and summoning Tarduk Archetypes, groaning and growling and roaring! "Mana-chan, real world!"
Mana slashed another tear open, holding it open as the smaller skeletal warriors advanced with twin swords at the ready; without hesitation, Shinji followed Mayumi and Misato through the gap...
The Beast chuckled.
"Such paltry things..."
...and back into the dark halls of the real world, on the third floor of the Himmel Research Institute; the former obstruction that had once blocked their way was now behind them. "Good hustle, kids," commended Misato, patting them all on the shoulders. Withdrawing her weapons, she once more aimed with her flashlight. "Anyone need a break?"
"...let's just keep going," murmured Mayumi.
"We could have taken 'em," griped Mana with a bit of frustration.
"If we all let loose? Probably. Do I wanna risk that in a facility that engaged in cognitive experiments? Not really," pointed out Misato. "Let's have a quick snack before moving on."
As Misato lowered her backpack to pull out their recently pilfered foodstuffs, Shinji loosed a tired sigh.
Mayumi noticed this, asking, "Are...are you okay?"
"I'm fine," muttered Shinji, looking around with a weary grimace; save for the singular beacon of Misato's flashlight and the glittering gemstones in Mana's axe and shield, the sole source of light were the small strips of emergency LED lights that dotted the walls, lending a sort of gray tinge to the interior of the complex. "I guess...it's just strange, how during that brief time in the Metaverse, I felt safer than I do now..."
"...I suppose that makes sense," she muttered, hands idly fidgeting with her long skirt. "After all, we can summon Personas there...but you also still have your Evangelion, right?"
"I do," he agreed. Yet why does this place feel so...menacing...? It said volumes, how dark and empty halls in a decrepit building could inspire more dread than a mental hellscape populated by monstrous skeletons...
After a bit more walking — past barricaded doors; through halls that bore scuff marks; along floors that possessed yet more gaps and holes — they finally found a door frame with important markings. "Here's the security room," said Misato.
Shinji couldn't help but notice that the double doors, made of metal at least an inch thick, were bent inwards. "Um..."
"No time like the present." With a brief motion of her head, Mana took the lead; with LABRYS at the ready, she peered into the room. "...all clear."
Misato, Mayumi, and Shinji warily entered after her. "Kids, use your phones for light," ordered Misato, aiming with her handgun's flashlight. Shinji and Mayumi did so, illuminating the interior of the security station with their devices.
At seven-by-seven meters, the cubical room was fairly restrictive, with three desks arranged in an arrowhead pattern to observe walls of television monitors and closed circuit feeds. Some of them had been shattered with blunt instruments. The cause was easily identifiable, alas: a skeletonized corpse was slumped over a terminal, its right hand gripping onto a rusted crowbar; their uniform had long since decomposted, leaving only worn leather boots and a belt behind, along with a wristwatch. Those odd little details only solidified the fact that this had once been a human: a human that had died rather quickly and brutally, judging by how the left ribs were all shattered.
Mayumi audibly gulped. "Um..."
"You kids look at their desks for stuff. I'm gonna see if I can get to any of the storage for the video footage," said Misato, ducking down and prying open a miniature door that exposed the underside of the monitoring terminals. "Hope the lack of use has kept them from decaying..."
As she poked her head inside, the younger trio obeyed her order, looking at the desks which had once been the work stations of security personnel. Little touches of personality could still be seen: one was empty of clutter, with notepads and schedules all in place (the former owner would have doubtless been petrified by the layers of dust); another was cluttered with little trinkets and souvenirs from all over Japan; the third bore a lot of faded photographs of various Japanese of varying ages, with only context indicating that they were members of a singular family. Shinji quietly ran a hand along the edge of one picture, which showed a man ruffling the hair of a younger boy: his son, probably? "I wonder...if his family still remembers him...?"
Mana looked at some of the souvenirs curiously, brushing aside some tattered notepads; she opened one, idly reciting the words. "Saw Dr. Kazama hanging out in the animal pens again. Still won't let go of his proposal that music will enable the cognitive development needed. Was entertaining watching him do an idol number. Will bring up at the next staff meeting...huh." Mana flipped a page. "Miyuki and Noboru were caught on camera being naughty. Again. Only nepotism can explain why the director hasn't fired them yet."
"Oh my," said Mayumi.
Flip. "Bigwigs are concerned that our experiments are resulting in a higher Pattern Blue concentration than our security guarantees allow for. Given recent funding issues, will probably look into transferring. Wonder if Yuri would be willing to transfer with me. He's got a good head on his shoulders. Bit of a tightwad though." As Mana flipped to another portion, she remarked, "It kinda sucks...knowing that these were people. Whoever wrote this seems interesting."
"...who else would they be?" asked Shinji. "Good or bad...people are still people." When Mana grunted, Shinji looked over at Mayumi; she was sitting at the cleanest desk, fiddling with what looked like a handheld recorder of sorts. "Yamagishi-san?" She had opened one of the desk drawers, which contained cotton swabs, a few bottles of isopropyl alcohol, and various battery packs. "What are you doing?"
"Whoever the security personnel was that owned this desk...they were a rather fastidious individual, it seems," she observed. She had pulled out the tiny cylindrical batteries from the tape recorder, and was cleaning out some minor corrosion with the swabs and isopropanol. "Given the presence of a tape recorder...well, I suppose we'll see." Opening a small packet of unused alkaline batteries — grateful that the potassium hydroxide had yet to eat through their steel casing — Mayumi placed them into the recorder...and hit rewind. For long seconds, there was only white noise. "...maybe not...?" However, before long, the high-pitched squeaks of human speech in reverse could be heard. "Oh, it still works!" After letting it go a bit further, she play; after adjusting the volume, the speech finally became understandable.
"-a foolish waste of resources, given the upcoming visit from the government inspector." The man's voice was gruff, and somewhat husky. "Euthanizing the experiments would only undo the years of work spent on their development. Might as well let them loose into the Metaverse, and conduct long-term observational trials...but what do I know? I'm just one of the guys they pay to run their security...Security Lead Yuri Izumi, out." There was a bit of blank space before it picked back up. "June the 2nd, 2008. Inspector Ryoji Kaji has arrived. I'll be on overwatch while Takahashi and Nakamura serve as his escorts. From what I've seen, his sense of personal decorum leaves much to be desired. He does ask a lot of the right questions for his position...though his needling of Director Schäfer for not being upfront with the government is unnecessarily antagonistic."
An audible snort echoed from the front of the room, as Misato emerged from underneath the monitors with a handful of disconnected hard drives and solid state drives. "Looks like Kaji was a hypocrite even back then." As she calmly began placing the pilfered storage materials into her backpack, she muttered, "As if he's anyone to talk about not being upfront..."
Mayumi let the tape continue after a few more seconds of silence. "Still June the 2nd, 2008. Inspector Kaji had an interesting expression when investigating the animal pens, at least from what I could see on camera. Had a strange reaction when told they were going to be euthanized. He requested to see if there was a possibility of bringing one of the animal subjects with him for observational purposes, to see if anything could be salvaged. Even went so far as mentioning that he had a contact in the Anti-Terror Task Force, which is something Himmel doesn't have. Director Schäfer was more than happy to agree, if only for the possibility of obtaining more funding through alternative means. He ended up selecting Subject P-3-November, which is a relatively safe choice; ever since the Contact Experiment, the penguin's cognitive and physiological developments have been simultaneously dramatic and easy to handle. Its relatively docile and inoffensive appearance would be an easy sell to more squeamish civilians as well...Dr. Kazama will probably miss it, though. Time will tell if the inspector's offer will mean anything. Security Lead Yuri Izumi, out."
A complicated expression flitted across Misato's face. "...Kaji never mentioned any of this." The children's looks of curiosity elicited an explanation. "He only said that the animals were all going to be put down after Himmel's current round of experiments, and he wanted to save at least one life..."
"It sounds like there was more to it," commented Mana.
Mayumi continued playing. "June the 3rd, 2008. Standard preparations are underway to secure the complex for tomorrow's new moon. The Shadows of all non-Persona personnel have been sealed and isolated within the Metaverse accordingly. Persona-users are on standby." There was a brief pause. "If only our proprietary method of entering the Metaverse wasn't such a draw on energy...and so time-consuming. Himmel should have focused on making that a viable alternative to the MAGI instead of this whole cockamamie animal thing." The recording abruptly stopped before continuing on a moment later. "Still June the 3rd, 2008. Had to quiet down Takahashi. Apparently he finds me saying 'cockamamie' to be funny. Here's hoping tomorrow's nice and quiet. Security Lead Yuri Izumi, out."
"...2008...the Cognitive Protection Center model was still in its infancy, back then," remarked Misato. "A place like this...I guess they must have made Shadow relocation a condition of employment, so their own security could keep an eye on things. That was a relatively common practice, in the late 2000s..." Which still left the unspoken question of what had happened.
They found out soon enough. "June the 4th, 2008. There's been sightings of an intruder in the Metaverse; some rogue Persona-user in a purple tuxedo with a mohawk, looks like some big bird-man." The four intruders looked at each other with alarm; the man on the tape was clearly talking about Mister P. "All non-security personnel are sealed inside the Auditorium, so they should still be safe. Don't know if this is some rogue or maybe a freelancer engaging in industrial espionage...maybe an animal rights activist who caught wind of our facility? Who knows?" Izumi's sigh was explosive. "...as if we don't have enough issues to deal with..." Izumi's voice trailed off, as the tape began to play alarm klaxons. "Pattern Blue...why is Schäfer ordering a Code Black?!" Cursing, they heard the sounds of Yuri stepping away from his desk; his recorder had apparently been locked to keep going without having to keep a finger on the device. Amidst the shriek of alarms, they heard shattering glass (the sound of a crowbar smashing into monitors and sensitive equipment); then, they heard a monstrous roar, followed by the tearing of metal (the sound of an interloper breaking through the secured doors); another curse, followed by a harsh and meaty blow, a sudden gasp, and then a pained gurgle (the sound of the interloper punching Izumi with enough force to shatter ribs); finally, the shuffling of feet, as something heavy walked away; amidst the alarm klaxons, they could barely make out the sounds of muffled gunshots. After thirty more seconds of hearing nothing but sirens, Mayumi stopped the tape.
Shinji grimaced, turning towards the skeleton. "...that must be Izumi-san, then..."
"Their Director sounded like a piece of work," grumbled Mana.
"...whatever happened during the new moon must have spooked him enough to order the destruction of records," murmured Misato, even as she zipped up her backpack. "Given what we heard on the tape, it was probably an Acolyte...and right after Mister P was found snooping around."
"So he was around even that far back?" wondered Shinji aloud.
"Apparently," murmured Misato, her expression mostly unseen in the sparse light. "They were kind enough to have their drives labelled by date...but I'll have to access them back home." Putting her backpack back on, she then said, "Let's see if we can find the office of this 'Dr. Kazama' that was mentioned. If he was closely involved with Pen-Pen, he might have some personal records."
The trio of children nodded, preparing to leave the dingy monitoring station. Shinji and Mayumi, out of impulsive respect for the dead, clapped their hands once and slightly bowed in the skeleton's direction.
(Little did they know: in the room beneath, an ethereal force overshadowed the remnants of an old thrall; its hollow eyes flashed briefly.)
Before the four could even exit, there was a sudden crack beneath them. Misato didn't even have a chance to shout a word of warning before the whole floor gave way; with shocked screams, they fell into the dark below.
Shinji Ikari barely reacted in time. With panicked eyes, he unleashed his A.T. Field, exerting his will — save them; don't let them die; don't let them get hurt! — and making it manifest.
Before the quartet crashed onto the floor, orange octagons of light flashed into existence, cushioning their fall. Although their momentum halted in an instant, sheer metaphysical shenanigans displaced the force of their fall without directing it back at their own bodies. The sensation of crashing into soft air and coming to a dead stop harmlessly was the best way it could be described. As such, there was only a minor bit of discomfort as his A.T. Field receded, letting them fall the last inch to the ground. "Is everyone okay?!" asked Shinji.
"I'm fine," wearily said Mayumi; amidst the darkness, he could barely make out her silhouette brushing dust off of her skirt. "Mana-san?"
Mana grunted, her movements more readily identified by the glowing red and silver gems of AIGIS and LABRYS, respectively. "I'm good. Katsuragi?"
He could barely make out Misato flashing them a thumbs-up. "Nice save, Shinji-kun!" The woman briefly muttered under her breath — "Good thing I didn't land on my backpack" went unheard — before looking around the dim expanse. "...this is a pretty big room. I think...this must be the Auditorium...?"
"What makes you think that?" asked Shinji.
"Well, according to the map we saw near the stairs earlier...the main monitoring station on the third floor was located right above a place called the Auditorium. This must have been where the non-security personnel holed up during the new moon..." Grumbling, Misato withdrew her handgun, turning on its attached flashlight. "...oh."
Shinji, Mana, and Mayumi all went pale.
"...I think I know what happened to everyone," murmured Misato, pointing at various scattered skeletons. Numbering in the dozens, most of them were located near the middle of the chamber; others looked like they had tried to make a break for it, only to fail. The reason why become apparent. "...that's a deer skeleton."
Everyone followed her light, looking at the bones in question; true to form, the remnants of a cervid lay beside a pulverized human skull. Of particular note was the strange outgrowth between its dried antlers, looking akin to a hollow grimace. "I don't think a deer skull is supposed to look like that," remarked Mana.
Shinji, pulling his phone out, looked around with his own light; the animal skeletons were in much better condition relative to those of the human remains. Although less in number, they displayed great variety: a macaque, a horse, an ostrich, various felines and canines, at least two boars, an ox, and a horse. "The...the animals all have that same feature..."
Mana glanced towards the middle of the chamber. "...point a light over there." When Mayumi did so, Mana followed the beam; large chunks of the floor had been torn open from below, as if beasts had ripped open a cage from the inside. "Think that's where the animals came from?"
"...I'd bet on it," grumbled Misato. "The map said that the animal pens were kept underneath this room on the first floor..." Looking around, she commented, "I bet that's what the Auditorium was for: a reinforced chamber that they could use to exhibit and test the results of their experiments on the animals. Keeping the pens underneath the proverbial stage floor would only make sense...unless something went horribly wrong." Looking at the snarling, almost alien scowl emanating from the skull of a leopard, Misato remarked, "Maybe that's why this Director Schäfer wanted security to start destroying records, if Himmel's work had gone this badly."
Shinji wondered about that; alas, it seemed like they would never find out. "...it feels...wrong, somehow...why would they all grow this kind of feature from their skulls...?"
(Little did they know: the ethereal force began its descent, inhabiting the thrall in its completeness.)
There was a sudden shuffling near the middle of the room. Mayumi squawked with surprise as Misato and Mana immediately took aim with their respective weapons. "SHOW YOURSELF!" demanded Misato.
xx
Atop the rooftop of the Himmel Research Institute, three of Strega's members set down. "They're in here," said Sho Minazuki, his lips contorted into a grin.
"...this place has a horrible feel to it," murmured Musashi Strasberg.
"It kind of feels like Tokita's facility used to feel," quietly whispered Keita Asari.
The leader of the impromptu trio withdrew his swords. "If it'll make ya feel better, we can blow this place up after we're done! Anyhow...time to have some fun-"
"YOU WILL NOT."
The voice – the same voice that had helped lead them here – echoed through his skull. Aw damn it, echoed Sho's thoughts through his own skull. Are you for real?!
"YOUR PRESENCE WILL HELP SERVE AS A SUITABLE VECTOR FOR MY POWER. YOU MAY PLAY WITH THE OTHER LILIM TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT..."
The sensation of twin stars, glaring down at him on high, seared through his blood.
"...BUT THE THIRD CHILD IS MINE."
"...tch. Fine," grumbled Sho, who nonetheless focused on pushing this part of the physical world towards the very edge...
xx
The source of the shuffling revealed itself to be a human skeleton...one that was moving of its own volition.
Misato fired a shot from her handgun; without aplomb, it shattered against the thickest A.T. Field she had ever seen. "The hell?"
The hollow eyes of the skull — a dead human's whose face had transformed into the same sort of grimace that marred the animal skulls — gleamed brightly. "FOOLISH LILIM, RETURNING TO A LAND THAT BELONGS TO THE DEAD."
All four humans went still. That voice...it defied categorization. Thunder? An Avalanche? Such simplistic descriptors failed to capture the essence.
"THIS PLACE, SUBJECT TO MY WRATH, SO VERY LONG AGO: A PLACE WHERE AN INTERLOPER SHOULD HAVE PERISHED; A PLACE WHERE BETRAYAL WAS MADE MANIFEST." As the skeleton spoke, the other skeletons began to rise. "HOW FORTUITOUS, THAT YOU WOULD COME TO THIS PLACE."
Ghosts suddenly rose, eyes glimmering with anger. The usual alert of a Pattern Blue echoed from everyone's phones, enlightening them as to the sudden peril of their situation.
"SO LET US MAKE USE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY, WHILE THE EYES OF OUR OPPRESSOR ARE AWAY!" With the bony snap of its fingers, the strange thrall — nay, the Acolyte, dead and gone for years! — forced a dimensional anomaly upon them all.
As a sepia tone overtook their surroundings, and an orange sheen enlightened the air, Mayumi looked around with shock. "This...what is this...?"
"This feeling," growled Mana, her hands gripping tightly onto LABRYS and AIGIS. "It's...just like at the Olympic Stadium during Minazuki's attack...or in Armisael's Domain...!"
Misato impulsively summoned her Persona; as Tokoyo flashed into existence, Misato's weapons transformed into their Metaverse equivalents. "Get ready for battle, kids-!"
"MY QUARREL IS NOT WITH YOU, WOMAN OF THE SUN," snarled the Acolyte's bones; the distant roar of Tarduk and Gashadokuro Archetypes could be heard, joining the hollow howls of the Ghosts to form a horrific cacophony. "I AM HERE FOR ONE REASON ONLY." The silhouette of a great and terrible face — the Gaze of Death Incarnate — loomed over them, eyes shining brightly; a vacuum suddenly erupted, centered around the possessed skeleton. With terrifying force, the Ghosts and the remains of the dead all swirled around the husk, joined soon after by the titanic forms of the skeletal Archetypes themselves.
"What's going on?!" cried Mayumi, even as she summoned Armisael and clung to its black throne with all her might.
With a stern grimace, Shinji summoned Hamlet; reaching for his waist bag, he withdrew the familiar Bowie knife, causing it and his Monk's Spade to transform into a garden fork and trowel (with the sole exception being that the trowel was now made of a hardier material than before). "Why is that thing here...?"
The Beast leaned in.
"Is it not obvious?"
Its breath was rancid, foul with the stink of alien meat.
"It seethes with hatred."
Blue and black, orange and red: spirit and mind weaved together, empowering the skeleton into something even more tangible; all the while, the physical remnants of the dead were broken down, reforming into something hardier, and more capable. When the spectacle of light finally faded...a singular humanoid stood, no larger than Shinji. It was a being clothed in black shadow, with human proportions and exaggerated shoulders; the strange, distorted grimace that been present on the animal skeletons before was now clean and without blemish, transformed into a Platonic ideal: the form of Death's Face, the Idea of Strength the belonged to the Arm of God. "SHINJI IKARI...I AM ZERUEL." There was an audible crack as the being flexed his fingers. "LET US TEST YOUR MIGHT."
He crossed the meters separating them in a blink, clotheslining Shinji before he could even get a word in edgewise.
xxxx
Far away, in Tokyo-3: a certain penguin sat up with alarm, being disturbed from a very important dream. Oh? Oh...oh. Oh, that's not good.
xxxx
TO BE CONTINUED
xxxx
Author's Note: We started this chapter with awkward anime-style romcom humor, and ended with Big Z dropping in without warning.
I'm sure everything will be fine.