It was quiet and somber, in the Velvet Room.
Sokila sat upon her bed, bundled up such that only her face was visible.
"...there's a lot I wanna talk to you about...like that scary smiling lady...but you have something important to do..."
She stared at him with wide, solemn yellow eyes.
"Your friend...that girl with the glasses..."
She clenched tightly onto her blankets.
"...I really hope you can help her...because you're..."
The faint haze of blue began to...fade away?
There was...something else. A faint song, from...elsewhere, beyond the edge of the Velvet Room. A song sung by a hallowed choir, amidst a sober orchestra with bells and pianos.
Following it, he delved beyond that nexus between dream and reality, mind and matter; through the stars of creation, he descended towards the Earth.
Upon a mountain named 'God's Judgment', there was a glowing ring. Amidst that glowing ring...was a girl. A familiar one, with long hair.
He called out for her, but no words escaped his lips.
Yet still she stirred. "...I...recognize your voice..."
A great cloud of memory swirled about her, detailing events that he had no recollection of...and so many of them seemed to involve the Evangelions. Yet they were not metaphysical constructs empowered by cognition; nor even mental manifolds made real by the spirit: nay, they were great titans of flesh and metal, looming tall over skyscrapers, facing numerous monsters and beasts.
He recalled none of these events; though they struck a twinge of familiarity, the scenes displayed seemed...hollow. Empty. But why?
"I remember...feeling drawn to you...and I don't know why I was...but I was happy..." she murmured. "Even when there was pain...even when I died..."
What was she talking about?
There were memories of various monstrosities of manifold shapes; one in particular seemed to evoke a black and orange slime, hardening and transforming like a chrysalis before blooming into another monster.
"...I don't know why my fate had this in store for me...but these brief moments...made it okay..."
What was she talking about?!
"What-she-speaks-of-is-a-cycle-far-older-than-you-can-fathom," came a new voice: one that mirrored Mayumi's yet seemed alien and detached. "Since-before-the-heavens-were-sundered-in-that-great-cataclysm...we-have-been-one-with-her."
Were they the reason that Mayumi had vanished? Were they the ones responsible?!
"Your-ire-is-unwarranted; we-have-only-done-what-was-required-of-us. That-this-child-was-selected-for-that-burden-is-as-much-a-blessing-as-it-is-a-curse...one-that-would-have-been-unnecessary, were-it-not-for you..."
He didn't understand; what were they talking about?
"...Ikari-san...forgive my poor manners...but your invitation...it made me happy. Not just you...but your friends as well. Aida-san, Suzuhara-san, Mana-san..." Amidst the fog of memories, he thought that he could see a smile. "...it made the inevitable easier to bear with. Thank you...and goodbye..."
At this, he finally found his voice. "This isn't goodbye! We're coming to get you, Yamagishi-san! So please...just bear with it, for just a little while longer!"
"Your-words-cannot-reach-her," echoed the doppelganger, whose face was hidden by a mask of bone. "She-is-now-lost-in-her-own-isolation...if-you-wish-to-help-her...then-surrender-yourself-to-that-same-pain..."
"...no." The words of that thing which wore Mayumi's face...they rang false, somehow. "We're going to save her. And we're going to bring her back! This isn't what she wants...I know it's not!"
The ethereal song faded...and then the voice of the creature as heard by Mayumi Yamagishi shifted, adopting their voice as heard by humanity itself: a great and terrible one that inspired fear at the judgment it entailed.
"If that is what you desire...then come, Champion of Lilith. You will not be blind to where we are."
The haze of blue suddenly reached out for him from behind, and its misty confines began to brighten-!
xxxx
/Friday: August 14, 2015/
/Sojiro Sakura's Residence, Nishiawakura, Okayama Prefecture/
Shinji Ikari sat up like a shot went off. "...what was that...?" Glancing down at his phone, he grimaced; it was only a few minutes after five o'clock. So early...
As he dressed himself — mentally preparing for what was sure to be another day of battle — he quietly tiptoed into the kitchen, only to blink at the people already present. "You're up already?" he quietly said.
Kensuke Aida, Toji Suzuhara, and Mana Kirishima all looked back at him, their colors looking rather muted in the dim ambience of the kitchen lights. "Well...we all kinda woke up about ten minutes ago?" said Kensuke, looking towards the others; they were all eating some leftover rice, soaked in green tea brewed the prior day: a simple breakfast of ochazuke.
"Yeah," agreed Toji. "Not sure why...just felt like I needed to."
Mana huffed, quietly pushing a fourth bowl towards him. "Eat." She was already in her distinctive bodysuit, the black leather pads over vital areas looking a bit more worn than he recalled them being; perhaps it was the contrast provided by the circlet around her head, which was more colorful and eye-catching than the black headband she used to wear. "You need energy."
"Thank you," he said gratefully, sitting down to eat. "...did...any of you have a strange dream...?"
"'Bout what?" asked Toji.
"About...Yamagishi-san." When the trio looked at each other, Shinji pressed on. "So you did."
Kensuke sighed. "Not sure you'd call it a dream...more like I heard a voice, from far away..."
"Honestly, I just got the sensation that you were in trouble. So I woke up," nonchalantly said Toji.
Mana, glancing quietly towards the cabinets that she had rested AIGIS and LABRYS against, said, "I've been...having odd feelings, regarding Yamagishi. Since I first met her. I wondered if it was just me...because she seemed fine otherwise. So I didn't say anything." Her lips contorted into a frown. "I should've said something."
"It's not your fault, Kirishima-san," explained Shinji. "I don't think any of us saw this coming..."
"...so what now?" she asked, staring meaningfully at him.
"We're going to find her. And we're going to bring her back," he answered, with such conviction that the three other children could only nod.
xxxx
Little did they know, but their friend's presence was the locus: the focal point around which Armisael centered itself in reality.
Less than a dozen kilometers away from the old ryokan, the fullness of the Angel prepared to erupt.
sshh
sshh
xxxx
Mana and Shinji, as if by instinct, looked east-northeast. "Did you feel that?" murmured Mana.
"...yes." Shinji drank the last of the green tea from his bowl. "...I think I know where we need to go."
"Even us?" asked Kensuke. "Because last time, it was only you and Ayanami who fought that Angel in Tokyo-3."
"...I think with what I can do with my A.T. Field...I'll be able to bring you with me." The realm of the Angels, after all, had been a place where mind, matter, and spirit coincided. "And...well, if we're going to save Yamagishi...she'll need all of us. Not just me."
"Because we're...friends," said Mana, almost hesitantly.
"I think that's a fair enough claim to make by this point," remarked Kensuke with a smile.
Toji's muted snort said plenty. "After all the crap we've been through on this road trip? It'd better be."
The back door leading outside suddenly slid open. "Well, you're all rather chipper."
The four teenagers balked at the sight of Sojiro Sakura, his old yet nimble fingers gripping onto a mug full of hot water, steeped with a tea bag. "Sakura-sensei," whispered Shinji with wide eyes. "What are-?"
"Even someone like me occasionally likes to start the day with a cup of tea instead of a cup o'joe," he blithely said, taking a tentative sip. "Plus, old fogeys like me tend to be early birds as it is..." Leaning against a nearby countertop, he looked at them with a measured, nonjudgmental gaze. "...you don't look like you want to wake the others up."
"...I think this is something that we have to do," insisted Shinji, with conviction he couldn't properly source. "...whatever happened to Yamagishi-san...she needs people that she's close to in order to save her. And that's us."
"Besides, on a new moon, there's no telling what'll happen around here or elsewhere," offered Kensuke as a means of rational persuasion. "The adults have plenty of firepower between them to protect this place."
Sojiro exhaled wearily. "Hmph. 'Safe.' Bit of a luxury, it seems, when your whole life could be upturned in the blink of an eye." Staring intently towards Shinji, he said, "in normal times...I'd be trying to stop you. But this is the world we live in, where children have to fight...or perhaps that's always been the case," he pondered with a rueful expression, slightly bitter from the passage of time. "The young have always been sent to fight the wars of the old...and that's not even getting to the fact that if you're that determined, there's really nothing I can do to stop you."
"...ya don't have to make it sound like we're that gung-ho," muttered Toji with a frown.
"...but to look at it another way, I see four battle-hardened warriors who are willing to risk everything for the sake of another...so who am I to stand in the way?" With a wry little smirk, he took another sip of his tea. "Boy; you remember what I told you, on the morning after you got here? About growing?"
That last word helped solidify the connection.
(August the 3rd: as a boy and a man shared coffee in the morning and reminisced, Sojiro said, "...regardless of how or why it turned out this way, despite the rumors I hear on the news about life in Tokyo-3...I have to say, you've grown quite a bit in such a short amount of time. And quite frankly, it does this old man's heart good to see it.")
In response to his hesitant nod, Sojiro said, "after observing you in the midst of everything that's gone on since you've returned...you've had to roll with a lot of punches. And yet you keep standing up to take them...so in my opinion, I have to say you haven't just 'grown a bit'...you've grown excellently." He walked back towards the sliding door, opening it to reveal the darkness of early morning. "So do what you have to do. Just make it back alive."
Shinji tried not to sniffle, even as his heart trembled at the honest and since encouragement. So without hesitation, he rose from the table and hugged Sojiro Sakura, burying his head into his chest.
He couldn't see how Sojiro's eyes boggled, but he could hear it in the man's voice. "Whoa, hey now...I've never much been the huggy type."
"...I know." He stepped away before Sojiro could decide whether or not to return his gesture. Breathing deeply to regain composure, he added, "but...after ten years of looking out for me...I think it was overdue." He bowed once, showing his gratitude in a more characteristic way. "Thank you...Sakura-sensei." Rising back up, he said, "this isn't goodbye."
Sojiro huffed. "It'd better not be."
xxxx
The time had come.
SSHH
SSHH
At long last, the Angel of the Womb gave birth to calamity.
xxxx
Even before the MAGI throughout Japan began sending out Pattern Blue alerts, Shinji and Mana balked at the stark sensation. "Do you feel that?" asked the former.
"Yeah," growled Mana, grabbing her axe and shield. With AIGIS on her back, she stepped past the engawa on the back porch, tearing a hole into the Metaverse with LABRYS. "Come on."
"So glad my Persona comes with better footwear," muttered Toji, not even caring for the fact that he was walking in with bare feet.
"Perks of cognition," quietly joked Kensuke, giving a faux salute towards Sojiro. "We'll be back in a flash."
Shinji looked soberly towards his old guardian and caretaker. "Stay safe, sensei." Instead of offering a snarky rejoinder, Sojiro simply nodded; for that, Shinji was grateful. Without another word, he turned and stepped into the cognitive world.
xxxx
Sojiro sighed wearily as he sat down on the porch, letting the warmth of his mug enliven his hands. "Kids these days..."
Sure enough, not a few minutes later, Misato Katsuragi stormed into the kitchen behind him. "Sakura-san? We've got a Pattern Blue and we can't find the kids."
"You just missed them," he bluntly said; there was no point in hiding the truth.
"...wait..." She hopped down onto the grass so she could glare directly at him. "You let them go?!"
"I'm just an old man who has no place on the battlefields you and those children fight on," he bitterly said. "I'm just someone who brews coffee and cooks curry; what would you have had me do, young lady?"
"To yell for help? To wake us up?! Anything other than just letting them leave!"
Sojiro snorted, letting a bit of his crankiness shine through. "Forgive me if my memory fails me, but wasn't the kid summoned to Tokyo-3 precisely so he could do this sort of thing?" He knew he had struck a nerve. "The Anti-Terror Task Force, NERV, the United Nations...groups like them were the ones who decided that putting children into the line of fire was acceptable if it meant humanity's survival." He jabbed a finger towards the A.T. medallion pinned onto her red jacket. "Don't blame me for your own damn conscience, because heavens forbid it if you feel guilty."
At that, Misato had no answer. (Little did he know how deep his words had cut.) "...I don't have time for this," she muttered, hopping back onto the engawa. "Just stay hunkered down and try not to die."
Sojiro had no more biting remarks to add; he simply sipped at his tea as Enkai waddled up towards him, plopping down on the wooden porch against his hip. "Yeah, I know," he grumbled, rubbing his fingers into the Scottish Fold's gray fur. "Kids these days are something else..."
xxxx
Rei Ayanami stood upon the rocky shores of the Japanese coast, gazing out at the Pacific. (In her mind's eye, she could see Zeruel's cancerous gaze raining bolts of void down upon the land; how many would fall this day?) Right now, she could tell that something great and terrible was about to happen in this country; whether that spelled doom for anyone she knew...well, she could not say. I want to remain here...but I can't. She had something more important to tend to. Besides...Mister P has demonstrated a willingness to protect Ikari-kun. She would have to trust that he would intervene if something went awry.
With a tired sigh, she shifted out of reality.
xxxx
In Nishiawakura, Hirofumi Kurosawa was...well, less than pleased, to put it mildly. "It's going to be rather difficult to gauge the Third Child's aptitude when he's gone AWOL."
"He ain't AWOL," insisted Ryuji Sakamoto; Ken Amada and Junpei Iori had already split up to keep an eye on the gathered populace in the village. "If he and Mana-san went in the same direction, then there's probably something they're going to take care of."
"When they don't provide any indication as to where they're deploying? Most people would call that 'AWOL'," he repeated.
"What's done is done," interrupted Misato Katsuragi, her hands tightening the distinctive red beret onto her head. "We're getting reports of Angel Syndrome all over Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu...only the southernmost tip of Hokkaido is being affected..." Grabbing her phone, she squinted at the alerts coming in. "And...the Korean Peninsula is also being affected."
Ryuji blinked. "The Koreas? Why them?"
Kurosawa frowned, doing some mental math in his head. Given our particular location in Okayama Prefecture...and given the varying width of the Sea of Japan...hmm. "Any Pattern Blues out of Okinawa?"
Misato tapped at her phone. "...none that I can see. Why?"
He mentally triangulated the coordinates to get a feel for distance. "...I think the majority of North and South Korea would fall within nine hundred kilometers of our current location, would it not?" Raising his eyes toward the two A.T. Agents, he added, "are you aware of the rationale as to why the Second Child has been ordered to relocate from Europe to Japan? Because after the last new moon, all Angel Syndrome incidents were localized within nine hundred kilometers of a given Evangelion-user's location."
"Gee, how lucky for us," griped Ryuji.
"Which is why observing Ikari is paramount."
Misato snapped, "and you'll just have to be PATIENT! We've got a job to do."
"...fair enough," he finally relented. I'll get my chance soon enough.
Ryuji glanced towards the lone minor that was still in residence. "Amamiya, stay put. No heroics, you hear me?"
For some reason, the high school student snorted. "Trust me, I don't want to go anywhere. I'll keep an eye on Sakura-san, though."
Kurosawa briefly wondered if that was just banter, or if there was more to it. However, there was little time for thinking, as the three adults laid hands on their respective links to the MAGI: Katsuragi's A.T. medallion, Sakamoto's tin Freelancer badge, and as for himself...he utilized an application on his phone, with extra authentication measures.
"Agent Misato Katsuragi, identification zero-one-whiskey-alpha-four: activate cognitive tunneling!"
"Freelancer Ryuji Sakamoto, identification whiskey-tango-foxtrot-lambda-beep-boop-bop: activate cognitive tunneling!"
How childish, thought Kurosawa with the roll of his eyes. "Agent Hirofumi Kurosawa, identification juliet-papa-zero-one-three: activate cognitive tunneling."
As one, their respective devices chimed, "cognitive tunneling: authorized."
zhuu
zhuu
ZHUU
ZHUU
As one, they all faded from reality, mentally prepared for another day of combat.
xxxx
/The Metaverse/
Mount Ushiro, as one of the taller peaks in the immediate region, served as one of the landmarks dividing Okayama Prefecture to the west and Hyōgo Prefecture to the east; as such, it provided quite a stellar view in normal times, and would likely be littered with Archetypes hiking up and down the mountain trails.
Now, they had all vanished, fleeing with instinctive dread from the thing which had appeared atop a mountain just east of the city of Shiso.
"...that definitely wasn't that big yesterday," murmured Toji, looking up with a nervous expression. "I mean...we would've seen it, right?"
Indeed; so high was the mountain bordering Shiso to the northeast that it seemed to reach into the heavens themselves, surrounded by serene clouds; glowing worms threaded along the mountainside, delving into the ground and and the habitations of Shiso and the surrounding areas; where some began to tear away at the cognitive fabric, others seemed content with absorbing Archetypes by the dozens. In contrast to the seemingly voracious tendrils, a beautiful double helix rotated around the unseen peak: a proverbial halo, forged from living light.
"...like something you'd see in Greek folklore," said Kensuke as he adjusted his glasses. "What was it...Mount Olympia? Mount Olivia? No wait, Mount Olympus!"
"Either way, that'd be a pretty big climb," grumbled Mana. "Any ideas, Ikari?"
Shinji briefly pondered his options, as well as the Personas he had available to select from...
His Other gazed at the peak.
"A very daunting task. Will you take the long and weary road?"
The Beast raised a gargantuan fist to pulverize the mountain.
"Or will you obliterate it entirely?"
...and that's when an idea came to mind. "...maybe..."
Minutes later, Kensuke nervously glanced towards Toji. "...this seems like it has a lot of potential to go wrong."
"You got a better idea?!" retorted Toji.
The duo had temporarily dismissed their Personas, clinging tightly onto the grooves in the right pauldron of Titan. On the left pauldron, Shinji and Mana were likewise situated, gazing soberly towards the mountain. "Is everyone ready?!" he yelled.
"DO IT BEFORE WE CHANGE OUR MIND!" roared both boys.
"Just go!" roared Mana.
Okay. Shinji steeled himself; he could almost feel the ground beneath Titan's footsteps. Let's go.
With a defiant roar, the titanic humanoid — violet skin clad in Hoplite armor of the finest bronze — took off on a lumbering run down the sides of Mount Ushiro; the cognitive landscape quaked with each footstep, as his Persona seemed to swell even larger. All the while, Shinji also focused his A.T. Field (his very soul, thing which helped define him!), trying to extend its protective embrace towards his three comrades (nay, friends). I won't let anything happen to them...I won't let anything happen to them...I mustn't let them get hurt...I mustn't, I MUSTN'T!
Titan, now over fifty meters tall, howled loudly as his feet ground against the ridgeline of smaller mountain, right before the point where the slopes descended drastically; the heavenly peak was still over two kilometers away. "GET READY!" yelled Shinji. Without warning, Titan bent his legs...and vaulted.
(With a sudden pause in movement, all Archetypes, unregistered Shadows, Acolytes' Shadows, and A.T. Agents within the city limits of Shiso turned to the sound of screaming, staring dumbly as an armored giant soared through the sky.)
"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-!" screamed Kensuke and Toji in unison, hanging on for dear life.
Mana screamed as well; not out of any fear of falling. But mostly because the others were doing it. (She would privately admit later, in retrospect, that it felt nice in a cathartic way.)
Shinji kept his focus, bracing for impact; with a mighty crash, Titan landed on the side of the great peak, hulking hands digging deep grooves into the pillars of brown rock. "KEEP GOING!" he yelled, to all aspects of himself.
A brief flicker of Unit-01 overshadowed Titan before the giant Persona began scaling the mountain, brushing past the glowing worms that seemed to regard their presence almost inquisitively. They didn't matter: what did matter was the very top, because that's where Mayumi Yamagishi had to be!
Five hundred meters. A thousand meters. Two thousand. Three thousand. Higher and higher, until they breached the misty haze of shining clouds-
-there was that strange sensation of falling upward-
-a greater spirit peering down upon them from beyond turbulent waters, colored many shades of gray-
-mind and matter and spirit slipping away yet remaining constant; gritting his teeth, he willed his soul to keep Kensuke, Toji, and Mana from being ripped away!-
-and at last...they scaled the peak, reaching the top.
"Welcome, third Champion of Lilith..."
The top of the mountain was completely and utterly flat, yet seemed to go on forever in very direction; strands of glowing DNA seemed to span for infinity, generated by yet another halo of helical light. This double helix, however, surrounded a brilliant red core of reflective crystal, which seemed to display images at lightning speed: an ever shifting protean movie, with no rhyme or reason beyond pure Potentiality.
The intimidating yet softly angelic voice seemed to emanate from all around them. "...and you brought more comrades...surprising in one way, yet perfectly expected in another...for what victory has the Third Child ever achieved solely by his own merits?"
Shinji didn't quite know what to make of that comment; on instinct, he gripped the handle of the Bowie knife from his waist pack. Unlike before, it didn't transform into a gardening tool, remaining as sharp as ever.
"That is a familiar look," mused the Angel. "One that is somehow all the more real, in light of your fullness..."
It was at this moment that those besides him seemed to do a double take. "Whoa, your Metaverse outfit's gone!" exclaimed Kensuke. Indeed; his 'house-husband' getup had faded, leaving only the distinctive blue and black bodysuit that manifested whenever he summoned Unit-01 in reality. Looking down at himself, Kensuke poked and prodded at his own outfit, which still evoked the image of an A.T. Agent 'costume.' "How come Toji and I didn't change...?"
"In this realm, the greatest expression of one's essence takes prominence; for you lilim, your cognitive representation holds the most power...but for the Third Child, it is no surprise. For what could overwhelm the sheer metaphysical weight of Evangelion?"
"I'm hearing a lot of talking," griped Toji, slamming the base of his staff against the ground. "But I ain't hearing any introductions. What in the hell are you?!"
"The Mountain of the Judgement of God...Angel of the Womb...ARMISAEL." The red Core glistened. "Your presence is most welcome."
Mana smashed the edge of her axe into the stone, crushing the surface; the gemstones of both LABRYS and AIGIS where shining brilliantly, as was the emerald in her circlet. "Where's Yamagishi?" As she spoke, the imagery on the Core was fixed, for just a brief moment; the silhouette of a young girl with long hair could be seen, a shadow amidst crimson. "Let her go."
"There is nothing to release, and nothing to free; we are one body, one mind, one spirit: she has been flesh of my flesh since before this time; indeed, since before this very age..."
Kensuke and Toji blinked, whilst Mana looked a bit confused; Shinji, however, was the only one with anything even approaching context. Is Armisael...referring to the War in Heaven? "Are you referring to reincarnation?" he asked, speaking in general terms.
A musical laugh echoed through the realm of the Angel. "Ah, reincarnation: if only our state of affairs were so simple! At least then, there would be a semblance of separation, of newness, of beginnings and endings! You speak with affected ignorance, Third Child..."
"...Shinji, what the heck is it talking about?" asked Kensuke.
"In this endless war, there was a time when we, born of ADAM, needed greater understanding of the lilim in all their facets: matter, cognition, metaphysic; accidental and essential; it was a necessity. And thus, in the wake left by your memory, a child was chosen; as the one who bears the Potential of all our kin..." Shapes and shadows flickered amidst the glittery haze surrounding the peak: a white serpent with wings and four limbs; a green humanoid giant with clawed hands and a long, spear-like tail; a bony serpent with a wicked mouth, connected to a four-legged shell of green and yellow; a strange black larva comprised of spiked horizontal discs, transforming into an exotic creature with a dark, insectoid presence; all these and more faded in and out of existence. "...we were deemed the best candidate. Thus did we become one with the lilim known as Mayumi Yamagishi...and oh, how much we learned..."
"Candidate?" Toji looked with uncertainty towards Shinji. "Hey, Ikari...is this thing saying that Yamagishi's...working with the Angels? Like the guys with Strega?"
Mana snarled. "Fat chance of that ever happening!" With an angry hiss, she pointed her axe directly at the core. "From the way I hear it...this monster just picked Yamagishi at random...and made her its plaything!"
"Mana-san..." murmured Kensuke with a frown.
Shinji couldn't help but wince at the anger in the girl's voice; if there was anyone who had the right to strong opinions about being taken for ill purposes by one with greater power...it would certainly be Kirishima. "Armisael...did you ever even give her a choice? Why Yamagishi-san? Why?!"
"You speak as if anyone is free...as though we are bereft of chains...no one has that luxury. Had it not been her, it would have been another: but a lilim would have become Knowledge's Sacrifice regardless." As the helical halo began to rotate more quickly, the Angel's voice took on a harsher tone. "Though our experience...was unable to make a difference in the Age of Old...it has borne great fruit for us all, seeding the ground for a great renewal of the Tree of Life...and that fruit will be the price for our freedom from this unending Hell..."
"...I have no idea what it's talking about," bluntly admitted Toji.
"Yeah...getting real big 'end of the world' kind of vibes from this thing," said Kensuke with a gulp.
"...so?" Mana turned towards them with a glare. "This 'Angel' has our friend...and I am not going to let it take her away from us." The gems in her weapons pulsed, as though tuned to the beat of her heart. "My sisters sacrificed themselves...and my brothers are who-knows-where...I'm not going to lose anyone else!"
At this, Shinji couldn't help but agree. "...I'd like to think that I know Yamagishi-san...and I know, deep down...she'd want to live her life with us." He gripped his Bowie knife tightly, holding it with both hands. "A life without you!"
His Other nodded knowingly.
"A life...without shackles imposed by others."
The Beast sneered at him.
"But such wishful thinking is beyond you...ISN'T IT?"
Armisael (unknowingly?) echoed the sentiments of the darkness within his heart. "Such is the way of the lilim...to struggle in all things...then it is only fitting that you face that same reflection!" Golden drops of light showed from double helix, enriching the ground of the great plateau that they all stood upon.
In the blink of an eye...the liquid light bloomed into dark shadows, taking on the form...
("Whoa," said a boggled Kensuke.)
("GEEZ," yelped Toji.)
(Mana held LABRYS and AIGIS at the ready, teeth bared at the new arrivals.)
(Shinji couldn't help but nervously gulp.)
...of hundreds of Archetypes of all shapes and sizes. "That which was born of humanity...made manifest by my eternal Womb. If you seek to throw yourselves against the tide...then you are welcome to it!"
With deranged cackles, the legion began their stampede.
"...welp, this is gonna suck," muttered Kensuke as he took position by Ozymandias, arming his Pearl Phoenix crossbow.
"...bet I can beat more than you, Ken," said Toji, as Gilgamesh lifted him onto his burly left shoulder.
Kensuke narrowed his eyes. "...you're on." However false and unfounded the bravado was, it still chased away their fear.
Mana snorted, bending her knees in preparation for combat. "You ready Ikari?!"
As Shogoki stood tall, bearing the characteristics and powers of Hamlet, Shinji rooted himself onto his Evangelion's shoulder. "...as I'll ever be." Holding his knife forward, he pointed directly towards the red Core. "Let's save Yamagishi-san!"
Thus did the four charge at the horde.
xxxx
Within the depths of Armisael's Essence, Mayumi Yamagishi...existed.
The intimidating voice of the Angel could not be heard; instead, there was the quiet and somber whisper of its true voice.
"Sleep-and-be-well...bask-in-your-pain-with-the-knowledge-that-it-will-soon-end..."
(An end that was practically set in stone: a conclusion that had been plotted out for her since before she had been born.)
(How completely and utterly unfair. Is it not?)
Her hair was quietly being combed by the other 'Mayumi', her face clad in a mask of bleached bone. "...it-is-inevitable...it-is-all-inevitable...and-their-struggles-will-be-to-no-avail..."
(Who would struggle for her sake? Her lot had been decided long ago.)
(You don't believe that.)
"As-they-struggle...they-will-come-to-understand-the-futility..."
(There was nothing that could be done.)
(You don't WANT to believe that.)
(Nothing...)
(Will you accept such an unhappy ending?!)
Mayumi subconsciously shivered, even as the voices of her friends clamored for her life and her freedom...from so very far away...
xxxx
The Archetypes wielded by Armisael were an army without end.
And yet, even a seemingly infinite series could be outmatched in magnitude by a finite number...if the terms were small enough.
What was the weight of four human lives against a being who could wield the excess of human cognition with such abandon?
Mere slices of time amidst that unyielding flow...would unveil the answer...
xxxx
Kensuke Aida would be the first one to admit that he wasn't exactly a frontline combatant; as such, facing a horde of Archetypes seemed like the opposite of a good idea.
Nonetheless...these wild thoughtbeasts, born from the memories and power of Armisael...they had been bereft of their connection to the cognition of humankind for so long. (So very long.) The connection to the everyday thoughts of man gave them a certain...solidity. A certain inertia, or perhaps stubbornness, that simply couldn't be duplicated (for that touched on their very essence).
Kensuke knew none of this.
All he knew was that, in spite of his knowledge dictating otherwise...he found himself in a target-rich environment.
"Ominous Words!"
The dark miasma of purple smog rushed forward, choking the Pyro Jacks and Jack Frosts; gripped by Despair, they sank to the ground, murmuring with sorrow.
Kensuke ducked and rolled amongst their number, using their fallen bodies as cover to take potshots at aerial enemies like the Pixies and Koppa Tengus. "Behind!" he instinctively yelled, as an Oni sought to crush Ozymandias with its bladed staff.
The masked pharaoh pointed his shepherd's crook behind him. "Pulinpa!"
Blurry distortion marred the demon's face; gurgling with bewilderment, the Oni began swinging wildly, cutting down others in its confusion.
As the Despair-inflicted Jacks finally died off from sheer melancholy, Kensuke fired his crossbow at a charging Berith. "Ah, crap. Ozy!"
"Dormina!"
A giant 'Z' burst into existence over the Archetype's heads; the horse and demonic knight slumped, crashing to the ground amidst a deep slumber. Looking up, an idea came to mind. "Toss me!" Ozymandias dashed up behind him, holding his curved staff at the side; jumping on it with perfect balance (because he and Ozymandias were one, it was only natural), Kensuke focused as his Persona swung and launched him into the sky.
Right towards a large Garuda Archetype, who seemed befuddled at his appearance.
"Makajama!"
An enormous question mark floated over Garuda's head, right as Kensuke landed on his crown. "Eh? Did I see something..." Bewitched by the 'Forget' ailment, the Archetype shrugged off his apparent disappearance with aplomb. "Must've imagined it..."
From atop Garuda's head, Kensuke had a great view of the conflict below: a view that Ozymandias could sense, and thus act accordingly.
"Taunt!" Streams of crimson aura surrounded an Eligor, who charge and struck with abandon...regardless of who was in the way.
A legion of opponents with no resistance to Ailment Skills...never thought I'd see the day. If he didn't have a limited pool of energy to work with, he'd be downright giddy. "Gotta fight smarter, not harder," he whispered to himself, zeroing his focus on one particular Archetype in particular. Bingo.
Ozymandias narrowed his eyes — slapping some ornery Incubi with his grain flail — before pointing his shepherd's crook at a Succubus...
(In all honesty, the fact this skill had been attained was no surprise; given his interactions with the opposite sex over the past couple of weeks, Kensuke felt he had become quite charming. So to speak.)
...and yelling, "Marin Karin!" There was a flash of pink; a similar aura began emanating from the lewd Archetype's head.
Moments ticked by...until, with sudden violence, the Succubus turned towards a Cait Sith and seductively hissed, "Marin Karin!"
Yes, thought Kensuke with a wicked grin. Make my enemies do the fighting for me! The more goons he could take out, the easier their path to the Angel and Yamagishi would be.
xxxx
Toji Suzuhara preferred things to be simple, whenever possible. (Because life was complicated enough.)
As such, there was a primitive catharsis, to standing upon Gilgamesh's shoulder and just letting him run wild.
"Speed Buster!" The purple glow of Rakunda depowered a burly Archangel, allowing Gilgamesh to plow through the weakened thoughtbeast with a mighty crash. A flock of Angels were in the wings, aiming their glowing hands-!
"Speed Riser!" The emerald aura of Sukukaja flickered around Gilgamesh, and his speed suddenly increased; the bronzed Persona smashed into the cloud of winged Archetypes.
Toji, maintaining a low stance, smacked one in the face as it flew over them. "DON'T STOP!" They had to keep going!
Looming ahead was a Titan Archetype, standing at fifteen meters; a fearsome looking monster...but compared to what Ikari had pulled off with his own, it didn't seem scary at all. "KEEP GOING!" I won't be stopped...and you won't stop me!
"But of course," growled Gilgamesh, clenching his right fist. "Speed Smasher!" A violet aura surrounded his gauntlet — Rakukaja — right as a crimson glow surrounded the Titan.
Increased defense met decreased attack; Gilgamesh's momentum blew past Titan's larger fist, as the charging Persona barrelled over the armored giant.
Toji winced, ignoring the twinge of pain from the collision-
"Diarama!"
-and never mind, he was back in business! "Run wild, Gilgamesh!" yelled Toji with a grand grin.
xxxx
Mana Kirishima had intentionally delved into the greatest mass of Archetypes.
How long had it been, since she had abandoned herself to the flow of combat? How long, since the odds had been stacked so against her?
(Had it been the fight against the Acolytes, during the last new moon?)
(Or perhaps her fateful confrontation with Shinji Ikari, at the beginning of July?)
Her shield absorbed an Zionga from behind, even as she jumped over the bites of a two-headed Orthrus; the edge of her axe bisected a Genbu, and her shield unleashed a burst of stored energy at an Apsaras. LABRYS parried a thrust from Berith's spear, while AIGIS smashed the horse and toppled it; using the curved surface of her shield, she rolled under a wild swing from Valkyrie's blades, rising to slash through a trio of Ghouls. CLONG, when Valkyrie's blades against the surface of AIGIS; VWOOM, went the stream of energy that vaporized the Archetype in retaliation. Mana swung her axe around in a circle, pirouetting and using her shield as a counterweight; the edge of her weapons sliced through more Archetypes, culminating in a thunderous smash of the blade against the ground that unleashed a repulsive shockwave. As Hua Po and Inugami Archetypes began dive-bombing at her from the air, Mana ducked underneath AIGIS, using both hands to brace the shield. LABRYS slashed away at the Archetypes around her all the while, warding away thoughtbeasts who thought they could be lucky. Slamming her shield's rim into the ground, she grabbed LABRYS with both hands and swung — roaring angrily at the monstrosities that kept getting in her way! — unleashing a wave of deleterious energy that cut through a whole crowd. AIGIS remained at the ready behind her, moving to block elemental attacks from afar. "I don't have time for you!" she snarled, grabbing her shield by the handle and using it like a battering ram.
(So consumed by the rush of battle was she, that her conscious didn't even conceive of the fact that LABRYS and AIGIS had acted without her.)
(But why would she think about it? AIGIS and LABRYS were a part of her, down to the depths of her soul, bound by her sacrificed Shadow. If they were to suddenly act of their own volition...it would not be a surprise.)
As she hid underneath AIGIS, Big Sis had been swinging her axe to keep the foes at bay. "Stay away, you big lummoxes!"
As she cut away with a two-handed swing of LABRYS, Little Sis had been protecting her back, wielding her shield with great diligence. "I will protect you, no matter what!"
(In this realm that bordered mind and matter and spirit...was it any surprise, that the ensouled weapons would be capable of manifesting in greater fullness?)
(It would be a long time, however, until Mana would become cognizant of just how remarkable these phenomena were.)
Smashing her skull into Ippon-Datara with a leaping headbutt — unknowing of how her emerald circlet glowed from the blow — and cracking the Archetype's metal helm, Mana rode the Archetype's large body to the ground, forcing more enemies to dodge. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
xxxx
There was a strange hollow quality, to the Archetypes that Unit-01 tore through.
"Is it any surprise?"
The Beast chortled as it cut through the chaff.
"They lack something fundamental...something that an Angel can only pretend to have!"
It was why he didn't bother trying to claim any Archetypes as new Personas...because what would be the point? They had no foundation worth standing on.
The power of Kuchisake-onna had come quite in handy, amidst this immense horde. "Tentarafoo," hissed Shogoki — the impression of a slit mouth glowing on its spectral cheeks — as eyes flashed yellow; a whole crowd of Archetypes, inflicted with Panic, turned and fled. "Hell Smile!" A blast of dark energy crashed amidst the stampede, inflicting Fear and Despair with equal measure.
It was...surprisingly simple, fighting with such ferocity.
And yet, even as his Bowie knife stabbed into the chest of a Fenghuang Archetype — a great turquoise bird with colorful plumage and five fiery tails — he couldn't help but feel perturbed. Something's wrong. Was he just being pessimistic?
Or was it...something deeper...?
xxxx
Minutes ticked by, becoming one hour...and then two.
And then...
xxxx
As Gilgamesh crushed a Mandrake beneath his heel, Toji took a big, gulping breath. "YOU...GOT...ANY...MORE?!"
Kensuke smacked the back of the boy's head. "Don't tempt fate," he tiredly growled, eyes sagging from exhaustion. Ozymandias kept a wary eye on their surroundings, ready for any other surprises.
Mana leaned against the rim of AIGIS, using her shield as a temporary crutch. Disinterested in talking, she settled for glaring at the red Core and the glowing double helix hovering above.
Shinji tried not to let his own weariness show; something within his chest seemed 'thinner' than normal, as though he been stretched in many different directions.
"Is it any surprise?"
His Other quietly nursed a wound along his torso.
"It is only by your will that your comrades can even stay in this place without going mad..."
Mustering his resolve, Shinji inhaled and yelled, "let Yamagishi-san go!"
"You are denied," thundered Armisael. "You have fought valiantly...but to no avail. Such is the futility of the lilim...and yet you do not know it."
"Big words from someone who just got the asses of their whole damn army kicked!" boasted Toji.
"Indeed...you have provided great insight into your abilities. Allow us to reward your unintended kindness." Without warning, a glowing worm erupted from the ground, zooming like a snake towards Toji-!
Mana howled, intercepting the worm and swinging her axe-!
CLONG.
With a loud and resounding gong, LABRYS was instantly rebuffed. "Eh?" sputtered Mana.
Shogoki thrust a hand forward. "Maeiga!" A burst of red and black energy erupted-
-there was an unseen flicker along the surface of the worm-
-but the cursed power washed harmlessly over the glowing skin. "Eh?" said a baffled Shinji.
"...repelled a physical blow...and then a Dark skill that did nothing..." Kensuke's eyes widened with recognition. "Oh no...no no no...it's analyzed all our moves and is countering them each time...!"
"Very astute, young lilim," said Armisael with a congratulatory tone. "Submit to the futility of it all."
Shinji locked eyes with his three friends. Then — as if operating on the same wavelength — they gazed back at the red Core and grimly said, "no."
"...more's the pity...but that is in your nature, isn't it: to struggle and rage and roar, even if there is no hope...how terribly sad." With a wretched shriek, the glowing worm coiled upon itself, ready to strike once more.
As the coiling tendril of Armisael lashed out, Shogoki grabbed it with both hands-AGONY.
"Agh!" yelped Shinji, impulsively willing his Evangelion to release it; his hands had suddenly begun to numb for some reason. What was that?
Snarling, Mana swung LABRYS again, this time unleashing a wave of energy to slice from afar; just as before, the energy simply washed over the glowing skin with nary a pause. "What's up with this thing?!"
"We just have to find a weakness," growled Toji, even as Gilgamesh futilely tried to grapple with the wiggling worm; moments passed before he too recoiled, shaking his right arm as though it had been stricken with frostbite. "Ai ai ai ai ai! The hell?!"
Ozymandias tried various Ailment Skills, but to no avail; Kensuke looked utterly disheartened by this change of events. "Guys, I think it's time for a tactical retreat-!"
"You can already sense the inevitability." The coiling beast suddenly withdrew, disappearing into the ground.
Shinji went tense, impulsively gazing up at the Angel. "What...?"
With sudden synchronicity, four worms erupted from the ground behind the teenagers, digging into their backs like knives.
The air rushed out of Kensuke's lungs; Toji gagged from the sudden sharpness; Mana screamed with rage and anguish, her hands twitching madly; as for Shinji...
His Other looked around with alarm.
"Hold fast!"
The Beast simply sneered, arms held wide with expectation.
"Let it come. Let it bring about the end!"
...he could feel...and hear...and see...
"You can already sense the futility."
xxxx
/The Metaverse/
The One Who Sat Upon the Throne suddenly blinked.
"...our connection is tenuous...but I can still feel that."
They frowned out of distaste.
"...the threshold has not yet been crossed...but no chances can be taken."
They leaned forward, focusing all of their senses on this most momentous of battles.
"If I give the word...you are to intervene immediately."
Outside the realm of Armisael, Minako Arisato stood in silence, peering intently at the heavenly mountain.
(In her heart of hearts...she hoped it wouldn't be necessary.)
xxxx
/Armisael's Domain/
"What...is this...?" hissed Kensuke, falling to his knees.
"...what...is this...feeling...?!" protested Toji, his eyes beginning to tear up.
"Why...am I crying..." protested Mana, her hands furiously trying to claw at the worm digging into her back.
Shinji breathed shakily, his eyes transfixed by the sight of growths — like oversized nerves — spreading under his skin. What...is this...?
"You feel as we feel. Even though united in purpose with our kin, we are a Nation of One...and as so many lilim are wont to say...one is the loneliest number."
With a pained gasp, his vision was overwhelmed by light and crimson strings-!
xx
-and then Shinji stood on the shore of a vast sea, tainted a bloody orange. The entire horizon glowed with the pure red of a blazing sunset. Where am I?
"Do-you-feel-the-isolation?"
He was staring at Mayumi Yamagishi...except...not. She was standing waist deep in the bloody waters, face down. "Yamagishi-san...?"
"That-is-the-pain-of-loneliness."
...no. That's not her. But it sounded so different from before. "...Armisael?"
"You-now-hear-our-true-voice."
'Mayumi' looked up; a mask of bone was affixed to her face.
"This-is-the-voice-that-has-always-been-with-Mayumi-Yamagishi."
"...why did you pick her?"
"Her-fate-was-one-with-little-consequence, save-the-possibility-of-becoming-close-with-you...even-if-only-a-memory-of-you."
Reflections along the water showed various scenes from a time he didn't recognize. For some reason, Mayumi was singing a song...and Aoba-sensei was teaching him, Kensuke, and Toji how to play guitar? "...I don't remember this."
"You-would-not. It-never-happened-for-you...and-for-us...it-might-as-well-have-never-been."
"...so did it happen, or did it not happen?"
'Mayumi' giggled sadly, her head once more drooping down.
"For-one-grounded-in-truth...we-must-seem-so-very-pitiable, shrouded-as-we-are-by-falsehood..."
The waters began to churn; gentle waves began to sway and flow.
"...but-that-is-why-you-are-necessary. You-are-the-Key-to-our-Salvation."
"...but why me? Why me?"
"There-is-no-need-for-you-to-understand...in-the-face-of-this-pain, of-her-pain...why-persist...?"
'Mayumi' gazed back at him; bloody tears dripped from the eyeholes in the avian mask.
"Loneliness-is-part-and-parcel-of-being-a-lilim...even-though-humanity-is-legion, you-are-all-isolated...and-my-host-knows-this-as-well-as-anyone..."
Off in the distance, echoing off of the waves, was that same voice...except smaller. More grounded. More real.
"...I'm so tired..."
Shinji stirred. It's her! "Yamagishi-san?!"
"...who...who's there...?"
"It's me! Shinji Ikari! Your friend! We go to the Literature Club! And you've been helping me read Hamlet!"
"Trivialities...proverbial-trinkets-in-the-face-of-her-existential-dread..."
He shook his head, feeling a sense of indignation rise up from within. "I don't want to believe that...I don't believe that!"
The red Core that served as this world's sun seemed to glisten.
"...that's quite sweet of you...but you don't have to bother with me..."
"Yamagishi-!"
"You-have-heard-her-voice. What-experience-do-you-have-that-trumps-our-own? Would-you-profess-to-know-more-than-we, who-have-been-a-part-of-her-for-a-time-beyond-your-fathoming?"
"...yes," he forced himself to say.
The masked 'Mayumi' was taken aback.
"...your-level-of-arrogance-is-surprising. We-did-not-believe-you-to-be-so-prideful."
"Pride has nothing to do with it...it has everything to do with what we've talked about! Our fears...our worries...our anxieties...I talked to her because she was willing to listen! And she listened...because she saw something worthwhile in me! Even before she knew the truth about what my life is like!"
"That-may-be-true...but-irrelevant."
Even as the waves began to grow rockier...he willed himself to stand strong. (Countless hands braced his back: his Other, the Beast, and all the various Personas that expressed a facet of the individual known as 'Shinji Ikari.') "But most importantly...is that she accepted my invitation to come on summer vacation with me and my friends."
'Mayumi' tilted her head.
"Your-point?"
"My point...is that she chose to do that. She wanted to do that! If her pain was too much for her...if her loneliness was too great..." Turning away from the masked doppelganger of his friend, he turned his face towards the sun. "...THEN SHE WOULDN'T HAVE BOTHERED TRYING!"
The light flickered and the crimson strings unraveled-
xx
-and with a sudden hiss, Shinji once more gazed upon the form of Armisael, within the Angel's great domain. Despite the exquisite pain in his body, he could feel and sense Shogoki ripping the glowing worm away.
"Why do you persist?" asked Armisael, its voice no longer meek or gentle.
"...I'm...not...interested...in talking to you..." Resting on his knees and elbows, he could see the sweat and tears pouring onto the hard ground. "...Yamagishi-san...Mayumi...I know you can hear me..." With ragged breaths, he shakily rose to his feet, wincing with each movement; his whole body felt sore...but in that pain was a strange, cathartic sense of clarity. For what would reach her, than the thing they had spent the most time doing? "...Act One...Scene Five..."
"What are-?"
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Armisael...than are dreamt of in your philosophy!" he said, speaking aloud...as though on a stage. "Act Two, Scene Two!"
"What is-?"
"Look, you! This brave overhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire," he enunciated, gesturing towards the golden strings that comprised the Angel's form. "Why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors!"
(Behind him, Unit-01 hissed, tearing the worm out of Kensuke Aida's back.)
"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving, how express and admirable!"
(Next, was Toji Suzuhara.)
"In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!"
(Finally, Mana Kirishima.)
As his three comrades recovered from their near-death experience, Shinji continued on, as a man possessed. "And yet, to me...what is this quintessence of dust?" Clenching his fist — his weak yet stubborn fist — he skipped ahead to a different soliloquy. "What a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this play here, but in a fiction, in a dream of passion, could force his own soul to his own conceit?!"
"What is this confused babbling?"
"Armisael...if man is like an angel or a god...capable of great and terrible things...yet still so lowly and weak that we can find ourselves questioning our every action, day by day...even if there's no good reason for it..." Raising his eyes, he added, "...then what does that say...about you: an Angel who claims to know so much...who claims to have been a part of Yamagishi-san for so long...yet clearly knows nothing at all!"
"Are you deranged?"
"No..." growled Mana, using her weapons as crutches. "He's simply speaking...the truth. You're not taking Yamagishi from us!"
"...been through this much already...sure, loneliness sucks...but these guys make it easier..." said Toji, hissing with each step. Gilgamesh stood at the ready, prepared to charge once more...for good or ill. "...so you can suck it!"
As Ozymandias helped Kensuke to his feet, the bespectacled boy said, "never really thought of an otherworldly creature having to deal with being lonely...doesn't mean it's acceptable to start breaking everything because of it."
"...my friends...we all have our own pain...our own struggles...and even if it hurts...we've accepted that...and are trying to live our lives in spite of it!" Unit-01 pointed an angry finger at Armisael, reflecting his own indignation. "We've been through too much to simply give in like you have!"
"You've clearly gone mad-!"
"YAMAGISHI-SAN!" he yelled, pointing towards the red Core with his own finger. "Act Three, Scene One: to be, or not to be! That is the question!" Inhaling deeply, throat tired and sore from the trials of combat and near consumption by the Angel, he nonetheless had enough energy to scream, "WHAT'S YOUR ANSWER?!"
xxxx
/Moments Earlier, Literally and Metaphorically/
(As Shinji and Armisael had conversed in that strange in-between realm, on a distant shore...Mayumi had been beside herself, utterly isolated from all things.)
(Curled in on herself, surrounded by a non-Newtonian superfluid the color of blood...she could only think.)
(She could do nothing but force herself to think.)
xx
I shouldn't be surprised.
It only makes sense...that an Angel would be a part of me...it would be my luck...and to what avail?
(The oddities of her life made sense, in retrospect.)
I wonder if my parents somehow knew...maybe that's why...they've always acted so distantly...
(Utterly improbable and unrealistic. You know the truth. The Angel must have done something to them.)
I...felt so different...from everyone else...it all makes sense...
(How often had she resigned herself to simply being the 'shy bookworm'? It had been a perfectly serviceable trope, and she had taken a wonderful shine to it.)
(You did it because you believed it to be the easy way out.)
...at least...now I don't have to worry about it anymore...
(Are you going to take the easy way out again?)
Easy...easy...nothing's been easy...
(When one's existence was separate from everyone else's, how could it be 'easy'? Even her means of coping, by diving into worlds of fiction and nonfiction...had taken effort. It had taken time, and energy.)
(Then it was simpler for you. It was...easier, to throw yourself into your hobby, than to make an effort to connect with others.)
...what should I have done, then? The Angel...its very presence...marked me as separate from the rest of humanity...why not accept that...?
(It would have been so very simple. So very logical. So very rational. So very...easy.)
(Would you be able to live with yourself?)
How can I live with myself now?
(You already have been.)
A life of fleeting memories...doomed to end...can that even be called a life...?
(What could she do, against such inevitable strength? What could anyone do?)
(So you're going to give up, then...if that's the case...)
xx
"...I'm so tired..." Mayumi whispered.
"Yamagishi-san?!"
"...who...who's there...?"
"It's me! Shinji Ikari! Your friend! We go to the Literature Club! And you've been helping me read Hamlet!"
"Trivialities...proverbial-trinkets-in-the-face-of-her-existential-dread..."
"I don't want to believe that...I don't believe that!"
She couldn't help but smile. "...that's quite sweet of you...but you don't have to bother with me..."
xx
(...then why have you been responding?)
...it would be rude...not to...
(Why care for rudeness? Why care for propriety? Why care for manners, or anything of that sort? After all...it's all futile, isn't it? Why not waste away in the dark?)
(Indeed: why not?)
...I'm so tired...I'm tired of pretending...
(You didn't even know there was anything to pretend for. Are you going to let the Angel's narrative run roughshod over you?)
(It would be easier; it explained so many of her odd feelings, of all of her struggles to connect, of how so many others seemed to shun her...)
(You keep thinking about your pain and loneliness, as though it were an inevitable facet of life. Do you really believe that?)
...in the end...everyone is alone...at the end of the day, we're all alone in our own thoughts...and in our own hearts...
(Then why did you bother trying?)
xx
"...she accepted my invitation to come on summer vacation with me and my friends."
"Your-point?"
"My point...is that she chose to do that. She wanted to do that! If her pain was too much for her...if her loneliness was too great...THEN SHE WOULDN'T HAVE BOTHERED TRYING!"
xx
(Indeed: why?)
...why...because it was something to do-
(DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO YOURSELF.)
(June the 18th: as she spoke of the book called Kokoro, she explained that she could identify with the main characters, because of their sense of isolation, and their inability to move on. She professed that the book was more important than her own struggles...at which, Ikari had said something unexpected. "Well...it was a book written by a person, right? And without other people to read it, that person's ideas wouldn't go anywhere...um...well...I guess what I'm trying to say is...people are more important than books. So...that applies to you too.")
(Little did she know of the bond that had formed that day.)
(Those words...they made you feel good.)
...they did.
(Was that so hard?)
(It was like pulling teeth.)
(Why do you resist? Why wallow in your own misery?)
Because nothing will come of it...even if the others have powers...what can they do, against the things that caused Second Impact? What can anyone do, least of all me?
(So will you lie down and perish?)
...they would stop worrying about me...I can't do anything but hold them back...
(She had no utility. All she was good at was reading.)
(WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT LYING?)
(In this realm, where proverbial gods and demons fought for supremacy...what could she possibly do?)
...maybe...it would have been better if I had never met them...then they'd never be in this mess...
(And if it were up to them? The fact that they're here at all...makes it obvious, don't you think?)
...but WHY? What did I do deserve any of this?! If I'm bonded to some monster...then they should want nothing to do with me!
(You don't get a say in whether or not other people want to care about you...no matter how much you may recoil.)
xx
"...Yamagishi-san...Mayumi...I know you can hear me...Act One...Scene Five..."
"What are-?"
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Armisael...than are dreamt of in your philosophy!"
xx
(Do you not hear them? How their words call out to you? How their hearts yearn for your presence?)
...I don't get it...I just don't get it...why...?
(What had she done to deserve them?)
(Good...evil...so many people with different morals...and yet the capacity for friendship is still there, even for the most wretched of scoundrels. Are you going to lie again, and claim that you are more debased than these?)
...they should want nothing to do with me...I'm bonded to their enemy...and I have no worth-!
(They disagree.)
xx
"Armisael...if man is like an angel or a god...capable of great and terrible things...yet still so lowly and weak that we can find ourselves questioning our every action, day by day...even if there's no good reason for it...then what does that say...about you: an Angel who claims to know so much...who claims to have been a part of Yamagishi-san for so long...yet clearly knows nothing at all!"
"Are you deranged?"
This time, Shinji didn't answer. "No..." growled a very angry girl, who plenty of reasons to rage against the world...and yet nonetheless chose to fight and protect it. "He's simply speaking...the truth." At this, Mana roared with defiance. "You're not taking Yamagishi from us!"
xx
(July the 31st: even after hearing the basics of Mana Kirishima's harrowing tale...she had mustered up the courage to ask the child soldier for her perspective. Thus, Mana relayed tales of her childhood as an orphan, and her subsequent trials as the JET ALONE Project's test subject...and by the end, she felt a sort of kinship with the poor girl, as emotionally stunted as Mana was. Even as she cried and blubbered — much to Mana's confusion — she could only request a hug, because the fact Mana had managed to pour out so much of herself...it had been awe-inspiring, in all its terror and wonder.)
(The Angel speaks of your loneliness. It speaks of its own loneliness. Are they the same? Are they unique? Or have they cross-contaminated?)
...I don't understand...
(Then how about this: regardless if your loneliness is genuine, or if it's an artifact of the Angel's influence...did that stop you from trying to enjoy life?)
xx
"...been through this much already..." muttered a brash and headstrong boy, used to speaking with his guts instead of his brain. "...sure, loneliness sucks...but these guys make it easier...so you can suck it!" yelled Toji.
xx
(August the 1st: as a fish nearly pulled Mana over the side of the pier, she could only watch in stunned surprise as Aida tried to keep her from falling over. In came Suzuhara and Ikari, combining their strength to pull her back, along with her catch. As they tried arranging the large red seabream for a photo, Toji looked over at her with confusion. "Hey, get over here so you can be in the photo!" His tone was so matter-of-fact that she didn't bother bringing up the fact that she hadn't helped pull in the fish; she just got into position with all of the others...as though she belonged.)
...I remember that day...Suzuhara-san pointed at my mole during the 'I Spy' game later on in the van...
(Even something so juvenile and childish served as a means of belonging...through your connection with Shinji Ikari, they began forging their own connections with you.)
xx
A passionately nerdy yet earnest boy grimaced as he was helped to his feet. "...never really thought of an otherworldly creature having to deal with being lonely..." With a stern frown, Kensuke gazed up at the Angel. "...doesn't mean it's acceptable to start breaking everything because of it."
xx
(August the 1st: even though her greater literary knowledge propelled her to victory in Shiritori with each round, Kensuke Aida still came back swinging. Speaking and acting with a strange confidence — strange in the sense that the boy still seemed unused to such a thing, as though such self-assurance was new to him — Aida actually made her feel...like a girl, in a different way than Shinji Ikari did. Though the emotional connection she had with Ikari had grown surprisingly deep, the odd yet earnest charm that Aida showed her was...nice...in that 'butterflies in the stomach' sort of way.)
...no one's ever paid attention to me in the ways they have...
(So why would you throw it away? Why would you roll over and let it all be for nothing?)
...because if I stay away...then it won't hurt when I lose it all...
(Is that a given?)
Ikari has his Evangelion...Mana-san has so much power in her weapons...Aida and Suzuhara are both Persona-users...and I'm just a civilian! What can I even do that matters?
(...you've been their friend.)
...is...is that really it...?
(They've come all the way here for the sake of their friend...and that friend is you. Did your lack of power stop them from wanting to get closer?)
...I...
(They've come to rescue a damsel...but only you can decide whether or not you're a mere damsel in distress.)
xx
"...my friends...we all have our own pain...our own struggles...and even if it hurts...we've accepted that...and are trying to live our lives in spite of it! We've been through too much to simply give in like you have!"
"You've clearly gone mad-!"
"YAMAGISHI-SAN!" roared Shinji Ikari, backed by his comrades...by his friends. "Act Three, Scene One: to be, or not to be! That is the question! WHAT'S YOUR ANSWER?!"
xx
(Time for the moment of truth: to be? Or not to be?)
(That was the question.)
...I...can I really...?
(You'll never know unless you try.)
...then...
(Will you be bound by your own fears? Or will you let the Angel's own weaknesses chain you down? Choose your shackles wisely...because some are easier to break than others.)
...I...
With quiet timidity, Mayumi opened her eyes.
xxxx
Shinji Ikari blanched as the bottom of the Angel's crimson Core spilled open: though the surface did not crack or break, a long-haired girl slipped through regardless. "YAMAGISHI-SAN!"
Mayumi tumbled down, falling impossibly slowly yet all too quickly; whether or not it was some artifact of how she was connected to the Angel, she landed softly on the surface of the mountain peak. With her baby blue yukata marred red by the essence of Armisael, and with odd tendrils still binding her to the Core — like fleshy tendons emerging from her neck — she looked...terrible. And yet...despite that...a strange sensation kept him from advancing.
"Hey, you okay?!" asked Kensuke.
"You break anything?!" yelled Toji.
"Yamagishi!" repeated Mana.
Even the Angel reacted with seeming surprise. "How strange...how curious...what has prompted this...?"
With shaky breaths — that almost sounded like she was on the verge of crying — Mayumi whispered. In this realm, her voice carried for impossible distances. "I...I want...to keep experiencing this..." Her hands clenched together, nails digging into her palms. "...all the fun I've had this summer...since meeting all of you...even during the scary parts...!"
Shinji gulped, feeling relief and gladness war with his anxiety. Yamagishi...
Her voice hitched with hiccups as she tried to keep talking. "...I...I want to keep moving forward..." Leaning back, she rested on her heels, sitting limply. "I...I want to live..." With tears making tracks down her crimson-stained cheeks, she hoarsely forced out words with such anguish that it felt like she was fighting herself. "I...I want...I want to be...!"
The words (at long last) had been spoken aloud.
And
so
at
LAST
it
was
finally
TIME.
xxxx
"So you finally want a different ending, do you?"
A loud heartbeat echoed in Mayumi's head with all the ferocity of a sledgehammer, as a pained gasp slipped through...
(Little did she know, but her eyes were now blazing yellow.)
...and she began to scream...
"A wretched plagiarist has taken your story, and written words unfitting for purpose."
...and scream...
"Casting judgment upon your life, as though your fate was set in stone! A false god, unworthy of its grandiosity!"
...and scream.
(Everyone stared, transfixed by the sight of Mayumi rolling about in agony, ripping away at Armisael's tendrils, clawing at her right temple...!)
"So used to the pain of others, that it has lost sight of its own blindness!"
A wretched spike of red began to protrude from the flesh; with animalistic instinct, she grabbed at it, pulling-!
"Do you have the strength to take up the pen? Do you have the courage to dream once more?"
It was like her mind had been pierced with nails, tipped with fire...it hurt so much...!
"Do you have the fortitude to walk into the unknown?!"
With an ear-piercing shriek, Mayumi yanked the spike out of the side of her head, breathing agonized gasps that tore at her throat: staring at it, she realized that the spike was a crimson fountain pen.
"...good. Then let us seal the deal."
(The voice was her own.) "...yes..." In a flash of blue fire, a simple leatherbound book manifested on the ground in front of her, bearing the title of 'MAYUMI YAMAGISHI.' An unseen wind blew it open to the first page.
"I am thou. Thou art I."
The space next to the title of 'Author' was blank...but on the page was embedded a mask of avian bone.
"Take control of thy narrative; become the author of your own story once more..."
With frenzied breaths, she quickly (desperately) wrote down the characters for her name with the bloody pen.
"...and let this wretched and lonely beast realize its folly..."
Gritting her teeth, she pulled at the mask on the book with all her might...
"...for though it has bound itself deeply to thine own being...it has clearly forgotten that often..."
...and finally, with a defiant yell...
"...we are our OWN worst enemy!"
...yanked the mask away, to the sound of torn paper.
xxxx
Everyone flinched as a pyre of blue fire erupted around Mayumi Yamagishi's position. Even Armisael had no choice but to recoil from the sudden explosion of light and heat. "What...is this...?"
"...what's...what's happening?" demanded Toji.
"I...I think..." Kensuke's mouth was open, slack-jawed with awe. "I don't even know how...but I think she awakened a Persona."
With those words, the fires faded away.
Whatever the teenagers had been expecting...it certainly wasn't this.
A small double helix of golden light — its gaps containing tiny spheres of protean mass, shifting shade and color with an oily sheen — rotated around a hovering throne formed from black stone (perhaps onyx or obsidian) tinged crimson, its back ending in two tiny statues depicting cherubim. Sitting upon the black throne was Mayumi Yamagishi, clad in a slim royal purple evening gown that went down to her ankles and barely hid lightly-colored dress slippers. Long opera gloves colored a more vibrant shade of violet were hidden by a large hooded shawl, itself bearing fabric shaded somewhere between pale purple and thistle; however, most eye-catching of all was the fact that right side of her face was covered by half of a bony mask, most well-known to the world as the masks affixed to the Shadows of Acolytes. Unlike those poor souls, her human eye — still blazing yellow — could be seen through the eyehole of the bisected mask. The left half of her face, free and clear and looking perfectly human, was adorned by a simple yet charming monocle.
Mana said what everyone was thinking. "Did...did the Angel become her Persona...?"
"What is this trickery?!" demanded the Angel.
"...everyone," said Mayumi, staring over her shoulder to stare at her fellow humans; as if moving according to her will, the throne and ring rotated so as to bring her closer to them. "I heard your voices...thank you..."
"...um, you're welcome Yamagishi-san...but what's this?" asked Shinji, quite justifiably.
Smiling lightly, Mayumi turned back towards the Angel. "Armisael! You had bound yourself to the very depths of my soul...tainting me with your colors irrevocably...but you are not a God that remains unchanged by those you interact with!" With a sweeping gesture, she pointed at the entirety of the Angel's heavenly realm. "You may profess that my loneliness was the source of immense pain...and in a way, that was true...but the same could be said for you! How much of your pain is mine? How much of my pain is yours?" Tapping at her throne, she finished, "my Persona...Armisael...is a reminder of that truth."
"...never would I ever have conceived of such audacity from the lilim...especially from the likes of you! To turn my likeness against me!"
"For the sake of survival...no, for the sake of living, mankind has done a great deal!" By her own will, Mayumi drifted into the midst of Shinji, Kensuke, Toji, and Mana. "And that's why I'm here now...to help them stop you."
"...well, I certainly can't complain," said Mana with a shrug.
"Eh, we've had weirder days," agreed Toji.
Kensuke peered thoughtfully at the form taken by Mayumi's Persona. "...you know, now that the whole oddity of the situation's faded a little, I realize you've got an 'enemy mine' situation going on here...which is pretty sick."
Honestly, Shinji didn't know what to think. All he knew was that Yamagishi was alive and well...and that was enough for now. "Everyone..." At his word, his four peers went quiet, looking expectantly at him. "...let's finish this." Kensuke, Toji, Mana, and — for the first time — Mayumi nodded. As one, they turned back towards the Angel, ready to begin the fight anew. We're going to bring you down...and this time, we have more help!
(As if sensing his thoughts, Mayumi smiled on impulse.)
xxxx
TO BE CONTINUED
xxxx
Author's Notes: And there's our dedicated Navigator.
So, a lot just happened.
- Sojiro remains best coffee!dadbro.
- We had a "1000 Heartless" scenario with everyone on Team Evangelion (gotta come up with a better name) showing their stuff against Armisael's 'mooks.' (Kensuke even managed to successfully cast Marin Karin! And Labrys and Aigis apparently manifested to some degree...?)
- Shinji quoting Hamlet at an Angel to reach the heart of his friend! SO FREAKIN' METAL.
- Lots and lots of internal drama between Mayumi and herself.
- PERSONA 5-STYLE AWAKENING FOR MAYUMI AW YEAH.
Some brief notes about my decision to make 'Armisael' Mayumi's first Persona: given Armisael's connection to Mayumi (instead of the unnamed 'Insubstantial Angel', as I didn't want to make too many new Angels...Phanuel being the sole exception, due to plot reasons), this also allowed me the chance of making an Angel into a Persona, instead of giving her one of her own...because from her story (and her Arcana), she's had something holding her down for her whole life, and she didn't even know the cause until now. Even as she seeks to break Armisael's chains...Armisael's scars will remain. And that's why her Other self is patterned so closely from the Angel.
As for her 2nd Awakening...well, spoilers. :p
Likewise, given the nature of Shadows in SPE, everyone who awakens to a Persona is gonna go through the P4 route: namely, face their Shadow directly. Which is cool and dramatic in its own way...but let's be honest, Persona 5's awakenings are just so very hype. (Play the 'Awakening' song from P5 over Mayumi's scene followed by 'Will Power' as she manifests her Persona, and tell me you don't feel just a bit giddy.) As such, opportunities for this are few and far between, and are going to be restricted to those who wouldn't be able to face their Shadow directly...namely, the Evangelion-users...and someone like Mayumi, whose Shadow had been subsumed by Armisael long ago.
...but to be honest, I mostly went this route so I could use P5's method of awakening, because I love it so very much.
Gonna go on a brief sabbatical for Thanksgiving week, so I at least wanted to leave y'all off on a high note. Take care and God bless!