Shining Genesis: A Story of Masks and Monsters

Chapter 1: Rude Awakening

Shinji Ikari

March 31st, 2024, 10:27 am

I poured myself a cup of tea and headed into the living room, taking a seat on the old green couch. Sitting on the coffee table in front of me was a thick textbook that I hadn't quite gotten around to opening yet, though it was already fairly well-worn. Setting my tea down, I finally picked the book up and looked over the cover. 'Monsters of the Deep: A History of Aquatic Megafauna'. That title didn't really mean anything to me yet but the picture beneath it showed what looked like an artistic rendering of some kind of dinosaur swimming through the ocean, so detailed that I could have mistaken it for an actual photograph. The book must have been about prehistoric sea life, though I didn't exactly know much on the subject. I had only just found out that 'Killer Whales' were actually more closely related to dolphins than actual whales.

Humming a familiar tune, I opened up to the first page of chapter one, 'Gojira, and the Turning of an Era', which had another picture of what looked like that same strange dinosaur, though the details were different and the picture seemed grainer, also lacking color. Before I could get the chance to read anything else, though, I heard a knock at the door. Setting the book back down, I walked over to answer it. The woman I found waiting for me wasn't exactly who I'd been expecting, though. But, I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Let's rewind a bit, shall we?

Febraury 1st, 2024, 6:00 am

I was pretty sure that I had just saved the world or something. It was kind of hard to tell, though, since things had gotten so crazy by the end that I'm not entirely sure what was going on. What I did know, though, was that the world I had grown up in didn't exist. It had been replaced with a better, brighter world that had never heard of Evangelions, Impacts or Angels.

Unfortunately, there was a slight complication. Well, actually there were a lot of complications but we're just going to start with the simple one. I was still there.

I woke up that morning not feeling particularly well-rested. Considering that I had just lived through what I was pretty sure was the end of the world, that wasn't too surprising. But then as I stirred in bed, I noticed that something was wrong. I was in a bed. Not the kind I was used to but a Western-style mattress. The kind that I was only used to seeing in hospitals. At first, I thought that's where I was but I couldn't smell the usual antiseptics or whatever. Despite my grogginess, I slowly opened my eyes to stare up at a shadowy ceiling. Looking around, I could faintly make out through the dark that I was in a bedroom, one that I had no memory of.

Then a warm hand brushed up against my chest and I jumped so hard I managed to fall onto the floor in a jumble of blankets that I'd managed to pull off with me.

"Huh, Shinji?" I heard a woman's voice ask, which sounded strangely familiar but that I couldn't quite place.

I sprang to my feet, nearly falling over again because of the blanket wrapped around my legs, and nearly had a heart attack as I saw the naked brunette that I had just been in bed with. Her long, dark hair fell over her shoulders and, thankfully for my pubescent mind, her, um… you-know-whats, as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. Then she flipped on a lamp sitting on the nightstand beside her and reached for a familiar pair of red, horn-rimmed glasses.

"M-Mari?" I stammered, recognizing the other Eva pilot that I'd met only a handful of times. She was definitely much older than the last time I had seen her. Like the Curse of Eva or whatever it was called had lifted and she spontaneously aged into an adult.

"Yeah?" she asked, squinting at her eyes adjusted to the light. "What's wrong? Another nightmare?"

I glanced around wildly, trying desperately to figure out just what the heck was going on. We were in a bedroom, a fairly nice one at that. Decorations were sparse but my gaze eventually settled on a framed photo sitting on the nightstand next to me. Mari and I were posing together in front of what looked like the big castle at what used to be Tokyo Disneyland. Rather than the ruins that I'd seen pictures of in textbooks and museums, however, the structure seemed perfectly intact. And that was without going into the fact that not only was Mari an adult but so was I.

That was when I finally looked at my own naked figure and realized that I was a far sight from the skinny teen I had been just a day before from my perspective. I was taller, still lean but noticeably bulkier than I'd ever been. I then did the only rational thing that I could do in that situation and let out a scream.

Febraury 1st, 2024, 8:00 am

Around an hour or two later, I was sitting on the couch in the living room with a blanket draped over my shoulders and a hot cup of tea cradled in my hands. Mari, who had slipped on a shirt that looked just a bit too baggy to be one of hers, was crouched down beside me, sandwiched between the couch and a wooden coffee table. I had just finished telling her everything that had happened, to the best of my memory. She was my first and, for the time being, only confidant regarding my experiences and the old world.

"Hm…" she hummed to herself, eyes shut. For a moment, I worried that she would think I was crazy. But then she opened her eyes again and gave me a comforting smile. "Well, that's certainly a lot to have been through. I can't even imagine what it must have been like for you."

I blinked a few times, surprised by that response. "Wait, you actually believe me?"

She shrugged, her expression shifting to something a bit more apologetic. "Well, that is kind of a wild story. But I can tell that you believe it and for now, that's what's important. But if you don't mind, I think I should give you a quick checkup. Just to make sure you don't have a concussion or anything."

I nodded quietly and she pulled out a small, flat screen that I would later find out was what cell phones looked like in this world. Certainly a huge departure from the clamshell design that I was barely used to. She turned on the built-in flashlight, shining it in my eyes to check my reaction. After a few more quick tests, she nodded in satisfaction and set the phone down on the table.

"Well, everything looks fine to me but I'm not exactly a professional, yet." She gave me a sad smile. "So, you really don't remember anything? Well, anything from this timeline? World? Life? Whatever you want to call it?"

I shook my head. "N-no."

She sighed, clearly disappointed, before putting on a forced smile. "Well, then I guess I should introduce myself. "My name's Mary Makinami, or Makinami Mary if you want to use Japanese name order. I was born in London, England but grew up in the States, that is, America, and moved here to Japan a few years ago, where I'm attending Tokyo University in the psych department."

She held out her hand and I hesitantly shook it. It felt weird, being introduced to someone I'd already met. It also wouldn't be until later that I discovered the different spelling of her given name. "I'm Ikari Shinji. Um, it's nice to meet you, I guess."

She let out another small sigh. "And I guess now I need to tell you about yourself. Or at least, the you that I know. You already know your name, obviously. You're twenty-four years old, not fourteen, and you're also a student at Tokyo U, going for your doctorate in marine biology."

"Marine biology?" I repeated the words. Even though I knew what that was, it still felt like a foreign concept. In my world, at least ninety percent of sea life had been wiped out when I was still just a baby.

"That's right." Mari, or Mary, gave another one of those sad smiles I kept getting from her. "And you may have figured this out already but we live together. We're, well, we were a couple."

"Oh," I said like an idiot, having no idea how to react to that information.

"It… probably wouldn't be appropriate to, well…" She flushed, looking uncomfortable. "Well, if what you think is true, then we're basically strangers, and even if it's not, then it seems you've mentally regressed back to your early teens, so… staying together probably wouldn't be appropriate. I'm not going to kick you out of the apartment or anything, though."

"Oh," I repeated. "Um, I guess I can stay here on the couch, then. Until I can find my own place."

"Oh, no, that won't be necessary." Mary shook her head. "We've… I've got a spare bedroom that I can fix up for you. And don't worry about trying to find your own place. For now, just try to get settled until we can figure out what's going on and what will be best for you. I'll do what I can to help you."

"Alright." I nodded, and my new life in this unfamiliar world began.

The one good thing about my situation, apart from Mary being there for me, was that I had woken up in this world just after finals week, which meant that I had some time to get caught up on studying and learning more about my new life before the new term started. Unfortunately, I was still struggling to learn a subject that I knew nothing about. Mary had suggested that I switch courses to a field that might be more familiar to me or even just transfer to a different school, but I did my best to stick with it.

She may have given up on the idea of ever seeing 'her' Shinji again but I sure hadn't. I was still determined to find a way to give my new life back to him and wanted to make sure that I kept everything just as he left it for when the time came. Unfortunately, my plans hit a snag when Mary suddenly got a call a few days ago. Apparently, one of her aunts back in England had gotten really sick and she had to go take care of her for a while. Mary wasn't sure how long this would take but promised to be back as soon as possible. She also said that she'd get a friend of hers to come over and help me with my studies, someone she called 'Sohryu-chan'. That brings me back to where we left off.

March 31st, 2024, 10:30 am

The woman at the door looked to be my age, with an athletic build and wearing a leather jacket over a red tank top and black jeans. A pair of brilliant blue eyes stared at me from under the brim of a black baseball cap with a logo I didn't recognize, and her face was framed by that distinctive orange-brown hair that I would never be able to forget.

"Asuka?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out," she said with a playful smile that I was all too familiar with. "Second Lieutenant Asuka Langley Sohryu, at your service. You must be Mary's boy toy, right? Shinji?"

"Oh, um, yeah." I couldn't believe my luck. Why, out of all of the people in the world, did it have to be her?

The cocky redhead, who had been my roommate, classmate and fellow pilot back in my old life, walked past me into Mary's apartment without so much as an invitation to come in. Typical Asuka. At least she remembered to take her shoes off.

"Hm, cozy place you two have here," she said as she casually strolled around, hands on her hips. I noticed that her accent seemed a bit thicker than I remembered, which made me wonder if she'd spent more time in Germany before moving here. That was when I realized that she'd introduced herself by a different name than I was used to. Sohryu, like Mary had called her, instead of Shikinami. Was she married in this world? I couldn't see a ring on her finger. "A bit bland, though. You guys should really spring for some more decorations, liven the place up a bit."

"I'm sure that we'll get right on that," I replied sarcastically, heading for the kitchen. Even if Asuka was going to be… Asuka, I could at least try to be a polite host. "Tea?"

"Earl Grey, hot." She looked over some photos that Mary had displayed on a bookshelf, mostly of her with the other Shinji. Asuka leaned forward to get a better look at the ones on the lower shelves, inadvertently giving me a good look at her, *ahem*, assets. I turned my gaze away from her before she turned back to me with a smirk. Perhaps it hadn't been as accidental as I would have liked. "Wait, no, you probably wouldn't get that reference. Whatever you've got will be fine."

I quickly went to get her tea ready. While my mind was rapidly catching up to my new body, a side effect of that was that I was essentially speedrunning through puberty. And of course that meant that being alone with the girl who, despite myself, I used to have more than a small crush on was very much not what I needed while my hormones were on overdrive. Especially since she had, well, developed quite a lot in all the right places. It was like someone had stuck Asuka and Misato in a blender. Wait, no, that simile didn't make any sense. Doing that would just be a bloody milkshake of viscera and bone, not the redheaded bombshell in the other room.

"Ahck!" While my mind was on that, I managed to accidentally spill boiling tea on my hand. I quickly set the kettle down and rushed to the sink, pouring water on my hand. Room temperature, of course, not cold.

"Something wrong?" Asuka asked as I walked back into the living room, holding her tea in the hand I hadn't managed to scald. She was now sitting on the couch, waiting for me.

"No, it's fine," I lied. Nothing was fine. Regardless, I handed her the cup, which she graciously accepted as I struggled not to look down her ample cleavage.

"Thanks." She took the tea and began gently blowing on it before looking back up at me while I sat down beside her. "So, Mary said you needed help with studying or something?"

I nodded.

"Huh, she always made you out to be some kind of brainiac," she mused before taking a sip. "You certainly make a damn good cup of tea, I'll give you that much. I'll see what I can help with but I'm not sure how a fighter pilot's supposed to help you study fish or whatever."

"You're a pilot?" I asked. It seemed some things didn't change. Though she probably flew a plane rather than a giant robot. Wait, but did the Japanese Defense Force accept immigrants? Or maybe she was with the German Air Force? Did Germany even have any air bases in Japan?

"That's right." She smiled at that, clearly just as proud of her profession as the Asuka I knew. "I'm with G-Force."

That reply meant nothing to me at the time but I smiled and nodded like I knew what that meant, before reaching down and grabbing my textbook again. Asuka's eyes widened as she saw the cover.

"Oh, that'd explain it," she whistled. "Titan studies, huh?"

I looked over at her, confused. "What?"

"Oh, right, I guess you'd call them kaiju," she corrected herself, not that it helped me in the slightest. "Or is it daikaiju? I always get those mixed up."

"Daikaiju?" I repeated, knowing what the word meant and yet at the same time not understanding the meaning.

"Yep, giant monsters." She nodded, then pointed to the picture on the cover. "You know, I actually got to see Big G in person once, when I was still just a cadet. We were on a training mission in the Pacific when he happened to pass by. I don't think I can really describe what it was like. He was awesome, in the oldest sense of the word. Terrifying in the best way possible."

"B-Big G?" I looked down at the picture, only then realizing that it really was a modern photograph of some horrifying monster, not just a detailed artist's rendering of some long-extinct species.

"Godzilla." Asuka nodded excitedly, opening the book back up to the first chapter. "Or Gojira, as he was originally called. Generally considered the first modern kaiju. Though personally, I think that honor should go to King Kong. Sure, he wasn't that big when he was first discovered in the '30s, but still. But I guess I'm getting kind of off-topic."

"I see…" A sense of growing horror washed over me as I realized the implications of what she was saying. It was then that I learned the awful truth. I hadn't saved the world. I'd only swapped out one devil for another. "And let's just say that I didn't know anything about… Gojira. Why don't we start from the beginning?"

"How the fuck would you have not heard of Godzilla?" Asuka stared at me like I'd just grown a second head, and I flinched at the strong language. "You're Japanese, for fuck's sake! This godforsaken archipelago has been at the center of more kaiju attacks than anywhere else in the whole damn world! Especially when it comes to Godzilla!"

"I-I just meant hypothetically," I tried to cover my tracks. Clearly, this was a sore subject for her. And the way she was talking, it should have been for me as well. "When studying, it's best to start from the basics, just being thorough."

Asuka blinked a few times, before blushing. "Oh, right. I'm, uh, not used to this sort of thing. Sorry for losing my head there."

Well, at least this Asuka was more levelheaded than the old one. It seemed that she'd matured with age..

"Alright, so it all started back in the early '50s, when the Americans were testing out hydrogen bombs in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Because of course, nothing could possibly have gone wrong with that. And, well, they woke him up. He was first spotted off the coast of Odo Island, before attacking the island itself-"

March 31st, 2024, 1:30 pm

I was glad that I'd prepared our lunches ahead of time in preparation for the tutoring session because there was no way that I would have felt up to cooking anything. I felt clammy, after hearing stories of what kind of a world this was that I'd been living in for nearly two months already. Giant monsters roamed the Earth, attacking cities and leveling towns indiscriminately. It was a common enough occurrence that organizations and infrastructure were built around these things. It was both horrifying and yet, in a way, mesmerizing. These creatures, kaiju as they were collectively called, didn't feel like they had the same sense of… wrongness, that the Angels of the old world had. They somehow felt like a natural part of this world, at least for the most part.

But it also raised an important question. Why had it taken me so long to finally hear about this?

"Some say that King Ghidorah was the result of some bats getting hit by the same bomb that mutated the first Godzilla, though personally, I think he was an alien." Asuka stretched before looking down at her phone. "Oh, wow, look at the time. I hadn't realized that we'd been talking for so long."

I spared a glance at the clock on the wall and realized what she'd meant. Half the day had already passed them by. "Yeah, I guess it is starting to get a bit late. Sorry for taking up so much of your time."

"Nah, it's good." She smiled as she stood up. "It was fun to chat about this stuff, and thanks again for lunch. Mary's one lucky girl to have snagged a good cook like you for herself. My bf can barely make microwave ramen. But I should probably get going. We can meet up again sometime, right?"

"Oh, um, sure," I said as I followed her to the door.

Just then, an alert went off on Asuka's phone and her eyes widened before she pulled it out. "Ah, fuck."

"What is it?" I asked nervously. There was no way that anything that warranted that response could be good.

"We got a Meganula outbreak at the other end of the city," Asuka explained hastily. "Apparently some bozo scientists were studying some eggs they found that turned out to not be quite as dormant as they thought. Total bloodbath. I'm going to need you to stay here and lock the door, but I gotta go. I'll text you when everything's over. Wait, no, shit. I don't have your number."

I immediately pulled my phone out of my pocket and flipped it open.

"Damn, I didn't know they still made those things." Asuka whistled, her tension momentarily eased slightly as she saw the purple flip phone in my hand that Mary had helped me pick out because I was having too much trouble trying to figure out how to use Other Me's smartphone. I quickly showed her my number and she plugged it into her contacts. "Alright, thanks. I'll text you when we get the all-clear. But until then, do not, I repeat DO NOT leave this apartment under any circumstances. These things eat people."

"Wait, but what about you, then?" I asked, more than a little concerned. Even though we'd just met, I already liked this Asuka more as a friend than the old one and I didn't want anything to happen to her. Or anyone, really, but Asuka was my focus at the moment.

"I've gotta get to base, ASAP," she explained. "My team's on kaiju cleanup duty, which means I've gotta take down as many of those bugs as I can. I'll be fine, though, don't worry about me."

Then she gave me a quick peck on the cheek and ran down the stairs outside, soon climbing in the fancy red sportscar she'd left in the parking lot and driving off. It wasn't until after I'd closed and locked the door that I ever realized what she'd just done. I don't think she'd even thought about it, either, so I tried not to think about it too hard. Just caught in the moment, right?

Then my back slid down the door as I dropped to my knees. Monsters were real and they were far more numerous than I could have ever imagined possible in the old world. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. This wasn't the world that I wanted. Why? How was this even possible?

I was pulled out of my downward spiral when my phone buzzed. My first thought was that it was Asuka but it had only been a few minutes since she'd left. Not remotely enough time to take out an entire group of… whatever Meganula were.

'U no wut happening? Out watching Erika but city seems in lockdown' It was one of Other Me's University friends, a botanist named Akamatsu Ichiro who he'd apparently had an underwater plantlife class with last term. I hadn't met him personally, but I'd seen his picture and gone through our messaging history. 'Erika' was his nickname for some kind of rare wild rose that he'd been studying out in the hills outside the city.

'Not sure' I texted back. 'Meganula outbreak?'

'Crap, really? U no if any shelters out here?'

'I don't know'

I stared blankly at the wall in front of me as I waited for another response. I didn't know the guy at all and I didn't know what a Meganula was, other than that it was some sort of man-eating monster. Asuka had specifically told me to stay put. I should just follow her advice, right? Ichiro would be alright, wouldn't he?

'Hold on, I'm coming to get you'

I didn't know what came over me but I couldn't just sit still and leave him in danger. I scrambled to pack for the hike and a few minutes later, I was slipping on my shoes and backpack while heading out the door. As I went down the stairs to ground level, I pulled my phone back out and checked Ichiro's response.

'Dude, no! U crazy! There r giant maneating dragonflies out ther! Ill be fine'

So that's what Meganula were. I slowed my pace as I walked along the sidewalk, considering turning back and heading inside. But then an overwhelming sense of urgency washed over me and I found myself running down the street, cursing myself for not having gotten around to getting a bicycle. Fortunately, I had a map in my text history showing where 'Erika' was, so I knew where I was going. But it would take a while for me to get there so I hurried as fast as I could.

"I mustn't run away," I repeated my old motto to myself. "I mustn't run away."

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have listened to myself that day.

?

March 31st, 2024, 2:45 pm

There were eight men gathered around a condemned warehouse that was scheduled for demolition in roughly a week's time. That would have been considered suspicious behavior even if the kaiju sirens weren't blaring outside and all of the normal civilians had fled to shelters or locked themselves in their homes. Six of the men were just members of a local gang who called themselves the 'Spider Clan'. Street thugs with delusions of grandeur. Not the kind of punks that I would normally waste my time on.

No, it was the other two that had drawn me here. Both dressed in white labcoats over black tactical gear, they couldn't have stood out any harder if they tried. One was carrying a briefcase and both were armed with concealed handguns. I couldn't make out the models from my hiding place on the overhead catwalks but that information was irrelevant. Once I had confirmed what I came here to check, I wouldn't give them a chance to draw their weapons.

"Yo, you got the stuff?" one of the gangsters stepped forward. Distinctive features were the frosted tips of his spiked black hair and the spider tattoo on his bare chest. Thin but muscular frame. Likely had a background in gymnastics, which was unusual for a Yazuka wannabe.

"That depends," the man with the briefcase said. "You got the cash?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's all here." Spider Tattoo motioned to the man on his right, who held up a duffel bag and opened it to show that it was full of American dollars. An odd choice of payment method for Japanese street thugs. Perhaps I'd have to keep an eye on them, after all.

"Very well." The other man clicked open his suitcase, revealing rows of glowing blue vials. Bingo.

"Alright, now we're talking," the man with the spider tattoo said as his lackey slid the duffel bag along the floor, and the briefcase snapped shut again, completely oblivious as I readied my improvised weapon overhead. "Now, let's do this quickly before- WHOA! What the fuck!"

Everyone jumped as I threw my sharpened pipe like a javelin, aimed directly at the man with the briefcase, with enough force that it punctured straight through his collarbone, went out through his hip and embedded itself roughly thirty centimeters into the concrete floor, pinning his body down while spraying a fountain of blood that dazed and confused everyone present. The dead man's associate reached for his gun but didn't get the chance to draw it before his brains splattered everywhere as I smashed his head into the floor with a falling kick.

I rose to my full height with my back turned to the thugs. I may not have been what anyone would ever consider 'tall' but I still managed to make an intimidating enough figure. All five of them took a step back, with one of them going too far as to wet his pants at the sight of me covered in blood.

"My fight is not with you," I told them. "Leave this place and never deal with the organization again, or I will be forced to take action against you."

"Ah, shit! It's the Kamen-" One man raised a spiked bat, ready to fight. One punch proved enough to shatter most of his ribs and rupture a few organs. He fell dead at my feet.

Kamen Rider. The Masked Rider. These are not names that I chose for myself. Nevertheless, they are the names that have become 'me'. It seems my reputation is growing even further than I anticipated if even localized gangs are able to recognize 'me'. But that does not matter, it is irrelevant.

"I will only say this one more time." I keep my voice calm and level. One might say monotone. "Leave without a fight, never deal with Shocker or their wares again, and I will spare you. Otherwise, you will meet the same fate as him."

They failed to comply and met the consequences, falling one by one. By my calculations, the fight took no more than five minutes. There were only two survivors. Myself, and the man with the spider tattoo. I had broken his right arm and left leg but chose to spare him for the time being. Despite his injuries, however, he remained defiant.

"Fuck you, bitch!" He spat out along with more than a little blood as he propped himself up against a support pillar as best he could.

I bent down before him, lowering my helmeted face mere inches in front of his. He stared intently into the bulbous red lenses before him, without so much as a hint of hesitation. Men with his level of courage were rare. He intrigued me.

"You will survive this and endure," I instructed him. He spat blood on my helmet but I didn't flinch. "You will be the example to others of your ilk. Anyone who makes deals with Shocker will meet the same fate as your compatriots. There will not be another warning."

Then I stood back up and turned around, walking away slowly. I grabbed the suitcase and checked that its contents were still there. Satisfied, I head for the door. I had no need for the duffel bag or its contents.

"I'm going to kill you!" he yelled as I reached the door. "You hear me! I'm going to fucking kill you!"

His threats were irrelevant. He was in no position to endanger me and I did not predict that he would become a threat in the future. Thus, I exited the old warehouse and made my way to where I left my bike parked in a nearby alley. Along the way, I see a young man, roughly my age, running down the street. He wore a white button-up shirt, black slacks and was carrying a green backpack. That was odd, particularly in the middle of a lockdown. He looked familiar but I didn't get a good enough look to identify him. It seemed unlikely that he was relevant to my mission, though and I calculated the chances of his survival as minimal as he was headed in the direction of the Meganula outbreak. Thus, I returned to my attention to my motorcycle.

"Henshin," I said, voice barely a whisper. In a flash, the Kamen Rider is gone, replaced with the unassuming Japanese woman who wore the mask. I put on a more traditional helmet than the grasshopper-designed one and ride off toward the nearest shelter.

Once there, I slip inside undetected. As far as anyone is concerned, the woman known as Rei had never left. She merely blended in with the crowd, unseen.

Shinji Ikari

March 31st, 2024, 3:15 pm

My legs were burning and I felt about ready to cough my lungs out but I had finally reached my destination. Taking a moment to stop and catch my breath, I leaned against a tree at the edge of the forest and took a drink from one of the water bottles I'd packed. This was crazy. Why was I here? I should have just stayed home.

By this point, Ichiro had either found a shelter or somewhere else to hide, or he'd already been eaten. I wasn't doing anyone a favor by trying to play hero. And why was I playing hero, anyway? It wasn't like me at all. I was the quiet kid who just did what he was told and ran away at the first sign of trouble. It just didn't make any sense and yet it was like I had a voice in my head, my voice, urging me on. Telling me that I couldn't leave well enough alone when someone needed my help.

And so I began hiking through the forest. I didn't know exactly where Ichiro would be. Even if I knew where that rose bush of his was, there was no guarantee that he would still be anywhere near it. So, I stuck to the main trail and hoped for the best. After a while, I heard a loud moan off in the distance.

"Akamatsu!" I cried out, hoping that he could hear me.

"Ikari?" came the reply and I ran in the direction it had come from, having to climb around some bushes to get to him. "Ikari, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," I said as I finally found him, lying in a patch of mud and cradling one of his legs. He matched what I'd seen in pictures, a rather average young man, maybe a year or two younger than me with short black hair. It looked like he was trying to grow out a beard but it wasn't coming along very well. "Are you alright?"

"No!" He gasped in pain, struggling to speak. "I-I thought I saw something so I tried to make a break for it and I tripped. I think I broke my leg or something!"

"Here, let me take a look at it."

I knelt down beside him and gave his leg a quick once over, never so glad for the first aid training that I'd had to do back at NERV. After applying pressure to a few spots and checking his range of motion, I was able to confirm that he hadn't broken his leg like he'd thought but that he had probably twisted or sprained his knee. Fortunately, I'd come prepared and slipped my backpack off. Getting a cloth wet, I wiped the mud off his leg before pulling out a bandage and applying it. I didn't have the materials for a full tourniquet, unfortunately, and I didn't want to risk foraging for the right size sticks when there could have been monsters lurking about nearby. So instead, I had him lean on my shoulder so that he could shift his weight onto me instead of his bad leg.

I managed to lead him back to the trail and we slowly made our way back to the city. At first, it seemed like we'd be able to make it to one of the shelters without incident, where medical professionals would be waiting who could give Ichiro the proper care.

Then we heard the buzzing.

Ichiro suddenly pulled me aside and we ducked into a bush, just in time. A massive brown, prehistoric-looking dragonfly that had to have been at least the size of a horse flew by. Its yellow wings beat so fast that I could hardly see them and its mantis-like front legs looked like they could easily kill a man. To say nothing of the rows of big white fangs that made up its mouth. No wonder people were so afraid of these things.

"That was a close one," Ichiro muttered once we were sure that it was gone and climbed back out of the bushes. "We need to hurry."

"You don't need to tell me twice," I said bitterly. Just what had I gotten myself into?

We continued walking and had almost made it to the edge of the woods when the buzzing returned. I turned around just in time to see another Meganula, or maybe it was the same one, diving straight at us. Reacting on instinct, I shoved Ichiro to the side. While he fell into the bushes, the ancient dragonfly monster slammed into my chest, knocking the wind out of my lungs and slamming me into a tree.

I felt a searing pain in my chest and spared a quick glance down to see that the Meganula had taken a bite, tearing up my shirt along with a sizable chunk of skin. I was now in even worse shape than the person I was trying to save.

The gigantic insect turned for another diving run and I reacted on instinct. As it rushed towards me, I slipped my backpack off and swung it up with as much force as I could muster. The bag slammed right into the Meganula's jaw, knocking it off course just enough that it slammed into the tree over my head instead of me. That tree didn't stand a chance between the force of impact and the large chunk of wood that the monster had inadvertently bitten out of it, and it toppled over.

While the Meganula reoriented itself, I ducked to the side and picked up the sturdiest-looking branch I could find. My current body may have lacked the muscle memory of my NERV combat training but I still had those lessons drilled into my mind and assumed a proper swordfighting pose. After the monster recovered, however, it didn't come after me again, flying off instead.

It seemed that I had managed to fend it off somehow. I slumped to my knees, completely stunned by everything that had just happened. Had I really just fought off a monster like that? On my own?

The answer was no, I hadn't. The Meganula had simply decided to circle around and attack me from behind. I let out a garbled scream of pain as its teeth sank into my upper back and it wrapped its enlarged front legs to carry me off to who knows where.

As I was pulled above the tree line, I thought I was going to die. I should have died. My consciousness was fading as the Meganula continued shredding my back and shoulders with rows of sharp teeth digging into my flesh. I could vaguely make out more of the monsters swarming around the forest and nearby city. Fighter jets were flying around, shooting down as many of them as they could. What looked like a shooting star fell from the sky, heading straight for me.

When characters are on the verge of death in books or on TV, they always talk about the light at the end of the tunnel. My addled mind thought that's what I was seeing as the intense, burning light grew larger and closer. In a way, I wasn't wrong.

Ikari Shinji died that day, struck by a falling meteor while getting eaten alive by a Mesazoic-era dragonfly. That was just my luck, wasn't it?

Asuka Sohryu

March 31st, 2024, 3:30 pm

"Die, you stupid bugs!"

The way I see it, there are two kinds of titans. The massive behemoths that leveled cities and took an entire army's worth of artillery just to fend off until a slightly less malevolent one stopped by to save the day, and the pesky small ones that came in droves and took forever to butcher your way through. Personally, I find the first kind to be much more exciting to fight. You put everything on the line and give it all you've got against an opponent that you shouldn't stand any chance against. Unfortunately, those bastards are always too strong for us to take down and either we only manage to drive them back or another one comes along to 'save the day'. Stupid kill-stealers. The swarm type may not have been as exciting, since you're just mowing down endless waves of enemies until you've finally butchered the whole lot but at least you got the satisfaction of 'winning'. If I could just combine the best parts of both, I'd be living the dream.

I was working on that, of course, but this wasn't the time to be thinking about it.

My squadron and I had spent the last several hours mowing down as many of these damned bugs as we could while trying to keep property damage to a minimum. That was easier said than done, given that those ugly sons of bitches could easily outmaneuver us. Our Valkyries were good but they were still restricted by the laws of physics. Fortunately, the bugs were also about as intelligent as normal insects. Which was to say, very, very dumb.

"I'm headed your way, Torwart!" one of my squadmates said over comms, call sign Cowboy. Sure enough, I saw his plane turn a corner around a skyscraper and fly straight at me. Five bugs were right on his tail.

One of the advantages of a G-Force Valkyrie was that they were much more maneuverable than a traditional fighter jet. I made a vertical ascent and hovered there for a moment until the moment that Cowboy reached me, then showered the Meganula in a rain of bullets. Didn't even need the masers to take these things down.

"Thirty-seven!" I announced my current kill count to the others as I turned around and went back on patrol. We'd almost taken out the entire swarm but almost wasn't good enough.

"Really, Torwart?" Snake replied. "I'm already at forty-one."

I grit my teeth as my grip tightened on the controls. Smug bastard. I was going to have to find more bugs soon if I wanted to knock him down a peg. Speaking of which, I spotted several of the ugly insects flying off towards the woods outside the city. I thought it was my lucky day, especially since I wouldn't have to worry as much about collateral out there. I went in pursuit and managed to take a few more out.

"Forty-two," I said to myself. I'd wait until I took out a few more out before announcing it to the others again. Instead, I set my sights on the next one, easing my thumb down on the trigger and…

Oh, god.

It had a person in its jaws. A man, by the looks of it but that was all I could make out from that distance. Some unlucky sap who hadn't made it to a shelter, apparently.

I hesitated on the controls but quickly recovered from the shock. Before I could blast that murderous bug off the face of the Earth and avenge that poor soul, though, a proximity alert blared on my dashboard. Something was closing in and fast.

I looked to up see a fucking meteor of all things coming down. Right here? Right now? It smashed into the Meganula I was about to take out, killing it and the guy it was eating, assuming that he wasn't already dead, before smashing into the forest.

"What the fuck?" was all I could say as I stared down at the crater surrounded by smashed and burning trees.

"What was that?" Screwdriver's voice came over the radio but I wasn't listening to her or the others as they started chattering.

I circled the crash site a few times in stunned silence. Had that really just happened? Finally, after a few minutes, the shock wore off and I snapped back to my senses. Before I could fly back to the city and catch up with the others, however, things got worse.

The meteor strike, as random as it had been, had woken something up. The trees parted as another bug emerged, which dwarfed the ones I'd been taking out for the last few hours. How had one of the Meganula already reached that stage? It must have been those damned scientists trying to play god or something. Accelerated the aging process, maybe? Or maybe this thing was already here and had triggered the dormant eggs into hatching?

However it happened, I didn't have time to dwell on the 'why'. The 'what' was what was important.

"Megaguirus!" I shouted into my radio and I'm not ashamed to admit that there was a bit of panic in my voice. Well, maybe a little ashamed but there were more important things than pride. "I've got eyes on a Megaguirus!"

You remember earlier, when I was talking about titans that we couldn't defeat, only hold back? Well, this was one of them. The situation had just grown far more dire.

And they were about to get a whole lot weirder.

Author's Notes: This story idea has been festering in my brain for months and it's high time that I finally get it off the ground. This first chapter took a lot of workshopping to improve the narrative flow and avoid getting bogged down by too much exposition all at once. Hopefully, this was a much better read than my original version would have been. I think my decision to switch to first-person helped a lot with that, even if I'm more familiar and comfortable with third-person writing.

I hope you enjoyed this introduction and look forward to reading more. I have a lot of plans for this story, with a lot of twists, turns and developments along the way. Unfortunately, I'm not a particularly fast writer and this is a lot more intensive for me to write compared to my other fics so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update but I'll do my best.

For now, feel free to like and comment to let me know how you feel about this story so far, and follow for new chapter updates. And as always, you can find an invite link to my Discord server in my bio, for more in-depth discussion. It's currently pretty empty in there and I'd love more people to chat with about writing or anything else.