Creation began on 10-08-21

Creation ended on 10-26-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

My Hero, Shinji Ikari: All for One

A/N: Human beings are the source of human evil, but what happens when one commits actions that are beyond the usual evil that is committed by others?

It wasn't noticed at first by either Shinji or Rumiko, but who could blame them for not seeing it? There was only so much they could see and do when they didn't feel like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders. But Shinji should've seen it; his daughter feeling phantom pain from her abuse at the hands of his father after learning about his escape from Tartarus. It had only been a week since Gendo had escaped and went on a spree in the process, but it was hard to feel safe when people were terrified that he could strike at any moment anywhere in the country, and his Wrath Quirk made him a major threat to virtually everyone around him.

"Even if the scars and injuries are healed up," Recovery Girl stated to the teen parents when it became known about Shado's phantom pain, "the mind can take longer to recover from injuries when someone or something else triggers the person's past memories in a negative manner."

"Like Gendo's escape," Rumiko realized, making Shinji understand how troubling this was for his daughter.

And so, for the last four days, Shinji was the mother hen that kept watch over Shado every time she went to sleep. But tonight was different because Shado hadn't gone to sleep yet.

"I didn't think to ask you before until now, Shado," she heard Shinji say to her. "I didn't want to risk your recovery from the abuse my father inflicted on you. You're the only one I can really ask about what happened. What did it feel like…every time my father used his Quirk on you? What did you feel? Can you describe how it felt each time so that I can understand how to help you better than I have before?"

He must've known she was still awake, despite her looking away from him and her face half-buried in her Ursa Guardian teddy. She turned to face him, her expression still tinged with dread.

"It's not so easy to put into words," she told him. "Every time he put his hands on me…or just had them over over me… It's like someone turns the lights off in the room. All of the lights, leaving you in the darkness. You feel helpless, alone. You don't know what's going to happen because you can't see anything. And then…you feel something sharp getting stuck into you…from everywhere…and you feel like your insides are being pulled from all over. And then…when you can't take the pain you're starting to feel…you want to scream, to cry out, to tell that man to stop doing what he's doing to you…but you can't. You can't scream, you can't move…not even cry. You feel hot and cold at the same time. Then…you're pulled further apart from all over…and you can't see or hear anything, anymore. But you can still feel pain. Pain is…all you can feel. You can't tell what's what, anymore. You can't tell what's up or down, left or right. I couldn't even tell if my hands were really my feet…or my eyes from my mouth… I couldn't even feel my heartbeat."

These were awful descriptions of how Wrath affected a person to Shinji. But these were only from his daughter's perspective, as she was the only person alive that could explain how it felt to harmed by such a dangerous Quirk; Shinji had no experience due to Wrath most likely no longer having any effect on him due to his own Quirk factor now being active and having developed his Quirk further. As much as he hated what his father had done to her, Shinji had to steel himself to hear more from Shado so he could help her better. He needed to do right by her, to keep her safe from Gendo should he ever come after them or just her.

"…And then…you feel like you're being smashed back together," she finished, "but all you feel is tired. Too tired to scream. Too hurt to move. I was too hurt to even cry. Laying there on the ground, what little of my blood he didn't put back in me smeared across half my face as I can barely move my head, he tells me that he can do whatever he wanted to me and nobody would care. I've lost count over how many times he's torn me apart and put me back together again; I can't count past ten, so I count ten times…for more than ten times. Each time I think he's going to stop, he doesn't. He just tears me up, over and over again, smashing me back together, and leaves me on the ground until he decides to send in someone to pick me up. It just hurts every time…and I couldn't do anything about it."

A tear escaped Shinji's right eye, feeling like he could comprehend and relate to the tearing apart and feeling pain aspect to experiencing Gendo's Wrath Quirk on them. Every time he used his own Quirk to regenerate his injuries, he felt like he had to tear himself up a little just to begin mending his body. Only difference was that rarely felt the need to scream from his own self-inflicted pain, as it was barely enough to cause him an irritation. But he still felt the pain…until it wasn't there any further.

"It's awful," he uttered, "what he did to you. He will never touch you again, Shado. I promise."

-x-

Not so much a villain as he was now a wanted man for escaping Tartarus and for multiple counts of murder and reckless endangerment, the file the hero teachers had on him was delved in further…and made Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari seem more like a tragic villain than a supervillain.

"As pitiful as he was back then," Midnight said to the others in Nezu's office, "he's not so pitiful now. He's vicious, vengeful and irredeemable."

"An unhappy childhood resulting in a man so messed up that he can't form any meaningful attachments with people," added Cementoss. "Any potential relationships with others ended for him, and he only deteriorates further. Even if he was a victim of abuse in his past, none of what he's done excuses his unjust behavior. They should've executed him on the spot."

"He's been in hiding for seven days now," went All Might, more sympathetic towards Shinji and Shado than he could've been towards Gendo, "but it appears he makes no effort to hide where he's been, though. Everywhere he goes, he leaves death and destruction behind."

It took a considerable amount of time to gather Gendo's extended background, but it explained further how damaged and unstable he was. As pitiful as he was once upon a time, he currently had no right to any sympathy with his behavior. Over forty-five years ago, as an infant, Gendo had been cast aside by his parents, who died nearly a year later in a car, and left in the care of more than ten different foster parents, eleven when you included his aunt and uncle, that did nothing to influence his childhood in a positive manner, with the tenth pair of foster parents being the straw that broke the metaphorical camel's back; nobody had done a thorough background check of the foster parents, all of whom were abusive and had a hand in making Gendo the man he is right now, in all his cruelty. By the time he was ten, his Quirk had triggered…and he had caused problems that had been sealed away in his record due to the fact that he was a juvenile at the time. As it turned out, his son hadn't been his first human death caused by his Quirk.

Shinji Ikari, the one associated with this universe, had actually been his father's forty-fifth victim, after a long period of Gendo not using his Quirk on people after his tenth birthday…when his Quirk finally made itself known after the last time he was beaten by his last foster father…just for being the son of two people that were followers of the villain All For One. It had been late in the night, and Gendo, sporting a black eye and bloody lip, had finally gotten his Quirk, but in an unfortunate sense, it was synonymous with every sense of payback there was for people that didn't like it when others put their arms on you without consent. His Wrath Quirk had enabled him to get revenge on his foster father, who had tried to hit him again, followed by his foster mother, who tried to shoot him, followed by some noisy neighbors, a pit bull by a jogger, the jogger himself, and several police officers that came onto the scene after he started ripping apart several homes and the streets. By the time they were able to calm him down and he passed out from fatigue, he had already caused the deaths of forty-four people.

"Explains his propensity towards violence," Nezu stated. "When you're abused in your youth, you begin to respond in turn with abuse against anyone that has wronged you, and in his case, he was wronged more times than usual due to his background."

"Because he was a juvenile at the time, his record was sealed and he was placed with a different set of foster parents," Recovery Girl informed, "but the damage against him was already done. He received therapy and had his Quirk evaluated; he was powerful in the beginning, but because he was untrained, he was a living hazard until he was educated. But after he was trained, he exhibited other issues stemming from his abuse. After his failed first year here, he was institutionalized for exhibiting erratic behavior."

"Yeah, I heard a rumor from some former students here that mentioned that towards the end of his time here," went All Might, "he had begun making threats to people. "One day, they'll pay. One day, they'll all pay for what was done…and never done". His file states he has a disorder stemming from what happened to him?"

"Yeah," Aizawa confirmed. "Given his age and past mistreatment, the medical personnel that evaluated him after his first year here confirmed that he developed a delusional disorder of the persecutory variety, which would make sense, given his aberrant behavior towards his own granddaughter…or anyone from his perspective. He seems organized and rational from a distance, but he operates under a fixed-but-false belief that he can't let go of."

"Based on what, exactly?" Ectoplasm asked them.

"That's where it gets murky with delusional disorders," Recovery Girl stated. "People with the persecutory type tend to base their belief structure on a system comprised mostly of sleights."

"Sleights?" Cementoss questioned. "How can someone like this man have a vendetta based only on those? Last I checked, sleights were just…minor issues that could be easily resolved or even walked away from."

"True, but in Gendo's case, this isn't so. Some sleights can be incredibly minor to insignificant, like…the woman on the bus that took the seat you were originally going to sit in. Other sleights, not so small, like…a car accident that killed your best friend due to nothing more than faulty breaks because a mechanic overlooked checking them. Things like this to Gendo would be amplified to a dramatic and intense level, representing…people that may have…neglected, maligned or even conspired against him. Okay, those that have caused him some sort of pain that he can no longer let go of and takes personal."

"Like his foster parents that abused him," said All Might in realization, "but why focus his hatred on a little girl that had no control over what she did because she was a baby?"

"My guess is that his wife had a greater hold on his instabilities than we realized, keeping him in check when she was around," Midnight suggested. "After Shado's Quirk was triggered and she disappeared, he chose to view his only granddaughter as another tormentor because he couldn't accept that a child without any conscious intent was capable of causing him pain. However it may fit into his…reasons for making her suffer the way he has…is beyond me."

"In his mind," went Nezu, coming to his own conclusion, "he believes that torturing Shado out of hatred for believing his wife was murdered by her justifies his violent behavior towards her and forces her to know how he feels not having her in his life."

"Yes," agreed Recovery Girl. "But in the end, all he's doing is expressing his unjust hatred towards an innocent child that couldn't form any intent to harm anyone because she couldn't even talk or do anything without assistance. He views himself as the victim, but he's no different from any other villain; he's just looking for someone to blame for what befell him. People abused in their childhood tend to repeat this pattern of abuse to their own children, or grandchildren in the case of Shado. It's hard to fully comprehend due to all the anger that is kept bottled up and displaced over time, but in the end, all Gendo's doing is victimizing others in an inexcusable attempt to make himself seem like the real victim. In his mind, he's the victim…and everyone that gets in his way is the enemy, including his relatives."

"If there was anyone that truly deserved the death penalty for inexcusable actions and behavior, it's this man," Ectoplasm expressed his opinion.

"But…if his wife isn't really dead, just displaced because of Shado's Quirk," said Midnight, "what are the chances of him stopping if he's informed of the possibility that she can be brought back from wherever she is?"

"Slim," suspected Aizawa. "At this point in time, he's too committed to his vengeance against the girl to listen to any sense of reason or consider such a possibility, and even then, he's already harmed a significant number of people. Even if he gets locked up again, he won't be able to be with her."

"Whosoever does what they do for vengeance is one destined to be alone and suffer in the darkness," All Might expressed. "Those who stray from the path of righteousness…are condemned to wander aimlessly in the cruel unknown as they seek a way back."

There was no easy way to deal with this revelation about Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari's past. The man had been abused in his childhood, his parents were supposed supporters of All For One, he developed one issue after another, and had killed a multitude of people before and after he had received training on how to use his Quirk properly. He was a man full of hatred that blamed anyone for any number of factors that went wrong in his past, real or imagined, including those that had no drive to cause him harm. If they were to meet with him, there was only one way to deal with him: Recapture or execute on the spot.

-x-

"…At this point in dealing with the Angels, we may have to reconsider recruiting the Aida boy to pilot Unit-03," Ritsuko informed Misato during an evening at a bar.

"I thought he was inadequate for piloting the Eva," the tactical officer responded.

"He is, but because we can't seem to find anyone else capable of piloting the Eva, what other choice do we have?"

"There's always your autopilot system that you worked on."

But Ritsuko couldn't implement that system until all the bugs were worked out, which was taking longer to do due to the lack of sufficient synchronization data between Rei and Unit-01. If she had chosen to use Shinji's synchronization data, they might've had more result, but Gendo had made it clear that they were to rely solely on Rei's data and not his son's. She didn't want to blame him like this, but Shinji had unnecessarily picked the worst time to get killed during a situation of this sort that had required him to continue piloting the Eva; even if he was as expendable as the other pilots were, he wasn't as expendable as some wanted to believe. He was just…a necessary resource in a world that had less and less to work with due to a calamity that occurred over a decade ago.

Expendable…but at least he was around, she thought.

In the end, they were all of them basically in the hot seat due to insufficient results and a lack of adequate that either couldn't or wouldn't join NERV's cause to defeat the Angels.

-x-

While not a violent person, Shinji was, due to the fact that his father was out of prison and in the wind with a large body count to mark where he has at least been, angry over the fact that he, like the other students of 1-A, vulnerable and in need of an outlet to vent out his frustration over being confined for their protection. So, here he was, asking a favor of Kirishima, to use his punching bag. Hitting it each time with as much force as he could without his Quirk, Shinji thought of his father. Well, both his fathers, the one from his past life and the one in his current life; even if they had resided in different universes, the behavior, however messed up, was the same in that they were just cruel to others, including himself.

"Cowards are always useless," he recalled Gendo saying to him at one point in his past before he piloted the Eva. "Cowards are always useless."

Except that it was you that made something that only young people could use because you didn't have the guts to do it yourself, he thought as he struck the bag with his right hand. If anything, you were the coward, Father. You were the coward.

"Your devotion to that little bastard clouds your judgment all the time," he recalled Gendo saying to his doppelgänger. "She killed your mother, and if she's not watched after more thoroughly, she'll just kill again…and again…and again. You should've gotten rid of her when the police brought her over here."

But his doppelgänger couldn't just cast aside Shado like she wasn't his to begin with. Even if his father wanted to deny it, Shinji couldn't ignore that he had a child whose own mother was not involved in her life and needed him to look after her.

"The bond between parent and child is sacred, no matter what the generation," Yui had once told his doppelgänger when Shado was ten months old. "Make no mistake, when one becomes a parent, they are never free from their responsibilities as a parent. Even when your kids are all grown up and able to pursue their own future, you'll always be bound to them. You'll never be able to stop worrying about them, day in and day out, constantly wondering if they're doing fine. But being a parent brings its own rewards to those responsible, even if they aren't what one desires. When your daughter looks up to you, smiles at you, comes to you for help, you'll know that she chooses you above all others because of your bond. You'll be her first hero because you devoted yourself to raising her."

Hitting the bag with his left hand, Shinji sighed at how insightful these past memories that weren't his were to him.

"I think you grew a bit of muscle, Ikari," Kirishima told him.

"Thank you," he praised back. "How long was I hitting the bag? I just zoned out while reflecting on my past, so I wasn't really paying attention to the time."

"Two hours."

"Two hours? Really?"

"You were really whaling on the bag. I don't think anyone has gone this long hitting anything like you did. What were you reflecting on in your past, anyway?"

"My family. Well, my parents. My mother had different views on parenting than my father, and was more positive about it. Not once did she have anything against Shado. She wouldn't even condemn her because her mother, the woman that attacked me after kidnapping me, was a lost cause and couldn't turn her life around."

"From what I've heard, your mother was the complete opposite of your father. A complete saint, a woman that could see the potential in others to do good with their lives, even if they couldn't see it in themselves."

"Yeah. She was…is a saint. Sometimes, a saint…is among the greater heroes…because they don't need a mask or unbelievable superpowers."

"Yeah, that's true. Although…I think your daughter would be among the saint-type heroes because of what she did to All Might, for All Might, even though it was another accident. She's a special little girl. You have a lot to be proud of."

"Not as much as I am proud of her for just being in my life."

"The heroes behind the heroes. The ones that don't get noticed…but are the reason for there being the ones that do get noticed."

"Yeah."

For a Sunday, everyone was trying to get their minds off the fact that they didn't know where Gendo was…and the possibility that he was more dangerous than he seemed now, especially if he was able to use his feet to regenerate his arms, which were his initial Quirk factor, giving him the option of either pair of limbs to tear apart things in his vicinity down to the last molecule and rebuild them according to his will. Nobody was really saying anything about it, but the situation was getting to them because they were uncertain of whether or not he was going to come to U.A. and cause them more problems.

Shinji had done a background check of Tartarus and learned that, while distant from Japan, it was relatively close to the country and this meant that Gendo, with sufficient time, knowledge and familiarity of the geography, and resourcefulness, could get around and head to wherever he wanted to go. It made him worry that Gendo wouldn't hesitate to leave a trail of bodies in his wake if he was making his way to U.A. in order to come after Shado. As he did an additional background check on his classmates and their family residences, he worried for their safety because, when he looked at their homes in a walkabout way, most of their families were in a straight line that led to U.A., meaning that, if he was that vicious and immoral about the harm he could cause, Gendo could harm their families on a whim…and care nothing for the emotional pain and scars he inflicted upon them. It gave him more uncertainty if the police or heroes looking for him would be able to apprehend him if their orders were to kill him on sight.

"You were punching a bag for two hours straight," went Rumiko to him as he showed up in the common room where most of the class was. "You must've had some serious demons you were trying to exorcise."

"No, just a demon," he clarified, "and I was zoned out the entire time I was hitting the punching bag. Has there been an update?"

"Nothing," said Midoriya to him, as they were watching the news. "It's like your father just disappeared after Tartarus."

"You think he could've just fled the country?" Uraraka suggested.

"No. If he wanted to flee the country, he would've done so earlier, grabbing whatever he could and dropping off the radar before coming up with a new identity," Rumiko told her; she had studied the villain system that heroes needed to verse themselves with because it was the only way they could get resources they could use to do whatever it was they wanted to do for as long as they could. "I doubt that he'd go anywhere else in the world."

"Why is that?" Ida asked her.

"He's motivated solely by his twisted and ridiculous need to exact payback against whoever he feels wronged him, and in this case…"

She didn't finish her explanation because of Shado and Toya's presence among the class. Just saying that Gendo would be after Shado would be like lighting a match after getting soaked in gasoline. It was easier to say nothing than cause the girl to worry about what may not happen until much later.

"My father's just a horrible person that will do anything to feel better about whatever wrongs he feels were done to him," Shinji expressed. "I mean, I took his arms off before he was sent to prison, so he'll probably want to get even with me about the fact that I crippled him."

"Do you really think he'll come after you just because you took his arms off?" Sero questioned.

"If revenge is all he cares for…he'll stop at nothing to get it, even if it means causing others to feel as he does."

"And what's to stop him from taking you out?" Bakugo wanted to know. "He's already shown that he's capable of killing without any fear of the repercussions. Do you honestly think he'll just stop at you?"

"Whoever said anything about him stopping?" Shinji countered. "He's driven by his vendetta against others. He's a…a vendetta junkie, if you will; he needs to have someone to hate."

"Then, I take it your old man is like the villain All For One," Mineta stated.

"Kami, no, nothing like that guy. All For One was mostly about power and control, willing to take Quirks from others and use them as his own and gather followers, bending them to his perspective of the world, operating in the shadows or having others do his dirty work when he can't or won't risk himself being out and about. My father is a soloist and extremist right now; he doesn't trust anyone to have his back, has no base of operations, no allies, no support, nothing. And he's not about power and control. He could've let those villains escape and riot when he escaped from prison, but he didn't. He didn't because he doesn't trust anyone, including other criminals incarcerated for their own crimes. Instead, he chose to decimate whoever he felt was in his way of escaping the prison; he didn't even want anyone else escaping, probably thinking they'd follow him or tell the police of his whereabouts as a form of leverage."

He's right, thought Midoriya as he realized something else that happened during Gendo's escape from prison. He could've released All For One while he was escaping, but he chose not to. In fact, All For One could've even attempted to persuade Gendo to help him escape, but Gendo didn't allow himself to accept the possibility that he would be an invaluable ally. He doesn't want allies…or friends. He just wants…all he wants…is revenge.

Ojiro sighed as he excused himself from their presence; none of them needed to know he was going to go call his parents just to make sure they were alright.

-x-

It wasn't a great way to get around, but it was an efficient way to travel without being seen most of the time, and it gave one an advantage if they ever need to escape from someone. As he moved through the sewer network beneath the streets of the city above, using his Quirk to tear through the dirt and create his own tunnel system, Gendo looked down at a paper map in his hands with a flashlight in order to navigate his way towards his destination. He was eight miles from the next city that would take him closer to that wretched school he only spent a year at; he didn't receive any info on the whereabouts of that little monster that inflicted a grievous wound to his heart, but if he was going to send someone that needed the best of care and protection from the rest of the world, there was no place better and safer than U.A., the school that often spat out the best heroes to originate from Japan. And if she was there, it meant that boy was there, as well, along with those other two, that girl and her little boy that were no different from collateral.

Collateral, Gendo thought, and realized something else. Everyone is collateral when revenge is desired. Nobody is exempt from this truth. Nobody.

-x-

"…Well, with the cleanup being complete and the rebuilding of the damaged areas taking place, security confirms that Gendo did make one stop to All For One's cell," said Nezu to the staff, "but he made no attempt to break open his cell or even speak with him. There was a twenty-second gap between his stare down with All For One and his escape."

"Probably just wanted to see the man that his parents were killed for following," Aizawa suspected. "Maybe he had to make sure he was really there, and was disgusted by his presence."

"He wasn't going to let him out of his cell," went All Might. "If he knew what All For One was capable of, he wasn't going to risk releasing him. Can you imagine All For One with Gendo's Wrath Quirk? It's similar to Overhaul's Quirk, but it's more dangerous and targets matter at the molecular level."

"If you can manipulate things at the molecular level, there's almost nothing you can't do, nothing you can't tear apart…or put back together…in any way you choose," Midnight expressed. "Anyone with Gendo's Wrath Quirk would be a threat of the highest sort if they were violent to the ultimate extreme…and had no capacity for reason or compassion towards other people."

Ring-ring! Nezu's phone rang, and he picked it up to answer.

"Yes?" He spoke up. "What do you mean, he popped up elsewhere? Oh, dear. Did they… Were there any wit… Oh, dear. He's out of control…and escalating further. Thank you."

Hanging up, Nezu had a look of regret on his face.

"Nezu?" Recovery Girl asked him.

"That was from Hokkaido," he revealed. "It seems that Gendo's Quirk hasn't only just been reworked to function through his feet as well as his arms, but has evolved to a level beyond what we understand about it. Gendo, who we suspected to be making his way here, somehow traveled back to Hokkaido, stopped by Sapporo…and paid a visit to Ms. Gaidoku's family."

"What…what do you mean…he paid them a visit?" Present Mic questioned.

Nezu had a look that spoke volumes about the severity of what he just learned about.

"That's just insane," went Cementoss. "They didn't even do anything to him. So, why would he even… There was no hint of him being troubled by them."

-x-

Somehow, Shinji felt like he needed to say something to Rumiko, but he wasn't sure what to say to her at a time like this. It was only two hours ago that they had learned of a cruel discovery that affected Rumiko more than it did Shinji, and the most troubling thing about this was how it left the teen mother seesawing between regret…and relief.

"Daddy?" He heard Shado say to him, and he turned to face her as she was holding Ursa Guardian. "Is Rumiko going to be okay?"

"I don't know, baby," he told her. "This isn't something she expected to hear happen at all."

"Why, Daddy? Why did that man… Why?"

"He's a monster. He's just a…a heartless monster."

In her room, Rumiko, laying in her futon, her eyes stained with tears, tried to accept the cold truth in all its ugliness without letting it break her. But that was a feat that was challenging because it brought up emotions that were hard for her to make out feeling. Her mother, her father, her brother, three people she used to love, three people she used to care about with all her heart, reduced to mere memories and feelings of resentment…because Gendo, who was believed to be coming after Shado, decided to go back to Hokkaido…and killed them with his Quirk. Even if she never saw them again after what they did to her, she still wouldn't have wished for any ill will to be dealt to them; she hated her father and brother for taking advantage of her naïveté, became distant from her mother because she hated how she got pregnant because of either her father or brother, but even her negative emotions didn't drive her to want their deaths, no matter how cruel her assault or abuse had been because of them.

My mother, my father, my brother…gone, she thought. I never wanted them to die. I resented their taking advantage of me and everything, but I didn't want them to go out like this. Sickness or tragic accidents, maybe, like an earthquake or tsunami, but never murder.

"Um…Mommy?" She heard Toya speak to her, and she turned over to face him, seeing him holding a small cup that contained a steaming beverage. "Drink?"

She sat up to accept the beverage from him.

"Thank you, Toya," she praised him.

"Is it alright to ask you something?" He asked her.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Your parents and brother… Does this mean that…because they're gone…we can't go back to Sapporo? Ever?"

Rumiko put the cup down and reached down to place her son on her lap so she could speak more clearly to him.

"No, Toya," she stated. "Just because they're gone, it doesn't mean we can't go back to Sapporo. It just means that…where we used to live over there…isn't there, anymore."

"Why would he go see them? I mean, from what you and Shinji told Shado and I… They didn't even know him."

"Probably trying to erase the past, which is impossible. You can't destroy the past, no matter what you do. The past is never at rest."

"What? What does that mean, Mommy?"

"It just means that…whatever wrongs that were committed in the past…will weigh down on whoever it was that committed them."

"Gendo is a very bad man."

"Yes, Toya, he is a very bad man."

-x-

He had to dismantle much of the neighborhood when he made his escape, but it was worth it to cause pain onto those people. It didn't really matter to him if the woman's husband and son decided to double team or tag team or whatever it was that people called it when they took turns on her daughter and ended up getting her pregnant. It didn't even matter to him if her husband and son were on probation and their only condition on staying out of prison for good was that they had no contact with Rumiko for several years or at all, part of the reason the little girl didn't return to them because it seemed she was the only one in danger because of their sexual deviance, but what did matter to him…and didn't matter to him at the same time…was the amount of suffering he inflicted on the daughter when she found out that she didn't have much of a family or home to go back to now. Why he suddenly felt the need to inflict such a pain upon a little girl that was taken to bed by the two men in her family life and ending up crapping out a kid of her own, he made no point to grasp in its entirety, but if it made her suffer, then it was all the more reason to place upon her some difficulties with her adjustment. Plus, when she had finally escaped with her brat, she had set the bad ball in motion when she ran to get help and brought the police back.

All I needed back then was three more months, he thought as he hid in a cave by the coastal cove; his research into weaponizing Shado's Quirk was showing greater results, and he was convinced that, had he had just three more months, he would've fully mapped out how her Quirk functioned and could've proceeded to harvesting her genetic material for dissection, cloning and distribution. It wouldn't have mattered if the girl died on the operating table after her Quirk was fully understood. A power like hers would've sold for an astronomical price and the hero society would've had more difficulty maintaining their ability to ensure that they could protect the people. And now… Now, science is not going to help me get revenge against that little bitch. Now…believing in others will not help me get closure. Vengeance is the only real goal to achieve. Vengeance is all that is left for me. I…will have my revenge.

In front of himself as he sat on a pile of rocks, several small pieces of eroded stones rose up and formed a small ring floating in the air. Suddenly, the stones atomized and were smashed together to form a small, stone knife.

"I'm going to enjoy tearing you apart, Shado," he uttered, "just as I'm going to enjoy making you suffer every second of it."

-x-

"…I can't believe you actually want to do this, man," went Toji to Kensuke as they were walking home from school the next day.

"They picked me, Toji!" Kensuke exclaimed. "Sure, they couldn't find anyone else to do it, but they still chose me to do it. Why would I say 'no' to that?"

Toji had to admit that Kensuke was most likely the last person that he expected NERV would approach because of their need for people to pilot the Evangelions. Still, the fact that he had been chosen by them only reminded him that his otaku friend was only picked because the paramilitary agency had no other cards to play when selecting other people. Nobody else could or would be swayed to pilot the Evangelions due to their lack of public knowledge and disclosure. NERV had approached him, but he declined because he couldn't leave his sister. Sure, they had offered better medical care in exchange for his help, but he couldn't risk the smallest chance that piloting would cause him to lose his life like it did Shinji's.

"Do you even worry that doing this will cause you to…pay a price that you didn't plan on paying?" He asked Kensuke, being specific about what he said to him.

"NERV is bound to have changed up after what happened, so that something like that doesn't happen again," Kensuke suspected.

"Except you don't know for sure, Kensuke. NERV isn't exactly…known for its transparency…if it even has any to begin with. There's hardly anything that's really know about what they intend to do after this nonsense with the Angels is done with."

It was still a touchy subject due to how they were both dealing with the aftermath of Shinji not being around; Toji didn't want to risk losing any other people because of the conflict between NERV and the Angels…but Kensuke was obsessed with wanting to pilot an Eva because he thought it'd be cool to do so, regardless of the emotional, physical…and psychological torment it had caused Shinji every time he was in the Eva.

"I could look into it if I wanted to," Kensuke told him. "People that keep secrets for so long tend to have a hard keeping track of every one of them."

"You do this, you risk upsetting the wrong people."

"The wrong people are basically everyone everywhere."

-x-

Dinner was quiet for the quartet that night. It wasn't that they had nothing to talk about, but none of them had anything to say without causing another one of them some difficulty about something that was either on their mind…or the farthest thing from it. But the silence was agonizing; it was not every day that they heard about someone doing something wrong and requested a measure of peace and quiet to process the revelation, but it was not something you wanted all the time. If any of them could speak now and break the silence, it would at least give them something, anything, to talk about that may have not related to the current string of events.

I want to say something about something, thought Shinji as he blew on his rice ball, but I don't want to cause an emotional problem to any of them.

Why are we just being quiet? Shado wondered as she picked up her cup and drank some water to clean her tongue of the spices that were irritating it. I wish someone would just speak up and say something. It doesn't have to be anything bad, but it would have us talking.

My parents and brother are dead, Rumiko yelled at herself as she took another bite out of her chicken dumpling. There's nothing left to say! There's no way to bury what happened! I can't even confront my mother about her letter or even ask her what she meant by what she wrote down! There won't even be a funeral because there aren't any bodies to bury or cremate! Damn that man! Damn him for going back there and killing them!

Toya, looking at his mother and seeing that she was tormented by what was learned today, wished he could do something to put a smile on her face, even if it was only for a little while. As he picked up his rice ball, he looked over at Shado and gave her a look that spoke about how the silence they were caught in was overwhelming the four of them.

Shado gestured back as she picked up her rice ball. The silence was difficult and stirring up tension in their emotions.

"Toya, did you just burp?" She asked him, breaking the silence.

"No, that was you, Shado," he replied, relieved to be speaking. "You didn't say 'excuse me'."

"Excuse me. Are you aiming to be the hero of gentlemen?"

"A hero of gentlemen? That'd be nice. Call me Etiquette."

"Eh-heh-heh!"

"Eh…eh-heh…eh-heh-heh-heh!" Rumiko cracked up. "Call you Etiquette! Eh-ha-ha!"

"Ha-ha," Shinji chuckled. "Toya Gaidoku, the Etiquette Hero. Quirk: Gentleman. He enforces people to behave properly in his presence."

"Eh-heh-heh! Oh, no! There's a criminal that's not wearing his shirt tucked in! Save me, Toya!"

It was just a joke, but it was something to get them off the silence. It got their parents laughing at something only their children could do to put smiles on their faces.

"Bad guys misbehaving, beware," said Shado, "Toya's on the case to make you behave like gentlemen. If you don't sit down properly, he will sit you down properly."

"Not if I catch the bad guys first and throw them in the back seat of a police transport," Shinji expressed. "You two just saved us from a silent torment. Thanks."

"Yes, thanks," Rumiko added, grateful that their children broke the silence, even if it was only for a while.

She may have lost her parents and brother, but she hadn't lost her family in its entirety. She still had her son, Shinji and Shado…and she was content with this. They were the family she felt closest to now, and she wanted to keep them safe. They were new motivation for her to improve her own Quirk and make it do more for herself and them.

Maternal Devotion, she thought as she picked up her rice ball. It might only enable me to find people I care for within a given radius, but it can get better. I need to get better. I will get better.

"Uugh!" Shinji burped. "Excuse me."

"Urgh!" Rumiko burped, slightly louder than Shinji's. "Excuse me."

"Uuuurgh!" Toya went. "Excuse me."

Shado chuckled and burped herself, which exceeded theirs.

"UUUURGH!" She went, and the whole building shook. "Excuse me."

"Whoa, Shado!" Shinji gasped, actually impressed that such a loud sound could come from her little body. "You win."

"Ah-ha-ha!" They all laughed.

-x-

GASP! Misato awoke late at night, panting from what felt like a nightmare, only it seemed impossible to be anything but a nightmare.

She had seen Shinji, his body aglow, and he was facing his father, who looked filthy and full of hatred, but none of it seemed directed at him. Then, she saw Gendo tear the ground up all around them, making these knives and bladed weapons and flinging them at Shinji, who dodged most and took on the rest head-on. Following this was Gendo slamming his arms onto the ground in front of himself and causing spikes to jut out around Shinji, high enough to pierce his legs and pin him to the ground. It was night out, and from the look of the way things were, Misato saw Shinji as a sort of hero and his father as an antagonist trying to kill him.

What was that all about? She wondered, seeing Gendo raise his right hand to deck Shinji in his chest, only for Shinji to block with his own right fist, resulting in a backlash of energy to send both men flying backwards away from each other. It looked like his father really wanted to kill him for some reason.

As she got up to get a drink, Asuka awoke from a different dream involving that little girl that seemed associated with Shinji.

His father tore that girl up and smashed her back together, she realized, having seen it happened, over and over again. It's like he hated her enough that he wanted to kill her, but not just yet.

"You only live because I allow you to," she heard him say to the girl as she laid in a small puddle of her own blood. "But I won't be merciful forever to you. When you no longer serve a purpose, when I have gotten what I need from you…that's when you'll have my permission to die."

It was the way he said that, the tone of his voice, the venom of hate in his words…that made Asuka wonder what, if anything, could drive a man like Gendo to despise a little girl to the point that he'd become abusive and sadistic towards her. It almost mirrored the way the guy treated his dead son, but when he was alive, he made it his priority to ignore the boy at every chance he had, not harm him physically, but emotionally, psychologically, driving a wedge between them that could no longer be mended.

If that was an alternate universe of sorts, she thought, based only on the mere idea of there being other possible lifetimes, can a man like Shinji's father really hate someone so young and innocent? Can someone like him actually harm someone else like that?

If only she knew. If only she could see further in detail…that she was peering through a keyhole of another plane of existence through her dreams. If only she knew that just a handful of exceptional people, like Shinji, had peered through the same keyhole as she.

Who is this girl, really? She wondered. Is she someone associated with Shinji…or just some figment of the imagination that he couldn't let go of?

-x-

"…I can't believe that I talked you into this," Rumiko told Shinji as they both sat in the kitchen, drinking tea. "You really don't mind chamomile?"

"The only tea I've ever had before were ginger and ginseng," Shinji explained to her, circling the top of his cup with his left index finger. "I try not to be a creature of habit…or a creature of limited habits, if such a term exists. I'll drink anything that is a drink. Does that say something about me that I don't really understand completely?"

"You're a person of change, Shinji. You try to see what's within possibility and take it for what it is. That says a lot about you. Not everything, you see, but a lot. There's still a lot about you that I've yet to learn about. The same is true for myself; there's a lot about me that you've yet to learn for yourself."

"Is it okay if I ask a personal question?"

"Shoot."

"About what my… About what that man did after he escaped… Are you going to be okay? I won't say that I know what regret's like…but…will you be able to move past this?"

Rumiko sighed and looked down at her cup of tea. He had asked the question that was the toughest one for her to answer. There were regrets, but she had to move on. She couldn't delude herself with petty assumptions that her parents and brother were just injured or that her father and brother felt remorseful about what they did to her that put her in the family way…or how her mother had claimed that having her was her greatest mistake or her would-be lie that Toya's birth almost killed her because of her preadolescence and that she should've had the boy ripped out of her before he could breathe his first breath. They were gone, and all that was left were herself and Toya. She had to accept this and move past it, for the both of them.

"I'm not exactly over what he did," she told him. "I'm not even over my lack of reconciliation with them…but I will get there…eventually. I don't want revenge for what he did to them. I want justice for the people that he harmed just to get to them. He's letting his hatred and obsession with Shado make him do unforgivable acts of mayhem against people that have done him no wrong. He's not a victim. He's a victimizer, a tormentor, a bully that can't admit to being wrong about anything he says or does."

Shinji nodded his head in agreement with her. His father's actions, while of his own choosing, reflected badly on himself and Shado, and would continue to reflect upon them long after the man was either re-incarcerated or dead. They wanted, needed to be seen as good people, but the fact that they were related to a man that was full of rage and hatred, willing to commit unreasonable acts of mayhem…and was committing them for the sake of an unnecessary vendetta…was casting a large shadow of doubt on the both of them they needed to escape from. The best way to do that…was to show the world and themselves that they were not as depraved as Gendo was; Shinji could deal with being looked down upon because of his father because he could be a better person than him, and Shado would eventually move past the abuse he inflicted upon her and have better days in the years to come.

"He's all for his only goal, which is an unjust revenge," he sighs. "He can do whatever he tries to do to me, if he can, but he'll never lay another finger on Shado. If it comes to it…I'll break all of his limbs. He can't use his Quirk if all his body parts are gone, right?"

"Yeah. There was always something about him that made no sense to me: His Wrath Quirk was classified as a Mutant-Type, but he doesn't look like he has any kind of physical change that would make him stand out. I mean, those with Mutant-Type Quirks, or are related to those with said Quirks, often have changes in their physiology that you can see, like Asui, Ojiro, Jiro or even Shoji, but your father… He looks like a regular man, his Quirk functions similar to an Emitter-Type Quirk, acting based on his will…but he doesn't have a single…"

Shinji was deep in thought as he realized something that would've explained why his father seemed didn't stand out among those related to people with Mutant-Type Quirks.

"It's because he's among the rare few to not show his mutations on the outside," he explained to her. "He has a mutation, but it's on the inside."

"On the inside?"

"It's his heart and lungs; they're enlarged in order to accommodate his Quirk's power."

"He has an enlarged heart and lungs? A larger heart and lungs would supply him with more oxygen-rich blood and account for his stamina, and the fact that he can tear apart his limbs and rebuild them means he can reduce his fatigue toxins from hampering his progress. That explains why it seemed like he never could stop when he chased after you and Shado when Toya and I were finally able to escape that day. He was outside, in the open environment, being fluidic, not just barbaric, constantly changing his limbs, constantly taking in the air around him. No wonder he was so powerful."

"Except now, he's stronger because he can use his feet, not just his hands. If you can't risk getting near him without getting ripped to pieces, your best chance of facing him…is not to face him so closely."

"Face him at a distance, you mean. Keep out of his sphere of influence, the range of which his Quirk can affect his surroundings. But even that seems like challenge."

"If it comes to it, though, I'll be the one to stop him. I'll stop him."

Rumiko accepted this as the truth; if anyone could face Gendo without getting ripped to pieces, it had to be Shinji. She, Shado and Toya had already lost him once…and she wasn't confident that any of them could afford to lose him a second time, even if he was different from the one they had known. Sure, he was similar to the one that was killed by Gendo, down to the sensitivity and willingness to protect Shado, but this was a dark reminder of what would happen if something terrible happened to him. There would be no third chance, no save, no reset, no waking up from the nightmare that would be his possible death a second time.

She picked up her cup and finished the remainder of her tea.

"Tell me something, Shinji," she asked him, "was there anyone special waiting for you in your past before you got here?"

"Anyone special waiting for me? In what way?"

"In that way."

"Oh. Very direct. Honestly…no. I never…expected anyone to take that level of interest in me. And…maybe I'm old-fashioned in that sense. I would like that person…only if they liked me back. No fear, no coercion, no regrets."

"Old-fashioned, huh? You don't get that many with such a mindset in this day and age. The old-fashioned relationship-types are what separate the nice guys from the bad boys."

"Eh-heh-heh! I always thought most ladies went for the bad boys."

"Not every girl likes the bad boys. It's a matter of personality types matching up in one way or another. They have to be able to meet each other halfway. It can't be obsession, an agenda or means to an end. It has to come from a place of trust, of understanding."

Shinji could see that being a necessity. Even in a world where most of society has evolved to have superhuman capabilities like the comic book heroes of old, they still needed each other and could only do well if they had people that they just fit with.

-x-

As the sun's rays hit the nation as the new day began, Gendo's eyes flared as they opened after a quiet night of rest. He got up and looked out at the rising sun, smiling at how much of a new man he felt after he got out of prison. He never saw the sunrise the same way before he went to Tartarus, but now…he felt like there was nothing he could do now that he was free.

But appearances are often deceiving, he thought as he raised his left hand up, causing the rocky walls of the cavern behind him to atomize and reshape beside him, becoming a platform of metal over cylindrical buoyancy devices. No matter how far I am away from any prison facility, I will never be free. And I'm not out here because I'm free. I'm out here because I'm not free. No matter how far away I'm from you, you still stay on my mind. I will rip you apart into so many pieces, your own ghost won't be able to find you. Shado…you're living on borrowed time. Just as I am a prisoner of my need to get rid of you, I shall free the world from you…with your final breath of your wretched, insignificant existence.

He got onto the platform and made it lift out of the water; because he was able to manipulate the matter he reshaped at the molecular level, this gave him a limited sense of telekinesis, limited to anything within his sphere of influence. And he had no intention on stopping with what he could do currently. While Wrath had been reworked to enable him to raise his capabilities further, he knew that any wrong move could deprive him of any of his limbs…and end his quest for revenge before it could conclude. He would need to be careful at all times…and there was no better way to do that…then to let the world know that he meant business.

To be continued…

A/N: I originally intended to have the MHA Gendo say the lyrics to the Pinocchio song, but then decided not to. Also, it helped to delve deeper into the reason why his Quirk is classified as a Mutant-Type Quirk when he didn't look like the other characters that were inhuman in their appearances. While it's possible that this would apply in some way to Shinji and Shado, I won't get to that until later. And as for Kensuke being made a pilot, that was inevitable due to the fact that NERV is getting screwed in every direction they turn to, but there's likely an unexpected turn of events to occur when things go south for some characters. Read, review, and I'll get back to you when I get back to you.