Creation began on 10-26-21
Creation ended on 12-30-21
Neon Genesis Evangelion
My Hero, Shinji Ikari: Signs of Attrition and Contrition
A/N: How far would you go for revenge? How hard would you fight for redemption?
It was a strange feeling, a sense of weightlessness, that had taken ahold of Shinji right then and there. He wasn't sure why he felt this way, but he felt like he had been set free from his sense of physicality. All around him were stars that stretched for endlessness, with no trace of planets or a sun in sight. He was just…in a vast ocean of darkness with stars.
What? He thought, trying to gather himself to think coherently. What was I doing just a moment ago? I was…facing Tokoyami…and then…oh, no.
He remembered what happened: It was after school, and he was engaged in another training session, this time against Tokoyami, Hagakure, Uraraka and Kaminari, raising his self-defense experience against his other classmates and their Quirks. While it had been confirmed that he could adapt to whatever harmed him physically, Shinji was more than likely defenseless against methods that didn't exactly harm the body; Uraraka's Zero Gravity was an unexpected move against him because Guardian didn't recognize being made weightless as an attack on his body, and he was unfamiliar with facing an invisible adversary, not really an attack on his body. As long as they were using methods not intended to cause physical damage and trigger his Quirk to regenerate him, Shinji would need to adapt to his situation, unable to rely on Guardian to help him against this quartet of heroes-in-training.
Tokoyami had used his Dark Shadow Quirk to envelop him after he was knocked down to his knees by Hagakure.
Come on, Shinji, he struggled to get free from the darkness of Tokoyami's Quirk. You need to find a way to overcome this. Improvise, do something to get out of this darkness.
He suddenly felt a hand on his back and being shoved forward with relentless force.
"Aaah!" He yelled, just as a light shined in his face.
Burst! A dark wrapping broke open and released Shinji onto the floor of the warehouse in Ground Gamma, surprising the four costumed students.
Shinji, being his own source of light in this place, looked around the place and could see Tokoyami, Kaminari and Uraraka; because Hagakure was invisible, she was either hiding in plain sight or waiting for a chance to strike again, and after upgrading her hero costume to a full-bodysuit that could become invisible like her, she was more prepared to go up against him.
"Aaurgh!" Tokoyami grunted; hardly anyone was able to escape his Dark Shadow once fully enveloped in it, but Shinji was proving to be an exception. "Not bad…for an amateur."
Shinji had to keep his eyes on each of his opponents in this training exercise.
"Urgh!" He grunted as he was shoved down to the ground; Hagakure had been behind him the entire time. "Very clever, Hagakure."
He raised his arms up and slammed them onto the ground, affecting it. The ground became like quicksand, and the four classmates started to sink into it.
"Aaahh!" He heard Hagakure as she became visible, sinking into the ground just four feet away from the doorway.
Kaminari aimed his right arm at Shinji and fired a disc-shaped projectile at him before releasing a stream of electrical energy at him.
The disc latched onto Shinji's back and the teen father felt a jolt of electricity run through him.
"Gaaaurgh!" He groaned as he struggled to get up; Kaminari's Electrification Quirk was only making his nervous system feel overstimulated due to the increase of electrical energy, hardly counting as an injury to himself, but his Guardian Quirk was doing all that it could to keep the full force of the overstimulation from overtaking him. "Grraurgh!"
If he gets injured, he tears matter up and regenerates, not only replacing whatever he lost as a result of the injury, but adapting to whatever hindered him, Kaminari reminded himself; so long as Shinji didn't get an actual injury, he wouldn't adapt to being electrified. Keep the voltage steady, just enough to put him back on his knees.
But Shinji slowly levitated off the ground and it ceased being like quicksand, re-solidifying, but keeping the four bound where they had sunken in.
"And…end of training session!" They heard All Might say to them, and Shinji collapsed onto the ground, a few sparks of electricity still emanating from his back because of the disc. "Are you alright, Ikari?"
Shinji raised his right arm up and gestured with his thumb as he raised his head up.
"I have a newfound respect for electricity," he told them, his voice sounding a little rougher.
Not only that, but All Might could see an injury on him: A small speck of blood had dropped from under his left nostril.
"What?" He asked.
All Might gestured towards his own nose, and Shinji felt under his nose, feeling a little wetness there. When he pulled his right hand back, he saw the blood.
"Aw, come on!" He groaned, and his body glowed as a bit of the ground beside him atomized and was absorbed into him. "If my body is going to remember everything that affects it to a bad degree, I'm going to have several issues in the future."
The two then helped the other students out of the ground and Kaminari apologized to Shinji for causing his injury.
"A nosebleed isn't so much an injury as it's just an annoyance, Kaminari," he replied. "You did good in trying to stop me without trying to injure me, though. If the voltage had been up a little higher, I'd probably lose consciousness."
"If I had raised my voltage up to its maximum, I'd probably do worse than knock you out," Kaminari told him. "But now that you've regenerated, it probably doesn't matter if I raised the voltage up."
"Still, you can disable people by causing overstimulation to their nervous system with your Quirk. People can't withstand overstimulation in their nervous system. Static electricity won't hurt anyone, but high voltage from something like a transformer, that can cause harm, even for just two seconds, due to the voltage. Overstimulation torture."
"None of us were able to ask you earlier," went Hagakure to Shinji, "but how is Shado doing these days?"
Shinji sighs and responds, "She still gets nightmares about him. I get nightmares about him, too. Her description of how he tears people apart and smashes them back together again was…painfully insightful. Except that it's been two weeks now, and nobody's reported seeing him…but I know he won't stay hidden for long. A man like him, he can't refrain from wanting to get revenge upon someone he actively despises for nothing more than an accident. But it's not just my father that gives her a hard time sleeping two nights through. It's everyone with a propensity towards violence that require the use of their hands. The bad…and the good. But Rumiko and I have been explaining to her that there are exceptions to the violent hand-types that exist…and so far, she is able to tell the difference between those who use their hands violently for the sake of harming others and those that only use violence when it's absolutely necessary…and stop when the enemy is unable to persist. Still…she has her dislike of people with such a propensity that it seems like they're heading towards their own end."
"Are any of us on that list?" Uraraka had to ask him.
"You don't demonstrate any propensity towards violence, Uraraka, and your Quirk doesn't have you hurting anyone with your hands. Sure, you use martial arts to harm the bad guys, but you're not…aggressive. Violent hands, violent behavior, violent attitude, keep your distance whenever possible. And Sero, he doesn't actually use his hands when using his Quirk, so he's not really viewed as violent, either. And Shoji? Shado doesn't see him as a violent person, either, and Rumiko and I think it's got something to do with the assumption that he's not actually violent, just…hard to read."
"Hard to read?" Hagakure asked.
"It's nothing to do with appearances, just…not being able to see a person's face in their entirety, that's all. Whatever his reason for wearing a mask that covers the lower half of his face is his business. If Shado can stand to be around him without being terrified that he's going to do something to her, then I'm fine with that happening."
"Shoji's like Koda; despite their looks, they're among the friendliest of people you'll ever meet around here."
"And I don't judge people based on their looks. Everyday, I'm learning something new about Quirks and how they're both widespread and diverse. I'd like to call myself a reverse of Frankenstein's Monster, if that's how I could be viewed."
"Why him?" Kaminari questioned. "What's a reverse of a classical monster, anyway?"
"Frankenstein's Monster, Medusa, Count Dracula, even a werewolf…all had this one thing in common about themselves: They looked like monsters on the outside…but were hardly monsters on the inside. The reverse is simply the opposite of all of that. My Quirk, Guardian, is listed as a mutation, but my appearance is still the same as it has always been. I look like a regular person…except…"
"Except the monster is on the inside," said Tokoyami.
"Yeah. The monster is on the inside. It's always there, just waiting to be let out."
Shinji was the most human of all individuals with Mutant-Type Quirks. Even Shado was on that boat with him; both were human, inside and outside, with normal bone structures and organ functions, and their Quirks were what made them anything but exactly like regular people. For some unusual reason, Shinji's Quirk mirrored ones like those possessed by great heroes, but it was a Quirk that was unlike every other Quirk ever researched by people. Not even Midoriya, the encyclopedist on his personal knowledge on different Quirks, could fully grasp the extent of Guardian's abilities, only that it had some similarities to Quirks that turned people that couldn't take so much as a punch from a strongman into people that could literally walk into war zones…and come out the other side with as few injuries as possible and give people that live to see the next day hope.
"And he's still adapting," he told them when he gave his analytical opinion about the Quirk. "He ever goes up against someone, he'll be a one-person army. He could probably take on his father if they meet up again, and that's assuming that his Wrath Quirk even affects him with his Guardian Quirk."
"But Shinji," went Uraraka, "I don't think the monster you have living inside you is even a violent one. Sure, you have some propensity towards violence, but it's only to protect others, not to hurt anyone that doesn't deserve it. And on a personal level, even those that end up being monsters make for great heroes."
"I have seen them…and they are quite impressive."
-x-
"…Ah," Shado yawned after she finished her dinner.
"You sound like you had a long day, Shado," Rumiko told her.
"I read five books today," she explained her exhaustion. "Well, not really reading them a lot. They were mostly pictures with few words. It was all about these two heroes that don't use their hands. One was a swordsman and the other was a lady that used chains."
"The Winter Samurai and Autumn Chain Mistress," Toya explained to his mother. "The lady that wrote this series of books was very good at making the plot all about two people from different parts of the same country having to work together in order to stop this group of five baddies that want to control the entire country and have an army to do so, and still end up losing to these two nobodies that have to work together because the bad guys captured these two people that end up being the only ones that can guarantee their reign…"
"Except they didn't count on the swordsman and chain lady having all the reason they need to come after them when they kidnapped the two children from their respective villages," Rumiko stated; she had read the story with Shinji more than five years ago and it was where the pair developed a liking towards weapons like the rope dart and kunai. "You cross a line, expect to be troubled by people that won't back down in the face of adversity."
"But we didn't finish the story yet," Shado revealed to her, not wanting to know yet how the story ends. "The last page we read in the fifth book was of the two heroes running towards a ship at a dock."
"That's the end page of the twenty-fifth chapter: The Sea Dragon's Cradle."
"Recovery Girl says that picture was one of her seven favorite pictures."
The sound of the front door opened and Shado looked over, seeing Shinji back.
"I'm sorry I'm late, everyone," he apologized for his tardiness.
"Why are you late by five minutes?" Rumiko asked him.
"Recovery Girl wanted to examine me again after the training session ended," he explained. "I might've said something that could've had a hand in my tardiness."
"What did you say?" Toya wanted to know.
"I felt a hand on my shoulder, shoving me forward, during the time I was in Tokoyami's trap move…except that he used that move on the other students…and none of them ever complained about a hand on their shoulders."
"Is that…bad?" Shado asked him.
"Not really. Everyone reacts to something differently. Nobody has the same reaction to something the same way more than once. It's probably just a one-time thing, so it won't happen a second time."
Shinji then noticed something with Rumiko; her face had a small scuff on the left cheek.
"Uh, Rumiko?" He spoke, worried. "Did something happen after school ended for the day?"
She saw him point to his own face to indicate that he was referring to her minor injury.
"Just a minor altercation with one of the other students," she said.
"It wasn't very minor," Toya expressed his opinion on the issue.
"Why is that?" Shinji asked him.
"The lady was not subtle when she came over and said what she was upset about."
"Toya," Rumiko spoke. "It's nothing serious."
But Shado, who had also been present when this happened, shook her head in the negative, disagreeing with her.
"How bad was it?" Shinji wanted to know.
"The girl was upset because one of her relatives had been at Tartarus the day your father escaped," Rumiko told him. "She really wanted to confront you about it, but when I told her that you were participating in an after school Quirk-training session…well, she vented her frustration out on me."
"I'm sorry."
"But it's okay. All she did was shove me. I've been shoved many times before. Everyone is taking this issue with that man in their own way."
"It's still wrong, that you were assaulted by someone looking for me to vent out their frustrations on…and nobody did anything."
"People are scared of him, so they'd rather go after whoever they feel is associated with him than to face him directly. Fear pushes people to do things to other people that aren't what they normally do at all. Fear and hate."
"If people have an issue with my father that they want to take out on me, then they should just come after me. I have the patience to wait for their cruelty."
"Try telling that to a girl who's two years older than yourself. And by that, I mean me; I'm fifteen, she was seventeen, and unlike me, she claimed to not have any stigmas."
"I don't know what she meant by that," went Shado. "What 'stingma' was she talking about?"
"She just meant that she didn't have any issues from her past to weigh her down," said Toya, but he clearly understood better than she did; some people viewed the bastard children of teen parents as a stigma due to either their reminder of how they came to be involved in their lives…or due to some personal shame they felt that came with being with these children. "But every hero has one or two, sooner or later. Nobody's perfect."
"Who is?" Shinji questioned. "Show me five perfect people, I'd consider that there is more to come as the days come and go."
"That…is impossible to do, Daddy," Shado told her father. "We don't know anyone like that."
"It's okay."
-x-
It wasn't just fear or hatred that was affecting the students at U.A. It was the fact that the police were having a difficult time trying to find Gendo, which made it hard for the heroes to find him, that was causing the students to misbehave towards Shinji, Rumiko and their children. The lack of updates, not knowing whether or not someone had seen Gendo and didn't realize it until much later, and just being in the dark about his full agenda left the teachers of the school concerned about how to best deal with the students that chose to take out their frustrations on either Shinji or Rumiko, despite wanting to alleviate their problems.
"This is getting out of hand," All Might said to Nezu as the teachers were in the principal's office. "He knows where they are and probably knows the number of heroes present. Why hasn't he tried to make a move on the school?"
"Probably waiting for the perfect moment to strike," Midnight suggested. "We checked with Kon's Quirk, and he's not showing up within the limits of his observations. If he's keeping a low profile, he's definitely keeping out of sight."
"And he's more powerful, as well, having reworked how his Quirk works for him," Aizawa added, looking at three pictures of the aftermath Gendo caused back in Sapporo when he decided to go kill the Gaidoku parents and brother of Rumiko. "He could be on his way to another city in the country, and we wouldn't know about it until it was too late. The worst that could happen would be him trying to locate a source of Trigger."
"With the way his Quirk functions," went Recovery Girl, "it's doubtful that Trigger would affect him the way it would affect other people's Quirks."
"Why is that?" Midnight asked her.
"Wrath requires that he break down anything at the molecular level and then rebuild it however he chooses. His body requires him to be oxygenated most of the time, as his heart and lungs are enlarged, giving him his mutated physiology. We could probably cut him off from an air supply, but if he breathes, even just a little bit, he can still use his Quirk, provided he still has limbs. And based on the chemical compositions of Trigger, he could inject himself with a large enough dosage…and he'd probably be unable to do much with it until he processed it after a few minutes; he tears himself up, he tears up the chemical composition of the drug, rendering it useless to him."
"Meaning if he wanted to use it to have an edge against others, he'd have to refrain from using his Quirk for a few minutes," said Nezu. "Yet, this is all speculation. We still need to find him."
-x-
"…It's just unfair," said Midoriya to his mother on the phone in his room, late that evening, "the way some of the other students are reacting to this. They're hassling Ikari and Gaidoku when they have done nothing wrong. I mean, it's only Ikari's father that's causing the series of difficulties that make it hard to deal with him."
"I know, but they're acting on two emotions that drive them to make choices that have consequences," his mother told him. "Fear and anger."
"Fear, I get, but anger is… They act as if he's going to come here simply because Ikari and Gaidoku are here with their kids, and he hasn't done so yet, but to show anger at them is like they blame them, or rather, they blame Ikari…because of his father's actions. It's not even their fault that he's loose out there."
"Their fear of him isn't always based on what he could do if he isn't found and dealt with, Izuku. Their fear can be of what he might do to people they know…and it leads them to take out their anger over the fact that the police and heroes haven't found him yet on the ones they believe to responsible for his escape to begin with. People with anger over something or someone tend to base their actions on a concept known as guilt by association."
"Guilt by association? Meaning…simply because Ikari and his daughter are related to his father, and because Gaidoku and her son were with them at the time they were held against their will by his father…some of the students here just hold them accountable for everything that his father has or may do later on?"
"That's right."
"But that's just… It's like they've already made up their minds about the four of them and see them as being no different from him…which isn't true."
"But so long as there are those of you that don't buy into this belief, it keeps their spirits from being dimmed too harshly. You know they're not responsible for his actions. They know that you know. They need that faith in their corner right now, more than ever."
Midoriya found his mother's words to be encouraging. And insightful. Everyone that viewed Shinji, Rumiko and their kids as an issue due to Gendo's escape from prison and his recent actions were just being undeniably black-hearted and seeing the situation from just one angle instead of all of them. Everyone was being targeted by Gendo, who had it out solely for little Shado, his target of a selfish revenge that was completely one-sided.
"Mom, it might be just a case of being overcautious, but is there anyone out of town that you can stay with for a while?" Midoriya asked his mother. "Just until Ikari's father has been caught and sent back to prison."
-x-
"…We'll begin in three minutes," went Ritsuko to Kensuke as he sat in the Entry Plug of Unit-04; because they had to do a double synchronization test to see how well the Fourth Child synced with both Units-03 and 04, the faux-blond woman had to make sure the data collected was up to date.
In the plug, Kensuke nodded as he waited for the workers to do what they had to do. It was a good day today. He was going to piloting two different Evas and the one he did best in would be the one he would be assigned to.
"Just be careful out there, man," Toji had told him. "I don't want to have to come to your funeral because of another fault of NERV's."
But NERV has probably corrected the issues and put in safety measures to ensure that there won't be any problems, he thought.
However, he had a feeling in the back of his head that told him otherwise. It was most likely the only part of his conscience trying to warn him that no matter how prepared people were, they couldn't make guarantees for anything.
"We're ready to begin, Aida," Ritsuko informed him.
"Okay," he replied.
-x-
"…So…what really happened in your training session last night, Shinji?" Rumiko asked Shinji as they were laying on the floor in the teen mother's room, looking up at the ceiling.
"Tokoyami's Dark Shadow had me wrapped up…and I felt a hand on my shoulder, pushing me forward, and then I broke free from his Quirk," Shinji explained.
"Sounds like your Quirk adapted to an inoffensive move on you."
"Except that Guardian shouldn't have been able to do that. Unless I was injured, nothing should've happened. The only thing that did happen was Kaminari causing me to get a nosebleed. That wasn't even a major injury. Less than a minor injury."
"At least you're progressing. My Maternal Devotion is…less than impressive."
"Why do you think that?"
"Because I can't find anyone unless I know them. My relationships are less than productive, with less than half of them positive and the majority of them that could've been worked on further are…unable to progress any further."
"Emitter, Transformation or Mutant?"
"Huh?"
"Maternal Devotion. It's a tracker-type, but that's just one aspect of its nature. What type of Quirk is Maternal Devotion as a whole?"
"Oh. Emitter. I can track down a person within a certain radius of myself at will so long as I have some sort of connection to them. That's how I was able to find you…when you were kidnapped."
"I will still own up to it because it's my truth…and the truth is…I still believe in Maternal Devotion one day becoming one of the best Quirks out there…because the young woman that has it is already a hero to me."
"Thanks, Shinji. I needed to hear that. You're a hero to me, too. I thought about you and Shado when I was able to escape from your father with Toya, promised myself that I would come back for you with help. I still didn't want to believe that your father…crossed the line."
"He crosses the line with everyone. That's why he doesn't have any friends…or someone to talk to that is willing to hear him speak about his troubles. He tries to come here looking for any of you…and it will be his last mistake."
"You know…your mother once asked me something about you, but I didn't… I didn't have the guts to answer her about it because I didn't want to complicate what was already complicated by what had happened to the both of us all that time ago."
"What did she ask you?"
Rumiko sighs and responds, "She asked, 'What are your personal feelings toward Shinji like?' Of course, I didn't want to answer with a false truth, so I told her that…we're just childhood friends. I will always value what you mean to me. I care about you…but…"
"It's best not to complicate things any further. What already is…is enough for now."
"But is it, really?" She heard him ask her.
Rumiko didn't say anything, but the emotion on her face was a dead giveaway on her feelings. Of course, she wanted more, but she was a believer in moderation and restraint. She wanted to be a hero, no matter what her faults and weaknesses were. But she didn't want fame, to be on billboards or magazines or popular. She wanted to be an example to others that, despite not having strong Quirks or coming from beginnings of difficulty, people like herself could still rise up and do things that other heroes couldn't do.
But what she wanted for herself in her personal life, what she wanted just as much as she wanted to be an example to others like herself…sometimes felt in between a longing from her heart that had been broken and patched up in the past…and a feeling of lust that she didn't want looming over her soul. And there was a difference between a passionate longing…and a lustful bitterness.
"Is it ever?" She finally replied to him.
Shinji didn't know how to answer her. He had never been in a situation like that before. There had been a semblance of such a similar situation, but it had been more of a dare, really. Not to mention that he never had such feelings that reflected his relationships…or lack of proper relationships…with others before. But…what he did feel for some of the people in this life of his where superpowers were real and where people could become heroes and villains like out of the comics, television programs and cinema entertainment scenes…were meaningful to him.
Knock-knock. They both heard a small knock at Rumiko's door, and looked up and saw Toya.
"Toya?" Rumiko asked her son. "Is something wrong?"
"Something happened on TV," he told them, pointing behind himself.
-x-
So far, the Fourth Child had an adequate synchronization rate with Unit-04. Now, all they had to do was see how well his synchronization was with Unit-03. Whichever one had the best synchronization score was the one Kensuke Aida would be assigned to.
"So far, so good," said Maya to Ritsuko as they were preparing to activate Unit-03.
"Yeah," she agreed with her.
"What happens if we can't find another pilot for the Evas?"
"Since we're still working on the Dummy System, it's likely that we'll decommission Unit-00 and switch the First Child over to Unit-01."
Within the second plug, Kensuke started to get an unpleasant feeling in the back of his head.
"We're about to begin, Aida," he heard someone say to him over the intercom.
Suddenly, the inside of the plug turned dark red…and everything was quiet.
"Hello?" He spoke, but there was no response. "Hello?"
-x-
Gendo had made his presence felt within another town, and all that was televised by the news media…was the aftermath of its desolation.
"It's a complete nightmare for the people here today," a female reporter announced on the television sets within the Heights Alliance dorms, standing several feet away from a safety line where much of a town had been, more or less, caved in and devastated. "Without any warning, late this afternoon, the town of Miyuki was attacked by Gendo Ikari, who caused a series of structural instabilities within the foundations of every building covering at least sixty-seven blocks. There's no confirmed list of casualties, but the estimated body count of the people that live here could be anywhere from eighteen-hundred…to more than fifty-six-hundred."
In front of one of the sets, Shinji and Rumiko couldn't believe that Gendo would do this.
"Late this afternoon," Rumiko uttered. "That could've been right after school was let out."
"All of those people," Shado expressed, saddened by this incident. "Why is he hurting them? We didn't even know anyone there."
"He's being a cold person," Shinji explained to her. "It wouldn't matter if we knew anyone there or didn't. He's just trying to stir negative emotions through his actions, fueled by his own negativity towards us."
The reporter approached a hero emerging from the crater where the buildings had collapsed, bringing with him at least survivors he was able to find, and questioned if he had any clue as to how bad the situation was.
"I can't answer that, ma'am," he answered her. "This is cruelty of the highest degree. Only a person truly devoid of any conscience could cause this much harm to people."
"He killed my son!" One of the survivors, a heavyset woman, yelled in front of the cameras. "He killed my son! We never did anything to him!"
"He killed my wife!" A man among the survivors yelled. "He moves underground! That's how he ruined the town!"
Shinji had to look away; the guy that had been fortunate to survive had a bloody face.
Ding-dong! The doorbell to their door rang, and the children had looks of concern.
Shinji got up and approached the door.
"Who is it?" He asked.
"Uraraka," responded a girl outside.
He opened the door, and saw the young girl he and Rumiko spoke with every once in a while, her face wracked with anger and heartache.
"I take it everyone in 1-A is watching the news?" He asked her.
"Miyuki was the town where my parents lived," she revealed. "The man on the news was my father. Your father…murdered my mother, Ikari."
Shinji felt remorse and sorrow for Uraraka and he had to look away from her.
"I am…sorry for what he did to your home and family, Uraraka," he apologized to her.
"No. It's not your fault. I don't blame you or Shado. I blame your father…because he doesn't care about the people he hurts that have to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives."
"My parents lived in Miyuki, too," went Koda as he and others from 1-A were present. "Your father's a monster. I mean, he's completely heartless. Not even a villain, just…cruel."
"I had a cousin that lived there," Ojiro admitted.
"Three cousins and two uncles," added Shoji. "It's only a possibility that they're not dead until after they're found."
"They have Quirks like yours?" Shinji asked him, and Shoji nodded that they did.
"What does he hope to gain out of this carnage he causes?" Sero questioned; he was fortunate that his parents and little sister had gone out of town at his request in case Gendo showed up.
Shinji turned to look at Shado, who was worried about what they'd try to do.
"Can we be clear about one thing?" He asked them, and they nodded. "My father is without any doubt the absolute worst in the history of parents gone wrong. He's so full of spite over an imagined sleight that he can't let go of, no matter what anyone tells him was just an accident and nothing more than that, that he is willing to go to extremes to make everyone else around him feel like they have lost everything. He hates Shado for something she had neither any memory of or any actual intent on doing, and has let that hatred become his only reason for living. Whether he lives to rot away in prison for the rest of his life or gets the life-ending needle is to up to the police or whoever it is that decides people's fate when they do something so unforgivable and actually aim to do them, knowing that they're wrong. If he ever shows his face around him, I will break his limbs off so that he can't fight back or flee."
"Provided that nobody tries to off him first before anyone around here does," went Bakugo, and everyone looked at him. "People are going to be out for blood."
"Are you one of them?" Rumiko asked him.
"No…but that doesn't mean anyone else that has seen the news and knows what he did won't think about going after him…or trying to pick a fight with you."
"If any of you want to start," the teen mother spoke, but Shinji raised his left hand to silence her.
"Yeah, everyone's upset with him," he expressed. "We get it. Everyone's going to be looking to vent in whatever way they can that works for them."
"Aah!" Shado screamed, and Shinji turned back to see that she was pointing to the television. "He's on TV!"
Everyone came in and saw Gendo's obscured face on the screen, static and fuzz causing an issue with the broadcast.
"Yeah, I just leveled a town full of people," he uttered to whatever he was using to broadcast himself, "and I don't really give a damn about any of them. I just need the public to know…that I can and will level any town or city I have to in order to get what I want…and I will get what I want, one way or another. The question is…how many more have to pay the price to protect a heartless murderess from facing the consequences of her crime against me? This doesn't have to progress any further than it will right now. When you're ready to listen to what I have to say further, I will contact you…and you'll never see me coming."
Then, the connection was cut and the news was on again.
"What in the Hell was that about?" Mineta questioned.
-x-
Misato didn't like this. All she knew was that there was an explosion at the Matsuhiro facility, but nothing else that occurred. If it was an Angel, she didn't know anything about it because Central Dogma was trying to get in touch with satellites over the country to get a read on what was going on near the facility. And strategy-wise, all NERV had were Unit-00 and Unit-02; they couldn't use Unit-01 and didn't know the status of Units-03 or 04.
"We got something," said Shigeru to everyone present, and all the monitors in Central Dogma showed a moving target heading towards Tokyo-3.
"No way," Misato gasped, seeing Unit-03 walking like some sort of drone. "Do we have contact with the plug?"
"Negative," went Hyuga. "The plug was ejected, but it's still connected to the Eva."
"What about the pilot?"
"We're still reading biometric telemetry…and signs of activity. The pilot is still alive in there."
Which made the situation all the more uneasy. If Unit-03 had become compromised, it wasn't just another Angel attack they had to repel. It was a hostage situation they needed to deal with, too, and the worst type was with an enemy that they couldn't negotiate with.
-x-
"…How many survivors have they found so far?" Aizawa asked Nezu as the teachers were present in the principal's office, regarding the aftermath of Miyuki's devastation.
"Eighty-seven so far," he explained. "Three survivors didn't make it due to ruptured organs and severe head trauma."
"This is insane," Midnight expressed. "Some of the students here actually lived in Miyuki before coming here."
"And Gendo's pirate broadcast has caused some serious uproars among the students and people that knew people that lived there," added Cementoss. "To think that he'd go this far."
"It's just as he himself said," went Ectoplasm with an angry expression. "He's willing and able to go as far as he needs to…and everything he does is out of hatred towards someone that's terrified of him due to his animosity and brutality."
Ring-ring! The phone on Nezu's desk rang, with the caller ID reading as an unknown caller.
Nezu picked up and uttered, "This is U.A. High School."
"I must be honest with myself right now," they all heard Gendo's voice on the speaker, "but I didn't think I'd be calling the place that was listed among a dozen or so places that failed me in my youth. The top academy that molds young minds into great heroes of their generation. What a goose! I am a great mind…just not a hero."
"Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari," the principal replied. "You must be aware that your actions against others will lead you towards an unforgiving fate once you've been apprehended."
"I think you mean if I get apprehended, and I don't intend to get caught. Not yet, anyway. I still have much to do. So much to do and so little time to do so."
"You decimated a town that had nothing to do with your delusions of vengeance against others."
"I had to set an example towards the hero community, as well as remind the public that there are no such things as heroes that are ever present and all-knowing. I could level another town or a city within another hour and cause more collateral damage and loss of life and none of you would ever be around to save the people in time, but I don't want to be too vindictive."
"Except you've always been vindictive, Gendo," said Ectoplasm to the man. "You hold grudges and can't let go of them, even after a long time has passed."
"And this is no different, but it doesn't have to get any worse. All I ask is one thing is return."
"What do you want?" Midnight asked.
"The life of that little bitch ended," Gendo revealed, which made All Might frown in disbelief over such a demand being met. "She's not worth protecting. Everything she touches, sooner or later, dissolves into nothingness. Everyone she touches comes undone. She has no future worth living for. I kept her alive only to remind her that I could end her at any time I chose…and I will end her life…and be free of her looming darkness."
"Gendo…you are out of your mind," Nezu told the man, and it was the first time he had ever actually called someone out on that truth.
"No shit, sir," he responded, and then the call ceased.
"Where are the Ikaris and Gaidokus?" Nezu asked.
"They're still at the dorms," Cementoss answered.
-x-
Moving through the deepest regions of the underground, Gendo fumed at the mere thought of more people having to die before they came to their senses that the girl that murdered his wife was not to be protected like she meant something when she meant less than nothing.
I just want to rip her heart out her chest and reduce it to pulp, he thought as he tore his way up to the surface again, having only a map to follow as his means of locating the next stop in his destination towards Shado. No matter how many lives have to be sacrificed, I will kill the bitch.
-x-
Nobody said anything during the entire time spent working on a puzzle together, a leisure activity meant to take their minds off the news that affected them differently. The teen parents were trying to maintain whatever stability there was right now and keep their kids from worrying too much about what they had no control over…and their kids were trying to keep from letting a soulless man take precedence over their lives, despite how his escape from prison and actions against others had taken precedence over the lives of other people at the school and across Japan.
Shado picked through ten puzzle pieces and found two matches so far.
I don't want him coming after me again, she thought as she tapped her father's left shoulder, getting his attention with her two matches. I don't want him to hurt me again.
He took her two matches and set them in the middle where the puzzle had the most pieces assembled and gave her four more pieces to shift through.
"Can I be honest about something, please?" Toya uttered, and Shinji and Rumiko looked at him.
"Okay," his mother responded.
"The silence is awful right now," he expressed. "We all saw the news, we know what that disgrace of a man did, and we know he's not going to stop. We can't pretend that we're fine with this period of calmness when we're all bothered by how far he's willing to go to get his way."
"But Toya, at this point," Shinji stated, "all we can do is wait for him to show his face and let whatever befalls him to befall him."
"Except that's what I'm getting at," the boy responded. "He's made himself so dangerous that…it might take something very, very bad to stop him."
Shinji and Rumiko looked at each other and understood some of what "very, very bad" included in whatever it took to stop the former's psychopathic father. Among the methods nether teen wanted to think about that could've served to harm or even stop Gendo was the use of a bomb, but because that was a double-edged sword, it brought unintended harm to anyone that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time it was used to stop him. Of course, even if such a tactic was viable, there was no guarantee that Gendo, despite being human, inside and outside, would be affected to a massive degree by a device that caused widespread heat and fire to reduce a large radius into ash.
"Toya," went Shado to her fellow toddler, "what are you asking our parents to do?"
"Nothing," he claimed. "I'm asking your daddy what he's going to do."
"Me?" Shinji uttered. "I know exactly what I'll do. If he crosses a line, it'll be his last line."
But Shinji understood that there was a difference between saying what he'll do to his father…and actually carrying out what he would do to his father. He couldn't let what befell his deceased counterpart befall Shado. There had been enough death being caused by Gendo…and the man was causing too much afterward…just to force others to think that Shado was the direct cause and how her demise would be the remedy.
-x-
Despite their orders, Asuka knew there was very little chance of actually prevailing against this particular Angel. Disable Unit-03 and rescue the plug, terminate only when attempts to rescue the pilot were impossible. It reminded her of how they didn't exactly do much to rescue Shinji when he got stuck in the shadow Angel and was killed. If the Evas were no longer able to protect even just one person, how could they be counted on to save anyone?
"It's not something as simple as being asked to do, Soryu," she recalled Suzuhara telling her when she learned that Aida was picked to pilot after he refused. "NERV either takes it up with your parents or guardians or you directly. As far as I can tell, they went directly to Aida, despite the fact that his father was around to be informed, more than likely because he would've refused to have him involved with the Eva after what happened with Ikari's. Some people don't care about the world as a whole, but when you put someone they know in danger, that's pretty much maiming to their world. If something happens to Aida because of NERV, that's on NERV. It'll be on NERV because they could've made a choice to try something else…but chose not to. It won't matter to those that get affected by lose, because deep down, they know it was the fault of that agency. I'd sooner walk away than be part of something like the Eva program. You can't sugarcoat it and not expect it to be a walk in the park when it could turn into a walk in the storm…or worse."
Just the mere fact that NERV was losing credibility was making Asuka see that people's faith in the Evangelions, despite being only known to the people behind NERV and the UN, was bare bones at the very least. Even if the public became aware of them, that still wouldn't convince them that it was the only hope they had of surviving the onslaught of the Angels. The people wouldn't have cared about the so-called promise of salvation from human extinction as much as they would care about the aftermath that was caused after every battle, every debacle, trying to make sense of the situation that seemed to get worse each time.
"What if it had been you, Asuka?" Hikari had asked her once, bringing up the incident. "Do you think anyone would've been able to go on after something like that?"
The truth was that she wasn't sure what might've happened. All she could do…was what she could do. She didn't foresight…and she wasn't all-knowing. She was…just a pilot for the Eva assigned the difficult duty of facing the Angels.
Suddenly, Unit-03 leapt into the air in front of Unit-02…and the battle between Evas was on.
-x-
Gasp! Shinji awoke in the dead of night again, having escaped a nightmare that made no sense to him.
In his dream, he saw two beings, one made of fire and another made of dark stone, facing one another in a boxing ring comprised of debris. The fire being had a long mane of hair and the dark stone being was holding something in its left hand. He was standing outside the ring on one end…and saw his father standing on the opposite end of the ring, looking at him with contempt.
"No matter what you do, boy, you can't protect her from me," Gendo had told him, just as the dark stone being punched the fire being in the face and waist, sprouting a second pair of arms from its back and jumping onto the fire being while it was disoriented. "You will lose her…and your world will crumble beneath your feet."
You will not get Shado, he thought as he got up to go check up on Shado. Even if it means having to violate my own principles and beliefs, I will keep her safe from you at all costs.
Opening the door to her room, he saw her still asleep in her bed, holding onto her Ursa Guardian teddy, her other four teddies surrounding her bed on the sides on the floor like a defense line or barrier against evil or something cruel.
"I guess you had a bad dream, too?" He heard Rumiko's voice as he turned to face her, seeing that she was holding a cup of a steaming beverage in her left hand.
"Sort of," he responded, closing the door to his daughter's room. "You?"
"I woke up from a horrible dream of being alone in the darkness, and then I saw something upon waking up that left me worried about something. I woke up…and there was a…wolf in my room, staring back at me."
"A wolf? What kind of wolf?"
"A white wolf, with black paws and glowing eyes. It wasn't even doing anything, just…staring right at me."
"I've never really seen a wolf before. I've seen cats and dogs, a rabbit, but never a wolf."
Rumiko was about to say that he had seen a wolf before when they went on a field trip to the zoo, but then reminded herself that the Shinji she was facing was not the same one she grew up with and shared a traumatic experience with. Although he had some of his doppelgänger's memories to call upon, the fact remained that he was from another universe where they never existed…or at least where they had never met before. There were similarities between the two men, but they were entirely different in many respects; they had both suffered due to the cruelty of adults, but the difference being that one was raped along with imprisoned, while the other was just severely neglected by an uncaring bastard of a parent. But she cared about him, regardless; she didn't have anyone else of which to relate to that had suffered as she did or carried the would-be stigma of having a child while still young enough to be in grade school.
"Tell me," she heard him say to her, "is what people like my father do to others that have nothing to do with us and what we had to go through because of him…hurt any less when we're not the ones he causes pain and misery towards?"
"No, Shinji," she answered him, "it doesn't. Even when we're not directly responsible for what people like him do to others…it still hurts. Just because we're not physically affected by his abuse, his arrogance, his egotistical behavior towards others, it doesn't mean we're not bothered by what he's done…or does. Can I be honest with you about something personal?"
"Sure."
"Sometimes, when I feel like the walls are closing in on me, I feel like I need to consume an alcoholic beverage like sake…or at least something that makes me numb. Because the trauma of my past, whether it's the despicable words of my father's would-be love towards me or my mother's resentment after learning of her husband's shamelessness behind her back…or the agony your father caused, I feel like drinking…but I don't. Even when tempted to, I don't. And the walls that close in around me, they're always present. The degradation, the brutality, the ruthlessness…of this…dark side of adulthood…and the reality of human evil. There, I finally said it. I own up to it."
"Well, at least you have more restraint than I do," Shinji told her. "More than half the time, I just think about running away."
"But you never do. Why?"
"Because…there's nowhere to run to, anymore…and I'd be leaving behind those that can't run with me. If I run, I hurt someone that matters to me. If I stay, I still hurt someone that matters to me, one way or another, without ever meaning to, because of something or someone else. Either way, you get thrown a curveball that ends up hitting you in the face."
"That's…exactly what you told me once before. Okay. We're both parents, we both have children we have to be responsible for, we have parents that are either dead and/or hate our guts because of something we were involved in over five years ago, deceived, coerced or because we were kidnapped, and there's a bad guy that can't be reasoned with by anyone that hates your kid to the point of chaotic violence against other people, what do you do? How do you respond to his actions and the actions of others?"
"If I knew the answer, I'd share it with you."
Meanwhile, in her dreams, Shado, stood in a vast space with a tint of orange all around her. She was holding her Ursa Guardian teddy, standing over a strange expanse of water that gave her the creeps, and saw someone emerging from it in front of her. It was…a girl, no older than her father, dressed in a strange, white outfit, standing waist-deep in the water, with pale, bluish hair, a chalky complexion and red eyes. She should've been terrified by the girl, having never met her before…but instead…she just felt sorry for her.
"Excuse me," she spoke to the girl, "who are you?"
The older girl looked at Shado and responded, "Are you…an Angel?"
"No. I'm a girl. My name is Shado. Who are you?"
"My name is…Rei. Rei Ayanami."
"Rei Aya…ranma?"
"Ayanami."
"Aya…nami."
"Right."
"It is…nice to meet you."
"Th…thank you."
Shado looked around them and couldn't see anything to give any indication that they were anywhere remotely like a building or a town or city. There was light, but she couldn't find a sky or ceiling anywhere.
"What is this place?" She asked Rei.
"I…do not know," Rei replied. "Are you sure you are not an Angel?"
"I'm sure. Daddy and Rumiko would know more about angels than me. All I know is that they're supposed to have pretty wings like birds and these rings of light over their heads. They're the people that watch over you wherever you are…and are there to meet you when you go this beautiful place that resides in the sky."
"That…that is not…"
"What?"
Rei looked at the girl and realized that she must've had no idea what she was talking about, understanding only of a different concept from the one she was asking her of. All the girl understood was that belief surrounding the afterlife and how people came back in the form of winged beings of divinity. The Angels that she was asking her about, if they even existed in this child's life, were monsters out to destroy the human race.
"I am sorry," she told the child, "but what is your full name?"
"My…full name?"
"Your given name, middle name and last name."
"I don't have a middle name. It's just Shado Ikari."
"Ikari? Would you, by any chance…be related to a one…Shinji Ikari?"
"He's my daddy."
The older girl's eyes widened in disbelief. Before she could speak another word, she saw Shado back away, fear on her face.
"What is it?" She asked her.
"Monster," she pointed to her. "There's a monster behind you!"
Rei turned around…saw a large, dark, armored behemoth with large claws looming over herself.
-x-
Snapping her eyes open, Rei, who had been beaten by Unit-03, came to and saw Unit-02, beating the black Eva to pulp. But it was the way it was doing so that had her off; she had seen the way the Second Child fights in Unit-02, and this wasn't how she acted. There was a sense of control and pride in her actions, but this was…just rage without any thought behind it. Then, she watched as Unit-02 raised the Entry Plug of Unit-03 in its left hand…and something stirred inside her; it was a sense of…of dread, like if she let the Eva do what it was going to the plug, she'd be letting down a lot of people.
"They're supposed to have pretty wings like birds and these rings of light over their heads," she recalled this little girl that looked like a little version of Shinji say to her. "They're the people that watch over you wherever you are…and are there to meet you when you go this beautiful place that resides in the sky."
Unit-00, down an arm and some leg damage, got back up and charged towards Unit-02.
"Pilot Soryu," she uttered through the intercom, "stop this."
Clash! Unit-00's right arm grabbed Unit-02's left arm and applied as much force as possible on the limb holding the plug.
"It's not me!" She heard Asuka yell. "It's this damn autopilot they turned on! The commander wants to eliminate the Angel at all costs, pilot and all!"
Then, Unit-02 reached with its right arm and grabbed Unit-00 by its neck. This caused Rei to feel like she was being choked by the redhead…over something she had in her hand that she wasn't supposed to have.
"Tell me, Pilot Soryu, did you see the girl, too?" Rei asked.
"See what girl?" Asuka demanded.
"From the drawing. Did you see her?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
Unit-00 crushed Unit-02's arm, forcing it to drop the Entry Plug and turn its attention onto the cyclopian Eva.
-x-
Some people didn't feel much in the luxury of sleep. This was because some had people they were concerned about from the town of Miyuki. With several students from Class 1-A, this was constant feeling of woe because they didn't know if their relatives were all in one piece, aside from Uraraka's father after seeing him on the news last night. Even as the morning sunlight shone in the dorms of the Heights Alliance, none of the students dared to leave out for fear of the unlikely…and at the same time…the very likely.
"They're still shifting through the debris," Midoriya uttered as he checked the news.
"Sooner or later," went Jiro, "they gotta find them all."
"This is madness," Ida claimed. "You don't just…do this sort of thing to people that have done you no wrong. It's just…"
"After the police got him," went Mineta, "they should've just went with the death penalty."
"Yeah," agreed Hagakure, her emotions affecting her invisibility so that she was see-through right now; it would still be a while before she had remastered the use of her Quirk. "He's a terrible person that does all of this because of one person that he tormented."
"And, what, he just expects the whole country to bend to his will and take out the girl," Sero questions, "or hand her over to him so he can take her out?"
"That's exactly what he wants," said Bakugo to them. "He can't come here directly to deal with her, so he wants to pressure other people to hand her over to him, or to kill her themselves and let him see the aftermath. He's the sadistic type of villain that has a death wish and a vendetta against who he views as his arch nemesis. He won't rest until that person is dead, no matter how senseless his vendetta is."
"But," Aoyama uttered, "to go to these lengths…and these extremes…over a little girl…"
"I'll be honest right now, before Deku over here revealed that he had a Quirk that was so stubborn to make itself known, I would've taken him out, no holds barred. And when I faced Ikari, I was ready to do the same to him because I believed none of them were worth a migraine just because his old man is the worst at parenthood if he couldn't keep his own son from being assaulted by a woman that kidnapped him for a ransom that wouldn't be paid. Even now, I still don't think they're worth a migraine…but even I wouldn't do something as stupid as handing the girl over to her grandfather just so he can kill her out of his sense of hatred towards her."
At least Bakugo had the decency to admit his own disgust towards a quartet and what he was willing or unwilling to do due to his own reasons. However, that measure of sentiment, intended or unintended, wasn't reflected upon by everyone. Everyone else…had their own reasons for wanting to see that something got done, for better or for worse.
"Hey," Midoriya expressed, pointing to the television. "What the heck is that?"
On the screen, at the destroyed town, large bits of rubble lifted off the ground and were stacking themselves away from the massive hole.
"This is…just unreal, people," a reporter uttered on his microphone in front of the cameramen. "The debris that filled the massive hole…is now being lifted out of the hole and is…stacking itself into dozens of piles."
A dozen or so cameras were viewing the phenomenon from different angles, showing the stacking occurring, and revealing a pinkish glow deep in the hole.
"What is that?" Uraraka asked as a camera zoomed into the crater, getting a closer look. "Is that a… Is that a person?"
"No," said Koda in realization. "It's people, and they're holding hands."
It was a bizarre sight to behold, but it was happening. A pink glow by a number of people that had been buried under the rubble and slowly climbing out of the hole from any part of it they could reach, still holding onto each other.
"What's going on over there?" Mineta wondered.
To be continued…
A/N: I'll end the chapter here and let y'all wonder what happens next. There will be an explanation to why Shado had a dream sequence where she had an encounter with Rei and you can expect to see someone else in the universe of MHA. I bet some of you can already take a guess on who it will be. Until then, stay safe, healthy and sane in this crazy world that faces a villain without a face.