Creation began on 06-06-23
Creation ended on 09-06-24
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Modern Day Legend of a Rage-filled Anchor: No Finals
Ten years since the last time anyone within Tokyo-3…or the world in general…had seen or heard of a young man by the name of Shinji Ikari…and the world that had been maimed by Second Impact had seen much progress in moving on from the sense of dread that the world was going to end. But Tokyo-3 had gone back to being the two towns that had been merged together in an attempt to replace Tokyo-2, which had also gone back to being addressed by its original name when Tokyo was rebuilt and repopulated, echoing more of a return to the previous way of living before Second Impact ever occurred. It had taken a lot of work to deconstruct the skyscrapers that had been built to serve as part of Tokyo-3's defensive design functions against the Angels, but in the end, it was worth it when people returned to the former locations that were tourist attractions where people from all over came to relax. But in the decade that followed, there were things that occurred that were unavoidable to some.
"Hard to believe that it's been that long since we used to live here," said a young woman with freckles and long hair to a man beside her wearing a dark tracksuit.
"Yeah," he agreed with her. "It does feel like it's been a long time, and yet…we're here…as though it were only the day before."
These were Hikari Horaki and Toji Suzuhara, having returned to this place for a reunion that took ten years to make possible because of the dismantling and rebuilding of many places that people returned to and living their lives as close to the familiarity they had sought out. There had been the emails, the long-distance phone calls, the handwritten letters, and minor visits between each of them over the years, but in the end, the reunion had to be here…where they saw him last.
"Where did Asuka say to meet up?" Toji asks Hikari.
"The park," she answers him. "Where the lake is."
"Is everyone going to be there?"
"That's what she said."
-x-
Rei Ayanami had seen a lot of change in the ten years since NERV was disbanded and Shinji had restored the Earth. But it felt like a canvas that was still being worked on by some craftsman. What remained of Tokyo-3 now was just how the city had been in people's minds. Even after the decade that came and went, it still felt like something was missing, like a small piece of a large puzzle. Sitting on a bench in the Hakone's Lake Ashinoko Park, she looked out at the lake that had been a tourist attraction for people across the planet, wondering how the natural scenery did better than most pieces of modern art.
"Rei?" She hears her name being called, and turns to the right to see…Kensuke Aida, accompanied by a girl with glasses like his own. "You're here."
"Aida," she greets him, and then at his companion.
"Mayumi Yamagishi-Aida," he introduced her to Rei.
"Girlfriend?" Rei suspects.
"No," the woman, Mayumi, responds. "I haven't been Kensuke's girlfriend for the last three years since we got married."
"Oh. Where is everyone?"
"Misato and Kaji are two minutes away from where Asuka is currently waiting for them, and Toji and Hikari are on their way," Kensuke explains. "How has life been for you, Rei?"
"I've been crafting several sculptures of the previous Angels so that the world knows what Shinji went through during his time at NERV."
"Yeah, I saw your sculpture of Shinji Ikari a few years ago," Mayumi reveals. "It's really impressive. It's like you captured his essence in perfect detail."
"Thank you."
"Found them!" They heard a voice yell in the distance and looked down the edge of the lake's barrier, seeing a woman with red hair.
Along with the woman was another woman with purple hair and a man with a ponytail.
"It looks like Hikari and Toji are the only ones that haven't arrived yet," the redhead, Asuka, expresses. "How's it going?"
"We have our good days and our bad days," Mayumi states as Misato and Kaji show up. "Are there only…six of you?"
"Nobody knew Shinji better than…those that had to deal with his absence," Rei explains. "There were others, but they didn't have as much of an impact on him as…he had any impact on them."
"And what of…that man that tried to make him submit?"
"He died shortly after Shinji left," went an older Misato. "He…didn't really get much recognition…except for when his wife returned."
"Yes, I heard of her, this Yui Ikari. How is she these days?"
"We don't really know. She's a bit of a recluse."
"It's not like we can talk to her," Asuka states. "She's also a bit of a…omen."
"Oh. But…she's at least happy about what Shinji did before he left, right? I mean, he gave the people back their world. Who wouldn't be proud of him for doing something that noble?"
"Some parents…have different expectations of their children," Kaji says. "And some children…end up finding out things that drive a certain wedge between their parents and themselves. It's one of the reasons that Shinji couldn't stick around and had to leave."
"He was really a hero, wasn't he?"
"Was…and still is," Kensuke expresses.
"Hey over there!" They hear a voice and turn to see Toji and Hikari coming over.
-x-
At forty-eight years old, Yui Ikari was surprisingly good-looking for a woman that was, in truth, only thirty-eight due to living within the Evangelion for over a decade, but even this was nothing more than a fringe benefit because her family life was virtually nonexistent. Even as she spent her days researching alternate energy sources, she was constantly reminded that none of this would've been possible without the actions of her son when he obtained god-like power and chose to restore the planet to a state of being before Second Impact happened and clearing up the irradiated lands that were uninhabitable for decades and couldn't be reclaimed for longer than that…and doing things that were not possible without the aid of science and technology, things that people in charge could've done, but chose not to.
"Your son gave the world back to the people," Ritsuko Akagi had once told her. "In many respects, that is a true miracle, an actual act of God. Or in this case, a god-like being that can actually do whatever it is that they want without fail or fear of any reprisal from anyone. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before…and may never see anything like it again."
One of her only other disappointments was that the murder investigation of her husband was never solved, as the police couldn't find his killer, with the list of suspects being comprised of everyone that knew of him and/or had something to gain from his death, directly or indirectly. As far as the police were concerned, the killer could've been anyone from NERV or even a foreign country…or just a regular citizen who was contracted out to eliminate him in exchange for money or some other form of compensation. And it wasn't as though they even cared; after what happened with Second Impact, most police organizations were not as equipped or capable of solving investigations unless they were the kind that got them recognition. In the end, Yui had her husband's remains cremated.
"I saw your alternate universe self with Shinji," Misato once informed her. "She was different from what I had expected. It turns out that, despite coming from a well-off family, she had neglected her son, his alternate self, for much of his life, causing him to seek out love elsewhere, eventually finding it in an alternate of Asuka who had red eyes and was ostracized by some people because of them, and they ended up being lovers. His devotion to her was to the point where he killed himself to keep from killing her…and his ghost lingered for a time until he came back and met with our universe's Shinji. I'm not sure how their relationship made any sense, but when your husband killed him, they came back with their souls fused as one. It was hard to see him as the same person when he had just gone through the most extreme experience in his life…and couldn't go back to the idea of living a simple life here. How do you live with yourself, knowing that your absence…or intentions…are what cause a person you know or love to go away? How do you live with yourself? How do you sleep at night?"
Sighing, Yui looks over at the only picture she had of her son, which was his last school picture, before he transferred to Tokyo-3. It was the only photo of him when he was…just a regular youth. Nothing out of the ordinary, but a social outcast because he lacked friends or even a potential love interest at that time. She blamed herself and Gendo for that fault in his life.
"Shinji's not dead," said Asuka to her upon meeting her. "Not anymore, at least, but he's gone…and none of us will ever know if he ever intends to come back…unless it's just to get a glimpse of him to know that he's still alive and happy. As much as I disliked him for personal reasons, I couldn't bring myself to want him dead. Just the mere fact that his father, your husband, killed him once, just once, was enough to disgust me. It was more disgusting than the fact that he was with an alternate of myself that actually loves him for him…or an alternate of Ayanami who was just as in love with his alternate, but never made a move because he was with mine. But yes, the mere fact of killing him disgusted me. For harsh people, that is the harshest of choices for the most undeserving of people that simply state what cannot and will not be. And for the record, with the knowledge that alternate universes actually exist, and that there are some where the worst of outcomes were the most horrible because there were those of us that suffered more than others because of the Evas…and most likely are still suffering…and we can't change that, even if we wanted to. We can't save those people that have suffered."
And there's a version of Shinji that is still suffering, Yui thought as she imagines the alternate of her son that she saw once in a nightmare, his hair prematurely white and his face withered with wrinkles, the sense of rage and loss in his eyes that longed for the end he was after. All he has ever known is pain and loss.
And she had to live with that fact of life for the rest of her life. She had to live with the knowledge that her family was gone, that her son was out of her reach, and that, in some other lifetimes that stretched across the oceans of multiple existences, there was another version of Shinji…who was in constant pain, trapped in an inescapable agony of regrets and longing, knowing that it was her fault. She would be among the handful of people that lived in the world…but wouldn't know peace within it. Because of the suffering she helped to cause, there would be no peace until the very end…which was a long time away from her.
I am sorry, Shinji, she thinks as she gets up from her desk and leaves her lab.
-x-
"…Still can't believe you got married," Asuka states her disbelief at the fact that Kensuke had settled down with a girl that liked him.
"What about you?" Hikari asks her as they were walking down the street. "Have you met anyone that fancies you?"
"In ten years, I haven't even met anyone to date with."
"It's not easy to find someone who has gone through what anyone else has gone through and be able to talk about shared experiences," Toji expresses.
"And you can't just make something up," adds Rei. "There's no point to any relationship without honesty between people."
"In the beginning, there was no future promised to people because of the Angels," Asuka states, "but now…all we have is time."
"Well, I'm glad that your friend was able to put an end to the craziness that was happening ten years ago," Mayumi declares. "My father and I were struggling to find stability in Osaka-2 when all that excess water that flooded the coastlines went away as the Antarctic ice caps were being restored. The fact that there was a lot of land to reclaim meant that there were a lot of people in need of employment, wanting to rebuild the original Osaka based on salvaged building blueprints that were stored on disks and external drives. Despite it being only a decade since the restoration projects began, everyone everywhere has really gotten a lot done."
This was true; because the majority of Japan's people, like the majority of people from other countries across the globe, had put aside their differences for the sake of rebuilding their maimed world, had gotten much accomplished that they wouldn't have been able to achieve otherwise. Places like Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, towns and cities in Israel, Australia, the United Kingdom, all had people rebuilding their homes and lives from before the catastrophe that ruined them. But none of them could afford to forget that they had a young man that left after obtaining a great power to do what was believed by many to be possible only by the gods themselves to thank for their truest of renewals. A man they had never met a day in their lives…and would never get to meet for the rest of their lives…because the life he longed for was one he couldn't have anywhere here.
"Hey," went Kaji to them, pointing across the street at something.
They all looked where he was pointing, seeing someone who was clearly looking at them. It was a young man, in his twenties, messy, ebony hair and blue eyes, dressed in casual slacks with a white shirt, smiling at them.
It's nice to see that life here is doing better, they heard a voice that sounded like Shinji's, only older and sounding as though they were living in a stable life.
Asuka was about to go over to where he stood when a woman walked by…and then he vanished from sight.
"What?" She questions. "We all saw him, right?"
"Yeah," Hikari answers. "That was a glimpse of him. He looked like he was doing well where he is now. It's not wrong to want him to be happy where he is…is it?"
"No," went Misato. "It's never wrong to want anyone to be happy where they are."
-x-
"…Shinji…Shinji…Shinji, wake up now," Shinji hears a voice saying to him as he stirs from slumber, opening his eyes.
His vision was foggy, but as it cleared up, he saw a young woman with long, red hair and beautiful red eyes, smiling at him.
"Rise and shine, Shinji," she tells him as she kisses him on his forehead. "Everyone else is here for brunch. Hurry up and come down."
Shinji rises up and looks over at the door, seeing Asuka in an orange and white dress, sporting a small bump on her abdomen as she closes the door.
Has it really been only ten years since that day? Shinji wonders as he stands up and goes to the bathroom. What a wonderful life we have.
Looking at his reflection in the mirror, the only thing that remained constant about Shinji were his interlocked irises that only his closest friends and loved ones could notice; that was the only physical indication that he was the result of two souls fusing together into one after obtaining the hagoromo that once belonged to Frenzia Ikari. While he could've done something to undo this minor change, he chose not to, as he was a completely different person upon dying and reviving with the power to take control of his life and help others more than he initially thought possible. Washing his face and changing into his casual wear for the day, he went downstairs to the back of the house where everyone was waiting. And what a sight his eyes were seeing as he smells the aroma of coffee.
"Good morning, Shinji," he hears his mother say to him as she walks by on the porch. "Or should I say 'noon' now? Rei suggested that you sleep a little longer."
"Thank you, Rei," he expresses, yawning as he still felt the lingering degree of sleep in him.
"We almost started without you," went Anzu, wearing a black and white yukata; she barely looked as though she had only aged by a year, sporting two wrinkles under her eyes.
Sitting at a large table were Rei, Aya, Toya, Aki, Yuuhi, Chidori, Anzu and Misato.
Chidori, in the ten years since the defeat of Gendo and the fall of Makage International, had grown taller and ceased using her celestial power to change into her other self. She was about the height of an average woman usually is in her generation.
Aya, now that her life was her own and no longer in fear of being pursued by anyone for any reason, had found the time to settle down with Toya and build a life together with him.
Misato, recently married two years ago, almost resembled her alternate from Shinji's original dimension, albeit with longer hair and a personality fitting of someone that was sober or didn't consume as much alcohol as her alternate had prior to meeting him. She frequently visited the Ikari house since she and her grandmother moved to Magatama Town.
What still surprised Shinji about the women in his life was the recent discovery just a few months back. Unless you were looking directly at them, Asuka, Rei, Aya, Chidori and Misato were all sporting small bumps; all five of them had gotten pregnant almost four months ago.
Even though it isn't strange or anything, Shinji thought as he sat beside Rei at the table, it's still a mystery to me.
"Coffee?" Rei asks, holding up a cup in front of him.
"Yes, please," he answers.
"I swear, Shinji," went Misato, "you're the easiest one to read out of everyone I know."
"Huh?" Asuka responds as she sets down a platter with oatmeal cookies. "What do you mean, Shinji's the easiest to read out of everyone you know, Misato?"
"Just a moment ago, he was thinking about all five of us."
"You care to elaborate?" Anzu wishes to comprehend.
"Alright, I'll elaborate. Is it not even slightly odd that Rei, Asuka, Aya, Chidori and I became pregnant at around the same time?"
"I can only say what I never thought I would ever really say," went Yui as she pours a cup of orange juice, "and that's that life is just mysterious as it is amazing. You never know what's going to happen…and even if you do know, why bother to question it?"
"I think I know what you mean," Yuuhi says in response. "If there is an answer to the 'why', it's probably that we all found the time to settle down and becoming comfortable in the stability of where we all are."
"That's true," says Aya, "and who wouldn't find stability in this town? It's peaceful. It's one of those quiet places where you can raise a family."
"True that," Anzu states. "One of the best places in the country."
"I wouldn't say at the same time, though," went Rei. "I didn't feel the need to throw up until a week after Asuka started, and that was only after I drank my protein beverages until my stomach settled down."
"Speaking of which," Toya responded, "how are you feeling now that you can eat without that AGS condition bothering you?"
"Good. My praise to Kagami and Alec for the time spent in researching new cures and treatments to conditions that afflict people."
In the last ten years since their respective involuntary involvements with Mikage International's C-Genome division, Kagami and Alec, once they had served their time and repaid their debts to society, had turned a new leaf and spent time in research and development of medical technology and alternative energy sources. For a long time, Rei Ayanami had been a victim of a meat allergy that prohibited her from consuming meat products, limiting her diet to anything except meat; she could still consume dairy items to a degree. After it was brought to her mother's attention that a recent treatment was developed that may help get rid of her daughter's condition for a while, Mine informed Rei, and they learned who was behind the recent discovery. It was basically an annual vaccination followed by two days of letting the vaccine run its course along Rei's immune system…and then the bluenette girl could enjoy eating meat that she couldn't have enjoyed otherwise for a year until she needed another shot.
"How long do you suppose it will be before there's a cure to AGS?" Yuuhi asks.
"It's only a matter of time before a cure is found," Chidori states. "I mean, they developed the cure to cancer and diabetes over the last four years. Medical science is doing better than those political science parties. Say, Shinji, didn't you and Asuka take an interest in that culinary thing that involves science a little?"
"Molecular gastronomy," Shinji and Asuka corrected her.
"Yeah, that."
"I practically dared myself to take the course," Shinji confesses. "Have you ever tried to turn food into molecule shapes or make them look like something they're not normally viewed as? It's like a video game being played in the kitchen, except the kitchen is a science laboratory."
"Uh, guys?" Aya utters, sounding spooked by something away from them. "Raijū's looking at us again. I don't like it."
Shinji turns to where Aya is pointing…and sitting away from their table…was a large Hokkaido that resembled more of a wolf than an actual dog known all around the country…and by "large", it was the size of an actual wolf. It had just shown up in town six years ago, sporting several injuries across the body; there had been reports of an underground fight club that used dogs, and Raijū had likely been one of the dogs from an illegal match that saw an opportunity to escape when it presented itself. In a sense, he was basically a rescue dog still scarred by abuse and was simply adjusting to a life outside of violence, but still gave them the stink eye from time to time, indicating that he was bothered by something relating to his past.
"Did you try scratching his head?" Yui asks Aya as she sets a dog bowl on the ground in front of herself. "Raijū gets irritable when nobody he trusts does so."
Raijū slowly comes over and sits down in front of Aya, growling softly.
"Uhh…please, don't bite me," she says as she raises her left hand up to his head, softly scratching him behind his ears.
His growling turns to purring as his tail starts wagging.
"I guess that's what he needed," Anzu states. "He's not as hardened as he once was."
-x-
"I'm surprised to see you still come here, Ikari," Yui was greeted by an older Fuyutsuki in the cemetery. "How do you do?"
"As fine as can be," she tells him as she sets a single white rose beside her husband's gravestone. "Yourself?"
"The same. Metaphysical biology is gaining interest these days, but for some reason, not as much as these classes where people talk about films or alternate energy research."
"Tell me, do you ever…see him?"
"You mean, Shinji?"
"Yes."
"I only saw him once, and that was in a dream."
"How was he?"
"He was…happy."
"Happy?"
"Well, he was enjoying the life of a school student before graduating. He chose the route of a chef. Can you believe that? Who chooses the path of a chef when they could be something else entirely after all that they have done with their lives?"
It was another reminder that Shinji, despite being hers and Gendo's son, was not like them or any that chose the way of the scientist when Yui thought about his choice. And with god-like power in his possession, Shinji could have done anything he wanted, for as long as he wanted, but he chose a life of normality among the people that had simple ambitions. Rather than be a deity living among insects or a man that transcended into divinity, Shinji was simply a man that obtained power…and chose mortality, simplicity…and normality…over a life of being all-seeing, all-knowing, all-everything that people believe the gods to be capable of.
"Someone that only wants a happy life," she tells Fuyutsuki.
"One other thing I saw in the dream," he adds in, "was that he was with the alternates of Rei and Asuka. I didn't see much, but it was likely that the three were involved with one another. Or the four of them, since Shinji has two souls inhabiting the same body."
"Spiritual fusion," Yui states. "Two souls from two different lifetimes merging into one, forming a new soul that has the combined attributes of the two previous souls. One could argue that it is similar to what the Human Instrumentality Project would've done for all of humanity, but the only difference between the two is that the union of their souls was both voluntary and both were dead at the time before returning to life. So…the involvement is between three people."
"They were just asleep by a large tree in the afternoon. They weren't doing anything."
Even so, it left the possibility of there being something more to interpretation from a distance. And all Yui knew from those that saw Shinji's life in another dimension was that he was with Rei and Asuka's counterparts…and both girls had eyes for him. Even after ten years, it was doubtful that they had gone their separate ways. Rising up in front of the grave, Yui smiles a small smile and feels the need to question just one other thing that she has to speak of.
"Do you ever wonder what might've been…had Shinji stayed?" She asks Fuyutsuki.
"Sometimes," he responds, "but each time I try to envision a scenario in which he's convinced to stay, it only turns out bad for him. If it's not people in the military trying to turn him into a living weapon, it's people from the scientific community trying to take away his right to live his life on his own terms…just because they think they can try to repeat the reactions that led to him becoming the person that he is. Every time he tries to get away and hide, the people looking for him find him, and it starts all over again. Every time he tries to resist and assert his right to refuse them, people threaten him. It's like, he was right about what would happen if he stayed; he'd be unable to live…and it'd be our fault for making it impossible for him to live on his terms. That wouldn't be a life worth living at all."
Yui accepts his explanation; there would've been no way for Shinji to have a life of his own if he had stayed, divine powers or not, great hero or not.
"I just miss him," she says. "I messed up, leaving him and Gendo alone. I just wanted to ensure a brighter future for all of mankind."
"At the time, I believed you and supported your intentions, but did you really think it through before that day?"
Even if Yui hadn't been threatened during that time over twenty years ago, she still would've made the same choice, the same mistake, time and time again, simply because she felt she had to, and that drove a wedge between her and Shinji.
"Everything happens as it must," she says…and only now realizes how much such choice of words spoke volumes of a different sort to people that hear them. How I must've sounded to him when I said them.
-x-
Some people were die hard fans of the original film that became one of the best of the ages, not just the world of cinema, but for Shinji, Asuka and Rei, the film that was said to be a secondary adaptation of the graphic comic book created by the man trying to come to terms with the premature death of his wife due to a automobile accident…wasn't even bad. It was among the best films they had seen since the ending of the summer and the start of fall.
"…And that's enough," they hear the fallen hero say what he's thinking as he walks down the path of the desolate environment he was left to wander through as the crows above him fly around. "Almost enough."
"People can say what they want about it," Shinji and Asuka hear Rei say as the credits begin to roll, "but I like how this film shows the hero's willingness to endure the separation from his lover until the day their souls reunite."
"People call it a remake," Asuka expresses, "but it's really just a second version of the same story. And you get information that you didn't get much of from the first film's plot. I think the introduction of the mysterious man in the place was a great part of this film. You get guidance, information on what must be done, and you get the power needed to set right to the wrongs committed, removing the sadness carried with their passing from the life they were taken from and into the next world that is in between past and future."
"In the end," went Shinji to them, "it really proves that true love is eternal; it will never falter."
"Shinji," Asuka feels the need to remind him of something, "our children will not be raised on The Crow franchise."
Rei chuckles as she looks at them, then smiles as she feels the kick from the baby she was carrying, placing her left hand on her swollen abdomen.
"I'm guessing you liked the film, as well?" She asks it and receives another kick in response. "Heh-heh."
Shinji and Asuka turn to face Rei and can't help but smile.
"Say, Shinji," Asuka utters, "criticism time. What would you have done differently in the film?"
"Me?" Shinji questions. "I would've let them stay together and walk away into the next world whilst holding hands. But the ending they went with is okay, too. What would you have changed, Asuka? Rei?"
Asuka rubs her swollen belly and says, "I would've added rainy scenes. Not to make it like the first film, but because it felt like there needed to be at least one when the hero was doubting his love for the girl prior to returning to the other world. But then the sun comes out, and he's no longer doubting anything, including his love for her."
"I can't think of anything I'd change about the film's plot or characters," Rei expresses, "except perhaps how the pair meet. They could've met on the streets, in a school, at a supermarket or a bar. I would've had them meet up at an eatery and they connect over a meal."
"Eh-heh-heh," Shinji chuckles. "That's not a bad way to meet at all."
Rei then yawns and turns in for the night in her futon.
"Goodnight, you two," she tells them, and Shinji turns off the television.
"Goodnight," Shinji responds as he and Asuka climb into their futons. "I love you both."
"We love you, too, Shinji," they reply before they close their eyes.
-x-
It was a strange place to be in, and Yui had dreamed of stranger places before. Either a wood or forest, shrouded in mist, the branches adorned with lanterns like the kind you would see during festivals, marking a path one could take, Yui wonders what this place and what it represents to those that find themselves residing in it.
"Is this Hell?" She utters as she stands on the path.
"Not even close," she hears a male voice that sounds like Shinji's, only detached from humanity, coming from behind her.
She turns to see who it is, and recoils at the sight of them. She often had nightmares of this young man, but it was mostly because of how he behaves with other people. This pale-skinned youth resembled Shinji in nearly every way, but dressed in traditional clothing, a hakama, predominantly black, with a bandolier of shotgun shells on and a scabbard for a shotgun on his back, holding a Kama in his right hand. She often had dreams of this person dismembering his victims into pieces, if not doing something worse to them.
"You're not dead," he tells her. "When people dream, they're able to glimpse mildly between the land of the dead and the realm of the possible and impossible."
"Who…are you?" She asks him. "You look like my son…but you're so…off."
"Those that can't understand the possible and impossible include alternate realities, alternate lifetimes, alternate fates that can either be dealt or avoided, are those that can't grasp what it means to know that there is a mirror in front of them, reflecting their image, fractured by a force beyond their imagination, showing different possibilities, alternate ways that they could've lived…or are living. I'm merely a version of your son that died at the age of fourteen…after getting revenge against his father for walking away from him when he was barely a baby that barely knew coherent words and didn't understand the hatred of the world. You were informed of the whole concept of there being more than one reality, more than plane of existence, each one their own unique setting, with people living lives that are as diverse as the lives lived by people from other dimensions. But what brings you to this plane in a dream? What motivated you to come here?"
"My son's absence."
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Ten years ago…we had a falling out…and he left after a dispute with his father."
"A dispute…or a conflict? Most conflicts occur when one relative harms another, either physically or emotionally…and some are aware that the father crossed the line and harmed his son to the point of killing him, even though it was only temporarily."
Yui looks at him like he knows more than he says, and he simply shrugs her suspicion off.
"Not everyone is clueless about your shattered family's circumstances," he tells her. "One way or another, we find out when we find out, and your husband murdered your son because he wouldn't give him what would not be his, no matter what he did, and Shinji obtained the power of a deity and relocated to the reality he was displaced in after mending the reality that he originally resided in. As painful as it was to some people to watch him leave them behind, it wasn't so much an easy choice, but far from an original decision. Every other alternate dimension has someone forced to make a choice to either return to their original world or leave it behind for the sake of others. This Shinji isn't the first to leave people behind, and I doubt he'll be the last."
"There have been others?" Yui asks him.
"Quite a few. But in the end, the choice to leave was the lesser of two evils; if they stayed, they'd never have happy lives because there would always be some people that would never give them peace of mind. But isn't that something you made a conscious decision to do every so often, Mrs. Ikari? You have abandoned your son in many lifetimes, and there's only a handful of of them where you regret your decision and return to him to make up for your mistakes. It turns out that the alternates of you that wise up only do so when you realize that your son is in pain and that nothing anyone ever considers doing actually helps him to get over what the source of his suffering is, which is often the trauma you and his father inflicted upon him. There are rarities in the multitude of existences where alternates of your son end up with alternates of yourselves that have lost their own son and form new social structures that make up for the losses they have experienced. In fact, I recently glimpsed a universe where an alternate of yourself lost her family in two years' time and later became involved in the predicament of another version of your son who has a daughter, and they were stranded in a universe where Second Impact, SEELE, NERV, even the Evangelions don't exist, and where Tokyo was the victim of a great earthquake caused by a living weapon that only women can possess…and where some people too smart for their own good studied the weapon and mass produced synthetic versions for their own purposes, one of which ended up taking hold of the young man, further complicating his life that is already complicated enough as is."
"In what way?"
"That would be telling."
"But is he…at least happy where he is? Is he coping with everything around him?"
"He is…adjusted. How can one truly know for sure if someone else is happy if they themselves don't have the answer to the question?"
That was a truth Yui couldn't deny; if nobody could say for themselves if they were happy or not, then others couldn't know for sure, either.
"But I can say this is true: In nearly every alternate scenario, if he is presented with something that is different from the Evangelion in every sense of the word, and the opportunity to escape from piloting it presents itself to him, and it doesn't matter if the opportunity comes in the form of a talisman of power, an accident of providence, temporal or universal displacement, even just another person that nobody wanted him to meet that actually likes him enough to want him to be happy, he would accept it all in a heartbeat…and when he realizes it's right there for him, waiting for him to take it, he makes the choice to deviate from his past and reshape his present and future, sometimes managing to reshape the present and future of others around him. Some would give anything to obtain whatever it is that they want, even at the cost of other people's lives, but Shinji… He would give up what was forced upon him to have a better life, regardless of what others believe."
Suddenly, the terrain shifted, changing from a misty wood with lanterns to a beach in the cold morning of winter.
"Now, this is impressive here," he tells Yui, raising his arms up and out. "Winter at a beach. Don't you think this is amazing here?"
"Not really," Yui answers him.
"Oh, the change of seasons is a beauty that people really should appreciate. To have only one season be the only season you know, it becomes rigid and stale after awhile."
Yui then sees someone in the distance behind him on the beach, chasing after someone smaller that was running across the snow-covered sand.
"Maybe a new universe was created in the fractured mirror that your son looks through," the alternate suggests. "A new universe, a new life, a new scenario in which he doesn't exist to pilot a monster begotten by mankind's ingenuity and arrogance."
-x-
It was the middle of the winter season now, and most of Magatama Town's population was indoors to keep away from the snow and cold for as much as possible. Well, except for a handful of individuals currently at the hospital, supporting one of their own going through a life-changing ordeal at the moment.
Chidori, just three hours ago in the afternoon, had gone into labor and was rushed to the hospital. Everyone else came by to support her and Yuuhi, despite the cold.
"Hot chocolate, anyone?" Shinji asks, holding a large tray with several cups of the hot beverage.
"Need!" Misato utters as she rushes over to him as fast as her waddling legs can take her, carefully taking one of the cups off the tray and downing the hot beverage like a thirsty girl. "Thank you, Shinji!"
"Eh-heh," Shinji chuckles, wondering how this woman could drink a large paper cup of hot chocolate with vanilla whipped cream in less than three seconds.
"I'm starting to wonder if Misato here is eating for three," went Yui, causing the purple-haired woman to turn and face her.
"Nope," she responds. "One will be enough for me. Twins? That would be my nightmare. Until this one is older, that is."
"Eh-heh-heh," chuckles Anzu as she steps over to Shinji and picks up two cups of hot chocolate. "You're in a cheerful mood."
She gives the cup in her left hand to Yui and sits back down as Toya goes over and picks up one for himself and another for Aya.
Shinji goes over to Asuka and Rei, who both accept a cup of the hot beverage.
"Where's Raijū?" Aki asks Shinji, who immediately sighs.
"Would you believe that he's waiting outside the delivery room with Yuuhi?" He asks him.
"Huh?" The twins both react.
"Yeah, went right over and sat beside Yuuhi," he explains as he sets the tray down and offers Aki a cup. "Q-Chan thought it was better than someone lighting a cigar."
"Cigars have been done since my childhood," Anzu expresses with a degree of disinterest. "Please, no cigars."
"Nobody in here smokes," Misato reminds her; she tried it once after the Ceres situation was over and done with, even vaping, and didn't like it at all, preferring the self-indulgence of a tasty beverage over a cancer stick or an electronic device meant to simulate a cancer stick.
Soon after, the large dog came running into the room they were in, followed by Yuuhi, with a smile on his face.
"Well," went Asuka to him, "boy or girl?"
Rather than answer, Yuuhi raised up his right hand and stuck out his index and middle fingers.
"Twins?" Aya and Aki gasp.
"Woof!" Raijū barks.
"Congratulations," Shinji praises Yuuhi.
"Thank you," he replies.
To be continued…
A/N: I think the next chapter will be the last one for this story. One of the best parts of this chapter was giving Chidori and Yuuhi a family of their own and the introduction of the stray dog they all keep around. Tell me what you think of this chapter and what you liked about it.