Merry Christmas, my little droogies.

I was originally gonna wait a week after uploading the prologue and first chapter (which, wow a lot of people have seen, I love you guys) but I really couldn't help myself, especially since I want to get to the juicy stuff as soon as possible. I figured that since this is essentially the second half of the introductory two-parter, that it'd be okay. I might try and set up a weekly upload schedule after that, like one of those professionals, but if I can make significant parts of the story without burning out I might just upload new chapters when they're done for a while, since at that point there wouldn't be a need to tide people over. We'll see.

On that note, this should also be the last chapter that feels word-for-word Evangelion-y. Obviously my goal is to keep things feeling like Evangelion, but over the next couple chapters I should be able to wiggle more and more until I get to the full on juicy crossover stuff.

I hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 2 - The Angel and Oni incident

Shinji remembered being in a world of pain, and then… nothing else. Had he died? Was he dead now? Had he been dead since the moment he got that letter from his father? It made more sense than anything he could remember… Shrine maidens, giant Oni, his father, Junko…

He didn't want to open his eyes, lest he be facing the Yama or… who even knew, whatever stupid mythical thing was next. But, he also just couldn't handle the waiting, the pressure in his eyes from some bright light just outside of his eyelids, the dull… cicadas?

He shot awake with a start, almost as if he had been locked in a nightmare, only to have to squint his eyes at the glare around him. Bright, almost pure white light poured into the room, but Shinji didn't have the will to physically get up. He merely looked up at the ceiling.

"...An unfamiliar ceiling."

"Yeah, you never get used to it."

"Gah!" Shinji shot up at the voice, he hadn't even noticed that anyone was in there! As his eyes focused, he saw a familiar girl, cloaked in red and then overcloaked with white bandages.

"Hakurei…"

Reimu nodded shallowly, almost unconciously, but her expression was at complete odds with the action. "You shouldn't have gotten in the Oni. It's a miracle that you're even alive."

"I… just wanted to help."

"This stuff isn't for normal humans, you can't even fight youkai. It's good that you're okay, but you should've ran while you could have. Now you're all caught up in this mess that I can handle alone."

"Hakurei… what happened to you?"

The annoyed expression slid from Reimu's face. "It… was an accident, and one that I'm used to. Incidents can be tough, sometimes, but I'm always okay." Then, she stepped forward, practically looming over Shinji as her expression hardened again. "You aren't like me. If the same thing that happened to me happened to you, you'd have died. Do not take risks, and do not try and protect me."

Reimu went to walk, really limp out of the room, as Shinji still tried to remember what had happened. When she had reached the doorway, despite himself, Shinji managed to build up the courage to stop her. "Wait!"
Reimu stopped, wordlessly, and turned back to him.

"I don't remember what happened... did I really almost die?"

She sighed, but not like she was annoyed. It was the kind of breath that came with steeling yourself. "Yes. You got in the Oni and had no idea what you were doing. It's really a miracle that you're alive at all."

Shinji shrunk, and didn't deny what Reimu was saying. He couldn't remember much, still, but he could remember the pain. The pain of 'his' arm being broken. The pain of 'his' skull being blasted open, and the pain of 'his' body rotting and withering away as it was purified to nothing. Memories not of events, but of pure pain, were all his mind could offer in the moment. "How am I not dead?"

She shook her head. "No idea. You just got up, started screaming, and flew at it. You tore through its AT field and then started wailing on it… it's not like those things can really stand up to the 'impurity' of a fistfight, after all. I just wonder why it took you so long, I thought we'd have to bury you."

"I… still can't remember most of what happened, but thank you."

"Whatever. Glad you're okay." With that, Reimu left through the door. Shinji flopped down to his bed, obviously still wondering what the hell he'd signed up for. He didn't know what to make of Reimu, either. Maybe she was just annoyed that he's gotten in her way. He'd only wanted to help…

o0o

"You've done well, Ikari." That must have hurt to say. Gendo struggled not to smirk in response.

The speaker was one of the Human Instrumentality Committee: the public-facing wing of SEELE, and therefore the part that got to deal with TOUHOU. Five of the most powerful men in the world, six if you counted Gendo, were sat in this virtual conference. What kind of good could they do humanity if they so deigned?

It didn't matter. What they were doing now was a lot closer to a performance review. One being done by a group of bitter, catty old men who wanted eachother, and the man in front of them, dead.

"It's fortunate that our investments didn't go to waste, even considering our… professional disagreement with how you have chosen to run your organization." The men of the committee had a habit of blending together to Gendo. He couldn't really care less about which one of them was speaking. Nonetheless, another one responded to the first.

"Oh, you can't be so sure about that. Our investments into his culture club could still all be for naught, and we have no way to know." The speaker shot a look at Gendo as he said that. "One dead angel doesn't make up for a decade of straying this far from the scenario. You still have a lot of trust to build back up." 'Trust to build'. Was this a report of events or a hard discussion with your spouse? He truly struggled not to laugh out loud at that, not that he would ever let it reach his face.

A third continued the thought of the indistinct blob of men in front of him. "Especially now that TOUHOU's anti-angel measures are common knowledge. You must control the information about them in a speedy and prudent manner."

"It has already been taken care of."

"Well, we acknowledge that. However, Ikari…"

"However, you've heavily damaged Oni-01, who's costs will be added upon the already monumental repair costs of the other Oni that you've broken!"

"Mmm, yes. When you started prancing around with that strange woman, we had no comments. When you allowed her to have your ear and convince you to make that little Shrine Maiden your pilot, we were silent. When you managed to sour relations with your underlings bad enough to cause a split, the Committee paid for the damages. Now, you've given your second Oni to your son. Surely, you must acknowledge that our patience has a limit."

"Manpower, time, money, and sense. Your priorities seem to be on consuming as much of all four as possible. Have you even given a single thought to how badly all these alterations shake the scenario, no, Human Instrumentality as a goal?"

"I have no greater priority, gentlemen. I assure you all that my choices in who to employ have been in the name of Instrumentality's completion, nothing else. When the situation is this dire, I am only leaving nothing off the table. If it works, I will use it."

Keel Lorenz was the next to speak. The man was important in the way that none of the rest of the committee were in Gendo's eyes; important enough to remember him as an individual. A man you remembered by name, in a world of so many who wanted to think their names were important. "Ikari, we cannot excuse any delays in the scenario's execution. We have allowed your past eccentricities specifically because they have not produced delays, and we expect you to keep things that way. Since you have preformed better than expected, we will be more lenient with the budget, but time is the one resource you cannot spare. There is no turning back now."

With that, they vanished. Well, the three members who blended together, and Keel, vanished. One member of the Instrumentality Committee remained. Kozo Fuyutsuki.

"Would you like something, professor?"

"Gendo, is any of this what Yui would have wanted?" His old teacher's expression was completely unreadable.

"I have reason to believe this is exactly what she wanted. She would be happy to see me doing what needs to be done."

Fuyutsuki stared for a second more, before turning the call off, flickering out alongside the rest of the council. Gendo was now sat alone, at an empty conference table. Around the back of the room, bathed in shadow and invisible to any potential viewers who may be limited by the view offered by the holographic conference, was Junko. She didn't say a word as Gendo got up, but did start walking in step with him as he left.

o0o

"Ugh, what a morning!"

And what a morning it was. Forced into construction jumpsuits and bounced between construction sites, or rather repair sites, the whole day, Misato's only reprieve from the constant stream of destroyed buildings, spending the whole day working with Reisen, and the sweltering heat of Japan's eternal summer, was the AC unit Misato was currently clinging to. Even if no AC unit could match the perfect conditions of her house, she still savoured every lick of the truck's heavenly cooling-

"Captain Katsuragi!"

"Eh- what?" How long had Reisen been calling her name? "What's up, Reisen?"

"When we're at work it's Head Alchemist Inaba. This counts as work!"

"Jeez, okay! What do you want, 'Head Alchemist Inaba'?"

Reisen pointed at the phone that had been in her hand, that Misato hadn't even noticed her holding. "The third child has regained consciousness."

"Ah… how is he?"

"His memory is patchy, but he is physically fit for combat. No damage seems to be permanent, not even any mental damage."

"Warm and fluffy as always, Reisen." Misato sat back in her seat. She wasn't exactly meeting Reisen's eyes anyways, anyway, so not like there was a point in facing her. To her surprise, Reisen made some kind of noise at that, although it might've just been her letting out a puff of air.

"My job depends on him being okay, but you're the one who's actually responsible for making sure he remains that way."

"You could still stand to care about the heart a little more."

"I try not to worry about things that I don't have an effect. At least, I try not to while at work."

And that summed up every conversation Misato had with Reisen. She wasn't the worst coworker, Misato assumed you could do a lot worse than someone who only cared about the job, but with the increased frequency she'd been paired up with the rabbit woman, it had been pretty clear that Reisen got to work and just sort of flicked a switch. She probably had some kind of normal life outside the job, and with an actual personality on top of that, but she always kept it under tight wraps on the job itself. And Misato could never pry any small talk out of the bunny, which sucked because this job could be drab at the best of times and traumatizing at the worst of them. It wasn't like Misato could talk to anyone outside TOUHOU about this stuff, was it? It was times like these, on the long and awkward truck rides between whatever part of the city they had to stop by, that Misato missed her old college friends. God, everything seemed to actually make sense back then.

With nobody to talk with, the rest of the day sort of just trudged along. It was one of those days that lasted forever when you were in the midst of them, ended, and then you couldn't remember a thing. The day was short, at least. Misato had to go pick Shinji up, after all, and Reisen could mostly handle things around here herself, which she probably wanted anyways.

To her disappointment, though, Shinji was barely more conversational than her coworker. She picked him up without a word, and despite her efforts the trip back to TOUHOU headquarters hadn't been any better.
And so, here the two of them stood, in front of one of TOUHOU's central elevators. Misato tried hard not to worry about the fact that Shinji kept looking at his arm with a thousand-yard stare.

Ding!

And then, the elevator opened. When Shinji noticed who was in the elevator, he turned away.

"Why, hello, Shinji. It's nice to see you walking so soon."

Shinji refused to make eye contact with Junko, but managed to mumble out a 'thanks'. Misato, knowing this was above her pay grade… actually, Shinji's mental health was exactly her pay grade, wasn't it? She sighed, and grabbed Shinji's hand. When the boy looked up at her, she nodded to him in affirmation, and then spoke.

"Shinji still isn't up to talking after what happened earlier. He should be physically and mentally okay, though!" She said it as, exaggeratedly cheerfully as possible, before the two stepped into the elevator, the doors closing behind them.

Junko attempted a warm, motherly smile. Attempted. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. I believe we tend to… push our children hard. We may have forgotten the fact that these are still children, especially with how capable Reimu has proven to be."

"Ah… right." Misato tried to ignore a couple things about Junko's little speech, case in point that she was one of TOUHOU's two commanders and therefore probably could have been helping a little more than she was. Words are cheap, though, aren't they?

If you couldn't tell, by the way, one of the cool talents that you learned on the job here was the ability to not say what you were thinking at almost all times. She had also gotten quite talented at the 'non-answer' when you were talking with Junko, since that was the only kind of answer with her that wouldn't get you in trouble with the woman.

Junko, apparently satisfied, leaned over slightly and tried to make eye contact with Shinji, ignoring the fact that Misato had subtly stood between them. "You'll be pleased to find out that we managed to get you an apartment of your very own… District F, apartment No. 6-24." Shinji didn't respond, but Misato caught the information and was surprised. In part, because that information was the whole reason they were taking this comically long elevator ride.

"What? He'll be living alone?"

"Oh, yes. Unfortunately, it's probably for the best that he lives apart from Gendo. It's natural for them to be apart, despite my best efforts." Another thing that Junko did that Misato had learned not to talk, or think about, was the casual terms she referred to Commander Ikari with. Junko, also a commander herself technically, always spoke eloquently, and yet Misato couldn't remember a single 'Commander Ikari' out of the woman's mouth as long as she'd been employed here. Nor could she even remember Junko referring to Ikari's surname. Misato was snapped out of thought when her commanding officer spoke again. "Will that apartment be satisfactory, Shinji?"

Shinji, being directly called upon, shrunk into himself. Misato didn't. "Hey, a kid can't live alone in District F! Why don't I take him in, huh?"

"Pardon me?"

"Well, I definitely have the room for him, and my house is a hell of a lot better than one of those underground apartments! I wouldn't mind at all, and it'd be good for him to actually live with someone, wouldn't it?"

"Now, Captain Katsuragi, do you truly believe that's a good idea?" Eugh, now Junko was looking directly at her. The woman's red eyes had a way of boring into you. "I only worry because, well, the last time you attempted something similar, it truly didn't go well, now did it?"

"That won't happen again, commander."

Junko hmm'd at that, before looking at Shinji again. Once again, looking through him was more accurate.
"Very well. I will trust the responsibility of the boy's well-being unto you, assuming that you are able to perform your job amicably. Please do your best to maintain this child's well being."

The obvious doubt in Junko's voice was, once again, something that Misato was well-versed in ignoring. After a short while longer, waiting in silence, the elevator dinged, and Junko stepped out to whatever hallway a commander would need to ride to herself in a public elevator. Misato pushed the ground floor button, since they didn't actually need to go find out where Shinji would be living now.
"Sorry about that, Shinji. You doin' okay?"

"I think so. I just don't like when Ms. Junko…" He trailed off. Poor kid.

"Don't worry about it, you shouldn't see her around that much. Anyways, looks like we'll have to go all out tonight, won't we?"

"…What for?"

The elevator dinged. "A welcoming party for my new roomie, of course!"

o0o

Apparently, 'going all out' required a stop by the convenient store, where Shinji tried his best to ignore all the weird looks Misato got for her shrine maiden uniform. Honestly, he'd been getting used to it.

He didn't find the looks that hard to ignore, though. For the entire day, since he'd woken up, he'd been barely present. The more memories of that night came back, the harder it was to think about anything else. As well-

The car started to slow down on an unremarkable stretch of the highway, suddenly enough that it jostled the groceries Shinji was holding, nearly making him drop a bag. "Why are we stopping?"

"I just wanna show you something along the way. Don't worry, it'll be quick!"

The two got out of the car. They were parked at a car park, overlooking the city, and it honestly didn't look like much. Aside from the single shinto shrine gripping the mountains along the edge and a loose ring of smaller high rises, the city looked like it was incomplete: a flat expanse of roads and empty plots for buildings, like a pure, flat sheet of metal or plastic.

"It's such a desolate city…"

"Not for long!"

A distant siren sounded, echoing across the empty sheet of a city. After what felt like yet another earthquake, giant, metal rectangles began to rise out of the plots of land around them. No, not rectangles. Buildings, the massive skyline of Tokyo-3, started to rise in front of them as if by magic. With the echoing click of the buildings' titanic locks, the flat plain had grown into the towering pure city Shinji had arrived at. The pure city.

"This city was made for intercepting angel attacks, Shinji. It's our city."
Misato tried not to make it too obvious how adorable she thought Shinji's expression was right now. He was in awe of the growing city in front of him, and for once he wasn't hiding his expression.
"And it's the city you just saved."

"I… saved…" He just stared over the city. His eyes were outright shining.

The two of them stayed at the car park for a bit, just staring out as the sun sunk under the massive, pristine city. As the world darkened around them, the reds painted across the sky slowly wearing out, Misato made to get back into the car, before Shinji spoke again.

"Misato, where's your house? You live in Tokyo-3, right?"

"Eh-heh… about that…"

o0o

Misato did not live in Tokyo-3. Misato, in fact, lived about an hour away from Tokyo-3, up in the mountains of the interior of Japan, in what really felt like it should've been the mansion of a samurai or something.
Well, it was an hour away… when you followed the speed limit. Misato had gotten them there in 20 minutes.

"Phew. Sorry, Shinji, I try not to take so long, it can be a bit of a trip."

Shinji stumbled out of the car, trying both not to spill the groceries he'd been holding and trying not to vomit.

"M… Miss Misato, do we- you have to do that drive every day?"

"Yeah, you get used to it. It's not as long when I'm driving, those signs with estimates always lie to you."
Those sign with estimates didn't lie to people who drive normal speeds… Shinji just swallowed, though. He didn't want to be rude to the woman who had just driven him.

"If you're worried about the commute, there's also a special line of the Tokyo-3 metro to get out here. There's a village nearby, and it usually only takes like 15 minutes to get between them."

"Tokyo-3- wait, they didn't just make that for you, did they?"

"Jeez, don't sound so incredulous! The line's existed for longer than I've even worked at TOUHOU, it's for 'emergency transport' or something."

Shinji was still a little suspicious, since there really wasn't a reason a line should go all the way to here from Tokyo-3, and it's be worse if that line existed specifically for Misato, only for her to not use it. However, he decided to drop it. What's done was done, and if he could take the line too it meant he wouldn't have to do that drive with Misato whenever they got up here.

Speaking of 'here'… "So, you live here?"

"Yep! Great location, huh?"

Quiet location, maybe. Even the nearby 'village' was nowhere to be seen, leaving them with just a house surrounded by forest in all directions. Shinji could imagine this place looking absolutely stunning during the fall, or during a flower viewing in the spring, from the pictures he'd seen. Unfortunately, with Japan's eternal summer, it was just a house surrounded by a normal, if vibrant, forest.

"So… you like having space, right?"

"It seems weird, huh? I'm a bit of a social butterfly, yeah, but I actually have a lot of friends out here! Plus, in Tokyo-3, everyone's so much more closed off, you always get the idea that everyone's just working there. Out here, though, people like to live!"

"I… see."

Misato realized that Shinji was sort of just standing around at the front door, waiting for permission to enter. Misato granted that, opening the door. "Your luggage should come soon, don't worry. Until then, feel free to come in!"

"Ah… pardon the intrusion."

Misato went to face the boy at that, in an attempt to ease his anxieties. "Shinji, this is your home now! It'll be nice to have another roommate, this place gets real quiet sometimes."

"Right." Shinji looked down in front of him, at the line that seperated the dirt of the yard from the wooden floors of the house. There was something that almost held him back from crossing it. The line was a doorway, sure, but it was almost a barrier between the world before and the world after he'd joined Misato's home.

Overcoming his nervousness, he stepped over the threshold. "I'm… home."

Misato beamed. "Welcome home."

With care, Shinji took off his shoes, gently putting down the bag of groceries on a side-table. Then, looking up, he noticed the exact state of the house he'd be living in from now on. Almost in response, Misato's voice drifted through the house. "Well, the place is a little messy, but don't mind it too much! There's plenty of room, after all!"

Misato wasn't wrong, the place had a lot of room. Shinji was sure there was pristine, beautiful manor lying under the messy frat house that he was walking into. Misato had apparently been using the living room as a party room, with its central table proudly displayed by being completely filled with with cans and what looked like sake bottles, most of which where at least partially filled and of which the majority weren't on coasters. There was a few calabashes, gourd bottles which certainly fit the theme of the place. It was honestly an impressive collection, a beautiful rainbow of alcohol bottles from both east and west. In the corner, a T.V. sat, obviously just as well-used as anything else in the room.

But the groceries needed to go to the kitchen, so Shinji held his tongue. The mansion was big, especially compared to what he was used to, but it wasn't mind-bogglingly so, and he managed to find the kitchen on the other side of a dining room, itself containing a high table to contrast the living room's low table, to the living room's left.

He wished he hadn't.

The kitchen was a different kind of mess than the living room, so at least Misato could keep her filth organized. There was only a conservative pyramid of cans on the dining table, paired with a couple day's food waste. In the kitchen itself, though, trash bags and food waste coated the floor. Misato had been living here for a while, and definitely not taking care of the place. At best, she might've done cleanings every couple months, and Shinji could almost imagine her going around cleaning like a shrine maiden, waving a broom back and forth like a gohei, but if she did clean then it'd been ages since then.

"Miss Misato?" Shinji had to yell it, since he didn't actually know where Misato might be in the house. "Where do you want the groceries?"

"In the fridge!" It sounded like it'd came from upstairs, although Shinji couldn't tell where the stairs might be. He'd have to explore this place later.

Shinji opened the fridge, and discovered two things. The first was that Misato's interesting lifestyle meant that the fridge was half taken up by a small town's supply of beer, with much of the rest of the fridge being appetisers for the beer.

The second discovery was that there was a little girl in Misato's fridge, not moving. Since that was the kind of thing that made you assume the worst, Shinji screamed, which prompted the girl to shoot awake, scream, and do something that resulted in Shinji's head getting frozen in a block of ice.

"And don't you forget it, weirdo! I'm the strongest, and you better stay away from my house!"

"Damn it, Cirno!" The soft pounding of bare feet on wooden floors, and Misato groaning, echoed through the house.

o0o

"Hey, you feelin' better? A warm meal should help fix you up, even if it's instant, right?"

Shinji nodded shallowly, which was apparently good enough for Misato, who took another celebratory chug of her beer. He was still distracted by, well, the obvious, and wasn't feeling very hungry.

"Hey! You aren't picky, are you?" In the second Shinji hadn't been looking at her, Misato had leaned over the table and gotten in his face.

"Ah- no, just…" How did he put it, especially to a drunk woman? You have an ice fairy in your house? I'm still pretty sure I'm having a fever dream?

He didn't have to explain fortunately; Misato's expression switched like a light. "This is nice, huh? Having dinner with someone?"

"I guess so…" Shinji looked down at his food, then at the other person sitting at the table. Not Misato, who'd taken the answer as yet another win, but the ice fairy who was eating the 'food' up with just as much gusto as Misato had been. "Miss Misato, why do you have an ice fairy living with you?"

"'Cuz I wanna live here! Baka Shinji can't stop me!" Shinji looked on as Cirno grabbed more instant ramen and started slurping it. Misato laughed at that.

"She makes th' place cold, what can I say? Do you wanna live here when it gets as hot as it does?"
"No! I was just wondering…"

"Ooooh, wonderin'! Okay, okay okay, story. So, with the summer ev'rywheres, Gensokyo got hotter, like too hot for winters."

"Gensokyo?"

Misato froze for a beat, and then slammed her head on the table. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that! That was s'possed to be a debrief…"

"Debrief? Is this something with TOUHOU?" Shinji turned to Cirno, who was still messily eating her ramen. "Does she work with TOUHOU?"

"No, no! It's hard to explain, it's… it's... gimme a minute…" Misato sat up straight and started rubbing her temples, but didn't actually elaborate. Shinji was left to just sit there, the silence only being filled by Cirno's slurping and clattering.

"Miss Misato?"

"Ah, Miss Misato, Miss Misato, Miss Misato, is that all you say? It's your house too, and you're a boy aren't you?"

"What does being a boy have to do with anything?"

"Be more assertive, jeez! You've been doing nothing but asking questions! Pull yourself together!" Misato started ruffling Shinji's hair. It didn't help.

"Miss… Misatoooo…"

She stopped, apparently in defeat. "Ahh, whatever. It might be nice to have a roommate I don't fight with all the time. Why don't you go take a bath? Even after that meal, you're still shivering!"

"Oh… am I?" Shinji hadn't noticed. He'd thought that it was cold in here, of course, but he assumed it was the fact that he was sat across the table from an ice fairy, which he still couldn't really get his head around. Anything to get out of the conversation, at least. Shinji thanked Misato for the meal that he'd barely eaten, and managed to find the bathroom without issue, leaving only Misato and Cirno. Cirno herself was lively in the moment, but between the summer heat and the excitement of the evening, the ice fairy started to nod off, and retreated back to her fridge before long, leaving Misato alone to nurse the beer that probably wouldn't be her last of the night.
"Maybe I was a little too obvious."

o0o

The bath was fine. Like everything else in Misato's strangely large house, the bathroom was on-theme: wooden walls, modern plumbing, a pretty large bathtub. Shinji could only wonder how Misato afforded this place, eventually resolving that it was so cheap because it was in the middle of nowhere.

Shinji just wished he could stop himself from thinking about that night. Bad thoughts always seemed to find him in the bathroom... it became too much after a while. Shinji, ensuring he was clean, got up without much fanfare and left the bathroom to his new room, trading the bathroom with Misato.

And yet, even in his room, he didn't feel much better. He lay in that room, now, drifting between focusing on Misato's distant murmur as she talked to a friend named 'Rits' on the phone, loosely listening to his SDAT as it rolled over, and focusing on nothing at all, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling above him. Drifting in and out…

BANG!

in… and out…

BANG!

in… and out… of that night.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

An arc of light and a world of pain consumed Shinji as the angel's piston-arm finally punctured through his skull. He was fighting for his life.

The worst part? This was all Shinji's fault. He'd agreed to pilot the Oni, but he couldn't! Of course he couldn't, it was insane to think otherwise. He'd gotten into the giant through some interface… thing… called an entry plug, which had almost drowned him right away as it was filled with some "refined LCL". He was then jettisoned through a metal elevator, shooting the Oni to the surface at what must've been above 15 G's and that surely could've killed him if he wasn't in a tank of breathable goo, only to find out the only way to make the Oni move was to will it to.

Yes. Shinji Ikari's life was now dependent on his willpower.

He'd fell over immediately. Rather, the Oni had. The thundering, pathetic thud of the titanic robot flopping over had alerted the white angel to his existence, and so, here he was, held up singlehandedly by the angel as a crimson-red piston routinely extended from the monster's wrist, just to slam into the Oni's skull. Something had to give, and just now, the skull had been that something. Shinji felt every second of it. The Oni's pain was his own.

When his- its skull finally burst open, Shinji felt that, too. It was like nothing he'd ever felt. It was like he was only pain, forever, like a billion firecrackers had been put in his brain and all detonated one after the other, it was almost too much pain to even remember you existed outside it. And then it was worse, god it got worse! The gnawing, the gnawing after. When the angel burst the skull, it started purifying its inside, and it felt like Shinji's skull was being outright devoured. It was like the feeling of being starved for a week, but in your brain instead of your stomach- the pure wrongness, a sense of total incompleteness gnawing at his insides. Shinji couldn't even pass out, he doubted his brain even knew he was alive. Through comms, some infinitesimally small part of his mind recognized that Misato and Reisen were screaming about something. Him, probably.

Indeed, in TOUHOU headquarters, they were screaming about him.

"WHAT'S THE STATUS OF THE PILOT?"

"Syncrograph reversing! The pulses are flowing backwards!" Maya Ibuki started doing something on her terminal that didn't affect things at all. Reisen rushed to her, the alchemist's calm expression having been completely blown away by the battle.

"Break the circuit! Administer elixir into the LCL immediately!"

"The signal is being refused! We can't!"

Reisen swore, and kept panickedly throwing up ideas that Maya immediately showed did nothing. Misato almost desperately grabbed Makoto Hyoga's- another lieutenant's- terminal, just to grab something in the basic, animalistic human desire to squeeze something in times of distress. She started barking orders, demands for Shinji's condition. It was all useless, though: They could very plainly see what was happening, as the Oni continued to falter under the angel's hand.

Finally, Misato had enough. "Abort the operation, the pilot's survival is top priority! Force eject the plug, try and get it as far away from the angel's radius as possible, we can't have him being purified too!"

Maya tried to do just that, only to be met by a red screen. "We can't! It's completely out of control!"

"WHAT?"

And then, they could only watch, as Shinji's world of pain ended. The Oni, bashed into a skyscraper so completely that it had almost blown through, started to clench its jaw even as its skull continued to be 'purified', turning ugly shades of grey and white like the sky above a hurricane. Then, its jaw broke open.

"Oni… has reactivated!"

"How? It shouldn't even be alive by now!"

This was impossible, wasn't it? And yet, the Oni reached out a hand, even as its skull was open and slowly being deleted from existence, and grabbed the stark, white arm of the angel. The arm started bubbling a black-green goop through its white skin, only for the Oni's arm to start bubbling a greyish-white answer. The two, purity and impurity, were tangling at the point of contact, and destroying the other. With its other hand, the Oni tried to punch the angel, only to be blocked by an octagonal force field.

"Even with reactivation, the Oni can't penetrate the angel's A.T. field!"

The Oni's fist pounded on the A.T. field again and again, but in vain as it writhed under the hands of the angel. Even its impossible second wind couldn't save the Oni, as the angel's piston raised for one more-

Isolation Sign - "Dilemma of the Hedgehog"

It was… inexplicable. Impossible. The Oni's hands started glowing, a deep hard glow which was impossible to look at. The point on the angel's arm where its purity had been fighting the Oni's own natural impurity to a standstill was overcome in an instant, to such a degree that the angel's arm melted off, bubbling away into the same black-green goo. The angel staggered away, raising its A.T. field anew, but then the Oni raised its hands up, and…

Well, calling impossible just felt redundant at this point. Out of the Oni's raised hands, a wave of massive, glowing spheres of energy started blasting out, impacting the angel's force field like a spray of machine-gun bullets. The field gave first, and once the spray reached the angel, who couldn't even try to dodge it, the titan was torn apart, almost melted. Wherever the energy balls hit, they exploded, and wherever they exploded, it was like acid was soaked into the angel, eating away at it. By the time the Oni had even pulled itself up to leap at its enemy, the fight was already finished. The angel might as well have never existed.

"Connection reestab-"

"SHINJI! ARE YOU OKAY? Get a squad to him immediately, pilot's life is top priority!"

The two voices shot through comms, but Shinji barely registered them. He was in shock, for very, very, obvious reasons. Still mentally attached to the Oni, the only action he could even will himself to take- there was no chance he could will the Oni to do anything at this point- was look to his side, peering through the Oni's screen out to its world, looking through its sightline to its faceless, scarred reflection on a skyscraper's mirror-like windows to his right. He stared at the hole where there should be an eye, half an ugly greyish flesh colour and half still white like it had been dunked in whitewash.

Then, without his notice, the Oni took a single, creaking step forward. As if crossing an invisible line, the second it did a series of strange, plate-like flakes shot out of the goopy remains of the angel and flew straight at the Oni's head. Only, once they reached the head, they didn't cause damage or even impact. No, with a tkk-tkkk-tkk, the flakes were immediately absorbed into Shinji's Oni, disappearing into it.

Shinji could only stare as the Oni's eye regrew in front of him, bursting out of the eye socket like a green egg being laid. And, when it widened, seemingly making direct eye contact with him, Shinji's memories ended. He must've passed out.

o0o

And so, Shinji lay. He had curled up in his new bed without realising it, but he couldn't bring himself to sprawl back out. He just found himself wishing he could fall asleep, so he could be taken away from the painful memories that he kept revisiting while awake. The room, the whole house, was all too quiet, and Shinji's brain was desperately begging for something, anything else to distract himself and focus on. And then, the paper door behind him slid open.

"Shinji." Misato's voice was even, a far cry from how mirthful she'd been at dinner. "I forgot to say something." Shinji didn't move. "I know all this… everything, must be confusing, but you need to know one thing. You did a very praiseworthy thing earlier, and you should be proud of yourself."

Shinji didn't know how to react. He still didn't know how to react to any of this. As he lay there, the last thing he heard was the door closing behind him, and Misato's whisper.

"Hang in there, Shinji."