Grimoire of Evangelion

by Traitor of All Traitors

Five years before the rise of the first Wizard King, there existed a royal family of the most unlikely sort. A family of nobles that believed all were capable of greatness, no matter who they were. They were hunted down and driven away from the kingdom, forced to await the day when they could return. That day...is now. The noble House of Ikari...rises once more.

7. Passage

Creation began on 06-12-18

Creation ended on 06-29-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Grimoire of Evangelion: Passage

"…Hold on," went Asuka to Misato, as she was being informed of what she discovered from a simple attempt to keep Gendo from destroying a photo album belonging to Shinji's relatives. "You're saying that he's alive?"

"Yeah, but where he currently is isn't very technological like here is," she explained to her. "Did Shinji ever say anything to you about a place his maternal relatives might've mentioned to him called the Clover Kingdom?"

"No, he didn't tell me anything like that."

"Well, apparently, whenever he was with his maternal relatives, his grandmother and uncle would tell him stories about this place where there was such a thing as magic and there were people that could use it. Everyone from children to elders could perform magical feats that were unlike what was depicted in the films and cartoons…and it seems like they weren't just stories. Wherever the Angel displaced him, it also displaced his relatives and our only window to what transpires between them is an old album of pictures that shift to show events that aren't from the past in their lives here."

Asuka then remembered how Ritsuko explained that the Twelfth Angel's AT-Field had been an inverted variation defined as a Sea of Dirac, possibly linked to an alternate universe. But if this was so, how could the Angel end up getting defeated before any of them could do anything and displace three additional people that were nowhere near the scene of the battle that wasn't really a battle?

"Do you know where the place he ended up is called?" She asked.

"Based on the information from the album, they're in a place called the Clover Kingdom."

"The Clover Kingdom? It sounds almost as though it belongs to one of four kingdoms based off some deck of cards."

"Maybe, but there were some photos I saw that depicted Shinji looking a bit happier than I've ever seen him before. I don't know, but he might actually consider staying there if he does find a way back to this world in the future."

"But that's crazy. There are still Angels that have yet to strike…and you think he'll screw us all over just because he's in someplace that's primitive and full of magic?"

"I'm just stating a possibility, Asuka."

"Are you… Are you sure it's really Shinji? It's Shinji who's alive?"

-x-

"What are you doing still up at this hour?" Tenshi asked Rika one night as he came downstairs for a cup of water. "It's after midnight."

Going through the pages of her grimoire, Rika looked up at her son and expressed, "Just examining these new pages that appeared in my grimoire recently. It appears that with my rejuvenated state and the restoration of my youth, my grimoire was augmented with new pages containing a multitude of new spells. New spells for Creation Magic, Fire Magic, Dark Magic, even Plant Magic. Did any new spells appear in yours?"

"Yeah," he answered her. "Some Lightning Magic spells, Earth Magic, Steel Magic, Poison Magic, and a few Time Magic spells, too."

"Time and Spatial Magic are representative of time and space, respectively. Be careful if you ever use them together."

"You got it. Tell me something… Does it ever still bother you a little? That fear of what might've been had people like Gendo knew the truth?"

Rika knew where he was going with his question; it was one that had been asked and answered once before, years back, and her response was always the same.

"You know it always does," she answered him, "and the fear of anyone knowing…and deciding how we should live…if you could even call that living…is just as worse as them actually knowing. Which is why nobody ever knew you or I could perform magic. Not that we could've at the time."

"Doing it there required more mana than we could spare since that world's mana was almost nonexistent…and we needed our own reserves just to lengthen our lives."

"So…why bring it up?"

"Just needing to get the water under the bridge…or down the mountain…or whatever I need it to be."

As he got his water and made his way back to his room, Rika stopped him.

"Tenshi," she told him, "the people of today's Clover Kingdom… They don't have the slightest information about what that young man is capable of. The one from the Black Bulls, only what he has demonstrated so far."

Tenshi turned back to face his mother and stated, "They say that he has no magic in him…yet he faces other people with magic and is capable of protecting the civilians of the kingdom as a Magic Knight. What do you think of him?"

"I think looks can be deceiving…and what they don't know, what information that once existed about magic and its applications, is disgraceful and installs a sense of fear of the unknown."

"Then…you should ascertain whether or not what the people say about him is true."

"My thoughts exactly."

-x-

"WHAT?!" Asta yelled, disbelieving his ears when Yami informed him of what he needed to do today. "Really?!"

"That's right," Yami confirmed; Asta had been invited over to the Ikaris in Hage in order to confirm something they suspected that might've been disregarded for a long time. "You've peaked Rika Ikari's curiosity about you, and she wants to know more about you than what was seen at the entrance exam."

"What about you could've gotten the Ikari matriarch curious?" Noelle questioned.

"You'll likely find out with him," said Yami, "'cause you, Grey and Charmy are going with him."

"What?!" Charmy gasped; she couldn't believe that she was going to the Ikaris' house, even though the primary reason was because of Asta.

-x-

Rei wasn't sure how to respond to this knowledge that Shinji was alive in another dimension with his maternal relatives. If this was true, it meant that NERV had no means, whatsoever, to either contact or rescue him. The only window to his current state of being was through a photo album that depicted a few pictures in the form of past events.

But he is alive, she thought, standing in front of Unit-00. So, it is possible that he might find a way to return to this world on his own. We just need to be patient.

"What about your relatives, Ayanami?" Shinji once asked her in the elevator. "Do you have an aunt or uncle? Grandparents?"

Unfortunately, she couldn't answer his question regarding her background. There was no way she could tell him anything. She was…a complicated individual.

"Rei?" She heard Gendo Ikari say to her, and she turned to face him.

"He will find a way back, will he not?" She asked him.

"We're not sure."

-x-

As a youth without aspirations due to the false death of his mother over a decade ago and being abandoned by his father shortly afterwards, left with only periodic visits from his three relatives that vied for custody over him and lost because of the father, Shinji was not much of anything desirable by most. In some ways, he pretty petite, almost dainty, even scrawny if one chose to demean him. This, in and of itself, also aided in his attractiveness by some; one man that Suki threatened to beat into a coma once when she was elderly claimed that a twelve-year-old Shinji was almost as enticing as any girl could've been, which earned him a black eye and bloody nose. Even to this very day, Shinji lacked many of the things that a man needed to have as they got older, such as strength and endurance.

"Ugh… Ugh… Urgh… Urgh…" He grunted, being aided by Tenshi in doing upside-down pull-ups, hanging from a steel bar he conjured from the wall, all in an attempt to help bring out his magic potential. "Urgh… Ugh…"

So far, he had spent fifteen minutes on this exercise, a previous twenty minutes lifting weights he could lift, another thirty minutes running around the house, to the remains of the demon and back again, and periods in between resting and consuming energy bars and drinks.

"Okay, we'll break again for ten minutes, Shinji," Tenshi told him, watching as his nephew fell back to the floor, barely touching it with his head, drenched in sweat.

"Tell me," said Shinji, looking up at him, "do you think this will help me?"

"Yes. But magic doesn't just present itself will-nilly. You can't force it. It's only been a week since we started your regime to get your magic flowing through you. It'll flow when it flows."

"How was it for you when you started training?"

"Not all that different from yours, except I had to learn not to rely so heavily on magic. You choose to rely solely on it, it becomes all you believe in, that it'll get you out of situations, no matter what. Apparently, most of the Magic Knights are this sort. My father, your maternal grandfather, Mikazuki Ikari, once claimed, "Anyone who can't be adaptable in the face of adversity, exploring their potential outside of the use of magic, can't hope to survive in the world when difficult situations occur". So, even if your magic has yet to manifest itself and get to doing basic things with it, you'll still have an edge in adaptability. Physical strength, endurance, determination, resourcefulness and so on."

"What's your specialty outside of magic?"

"Swordsmanship. I learned it from the time I was twelve."

Helping his nephew onto his feet, Tenshi could see that the regime was helping Shinji to a degree so far. If one squinted, they could see that, beneath his small frame and bare, upper body, the signs of muscle development were present.

"You're actually thinking about joining the Magic Knights?"

"Sort of."

"Aiming to be the Wizard King one day?"

"No. When I become capable of magic, I want to be a good mage."

"A good mage?"

"You're a good mage. Grandmother is a good mage. I want to one day be as good as you two."

"You have a ways to go to be as good as we are. But I like where you're going. Your first aspiration. You stay true to it, and you'll get far."

He threw Shinji his shirt and handed him a cup of the energy drink.

"Hmm?" Shinji went, looking out the window, seeing four people approaching the house. "Are they members of the Black Bulls?"

Tenshi looked out and responded, "Rika requested to see Asta of the Black Bulls. People say that he can't use magic, but that might be a falsehood assumption."

"He…doesn't look like he can use magic."

"But he has a grimoire, meaning what he can do…and what others say he can't do…are two different things. If so, Rika and I might know why and how he can do what he's been stated to be capable of."

"I don't know much about him myself, but if he's really able to do what everyone else says he can, then he must be a powerful Magic Knight."

"He recently got promoted to Third Class of his Junior Magic Knight status."

"What's that?"

"Like I said earlier, you have a ways to go before you're as good as we are, Shinji."

-x-

Noelle had never seen anybody's home to be so…so simple, so basic, and this was the noble House of Ikari, one of the strongest royal families in the kingdom. But…it was striving for a lived-in feeling over a regal and elegant feeling. So, just as the old stories about them stated when she was little, members of this house weren't raised to be like the nobles of other houses, not like her, her relatives, but like the people from the lesser regions.

"Welcome," went Rika to them, dressed in a green yukata and bowing her head to them. "I've been looking forward to meeting you."

Asta, despite his previous history with members of nobility, didn't feel any sense of negativity from this woman that invited them over, and bowed his head to her.

"Hello, Mrs. Ikari," he greeted. "Thank you for having us over."

"Please, have a seat. You must've been on your feet for quite some time."

They sat in the living room area, though Grey was reluctant to do.

"You must be Grey," Rika stated. "Whenever you're ready."

Suddenly, Shinji, Tenshi and Yui came into the room.

"Hello," Shinji greeted them, and noticed Grey a bit differently from the other members of the Black Bull squad. "Hello, ma'am."

"Huh?!" Asta and Noelle gasped.

"Shinji, that's not a woman," Yui told her son; at least to her, this Grey didn't look like a woman.

"Actually, sis, Shinji's right," Tenshi clarified. "I'm surprised that he was able to see through Transformation Magic so quickly."

"Transformation Magic?"

Grey then unleashed smoke around them as her grimoire performed another spell. When the smoke cleared, in place of the large, shadowed man was a blue-haired woman of average height, dressed in a blue and white dress with flowers on the waist area. Unlike her fellow Black Bulls, she seemed to be almost completely shy and easily embarrassed just to be in their presence.

"Hello," she greeted him. "Nice to meet you."

"Wow," Yui uttered, unable to believe that her son was right, and she couldn't see the initial transformation as nothing more than a disguise.

-x-

"…It's hard to focus on the photos that represent where they are when they're next to old photos of how they lived," Asuka told Misato, looking at the album in Gendo's office.

"His grandmother, aunt and uncle seem younger," said Rei, who was also present to look at the album.

"They most likely used magic to make themselves younger," Misato suggested. "So far, it seems like they're just living from one day to the next."

"They were introduced to people?" Asuka questioned, pointing to a photo where it looked like Shinji and his rejuvenated relatives and mother were revealed to the people.

"His uncle was in a ceremonial battle?" Rei pointed to the photo where it seemed Tenshi was engaged in a battle with a woman with an odd hairstyle.

"He looks like he's fitting in," Misato expressed, turning to the most recent page they had yet to see.

"I'd like to see him finding a way back here with the Eva," went Gendo, who was there with Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko.

"Wherever this…Clover Kingdom is, we can't exactly just call them up and tell the boy to focus on finding a way back," Ritsuko clarified. "What is this picture here?"

The picture she pointed to depicted Shinji and Suki standing in front of a giant, presumably, mummified humanoid that was right next to the house he lived in with the others. It stood out due to the exposed horn on its head.

"Unit-01?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

-x-

"…I can see why some would think this is a regular grimoire," Rika explained to Asta, examining the cover of the boy's grimoire after asking if she could see it. "It has accumulated such a degree of dirt that it could be overlooked for any other grimoire. Is it alright if I tried to clean it?"

"Sure, go ahead," he answered her, and she took out her grimoire.

"Mist Healing Magic: Cleanse the Filth," she uttered the chosen spell, and the dark grimoire was enveloped in a small sphere of water vapor.

Slowly-but-surely, the grimoire was starting to look better. The dirt, dust and grime that had accumulated onto the book long ago had begun to dissolve, stripping its cover and pages of filth. When the sphere disappeared, Rika took hold of the book and held it in the air, revealing its five-leaf clover symbol on the front and back.

Gasp! Rika looked closely at the clover symbol and then at Asta.

"Asta, do you have any idea what this is?" She asked him.

"No, ma'am," he responded.

"This is the Black Clover. This is the original grimoire associated solely with Anti Magic itself. From this grimoire spawned at least one-hundred-fifty other grimoires that revolved around Anti Magic."

"Anti Magic?" Noelle questioned. "But…he doesn't have any magic…right?"

"That's something I'd like to confirm over denying. Would you be kind enough to drink this, Asta."

In front of the boy was a beverage with the Jade Dragonfly Flower mixed in.

The boy partook of the drink, and then Rika performed her spell to ascertain the truth.

"Blood Spirit Magic: Heritage Factor," she uttered, and the truth was revealed to her as she moved her hands around the air in front of Asta. "Just as I thought. Those that say you don't have any magic were clearly deluded or deceived by the type of magic that flows through you."

"You're saying that he actually has magic?" Charmy asked her.

"Yes. The magic he has an affinity toward is the rare Anti Magic, the opposite force of all other forms of magic that exist in the world."

"I don't understand. My grimoire just allows me to use two swords that nullify magic," Asta explained.

"That's the basic gist of Anti Magic. Breaking it down, magic can be defined as a sort of positive power that exists in the world. For example, you Magic Knights use magic to create something that is essential to your situations. Anti Magic, however, would be viewed as a negative power that exists. In its basic state, Anti Magic simply returns all existing magic back to the nothingness it came from."

"Nothingness?" Grey uttered.

"Nullification, negation, canceling out. It unmakes whatever magic it's used against. Your squad may have a great edge against any enemies of the Clover Kingdom. If he continues to get stronger, his Anti Magic will make him a force to be reckoned with in the future."

"How do you know so much about Anti Magic?" Noelle asked her.

"As a mage specializing in multiple forms of magic, it's part of my profession to understand and practice multiple forms of magic, including magic that the most of the world has forgotten about."

Asta looked at his cleaned grimoire and at the clover, curious about why there were five leaves on it instead of four leaves like Yuno's.

"Faith, hope and love reside within each leaf of the clover," said Tenshi, having kept silent throughout the conversation. "Depending upon the number of leaves on the clover usually determines the future of each grimoire owner. A clover grimoire with four leaves often leads its owner towards a future where they'll be remembered as legends. Good luck and fortune reside within the fourth leaf. A clover with five leaves, however, some believe is an omen of darkness. Based on nothing but old tales of bad luck, the Black Clover, that is any five-leaf clover grimoire, represents the Devil and Death. However, that is nothing but a falsehood belief. The fifth leaf represents the mage's potential, their determination and commitment to their objective."

-x-

Shinji found the idea of Anti Magic being among the greatest forms of magic to be quite impressive when he heard Rika state that the basic function of it was to nullify other forms of magic, even as he stood in front of the covered Eva that had all these different markings on the sheets and ground. He even wondered if she and Tenshi could perform Anti Magic among their other spells.

"I'd be careful around those runes, Shinji," he heard Suki say to him, running over from behind. "Those are Trap and Restraining Magic runes. You trigger one of these, and you're a prisoner of whatever's used to trap or restrain you."

"Sorry," he apologized. "Just feeling somewhat envious of others around me right now. Everyone can do magic and I've yet to do any for myself."

"I know how you feel. I want to use magic, too. We just have to wait until we get our grimoires, and then we'll be doing magic like everyone else."

He looked up at the exposed horn of Unit-01, hoping that the day he got his grimoire would be the day he could finally begin his goal to becoming a good mage…and walk away from his life as an Evangelion pilot for good.

"Mind telling me what you want to do first with a grimoire?" Suki asked him. "I take it that it might relate to this monster here."

"Do you think being a mage gives people a clean slate?" He asked her back.

"A clean slate? In what way?"

"You get to walk away from something in your past and towards something else in your present."

"Like walking away from operating this monster?"

"Yeah."

"If you want it to be a clean slate, then it is a clean slate…if you're strong enough to take it."

He turned to face her.

"The day we get our grimoires can't come fast enough."

"Don't be in such a rush. We're not going anywhere."

He then looked over at the four Black Bull members as they walked out of their house.

"They are," he pointed out.

-x-

"…I wonder what he's thinking in that moment?" Misato wondered as she looked away from the photo of Shinji near the mummified Eva and towards a photo of him inside what appeared to be a church. "It looks like they practice religion over there, too."

Gendo, however, mentally scoffed at the idea of religion; he was both an extreme atheist and one that despised any notion that any deity was infallible, regardless of the disorder that existed.

"That's strange," said Ritsuko, looking at the photo. "Shinji looks like he's been working out for an extended period…and has bandages wrapped around his arms."

In the picture, Shinji was with his mother inside the church, and he did indeed have bandages wrapped around his wrists, like he had hurt himself over time and was on the mend. In front of them was a large cross with a four-leaf clover on it instead of a person.

"Look at this picture here," Asuka pointed to one where it looked like a bunch of books floating in the air above several people. "What do you suppose this is, some kind of ceremony?"

They all looked at the photo and each came to their own theory over what the picture represented.

Ritsuko suspected that it was an event where people could receive a book of their choosing.

Misato and Fuyutsuki thought it might be a part of the culture of where they were.

Gendo believed that it might've related to whatever it was that enabled them to see different photos of different scenes in the album.

Asuka and Rei both had a feeling that whatever this was about, Shinji was one of the people involved.

-x-

It wasn't exactly a whole year, but this was the month and day that the Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony took place within the Grimoire Tower of Hage. This put Yui, Suki and Shinji in the center of the scene where dozens of young people were surprised to see three members of House Ikari, two of them over fifteen (one of the two women over one-thousand years older than the rest of them combined) and the third still fourteen. As the ceremony was still underway, people were barely able to contain their excitement over getting their grimoires.

"How do we even know we're deserving of a grimoire?" Yui questioned.

"You'll know when one chooses you," Suki told her.

Suddenly, the walls that held the bookshelves lined with dozens of grimoires started glowing as said select books began to remove themselves from the shelves and float around in the air above the people's heads, glowing different colors.

"Incredible," Yui expressed as at least three books so far had flown past her.

From the sidelines, Rika and Tenshi watched as the grimoires started to choose their owners.

"Hmm!" Tenshi went. "Mother, did you feel that?"

"I did," Rika responded. "Something has left our house."

Young men and women grabbed hold of their grimoires and began to look at the pages, seeing what spells they had enough magical potential to use in the present or how far they would have to go to fill their pages with the spells associated to their magical affinity.

"Oh!" Yui gasped, now holding a large grimoire with a gray, hardback cover. Whoa… I have a grimoire of my own now.

"Ah-ha-ha!" Suki cheered as a grimoire with a scarlet, hardback cover was in her hands. "I told you, Yui! You have a grimoire now. Embrace magic!"

A full two minutes had past before there were a few grimoires left floating in the air. Interestingly, however, none of them had made any attempt to go anywhere near Shinji just yet.

"That's odd," said the master of the Grimoire Tower, Drouot, taking notice of this. "None of them are going anywhere near the boy."

Another minute past and the last grimoire in the air ended up in the possession of a girl with green hair.

Shinji Ikari was the only person within the tower that hadn't received one.

This is last year all over again, Drouot thought, wondering if this boy lacked any magic like Asta was believed to have been before the current Ikari matriarch confirmed and distributed the discovery that he had the affinity of Anti Magic, which was a form of magic that didn't conform with other forms of magic. Is there no grimoire here that is meant for this boy?

Shinji was about to walk away when a man ran into the room.

"Something's coming this way!" He shouted to everyone. "There's something heading this way!"

Unfortunately, being informed of…some thing…didn't exactly clarify to anyone on what was coming towards the tower.

Rika opened her grimoire and flipped through the pages to the desired spell.

"Communication Magic: Revelation's Eye," she uttered, and the grimoire shot out a ball of light that expanded in the air above the people's head to reveal a television-like picture of the village outside, and the thing coming towards the tower.

It resembled a small meteor, probably the size of a car, but was burning purple…and curving in the air, as though it were trying to stay on course towards the tower, its targeted destination.

"What is that thing?!" A boy asked.

"It'll be here in less than a minute!" A girl screamed.

"Get out of the tower!" Another girl yelled to everyone.

But it was already too late to get away. The meteor struck the tower…and was flying in a spiral within the room above them.

"What the…" Yui went, confused.

"It should've hit with more force if it was flying towards here," Suki realized, "but it took out the window. It made curves in its trajectory. This thing's here for a reason."

The meteor then flew to the middle of the room and ceased its flaring to reveal its true form: A book with a blue, brown, green and purple hardback cover with a winged, horned humanoid.

"A grimoire?" Drouot spoke, watching as the book lowered down…in front of Shinji. "Of course. The grimoire meant for him wasn't any of the ones in here."

Shinji raised his hands and took the book out of the air, feeling a surge of power flow through him. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before in his life. A dark flame materialized from the front cover and assumed the form of some sort of dark, reptilian/gorilla hybrid (A/N: Think Orga from Godzilla 2000, only more streamlined, not as hunchbacked, armor-plated, minus the shoulder cannon, and with five-fingered claws instead of three) before it disappeared from sight. If he had to describe the feeling, it would be like each time he was told the stories of his family's past in the Clover Kingdom, or how each time he saw them during their visits left him feeling a sense of elation or elevation; it was just a feeling of happiness and hope.

But Rika… She now had a feeling of concern for her only grandchild because of this grimoire due to the fact that it chose him…and it wouldn't have done so unless there was a reason he had whatever requirements necessary to own it, to wield it, to serve it, to be its master and slave. Whatever it was that made so that it became necessary for him to have it, she was certain that Shinji would eventually have to get better at magic now that his flow had ceased being so stagnant after many months of exercising and dieting to recondition his body into an adequate specimen of potential. And he worked his skin off for this day for anyone, including herself, to just snatch this from him, and she wasn't going to, even if she felt she needed to save him.

The Destiny Breaker, she thought, accepting this to the best of her tolerance, it chose him, meaning there is a false fate that he has to break free from before it becomes his downfall.

-x-

"What was that thing?" Misato uttered, feeling like she had actually seen the creature Shinji and everyone else inside that tower had seen.

"Some sort of animal," went Rei, feeling the same way.

"There's no animal in history that looked like that thing," Ritsuko declared, confused.

It appeared that each of them had experienced what happened to Shinji in a strange way. They couldn't explain how, but it felt like they had been where the boy was…if only for a brief moment. There was a feeling of danger, of brutality, beauty, rage, power and freedom.

"I think that book chose him," Asuka confessed her belief.

"Why would it choose him?" Gendo questioned; there was no way he could believe that a book, even a magical one, would choose someone like his son.

Fuyutsuki turned the page in the album to the next one, hoping that it would explain the reason.

"The Eva," he uttered, looking at the picture depicting. "It's disappearing into his book."

-x-

The walk back to their house was a quiet one…until Yui opened her grimoire to look at the pages…and raised her voice over it.

"There's only one spell in my grimoire," she explained, and Suki opened hers to examine its contents.

"Mine's empty," she showed their mother and brother.

"For Yui, it just means that she's starting to accept in her heart that magic exists and it's becoming a part of her life," explained Tenshi to them, "and as for you, Suki, the blank pages mean you have yet to begin your rite of passage into magic yourself. Hey, Shinji, what does your grimoire have inside it?"

Shinji, however, was silent, looking down at the cover of his grimoire, noticing how the humanoid figure seemed to have a resemblance to the Evangelion.

"Shinji?" Rika uttered his name.

"Huh?" He responded, looking away from his grimoire. "I'm sorry, yes?"

"Your grimoire. Tenshi asked you what was in it. Have you looked inside it?"

"Uh, no, not yet."

When they made it back home, Shinji decided to open his grimoire. It glowed brightly and shot out a stream of red light at the Eva!

"Aaah!" He screamed, not expecting that to happen at all, dropping the grimoire.

The light enveloped the Eva, removing the wrappings and revealing the purple behemoth to the world…before turning it into light and shrinking it down to the size of an average human, which was then moved above the open book. The Eva was then sucked into the exposed pages, disappearing from sight as the light faded. In its place were a detailed picture of Unit-01 holding its Prog. Knife defensively and a series of writing around it on the two pages it occupied.

"Oh, my," said Tenshi, stunned by what he saw.

"What was that about?!" Suki demanded, looking at her mother. "Can grimoires do that?! Can they just…suck things into them?"

"Some can…sometimes," Rika explained, helping her up to her feet. "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm fine," Shinji declared, picking up his grimoire and examining the pages that the Eva was on. "What the heck is this supposed to mean? 'Demon Beast Creation Magic: Evangelion Devil'?"

"Creation Magic combined with Demon Beast Magic," Tenshi realized and explained. "Your grimoire transformed the Eva into a spell you can use at your discretion, like a juggernaut or golem."

"But how is that possible?" Yui questioned. "Nobody could get the Eva to move, no matter what they did, no matter how powerful they were."

"Maybe the reason why was because they weren't meant to deal with it," Rika suggested, "meaning that, despite everything anyone tried, we had to wait for Shinji to obtain his grimoire…and for his grimoire to do what we couldn't and weren't supposed to do. In any case, the Eva's previous status as unmovable has been resolved. It's now inside his grimoire; in essence, it's been moved and removed. We no longer need to be concerned about it."

But Yui, as much as she wanted to praise Shinji for unintentionally dealing with the situation regarding the Eva, she knew that it being inside his grimoire, and in a state where only he could use it of his own volition, made any goal she might've had of trying to get back inside it difficult. Maybe even impossible. Now, she would either have to find another means to get back to the original scenario she had been invested in back when her son was little…or give up and adjust to her restored life, regardless of her intentions or the intentions of others regarding the Eva, the Angels and the Human Instrumentality Project."

"Congratulations, Shinji," Suki praised her nephew. "What next for you?"

"The Magic Knights Entrance Exam," he answered; he was going for the path to becoming a Magic Knight on his goal to being a good mage. "Yourself?"

"Assuming I ever get a spell or two in my grimoire, the same as you. A Magic Knight."

"You two are lucky you have six months to improve your grimoires before that exam begins," Tenshi reminded them. "What about you, Yui? Does the idea of being a Magic Knight interest you?"

Yui, unfortunately, nodded in the negative; just because she had magical potential, it didn't mean she had to go down the path her son and elder sister intended on going down.

"The spell that's in my grimoire isn't exactly…something I could probably share with others," she explained, albeit cryptically.

"What's the name of the spell?" Rika asked her daughter.

"It says, 'Steel Spatial Magic: Steel Sanctuary'."

"Steel Sanctuary? Sounds like a spell that's personal rather than beneficial," said Tenshi, sharing his opinion of the spell.

"We'll have to see this spell one day," Suki suggested.

-x-

Of course, Yui wasn't sure if she was supposed to even demonstrate this sole spell that was present in her grimoire. Her brief education into the world of magic here in the Clover Kingdom only gave her the basics of each type of magic that the people could perform. To her understanding, apart from the four primary elements of magic, there was magic that related solely to the generation and manipulation of light and darkness, trees, vines, sand, swords, mud, even magic focused on glass and space. It was only because of her family's affinity towards all forms of magic that she possessed such an unusual spell to begin with; there wasn't a single soul outside the House of Ikari that could use Compound or Union Magic without major assistance from other powerful mages.

Reading the contents of the spell in her room, she discovered that the spell revolved around the creation of a pocket dimension for its user to escape to that embodied their relation to metal, made to look like wherever they felt most secured in. But Yui wasn't sure if the spell could actually do what she was thinking it could do. If it could, then it would've been one of the good things to happen for her since she was released from the Eva and the cybernetic behemoth kept under wraps until it ended up getting put in her son's grimoire.

I might as well see what it can do, she thought, her book suddenly aglow with silver light. "Steel Spatial Magic: Steel Sanctuary."

Her room shifted around her as space became distorted. The walls and floor changed from painted wood and carpet to metal, the lighting became more fluorescent and the smell of sterilization solutions replaced the smell of incense candles. In less than a minute, Yui was no longer in her room, but in a small space that resembled a science lab, only sparse and lacking the resources for anyone to do anything science-related.

"A steel sanctuary, indeed," she sighed, feeling at ease being here. "A sanctuary…for scientists."

-x-

"…Yui opens her book…and it gives her a private place?" Fuyutsuki questions, seeing the picture of a small, metal room appearing out of the woman's grimoire.

"It looks like she's see-sawing between science and magic," suggested Ritsuko.

"While she's doing that, Shinji seems to be adjusting to the idea of magic," said Asuka, which Misato agreed with due to how it seemed that in each photo depicting Shinji's status, the boy was adjusting favorably, while his mother seemed to be doing so…but at a less-than-favorable rate than he was.

Gendo was wondering if whatever magic that existed wherever his wife and her relatives resided in (he was having a hard time believing that anyplace actually went by the designation Clover Kingdom), it included the means to travel between dimensions and return to this one.

"He's starting to look like he works out too much just to build up his muscles and get good," Asuka informed the others, looking at a picture of Shinji with his uncle. "He doesn't look scrawny or wimpy at all, anymore."

The picture depicted Shinji with Tenshi lifting up large rocks, though the ones his uncle was lifting up were significantly larger. While the boy had the appearance of a young man that was getting into shape, his rejuvenated uncle was clearly the better specimen that, even though he himself also didn't look like one of those wrestlers or upper body-building individuals that emphasized brawn over brains.

"Maybe it's part of some magic training regime," Fuyutsuki suggested. "Maybe for some people, magic relies on the fitness of the body. Less energy the body has, probably less magic that can be used."

"That's assuming the world they're in has any requirements that magic has," Ritsuko stated.

-x-

In his dreams, Shinji was having an odd time. It felt like he was in a city, but the environment was exactly like the Clover Kingdom's capital. Yet he saw people from his past in Tokyo-3. He saw Toji, Kensuke, Asuka, Misato, Ritsuko, Rei and even Pen-Pen!

"True or false, Shinji," he heard a voice say to him from behind himself, "you value these bonds over the lack of a bond between yourself and your father, don't you?"

He turned around and saw the creature that had manifested temporarily from his grimoire earlier that day, standing in front of him. The way it looked at him suggested a degree of intelligence that was similar to human intelligence.

"Yes," he answered it. "Yes, I do."

The creature nodded in acceptance and then conjured the boy's grimoire in its left claw.

"True or false," it spoke again, "you felt relieved for the first time in a long time after the Evangelion was absorbed into your grimoire, thinking you wouldn't have to get back inside it again, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did."

The grimoire opened on its own and from one of the pages manifested a sword hilt sticking out of it.

"True or false: Do you believe in fate? Or destiny? Or any concepts relating to either?"

"No, I don't."

"And why is that?"

"If I believed in them, then that would mean that I don't have control over my life, that I'll never be in control of it, that everything I do is something that is supposed to happen, no matter what."

"And if you could change your fate? If you could…defy it, defy the fate of those around you, even undo what others believe is impossible to overcome?"

"If I could do that, then I'd know I was in control, that my life was mine to decide with how it could be lived and everything."

The sword hilt slowly rose out of the book, revealing itself to be related to those of Japanese culture, particularly the katana, but the back of the blade seemed different from a traditional version.

"True or false," the creature resumed, "how far are you willing to go to break free from the bindings of the false destiny you've only started to deviate from by removing the Eva? Are you willing to go to the limits of your mortality to escape your fate and change the fate of those around you, past and present?"

Shinji thought about it for a moment…and answered if he really had a choice in the matter.

The creature was caught off guard by his question; it didn't expect him to question his choice.

"Your life has been divided into two paths on your road to the future," it explained, and the environment of their shared background shifted to resemble Tokyo-3 at night, doused in rain. "But you understand the path that had the Eva and your father on it. You've been down that way, time and again. You know, deep down, exactly where it ends…and it is not where you want to be, anymore."

Shinji looked down the street behind himself, seeing it led only into the unknown darkness…but known to him from his personal experiences regarding NERV. It led nowhere for him…but a life of violence, pain, loss and regret. Regret was something he had to live with ever his mother had faked her death and his father left him in the care of a complete stranger, unwilling to let the only other family he had take him in…and he had grown weary of further regret if he returned to that path.

"Who are you?" He asked the creature.

"One designation you might have for me is the minion of House Ikari," it answered him, "or its servant, or perhaps its golem. I am the guardian of whoever wields the False Destiny Breaker, the grimoire of previous members of House Ikari that chose you like it did them. In essence, I serve and protect you from the bindings of the cruel destiny you must break from if you hope to reach your goals. You and I both know what you're after in this life, and I'm willing to go as far as you to make it happen."

Shinji turned back to face the creature, and saw the sword had fully emerged from the grimoire, revealing its back was blue as opposed to the traditional black, with Asian characters etched into the blade, and was being held by the creature.

-x-

Gendo couldn't fathom the picture depicting his son engaged in a conversation with a strange creature holding a sword and book in front of him with his left hand reaching out to all three. All he could guess was that the boy had gotten into something big and was in for a world of hurt if he wanted to get out.

"That creature is his protector," went Rei, surprising everyone.

"How do you know this?" Asuka demanded.

"If it wanted to hurt him, it would've done so," she explained, although it still didn't add up. "And what it says under the photo."

They all looked under the photo and saw a message that read, "False Destiny Breaker".

"False Destiny Breaker?" Misato questioned, confused.

"Sounds like something to expose truth to lies," Kaji expressed. "Or revealing an overzealous person's ego is deluding themselves to reality."

But to Gendo, it seemed more like an attack yet to come and a threat to those in control of the world, including himself. He turned to the next page and revealed a new picture depicting some sort of shift between his wife, their son and his aunt.

The picture was of a parallel line separating Shinji and Suki from Yui; the former two on the left side while the latter woman was on the right, as if depicting them on different sides of a confrontation between goals.

-x-

It was a shift in her choice from declining to considering. First, Yui was disinterested in the possibility of joining the Magic Knights if she could even get accepted into a squad…and now, after only less than six hours ago, a night of rest and soul-searching…she was considering applying for admittance into the same choice her sister and son were. But what she didn't share with her family was her reason for choosing to do so. She only told them that after doing her share of researching the Magic Knights, she felt she could improve her grimoire by joining a squad.

Suki wanted to believe that this was a sign of sibling rivalry between herself and Yui, even though there was no true competition between them, but Shinji, after his own night of soul-searching, couldn't wrap his finger around the possibility that his mother had a less-than-favorable agenda for wanting to join the ranks of the Magic Knights.

"It's still six months from now," Suki told her sister at the table as they all had breakfast. "That means six months to improve on your skills and build up your spells. Why the sudden interest, though?"

"To see how far I can get with magic," she claimed.

"Good luck with that," said Shinji to her; while he meant what he said with encouragement, he had become suspicious of his mother's motives. I want to believe that she won't do anything she isn't supposed to…but I can't control her actions, not even to prevent the unimaginable from happening.

To be continued…

A/N: Uh-oh! Anyone get the feeling that Yui is up to something that opposes what Shinji will be out to do? She sees what the only spell in her grimoire can do, and she decides to try for the Magic Knights like her son and sister. One thing is for certain now, and it's that something is amiss within House Ikari.