Creation began on 06-29-18
Creation ended on 07-12-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: Different Goals, Different Reasons
Shinji confided in his grandmother, aunt and uncle on what he saw last night in a dream he had, explaining to them of the few minutes he had lost before they settled in Hage. He was confiding in them a bit more than he felt he ever could with his own mother, who expressed her interest in joining the Magic Knights, same as him and Suki. The creature holding his grimoire, the sword, the dread of the end of the world, he told them everything.
"I've never heard of a grimoire causing chosen individuals to lose gaps in memory before," Tenshi expressed. "You definitely got into something big, Shinji."
"He didn't get into something big, Tenshi," Rika told her son. "He was in something big before he even took his first breath of life. His grimoire, the False Destiny Breaker, chose him in order to break him free from that something, whatever it is."
"You make it seem like grimoires have a conscience, Mother," Suki expressed to her, "like they have feelings or can actually think for themselves."
"Grimoires serve to record our individual histories and the spells we obtain and use over the course of our lives. They're like the eyes and ears that know what we do, when we do so, even how we do so. They develop as we do."
"And depending upon the owner's personality and intentions, grimoires will mirror them to a lesser extent," Tenshi added.
"So, there's good and bad grimoires?" Shinji asked.
"No," Rika and Tenshi responded.
"Grimoires are neutral," Rika explained separately, "Grimoires don't make anyone good or bad. Good or bad depends upon the actions of the people that use them."
-x-
Asta may have had more time to read his grimoire after having it cleaned and his status as a wielder of magic clarified to the kingdom, but even he couldn't understand the spells that were present in the pages. So far, they all seemed to relate to his use of the sword, but he needed more experience if he was ever going to use them. The only other benefit that might have supported him was that Anti Magic could be used in conjunction with other forms of magic if the situation required so. It's been almost a year since the attack on the capital by Rades and he hadn't been able to improve his ranking from a Fifth Class Junior Magic Knight since.
"What is this spell here?" He wondered, turning to a new page. "'Anti Sword Magic: Rapid Strike'? Sounds very powerful."
-x-
Licht, the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, was among those that heard about the stories surrounding the noble House of Ikari and its prophesied return so many months ago. While impressed that the Clover Kingdom had been talking about this family's return like it was a godsend or something, the fact that their return had affected his followers had kept him from rescuing Rades and Catherine from the kingdom. He found it unusual that such a family, even one he had absolutely no prior knowledge of, had been forced to escape an extensive attempt on their lives and ended up in another world where only 60 years had past for them there while over fifteen-hundred years came and went here, and that such a family was versed in multiple forms of magic. It should've been impossible, a mere fantasy, but two of these known Ikaris were able to do magic that wasn't possible.
Such an unusual family, he thought, looking at individual photos of these men and women. Three of them are living relics from the past while two of them lived lives almost no different from commoners up until they were brought here. If they weren't so affiliated with the Clover Kingdom, I'd request that they join us and support our cause.
He picked up the picture of Shinji, the youngest of the family, and wondered whether or not to view him as a potential threat to his group's goals of destroying the Clover Kingdom and building a new nation from its ashes. There was just something about him that made Licht…curious. In a way, the child was possibly as much of an unknown as the Black Bull boy that possesses no magic…or no understandable magic until recently due to the revelation provided by the Ikaris.
-x-
Nine Magic Knight squads, nine captains under the leadership of the Wizard King, and an undetermined number of factors that could spell either success or failure when it comes to getting admittance into any of them. And because several dozens of people gather from across the kingdom to try their best to join a squad each year, the competition was high, which meant Shinji, Suki and Yui had to train as hard as possible to get their shot.
"When it all comes down to it, the one thing they'll expect above all else from any of you is just magic," Tenshi informed his sisters and nephews one day as they were in the woods near the remains of the demon. "They'll take an especial interest towards those of nobility, believing they'll have the highest degree of magical power, but they'll also have to consider commoners because they're exceptionally strong, as well. Two additional factors they want to see from each of the examinees is the amount of magic they possess…and the degree of control they can demonstrate on whatever spells they exhibit to impress the captains. The more impressed they are, the better your chances are of getting into a squad…or having more than one squad to choose from."
Shinji raised his right hand to ask a question.
"Yes, Shinji?" Tenshi accepted.
"How are we going to train during the preparation time?" He asked his uncle.
"I believe in positive reinforcement and tough love, nephew," he explained his approach towards his relatives. "Make no mistake, I will run each of you ragged until you're recalling spells in your sleep, but I won't force you to do something you don't think you can do. As the people of the past would say that if you can't handle the pressure, quit, I say that if you can't handle the pressure, either find a way to alleviate it…or wait around for it to become tolerable to you, because one way or another, the obstacle in your way isn't going anywhere until you deal with it at your own pace."
Suki then raised her right hand to ask a question.
"Yes, Suki?" Tenshi accepted.
"Are we allowed potty breaks during your training regimen?" She asked him.
"Yeah, sure. Any other questions before we begin?"
Yui, having looked through her grimoire at the blank pages, looked up at her brother and raised her left hand to ask the only question.
"Yui?" He accepted.
"How much faith do you have in the three of us getting accepted into the Magic Knights?" She asked.
"To be honest, I don't expect any of you to get accepted so easily," Tenshi expressed his belief. "If you got in easy, you wouldn't be truly challenged. Something simply given to you based upon some status you have outside of your familiar ties has no actual meaning unless it's earned from bitter work that promises results. It don't matter who you are or what your status is or was, who believed in you or who didn't. Do you believe you'll get in? Do you think you'll have what it takes to be a Magic Knight and protect and serve the kingdom and its people? You tell me."
If that was what it took to get accepted, then Yui would have to up her game just to get accepted. While she still chose science over magic, she would view the magic the same way she viewed the science, with a mathematical sense of precision.
Suki would stick to her brother's regimen to become just as good as her nephew, since both were exploring the realm of magic at about the same level.
Shinji, on the other hand, would do whatever he could, within his limits, to get as good as he could get in order to achieve his goal. And he would also need to believe in three of the four virtues that the Clover Kingdom stressed if he was to do right by his goal.
"When do we begin?" He asked Tenshi.
"We just got started," he answered.
-x-
There were three pictures on the next page in the photo album that depicted not only the Ikari members that were in training to get to some event that beyond them, but the passage of time that seemed to indicate that wherever they were, time was passing by faster than what the people in Gendo's office could see.
"It looks like the uncle, Tenshi, is working his sisters and nephew ragged," said Kaji, pointing to the photo that showed Tenshi "making" his relatives carry large blocks from three separate walls that were around the house they lived in.
"But it looks like it's part of something the three are doing to get stronger," Asuka pointed out to a second photo, indicating that the three were taking a break and consuming vegetables and energy drinks during the regimen while looking at their books. "Why the focus on their books, though?"
Rei looked at the third photo and saw it depicting Shinji unleashing some sort of energy from his hands…and at the wall he was supposed to be tearing down.
Gendo couldn't believe his son was doing some workout to improve. If he had known what his son could do when properly motivated, he would've made him work harder on his synchronization tests with the Eva.
"You don't have any interest in your son's interests, Gendo," he remembered Rika telling him one time when Shinji was eight during a a weekly visitation period. "Do you even know what motivates Shinji to do something? What really motivates him? He just gave Suki and Tenshi a pair of paintings that he wanted to finish for them before he has to leave. Why am I even asking you? Of course, you don't know what motivates Shinji. His birthday's coming up, and he doesn't expect you to be there, even if he had a wish for you to be there."
I don't have time to concern myself with his motivations or interests, he thought; it seemed that no matter what Shinji did, Gendo wouldn't concern himself with anything his son was up to unless it benefited his own goals.
-x-
"…How did I do that?" Shinji questioned, looking down at his hands as the red glow they had slowly faded after firing a blast of energy that made a large hole in the wall conjured by Rika to represent his goal to get past it and see what lie beyond it.
"Shinji," went Rika, surprised by what he did, "that was a magic bullet. And a very large one at that. That's quite a feat after just a month of training."
"I remember my first magic bullet during my training days," said Tenshi, "and it was back when I was ten…and it was minute compared to your first one. Nice work."
Suki looked at the hole that was in Shinji's wall and had to admit that her nephew was progressing a lot better than she and her sister. He just developed a talent and a taste for magic not too long ago and was doing much better than what she had expected of herself right now because she wanted to be able to do just as good as Rika, Kana, Mana and the other women of their family were, past and present. She then opened up her grimoire…and looked at the empty pages; despite now being able to carry large weight on her shoulders and drag it across three miles to improve her cardio and speed (she might've also lost five pounds of fat and gained two pounds of lean muscle), she had yet to perform the slightest bit of magic. It was beginning to depress her.
Rika had checked with her the same way with Shinji and Asta, and confirmed that Suki possessed magic, only it was being stubborn with her. She assured her daughter that the same thing happened with herself and her great-grandmother, but Suki got the feeling that her own magical progress was stunted due to the fact that she'd been in a world where mana was scarce and she never performed a spell a day in her life, like some sort of black sheep.
"Magic is sometimes stubborn, Suki," her mother told her three days ago. "It'll manifest when it manifests. We just have to be patient."
"And what happens if you don't want to be patient?" She had asked her. "What if you're tired of waiting and want to do magic as fast as possible?"
"In your great-grandmother's case? Put yourself in harm's way. But I'd rather you didn't do that, Suki. Trying to force it can lead to unexpected consequences. Just be patient. Patience is a virtue that brings about what is expected to those that wait for great things to happen."
Yui was left in awe at Shinji's first bullet. If it was able to be that big, that meant he used too much mana, which also meant that his reserves were likely immense, as well. She looked away from his wall to her own, and the blocks that comprised it were the size of small boxes or storage bins…and as heavy as large tires…and she barely managed to move five of them on her own. But she was older and had more experience than he did, so she would improve at a pace much greater than he expected to. She had to if she was going to get more than one squad option to choose from.
-x-
When they turned to the next page in the album, they found part of why the three were locked in such rigorous training.
"They're trying to get into one of these nine groups?" Ritsuko suspected.
"But why would they have to get into one of them?" Kaji questioned. "Unless it's some sort of requirement for them."
"Maybe it's part of an attempt to get back to this world," suggested Misato, looking at the whole section of the album that depicted nine symbols with Shinji, his mother and aunt under them. "Maybe each group has something to obtain."
"But which group do they intend to join?" Fuyutsuki spoke, suggesting that for each of the three there was a single choice that was long term.
"Nine groups," said Asuka, "and one choice, if any. Who knows which one they'll choose? They might even choose different ones, depending on whether or not they can separate and join individual groups."
"That is possible," went Rei, looking down at the image of Shinji, wondering which of these nine groups he had the most interest in choosing if possible.
Above the nine symbols was a message of varying significance: "Nine in total. Which one to choose? Follow your desire."
-x-
"Urgh!" Yui groaned as she pulled another block from off her section of wall that landed onto a wooden platform, working up a sweat.
And then she fell to her bottom.
"Yui," she heard her mother, and looked behind herself to where she stood, looking down at her.
"I'm not quitting," she told her. "Just resting."
"I'm not your brother, so take a step back and relax."
Yui got up and looked at her hands. They were almost worked to the raw from all the training. While she had chosen to work on her wall, Tenshi took Shinji and Suki on a jog across the village.
So far, two months had gone by and each member had either lost some substantial weight while building up their muscular mass and becoming leaner.
"I understand that there's a balance between strength of magic and strength of body, but this seems to makes no sense to me at all (she points to the blocks and wall)…and gets harder everyday," Yui explained to her mother.
"There's no science or logic involved in this, Yui," Rika told her daughter, "and it only gets as hard and difficult…as you yourself believe it to be."
Yui then pick up her grimoire and informed her that ever since the training regimen began, only two additional spells just found their way onto the pages and then pointed out that, logically, gravity and solid mass had something else to say.
"How can there be no logic involved?" She questioned her mother, pointing to the block she had yet to move from the wall.
"Perception, belief, order, focus and acceptance, Yui," Rika explained. "You believe these blocks to be heavy…and therefore, they are. But to those of us that have magic in their heritage…or are able to harness it at some later point in their life…"
Rika then picked up one of the ropes…and pulled the block towards them, surprising Yui by how easy she made it look…and because her mother was more petite than she was. It was as though she had enhanced strength or something.
"Things like weight is meaningless."
"How are you and Tenshi able to do these things?"
"By accepting the unacceptable and making the impossible possible," she revealed, and handed the rope over to her. "Pull the block again…and I shall assist you."
Yui tied the rope around her shoulders while Rika got behind the block.
"Ready?" She asked her daughter.
"Ready," she responded, and pulled as best as she could while Rika pushed…or so she thought when the block was moved.
As she was within reach of the other blocks that had been piled over into a corner, Rika walked beside her on her right side with a cup of lemonade.
"Thirsty?" She asked her.
"Huh?!" Yui gasped, seeing her there, and looked back at the block; did her mother truly do anything…or did she pull it all by herself? "How…"
"You believed it was without weight because I pulled it," she explained, "therefore, it became weightless, Yui. The only scientific logic that exists with magic is that matter and energy exist all around us. Magic, witchcraft, even wizardry, are all just means of harnessing and controlling them. For example, our grimoires serve to hold our strongest methods of magic, while without them we'll mostly capable of just basic forms, such as a small blade of wind. But is such a tool truly forged from air on its own, like with the mages with the affinity for Wind Magic through Creation Magic, or do we influence its creation with inspiration from the use of knives and other such tools that led to the foundation of Sword Magic, even Sword Magic itself?"
Rika opened her grimoire and conjured a small dagger from air.
"But is it real to you?" She questioned, tossing it over Yui, who caught.
It dematerialized as she held it.
"It didn't seem real," she told her, and her mother conjured another dagger from air…and used it to impale the block. "That one does."
Then, Rika grabbed it and threw it at Yui!
"OH!" She panicked and caught it before the blade could pierce her in the chest.
It felt like cool metal molded into a weapon meant to shear through flesh.
"That time, you believed it was real," Rika told her, taking the dagger back. "Learn to control the mana around you and within you, and your limitations become irrelevant."
Having her dropped her own grimoire during the false assault by her mother, Yui picked it back up…but when she looked back at the wall she was tearing down, she received quite a shock…for it was no longer there, leaving only the ones Shinji and Suki were tearing down.
"What happened to my wall?" She asked her mother, who closed her grimoire and was getting ready to return to the house.
"The spell Tenshi used to create it was dependent upon your perception," she explained to her. "You perceived it when he made it for you, believing it was there; therefore, it was there. But now, you're learning to accept things that are unacceptable and impossible, so the wall no longer stands to impede your advancement. Are you ready to see what lies beyond your wall?"
Her grimoire glowed pink and she opened it to see a new spell had been inscribed onto a page. It read, "Union Creation Magic: Blood-empowered Armored Fists". This had to mean it was a mixture of Steel and Blood Magic, two forces that weren't supposed to be compatible, but were for her.
"I can't stop now," she uttered.
-x-
"Look out below!" Suki screamed, jumping into the water for the eighth time, sending waves of it across the walls of the small pond she, Tenshi and Shinji found recently.
Tenshi never expected to see such a place near Hage, even after being gone for so long with his mother and sister. It was by mere chance that they found this place.
Shinji, despite having taken lessons on how to swim from Suki, still stayed near the shallow parts where his feet touched the ground as he sat on a rock; just because he finally achieved mastery over a skill he lacked prior to coming to the kingdom didn't necessarily mean he had to embrace it all the time. He would if he had to upon reaching his goal to becoming a Magic Knight.
"Shinji, I love you and everything, but you really need to be more open in this life," Suki told her nephew as she swam over to the shallow base.
"I would if you were to cover up," he told her, pointing out her indecent swimwear.
"What are you talking about?" She questioned, sitting down beside him on the left. "I'm barely showing. I'm almost flat-chested; I lost a lotta years after getting rejuvenated."
"I…I just don't want anyone making passes at you that hit the ear wrong," he explained; she might've been around his age now, but the fact that she wasn't as filled out or as endowed due to losing most of her adult years made Shinji, in a strange way, very protective of his aunt. It wouldn't matter if her chronological age made her eligible for senior citizen discounts or whatever. If anyone so much as looks at her the wrong way or takes advantage of her just because she hasn't lived in the kingdom as long as her mother and brother have, it makes us look bad, like we're not keeping out of trouble.
Laying on her back, Suki wondered why her nephew seemed very defensive of her. It wasn't like she was looking for anyone just yet, but it mirrored the actions her brother took when they were in Japan. Any time a boy around her age or older took an interest in her, she either had to let them down easy or Tenshi would have to put on his big brother act and threaten to hurt them if they didn't back off. Truth be told, ever since she spent most of her life in Japan, she wasn't into any of the people romantically, even to do what people of the younger generations referred to as having a fling or friends with benefits or whatever it was called these days. She just didn't connect with people that way.
"The second someone tries to make a pass at me, I'd just disregard them," she told him. "Plus, I think there are laws against trying to get with somebody that is, technically, over fifteen-hundred years old in one place, fifty-five going on fifty-six in another, and was recently rejuvenated back to the age of fourteen years old. Or there should be."
"It's only my opinion, but I doubt you being labeled a chronological senior citizen is going to keep the bad ones away," Shinji expressed. "They usually don't let any laws or repercussions keep them from crossing the line with someone they have no permission to get involved with…even if only briefly."
"I know what you mean, Shinji," said Tenshi, understanding where he was getting at with Suki. "Certain men and women…aren't likely to keep away from what they have no right to go after unless permitted. The whole forbidden fruit thing that draws in only those that refuse to stick to the road less traveled by others."
"You're talking about that guy that tried to hit on me when I was eighteen?" Suki questioned him.
"Seven guys, sis. Seven…and I had to beat off every last one of them because they tried to get alone with you one night. You didn't have your magic back then, but now you're restored of your youth; therefore, you're more vulnerable until you're capable of defending yourself, both with magic and without magic."
Suki then looked down at her body. Her swimwear consisted of just her halter and shorts; she wasn't filled out enough to wear bras, anymore, and she wouldn't dare flash Shinji like how this Soryu girl that he met on some carrier when he was drafted into some war by his parents had, even though it was likely unintentional due to the weather and the girl's poor clothing choice during their first encounter. She pressed her hands against her chest to feel her bosom, thinking she could've been mistaken for a boy if her hair were shorter, similar to Shinji's. Her wardrobe wasn't as big as it used to be back then, but she could've done something about it, since she dressed with simplicity and preferred to be bland unlike other girls or women, who sometimes stood out by choice to attract the masses.
"Do I even look like I'm attractive to people right now?" She asked them.
"Yes/Definitely," Shinji and Tenshi answered her.
"And I don't suppose that simply dressing conservatively or plainly will change that?"
"Not likely/No chance in this lifetime."
Suki sighed; no doubt she was blessed and cursed with a beauty that was undesired that made her a potential magnet for unwanted attention from certain people.
-x-
So far, as only two months remained until the annual Magic Knights Entrance Exam arrived, Yui had been the first to progress in her training and had the most spells in her grimoire. Her son, Shinji, had progressed secondly, though due to being able to produce and control his magic bullets more effectively, he was almost his mother's equal in terms of their magical aptitude (however, her siblings thought differently, as he should've been considered her superior instead of her equal). This left Suki in last place due to her magic continuing to demonstrate its stubbornness at manifesting itself for her to progress, leaving her with just her improved physicality and substantial strength increase.
"Maybe I don't have any magic," Suki told her mother one night as they were in the kitchen, just having a drink. "What if I'm just normal from having lived most of my life in a world where there is no such thing as magic and the mana is minute?"
"If that were the case, my magic-detecting spell I used on Shinji, Asta and Yui wouldn't have worked on you," Rika told her daughter. "If it found magic in you, then it means you're capable of magic. The same goes for you getting chosen by a grimoire. If you didn't have any magic, it wouldn't have chosen you at all."
"But I keep looking at my grimoire, and its pages are still blank. I'm supposed to be the big sister, and I'm feeling like a fifth wheel. Yui didn't even believe in magic until after she witnessed it…and she's doing better than I am."
Rika could see that this phase her daughter was going through was a heavy one on her. Despite the effort she was putting in, despite her commitment to her brother's training regimen, as well as her drive to become a Magic Knight, the girl was at a virtual standstill. The girl wanted so badly to do her own magic, to serve the kingdom, to live up to her expectations, and, most importantly, to fit into a world where she actually felt she belonged. While she knew it was against her better judgement, she knew more that it was important to her daughter to get over this obstacle.
"If it continues to persist, Suki," she told her, hoping she wouldn't regret her decision, "we'll go the route best not taken and force your magic to manifest by placing you in danger."
"Really?" Suki asked her.
"Yes. While I'm uncomfortable with such a move because I don't want to risk causing lethal harm that you might not recover from, as there is no magic spell that revives the dead without some sort of requirement that goes against the laws of both society and nature, I'm willing to help you become a witch like the other women in our family."
"Thank you, Mother."
BOOM! They heard an explosion upstairs, and felt the vibrations in the flooring.
"Sorry about that!" They heard Tenshi yell.
"Heh-heh," Rika chuckled.
"Is Spatial Magic that hard to master?" Suki asked.
"Yes, due to its high consumption of mana and requiring of needing a Point A and Point B. Mages that have mastery of it are able to open spatial rifts anywhere they want to go, create multiple rifts or a big one, and can keep them open for as long as they desire. It's not easy, but those that persevere will reach the promised outcome of their craft."
-x-
In his room, Shinji scrolled through his grimoire, looking at several different spells that were combinations of several forms of magic that seemed impossible for most other people, but were formed in ways that seemed almost beyond magic itself, with other spells based on forms not demonstrated by any of the mages he'd seen. There were blends of Tree Magic with Water Magic, Fire Magic with Steel Magic, even Sword Magic that used spells based off the four primary elements. There was also a spell that had just caught his attention that he was looking at right now. It was an Anti Magic spell called, "Guardian of the Void", depicting a picture of the very creature he had seen upon receiving his grimoire and in his dreams where he recalled his missing gap in memory.
Guardian of the Void, huh? He thought, curious as to how it related to Anti Magic. A creature…born of Anti Magic…but not related with Creation Magic? Grandmother says that Creation Magic revolves around the creation of various entities from the mages' own mana, but anything meant to reflect a living creature isn't truly sentient, making them pale imitations meant to serve their masters until they're no longer needed. Could this be independent of such magic?
He wasn't sure, except in his dream, the creature did seem to exhibit signs of intelligence and was probably capable of making its own decisions on a whim. Yawning, he decided to turn in for the night and put his grimoire away under his pillow before turning off his bedside lantern.
-x-
Still taking advantage of her Steel Sanctuary, Yui was starting to feel more at home in her solitary space that existed in a separate dimension. Small at first, but it seemed to expand as her magic did, refining itself to accommodate more things a scientist used to create over the years. It hadn't been long until her grimoire revealed to her two additional spells that served to reflect her status as a scientist known as Blood Creation Magic: Raw Material and Steel Creation Magic: Raw Material, and she knew just what to do with these spells.
"Less than two months left until the exam," she told herself, looking at the progress of the large humanoid in front of her. "To empress the captains, I'll use you to demonstrate what science is capable of achieving over magic…and later use magic to achieve what science was expected to."
-x-
What are you up to, Yui? Gendo wondered, looking at the picture depicting his wife standing in front of an obscured figure that was about the size of a human within the refined space she seemed to dwell within.
Yui, thought Fuyutsuki, seeing a degree of similarity between the space she resided in with a place he saw all the time, are you still aiming to do this, even though you're elsewhere in a place where your son is happy with your relatives?
Rei, possibly due to the obscurity of the humanoid the woman was working on, turned to the next page…and saw four pictures of Suki Ikari in one situation after another, each that seemed meant to place her in danger. One of the pictures showed Shinji with a sword that he was using to try and slash away at her.
What is Ikari-Kun doing? She became suspicious.
-x-
Neither Shinji or Tenshi were comfortable with this change of method suggested by Rika, but despite the patriarch's method to whip his sisters and nephew into shape so that they wouldn't be reliant upon magic, Suki's magic still wouldn't manifest. As a result, this plan was the last resort to help her get past her magic block. What made Shinji uncomfortable with such a plan was what Tenshi relayed to him as Suki was sent out to just get lost in the woods: Suki had to be placed in real danger so her magic would be triggered, meaning they had to forget for the time being that she was one of their own and just go after her like they meant to actually harm her.
"It's not like we really need to hurt her, Shinji," he assured him. "It just needs to be real enough that her magic will pop out. Whichever way you choose to play your role is up to you, just as long as it's convincing to Suki that she's in actual danger."
Shinji, standing against a tree just outside the woods, sighed as he opened his grimoire to the page he chose to use first. He might've had to put his aunt in danger, but he could at least try to do the least degree of harm.
"Water Sword Magic: Iceberg Katana," he uttered the spell's name, and the water moisture in the air thicken around his hand until it became a gauntlet made of ice wielding a sword. Creepy. I should be complaining about it cold on my wrist, but it's like it's the same temperature as the rest of my body.
SLASH! He heard a noise from afar.
"Whoa!" He heard his aunt scream.
I guess Uncle Tenshi's in this to make it as real as possible, he realized, and got out into the open where Suki was currently on the ground, having narrowly avoided a spear of fire. "Aaaaurgh!"
Suki looked up and saw her nephew wielding a sword of ice…and a look of contrition on his face.
"Aaah!" She panicked and quickly got up and ran down the path she was on.
"Earth Trap Magic," she heard her mother say from somewhere within the woods, "Granite Cage!"
The ground around her rumbled, and she jumped away before a series of curved, stone pillars shot out and created a birdcage-like prison.
She knew that as real as this was supposed to be, Suki felt like this was a game of reverse tag, where everyone was out to get her to win.
"Hmm…you were able to avoid my carefully-placed trap, Suki," went Rika's voice again as she sat atop a tree branch with her grimoire open. "It looks like Tenshi taught you to use your Ki to predict attacks. Impressive. You should still watch out for Shinji, though."
Slash! Suki looked at the cage and saw Shinji had cut through the cage with his ice sword.
"Hi, Suki," he greeted, but then charged at her with his sword held high. "Rrrraugh!"
"Oh!" She gasped, got up and ran like crazy to get away from her nephew. "This is crazy!"
"Spatial Fire Magic," she heard Tenshi's voice, seeing a portal open up in front of her that he stepped out of. "Boom Tube!"
From behind him came a series of fire rings with small bombs on them with lit fuses.
"Oh, come on!" She yelled, running down a different path and through a field of trees that saved her from the explosive force of her brother's attack.
"I gotta say, Suki, you and Shinji are making me want to think about joining the Magic Knights."
"Yeah, well, you'd get in easily! You're a skilled and disciplined mage!"
"That has nothing to do with what you're trying to achieve. Spatial Magic continues to be a complex art that takes time to master. The greatest spell it has, when used in conjunction with Time Magic, is the ability to travel anywhere, in any time, without limits. Once that has been mastered, anything is possible. Anywhere is possible."
"Okay, Suki, I'm going to try something painful!" Shinji shouted from a distance, turning to a new spell in his grimoire. "Slash Creation Magic: Progressive Volley!"
A wave of multiple, diamond-like blade shot across the path and hit Suki on her arms and legs, cutting her flesh.
"Aaaahh!" She screamed, falling to her back. "Aaah! Time out! Time out!"
"Whoa, Shinji!" Tenshi had to agree with Suki. "Stop! Everyone stop!"
Shinji and Rika came over and the former couldn't believe that his move, which he thought would be the least painful, had actually caused the most harm.
"Suki, I…" He spoke up, seeing the cuts on her arms and legs. "I…I didn't mean…"
Suki was about to speak when her grimoire opened up glowed bright pink. She looked at the pages and saw spells being written on them.
"Thread Healing Magic," she uttered, surprising them. "Green Threads of Mending."
A green ball of thread appeared from out her grimoire and shot out several strands that wrapped around her cut skin and removed the injuries, leaving only green wool bands.
"Her first spell," Rika expressed at seeing her daughter's magic finally awakened. "Well done, Shinji. Not what was expected, but you got your aunt's magic to emerge when she needed it to."
Suki stood up and looked at the three.
"I'm a witch now, right?" She asked her mother.
"Yes, Suki," Rika answered. "You're a witch. Congratulations."
-x-
"…It looks like his uncle has decided to join them in trying to get into one of these groups," Asuka stated as they looked at the next page in the album, seeing the rejuvenated uncle of Shinji with said boy, Suki and Yui as they walked down a wide, stone street.
"Wait a minute, look at the writing down here at the bottom," went Kaji, pointing to some words that were at the bottom of the right page under the old pictures not depicting the family's present state. "It says that six months have passed since the day they got these books called grimoires. It looks like time passes faster where they are. And what the heck is a grimoire?"
"It's what's referred to as an encyclopedic tome containing magical spells," explained Fuyutsuki. "Basically, a magic book."
"So they were all studying magic?" Misato suggested. "They're in a world where magic truly exists?"
"Incredible," Ritsuko stated, impressed by both the possibility of magic existing in another world and where time passes differently than in the world they resided in.
When they turned to the next page, they found another written message on the pages that read, "The Magic Knights Entrance Exam has finally come again to those seeking to join the ranks of and to be among the best and brightest."
Ikari-Kun…wants to be a…a Magic Knight? Rei wondered.
"Magic Knights," Gendo spoke. What purpose could they serve? And what does becoming one indicate? What does being one entail?
-x-
The Castle Town of Kikka, where the Magic Knights Entrance Exam was held annually, was buzzing with excitement as a variety of people came from across the kingdom to compete in the exam.
"I don't think there's been this much excitement since we returned," said Suki as she, Tenshi, Shinji and Yui walked towards the colosseum to register for the exam.
"Depending upon how you look at it, there's excitement anywhere and everywhere," Tenshi stated, noticing that there were people looking at them. "Really embarrassing right now."
"They don't even know us," went Yui to him. "How are you embarrassed?"
"You ever been stared at by hundreds of eyes as they waited for you to do something?" He asked her. "It's like being naked in public by accident."
"Messed up," went Shinji in response to hearing this, and he knew sort of what he meant…and didn't need anyone knowing about that Synchronization test that required it that way. "How do you put up with it?"
"Me? I just pretend everyone's dressed as hermit crabs."
"That's weird," Suki claimed.
Approaching the entrance among several other potentials, these four Ikaris thought of their reasons for trying and why they were motivated to do what they were doing to become Magic Knights.
Shinji Ikari, the youngest of the family and sole grandchild, aimed to become only what he stated earlier on as a good mage, not unlike the Wizard King, but as a person that was both strong and able to protect the kingdom to the best of their abilities.
Suki Ikari, eldest sister of the trio of siblings and a surviving member of House Ikari from over fifteen-hundred years ago, restored to her youthful body and now fifteen again alongside her nephew, sought to become a witch who was just as great as her mother and late sisters were in their day.
Yui Ikari, younger, maternal half-sister to Tenshi and Suki, former scientist of GEHIRN and resident soul of Evangelion Unit-01 and the estranged mother of Shinji, sought to become a Magic Knight for an old goal that she believed could still be achieved through magic if science were no longer an option.
And Tenshi Ikari, the only son of Rika and Mikazuki and new patriarch of House Ikari, sought not only to improve his magical abilities, but to make sure that Yui, despite her separation from the the Evangelion, had at least of her relatives keeping watch over her as much as possible; this stemmed from the fact that he didn't trust Yui not to do something that was stupid, reckless and unforgivable.
"Your name, ma'am," a woman asked Suki as she was the first of the four to register.
"Suki Ikari. Uh, from the village of Hage."
"Never could understand why anyone lives there. Well, your grimoire, please."
Suki handed her grimoire over, which surprised the woman when she looked at the cover.
"Oh, my… This is a four-leaf clover grimoire," she gasped, looking up and Suki. "Where'd you get a four-leaf clover grimoire? That young man from the Golden Dawn is the only known person to have one with four leaves."
"Six months ago, at the Grimoire Acceptance Ceremony in Hage."
The woman then looked past Suki at her siblings and nephew.
"Whoa," she uttered, and then checked the grimoire. "Okay, your number is seventy-three. Good luck out there."
"Thank you."
Tenshi stepped up to register next and handed over his grimoire.
"Oh, my… You also have a four-leaf clover grimoire?" She questioned.
"Yes. I'm over fifteen-hundred years old. Back then, most of my family had them when they had clovers instead of something else entirely."
She registered him and gave back his grimoire.
"It'd be crazy if all of you had four-leaf clover grimoires, wouldn't it?" She asked him.
"Yes, it would," he agreed, "fortunately, only two of us that came to try for the Magic Knights have grimoires of that sort."
When Yui came to register, her brother had been right about her not having a four-leaf clover on her grimoire; unlike her elder siblings', hers only had three leaves on the clover.
"Good luck out there trying to get into a squad," she told Yui as she gave her the seventy-fifth slot.
When Shinji came up to register, his grimoire was looked at with much confusion due to not having a clover or any symbol belonging to other kingdoms.
"Uh, you sure this is a grimoire?" She asked him, just wanting his honesty.
"Yes, ma'am," he answered her. "It's actually been in my family for a long time. It's just a grimoire I was meant to have."
She looked down at it again, definitely feeling the aura of magical energy that was attuned to its owner, and registered him.
"You're seventy-six," she informed. "Best of luck to you."
"Thank you."
To be continued…