Creation began on 09-20-22
Creation ended on 09-29-22
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: Heartache
Even though Harbinger left the Diamond Kingdom of his own volition, the Clover King was brutally shown how the Magic Knights, despite their numbers and strong levels of magic, were unable to harm the creature that had decimated Spade and was affiliated with a member of the House of Ikari that had it out for everyone due to a personal belief that was nothing but discriminatory towards their world and cultures. The majority of the Magic Knights' nobles and royal members were cursed by Harbinger and left feeling like they were at death's door because of how potent their curses were.
"How is this possible?!" Augustus demanded from the captains Yami and William, who were absent from the Diamond Kingdom mission in case they were attacked and relieved of their grimoires by Yui. "There were dozens of you…and you were defeated by this creature?! How is this possible when you're stronger due to your numbers?"
"Quantity is not as beneficial as quality, Your Greatness," William explained, "and Harbinger demonstrated abilities he didn't have prior to his attack on the Spade Kingdom. He has the combined magic attributes of the Dark Triad and the three devils that were contracted to them, giving him seven forms of magic to use however he chooses. What's more troublesome is that his reason for attacking the Diamond Kingdom had nothing to do with Yui Ikari's agenda; he was venting his frustration over not finding a devil he was looking for. He caused less than a million deaths…for a brutal and selfish reason that had nothing to do with what they're doing."
Augustus was fearful of this Harbinger; if he could decimate Spade and then attack two Magic Knight squads and relieve their captains of their grimoires, he feared what this creature would do if Yui decided to have him come after him for his grimoire.
"Sir," went Yami to him, "with all due respect, it's unlikely that this Ikari woman and Harbinger will try to come after you or the Wizard King due to personal beliefs regarding the both of you."
"What do you mean?"
"She thinks or knows you're protected at all times from any possible threat to your life…and she doesn't know what type of magic you use, so she won't make any attempt on you. And as for the Wizard King, she has never seen what he's capable of or his use of a grimoire, so she can't make any attempt on him, either. And if she's taking grimoires from only the strongest of mages she doesn't have to waste her time with, she'll likely go after those she doesn't see as being difficult to face, either by herself or through Harbinger."
"It's likely that she'll rely on Harbinger as her enforcer; he relieved Nozel Silva of his grimoire after cursing him and the other Silver Eagles," suggested William.
"How many of you are left active after this disgrace?" Augustus asked them.
"Less than fifty."
That didn't boost his faith in the remaining Magic Knights. And this was all that woman's fault. If she hated the way they lived, then she should just leave, go back to that other world where she didn't have to complain about magic. But from what he was informed, Yui Ikari was a woman driven to rid their world of all things relating to magic, even if it was against their will, believing that she was saving them, which was insane!
"And none of you were able to harm him?" He wanted to make sure he understood.
"Harbinger was injured slightly, but only due to Anti Magic," Yami stated, "and from what was learned in the last encounter, Harbinger can't use magic for prolonged periods, which stems from a previous injury he received from Guardian of the Void long before we ever met either of them."
-x-
Noelle was both the most fortunate member of her family to avoid being cursed by Harbinger…and the least fortunate member of her family due to having to learn that her Healing Magic spell wasn't working on them.
"…So, this curse isn't going anywhere for the time being," went Rika to them; her own Healing Magic spells being ineffective in removing the curse from any of the afflicted Magic Knights, as well. "On the plus side, none of you should experience any further discomfort…so long as you don't try any magic."
"What?!" Nebra demanded. "You're saying we can't use any magic or this curse will cause us difficulties?! Well, that's just lovely!"
"I bet you're loving this, Ikari matriarch!" Solid raised his voice in anger at Rika. "Your youngest has most of the Magic Knights cursed in order to make sure we couldn't stop her, and you get to see the House of Silva fall from grace, like some sort of personal revenge for what was done to your family over a thousand years ago! Admit it!"
Rika inhaled a new breath before she turned to Noelle with a neutral expression.
"Do I love that my youngest daughter is hurting other people because she has openly expressed her hatred of magic?" She uttered. "No, I do not. Do I take offense from your brother suggesting that I see what has befallen all three of your elder siblings as some sort of revenge for what happened fifteen-hundred years ago? I shall not take offense to this. Shall I go assist another Magic Knight in their recovery? I shall. Until next time, Ms. Noelle Silva."
Rika excused herself from the room, leaving the young lady with her cursed siblings.
Noelle sighs and looks at Solid.
"What was that?" She asked him.
"The truth," he replied.
"No, that was your accusation. To go and assume that Lady Rika is somehow pleased with knowing that her youngest daughter has done these horrors and views them as a sort of revenge against our family…is just despicable."
"You're the only one that wasn't cursed," said Nebra. "You allowed yourself to be turned by the youngest member of House Ikari. It's only likely that you have achieved your current rank because you suck up to the grandson."
Noelle frowned at her.
"If this is what the three of you believe," she let her truth be told to her siblings, "then you're wrong to believe such. I achieved the rank of Third Class Intermediate Magic Knight through hard work and perseverance. The only role Shinji Ikari played in my success was his willingness to help me get to where I am right now. There was no sucking up to or paying tribute to or anything of the sort. And Shinji's not pleased that his mother's the one that's out to get everyone and expects him to help her achieve her twisted ambitions."
"Doesn't he have something to gain from her plans?" Nozel questioned.
"He's not with her. If he wanted to remake the world into one where magic no longer exists, he would've joined her in the beginning. The fact that he doesn't support her goal is proof that he has no interest in a world with no magic like the one he lived in before his family returned to the kingdom. He grew up hearing about Clover from his grandmother and uncle so much that he wanted to believe this place was for real, and now that he has lived here for almost a year, knowing that his mother has teamed up with a creature an ancestor from our family unleashed a long time ago, it just hurts him to know that his mother is a horrible person that refuses to leave this world because she's convinced that she is saving us by taking away the magic."
"Why doesn't he just kill her and be done with this all?" Nebra suggested.
"Could you do such a thing? Any of you? If it was our mother that made a conscious decision to cross the line and go after everyone because she decided she hated magic…or something else about where she was with other people?"
"Her only regret was what befell this Noelle," Nozel recalled Harbinger telling him when he revealed that he had accessed a memory belonging to the devil that killed Acier Silva.
"That's what you did when you were born," Solid uttered, and Noelle sighed.
"I'm leaving now," she told them. "You wanna keep blaming me for something that I have no memory of doing, that I had no intent in doing because, despite what you want to believe, babies can't form intentions that take someone else's life, that's your choice. But it won't be my fault that you three suffer because of House Ikari or myself. It'll be because of Yui or Harbinger or some other person that decides to do something like this that affects everyone. I don't know why our family persists in hating House Ikari over something that happened before any of us were even born, but I refuse to let that hatred decide my own relationship with Shinji and Suki. You three are so…lost in your hate that you can't feel anything else. Hatred, jealousy, a vengeance that is nothing but one-sided. If it was our ancestor's fault that Harbinger was unleashed to begin with, none of us should have to pay for his hatred. I won't let this family's hatred of the Ikaris corrupt me."
As she left the room, she felt like she had wiped her slate clean of her elder siblings. Ever since she could remember, she was always the subject of their negligence or abuse, either verbal or physical. Particularly Solid's abuse. But now, she was stronger than she had been before the Ikaris returned from exile and Shinji and Suki joined the Black Bulls. Now, she had control over her magic and could perform spells that were leagues ahead of what she had been capable of in the past.
"Oh!" She gasped, seeing Guardian down the hall, walking towards her. "Guardian of the Void? What are you doing here?"
"Trying to see if I could offer my assistance in relieving the Silvas of the curse Harbinger placed upon them," he offered.
"Maybe you shouldn't aid them just yet. The mere fact that you're affiliated with House Ikari is…something they still see as unjust."
"How they or anyone else, for that matter, choose to view or even feel towards my association with the House of Ikari…is however they choose. But just because they choose, it doesn't mean that their opinions matter to me. If they hate me, then they hate me. If they judge me, then they judge me. If they want my head on a pike or to show off on their mantle…then they'll have to put in the effort to take me down…and I won't go down without a fight. How your family feels toward me is of no concern to my conscience."
"Against Harbinger…or even a devil, you're a trustworthy ally and friend."
"And to hear that come from you…is more meaningful than silver or gold, words of trust and acceptance that reach into the hollow hearts of others."
"Your heart is…hollow?"
"No. It's an expression."
"Oh. Um, what of the other Magic Knights?"
"Some tried to use their magic, only to suffer at the curse they were afflicted by Harbinger. A few received minor scarring on their hearts while at least five suffered from what Tenshi described as intestinal cramping followed by liver degeneration. Lady Rika is working on medical drinks to alleviate their symptoms until we can deal with Harbinger permanently."
"Harbinger taking the magic power of the Dark Triad and their contracted devils make him far stronger than he was without their power, and when we fought him, it wasn't even in fair combat. Anti Magic is all that harms him, and even that is difficult to use because he's using his stolen powers in unexpected ways."
Guardian raised his head up and pointed to his neck area.
"When I fought with Harbinger prior to his incarceration within the Void, I injured here (points with his left index talon to his neck), leaving a deep gash. It was the only time I ever managed to wound him with the intent to kill him. Even after all this time, if it hasn't healed, even with the power he took from the three devils of the Tree of Qliphoth, he's trying to restore his diminished strength…but is facing difficulty in doing so."
"Then Healing Magic won't affect his injuries?"
"I doubt so, meaning that he'll be unable to do much over an extended period. It could be several hours…or even three days…before he recovers enough to pick up where he left off in Diamond."
Noelle then suggests that they should all head back to the Black Bull HQ and work on Union and Compound Magic spells to affect Harbinger.
-x-
Yui found Harbinger being asleep to be quite a rare sight for the scientist. Especially since she found him suspended from the ceilings of her Steel Sanctuary by his tendrils of bone, wrapped in a sphere of blood and flesh. It was disturbing, but then so was nearly everything about Harbinger since he absorbed and assimilated the magic powers of his victims. But his acquisition of the grimoire belonging to Nozel Silva of the Silver Eagles made up for his being disturbing to her.
"Four down," she sighs, "and eight more to go."
She walked past Harbinger, never paying attention to the gash on his neck where magic slowly seeped out. Within his sphere of blood and flesh, he slowly moved his right claw to his neck and covered the gash.
"Grr…" He growled; if he was able to dream, it must've been a good one for him.
-x-
Shinji felt like a fool right now, and he had good reason to feel that way. He was going over the spells in his grimoire and had to ask himself why, of all the ones he used, didn't he used the Anti Magic spell, Sphere of Influence? That spell alone might've been a boon to both his squad and the people that had been attacked by Harbinger.
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" He heard Suki ask him as he sat atop the roof of the Black Bull HQ late in the afternoon.
"Upset with myself," he answered. "I had one good spell that could've changed what happened in the Diamond Kingdom, but I didn't even think to use it."
"You mean, the Sphere of Influence?"
Shinji looked at her like she had read what was on his mind.
"How'd you…"
"Asta asked me about it earlier when he and the others realized that it could've been used to impede Harbinger. But it was probably a good thing you didn't use it; while Sphere of Influence doesn't affect the people you know and trust, it affects other mages and prohibits them from using them their magic, putting them at a disadvantage against Harbinger. Also, it reflects how you feel deep down when it comes to people, Shinji."
"So, even if I did use it, it would've been for naught."
"Yeah. Don't beat yourself up over it. There are other spells we can use that are derived from Anti Magic can affect Harbinger without putting others at risk."
"We probably need to advance to becoming Senior Magic Knights just to tick my mother off enough to make her come face us."
"Honestly, your mother ticks me off enough just by being who she is when she can't have her way with others."
"She ticks me off the same way my father ticks me off now, just by being committed to something I find myself feeling disgusted by with them wanting it."
-x-
"…Ouch," went Kaji as he noticed Shinji and Suki in the photo in the album sharing their opinions on Yui. "He's definitely going down the path of adolescent rebellion against his parents' unjust ambitions."
"All he's missing are a few piercings and a motorcycle with a leather jacket," said Misato as she looked at a picture of an elderly Tenshi trying to do leg raises to keep his withered feet active under the upper photo.
Ritsuko turned the page and saw a photo of Yui with Gendo with a card taped and stapled next to it; apparently, based on the date below the card, Yui's relatives had received it and the photo a week after she had gotten married. And scribbled underneath the date was one word: "Foul".
"I guess she didn't tell them about her wedding," Asuka stated her opinion.
Rei looked at the card and noticed how there was a blue-haired angel holding a heart; in her mind, it seemed to resemble herself, except with a smile that was…devoid of purpose.
"Aren't weddings usually with relatives invited to give their blessings?" She asks.
"I guess in this case, Yui's didn't have much blessings to give if they didn't like Gendo," Ritsuko expressed. "And look at this word scribbled here. "Foul". Whichever one of them wrote it probably found Yui's choice of a partner to be exactly that."
"Folding money on her sister," Misato dared to suspect.
"Maybe it was her mother," Kaji believed.
On the right page was another photo connected to the world they were observing, depicting Yui in an enclosed space that looked identical to one the pilots were in the majority of the time.
"Is she in an Entry Plug?" Asuka questioned.
"Looks like it," Misato responded.
-x-
Unlike the initial attempt she did with Unit-01 all those years ago, Yui was unable to connect with the Evas she had been constructing over the time she spent in her Steel Sanctuary. No matter how many hours she spent inside the Entry Plug, none of these constructs would meld with her. It had been as suspected; her previous connection to the Evangelion inside her son's grimoire was the only unique case, and she needed that Evangelion to affect her grand design. No matter how many of these newer models she created, she needed the previous model…and she needed Shinji's help.
Click. She pressed a button and the power inside the plug ceased, draining the synthetic LCL away and opening the front hatch.
"Another failure," she sighs as she gets up from the seat and steps onto the floor. "None of these Evas are working to my expectations."
She looked around and Harbinger wasn't present, most likely still asleep.
"I hate your bright future, Mother," she recalled Shinji's declaration of rejection towards her, "and I hate the Eva."
In the end, she chose to believe that he'd been turned against her by her mother and siblings, which made her contempt for them all the more intense. She couldn't accept Shinji rejecting her of his own volition, so she chose to believe that they were the cause and needed to be removed from the equation. But suspecting Shinji of having a soft spot for these three above all others, she knew that he'd do anything to keep them safe, even if it meant crossing the line.
Everything happens as it must, she thought, pressing a button on her wrist to depressurize the plugsuit she was wearing. "Hard to believe I've forgotten how it felt wearing these."
-x-
"…Captain Vermilion," Rika greeted Fuegoleon as she stopped by the HQ of the Crimson Lions to deliver the medical elixirs for the cursed members.
"Lady Rika," he responded, seeing her carry two large crates that seemed impossible for her to lift without some sort of magic. "How are you able to lift those?"
"I put in the effort to strengthen my muscles," she explained. "There is a balance between magic and body."
She put one of the crates down and gestured for him to try picking it up.
Fuegoleon grabbed the sides and picked it up, finding it weighed more than he realized; it must've carried more than ten jars of elixir and weighed close to two people.
"Incredible," he grunted.
"No, what is incredible is that the Magic Knights came back alive instead of being killed by Harbinger. They all managed to come back alive, which means they can get back at Harbinger once they have recovered."
"It was…disappointing that your daughter didn't show herself in the Diamond Kingdom when Harbinger was there."
"I doubt Yui is capable of getting her hands dirty when she has someone that doesn't mind sullying their hands because of her."
"She doesn't put in the effort to do things on her own?"
"She's more at home in an environment that she has total control over and is to her standards, and where she's in charge of all. Some can believe that as long as they are the ones in charge of things, nobody else will try anything to alter the current state of things, but the way they are in control can be affected. It's not always the side with the most deciding all. Sometimes, it's the side that has more to gain or to protect by not seeking some sort of conflict with others. Other times, it's fate choosing to favor the ones that put their all in for the sake of those that don't want to suffer."
"How can you be so wise and unquestionably strong and this Yui is…such a vicious woman that won't turn away?"
"She takes more after her father, who was my first mistake made in exile. Lately, after reevaluating my life's history of terrible decisions made during my time in a world without magic, I have to consider that Yui may be my second greatest mistake."
"In what way?"
As they carried the crates to where the other Crimson Lions were in recovery, Rika states why Yui, her youngest daughter and only child from her second marriage…was one of her mistakes.
"I didn't reprimand her enough," she says, "even after her father died. She's always been tenacious, but she never knows when to respect the boundaries of others. Instead of being respectful of others and their personal space, she invades like a parasite and causes them trouble. I don't condemn science and technology in any sense if it's helpful…but the science and technology Yui chose to dabble in…"
"Isn't helpful in any sense."
"It's poisonous and detrimental, to both the body and the soul. And the…the sickest thing that she has done by far…is pick up where she left off and made her choice to enter into a pact with Harbinger. All she had to do was say something to me or Tenshi. There's no way I would've forced her or Shinji to stay here. It goes against our family's morale. What's left of it, anyway."
Fuegoleon had to stop and readjust his way of holding the crate.
Rika stopped and turned around.
"You can use Reinforcement Magic if it helps," she told him.
"You don't use Reinforcement Magic at all. Asta of the Black Bull can't use Reinforcement Magic…and he's strong enough to contend against many threats that most underestimate him of facing. It's not uncommon to see people use Reinforcement Magic in some manner."
"Reinforcement Magic is only to be used as an absolute last resort when all other methods fail. Unfortunately, it's the one type of magic that carries a risk. A double-edged sword of sorts; it makes Ikaris that use it…friend and foe."
"I'm guessing that…it gives you more than enough strength to overcome an obstacle."
"More like too much. It's part of the reason I made a conscious decision not to join any squad. Another reason is that it can be addictive if used unnecessarily. Wanting to feel invincible, that you can have or take whatever you want from anyone that stands in your way, but you lose yourself in the exhilaration it brings if you don't have have a strong enough will to resist the temptation it affords."
"So, nobody in your family uses it?"
"Not unless we absolutely have to…and I pray we never have to…unless it's to protect others when all other methods fail."
Fuegoleon could've used Reinforcement Magic, but decided not to; if Rika didn't use it because of a drawback that prohibited its use unless absolutely necessary, and Asta, despite the revelation that his use of Anti Magic was an art known and possessed by House Ikari, he needed to respect her more by using his actual strength.
"Any advice you can offer on improving your strength without such a power?" He asked her.
"Train your body," she offered her advice. "Exercise more, refine your diet, wear weighted clothing. The body and mind have to be equal in strength and adaptability. If you only focus on one part of your life, the other areas aren't as developed or elevated."
Fuegoleon then had a better hold on the crate and was able to carry it easier to the room where the cursed knights were in recovery. While it seemed unlikely that these beverages would cure them of the curse, it would help alleviate some of their symptoms; Rika would be investing her time into treating these afflictions.
"Thank you for your aid, Lady Rika," he praised her.
-x-
"…So, the question really is…what does Yui want with other people's grimoires?" Tenshi questioned as he sat in the library of the Golden Dawn HQ, reviewing what he knew so far with Klaus, Yuno, Siren and Langris.
"Does she have a buyer for grimoires somewhere?" Langris suggested.
"If she doesn't have a relationship with anyone here," went Yuno, "it is unlikely that she would steal other people's grimoires to sell them. What's more, she only took four of those belonging to members of the Magic Knights, suggesting a targeted bias."
"That's right," Tenshi stated. "If she just wanted to take people's grimoires, she'd go after anyone who was convenient. A commoner walking down the street to perform errands, a guy that just got his grimoire, even a woman that makes her living as an assistant. They'd be easy marks. My sister chose to target the grimoires belonging to the Magic Knights, three of which belong to the captains of each squad."
"But what does she want with them?" Siren questioned. "She can't use them. If she's not going to sell them someplace, what use could she possibly have for them?"
"Can't you see into the future or something, Ikari?" Langris asked Tenshi.
"I looked into the future once, only to view insignificant events that would occur in the world I lived in for over fifty years, not to know the future of any one person. Events are different from people; it's not against the rules to know what will happen at some point in time, but often a rule to know what becomes of someone's life."
"You mean, there are no loopholes to time?" Klaus wanted to know.
"There's a loophole to everything that can have a loophole, but knowing someone's fate before it ever happens…and doing nothing to try and change it…is tricky. And if something is prophesied from beginning to end, something that's going to happen, regardless of any intervention, then nothing we do matters in the end."
"You don't believe in prophecies?" Yuno asked him.
"I honestly don't believe in most prophecies. If something is preordained…or if someone was supposed to do something, even when they don't want to, even if it goes against what they believe in…then there's truly no control over their own life. Someone wants to be an architect when they're destined to destroy a nation, that's having no control over their life…but if that person chooses to do things that keep them from doing what was predestined of them to do…or if they simply die or found a compromise…then fate becomes unrealized. Fate…becomes compromised. The future…becomes rewritten."
"Is there a prophecy?" Klaus questioned.
"Only one. It was recent…and there's still things we don't understand."
"What is this prophecy?" Siren wanted to hear.
"Someone from within the House of Ikari brings unspeakable and treacherous intent. One will disgrace those who remain while another will redeem them. The prophecy never stated who would do what, but after everything that's happened, the picture is only halfway to clear. Yui is the Ikari that has unspeakable and treacherous intent. She is the one that will disgrace those who remain. That leaves only four of us of whom the prophecy states one will redeem…and we don't know which one of us is the one who will redeem us."
"Maybe it's you," Klaus suggested; as Tenshi was the current patriarch of his family, he seemed like the one most likely to do what he could to save his family from his little sister. "You're the patriarch of your family. You're responsible, capable, not to mention you're probably stronger than most of the Golden Dawn put together."
"I keep myself in check when it comes to mana. I let myself slip into fury, even for just a second, I let myself show how unchecked I can be. Emotions are both a blessing and a curse if one knows how to incite rage."
"You can't possibly be that strong," Langris tempted him. "You don't even use Reinforcement Magic like most of us do. Why not show off a little? Give us a demonstration of your magic power. Show us the real you."
"The real me? Trust me, you wouldn't want that."
"You couldn't match Yuno!" The Wind Magic Spirit Sylph uttered as she flew in front of Tenshi. "He's the best!"
"And you have every right to believe in such, Lady Sylph of the Wind. I'm simply saying that nobody wants to see my magic let out just to prove something that is…just a belief."
"I'm sure you can show off for just a moment," Klaus told Tenshi. "How bad could it be?"
Tenshi had this look of deviance on his face.
"Heh," he went. "Do you really want to see?"
They looked at him like they had nothing better to do right now (even Yuno, whose face often always seemed neutral and unemotional).
"Okay. I'll allow you a small taste. I hope you're ready for it."
Tenshi set his grimoire on the table and removed his squad robes. He then took out a coin and placed it in front of him.
"What's with the coin?" Siren asked him as he placed his right index finger atop the coin.
"The coin will serve as a buffer…for all of you," he explained. "One second…can leave a lingering and lasting impact. Here…we…go."
He closed his eyes…and let his magic power flow without restraint…for just one second.
-x-
"Ooh," Vanessa reacted, almost dropping her liquor bottle in the common room.
"What was that?" Luck and Magna uttered; they were in the midst of another small battle when they felt the same feeling Vanessa had.
"That was…unusual," Henry confessed.
Yami entered the room, adjusting his pants.
"I never felt power like that before," he expressed.
Asta, who was sitting with Noelle, Shinji, Suki and Grey, raised his hands up and they were shaking like crazy as he looked at them.
"Intense!" He gasped.
Charmy entered from the kitchen with her Sheep Cooks behind her, each of them looking as tense as she was right now.
"What was that power just now?" She asked them. "It was only for a second, but it was…the strongest I've ever felt before!"
"Like some sort of…divine being took a step onto the ground from afar…and let the world know of their presence…and then they left as quickly as they came," Noelle described her feeling of this power.
"I have four devils," went Nacht, "and I've never had power like this. It was…more."
"Made me feel like I couldn't eat anything with the same passion I have for food," Charmy expressed her concerns over the feeling of power she had felt. "For the first time in my life, even though it was only for a second, it was like I couldn't eat anything."
"Hmm, the strength of the mana," Guardian, who was sitting by the fireplace, basking in the warmth it gave off, "even though it was only momentarily, left a familiar sensation. It was like a refined blade placed on display in a gallery of ancient weaponry."
"It could cut through the darkness and be unaffected by poison," Gordon uttered, his eyes wide with disbelief over the magic he had felt.
-x-
All across the country of Clover, people, young and old, had felt this one moment of unfathomable mana…and were affected by its presence in unexpected ways. And back inside the Golden Dawn HQ, having backed away from the table, Siren, Klaus, Langris and Yuno, all with looks of disbelief on their faces, looked at Tenshi as he continued to sit there, now accompanied by his two magic spirits, Excalibur and Arachne, who now looked like they were reflecting the intensity of their current host's strength, with serious faces. The armored man sporting a different set of armor that was modeled after a demon with horns and a beast mask, holding a large sword that seemed too heavy for an ordinary man to wield, and the woman wearing a set of armor over her dress that was patterned after a spider, consisting of gauntlets, cuirass and pauldron, as though she focused on upper defense and maneuverability over offensive strength. Then, as quickly as they looked to reflect this moment of suppressed strength, they went back to looking like they had always when with him.
"Oh…" They shuddered.
"Now do you see," Tenshi told them, "why I don't like to boast about myself? Why I don't do anything on my own when it's better to work with others…and why, when it's necessary for me to do so, I will stand up for those that can't stand up for themselves?"
Even Sylph, an elemental spirit, cowered behind Yuno's right shoulder as Tenshi got up and sighed. The second of mana he had unleashed was like…an entire lifetime of greatness…sorrow…even pain…released onto the world…and then pulled back into its vessel.
Langris fell to his knees, unable to fully comprehend what just happened. Ever since this man and his crazy sister joined the Golden Dawn, he had looked for any opportunity to doubt these two for who they were in the past ever since he learned about their ancestors. And when Yui showed her true colors, he wanted to believe that the rest of them were the same, cruel and devious, willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead of everyone. But Tenshi… Even if he tried, actually put in the effort, there was no way he could match the Ikari patriarch…even for five seconds. And this was only for one second…and he was still feeling the effects of what he witnessed from this man.
"You could take it all if you wanted," he told Tenshi. "The kingdom, the title of Wizard King, everything… You could have it all."
"But ask yourself this question, Vaude," Tenshi replied, "and be truthful: Why would I want everything…when I only need some things to enjoy the life I choose to live? Why would I want when it's better to just need? Need is a necessity. Want is a desire. What do you want? What do you need?"
Tenshi then extended his left hand to him, offering to help him back onto his feet.
"How…how in the Hell is it that you don't reprimand your sister after what she's done?" Langris asked him.
"Why is that when you say 'reprimand', it sounds more like 'murder'?" He countered.
"If she's persistent…and she refuses to stop…then she's not the type of person that can or wants to be saved. She's the type that persists until she either wins or answers for her crimes. She won't hesitate to take out anyone that gets in her way of whatever it is she's after. A woman that hates magic and anyone that uses magic, who knows for sure what she is after?"
Human Instrumentality, Third Impact, immortality as the soul of an Evangelion. These might be all she's really interested in going after.
"Even if she's family," Yuno uttered, "Yui Ikari doesn't seem like she'll let any of you get in her way. She seems like the type of person that doesn't…allow for such sentiments as family and morality to impede her."
Even Tenshi wouldn't deny this possibility; since Yui had openly threatened his life with Harbinger, he knew that Yui was capable of anything…but refused to be bound by moral constraints that most lived by. And while he didn't have much love for her after learning of her willingness to cross the line between right and wrong, his own moral constraints wouldn't hinder him from impeding Yui if he saw an opportunity to stop her. While scientists were basically people that used their minds to achieve whatever wonders they could, they were next to useless if their arms or legs were rendered useless. And if he had to, he would render her an invalid; not dead, just disabled.
"Yui's passion and lust for whatever it is she has her mind set on are nothing more than a labyrinth of one-way dead-ends and few exits," he expressed. "She more than likely doesn't see any difference between harming others and helping them…and I think I finally understand where she gets this way of thinking from."
-x-
Rika knew Tenshi's mana when she felt it, even if it was only for a second, and had to admit that she was quite impressed by his restraint. He had been keeping his mana in check and refining his power level, even intensifying the range of which his mana could be felt by others once unleashed, and she suspected that his could be felt all over the globe if he let it be felt for a full minute. Even as she sat in the living room of her home in Hage, researching old remedies, the matriarch had to wonder if Yui had felt this degree of strength from her brother…but soon began to doubt such a possibility; even if she taught Yui how to feel mana, it was up to Yui to practice on her own once taught, and if she chose not to, not only was that her choice, but her inability to see the possibilities of having such a skill in her set.
And if he had used Reinforcement Magic, he could've very well split the entire land in two, Rika thought as she cracked her neck. Mikazuki…you'd be proud of our son, wouldn't you? He's much stronger now than he was all those years ago.
-x-
Opening her eyes after a long nap, Yui awoke and saw Harbinger had been sitting across the room from herself, having recovered his strength…but was looking irritable.
"When did you get up?" She asked him.
"Two hours ago," he answered. "Someone from your family is much stronger than they seem, which raises the threat level of their persistence dramatically."
"What are you talking about?"
"It was only for a second, but it was long enough to awaken me from my slumber…and make my bones feel brittle as my accursed injury itched."
"Do you know who it was, then?"
"Unfortunately, no; because it was only for a second, their identity was hidden. It could've been any one of them, which makes all four a heightened threat."
If this was true, Yui had to suspect that one possibility was her own son, probably trying to strengthen his abilities so that when they met again, he would be able to restrain her. It wouldn't have been the first time that she expected someone of her family to try and impede her when she was up to something, not that any of them have ever been able to stop her from doing as she chose. But this time, it was different; because she and Shinji were no longer in Tokyo-3, in Japan, around his father or dealing with the Angels, her son was easily manipulated by her relatives to stray from the original agenda…and he chose to stray due to being separated from her and Gendo. Not one of the best decisions made, but something that needed to happen for the sake of everyone in existence.
"How strong were they in the second you felt their presence?" She asked Harbinger. "Were they strong enough to challenge you?"
"Close enough," he responded, feeling his neck wound. "Close enough."
If it was Shinji, that meant they would have to hasten their goals. There was no way that Yui could let him of all people interfere and stop her. It was either prevail or continue to suffer the agony of this unbearable existence surrounded by these…faux-people.
I'm not impressed that he picked up his interest in the sword from Tenshi, she thought; there were many things that Shinji found comfort in that he picked up from either her mother or siblings that Yui found to be corruptive of his development. Half of his interests are from a stunted era of progress and the rest are just him being in a rut, unable to move forward when he needs to.
-x-
Sleep eluded Shinji once again like so many times in the past when he was forced to pilot the Eva. The sensation of that one moment of immense power had faded, but the thoughts of his other issues lingered. His difficulties with his mother for her choices, the fact that his father went and shot his uncle because he wouldn't tell him where he currently was and wouldn't bring him back, the sense that something he enjoyed was something his mother condemned, something she just couldn't accept because it didn't meet her expectations. But to him, he loved it more than he had ever loved anything else. This life here was his escape from the life he had back in Japan, in Tokyo-3, away from all of that undesired hurt that didn't need to be inflicted upon him or others.
Laying in his room, looking up at the ceiling, he pondered on when he started to enjoy being a Magic Knight over an Eva pilot. Maybe it was when he went on his first mission with the Black Bulls, or even after he went through their initiation ceremony with Suki, or maybe it was just long after he decided to let realization settle in the fact that the Eva got sucked into his grimoire and he would never have to see it again, being free from its hurtful presence.
"You can't sleep, either?" He heard Suki's voice from outside his room, and looked over at the door, which was open and saw her standing there.
"Hard to sleep when you have a lot on your mind," he told her.
"Well, I'm heading outside to train further with my archery. Care to join me?"
He sighs as he gets up and grabs his grimoire off the desk.
"I'm all for it," he tells her.
Outside by the water, Suki would fire her Anti Magic arrows at Shinji, who would deflect them with either his sword or his naginata.
"I guess we're both going through the motions on how to deal with her," Suki told Shinji, firing an arrow at his right leg, watching him slash the arrow away before it could make contact.
"More than half the kingdom wants her dead and the other half just wants to be rid of her," he expresses. "I want her to stop…but I don't have it in me to take her life. I've had to face monsters that the military couldn't stop…and all because there were people that decided to keep secrets instead of revealing to the world what was going on. I hate my parents for what they chose, but I don't want to have to kill either of them when a lesser fate is better because the lesser fate…can be just as torturing as the one that promises only a swift end with little satisfaction. What do you think?"
Suki made her bow disappear as she pulled a small tantō dagger in front of Shinji.
"Believe me, Shinji," she told him as she swung the small blade around with such grace, "as much as I would probably enjoy the knowledge of her rotting away in Hell for her crimes…and as much as I would probably enjoy being the one to grant her that fate…I'd rather live with the knowledge of her spending the rest of her life in a prison cell far from the Clover Kingdom…or wandering around the desolated streets of some ruins back in Japan where the mana was scarce and she had no magic of which to hurt anyone with. Similar to you, the mere act of taking her life would leave a bitterness in my heart that I wouldn't be able to tolerate."
"Heartache."
"Yeah. She causes heartache to everyone she chooses to hurt. Noelle's cousin. The refugees from the Spade Kingdom. Us. It's like she can't stand to see people that aren't anything like herself happy or following a routine she can't or won't follow and has to go out of her way to show her contempt. But then, she's always been this way; there's not a day in my life as her sister where she and I ever really…connected. She was too…I don't know the actual word for it. Detached, maybe? We could never agree on anything. I liked stuffed animals, she liked…chemistry sets. I thought simple-minded men were nice, she preferred men that met her standards, and I told her that her standards were impossible to meet because she wanted too much from those that had little to nothing to offer. I'm not even a genius, but I'm smart enough to know that your mother is just…bad company if she questions things about other people that she finds inexcusable cause to speak of, like she has to be analytical towards everyone that has quirks she would find unacceptable or just unprogressive."
"Like with our squad?"
Suki looked back towards the Black Bull HQ and then back to Shinji.
"Do you even have to ask?" She questions.
"I can live with their quirks," he admits. "I can stand their issues, put up with their craziness. Nobody's perfect…and shouldn't have to be perfect. We're like…that stupid slinky kids used to have going down the stairs; there's nothing wrong with what it does…until someone decides that it's in the way of where they want to go."
"Spoken like someone that keeps one eye on the past, another on the future, but with both feet set in the present."
But what Shinji didn't say was that he couldn't live with his parents' quirks, their flaws. They were the only people he found himself unable to tolerate, and for different reasons, old and recent. He couldn't deal with his father because he had put distance and restrictions on his relationship with his grandmother, uncle and aunt, which was a factor in why their relationship was poorly developed, and he couldn't deal with his mother's hatred of other people that didn't meet her expectations, which were next to nonexistent because they both lived in a world that wasn't theirs to begin with, so they had no right to have these expectations that were wrong to begin with. And even if, by some sort of miracle, they could put an end to this, Shinji knew that deep down, he would have to decide something that was difficult…and would have repercussions, no matter what he did to try and alleviate the issue.
"You know the one thing I can't stand about heartache?" He asked Suki.
"No, tell me," she responded.
"It just hurts when it's someone you know…or thought you knew, like a knee scrape or a cut on the wrist."
"Yeah. Heartache…is among the worst pains that exist."
-x-
Although it was neutral territory, the space within the Grand Magic Zones in between the kingdoms still had a trace of danger if nobody was on the alert for possible threats to whoever was trying to survive. This is what led Licht, Patolli, Lemiel and Secré to venture away from the Elf Tribe's current settlement and into the space outside the Spade Kingdom, just to make sure there were no threats to the tribe. But what they saw made the four worry.
"What is this?" Licht questioned, looking at the former kingdom that had been decimated, seeing in its place something that didn't belong.
"This…isn't the Spade Kingdom," Lemiel expressed.
"The ground, the buildings," went Secré, "they're all…wrong."
In front of the found, a series of building structures that held no trace of what they understood as the Spade Kingdom were present. They didn't look like they were made of stone or wood in any sense. If anything, this new environment was like someone's twisted idea of replacing a former home with something else that…didn't feel like a home at all.
"Secré," Lemiel uttered, "go back to the Clover Kingdom. Alert the Black Bull. This isn't right. None of this is right."
"Yes," she replied, mounting her broomstick and flying off.
"The mana of those structures," said Patolli, "they don't feel like they belong to any mage, and yet…there's a malice to their origins that is…awful."
"Whoever did this is not someone to take lightly," Licht expressed. "Let's head back now."
To be continued…
A/N: Secré, Lemiel and the elves were my last-minute choice that just spoke to me in silence; what if they were doing some investigative work between the buffer lands between the four kingdoms and decided to look at Spade? Something has happened over there, but what? What did they find there that has them on edge? And what did you think of Tenshi's one-second release of his true strength that left his squad mates feeling like they couldn't compete against him if he chose to be more expressive of himself?