Creation began on 04-09-14
Creation ended on 05-23-14
Neon Genesis Evangelion
A New Cause: Imbalance
The sight of Lilith, crucified and bleeding, left Mana, who looked up at the giant being, grossed out. But she had to confirm a detailed drawing she found in her book. A giant being referred to as the Fallen Sky Mother, which seemed to sound a lot like Lilith was from outer space. A mother of the fallen sky…whose arrival brought life to a being addressed in her book as Mother Gaia, who took on the responsibility as the source of life that existed within all sentient beings.
"Miss Asagi," she heard a woman's voice behind her, and she turned around and saw Dr. Akagi rolling into the chamber. "What are you doing down here?"
"Oh, just comparing the picture I have in this book with this being in front of me," she answered her, showing her large book.
"I thought you were trying to find a means to deal with the Horseman of Death," the faux-blond said to the young girl.
"That's why I needed to make sure that Lilith was the Fallen Sky Mother; I might've found a means to keep Death away," Mana explained her reason for being down in Terminal Dogma, and looked through the book to a marked passage. "Here's something. "As the night became stained in innocent blood, the Horseman of Death encountered the Fallen Sky Mother…who cut her left hand and covered him in her life-flowing essence that tarnished the shameless. Death, who had since lost his wings and became grounded like the mortals whose souls he condemned to the darkness below, became stained by blood that wasn't that of the mistress he served to preserve for future innocence, and fled the battle before the new dawn arrived and made him like stone." The left hand was cut and Death was covered in her blood and had to get away before the sunlight touched him. So…it's likely that the horseman is vulnerable to sunlight after he was covered in a specific type of blood."
Ritsuko then looked up at Lilith, and became swayed by the possibility of LCL being an effective weapon against the horseman that murdered over three-hundred lives when he was alive.
"Impressive, Ms. Asagi," she told the girl. "We might be able to turn the tides in NERV's favor."
But Mana didn't feel proud of this discovery, if it was even considered a discovery. The more she examined the details of the book, the more worried she got about the Horseman of Death. While he was hunting down criminals for his own reasons, he was untouchable, with no fear of dying because he was already dead. Except now NERV might have the means to install in Death the one thing he didn't have, anymore: Fear.
-x-
SLASH! The blade cut through the flesh and bone of the mugger, depriving him of his right arm as the blood sprayed across the air.
There were times where he hated that there were so many criminals out in the mortal world. Oftentimes, he hated that their reasons for their actions were far worse than his had been. While most would lie and kill for admiration, glory, wealth or power, some just seemed to do their crimes for no other reason than to see how well they could do. No drive for a personal brand of justice, no vengeance-oriented goal like Death's mortal incarnation had possessed. No, for some criminals, it was just…a game. Crime was just a game to some of them…with the stakes set higher.
"No!" The Chinese mugger begged, trying to crawl away from the Japanese boy that had become the symbol of life's ultimate outcome, but was unable to crawl over a trashcan behind him. "Please! I was just playing! I was just playing!"
Death, while emotionless, had eyes that burned with hatred for the fool, raised his sickle up high…and sentenced him to Hell by stabbing him multiple time, splashing blood allover.
"Aaaahh!" The mugger cried.
Death didn't even bother speaking out, not even when blood splattered across his face.
"Run for it!" He heard a woman scream.
"He's only looking for criminals! He's not going to kill us if we stay outta the way!" A man's voice was then heard.
Death walked out of the alleyway and back onto the streets, watching as hundreds of people ran for dear life from him. There were men and women grabbing children off their feet, elderly people moving as fast as they could, even honest police were fleeing in fear. He let them run; while there were criminals within the population, he wasn't too concerned about them fleeing. He would get them…and he would send them to Hell.
Neigh! His horse whined, running over to him. Neigh!
He got on the saddle and rode her the other way, away from the people. His strategy was to cut them off from wherever their escape route was…and offer them the ultimate choice before they paid the ultimate price for whatever it was they had done.
-x-
"…So, based on the information procured from the Fourth Child," went the commander to Ritsuko, who relayed what she had discovered from the twelve-year-old, "the Horseman of Death may be vulnerable to LCL?"
"That's right," the faux-blond responded, hoping to implement this theory in due time. "Therefore, we should install LCL-based security within the Geo-Front and supply the personnel with LCL should they ever encounter him."
"And LCL bullets?" Fuyutsuki, who was also present in the commander's office.
"Bullets hit him, they don't go through him, allowing the LCL to spill into his body," Ritsuko explained the reason.
"Very well, then," the commander accepted her idea. "Have the facility modified with security features involving the use of LCL as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir."
As the female scientist turned her chair around to vacate the office, the Fourth Child had removed her glasses to rub her eyes of the soreness they had from reading the pages of The Book of the Restorative, deciding to inform her father that they should consider contact lenses or even corrective surgery for her.
She set her glasses down on the table and bookmarked the page she stopped on, needing a drink from her cup of milk.
"…So I heard you found a way to stop the dead boy, Fourth Child," she heard Asuka say behind her, and she put her cup down before turning to face her.
"Not stop Death," she corrected. "Keep him at bay. There's no way anyone, save for the deities themselves, can stop Death."
"Stop him, keep him at bay, what's the difference?" Asuka retorted. "What matters is that you actually managed to do something right and now NERV can take advantage of this discovery."
"I believe that's a matter of opinion," Mana responded, and then closed her book up. "Also, just because NERV now knows how to deal with the horseman, that doesn't mean they will be able to deal with him. He's not in Japan at the moment because he's in China, looking for criminals there."
"If the Angel's endangered by an Eva," Asuka brought up, "he will come running to ensure it's protected from being destroyed."
Mana's heart missed a beat after hearing this. If NERV was going to plan a move to bring Death back to Tokyo-3 just to deal with him, then she felt that they were asking for trouble of the highest sort.
"NERV was tasked with dealing with the Angels," she reminded the redhead, "not dead people brought back to life by unknown means."
"However, if NERV is, in any way, hassled or threatened by any foreign or domestic agencies that don't agree with how a situation must be handled, which includes these horsemen, they become part of the problem that concerns the Angels."
"Yet, even if I've found a way to hinder the Horseman of Death, I can't guarantee that it will have the same effect on the other three horsemen. I haven't found anything yet on the other three to indicate that they have any weaknesses."
"Then I'll leave you to it," Asuka told her, which had Mana unsettled about what she had discovered earlier in the book. "If we get rid of the horsemen, you'll go down in history for finding the solutions."
-x-
They were caught between a wall and the embodiment of their doom. Over fifty men and women that had done wrong at the mercy of the horseman that wouldn't allow them breathe any further for their sins. The mere sight of him on his horse was enough to cause such discomfort that some of them almost lost control of their bladders and bowels due to the fear he made them experience.
Death got off Rumi and walked toward the people he was able to corner. He then approached the people on his right.
"Fact," he went, "many of you were lucky to have lived this long to commit your crimes against those that have done you no wrong…but no more luck will be afforded to you. Fact: I cannot be killed by any means you have at your disposal, so drop the knives, the guns, the needles and face the hand of grim judgment. Fact: When hunted down by Death, you have no second opinions. Fact: Until all of you have been dealt with, no rapist is safe, no drug dealer will be spared, no crooked cop shall know mercy…and no bribes or deals will be accepted by me at any given time. Death will not negotiate with sinners."
He then turned to the left and looked at the fools that were tense from being looked at by him.
"Now, we can do this however you feel you can take it," he continued. "You can take the end on your feet…or your knees, begging for the impossible. You can keep your head held high or you can watch as the man or woman beside you catches it for you. I really don't care. I have all the time in the world to be your judge, jury and executioner. It won't matter if you try to hide from me in a sewer, a junkyard or under your bed. I will find you…and I will send you to Hell. Now, the next question I give you will be the most obvious: Who wants to die first?"
-x-
"…So, he left without me?" Mako asked Conquest, the ghost infant returning to consciousness and realizing that his younger twin had gone missing.
"Yes," Conquest answered him, brushing the hair of his horse outside the underground caverns, "but he'll return, eventually."
"And what if he doesn't?"
"Why, you make it seem like he could be in some sort of trouble."
"As dangerous as he can be toward others, I fear he's no match for those behemoths that he went up against and got stepped on by, causing his periods of unconsciousness every now and then."
Conquest nodded his head in agreement and told the elder twin of Death that he would go out there and look for him after he had finished brushing his horse.
"How will you find my brother?" Mako questioned him.
"Follow the victims of his personal war against sinners," he answered, finishing his brushing.
-x-
"…The horseman's invasion of China has progressed," went SEELE 01 to the rest of the council. "He will not stop until he has cleared out all of the criminals and corrupted authority present."
"We should use the United Nations to drop an N² Bomb on Beijing while he is still there," SEELE 10 suggested. "That should eliminate the horseman and all traces of his existence."
"If Dr. Ikari's findings on this horseman's blood sample are true, an N²-based assault on him would do nothing," expressed SEELE 05 to them. "Even if he burned away, he'd just come back again."
"But thanks to Ikari," went SEELE 07, "we've discovered a way to face an enemy that, supposedly, can't die…and the situation will be handled in a way that removes the horseman from the equation."
"Only problem is this," SEELE 03 uttered, getting their attention in the meeting of the monoliths. "Death has been targeting criminals in China. The means we have to deal with him is in Japan. To face him…would mean to find a way to bring our means to China…"
"Or lure him back to Japan," SEELE 01 cut him off in realization. "He's a hunter of criminals. Let us entrap the predator…with his chosen prey."
"But he has killed all crime in Japan," SEELE 10 reminded them; there were no more crooked cops, rapists, murderers, pedophiles or even politicians anywhere in Japan, all killed by the undead child of Gendo and Yui Ikari.
"Whoever said the prey needed to come from Japan?"
-x-
"…People never stop talking about that crazy murderer," muttered Asuka, washing off the LCL from her hair in the shower stall she was using. "Death, Death, Death. What's so special about him, anyway? He's not even much to look at!"
As the hot water washed away the soap on her breasts, the redhead had failed to notice that the girls' locker room's only other occupant, Mana Asagi, had finished putting on her clothes and was about to step out. The younger girl sighed at how the redhead's ego seemed to be the size of her Eva. But at least she hadn't dragged her into a conversation with questions revolving around Death or the Evas. As much as those questions might've been seen as relevant, Mana would've rather focused on her life goal instead of a would-be war or feud.
"…If you want to, I can save you," she sung to herself, exiting the locker room. "I can take you away from here… Oh!"
She stopped, seeing Ryoji Kaji walking her way.
"Oh? Hey, there, Ms. Asagi," he greeted her.
"Hello, Mr. Kaji," she responded, now feeling a little embarrassed.
"Were…were you just singing now?" He asked her.
"Yes. What brings you down here?" She questioned him.
"Oh, I'm just on my way to meet Katsuragi, that's all."
"Except that the living quarters are back that way," she informed him, pointing the way he just came from, indicating that she suspected he was lying. "Only thing down the other way…are the locker rooms and the Eva cages."
"Well, we had agreed to meet at the cages," he explained.
"Okay. Well, I'm off to my quarters, then. Goodbye."
The girl moved past the unshaven man and walked away. She walked for several minutes, close to ten minutes, until she reached the elevator and pressed the floor she wished to get to.
DING! The elevator stopped and opened up, revealing Ritsuko Akagi to the young girl.
"Oh," Mana gasped. "Hello, Dr. Akagi."
"Miss Asagi," Ritsuko responded, wheeling into the elevator and pressing the button for her chosen level to get off on. "How goes your day?"
"It's going well. Yours?"
"It's ended."
The elevator stopped again and Mana got off.
"Miss Asagi," Ritsuko stopped her. "Good luck finding out more on those horsemen."
Oy vey, the girl thought as she walked down the hall to her room. I need to speak with my father.
-x-
Conquest was prepared to see a body count made by Death, but he didn't expect to see so many bodies, all of them criminals, scattered about.
"Oh, my Gaia," he uttered, removing his hood to the sight of dozens of men and women, hacked to bits and left on the ground to collect insects and other flesh-eating parasites. "Death has been busy."
BANG, BANG, BANG! He turned to his left on the street and heard the gunfire. BANG, BANG!
He rode his stallion over the sea of dead people to wherever the trail ended, wondering how long his fellow horseman could keep this up until he stopped.
"Grrrraurgh!" He heard growling sound, followed by a slashing sound, and then ending with something wet being manipulated.
Neigh! The whining of a horse was heard, and Conquest stopped in the middle of the street, seeing the pale unicorn that was Rumi rearing up after watching her rider condemn another man to Hell for his various crimes.
Death, decapitating the man for his crimes of kidnapping and murder, dropped his headless corpse and looked up to see Conquest looking back at him.
The Poison Master got off his horse and approached the Horseman of Death.
"Hello," he greeted the dead man.
"Conquest," Death responded. "What have I done that grants me a visit from you this evening?"
"Your twin," he revealed. "He became worried when he realized that you had left him alone to go hunting for more cruel souls to condemn to Hell."
Death sighed and explained, "He appeared to be asleep. I didn't want to disturb my brother with my criminal-chasing pastime."
"I'm sure he'll understand…if you told him yourself," Conquest expressed; he accepted that Death needed an outlet for all of this free time they all had until the final two locations were chosen by the Angels, but sooner or later, after that happened, and when everything else was dealt with, the horseman without so much as a heartbeat would have to let go of his pastime and focus on their shared goal. "Will you come back with me?"
"Not yet," Death told him. "I want to see if there are any other sinners left before I call it a day."
"I'll hold you to it." Conquest then returned to his horse and rode off. "Yah!"
The stallion reared up and galloped over the dead criminals, leaving Death and his horse alone.
Death looked down at his sickle in his right hand, watching the blood drip from the blade, then looked at the various bodies he put on the streets. These were just more people that he had never met before, that had never truly known him when he was alive, and they paid the ultimate price for what they did in their lives, just as he had in his. But unlike himself, they tried to talk their way out of retribution, even when it was impossible. They begged, they screamed, they ran until he caught up with them, but in the end, none of their efforts paid off.
He himself had fought with the Grim Reaper many times in his youth and won more time to avenge himself against his family. It was impossible to cheat the end of all life out of a soul, even one as meaningless as his had been after being rendered tarnished and unclean. Once revenge had been achieved, he dropped to his knees before the master that would be his new keeper…and paid his overdue debt with his soul, fading from existence after living in agony. But now, he had become the very master he had fought in life, and now he had all the time he could want.
Death can't be killed, he thought, his sickle had now disappeared from sight. Death can't be beaten. Death is eternal. Death is immortal. I am Death.
-x-
"…And ever since Grandfather sent me that book that belonged to Grandmother, things just to be getting more complicated," Mana told her father through the computer chatting system in her room.
"Well, he and I are going to have words after we're through with ours," her father told her, assuring that he would get to the bottom of why her grandfather would send her a book like that. "But how was your day, dearest? I trust they didn't have you do anything strenuous."
"I was sitting inside a giant construct for more than an hour," she expressed. "After that, I engaged in simulation-based training, followed by memorizing locations around Tokyo-3, which is a no-go zone due to the Angels and the horsemen, and then I showered off and came back to my room. Daddy, there's something I need to be honest about, with myself as well as you."
"Okay."
"I…I'm worried about the Horseman of Death."
"You're…worried?"
"Yes. I mean, he's going after bad people and casting the final judgment upon their souls for their crimes, their sins, and it seems like he's, unintentionally, inviting danger to come after him instead of it being the other way around with regular people inviting him to further danger as they try to find a way to stop him."
"Maybe you take a bit more after your mother, Mana; she wasn't just known for her intellect, but she was also one of the most uncommonly kind women of her generation. She could see the good in people that truly wanted to do good for others…even when they themselves couldn't see it in themselves. Heh-heh, I once told her that Napoleon once said that fortune is like a woman, being that she favors the bold. You're both very bold."
"And what would you, Daddy, say of your bold daughter believing that Death isn't as cruel as people make him out to be…just because his mortal incarnation was a killer child that was just as much a victim as any other person could've been?" Mana asked him.
"I would say…that I believe you."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Well, there's something else I want to tell you about Death, but I'd like for it to be in person, face to face, and not by computer or phone."
"I'm going to try and come see you tomorrow or the day after. You be careful down there, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy. I love you."
"I love you, too, sweetie."
Mana then placed her left index and middle fingers on her lips before placing them on the screen. Her father mirrored her actions, and then they signed off for the night.
Yeah, she thought, I don't believe that Death is the cruel person that people make him out as.
-x-
"…So, SEELE's plan to ensnare Death is to bring in criminals from the USA to bait him into coming back to Tokyo-3?" Yui questioned a fellow scientist in the advancement of the Evangelions, who was informed of the plan to capture Death, since it would be considered impossible to destroy the horseman, as he was immortal.
"That's right," the male scientist explained to her. "If he's a murderer of murderers, rapists, drug dealers and the like, bait him with the very people he despises."
"But will that actually work? Luring him back to Tokyo-3 by giving him criminals to condemn?" Yui wondered; she hadn't tried to figure out if Death was capable of being fooled by simple methods ranging from bait to hidden traps.
"As far as the council is concerned, this dead guy is no different from a dog without its handler nearby to hold its leash."
-x-
As promised, Death returned to Mother Gaia's island home, stepping onto an open field carpeted with wildflowers and inhabited by tiny animals, ranging from squirrels to little fox pups and bear cubs. In front of him, the horseman saw the animals gathering around Mother Gaia as she sat on the grass, an aura of beauty and serenity surrounding her.
"Death," she greeted the horseman. "How are you?"
"I am well," he responded to her. "Have you seen my brother?"
"He's right here," she answered him, pointing to a spot behind herself, and the undead man saw his infant older brother on the grass, looking like he'd been asleep for most of the day.
Death sat down in front of the goddess, not even wondering in the slightest degree if she would ignore the bloodstains on his clothes and face.
"The middle-aged members of the Restorative are wondering about your crusade against the corrupted souls of this mortal coil," Gaia informed him of this recent update.
"Why?" He responded.
"Because they're concerned that the majority of what's left of the population of mankind is comprised of the people you're sending to Hell. If that's so, then the only place that is safe for them is here on the island. So, I must ask you, Death of the Restorative, if this is true, that most of the population out there that you've encountered, hunted down, and condemned to Hell…are criminals of every sort imaginable…and that my island is the only safe place for them. Is this true?"
"No," he answered her. "If it were true, then I'd be out there hunting down everyone that has done a great wrong, whether it is murder or rape or some other unforgivable sin. There are more good people out there than bad, but because of my presence when it comes to hunting down the bad ones, they run and hide in great fear. Despite my efforts in getting heard, nobody seems to want to spread the message that my only interest in doing what I do best is the elimination of the majority of crime and to ensure that nobody, not even a little boy, suffers the way I did when I had a pulse."
"If you so desire," she spoke up, once he confirmed the truth to her that there were fewer criminals out there, "there are those in the Restorative that can help get your messages heard further."
"Why would they help me do that?"
"Everyone of the Restorative believes in the Four Horsemen to give them back their future and revive their past. There are some that even help in whichever way they can. Some aid in the cause by providing whatever information obtainable from the most dangerous of enemies. Others give support, however much they have to offer. And there are a handful of followers, just a handful, that will help the Restorative by taking a more direct approach, whatever it may be."
Death then decided to lay on his back and look up at the sky, pondering how to say his next pile of words to Mother Gaia.
"How many followers of the Restorative would spread the messages for me so that the innocent would know that they're not desired for Hell's nightmares like the criminals are?" He chose to ask her.
"To ensure they remain alive and their confidentiality in check, I just say that there's enough of them to go around. Each member operates in sleeper cells and the like. Whenever one follower goes down or becomes unavailable, another follower picks up wherever they left off."
Death responded to her suggestion with, "If they can get the messages heard further…without getting found out or endangered…then I welcome their assistance."
She knew he still had a hard time trying to say the words that could've been said, express what could've been expressed instead of just saying what had been uttered with a lack of emotion due to the long-term psychological abuse. But his response of wanting aid to separate the innocent from the guilty was understood, nonetheless, and she nodded in the positive. She could've made some attempt to touch his left arm or leg, some form of contact to let him know that she, as a morally-responsible and kind-hearted deity, cared about him, that she wasn't exploiting him for selfish reasons. But this horseman, this lost soul, was clearly setting a personal example towards most people around that he wasn't a social individual, that even the slightest form of physical contact was unwelcome to him yet.
"Even before the four of you can ride together," she spoke up, letting him know something that he needed to know, "the four you will, in your own way, slowly-but-surely, change the hearts of those around you. And it is in the heart…that this goal to restore the planet is achieved."
Death looked at her, and for the very first time in his state of purgatory, he had become confused. He didn't understand what she meant by what was just shared. And his confusion showed with his face exhibiting the expression necessary for confusion to be seen and understood.
-x-
"…The rider of the white horse has been known throughout religious details by at least two names," went Mana to Misato and Ryoji, who had sought her out later the next day to get whatever information they could on the other horseman that was seen in Hong Kong. "Originally identified as Conquest, but then later called Pestilence in order to avoid confusing him with the horseman known as War, the rider of the red horse."
"The rider is called Conquest…and Pestilence?" Misato asked her.
"That's right," the little girl answered. "The rider of the white horse always wielded a bow and arrow."
"That helps to clarify our confusion," went Ryoji Kaji to the girl. "We thought the horseman in Hong Kong was the Third Child himself."
"That's unlikely," Mana expressed, clutching the book under her left arm. "Each horseman is, according to what I had read recently, forbidden by the Angels they are tasked with protecting to bring the end of mortality when inside another's chosen territory. Therefore, if Death had entered Hong Kong, knowing that it had been invaded by the Angel under the protection of another horseman, and tried to kill someone that wouldn't leave the invaded city, he would have to answer to both that horseman and the greater authority that had been tasked with bringing the four lost souls together. However, should Death encounter people outside of places like Hong Kong, where the Angel isn't placed in any danger, whatsoever, he would be free to do as he pleases, because only the city was chosen to be invaded by the Angel protected by the horseman, not some other settlement or the very country itself."
"Then how come, when the white rider showed up in Tokyo-3 that day we tried to eliminate the Third Angel, we got sick because of him?" Kaji questioned her.
"Sick, not killed," Mana explained. "And that was Tokyo-3, Death's domain to protect the Third Angel. If anyone was going to get killed there, it was going to be by Death himself. The Horseman of Conquest and Pestilence couldn't kill us any more than the Horseman of War could have that day."
"Speaking of which, Mana, have you, by any chance, found any other methods in that book that could be used against the other horsemen?" Misato asked her.
"Un-uh," she answered her, though she seemed saddened by something else. "Has any plan been made to deal with the Angel in Tokyo-3 or any other Angel elsewhere?"
"Nothing yet," Misato expressed.
"Okay." Mana then returned to her quarters to be left alone.
"She seems distracted by something," Misato told Kaji.
"Maybe it's because she feels that NERV expects her to have every solution on how to deal with these horsemen ever since she got a hold of that book her grandfather sent her." Kaji suggested.
"And lately, she seems…distracted with what she wants to do. What she needs to do."
"She's not like Asuka, that's for certain. Our redhead's as violent as that knight we saw after Death was stepped on by her, but our blond-haired Mana is…without a violent bone in her body."
Inside her quarters, Mana set the book down on her desk near her computer and laid down on her bed. Since her father didn't come to see her today, there was a chance she would see him the next day, but what caused her to be unsettled was some of the adults walking around her with guns loaded with bullets that were filled with LCL, like how there were bullets filled with silver nitrate for protection against werewolves or ultraviolet bullets for vampires. As much as it was the power of will that made the people do things, she couldn't help but, to herself if not to NERV itself, criticize the people for demonstrating another aspect of their existence: The power of fear. They were afraid of Death, even when he hadn't made any attempt to come to the Geo-Front, and they were taking all of these precautions in case he did, which seemed to be more likely because they were going to try and force him to come back. And it seemed to be a crazy thing, to believe that Death would even try to enter the Geo-Front without so much as a reason, without a justifiable cause, and bring with him another massacre as his mortal incarnation had done in life.
People driven by fear will do crazy things out of fear, she thought, staring up at the ceiling; what she wouldn't give to look up at a curtain of stars or an undersea environment instead of a metallic surface. And to take all of these precautions because of a dead man that rides around on a unicorn going after the criminals and crooked cops of the world, it just proves that you're afraid of him coming after you if you've done something worthy of him coming after you. Maybe that's why he would come after you, because you did something wrong, not because you're afraid of him. And you're afraid to admit that, along with admitting that you're afraid.
She yawned and decided to turn in early.
-x-
"Will you be riding out there again, Death, the Endgame?" Famine asked the dead boy that was, physically, older than he was, sitting atop the cliff where they all met for the first time.
Death looked at the skinny boy dressed in rags and then back out at the calm and quiet ocean of the night, and threw another stone in his possession at the water below.
"I've considered it," he told Famine.
"Maybe you shouldn't tonight," Famine told him, suggesting that he take a break from going after the criminals. "Maybe you should take it easy and relax tonight."
"I actually tried that when I was alive, once or twice," Death revealed. "I don't do well relaxing, even like this."
He picked up another stone and threw it. There was a calming feeling he got when he went after the people that were guilty, and it eased him better than sitting around and doing nothing ever could. He could only assume that doing nothing didn't bold well for the lost souls that took up the position as the Horseman of Death, to just lie around and wait for the next order to be given by their greater authority.
"It's easier for me to go after the bad guys," he continued, running out of stones to throw. "There was no hope for me back then, but while there are few good people out there today, they should be able to rest assured that hope still lingers, that even their homes, in the most dangerous areas, can be made safe when all the bad weeds have been cut down and pulled out of the Earth."
"And you believe that the messages you leave will be heard better now that you've accepted help from the people of the Restorative?" Famine asked.
Death got up and turned to face him.
"Spare the innocent," he told him. "Condemn the guilty. Give the few death…so that the many may embrace life."
He then walked past him, right toward his horse, which galloped over to her master.
"Do be careful!" Famine informed him. "The guilty don't often seek repentance towards the edges of desperation. They may seek, in their arrogance, in their desperation, a means to turn the tides against you. We're not invincible alone."
"It's not about invincibility," Death responded, climbing atop the saddle. "It's about inevitability. What's been decided upon has been decided upon, and you can't change that. You can either accept it…or run from an inescapable fate."
-x-
Again, for the third time in her dreams, Mana saw the ruins that were once Tokyo-3, now littered with several giants that looked crucified, sticking out of the charred grounds. There wasn't the slightest sign of life for miles in all directions, not even the smallest fly or worm.
"Why does this keep happening?" She asked herself.
"Mortal history strives to repeat its sins and retributions, regardless of the heart's desire to end all pain and suffering that has been committed," she turned to her left and saw Death, dressed as he was when they first met outside of battle.
"Death?" She asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"
"This is a dream, Ms. Asagi," he informed her. "I'm only in your imagination."
"Oh, right. History strives to repeat its sins and retributions? You mean…this has all happened before?"
Death's emotionless face contorted into a frown as he answered, "Many, many times."
RUMBLE! One of the crucified giants shook, cracking and flaking off large pieces of its fossilized form, revealing a bone-white creature beneath.
"What is that thing?" Mana asked Death.
"A dark piece of humanity's end…striving to repeat itself again," he spoke in riddles, as the creature broke free of its fossilized state, spreading its large wings as it took flight.
"Oh, God," Mana gasped, now seeing that the white giant resembled an Evangelion of sorts, but without the shoulder pylons or a face with eyes. "It's hideous."
It landed several feet away from them, wielding a large, blackish-gray weapon that might've resembled a doubled-edged sword. Although there were no eyes on the head, both the little girl and the Horseman of Death could feel and tell, respectively, that it was looking down upon them. Its wings, which included a tail assembly like those of birds, folded up and retracted into its back, allowing it to stand upright like an Evangelion normally did, making it seem larger than it truly was.
"Um, I'd like to wake up now, please," went Mana to Death.
"Then, by all means, do wake up," he responded, just as the Eva began to walk over toward them, making the ground shake. "Wake up!"
Mana grabbed her cheeks and pulled on them as hard as she could, looking up as the Eva pulled its left leg up and brought it down.
"Aaaahh!" She gasped, waking up to her dark room. "Oh…oh…oh…"
-x-
"…Please…" A Chinese man begged, being dragged out of his damaged car by Death, who had chased him on Rumi down the freeway, into a building. "Don't do this to me… Please!"
But Death ignored his pleas for mercy, dragging him to the edge of the same freeway he had chased him on, looking down at the pavement below.
"You're going to deliver a message for me," he told the injured man, picking him up and holding him over the edge. "You're going to show every last one of your friends and associates…that when it comes to hustlers, crooked cops, bank robbers, pedophiles and rapists, I'll be a busy reaper."
"No," the man begged, but then Death released him, watching him fall to his doom. "No! Aaaaahh!"
Thud! Death saw that he didn't hit the ground with the type of impact he was expecting from him, but decided that it was to be expected the height he fell from.
Neigh. He heard Rumi whining behind him, nudging his right shoulder for his attention. Neigh.
He turned to face her and got back on the saddle, deciding that he wasn't going to find any other criminals on the streets of China, so he had to do the next thing until he did: Hit them where they could be found. That meant he had to search through buildings like police precincts, offices, underground gentleman's clubs (now that he took the time to cope with what he had witnessed the first time he went after the men that took pleasure in defiling innocent lives). But as he rode Rumi down the freeway, the image of that girl he saved, along with her mother and aunt, surfaced in his conscious; their filthy beings after the men were done with them, the feeling of hopelessness on their faces, the despair of never knowing freedom ever again. They reminded him of his mortal despair that he fought against during his childhood, how hopeless his situation had seemed, even when he was drawing pictures of his rage, his grief, hatred and lost dreams of what he would never know in his previous life, and to find himself thinking about them made all the pain he fought against by turning it into strength…made him wonder about their well-being.
"Rumi, stop," he told his horse, who obeyed his command.
"Something wrong, brother?" Mako asked, manifesting beside his aged twin's left side.
"No, Mako," he sighed, as a gathering of smoke appeared in front of them. "I just…need to do something that deviates from what I'm doing right now."
"Is it necessary?"
"No."
"Why do it, then?"
"To see if I've done something right in what I'm doing."
-x-
Yui slumped into a chair in front of the tanks housing her reanimated twins, sighing at a recent discovery that was shared with the underground research facility in Nagoya. As much as she believed in human beings worth saving and being remembered throughout endless time, SEELE and Death (to a different extent) were demonstrating their own variations or limitations of humanity's worth and future. SEELE still aimed to free all of mankind from the flaws that made them unique individuals, while Death seemed to have a different motive in mind, which was to ensure the safety of the people he deemed or felt were innocent…by condemning the guilty to the netherworld for eternity. But the discovery that SEELE would lure Death back to Tokyo-3 by means of criminals transferred from prisons around what was left of the world would be like a large feast for a greedy king or tyrant, except that the feast was still alive and the king or tyrant was dead.
They're transferring murderers, rapists, child molesters, burglars and contract killers to the abandoned fortress city, she thought, examining recent data collected on Shinji's remains. If the horseman found out about this, he's not likely to take the bait. What if they send in their condemned criminals and Death doesn't show up to slaughter them? What happens?
Cough! She looked up at Shinji's remains, seeing him active, reaching for his neck and face, trying to remove the oxygenated mask that he now needed to receive air in his lungs. Cough, cough!
She rushed over to the top of the tank, pulled him up out, removed his mask and straightened him out so that his airway was clear.
"Shinji? Shinji, can you hear me?" She asked him, hoping that he was at least conscious enough to understand her.
But nothing could've prepared her for came next.
Grip! Shinji's right arm grabbed hers and brought her head down to meet his.
"…Flesh is weak," he said to her. "The flesh is weak…let it die… Seeking release… Let it die…"
Then, his grip weakened and he passed out.
She checked for a pulse, finding that his regenerated body was still alive, but what he said to her didn't make any sense.
"Flesh is weak"? "Seeking release"? "Let it die"? What does that mean? She wondered, and replaced the oxygen mask and put Shinji back into the LCL tank to continue regeneration.
This phenomenon would also have to be reported to the rest of the facility's staff in charge of working on her twins.
-x-
The streets of Nagoya were as quiet as they had been the night Death first rode onto them, but the presence of foul intention had eroded away in such a short time with his repeated visits to the city that the horseman could only feel the presence of hundreds of thousands of innocent souls. The pale unicorn stopped in front of a tall building used for housing mortals in small, affordable enclosures, and Death got off the saddle, patting her neck.
"Off with you until I return," he instructed her, and she galloped away.
Stepping inside the building, Death let his supernatural sensory abilities lead him to his destination, stepped into an elevator and went up to his chosen level.
Have I really changed anything? He wondered to himself, the silence inside the elevator not helping him come to any conclusion.
The elevator stopped and he stepped out, walking down the hall and right to a door. He raised up his right arm to knock when he stopped, almost making contact with the painted and sculpted wood. There was a doorbell, but his lack of interest was keeping him from making any use of the device. Dropping his right arm to his side, he switched to his left arm, and knocked on the door.
The waiting seemed to be similar to the feeling of knowing when you're going to die, but he was already dead, so he was just waiting for a different outcome.
"Who…who is it?" A woman's voice asked inside the apartment.
Death lowered his gaze to the floor and responded, "Death has come knocking, but not to claim any souls from your home. Death has come knocking…only to see who he saved."
The sounds of locks being undone came after, and the door opened, revealing the same woman with the purple hair he encountered that night he murdered those men that harmed her and her relatives. She looked like she was still in recovery, but only her eyes gave any indication of that being possible. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, the very teen that people had talked about, the one that murdered his relatives, got locked away, escaped and emptied out that fortress city in the goal to avenge himself against his father who abandoned him years ago before he himself perished; the mere gossip about him was enough to make her fear for her daughter's safety around any that would harm her if they felt crossed, but had been relieved to know that the boy was in an institute and they were in Nagoya.
But now that he was dead, distance meant nothing to him. He could go anywhere he wanted.
"Are…are you really him?" She asked him. "Are you that boy that people are talking about?"
"I was him," he tried to explain how he wasn't the same person he had been in life, even though he still wore the same identity. "But I'm not him, anymore. He died in Tokyo-3. I am Death, so there's a difference between who I am…and who I used to be."
"And…you're not here to kill me or my family?"
"If I had wanted to do that…I would've done so that night I saw you…and you wouldn't be here right now, still breathing, feeling, living. And I've made it a bit of a rule for me to follow: I don't kill innocent lives. You three were innocent. The only ones that deserved to survive that massacre. Might I…be allowed to trespass upon your sanctuary?"
She widened the opening and stood aside for him to enter her home, and he slowly stepped inside. There was a sudden drop in the temperature the second he was inside, but she felt no degree of hostility or murderous intent from him; she didn't even see that weapon of his he used to kill those men.
Death looked at the details of the way the furniture was positioned and the small photographs that decorated a nearby mantle. He stood in front of a large picture of the purple-haired woman, her brownish-red-haired daughter and her husband, posing for a family portrait. His right hand slowly rose up to touch the picture, but he stopped and brought his limb back down.
"Um, Mr. Death?" The woman spoke to him.
He turned to face her and responded, "You…you have a nice home."
"Uh…thank you," she told him, and gestured him toward the kitchen. "Can I offer you anything? Something to eat, drink?"
"No," he answered, sitting down at the table. "I don't eat. I mean…I don't need to eat, anymore. Are you three okay? Is your recovery going well?"
She helped herself to a cup of tea and sat across the table from him.
"We're not…entirely over what happened to us," she revealed to him, his face completely without emotions, "but we're getting there. Miki's the one who got the worst of it."
"Miki?"
"My daughter. Forgive my manners. You gave me your name…and I never gave you mine."
"I never asked for yours. I'm not… I'm not so good with talking to people. I tend to speak more in death than I ever did in life. What is your name?"
"I'm Hiroko Serizawa. My daughter you saved is Miki Serizawa, and my sister is Shizue Sasamoto. You saved our lives that night you showed up."
"I'd probably be lying to myself if I didn't say this…but I guess you three were my motivation for going after criminals and crooked police. Things…just seem clearer when there are only good people out and about…and in places where you can't be hurt, anymore."
Hiroko set her cup down and expressed, "You decided to go out there, night after night, hunting down bad people…because you hated what happened to us?"
"Dying can really change a person sometimes. Not entirely…but I had this belief that had been my mantra in life and followed into my final days, that nobody is innocent…and everyone is guilty. Except now, I am seeing that maybe hope still lingers in this world, that there is innocence to be preserved. Too many have suffered because of the guilty, whether because they've gotten away with their crimes or because they were getting off easy. I won't allow that to continue so long as I am free to do what I can in my duty to a greater force that brought me back."
"So, you're going to go after everyone that has done wrong to others, every unforgivable crime?"
"That's right."
Hiroko finished her tea and expressed, "Might I ask what you'll do if you find that impossible to accomplish? You can't stop crime."
"I don't intend to stop it. I aim to reduce it by removing those that do wrong today. Maybe I'll have stopped it for at least a generation or two. Maybe even just by a few years, but it'll be worth the time I've spent hunting down the bad souls that walk this Earth." He told her, and then looked out the window, seeing that the night was still young…and somewhere out there were more criminals to punish with death. "I should be going now. It is…good to know that you three are recovering. I…I wish for you…good fortune in your future."
He got up and showed himself to the door, but stopped in front of someone new.
"Mother?" The brownish-red-haired girl, Miki Serizawa, stood in front of Death, wearing pink pajamas. "Mother?"
"Miki," Hiroko expressed, getting up and seeing her, "this is Death, and he was just leaving."
Miki walked up to Death, looked at him thoroughly, and said, "The doctors told me I was recovering from they felt was like an abortion. I realized early on that I was late on my period. You…you did something to me that night, forced my body to reject that pregnancy I was beginning to go through."
Death's emotionless face didn't change, not even a raised eyebrow to show that her tone of voice was affecting him in the slightest degree.
"Thank you," she then said, which surprised him, although he didn't show it. "You saved me from having a baby I didn't want by a man that raped me so many times. Thank you."
Death bowed his head to her.
"You are welcome," he responded.
"Whatever it is that you're doing out there each night," she then expressed, "keep it up, please."
He bowed his head again and walked past her to the door.
"You're not…going to disappear into thin air?" She asked him.
"Only ghosts can do that," he informed her. "I'm far from one myself, I'm afraid. Good luck on your recovery and future."
He turned the knob and stepped out.
"You're a good man, Mr. Death," he heard her say to him. "You have a kind heart."
The horseman turned around to face the two, sighed and nodded in the positive for them. Then, he closed the door and walked down the hall back to the elevator. As it closed, he wished he could've denied that last part; he was hardly the possessor of what could've been defined as a kind heart. He had banished it away so that he would suffer no more from whatever emotions he had dealt with in his quest for revenge in life. His preserving the innocent by condemning the guilty…was what he decided to do to make the world a little better because, when he was alive, he never felt safe…anywhere.
"Do you feel any better now," his elder twin appeared in front of him in the elevator, "now that you've seen two of the three lives you saved that night?"
"I don't know," he answered him. "How do you think I should feel?"
"You saved three ladies from blackmailers, rapists and dirty cops, brother," Mako expressed, his infant face exhibiting a smile. "Don't dwell over unnecessary, potential guilt that you needn't feel. Be proud that you did something good while doing something wrong. You punished the people that enjoyed hurting innocent lives. I know I'm proud of you."
Death leaned against the back of the elevator, raised his left leg up against it to stay balanced, and crossed his arms.
"Thank you for telling me," he told Mako. "I shall go see the third woman before I resume the hunt for more criminals."
The elevator stopped, reaching the bottom floor, and Mako vanished from sight, leaving Death to step out of the building, just as his horse returned to him.
-x-
"…So, we're to understand that, for under a minute, the former Third Child attempted communication?" SEELE 05 questioned Yui Ikari in their unscheduled meeting.
"Yes," Yui responded. "For under a minute after gasping for more air, he uttered, "The flesh is weak…let it die… Seeking release… Let it die…", after which he lost consciousness. He has been unresponsive ever since."
"And nothing of what he said made any sense to you, Ikari?" SEELE 10 asked the woman.
"Nothing," she answered the floating monoliths. "His mind, or whatever's left of it, is a labyrinth full of fog. The last I ever heard him saying was…"
FLASH! She recalled the day she came back, the anniversary of her alleged death, and felt only a fraction of his wrath. Her injury had healed up, but the phantom pain remained every now and then.
"You shouldn't have left me!" Shinji's words had burned into her soul. "You shouldn't have left me!"
"Miss Ikari?" SEELE 03 spoke up, breaking her out of her flashback.
"I'm sorry, what?" She responded.
"The last thing you ever heard of him saying was…" SEELE 10 repeated.
"He said… "You shouldn't have left me"," she expressed. "It's all he ever said to me."
"Continue with the regeneration of the boys and ensure the adaptability of the Dummy System progresses," went SEELE 01 to her. "We shall deal with the horseman that has been crippling the crime rate in due time…and he will answer for his interference."
-x-
She couldn't get that white, Evangelion-esqued creature out of her head. The fact that it resembled an Evangelion was disturbing, but what Death had said to her in her dream about it being a piece of history trying to repeat itself was even more disturbing. It was terrifying to think that people actually built something like that, and it turned out to be far more dangerous than probably the other Evas by far. She felt reminded of the first Alien film because the titular creature also lacked eyes so you couldn't tell if it was looking at you or not.
Somehow, she felt that the only really positive part of her nightmare was the Restorative Horseman of Death being there with her. He was close enough to make a move on her life, but he never used his sickle at any opportunity; maybe it was because he never did when they met the night she snuck out of the Geo-Front while ill with a cold, or maybe it was because she started looking into the newspaper articles that revealed the aftermath of his various murders of people that deserved the fate he dealt them, but she never felt threatened by him after that night. And because she accepted that she was worried about the horseman.
What am I doing here? Mana wondered, unable to go back to sleep because of the nightmare. What am I really doing here? I go through synchronization tests, I spend several hours in the Entry Plug inside Unit-03, I look through that book that supposedly belonged to my maternal grandmother, finding out whatever I can about the Four Horsemen, I put up with Ms. Soryu and Dr. Akagi's irritable behaviors, but the only thing that seems to make any sense to me…is that NERV is getting nowhere with this would-be war against the Angels and the Four Horsemen. Tokyo-3 is still an abandoned fortress city, deprived of any activity because of the actions and presence of a boy that was treated like he was unnecessary by everyone around him. The Angels have not been harmed in the cities they've taken from the people, and the people have been forced to stay away from the cities if they value their lives by the horsemen that guard each of the Angels. And criminals and crooked cops are being taken down, left and right, by the Horseman of Death. Death… He saved those women… He's saved countless lives that were innocent…and all the police and other authority figures want to do is complain about how much he's made them seem obsolete due to their lack of progress in handing these crimes and other offenses. What the heck am I doing here?
Beep-beep! Beep-beep! She looked at her watch on her left wrist and realized that it was now seven in the morning…and she hadn't been back to sleep in the last three hours.
"Great," she sighed, and then got up out of bed. "I'm going to be falling asleep today."
-x-
With the newest murders escalating, the people of China now had a singular reason to stay indoors at all times so long as there were criminals left and right of them on the streets or underground. There were a few men and women, holding up large signs that spoke of Death, the Endgame's exploits.
"No mere mortal can stand up to Death", "Death will punish all who are guilty", "The guilty will be condemned", and "Death knows no limitations!" were written in large, painted letters, waved around for the public to see, whether they were civilians on the streets or looking out their windows.
"These murders will only continue until Death has cleared all of this country of the crime that has infested it for generations!" An Asian man shouted over a megaphone, in the center of the streets as the protestors continued to wave their signs. "The innocent will be spared! Honest workers, passive homemakers, honorable police, you'll know only the hands of the gods themselves! The rapists, drug dealers, corrupted officials, they will know only despair!"
"Death was an innocent once!" A woman among the protestors shouted. "His family condemned him to a lifetime of misery! He punished them with pain and murder! He won't quit until innocence has been restored to the world!"
-x-
SLASH! The head of a newly-deceased pedophile fell from its head and rolled down the street in one of the alleys of Nagoya.
Death, only two hours after his short visit to the home of Shizue Sasamoto, who was in the same state of emotional recovery as her sister and niece were, but, like her husband was after meeting him, thankful for the former killer child's actions against her kidnappers and rapists and getting her, her sister and niece help, had detected the presence of a man that had tried to assault a little girl after kidnapping her from her home. What disgusted the horseman was that the man was no older than the teen he had murdered for killing a little boy's dog. He had cleaned out the crime in the city, and then some young soul tried to play his hand at crime…just because he desired to lose his virginity and couldn't get with a girl his age.
"Once you cross the line between innocence and guilt," he sighed, picking up the decapitated man's body and dipping his left hand's fingers into the neck, "and you don't seek atonement for your wicked deeds, you become a part of the chain of people I seek to occupy the pits of Hell. Let the innocent know happy days in a lifetime full of smiles…and the wicked only shame and hopelessness."
Removing his blood-soaked fingers from the corpse, Death wrote his newest message on the alley wall, letting the people know that he had been in the city yet again, claiming more crime-ridden souls and making the streets crime-free.
"I just want you to know that…while I had feared you in life, I don't see you as the same person you appear to be right now," he recalled Shizue telling him before he left her apartment to resume his activities against the criminals, "and that you're good at what you're doing right now, helping people."
If he were to look at these comments, compliments and other statements addressed to him as some sort of praise, it might've been awkward for someone like him. One life he saved had told him he had a kind heart…and another had told him that he was good at what he's doing currently. He had never been praised for so much as anything he had done in his mortal life, not even for his drawings. No, he knew that was untrue; the elder from his past had complimented him on his drawings…along with apologizing to him for all the wrong that was done to him.
As long as there are cruel souls shackled in flesh that walk this mortal realm, he thought, putting more blood in his message, the innocent will always be the ones that pay the price for their existence.
Discarding the head, the horseman walked out of the alley and onto the streets, just as the sun shone in his face. His eyes adjusted to the light…and for a brief moment, he thought he felt another presence of darkness within the city…but only for a moment. Then, it was gone.
Another time, he thought, just as Rumi galloped his way. Another time.
-x-
"…I once asked to see this book," Mana's father told his daughter, keeping his promise to see his child today, taking a look at The Book of the Restorative. "I thought it was like the Bible because it seemed to incorporate religion and blend it with ideals of faith, renewal and acceptance. But it seems to be more than that, due to these other details, like graphic images and the way it changes between a first-person perspective to a second or third-person perspective."
They were in the cafeteria, surrounded by various workers of the Geo-Front, who seemed oblivious to the joy the little girl had for her father coming to see her.
"They act like they've never seen an American before," went Asuka, sitting with Kaji several tables away from Mana and her father.
"Some of them have never seen an American before, Asuka," Kaji told her.
Truth be told, Asuka was disgusted with the way Mana and her father got along, able to converse about nearly anything there was to converse about.
"I don't know what she sees in him," she muttered, and resumed eating her lunch.
Back at their table, Mana took another sip of her coffee to avoid falling asleep, something that wasn't missed by her father.
"Bad dreams?" He asked her.
"No, weird ones," she responded, "especially the most recent one. Death was in it, but he wasn't out hurting anyone. There was…a giant. It looked like an Evangelion, but more like a deranged harpy of the future."
"Oh? Describe it for me, this…harpy," he requested.
Mana took out a small notepad from within her coat and drew the Eva-esqued creature she saw in her last dream. Unlike the work of the the Horseman of Death from when he was alive, Mana didn't possess such artistic flair like he did; her attempts to draw the creature were amateur at best.
"This is what it looked like, the harpy," she explained, showing him the penciled description. "It was whitish, lacked any actual face, being just a big mouth, had wider hips and a narrower torso, and large wings. It was initially fossilized, but then it revived and shed off its outer armor, like a second skin, looking like new. I can't imagine anyone actually making a monster as hideous as that thing was."
"I can think of one other monster people can't imagine making," her father told her.
"What monster is that?"
"The King of the Monsters."
"Eh-heh-heh! If it's between an Eva and him, my allowance is on the King himself."
"Speaking of which…I was able to get the new film on Blu-ray."
"Oh? Great. Great."
Of course, while they might've saw the film at the movies, Mana and her father wouldn't see a film acquired for home-viewing until the whole family was home.
"…So, that's her father, huh?" Ritsuko uttered, having a drink with Misato. "He seems…rather naive."
"Probably because he doesn't come from any families with military or paramilitary associations," Misato expressed, still unable to enjoy beer like she used to. "Anything about him that would warrant any attention from people?"
"Hardly. No criminal record, no scientific pedigree, medium GPA, had a major in alternative energy resources, but after his wife was killed, he spent the last years of his life abroad with his daughter and father-in-law. Last time his file was updated, he was working in the same institute that our former Third Child had been incarcerated in for almost a decade."
"He works at that place?"
"Not anymore. After the murders of the board and the security, he resigned; he felt if the horseman's reasons for going back there were to settle an old score with his past tormentors, then the institute deserved what it got from him. So, he's currently unemployed."
Suddenly, the whole cafeteria heard a roaring noise emanating from Mana's father, while said girl chuckled in embarrassment.
"Sorry about that," she apologized to the people that freaked. "That was his phone."
"Oops," her father expressed.
"Remind me to never use monster noises as ring tones, even very good ones."
He took out his cell phone and spoke with whoever it was that called him. After resigning from the institute that Death once resided in, he filled out an application for work at a local supermarket in Tokyo-2…and he had gotten a call for an interview.
"…Thank you so much. Good-bye," he told the caller and hung up.
"I'm glad you left that place so soon after…he went back there," Mana told him. "For a moment, I had thought he was going to hurt you."
"I've been going over the news, and it looks like he only has it out for criminals of every sort. I've done no wrong, so there's always the hope that he'll let me go should I ever meet him."
"Sometimes, it's better not to meet someone like that, Daddy. Even if he didn't want to hurt you, I'd hate to lose you to unnatural causes or natural causes that exclude age-related factors."
"Fair enough, Mana."
-x-
"…People are being advised to stay indoors and off the streets after sundown," an anchorwoman spoke on the news, spreading the word that Death was escalating. "This mysterious horseman, identified as a former Japanese boy of fourteen years dressed in street clothes and riding on a pale unicorn, has added another criminal to his body count. An eighteen-year-old boy was found decapitated in an alley in Nagoya several hours ago. He was identified by his family and friends along with a little girl that had been kidnapped from her home the night before, presumably by the very horseman himself. A message was found written on the wall where the body was found, written in the victim's own blood."
On another screen, the message was displayed, in black and white to censor the graphic detail: "To protect the innocent, the guilty must be removed. To ensure true justice, the cruelty must end."
"Along with the previous messages left by this horseman, it's been unanimously agreed upon by the police that the horseman is out to punish anyone that has committed any number of heinous felonies, regardless of whether they're from long ago or very recent," the anchorwoman continued to alert the viewers. "Should any of you ever encounter the horseman on the prowl for criminals, be advised to keep away and do not engage him. Several attempts have been made against his life, many of which have failed to stop him. Again, be advised not to engage the horseman known as Death should you encounter him."
Then, on the same screen that showed the most recent message written in blood, a description of Death's face was revealed, identifying him, physically, as the late Shinji Ikari prior to his death.
In front of the abandoned video store that Death trashed in Tokyo-3, the very horseman that was going after criminals got up off an abandoned car and turned the television off.
"It's still hard to believe that the teen was willing to deflower a little girl because he couldn't get involved with a girl his own age," the horseman heard his twin say to him, manifesting beside him on the left.
"I still would've killed him on the kidnapping alone," Death told Mako. "He broke into another's home and took a child of innocence, just to satisfy himself with her pain inflicted upon her by him. So long as there are those willing to do whatever it takes to have their way, lie, cheat, steal or even kill, it will always be the innocent ones that suffer the most."
"But so long as you are there to ensure that the number of those that do wrong is reduced by an astronomical sum, those that are guilty will always have to answer for their sins. In a way, brother, you…are like a guardian angel of sorts. All you'd be missing…are a pair of wings."
Death decided to add in, "And a smile."
"You don't always have to have a smile…to protect those that should be protected from harm, that need to have a future full of happiness…and have done nothing wrong to deserve such cruelty committed upon them."
Neigh. Rumi whined a little, getting the brothers' attention.
Death looked up at the sky and noticed a plane flying over the city. While he didn't suspect a plane to be of any danger to Sachiel, who remained immobile since the second failed attempt on his life, he had to wonder why any plane would fly to one of the very few places people were instructed not to go to. It even reminded him of the slight sensation of darkness he had felt for a brief moment when he was in Nagoya the last time he visited it.
"We'd better get going back to China now," he told Mako and Rumi.
-x-
"…So, the Committee has sent criminals from the States to try and bait Death back into the city?" Ritsuko questioned the commander's discovery within his office.
"Is it wise, to unleash the scum of society upon an abandoned city?" Fuyutsuki asked.
"The Committee want the horseman dealt with," the commander explained. "They believe that by luring him into a false sense of security with his choice of prey, they will be able to capture him. NERV has been fully converted to use LCL in its defensive measures should the Horseman of Death attempt to come down here."
"But Death would have no reason to come here," Fuyutsuki reminded them.
"Which is why the Committee is going to give him a few."
"What do you mean?" Ritsuko asked.
"Fifty-eight criminals are being brought here. Mostly rapists and murderers. In exchange for reduced sentences, pardons and early parole, they will bait the horseman into the city and into the base."
"And what should happen if he doesn't take the bait?"
"Then we have fifty-eight more occupants to deal with until he does come to deal with them himself."
"I don't like this," Fuyutsuki expressed. "We'd be endangering the safety of NERV's only pilots by housing convicts, not to mention our own lives."
The commander sighed and responded, "The convicts will be monitored through anklets and microchips outfitted with GPS. Until they make contact with the horseman, they're to remain within Tokyo-3 upon arrival. The city will serve as their playground for the time being, provided they don't try to run. Beyond that, we shouldn't have much contact with them until later. And even if they were set free by the confines of law and order, Death will still come after them, one way or another. They're guilty…and he condemns all that are guilty."
As their meeting continued on, in her quarters, Mana had just closed her book for the day and removed her glasses to rub her eyes.
"I had best call my father and make sure he got home," she told herself, and picked up her cell phone. "If he hasn't called me back, then it's a sign he hasn't gotten in."
As she dialed his number and awaited the ringing to end, she hummed a soft tune to pass the time.
"Hello, this is Mordecai Fargo-Asagi speaking," she finally heard her father's voice on the other end.
"It's Mana, Daddy," she informed him. "Just calling to make sure you got in."
"Thank you, sweetie. I was just stepping inside when you called. Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, with the exception being Ms. Soryu's attitude toward everything and everyone."
"Well, be safe, and when this is all resolved…when this is all resolved, we can put this all behind us."
"Okay. You be safe, as well. I love you."
"I love you, too. Good-bye."
They hung up and Mana set her phone down. Then, she put back on her glasses and decided to look in The Book of the Restorative some more to understand more on the Four Horsemen. She had started reading some recently-discovered details on the Horseman of War and wanted to finish reading them. So far, there was nothing about any weaknesses that could be exploited against him, so NERV would be displeased, but that wasn't Mana's concern at the moment.
-x-
A day later, in the silent night of China, Death rode onto the streets, tracking down any sinners that were left to make up for the hours he spent in Nagoya. The sights and sounds of windows closing indicated that the buildings he past by were occupied by innocent souls that feared him for who he was and what he could do…and the one thing he couldn't do. There was no activity going on so far, which made the horseman suspect that, with the messengers of the Restorative spreading the word that he was out to get the bad guys, the prey had taken the time to put some distance between themselves and him. But it would all be in vain; no matter how far you tried to run, no matter where you tried to hide, be it in a heavily-armored building, a medieval castle that was perfectly preserved, or even an island somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, when Death came looking for you, your fate was already as good as sealed by the swing of his blade and the fire in his empty eyes.
Even if this part of China is emptied of the sinners, he thought, making Rumi turn right on the street, I'll just search for them elsewhere…until I find them…and send them to Hell.
FLASH! An image of Sachiel being assaulted by the blood-red behemoth…in broad daylight, but then something else happened. Something that he couldn't understand: He had become separated from his twin…and he had run off from the danger due to some sort of assault on him. But nowhere in the glimpse or whatever it was that he saw just now was the the black behemoth, as if it were elsewhere.
"Death?" Mako asked, manifesting beside him again. "Are you alright?"
"I saw the Angel known as Sachiel in danger," he explained to the ghost baby, "and then we got separated…and I had run off."
Mako's face contorted subtly into a slight frown, and he responded, "Did you feel anything from the separation between us in the vision you had?"
"Huh?"
"Did you feel anything? Were you angry, upset, worried about our separation? When you had to run, or flee or however it can be perceived by anyone, did you feel any different from being away from me?"
Death turned away from Mako and thought about it for a moment. In the vision, the horseman did feel something wrong with being away from his brother against his volition; it was as though he were never going to see his elder half again.
"Yes, there was a change in me," he revealed, "like we were severed for eternity."
"You felt…alone?"
"Is that how one is supposed to feel when left to their isolation?"
"Yes. Alone…lost…empty."
"I had felt that way before. But I had learned to cope with it. I guess that was when I started to cast aside my heart so I lacked emotions…except for the desire for revenge. I couldn't even feel pain."
"Not the way ordinary people would react to pain. You went beyond the boundaries associated to mortals…to the point where you had almost none, allowing you to do things others your physical age wouldn't have been able to achieve without some sort of edge. So…should we ever return to ensure that Sachiel is protected from harm…we'll be careful…and do our best to ensure that we don't get severed from each other."
Death nodded in the positive on that.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!" They heard a woman screaming, and that signified to Death that crime was near, and that meant his prey was just as nearby.
A/N: Well, things are going to escalate now. Any suggestions on what you think should happen is welcome to be discussed. Read and review and wait for the next chapter, y'all. Peace.