Angels, Heaven, and Earth by Ken Arromdee Prologue How strange, thought Tenchi. A long time ago he'd been living in this very house. He didn't know how his life was going to be completely changed. And now... his son Akuma-kun was 14. He was going away to a private school, and his own world was going to be changed, in a very different way. And Tenchi's too; Akuma-kun would no longer be there, practicing swords with his father and grandfather; he wouldn't be asking for help with homework any more, and he wouldn't be listening to any more stories from his grandmother Washuu. "Second thoughts?" asked Ryouko, hugging her husband while floating in the air. "Yeah", said Tenchi. "I felt the same way when Mayuka went off to college." Ryouko's little mannerisms like that floating trick, thought Tenchi, had hardly changed in the past eighteen years. It was like when they both were still young. But then, they were still young. Tenchi and his wife could live, literally, forever. So could his grandfather. So could Washuu. So could Sasami. And now that Aeka had gotten his father a tree--he was a distant descendent of Yosho, after all--Tenchi knew that what his grandfather told him, that living forever can be lonely, doesn't have to be true. The world itself had changed much more than they had. Fifteen years ago there was an explosion at the South Pole, the Second Impact. Only Washuu's secret intervention had whittled the catastrophe down to size. Something like that would throw up enough dust into the atmosphere to cause the equivalent of a fifty year nuclear winter. Scientists never did figure out why the dust had settled so fast, but Tenchi knew that, though millions died in the floods, it could have been much, much, worse. "It's okay", said Ryouko. "We can easily visit, or Akuma-chan can come here. It's only about eight teleports for either of us. He's not going to be gone forever, Tenchi. Nobody leaves here forever, especially family. Hey, maybe he'll find a girlfriend in Tokyo-2." She tried to smile and not show her discomfort at the idea of their son being away. "Just in case he does, I should have warned him not to destroy the school to chase someone he likes. That never works", she joked. "Well, it did once", replied Tenchi, smiling at Ryouko. He returned the hug, knowing that nothing could really happen to Akuma--he not only had Ryouko's powers, but he had managed to produce Light Hawk Wings sooner than either of them had--but he worried about him nevertheless. Parents always worry. * * * * * "The seventeenth Angel is arriving?" said one male voice, hidden behind a pictureless screen bearing only the word "SEELE" and the number "06". Another faceless man, this one with a German accent, replied. "The one we have found. It was a lucky find, as the crowd scan project is in its infancy. The readings confirm an AT Field potential several times that of any Angel encountered so far. His name means 'demon', and we have discovered that his supposed mother's records are completely fake." "The secret Dead Sea Scrolls list the Angel of Free Will last. We do not believe he will act until his number comes up." "He should not act until his number comes up. When the Seventeenth Angel and Lilith annihilate each other, the Human Complementation Project can happen. It cannot if there are still other Angels left to appear." "And if the Fourth Child does not act at all?" "Then there is no disadvantage over NERV's choice for the Fourth Child. It will not hamper our goal; there are many methods." * * * * * After several trains and some walking, Akuma found the address to which he was supposed to report. It didn't look like a school at all; it was just a nondescript office. There was a secretary in the waiting room, but nobody else. "Excuse me, miss, where do I go now?" asked Akuma. "I'm supposed to be a student at the Marduk Institute and I'm wondering where to go." The secretary smiled politely at Akuma and turned a knob, letting a tinny voice speak through a grate on the wall. Strange, Akuma thought. Why not just come out and appear? Maybe security. It was a top-secret project, after all. "Just a moment", said the voice. "We would prefer you give a blood sample and submit to a brain scan first." Odd way of phrasing it, thought Akuma. They wanted him to do it, but the way they said it, they might not be expecting cooperation. Best to see if it really was voluntary; it wouldn't do to submit a sample laced with Juraian DNA and Masu. "I would prefer not." "Very well", said the voice. "Do you know about our special programs?" He must mean the robot piloting, thought Akuma. Akuma could hardly believe his luck. His grandmother suggested that they might be recruiting robot pilots from the students. It was never in the newspapers, but she had ways of knowing; she showed him a fuzzy photograph of a giant robot battle, something she found when hacking satellite computers. Maybe they were supposed to have told him by now? That had to be it; it would be impossible to hide the fights from the students living in the area, anyway. "You want me to be a pilot", he asked. "Right?" "That is correct", grated the speaker. "You are now the Fourth Child. You will be piloting Eva-03. Our secretary will give you the necessary instructions and passes, as well as information about the Angels. Take them and go now." Akuma could barely hide his excitement. It was true, then, he would be a pilot. He imagined himself walking through the city, smashing rocks and trees with huge fists, and blasting alien invaders to oblivion. Akuma had tried it once, after watching five episodes of Gundam in a row, animating a cliff wall in lieu of a mobile suit. Ryo-ohki had turned into a spaceship and played with him. He had taken down several oaks and a carrot patch before his mother came by and took him home for dinner--without any dessert. * * * * * The ocean, thought Shinji, looked like a battlefield. A broken statue, half flooded by the Second Impact fifteen years before, was the body of a soldier. A man, huge as an Eva, somehow fought an unknown enemy on orders from a distant commander who barely knew he existed, and now he lay in the sea as a piece of trash, dead and forgotten. The setting sun bloodied the water, a sea of red carnage in which the bare bones of old skyscrapers were exposed. And the stench... Shinji imagined that he could still smell around himself the LCL that he was too familiar with. A smell indistinguishable from blood. A boy walked by along the shore, blocking Shinji's reverie. A boy about his own age, with a rounded face, short black hair, and a narrow ponytail. Shinji didn't recognize him; but shouldn't they be keeping all outsiders away from this area? Oh well. It wasn't Shinji's business. Shinji kept staring at the seashore and let the boy pass by. Instead of walking past Shinji and leaving him alone, the boy stopped. He raised a hand and greeted Shinji with a "Hello." Shinji waved. "Hello." "It's a nice sunset, isn't it?" "Uh, sure", replied Shinji. "I'm just feeling bad about some other things, that's all. I came out here to be alone for a little while. I'm almost alone anyway, ever since yesterday. They put me in a separate dormitory and told me that they had to do that because I'd be sharing it with the Fourth Child." "Oh", said the boy. He smiled at Shinji. "Well, I'm the Fourth Child. Masaki Akuma. I hope we can be friends, okay? It looks like we might be seeing a lot of each other." "Yeah", said Shinji. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ikari Shinji, the Third Child." "Nice to meet you, Shinji-kun. We're going to both be pilots. How do you like piloting Eva?" "Akuma-kun, piloting Eva is what I'm here for. It's the only reason my father even notices me. I can't do anything aside from pilot Eva." Akuma, taken aback, thought that over and asked "Oh, you're having problems in school?" "No, no... it's a lot more personal than that. My mother died in an accident and my father abandoned me. Asuka hates me... she's the First Child. I'm worthless, Akuma-kun. People depend on me to pilot Eva, but if there was no Eva, I don't know if there would be a purpose to my existence." "Whoa..." said Akuma as he listened to Shinji, slowly frowning as Shinji spoke on. "Shinji-kun", he said after the Third Child finished speaking, "I think you're looking at it all wrong. You should cheer up. Piloting Eva is a valuable service. You're saving humanity from the Angels. It's nothing to hate yourself over." Shinji sighed. "I'm doing other people good by piloting Eva and destroying the Angels, but if there weren't any Angels, nobody would notice me. Nobody notices me except for piloting Eva against the Angels, anyway. Not even my father." "I'm sorry", said Akuma. "It must feel terrible to have a father like that. But he must have his reasons. We're here to protect everyone else, and that's a very big thing. Right?" Akuma smiled, and added "Shinji-kun, come on, could you at least smile a little bit? Please?" A forced, wan, smile passed Shinji's face, but it quickly disappeared as he talked. "Akuma-kun, they left me in the Eva for sixteen hours. They couldn't think of a way to rescue me, and I only got out by luck. Or I would have suffocated, or been blown to bits by N2 mines. I don't pilot Eva to save the world, I pilot Eva despite everything because that's the only reason I am liked." The other boy thought that over for even longer this time. "That must feel terrible, Shinji", he said. "But listen, nobody's that unlikeable. If you look around you and realize that there are people around you... Shinji, how's this. I want to be friends with you. I was brought here to pilot Eva, but I don't think you have to pilot Eva to be a real human being. You sound so... so _sad_ and you don't need to be." "Th... thank you, Akuma-kun." Shinji wondered if the boy meant it. It was so rare for someone to just be nice to him. Everyone wanted something. "Say, let's go and get dinner, and then I can unpack. It must be sitting out here all alone that's making you feel like this." "No", said Shinji, getting off his perch. "There's just too much pain in my life." * * * * * Shinji was a nice person, thought Akuma, but he was a little depressed. No, he was a lot depressed, and he had very good reasons. For Shinji, piloting Eva wasn't fun, piloting was all that held him to sanity. All Akuma could do would be to try to talk to him and help him out of his depression, but the real way to change things would be to change Shinji's life. And Akuma didn't know if that was even possible. Fourteen year olds are affected by too many forces beyond their control; he'd have to wait until he was an adult. Adults never had to worry about that. "You know, you have twice as much stuff as me?" asked Shinji. "That's because you hardly have anything at all", replied Akuma, unpacking a row of model-building magazines. "Don't you have anything aside from your clothes? Keepsakes or something?" "Well, a little... what I have is still at Misato's place though. She's the woman they assigned to take care of me before. She's nice but a little bossy, and she gets drunk a lot." "Drunk?" asked Akuma, unpacking an ornate metallic object that looked like a sword hilt. "Yes, drunk. She also keeps a pet penguin. And she lives on instant ramen. It's funny how everyone in class says they'd love to live with her. Anyway, don't worry, you'll meet her tomorrow when we have practice. By the way, what's that thing?" "Oh, this?" asked Akuma, pointing to the sword hilt. Shinji nodded in acknowledgement, so he explained. "It's a long story, Shinji. Basically, it's a family heirloom and it has something to do with how my parents met." "It must be nice to have a normal family, Akuma-kun. Or... are they your real parents?" "Hm? Yeah, they're my parents." "Oh. Asuka has a foster mother. Whenever Asuka talks to her on the phone she puts on this real sweet and childish act. I told Asuka it was nice to have a mother once, when I didn't know, and she got mad at me." "She's one of the people I'll meet tomorrow too, right, Shinji-kun?" "Right. Do you have any other relatives?" "I have a sister. Her name's Mayuka, she's just started college. And, well, some more distant relatives. There's my grandmother Washuu, and... well, lots of aunts, but they're not all that related to me." Akuma's face showed some discomfort as he tried to avoid revealing anything peculiar. Too many of his relatives would have to be very old if they were Earth people, and he didn't want his great grandfather to have to pretend to be stooped and grey-haired if he ever visited. Akuma hung a row of shirts up in the closet. There was barely enough room, with all of Shinji's shirts and pants in there too, as well as jackets, boots, and other items. Couldn't a place which builds billion yen robots afford better quarters than this? "Well, that's that", said Akuma, closing the closet firmly. "Do you want the top bed or the bottom one? You know, I really wish they had more room in here. I can understand wanting all the Children to get close, but this is a little silly." "I don't care, Akuma-kun. It really doesn't matter to me. Pick one." Oh-oh, thought Akuma. He's doing it again. "Listen, Shinji-kun, it's your decision. Pick which bed you want. There must be some reason you'd want one over the other." Shinji thought, answering "Well... okay. I suppose the top one. By the way, do you snore?" "No, I don't snore", said Akuma. After they both got ready for bed, Akuma let Shinji climb up and then got into bed and turned off the light. What a day, he thought as he fell asleep. And tomorrow would be even bigger. Akuma wondered what NERV and the Evangelion units would be like, in person, recalling the pictures in the information package he had been given. And he hoped that everyone else would be a little more cheerful than Shinji. Shinji had had a rough life, but really. At any rate, it wouldn't be long until he found out.