"I was under the impression we were heading back to Tokyo-3," stoically said Rei Ayanami.
Ren Amamiya, leaning against the wall, chuckled as he began looking through the song selection on one of the remote controls. "Blame Ikari-san."
But I didn't suggest karaoke, Shinji thought with a mental wince as Ayanami turned her crimson gaze towards them.
Well...we're here now. No point in complaining. "Well...I just thought that with everything that happened, letting our road trip end on such a low point seemed...wrong."
The karaoke lounge they had stopped at in Kōfu was of the typical 'box' variety, replete with a couple of sofas, two coffee tables, and a projector to display the karaoke songs on the blank wall. The boys and girls had naturally divided themselves among the couches, which was why Toji's deadpan expression seemed so fierce. "Well...our whole government practically changed overnight. That's kind of a low point." When Kensuke snorted, Suzuhara
immediately spun around. "What's with you?!"
"I mean, you're not
exactly the most civic-minded individual, Toji."
"Am too!"
"Who represented our district in the House of Representatives?"
"...well, it's not like I could've voted-"
"My point exactly."
"But...a bunch of people died in the capital, damn it!"
"Now
that's an understandable reason...but that doesn't mean Shinji doesn't have a point." Kensuke kept scrolling through the choices on the remote. "I mean...it sucks. It really does. But it happened. Will obsessing over it help us, especially when we've got so much else to worry about it?"
"...I suppose that's a fair point..." murmured Mayumi. Mana, for her part, was sullen and silent. Rei simply observed them all with a detached gaze, sipping from some water.
Ren stood up, moving as if to dust off a nonexistent jacket. "Well, your
senpai will go first then, while you kids all hash things out...but feel free to chime in whenever you feel like it." Placing his selection —
Life Will Change — into the queue, Amamiya smiled at the electric guitar which opened up his song choice.
As the high school student began singing — "
It's not a game, I'm not a robot A.I. challenging you~!" — Rei managed to pierce through the singing. "What drove you to make this choice?"
"...what do you mean?" he asked, leaning in and speaking louder than normal.
"The consequences of our actions; the havoc of our battles against humanity's enemies; are you simply hiding from them? Running away from them?"
He shook his head. "No, it's not like that at all..." With both Evangelion-users sitting on the edge of their respective couches, it was easy for them to speak face-to-face. "...but...we're still alive. Despite everything, we're still
alive..."
(August the 7th: amidst a crowded living room, Yukari Amada and the Featherman Z girls had explained their whole philosophy behind the annual tours, and why they bothered. "It was undeniable proof that even in spite of the horrors of Angel Syndrome, life could and would go on," sagely explained Hifumi Kitagawa.)
"...and even if this world isn't ideal, it's still the one we have to live in."
("
So you know that we're out there! Swatting lies in the making!")
("...man, Amamiya-senpai's really getting into it," muttered Toji.)
("At least it's a cool tune!" whispered Kensuke, clapping along with the beat.)
Rei stared heavily, as though taking his measure. "...I remember warning you not to be rash, in your search for answers."
Shinji quietly remembered that solemn conversation in his room, the morning after the defeat of Armisael. "...we learned what we learned...and we can't take it back."
"Is that so? You will have to enlighten me."
"We will...but for now, I want to make one more good memory. For their sakes. They...they have enough unhappy ones as it is..."
This, at least, seemed to mollify Ayanami. "...I see."
As Ren's song wound down, he theatrically bowed to polite applause. Kensuke quickly hopped up, exclaiming, "Move aside, icebreaker! Time to show off something a bit more classic!"
xx
When Kensuke's song —
Smile Bomb — had begun, Mayumi had perked up. "This opening sounds familiar..."
View: https://youtu.be/Z5b9gqlIRHM?t=18
As he began singing — "
Machi no, hitogomi kata ga, butsukatte hitoribocchi..." — she
immediately remarked, "Ah, no wonder! This
is a classic."
"Eh?" chorused Shinji and Toji.
"This was the opening theme from
YōYō Hōkoku, a popular manga and anime in the early '90s...I
think it got romanized overseas as
Apparition Reports..."
"...I guess it was before my time," murmured Toji.
Ren snorted. "Cultural heathens."
"Aw, come on, senpai!" protested Toji.
xx
Toji decided to pick something that made Kensuke wince; the karaoke video for
Mass Destruction immediately played a chorus of digitally altered voices chorusing "
baby baby baby baby" on repeat.
"No Toji,
don't-"
"Too bad Ken, you pestered me with enough
Blossom Juice when we were younger that I
still remember the lyrics."
"But you can't rap for
crap!"
"Don't care. You
asked for this."
"No I didn't!"
Toji was already going off. "
Fear's awake, anger beats loud, face reality! Never beat charity! The enemy you're fighting covers all society, damn right-!"
Shinji and Ren couldn't help but grimace at the rather poor enunciation. "His English needs work," murmured the latter.
"...at least he's enjoying himself?" offered Shinji, not quite catching most of the lyrics.
xx
Mayumi had finally found a fitting song —
Kimi Ga Kimi Ni Umareta Wake — by the time Toji finished. It was...considerably slower, more melancholy.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pAdgmzL8gE
"
Hitomi wo...tojireba...kitto...omoidaseru~" hesitantly crooned Mayumi, looking somewhat nervous...yet she sang the song as though it were an old memory.
Shinji was quietly listening to the lyrics as Mayumi sung, moving his head along with the melody. '
If you close your eyes, I'm sure you'll remember the moment your life awakened'...huh. As the song went on, the lyrics seemed to match up with so many parts of Yamagishi's recent life-changing event that it was kind of scary.
He wasn't the only one to notice. "This seems too on the nose," commented Ayanami.
"
Bokura wa, tenshi ja, nai kedo...kibou to yuu, tsubasa wo hi-ro-ge~"
'
We aren't angels, but we can spread the wings called courage...' It was almost uncanny.
By the time Mayumi sat back down (by which point the various snacks and drinks that Amamiya-senpai had ordered were delivered to their room), Shinji couldn't help but say, "That song seemed...very appropriate, Yamagishi-san."
"...I suppose it did, didn't it?" she remarked, placing a hand over her heart. "Whether it spoke to me...or whether it's from a long-lost memory...I can't say..."
xx
Mana had been idly browsing the song selection on her remote...until, at least, she had found something. "...huh."
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-CSZDbKuL4
Without much in the way of ceremony, she stood up to sing
Kimi no Kioku, holding the microphone with both hands.
"
Kaze no k-koe...hikari no...tsubu?" She sung as one who wasn't nervous, but rather as someone who was struggling to remember an old song. It showed in the way that as the chorus played, her voice became more confident.
("I'm not familiar with this one," murmured Kensuke.)
("It seems kind of...sad, somehow," commented Shinji.)
Even if she didn't have the beat or pronunciation perfect, Mana by the end was singing far more loudly than the song called for; it was as though she were exorcising an old demon than having a good time at karaoke bar. "
Mabayuku, kagayaku, hitotoki, minna to issho datta! Kakegae no, nai toki to, shirazuni, watashi wa sugoshite ita, imawa tada taisetsu ni, shinobuyou, I will embrace the feeling! Kimi wa ne, tashika ni, ano toki, watashi no, soba ni ita! Itsudatte, itsudatte, itsudatte, sugu yoko de waratteita! Nakushitemo...torimodosu...kimi wo I will never leave you..."
'That brightly shining moment I was with everyone, I spent that time without knowing it was irreplaceable. Now, so that I'll just recall it fondly, I will embrace the feeling. You were definitely by my side back then, you know. You were always, always, always smiling right next to me. Even if I lose you, I'll get you back...I will never leave you.' Shinji couldn't help but marvel; what a hauntingly appropriate song, given Mana's circumstances.
Breathing harshly, the girl took a deep drink of water. Unprompted, she said, "Little Sis used to sing that song to herself."
"Huh?" remarked Toji.
"Little Sis. The one whose soul is in AIGIS." Looking solemnly at her hands, she added, "she never ever explained where she first heard it...but we all liked it when she sang. I...hadn't thought about it in a while. But now..." She clenched her fist. "...it almost sounds more like a vow than a song."
"Mana-san," murmured Mayumi.
"...I'm good. I'm good," Mana swore, casting off just a bit of that melancholic cloud that had been hanging around her since yesterday. "I'm....I'm glad I was able to find that song again. So...thanks."
xx
Shinji Ikari had been the next one to sing, selecting
Hoshi to Bokura to.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AVw-AZgv-Q
"
Owaranai hibi...ibasho o nakushite...bokura wa samyotteta..."
Rei Ayanami couldn't help but muse that his song choice was...an interesting one.
It seems like the last few songs have been trying to evoke some sort of meaning, she mused. The quiet whispers between Aida and Suzuhara attested to that much.
("Man, now I feel like we should've gone more dramatic," murmured Kensuke.)
("But that's
boring," hissed Toji.)
("Come on dude, read the room!")
'Wandering aimlessly...trying to connected the mingled pieces of the past...yet they always slip through our fingers like grains of sand.' What a fitting sentiment; had Ikari looked at the lyrics before selecting this song, or had he chosen it preternaturally? Such thoughts continued to swirl through her head as Ikari continued to sing.
"
Kaerō...bokura ga! Mezashita...mirai e!"
'Let us return to the future we aimed for.' Yet it is a future you don't know how to reach...and sometimes, I'm much the same. Trusting in her heart to steer her true had failed before; who could know its depths?
And yet...we still struggle, in the face of wretched odds. Because we can; because we must.
How odd, that karaoke would induce such catharsis. Perhaps that had been the point.
As such, when Shinji finished singing — and the others applauded — she stood up to sing as well. "Ayanami-san?" he blustered.
"We are in a karaoke lounge. It is a place for singing."
"...well,
yes, but-"
Kensuke promptly hauled Shinji back to the couch. "The Ice Queen is singing; this is a
momentous occasion!"
Rei tested the mic, murmuring, "It is a short one. But I have always been...fond of it."
She would leave it a mystery as to what such a song inspired within her heart...because memories of happier times, and the impossible hope for a happy future...were sometimes the only things that kept her going.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs7eTA1ct8k
"
Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars..."
And so the night continued on.
xxxx
/YōYō Hōkoku
//is of course a reference to YuYu Hakusho
///and Mayumi's song
////was actually from her sole extracanonical appearance in
2nd Impression
)