/December 8, 1996/
OBSERVATIONS:
- This is my fifty-fifth life. My fifty-fourth life ended after twenty years, when a Warrior Priest of "Lord Sachiel" challenged my wife to a duel. The collateral damage was significant, and I was caught in the crossfire. Friends found: Chie. (Married: ditto.)
- Important Events: An Angel manifestation of sorts. (They tend to be quite varied in Non-Impact timelines, I've noticed.)
- New Name: Yu Narukami
- New Age: 10 Years Old (As of today, in fact; it's my birthday. Nice.)
- New Location: Kyoto (Been a while since I was in a place that wasn't Tokyo or Inaba.)
- Miscellany: preliminary research on my end indicates Fuyutsuki-sensei is teaching metaphysical biology at Kyoto University. High odds of an Impact timeline!
- Never forget your first life. Never forget those who died.
Yu quietly looked out his window, hands idly making paper cranes as he took in the sight of the stars.
Here's to another life...
(
What is your goal?)
(He had to find the truth.)
(
But to what end?)
Second Impact came and went; he veered away from anything related to the JSDF or the JSSDF; however, even employees of NERV would have children, and as such educational facilities were still a necessity. (Anything within the junior high and high school curricula would be a breeze by this point...save for a few things he might need to brush up on. His memory wasn't perfect.)
(
That's because you've lived too long.)
He moved to Hakone after obtaining his educational credentials in the late 2000s, wherein he joined the staff of the First Municipal Junior High School. As more and more resources were poured into the city (indeed, as Hakone was rechristened as Tokyo-3), rumors were acknowledged, and municipal governance made things clear: the city was actually built over a subterranean cavity called the Geofront (
an underground arcology? Impressive.); Tokyo-3 had been selected to become a fortress city; at some point within the next decade, the UN was convinced that an extraterrestrial threat (the 'Angels') would be targeting Japan; that the organization NERV would be deploying experimental weapons to stop these monsters.
Confidentiality agreements were employed en masse. Most of the staff were briefed directly by NERV personnel at the school.
Yu, on the other hand...had been invited directly to NERV.
His thoughts were somewhat in flux as he descended a tram car into the spherical expanse (and his past lives spent doing engineering work were
screaming, because how were skyscrapers supposed to be suspended with hydraulic systems alone?!); he tried keeping note of where he was being escorted, but the path taken was both extremely
boring and extremely circuitous.
As such, he was rather ready to
get on with it when his armed escort directed him into the cavernous office that could only belong to Gendo Ikari. Gazing out the windows at the picturesque scenery of the Geofront, he remarked, "nice view."
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqigF-gLLZo
"Indeed," remarked Gendo, who was no longer clean-shaven.
"...I have to say, I approve of the new look. Orange shades, white gloves, chinstrap beard: it makes your inherent creepiness more bearable."
"You're much more cheeky now than you were in our
last meeting."
"Now that I know you're aware of the other timelines, I don't see the need to be polite."
"And just how
many timelines have you experienced?"
"This life marks my fifty-fifth." Gendo
immediately snorted. "And I assume
that means you've gone through a lot more."
"To put it mildly, Narukami."
"So why?" Yu leaned onto the table, glaring at his reflection in Gendo's glasses. "Why is this
happening? What's the reason for all of these timelines? Some are variable...and
wildly so...but this one, where Second Impact occurs, and the Angels are prepared to attack? It happens a
lot."
"Given how much these events seared themselves into the memories of mankind, it's of no surprise."
So it DOES have something to do with cognition. "But why? What's
causing the repetition?"
Gendo didn't answer that question. Instead, he said, "in the year 2015, the Angels will make their grand return. Children by the name of Rei Ayanami, Shinji Ikari, and Asuka Langley-Sohryu will be assigned to your class, because of the role they must play in this insipid drama. If you want more answers, then you'll simply have to play along until the end, as everyone else has to."
'Everyone else.' Focus on the key words. "...everyone
else is unaware of these events: unaware that they've happened before. But
you are. Why?"
"Where's the fun in spoiling?" remarked Gendo, a genuinely amused smirk coming to his face. "Your presence is the first bit of spontaneity I've had in a long time when it comes to this rancid plot; why would I ruin it?"
Yu resisted the urge to punch the man in the face.
(
His mentality is so similar to yours.)
(They weren't alike in the least. He had a goal; he had a grander purpose than mere entertainment!)
(
You're already on the way; how much of your prior lives have been glossed over? How much have you already forgotten, if you've even bothered to try and remember?)
(...)
"...I imagine this won't be the last time we'll meet," calmly said Yu, turning away on his heel. (The man had mentioned 'Shinji Ikari'; was that his child?) As his shoes echoed across the floor, marked with esoteric designs, one question came to mind. "By the way, Ikari-san...whatever happened to Fuyutsuki-sensei's graduate assistant? Whatever happened to Yui Ikari?"
Gendo sighed, sounding somewhat...tired. "Yui Ikari has already assumed her role in this particular story...an old and bothersome role...but I endure it for the times where something different happens. In that, I find some measure of happiness, however meager it may be; in a sense, this tired timeline is my penance, of sorts."
"...I see."
How interesting. "
One more question: Fuyutsuki-sensei mentioned a group by the name of SEELE. Are they still a factor?"
Gendo's melancholy transformed into joyful spite, twisting his lips into a merry sneer. "A bunch of old men, who collectively had the power to control the world...and control it they did." His shades seemed to flash, allowing his eyes — in all their intensity and savvy — to be seen. "They've long since been rendered irrelevant. Any semblance of their activity...is naught but an echo. Ponder that if you'd like, Narukami."
(...that was certainly cryptic.)
(
You shouldn't treat that man as a friend.)
(He had managed to form a bond with Tohru Adachi, of all people. Could Gendo Ikari be any different?)
(
One conversation is all you needed to know that his brand of madness is different from Adachi's.)
Yu's thoughts circulated about themselves as he was escorted out of NERV.
What am I getting into?
(He was getting closer to the truth, slowly but surely.)
(
But to what end?)
Weeks and months passed by, as Yu dutifully taught his second year students at the renamed Tokyo-3 First Municipal Junior High School.
Finally, in March of 2015, an unusual student appeared in Class 2-A: a young girl with blue hair, pale skin, and red eyes.
Yu idly noted that she visibly reacted to his presence with
surprise. Referencing his own notes and the seating assignments, he knew that it was none other than Rei Ayanami. (The girl that Gendo Ikari had mentioned. But for what overarching purpose?)
She seemed to expect someone different. (It was only logical; before he came along, there
would have been a different homeroom teacher.)
Is she also aware of the changes? Would Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley-Sohryu be the same?
He would find out soon enough; as the first term moved along, Yu did his best to be a supportive teacher for his students: listening to complaints, keeping the peace, and most importantly: offering wisdom. (No Aida-kun, taking pictures of the girls is a
bad idea; Horaki-chan, if you really like Suzuhara-kun, just
tell him, because boys at that age can be idiots; etcetera etcetera, blah blah blah.)
Ayanami was notoriously insular, treating him with outright suspicion. She never came to him for assistance, and only responded when he called on her for answers.
Finally, shortly after the first major set of exams began...the Angels had made their comeback.
(Hiding in a shelter had been kind of boring, by comparison.)
(
You've already had one life where the purple giant crushed your apartment whilst battling this Angel. It looks like 'Sachiel'.)
(...right, that
had happened to him, before.)
(
You're slipping.)
Days later, Shinji Ikari was assigned to his class. Surprisingly, Yu received the
same sensation from the boy as he had felt so long ago from Yui Ikari: an unnatural emptiness, acting according to some detailed yet imperfect script. Human-like in so many ways...yet not
human.
(How odd, that the children who seemed to treat Ayanami with such concern and trepidation couldn't sense that Shinji Ikari was somehow more inhuman than all of them.)
(
Curiouser and curiouser, isn't it?)
(There were times when Ayanami would see him caught in a stare, fixated on Shinji Ikari in all of his inherent oddness.)
(
She doesn't trust you. Why?)
Weeks went by. More Angels appeared. Shinji and Rei were in and out of class; usually at the same time, sometimes staggered. Rumors of the giant robotic creatures (mechs? Mobile suits? He didn't know what the proper term was) had filtered through the ranks of the school by now, giving him a proper name:
Evangelion. (There was something foreboding and ominous about that title.)
(
Ironic, compared to original Greek word euangelion.)
(...right, he had taken Greek on a bit of whim some time ago. When had it been?)
(
You're slipping.)
At last, the third of the Evangelion Pilots (ironically known as the Second Child) had appeared: Asuka Langley-Sohryu.
He had her pegged as a stereotypical
tsundere in an instant, a complete and total contrast from the withdrawn and apologetic introvert that was Shinji Ikari.
(And yet...she evoked the same sensation as Shinji and Yui had: a mere automaton, acting according to a strange compulsion that was utterly bizarre. How could no one else see it?)
(
...maybe it's because that's what they expect. A self-fulfilling prophecy.)
(But why
them? He had only ever felt those sensations from Yui Ikari, Shinji Ikari, and Asuka Langley-Sohryu: no one else. What was the connection?)
(
Yet another mystery to consume your life...)
