It was a couple of days before Christmas. And while Christmas was a Western holiday, it found its way in the hearts of many people in Japan. It was no difference in Tokyo-2 and Tokyo-3. There were Christmas decorations hanging in the school the three Evangelion pilots were attending. Even Misato had a small, cheap plastic Christmas tree in her apartment.
NERV headquarters were not decorated. There was no sign of festivities anywhere, as the staff members were worried that the next Angel might attack any day.
Commander Ikari was sitting in his dark, gloomy office, going through some important papers. As he took one, a small envelope was slipping out of the filestack. The commander frowned. There was a small mistletoe sticker on the envelope.
He opened it to find a Christmas gift card from Dr. Ritsuko Akagi. He frowned. “What a foolish nonsense…” he grumbled and threw the card into the trash. He never knew why people had enjoyed this silly holiday. It was time-consuming and expensive… an American invention that distracted the people from their duty. He never knew why Yui liked it so much…
Yui… every time he thought of her, he was reminded of his plans. Instrumentality… once it occurred, there would be no more of this. And with these thoughts, he went back to work.
He didn’t get to work in peace and quiet, though. He frowned when he heard a knock on his office door. “Come in,” he said in his usual, emotionless voice.
The door opened and an unusually cheerful Major Katsuragi stepped in. “Good morning, sir!” Misato smiled. “And a merry Christmas to you, too.”
Gendo frowned. “Is there anything you need, Major?”
“Well, no. That is… actually, there is something… kind of.”
“Yes or no? Don’t waste my time like this!”
“Well, I’ve been hoping… it’s Christmas, isn’t it? And I wondered if we all could take a day off tomorrow… it would give us a chance to relax from everything. And I think Shinji and the girls have earned some time away from all the tests. I even thought we could have a little Christmas celebration together…”
“Major Katsuragi!” Gendo pushed his glasses up his nose as he looked at her sternly. “Let me make one thing crystal clear… I don’t see any reason why tomorrow… or today, for that matter… should be treated differently from any other day. Our last defeat over the Angel wasn’t exactly what we could call a glorious victory… we need to be prepared for the next attack around the clock. There were synchronisation tests scheduled for tomorrow, right?”
“But Commander…” Misato said, surprised at the harshness in his voice. “Surely it can’t be wrong to let go every once in a while… after all, Christmas is only once a year.”
Gendo picked up his papers and looked at them. “My mind is made up. If that is all, major, I would like to get back to work.”
Misato sighed a bit. Why did she even expect anything else? “Yes, sir…”
It was late in the evening when Gendo went to sleep. As always, he didn’t leave HQ for the night… he had a small room down here, so he could be early for work every day. It was similar to Rei’s apartment in a way as it contained only the most essential furniture inside: A bed, a small table with a chair and a metal locker with a small assortment of clothes… most of them the same clothes he always wore at work. At the end of the bed, a small chest was standing. It contained the very few personal items he possessed.
Like he always did every evening, he took a final look at the Evangelion Hangar before going to bed. He usually left with the last technicians that closed the hangar doors before they left.
Evangelion Unit 01’s enormous, monstrous face was directly in front of it. He stared at it for a couple of minutes, when it happened.
He barely was able to suppress a gasp. Shocked by what he saw, he took a quick step backwards. One of the technicians that had been staying behind looked up. “Is everything all right, sir?”
“Did you… did you see anything unusual about Unit 01?” the commander asked.
The technician looked at the metal face of the Evangelion and shrugged. “No… it looks as ugly as always. Why are you asking, sir?”
“N-nothing. I think I just need some sleep.”
The man laughed. “As do we all, sir. As do we all. I wish you a good night.”
While the hangar doors were slowly closing, Gendo could not banish the strange image he saw from his head. Was it real? Or had it just been his imagination? But for a moment, he had seen the lovely face of his wife, Yui Ikari, instead of the Evangelion’s iron grimace.
He shook his head. What was wrong with him? It certainly wasn’t like him to have such hallucinations. Maybe he had been working too hard. For a moment, he thought back at Major Katsuragi’s request for a day off, only to quickly abandon the thought.
While he was walking down the corridor that was leading to the room he slept in, he already thought back at his work, the Instrumentality project and SEELE. It was pretty dark, as it was always after all the other staff members had left. Gendo wasn’t bothered by the darkness. It helped him not to get distracted and focus on the really important things.
However, a sudden noise made him turn around in confusion. But there was nothing there. The corridor behind him was completely empty.
‘Now I’m beginning to hear things,’ he thought as he kept walking. ‘Maybe I should let Ritsuko check me up tomorrow…’
A strong, chilly gust of wind suddenly blew past him as he finished that thought. And this was really weird… there were no windows down here. NERV Headquarters were situated deep below the earth, no wind could possibly reach this corridor.
Was there someone down here? Someone who dared playing a joke on him? However, he couldn’t think of anyone who might have the guts to do something like this to him, the commander. Still, he couldn’t help but feel that there was someone near…
He sharply turned away and kept walking until he reached the door to his room. He went inside and closed the door from the other side. If there was someone following him, he would take the intruder by surprise. Quickly and quietly, he took a revolver and pressed his body against the wall next to the door. As soon as the spy opened it and came in, he would put the gun to his head, forcing him to surrender.
There was someone coming inside the room. However, this someone chose a pretty unusual way of doing so: Instead of opening the door, the person simply stepped through the door as if it was made of air… or rather, floated through it. Since this person was nothing but a translucent, hovering, ghostly figure that looked directly at the commander of NERV.
Gendo let out another gasp. His first thought was: ‘Angel attack!’ and out of a reflex, he fired his gun. The bullet harmlessly flew past the spooky spectre’s see-through head and put a hole in the door.
Sighing, the figure took a look at the hole, before shaking her head and looking back at a shaking Gendo. “Hello, husband.”
Gendo dropped the revolver. He scooted backwards until he touched the wall on the other side of the room. His fingers were twitching. “Y-yui…”
The floating form of Yui Ikari smiled and nodded. “Yes, it is me, Gendo. I was allowed to leave the prison the Evangelion Unit has become to give you a warning.”
“A… a warning?” Gendo mumbled, not believing his ears or eyes.
“Yes,” the ghost nodded. “A warning. A warning of what will happen if you don’t change your ways.”
“My… my ways?” Gendo was slowly getting back his wits. “Yui… everything I did here, everything I created, all of my plans… I only did it for you! It was so we could be with each other again.”
“So you basically want to give up any person living on this planet? The loss of identity is the same as death, Gendo. Take a look at me…” She looked down at her spectral form. Now Gendo could see that she was bound with heavy iron chains, that were as transparent as she was. “What do you think why I’m wearing these chains? We should have never played with forces we don’t understand, Gendo… The Dead Sea Scrolls! Adam! The Angels! I confess I was curious… I wanted to learn as much about all of this as I could… but in death, my spiritual form was bound to the Evangelion Unit by these chains. I forged this chain by myself, while I was living, Gendo… and I can already see yours. It is much longer and far heavier than mine.”
Gendo looked down at his feet, but could not see the chains his wife was speaking of. “I don’t understand… what is it you want from me?”
“I can’t stay here for much longer, Gendo,” Yui said sadly. “So listen to what I say: You will be haunted… by three spirits.”
Gendo froze. He felt as if he had heard that somewhere before, but couldn’t quite place it. “Three… spirits?” he murmured.
“That’s correct,” the ghost of Yui nodded. “They will help you find your path. Without their help, I’m afraid you and this world will be doomed. Expect the first to come at One.” She glanced over to the electronic clock display on the wall. “The second one will arrive the next night at the same hour. The three will arrive next night, at midnight.”
She came closer to him. Her ghostly hand touched his cheek. He shuddered. Her touch was icy cold.
“We won’t see each other again after this,” she sighed. “Not in this life… I wish you the best of luck, Gendo Ikari… there might be yet a chance to save your soul. Take a look at me and pray that it doesn’t happen to you.” She slowly floated backwards.
“No… Yui… please, don’t leave!” Gendo begged. He stumbled to his feet and ran after the apparition. “Not yet! Please, stay a little longer…”
“Goodbye, my husband…” the ghost whispered as she passed through the still closed door. “And take care of our Shinji…”
Then she was gone. Gendo violently pulled open the door, but there was no trace left of her.
His glance fell upon the electronic clock while her words were going through his head: “You will be haunted by three spirits. Expect the first to come at One…”
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(Posted Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:06)
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