Years ago, Gendo Ikari abandoned his son after his wife died. In his mind, he had better things to do than raising a child. And so Shinji was sent to live at his aunt and uncle's house in Osaka.
Osaka had survived Second Impact and the following years of chaos remarkably unscathed. That's where the japanese government had retreated after the original Tokyo was submerged.
If things had gone normally, this Shinji Ikari would have turned out right like most of the others through the multiverse (except for speaking osaka-ben in the famous local accent) had his relatives not living in a very special part of the city.
Shinji grew up, went to school and lived in the well-known Abenobashi district. His aunt and uncle ran the Turtle public baths there. The old but still active shopping arcade became his playground and hanging spot during his years in Osaka. There he met his first (and only friend), a young girl named Arumi Asahina.
Arumi was the only daughter of the family who was running the Grill Pelican, a french restaurant in the shopping arcade. Against all odds (and Shinji's reluctance at forming bonds with fellow humans), the two of them had stuck together, becoming the best of childhood friends. They were on friendly terms with everyone at the arcade, including Shinji's older cousin, Sayaka, Kouhei the shopkeeper and 'Aunt' Aki.
Alas, good things had to come to an end. With the rebuilding of the japanese government at Osaka, the Abenobashi shopping arcade was slated for demolition, to be replaced with offices skyscrapers. Shops closed one after the other. Shinji was devastated when he learned that the Grill Pelican was closing down and Arumi's family was going to move to Hokkaido.
Then there was Granpa Masa's accident and the Grill Pelican's sign being destroyed. That's when things really got bizarre.
Apparently, the pelican had been part of a group of four statues representing the four guardian deities of chinese myth, put there just before the Abenobashi shopping arcade's construction. Its destruction had wreaked havoc with a previously unknown mystical network supposed to bring prosperity to the arcade.
The result was that Shinji and Arumi had been sent on a wild cross-dimensional ride, going through several alternative versions of the Abenobashi shopping arcade in their quest for Home.
Fantasy RPG, Sci-Fi, Kung-Fu flicks, Prehistory, Romance at high school were but a few of the worlds they had visited.
Shinji had met Eutus, an onmyojutsu mage, during his travels and discovered that the man was his biological grandfather. Oh, and that the sexy underdressed redhead (always appearing in each world they visited) he had been fantasying about more than once was his (young) grandmother, ick.
In the end, he had learned valuable life lessons and used his newfound dimensional manipulation powers to return him and Arumi home AND made it so Arumi's grandfather didn't die in his accident (and gave a happy ending to Eutus and Mune Mune while he was at it).
Everything had turned out fine in the end. Two years after his adventure, Shinji received a letter from his father saying simply "COME". What convinced him to go more than any hope of rebuilding a relationship with his old man was the risque photo of Misato Katsuragi.
He had arrived in a deserted town, wondering what the hell was going on. He got a glimpse of a girl who reminded him of his cousin Sayaka then all hell broke loose.
A giant monster was on a rampage, flattening the pitiful attempts of the Army to stop it. He would have surely died if not foe Captain Misato Katsuragi's timely arrival.
And now begins our story...
*****
Misato had stopped her car not far from the battle and was watching it with a pair of binoculars. Shinji, having had enough adventure for a lifetime, hoped they would leave soon.
Misato gasped "Oh shit! They're going to use an Nē mine! DOWN!!!" The shapely woman turned and ran toward Shinji, intending to shield him with her body but something weird happened.
Shinji knew what a Nē mine was and what it could do. He saw the explosion blossom in the distance and the resulting shockwave coming straight at them in slow motion. Not wanting to die here and despite having sworn to never use his powers again, Shinji started incantating.
While light washed over Shinji and Misato then everything went black.
*****
"Ungh..." Misato woke up from her impromptu nap with a killer headache. Her wits came back to her in a flash and she began to look frantically for the Third Children. To her relief, she found him near her car. He was unconscious but seemed to be unharmed.
Misato dragged him inside her Renault Alpine and resumed their journey to Tokyo-3. She hoped she wasn't to be harshly reprimanded for this little incident.
However, since Shinji was still in dreamland, Misato had no idea that her charge had used an onmyojutsu spell to take them to safety, namely an alternate dimension where Tokyo-3 was still there but quite... different.
When Tokyo-3 finally came in sight, Misato abruptly stopped the car and stared in incomprehension at...
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(Posted Thu, 11 Aug 2005 21:31)
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