The Evangelion cast, to this point, had ended up in the afterlife and been given a second chance by ancient deities to have better lives...with one major exception: the instigator, the focus point, the Third Child - Shinji Ikari.
Shinji was floating in an endless gray space, not Heaven, or Hell, or any appreciable place in-between, save perhaps Limbo. It was quiet, and isolated...essentially everything he'd wished for in a world when Ayanami had given him that chance during Third Impact. And as he floated, he came to a conclusion: being alone sucked.
"Finding that life has more to it than pain?" asked a strange voice, a deep growl.
Shinji spun, as best he could in what was essentially zero gravity, to behold a tall figure cloaked in black. Tanned and weathered, the man's eyes were the blue of the darkest ocean depths, a shocking contrast to his hair, white with pale blue highlights. For one insane moment, Shinji wondered if the stranger was related to Ayanami. The stranger, for his part, seemed content to wait for Shinji to finish his appraisal.
"Who are you?" Shinji asked the obligatory question.
"Someone with an interest in balance," the stranger answered. "Most of the key players in your world are off building new lives on another world, but not you. I was curious as to why."
"Because I wanted to be alone," Shinji answered. "Because life... hurts too much."
"And did you find no joy to balance that pain?" his companion asked, in an oddly gentle tone."Nothing to make your life worth living?"
Memories flashed through Shinji's mind: the sound of his cello playing...Toji and Kensuke's laughter...Ayanami's shy smile...
"...Maybe," Shinji said at last. "When you're alone, there's no pain, no judgement...but it's so...quiet."
"Silence is the province of death," came the agreement. "If it's too quiet, perhaps life was not so bad? Shinji...would you rejoin your friends? To try again, without the spectre of your father or the Angels, and build your life on your own terms?"
"I...want to see them again," Shinji said at last.
"Then so be it." The stranger chanted words in a language Shinji didn't know, and the gray whirled away...
He wasn't a god, though he was very powerful. He wasn't connected to any divine agency, but he was attuned enough to the cosmos to be able to direct certain forces. Reincarnating Shinji Ikari was virtually effortless, though making sure he was human at the end of it was trickier. The natural laws of this world had seemed almost too eager to help, which concerned him.
Shinji would be different than his friends. He was under no divine imperative, and the method of his insertion actually made him native to this world now. He wasn't trying to get an anchor point, as the others were, just a better life. Of course, now he was also an anchor point himself, capable of helping any of the others remain here, if they chose to gravitate to him instead. Maybe that explained the spell's odd flows...romantic rivals seemed one of the rules for Ranma's life, after all. Along with "with new girls come new problems."
He placed Shinji at the edge of the beach when the group a few yards away wasn't looking, where they'd assume he'd washed up, along with a hastily-forged engagement record to "Ranko" for a bag of extra shogi stones (for palming and placing during games with Tendo, of course). It would be the only engagement to which the fool could honestly claim ignorance, but with his track record, who'd believe him?
He smiled ferally. Now to place that bag, and let events follow the course they would take. "Good luck, lad," he said quietly, before vanishing on the wind.
And then...
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(Posted Thu, 12 Feb 2004 14:52)
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