Sorry this is so short. Also sorry I had to use some Tenchi TV continuity in
this--the OAV version is not available translated.
Angels, Heaven, and Earth
by Ken Arromdee
Chapter 10
Time and Space Adventures (I)
Shinji was dreaming. Dreaming of possibilities, wondering just what he was
going to do with his life. For some reason the concept of control over his
life seemed terribly important to him.
"Wake up!"
The words barely penetrated through the fog of morning grogginess. He
mumbled something, thinking in his half-somnolent state that he had driven his
summoner away.
"Idiot Shinji! Wake up now, Idiot Shinji!" Someone pulled at his covers.
He wanted to stay in bed. It wasn't school time yet... was it? Shinji opened
his eyes momentarily and saw Asuka standing over him. "Oh, it's you, Asuka."
She was dressed in her school uniform... oh no, not again. Reluctantly,
Shinji forced himself the rest of the way to consciousness.
"'Oh, it's you, Asuka'? Every morning, I wake you up so you're not late
for school. Is that the right way to thank an old childhood friend?"
"Uhh, thanks. Can I sleep a bit more?"
"Oh, what a lazy boy you are. And you..." She happened to glance down
under the covers she pulled away. Shinji suspected he might be in _real_
trouble now. Asuka didn't understand how a guy's body... worked. "You pervert
guy!" yelled Asuka. "I don't believe it!"
How could he make her understand? He wasn't even thinking about girls or
looking at a magazine. It just happened. "It's morning. It's natural" he
tried to explain. Asuka, not believing it very much, dragged him out and made
him get ready with an extra helping of yelling.
* * * * *
Mayuka materialized on the sand, in the place where just minutes ago, the
last stand against SEELE had taken place. It didn't look like a battlefield.
There were no huge holes in the ground; there were no piles of debris from
where Unit 02 had been torn apart. It was as if there had never been a battle.
There weren't any buildings, either; in fact, it was as if human beings had
never lived in that area.
The Third Impact? Could it have succeeded? If everyone was gone... what
could she do? She might be the only person living on the entire Earth.
A dull roar sounded overhead. Mayuka glanced up into the sky. The sight
of a distant airplane greeted her, gleaming in the sun, and she let out a sigh
of relief. How silly of her. There must still be people around. The Third
Impact failed after all. She just needed to have a little more faith in
Washuu.
* * * * *
Shinji knew Asuka well enough to know about how long to wait before Asuka
would calm down. It mostly depended on the severity of the offense. Finally
deciding that Asuka had probably worked all the anger out of her system, he
figured it would be safe to talk to her again.
"I hear there's a new girl student today in school, Asuka."
"Well, yes", she replied, as if he had been stating something too obvious.
"This city will be the new capital after the transfer last year. We're getting
more people moving in."
"Right. What kind of girl? I wonder if she's cute." Asuka glared at
him.
Shinji was spared another Asuka-outburst when a girl he had never seen
before--one with pale hair, and ruby eyes--crashed into them both, throwing
Shinji to the ground. "Ouch!"
"Oh, I'm sorry", said the girl. "I was in a rush."
Shinji realized he could see her panties from his position on the ground,
and hoped he wasn't blushing. Boys weren't supposed to blush, anyway.
"Ahh..." he stammered.
"Really, I'm sorry", said the girl.
"Ahh..."
"Gee", said Asuka, dragging Shinji away by the arm.
* * * * *
Was everyone okay? The world still existed, but that didn't mean anything.
Mayuka didn't think her parents could have been seriously hurt... but it was
something she had to find out for herself.
Another trip through the Dark Dimension brought her to a carrot field. A
few dozen yards away her mother was hanging up laundry to dry. She was all
right, then.
But something nagged at Mayuka. There was something wrong about this
scene. And then she realized what it was. The design of the house was
almost completely unfamiliar to her. She vaguely remembered seeing something
similar in old photographs.... "Mom! The house! It's all wrong!"
"Miss, are you lost?", asked Ryouko.
"Mom, I'm not lost, I'm..." The only expression on her mother's face was
puzzlement. "Oh no!" yelled Mayuka. "Mom, do you remember me? Do you know
me? Mom?" She ran towards Ryouko.
"Calm down, miss" said Ryouko. "Who are you looking for?"
"Mom, please... it's Grandma. She did something... she stopped it, but
now you don't remember me. I need to see Dad... Tenchi Masaki. And Grandma...
Washuu, your mother. And Great-Grandfather Yosho. It's urgent! Do any of
you remember?"
Her father opened the door and looked out. "Who are you? We don't have
any other relatives, and Grandfather... isn't going to be able to talk to
you."
"Dad? You don't remember me either?" Mayuka's eyes began to water.
"And what's wrong with Great-Grandfather?"
"If you must know, he's dying."
"Dying, Dad? Of what?"
"Don't try to trick my wife like that! I would never have a child with
anyone else and I would certainly never abandon any child of mine! You must
be pretending you're related in order to get the inheritance...."
"Inheritance?"
"He's 79 years old! He should be as happy as we can make him in his last
days, not interrupted by sharks trying to take everything that belongs to a
dying man...."
"I... see", said Mayuka, crying. "Goodbye. Dad, Mom... no matter what
you do or don't remember, you'll always be my parents. I love you...." Mayuka
vanished with the flare of an orb and reappeared in the crimson-leafed branches
of the regrown Tree of Darkness. "What do I do?" she said to the tree. "They
don't know me. Something happened to the world, and whatever it was, it
skipped me. I don't want to be alone...."
* * * * *
If Shinji had been smarter, he would have shut up about the morning's
incident. It might even have worked for a while, giving him some peace until
Asuka started to complain about it anyway. Instead, Touji and Kensuke teased
him mercilessly right up until the teacher arrived.
"Misato is so gorgeous!" said Touji as the teacher entered. There was a
girl accompanying her. Meanwhile, Hikari and Asuka were calling the boys
idiots behind their backs.
Misato smiled at the class. "Hello, everyone. Today, the transfer student
everyone's been talking about is here. Let me introduce her."
She turned to the new student, who wrote her name on the blackboard and
bowed. "I'm Ayanami Rei. Nice to meet you!"
All the boys gaped at her. She was quite attractive. Shinji said "Wow!"
But wait a minute... it was her. The girl he had run into. She was glaring at
him... uh-oh.
"You!" yelled Rei. "You were that stupid guy who looked at my panties
this morning!"
"You hussy!" replied Asuka, defending him whether he wanted her to or not.
"Don't say that. You showed it to Shinji!"
"Who are you anyway? Are you two a couple?"
"I'm his childhood friend, bitch!"
"We have to be quiet..." said Hikari.
"Oh, hush", said the teacher. "This is fun. Go ahead." And everyone
laughed.
* * * * *
Mayuka guessed, from what she had seen, that if she went to class, her class
would be there. But her dorm wouldn't. She couldn't get test papers back, or
turn in homework. And her friends wouldn't know her.
It was useless to go onto campus and check. But faintly hoping for a
miracle, she tried anyway, reappearing in the middle of a clump of more
conventional trees for which it was not perpetually autumn. She stepped away
and oriented herself.
Everything was subtly different. The campus, at least, was there, but one
path, that she knew of as paved with cement, had turned to bricks, while it now
led to the physics building instead of biology. The abstract statue in the
center of the field was full of cube shapes instead of spheres, and when she
arrived at her lecture hall it was scaffolded in metal and closed for
renovations. There was a note explaining where the class was, but she didn't
bother going. It would be pointless.
* * * * *
Hmph, thought Asuka as she ate her lunch. The morning incident had faded
in her mind to a general distrust of Shinji. He could not be allowed to get
too close to that hussy. She had to be a hussy, it just seemed the style of
girls like that. Arranging that incident.... there had to be some way to keep
her away from Shinji.
"Hey, Rei! Akuma!" yelled Asuka.
"Yes, what is it?" replied the albino.
Akuma, a pony-tailed boy sitting to Asuka's right, turned to look.
"I'd like you to meet Akuma. Akuma, Rei... Rei, Akuma. He doesn't have
a girlfriend, so why don't you two sit and talk for a while?" Akuma nodded in
reply. He didn't say anything. Good, he was awestruck by Rei's supposed
beauty. "Oh, Rei? Akuma's parents are rich."
"Asuka, you really don't need to talk about that", said Akuma. "It's
all... not what it seems like."
"I know", whispered Asuka. "They're criminals and all that... but it's
your big chance. Come on, you can score with this girl."
"Score?" said Rei suspiciously, eyeing Asuka and Akuma. Oops, thought
Asuka, the bitch heard that. Asuka shouldn't have gotten so excited.
"Hey, I didn't say it!" objected Akuma.
Rei smiled. "Oh, that's all right, then." Then the suspicious look
appeared on her face again. In the same tone of voice as before, she asked
"Criminals?"
* * * * *
It was so obvious. If only Mayuka had thought of it before. There was
still one place she could go.
Mayuka returned to the Dark Dimension and then stepped out once again. It
was a lush and green place that she appeared, one where gentle and unpolluted
breezes filled the air and where the crowds of Earth did not exist. Two bands
of white stretched across the pure blue sky, crossing near the horizon. A
short walk away from her was a large stone and wood building, one that she knew
was as old as most of Earth's civilizations, and occupied during all those
eras. She was on Jurai. Mayuka walked towards the nearby castle.
"Your pass please?" said one of the guards as Mayuka approached the front
gate.
Mayuka normally knew better than to give the guards a hard time. She
pulled out her wallet and rummaged for the pass... only to remember that she
had left it in her dorm room since it wasn't exactly something she needed to
constantly carry around. The dorm room, of course, no longer existed. There
must be something....
Ah, got it. Luckily she had that. Mayuka pulled out a 5000 Juraian Yen
bill. "Here", she said, flipping the bill over. "See that family picture?
That's me over there." She pointed to a figure in one corner of the picture,
standing near her parents and Akuma.
"You really do look like her", replied the guard.
"May I enter?"
"I'm sorry, you'll have to wait here. This isn't proof, you know." The
guard left his post and entered the palace.
Mayuka fidgeted and waited, but soon the guard returned with Aeka. She
had evidently impressed him enough that he'd gone through the trouble of
finding someone to vouch for her--guards obviously couldn't do that every
single time someone wanted to enter. "Hi, Aunt Aeka", she said.
"Hello, Duchess... you're looking remarkably sad today. There's clearly
something troubling you. Please come in."
Mayuka bowed to Aeka. "I appreciate your hospitality, your highness", she
replied, and whispered "You recognize me, right?" too softly for the guards to
hear. Aeka nodded back slightly, a puzzled expression on her face.
Aeka took Mayuka through the maze of palace rooms and passages into her
private study. Noboyuki, who had been waiting there, and Aeka both gave
Mayuka warm hugs. She cried in relief. "You're okay... you're yourselves and
we're still family. I'm glad you're not gone too."
"Now that those guards are out of the way", said Aeka, "we can talk.
Mayuka, there's obviously something very wrong. What happened?"
Mayuka sat down in a chair, almost slumping. "Aunt Aeka... grandfather...
it's all terrible! The whole Earth has been changed. I don't exist and
nobody remembers me."
"The whole Earth?" said Aeka. "Oh no" she added understatedly. "You'd
better sit back and explain it all. I've been reading Sasami's reports...
was it something from those?"
"Pretty much. I finally got rid of the last Angel when he was fighting
Akuma, and we all got sent to..."
"You'd better start from the beginning", said Noboyuki. "Explain
everything. I know even less about it than Aeka does."
Mayuka stopped. "All right, Grandfather. It all began when these giant
monsters started attacking Tokyo-3. But we didn't find out about it until
Akuma got invited to go to a private school in the area...."
* * * * *
Well, thought Rei, that boy wasn't bad-looking. He had a dark secret, but
it wasn't really secretive and didn't sound very dark. In fact, it was just
enough of a dark secret that it could be fun. "If you want to tell me about
it after school, I think I could use some company on the way home. I've never
been to this school before, you know. I might get lost going back...."
Asuka let out a smile. It looked to Rei an awful lot like a smile of
triumph. This wasn't good. Not that Rei really wanted Shinji in her pants,
but Asuka just seemed to rub her the wrong way.
Time to change that plan. "Shinji?" she said.
"Yes?" replied the boy.
"I'm sorry I got mad at you. Asuka seems to think you're a pretty nice
guy and you didn't mean it, so I shouldn't have shouted."
"Well..." said Shinji.
"Well nothing!" yelled Asuka. "She gets herself into a compromising
situation, then she bitches you out in class for it. She should do something
to really make up for that, not just say something pitiful like she did." Yup,
thought Rei. Completely predictible.
"All right. Shinji, I'll try to make up for it. Why don't you come over
to my house? I'm sure Mom will let you have dinner with me and her. She's
usually pretty nice about that. Oh, Akuma, you can come too."
"He is not having dinner with you!" yelled Asuka.
"But I'm just making up for my, ahem, _offense_."
"Fine. Then I'm going to escort him."
* * * * *
"That... is a incredible story that I'm very glad we kept our distance
from" said Aeka when Mayuka seemed to have finally finished her tale.
"It is, isn't it?" she replied. "If only we could have won."
"They can't do that to us!" exclaimed Aeka.
"It already happened, dear" said Noboyuki. "They already did it."
"There has to be something we can do", said Aeka. "But we don't have any
abilities that would let us...."
"You're a princess, dear!" answered Noboyuki. "You'll think of something."
"Oh, yes, I am! Well, of course a situation like this would be one that
those of royal Juraian blood can cope with. We only need to, um, er....
Mayuka-chan, do you have any suggestions?"
"I don't know. Mom and Dad aren't themselves, and Great Grandfather is
dying. I don't know about anyone else. Maybe Grandmother Washuu could help
us."
"Of course!" said Noboyuki. "The Third Impact affected the Earth. Her
lab isn't on the Earth any more than your Dark Dimension is. If she helped
create part of it, she must have something that can reverse it."
"If she's still a scientist. If she's a similar enough scientist that she
still knows how to go there and use the equipment. I can't get in there myself
from the Dark Dimension, she has too many safeguards. If she's even alive...
what if she's like Great-Grandfather? She could be dying right now! I want
my home back...."
* * * * *
Rei hung up the phone. "It's okay with Mom if everyone comes for dinner",
she said. "So anyway, what's that about your parents being criminals, Akuma?"
"It's a little embarrassing, but...." Shinji and Asuka, of course, had
already heard the story, and they started to chat with each other as Rei
listened. "Mom and Dad were bank robbers", explained Akuma. They used to live
in the USA, and they were responsible for a string of at least thirty
incidents. I think Mom sort of dragged Dad into it. They had an awful lot of
fun, or so they tell me. Sometimes they'd rob a bank and throw money
all over the place just because they wanted to. They didn't sell drugs or kill
anyone... it was just stealing. You know how they finally came back to
Japan?"
"No, how?"
"It was when Mom decided to branch out into other kinds of robbery. They
ended up stealing some important industrial information. They were going
to sell it, but...."
"But they got caught?" wondered Rei.
"Almost. It turned out the mayor... this was in Nevada... had been doing
some pretty illegal things, and there was evidence in one of the files they
took. Suddenly everything blew up. There was this big manhunt. They got
caught, but they made a deal that they'd leave the country and hand over the
stolen files in exchange for not being prosecuted.
"And", continued Akuma, "they came over here, rich. They even bought Dad's
grandfather a house and gave him a lot of money. We really live well. I can't
say I'm really proud of that but if you have to be a thief there's probably
lots of worse kinds."
"You know what?" said Rei. "That's pretty funny."
"Why's that?"
"It was my Mom's job to _catch_ criminals."
"She's a police officer? Oh wait, 'was'."
"No, it was when she was a kid. Really a kid, a lot younger than us. She
was in elementary school."
"I think you're pulling our leg", said Asuka. "That's pretty young for a
cop. How could she possibly have caught criminals in elementary school?"
"I didn't say she was a cop. She was Pretty Sammy!"
* * * * *
"This is where I live", explained Rei. "It's a nice neighborhood... oh,
you can ignore Washuu if she's here yet."
"Washuu?" wondered Akuma. "Who's that?"
"She's a scientist from America, Akuma. She used to live next door to us,
right after she came over. By rocket. She used to help Mom as a kid at times.
She's moving into this area too, so we'll still be neighbors... I don't know if
she's in the house yet. There haven't been any movers there yet, but somehow
I don't think she's going to use any." There was a group of people parked
outside Washuu's door, one of them knocking and some of the others peeking
through the windows. "Hey, she has visitors", noted Rei.
Akuma looked over at the group of people. And some of them looked back.
He couldn't recognize any of them, but he felt a sudden chill as the
college-age girl with blue hair and red eyes stared at him. The look in her
eyes was that of familiarity, far too much of it. And she was staring, no
mistake.
"Akuma?" said the girl. "Is that you?"
"How did you know my name? Who are you, anyway?"
"I... never mind. I'm sorry I bothered you", she said, and quickly turned
away.
"Weird", said Shinji.
"Don't I know it", said Rei. "We'd better get inside... for Washuu, weird
is a way of life."
* * * * *
Rei unlocked the door. "Mom?" she shouted. "Hi, Mom...."
There was the sound of movement in another room and a woman entered from
a bedroom. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and straightened her clothes;
apparently she had been lying down. "Hi Rei. I'm sorry, I hadn't been feeling
very good today. Are these your friends?"
"Yeah! Mom, this is Shinji, this is Akuma, and this is Asuka. Everyone...
this is my mother. She used to be a superhero."
She looked over the children. There seemed to be something sad in her
gaze. "It's nice to meet all of you", she said, as if nothing was wrong. But
Rei knew better. "I'm Sasami."
"Could you tell us a little bit about it?" asked Shinji.
"Well, it all happened a long time ago. I got a magical baton that lets
me transform... would you like to look at it? It's in the closet there, in
the back on the top." Sasami pointed to a hall closet, right next to the
outside door.
"Let me get it", said Asuka, walking to the closet. "I want to see if I
can turn into Pretty Sammy."
"You can't", said Sasami. "You need to know the magic words."
"Shinji, do you like girls who turn into superheroes with short skirts?"
asked Rei, slight mischief showing on her face.
"I'm not going to answer that!" replied the boy. "No matter what I say,
one of you is going to get mad at me."
Rei approached the closet. "Asuka, hand me the baton", she said. "I
always wanted to find out if it'd work on me."
"No _way_!" replied Asuka. "You could have tried it any time you wanted.
I wonder what I'd look like in that old turn-of-the-millennium costume." She
rummaged in the closet and found a squat pink baton, precariously perched on
the to shelf above several boxes. Asuka pulled it down and stared at it.
After examining it for switches and inscriptions she said, marginally more
timidly than her usual, "Umm, Rei... the magic words?"
* * * * *
The doorbell clanged. "Asuka, you get it", said Sasami.
"Okay, I've... wait! Why do guests have to answer doorbells?"
Sasami glared at Asuka and she stumbled back out of the closet to open the
door. The vibration made the boxes fall the rest of the way over right on top
of her, along with a phonebook, some clothes, and an umbrella. She shoved it
all back inside the closet (at the bottom), slammed the closet door shut, and
opened the house door.
Three people were standing there, a girl of around 18 wearing normal
clothes, and a black-haired man and a purple-haired woman in what looked to be
very well-designed costumes that were partly medieval and partly futuristic.
The woman looked at Sasami. "Sasami?" she asked as she placed her shoes
aside and entered. "Little sister? It's me, Aeka."
Sasami smiled. She stepped forward to embrace Aeka, and then the other
two.
"Then you didn't...?" said Aeka.
"It doesn't prove anything", said the older teenaged girl to Aeka. "You
could be related anyway."
"Mom?" said Rei. "Mom... what's wrong?"
"Aeka, Mayuka, Noboyuki... this is my daughter Rei. Rei, these people are
some very unexpected relatives and I'm going to have to talk to them in
private. And don't worry, Mayuka. I know exactly who you are and what's going
on." She turned to Rei and said "Rei, there's plenty of stew in the fridge.
Your friends can have as much as they want. Something's come up."
* * * * *
"I think she's going to be a while talking with those people downstairs",
said Rei. "You can forget about eating with her."
"Does she do that often?" wondered Shinji.
"Just about never. And I've never seen those people before. Two of them
had strange clothes."
"Maybe they really are relatives", said Asuka.
"Mom was upset today. Sick, but not just sick", said Rei. "I wonder if
she was upset because one of them called her... no, it couldn't be. She was
really surprised to see them." Rei got the bowl of stew out, poured some on
everyone's plates, and microwaved them one at a time.
"One of them looked right at me", said Akuma. "It was creepy."
"Never mind, Akuma", said Rei. "It's none of our business, anyway."
"Shinji's none of your business either, Rei!" exclaimed Asuka.
"Let's not get into that again..." muttered Shinji.
* * * * *
"Sasami?" asked Aeka hesitantly. "What's going on here?"
"Aeka", replied Sasami. "You know I'm not just a princess. I'm Tsunami,
the source of all the power of Jurai."
Aeka nodded.
"And", continued Sasami, "Tsunami isn't _here_. When the Third Impact
rearranged the world, Tsunami wasn't affected. I had to assimilate two sets
of memories again... but this time it didn't take seven hundred years."
* * * * *
Hmm, wondered Asuka, how could she separate Shinji from Rei? For some
reason she just didn't like the idea of Rei serving him food. Asuka bent down
to the floor. "I think I can hear them talking", she said. "Hey Shinji, come
here."
He did. She'd trained him well, so to speak. So did Rei, following him.
"Not you, Rei" said Asuka. "We don't need more than two people listening."
"Fine" said Rei. "You do know it's a lot easier to hear through the door,
right? And I'm not interested in Shinji anyway." She grabbed Akuma's hand and
led him to the door to downstairs.
Well, thought Asuka as she put an arm around Shinji, that worked out pretty
well. At least, she thought so until she glanced over at about the time Rei
gasped. "Asuka", said Rei, "they're..."
"They're what?"
"I think you'd better come over here. This could be serious."
"What, you mean really listen?"
"Yes, I mean really listen. This is all as bizarre as _anything_ Washuu
has ever done."
* * * * *
"You know what's going on, don't you?" wondered Mayuka.
"Yes, I do. Mayuka, it was before you were with us. One of your
grandmother's devices... had a problem. A big problem. It created alternate
worlds for each of us who was there, based on everyone's imaginations. Your
parents were gangsters in America. Aeka here was in a Japanese legend. And I
was the magical girl, Pretty Sammy.
"The Third Impact", continued Sasami as she explained, "was going to
destroy everyone's bodies and unite their minds. Washuu's last ditch hope was
to use her old invention to counteract the Third Impact. People's minds
wouldn't be floating through an ocean of blood, making a shared reality that
only existed in their imagination. No, that shared reality would not just be
imagination, it would _be_ the alternate world that everyone imagined it to
be."
"But what about us?" wondered Mayuka. "Nobody's heard of me, and Akuma
didn't recognize Aunt Aeka."
"Tell me, Mayuka", said Sasami, "when an alternate world is created for
somebody, and they're brought back... what happens to the rest of the world?"
"Uh, it vanishes?"
"Right. And the people in it?"
"They're _dead_?"
"Yes, Mayuka. It's not supposed to be permanent. We have to be able to
change it back somehow. If she had set it up so this new world had any people
on it who didn't exist at the time it was transformed, we'd never be able to
change it back. It would be murder."
"We have to change it back", said Noboyuki. "Yosho will die soon if we
don't. In a few decades so will Tenchi and Ryouko and everyone else that's
still living here."
"Aunt Sasami", asked Mayuka, "you can do it, can't you?"
"Of course!" interjected Aeka. "We're princesses... right, Sasami?"
"I don't know how to do it", said Sasami. "But in this crazy mixed-up
world, Washuu lives next door. She should be able to do something."
"Then it's onwards to save the world!" said Aeka.
* * * * *
The door clicked and slammed open, and Rei, accompanied by the three other
teenagers, stepped downstairs into the den. "No, it's not!" said Rei. She
whispered something to Asuka and then, getting no response, pulled the baton out
of her hands. "Mom, we were listening. We heard enough of that. What are you
_doing_? That wasn't some game or joke... you meant everything you said,
didn't you?"
"Rei, dear... it's really nothing that should concern you."
"You can't fool us! Just because we're young doesn't mean that we don't
have any sense. I heard all of that stuff! You're going to destroy the world
to save it. You think we live in the wrong world, so you're going to take away
everything everyone has ever known in order to replace it with something worse.
I can't believe you'd do something like this, Mom! Weren't you once someone
who fought for good?"
"I... Pretty Sammy was just something I made up, Rei. The world is a lot
more complicated than that. We have to make hard decisions. I wasn't just
sick this morning, Rei. I was trying to decide whether I should do anything
at all... and it wasn't easy."
"What is real, Mom? How much worse is the 'real world' than what I knew
all my life? Are we poor, or am I sick and in the hospital, or crippled?"
"Rei, please...."
"This is too weird", said Asuka.
"Rei has a point", said Shinji. "I don't understand this superhero stuff,
but it's just... not right to remake the world just because you want to. To
decide for billions of people how they should live their lives. You have to
leave it the way it is!"
"Children, please", said Aeka. "You must have heard just enough to get it
all wrong. Rei, this is something that has to be done. Even if Sasami is your
mother now she can't let that get in the way of doing what's necessary. We've
always known that; it's part of being royalty. It's why we've tried to stay
away from ruling in the first place."
"What do you mean 'your mother now'?" asked Rei.
Suddenly three pairs of Juraian and part-Juraian eyes were on Aeka.
"Oops", she muttered.
END CHAPTER 10.