Authors Notes:
This is to make up for all the spam I 'contributed' to the list.
This begins my most ambitious writing project to date, my very own
attempt at an 'epic'. It could be classified as a
crossover/meld/elseworld (whew!). The idea came to me one night in a
flash of insight, and was later refined by Scriviner and me, during a
long (and productive) traffic jam.
It starts out very somber, but later on transforms into a much lighter
series. And while it takes off from an idea from Ranma 1/2, it later has
very little to do with it.
I hope you enjoy reading this fic as much as Scriv and I did coming up
with it.
Oh, and old TimeRunner fic readers (yay!) may find a section here
familiar, as it is taken almost directly out of another fanfic I made.
Can you name which one?
On with the show.
=====
In Nerima, one seemingly normal day, Cologne and Happi struggled for
possession of the Nanban Mirror, but it slipped from their grasps and it
fell, shattering on the ground below.
As the Nanban Mirror shattered, its power collapsed unto itself,
fragmenting across time and space, its shards scattering throughout the
realms of possibility, finding those who would be made to change the
past.
Four souls, four decisions. Four fragments of a whole greater than the
sum of its parts.
====
IKARI GENDO - BLACK
Ikari Gendo stood at his wife's gravestone, although he knew that her
body was elsewhere. Silently he knelt down and lay a wreath of flowers at
the foot off the gravestone, where it was darkened by the long shadows
the marker cast in the light of the setting sun.
Thirteen years? Was it really thirteen years ago? The old wounds still
ached every time he came here, like the scars on his hand, from the burns
he received while rescuing Rei from the Unit 00's entry plug.
Rei. Every time Gendo saw her he saw Yui. It was Yui, yet it wasn't. The
emotionless face, the red eyes… no, that was not Yui. Yet every time Rei
would smile he was able to pretend he was talking to his deceased wife.
Everything was going according to the timetable set by the Dead Sea
Scrolls. Shinji, his son, would soon be called to join his mad quest.
Shinji. What would Gendo tell him when he comes? How would he explain to
Shinji that he's fighting to bring his mother back, that he's giving up
his life to bring things back to the way they were?
The way things were. Gendo would give anything to have it all back.
Anything to bring Yui back.
Gendo's tears fell down his cheeks, unchecked.
They sparkled, like the shard did as they struck it, as it sat at the
base of the tombstone.
The shard flickered briefly, then filled Gendo's vision with light.
OTONASHI KYOKO - MAGENTA
"Kyoko, it's Soichiro… he's…"
Kyoko felt her eyes brim with tears as she remembered that fateful day
that seemed so long ago, now. Four years, it had been. Only four years.
She found herself smiling, in spite of herself. "It used to be that
memory would always drive me to sobbing, that it would hurt me, deep in
my chest, right here…" she said as she held her right hand to the center
of her chest.
"Now I hardly ever cry anymore, unless I purposely dig up the most
painful memories…" She lowered her eyes. "Is that a good thing? I try to
hold your memory in my heart, but those who are… alive are slowly
entering my heart."
She reached out her hand to touch the inscribed letters on her dear
departed husband's gravestone. There was no way she could ever truly for
get Soichiro. And yet… Fewer and fewer things reminded her of him,
lately. Was it time? Did time really heal all wounds?
She thought of Godai, and of Mitaka. "I've always thought it wrong to
forget you, just because you were taken away from me so soon, but now, in
my unguarded moments, I find myself thinking of them, and not of you…"
She looked up, at the tombstone, and imagined Soichiro's face, smiling at
her. "Oh, Soichiro…" She smiled, even as tears fell down her cheeks.
"If you had never died… if you had never left me… I would never have had
to feel this way."
A single tear fell from her cheek and fell on the shard on the ground
below. It began to glow, intensifying, first slowly, and then she was
blinded by a brilliant flash of light.
NATSUME RYUNOSUKE - YELLOW
"Damn it! Wasn't that a little too harsh?" Kyusaku yelled as the Poison
One flew off after delivering a massive volley of automatic rounds on his
beat-up Land Rover, pockmarking its body and shattering the windshield.
He bit his cigarette's filter in annoyance.
He heard Ryunosuke sniffle and he turned to face him. "Ryu-san!"
Ryunosuke held the cat in his arms. It lay there, still and lifeless.
Blood was splattered over its chest and over Ryunosuke's shirt. "It's…
It's all my fault!" Ryunosuke cried, shaking with sobs, the little streak
of red in his brown hair matching the blood on his hands. "If I hadn't…
If I hadn't insisted on taking her along, she wouldn't be dead!"
"They've gone too far this time," Kyusaku muttered, snorting out a
billowing could of smoke. "You can't blame yourself, Ryu-san."
"Yes, I can!" Ryunosuke sobbed. "It's all my fault! If I had listened to
you, To-chan, this would've never happened! It's all my fault!"
"You can't change things, Ryu-san," Kyusaku said, patting Ryunosuke on
the head.
Ryunosuke turned away quickly, avoiding his father's touch, tears
flying. "I wish I could. I would if I could. I would do anything to make
it up, if only I could."
A tear streaked out, towards the window, when it struck a falling shard
of glass, strangely brighter than any glass Kyusaku had ever seen.
It pulsed, flooding the car with a blinding light.
MASAKI NOBUYUKI - CYAN
Nobuyuki stood at the grave, underneath a tree near the edge of a
cliff.
"Hello, Achika." He knelt down and placed a bouquet of beautiful roses
at the foot of the grave. "I hope you like these..."
He smiled, weakly. "Tenchi's doing fine, now. You should see him,
dear... you'd be so proud... He even lectures ME sometimes... just the
way that you used..." He paused, momentarily unable to continue. "Just
the way you used to."
He sighed, sadly... "What have I become, Achika? I feel like I've lost
myself, somewhere... That... That a part of me refused to go on when you
left me... When you left I..." He paused, then... "I felt like it was all
I could to, just to tell Tenchi that you'd gone... I felt so useless,
that I was no good at being a father if all I could do for Tenchi was
tell him that you'd..." He turned away, ashamed to even look at the
gravestone. "But that's not what you want me to think, is it? That's not
it at all!"
He took off his glasses and wiped away tears at the corners of his eyes
with the back of his hand. "You teach a hard lesson, Achika. But I
finally understand, now... I guess Tenchi can teach me a thing or two,
after all...
"Oh, Achika," Nobuyuki whispered, shutting his eyes to stem the tears,
"if only you were alive… If only you'd been here, then perhaps things
would be different." He sighed. "Perhaps I would be different. I wouldn't
be this wreck, this useless piece of… this… this…!!!" He shut his eyes,
pulled his glasses from his face and cried out, tears falling like a
stream. They struck the gravestone and splashed, droplets scattering,
some striking the shining shard that was falling from the sky. Suddenly,
as he cried out, his world was filled with light.
"ACHIKA!!!"
Four destinies changed. Four second chances. Four shards changing four
realities. Four shards of the One Mirror. Four fragments of a whole
greater than the sum of all parts.
=====
The Sum of All Parts
A TimeRunner Fanfic
All trademarks found in this fanfic is being used without prior
consent from their respective owners, for non-profit purposes.
=====
PROLOGUE : BLACK
"Well, I'm off, honey," Yui said, smiling at Gendo, as she pressed the
button on the wrist of her plugsuit to pressurize it, causing it to
shrink to fit her lithe form. She knelt down, beside the baby carriage
and kissed her infant son.
Gendo stood over her, a soft smile on his own face. He gazed proudly at
his wife and son, especially his son, who thankfully seemed to take more
from Yui than him. Gendo made no illusions about it; Yui was much more
beautiful than he was handsome. Yui. Not a day would pass that Gendo
thanked whatever God was out there for his good fortune.
Worry suddenly overtook pride and he knelt down beside Yui. "Are you
really sure you want to go through with this, Yui?" he whispered, concern
filling his voice.
"Of course!" Yui said, facing him, smiling sweetly at him. "This is our
dream, Gendo! I would risk anything if it meant fulfilling our dreams."
"But…" Gendo said, but Yui cut him off.
"No buts, mister," Yui said teasingly as she stood up to go. "This is
the big synchro test Gehirn has been waiting for, and we won't get much
further with our research if I don't go through with this." She held out
her hand and helped him up to his feet. "How can I do this properly if
you don't support me?"
"You know I'm behind you all the way, Yui," Gendo said, kissing her
lightly on the cheek. "I just don't want to see anything bad happen to
you."
She slipped out of Gendo's reach as she headed for the door. "Really,
you worry too much. You're just like Fuyutsuki-sensei. I'll be fine,
really." As she opened the door and step through, she gave Gendo the
thumbs-up. "Goodbye. The dream, Gendo."
As the door shut, Gendo whispered, "But you're my dream."
"First stage synchronization successful," Naoko declared.
"Excellent, Dr. Akagi," Gendo acknowledged. "Contamination?"
"At acceptable levels, Dr. Ikari," Fuyutsuki-sensei replied. "Below the
safety threshold. Moiré patterns at undetectable levels."
Gendo nodded, a little more nervously than he let show. "Yui, how do you
feel?"
"Hungry," was the reply over the communicator. Yui flashed another of
her sweet smiles at the camera. "You owe me dinner, Rokubungi!"
Gendo flinched. "I told you not to call me that anymore. I already took
on your family name. You know my old name always makes me squirm."
Yui grinned. "Why do you think I use it so much?"
"Can we get on with this?" Naoko replied, and without waiting for an
order pressed another series of buttons. "Commencing Secondary stage."
Yui jerked back slightly, then she exhaled. "No problem. Nothing I can't
handle."
Gendo irritably looked at Naoko, then smiled at Yui. "I'm glad."
Light suddenly filled Gendo's vision, filling him with memories he could
not understand. He clutched at his head and reeled from the shock.
Then it disappeared, as suddenly as it came.
He looked around, but no one seemed to have noticed the light. No one
even seemed to have seen the light, or him snap back in his seat. He
shook his head, trying to clear it…
Then he gasped in realization. "Stop the test!"
"Now?" Naoko asked. "We don't have enough data. Besides, Yui can take
some more, can't you?"
Yui's image on the viewscreen nodded, a little weakly.
Fuyutsuki-sensei looked at Yui, then at him wonderingly; then he raised
his eyebrows. "I don't understand, Dr. Ikari, but I'll do as you say. Dr.
Akagi, shut down secondary stage tests immediately."
"But we're at the threshold for the third stage test, Gendo!" Naoko
protested. "We've gone too far to turn back now."
"NO! Shut it off NOW!" Gendo replied. "Fuyutsuki-sensei, if you keep
this up, in five seconds there will be a sharp increase in
contamination."
"How do you know this?" Fuyutsuki-sensei asked, and at that moment, a
spike appeared in the contamination graph. "Oh, God! You were right! Stop
the test now!"
"No! The contamination levels are within acceptable levels. You can't
let your feelings interfere with our research, Gendo!" Naoko snapped.
Gendo walked over to Naoko. He raised his hand and slapped her across
the cheek. "Stop this test now, Dr. Akagi. NOW!"
Naoko clutched her cheek and glared at Gendo. "Fine." She shut down the
secondary wave switches first, and as she did, another surge appeared on
the contamination graph.
Yui's head snapped back as she fainted in the Entry Plug.
"Eject Entry Plug now!" Gendo shouted as he watched the viewscreen.
"Ejecting! Switching off primary wave synchronization!" Fuyutsuki-sensei
stared at the graph and at Yui in disbelief. "My God, at a higher
synchronization level who knows what that might have done to her!"
"How? How did you know?" Naoko said, eyes wide on Gendo. "How did you
foresee this without any data on the subject?"
"I… I think it's a second chance," Gendo said, as he ran and descended
the stairs into the Testing Room.
Gendo cried out in pain as he gripped the scalding hot hatch levers with
his bare hands. Please, if there's a God at all out there, please say
she's safe! Please let her be alright!
He pried open the Entry Plug hatch door and allowed the LCL to escape.
He shielded his eyes from the steam from inside the Plug and entered
halfway in.
As the steam cleared, he saw Yui's unmoving form slumped over her
seat.
"Yui!" he cried out. "Yui! Are you alright?"
For a long moment, Yui did not move. Gendo felt his eyes fill up with
tears as a gnawing fear built up inside him.
Then she opened her eyes and looked up. "Gen…Gendo?"
Gendo pulled Yui to himself and kissed her deeply, his tears mingling
with the LCL on her wet face. He let her fill him again, finally, after
such a long while that he'd almost forgotten what it was like to hold
her, to kiss her...
Afterward, he drew away slightly, to look her in the eyes. "I thought
I'd lost you again…"
"Again…?" Yui said weakly. "What do you mean?"
But Gendo didn't reply. Instead he brushed her hair from her face,
smiled, and said, "Yui, please don't say goodbye before a mission. It's
too sad."
=====
PROLOGUE : MAGENTA
Kyoko walked home to the Otonashi Residence, shopping bags in tow. How
long was it, six months, she thought, that she had lived there with
Soichiro and his family. They weren't anything like those stories about
the horrible in-laws one would get, marrying into a well-to-do family. If
anything, they were nicer to her than her parents were these days.
Kyoko sighed to herself. It was to be expected, she supposed. After all,
she had married Soichiro when she was barely out of high school. He was
her substitute teacher, and she had fallen in love with him. She giggled.
It seemed so much like those trendy dramas on TV. How could she, probably
one of the most serious students in her class, foresee something like
this happening to her?
She arrived at the door of the house. She held one bag and cradled the
other in the crook of her arm to free the other to open the door.
The household was in bedlam. She could hear shouts from all over the
house, which made her wonder what was going on.
Mr. Otonashi - Soichiro's father - ran up to Kyoko frantically. "Kyoko!
We must go to the hospital! Hurry!"
"But why?" Kyoko asked. "What's happening?"
Soichiro's sister said to her daughter, "Ikuko, come on." She led the
sniffling little girl outside.
"It's Soichiro! Quickly!" Mr. Otonashi said, holding her hand and
rushing her out of the house.
A glow began to form in her sight, then a brilliant flash… And then
things that had not yet occurred flashed in her mind, like old memories
yet to happen. She watched the blur of events with the air of someone who
had watched all of this happen before… Was it truly happening all over
again? Why was she forced to relive this terrible day, to watch it unfold
before her like a bitter lesson not quite fully learned…
The room. This was the room where she found Soichiro… An ache grew in
her, and she found it almost unbearable to come any closer. But Father
Otonashi pulled her along, and he opened the door and they both entered
the room.
Kyoko choked back the tears as she saw Soichiro, lying in the hospital
bed, like he did four years ago… no, like he did, the last time she lived
through this day. And yet while she was happy to see his face once again,
she felt that this was the gods' way of punishing her for abandoning her
love for her husband.
"Go on," Mr. Otonashi said softly, motioning for her to go to him.
She stood at the side of the bed and gazed upon his face. She felt the
question materialize in her mind and her heart, the question she asked
that very day, the first time she was here. "Why…?"
She fell to her knees and sobbed, resting her head on his chest. "WHY?!"
She began to weep uncontrollably, her head pounding… regularly…
Pounding?
She lifted her head and looked at Soichiro.
He opened his eyes and faced her, a questioning look on his face. "'Why'
what?"
She gasped and stared at Soichiro; he looked pale and wan, he was hooked
up to the dextrose feed, but he looked very much alive. "How?" she
whispered.
"Why? What? How?" Soichiro repeated, smiling weakly. "One question at a
time, dear."
"You're alive!" Kyoko said, embracing him, tears staining his hospital
gown. "It's a miracle!"
"Yes, it was a close call," Mr. Otonashi agreed. "But while he was
delirious he kept calling out your name. I guess you pulled him through,
Kyoko."
Soichiro nodded. "I guess whoever's in charge up there's given me a
second chance, huh, Kyoko?"
A second chance. That must've been it. Kyoko nodded. "Yes, my dear
Soichiro. A second chance."
=====
PROLOGUE : YELLOW
Kyusaku braced for the imminent impact their car was going to make with
the huge scrap pile in front of them. He hoped that the bindings he made
on the android in the backseat were secure enough. "Land Rover Attack!"
he bellowed, grinning.
With a loud crash the Land Rover buried itself in the pile. "Maybe we
can hide here, huh, Ryu-san?"
Ryunosuke nodded solemnly at Kyusaku.
Kyusaku blinked. Was that a flash of light he saw, looking at his son?
He shrugged. It was the Poison One's searchlights. That had to be it.
Sure enough, the searchlights panned over the scrap pile. "Keep quiet
and maybe they won't hear us," he hissed.
But the searchlights centered on their car. Both father and son uttered
the same interjection. "Dokin…"
Kyusaku ducked under the wheel as automatic gunfire peppered his beloved
Land Rover, punching it full of holes on the car body and windshield,
which shattered and sprayed shards of glass all over them.
He held his breath as the Poison One helicopter banked and flew away
from them. "Damn it! Wasn't that a bit too harsh?" he yelled. "This time
they've gone too far!" He gnawed at the cigarette filter in disgust.
He heard the cat cry and he turned to face the sound. His mouth dropped
open, cigarette falling down to the floor.
Ryunosuke was slumped over the cat, chest and back bloody. He had
shielded the cat with his own body? But why? It was just a cat!
"To… To-chan…" Ryunosuke spoke, softly, "I did it… I saved her…"
"What are you talking about?! You're bleeding to death!" Kyusaku cried,
trying to stop the bleeding by applying direct pressure on the wounds. It
didn't work.
"I made it up to her… I got a second chance to… to…" Ryunosuke coughed
up blood, and his eyes began to close.
Kyusaku racked his brain for a solution, for some way to save his son.
What good was his knowledge as the most brilliant scientist in
bio-robotics if he could not save his own son?
Bio-robotics! That's it! Kyusaku wrenched the backrest off his seat to
make room for the operation, scrambling for the instruments and chemicals
he needed. He looked at the android skeleton in the back seat and grinned
nervously.
"Hang on, Ryu-san!" he said, running his fingers through Ryunosuke's
hair. "I'm going to give you the best Christmas present ever!"
=====
PROLOGUE : CYAN
"We'll have to erase your memories, Nobuyuki, Achika," Miss Kiyone said,
listening in on some communicator device.
Nobuyuki shook his head. He could barely believe what had just happened.
A dark entity from the future that came back to destroy Achika, their son
coming back to warn them, Achika turning out to be a Juraian princess…
And now he held her, lying in his arms. It was too surreal to be true.
"Why?" Nobuyuki asked, ponytail flowing in the wind.
Kiyone said, ear still on the communicator, "Washu says it's to make
sure the time continuum isn't disrupted. I'm sorry."
Achika opened her eyes. "Please. I know Tenchi's my son. You girls take
care of him for me when I'm gone, okay?"
"Gone?" Nobuyuki was puzzled. What was Achika talking about?
Then, like the light of Achika's master key, with the clarity of her cry
as she defeated Kain, his mind filled with light. The memories from a
life not yet lived! The Tree! A Juraian Tree! It could provide her with
the energy she had expended during her battle with Kain! It could keep
her alive, like it kept Katsuhito - Yosho - alive, all these centuries!
He was not going to waste this second chance! He was not going to have
this precious knowledge erased before he could use it!
"Achika!" he whispered to her. "Do you remember the tree in the middle
of the lake, near your father's temple?"
"Yes, why?" Achika whispered back.
"Connect to it! Use your Juraian powers to draw energy from the tree!"
"But why?" Achika asked.
"Please! Just do it! Do it for us! Do it for Tenchi! He needs you! I
need you!" Nobuyuki pleaded.
Tenchi smiled at the both of them from where he was standing and waved
them goodbye. "I love you, mother," he said.
"Tenchi…" Achika murmured, softly. She nodded to Nobuyuki and closed her
eyes.
"I'm erasing your memories now. All non-standard memories are now being
erased as the rest of us transport out of here. It's been nice meeting
you. I'm really sorry you won't remember us," Kiyone said, punching a
button and fading out of existence.
"Goodbye," Tenchi said as he, too, faded out of existence.
The final memory of which Nobuyuki would have no more recollection was
the image of a ray of light extending from Achika's forehead towards the
horizon…
=====
Four time shifts. Four deaths averted. Four collections of memories from
realities that no longer existed the way they were, wiped away with the
use of a memory erasing device. Four realities brought together to form a
reality anew. Four fragments of a whole greater than the sum of all
parts.
The year is 1998. The place: Nerima, Tokyo.
To be continued in 'The Sum of All Parts':
Black - Neon Chronicles Evangelion
Magenta - Maison Otonashi
Yellow - All-Purpose Cultural Mecha Boy Ryu-kun
Cyan - Nobuyuki Muyo!
=====
TimeRunner's Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482
icq: 7153134 (Keiichi)
=====
"The story grew in the most convoluted way, as many people will be surprised to learn. Writing episodically meant that when I finished one episode I had no idea about what the next one would contain. When, in the twists and turns of the plot, some event su
ddenly seemed to illuminate things that had gone before, I was as surprised as anyone else."
--- Douglas Adams, "A Guide to the Guide"
"Mos people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They want to HAVE BEEN writers."
--- James A. Michener