Authors Notes:
This project seemed so huge when I began it months ago. How would I
force together four disparate worlds and tell the four stories I
wanted to tell properly? It seemed so daunting.
Slowly, after I'd begun, I realized that the world I'd decided to
write about no longer felt like four fragments glued together in
haste, or without thought, and became the four stories of people
dealing with life in the world they'd been placed in.
Minor, mostly style-based revisions were made since the last
posting to minimize hitches in the suspension of disbelief.
(I'm my harshest critic!)
Comments and feelings about this series are very much appreciated.
=====
In Nerima, Cologne and Happi struggled for possession of the past-
altering Nanban Mirror. In the commotion, it slipped from their
collective grasp and it fell, shattering on the ground below.
As the Mirror shattered, its power collapsed unto itself, fragmenting
across time-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 late afternoon
sun.
Thirteen years? Had it already been thirteen years? The old
wounds still ached every time he came here, like the burns on his
hand, the burns he received while rescuing Rei from the Unit 00's
entry plug.
Rei. Every time Gendo saw her it was Yui he saw, 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 believe that somehow, 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 was fighting to bring his mother back; that
he was giving up his life to bring things back to the way they were?
The way things were. Gendo would give anything, do anything to
have it all back. Anything to bring Yui back. Anything...
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.
...Anything.
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 on to your memory, but those who are... alive... are
slowly entering my heart."
She reached out her hand to touch the inscribed letters on her
departed husband's gravestone. There was no way she could ever truly
forget 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
early; 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.
...If you had never died.
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 didn't... If I didn't take her along, she'd still be
alive! I... I..."
"They've gone too far this time," Kyusaku muttered, snorting out
a billowing could of smoke. "You can't blame yourself."
"Yes, I can!" Ryunosuke sobbed. "It's all my fault! If I
listened to you, 'To-chan, this never would've 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.
...If only I could.
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'd be
different. I wouldn't be this wreck, this useless piece of..." 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 called her name, 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 are 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 could ever be 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
those 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 synchronization 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. "Besides,
how can I do this properly if you don't support me?"
"You know I'm always behind you, Yui," Gendo said, kissing her
lightly on the cheek. "I just don't want to see anything happen to
you."
She slipped out of Gendo's reach as she headed for the door.
"Really, honey, 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. Moir� patterns at undetectable levels."
Gendo nodded, a little more nervous 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 after
this, 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 anything. No
one even seemed to have seen that 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."
"I don't care! Shut it down now!" Gendo replied. "Fuyutsuki-
sensei, if this keeps 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, Lord! You
were right! Stop the test now, Dr. Akagi!"
"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, Naoko. 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?"
"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 all right!
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, after almost an eternity, 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 ago was it? Six months, she thought, six months since
she started living 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 inside 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 as he looked
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. "Doki..."
Kyusaku ducked under the wheel as automatic gunfire peppered his
beloved Land Rover, punching full of holes 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, my son... Tenchi... You girls
take care of Tenchi for me when I'm gone, okay?"
"Gone?" Nobuyuki was puzzled. What was Achika talking about?
Then, like the radiance 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... Memories from lives he would
never live... All these faces filling his mind...
He saw himself, standing at the foot of a grave. His mind's eye
closed in on the marker and it read, 'Achika'.
He desperately searched his new memories for something
anything that would help him prevent it from ever happening...
again.
His mind stopped at one particular memory. Katsuhito Yosho -
fighting Kagato at the lake where the tree, Funaho, stood.
Funaho! 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, which Nobuyuki would no longer remember after
the device activated, 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, all wiped
away. Four realities brought together to form a reality anew. Four
fragments of a whole greater than the sum of all parts.
The time: The present day.
The place: Nerima, Tokyo.
=====
To be continued in 'The Sum of All Parts':
Black - Neon Chronicle Evangelion
Magenta - Maison Otonashi
Yellow - All-Purpose Cultural Mecha Boy Ryu-kun
Cyan - Nobuyuki Muyo!
=====
TimeRunner's Web Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482
=====
Indeed, it seems to me, one of the most vital qualities for a writer to have is
an ability to see the potentialities for impending doom in everything that
happens.
- Dwight Swain