Authors Notes:
I wish I had gotten back to writing this sooner, but life intervened
again. I must be one of the most inconsistent writers on this list now...
but then again, I always seem to have two-three month spans between
installments. ^^;
Oh well. On with the show.
=====
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 came? 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!
=====
w.o.m
TimeRunner's Web Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482.
=====
All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental.
- Kurt Vonnegut