From: mew3point14@doramail.com (Daniel Snyder)

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful bride. She knew love, and she 
knew what it was to be loved. But she was proud, too, and resolved not 
to give herself to anyone.

"On day of her wedding, she was dressed in her most beautiful gown and 
surrounded by everyone she loved. But she frowned, because she was proud 
and she had only half-chosen her husband-to-be. Although she knew him by 
the word of others, she had never seen his face.

"'Smile and love your husband,' they all shouted, 'smile and love your 
husband.' And the longer she did not smile, the louder they shouted, and 
the more impatient everyone became.

"Finally, she swallowed her pride and smiled weakly. In that moment, her 
bridegroom came to her. She saw him for the first time.

"He was beautiful to look upon, and charming in his bearing. Willingly, 
she smiled then. Willingly, she married him.

"What was the name of the bride?"
--
Ayanami Rei was unused to disbelief. To her, things either were, or they 
were not, or there was the stochastic chance that they would be. She had 
never wanted anything to be. The whole idea that there was something 
more to her life than living her role, and letting the world do with her 
as it pleased, was as alien to her mind as skies of green might be.

Until, one day, fate placed her with a boy who was too scared to make 
demands of her and to helpless to resist their urge. Caught between the 
two poles of reality and desire, he was a sword's blade, cutting 
everything around him in a solipsistic headlong rush to be alone.

He wanted to be alone, and she did not grant herself the freedom to 
want. Their conflict had been inevitable. They shared their secrets, 
less in innocence than in ignorance. She had a greenhouse in place of a 
womb and he had rage for bravery. These were gifts given by invisible 
hands, paid for with futures; but they gave each other their gifts. 
Sharing became caring. He was the trellis that held her roses to the 
light, she was the sheath that kept his sword from striking out at 
anyone who came close.

Ayanami Rei and Ikari Shinji had drawn close to one another. Their lives 
were still filled with pain and fear, they were confused about their 
emotions and the state of their world. And yet, a kingdom had been laid 
down for them. Anything could happen. It could be beautiful and 
powerful, this future.

And right upon the cusp of their future, everything had been snatched 
away from her. He--the boy--her husband--Shinji--was gone. Shinji was 
gone, gone somewhere in the haunted dormitory. Disbelief filled Rei's 
vision with knives. Where had this strange and beautiful new life gone 
to? Where was her Angel of Swords, the man who had placed everything 
that he held dear at her feet, simply because she was Rei? Simply 
because he knew of no other way to live a life with someone he cared 
for?

Her disbelief ran between her body and the ground all night. The morning 
came. Their room--her room, now?--was on the west side of the building, 
and she was spared the indignity, the inhumane humiliation, of having to 
watch the sun rise upon her failure.

Perhaps angels watched over her yet. Perhaps Shinji could be found.

At a quarter to eight, Rei walked next door to Kazarashi Dormitory and 
went immediately to the cafeteria. She found the Housing Vice President 
and the Executive Vice President eating their breakfast. Sitting down 
across from Ibuki Maya, Rei said, "I have a problem with the housing 
situation. Shinji is missing."

Neither Maya nor Ritsuko understood what Rei meant at first. "What do 
you mean, Shinji's missing?" Maya asked.

"There was a Duel yesterday," Rei explained. "Shinji and I returned in 
the early evening. He held me for a very long time, because I said that 
I hurt, and when he holds me I feel better. He kissed me, on the mouth, 
on the cheeks, and under my chin. Then, there was a noise from the room 
above us. He said that he would go to investigate it. I said that I 
would wait for him. He did not come back all night.

"I think that this is a housing problem, so I have brought it to your 
attention."

A few moments of shocked silence passed before Maya inquired, "What 
exactly do you want me to do?"

Rei scowled slightly at Maya. "Is this not a housing concern? Shinji 
disappeared within Akumafune Dormitory proper. It is the Housing Vice 
President's duty to make sure that the living quarters are all in 
order."

Maya kept her eyes fastened on her breakfast tray for a half a minute 
before she spoke. "All right. I'll come with you."

"Maya..."

"Sempai, look. I owe Shinji already, for the whole food poisoning thing. 
The least I can do is come and look for him with Rei. I have the master 
key with me, we can get this taken care of in no time. Wait here for 
me," she said to Rei, and gestured for Ritsuko to follow her. The two 
young women walked over towards the garbage disposal as Maya added, 
"Besides, if something's really happened to him, it's a tragedy--it is, 
he's almost like my friend now. But it will solve some of our problems. 
If...I've got my cell phone. If I haven't called you by 9:30, try and 
get ahold of someone, OK?"

"What do you want them to do?" Ritsuko asked. "Stand outside on the lawn 
again?"

"Just get someone," Maya sighed, "it's the least you can do. OK? Rei-
chan? Shall we go?"

"Very well," Rei said, standing.

The two girls walked next door. Inside the dormitory, Maya grew 
receptive to the difference between light and shadow. Her awareness of 
where she could and could not see was suddenly acute and tinted with 
adrenaline. "Rei?" she said weakly as they passed into the dormitory 
proper. "Tell me again exactly what happened."

Rei nodded. Her upright posture and detached manner showed that she was 
not afraid. Her emotions lay elsewhere. "Shinji and I were standing 
inside," she said, pointing to their bedroom, "when we heard a noise 
directly overhead."

"Directly overhead?"

"Yes. As if something was moving across the floor in the room right 
above us."

Maya looked up to the ceiling of the room. There were no telltale stains 
or depressions to be seen. "All right," she said, "let's go upstairs and 
take a look around." It was spoken with severity behind it, like the 
empty shadow of a waiting guillotine.

Pen-pen joined them as they walked to the stairwell at the back of the 
building, Rei in front and Maya behind. Maya was measuring the steps. 
Tiny beads of sweat were forming along the edge of her scalp and on the 
palms of her hands. Rei opened the door to the stairwell and they 
ascended. Halfway up the staircase, alone with the jarring echoes from 
their footsteps, Maya began to notice the change in the air. It wasn't 
pressure, the most primitive of sensations...it was a smell...

"Rei? Can you smell something?"

The pale girl stopped in her tracks and sniffed, inhaling the air 
efficiently. "Yes," she replied, "there is a smell in the air. I can't 
quite make out what it is."

They held their ground and, a moment later, resumed their trek up to the 
second floor. Rei was walking much more slowly than when she had been 
returning to the dormitory. Although the world of human affairs was 
still new and strange to her, and her reactions to it at the blurry edge 
of her comprehension, a peculiar smell meant something to her. It was a 
cause for alarm.

The two girls and their companion bird came out of the stairwell and 
paused to look off down the empty corridor before them. Rei glanced 
hesitantly at Maya, and the older girl took the lead with great 
reluctance. Together they found the room directly over the occupied 
room. Maya inserted her master key into the lock without difficulty, 
unlocked the door, and pushed on it. Something was blocking the door 
from the inside; and in the moment it took her to shift her weight and 
push the door wide, the smell hit them full force. It wasn't a smell of 
anything in particular so much as it was ordinary air enriched in 
oxygen, oxygen coming from the photosynthesis of the behemoth rose in 
the center of the room.

Two dozen thick green roots ran across the floor, walls and ceiling of 
the room, drawing out bizarre arabesques as they curved back and forth 
away from each other, trying to make the most of every square centimeter 
available to them. Each root was further separated from the others by 
large thorns, a handspan across and a dirty gray color. These thorns 
were equally large all around the roots, and seemed to hold each one in 
place on the walls. However, the thorns grew shorter and shorter as the 
tendril roots converged on the base of the rose stem. The stem was 
almost impossible to see in the thick swirl of roots, but its raison 
d'etre was clear: to support the rose bud that dominated the room 
itself. Leathery sepals, one for each root, surrounded and supported the 
petals of the bud at their base. The buds were drawn together in a 
teardrop shape about two-thirds the size of a grown man. They were royal 
purple in color, and translucent. From inside the bud, a human figure--
Shinji's figure--could be seen, curled gently around a radiant sphere 
that throbbed in time to the human pulse.

Only the utter strangeness of the scene kept Maya and Rei from 
screaming. And then something even stranger happened.
--
The front gates of Feuervogel Academy peeled open, and a young man 
strode in through them. He was tall, considering his appearance, which 
was that of a boy aged eighteen. His hair was cut in a bowl shape, not 
unlike Shinji's. His skin was an unhealthy pallor, as if he did not 
spend enough time out of doors. His body was angular, especially around 
his face. This body was clothed in the Academy's standard male uniform, 
winter black rather than summer white. He did not smile--rather, a smile 
might happen to him. Looking into his eyes was like watching the 
mathematics behind a computer virus in action.

This young man walked briskly across Feuervogel's campus. He did not 
look left or right. He was a man with a purpose, and that purpose did 
not deserve distractions. He spoke to no one, nor did he attract any 
especial attention; it was early yet, and nobody knew that nobody knew 
him. Nobody was expecting a visitor to Feuervogel.

At the greenhouse and the column he turned to his right and proceeded 
east. He did not give the library a glance, and only stepped out of his 
way to avoid two girls out for a morning walk. His path took him past 
Kazarashi Dormitory, and at last he turned up the sidewalk to Akumafune.

The young man walked inside without a second thought.

He crossed through the open study area into the dormitory proper and 
continued to the stairway at the back, giving the room Shinji shared 
with Rei a brief glance as he passed. As he entered the stairwell, his 
expectant nose caught the change in the air composition, and he 
unconsciously picked up his pace. Reaching the second floor, he exited 
the stairwell, walked down the hallway, and pushed his way between Rei, 
Maya and Pen-pen. Silently he entered the room, taking care not to step 
on any of the sharp thorns.

Both girls stared in shock compounded as their visitor walked right up 
to the rose bud and peeled apart the petals. His body blocked their 
view--they couldn't see exactly what he was doing--but there was a wet 
sound, and then the light from inside the rose bud died. The man reached 
way inside the bud and pulled Shinji's unconscious form out. Carrying 
the boy in his arms, he carefully walked back across the room to the 
doorway.

He passed Shinji's body to Rei. "Let him sleep it off," he said in a 
gruff unpleasant voice, and then left as impassively as he had come.
--
"EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!"

"Mysterious stranger with stupid name saves Ikari Shinji from uncertain 
fate!"

"Fuyutsuki-sensei experiences heart arrhythmia, substitute teacher 
begins tomorrow!"

"Crime rampant! Four swindled!"

"Really? I hadn't heard anything about a crime outbreak. I'll take a 
copy."

"Wait a mo. Wait a mo. There's nothing in here about a crime outbreak."

"EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! Crime rampant, SIX swindled!"

"Let's get 'im."
--
The young man, Michimoto Wakamugi, left Akumafune Dormitory without 
attracting attention. He walked across the campus again, with the same 
focus but without the drive that had carried him to his first 
appointment. The students were becoming more numerous with the school 
day approaching, and Michimoto found that he had to move smartly to 
avoid them. He passed the column and the greenhouse, this time walking 
directly to Nagamara, the men's dormitory. He entered without incident 
and walked up to the third floor.

Halfway along the east side of the building, he knocked at a particular 
room. The door was opened by Tsuwabuki Mitsuru, dressed for the day in 
his usual oversized clothing. He silently let Michimoto into the room. 
The pair sat down in chairs facing each other next to the window.

Tsuwabuki leaned on his right arm, with his hand pressed up against the 
side of his face. "It's such a drag...having to go to school everyday," 
he groaned.

Michimoto made no reply.

"I'm bored. That's what my problem is," Tsuwabuki continued. "Learning 
doesn't really interest me anymore. It all seems so trivial, so not 
worth it. I don't want to be bothered anymore. I just want to sit up 
here in the room and not deal with it."

"In your room?" Michimoto asked. "Alone? Without your friends?"

"I'm not a popular guy. Making friends doesn't matter to me."

"Then why stay in your room? Why not go to the library, where you can 
read? Or up to the Observatory, where you can watch the sun?"

"I just want to be here. That's all there is to it."

"You're becoming angry, defensive. Is that all that there is to it?"

Tsuwabuki let his arm fall to his side and glowered at the floor. "Maybe 
I just don't like it. Maybe that's the reason. Maybe I don't like to 
make friends, and go places. Maybe I'd just like to stay up in my room 
and sit and think."

He ended the sentence quite abruptly, almost spitting out the last word. 
Michimoto said nothing, but his eyebrow twitched inquisitively.

The boy continued. "I need time to deal with things. I need time to 
think about how I feel about things. Everyone's always in such a hurry. 
When I'm around people, it...it's all such a blur. I don't know how to 
tell people to slow down. Then, all at once, the decision's been made, 
and we're off doing something else...I can't live like that!"

He took a few deep breaths.

"Because I'm scared."

He took a few more, and clasped his hands together.

"I'm scared of...space. Not spaces. I'm talking about, like, time-space 
and thought-space. Anywhere where there can be something...uncontrolled. 
It's not, it's not like I have to control it. It's that I have to know, 
like, what someone _could_ do with the space. Their freedom..."

Michimoto spoke. "Human institutions allow for too much freedom of the 
individual. In order to establish control over the world, and thereby 
over yourself, you need to use the world itself. So, as you wish to be 
sheltered by these clothes," he said, tugging on Tsuwabuki's oversized 
sleeves, "so you need to be clothed by God. Submit to your own nature, 
and you will walk with God. Come with me."

Tsuwabuki raised his head. "Leave? With you?"

"You've got to make something of your life, boy." Michimoto stood and 
took hold of Tsuwabuki's arm. "There's a revolution calling you."

Michimoto led the boy out through the door and closed it behind them. 
They were standing in the middle of a white pseudospherical object, four 
meters in diameter at its highest point and five meters from one end to 
the other. It was an egg, viewed from the inside. Underfoot, the clear 
rubbery alantois clung to his shoes. There was a smell of raw fat in the 
humid air.

The egg, Tsuwabuki, Michimoto...and a young woman in her mid-twenties. 
The long dress she wore was whiter than the eggshell, thinner than 
linen. Tsuwabuki saw that there was a woman's body covered in the fabric 
of the dress. The woman smiled, green-grey eyes and brown hair.

Aroused by her presence, Tsuwabuki wanted to move towards her, but was 
held back. He glanced at his right wrist. A rose vine was wrapped 
tightly around the wrist, with the thorns digging deeply into his flesh. 
The boy could see the vine becoming opaque grey and merging with the 
alantois, dissipating into rootlike tendrils at its base. When he shook 
his arm, trying to extract it from its bond, only then did pain sear 
him. Next to him, Michimoto clicked his tongue. Tsuwabuki responded by 
willing his arm to go limp, and the pain subsided. If he did not fight 
the rose, there would be no pain.

_There will be no pain,_ he told his limbs as roses wrapped around them. 
_There will be no pain,_ he told his racing heart as they began to wrap 
around his chest. _There will be no pain,_ he told his clouded mind as 
they slipped tightly around his neck and chin. _There will be no pain,_ 
he told his...

He felt--but could not see--the petals of the rose flower brushing 
delicately against his groin. What Tsuwabuki Mitsuru could see was a 
blood-red rose bud smoothly curving its way towards his mouth. It rubbed 
up against his lips, prodding them. Tsuwabuki held jaw tightly, looking 
with desperation at the depraved rosebud.

Into his ear came the soothing voice of the mysterious young woman. "Now 
we know you won't refuse...because we've got so much to do...and you've 
got nothing more to lose...so, welcome..."