I was lying on the futon in my room, staring at the sacred ceiling, which I had never deigned to get to know properly, and thinking. I hadn't gotten to know the ceiling for a very simple reason, I simply couldn't imagine how one could drink to the ceiling, or even just drink, and so a normal, friendly acquaintance couldn't take place. But this is just a lyrical digression, so to speak, a tribute to the local universe.
Ayanami had settled down on the couch and was already asleep. Misato, most likely, too. I was thinking. Overall, the day had gone well, even more so. Of course, Gendo's reaction was still unknown, but in fact, there was little he could do, and he would hardly want to. After all, he needed leverage over me, and Rei was quite suitable for this role, besides, this was originally planned. All that was left was to finish the last task for today, and perhaps it would be the most difficult.
Taking out Shinji's player, I put on my headphones and turned on his favorite tape with the album "Holiday". Then I closed my eyes and, with the first sounds of the melody, I dove straight into the third level of sleep. An endless space filled with swirling darkness stretched out around me, there were no images familiar to the human eye here, and I didn't need them. The world of dreams had long since become my home and I hadn't needed the environment familiar to the human mind to work here for a long time. An effort of will and right in front of me there appeared a metal door with a handle worn from time and cloudy glass through which orange light streamed.
The handle was a little stiff, but it didn't cause any inconvenience. Having opened the door, I was forced to squint for a moment because of the light shining straight into my eyes, but after a moment my vision adapted. Behind the door was an ordinary old electric train car, perhaps a little narrower than was customary in the Moscow metro. The car was moving, this was felt in the surrounding space, and from the windows on both sides of the car, a bright sunset light was pouring, namely sunset, not dawn. The silence and calm that reigned in this place were felt simply physically, and even the light clatter of the wheels only strengthened this impression.
Well, I must admit that Shinji managed to create a very good place, not every psionic is capable of this, if only he learned to be both here and in the real world at the same time, he would have long forgotten about all his complexes and problems.
The owner of this place himself was sitting at the far end of the carriage from me, his head down, listening to music through headphones, holding a player in his hands. Shinji looked like a boy of eight or nine, in shorts and a T-shirt, just like he was dressed when Gendo left him at his brother's house and silently left.
Taking a step forward I felt resistance, and a thin film of AT-field materialized in front of my face. A slight movement of my shoulders and a wave of darkness rushed out from under my pivafwi cloak, instantly dissolving the AT-field and hiding back under the cloak.
"By the way, yes. I almost forgot." Outwardly, I looked like myself in my usual armor and weapons, and this was not very appropriate in the current situation. So, after spending a couple more seconds, I changed my clothes to a strict black suit, with a silver shirt and a black tie, and I made my eyes blue like Shinji's. "Now we can begin."
"Well, hello, Shinji, let's get acquainted," he said, sitting down opposite the guy.
The boy raised his head and stared at me in surprise, his eyes widening in amazement.
"You?!.." The headphones, seemingly on their own, fell out of Ikari's ears.
- I.
- And who are you... that is, who are you?
- Hmm... This is a difficult question. You people call people like me demons. Although in relation to me this is not entirely correct.
- Y...Are you a demon?
- What surprises you? However, as I already said, I am not quite a demon, I have the honor of being the Prince of Darkness, it is both a title and a species affiliation, although it is too difficult to explain everything.
- And... What do you want? Why did you take over my body?! And what is your name?! - the guy was shaking slightly, he couldn't even decide how to address me, and his voice was jumping from a whisper to a demanding, almost screaming voice.
- Hmm... - I grinned and narrowed my eyes slightly, allowing the irises of my eyes to take on their natural red color for a moment. - Do you want to know everything at once? Aren't you afraid that I'll actually answer?
"Sorry..." Shinji became embarrassed and looked away.
- Yes, it's a tough case, - my smile grew wider. - My name is Phobos, and what do I want? Well, let's say I don't have any specific plans. Maybe you can advise me?
"Me?..." Another wave of surprise and the boy's gaze turned to me again.
- Well, what's wrong with that? You have desires, dreams, hopes. And since we are now one whole, why not make them come true?
- A-a-a-a... - I waited patiently, looking at the boy with a smile. - You're joking right now, right?
- No, I'm quite serious. Name your desires and we'll see if they can be realized. For example, we already have money and girls, though if you want a big harem you'll have to wait a bit, I already shock people around me too much, but everything can be solved, so don't be shy, order. Just no perversions, I don't like them.
At the mention of the harem, Shinji blushed to the point of being an overripe tomato and looked down in shame, while the "perversions" completely stunned him.
- So who are you embarrassed in front of? I'm certainly not an incubus, but believe me, I've seen and done things that you don't even have the imagination to do. So be bold, don't be shy.
- I... I want to ask...
- M?
- What's going on here anyway? What kind of monster attacked the city? And everything! I... I saw fragments of your... your memories, as if all this had already happened... I don't understand anything!
- You see, Shinji, - I leaned back in my seat. - This world is dying. Or rather, it is on the verge of destruction. I don't know what reasons led to the current situation, but it arose. These monsters - Angels are conductors of some Force that wants to finish off this world and, accordingly, get something out of it. The options may be different, but most likely this Force needs souls, the souls of people and the soul of the world itself, and of course, energy, which can be obtained from the death of the entire world.
- And what kind of Power is this? Who controls the Angels?
- I don't know. Most likely, some kind of bright god, or a non-existent god, such things also exist, I'll tell you what an abomination, but in principle it doesn't matter to me.
- God? What do you mean non-existent? How can he exist?
- Do you know the concept of egregor? - He nodded uncertainly. - Well, a non-existent god, that's something like that. They are incomplete, primarily in terms of personality, but quite strong, a sort of vampires of the higher spheres, they arise on the basis of faith and exist only thanks to it, drinking their followers dry, and after death they absorb their souls.
- But who will worship such a god?
- Very many. That's the thing, a non-existent god is not limited to his sphere of influence, say, love, nature, destruction, or something else. His prophets always shout about absolutism, unity, that everything is by his will and the will of other gods, no, you know. At the same time, he is positioned as something very good, kind and all-forgiving, that in his kingdom everyone is equal and other nonsense, for the crowd. But by positioning him as an absolute, they themselves, without understanding this, refute the thesis about his goodness, thus giving him the right and even the obligation to do whatever comes into his head, because "God's will be done," - I smiled wryly. - And any evil turns out to be his doing too. But alas, few people think about this. And the non-existent gods themselves, as I already said, are inferior. They can be compared to a certain computer program that performs a series of actions for which it was written, and this series, in turn, is formed by the dogmas of the corresponding religion and depends little on the thoughts and hopes of the believers themselves. So it turns out that even such a god himself, having no restrictions in the range of activity, does not have freedom of choice for these very actions and is forced to do everything that is attributed to him, but since many dogmas contradict each other, their simultaneous implementation leads to rather terrible results. So it turns out that such a god will be more dangerous than many archdemons and dark gods. Absolutism, Shinji, does not lead to good, - I fell silent, thinking about what was said, honestly, such entities are really very scary and cause me much more hostility than the most odious Light Ones. One good thing is that they appear very rarely. - Now about my memories ... - I smiled again and met Shinji's gaze, conveying the necessary memory. The boy's eyes glazed over, the player fell out of his hands, and a flat screen appeared above the nearest door, where the anime "Evangelion" began to be shown. Looking at this, I chuckled. After all, the guy is talented, he doesn't even notice how he affects his inner world. Having settled down more comfortably on the seat, in a half-reclining position, I joined in watching. Alas, this is not the real world, time here flows in accordance with Shinji's perception, and he has only just begun to absorb the information received. So, we'll have to wait.
After a few hours of local time, Shinji finally blinked and stared at me. The anime had just ended, revealing a sea of LCL and two new Adam and Eve. It was a sad, but necessary sight.
- So what? Will everything be like this? - my interlocutor asked a few minutes later, in a state of semi-shock.
- Now, roughly speaking, there are three main scenarios. The first, the Angels win and this world goes to their owner, whoever he may be. The embodiment of the second scenario you just saw, it is a complete rebirth of the world from scratch combined with the death of humanity. The third scenario, humanity wins, the world survives without emergency measures, such as absorbing all souls, and continues to develop. And which of these scenarios will come true depends almost entirely on us, cool, right? Agree, it's a delightful feeling, - I grinned almost involuntarily.
"Such a responsibility..." whispered the pale Sin.
- Oh, come on, what's the big deal? I have a really big problem... - I fell silent meaningfully, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling of the carriage.
- What? - Shinji still showed curiosity. And that meant he was already recovering from what he had seen.
- Big, Shinji, big. I would even say the cornerstone of our existence... - I fell silent again, pleased to note the increased level of interest from my interlocutor. - The question is this... Should I seduce Asuka when we are in the cabin of Eva-02, during Gaghiel's attack, or should I not and wait?
A roar echoed throughout the carriage, and Shinji fell from his seat from the excess of his emotions.
"Feel better?" I asked sympathetically, not even trying to hide my sly smile.
- You're sick, you're definitely sick!
- But at least you don't look like sour jelly anymore, and you've recovered from what you saw.
- Ah... And about Aska, this is a joke, right?
"I'm telling you, I haven't decided yet," I made the most innocent face.
- Are you kidding me?
- There is a little.
- So... - Shinji shook his head. - So what are you going to do with me?
- It's okay, we'll merge into one over time anyway, but for now I only need your consent to cooperate, as I understand it, you're happy with everything and you don't really want to destroy the world.
- Well, yes, in principle... But, still, why would a demon save the world and which option do you want to implement?
- Third. And why... Well, how can I put it?... You see, in magic there is such a thing as a life debt, it is not just an abstract concept, entirely and completely lying on the conscience of the saved, but a completely tangible thing. In fact, if I save a life in this world, then it will belong to me, in other words, I, in a sense, will become the master of this world. Of course, I explained everything very roughly, but you got the gist, right? And agree, the reward is quite substantial to work for it.
- A-a-a...
- Listen, let's stop talking about the fundamental laws of the universal structure, I still won't be able to explain even half of it to you, since you simply don't know, and are not able to understand, most of the necessary words and definitions, and in human languages, alas, there are simply no suitable terms.
- Um... Sorry...
"You are incorrigible," I shook my head. "So, my horseman of the apocalypse, do you agree to cooperate?"
- Yes.
- That's great, - I stood up with a smile and stretched. - I've been sitting here with you for too long, it's high time for me to wake up, feed the girls, and here I am sitting with some guy of suspicious appearance, in an even more suspicious carriage, traveling to who knows where... In short, bye, - Shinji, looking at me, chuckled.
"Misato is twenty-nine years old," the guy noted with a smile.
- So what? Do you even know how old I am? To me, Misato, Fuyutsuki, our social studies teacher, they're all such children...
- Uh-uh...
- That's it! - I raised my index finger up and winked slyly at Sin, melting into a cloud of darkness, leaving the inner world.
After waking up, I enjoyed the morning silence for a while, looking at the ceiling. Outside the window, the pre-dawn darkness reigned, and through the open window, a cool breeze penetrated the room.
It turned out pretty good. Of course, it's still a long way from a full merger, but even so, I won't have any problems with synchronization. Okay, time to get up.
I stood up, tucked in my futon, grabbed my clothes, and headed to the bathroom. I quickly took a shower, trying not to make any noise, and then went to the kitchen, but stopped when I reached the living room.
Ayanami sat on the couch and tangled herself in bandages, trying to bandage herself with one hand. She succeeded, but very slowly and with obvious difficulty, but the girl endured. It was obvious that she was doing this not for the first time.
"So what are you doing?" I asked, stopping in the doorway and looking at the girl. Rey froze and looked up at me with her ruby eye.
- I'm doing the bandaging.
- Eh... - I sighed tiredly and with a sad smile headed towards Rey. - Come here, my miracle, - and sitting down next to the surprised, but almost not showing it, "miracle", I carefully took Rey's hand and began to unwind the old bandages. The girl did not resist.
During the entire bandaging procedure, Rey looked at my hands or into my eyes, fascinated, when I bandaged her head, but she was silent. The bandages and plaster were in her school bag, and took up quite a significant part of the volume, the briefcase was right there, next to the sofa. Having tied the last knot, I looked into her eyes myself.
- Have you been awake for a long time?
- No.
- Do you always wake up this early?
- No. But I needed to do a bandage.
"I see," I barely suppressed the desire to stroke her head, she was now again too reminiscent of a cute, disheveled kitten. "Well, now you can sleep a little longer, I'll wake you up when I make breakfast." Rey blushed slightly.
"Okay, I'll sleep," and she looked away, staring somewhere at the floor.
- Well done, - I stood up and still couldn't resist running my hand through the girl's hair once. - Rest, - after which I quickly went to the kitchen, taking the used bandages with me. I didn't see Ayanami's face.
I wasn't in a hurry with breakfast, since it was still too early, and it's not customary here to eat a big meal at the beginning of the day, which means there's no point in cooking anything substantial. Rey did fall asleep soon after, curled up on the couch, I checked. So, like yesterday, I met the dawn alone, standing on the balcony and sipping cold, sweet tea.
When Misato woke up, there was about half an hour left before leaving for school. Having hummed something unintelligible when, after leaving the bath and coming to the kitchen, she immediately got her coffee, the brunette in nirvana spread out on the stool, and I went to wake up Rei. Breakfast passed in silence, Ayanami, with a thoughtful look, drank the cocoa I had made, without taking her eyes off the cup, Katsuragi, looking at us, smiled dreamily at something, and I simply enjoyed the silence and beautiful surroundings.
- Eh... - the beautiful captain sighed sadly, putting her empty cup on the table. - It's time... Do you need a ride to school?
"No, we'll get there ourselves," Misato looked at me suspiciously, then apparently remembered something and sighed.
"Well, as you wish," I nodded and stood up.
- Ray, are you finished?
- Yes.
- Then let's go.
"Okay," Ayanami also put her empty cup on the table and stood up.