Now then . . .(part 3)

Looking for some kind of inspiration, she'd gone "Net surfing" for some likely sources and by one way or another had pulled up this image from a game. (eerily enough but by now she'd gotten used to the idea of her life being reflected in manga and product tie-ins) called Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Raising Project (http: //en. wiki pedia .org/ wiki/ Ayanami _Raising _Project). She had come across this game in passing in the past (had read the blurb on the cover at one antique store, on a visit to Inquirer's homeworld), but like every other person who found their lives mirrored in popular works of fiction from . . . off reality, she'd avoided them almost religiously!

Like everyone else in that situation (and in a magic rich reality/world), a very strange sense of . . .weirdness happened when watching her life being played out on TV or in a book.

As for the game itself, besides that it was just . . . too close to home. Oddly (or maybe not so oddly) a similar titled "project" had been talked about in her earlier years, but scrapped when Fred Takahashi had come into her life.

The man had fulfilled the same role as what the player would do in the video game unintentionally (making her a better EVA pilot and all that) for the most part. If Gendo Akari had EVER caught wind of all those "free the slave" dungeon crawls she'd gone on with Fred Takahashi (and what he'd done by INTENTIONALLY doing that).

The man would have been disappeared and . . .steps taken . . .and by Gendo Akari's designs would be set back to right. An "accident" would happen which would kill Rei, annulling the learning and growth she'd undergone, and her soul placed within (somehow) into an awaiting spare Rei clone.

Very much again under Gendo's thumb....

Rei still did not like thinking of that time of her life so instead had pretty much put her energies towards the future. Forging her own future, you see and leaving the past . . . in the past.

It just is that she knows Gendo so well, so knows what she knows, you know?

Anyway, she'd come across the picture and . . tilted her head slightly.

"Odd," she says to herself. "With the vast majority of the Japanese nation being Shinto they'd have somehow figured out I . . .would have a somewhat different belief."

"Still . . . I do not believe my chosen faith shall lead me to take this road," she smiled softly, mixed in with a dash of irony, seeing an anime version of herself dressed as a nun (http:// purlace. net/eva /ayanami /D010. jpg)

Right after that, an odd feeling sweeps through her, ruffling the feathers of the wings on her back and leaving an odd look on her face.

Moments later . . .

Rei Ayanami Quatermain

"Well, it happened finally!" I say, coming into the lair where my mother and father lay. I pause slightly when I notice that the others with the others, my unofficial (but still beloved) aunts and uncles.

What they had been discussing I am not sure about. Not that they keep secrets from me on just any old thing (I should note that given those who'd worked in the Intel business that you're to keep THOSE kinds of secrets to the grave . . . or at least until they're declassified decades or eons later), but it is just that I've come into the middle of things.

Hadn’t even bothered on knocking or otherwise announcing my entrance before now, really. Usually I’m more polite about such things but . . .Hey! I just stopped aging here and I'm going to be in an eighteen year old body for now on. I cannot exactly explain what it felt like in words, just that it had been the oddest feeling, I must admit!.

"What," my father asks, shifting from his Oriental dragon form into his human seeming, rushing over in concern. "What happened?"

The others rush over as well, concerned as well.

Okay, what gives here? The elves especially look worried about SOMETHING here and when they look nervous, something is definitely in the air! Something you would best be aware of...

And why do I suddenly have a feeling of . . . excited anticipation?

1. "It’s my birthday," I say simply. "My 18th birthday."

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