Otaku Reflected 

Episode Three, Eva Revolution 

Part Ten 

A Superspy at Sea 

by Jared Ornstead 
  
=====

    The helicopter gunship landed on a pad, releasing Jared's party 
from the trip they'd taken to visit the Jet Alone demonstration. Jared 
closed the portable computer he'd been using to show his companions the 
end of the run of changes he'd made to the android, not just the 
intermediate stage he'd revealed at the conference. Systems had been 
streamlined and the whole thing slimmed down to Eva proportions to deal 
with what would otherwise be integration problems in Knight delivery 
systems. He also chose to add slender wings to extend the range of 
their jumps and give them some extra control in glides. Though many 
felt the short robe he'd thrown in, more of a tunic really, was a bit 
much. 
    The two ladies agreed with him that somehow it felt appropriate 
that the end result of the Archer design modifications made them look 
like giant-scale replicas of Robin Hood as played by Errol Flynn. 
    So long as you discounted the wings. 
    "So, Jared, I've been meaning to ask you." Misato started in as 
they all got out of the helicopter and went toward the waiting car. "If 
Ritsuko is Star Queen, then what am I? Besides Magical Soldier Cutie 
Emerald, of course." 
    She said it with a straight face, totally serious. 
    Jared was about to answer when a woman in a kimono with a long 
bundle in her arms stepped between them and the car. She looked 
thirty-ish, had red hair tied back in a bun and was looking on the boy 
with a proud smile, yet watery eyes. 
    "Hello, son." 
    Jared looked on her with awe. "Mom??" 
    It was Nodoka. 

    The room was small this time, it was also dark. Strange things were 
known to occur therein. Presently, one of the strange things was a dark 
looking specter of a man confronting a fat, bald, old martial artist 
wearing a towel and dripping from the shower, with a pair of pink bunny 
slippers on his oversize feet. 
    "Well?" Genma dripped. 
    The image of Keele Lorenz wavered with fluctuations in his 
transmission equipment. "Genma, you're diverting too many resources 
away from the Human Instrumentality Project to fund this absurd search 
of yours for Dragon Balls." 
    The bald man grinned smugly toward the image. "But wait till I get 
them all..." 
    Keele's image frowned back at him. "You're not going to get one. 
They don't exist." 
    Genma was unconvinced. "It was written in the Dead Sea Scrolls." 
    Keele snapped back at him. "It was NOT written in them, you wrote 
that bit yourself and glued it onto your copy. The ancient Hebrews did 
NOT have blue ball-point pens and lined notebook paper." 
    Light glinted off of Genma's glasses in the shadowed room. "Now I 
suppose you're going to tell me that my brother was not a Saiyin. Or 
that he didn't transform into a monster with the full moon." 
    For once Keele found himself speechless. 
    It was too absurd. 
    Genma himself struck a pose, fist clenched in the air as he shouted 
toward the sky. "I WILL find them! Just you wait till I have them all!! 
I'll wish myself an immortal Super Saiyin! And my boy as well!! Then 
we'll be the ULTIMATE MARTIAL ARTISTS!! Then you'll all be sorry! 
Hahahahaha!" 
    Keele had calmed down. "Genma, you're completely mad." 
    Genma laughed insanely. 
    Keele sighed, trying not to show it. He clenched his hands. "But 
you appear to be all I have that could continue in this particular 
venue. Very well, you may remain in power. But I will insist that you 
do not slip the schedule for Instrumentality as you continue your 
present game. I suppose using lunatics to fight others is appropriate." 
    He winked out. 
    Genma had always been a little nuts, but had come completely 
unhinged on certain things when heÕd lost his old buddy Soun in Second 
Impact. He struck a pose. "It's Genma Saotome's Operation Dragon 
Balls!!" 
    An ancient cartoon played in the background. 

    "You see here, the Thunder Knight." Jared was taking his mom on a 
tour of the place, with the two sometimes magical girls trailing 
behind. 
    Nodoka came to stop before the giant monster of a machine, staring 
appreciatively. "So this is the robot you pilot into battle? What are 
those crystals on it's chest?" 
    Misato and Ritsuko leaned forward, certain this would be juicy, 
valuable information for their own use as well. Jared was being a 
singular font of delicious details today. 
    He pointed first to the pale yellow crystal, positioned atop the 
burgeoning formation of others. "That is the crystal that gives the 
Knight its name, the Elemental Crystal of lightning gives me power over 
electricity. You'll notice the stylized lightning bolt on the face of 
it." 
    Nodoka nodded, then asked. "So what of this other crystal, my son? 
The one with two images on its surface?" 
    Jared took a deep breath. He'd been worried that someone might ask 
that, and had been only recently struggling to answer that for himself. 
"I'm not sure about the reasons for it exactly, but I have a working 
theory." He looked to the pale white crystal with two images glittering 
faintly on its surface, one a sunbeam and the other a transparent wall. 
    "We'd like to hear it." Misato gestured reassuringly, almost 
pleading. 
    Jared gave her the same look he'd been sending the crystal's way. 
~Yup, she sure would.~ He shrugged. "Okay, I give no guarantees it's 
accurate, but I think the way it works, is this." He tried to ignore 
the tape recorders and microphones that the two off duty magical girls 
had sprouted. 
    The redhead's gaze went back to the formation of crystals, all four 
of them. "Each of these represents an element, but you're aware that 
our science holds that most things have three states: Solid, Liquid and 
Gas. I've never heard of the same applied to energy before, but then 
I've never seen Light described as an element before this, either. You 
will note the crystal with two faces has a blank third one. The two 
faces we know are forcefields and laser abilities. A good description 
for a laser is condensed light sent to flowing along a definite trail - 
a description that makes it almost sound like a liquid. Forcefields 
could even be called light made solid. The potential third side, a gas, 
could be achieved through illusion powers or a hologram, 
invisibility... you name it." 
    He shrugged. "We don't know yet, but it could be any or all of 
them. I haven't even begun really to explore the possibilities of our 
current crystals." 
    "So what of the others?" Ritsuko asked. 
    Jared turned back to face the slumbering Thunder Knight, counting 
himself lucky that his tapping into its power remotely didn't seem to 
have done much other than to set its rest back a bit. Though he'd only 
been going for an infinitesimal fraction of its power at the time, a 
thing which had to have helped. 
    "Well, Frost is an easy one. Ice is the solid form of Water, no 
mystery there. But in conjunction with Forcefields it gives a little 
insight into what the solid forms generally do. While we *can* use 
forcefields or ice offensively, it requires cleverness. They bend most 
easily to defensive purposes." 
    The redheaded boy gestured to the other crystals. "Consider now the 
others. If the relationship between solids is sound, the it ought to 
apply that liquids have a relationship as well. Lasers _could_ be the 
liquid form of light, and Lightning and Particle Beams both have the 
same position on the facets of their respective crystals. If you 
stretch your mind around the concept enough, then a particle stream is 
really a beam of very fast moving dirt, giving it all the properties of 
flow and cohesion we get from lasers and a similarity to streams of 
other liquids like water. Lightning is electricity, and anyone who 
doesn't know that electricity flows is either a dunce or he's fibbing. 
Since Earth is already taken as an element, then it probably belongs to 
the class of Air. Which makes sense in a way, that's where you see it 
most often in nature without hosts of measuring tools to prove its here 
or there." 
    Jared folded his arms, still not wavering his gaze from them. "All 
three share common properties in that they are a far sight easier to 
use to kill things than their use at this level of powers lends toward 
any other purpose." 
    "What of the gaseous powers?" Ritsuko asked, writing all this down 
in case the tape recorders, both of them, should somehow malfunction. 
    Jared shrugged. "Beats me, we haven't got any examples to judge 
from yet." 
    Nodoka watched the antics of the two girls flitting about her son 
and gave a pleased sort of smile. 
    "Say, mom, why don't guards trouble you over carrying that sword?" 
Jared gestured with the sheathed blade he always seemed to have with 
him. "I know strangers are always ribbing me over mine." 
    Still smiling, Nodoka answered. "Jared, I have special status as an 
investigator for the Japanese government, this includes international 
considerations. I am allowed to go armed as I like." 
    "Cool!" He replied, leading off to the next arm of their tour. 

    "This issue of the crystals concerns me." 
    "Yes." Fuyutsuki looked at Mecha-Fuyutsuki. The latter sat by his 
bedside in a pose of respect and confederation. Across from him sat 
Genma, who was concerned presently with reading texts, allowing the 
conversation to flow by him. 
    Fuyutsuki pulled up the covers closer to his wounded chest, leaning 
back into his pillows and contemplating how alike this robot was to 
him. He listened to it go on to say. 
    "In order for the Knights to have the maximum combat utility, they 
*must* have the maximum number of crystals. Yet our studies, and 
everything Sky Lord has said, indicates that they are gained *only* 
through defeating dark angels. Furthermore, each fallen angel has a 
unique crystal. This poses several problems." 
    Flesh-and-blood Fuyutsuki adjusted his position and said. "Yes, 
such as how do we manage to get our newest Knights some of the crucial 
older crystals." 
    Mecha-Fuyutsuki nodded gravely toward his wounded double and went 
on. "Thus it becomes a primary concern to us, researching methods by 
which the crystals may be had through alternate means - as there will 
never be a chance otherwise for some of our Knights to gain crystals of 
absolutely fundamental importance." 
    Fuyutsuki noted that his robotic double had now been repaired in 
his covering of false flesh, but could easily enough be distinguished 
if one looked closely toward the collar, where two metal bolts 
protruded from the artificial man's neck. 
    "What do the MAGI have to say?" Fuyutsuki asked the most blatant 
question. 
    Mecha-Fuyutsuki coughed and he could swear the robot looked 
embarrassed. "I... Uh, it offered several options around a single core 
theme." 
    "Which was?" Fuyutsuki prodded. 
    He was surprised by the answer. 
    Mecha-Fuyutsuki added weight to this import. "You will note through 
studies of this latest battle how critical the Forcefield crystal alone 
will be. Not to mention the power Frost crystal has in sustained 
defense, attack, and utility. The Earth crystal also appears to enable 
particle beams of immense offensive potential. You can see our concern 
that these cannot, by any present means, be distributed among all the 
active Knights." 
    Fuyutsuki gaped openly. "But..." He closed his mouth. "I suppose, 
if it must be." A strangely grateful nod came from the old man in bed. 
"But what will Sky Lord's reaction be? This violates his genre." 
    Genma closed the book, raising his head in satisfaction to 
proclaim. "It's perfect." 

    "Say, Jared, I'm glad you agreed to come along on this little 
trip." 
    "It's no problem, Misato." 
    "YAH!! And thanks for inviting *us* to go along, too, miss 
Misato!!" Kensuke gave a grab to shake his friend Toji's shoulder while 
playing video camera he held over everything in sight with the other. 
    Nodoka waited in the back of the aircraft with a slight frown to 
her lips, remembering a conversation she'd had not very long ago. 

Flashback... 

    "So, you agree this is the only way." The lights and dimness 
combined could almost have made an observer think it was Gendo talking, 
except the lack of a chinstrap beard and a rather telling fact that the 
dark figure wore a prayer shawl. 
    "I understand, but I don't approve." Nodoka sighed regretfully. 
"Jared can hardly be held responsible for the clan honor when he has 
been an outsider till now. Even the fight to be accepted by the Saotome 
name emphasized the distance of the gap created by your brother. As an 
outsider taken in, he was given to learn that his place was one of 
tender and tertiary standing. He will not take well to being shouldered 
with clan honor. We must give him time to adapt before we pressure 
him." 
    Genma merely touched a button, causing a wall display to light the 
room with a multi-part view containing clips from the last several 
battles. 
    "He will not live long, taking the risks he does. The clan must not 
die with him." 
    Crying, Nodoka gave her nod. 

End Flashback. 

    The VTOL aircraft landed on the carrier flight deck, Kensuke 
keeping up an unending stream of military related chatter as he 
calculated, cataloged, and considered each one of the many hundreds of 
types of war paraphernalia on display here in the middle of a 
functioning, armed counter-invasion fleet. 
    Above them, Frost Knight flew on its way to Germany, a bus in 
either hand. Though the task of welding handles on the tops of them had 
caused some shaking heads among the engineers called on to do it, and 
much muttering about reinforcement to the frame, the end result was a 
way that Rei could transport herself along with her Knight. 
    They looked like giant size briefcases. Though the Reis looking out 
of each window to wave gave Jared a good feeling before the Knight 
circled once and flew away. 
    Misato hopped out from the airframe. "Well," she jounced happily, 
with her hands on her hips. "Here we are, and a full two hours ahead of 
schedule, too! Hitching a ride with Frost Knight was a great idea, 
Jared." 
    Jared nodded his acknowledgement of the praise, and gave murmured 
thanks, gaze on the vanishing Frost Knight. Really, it had been simple, 
trivial really, to give the Knight a backpack launch cage for the 
operation and retrieval of a transport aircraft. Slide it onto the 
shoulder rails and slide it off when no longer needed, stick it a 
corner until an Eva needed to carry a helicopter somewhere again. 
    Though they were not flying a helicopter. The bulky cargo box had 
been dropped separately by a parachute, and was now being retrieved 
from the water by cranes. Normal timelines would have them in a heavy 
helicopter to carry it themselves, but they had flown in using a late 
model assault vectored thrust craft. You can never know when you are 
going to get attacked when you're an Elemental Knight's Lord or Lady. 
Three in one place was just too juicy a target to assume the bad guys 
would pass it up. 
    Now there were four, assuming Asuka was here. Though there was 
enough tonnage afloat they were probably safe from most worldly 
squabbles. The sky was thick with aircraft flying combat air patrols, 
including a command jet at high altitudes that had to be periodically 
refueled by tanker aircraft, as it couldn't land on any of the aircraft 
carriers - they were just too small. 
    The fleet was taking threats to its dear cargo very seriously. 
    Asuka wasn't on deck, which disappointed Jared a little. He was 
looking forward to blocking her inevitable attempted slap with the flat 
of his sword. That ought to start things out on the right foot. 
    A huge wave crashed against the bow and an untimely breeze washed 
the spray over them, but that was nothing when mere moments later the 
cranes lifted the box they'd retrieved out of the sea and swung it 
overhead. 
    They all got a thorough drenching from the dripping case. 

    They all ran downstairs, shivering with the seawater and oil reek 
that comes from too much industrial machinery churning frothy waves. 
They literally stank of it. 
    "Jared, that's your room over there." Nodoka consulted a piece of 
paper, reading room numbers after checking the door plate. The others 
also began to file into their quarters assigned to them before they'd 
arrived. It probably saved Jared's life that he elected to aid Misato 
with the bulky luggage into her room before going to his. 
    Nodoka went into her room with a backward wince. 
    Misato had chosen not to be without portable command and control 
equipment, but it was a hefty load to carry. 
    Once that was finished, Jared reached for the doorknob to go to his 
room, but froze. He KNEW that feeling. It was danger. Suddenly 
recalling the dark angel attack that usually occurred right after their 
arrival, (that apparently had NOT been put off by varying the time of 
their arrival) he ran off to get the captain, to deploy that cable 
they'd brought to power the sole Muscle Knight present. 
    In the room supposedly assigned to him, Asuka Langley Soryu exited 
the shower while toweling off her hair. She tossed the room's only 
towel onto the made bed and got started getting dressed, completely 
unaware of the plottings that would've put a boy in her bedroom at this 
sensitive moment. 

    "Consider it a test." Jared pled to the unwilling admiral. 
    "No way, no how." The admiral responded. "We're only carrying that 
child's toy in the first place because of a direct order. I don't have 
to let you kids play with it while we're at sea. Wait until Christmas 
to open your present." 
    Jared stared helplessly. 
    A man came up behind him, putting a supportive hand on Jared's 
shoulder, saying. "I'm making it an official request." 
    The redhaired boy looked back at him. "Oh, hi Kaji." 
    "No." The admiral returned, old age and power making him petulant. 
    Kaji raised an eyebrow at the boy knowing him, but just then 
another man in similar but cleaner attire stepped up on Jared's other 
side. "If Sky Lord says that it's necessary, I'm willing to back it. 
Admiral, if you'll cooperate, I'm in a position to offer you a new 
battleship." 
    Jared saw who it was and smiled big time. 
    Kaji directed a disgusted shake of his head toward the other man. 
"You guys in the Marduke have too much money to throw around." 
    But the admiral was considering, rubbing his chin a moment before 
he said. "Alright, we'll do it. Bring the container ship alongside, 
then get a helicopter to carry this cable across for them. Get our boys 
to install the winch on this end. Does that satisfy your requirements? 
When do I get my new ship?" 
    The as yet unidentified man from Marduke took out a cellphone and 
made a call. He hung up with a glad smile, saying. "They'll lay the 
blocks in the drydock today." 

    Nodoka hurried along a corridor, unsure what had gone wrong. When 
she'd come out of her own room after freshening up she'd expected to be 
dealing with the evidence of a terrific fight, or something else if 
luck held. 
    But Jared had apparently vanished, never going to her...err, his 
room. 
    Glancing aside to Asuka, who was walking alongside her, Nodoka 
hurried on. They'd used the excuse of looking for the other three, who 
had all run off behind Kensuke's camera. Nodoka was wondering where to 
find the young Jared, when just then she heard his voice from around 
the next bend. 
    "I'll meet you there, first I have something to take care of this 
way." 
    Nodoka's ears sharpened. Her listening skills were enormous. Two 
people had just parted ways in the corridor about to adjoin this, one 
had gone off back to the command deck and the other, a male step, was 
about to turn the corner into them any second! 
    Acting like it was a natural mistake, Nodoka feigned a half trip, 
adjusting the grip on her wrapped sword to use the tip of its sheath to 
bat Asuka right behind the knee. The girl went sprawling, legs splayed 
and skirt riding up just as the male rounded the corner. 
    A perfect panty shot, couldn't have planned better. 
    A tallish gentleman wearing shades and casual attire rounded the 
turn into the corridor and stood stock still for just a moment, then he 
bent down a reached a hand to help Asuka to her feet. 
    "Hi there. Looks like you had a little accident. Was the floor 
slick? I'll ask the admiral to have the deck hands check that right 
away. Were you hurt miss?" 
    Asuka shook her head no, dreadfully embarrassed. But one does not 
strike people of such obvious combat training and defined musculature 
without concern for your health.. 
    Nodoka grumbled below her breath, coming to reverse a decision 
about about her son's future. If this had been easy or he'd been 
vulnerable to it, she would have held out for letting him wait a while 
longer, or at least made protests. 
    Now he was going to be manly if it was the last thing he ever did! 
    The man went on to introduce himself. "Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't 
introduced myself yet, have I? My name's Leon, I'm with the Marduke 
institute. Say! You're one of the other pilots, aren't you? Well, 
what's say we get together for lunch today? I just know my wife would 
enjoy seeing you. She's just been dying to make her reacquaintance with 
Jared and I know she'll be happy to see the other pilots as well. What 
do you say? I can promise you it'll be better than cafeteria food." 
    Asuka perked up, forgetting her embarrassment, seeing as he'd paid 
it no mind. She clasped her hands and sighed. "Jared will be there? 
Well then of *course* I'll come!" 
    Leon tossed a casual wave that was almost a salute. "Right, then. 
I'll tell Kate we'll be having two more for lunch today. Hey, you had 
other friends didn't you? Bring them all, we'll make it a party." 
    Leon, formerly of the ADP, strolled off down the corridor whistling 
casually. 

    Jared was on the flight deck when all the rest of the Nerv group 
came pouring out, Kensuke and his group through one door, Nodoka and 
Asuka from another. Misato ran over to Asuka, requiring an introduction 
and explanation before the German girl would believe it was her. 
    Jared got dragged in to this conversation, while Nodoka ran off, 
presumably to keep Kensuke from filming something top secret and 
getting shot for it. Not that was TOO much a danger, but with the UN 
vanishing into the mists, rapidly unraveling from the top downward, 
there was no guarantee of it not happening, either. 
    50% of the ships in this fleet were American, they were anxious to 
sail off and return to their beleaguered homeland. At this point the 
only reason they remained was that Japan was already on the way and the 
vestiges of the UN would be providing fuel to get them that far. After 
that, they'd have to go looking for their own. 
    Misato squeaked and ran off to stop someone from arresting Toji, 
leaving Jared alone to meet Hurricane Langley. 
    Asuka waved at Jared, looking brilliant. "HI!! I'm Asuka Langley 
Soryu, but you can call me darling! Except when we're on duty, when you 
can call me by my code name Fire Queen. I'm piloting Blaze Knight, only 
since it's mystical Elemental powers aren't active yet we'll have to go 
on calling it a simple Muscle Knight for now, as if we didn't know." 
She leaned forward, tugging open the neck of her top just a little more 
as she aimed for giving him a perfect view within. "And I'd like to 
declare myself your lovely romantic interest, and the female lead 
you've waited so long for." 
    Jared was speechless, stunned. 
    His eyes returned to level and locked on hers, while he was 
berating himself they'd ever slipped. "Hi! I'm..." 
    But she smoozed up to him, grabbing his arm. "Oh, I know who *you* 
are, alright! Eh Leibchin?" 
    A blush traveled from his collar to his neck and over his ears 
until it hit the hairline. He adjusted his shirt collar and steam 
escaped. Could he help it he found redheads attractive? Reminding 
himself this lady was *dangerous* he gave the Command Override to his 
silly rampaging hormones and clamped the brakes on them, diverting 
blood flow back into its proper channels. 
    His blush faded and he switched to German. "How can I be your 
darling? We hardly even know each other!" 
    She was only too glad to switch back to her native language. "Oh! 
but I know *ALL* about you, darling!" She bounced to hold him with both 
arms. "I've read all the materials and reviewed all the tapes! The 
battles you've fought are *MOST* inspiring! Then there were the 
briefings that you've given your superior officers! You know more about 
the Knight units than ANYBODY! Then there were those plots you've 
exposed. Oh! I'm you're greatest fan, Jay-chan!!" 
    Doomed. He was doomed. 
    She began idly making fingertip circles on his chest, snuggling 
closer to the jeers and shouts of encouragement from the nearby 
military staff. "I wanted so badly to be helping you win those fights. 
I hope in the later tapes they can cut in all those moments when I was 
cheering you on from where I watched in Germany. There really *were* 
those times when my worried expression I'm *sure* spurred you on even 
in spite of the distance between us. True love conquers all, eh 
darling?" 
    She bounced into a joyful twirl, coming to face him with gladness 
alight in her face. "I now get to be *right there* when you are 
gloriously fighting evil and making the world safe for ordinary 
teenagers!!" She struck a victory pose. 
    It took him *no* time to recognize it as his. 
    As he was moistening his throat to talk, she went on, excitedly 
taking his arm again. 
    "Yeah, I only learned about that bit about alcohol inhibiting my 
magical girl powers a week ago." Asuka frowned. "So I hope that doesn't 
impair me too long as I had almost no notice to give up drinking before 
I got here." 
    Not all the changes he'd made would save him from living a life 
with Asuka. He was doomed. 
    Suddenly finding moisture in his throat, toes poised crying out for 
the need to do the Saotome Secret Technique, he somehow managed to keep 
his face a mask of delight at meeting her so as not to break with 
genre. 
    But it pained, oh, how it pained him! 
    He played his last ace. "So, ready for your magical girl role?" 
    "Well of COURSE!! Misato is a magical girl and the first thing her 
penguin made her do was pilot a Knight into battle. Since I'm *already* 
Lady to a Knight I must already be a magical girl, too. Right? They 
just haven't gotten around to giving me a transformation stone yet." 
    "Here you go!" Misato breezed by, still chasing two boys trying to 
get themselves arrested as spies. She tossed Asuka a necklace and raced 
on, calling out behind. "Glad to have you on the team, Cutie 
Sapphire!!" 
    Yes, Misato spoke German. 
    The redhaired girl's eyes were alight, shooting off sparks, her 
fists clenched with joy. "Sapphire!! I get to be CUTIE SAPPHIRE!! And 
sapphires are my favorite gemstone, too!" 
    "Mine, too." The words escaped Jared's lips in a moment of honesty 
before he could clamp them shut in terror. Inwardly he was chanting. 
~Any other girl. That's it. I'll fall head over heels, so long as it's 
for someone else! I've waited too long, left myself badly vulnerable. 
But right now I'll just go over to one of my many other love interests 
and it'll be too late for Asuka, I'll already be married... Um, what's 
a place that would marry someone who's only fourteen?~ 
    But somehow tears were escaping from Asuka's eyes, and she was 
looking down on the deck, somehow opening doors he *never* would've 
though he'd have seen inside on her. 
    She sniffed. "Darling, I can't tell you what it means to have met 
you now." Her teary face rose to meet his steady eyes. "Ever since I 
first heard about you, I knew I wouldn't be alone anymore." She smiled 
through her tears, head bowing again. 
    "You had a tragic past, just as I did. And you were happy in spite 
of it. You even let it past your guard so that others knew about it, 
like it didn't bother you at all. You're my role model, Jared, my hero. 
And I'm *so glad* to have met you!!" 
    She flung herself, and he caught her by reflex. There were 
disciplined reflexes that let him override certain aspects of his body: 
pain, fear, lust, etc. But there were things that had an override on 
him, too. He was a healer, first and above all. What that triggered he 
had about as much chance of avoiding it as a fish does of surviving 
boiling lava. 
    He sighed, encircling her tenderly in his arms, acknowledging the 
tender hurt inside of her while offering soothing comfort in touch as 
well as in words. "Shhh, it's alright. Don't be afraid. I know about 
your mother. You don't have to say." 
    Suddenly she was bawling like a wounded infant, clutching him like 
her shelter in a typhoon and crying uncontrollable tears onto his 
shoulder. 
    For a moment he was strong, her pillar, supporting the whole world 
for her, letting her rest against him, knowing that he would make 
everything alright in the end. That moment for them both seemed to go 
on and on for eternity. 
    Everything about him positively radiated masculine strength. 
    Nodoka, standing by a wind generator having waited for a good time 
to turn it on and have a good skirt-flipping moment for her son, got 
all gooey-eyed and decided to take some photographs instead. 
    Asuka had intentionally or not made a call on a part of him that he 
could never skip or interrupt, the cry of a trusting soul in distress, 
willing to take his love as offered. 
    He was also a creature made up of love, but hid that much of his 
life because of a few experiences with heartless, self-centered girls 
willing to take but never to give any love from themselves in return. 
    Emotional, not physical love. There were all too many far too 
casual with the latter. 
    Even a dedicated pursuit by someone interested had trouble breaking 
through that callous built up over old wounds. But there were openings 
he could do nothing to shield, only hope that no one hit them by 
accident. 
    Which is what Asuka did, on purpose but unknowing, never having a 
hint that was the only way in. 
    Doing nothing to refuse her success anyway. 
    His breath was strong and slow, regulated in a way that transmitted 
loving strength to her, penetrating her distress as easily as she'd 
bypassed his defenses. His warm breath in her hair comforted her. His 
arms around her were unshaking. 
    Nodoka skipped to another roll of film, wishing she had Kensuke's 
digital camcorder. 

    Entirely against JaredÕs will, the words ripped forth. Accompanied 
by strains of music from every ship and sound system, filling the air 
with gentle noise. 

** 
"The night we met I knew I, needed you so. 
And if I had the chance IÕd, never let you go. 
So wonÕt you stay and love me? 
IÕll make you so proud of me. 
WeÕll make Ôem turn their heads, every place we go." 

(And here an angelic chorus joined in) 
"So wonÕt you please? (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my little lady? (my one, and only lady) 
Say youÕll be my darling. (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my lady love! (my one, and only lady)" 

"So wonÕt you please? (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my little lady? (my one, and only lady) 
Say youÕll be my darling. (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my lady love! (my one, and only lady)" 

    JaredÕs emergency defense system against romance switched off and 
he relaxed into the continuing music. 

"IÕll make you happy, baby, just wait and see. 
For every kiss you give me, IÕll give you three. 
Oh, since the day I say you 
I have been waiting for you. 
You know I will look for you, till eternity.Ó 

"So wonÕt you please? (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my little lady? (my one, and only lady) 
Say youÕll be my darling. (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my lady love! (my one, and only lady)" 

"So wonÕt you please? (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my little lady? (my one, and only lady) 
Say youÕll be my darling. (be mine, be my lady) 
Be my lady love! (my one, and only lady)" 
** 

    When the musci ended Jared discovered that he was being kissed by 
the lady in his arms, and all of the other canidates were watching, 
steaming angry. 
    Nodoka was blowing her nose on a tissue, filming this while crying 
openly in joy, Kensuke out with a lump on his head at her feet.