Part 23: Mission 13 - Encounter of the Mechanical Gods
Location: Kalung Mutiara Island
We open to find the old Mr. Bähbem telling Watari that, after forty years, they’ve managed to make “that” a reality. Are they still in time? Indeed, they’ll be capable of readying the necessary amount… though some will have to use parts of Fossil Beasts they previously captured.
“Fine puppets, those… though, also, pitiful in their incapacity of achieving divinity,” Bähbem muses. Another matter, word has reached Bähbem’s ears of a squad filled to the brim with not only various unique bots but, also, those artificial humans. He and Watari figure NERV’s using said squad to keep their, and the enemies’, eyes focused elsewhere.
Face that, Bähbem posits that maybe they should also send the RahXephon to join their ranks. They’ll likely be able to make better use of it than Watari’s TERRA and, furthermore, if it causes the MU to focus their attention on the squad, it’ll buy them time.
Watari seems ill at ease over the prospect of having the Nahel Argama team play bait for the MU but they have shown themselves capable of dispatching Dotems before, no? That makes them qualified for the role of pied piper, Bähbem figures.
Watari further argues that sending the RahXephon over runs the risk of SEELE gaining intel on the thing. Bähbem says that matters not: “Thanks to the Scrolls, we both have a decent idea of what cards each one holds. Furthermore, not only do I doubt they could comprehend the RahXephon System, it’s also incomplete without two awakened Instrumentalists.”
What if NERV decided to simply destroy the thing? Bähbem doubts Gendou is the kind of man to do that; rather, he’d likely use the RahXephon as a smokescreen for SEELE. Bähbem sent him a modicum of intel precisely to induce him to do so.
Fair enough. Then Watari will handle the RahXephon matter.
Location: Nirai-Kanai
Back at TERRA’s HQ, Haruka’s brought Ayato over. He and Kunugi get in a staring match, prompting Isshiki to sigh that they’re like squabbling children. Regardless, the previous exams came back and results show there’s nothing physically wrong with Ayato.
Ayato still stares at him and Haruka stammers that this is something to be happy about. Granted, he’s just spent all that time locked away in that room, so he’s not in the best of moods; plus, folks kept doing check-ups on him over and over. Do they think people who’ve escaped Tokyo aren’t human or something? Are they expecting his blood to turn blue as well? Dot, dot, dot.
As no one answers, Kunugi cuts in to say that they’ve assigned a home for him in Nirai-Kanai and asks Haruka to take him over. When she tries grabbing his arm, Ayato snaps at her not to touch him.
As Haruka balks, this guy offers to do so instead; he introduces himself as Itsuki Kisaragi of the scientific division.
Haruka doesn’t say anything one way or another, so Itsuki takes it as her consenting. With that, he leaves with Ayato.
Along the way, they bump into Sayoko Nanamori, Itsuki’s assistant. He takes the opportunity to hand her a disk with a D1 aria recorded, to get to work on while he’s escorting Ayato. When the kid asks, he explains that a “D1 aria” is that song from the MU’s Dolems – the two of them are studying it.
Sayoko’s heard of Ayato and asks how he’s liking Nirai-Kanai. When the kid doesn’t answer, Itsuki breaks the silence with some exposition: Nirai’s the man-made structure built to facilitate the study of some ancient ruins on the proper island, while Kanai’s the above-sea city. Thus, the name.
As for said ruins, they’ve stored the RahXephon within; the place is called Neriya Shrine.
Quon shows up right then, complaining to Itsuki about her annoyance with the resident physician; the doctor insisted she’s in perfect health, but she’s certainly not feeling or she wouldn’t bother getting exams again and again.
Itsuki concurs, taking the opportunity to introduce her to Ayato: Quon’s his sister, and one of TERRA’s workers. Ayato’s a bit taken aback, seeing her again, though Quon’s as friendly as ever.
Itsuki shows Ayato to the house where he'll be staying... "temporarily" most likely. He doesn’t explain, leaving Ayato to introduce himself; he'll come pick him up later. As he goes, a girl steps outside; she seemingly recognizes Ayato, surprised that he’s the one staying with them. Rikudou, the home’s owner, also walks over and tells her to introduce herself.
Megumi Shitou is her name and, yes, Haruka’s her older sister; she lives here as well, by the by. Rikudou figures his more traditional Japanese house is rather different from where Ayato used to live, and it may take some getting used to, but suggests he look at it like he’s visiting some distant relatives… not that Ayato’s ever done that.
Either way, Rikudou asks Meg to show Ayato around the neighborhood. She’s not too keen on that but Rikudou asks “What do I always say?” and she pouts an agreement.
Ayato was a bit surprised that Meg knew who he was right away but she explains that she also works for TERRA. Not Rikudou, however; he was a famous archaeologist back in the day but now he’s retired.
Meg’s a bit curious, so she asks: how’s Tokyo like? It’s just a regular town and she seems a bit disappointed that there isn’t anything crazy going on. You see, Tokyo Jupiter came into being before Meg’s time but Haruka was actually born there before the MU closed it off. She remembers always hearing her say how she’d go back.
The talk’s interrupted when Meg gets paged – looks like she’s on call and TERRA just asked her to come in. Ayato can find the way back by himself, though.
So there goes Ayato again, telling Rikudou what happened. Seems like it’ll fall on the old man to fix dinner for tonight.
Ayato takes the opportunity to ask about the line he used to convince Meg; what is it that he “always tells her”? “Ah, it’s nothing major: ‘never turn away from hardship – always face it head-on’. Hmm… And you’re still young, so I reckon there’ll be plenty in store for you, too,” Rikudou says.
Back in TERRA’s HQ, Souichi is welcoming the director, Watari, back from his trip. The guy actually saw fit to get him some souvenir, handing a batch of Shizuoka’s famous “Photonic Crackers”.
Regardless, he asks him to call Kunugi over and Souichi figures this means an official decision’s been made about Ayato and the RahXephon.
And as these things often go, they are asking/telling him to fight the MU with them. That strikes Ayato as one-sided as all hell but he’s the only one who can make the thing go.
But why does he actually need to fight with the RahXephon when there are already a ton of MSs and Super Robots all available? Kunugi’s sure that Ayato, since coming over, has heard of the myriad crisis that broke out into this world; we’ve yet to extinguish those flames fully and, yet, new problems are STILL rearing their ugly heads.
Ayato’s seen the videos about the invading aliens and whatnot but to Kunugi and the others, these are very real, tangible things that they must deal with.
Ayato’s still not having it and Isshiki sniffs that he’s, after all, still a kid; Itsuki figures his attitude is only natural, considering TERRA’s treated him mostly as a guinea pig. Quon interjects: “The dream from the abyss… Blue eyes illuminate the young boy’s face… That timbre…”
It’s actually a warning, as TERRA’s alarms start sounding: Meg reports D2s on rapid approach towards Nirai-Kanai. Kunugi calls DEFCON 3 and asks if there are any nearby Federation forces.
Another operator, Kim, is pinging the Nahel Argama team on patrol not too far away. Considering the number of D2s incoming, Kunugi has her call for our help.
When Ayato asks about that callsign, Haruka tells Dolems, MU weapons responsible for razing several towns in the brief war fifteen years ago. Uh, oh, are they actually thinking of making him deploy to intercept these things?
Isshiki confirms; why else would they have executed Operation Overlord and brought a kid like him all the way to Nirai Kanai? Ayato yells that he never asked anyone to get him out in the first place but Kim tells him to stop complaining and get in the fucking robot.
: I told you, I’m not gonna fight! I wasn’t even piloting that thing because I wanted to!
: But you’re the only one who can, aren’t you?: That’s your problem, not mine!: So, what, you’re just going to freeload off us?!: I can do some normal work just fine!: Doing what?! What could a brat like you possibly do?!
: … 
: Stop it, Kim!: What do you think you’re good for other than piloting the RahXephon!: I’m good for plenty!: No, you’re not!
: You don’t even know anything about me…!: But I know how the world is like and you don’t! Why the hell did someone like you have to be the pilot?!: !
Haruka and Itsuki intervene, telling both to chill the hell out; if he could, he’d tell him to sit in a corner but that’s obviously not happening now. Regardless, they will not strong-arm Ayato into piloting but Itsuki asks if he couldn’t just be on standby aboard the RahXephon?
Haruka points out that he doesn’t really have the authority to decide that but Kunugi allows it – they’re calling the Argama team over right now. Ayato doesn’t see that as much of an improvement as they’re obviously still thinking of making him fight; as Kim bristles again, Itsuki tells them that if they don’t behave, he will tell him to sit in a corner… balancing buckets over their heads.
Fine, fine. He only needs to be aboard the RahXephon? Right – he can trust Itsuki.
Mission 13 – Encounter of the Mechanical Gods
The D2s are breaking through TERRA’s defense lines and the Nahel Argama’s still three minutes out. As quietly Ayato sits inside the RahXephon, Itsuki asks if he’s worried about what’s going on outside. He says no.
Ayato asks if this is really all he wants of him and Itsuki confirms – the RahXephon is an important research that he’d rather not risk and, to top it off, Itsuki’s a pacifist. Sayoko figures Ayato will be very mad when he sees how Itsuki’s guiding him by the nose in this. But, hey, Itsuki hasn’t lied at any point – the kid just hasn’t asked the right questions.
Should Sayoko explain what’s what, then? Itsuki is sure she won’t; as grown-ups, they understand that the truth isn’t all it takes to make someone happy.
Elvy’s the only one around to intercept, figuring she can handle D2s just fine without that kid’s help. She’ll do this for her dead comrades, even.
As Ayato recognizes her plane from Tokyo, Meg gets in touch; she figures she ought to explain why Kim acted the way she did. See, fifteen years ago, she and her parents were off on a trip in Australia… right as Dolems started attacking the place. Both her parents were killed in the onslaught and, thus, she swore revenge on Dolems.
This is a talk for later, though, as the Dotems are arriving just now. Off goes Elvy to keep them at bay.
Kill everything, don’t lose Elvy. She could probably take them all on herself anyway.
All we can do is move her forward.
Enemy Phase!
Here they come.
: These puppets have all come from Tokyo Jupiter…?
: Then I’ll end them for all those they killed in Operation Overlord!!
And that’s two down.
Player Phase!
: What’s going on… Some of them aren’t attacking…? Are they waiting for the RahXephon to come out?!
: …!
: The one included in this class, the one who’s just broken the jar…
: …! A D1?!*Alarm*
: Contact! A D1 and several D2s on rapid approach!: A Dolem…!
: … I can hear the song…: The D1’s aria!!: From the distance, once again, a sound like a banquet… No, she’ll die…!
*The Dolem blindsides Elvy from below*
: What?!: Ah! Alfa 1’s!
: Elvy!!: Damn it, I gotta get away!
:!
: …: You’re—! Reika… Mishima?! You’re alive…?!: …!: How are you inside the RahXephon…?!
: (Come on… Let’s go, Ayato…): Huh?!*Alarm!*
: We’re detecting quantum condensation inside the Neriya Shrine!
: What did you say?!
: Heh… He finally steps onto the stage.
: The RahXephon’s outside!
: Very good…
: A-Ayato…!
: But why…?
: Heheh…
: Did you expect this to happen from the start?: That's a secret… But I at least didn’t force him to fight, hm?: What happened…? Why did you decide to fight?
: Because I can.: !: I’m able to pilot the RahXephon, so I should do whatever I can to help… That’s what I thought to myself…!
: …
: Have the RahXephon engage the D1 and D2s.
: Roger! You’re up, Ayato!
: Right! Here I go!Don’t ask me what happened here because I’ve no idea. The important thing is that the RahXephon now has several new attacks.
So we move Ayato forward and have Elvy join up with him.
Enemy Phase!
The Dotems are more accurate at point-blank and Elvy can’t oneshot them with only her vulcans.
And here comes the D1 – Graave.
: Can I do this…? No, I have to…! This is what I chose!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUmepZyEPbo
Player Phase!
: … An unblemished mirror… The heathen poet… Spiraling time revolves…: It comes… the other mechanical god.: The Nahel Argama’s entering Nirai Kanai’s airspace!
: All units—
: Hold on! I’m getting some strange energy readings coming from the hangar!
: What?!: Th-The Raideen’s launching by itself!
: What about Akira?!: He’s inside it!
: !!
: RAAAAAIDEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!: Ra…ideen…?! They’re alike…!
: !: What…?! This is the Raideen’s cockpit…! But when did I…?: That robot’s looking this way…?!: …: Huh?! There’s a girl there…?!: …: Who are you…? What are you doing at a place like that?
: Akira, what’s going on?! Akira!: A-ah! Mari…
: What the hell just happened?!: I felt the Raideen calling out to me… When I came to, I was already inside…
: Then it wasn’t you…? You’re saying the Raideen launched of its own will?: It’s just like that time…: What is the RahXephon doing?: It appears to be triggering some sort of resonance but we’ve no detailed information!: “Resonance”…? Not with the D1’s aria but with that Raideen?: Are those two units somehow related…?: The divine bird, crowned with ancient light, carver of the blue forest…: I see… Looks like we’ll need to revise our understanding of things.: …: Akira, are you really alright…?
: Y-Yeah… Whatever was happening, it’s gone.: Then send out the remaining units!
Again, don’t ask! Let’s just tear through the remaining mooks because both Raideen and RahXephon have shot up to max morale.
The Dolems make good fodder for our lower leveled guys to catch up.
Don’t even need to weaken them… on most cases.
Roux can carry her weight, though. She learns Alert.
Even Michiru can oneshot things today!
This actually turned out to be a risky move because I overestimated the Garmraid’s resilience. Hugo’ll be fine but only barely.
Maybe I should buy him some Prevail…
Meanwhile, we’ll send some of our chatty folks to deal with the Graave.
: Watch it, Ginga! That’s an actual MU bot!
: The ones who did that big war before we were born, yeah?: Right! They got the whole world up in a huge panic!: Well, that was back then! Today, we’re gonna wreck this thing right up!
: This foe… it came from within Tokyo Jupiter?!
The Dolem’s got a bit of HP but that’s all.
Courtesy of that resonance, Ayato’s in good position to blast two Dotems with his
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xumCpE0lhFs
Enemy Phase!
The Dolem can’t even break Ayato’s barrier now. Meanwhile, Hugo gets harassed by four Dotems, taking some hefty damage.
Player Phase!
Kirakuni needs some love.
Barely enough for a kill but he’s good.
Elvy and Iino clean up two of the remaining three Dotems; I insisted on having everyone standby for a turn however.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC9PBZFkw64
Boss Borot is actually my most upgraded unit so far… I’ll make killers out of them.
Now, let’s wrap up the Dolem.
: Whatever happened fifteen years ago, we’re around now! You MUs won’t be doing your thing this time!!
: This crazy doll’s looking a whole lot tougher than the ones we took out before…!
: This is a D1, the MU’s primary weapon… Does this mean they’re starting another offensive like the one fifteen years ago…?!
: A D1… one of MU’s Dolems…! Did the Raideen make me Fade In to fight this thing…?: Or, maybe, what awoke the Raideen was…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jiz_WAudjrw
The morale boost lets me show off Akira’s best attack.
: They even sent a D1 outside…! Damn those MU… Are they starting a full-blown invasion of this world?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxThJyiE5q0
Gotta show off Ayato’s strongest move, too.
Meg confirms everything dead, so Kunugi asks her and Kim to get in touch with Bright and call him over to TERRA’s HQ.
Goodies dropped: Repair Kit, Biosensor (Mobility +10), Super-Alloy Z.
TERRA’s managed to pull through without any issues, all thanks to the Argama’s timely intervention. Watari also praises Kunugi’s decisions during the whole thing… the ones made fifteen years ago weren’t as good.
Regardless, the past is in the past and more important is the contact between the Raideen and RahXephon. Watari had expected something like that to happen, even during their first encounter, though. For now, they’ll wait and see what happens.
Souichi’s briefed our commanders about the RahXephon – which Misato remembers to be the actual objective of Operation Overlord. Isshiki is “impressed” by NERV’s ability to know stuff they shouldn’t; of course, TERRA isn’t any better.
Either way, the reason Bright was called over is that TERRA would like to entrust both the mech and its pilot to our group. That shocks Bright and Misato, Douglas asking if the thing isn’t TERRA’s closest guarded secret; yes but the decision had been made by both the director and commander, so…
Misato wants to hear the reason behind this and Isshiki figures it’s the same as Gendou’s: have our group act as a diversion for their enemies and take out whatever Dolems Tokyo Jupiter sends. Bright looks on, dazed, at our growing “shit needs killing” pile.
Our people are appropriately puzzled over Raideen and RahXephon’s reaction, seeing that our previous convo about the two bots being alike to each other went beyond mere physical similarities.
Akira himself confesses that it’s not the first time something like this happened; while he hadn’t met the RahXephon before today, the Raideen displayed a similar reaction some two weeks ago (before he and Mari joined our group). That’s about the time when Operation Overlord was happening.
There’s obviously a connection between the two bots, though Tap doesn’t think they’re enemies… but they also don’t feel like friends either.
Akira hasn’t the faintest idea, though one thing does have him worried: he saw a young girl, in a yellow dress, standing atop the RahXephon’s shoulder during the last fight. No one else saw anyone there, though.
“A young girl standing on a robot’s shoulder in the middle of a battle… That’d be pretty strange, huh?” Ryouma ponders. “True, true. Dangerous, too,” Kouji adds.
Kaine asks if maybe Akira imagined things and Tap warns him to think his answer carefully, lest it set Mari off. As she insists she wouldn’t, Akira ponders how only he saw the girl there. Why? And just what does the Raideen have to do with that RahXephon?
Haruka breaks the news to Ayato that the two of them, the bot, and Megumi are to be posted to the Nahel Argama in three days' time. Itsuki says that this is surely a great opportunity for all kinds of sightseeing, and maybe to learn more about what’s going on in Tokyo.
Besides, Itsuki’s heard that there are plenty of kids Ayato's age in the group – he thinks Ayato should be able to make some good friends, including Reideen's pilot. On that subject, Ayato asks if Itsuki knows anything regarding a connection between the two bots but he says nope. Ayato hasn’t any idea either (Itsuki, privately, isn’t surprised).
Either way, Haruka says there’s still time before they move to the Argama, so he can take time to get himself mentally ready… or not, as Ayato says he’s fine. After all, he’s already resolved himself to do whatever he can with the RahXephon. At least that’s a weight off Haruka’s shoulders.
Isshiki reports the two mechs’ encounter to Bähbem and asks if he’s no problem with transferring the RahXephon. The old man tells him that’s none of his beeswax, so Isshiki drops the subject.
Still, Bähbem tells him to be at ease: “Without the Star of La Mu, its song will not reach the RahXephon.” Seems like they’re getting some confirmation as to what the Raideen is, though there’s no hard proof just yet; if they want answers, they’d have to ask Princess Lemuria, a.k.a., Reiko Hibiki.
That being said, Bähbem already has an inkling of what she, and the people of the ancient Mu Empire, were thinking.