2022-03-11: Backstager

• Cutscene: Backstager
• Cast: Anti
• Where: Tsutsujidai/Nouvelle Tokyo
• Date: 2022-03-11
• Summary: A stray cat wanders to the inevitable conclusion. (Content warning: abused child.)

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Summer evening. The concrete is still hot. The cicadas are out. They drone just the way machines don't.

Not here, in Tsutsujidai.

A can opens; a businessman spoons out dog food for their beloved shiba inu, and goes back inside. The sliding door clicks shut on its rolling-balls. The blinds flop back against the glass. Anti, grasping the edge of the overhang, drops down to the yard.

The dog barks.

Anti growls.

The dog backs off.

Anti grabs a handful of its food, and does not so much shove it into his face as his face meets his hand. He disregards the dog's barking, until it summons his owner again. That's a pain, so Anti jumps back up, just in time for the blinds and the door to open.

"Honey," he hears a voice. Female. "Is the neighbour's cat bullying Hachiko again?"

"Guess it must be," the man's voice. "Damn cat."

There's a flutter of fabric where Anti used to be, as he scampers over the other side of the house and down.

Down the street, and something glints, there on the ground. Anti leans down and grasps a coin. He straightens, starts walking to rather than from.

The train station. There's a vending machine, here.

That kaiju told him...

Coin in the slot, and a sandwich comes out. This, too, Anti does not so much lift to his face as much as bringing his face down to it. Three gulps, and it's gone. He'll save food later. He's hungry now.

And he is at the station.

"..." Anti says, deliberately.

He boards the train. At this hour, he's the only one.

It's strange, settling down against a seat, because after a while the rain starts dripping down. It's not inside. He's standing out there. The only place he could be.

Outside Akane's house, he hears her say: "Getting damp, huh?"

Outside Akane's house, he turns to see her cover him with an umbrella.

His eyes widen by fractions; his shoulders fall, with outward breath. He nods. He relaxes.

She throws the umbrella.

Its hook catches on his shoulder, and the shield baps the back of him before the whole thing tumbles to the ground. The rain slicks her hair; she laughs. "A kaiju like me doesn't care about that...!"

Taller, and darker, and less distinct.

"Hahahahahahahohohohohohohoh!"

The dry train announces the station. Anti jerks upright, scampers out through closing doors.

A dream.

(He knows no other way dreams could be.)

Quickly, he keeps walking. Hands to his pockets. Chin to his chest. It's not just the cold.

Keep moving.

Accelerate. Overwhelm. Succeed.

He comes to the laboratory. He does not mean to so much as it is the place he knows, here in a Tokyo unlike summer. Here he finds himself. Here, with Death Knight.

They repaired it. It stands as menacing as it did.

"As many times as it takes," Anti wonders, struck by wonder, weapons of war restored to full function for another try.

All repaired and new, here in the hornet's nest.

It's him, here in the hornet's nest.

But this is where the Evangelions come from. This is where the Gundams come from. This is where GaoFighGar comes from.

Somehow, they all end up allying with the Vessels of Light. With Gridman. And because Gridman always has help, Gridman always wins.

Anti doesn't mind playing dirty. It's all he's been taught.

If he can exhaust Gridman's friends out here, they won't be able to help him, in Tsutsujidai. If he makes it too difficult to help, then the Vessels of Light will be vulnerable. He'll be able to get them out of Tsutsujidai. He'll be able to kill Gridman. He'll be able to

make Akane happy.

He can't delegate something like that.

He still doesn't know how to.