Sometime later, Shinji exited the Infernal Tavern. He was soon followed by Misato, Asuka and Rei. After Misato had several drinks, Shinji and Asuka persuaded her to come along with them on the errand that Hild had sent them on.

"I don't see why I have to come along" said Misato. "I was perfectly fine sitting at the bar getting blind drunk"

"Because you're our commanding officer" said Shinji.

Misato snorted. "That's funny coming from you. I had to drag you to your Eva when Seele attacked NERV. Why are you so gung-ho to return to Tokyo-3? We have three months to do this task, so why the rush?"

"I just want to collect the water from this rewind spring as soon as possible" replied Shinji. "and anyway, there's safety in numbers. We don't know what to expect at this spring"

"I could do this without you three" said Asuka.

"We're all on the same side, Asuka" said Rei.

Asuka scowled at Rei and muttered something under her breath. Asuka appeared to count to ten before she asked, "So, where is this rewind spring?"

Rei pulled out the red rod that apparently could detect a rewind spring. An arrow appeared in front of the rod that pointed eastwards. Below the arrow was the number 10.

"10 what?" asked Asuka. "10 kilometers? 10 feet?"

Shinji looked around at the city of Roanapur. "I doubt that it's ten feet away"

"It's probably 10 kilometers" said Misato.

"Alright" said Asuka. "Just how are we supposed to get ten kilometers to the east?"

"Taxi?" suggested Shinji.

"Leave it to St. Shinji to come up with an answer" said Asuka, rolling her remaining eye. "I'm sure the taxi driver will know where to stop with those instructions. We don't even know what this rewind spring looks like. I doubt there'll be a sign that says 'this is the rewind spring' "

"We probably don't have enough money for the fare" said Misato.

"I doubt they'll accept yen in Thailand" said Rei.

There was a short pause.

"I don't even know what the currency of Thailand is called, come to think of it" said Misato.

"Baht" replied Rei.

"I guess we'll have to walk there" said Shinji.

"Do you even know how long is a ten kilometer walk?" asked Asuka.

"I don't see you making any suggestions" snapped Shinji. "If we had our Evas it wouldn't be a problem"

The group had walked to what appeared to be the edge of the city. The group was climbing a short grassy hill when Misato saw something or someone zipping around the air about 100 feet or so above. Misato had stopped in her tracks to see what had attracted her attention more closely. Shinji, Asuka and Rei continued to walk for another 70 feet when they had noticed that Misato had stopped walking.

"Misato?" asked Shinji. "what is --"

"HEADS UP!" shouted a voice from somewhere above.

Something struck the ground hard enough to leave a medium-sized crater. Whatever had hit the ground stood up in the crater. It was a young woman with yellow spiky hair.

"Grr! I almost had you!" shouted the woman completely ignoring the fact that she had almost landed on Misato. The woman was shouting at a blue-haired man floating in the air that was slowly descending.

"Hey!" yelled Misato to the woman. "you practically landed on me!"

The woman with the yellow spiky hair looked over at Misato and then at Asuka, Shinji and Rei in turn before she spoke.

"Well, I didn't land on you" said the woman. "anyway, it couldn't be helped. We were sparring you see"

The man with the blue spiky hair had landed some thirty feet away.

"You've improved much, Cauifla" said the blue-haired man to the young woman with the spiky hair.

"Who are you two?" asked Asuka. "and how can you fly without help?"

"We use our energy to fly" replied Cauifla.

"Huh?" asked Asuka.

"If I were to guess," said Rei. "you two aren't from this dimension"

"How did you know that?" asked Goku. His hair turned from blue to black. Cauifla's hair similarly turned from yellow to black.

"Yeah, how did you knew that, Rei?" asked Shinji.

"Comes with being merged with Lilith" replied Rei.

Goku looked blankly at Rei. "Who's Lilith?"

"That's quite a long and complicated story" said Misato.

"How did you two came to be in this dimension?" asked Rei to Goku and Cauifla.

"We were at this restaurant called, uh...." began Goku. "now what was it called again?"

Cauifla rolled her eyes and sighed heavily. "The Dimensional Cafe"

"Right, The Dimensional Cafe" said Goku. "well, apparently, this cafe is in every dimension somehow and we ended up having lunch there. And then, an old enemy of mine came along and destroyed the cafe. We all were transported away to this dimension"

"Fascinating" said Rei.

"We're also from a different dimension" said Asuka.

"Oh?" asked Goku. "were you all at the cafe as well?"

"No" replied Rei. "we were at this bar called The Infernal Tavern that can travel to other dimensions"

"Funny that you should mention the Dimensional Cafe" said Misato. "because we're on an errand to restore it from the managers of the Infernal Tavern"

"Oh really?" asked Goku. "I would've thought the gods that run that cafe would restore it themselves"

"What did you say?!" asked Asuka. "Did you say gods run the Dimensional Cafe?!"

"Yeah" said Cauifla.

"I'm confused" said Shinji. "why would the demons that run the Infernal Tavern should want to restore a place run by gods?"

"Demons run this tavern?" asked Goku.

"Makes sense when you consider that it's called the Infernal Tavern" said Cauifla. "But I don't get that either. Why would demons want to restore the Dimensional Cafe?"

"Were we duped?" asked Asuka to Rei.

"It would definitely seem so..." said Rei thoughtfully.


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June 2
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