(October 27, early hours of the morning)

Mika walked up to the door of her old dorm room.  Slowly she pushed the door open.  It was just as she had left it, except for the large pile of her stuff she had haphazardly thrown back in her attempt to rid her home of any signs that she had lived there.  Looking outside for a moment seeing the season shift that had occurred while she had been gone.  She hadn't realized how long it had been.  She wrapped her wings around her wondering how everyone had been.  She didn't regret leaving, she didn't regret her choice, but everything was different now.  The thought made her shiver slightly.  She caught her reflection in the mirror.  Still the same as when she left, but it somehow had a different air to it.  "I guess that happens when you go to the underworld and back." she thought to herself.  She momentarily thought of changing her appearance somehow, maybe cutting or dying her hair, something to give the new start a different feel.  Start to rid herself of what her life had become before she left  However her wings were kind of hard to hide, so it wasn't worth it.

With a sigh she stareted attending to the pile of stuff on the floor.  Her whole life with Shinji was staring back at her in the chaotic pile before her.  Slowly she worked on putting things back how they were before she had moved out.  She set her violin on the small table in the room.  She set the sewing machine up on the desk.  Her eyes lingered on the white thread that the machine had on it.  She turned away quickly, before she allowed herself to think too long.  She went about putting the clothes away.  Stumbling on the clothes she had bought for Miyako's style for Shinji, she hid them in the very bottom of a drawer.  She next took the wedding dress she had made and hid in the farthest recesses of the closet, hiding it from the light of day.  She didn't need a constant reminder of her choice, and she couldn't bear to look at the symbol of their life together that was now only a memory, one that that been taken from him.  Finally she put the Mika plushie on a shelf in the closet as well, her eyes lingering on Shinji's craftsmanship.  She slammed the closet closed, trying to put some distance between her and her choice.

Satisfied with how the room looked again she flopped down in her bed.  It certainly felt different.  She rested her hand on her head, when she felt the cold of the ring on her finger.  She sat back up and ran her finger over the engagement ring Shinji had given her.  Tears formed in her eyes as the realization of her choice hit her again.  He wouldn't remember her, she was nothing to him anymore, not even a fragment of his memory.  She twisted the ring slowly off her finger.  Grabbing the bag she had taken on her journey she pulled the necklace he had first given her out as well.  She had worn it every day from when he gave it to her until she had left.  With a shaking hand she clutched the necklace and the ring.  Crying softly she found an small intricate box.  She looked at the two pieces of jewelry for a long moment.  Every emotion that was attached to them hit her at once.  She carefully placed the two pieces in the box.  She placed the box in the drawer of her bed side stand, not able to look at it anymore. 

She leaned back on her pillow, the bed felt strange.  She could feel emotions run rampant through her mind.  She never would regret helping Hunter, she had gladly gone through this for him to have a life again.  However the decision had been hard, she hated how it would have hurt Shinji.  She curled up on her bed wrapping her wings around her, rubbing the indent that the ring left as she drifted off to a dreamless sleep.