It's a typical, summer evening in Tokyo. Yui Ikari sits at her desk in her laboratory, typing rapidly on her computer keyboard. Her assistant and family friend, Misato Katsuragi, is reading out information on a clipboard. Misato pauses amidst the technicalities and sighs.
"It's so warm this evening. You'd expect that a modern day, state of the art lab like this would have proper air conditioning systems, instead of these slow pieces of junk!"
Yui takes a sip of her cup of lukewarm coffee, and wrinkles her face in disgust. 'The coffee machine's broken again,' she thinks wearily. 'I'm in for a long evening.'
"Well, the government doesn't fund the building, only the projects… But I'm not so worried about the heat here…"
Misato tilts her head inquisitively. "Why's that Yui-Sensei?"
Yui smirks before she can stop herself. "Rei-Chan," She answers, but only one word is enough.
"Oh. Riiight." Misato nods, understanding completely. She had babysat Rei before, and she had experienced Yui's daughter's eccentric behaviour. Ever since Rei could walk, she had been wreaking sneaky, cunning havoc on her family whenever an opportunity came to light, usually bringing her slightly younger twin Shinji along for the ride.
"Heat makes Rei a little…. Well…. Hyper," Yui says reluctantly, "And Rei's quite recently discover instant jelly…."
Misato raises one eyebrow.
"That can't be good. And Gendo's on his business trip to Kyoto, right?"
"That's why I'm particularly worried. Naoko still hasn't experienced full on Rei yet, and the new jelly obsession is not going to make things easy for her."
"What happened to your last baby sitter?"
"Oh, she ran away and vowed never to return," Yui sighs airy, with a wave of her hand. "The usual."
Meanwhile, in suburban Tokyo…..
Rei is seated at the dinner table, shovelling jelly into her mouth. Her lips and tongue are stained a lurid purple hue, but her expression is gleeful. Naoko stares reluctantly at her bowl of wobbling purple food. Suddenly, Rei bangs her spoon on her bowl, making Naoko jump out of her seat, startled beyond belief.
"Aunty!" Rei shrieks happily. "Let's play hide and seek!"
Naoko recalls Yui's instructions from less than an hour ago. "And remember," Yui had said, her tone serious. "Never, ever, ever play hide and seek with Rei." However, Naoko's brain is so frazzled from Rei's sudden outburst that she dismisses this advice without any worries. 'What could go wrong?' She thought.
"Okay Rei. You go first, all right?"
She smiles wearily at Rei, who is standing up on her dining chair, holding her spoon like a battle ready weapon. A smile spreads across her face, her red eyes bright with crackling excitement. Without warning, she jumps from the chair and rockets out of the kitchen, still brandishing her spoon. Shinji hops down from his dining chair and buries his head in a cushion, muttering.
"Shinji?" Naoko asks him, bewildered. "Are you okay?" Shinji looks up, smiling.
"Shhh. I'm counting aunty."
"Ohhhh."
Naoko begins to counts, just as she sees a blue shape zip past the door. Suddenly, Shinji jumps up and runs out of the room, already scouring the hallway for his twin sister. Naoko ears a sound coming from the laundry room, and grins. 'This wasn't hard,' she thinks. She enters the room, making a silent beeline for the washing machine. She can just make out a dark shape inside the washing machine. 'Found you,' she thinks, reaching out her hand. She can hear her own heart beating as she lifts the lid, her mind frozen on one objective. Just as the tension becomes too much, she whips open the lid of the machine. "What?" She exclaims, her face showing nothing but pure surprise. Inside the machine sits an empty squid costume, its black bead eyes seemingly laughing tauntingly at her open mouth. "Rei!" she cries, and storms out of the laundry room.
Back at the lab, the phone rings. Yui picks up, expecting anyone but the person who is calling.
"Yui?" Naoko says. "I'm playing hide and seek with Rei, and…." Naoko trails off nervously. Yui narrows her eyes, expecting the worst. 'Do you know how-" Naoko stops mid-sentence, as a faint thump and an exclamation too rude to be named can be heard by Yui. On the other end, Naoko stands at the bottom of the stairs, rubbing her head angrily, as she sees a pair of red eyes watching her. "Rei!" She growls, and the red eyes disappear from view. She stares down at the spoon lying at her feet, and speaks into the phone. "Rei's dropping spoons down the stairs. Yui opens her mouth to speak, but her attempt is cut short by a high pitched giggle, and the sound of the phone being hung up. The annoyingly persistent beeping tone begins, and she slams down her phone, muttering darkly. She begins her work again, but just as she does so, the phone rings again.
"Hello?"
"Yui," Naoko exclaims. "I need to you to tell me how to stop Rei from hiding. Do I tell her that the game's over?"
Yui sighs. "No, that won't work."
Naoko winces. "She's running rampant! Shinji, can you tell your mama what Rei did?" Yui hears a faint 'Um hum.'
"Won't he say anything?" Yui asks in a suspicious tone. "I bet Rei's taped his mouth shut or something…"
"No," Naoko replies reassuringly "He just isn't-"Naoko turns, unaware of what she is about to see. Yui hears a faint gasp.
"Oh my gosh!" Naoko chokes. "She actually literally has!"
Yui's mouth gapes open, her eyes widened in an expression of mute horror.
"Naoko?" Yui frantically addresses her sister, but there's no reply. She lowers the phone and stares at it, as if it's a ticking bomb that is threatening to explode into a million pieces. But Yui knows that the real ticking bomb is at home, and it goes by the name of Rei Ikari. Yui is growing very impatient when she hears a voice coming down the phone, the voice of a four year old that she knows all too well.
"Now listen Mama," Rei says. She is putting on a mock serious voice, but Yui can hear a note of half suppressed delight in her tone. "I have taped Aunty Naoko and Shinji's mouths shut. In exchange for their freedom, you need to buy me 50 packets or more of instant jelly!" Rei adds a manic, high pitched giggle to the end of her sentence, and Yui grimaces.
"What's going on?" Misato asks, referring to Yui's pained expression.
"What's going on?" Yui asks Misato calmly. "Rei's going on, that's what. Please take over here Misato. I'm going home to get Rei back in line."
"Yes Yui-Sensei. Good luck!"
Misato gives Yui a thumbs up.
Half an hour later…
Yui opens the door, expecting total and utter carnage, but the house is quiet. She pokes her head around the kitchen door, and shakes her head. Rei is seated on the floor, munching on vast spoonfuls of jelly from a gargantuan serving bowl. Naoko is kneeling in front of Shinji, carefully and gently peeling sticky tape off his face. Shinji is wincing, apparently trying his hardest not to cry. Naoko turns to Yui, smiling.
"That was the best evening I've ever had," She tells Yui. "I'd happily do it again."
Yui gawks at her sister, both of her eyebrows raised so high they are almost hidden in her fringe. "Really?" She asks sceptically.
Naoko pauses for a moment. "NO."
Rei laughs loudly.