A spy who fell in love with her target. A boy who became a warrior to be in her arms.
The bond between them is one of steel.
Prelude of Steel - Roundabout
In Tokyo-3, it's late into the evening. The sun has long since fallen below the horizon, and the stars of the night sky cannot be seen for the city's light pollution. The air is uncomfortably humid, as always, and much of the day's heat still lingers in the concrete jungle.
It is a night like any other, and for the moment, the city knows some measure of peace.
Within one particular apartment, a young lady is taking a shower, while her male roommate quietly listens to his music player in his room. The adult responsible for the two is still at NERV, spending yet another night on her backlog of paperwork. The warm-water penguin sleeps in its freezer.
The sound of an explosion booms throughout the city, followed by the sound of VTOL aircraft flying by.
The occupants of the apartment start, and Asuka rushes out onto the balcony to learn the cause of the disturbance.
Further into the city, the sky is lit with a sinister red glow.
The earth shakes once, twice, many times, always at a set interval. A black form is outlined against the angry crimson haze, distinct from the buildings. Tokyo-3 is playing host to a monster, as it has before, and as it will again.
"Why?!" Asuka demanded. "Why haven't they announced a state of emergency yet?! This country is so slow! And what about the enemy, is it a new Angel?!"
Asuka, in the back of her mind, is truly concerned that there doesn't seem to be any kind of evacuation effort going on. But if one were to ask her up-front, the bulk of her impatience stems from the fact that NERV hasn't contacted her yet. She, a warrior, hasn't been called to the field. She wants to put the mysterious challenger in its place, with her own monster and her own mastery over it.
"Dammit," she rants, "where have Shinji and Misato gone to now?"
From behind her, a timid male voice voice says, "I'm right here."
Asuka stiffens, her once-seething blood now cold as ice.
"Um... sorry. But you could've, y'know, brought a towel with you."
Asuka screams something in German, and kicks Shinji in the face, sending the boy reeling back into the apartment.
The next morning, the three Evangelion pilots had been walking to school together. At some point, Shinji and Asuka were met by their other comrade, Rei.
The boy pleaded, "Asuka, cut it out. You'll get in trouble with the police if you stay in there."
Asuka, from within a modest-sized crater surrounded by yellow caution tape, scoffed at him. "As if, Third Child. Even with so much obvious evidence, they're calling it a 'mysterious moving object'."
Shinji, not really seeing what difference it made, said, "We're going to be late if we stay here..."
Rei silently turned and left on her own, echoing a similar sentiment.
Asuka stood there a moment as her comrades started to leave her behind, before her brain suddenly appeared to reboot. "N-now wait just a damn minute! HEY! I'm telling you guys to wait up!"
As the trio walked, they eventually started talking. Some point after tricking Shinji into carrying everyone's bags via rock-paper-scissors, Asuka said, "You know, I heard there's going to be a transfer student coming in. Must be a total weirdo, voluntarily coming to a dangerous place like this."
Shinji tried to curb Asuka's assuming nature. "It could be that they didn't want to come here, but had to anyway."
Asuka scoffed. "Really, Third? Projecting your own issues on someone you haven't even met yet? I can tell you're just scared out of your wits. After all, it's not like you're good at making friends."
Shinji wanted to say that he wasn't "scared out of his wits", but knew that Asuka would take his defensiveness as an admission of guilt.
Around that time, they passed the threshold into the school building. Not spending more time around the moldy-smelling shoe lockers than they had to, the trio quickly made their way to class.
After the ritualistic rising, bowing, and re-seating, the rumored transfer student entered the room. With a bright smile, she introduced herself. "I'm Mana Kirishima. Nice to meet you!"
The students began to chatter excitedly, up until the teacher got them to settle down. "As for your seat, Miss Kirishima, you can sit next to..." Observing that there was only one empty seat, he concluded, "Shinji."
Cuter than the average girl, with her short reddish-auburn hair and eyes the color of steel, Mana strode toward the indicated seat with a little pep in her step.
Unfortunately for Shinji, his natural nervousness began to overtake him, causing him to sit bolt upright.
Now seated, Mana leaned forward slightly as she turned to face him. "So... you're Shinji?"
The flustered boy couldn't help but jump in his seat a bit. Partly as a result of suddenly being in proximity to a cute young lady, partly from Mana addressing him so casually. "Um, erm... yes. I'm Shinji."
Mana giggled a bit. "You're so cute. It's nice to meet you, Shinji."
From the seat behind and to Shinji's right, Asuka glowered at the two in silence.
For those wondering, I am lifting the general events/script of the Girlfriend of Steel visual novel for the time being, but I'm also cutting and/or editing certain scenes as well. I've also changed up some of the dialogue from borrowed scenes in order to make things flow a bit better. That said, once I get the ball rolling in a few chapters or so, this story will start breaking away from the source material and morph into its own beast.