Disclaimer:
I do not own any characters in this fic except for Ryugi Kazamaru and his Eva, Unit-0X (If I did own Evangelion, Shinji would have gotten Rei, but he had to choose Asuka… At least as far as the original series! Much love for Rebuild 2.0!). Evangelion and all related articles are property of GAINAX.
'This stands for a thought'
"This for said dialog"
This for written or typed text
\\ This equals a flashback/
Italics are for radio dialogue or other such disembodied voices
(And this for sound effects, author's comments, or physical noises or actions)
-An Introduction and Message from the Author-
I know most fics are read or not depending on the impression of the first chapter. This is a certainty for my story here as Chapter 1 has nearly 2,000 views and the rest of my chapters have seen far less activity. After realizing that my old chapters were "lacking" I decided to rewrite them to bring them up to speed with my more educated and grown-up style of writing. When you read the first several chapters (1-6), please keep that in mind. I know the OC receives a lot of attention, and that's a fault in these early chapters I cannot amend without a complete reboot. To rewrite them any more than I have already would break down the foundation of the better, later chapters, and I can't do that. I know you read for enjoyment here on FanFiction, so I appreciate any criticism or feedback you can offer me. Even "This sucks because…" would be helpful, so I can learn to avoid mistakes made. But I cannot improve if I do not receive feedback. So, before you go after reading this first chapter, if you decide finishing the story is not worth your time, a brief response as to why would be extremely helpful for future writing and development. That said, please enjoy my "Rebuild" of Chapter 1 – Kazamaru Cometh. And as always, reviews are most welcome. Thank you.
- Pilot Ikari-Kun
Chapter 1: Kazamaru cometh
All was dark inside Gendo Ikari's office as he studied the paperwork sitting in front of him. With Sub-Command Fuyutsuki on sick leave, he was forced to deal with the more mundane tasks of running Nerv, and it was never a pleasurable experience for him. There were more important things he should be worrying about, and the paperwork merely got in his way… With the sound of his office door reporting and a scent of familiar perfume, Gendo simply continued working as he spoke.
"I assume you come bearing news of my new unit, Doctor? I asked not to be disturbed unless it was important."
Ritsuko Akagi flinched at the Commander's rough tone. He'd been increasingly less tolerable with her presence after she destroyed the Dummy Plug System, and the Rei Blanks in the bowls of Nerv. As far as she knew, he simply kept her around to keep up appearances, and because he still had a use for her…
"Yes, Sir." said Dr. Akagi, "The results have come in from the first few synchronization tests. None of the pilots can even sync with the Eva. Only Shinji managed a connection at all, but even after making contact, his brain could not take the stress of the attempt. The mental stress is too much for any of their minds to handle."
"The pool is dry, then?" The Commander looked up from his paperwork, white light glinting off his glasses as he met the Doctor's gaze. It was clear by his tone that he was not pleased… Ritsuko knew that meant that he would be especially intolerable this evening.
"It seems so, Sir… We need to find a pilot whose mind is more developed than that of a fourteen year old's, and is able to handle the incredible amount of information that the new control system puts out. We will have to widen our search criteria…"
"I see. I leave it to you then, Doctor…" Ritsuko nodded and began to leave as the commander finished, but he stopped her once again. "And Doctor… Do not disappoint me again." Ritsuko nodded once more and saw her way out.
'Bastard…' The Doctor left the Commander's office and continued walking down the hallway with her clipboard in hand.
"How did he take it, Sensei?" Maya Ibuki met up with her superior as the two of them walked down the corridor back to Ritsuko's office.
"Given the circumstances, he took it fairly well. Regardless, Maya, we have a lot of work to do ahead of us." The young brunet nodded.
"I'm sure we'll pull through, especially with you leading the search, Sensei." Ritsuko smiled a bit at her assistant's compliment.
"Thank you, Maya. That means a lot to me." The young Nerv Tech smiled and adjusted her clipboard. And so the search for the new pilot began…
XxXxXxX Three months later XxXxXxX
"Shinji, get back here Dumkopf!" Asuka's words rang out through Misato's apartment. "I'm gonna kill you!" Shinji ran as fast as his skinny non-athletic legs could carry him as he dashed and darted around Asuka and her very threatening, and painful, fists. "When I get my hands on you I'll break every damn bone in your body!" Her face was red as scarlet and her sleeves were rolled up. Shinji desperately didn't want to find out how seriously she was going to make good on her threat.
"But Asuka what did I do?" Shinji ducked behind the couch and moved side to side, trying to keep Asuka away as much as possible. "All I did was try to wake you up."
"And I'm sure you didn't notice I was in my nightshirt and without my bra, you pervert! You men are all the same, trying to sneak peeks at a poor defenseless woman while she's sleeping!"
Shinji blushed at Asuka's comment. He hadn't really noticed. But, now that Asuka mentioned it, his face reddened in a blush as the thought crossed his mind. But as he caught sight of her flustered and upset visage staring daggers in his general direction, he quickly apologized.
"N-No…I… didn't…I…I swear! I'm sorry if I offended you, but..."
Asuka interrupted Shinji before he could even finish what he was saying. "Stop apologizing for everything and take your punishment like a man!" Much to Shinji's horror, Asuka jumped up onto the couch, her nightshirt flipping up and truly revealing her underwear as she stomped across the furniture to get a good swipe at the young man, her fist reeling back as Shinji cowered. "This is what you get for being a Peeping Tom!"
Luckily for Shinji, Misato had heard the shouting and stopped Asuka before she ripped Shinji apart.
"Now Asuka, I'm sure Shinji didn't mean to look. You would've been late for school if he hadn't awakened you. You should really actually thank him."
"Me? Thank that sniveling horndog? Not a chance in hell!" Asuka pouted and turned her head to the side, snorting in defiance.
"Asuka, you will thank him or no TV or desert for a week." Asuka's eyes opened wide at the purple-haired woman's threat. Normally Misato wouldn't care, but her beer supply was running low and she was cranky. Even Asuka's pride knew when to give to the Major's threats when she was without her alcohol. Begrudgingly, Asuka grumbled a quiet apology to the young man, but Misato wasn't having it.
"What was that?"
Asuka repeated through clenched teeth. "Yeah…thanks. Whatever."
"Now that wasn't so bad now was it?" Misato smiled and patted the redhead on the back. Asuka said nothing, but Shinji could tell that she was pretty ticked off, and he thought it best to get out of Misato's apartment and meet up with Toji and Kensuke as soon as possible to avoid being beaten to a pulp by the "Red-Haired Demon" as they were so keen on calling her. So Shinji quickly said his goodbyes, snatched his lunch and tore out of the front door before Asuka would have a chance to catch up to him. He walked for about five minutes before he spotted the other two "Stooges". He smiled lightly and approached the two of them.
"Good morning, Shinji." Both boys spoke in unison as took up positions on either side of the young man.
"Good morning." Shinji stated heavily. Kensuke noticed Shinji acting a little more depressed than usual, which was something a bit odd. Shinji was always a little depressed and withdrawn, but this morning he seemed quite a bit more so.
"What's the matter, Shinji? The She Devil got you down again?" Shinji sighed and looked down at the concrete as the three boys made their way towards school, stopping at a traffic light.
"Yeah, I noticed that she was sleeping a little late and would be late to class if I didn't wake her, so I tried to wake her up."
"Uh oh." Toji said. "What'd she do to you?"
"She chased me around the apartment trying to kill me until Misato came in and stopped Asuka from pounding me just when she had me cornered."
"Ah…" Kensuke said with a wistful sigh, "That Misato really is a babe!"
Shinji could tell his friends would be talking about Misato until they reached school, so he just stared at the sidewalk and only pretended to pay attention to them. His mind turned to the new Eva being designed in the bowels of Nerv. Not one of the pilots had been able to even synchronize with it. He had come close, but before the synch rate had even hit 5%, he had blacked out in the cockpit and had to be taken to the medical branch. Later, Misato had told him that it wasn't his fault and that the Eva's new system and upgrades had caused an information overload in his brain. Shinji knew that a new Eva without someone to pilot it could only mean one thing. A new pilot was being sought out, would soon be found, and then become another tool of his father's.
Shinji pondered about what the new pilot would be like. Would he be cold and uncaring like his father? Perhaps quick tempered like Asuka? He shuddered involuntarily. He made silent prayer that the new pilot wouldn't be like either of them. Maybe he'd be like Toji or Kensuke, or perhaps even Rei. Shinji blushed a bit as the thought and image of Rei came into his mind. Although the Blue-Haired girl was at times strange, there was just something about her that Shinji liked. She was always kind to him, except for that one time she had slapped him for talking badly about his father. He blushed a little more as a more awkward thought about Rei slowly crept into his mind. He caught himself and shook the thought out of his mind. Thoughts like that weren't going to do him any good. Especially not with Toji and Kensuke around. If they noticed-
"Hey Shinji!" Toji said with a smirk, "Why so red? Ayanami on your mind again? Or maybe it's the She-Demon?"
This only made Shinji blush more, if that were humanly possible. He looked up at Toji who was smirking at him, while Kensuke just chuckled at the sight of Shinji blushing so much seemingly out of the blue.
"N-No." Shinji replied weakly, "I…was just thinking about…"
"Hey Shinji, its ok. I'm glad to see you finally admitted your feelings for Ayanami." Toji snickered and fought back fits of laugher.
"But…but," Shinji stammered searching for the right words quickly, "I didn't admit that I liked Ayanami." He realized his mistake in word choice immediately after he said it.
"But Shinji," Kensuke said with a pleased look on his face, "we didn't say you admitted that you 'liked' her, we said you admitted that you had "feelings" for her. That could have meant anything." Shinji realized that he had just been tricked into saying that he liked Ayanami.
"I didn't mean that! What I meant was…I…uhhh…That is…" Both Toji and Kensuke reeled with laughter at Shinji's terrible attempt to defend himself. The young man was just too easy to mess with. Picking on such an easy target wasn't exactly the most fun they'd ever had, but when Shinji made it this easy, it was always a good laugh.
"It's okay Shinji." Toji slowed his chuckles and wiped a tear from his eye. "You know we're just messing with you."
"Yeah, yeah… Good one you guys." Shinji huffed and sighed. Though he'd never admit it to anyone, it wasn't Rei that he really felt close to, at least like that anyway… Sure, Rei was nice, and he always felt calm and accepted around her, but there was something else about Asuka that Shinji was drawn to. He just wished that she didn't always push him away so often… He absent-mindedly glanced at his watch and his eyes opened in shock. "Oh no… Look at the time! We're going to be late to class!"
Kensuke as Toji immediately looked worried and started running along with Shinji.
"The class rep will have our asses for sure!"
"Heh, she could have my ass anytime."
"Damn it Toji, shut up!"
With that all Three Stooges took off at a full run, and charged full speed ahead toward school. But, they were lucky. They arrived at class about a minute before the bell rang, leaving them just enough time to take their seats and for Hikari to lead the class in the normal, " Stand, bow, sit" routine. After the standard ritual of beginning class had been held the professor began his lesson about Second Impact, and Shinji began to drift off into dreamland. But it wouldn't last.
The silence of the classroom was shattered by the sound of screeching tires from outside. As quickly as the sound was heard, every student in the classroom was up and about, staring out the window to see what could have caused such a noise. Was there a crash? Did someone need help? Despite the looks of curiosity on everyone's faces, they couldn't have been prepared for what they saw next.
XxXxXxX
A bright red sports car screamed down the street, the engine revving loudly as the car zipped and weaved around other motorists and parked cars. While it wasn't clear exactly how fast the car was traveling, one could safely assume the driver of the vehicle was going several miles an hour over the speed limit.
"Damn it! I can't be late, not today. Damn alarm clock…"
The young man in the driver's spoke to himself, mumbling through a piece of toast in his mouth, and brushed a hand through his brown spiked hair, glancing at himself in his rear-view mirror, swerving to avoid a pothole.
"Being late on the first day of class… What kind of first impression would that make? 'Welcome to the class, Mister Kazamaru. Oh, and try to refrain from such delinquent behavior in the future, please. It is very irresponsible.' Damn it to hell…"
He swerved to avoid nailing another pothole and hit a rather large dip in the road. The car sailed through the air from the speed, the stunned onlookers staring down from the classroom above hearing a panicked cry and spying an arm flailing through the driver's side window, before the car came down hard front wheels first. The shocked driver shook himself out of the daze he was in and spotted his goal dead ahead, but found he was going far too fast.
"…Son of a bitch…"
He hit the brakes and turned the wheel, the car spinning out of control as circular skid marks followed in the car's wake. The rear tire struck the curb, reversing the car's spin as more screaming came from the driver, and just as things looked bleak, the car stopped, tires smoking, right in a school parking space. All was quiet for a moment as the driver simply sat there, hands gripping the steering wheel, white as a ghost as his toast dropped from his mouth…
XxXxXxX
The class had all but forgotten about the strange happenings just a moment ago, some of the girls talking about how crazy and irresponsible the driver must have been, when the door to the classroom opened with a bang and in stepped, more like stumbled, a student whom none of them had ever seen before.
"Ryugi Kazamaru…present." The young man panted as the class simply stared. The elderly professor stared for a moment as well, but soon gathered himself and spoke.
"Um…yes, indeed. Class we have a new student. Mr. Kazamaru, please take a seat. Any seat will do."
"Um, right. Nice to meet you all." He bowed sheepishly as a few students gave him a disapproving eye, but for the most part they had all gone back to doing absolutely nothing as the professor lectured on about how Second Impact had affected the world's climate.
'Just my luck, first day, I'm late, and already everyone thinks I'm some sort of weirdo...' Ryugi sighed as he looked around the room, moving towards a seat near the back of the class. His eyes came to rest on Rei who, as usual, was looking out the window. He looked at her for a moment as if he were interested in something, but stopped almost as soon as he started. 'Well', he thought, 'at least someone isn't giving me an eye…' He moved and sat down in a seat, placing his school bag down and opening the red laptop in front of him. As soon as he did, a soft beep sounded and drew his attention to the screen.
Hi. I'm Hikari Horaki, the class rep. Welcome to the class, but do try to be on time next time.
Ryugi read the message with a grimace and responded.
Um…Thank you. I'm really sorry… My alarm clock just failed to wake me up this morning, but I'll try my best to not let it happen again. I just arrived in the city two days ago and don't really know my way around yet. He hit send and the message was on its way. He waited for a few more minutes before the reply arrived.
I'm sure the visitor's guide could help you with that, but I guess if you wanted to talk to someone in the class you could ask one of the Eva pilots. I don't think that anyone knows more about the city than they do. It's kind of their job to know. He read the message and then typed a short reply.
Thank you, Class Rep. I really appreciate it. And again, sorry for being late.
You're welcome. Just be on time from now on and it will be fine. Came the answer.
'EVA pilots huh? I wonder what they're going to be like… After all, if I'm going to be working with them, I hope they're friendly.' After his short conversation with Hikari, he went back to looking around the classroom. Sitting at the back of the class was just fine with him. It allowed him to see everything that was going on. He loved watching people to try and guess what they were thinking and what they were like.
As he looked around he saw many different people: A redhead who looked like she was bored out of her scull who he recognized as the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit 02 from his brochure on working at Nerv, a frizzy-haired kid with glasses who looked pretty intent on working on his camera, another bored kid who looked tough, but the way he looked around seemed to suggest he wasn't as gruff as he looked, and the brown-haired girl named Hikari.
A dark brown, almost black-haired boy who looked unhappy caught his attention next. That was obviously Shinji Ikari, the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01. But there was something about the blue-haired girl by the window… He watched her for a while longer than the others. Something about her seemed to captivate his interests. She seemed quiet, yet seemed as if she had a lot to say. Neutral to her surroundings but captivated by the world that she saw outside her window. Expressionless, but her eyes said more than words ever could. He realized that she was looking back at him and quickly looked away. Her eyes were red, and that meant she had to be Rei Ayanami, the pilot of Evangelion Unit 00.
Rei was not sure why the new student called "Ryugi Kazamaru" was looking at her, but she didn't seem to mind. Plenty of people looked at her each day. She was rather strange after all. Red eyes and blue hair typically made her stand out quite fully among a group of people, so she was used to stares and questioning glances. Perhaps he was looking at her because he found her strange or interesting. 'Does he think that I am interesting?' As she thought this, a slight, almost unnoticeable blush crept across her face. 'I believe that would be…strange.'
Shinji looked over at her to see what she was doing as he often did and was surprised to see her blushing, even if it being a small one.
'Is she blushing? That can't be… She's only ever blushed when I cleaned her apartment for her. But If she is, then what is she blushing about?' As Shinji pondered his thoughts, Asuka looked over at him to see him looking at Rei, who by now had stopped blushing and gone back to looking out of the window.
'That pervert… He's probably thinking his dirty perverted thoughts about Wondergirl right now.' Asuka shifted in her seat and grumbled with a slight pout. 'Just you wait, Shinji… I'll get you at lunch for this, and for this morning. Misato can't save you when she isn't around.'
Toji, who was always looking out for his pals, saw Asuka staring at Shinji with a very clear "I'm going to punch you so hard you'll wish you were dead" look, and quickly typed him a message telling him to look out at lunch. When he got the return message asking why, Toji told him to take a peek at Asuka, who was now simply glaring at the young man out of the corner of her blue eyes. Just as Shinji got the message, the lunch bell rang and the students filed out of the classroom towards the lunch area.
XxXxXxX
Ryugi got up and grabbed his lunch, some leftover stir-fry from the night before, and sat by himself to eat, seeing as he had no real friends in this new place. He sat under a tree and watched as the other kids ate their lunches. He watched the same few people as he did before sit in what he guessed were their respective places around the food area. He was just beginning to munch on his lunch, when he heard someone yell.
"Fight!"
He looked over to where the shouting had come from to see a group of older guys beating on some younger kids. 'Isn't that always the way…? Those kids can't do anything to mess with those big guys. Someone should really help those kids...' As Ryugi looked around, he saw plenty of people simply watching it happen, no one getting up or lifting a finger to help the students.
"Damn… It's going to have to be me, isn't it…?"
Ryugi stood, leaving his lunch under the tree. His right hand clenched into a fist as he walked across the lunch areas and unbuttoned the top button on his shirt to give himself a little extra room to move as he pulled out the formerly tucked in garment. He didn't want to get his hands dirty in this, but these guys probably wouldn't give him any choice in the matter.
"Hey, check out the new kid."
Toji nodded in the direction of the fight as the group spied the new kid from earlier walking across the lunch areas and towards the older students. Kensuke and Shinji both looked on and Kensuke spoke up.
"Oh man, that won't end well. He's gonna get creamed… Toji, think we should help him?" The tanned Toji thought for a moment, sighed and spoke again.
"If things get really bad then we can give 'im a hand, but I don't wanna get wrapped up in somethin' messy like that if I can avoid it." Shinji just watched as the young man walked up to the biggest guy there and spoke.
"Hey! What's the big deal picking on those kids? They didn't do anything to you."
"Buzz off kid. This isn't any of your business. 'Sides, what are you going to do? Talk me into submission? If that's your plan it's not going to work."
"I'd suggest you back off and leave those kids alone. You don't know what you're dealing with. If you want to keep it up, I've given you fair warning. But I won't be responsible for what happens if—"
"I said to back off!" The leader of the group spun around and took a swing at Ryugi, but the young man ducked low and smashed the leader's jaw with an uppercut so powerful that it knocked him off his feet. He then jerked around in a spin kick that collided with the leader's ribs so hard that everyone heard a sickening crunch as his ribs cracked from the force of the kick and sent him flying to the ground grasping his chest and wheezing.
The two other members of the trio looked to their fallen comrade and then looked back to Ryugi, putting their fists up and advancing. Ryugi dashed at them as they moved towards him. He met each of them with a clothesline, ducking under their attempted punches and knocking them to the ground. He heard footsteps behind him and turned just in time to get punched in the side of the head by the leader, who was still holding his chest and hunched over, clearly in pain.
Ryugi stumbled sideways, but caught himself soon after and pushed himself back into a standing position. The leader advanced again, taking another swing at him, but Ryugi snapped his hand up, catching the offender's wrist and slipped behind him, pulling the bigger guy's arm behind him and yanking up, a pop sounding as he dislocated the leader's arm and kicked him in the back, sending him stumbling face-first into the wall where he fell backwards once more, blood dripping down his face from a broken nose. The two other guys picked themselves up, but as Ryugi's green eyes met theirs, and he cracked his knuckles, the two of them backed up a few steps before running off, leaving their fallen comrade behind.
"And good riddance…" Ryugi looked down to the leader who was clearly in a whole lot of pain. "Some friends you've got, huh? I'd suggest you get yourself to the infirmary. I felt a couple ribs break, and that nose of yours is crooked." Ryugi reached down and grabbed the big guy's nose as he cried out, pushing it back into place. "That'll heal fine as long as you put some ice on it soon, but I'd suggest you get some medical attention for those ribs."
And with that, Ryugi stood and walked back across the lunch area, and back to his lunch. The rest of the students just watched for a while before they slowly started going back to eating, some of the girls giving the young man some very surprised and interested looks. However, what was perhaps most interesting was that as Ryugi munched on a sandwich, a shadow covered his spot, and he looked up to spy the form of Rei Ayanami standing over him with a strangely questioning glance aimed at him.
"Why did you do that?" Ryugi blinked and looked around. No one else seemed to be staring at him, except a few guys off to the side of the area, the same guys he'd seen in class. He looked back at her and said the only thing that he could think of.
"I did it because no one else would, and what they were doing to those other kids was wrong."
She looked at him again and then spoke once more.
"That was not what I meant. Why did you risk yourself for a person that you did not even know?"
"Don't you ever think of all the people you are risking yourself for when you are piloting one of those Evangelions?" Rei's eyes opened just slightly more than usual. "So, you are the new pilot, the Sixth Child…" Ryugi took another bite of his sandwich and nodded.
"I got here two days ago and don't know my way around here very well. I've barely gotten into my place. I'm living alone because I don't have anyone here to stay with and I don't have any family left…" He trailed off for a second, but not long enough to make much note of it. However, Rei noticed quite easily. His statement had worried him. "…But anyway, I think that I'm staying in the same complex as you, so I guess that makes us neighbors. If that's the case, perhaps we could have a party or something sometime."
Rei blinked for a moment, unsure of what exactly the young man in front of her was talking about, but he seemed to be talking about meeting with her for an activity of some sort outside official business. No one had really asked her about something like that before…
"That would be…possible." Rei seemed taken aback by the young man's comment. It wasn't often that someone asked her to do anything outside of school or work related activities. It was a new experience and a new situation, and truth be told, she wasn't quite sure about how to react. But his face was kind, and he seemed sincere in his words. It reminded her slightly of Ikari, how he had cleaned her apartment, and how he had complimented her on her appearance.
Ryugi smiled. "That's great, I'll come and see you sometime and we can maybe do something together." He got up to leave, and Rei simply watched him go.
'The Sixth Child, Pilot Kazamaru… You are puzzling. You place yourself in harm's way for others, knowing that it could bring you pain. But why?' Rei simply did not understand. Everyone else she had met ran from pain. Pilot Sohryu pulled away from that which caused her pain, and Ikari did as well. So, what made Kazamaru different? She didn't understand, but as she watched him go, she felt that she desired to find out.
XxXxXxX
Ryugi walked down the halls of the school and thought about the events of the day. He hoped that those older students were okay. He'd never really been the type to want to hurt someone, and his outburst today had surprised him. But then again, no one else was going to help those kids if he hadn't stepped up and defended them. He couldn't have just sat by and watch them get beaten, that would have been too much like that night so very long ago… He once more shook the unpleasant thoughts out of his mind and walked out of the school building towards the school parking lot when he heard someone call out to him.
"Hey you!"
Ryugi turned around to see a group of three boys, all younger than him, approaching him. One was the kid with the video camera, the middle one was the one who looked like he was a tough guy, and the other was the one who looked unhappy about something, which once again Ryugi recognized as the Pilot of Evangelion Unit 01. They all trotted up to him and the unhappy one, whom he recalled was named Shinji Ikari, spoke to him.
"Um…My friends and I just wanted to um…say thanks for helping out those other kids today."
"Yeah, that took guts, kid." Toji spoke up and clapped Ryugi on the back, making him flinch a bit.
"Hey, no problem. I just felt it was the right thing to do, you know? So, I guess I just did it without thinking." He paused for moment. "By the way, I'm Ryugi Kazamaru." He held out his hand to the first boy who had spoken to him and the two of them shook hands.
"I'm Shinji Ikari," the boy replied," and these two are my friends Toji and Kensuke." The other two offered their hands and each of them shook Ryugi's.
"Well Shinji, Toji, Kensuke, its nice to meet you, but I really need to get home and do my homework. I'll see you tomorrow!" Ryugi then turned and walked to his car and unlocked it, grimacing at the scrape marks along the back wheel where the car had struck the curb. At least he could take it easier heading home.
"Hey, Ryugi!" Ryugi looked to see who had called him. It was Toji.
"Hey, you think you could give us a ride over to Shinji's? We'd walk, but we're feelin' pretty tired after the insane P.E. crap that they put us through today." Shinji then went over to Toji and spoke in a low voice.
"Do you think that's a good idea? I mean we barely know this guy. Plus, did you see how crazy he was driving earlier? He's a worse driver than Misato…"
Toji thought this through for a moment and then replied.
"Shinji, use your head for a second. Anyone who helps out someone they don't know, beats up a buncha bad guys, and then gives medical advice to the injured obviously has a respect for not hurtin' people intentionally, so I think its safe."
Ryugi was wondering what they were talking about, but waited until they were done. "Well sure. I'd be honored to give the great Shinji Ikari and his friends a ride home. Hop on in."
Shinji wondered why Ryugi had called him "The Great Shinji Ikari", but other than that, he didn't seem to object to getting in the car, although he was a little uneasy as he recalled the long black lines of tire marks trailing half a block down the street behind the red car.
"Don't mind the boxes, just push that stuff on the floor if you need room. I haven't quite finished moving into my apartment yet…"
After some shuffling and rearranging of boxes, Ryugi then began the drive to Shinji's home. The ride was, for the most part uneventful, the four of them just talked about themselves, however the conversation soon turned into asking Ryugi questions about his skills and how he had managed to beat the three thugs up.
"Well, a long time ago, something happened to me when I was very young. It was so bad that I did everything I could to try to forget about it. I pushed myself in school and did well, and I immersed myself in the martial arts. Karate, ju-jitsu, tae-kwon-do, gymnastics, and yoga all became a part of my life. I could probably kill a person 3 times over by the time they were to hit the ground were I so inclined…"
He sighed. "The funny thing is that I don't like to fight. I know that the basis for knowing all of these styles of self-defense is not to fight for you, but only in self-defense. But that's not why. I just don't like to see people hurt. The way those guys were picking on those students just made me upset. I didn't want to hurt them, but they wouldn't back away, so I had no other choice."
The three boys listened to Ryugi's explanation. All seemed interested, but Shinji seemed to notice something in Ryugi's voice that hid some sort of internal turmoil. His voice had an almost imperceptible waver in it, but when you listened like Shinji, you picked up these little inconsistencies. The young man had made a habit of listening to others, rather than talking about himself. The conversation continued all the way to Misato's apartment. After the boys had exited, Shinji asked Ryugi if he'd like to come up and meet Misato.
"You're missing out if you don't. She's a real babe." Toji grinned and Kensuke nodded in agreement.
"Actually," Ryugi started, "I've already met the Major."
Toji and Kensuke both looked very puzzled, though somehow Shinji didn't look too terribly surprised. "How'd you manage that if you've only been in the city for a few days?"
"Yeah, that doesn't make much sense."
Shinji shrugged and spoke. It only made sense given that they had been talking about getting a new pilot soon. It all came together when he figured that Ryugi had been transferred into the class, just like Asuka had been when she arrived. "Well…this is strange. I guess I'll see you around, Ryugi."
"Sure thing. Catch you later, guys." Ryugi then hit the accelerator and sped off down the street, barely missing another pothole and slimly missing a fire hydrant after his course correction. This left Shinji wondering how the hell the young man had even managed to get a driver's license in the first place...
"What was all that about?" Toji watched Ryugi go and then turned back to Shinji as Kensuke spoke up.
"Ryugi is the pilot of Nerv's new Evangelion Unit." This news, of course, stunned Toji, but once again didn't surprise Shinji too much. Kensuke had known that Toji was likely to be selected to test Unit 03, and that was before even Shinji himself had known. But still, the young man's ability to somehow know information that was supposed to be classified was always unusual. What he hadn't mentioned was that, once more, he had hacked his way into his father's files. He probably knew more about the new Eva and its abilities than even the Pilots. And because of his father's poor security systems and lousy firewall, he also knew that Ryugi was to be its pilot.
"How did you know that?" Both Shinji and Toji asked.
"I hacked into my dad's computer again and pulled up the Eva's file and also its pilot's. Ryugi isn't much different than the rest of you except that he's older than you guys. And apparently he had a 'Traumatic Incident' when he was younger. His Eva though is another story all together. It runs on something called a Super Solenoid Engine. I didn't know what that was, so I hacked a little further and found out what it was. As it turns out, the whole five-minute time limit that you and I witnessed first hand, Toji, was actually linked to Unit 01's Super Solenoid engine, or S2 engine for short. Not only that, but up until recently Nerv couldn't push its time any further than that. And all tests up until now failed, including one involving the two Units that the American branch created and lost."
Toji stiffened at the indirect mention of the Eva that had nearly claimed his life, but Kensuke continued, seemingly unaware of his friend's uneasiness about the subject.
"But someone figured out how to extend that, and produced a new S2 engine that gives the Eva almost infinite energy, which will eliminate the need for that power cord on the back that we've seen before. Makes me wonder what kind of awesome science they came up with to increase that thing. Man, I wish Misato would choose me for one of these things someday."
"Well, that's cool", Toji said, "but what kinda weapons does it have?" Shinji chimed in soon after wondering the same thing, so Kensuke continued.
"Well, I'd say it has a bunch of other stuff built into it that the other Evas don't. Some stuff I couldn't really gain access to, but apparently it has some kind of blades built into the arms, and something called a Positron Cannon. That one sounded pretty sweet if you ask me, but the really cool thing is that it can fly! It has something called an S2 Rocket Booster, and I can only guess that it's some sort of propulsion device that uses the energy from its power supply."
"How the hell do you know all this?" Toji was simply amazed by how much his geeky comrade seemed to know about the projects going on at Nerv. Even Shinji had to admit that he was impressed too. Either Nerv didn't seem to mind that Kensuke's father apparently kept strategic information on his computer with terrible security, or Kensuke was just that good with computers. Of course, that didn't mean that Shinji wasn't just as interested as Toji was in learning more about the new Eva that he'd tried to sync with all those months ago.
"A true hacker never reveals his secrets to anyone." The boy moved his glasses up and they glinted with light mischievously. "Anyway, other than the ability to fly and those arm weapons, it has tons of tiny missile pods with something called N2 Cluster Missiles. They sounded pretty cool, but before I could dig any deeper, my dad came home and I had to back out of everything."
"Either way that sounds pretty neat, don't you think, Shinji?"
"I'm still surprised that you know all that, Kensuke… You should be more careful when you sneak around. You could find something and get in trouble for it." Shinji looked to his friend.
"I cover my tracks just fine thanks. And I only dig up what's on my dad's computer. I don't go looking around for anything that isn't already there locally. Since he works for the R and D Department, his computer always has some of the coolest stuff on it. Why can't they pick me to pilot an Eva? Man, Ryugi shows up out of nowhere and gets picked, and I've been sitting around and wanting to be a pilot for as long as I can remember!" The young man grumbled and pouted as a shrill voice suddenly cut through the group.
"What is this, some sort of loser convention? Get the heck out of my way!"
"She-Devil!" Toji stood and shouted, pointing at Asuka as she scrunched her face up and stuck out her tongue.
"I don't know why you waste your time with these bums, Shinji. A man of your status could hang out with anyone he wanted. But you have to degrade yourself and hang with this trash." Asuka motioned to Toji as she finished, and the young man from Osaka stood ready to lay into her as Kensuke pulled him back.
"Why you good-for-nothin' red-headed bitch! I oughtta smack you for that!"
"Oh please. I'd lay you out flat before you could even stop to gawk at my beautiful face." Asuka folded her hands behind her head and leaned against the wall of the building as Toji seethed.
"I'm a man, damn it! And I don't have to take that kinda talk from you! You apologize right now!"
"Suzuhara!" That voice made Toji sink back with a rather uncomfortable look on his face. "That's no way to speak to a fellow classmate!"
"Geez, Class Rep. She's the one who started it!"
"That's no excuse. A gentlemen never insults a lady."
"Well, I'm not just gonna let her walk all over me like she does to Shinji! Shinji can take that stuff if he wants, but I'm not gonna let my woman, or any woman do that to me. It's part of my principles." Toji took up and pose stubbornly crossed his arms.
"But Toji, she doesn't walk all over me…"
"Shut up, Shinji."
"Sorry, Asuka…"
"And stop apologizing, damn it!"
"Sorry, Asuka…"
"Gah! That's it! I'm tired of hanging out down here. It smells like the stench of wimp and testosterone. Come on, Hikari." Asuka passed by the group of boys, pulling Hikari along with her as the class representative cast a glance at Toji before heading up the stairs towards Misato's apartment.
"Yeah you'd better run!"
Asuka flipped Toji a middle finger and kept going, not bothering to respond beyond that. Toji turned back to his friends and chuckled.
"And that, my friends, is how you must deal with unruly women."
"I dunno, Toji, seemed like Horaki was a bit unimpressed." Kensuke grinned.
"Shut up Kensuke!" Just about then, Toji's stomach grumbled and made him stop. "Hey, why don't we go up there and get some food, I'm starved." Shinji smiled and nodded.
"Sure thing."
After gathering up their things and more ribbing of Toji by Kensuke, the trio of friends made their way up to Misato's apartment for a piping hot meal.