Creation began on 05-08-10
Creation ended on 06-01-13
Neon Genesis Evangelion
My Special Keeper, Part One-A1
A/N: I'm not doing this one for profit, but just because the idea, like every other idea, seems good to use and wrong to ignore or pass up. I don't own the Evangelion franchise or the story by that successful woman that was made into a film…or the other franchises that inspired the other pieces to this story. I do own this story and its characters, though. Takes place predominantly in the manga universe with bits of the anime and film universes as minor add-ons.
"…We're sorry. The phone lines have been temporarily disconnected. Please, try your call again later." The electronic female voice said over the phone, and the young girl with a long, braided ponytail that was using it hung up.
"Shinji, the lines are down," she told the boy sitting on the steps next to the phone booth, breathing through a small, portable oxygen tank that was beside his left leg while he was listening to music on an iPod Touch on low volume.
He looked up to her and gave her the upside-down thumb, indicating disappointment. They could've just went back home, but Shinji felt the need to meet this man he didn't know, anymore, but knew of. His need was just to ask him what it was that he wanted of him after more than ten years since he'd last seen him, only to turn him down because of how he was treated the day he was left by him. Shinji, responding to a simple letter his father had sent him, telling him to come to Tokyo-3, simply wanted to know what this man wanted of him, just so that he could turn him down and then go back home and continue to move on with his life, no matter how little of it he had left.
The girl sat down next to him and looked at his letter again, not liking that his father, known of by her, as well, who had neither written to nor phoned his only son for many years, suddenly sends for him out of the black, blue and green, and doesn't know that Shinji wasn't even in any proper condition for anything other than trying to stay alive for as long as humanly possible, with the exception of mild traveling, exercising and occasional playtime.
"Maybe we should just go home now, Shinji," she tried to reason with him, but he nodded in the negative, just wanting to see what the man had wanted, and then go home after he turned him down. "You're impossible, Shinji… But, like always, I'll stick with you to the end."
Shinji then reached around his neck and pulled out a gold-chained necklace with a heart-shaped pendant of the same color from under his shirt and opened it up to reveal a picture of the two of them when they were younger: The girl was being hugged by Shinji from behind, but the odd part of the picture was that Shinji's hair looked like it was thinned out a little; the girl had shorter black hair and blue eyes that seemed like a counter to his brown eyes, like water and soil before they become mud when mixed together.
"You're welcome, Shinji," she had told him, and he put the locket down under his shirt. How did it come to this for him? Not me being here for him, but him being here because that man sent for him. Why does he want to see him after so long? Was he even concerned about him being unable to visit his own mother's grave three years ago?
Her thoughts were shattered when the sound of military jets flew over their heads, making her worry for Shinji, who held onto her for dear life with his scrawny arms. Then, she noticed a large creature that looked like a fish out of water, except that it also reminded her of that old movie about a monster from a lagoon…or one of her favorite characters known as the Swamp Thing: It was dark, slimy, had a bone-like mask on it, and a shiny orb of red in between what appeared to be bony ribs. It was scary for her, almost to the point where she wanted to wet herself. Almost.
Shinji took a deeper breath through his oxygen mask before grabbing the girl's arm and trying to get away, although his steps were slow.
The next thing that happened was a blue car showed up in front of them, driven by a purple-haired woman that had been in the picture that was sent with the letter Shinji's father sent.
Yeah, she fits the description, the girl thought, helping Shinji get in before she deposited herself in. "I suppose there's a reason for all of this?"
"Yeah," the purple-haired woman told her, but then realized that she was talking to a little girl, probably no older than ten; maybe even younger than that. "What are you doing here with him?"
"I'm Shinji's caretaker in the absence of our other relatives," she explained only that piece, not wanting to go into full details with the older woman unless it was absolutely necessary.
"His caretaker?" The purple head repeated.
"Yes. It's a long story."
As they drove away, the creature was being taken care of by the jets, but they were no match for it; it fired energy beams at them and watched them blow into smithereens.
"Just what is going on?" The little girl asked her. "What is that thing?"
"All we really know is…that thing's called an Angel," the older woman said.
"An Angel? That's not an angel; it's a monster. I've seen angels, and that doesn't come close to one."
Once they had gotten far enough from the Angel, they felt vibrations that indicated that something big had happened, and then felt the car turn over twice from a resulting shockwave.
"Ouch," the little girl groaned. "Are you okay, Shinji?"
She looked at the back seat and saw Shinji was dazed but still alive, as he gave her a thumb's up with his left hand.
"That's good to know," she smiled at him.
After confirming that the car could still function, they drove away from what had been discovered to be a blast zone of a former city. The girl was disgusted by the fact that the military had destroyed an entire city just to try and destroy one, large threat. While she was glad that she didn't live there with Shinji, she was disappointed that the people that used to live there now had no place to go back to. Not even leftover possessions to retrieve.
"So, um…he's Shinji Ikari?" The woman had asked her.
"Shinji Rokubungi, actually," she corrected her. "We had his last name changed four years ago. I'm Rumi Rokubungi, a close relative of his."
"Cousin?"
"That's what most people want to say or believe. Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Misato. Misato Katsuragi."
"So, Ms. Katsuragi…"
"Oh, Misato is fine."
"Very well, then. Misato…just why did that man send for Shinji? He hasn't heard from him in over ten years or so."
"Maybe you should ask him that."
"We're going to see him, aren't we?"
"Don't you know him or what he does?"
"I've never met him, and the only pictures I've ever seen of him are all outdated and his expression was dirty. Not even our family likes to mention him much of the time after what he did to Shinji. And it's easy to develop a dislike of somebody when you know of them and not know them, personally. As for what he does… Probably pretends he's a lord of his own domain and that he can abuse whoever he wants to for his own amusement."
Misato didn't say anything else for the rest of the ride over to where they were heading, but was curious of why Shinji had an oxygen mask and portable tank with him the whole time. To her, he didn't look all that sick, and nothing in his profile (which was extremely limited in details, by the way) said anything about him needing to use an oxygen mask. Then, she remembered that she needed to give him the pamphlet that she had been instructed to give him that was in her glove compartment.
"Could you open my glove compartment and take out a pamphlet that's in there, please?" She asked Rumi. "And did Shinji receive an ID card in the letter he was sent?"
Rumi did as instructed and took out the pamphlet, seeing a logo that looked like some crazy, advertisement-based scheme made by some businessmen.
"Yeah, although I don't see why you people go through the trouble of doing so. It's not like he's staying long…and I don't intend to leave him alone with strangers here. NERV?" She asked her.
"That's right," she explained. "It's a top-secret, paramilitary organization under the direct control of the United Nations. I work there myself."
Rumi then said, "I'm sorry, but Shinji can't read this."
"Why not?"
"He's dyslexic. My mother tried to help him several times, but even that didn't do anything for him."
"I tried my hardest…but in the end, it never mattered," they heard Shinji speak up, sounding real sick.
-x-
"…But…we have no pilot," said an old man to a man in a black jumpsuit with orange-tinted glasses, concerned about the present situation regarding the Third Angel.
"Not to be concerned," the glasses-wearing man responded. "Another spare is being brought over. I'll leave all of this in your hands, Fuyutsuki."
After he left, the old man, Fuyutsuki, sighed as he said, "His first reunion with his son in ten years."
Then, he looked up at the large monitor displaying the injured Angel as it advanced toward the city; the N² land mine only doing slight damage to it. But what had him bothered was that there appeared to be something wrong with the way things were being played out. He couldn't tell why, but it seemed as though nothing would happen the way it was supposed to today.
-x-
Rumi, reading the pamphlet for Shinji, as well as navigating around the layout of NERV HQ for Misato, since she couldn't lead them to where they needed to be without getting lost, was finding it hard to understand why there appeared to such a need for secrecy with the way the pamphlet was made out. Some pages were marked with black ink, covering up whatever was originally there, while other pages were slightly edited, like there were things that Shinji wasn't supposed to find out about, almost similar to the way his letter was marked and edited.
No doubt that man is behind this, she thought, leading them to the elevator, which then opened up and revealed a woman with yellowish-blond hair (possibly dyed, many times over, to cover a different color of hair) and a mole near her left eye, wearing a white lab coat.
"Heh-heh, hey, Ritsuko," went Misato, sounding childish.
"Captain Katsuragi, why must you try my patience looking for you? You do realize that we're short on time and personnel?" The blond-haired woman asked her, as strict as a disciplinarian.
"Sorry, Rits, I still don't have the layout of the place memorized yet," Misato apologized to her.
Rumi didn't like her aura and backed away from the elevator to be close to Shinji.
Ritsuko then looked over at them and asked, "Is this the boy?"
"Uh, yeah," Misato answered. "According the Marduk Institute, he's the 'Third Child'. That's one of his relatives and present caretaker, Rumi."
Ritsuko looked down at the girl, who kept her distance with Shinji, and wondered why there was nothing in the boy's profile about a little girl being with him.
"I'm Ritsuko Akagi, technical supervisor and head of Project 'E'," she introduced herself to them.
"Rumi and Shinji Rokubungi, ma'am," Rumi introduced themselves to her.
"Shinji Rokubungi? Not Ikari?"
"His last name was changed around four years ago," Misato explained to her.
"Oh… Well, this way, please," she told them, leading into the elevator, mildly curious on how different the boy was right now if his name was changed.
They followed her, but Shinji and Rumi kept a set distance from her while the little girl had continued to look through the pamphlet for Shinji, and Shinji hearing whatever the older women were talking about, at the same time trying to avoid the urge to cough or throw up. They didn't understand much of their conversation, except hearings words like 'B-Type Equipment', 'Unit-01' and 'Oni'. Of those words, 'Oni' made perfect sense to them, since it was the designation and term used for a Japanese type of demon, but why they were using that word was beyond them. When the elevator stopped, they stepped out onto a narrow, bridge-like platform or walkway, enveloped in total darkness. Rumi kept Shinji away from the edges of it until a light was turned on, revealing a giant face…of an equally-giant robot.
"Whoa!" Rumi gasped, but stood her ground with Shinji, taking in details of the purple-colored giant.
"What…what is this thing?" Shinji asked, feeling the need to vomit.
"I didn't see this in the introduction," went Rumi, looking through the pamphlet again.
"You won't find anything about this in there," she heard Ritsuko say. "This is the last card that our species has to play: The synthetic life-form known as Evangelion…Unit-01. Built here in secret, and our last hope."
Removing the mask from his face, Shinji asked, "What…is this all about? Is this…that man's work?"
"Correct!" Rumi and he looked up toward a large, monitoring chamber of some sort where the guy they were supposed to meet was looking down upon them as though he were some sort of god. "It's been a while, and I see you brought a little girlfriend with you."
Then, Shinji, piled with his disgust at his father thinking that he and Rumi were an item, coughed up blood onto the floor before dropping to his knees, feeling his heart beat faster than it was supposed to. Rumi opened up her backpack and took out a bottle of water and a bottle of pills and helped Shinji deal with the pace of his heart.
"Are you happy now, whoever the heck you're supposed to be?" She asked him, seeing Gendo for the first time, and already disliking him even further. "Just what it is that you want?"
"We're moving out," he uttered, as if ignoring her question.
"What?! But Unit-00 is still out of action," said Misato, but then she looked at the purple monstrosity in front of them. "Wait, you intend to use Unit-01?"
"There's no choice," said Ritsuko to her.
"But Rei can't do it," she tried to reason. "We don't have a pilot."
"We've just received one," Ritsuko told her in a cold tone.
Looking at Shinji and Rumi, she uttered, "Are you for real?"
Rumi then came to the conclusion of why Gendo had sent for Shinji to be brought here to Tokyo-3, and was immediately repulsed by it.
"No," she uttered out.
"Shinji…" Ritsuko started again.
"No!" Rumi yelled out. "He can't!"
"It took Rei seven months to pilot the Eva. A boy without any training has no chance against the Angel; he just got here." Misato tried to reason again.
"He just needs to sit in the seat," Ritsuko told her, as Rumi helped Shinji calm his breathing. "We don't expect anything more than that. Our top priority is to halt and repel the Angel. It is imperative that we have somebody, anybody, really, that can synchronize to some extent with the Eva. Or do you have any alternatives, Captain Katsuragi?"
Putting the oxygen mask back on, Shinji, breathing the life-saving air once more, looked at the man that was nothing more than a stranger to him and asked, "What do you want from me?"
"You know why you're here." Gendo told him.
"No, I don't. I don't know why I'm here. You sent for me, the least you can do is tell me why, after too many years, of the reason you wanted me back."
"To pilot that thing, Shinji," Rumi told him, pointing to the purple Eva. "To fight that thing we saw outside, which you cannot be allowed to do."
"And why can't he?" Misato asked her.
"Look at him, he's in no condition to do anything other than try to continue living until his judgment day," she told her, still beating around the bush instead of simply telling them why he couldn't pilot that thing that they wanted him to pilot. "And I, for one, won't let him be used by people like he were some sort of common tool."
"Because you're his caretaker in the absence of his other relatives?"
"More than that."
And just then, Shinji grabbed his hair…and pulled it right off, revealing a bald head where natural hair used to sprout from. He'd been wearing a wig of artificial hair the whole time. In addition, some of his nerves and veins could be seen if you perceived them carefully, making the skin on the back of his head seem almost see-through.
"I can't pilot that thing," Shinji told them. "I won't pilot it, and I got less than a year to go through before my last day."
"Your last day?" Ritsuko questioned. "What are you…"
"He has APL: Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia," Rumi revealed, wishing it hadn't come to this. "A blood and bone marrow cancer…and it's killing him. I'm one of his guardians, so it's my job to make sure he doesn't do anything that could kill him, and that includes operating heavy machinery."
"There was nothing in his profile that said he had cancer," Ritsuko gasped.
"He was diagnosed with it when he was around four years old; the same age that man took the road of cowardice and left him with our other folks after his mother died, and with no contact from him until a few days ago."
Everyone looked at Gendo, who said nothing. But Fuyutsuki was now curious. Disgusted to the extreme, but curious, all the same. The only child of his prized student was dying and nobody of NERV knew of this? This was like an outrage of unprecedented levels. And one of his new thoughts were, Did Gendo know of this?
"I apologize for having wasted your time, but a dying teen isn't of any use to anybody except being a waste of space to a bunch of government hoods," Shinji told them, putting his wig back on, and looked back up at his father. "You have no idea of many times I had to hear doctors say that you could've probably helped me a long time ago, but you were too busy with your own interests to even care about me and my needs. Well, I got news for you: You're not welcome in what's left of my life…and I hate you. Good riddance to you, old man."
Rumi helped him turn and walk away, but stopped when Gendo asked, "Who is that girl to you?"
Rumi turned to face him said, "You'd only disbelieve it if we told you, but I have my share of parental rights on him; I just don't take them too seriously, like scolding him or not praising him when he needs encouragement from those that care about his mental health just as much as his physical health."
"Parental rights?" Ritsuko asked. "You? But you're just a kid. Probably five years old."
"Actually, I turn six in a few days, but that's beside the point."
"Please…tell us who you are to him," Ritsuko asked, being nicer to the girl.
"I'm Rumi Rokubungi, I'm one of Shinji's aunts, as well as his life savior in terms of his leukemia. I guess you scientists would prefer to me as a…designer baby or donor child, since I was engineered, made in a petri dish to help keep my nephew alive for as long as possible." She revealed to them.
"Whoa," went Misato, wanting to disbelieve this herself, but hearing from the girl's mouth made it too real to be some sort of lie. Wait a minute; I think I see the resemblance between the two. Yeah. You could almost mistake them for siblings if it weren't for the fact that this girl's his aunt.
"So, you're a donor for him?" Ritsuko said to Rumi.
"In everything except actual organs that can't be replaced so easily," said Shinji. "Our relatives and I had agreed on that over two years ago, when my kidneys had almost quit on me and I required a bone marrow transplant."
"What my nephew just said. And why did you need Shinji here in the first place? Why don't you have people that can actually deal with a situation that doesn't require using children as soldiers?"
"Because there's no one else that can do it," they heard Gendo say.
"You're a real piece of work, Gendo," Rumi stated, unafraid of the older man. "Shinji and I are leaving now. I'm not losing him to you or anybody else around here. Let's go, Shinji."
They turned to leave, but then the room began to rattle, causing them to fall onto the floor, and made Shinji vomit out blood again; so much of it than the last time, along with the pills he had taken prior.
Rumi handed him the water again, along with the pills, reminding herself that he needed to go back to the hospital when they got home. She knew him coming here was a big mistake; Gendo had made his condition worse by trying to get him to fight a creature that would've killed him before he had the chance to even try and put up a fight. Plus, her nephew was without any skill of self-defense; he couldn't fight at all, even to save himself in a conflict. So there was no way he could save others.
"…Wake Rei," she heard Gendo say to someone.
"Can we use her?" Another man asked.
"She's not dead yet. Bring her here." He told him.
Rumi looked to the opposite side of the walkway and saw a gurney being wheeled over, carrying a young woman, about her nephew's age, with sky-blue hair, wrapped from head to toe in thick bandages and was wearing a strange outfit that reminded the young girl of those old diving suits that people wore when swimming in the ocean, only it seemed modified for a different cause; her face was as white as a sheet and her eye that wasn't covered by bandages was as red as blood.
Bless the kami, this man is psychotic, she thought.
"Rei," went Gendo again, "our spare is useless. You must pilot the Eva again."
"Yes, sir," the girl, Rei, responded in a calm-but-weak tone.
Spare? Useless? Rumi heard his words echoing through her head. He really is a piece of work. Bad work. There's no way in Heaven that Shinji can be related to this madman.
She watched as Rei tried to get up off the gurney, but she gasped in pain from the effort of doing so, and fell to the floor. She couldn't even stand, let alone fight. What the heck was Gendo thinking? Rumi looked at the girl continuing her struggle to get up and then back to her nephew, who was breathing through his oxygen mask again, probably thinking the same thing she was, and then saw Rei fall down again, unable to even shed a tear.
These people are insane, thought Rumi again, feeling the need to call names out to people. To use children as soldiers is bad enough, but to use injured ones is going too far.
"They're crazy," Shinji uttered; a part of him viewing this as Gendo's way of trying to guilt-trip him, "and we're dead."
Gendo, for the first time in his short career, was losing control. Nothing was going as planned at all. Rei couldn't pilot on account of her injuries and the Third Child couldn't on account of is own illness…and his somewhat-overbearing aunt of less than a decade old. He couldn't achieve his goal unless he could prove the Evas could work against the Angels, but there were no other pilots available, as the Second Child was still in Germany. Looking down at the girl, a new idea came to mind: Maybe she could do it. Maybe she pilot the Eva.
"Little girl," he said to her. "Could you pilot the Eva?"
Shinji looked up at him and saw where this was going: If this man couldn't get him to do it, he would try to get Rumi to throw her life away in his place, as if furthering or extending the guilt-trip.
"If I get rid of that thing out there, will you leave my nephew alone?" Rumi asked, hoping to work out some sort of a deal with this jerk, and Gendo nodded in the positive.
Sighing, Rumi complied that she would, anything to protect her nephew, and it was just one monster. Fighting off one was something she was willing to do. She had no intention of staying longer than she had to with Shinji.
"Rumi, what if you don't come back?" Shinji asked, trying to keep her from throwing her life away just to save his own that dwindled away with each passing day.
"Oh, I'm coming back," she told him, and then took off something from around her neck: A pair of dog tags that had been given to her by her mother when she was four; they were something she had requested after watching a military film, except hers were custom-made. "If I don't, burn these for me."
He nodded that he would, but was hoping he wouldn't have to as she was led away.
"One more thing," she stopped and looked up at Gendo, "if anything happens to him, you're gonna regret ever seeing me."
-x-
Rumi wasn't a big fan of enclosed areas, and that was what the Entry Plug felt like to her: An enclosed area in cylindrical shape. After being given a short course of how to operate the Eva, she was set into the plug, which was then set into Unit-01. Hearing a series of short clicks that indicated to her that whatever kept the plug in place was locked tight, she heard someone say, "Preparing to flood the Entry Plug with LCL."
"Huh?" She gasped, seeing some reddish-orange liquid rising from the bottom of the plug up to her pants and dress, all the way up to her head. "Aaaaurgh!"
"Don't worry, Rumi," she heard Dr. Akagi say to her over the intercom, "once your lungs have been saturated with LCL, your blood will be oxygenated directly. You'll get used to it."
Losing her breath, she gasped as the LCL got into her mouth, leaving a bad taste on her tongue, along with a terrible stench in her nose. It reminded her of an old horror film she saw with Shinji by accident, but she couldn't place the reason why it tasted like something she had seen before.
This must be similar to what Shinji goes through whenever he vomits blood out, she thought, unable to see clearly because of the liquid.
Soon enough, her vision cleared, as well as the liquid, almost as though there was no liquid to begin with, and she was content with that. Meanwhile, up on the bridge, everyone was hard at work getting the Test Type Evangelion to work with the little girl, and Ritsuko was one of the impressed few, for Rumi's synchronization ratio with the Eva was at an amazingly acceptable level: About seventy-two point five percent. It was very amazing for the girl's first try, and she wasn't even a pilot candidate or wearing a plugsuit.
"Let's do this," Ritsuko told Misato.
Back in the Eva, Rumi was hoping that nobody, not even Gendo himself, above all others, was trying anything wrong in every sense of the word on her nephew, having a subtle belief that NERV might've tried to restrain him the moment they were separated. She felt the Eva being moved somewhere for a minute until it stopped, and then she heard Misato's voice on the intercom.
"This'll be a bumpy ride, Ms. Rokubungi," she told her, "are you ready?"
"Yeah, just do it," she responded back, and then felt herself being slammed into the seat of the plug by the force of the gravity. "Aaaaaahh!"
The Eva was going up like a rocket, straight to its chosen destination, and when it stopped, Rumi came face-to-face with the Angel. It was even uglier up close than it was from a distance, and it looked as though it had grown a second face for some reason, which was slightly smaller than its original that had been pushed to its upper right. When the last of the safety locks holding Unit-01 were released, it stood on its own power, leaving it free to deal with the threat.
"Rumi, just try to concentrate on walking for now," Rumi heard Ritsuko's voice through the intercom.
"And, just exactly, how do I do that?" She asked her, noticing only two handles that didn't look like they were for forward mobility, or any other form of mobility, whatsoever, at all.
"Just think on the concept of walking," the blond had explained.
Okay…walk…walk… She focused on making the Eva lift its right leg and position it forward, which it did, and was carefully set down so that it didn't break anything. Walking…walking…
It carefully moved forward, toward the Angel…until lost its footing and fell down.
-x-
Watching in relative safety in what Misato had referred to as Central Dogma, Shinji held onto his aunt's dog tags as he watched the big screens displaying the fight, or what came close to a fight, between the Angel and Unit-01. He was hoping to every god there was ever a religion for that Rumi would survive, even if it meant just sacrificing every dark soul in the city.
Please, he thought, don't die, Rumi. You're not supposed to before I do. You have more to live for.
Unit-01 got back up and just in time to block the Angel's right arm from grabbing onto its head. The Angel tried with its left arm to grab the Eva's right arm and managed to grab it by the wrist, after which its muscles just puffed up, like somebody had blown them up with an oversized straw. Shinji worried for his aunt, fearing that the Angel would kill her, something he didn't wish on any good person.
"Rumi, you have to calm down," he heard Misato say through the intercom to his aunt. "That's not your arm the Angel's grabbing."
What?! He thought, wanting to believe what he had just heard from the purple-haired woman was just as crazy as it was confusing. Is my aunt attached to that thing, somehow?!
Inside Unit-01, Rumi felt like somebody was treating her arm roughly and was on the verge of being snapped in half…until she willed the Eva to kick the Angel away, freeing herself from near harm. Now disbelieving that the city itself was empty with the exception of NERV employees and her nephew, she decided to get the Angel away from the city. Immediately rushing over to where it had fallen, she thought of picking it up and tossing it away, which the Eva did before it could react, which put a little strain on the girl's forehead.
I gotta end this for the sake of the innocent people that may be here, she thought quickly to herself, feeling a weight on her heart. For them, for Shinji…and for the rest of the family.
As the Angel fell on the ground outside of the city, the Eva approached it and picked it up again, tossing it further away from the city grounds.
Back in Central Dogma, Ritsuko was amazed at how well the girl was performing against the Angel, relying on basic strategy tactics to contend with the enemy's power. She didn't even so much as flinch when she saw the Angel fire its energy beams at the Eva, which simply blocked with its arms and then grabbed the beast's own arms and crushed their nerves and muscles, possibly as payback for what it tried to do to the Eva's arm, before kicking it even further away from the city.
"The Angel is now outside Tokyo-3 city grounds," a female technician said. "About forty-five feet away from the city limits."
"Incredible," went Misato, impressed by the girl's skills.
That's my protective aunt for you, thought Shinji, and then he looked up at Gendo, who looked displeased with the display on the monitors.
Fuyutsuki noticed his turned face and watched him turn back to facing the monitors, said to Gendo, "The girl is quite skilled, don't you think?" But Gendo didn't say anything in response to his former teacher's question.
Back on the surface, Rumi was unable to advance further toward the Angel because of the cable that was attached to the back of the Evangelion.
Lousy power needs, thought Rumi, and decided to risk the lack of energy required by the Eva and detached the cable off, setting down on the ground.
"Rumi, what are you doing?" Misato asked her.
"Removing limiter distractions," she answered back, and willed the Eva to charge toward the Angel, which slowly got up and was braced for impact.
CLASH! The Angel had been slammed back onto the ground and saw the Eva atop itself, raising its fists to put an end to it.
For my nephew…for the innocent…and for me… She thought, and brought them down onto the red sphere, cracking it.
Then, before the Angel could even react faster than the Eva, said Eva gripped the sphere and ripped it clean from the enemy, and it squirmed like an actual fish, flaying its crushed arms about itself before dropping them back to the ground. Looking at the sphere in her possession, Rumi noticed its glowing redness starting to fade away, turning from its former color to a brownish-red, like it was a light bulb that had blown out from overuse or something. Since it was now useless and because she was outside the city limits, she tossed it aside and got up, unconcerned with the possibility that the enemy wasn't dead, and returned to the city to pick up the cable it had discarded with what little time it had left, which revealed itself to be twenty-five seconds. Reattaching the cable to the Eva's back again, Rumi asked, "How well did I perform, Shinji?"
In Central Dogma, Shinji uttered, "You executed your task beautifully, Auntie."
Everyone else, however, was partially less than pleased and were partially unsure of what to make of this victory. It seemed like Angel was dead, as no life signs were coming from it any longer, but it seemed too easy, like an old video game that had a difficulty level setting set on its easy one, allowing for fast wins. Or maybe it had something to do with the girl's synchronization ratio being so high on her first sortie against an enemy she knew nothing of; that was also a possibility. But whatever the reason, the Angel was dead, the city was safe, and that was that.
-x-
Because it was too dark to go out anywhere, Shinji and Rumi had to stay the night at NERV HQ before they could go anywhere safely. As much as they were against this, they had to comply…but only this once because they had no choice. They were given a room that looked like it had the convenience of being soothing, but they knew better than to trust in appearances: It was quite soulless.
When daylight approaches, we're gone, outta here, Rumi thought, not wanting to stay any longer than this because of simple travel limitations.
I'll be glad to be away from this place, thought Shinji, as he slept as peacefully as he possibly could, and back to the peace and quietness of home.
As they slept, Gendo was at a meeting to deal with the battle involving the Angel. The Committee, having watched the battle on reruns, seeing the calmness of a great storm, were less than angry with him, but more than curious as to how something like this could actually happen, considering what had occurred earlier.
"We're not entirely impressed by this, Ikari," Kiel Lorenz, the leader, told him. "The pilot behind Unit-01 acted like they were a risk taker instead of a follower of orders. Even if Unit-01 didn't suffer any extensive or moderate damage."
"And we're to understand that it wasn't even your son that piloted it…nor the First Child," said a man bathed in yellow light, talking with a French accent. "Who was it that was piloting the Eva? The Second Child's still in Germany and we've been informed that the First Child was injured."
"It was the boy's aunt," Gendo simply answered, unwilling to refer to Shinji as his son or even utter his name. "A little girl, nearly six years old, and just so happens to be a designer baby, piloted the Eva and defeated the Angel in such a short amount of time."
"You made a toddler out of diapers pilot the Eva?" A man bathed in blue light asked, speaking with a Russian accent. "Why wasn't the Third Child able to pilot? He was there when the Angel arrived, wasn't he? Why didn't he do it, as you yourself should have instructed him to?"
As much as Gendo didn't want to say it, it was his only excuse.
"He was in poor health, his body wracked by his leukemia, making him incapable of piloting the Eva." He told them, without the addition of informing them of the boy's lack of pilot training.
"The Third Child couldn't pilot on account of being sick with some cancer?" Kiel questioned. "And why were we not informed of this earlier on?"
As the meeting went on, on the surface, right where the Angel had been left by Rumi, NERV was hard at work on disposing the body, while, at the same time, collecting samples from it, along with its damaged core, all being supervised by Ritsuko, who was still curious as to how a simple girl of half a decade of age could defeat such a monstrosity. Misato, on the other hand, was just glad that the Angel was dealt with, with very little to no damage done to the city itself.
"A miracle, perhaps?" She had once suggested to Ritsuko.
"Most unlikely. Besides, only thirteen-fifteen-year-olds should be capable of piloting, and we have no background details on this girl, aside from what she had revealed of herself."
"Well, it was either that or the end of the world. While I'm curious, as well, I won't poke my nose where it doesn't belong. Rumi only piloted to keep Shinji from doing so. Poor guy. Of every sickness in history, leukemia is one of the worst ones to have ever existed."
While the cleanup was going well, Gendo was also pressured by the Committee about the other projects that NERV was put in charge of.
"…It's not just the matter of the Evas," Kiel said to him. "What about the Human Instrumentality Project? To us, this is the only real hope we have in these desperate times."
Gendo stated that the project would proceed as scheduled, that nothing would interfere with its progress, and in the end, all would be well. Kiel, however, expressed some doubt, but would consider the budget requests needed for maintaining the Evas. When the meeting ended, Gendo was furious; the anger was directed more at the little girl than the old men. She had only agreed to deal with only that Angel if he left her nephew alone, unwilling to fight other Angels when, and if, they came.
-x-
"How are you feeling, Shinji?" Rumi asked, waking up and seeing his pale face.
"Like I have cancer," he stated simply.
"Heh-heh," she laughed, knowing it was meant as a joke, and then got out of bed. "Come on, nephew. I wanna go back home now. Back to where we both belong and where we're both loved."
"Mm-hmm," he agreed.
Getting ready (and by 'ready', Shinji wore what he had on the previous day while Rumi had to dress up in a fresher pair of clothes because the LCL-stained ones still reeked of the stench of blood and brush her messy hair, which she had unbraided and wore down), they stepped out of the room and walked down the hall. Just like the room, the entire complex felt soulless, not the kind of place that anyone would or should want to work in, and the stale scent of sterility made it all the more heartless.
"Rumi, do you…think that thing they call 'Evangelion' is…good or bad?" Shinji asked her, wanting her opinion on the purple, horned behemoth.
"Bad," she answered him. "Bad, immoral, dangerous and wrong. It's wrong in every sense of the word. To use children as soldiers to operate it, it goes against moral codes of ethics, misuses and abuses the authority that one has power over. And that jerk was gonna make you pilot it before he even found out about your illness. Although whether or not he knew about it, I don't like him now or tolerate the way he was going to treat you. I'm glad you stopped seeking his praise years ago before I was even around."
"I owe your mother for helping me overcome that problem," he told her as they made it to an elevator. "I'm glad I don't know him; we could never understand each other because he doesn't wanna be understood, so he'll live a life of misery, breathing a beautiful air that is poison to the heart."
When the elevator opened up, they stepped back at the sight of Ritsuko and Misato, whom were surprised to see them up and about.
"And good day to you, ladies," Rumi greeted them, standing her ground.
"What are you two doing up?" Ritsuko asked them.
"Leaving, that's what," Shinji answered her. "Kindly show us the way out or stand aside, please."
Since the women were coming to see them, anyway, they stepped back and let the pair into the elevator, going back up.
"So…how are you two feeling?" Misato asked them.
"Like I'm in a cage," said Shinji.
"Like I'm in a dark kingdom," Rumi added.
"And I take it that you can't be convinced to stay a while longer?" Ritsuko asked them.
"Nope," they answered back.
"We really have to get back home now," Shinji told her.
"My mother gets upset when we don't call her to let her know that we're fine…or as close to fine as we can possibly be." Rumi explained, holding up a cell phone she had. "I can't get any reception in this place at all. Are your cell towers out of order, 'cause I don't recall hitting any last night."
The elevator stopped and the doors opened, revealing Gendo in front of them. But Rumi and Shinji didn't so much as flinch at his presence, already used to his gray aura. The guy was just as soulless as the rest of the facility, his heart a black hole that sucks the very innocence out of people if they're near him for an extended period of time.
Rumi, out of mock respect (since she didn't have any for people like him), performed a curtsy before leading Shinji, who spoke not a word to him, out of the elevator and into the hallway. What she either didn't know or care about was that he turned around to glare at her behind his orange shades. Ritsuko had never seen him have a lack of control over his temper before, and believed that it wouldn't be the last time she'd see it. Misato, on the other hand, was mildly surprised to have seen Gendo glare at Little Rumi, like he'd sworn a vendetta against her, and he didn't even know her apart from what she had revealed of herself as being a genetic savior of sorts for Shinji, as well as having a measure of parental rights on him.
-x-
"They can't be convinced to stay at all?" Ritsuko asked one of the three MAGI technicians, Makoto Hyuga, as they were conversing in Central Dogma. "Are you sure of this?"
"Yeah," he answered. "Not that I can blame them. I mean, the boy is sick and dying slowly, and not knowing much about who his father is appears to be normal for him, as well as living away from him with his other relatives at home."
"And being near him…is abnormal?"
"Yeah. We heard what was said yesterday, and that he wasn't informed until he showed up, and the girl was against her nephew getting into the Eva and facing a creature he might've been unable to walk away from. He looked like he needed to see the doctor every month. Oh, and Ibuki finished looking at the synch-ratio of the girl; it went up a whole seven more points after she kept sending the Angel away from the city and ripped its core out."
Ritsuko was now amazed at this. Not only was Rumi capable of synchronizing with an Eva, but had been able to raise her score by a few points when she fought the Angel. She felt the need to find out more about her to see what she was all about: Who her parents are, what her hobbies are, what school she goes to (if she even goes to school yet), and who her other relatives are. There might've been a way to persuade her to pilot the Eva again if their original choice of a backup/primary pilot for Unit-01 was unusable, but another side of her was less than convinced if the girl had already disapproved of children being used as soldiers in a war they had no right to be involved in. But still…there had to be at least some way of persuading her to side with NERV for the betterment of mankind. Even a small one.
-x-
The city seems so empty, thought Rumi, as she and Shinji walked down the street toward the train station that would allow them to go halfway back home. It's…cold, miserable… Oh, what is that word I'm looking for? Hallow? Isolated? Oh, now I remember… It's soulless. It, like NERV, lacks that warmth that you get from people that show you kindness, love and trust. It lacks that very thing that makes us all actual human beings.
"…Rumi," went Shinji to her, having stopped walking four seconds ago because he heard something. "Do you hear that?"
She stopped and turned around, hearing the sound of an engine running, which made her fear for her nephew's safety. It could've been Gendo, wanting to get back at her for her curtsy and how she shows her concern for Shinji, but when she saw a blue car come out from behind a corner street, her fears eroded halfway, making her exhale some relief.
"Isn't that Ms. Katsuragi's car?" Shinji asked.
"Yeah, it's the only blue one we know of that ever got damaged when we met her yesterday," Rumi answered him, and said car stopped in front of them.
"Hey, you two," Misato greeted them.
"Ma'am," Rumi replied. "I thought you were working. You're supposed to be some captain at that place, aren't you?"
"I am still working, but I just needed to ask you something," she told them. "Do you…need a ride to the train station?"
The kids looked at each other and then back at her, asking her, "Are you for real?"
"Yeah," she told them.
"Nobody put you up to this?" Shinji asked her. "Not Gendo, of all bad guys?"
"No one," she answered him.
They looked at each other again and decided to accept her offer of being driven to the station, which was another ten blocks away.
As they drove down the street now, Rumi had to ask the purple head, out of simple curiosity, why she was helping them.
"You were the last person I had expected to see before we left," she went. "What's the deal?"
"I figured that if I were to get in your good graces, you wouldn't hate me for what Shinji almost had to do for everyone yesterday before we found out how ill he was," Misato revealed to her the reason for doing this for them.
She sighed and explained, "You are in my good graces, Ms. Misato Katsuragi, and I don't actually hate you; I just hate those that would actually use children as soldiers. It's unethical and immoral, though I'm only a partial exception, doing what I did to protect Shinji. Whose idea was it to build monstrosities that required kids to operate them in the first place, and why the secrecy? I mean, if the government knew that a threat of unknown origins was coming, you would've had an ample amount of time to better prepare and find alternative methods instead of relying on something that barely works for more than a few minutes and has the risk of causing a mental strain. I nearly had a bad migraine while in the Eva when that thing grabbed my arm. And why call that thing an Angel? It's not exactly a good designation for something that is more like a demon than a creature of purity and celestial justice. And more importantly, why put a man like Gendo in charge? Surely, there were better people that were more than capable than he probably claims to be, and don't run the gauntlet of having a hidden agenda where the only person that benefits out of something so wrong is the person that wants something to go their way. He can't be trusted with anything he gets his stained hands on, regardless of whether it's to save a city, a country or a whole species. There's a dark pair of designations for people like him; they're called cruel puppet masters and individuals with a god complex with a need to question or go against the law of the Grand Creator himself."
For the first time in a long time, Misato had to agree with Rumi about everything that she had said: Why were these creatures called Angels, who built the Evas the way they were when she saw them, why were only those capable of piloting them born after the Second Impact and there being a need for the secrecy so that the general public didn't know much of anything? And on a personal level, just why were the Angels here? What do they want? What do they really want?
When they arrived at the station, Rumi and Shinji thanked her for the ride, though they'd have to wait for about eight minutes for the train outbound of the city to arrive. So, to pass time, they struck up more on their conversation.
"So…uh, what you said back there…about you being a designer baby… That was all true?" Misato asked Rumi.
"It's all true," she answered back. "Some people can question that as playing God, but for me, it's not an attempt to play God…but an attempt to try and help someone you love as much as possible, even if it means you have to go to some extremes to do so. At least…that's what my mom tells me whenever I need to know something I have a right to know about. And, honestly, I never question what we had to go through…because in the end, I know that there'll be a sign of happiness for those that deserve what they earn and so on."
Shinji then took out his locket again to show Misato the picture of them.
"My grandmother got me this before Rumi was born, but held onto it until she was three," he explained. "She wouldn't give it to me until after we had our picture taken, despite my not wanting to get my picture taken with my head only having a few strands of hair left on it. I only agreed to it when she told me that it would only be for just the both of us. If I had to draw my family tree, it'd have to be comprised of the people I know: My grandmother, cousins, aunts and uncles; people I love…people I trust with my very life. I never knew who my mother was and neither could the others tell me, not even that man, who wanted nothing to do with me when he ditched, dumped and discarded me to the winds and rains of despair. But I owe my happiness to the Rokubungi family…because it was through them that I was saved from my own misery. If I wasn't sick, I'd help them run the family business."
"Oh? What kinda business do they run?" Misato asked.
"Are you familiar with the martial arts?" Rumi asked her. "We teach any that are willing to learn the methods they can use to defend themselves from certain danger, and depending on the way a person fights, we'd often teach them how to use a traditional weapon if we felt it was necessary."
"Like swords and daggers?"
"Exactly," Shinji told her. "You should see my Uncle Bumi; the guy's a pro with his bo staff, or my Aunt Miaka with her sai daggers. Even Rumi here is an expert with her choice of a weapon, though her mother was against it, originally."
"You mean, Rumi uses traditional weapons, as well?"
"Yes, I do," Rumi told her. "I use a pair of hook swords that were made to suit my height. If I had them with me, I'd show you how skilled I am with them. My mom tells me that I'm almost as skilled as her; I just need five more years' worth of practice until I can be declared a master martial artist."
"There's an old saying that we saw off a movie that really is true; that you can never be too rich, too thin or too well-armed. Don't you know that, Misato?"
"No, Shinji, I do not." Misato had spoken, and then they heard the sound of the train approaching. "Wow, time flies."
"Not all the time," Shinji retorted kindly. "I guess this is good-bye, then. Thank you again for the ride."
"You're welcome."
"Well, until we meet again, Ms. Katsuragi," Rumi stated. "Sayōnara."
"Yeah…sayōnara."
The train arrived and they got on, and then left out of Tokyo-3. Misato felt a little disappointed; she had only met them yesterday, and she just knew a little bit of them from them today. At least she was happy that they gave her their home address if she ever felt the need to come see them.
I should probably investigate why the Evas were made the way they were that requires children born after Second Impact to operate them, she thought, returning to her car.
Meanwhile, on the train, Rumi had found an empty compartment for Shinji and her to relax in, setting their bags down and sitting in the seats on both sides of the compartment.
"Glad to be outta that city?" Shinji asked her.
"Glad to be away from NERV," she responded. "Glad to be away from that man?"
"Glad to be away from that man," he responded, chuckling. "Hey, Rumi?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you for saving me last night."
"Don't mention it. I'd do just about anything for you. Anything."
The ride was soothing for the duration of the rest of the trip, putting behind them the dark parts of their experience…while leaving the questions they had on the other things related to it up to discussion; like the condition of that mysterious girl that Gendo almost had pilot the Eva, or what Gendo was doing right this moment now that they were gone.
-x-
"…How was Rei today?" Ritsuko asked Gendo, finding him staring at the immobile presence of Unit-00, kept from causing a further calamity by means of a crucifix-shaped device sticking out of its spine. "Did you see her at the hospital?"
Gendo then responded, "She'll be able to work again by the time we'll be ready to reactivate Unit-00, as well as have the Second Child here with Unit-02."
"So, you've given up on the Third Child, then?" She asked him, but he didn't answer back.
"We may need the Fourth Child," he then said to her instead, but that was going to be difficult, for the potential candidates weren't in any condition to be selected.
Meanwhile, Fuyutsuki, in the Eva cages, stood in front of Unit-01 with a sour look on his face.
"I'm not sure how to make heads or tails with all that has happened," he uttered in front of it. "None of us knew that he was stricken with leukemia. Nothing went the way it was supposed to and now we're treading in deep waters. I don't believe what almost happened was meant to happen, Yui. If he had piloted, he might've died…and everyone else would've suffered, as well. And that girl… Maybe you'd approve of her, if she weren't so young, for being protective of him."
The purple Eva never responded, nor did he expect it to respond; the Evangelions never spoke a word since they either possessed no mouths at all or they were sealed shut to begin with.
"Leukemia; that's the worst condition a young person can be afflicted with, and nobody ever expected him to have it. We were expecting a simple, healthy teen instead of a dying one. No disrespect to anybody, and instead of this scenario that was planned, a little girl, whom we didn't have any insight on, stopped the Angel faster than it arrived."
Unit-01 just stood there in the cage, never doing anything unless there was an Angel attack; what it was required for and more. But there were no Angels currently attacking; there were only periods of pause before the next stage of despair known as atrocity took place.
"Maybe medical science has advanced enough that such a condition as leukemia can be treated permanently," Fuyutsuki then uttered out, and then left the cage.
Unknown to him, however, the left eye of Unit-01, for all of its impossibility, shed a tiny tear. If there was an answer to the reason why it did so, it would be that something it perceived as terrible had hurt it, and it was hurt badly.
To be continued…