Spirit of a Ranger

Of Complexes

Disclaimer: I do not own the classic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor do I own the Japanese-American pop culture phenomenon that is Power Rangers. Those are the respective property of Gainax and Saban.

Summary: Shinji winds up in our (read: the Power Rangers) world, and has to come to accept a universe that actually isn't out to make him suffer needlessly, and he learns to unleash the potential that had always lain dormant within himself.

Rating: T for now, may raise to M later.

Pairing: Shinji/Kat, other stuff in the background.

Key:

"I'm talking to someone."

"If underlined, I'm talking to someone or myself in Japanese."

'And now I am thinking to myself in my native language, be it English, Japanese, or Klingon.'

"And bold, within the story, is reserved for Zordon and/or the Angels, 'cause they're boss."

Note: It's been over ten years since the last time I saw Mighty Morphin', so I don't really recall the Rangers' individual fighting styles. As a result, I'm kind of taking it into my own hands here. Now then, here's to improvising!

Also, the various Power Rangers will be moderately OOC as needed. Mostly with Kat, because again, I HAVEN'T SEEN AN EPISODE WITH HER IN OVER TEN DAMN YEARS! (which, on the inside, makes me cry. just a bit.)


As the two young men left the police station and headed in the general direction of Billy's house, the older boy attempted to explain the facts of life in Angel Grove. Thankfully, however, much of what he told Shinji was common knowledge, so it wouldn't be evidence of his secret identity.

Of course, the very fact that it was common knowledge to begin with made it somewhat awkward to explain.

"An ancient sorceress named Rita Repulsa and her husband, Lord Zedd, want to conquer the Earth for reasons unknown. However, because much of their own power is sealed, they can't just come to Earth personally. Instead, they periodically send a small legion of birdlike monsters called Tengus, which are led by a more powerful, unique monster with its own identity. Even the Tengus are as strong enough that most normal people would get killed fighting one of them alone, but their 'commanders' are even stronger still, to the point that for normal humans to fight them, you'd need a small army. Thankfully, however, we have the Power Rangers to protect us – a team of six heroes who battle against Rita and Zedd's forces to protect the Earth. Sometimes, though, and a bit more often, they merely send Tengus without a commander."

Shinji, having been paying attention, then asked, "Okay, I guess some of that makes sense, and it's not that I'm ungrateful for their protection, but does anyone know why the Power Rangers are strong enough to save the world in the first place?"

Having somewhat expected this, Billy replied, "Well, nobody really knows, and the Power Rangers themselves don't exactly hold press conferences. There are a lot of theories about that. Some say they're aliens. Some say they're humans who are abnormally powerful due to some odd genetic difference, or perhaps exposure to some form of radiation. The current prevailing theory is that they're the reincarnations – or perhaps even resurrected forms – of various heroes of legend. You know, people like King Arthur, Roland, Seigfried, Hercules, Joan of Arc, Maiden Marian… Or do you know about them, since…"

Tilting his head a bit, Shinji replied, "Yes, some of those names sound a little familiar. I'm nowhere near as knowledgable about Western culture as Asuka or Misato, but I have at least heard of King Arthur, Seigfried, Hercules, and Maiden Marian. Um…. They were a legendary Celtic king, a German knight, a Greek demigod, and a British bandit, right?"

Nodding, Billy said, "I'd say that Seigfried was as more of a warrior-king than a mere knight, and Maiden Marian was a bandit to the rich and philanthropist to the poor, but petty details aside… affirmative."

At this point, however, the two stopped immediately as they heard screams in the distance, coming from the direction of the business district. Muttering something under his breath in English, Billy was about to say something when the boys spied an attractive young woman in a light pink shirt and black shorts running towards them, shouting something that Shinji couldn't understand.

As the blonde quickly intercepted the duo, she and Billy rapidly conversed in English, Shinji's name being thrown about once or twice. After a moment or two, Billy handed Kat something before he turned back to Shinji and said, "Shinji, this is my friend Katherine Hillard, or Kat for short. She'll take you the rest of the way to my place – I need to try and contact the Rangers."

Confused a bit, Shinji idly wondered why Billy in particular would know how to contact the Rangers and Kat wouldn't, but kept silent. The Eva pilot was beginning to think of the other boy as a friend, and didn't want to risk ruining it by not doing as he was told.

Kat gave Shinji a smile that, for some reason, noticeably accelerated his heartrate a bit – even more than the rare occasion that Asuka or Rei did – before urgently pulling him along behind her. Pushing himself as hard as possible to keep up with her, Shinji tried very, very, very hard not to watch her perpetually moving rear.

Given the fact that she had to be in front for navigation, and she was maybe half a foot taller than he was, and Shinji's natural tendency to look towards the ground at all times so as not to make eye contact – meaning that it was constantly in his natural line of sight… and, a very small part of his mind noted, the fact that it was nice to look at… made not looking very, very, very difficult. In fact, the only thing harder than looking away was trying not to think about how soft and enticing it looked…

Catching himself with a blush that could melt an entire planet, Shinji finally forced himself to go against hormones and habits at at the same time, tilting his head back so that he was now facing directly forward, in-between her shoulder blades. And, while that area was just as attractive as the rest of her body, it was nowhere nearly as distracting as -

'GOD DAMN IT, why does this always happen to me? It was bad enough back home, but is THIS universe actively trying to make me a pervert too?'

Fortunately, however, the pair made it to their destination without incident, and Shinji thankfully experienced no further distractions as, for the time being, his hormones left him alone.


As Billy Cranston arrived at the scene of the monster attack, he noted that two of his friends had also shown up at the same time. Observing that the threat was merely a half dozen Tengus, the three of them were more than enough as it was.

Nodding to each other, Billy, Aisha, and Tommy all reached into their back pockes and retrieved what appeared to be large belt buckles, with golden engraved coins in the center of them. As one, the three teenagers shouted, "IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!"

"Blue Ranger Power – Wolf!"

"Yellow Ranger Power – Bear!"

"White Ranger Power – Falcon!"

With these invocations, Billy, Aisha, and Tommy raised their Power Coins to the sky, and were bathed in light before transforming into the Blue, Yellow, and White Power Rangers respectively.

Tommy said, "All right guys, let's go ahead and wrap this up! Weapons!"

Nodding, Billy and Aisha shouted "Right!"

Another flash of light, and the three Rangers each now were armed with their weapons of choice – Billy, a spear; Aisha, a pair of daggers; and Tommy, a sabre.

Aisha kept low to the ground, rapidly weaving in and out of two Tengus' attacks, never missing an opportunity to slash at their joints and weak spots with her Power Daggers. Evading and slicing quickly and cleanly, Aisha was the swiftest of the Rangers.

Tommy charged at his opponents and cut them to pieces quickly and brutally. His White Ranger powers were more advanced than the other Rangers', and as a result of that, he was stronger, faster, and tougher than any one of the others. A veritable storm of slashes, his opponents were barely even able to try to block or evade, and could only wait as Tommy's relentless assault withered their pitiful defenses and brought about their doom, roaring his signature battle cries all the way.

Billy separated his Power Lance into two, using them as modified clubs on the head of one Tengu to stun it, before then reversing his grip and stabbing it from both sides of its head. Then, spinning on his heel, the Blue Ranger used the half-trident in one hand to deflect his second opponent's attack, before using his other hand to knock it on its backside. Then, before the Tengu had a chance to get back up, Billy re-combined his weapons into the Power Lance and leapt high into the air. Doing a forward flip that would have left Kimberly impressed, Billy plunged back to earth and impaled the Tengu in the chest with all his strength.

Utterly destroyed, Rita's minions disintegrated into broken chunks of clay, which themselves crumbled into dust.

The three Rangers patting themselves on the back, Tommy said, "All right you guys, that was excellent work. Since that's probably all Rita and Zedd are going to send us today, let's head on back to the juice bar – everything's on me!"

While Aisha enthusiastically agreed, Billy said, "Thanks, but I need to head back home. I met a new friend today, a kid from Japan, and I said I'd help show him around. Right now Kat's taking care of him, but our power morphers only translate one-way, and I'm pretty much the only person in Angel Grove who can speak fluent Japanese."

Nodding, Tommy de-morphed as he said, "All right, that's cool. You plan on bringing him by the Youth Center tomorrow?"

Shrugging, Billy de-morphed as he replied, "I can, but I'd rather get him more used to the town first. He's pretty shy, and doesn't really have much for self-esteem."

Aisha de-morphed as she offered, "Well, a friend of yours is a friend of ours. Can't wait to meet him!"

With these parting words, the three Rangers parted ways – Tommy and Aisha heading to the Youth Center, and Billy walking back towards his humble home.


Shortly after arriving at Billy's house, Kat and Shinji had gone ahead and entered, with Billy having lent Kat his keys.

As they entered and prepared to wait, Kat tried to think of something to pass the time until Billy had finished with the monsters and returned. Whenever Tengu attacked without a leader monster, the Rangers alternated weekly on who would put a stop to them.

She had been just a bit closer than Billy, but as Kat had oh so stupidly forgotten to bring her Power Morpher with her on that day, she'd had to go and find Billy. Granted, it was his, Aisha, and Tommy's shift anyway, but she should've been ready.

Normally, she would've tried to strike up a conversation, but for some reason, the communicators only translated one-way – that is to say, the Pink Ranger could understand any language someone spoke to her with, but her communicator wouldn't allow her to translate what she was saying. Which was extremely frustrating. 'Note to self: see if Billy can fix that problem, and then give a two-way translator to Shinji.'

About the time she found a checkerboard, she heard Shinji say something. "You know, Katherine-san…. you're not like the other girls I've met. I don't know why, but for some reason, you're nice, and kind, and you're not making fun of me, and you're… really beautiful, too."

Turning around to face something, Kat saw that Shinji was looking rather intently at the ground twiddling his fingers, but with quite the blush on his face. Given that she wasn't supposed to be able to understand him, the Pink Ranger couldn't try to give him much of a response at all, much less a positive one. And judging by the way he'd said it, positive response was what he needed more than anything else.

However, she mused, some things carried across languages. So after grabbing the checkerboard, she artfully hid it behind her back and turned to face him. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Kat couldn't help but let out a girlish squee at how adorable he looked at that moment. Still, she'd heard about his type. The girl had to come on to him slowly, gradually, bring him out of his shell or else risk scaring him off.

Wondering for a moment how to snap him back to reality, she decided on the direct approach. Remembering what she'd looked up on the internet about Japanese honorifics, she got his attention simply by using his name. "Shinji-kun."

As the cute young man visibly jumped at the mention of his name, she couldn't help but giggle a bit inside her mind. 'I know he's a bit younger than I am, but he's just so damn handsome and… and… and ADORABLE! I just want to hug him and cuddle and make him feel better! … Oh dear, PLEASE tell me I'm not developing some kind of complex…'

Forcing herself back to the present, Kat observed that Shinji was starting to look a bit concerned. Producing the board from behind her back so that her new acquaintance – she tried very hard not to acknowledge him as a crush – could see it, she put on a kind smile and asked, "Checkers?"

The young boy was frozen for a moment or two in total shock. Of course he knew how to play Checkers, but that wasn't it. This beautiful woman, who so far had been nice and hadn't done anything to overtly tease or make fun of him for being the only person in an American city who didn't speak English… was giving him an honest smile that, unlike any of Asuka's, or Rei's, or even the vast majority of Misato's, reached her eyes. But it wasn't just that, Kat was practically smiling at him with her entire body, as though the idea of spending time with him actually appealed to her. No one had directed that kind of happiness and companionship at him since his mother died. Ever.

So, for the time in ages, he allowed himself to actually hope, and smiled in return as he nodded.

And while Kat was a good enough actress not to let it show in her eyes, she could see the frailty in his smile. A pain and despair in his eyes that showed even through that smile, and to see such a handsome young man with so broken a smile as this broke her heart on some level. Kat was fairly good at reading people, and Shinji in particular was easy to read. And she saw a young man who had, somehow, endured so much pain and loneliness that he had nearly forgotten how to smile.

And right there, as she set up the checkerboard, Katherine Hillard swore to herself that she was going to talk with her fellow Rangers about this, that this nearly broken boy would never be alone again for as long as she had the chance to do something about it, and that when she finds out whoever did this to him, there will be a can of ass-whooping opened. Thoroughly.

Forcing herself back into reality, however, she merely placed the checkers on the appropriate squares, and the pair began to play a game.

Just after Kat and Shinji had finished the game – Kat allowing Shinji to win by the slimmest of margins in an attempt to bolster his confidence, if only a little – Billy had returned with something of a smile as he said in Japanese, "Hey you two, looks like you're having a good time. I was planning to make some dinner soon. I know you just met her, but would you mind it if Kat stayed with us?"

Eyes widening at the prospect that he could be in the presence of this… this… this angel, no, this goddess a bit longer, Shinji immediately stood up and replied, "Of course I don't mind! It's your house anyway, and I still owe you both a lot, so, erm… where's the kitchen? I know I'm not really good at anything, but I'm a half-decent cook."

Kat was interested to know that he could cook – after all, she couldn't exactly ask Shinji about himself until either he got a translator or one of them learned the other's language – but wasn't about to making him do anything he didn't want to. However, after seeing a light of enthusiasm that had only just gotten there in the last few minutes, she decided to just let him cook if he wanted to.

Billy let him and went with Shinji to help identify ingredients, leaving Kat to make the table in an effort to make herself useful. After all, friends help each other with whatever comes up and without hesitation.

After about fifteen minutes, she noticed a smell coming from the kitchen that got her mouth watering. 'If whatever he's cooking tastes half as good as it smells, I might have to kiss him on the spot… DAMNIT, there's that stupid complex again… Note to self: find out Shinji's age. Hopefully, he's at least a bit older than he looks.'

Twenty minutes after that, Shinji and Billy arrived back in the dining room, and Billy said, "All I did was translate which ingredients were which for him, and he took care of the preparation, cooking, everything."

And upon the table sat a salmon dish that was the single most delectable course Kat had ever lain eyes upon. And as the three sat to eat, Kat took a tentative bite of her portion and nearly fainted at the taste of heaven in her mouth. 'DAMN, I swear I almost passed out from how GOOD this is! By God, Shinji, I plan to be your wife! … AFTER I know you're old enough that it won't be weird.'

Dinner continued in silence, and after that, Billy showed Shinji the various bedrooms, and asked him where he'd like to stay.

And, for the umpteenth time that day, Shinji was floored. Time after time, these complete strangers had – from his perspective – done the impossible: they appeared to genuinely like Shinji and, again from his perspective, going beyond the impossible, GAVE HIM A CHOICE.

He was about to take the smallest room, but then Billy said that it was his own room, and that all the other rooms were the same size. Once Shinji was persuaded to try and get some sleep, Billy promised to show him around Angel Grove the next day.

The two teenagers had been so friendly with Shinji that he actually (almost) felt comfortable trusting them. After hearing that the older teenagers were going to meet up with some friends for a while, Shinji normally would've stayed up until Billy came back, but was too exhausted from the repeated shocks that day to even try.

For the first time in at least ten years, the dreams of Shinji Ikari were pleasant.

Once outside, Billy and Kat activated their communicators and contacted the other Rangers.

"Guys, about that new friend of mine? We need to meet up at the Command Center and have a little talk about him."


THE PLOT THICKENS! Is Shinji finally beginning to have a sense of self-worth? Is Kat going shotacon for Shinji (even though it's only a three year difference, if that)? What precisely will the Rangers' conversation about Shinji concern?

FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RAN-

Hang on a sec…

NEXT NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, WITH MORE FANSERVI-

No, wait, that's not right either…

ON THE NEXT CHAPTER OF SPIRIT OF A RANGER!

"A new day is rising!"

Earth-E is the Evangelion universe, and Earth-PR is the Power Rangers world, at least for the purposes of this fanfic. Also, for the purposes of the upcoming omake, our world is Earth-RL (Real Life).

Omake:

'GOD DAMN IT, why does this always happen to me? It was bad enough back home, but is THIS universe actively trying to make me a pervert too?'

A world away, on Earth-RL, countless young men – and a few young women – sat at their computer screens, shouting, "DAMN YOU SHINJI, YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO IGNORE THE FANSERVICE!"