"You know, in a way, you're quite lucky to be paired with me. I mean, I hate it, but you're lucky."

This was, of course, the second phase of hanging around Asuka. The first stage was insults (many of which were quite brutal; I somehow survived them all), and we had moved on to the stage where she would stroke her ego for another hour at least.

It was the day of the test of courage, about eight o'clock at night. The graveyard was quite a bit bigger than I had anticipated, but the scares (if you could call them that) were quite lackluster. Asuka and I could at least find common ground in that neither of us was having a good time.

Asuka continued to talk. "Really, I pity the other students. Did you hear that Hikari got stuck with Toji? Between you and me, I think there might have been some jiggery-pokery going on with the partnerships."

"Wouldn't it be Hikari doing the pokery, considering she's the class rep, and not Toji?" I asked.

I thought I'd poked a hole that would deflate her a bit, but instead she went down a different track. "Exactly, my dear Watson! Maybe you aren't hopeless." She gave me a look. "Nah, you're hopeless."

I raised an eyebrow. "What's hopeless is this test of courage."

"I'd agree with you, but it would make me look bad."

"Hey, do you think you could cut it out?"

"Cut what out?" Asuka looked genuinely confused.

"The condescension. Do you even hear what comes out of your mouth? If people knew half the things you say to me, no one would want to be around you."

"...Whatever."

Silence. I wondered if I should apologize. I wondered if she was thinking the same thing. Neither of us said anything.

"We're getting pretty close to that church," I said lamely.

"Yeah," she said lamely. I could tell, though, that she was still much angrier at me than I was at her.

We went in the church. The chandeliers all looked like jellyfish. Probably Kensuke's work. Neither of us really cared; we were too withdrawn into ourselves.

All of a sudden, Asuka spoke. "You really piss me off, Shinji. You're spineless, cowardly, and nothing but sarcastic. And you're unlikable to boot."

"...Why did you say that?"

"Clearing the air." By the time she said that, she was already back to regular old Asuka.

I thought for a second. "I can't stand you either, for the record. You've got nothing nice to say to anyone but your own ego, and…"

Someone else was talking. Someone that wasn't Asuka. Somewhere behind us, or maybe to the side of us, someone was saying, "They'll never see it coming. Plus, they're loud enough that they won't hear us coming, either!"

"Asuka, do you hear something?" I asked.

"Weren't you telling me you can't stand me?" Asuka asked, a little confused, a little angry. "Or are you just proving my point? You don't have the balls to speak your mind, huh? This is exactly what I was talking about!"

"No! That's not it!-"

"You wanna prove it? Say it."

At that moment, I found out who was talking. The person was actually two people, one on top of the other, wearing a sheet. Toji and Kensuke, posing as a ghost. Asuka, however, couldn't see a thing. They'd snuck up on her.

An arm-Toji's or Kensuke's? It didn't matter-grabbed Asuka's shoulder. She didn't jump. She didn't scream. She just turned around. Actually, I was worried for Kensuke more than Asuka at that point.

But then Asuka went paler than the sheet in front of her, and screamed.

Was Asuka...afraid of ghosts?

Without warning, the "ghost" tilted sharply forward towards Asuka and me, then veered back and to the side, trying to get a hold on its balance. Asuka was knocked off-balance herself. I was too far away to catch her, but her head was headed straight for one of the pews.

Mercifully, her head missed it by an inch and she was able to catch herself. Toji and Kensuke were able to balance themselves out, too, but if I could help it, they wouldn't stay that way for long.

"What on earth are you doing, Toji?! Trying to kill someone?" I barked, not really knowing what I was saying, only that I was seeing red.

I threw my fist into the ghost. It probably hit Kensuke, because Kensuke yelped and fell off Toji's shoulders. Uncovered, Toji looked sheepish; Kensuke, like a guilty puppy.

"Shinji, man, I had no idea-we were just trying to spread spooks-" Toji protested.

I looked over at Asuka. She was already on her feet. I thought, I'd want to leave if I were her. So, I snapped a quick "Be more careful" at Toji and grabbed Asuka's arm, leading her outside.

She jumped a little at my touch-not fully over it, huh?-but softened when she realized it was me. We stood outside the church, with the doors closed. The rest of our class was spread out in the graveyard, but no one was very close to us.

"Are...you alright, Soryu?" I asked after a few seconds of fresh air.

"Thanks…" she said simply. "You're...not a bad guy, idiot."

I think she meant for it to sting. But the way she said "idiot," it felt like a compliment. It was a compliment.


"You were watching?" I asked exasperatedly. It was the next afternoon, at the agency, that awful building that eats at my life like a leech. Speaking of annoying creatures...

"We had Kaworu on the church roof. We didn't know all that was going to happen, though...it was quite interesting," Kaji beamed.

"Watching for what?-"

"-you may ask," Misato interrupted. "We were keeping tabs on general troublemakers. We have to keep an eye out for our beloved Shinji, or else no one could command your Eva."

I looked at Pen-Pen. He had nothing to say about this, except for a penguin noise in support of Misato.

"As it happens, we did get a leg up on the G.I. agency," Kaworu offered.

"We did?" I asked.

"You formed a special bond with Asuka, it seems," Kaworu said, raising an eyebrow and smiling. "Just like the two of us have."

"When you put it that way, it makes me want to burn some bonds," I deadpanned. Kaworu looked hurt.


Two days passed. Asuka didn't speak to me for a while. Actually, she didn't speak to anyone much except for Rei and Hikari. On that second day, three days total after the incident, I found a note in my lunchbox telling me to come to school early on the first school day of the next week.

I complied. Asuka was sitting on my desk. No one else was around, even Hikari, which was surprising, as she was the class rep. ("Track practice," Asuka explained.)

"Hi, Soryu," I said, a little awkwardly.

"Idiot Shinji," she replied indifferently.

"I'm here," I stammered dumbly. She ignored my dumbness.

"Just know that nothing has changed between us," she explained. "We're still rival detectives. If you steal a case from me, you can expect the throttling of a lifetime from me. Got it?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," I shot back coolly. I thought, This is an Asuka I'm used to. But she's also different. A little more open. And she's still not saying "idiot" with any vitriol. It's endearing.

We were like that for a few minutes. No heartfelt confessions, no kisses, just her sitting on my desk, my rival detective. But also...human, this time.

Toji and Kensuke would later enter the room, at which point, Asuka would act like I was the bubonic plague personified. She would talk to Hikari like nothing was happening, and discuss with Rei detective matters. I would have my life ruined by one of Kensuke's schemes (probably), and Toji would manipulate me into doing his homework.

But for now, Asuka and I were together. I had to say, I was quite content.

I could be chalant like this.