"What is it with blue haired women taking me to abandoned buildings lately?" Shinji mused as Rei took him to an empty subway station after school. "This is the second time in a week."
"This is one of the entrances to NERV." Rei explained as she pulled out a key card and slid it along a slot for a bus pass. The turnstile they were standing in front of unlocked, letting them through, where they walked up to an elevator much like the one Shinji had ridden with Misato the other day. "You will receive your own NERV staff card after we arrive, so you will be able to get to NERV headquarters on your own from now on."
The two rode the elevator down. The view of the GeoFront was just as spectacular as Shinji remembered, though something seemed different.
"Where are all of the buildings at the top?" He asked.
"Tokyo-3 has been fitted with advanced technology to help keep damage to a minimum when Angels attack. One of those features is that the buildings can move underground during an attack. There is no need for that right now, so the buildings are all above ground right now."
"But there were buildings on the surface when Sachiel attacked." Shinji pointed out.
"Sachiel appeared in Tokyo-3 with no warning and damaged some of the city's defense systems before the entire city could be evacuated underground, leading to some of the buildings being unable to descend to safety. Those broken systems are being repaired right now in hopes that they will be working by the time the next Angel attacks."
Shinji looked around a bit more as they continued their decent and noticed something he hadn't seen last time.
"What's that?" He pointed to a ring of light, around four to five feet in diameter, flying in a circle above the giant pyramid that served as NERV's central building.
"I do not know." Rei replied. "It appeared there when you defeated Sachiel. NERV's scientists have so far been unable to determine what it is or what purpose it serves."
The elevator reached the end of its decent and the doors opened. Misato and Dr. Akagi were waiting for them. A small frown creased Misato's lips but quickly turned into a forced-looking smile. Meanwhile, Dr. Akagi had an expression of mild boredom that she didn't bother trying to hide.
"Hi, Shinji!" Miasto greeted the boy. "Welcome back to NERV. Today you'll be starting your training, but first, we'll need to get you a security card. Now, if you would follow me…" She turned around and started walking away. Meanwhile, Rei and Dr. Akagi went off somewhere else.
"I feel like all I've been today is following people." Shinji muttered to himself as he walked after Misato. "That and being punched for something I didn't really do."
Misato had Shinji fill out a form with information such as his name, birthdate and height. Then she took him to get his picture taken and gave him his newly printed NERV security card.
"3rd Pilot." Shinji read off his official title as shown on the card. "Rei mentioned that there was another pilot, but said she was in Germany. Do Angels show up there to?"
"We don't know for sure, yet." Misato answered. "The first one arrived fifteen years ago in Antarctica, and the one you fought was only the second, so we don't know what their pattern is yet. We have her there as a precaution."
"Fifteen years…" Shinji repeated. "Wait, do the Angels have something to do with Second Impact?"
Misato didn't answer, instead leading Shinji back to the locker room where he had changed into his plug suit on his first day in Tokyo-3.
"I'm getting tired of asking questions and not getting answers." Shinji muttered to himself as he tossed his backpack in his locker and got changed while Misato waited outside.
As Shinji pulled on his Plugsuit, he happened to turn around just as Rei entered the room. Her arm was no longer in a sling and the bandage around her eye was gone.
"What are you doing here?" He asked her, startled by her sudden appearance.
"Now that I have recovered from my injuries, I will be resuming my Evangelion training." She explained.
"I understand that part, but I thought this was the boy's locker room."
"There is only one locker room for Evangelion pilots."
"Oh. I guess I'll give you some privacy then." Shinji dashed out of the locker room as fast as he could without actually running. Outside he found not only Misato but also Dr. Akagi waiting for him.
"So what now?" He asked them. "Are we off to Unit-01 again?"
"Yes and no." Misato said. "We'll be using a test entry plug today. It will be hooked up to Unit-01, but you won't be controlling the Eva itself."
After entering the test entry plug, Shinji took a deep breath of the LCL and let it fill his lungs while he swam over to the controls. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to the feeling. Shinji put his hands on the control panel and the inside of the plug lit up like it had before. The screen in front of him showed that he was standing outside in Tokyo-3.
"I thought you said I wasn't going in the Eva." Shinji said.
A smaller screen opened up in the corner of the larger one, showing Misato as she spoke into a headset. Dr. Akagi was sitting next to her.
"This is just a simulation." She explained. "Now, I want you to start by walking to the other end of the city. Move the left joystick gently forward."
Shinji did as he was told and the simulated screen showed that Unit-01 was walking forward at a leisurely pace. He continued to walk forward until he approached a building in his way.
"Now turn the joystick to the side to turn."
Shinji was able to make his way to his destination without any trouble.
"Good, now for the next test."
The image of Tokyo-3 in front of Shinji faded away and was replaced with a nearby hillside, with an orange and white Evangelion materializing across from him. This new Eva was similar in design to Unit-01 apart from the color scheme, though there were some design changes and the head was a completely different shape, with only one eye.
"Unit-00 reporting in." A window popped up on the top left of Shinji's screen. This one showed Rei in an entry plug.
"Good." Misato said. "For this part, we'll be doing some team exercises."
"Unit-00?" Shinji questioned. "I thought Unit-01 was the only Eva we had."
"It was damaged in a training accident not too long ago and is still under repair." Misato explained. "That's actually the reason we needed you to use Unit-01 against the last Angel. It's also why we will now be using these test plugs."
After they finished with their training for the day, Shinji felt he was already starting to get the hang of controlling an Evangelion. He climbed out of the test entry plug as Rei got out of the one next to him. As they both got onto the ground, Misato and Dr. Akagi walked up to them.
"Very good, Shinji!" Misato said. "You're really getting the hang of this faster than we thought you would. Now puke into this bucket."
Shinji stared at Misato in confusion as she held out two metal buckets, one of which Rei took from her.
"It's to get the LCL out of your lungs." She explained as Rei did just that into her bucket.
Shinji took the bucket from her and tried to get all of the LCL he could into it, which was a very weird sensation.
"Well, that's not very pleasant." Shinji commented.
"Unfortunately LCL is required to pilot the Evangelions properly. It helps to make sure you have enough oxygen, and helps increase your synchronization with it." Misato explained.
"Rei used that term this morning. What do you mean when you talk about being synchronized with it?"
"In addition to the physical controls, the Evangelions are affected by a neural connection to their pilots." It was Dr. Akagi's turn to explain. "That's why only a select few such as yourself and Rei are able to do it. Because you have the proper mental frequency to connect with them properly."
Shinji raised his hand up to the bandage on his left eye. "And that would be why I felt the damage from when Unit-01 was stabbed."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Misato said, embarrassed. "We normally have a pain inhibitor to stop that sort of thing from happening, but we didn't think you would need it. How much something like that affects the pilot is based on their synchronization rate. We didn't think you would have a high enough synch rate on your first time in an Eva to even feel pain from it, let alone have your eye damaged like that."
"We were only expecting around a 40% synchronization rate at the highest." Dr. Akagi clarified. "Asuka Sohryu is able to get to around 75% in her training and Rei as able to get up to 80% normally. You reached 90% synchronization, which was completely unheard of at that point."
"I don't even know if I'm going to be able to see from my left eye again!" Shinji yelled in an uncharacteristically loud tone of voice for him.
Misato turned to Dr. Akagi. "You didn't tell him?"
"I haven't had the chance." The doctor replied.
"Tell me what?" Shinji asked.
"The nerves in your eye were to heavily damaged to be repaired. I had to replace it with a cybernetic one. In fact, you can take the bandages off now. Your new eye should be fully functional now.
Shinji tore off his bandages and, sure enough, he could see clearly through his left eye. In fact, his vision seemed even better than it was before.
"As I am technically responsible for the loss of your eye, I made sure to give you the most advanced artificial ocular sensor I could." Dr. Akagi went on. "It also has night vision, x-ray and infrared modes. I'll need to teach you how to use it properly before you can access those features, though."
Shinji just stood there in stunned silence for a moment before Rei snapped him out of it.
"If that is all for the day, then we should get ready to leave."
"Does NERV actually own the town?" Shinji asked Rei after they made their way back to the surface.
"Technically, no." She replied. "NERV owns a number of important buildings throughout Tokyo-3 and is responsible for its defensive systems, but it does not own the city itself."
"Where does NERV even get its funding? It seems like they'd need a lot of money to be able to do everything it seems to do."
"NERV receives its finances through government funding from the United Nations and Japan, as well as military contracts from various countries and private organizations. There are also ongoing negotiations for corporate sponsorships from a variety of businesses across various industries."
As they continued walking to their apartment, Shinji decided that now would probably be a good time to get to know his new roommate better.
"So…" He started to say. "What did you do before becoming a pilot?"
"I have always been a pilot." Rei answered, as emotionless as always.
"I meant before you became an Evangelion pilot." Shinji clarified, confused by that statement.
"I know what you meant."
Shinji wasn't sure what to make of her response, so he decided to take a different line of questioning.
"What do you do for fun?"
"I do whatever I am ordered to. Fun is irrelevant."
This confused Shinji even more, so he decided to go for something more basic next.
"Can you at least tell me what your full name is?"
"I am designated as Rei D-" She suddenly cut herself off. "My name is Rei Ayanami."
Shinji noted the midsentence change in her answer but decided to not let her know he noticed it. She was clearly hiding a lot and it was not his place to pry out information she didn't want him to know. Although this would probably make working with the girl harder, let alone living with her.
"We are here." Rei said as the reached the entrance to their apartment building.
The two entered their shared home and Shinji went into the kitchen to see what they had to eat. Shinji wasn't expecting there to be very much, but he was wrong. The kitchen was actually very well stocked and Shinji decided he was going to make something for dinner. After all, cooking was one of the only things in life Shinji felt that he was actually good at.
"Do you have any allergies or foods you just don't like?" He asked Rei.
"I cannot eat any form of meat." Rei replied.
"Okay then," Shinji muttered to himself as he bent down to one of the cupboards. "Real meat is kind of a luxury these days anyway, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. This should be fun.