Chapter Two: When Old is New

Shinji could still remember the early days after he joined NERV; a small part of him longed to return back to the easy, non-threatening life that he had been taken away from. Now, though, that part of him wanted to be back with his old friends and at his old school with Misato and Asuka waking her up in the morning instead of the blare of a tiny, novelty penguin alarm clock. On the bright side, at least his aunt could cook a decent meal as opposed to his former guardian…though there'd never be a breakfast, good or bad, waiting for him when he awoke anymore. His aunt and uncle were always out of the house long before Shinji had to get up in order to prepare himself for school and today, with the exception of an extra member in the household, was no different than when he had left home so long ago.

His aunt and uncle paid so little attention to him that they didn't even need to make much effort when it came to readjusting to Shinji's presence. His room had been relatively untouched since his departure, with the only large difference now being the extra bed put in his room, where his new roommate, Rei, slept. Regrettably, there weren't any extra rooms in the already rather cramped home, which had to clear out an old storeroom when Shinji first arrived as a child. Shinji was more than prepared to find a couch to sleep on until a better solution could be found until he realized that there wasn't any solution. Unless Shinji was prepared to sleep on a couch indefinitely until more floor space was miraculously created or learn carpentry in order to create said floor space, he had to adapt to his new arrangements. The only thing Shinji had going for him was the knowledge that if he could survive living in close quarters with Asuka, then he shouldn't have much trouble with a passive girl like Rei.

Groggily, Shinji clicked the alarm off for his clock, in hopes of getting a bit more rest before he actually needed to get up. Shinji learned long ago setting his alarm to about fifteen minutes before he really needed to get up gave him enough time to lay in bed half-awake without risking being late for school. As he lay awake in his bed for a few minutes, Shinji's mind wandered to the inevitability of his first day back at his old school, which was only about an hour and a half away. Would the people that he once called peers still remember him? Would he still be able to do well considering how long he had been absent from schools as a result of the Angels? For the briefest of moments, he actually wondered if Rei was as nervous as he was…before dismissing that idea altogether. Rei, after all, didn't do 'nervous'…or much else for that matter.

When he finally rolled over, there was an unusual sight on the other side of the room – Rei's bed was empty. Rei wasn't the kind of person to get up so easily, especially without waking Shinji up at the same time. Shinji figured it was about time to join the waking world too, so the still half-awake child stumbled out of bed and onwards to the bathroom. Still in the habit of quick showers due to Asuka's habits of rushing him along, Shinji was at least able to enjoy his morning shower without the worry of being interrupted. For the second time that morning, Shinji pondered what awaited him at school that day. For the most part, there was only one person on his mind that he wondered about: an old friend of his from before he went to NERV. His name was Kyo Musashi…and while they might not have been the closest of friends, Kyo had served as a life preserver when Shinji went through some of his more turbulent times in life. Like Shinji, Kyo was a somewhat reclusive fellow who spent most of his time with his laptop computer or sitting in a corner with a comic book. Unlike Shinji, though, Kyo was a much more moderate young man – well-adjusted, patient, and moderately intelligent, but with a cynical tongue and sarcasm like you couldn't imagine. He was the sort of person one would turn to when they needed help with homework or life and he never turned you down. Almost the poster boy for the 'nice guy' club – an honour he despised more than enjoyed. According to cynical Kyo, 'nice guys' were people you got to know for what you can get from them, not because of any redeeming quality about them. Personally, Shinji just felt Kyo was far too cynical for his own good. They had maintained some contact when Shinji was in Tokyo-3, but not to a great extent.

Once Shinji had finished his shower it was back to his room to get into uniform. Thankfully the dress code at his old school was so general and vague there was no actual need for him to change his dress attire to accommodate for it. Even Rei, with her regular attire, would have little need to update her wardrobe. Speaking of Rei, there was still no sign of Rei on his way back to his bedroom. Perhaps if he had been paying more attention to the silhouette on his bedroom door rather than glancing around to see if he could see any sign of his roommate, he would've known that she was standing on the other side of the door he was about to open. Somehow, she didn't notice him either, or at least didn't care, for when the door slid open both parties took the first, hasty step forward and collided in the middle of the doorway.

Shinji, unfortunately, was the one to lose his balance after the impact; he stumbled backwards for a brief moment before toppling over completely. Somewhere out there in the universe, beyond the physical boundaries of human perception, karma was laughing his ass off at poor Shinji, for the impact was strong enough that it loosened the towel around his scrawny waste enough that gravity was strong enough to free it from his body. As a result, Shinji was on the ground on one side of the doorway, Rei standing on the other, and Shinji's towel laying smack dab between the two of them.

Rei stared at him for a brief moment before simply reaching down and handing him back his towel. Then, without even a word spoken to him, she stepped past him and left him to go get back to his routine. "Only fair I suppose," Shinji muttered under his breath as he hurried back into him.

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If the events back in his home had occurred when Shinji barely knew Rei, he would've spent most of their walk to the school apologizing for what had transpired but thankfully he knew enough about Rei to know that if she ever felt offended by something, she would let the other person know immediately. Rei was not somebody to bottle up annoyances and she typically expressed what was on her mind. In a way, Shinji admired that she was able to be so open about what she thought and felt, free of any fears or social inhibitions that Shinji typically felt.

The school that Shinji went to was far older and smaller than the one in Tokyo-3. Housing middle to high school students, it had a modest population of roughly nine hundred students and was situated in a quiet part of the residential area. From his home, it was a brief ten-minute walk and the weather made it a pleasant one. As they drew closer to the school, they could see other clusters of their fellow students on their way to school. Some of the faces he vaguely recognized and while he could put names to some of them, he had no pressing urge to rejoin his former peers. A high concrete fence surrounded the modest school with a pair of old-style cast-iron gates guarding the entranceway to the schoolyards. There was only one person he was interested in finding in these crowds and, if he knew Kyo, he knew exactly where to find him.

Despite having been at the home of Shinji's guardians for a couple of weeks, Rei had spent most of her time getting everything organized for her new life as a civilian and had yet to go to resume school. Unlike the NERV facilities, there wasn't any map publicly available so she was forced to tail Shinji until she knew her way around. Getting lost was not something Rei desired – knowing her surroundings was something that helped her keep a control on things. "This is the main entrance," Shinji explained as they walked through the large set of metal double doors that lead into a large foyer. "Sometimes it'll be referred to as the north entrance. There's also a side, or east, entrance, and a back, or south, entrance. There're also two other, smaller entrances but they're mostly used as exits. The administration office is through those doors and these two hallways lead to the middle-school areas. We'll usually go through the east entrance, which leads right into the high school section. The library is directly above the office, which you can access by the stairs next to the main entrance." Rei's eyes followed Shinji's directions every step of the way. "Our classroom is on the upper floor but first I need to stop by the library."

Rei had no objection and followed along as Shinji headed up the stairs. The library was, like every other part of the school, more down to earth than the exceptional high-tech one at Shinji's old school in Tokyo-3; shelves of books surrounded the central lounge area where a large number of chairs were set up. On the far wall was a row of public computers, all of which were occupied by various students. Scanning the library quickly, Shinji quickly found the spectacled, black-haired young man that he was looking for. He sat in one of the lounge chair, typing away at his laptop computer ad oblivious to the familiar face closing in on him.

"Knew I'd find you here Kyo," Shinji finally spoke up once he was only about foot behind him.

At first, the young lad was startled by the voice of his old friend but when his momentary skepticism faded, he greeted his friend with a bright smile. "Jesus Christ, now here's a face I never expected to see again," he remarked as he set his laptop down on the table next to him. "It's good to see you again Shinji." Kyo was slightly taller than Shinji but just as scrawny, with thin-framed glasses over his dark brown eyes and a smug smirk on his face as the two exchanged a friendly handshake.

"You too Kyo. I honestly didn't expect to be back here either so I'm equally surprised."

"If I had an opportunity to get the hell out of this school, I'd hold onto it like a life raft. What brings you back here anyways…come to think of it, you never really mentioned why you left in the first place." Kyo leaned slightly to the side with a deeply puzzled look on his face as he looked to Rei, who stood close by Shinji. "And who's this?" His tone portrayed a piqued interest, though primarily because he had so rarely seen Shinji accompanied by girls his age.

"Oh right. This is Rei Ayanami, she's a friend of mine from Tokyo-3. Rei, this is Kyo Musashi, an old friend of mine," Shinji promptly introduced the two, which Kyo greeted with a polite bow of his head.

"I am impressed Shinji. I thought I had met all of your friend," Kyo commented with extreme emphasis on the singular 'friend' part.

"Very funny…" Shinji remarked.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Ayanami," Kyo greeted verbally as he addressed Rei. "So which class are you two in?"

"Class 221," Rei answered.

"Same."

"Ah that's a shame," Kyo sighed with a slow shake of his head. "I'm 155, guess I won't be seeing you two during most of the day." Before another word could be spoken, one of the bells rang loudly through the intercom system. "First bell, always when things get interesting. Well, I will see you guys at lunch hour. I'll save you some seats at the island, okay?" Kyo didn't spend much time on long good-byes as he folded up his laptop and hurried on his way to class.

"The island?" Rei asked, a little puzzled.

"You'll understand when you see it."

The first half of the day went without a hitch for Shinji and Rei. Despite being new students, they didn't receive much attention in their class of twenty-two other students. Since Shinji was a returning student, most of the people recognized him and thus didn't pay much more attention to him, while Rei was rarely one to draw attention. Their teacher was far more interesting than their old teacher back in Tokyo-3, with a much larger range of lecture topics aside from the near-destruction of humanity almost 15 years back. Rei took her usual place near the back of the classroom next to the window, which she would gaze out on occasion, while Shinji sat a bit closer to the front. Despite not having been in school for a while due to his duties to NERV, the two students had no trouble fitting back into the life of regular students. Life went back to normal for Shinji, though he didn't quite have the apathy as he did back in the old days, while Rei considered it just another part of her 'duty' – her next mission. It would take time but Rei would eventually accept this civilian life as her new norm.

Before they knew it, lunchtime had arrived and the class emptied out into the cafeteria and schoolyard for a brief forty-five minutes of freedom with their friends. Inside the cafeteria, amidst a sea of cafeteria tables and students, Kyo was easy to spot as he sat at one of the only empty tables in the cafeteria, hence 'the island'. For the first time in many months, Kyo had some real company for lunch. Rei and Shinji sat across from Kyo, who had arrived only moments earlier, at the rectangular table.

"You're still smiling so either your teacher was amazing or there's something different about you. Since, Nanasawa teachers class 221 I know it's not the first one," Kyo greeted as his lips curled into that infamous smug smirk of his. "We've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Since when have you cared about what happened in my life?" Shinji remarked as he took a sip from his soda.

"Since when have you cared about me caring…or anything at all?"

Touché.

"It's a long story," Shinji sighed lightly.

"The NERV thing, right? You'll have to explain it to me."

"How'd you-"

"My father dealt a lot with NERV…and he really needed to figure out a better combination for the safe where he kept all his paperwork in. I'm assuming she's the same Ayanami mentioned in the files." Resourcefulness was one of Kyo's finer qualities…and deception being one of the lesser qualities. When he wanted to know something, he almost always found the answer save for heavily classified material.

"Well, it'll take more than the 45 minutes we have."

"Well how about we have a get-together after school?"

"Sounds fair, when?"

"Well I have an essay to finish tonight and judo tomorrow night. How's Friday?"

"Shouldn't be a problem."

"How about you Rei?"

"I can make it." It wasn't like Rei had anything else to do – no more late night synch tests or appointments with Dr. Akagi. There was no NERV anymore to occupy her time anymore. That, in the end, would be the biggest obstacle to overcome in her new civilian life.

"So…um, how are your parents?" Shinji asked, trying to do the 'catching up on old times' thing that Kyo was advocating.

"Separated, thankfully in a very peaceful manner. The Colonel was stationed in Tokyo-3 as part of the UN reconstruction team."

"You mean Colonel Daisuke Musashi is your father?" Rei stepped into the conversation now.

"I wasn't aware his reputation had spread beyond the walls of the UN community," Kyo remarked, confirming Rei's inquiry. His father was a prominent member of the UN, usually leading any military operations undertaken by them. A former officer in the Japanese military, Colonel Musashi moved into the international community shortly after the formation of NERV and was part of the military observers to NERV.

"He had a few questions for me after the debriefing," Rei explained. "We only spoke for a few minutes."

"The Colonel has always enjoyed a hands-on approach to his job, that's probably why he insisted on going to Tokyo-3 to continue his duty. The time-occupation of his job had always stressed their marriage and the move to Tokyo-3 was the final brick on an already sinking ship," Kyo's voice was hinted with the usual tones of cynicism and annoyance. Kyo didn't blame his father for agreeing to the separation; his father had spent so much time away from home it was merely putting a formality to an already done-deal.

"So you're with your mother now?" Shinji asked, trying to bring the conversation away from a subject that Kyo wasn't too fond of. It was a sort of common ground for them, though Kyo had a much better relationship with his father compared to Shinji's relationship with his late father.

"Yes and I assume you're back with the aunt and uncle?"

"Correct."

"And if this isn't too intrusive, what brings you to this ambitionless community?" Kyo asked, addressing Rei this time.

"I had no place to go, so I was sent here to live with Shinji and his guardians," Rei explained. Kyo was visibly surprised as he glanced between the two several times over.

"Shinji…you've got a whole, damn lot to explain to me on Friday," Kyo finally responded with a light chuckle at the end.

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The rest of the day went without incident, all the way into the evening with Shinji half-asleep at his desk over his homework. Rei was sitting quietly on her bed with one of her textbooks open on her lap, reading the recent chapters assigned as to stay atop of her work. Back when she was with NERV her homework regularly got neglected because of her duties and long nights in the testing facilities. Now though, she had more hours than she knew what to do with.

Shinji was desperately trying to keep himself awake over his trigonometry homework but the numbers and figures kept blurring the more he tried to focus on them. Part of him wished that Asuka were here to help him with this, as math, being a universal language, was a snap for her. However, she was so far away that Shinji didn't even know if she'd be of much help. Before he knew it, though, the world around had faded into darkness and his mind drifted into a pleasant slumber.

"Ikari…" a strange, echoing voice called out in the darkness of his mind.

"Wha…who's there?"

"My time here is limited so I will be brief," the voice continued, now having taken form before him. Despite the endless darkness around him, Shinji was standing before a being, not too unlike Nanashi, that glowed with a brilliant golden aura. Something that looked like a cape extended from its back in all directions, spreading the aura out and making it difficult to tell how large this being actually was. Its voice was far more echoing, commanding, and stern than Nanashi's but Shinji had a feeling there was some relation between the two for they were obviously not the same. "You have been fed the fruit of a poisoned tree Shinji Ikari. The benevolent being that came to you is not what he says he is nor are his intentions what he makes them out to be. I cannot undo this reality that he has created but I can stop him from undoing everything that you have suffered so hard to achieve. When the time comes, and you will know when it is, you must return to Tokyo-3 – there you can find the Thirteenth. You must not allow any of the Seven to reach him…or anyone else that seeks to exploit what he possesses. Remember what I have said because you cannot repeat this to anyone, especially to him. Have faith in your strength and keep your friends close. You must protect the Thirteenth…or everything that ever was and ever will be shall be undone!"

As quickly as the dream had come, Shinji was awake at his desk, slightly dazed and confused at what he had witnessed. "What the hell was that?" Shinji thought, feeling his heart racing in his chest. "What have I gotten myself into?"