New Perspective Evangelion

If I was doing this today, this would be the start of part 2.

I don't own Evangelion someone else does.
A lot of stuff may be copyrighted
I don't own it either
It's just a harmless World Domination Plot in secret code anyway.

Arse...

I...I

"So Noriko-chan, how's it going?" The digitised Dr. Akagi asked.

She was speaking Japanese, though slowly for my benefit.

"I am...em...okay." I answered stutteringly, pausing while I figured out which honorific to use, what was it one of the lieutenants had called her?

"Em...Akagi-dono," I tried.

"Good." she responded after a few nerve racking moments. "Is training going well?"

It took a few moments for me to translate into my mind. Then another short second for me to work out my response, then to work out how to answer back.

"Yes," I said brightly. "But...em...difficult it be."

Although I was sure I sounded like a Japanese dubbed Yoda, I couldn't help but get some small sense of accomplishment from that small conversation.

"It is," Akagi switched to my native language, to my great relief. "We need to bring you up to the same level as the other Children in a short space of time."

"I know," I said. "Hard work though."

I glanced down at my plugsuited body, the yellow moulded suit nice and comfortable, if it a little tight around the waist. I was still though, feeling the effects of that morning's physical training, my legs feeling stiff and heavy, as if made of solid lead.

At least the LCL was soothingly warm, like a hot bath. All it needed was something for the smell and it'd be perfect.

"Someone once said Effort and Guts bear fruit." the Doctor said. "Prepare yourself, we're about to commence the activation sequence. Keep your mind open and remember your breathing exercises."

"Roger."

I closed my eyes, and listened as the countdown begun. My third time going through a full activation test and most of my fears had melted away.

Just breath in through the nose, hold, and slowly back out through the mouth.

I could feel Unit 03's presence slowly creeping into my own awareness, the borderline once again approaching. I grasped for the EVA with my mind, trying to allow it to enter.

I could feel it filtering through, gently overriding my own senses, an electric liquid sensation flowing over my body as the power levels rose.

Point 03 and I closed my eyes, a brilliant technicolor light show sparking across the inside of my eyelids.

Point 02 and gentle apprehension clenched my chest, that maybe this time might be when she went berserk.

Point 01 and I held my breath, but not before noting the location of the ejection handles.

Borderline and exhale as my mind was exposed to what felt like a naked vacuum of sensation, my awareness swallowed whole by this great empty void, my conscious feeling like it could fill every inch of the biomechanical titans body.

I gasped for breath, my body tensing for a moment before it released, the sudden rush of power quickly tailing away to a gentle, soothing flow of feeling.

Projected onto the inside of my own eyes for a moment, was the ghosted image of the cage wall, seemingly mere feet in front of me, almost like I could reach out with my own arm and touch it.

And then, I opened them and stared at it through my own digital displays, more distant now, but perfectly sharp and in focus. Green wire frame icons flashed to life, comm's windows and system's status displays announcing themselves with a stream of irritating electronic beeps.

And then, silence again, except for the distant whirr of circulation pumps and the creaking of warming metal.

Giving everything a quick glance, nothing stood out as being out of place, no flashing read lights or blaring alarms.

"Evangelion Unit 03 Active and stable," I reported in Japanese, though I was reading the words from my plugsuit sleeve.

Control; "Acknowledged Unit 03. Test procedure commencing seventeen hundred thirty three hours."

It wasn't Akagi's voice that answered, but one that was younger and, if such a thing was possible, sounded cuter.

Maya Ibuki, she had to be. Recognising faces wasn't always possible, simply because real people don't have large animé eyes and pointy hair.. I might've even passed the brunette in a corridor somewhere and not noticed, though, looking at the image of the young woman on the comm's window beside me, it wasn't too hard to see the resemblance.

Still, it only seemed to work after I'd recognised who they were.

"Akagi-Sempai," I heard her calling for the Doctor, before asking a question I couldn't understand, followed by an equally incomprehensible answer.

Technically, I mused privately, I am roughly the same age as her.

I smiled.

Control; "Noriko, concentrate on your left leg." The voice of Doctor Akagi directed, before I'd had the chance to get to far down that path. "Can you feel anything out of place?"

Back to the test then.

Focus on my leg.

What do I feel?

Heavy, what might be the armour hanging off the flesh. Stiff, from the two hours of PT I'd been put through earlier. Buzzing, almost like someone was playing my calf like a violin, a ghost of a taught bow being drawn across the back of my leg. It was a strange sensation, like anything related.

"It feels weird." I answered, searching for a better way to describe it. "It's like when..em.. it's like just before you get pins and needles. It's buzzing."

Control; "Standby."

A moments pause and the feeling shifted, attenuating itself into a dry scrabbed itching that demanded I try and scratch, though the Plugsuit itself made that a little difficult.

And then a cooling fluid numbness washing it away.

Control; "Any different?"

"It's gone." I answered.

Control; "Acknowledged. Continue test. Time remaining; Two hours, fifty-seven minutes and thirty seconds."

And then, I was left alone in the entry plug, the circulation pumps whining beneath my seat. A quick glance over my shoulder showed the synchro-graph, hovering at just above twenty, And then I closed my eyes and allowed my mind to drift away on the tide of nerve pulses.

It was comfortable in that entry plug, and peaceful.

I felt like I could quite happily have sat there the rest of my life, enjoying the warm embrace of the LCL.

A small digital watch moulded into my wrist on the other hand, told me I had two hours and forty-five minutes left.

But, all good things had to come to end, and the sync test was one of them. Feeling somewhat proud of myself for having broken twenty percent, albeit by the slimmest of margins, I was able to change out of my plugsuit in relative peace since nobody had decided to join me in the locker rooms.

Alone, I could think I was beginning to adjust to my biological circumstances. A redhead who'd taken pity on me certainly helped. I still wondered at her motives, but I was smart enough not to spit it back in her face.

It was her who'd advised me to use the 'Women Only' carriage on the subway. While I still felt like a Trekkie at a Star Wars convention when surrounded by others of the female persuasion, Asuka'd left me under no doubt that to do otherwise would be extremely dangerous to my sanity.

Walking the short distance from the train station up to the apartment felt as if I was climbing Everest. At best, I might've weighed between four and five stone, but a days hard training meant it felt more like fifty.

I was glad to reach the steel door to the Katsuragi apartment though. It may not have been home, but it was still a welcome sight.

"I'm home," I announced my arrival as I'd been taught, slipping small feet from white tennis shoes.

"Welcome home," Shinji answered.

"Oh hey Noriko," Asuka chimed in, distracted by a textbook.

The two Pilots were sat at the kitchen table, schoolbooks piled in what seemed a haphazard manner between them.

"What...em... what...being done?" I questioned in broken Japanese.

Where'd my phrasebook get to anyway?

"Homework," came a synchronised reply, weighted down by partial fractions and verb conjugations.

I smiled a deep self satisfied smile. No ability to speak Japanese meant no school for me and, glancing at Asuka's uniform, no need to wear a skirt.

"Well, it is good for some," Asuka huffed to herself, before turning and grinning. "Of course, some' have their procedure's manuals to study, as well as the locations of every armament building, power point and launch catapult, and their Japanese language lessons." she finished in English.

I groaned and shuffled my feet, conceding as I realised that my Bavarian room-mate had won the point before I'd even realised it was up for grabs.

And the worst thing was, it was true. Forty-five armoury's, thirty-two power points and twenty-seven launch catapults, and I had to memorise the location of each and every one of them.

And I was hungry.

"Dinner...ready?" I questioned.

"Yes," Shinji answered, followed by some sentence featuring Misato's name as he gestured towards the microwave. It sounded like a warning, but I was too hungry to care.

What seemed to be pork ramen with some brown stuff slopped across the top of it sat waiting in a cardboard bucket. It looked about as appetising as something that had been picked up off the floor of a late night bus, but hunger was proving itself a better sauce than anything by Heinz.

A ding from the microwave announced that my evening repast had been fully reheated. Dismissing what sounded like another warning from the Pilot of Unit 01, I studied the overcooked pot of noodles for a moment.

It smelled like curry.

It smelled better than anything I'd ever had in a restaurant

Just sniffing the mixture of ginger, curry spices and onion made my eyes water and my nose tingle teasingly.

Hot and spicy, just the way I liked it.

"Misato cooked that," Asuka said a I broke my chopsticks. "It's classified by the UN as a chemical weapon."

"I like a bit of curry." I licked my lips, wafting steaming pot through the air, Asuka shrinking back from it like Superman from kryptonite as I passed her.

"Well, It's your digestive system."

"Curry, curry, curry." I grinned. "I love it."

Shinji coughed, redfaced as he buried himself in his arms, snickering privately to himself at some joke, to which myself and Asuka remained oblivious.

"Gomen Nasai," he tried to apologise between muffled laughs, hiding from Asuka behind a textbook.

The pair of us just looked at each other, wondering what was so funny.

"Baka," Sorhyu muttered, and left it at that.

An empty snarl from my stomach though, reminded me that I had more important things to do.

Dropping onto the couch behind me, I looked forward to savouring my meal, no matter how simple it might be. Although aware of the reputation of Misato's cooking, I was pretty certain it's assumed ability to strip paint was an exaggeration.

I wasn't aware I had an audience as I dug my chopsticks into the steaming brown heap, getting a purchase on...something. Tentatively, I brought a noodle wrapped chunk of meat to my mouth, inhaling it's burning scent.

And then, it's volcanic fury erupted on my palate.

Aside from the meat being overcooked to the point of being usable as a tyre for a light truck, it wasn't too bad. It hit the spot nicely anyway, being hot enough to clear my sinuses, and satisfyingly filling.

Asuka and Shinji both gave me a strange, funny look as if to say "How could you manage to eat that?"

I guess you just had to have a taste for it.

Or be starving hungry.

"I'm home," Another weary voice broke the peace.

I looked up from a Japanese grammar book to see Misato propping herself against the doorway, slipping out of her shoes.

"Welcome home," I answered.

"Good to be," she sighed, hanging her coat beside the door, fetching herself a fresh can of beer before dropping on the couch beside me, cracking the can, and knocking half of it back in one resolute gulp.

"Worth waiting for," she smacked her lips.

I eyed her jealously. The worst thing about being fourteen was being below the legal age. Then, I forced myself to look at the television, before Misato caught me looking.

Then, slowly, out of the corner of my eyes almost, I looked at her, then down at myself.

Misato wore a pair of cargo shorts and purple tank top, leaving little to the imagination. Looking at my own jeans and t-shirt combination, my figure comfortably hidden by loose fabric, I was beginning to wonder if I had to wear clothes like her.

Or Asuka for that matter.

The mere thought of wearing anything remotely revealing or feminine encouraged me to hide myself further beneath a jacket, or beneath the sheets of my own bed. But weirdly, of all the things I'd worn, I was most comfortable wearing a form fitting plugsuit.

Gruffly shifting my supporting underwear into a more comfortable position. Maybe because everything is held nice and steady.

I really was beginning to hate Misty May.

Looking at the future Major's ample breasts, I wanted to ask her how she dealt with them, desperate for any possible advice that could help me deal with myself. But, she'd probably just laugh at me, and there was no way I'd mention it to Asuka.

I just forced myself to watch the television, and what I guessed was a documentary about IJN capital ships of World War 2.

Shinji asked a polite question, answered quickly and somewhat scornfully by Asuka, as if the answer should've been obvious to everyone, while Pen-Pen waddled up, the penguin's master lifting him onto her lap, holding him close to her chest.

Then, she offered the almost empty can, the genetically engineered bird quarking cheerfully as he took the golden can between his beak, and knocked back the entirety of the remains.

I chuckled at the sight, the bird a perfect mirror for Misato.

"Kawaii," I smiled.

My guardian's answer though, I didn't understand.

What never ceased to amaze me, was how normal everyone was, Shinji especially. I'd been half expecting a ball of angst huddling in the corner, wilting like a delicate flower beneath the gentlest touch, but, as another argument between himself and Asuka boiled up, he stood his ground like any normal teenager. Sitting there that night, among those normal people, I was beginning to think that perhaps, I could be comfortable and content living with them. But, I was tired, and I had training the next day, so I went to bed.

I...I

Sunday morning was the end of my first full week living in the Katsuragi apartment.

It was also a day off from training for me, and the only day off from school for Asuka and Shinji. Quietly passing from my shared room, through the kitchen/living room, I yawned and stretched my stiff limbs.

"Good morning Noriko," Shinji greeted.

"Morning Shinji," I smiled back, scratching myself underarm.

He was cooking miso soup, I recognised the smell. As much as I was, technically, Japanese, nothing about a traditional Japanese breakfast really appealed to me. I'd tried some miso during the week and pretty much hated it.

Dig out some cereal or toast then, something filling anyway.

But, first things first.

One demand my female body made was to to be kept clean. It was also one demand I definitely enjoyed keeping. It may have been some weird psychosexual thing, the sort of thing that would give Freud headaches, or it may just have been some instinct hardwired into the female brain. Either way, it was good to be clean. I picked my favourite towel from the hot press, and sleepily, I slid the door open, to be met with a rather surprised German redhead, standing with one foot in the shower, the other on the tiled floor, a towel slung over the showerscreen.

I gulped, my mind taking a moment to catch up with the fact that she was naked. Not actually anything I hadn't seen before, but still.

"Hey, I'm in here!" she barked

"Sorry," I blurted out.

We stared at each other for a second.

"I'm in here first, Fourth, remember? Now close the door!"

"Right, sorry,"

Blushing privately, I slid it shut again, the lightweight door not even having a lock fitted.

Dropping down at the table, I waited for breakfast, while the shower began to hum away to itself. I'd just have to wait for her to finish. I was wearing nothing but a long t-shirt, sitting opposite Shinji as we both ate.

I could smell myself as I ate, a hot night's sweat on my nightwear. I was sure Shinji could too, the way he'd look up at me, then down at his own bowl, then back up at me.

"Noriko," he started, breaking eye contact for an instant, before forcing himself to look at me. "Why did...EVA. "

"Um...I don't understand," I repeated a stock phrase I'd been taught.

"Why do you pilot EVA?" Shinji simplified it.

The question hung there in my mind. I translated it and retranslated it to make sure I understood it. And then, I had to figure out an answer. Why did I agree to Pilot an Evangelion?

Because...And...

Fill in the blanks.

Okay.

I wanted to be a Pilot, I was sure of that. I was sure I wanted to be one. But still, when Misato first offered me the chance, why did I just jump up and say yes?

The simple answer was because I'd seen Neon Genesis Evangelion on television, and thought it would be cool to actually pilot a giant robot of my own. That was it, but I could hardly tell Shinji that, could I?

Compared to what I knew about the blue eyed boy, still waiting patiently for my answer, it sounded almost stupid.

And still, he waited.

Say something inoffensive, until I can come up with a better answer. Just don't say something stupid.

"I like EVA."

Shinji nodded.

"But...," he thought, while I telepathically asked him to drop it. "Why?"

I still didn't know how to answer that.

"Good morning guys," Misato answered for me.

Thank you.

"Morning," I smiled, Shinji parroting.

The fridge was opened, and, according to routine, the Captain picked herself a golden can, cracked it open, and downed it all in one great gulp.

"Good stuff!" she announced, followed by a burp.

And still, the shower hummed.

Why was Asuka taking so long?

Misato and Shinji discussed the day's agenda, while I stared at the shower door, waiting for the redhead to be finished.

Eventually, maybe three quarters of an hour after I'd first burst in on her, she appeared wearing her yellow sundress.

She was fully made up, not just cleaned, but polished to a shine. Her hair had a conditioned sheen to it, perfectly tied up beneath her two red clips, with no split ends, and perfectly symmetrical. Her dress was pressed and pleated, with not a single stain, spot, or stitch out of place that I could see. The amount of effort she'd put into her appearance was evident for all to see, and she wanted all to see it.

Asuka was awesome.

A quick, giddy thrill flashed through my thoughts as I wondered if I might be able to look like that sometime. Maybe with a bit of work of course, some make-up, some new clothes perhaps, but it would be possible.

Ew...No... not if I had a choice anyway.

At least, I hoped not if I had the choice.

Shinji, on the other hand, had used my moments indecision to his decisive advantage, and had bolted to the bathroom, the door slipping shut with bladder beating thud.

"So Asuka, when is Kaji coming?" Misato questioned.

"Two hours," The German girl announced.

Another question from our guardian, maybe asking where they were going, and I lost the conversation. I tried to pick bits out of it, but there wasn't much else I could get beyond that they were going somewhere together in two hours.

That was until she realised she'd forgotten something in the bathroom and went to get it.

Asuka gently pushed the door open, and for a moment, there was silence as whatever her eyes were seeing took it's time to enter her brain, where it stewed for a few heartbeats until she finally understood what she was seeing. And then.

Asuka screamed.

It was a scream of such utter disgusted intensity it sent Pen-Pen running scared to his fridge and started a harmonic rattle of fear in the balcony windows. It was so loud, I wasn't sure for a second if she was still going, or if she'd stopped and my ears were still ringing.

"Pervert!" the cry went up. "Masturbating because you'd seen me all dressed up."

Shinji's response was a muffled and rather stunned "What?"

Sohryu growled, then grinned as the battle was joined. I looked to Misato, wondering if I'd heard that right. Judging by the way she was snickering childishly into her beercan muttering about 'little Shin-chan' to herself, I'd gotten it right on the button.

"I saw your hand on it!" Asuka announced with all the zeal of a good prosecuting attorney.

"What, I don't, " The third child sputtered, searching for his mental balance. "You were looking at me in the bathroom?"

One point to Shinji as his assailant took a step back, Asuka baulking as she scanned for a comeback. I was just trying to fill in the blanks of my understanding as best I could.

I seemed to be getting most of it right.

"Why would I want to look at it, it's tiny anyway..."

I winced for Shinji's sake, the Second Child's verbal missiles hitting the worst possible place. Then I snorted laughing, struggling to hold it in before joining Misato in her snickering game.

I heard a cough, followed by a searching stutter, Unit 01's Pilot desperately searching for an answer.

"Why would I want to masturbate over you, you're ugly anyway..."

A calm of such infinite depth followed, a heavy silence waiting for a storm that would rival the intensity of the bastard lovechild of the worst Pacific Typhoon and the wildest Atlantic Hurricane.

Asuka's response was little more than a trilingual shriek of redfaced fury that I couldn't hope to have been able to follow. I was much to busy keeping myself from spitting chewed toast as I laughed. Quickly, the battle between the two Pilot's reached a crescendo of fury, no quarter being asked or being given.

As the pressure in my bladder increased, I was forced to ask myself if Shinji would ever be leaving that bathroom, whether he'd try and run the Sohryu blockade, or just spend the rest of his life is his tiled prison.

I looked to Misato, who was wearing a foxish grin as she swirled her second beer.

"Normal," she said to me, before she downed the remnants of the can.

Clearly she was enjoying the battle. I groaned a little, instinct demanding I cross my legs to defeat the building pressure.

She ruffled her hair for a moment, looking to the battle, then stretching herself with a yawn.

"Asuka," she said, chewing air, her grin growing wider. "Why are you still looking at him?"

Silence, as the question hung heavily in the air. Slowly, Asuka began to turn a bright shade of pink.

"I wasn't!" she spat, before rattling off something in German that didn't sound too nice at all.

"Ladies shouldn't speak like that," Katsuragi remarked, before another crushing attack in Asuka's native tongue.

The target growled, tossed her hair and stormed back to the room she shared with me. Asuka slammed the door hard behind her, hard enough that it bounced back almost half way. It closed again with a thud and I heard her drop onto her bed inside with a defeated rustle of sheets.

"Shinji," Misato's attention shifted like a tracking gun turret, "Please wash your hands when you're finished."

"I wasn't!" the boy whined. "I don't do that, it's disgusting."

"Sure you don't."

There was a loud, submissive groan, followed quickly by the flush of a toilet and the running of a tap. Whether he had or hadn't been was moot now, and I think he knew it. The accusation was out there, there was no real way to fight in any more. He just slipped back into the former closet that was his bedroom and gently slid the door shut.

I didn't take any chances.

I made sure I was next into that bathroom, jumping over a desperately waddling penguin before skidding on a lonely sock and tumbling through the half open door, struggling to stay somewhat upright.

After quickly relieving the pressure, I stood under the hot falling water, thinking about the little scene I had just witnessed. It took all my willpower not to just break out laughing again, and inhale shampoo suds in the process.

There was something comforting about it though, but I didn't know what.

It felt natural somehow.

But my body still had tasks it demanded of me.

All EVA pilots were required to keep their bodies clean shaven, because of the plugsuit, so it wasn't that big of a deal. I kind of felt sorry for Shinji though.

That couldn't be comfortable for him.

Slipping a dry towel around my figure, I padded my way still dripping to my shared bedroom, where Asuka had her face buried in some clothes catalogue. There was a tense air in the room, and I felt as if I might be stepping onto to plate of a bear trap. I braced myself for the jaws to swing shut.

"She always sides with him," Sohryu snarled. "He's pathetic. All he has to do is whine and she runs to his side, pretending she can be his mother."

I hummed to show I was listening, more concerned with finding clean underwear.

"Of course, he's nothing but a disgusting little pervert, jerking himself off over the toilet when he thought nobody could catch him."

I wanted to come to Shinji's defence, somehow. I felt I had to stand up for my former gender. But still, Asuka was pissed, and it wasn't because she'd caught Shinji...in the act. At least, I didn't think it was.

But, she was supposed to be my friend.

Maybe I should take her side then?

"You told me, they're all like that," I ventured.

"Right. Every single one of them. A herd of H-game playing, skirt chasing Neanderthals who's prime ambition in life is to stick it into anything that has the remotest sense of a pulse and some things that don't."

Ouch. I felt a Quisling to my kind, either because of that, or my search for clean panties.

"Of course," she continued. "That's just the boys. Real men on the other hand, that's different..."

"Huh?"

"Not like that housebroken idiot. A real man who flirts with danger by day, and can be suave, smooth and sophisticated by night."

I grinned. I think I got what she meant.

"Like James Bond? "

"Yes, but not fictional," she said. "You haven't met Kaji yet, have you?"

I knew who Kaji was, what he did, what he will do, and how he died...em will die.

"No," I answered, struggling the hide my smile. "Who is he?"

"Oh he's awesome. He was supposed to be my guardian here, but I got stuck in this madhouse instead with an alcoholic, a mutant and a perverted idiot. But, he's still taking me out to Tokyo-2 to go shopping today. He promised before we came, and a real man keeps his promises."

"Uh-huh." I nodded, realising my underwear search would be fruitless. "Shinji done the washing yet?"

"Not likely," she snorted. "He's lazy too. He always waits until the basket is full, instead of doing things weekly like normal people. I always run out of clothes"

"Yeah," I sighed, "Not good when you have only six sets of underwear."

It was beginning to seem like like I'd be spending the day in my nightwear. Not that I'd really mind. The Lord did say that Sunday should be a day of rest after all, and I'd planned to make myself acquainted with Japanese television anyway. What was the difference between doing it nightwear, or normal wear?

My pyjama's would be warmer, that's what.

"Borrow some of mine then."

I baulked, wanting to refuse, especially seeing the pink items she'd just picked up out of her bedside drawer. She tossed them to me, the undergarments looping through the air. I reached up and plucked them from the air.

And then stopped.

I'd caught them in my left hand.

Weird.

I was normally right handed.

"What? They'll still fit, you are slightly smaller than me after all,"

And then I remembered what I was holding. I didn't shudder, I just grimaced slightly and accepted them with a polite "Thank You." There was no real use fighting it in any rate.

And what did she mean by smaller? I was at least a year older than her, if I'd remembered correctly. No way a Thirteen year old girl would have a figure like Asuka did, unless Second Impact had changed a few things. It wasn't like she was much bigger, only an inch or two at the most.

I was taller by about the same, only about an inch or so behind Misato.

Might just have been that I was a little underfed, since I'd been in a hospital.

Another thing to feel self conscious about anyway.

At least the pink things sort of fitted, and nobody would really have to see them, but still, one thing was uncomfortably obvious to me.

"I need to get some more clothes."

"Come to Tokyo-2 then," Asuka cut into my thoughts. "You can come with me as long as you don't get between me and Kaji."

I hated shopping trips, I really did. I hated being used as a combination carthorse/mobile bank by my girlfriend and her friends. Just ten more minutes would quickly drag into one hour, then two, sitting, waiting, watching as they fretted over colour patterns and whether a 'smaller size would fit better after the diet'.

Then would come the immortal 'Does my bum look big in this?'

She always demanded the truth from me, but when that truth became dangerous to my health I figured it was best for her to remain oblivious to certain facts. That didn't change the fact that I needed something to wear other than borrowed pink...things.

And that decided once and for all what I was to going to be doing for the rest of the day. There was something exciting about it too. What was Tokyo-2 like? Would it be like Tokyo-3, a planned city with wide streets and tall, antiseptically uniform buildings?

Or would it be more like the images of Old Tokyo I'd seen in a hundred films and animé, only without Godzilla or the Neo-Nerima-2 wrecking crew?

"I'll come Asuka," I said. "It sounds like fun."

"Great, we can get you into some proper clothes there as well, instead of those cheap style-less things you wear."

She was talking about the blue jeans I was slipping into. I knew what she meant by 'proper' clothes too, and it was enough to make me reconsider joining her on her day trip.

"I like these clothes." I said defensively. "They're comfortable."

"They're so unflattering," the fashion expert argued. "You can't even see your figure."

I groaned. I didn't want anyone to see my figure.

"Comfort is more important I think."

"Yeah, but in weather like this, jeans are too heavy and clammy anyway. A nice skirt, or a pair shorts are much comfier, and they'll look better too."

It wasn't really that sort of comfort I had in mind, but there was no way I could really answer without giving away my secret. Besides, just because I paid for it, didn't mean I'd have to wear it.

Another victory for Asuka then.

"Perhaps," I deflected, before changing the subject. "Anyway, how did you beat the Sixth Angel again?"

"Oh that," she took the bait. "That was easy, despite the fact that I only had a minute's power left in the batteries at the start, and I had to take the Third Child into the plug for a ride, and he couldn't even think in German, so I had to do everything in Japanese."

The best way to get along with Asuka, and to avoid unpleasant subjects, was to simply encourage her to tell you more about herself. It allowed me to get myself dressed in relative peace. I didn't even have to pretend I was listening. It was fascinating to hear about the Angel battle, and try to match it to the events I'd seen on television.

I knew I'd be getting a rather one sided account of it, but I wasn't too bothered by that fact. A quick Q & A session about EVA combat was a satisfying way to pass a few hours, my German comrade growing steadily more restless as she waited for her date to arrive.

Then, sometime just before twelve the bell rang.

That was shortly followed by a redhaired flash bolting for the door, squealing "Kajiiiiiii!"

The door slid open and Asuka quickly wrapped herself around the man standing there, burying herself into his waiting arms. At least, I think that's what she thought she was doing. The blue shirted man looked up at the ceiling above him, as if to beseech aid from some invisible deity.

"It's so good of you to come Kaji!" Sorhyu beamed. "It's so nice to see you again,"

"Nice to see you too Asuka," he said, struggling to push the limpet-like teenager off him. "Is Katsuragi here?"

Asuka stepped back, pouting and looking almost betrayed, the knowledge that he had eyes for some other woman clearly not sitting too well with her.

"She's in the shower," Asuka said, her tone sour. "She'll be a long time, so can we just go now?"

"No Asuka," the unshaven man answered, followed by what I guessed was some way of saying that there was plenty of time.

There was a protest from the Second Child, something to do with 'Four hours'. Again, Kaji responded with a deadpan "Plenty of time," before he noticed me, standing in the bedroom door. I was hoping he wouldn't.

"You must be the Fourth Child," he said warmly, the unshaven man wearing a smile that just made me uncomfortable. Either that, or a jealous pair of glacier blue eyes glaring straight through me. "It's a pleasure to meet you miss."

I hated being called miss. I hated the way he seemed to tower over me. I hated the way he was looking at me, with sleep starved eyes that contrasted a warm smile. He seemed to be staring right through me somehow, at a point on the wall behind me.

"I speak poor Japanese," I responded quietly, praying he'd just smile and nod, and leave me alone.

"I speak good English," he answered warmly.

Well, that was just Brilliant, wasn't it?.

The one person I didn't want to talk to, was pretty much the one person I could.

Just another way for the world to screw with my head.

"That's nice," I said, not sounding too thrilled.

"The Fourth Child is coming with us Kaji, she needs to get some new clothes too, if that's okay with you of course," Sohryu came to my rescue.

Again, the older man rolled his eyes. It would be a long day for him. It was then that I remembered something important, something I would need if I were to actually pay for anything.

Money.

I didn't have any.

And where did Asuka get hers anyway?

I...I

Dartz