In Death's Shadow
Chapter 4
From the Soul
Asuka hadn't joined them for dinner. Well, she had shown up for her food, taken it, and retreated back into her room, leaving Misato alone with Shinji. Twenty minutes in, and neither had said anything to the other. Shinji absently picked at his food, keeping his gaze low.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on with you?"
"No," he replied softly.
"Look, Shinji, I know I'm not your mother," she tried desperately. "But I care about what happens to you. I want to be the person you can talk you."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Is it about earlier?"
A dozen graphs and charts illuminated the Pribnow Box, a different language entirely for those not well versed in physics, psychology, biology, and cybernetics. Misato caught only the briefest of glances into the complex world of the Evangelions. But the one language that everyone understood was the language of bar graphs. The higher the bar, the better the score; the lower the bar, the worse the score. However, one bar in particular was behaving erratically.
"I don't understand," Ritsuko mumbled. "His synch scores haven't improved in some time. In fact, I think they're down from last time. Double check that for me, Maya."
"Yes ma'am. His scores are down, but not significantly – and they have not improved since…they caught the falling Angel. Do you think that has any significance?"
She drummed her fingers on the keys lightly. "No, I don't think so. But still – bring up all records surrounding Shinji on that day, if you would, Maya."
"Yes ma'am."
But Misato wasn't so easily fooled. She saw the way the synchronization graphs jockeyed and vied for the top position. Every time it seemed that Shinji's score surpassed Asuka's, it fell sharply and gradually climbed its way back up. Both Rei and Asuka maintained relatively stable scores; only Shinji's experienced the jumpy rise and fall. Ritsuko and Maya couldn't see it because they didn't believe that any of the children had conscious control over their synch rates, and from the looks of it, they didn't.
Still, Shinji was trying to keep his down.
So she confronted him.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She caught him after he finished changing out of his plugsuit.
"Uh, leaving?"
"Don't get smart with me. I know you're messing with your synch tests."
"That's crazy," he laughed, an empty, cold laugh. "We can't control synchronization with the Eva. Not directly." He tried to brush past her but she shoved him back.
"You're not a very good liar, Shinji. Especially not to me. Why are you doing it?"
"I'm not." There wasn't much conviction behind those two words.
"Is it for Asuka? Are you trying not to make her angry?"
"Of course not. I'm doing the best I can, Misato."
She wasn't sure what did it: the terrible lying, the empty smile he told it with, or what, but suddenly she had him by the collar, off the ground.
"I don't know what your problem is, but this isn't a game! People's lives are at stake here and you're deliberately underperforming because you want some girl to like you? No matter what you think, there's a war going on, and at any moment, we could all die. You and Rei and Asuka are the only things keeping the world from going to hell, so we don't have time for this teenage bullshit!"
He looked at her, ever so slightly, the barest of eye movements, but the look conveyed such a message that Misato let him drop to the ground and backed away. She hardly noticed his departure as she braced herself against the wall, one hand coming up to cover her face and the tears that began to well. She noticed it was shaking.
"He hates me."
"I'm finished." He stood, gathered his plates, and dropped them in the sink. She called his name again, but he ignored her. She thought that just because she wasn't wearing her bomber jacket, she was a different person; that she could pretend she hadn't yelled at him?
"Shinji, I – "
"You don't care," he cut her off. It wasn't quite a snap, but a cold statement of fact. "You just want me to pilot the Eva, that's all. That's all anybody really wants from me."
"No, that's not – "
"It's okay. Really." He left her there at the table, the gentle thud of the door a curt dismissal. He dropped into bed and felt around under his blanket for the black notebook and held to his chest like a talisman of protection. Every few minutes he would flip through the blank pages, pause as if thinking of a name, and close the book again.
Asuka appeared from her room almost immediately, casting her head back and forth. "Is he gone?"
"Yeah…he's shut himself in his room," Misato said gloomily. "And I don't know what to do."
"You should call Kaji," Asuka suggested, barely bothering to disguise her affection for the man almost twice her age. "He'll know what to do."
"I don't think Kaji would know what to do in this matter," the other mumbled. "Although I just might have to. I don't know what to do, Asuka. The last time Shinji was like this, he ran away, but – "
"What! Stupid Shinji actually ran away?" She had never heard that before, and the idea genuinely surprised her; the Third Child didn't strike her as the type with enough confidence to actually run away. Of course it was more like cowardice, but still.
"Keep your voice down."
"What? It's not like he can't hear us anyway." If there was one thing she had learned, it was the Shinji was very good at listening, even if he never gave any indication he was even aware of other people around him.
"That's why I – never mind." Misato downed another beer and slumped in her chair. "Do you have any ideas?"
"About Shinji? As if I care what he does."
"Asuka…"
Something stopped her from walking away. Maybe it was the sheer desperation in Misato's voice. Maybe it was the memory of that nice moment they had shared before Misato's promotion party. Or maybe it was just good, old fashioned kindness. Either way, she found herself saying, "It's probably his imaginary friend."
"His…what?"
"You haven't heard him? He talks to himself when he thinks nobody can hear. But ever since they day of the blackout, I haven't heard him doing it anymore."
"He…talks to himself. Shows how much I pay attention. Will you talk to him for me?"
"Will I what? No! Absolutely not!"
"Please, Asuka; I'll owe you big time."
"That's right you will – hey wait, I didn't agree to – " But it was too late. Misato shoved her down the hall, opened the door, pushed her in, and shut it behind her, leaving Asuka standing awkwardly while Shinji lay curled away from her.
"Alright, idiot, Misato wants me to make you stop being depressed, so let's go." Shinji ignored the command, though finding a mix of humor and agitation in it. "Come on, you can't stay in here forever."
She crossed the distance and shook him, not roughly, but not gently either. "Get up, stupid." She shook him again, harder. "You're starting to piss me off, you know." Another shake. "You think you're the only one who has it hard? I have to pilot the Eva, too you know! I didn't have a mother growing up either, and I've been a solider since I was four, so stop thinking you're so special!"
The final shake was enough to bring spin him partway over, so that he lay on his back, the Death Note clutched to his chest. His eyes found hers and they shared a long look.
"Asuka," he croaked out. "Help me."
A blank expression wavered on her face for a moment, before it deepened into a scowl. "God, you're so pathetic! Stop moping and just get up already. What good does it do you to sit here feeling sorry for yourself? It makes you look stupid and pisses me off. Misato might baby you, but I sure as hell won't." She took a defiant stance and put her hands on her hips. "If you don't get up right now, I'm dragging you out of bed myself."
She waited.
Very slowly, he sat up, still holding onto the Death Note, and slid his feet to the ground.
"There. Was that so hard?" She didn't wait for an answer, turning on her heels and making for the door.
"Asuka…thank you."
When she looked back over her shoulder, he thought maybe he saw a small smile – which disappeared behind his door.
Misato had no idea what Asuka had said or done to Shinji, but whatever it was, it worked. Immediately. He appeared to pick up the dishes he had left and made it through the next breakfast without moping. Perhaps even more remarkable was the noticeable drop in the hostility between Asuka and Shinji. She denied it when asked, of course, but didn't alter the behavior. They continued to argue as they had before, but they were a different kind of argument, the kind of arguments that siblings have – no real hostility, just a halfhearted disagreement that they felt like arguing over.
It would have been heartwarming if he had acted that way towards Misato, as well. But no. Shinji never warmed back up to his guardian, giving her the cold shoulder, speaking icily to her – when he spoke to her at all. He didn't shoot her any dirty looks after the incident, but never smiled at her, adopting a thin-lipped, neutral expression.
"He'll warm up to you again," Ritsuko assured her one night when they went out for drinks. "He just needs time."
"I don't think so, Ritsu," she said through slightly slurred words. "I basically screamed at him to stop being a child. He must hate me." She finished her drink and buried her face in her arm.
"He doesn't hate you."
"You didn't see his eyes. It was so…I've never seen anyone look at me like that. There was such coldness in them, and pain and betrayal. Like he didn't believe I cared about him anymore."
Ritsuko shrugged and swirled her drink – her first one; Misato was on her third. "He's still only a child, Misato. Kids and adults fight; it's sort of nature that we do. I know my mother and I fought when I was a teenager." And I won in the end, she added silently.
"That's the problem." Misato signaled for another drink. "He's only a kid and we're shouldering him with the responsibility of adults." She downed most of it at once. "And look at us: we're not exactly the best role models for them."
Ritsuko couldn't argue with that. "Well, here's to being a lousy role model." They clinked their classes and drank.
"Remind me again what the point of this is?" Asuka's voice sounded over the communications array. Normally, a video screen would appear on the side of the viewing area of the entry plug displaying the other pilots, but considering the circumstances, he assumed that feature had been disabled.
Ritsuko's patient voice answered, "If you remember, Asuka, the object of this test is to determine your synch ratio without the aid of plugsuits."
"I get that, but why do we have to be naked?"
"This is a bare-bones synchronization test – no pun intended. We want to see how much you can synch with your Evas without any external aid."
Asuka grumbled something but otherwise stopped complaining. Shinji didn't like this test either, but for another reason. Being in the Simulation Body felt different than Unit 01 – foreign, uncomfortable. It seemed odd to think, but compared to the Evangelion, the simulation Body felt…hollow.
"Looks good," Ritsuko muttered to those assembled; she had switched the communication array off. She could hear chatter from the pilots, but they couldn't hear her. "Shinji's scores seem to have stabilized since last time."
"His mood's improved, too," Misato supplied. "Ever since Asuka yelled at him, he's been almost back to normal."
"Speaking of Asuka, her scores have actually improved. She's now the top scoring pilot." She switched on the communications. "Congratulations, Asuka. You're scores are the best yet."
"That'll stroke her ego," Misato rolled her eyes.
"Take a look at this, sir." Shigeru Aoba beckoned Kozo Fuyutsuki over and pulled up a video image of a section of the wall.
"Looks like corrosion," Makoto Hyuga extrapolated. "Probably trapped air bubbles."
"Is it serious?"
"Probably not, sir."
"Make sure the problem gets fixed tomorrow," Fuyutsuki replied.
Hyuga passed the information along to Maya, who turned and presented it to Dr. Akagi. "It looks like corrosion in the protein wall. Should we abort the test?"
"We can't just stop this test because of a minor technical issue. We're going forward. Connect the Simulation Bodies to the Evangelions.
Shinji had been sitting in relative silence for almost fifteen minutes before the alarms started going off. The communication channels suddenly filled with a dozen different voices all yelling at the same time. A scream pierced through it all. He knew that scream. It was Rei.
"Contamination!"
"Sever the arm!"
The sound of an Eva's arm being severed sounded too human for comfort. Rei screamed again, but a more sudden yelp of pain. A popup screen showed her clutching her arm and trying not to cry out. Asuka tried to shout over the noise but her voice was lost in the cacophony.
And then everything went quiet.
All the links to the other pilots were severed, displaying only static and emitting a low buzz. No one from the Pribnow Box was responding either. Dim red lights painted everything the color of blood, which made Shinji squirm in his seat, remembering he was nude. Eventually he switched off the pilot feeds, so he sat in quiet darkness.
"I'm alone again."
His breath caught in his throat and he started hyperventilating, taking short, quick gulps of LCL. A few stray air bubbles floated lazily to the top, reminding him of the liquid surrounding him, and in the light, they appeared as drops of blood.
It didn't even smell the same as Unit 01. In there, he felt safe, secure, and warm. It was an odd sensation that he couldn't really explain. Why would he feel so safe inside a giant war machine? No, he thought, shaking his head. It can't be a machine. Even he wasn't that naïve.
Evangelions bled.
Evangelions had eyes.
Evangelions had teeth.
Evangelions weren't machines. They were monsters. So why did he feel so safe inside one?
"Because it keeps me safe."
But here, in the Simulation Bodies, he felt none of that. Here, he felt isolated, a stranger in a strange land. The silence and darkness was oppressive, crushing, and consuming.
He wasn't allowed to brood for long, however. Within forty minutes, the links were reestablished and Ritsuko's voice confirmed that the threat had been contained and eliminated. Asuka's voiced demanded to know whether it was an Angel or not. She received a vague "We aren't sure yet."
"It might be connected to whatever group caused the blackout."
Somehow, Shinji doubted that.
"Rei, are you okay?"
She paused, as if unsure of how to respond, but slowly turned to meet Shinji. "I am alright, why do you ask?"
"Well, back in the Simulation body, they severed the arm. That must have hurt."
Her eyes narrowed and, very slightly, darted to and fro, as if looking around him for someone. "You are…alone."
Self-consciously, he looked back over his shoulder. "Huh?"
"It is nothing." After a moment, she realized that wasn't a sufficient answer. "The pain was only temporary. However, it is always a shock when something like that occurs. I did survive a positron beam from the Fifth Angel, did I not?"
Her face barely changed, and it took Shinji a moment to realize this was Rei's attempt at a joke. He chuckled anyway - or maybe because of the terrible pacing. "You did. You protected me. Thanks again for that."
"Oh, no, it was nothing."
"And you did take the full force of the Ninth Angel's acid…wow, you've really taken a beating in Unit 00."
She blushed and turned away. Why was she embarrassed? "I will endure any pain, as long as I can protect – "
"Rei?"
"Please excuse me." Without turning, she walked off. Shinji called her name but she ignored him, taking corners at random until she had placed sufficient distance between them, and collapsed against a wall.
What is this?
"Rei."
His voice was like a lightning strike that caused her to stand up straight instantly. "Commander Ikari."
He seemed to consider her for a moment, a question formed on his lips, but he let it fade. "You are looking well after the Simulation Body's was severed."
"It was nothing, sir." She felt a blush.
"I'm glad to see you're alright." He laid a hand on her shoulder for a brief instant, and left her there in a few quick steps.
Now she fell back again.
It's the same. The both…make me feel the same inside. Ikari and Ikari. What do I do? I don't know what to do. Who would know what to do? There isn't anyone for me to ask.
"I think everyone at NERV is perverted," Asuka declared later that day. "I mean seriously! What kind of test is that? Making us get naked and synch." Misato had dropped them off and returned to NERV to deal with the paperwork involved in the day's "incident".
Shinji took it upon himself to prepare a dinner that wasn't microwaved. Pen-pen appeared from his room, scratched at his rear end, and waddled over to see what was cooking.
"Nothing fancy," Shinji answered the penguin's unspoken question. "See?"
"Are you talking to yourself again?" she yelled from the other room.
"No, just Pen-pen."
"That's just as bad! He can't understand you."
Shinji looked down at the hot springs penguin that, in turn, looked back up at him. They shared a strange moment of connection before breaking off, Shinji returning to his food and Pen-pen to his penguin things. Yeah, he definitely understands me.
After a few minutes of silence, Asuka appeared in the kitchen, wearing her loose t-shirt and low-cut shorts, and seated herself. When she wasn't piloting, or wearing her school uniform, she dressed sort of like Misato, Shinji observed. He only ever wore his school uniform; it was comfortable. But he thought about Asuka's attire (and felt himself turn red) and realized she hadn't dressed like that until a week or so after moving in.
"I haven't seen Kaji in a while," the redhead lamented. "I wonder what he's doing."
"He's probably working," Shinji replied levelly.
"I know that," she snapped. "But couldn't he make a little time to see me? After all, I did live with him for a few years in Berlin."
Yeah, and he passed you off as soon as he could.
"Misato isn't home that much either, Asuka. I think NERV has them pretty busy, especially with all the Angel attacks recently. And the blackout. And…whatever happened today."
He set the table for them and Pen-pen, who hopped up into the third chair usually reserved for Misato. He seemed disappointed to not have a beer with dinner but Shinji wasn't going to give the penguin any alcohol; somehow, that didn't seem right.
"I suppose," Asuka conceded, shoving food into her mouth.
They passed most of their dinner in silence. Shinji barely ate and ended up passing his leftovers to Asuka and Pen-pen.
"Don't you think today was weird?" he asked finally.
"Do you even listen? That's what I was complaining about earlier."
"No, not that. I mean…the alarms. The incident they won't talk about." His eyes narrowed and felt his grip on the tea glass tighten. "Rei's scream."
"What's got you moody all of a sudden? You're not going to go back to moping around in bed again, are you?" Her efforts to goad him failed, so she sighed. "A little, I guess. You'd think they would have told us what happened while we were in the Simulation Bodies – I think they owed us that much at least."
"I didn't like it in the Simulation Body."
"Don't be a baby. It was just like being in an Eva."
Abruptly, she rose, bumping the table on her way out, and leaving all her dirty dishes for someone else to do. Pen-pen watched her go and turned to Shinji with an inquisitive "Wark?"
"It's alright," he assured the bird. "I'll clean up."
Mountain…Heavy mountain. Things that change over time.
Sky…Blue sky. What your eyes can't see. What your eyes can see.
Sun…A unique object.
Water…Something comforting. Commander Ikari.
Flowers…So many of the same…And so many unneeded.
Sky…Red, red sky. The color red. I hate the color red.
Water flowing.
Blood…The smell of blood. A woman who never bleeds.
Man made from soil.
Man made from man and woman.
City…A human creation.
Eva…A human creation.
What is a human? A creation of God?
I man a human creation?
The things I possess are a life and a soul. I am a vessel for a soul.
Entry plug, the throne for a soul.
Who is this? This is me.
Who am I? What am I? What am I? What am I? What am I?
I am myself. This object is me.
This is the me that can be seen, yet I feel as though I am not myself.
Very strange. I feel as if my body is melting.
I can no longer see myself. My shape is fading.
I feel the presence of someone who is not me.
Is there someone there, beyond this?
Ikari.
I know this person. Major Katsuragi.
Doctor Akagi.
Everyone. Classmates.
The pilot of Unit 02.
Commander Ikari?
Who are you?
Who are you?
Who are you?
"How are you feeling, Rei?"
Rei Ayanami slowly opened her eyes. Through the polarized LCL, she could see the inside of the entry plug. Unit 01's entry plug. "I feel alright, Dr. Akagi."
"That's good to hear. You're synchronization scores don't appear to be significantly affected by the exchange. If necessary, we can have you pilot Unit 01."
"Yes. I would like that." When the comm link was severed, she whispered to herself, "It smells like Ikari…Shinji." Blood flushed her face and a smile eked out across her face.
"Are you alright, Rei?" The comm link returned severely. "You're heart rate jumped and your surface body temperature…" Doctor Akagi trailed off, as if realizing what was happening. She head Major Katsuragi snickering in the background, which only made her blush more.
"It's alright, Rei." That was Katsuragi. "I won't tell anyone." She giggled again and severed the link, leaving Rei to stew in the LCL. Embarrassment. She had never felt it before, not even when Shinji saw her naked at her apartment. It was foreign, but she relished in it anyway.
"I am human."
She waited while they prepped Shinji for a contact experiment in Unit 00. The thought if that made her…not quite uncomfortable, but she squired in her seat anyway. She had always considered Unit 00 to be a part of her, the other half of her person. And now someone else was there, inside that other half of her soul.
Ikari was inside her. She flushed more and realized her breath was shallow and would have been sweating if not for the LCL.
And then she saw it, the thing that no one else could ever see. It descended through the ceiling like a ghost, or a spirit and looked around, apparently unfamiliar with the scene. Then it started heading towards her – towards Unit 01, she realized.
"Hey, you in there, kid?"
The black, winged thing made a short loop around the head. "That is you in there, right?" Not waiting for an answer, it flew forward until it passed through the layers or plate armor, through the synthetic flesh, past the internal organs, until its head appeared within the entry plug, unaffected by the LCL.
Rei let out an involuntary gasp.
"Hehehe, wrong floor." It started to retreat, stopped, and came all the way in. "You…you can see me, can't you?" Rei didn't answer, but her shocked expression said it all. "Yeah, that's right. I remember. You always glanced at me when you thought Shinji wasn't looking. You're the only one, aren't you? So why can you see me? Have you touched the Death Note?"
It wasn't fear Rei felt, although that was the closest approximation her body would produce. No, it was something even more primal. A recognition that reverberated in the very core of her soul, deep where she resided. This was such an ancient and powerful identification that her mind could scarcely withstand the flux that occurred within her.
"I know you", she said with another's voice. "You are one of them, the others. Your mother arrived on this world while Adam and I fought for the right to its future. I've felt your kind among my children, I know that you bring death to the world, and I know what you do with their souls."
The thing – the Shinigami, she knew – waited eagerly, a wide Glasgow smile and eyes alight with the fire of a hundred eager suns. Unit 01 groaned with displeasure. It shifted within its constraints like trying to scratch an itch deep within.
Rei laughed with another's laugh. "But you are as ignorant of your lineage as my children. You don't know what happens to a soul when it's taken by a Shinigami, do you Perhaps ignorance is, as my children say, bliss. Or maybe they were right to eat from the Tree of Knowledge." Her laugh became harsh. "Begone, Shinigami. I will have no dealings with the children of Azrael."
The presence retreated back down with such force that Rei felt ill after regaining control of her body. The Shinigami waited there a moment, chuckling happily. "I'll be seeing you again, Rei Ayanami. After such an interesting visit, how can I resist?"
He disappeared from the entry plug, from Unit 01, and finally from the room. Rei's entire body ached as if she had run a marathon; it hurt to breathe. Tears flowed of their own volition and she was sick in the LCL. Darkness rushed to meet her.
Shinji came awake suddenly, staring, once again, at the ceiling of the medical ward of NERV. Again? What happened this time? There wasn't an Angel…hadn't been for some time now. The last thing he remembered was the compatibility test in Unit 00. But…nothing. It would come back, he knew, but he feared he might not like the memories.
"Man you really took a beating that time, kid, hehehe."
That voice. Shinji bolted up, forgetting the caution he had previously used when dealing with this particular individual. Sure enough, there he was, lounging weightlessly at the foot of the bed, one hand supporting his head, the other scratching his belly.
"What are you doing here, Ryuk?"
"Is that anyway to treat an old friend?"
"You're not my friend," Shinji responded harshly. "You disappeared without a word and now you show up like nothing happened?" Realizing he was talking rather loudly, he shut up and la back down. Ryuk lazily hovered over him.
"I'm not obligated to be with all the time, you know. I'm haunting you, not your babysitter." He picked at something in his ear, inspected it, and flicked it away. It clearly didn't bother the Shinigami that he had been M.I.A. for…Shinji hadn't counted the days. It felt like a long time, but probably wasn't.
"Where were you?" He asked slowly, attempting to fall back into the discreet pattern of speech they had established. All areas of NERV were wired with cameras and he wasn't optimistic enough to think that the medical ward was any exception. Hopefully, they weren't equipped for picking up audio.
"The Shinigami Realm," he said casually. "Had some things to investigate. Didn't get far, though. Shinigami aren't the most talkative types, not anymore."
"Does that include you?"
"You got snippy while I was away, kid. Hehehe, what happened? Your girlfriend dump ya?"
"Doesn't matter." Shinji turned over in his bed, so he faced the far wall. "Since you were watching me, what…what happened during the test?"
Ryuk scratched his head. "Well, I'm not one for technical, but by the time I got there, the people started yelling about numbers and pulses and synchronization. Then the blue robot broke free and started bashing its head against the wall. You don't remember any of that?"
"No. It happened before, when I first got in Unit 01. When I fought the first Angel…I blacked out and Eva took over…it killed the Angel without my help." Shinji curled up tighter. "Leave me alone, Ryuk."
"Whatever, hehehe. In case you're wondering, Asuka's outside your door, and Rei's in the infirmary."
Shinji didn't respond, so Ryuk shrugged and left.
For all its intricacy, NERV was a lot of empty space. Or maybe it just felt that way to Ryuk and he nonchalantly drifted through the complex. When you were confined to two legs, it was easy to get lost, but for Ryuk, walls and ceilings were but a gentle gust of wind he could pass through without much effort. All of NERV was laid out before him, all of its secrets but a hairsbreadth away. But what could a Shinigami do with such knowledge at his fingertips?
Not much, not when he couldn't interact with the mortal realm except for the Death Note holder and anyone else that touched it. So Shinji and Rei. Two people. Shinji was a bore who ignored him, so that just left Rei. Todays' encounter had been very exciting, made even more potent after the long journey to and from the Shinigami King's lair.
But who was this Azrael that she had mentioned? The named rang a bell, somewhere in the distance, obscured by the crashing waves of time. And angel, perhaps? Not the monstrous assailants of Tokyo-3, but in the Judeo-Christian sense.
Death. To the best of his knowledge, Azrael was the personification of death in Western cultures, much like Shinigami in the East. "Looks like I win," he quipped. "Since I'm real and they're not." But still…when Rei spoke it hadn't been her. He remembered that presence, but less active. In fact, he felt it now, radiating from deep within the earth. Terminal Dogma, but the labeling of this base. Supposedly the most secure area in the entire complex – and he had just dropped in. He laughed at the thought of undermining the greatest of humanity's endeavors. It paid to be a supernatural creature sometimes.
He drifted into the cafeteria area, alive with the low hum of a dozen different conversations. Aside from Shinji, humans were a noisy bunch. They never seemed to enjoy being alone, and went to great lengths to prevent this. It was something he had observed ever since the first Australopithecus africanus family huddled under a rock to avoid a rainstorm. It was better to be surrounded by people you hate than not have anyone around you at all.
But above it all, he felt a presence both familiar and alien. Alien because he was not used to feeling it in this realm, and familiar because, well, it was another Shinigami. And she wasn't had to find, either. Like him, she was humanoid, but more of a cross between a skeleton and a mummy. She saw him the same time he saw her.
"I thought I felt another Shinigami in here," she remarked as she flew up to his level. "I should have known it would be you."
"Oh?" Ryuk tilted his head. "Hehehe, have we met?"
"Not physically, but the Shinigami back home talk about you. You stole a Death Note from the Shinigami king and dropped it here on purpose."
"Hehehe, that's impossible. You can't steal from the King of Death. And it's illegal to drop it on purpose."
"I don't think that's true, but whatever. You're Ryuk right?"
"And you?"
"Rem. But look, I'm not here to be friendly. Actually, I'm warning you to stay away from me. I don't care about you or whatever scheme you've got going here, so I want to ignore us as well."
"Aw, but that's no fun." He scanned the crowd for the one person whose name and lifespan he couldn't read. It was a woman. "Interesting, Rem."
"And I don't I have to remind you that you are forbidden from revealing the my Death Note holder's identity to yours."
"No, no, of course not. Still, kind of interesting that we both ended up haunting NERV employees, eh?"
Rem studied him, shook her head, and flew away.
"Looks like I came back at the perfect time, hehehe. All sorts of interesting things are going down on Earth."