Disclaimer: See previous chapters

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"Let's...Let's go back home, okay?"

"Home..." Shinji repeated and he slowly returned the smile.

"Sure..."


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Chapter 6

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Mystery Girl Ayanami

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"You know, come to think of it, that's the first time I've seen you smile."

It was the next day and Misato and Shinji were just coming into NERV HQ. Misato was recalling to Shinji of yesterday's events after the train station, in particular his reunion with his new friends, Touji in particular. The taller boy had said that he didn't want to owe people and for saving him, Touji would let Shinji get even with him by offering a free punch.

But Shinji had declined, replying that he rather have Touji owe him instead. This resulted in Touji shouting and hitting him on the forehead. But it was a light tap and it became clear to Misato that the two of them were now becoming friends.

Especially when she saw Shinji smiling throughout the ordeal...

"You're pretty cute." she grinned, bending down closer to him. "Cuter than you'd think anyway."

Shinji's face reddened a bit. "Stop teasing me, okay?"

Misato made ready to continue despite his protest when she saw his attention diverted forward. Looking up, she saw what caught his attention. Walking down from the other end of the hallway was none other than the First Child. Her pale form was no longer covered in bandages and both her crimson eyes revealed.

"Rei Ayanami."

Looking up at him, the albino girl said simply. "So, you didn't quit."

"Oh yeah. I came back."

Rei didn't react and walked on past him. "I could have fought the Radham alone if I had to."

Shinji just watched as she walked away and he asked his guardian. "Do you think she's mad at me?"

"Nah. She's like that with everyone." Offhandedly, she remarked. "Now Rei on the other hand... Nobody's ever seen her smile."

"Oh. Huh?"

He almost missed it, but then Shinji caught sight of Rei stopping halfway down the hallway in front of, of all people, Commander Ikari. But to Shinji's surprise, he saw the usually cold expression on his father's face soften in the presence of the First Child.

"Rei. How are you feeling?"

"Better, sir." she replied softly. "Don't worry."

Gendo nodded. "I see. That's good. You'll do well in the field."

"Yes, sir."

Shinji took in this scene all the while, baffled by his father's change in attitude in regard to Rei. But as the two parted directions, Gendo turned to see his watching son and his cold expression returned. Lowering his eyes, Shinji turned away and moved to catch up to Misato, all the while wondering about what he had seen.

'Who are you, Ayanami Rei...?'


"Shinjiiii..."

Later that day at the Katsuragi (now Katsuragi/Ikari) residence, Shinji looked up from the table to see Misato calling him as she exited her room. Shinji frowned at he state of dress, or rather, lack of it seeing as how she was wearing very little clothing that clung somewhat tightly to her form. Normally, this would cause the average guy to have a heart attack, but for Shinji, it seemed to have the opposite effect as this had become a common occurrence.

"You're still walking around like that, Misato?"

Misato returned the frown. "Hey, it's hot, okay? Anyway, take this." She hand him a plastic card with his photo on it. "It's your security card."

"Oh, thanks." Shinji said absently.

"Take this one too." Misato added, handing him a second card. Shinji blinked as he looked at it and saw the image of Rei Ayanami on it.

"It's Rei's new card. Ritsuko says she forgot to give it to her." she explained. "Sorry. But could you drop it off at her place tomorrow before you go to HQ?"

"Huh? Me?"

Misato blinked, wondering questioning about his reaction. A sly grin soon crept up her face and she bent closer to the boy. "Say, why are you all flustered?"

Shinji nearly jumped back at the accusation. "What?"

"You're blushing. Oh, wait a minute..." Her grin turned wicked and she turned away, looking at him from the side." Shinji, you little devil! You and Rei, huh? So that's why."

"T-That's not it at all!" Shinji exclaimed. "It's just that I don't know her very well! Stop teasing me!"

Much to his dismay, she didn't stop for a good hour...


The next day, Shinji made his way to the address where Rei was supposed to live at. As he traveled, his thoughts were once again on the mysterious First Child. Though he met her a couple of times, he barely knew anything about her. Even more so was the fact that she never really spoke to anyone as far as he could tell, aside from the Commander.

But it was Misato's note that she had never smiled had piqued his curiosity the most. Just the day before at school, he had attempted to see if he could bring out a reaction from her (at the expense of and much to Touji's embarrassment). But while the rest of the student laughed and exclaimed in various ways, Rei's face remained neutral until she ultimately turned away. Not so much as a sign of amusement, or even annoyance.

Nothing...

Dispelling his thoughts for the moment, he looked at the address where Rei was supposed to reside. But upon looking back up, he found that the building looked like a complete wreck. And the tale worsened when he entered the building. There wasn't any sign that it was even kept under maintenance.

'Ayanami lives alone in a place like this?' he wondered as he soon made his way to her apartment door, labeled 402. He pressed the buzzer, but it didn't sound. Seeing that it was broken, he knocked on the door. No response. Experimentally, he put his hand on the knob and turned and was surprised to find it was unlocked. As the door opened, he peered into the apartment.

"Um...Hello? Uh...it's Ikari." When there was no response, he slowly made his way inside. "Ayanami? Is anybody home?"

There was still no response as Shinji made his way into the main room, upon which he silently gasped at what he saw. Her living quarters was almost as messy as the outside. Remnants of meals and other filthy things littered around the place and bloodied bandages lay scattered across the dirty floor. And aside from the mess, the apartment itself seemed to be dull and dreary, with only a bed and a drawer.

On the drawer itself however, something caught his eye. Moving over, he spotted a pair of partly damaged glasses. This caused him to frown in thought, as he never remembered seeing Rei even wearing glasses. But that was until he saw an inscription on the side of them that read 'G. Ikari'. Shinji let out another silent gasp.

'They're Dad's...?'

At that moment, his tekkaset flashed. It was brief, but enough to know of the presence that was behind him. He turned around, expecting to see the First Child and wondering why she didn't answer him when he entered. However, that and all other thought fled from his mind when he saw her state of dress, or rather, undress as she stared at him wearing a damp towel over her shoulders and...nothing else.

"Ahhhhhh!"

With a scream, Shinji dropped the glasses on the floor and covered his face. Apologies sputtered out of the boy's mouth as he kept his eyes covered, but Rei's attention was only on the glasses that he had dropped. Silently, she moved over and bent down to pick them up, all the while with Shinji still apologizing, his face flushed in deep crimson.

"I'm sorry! I didn't see anything!""

Shinji soon bolts for the door, face covered all the while. Because of this, he didn't see the rising Rei in front of him or the leg that was in his path. As a result, both Shinji and Rei tripped to the floor. Shinji managed to catch himself before he fell completely, but with his face uncovered, he saw just how he landed.

With Rei underneath and passively staring up at him...

It took a moment after their gazes locked for Shinji to quickly rush up off of her, looking away and holding his chest as though it might burst. This was far from what he expected when he was sent here and even further from what he could stand.

"I...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to..."

Rei didn't seem to be disturbed at all by this encounter and calmly rose up from the floor. "What can I do for you?"

Blinking, Shinji turned his head to see her placing the fallen glasses into a case. However, as she was still naked, he turned back and tried to remember why he was there at all. "Uh...Uh...What was it again...the card! Your card. It's been renewed so Misato..." As he pulled out the card, he continued to ramble on, trying to apologize again. "She asked me to drop it off. I- I rang the doorbell, but it looks like its broken... Your door was unlo..."

"Leave the card over there."

Looking again, he saw her pointing to bed. She was dressing as she did, but that didn't help the young boy as he quickly placed the card on the edge of the bed and moved to the door, but not without muttering out one more apology.

"Sorry."


"Hey, you okay?"

Shinji blinked as Misato's voice broke through his thoughts. After arriving at NERV and running through his training, he met up with Misato who cheerfully said she had a surprise for him. The Blue Earth was to be installed with some long-needed laser cannons, and to do so, it would be transported up to the Space Ring, with Misato to oversee the operation. So she thought it would be a great idea to bring Shinji along with her. Except, the young tekkaman seemed to be spacing out while they were on the elevator up.

"Uh, yeah... Fine..."

Misato pouted. "Hmph. I went to all the trouble to surprise you with this little trip. What happened? Did you catch Rei in the buff or something when you went over to her apartment?"

"Misato..." the boy moaned miserably as his head lowered. It was fortunate that his back was to Misato, otherwise she would have seem the crimson blush forming on his face. It had taken him a bit to settle down after...that incident. Right after he exited the apartment, he had slumped on the wall just to breathe. Facing the Radham was hardly as horrifying as that moment was and nowhere near as embarrassing.

"Geez, kid, lighten up." Misato replied, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's not every day you get to see your home from space.

Lifting his head up at this, Shinji was soon entranced by the sight that came when the elevator window appeared, giving the two a spectacular view of Tokyo-3 from high above. For a while, Shinji forgot about all the problems and anxieties he had to deal with as he gazed down at the city. Moving beside him and seeing his awed expression, Misato smiled.

"That's it, Shinji. That is the city you helped save."

The elevator continued on its ascent into the Space Ring and the pair made their way to one of the docking bay to see the Blue Earth after it had been moved in. Workers went about in installing the laser cannons into the ship, with Misato feeling grateful that now her ship would be at least battle-capable. And with Rei now fully recovered, the odds were now looking up for them.

And then the alarms rang...

"Huh? What's that?" Shinji asked.

Turning to one of the technicians nearby, Misato echoed his question. "What's going on?"

It took the tech a moment to find out, at which he turned to her in alarm. "A Radham attack, ma'am!"

"Wha- Now?!"

Shock and disbelief flashed on the lavender-haired captain's face. She hadn't heard anything from NERV HQ about any presence of the Radham anywhere close to Earth. If that had been the case, she would have had the installation done in the HQ. But their sensors had picked no such activity.

"They just came out of nowhere and are already getting past the defense point."

Things just went from bad to worse. "I don't believe this. Are the installments to the Blue Earth complete?"

"Not yet." the technician answered. "Crews need another couple of minutes to finish up."

Misato scowled. From the upper windows of the Space Ring, she could see the cannons firing on the assaulting Radham. With the Blue Earth out of commission, she couldn't engage them in battle. And even if it was, Shinji's safety took priority now. She didn't like, but she had to get him out of there and back to the Earth.

"Shinji, we have to go."

"Oh!" Shinji gasped. "Ah... Okay..."

Taking his hand, the two made their way to the elevators. Crowds of people were already swarming toward them in order to evacuate, resulting in a large crowd to get through to. Misato kept hold of Shinji's hand, trying to get through the crowd when a heavy rumble caught her attention. This was shortly followed by an explosion far off and a change in the atmosphere that knocked them off their feet. Before Misato could wonder what had happened, a loud alien shriek answered her.

"What? No way!"

Looking up and gazing down the corridor, she looked in horror to see that one of the Radham monsters had broken through the wall from a nearby hanger. Turning its grotesque head toward them, the creature let out another shriek and charged at them. From around, people scattered in terror, seeking to get away from the charging beast. Misato too, looked for a place to escape with Shinji when the said boy rose up from the ground and faced the creature. His face was full of fear, yet Misato could just make out the words he was whispering.

"I mustn't run away... I mustn't run away..."

Before Misato could say a word (of protest or otherwise), Shinji pulled out his tekkaset crystal and called forth its power. A flash of light and a blast of energy transformed Shinji, turning him into the tekkaman Shogoki once more.

"Shinji!"

But Shogoki said nothing in return as his boosters flared and he rushed at the Radham monster. The monster roared and charged in return, but Shogoki reached it first, colliding with it and shoving it back into the hanger bay where it had come from. The beast rolled backward after the tekkaman released it and roared in anger as it began to rise. In return, Shogoki brought forth his lancer and charged again, stabbing the creature. But as it gargled in death, the creature reflexively kicked out, sending Shogoki back and toward the wall of the bay.

At least, there should have been a wall...

Within his armor, Shinji's eyes opened to find that he had be propelled out into open space. The opening that the Radham had crashed through was the one that Shogoki had been knocked through, putting the boy out in open space. Panic immediately came over the young tekkaman and his boosters fired as a result, propelling him wildly and further through space. Fighting his panic, Shogoki slowly began to regain control of his bearings, slowing down in his spiral. When he finally straightened himself out, he used his boosters to place him on the top of the Space Ring. But as soon as he touched down on it, his tekkaset flared a warning.

"Shinji! Look out!"

Misato's voice over the communicator, plus the warning his tekkaset gave him caused him to search around for the source. But he managed only a glimpse of what he was being warned about before a crimson wave of energy swarmed out from the battlefield, blasting the structure beneath Shogoki's feet and launching him backward and toward Earth. Misato watched in horror as the young tekkaman plummeted toward the planet, with gravity pulling him in all the way.

"SHINJI!!!!!"