Chapter 7 – Memories (Part 2)
Wearing her plugsuit and with her headset, Asuka was in the entryplug, being inserted into Unit 02 to be sent up to Tokyo 3 to deal with the coming angel along with a machine gun, being monitored by the staff at the Command Center.
- Eva Pilot inserted. All systems operational! – Said Shigeru.
- Weapon loaded and ready to shoot! – Informed Makoto.
- The Evangelion and the riffle were moved to the elevator and are ready to go up. – Spoke Maya.
- Very well. Commander, with your permission. – Talked Misato, turning around and looking up to Gendo's direction.
- Permission granted. – Talked Commander Ikari, seeing everything while keeping his pose.
- You heard him, guys. Engage! – Ordered the Major.
The elevator was activated and Unit 02 began going to the surface and there, the Eva took the machine gun and started looking around the clean blue sky and between the buildings for the enemy so she could shoot it and after a few minutes, she found it floating in a horizontal position towards her direction, then landing its body on the ground and turning to a vertical pose, with bright whips coming out of the creature's shoulders. Such angel was Shamshel.
- Asuka, what are you waiting for? – Asked Misato through the radio.
While aiming the weapon at the monster, she shot a few bullets and saw that the angel's AT Field deflected the projectiles, retaliating with an energy blast that made Unit 02 back off a little bit, with the pilot just feeling the impact of that attack for also getting shielded by the mecha's almost impenetrable octagonal protection.
- I'm trying to come up with a plan to win this one! – Communicated Asuka while evading the creature's attacks by ducking her Eva's body, jumping, keeping her distance while she came up with a plan. – If only I had some way to take the angel by surprise.
Asuka was looking for a position blind spot in which she could take advantage of, keeping her distance, shooting, running and dodging Shamshel's whips and blasts, circling the creature while doing so, noticing that it couldn't turn around, but for her surprise, it could raise its head in way to look what is behind itself, stretching the whips towards Unit 02's feet with the pilot distracted due to the heat of the battle, catching the Eva to then throw it away against a building, followed by an immediate energy explosion, one that Yamato wasn't quick enough to evade nor to react by activating her Evangelion's AT Field, receiving a direct hit, with the force of the detonation throwing the mecha back in the air. Even while feeling the pain and the heat of the explosion, Asuka managed to land it properly on the ground by performing a backflip that made the Eva land on all fours. Meanwhile, in the Command Center, the people heard what Yamato had in mind through the radio and decided to give her a hand:
- Alright guys, let's give a hand to the pilot. Target the area surrounding the angel and once we see a chance, use all the firepower necessary. – Talked the Vice Commander to his subordinates.
- Calculating ray of attack, angle, distance and wind velocity. – Spoke Maya.
- Loading weapons. – Informed Shigeru.
- Targeting angel. – Said Makoto.
After they seeing that Asuka was away from the angel for being directly hit by an energy blast, Misato ordered:
- Fire!
Many cannons appeared out of a mountain outside Tokyo 3 and shot projectiles on the area around Shamshel, destroying buildings, the floor and making vehicles explode and covering the creature in a cloud of smoke and dust. At the same instant, when Asuka landed her Eva, she saw that the others were helping her, which made the Second Child feel frustrated and only asked:
- What is the meaning of this?
Hearing her question, with enthusiasm, believing that Yamato would end the battle victorious, Katsuragi responded:
- Asuka, now it is your chance. Finish the angel!
After hearing the Major, the answer from the Second Child was just her screaming while running towards the angel as her Eva pulled its knifes from its shoulder pads in high speed and jumped to deliver the finishing blow. At the same time, Ibuki alerted:
- Major, the pilot's synchronization dropped from 85% to 75%!
- What? – Asked Misato, surprised for hearing that.
- Ok. Prepare Unit 00 to give assistance to Unit 02 and tell Rei to get ready.
Having heard that, Yamato responded:
- No! I can kill this angel. Just give me more time! – Shouted the girl as her Evangelion was in the air, coming down for the final strike.
The angel then just started getting out of the cloud by floating out of it and as it saw Unit 02 approaching, it simply avoided Asuka's attack with another energy blast that she deflected with her Eva's octagonal shielding, but it nullified her momentum and for them being so close to each other, Shamshel used its own AT Field to also cancel out the one from Unit 02, managing to headbutt the Evangelion and envelop it with its whips and squeeze it, making the pilot start screaming due to the pain generated by the pressure applied on her mecha, but also because the creatures energy arms were burning it, with the girl feeling everything like if it was happening to her own body. Moments later, from a distance, Unit 00 was approaching with a precision riffle and with it, while the angel was busy with the red Eva, Rei took that opportunity and shot the angel's core and before it could explode, its whips disappeared, making Unit 02 fall to the ground and then, Ayanami made her unit kick the angel out of Tokyo 3 before it could explode. Once that was done, Shamshel vanished in a cross-shaped explosion. With the monster defeated, the First Child turned around and just saw that Unit 02 was on all fours and moments later, it began banging one of its hands on the ground as Asuka shouted continuously:
- Scheiße! Scheiße! Scheiße! Scheiße!
Not understanding what was going on, but understanding that Yamato wasn't happy, Rei just said:
- You're welcome.
In the Command Center, as they saw the temper tantrum from the Second Child, Gendo got up and before he left along with Fuyutsuki, he ordered:
- Increase the LCL pressure inside Unit 02's entry plug and shut it down. Also, recover it along with the pilot back to the Geofront. Enough damage was done with the battle.
With the Commander and the Vice Commander no longer there, Makoto, Shigeru and Maya were hesitating to obey those orders, but Misato, as painful as it could have been for her, she said would tell them do obey the command, but before the Major could say anything, Asuka's Eva ran out of power and it just stopped and fell, laying on the ground, with the girl crying inside her Evangelion while in fetal position, with those in the Command Center hearing it all, feeling bad for the girl.
- Well, Miss Sato, luckily for you, it wasn't necessary to reinforce Gendo's orders, right? – Said Kenzo, being right to the left of the Major.
Katsuragi looked to the side and quickly jumped back, being caught by surprise by such a sudden appearance by Anderson, saying:
- My God, Mr. Anderson. It is you.
- My apologies for the scare. You were so focused on the battle to the point of not even noticing my presence.
- I know how you feel, Major. – Spoke Ibuki, Hyuga and Aoba as they looked at their superior in unison.
- Sorry for that too, guys. – Responded the old American while smiling ant the three before returning his attention to Katsuragi. – Well, after she gets here, do you mind if I spend some time with her? I believe to be the best to know what is going on within her head.
- Mr. Anderson, I… – Talked Misato, not being able to finish her sentence for being interrupted by Kenzo.
- Miss Sato, I insist. Number 1 and I met her in Germany on a quick stop at the EU NERV HQ in Germany to get some fuel for my fighter jet and I swear, you just wouldn't believe what I saw in her files so please, let me help, not just her, but us every single one of the pilots since we need them to fight the angels and because they are still kids. I promise I won't tell her about what you'd have done if Unit 02's didn't run out of juice.
Seeing sincerity in his words, Katsuragi replied with a friendly tone:
- Alright, but I'll be watching, ok? I'm her caretaker after all.
- Sure. I'll contact Number 1 so you both can also talk. He seems to have something to say to you.
- Kaji? – Asked Misato with a whisper.
- Ok then. See you soon, Miss Sato. And guys, have a nice day. – Talked Anderson before leaving.
As the battle against Shamshel was happening, minutes after Asuka and Misato left, Shinji was with Ryoji, with both of them unpacking the Second Child's stuff from some suit cases in a room that the boy would share with the girl while Pen Pen was watching them. Curious about Misato, the boy decided to make some questions.
- Mr. Kaji, you've been with Misato, right?
That question made the penguin glare at both of them while being with his wings crossed. Noticing that and hearing what Third Child asked, who also saw that the bird was angry, the man said, having stopped putting away the belongings of Yamato from her luggage to show the boy a photo of him with Misato in the late 1990's.
- You never change, don't you, Pen Pen? Well, about your question, as you can see here, yes. Long story short, we used to date, but then, I found myself in a crossroads. I got an opportunity to go study in America or stay in Japan, with her, so I took it, with the promise of coming back to her and maintain contact with her after she came back from Antarctica with her dad, but then Second Impact happened and from that cataclysmic moment until a few months ago, I thought she died along with the other 3 billion people that turned into LCL. If it wasn't for Mr. Anderson, I'm not sure what would have happened to me. – Talked Ryoji, with an expression of melancholy on his face, while envisioning his and Misato's younger selves wearing school uniforms and happily walking a gray line in the dark, with them both aging along the way and their clothes changing with them, until they stopped when they encountered a bifurcation, one heading to the west and the other, to the south, with Kaji, feeling as he let her go, leaving Katsuragi behind, leaving her crying as he carried on by himself, still aging as he kept walking until he looked to the side, seeing a giant cross of light in the distance, illuminating the environment to the point of almost blinding him, making him shield his eyes with his hands, being engulfed by a giant wave of LCL afterwards that he didn't see comming and moments before being smashed by the liquid's pressure, one of his hands was caught by a rope, seeing that the one pulling him to the surface was Kenzo.
- I think I understand how you feel. I heard many stories about Second Impact and… wait. Did you say "her dad"? – Talked Ikari, remembering once again that hug he received from Misato on his first day with her for a moment, also having stopped unpacking.
- Yes. What about it? – Asked Kaji.
- So she was really telling the truth. – Thought Ikari, also remembering what the Major told him when he was on her arms before answering the question direct to him, with his eyes closed, his arms around himself and a smile on his face. – It's just something that happened between her and me some time ago.
- I see. Empathy, huh? Perhaps there's no one better to be your caretaker than Katsuragi. – Talked Ryoji, then noticing that he had a message on his phone, seeing that he had to go after reading it. – Well, duty calls. You can take care of things here, right?
- I guess I can. – Responded Ikari.
- Good to know that. Please, take good care of her. – Spoke Kaji before leaving.
Shinji got surprised for hearing that, but wasn't able to respond, so he decided to continue, but before that, the boy looked at Pen Pen and saw that the bird wasn't angry anymore.
Ryoji was going to a place where his superior was in, at the 7th floor of NERV's Japanese Headquarters. Once he found the door of the room in which the old American was, he stood by its side and picked his cellphone to read the message again, thinking:
- "Come to the room B-777 and wait outside. While I talk to Pepper, I'll also give you time to have a chat with someone else". What do you have in mind, Mr. Anderson?
Minutes later, Misato was walking along with Asuka, who was still wearing her plugsuit and once they got to their destination, they saw Kaji there waiting for them, which made the Second Child really happy to see him.
Kaji, it's you. – Said joyfully the girl.
- It is nice to see you too, Asuka, but the one that you have to see is in there. – Spoke Ryoji while pointing to the door.
After hearing that, Yamato got serious and went inside, leaving him and Misato in the hallway, with the guy looking to the opposite side in which the major was. With silence permeating the environment until Katsuragi decided to break the silence with her playfulness.
- C'mon, Kaji. I don't bite. Talk to me. You seem so confident when Mr. Anderson is around.
Seeing that the major was calling for his attention he took a deep breath and decided to go straight to the point with her.
- Katsuragi, remember when we were together in the late 90's?
- Oh yes. Good times. I remember that we tasted beer for the first time without anyone knowing. The first time was awful. Oh yeah, I got Pen Pen from one of the expeditions of my father. – Answered the Major in a playful way, giggling at the end.
Ryoji noticed that by the way she was talking that she had no ill will towards him, which kind of surprised him, but after noticing that, he decided to go along.
- Yebisu tastes like crap at the first cup. Those were good times indeed. So, if you have nothing else to do, would you like to go out with me for a drink?
- Sure. Tell me, why were you so quiet? Is it because of what happened in 2000? – Asked Misato.
- Is it that obvious? – Questioned Ryoji, chuckling a little bit, smiling while keeping his eyes closed and rubbing himself on the head.
Hearing that, the Major started laughing and then, she said:
- Come here, you.
With one of her arms, Katsuragi grabbed the guy by his neck and started messing up his hair with one of her hands, with him also engaging in laughter, releasing him a few moments later and politely spoke:
- C'mon, Kaji. We are both adults. Did you think I would be mad at you or something? You still seem to be the same boy that I knew back in the day.
- Oh, am I? Maybe you'll see how much I changed after a few shots of tequila. – Replied the man with a nice tone.
As both Ryoji and Misato were rebonding outside, Asuka was in that room, in which she saw two chairs and noticed that Kenzo was sitting on one of them, looking at him nonchalantly and sounding just like that.
- Oh, it's you.
- Hey there, Asuka. Please. – Spoke Anderson, making a gesture with one of his hands, suggesting her to sit down as well, being rather serious.
Yamato decided to take his suggestion and after doing so, she asked:
- Why am I here?
- I watched your fight along with the NERV guys and I confirmed that there's something wrong with you.
- "Something wrong with me"? Me?! Are you sure about that? – Questioned the Second Child, sounding a bit angry.
- Yes. I actually suspected that after seeing your files when me and Number 1 took a stop in Germany, and holy shit, I just couldn't believe what I saw, but now, I can see that it was quite accurate.
- Do you really think some pieces of text on a computer screen are enough to describe the entirety of a person? – Asked the Second Child after standing up, still feeling anger.
- It gave me an idea of you and for what I saw in your fight and now, I see that you are hiding your true self. I can see that you are trying to hide your true self in the darkest depths of your heart. You try to cover who you truly are to not show any sign of weakness, to not display anything that can make others deem as imperfect, but I can see your true colors while you try to hide them. Asuka, you like a rainbow in the dark. – Revealed Kenzo.
Perplexed for hearing those words, the girl looked to the side and spoke with her hands on her hips:
- If I'm so easy to read, what am I doing here? Trying to drown myself in LCL would be lesser of a waste of time than this. Are you going to give me a sermon or something?
- Absolutely not. I do not believe this is right course of action. I'm primarily here to listen to you. All I want from you is to trust me so I can help you in some way. – Talked the old American man.
The girl was looking perplexed at him with her eyes wide opened, sitting down again, leaning herself down and grabbing her head and with her eyes shut.
- C'mon Asuka. You are an Eva pilot. If you can go out there and fight the angels, I know have plenty of courage within you to open yourself to others. You can do this! – Exclaimed Anderson in hopes of encouraging her to trust him and make her talk.
The Second Child was remembering images from her past, seeing herself in an orphanage in Germany, with some of the children from there making a circle around her and speaking repeatedly in unison while pointing their fingers at her:
- You shouldn't be in this world! Why are you alive?! You should be in a garbage bin!
- No. No. No! – Screamed Asuka, taking Anderson by surprise and jumping on the man, falling on him on the ground, subsequently starting to punch him on the face as she started shed tears and grunted with each blow, dominated by anger and totally out of control, as the girl showed clearly with her actions and due to the way she stared at the guy, with contempt.
Having heard the sounds from the room, Misato and Kaji rushed inside and saw the girl rapidly attacking Kenzo. Katsuragi quickly separated her from the guy, who got some really bad bruises, including a black eye, and was bleeding from his nose and mouth. Upon being grabbed by the Major, Asuka was looking down, with tears still dripping from her eyes and blood from her hands as the Second Child looked at their direction, whispering repeatedly:
- I have to be perfect... I have to be perfect... I have to be perfect… I have to be perfect… I have to be perfect…
Seeing that she calmed herself down and with some intrigue from what she heard from the girl, Misato let her go, which then made Yamato fall to her knees, grabbing both of her own shoulders and the Second Child still faced the floor and started crying. Meanwhile, Kaji tried to help his boss, who was panting while experiencing pain and facing the ceiling. Before Ryoji could get down to help the old man, Kenzo rolled to the right so he could turn himself around, then being in all fours, still gasping for air as he tried to contain the uncomfortable feeling caused by his wounds, saying in low volume as he kept bleeding from the mouth and with bruises on the front of his head, having some trouble with his respiration:
- Fuck… Shit...
As Kaji helped Anderson getting himself back on his feet and gave him support so he could stand up, the old man spoke in a calm manner as he kept gasping for air, still panting for the effects of the blows he received:
- Now, tell me, Asuka. Do you feel any better?
- No! I feel terrible! I feel disgusted with myself! – Responded Asuka, being loud and clear, in shock for the memories that raised from her subconscious, and for seeing what they made her do to Kenzo.
All the adults in the room were worried about Asuka, seeing how broken she was.
The old American grabbed a piece of tissue from one of the pockets of his black suit to clean the blood off his face as he spoke in a more serious manner:
- This is something I wanted to show you. Spreading your suffering to those around you won't make you feel any better, it wouldn't bring you anything good. It would only make you feel worse, passing your pain on to others and subsequently, making them want to distance themselves from you, leaving yourself in complete solitude. Instead reacting like this, I beg you to consider this, even it is for just a moment. Try to seek comfort on those that may care about you to avoid such a thing. Please, take this into consideration.
- Those who care about me? – Talked Asuka, facing Kenzo and seeing that he wasn't angry at her.
- Yes. You can count on me for that. – Said Anderson, displaying friendliness on smile while enduring his pain for receiving those punches.
- And me. – Said Kaji, mimicking his boss.
- And me. – Spoke Misato as she offered a hand for Yamato to also get up, smiling as well.
Asuka gladly took Katsuragi's help to get up and after that, the Second Child said, regretful for what she did:
- I'm sorry for what I did to you, Kenzo. It's just that…
Kenzo was starting to feel dizzy and brought more of his weight on his subordinate, which made the girl stop talking, feeling a huge load of guilt about what she has done. Noticing that, Kaji suggested as he started guiding his superior out of that place:
- Mr. Anderson, I think this is enough. I'm sending you to sickbay, ok?
As Anderson walked slowly with the help of Ryoji to the door, before both of them left the room, the old man talked:
- I understand, Asuka. I'm happy to see that you are willing to be more open to me. This is a really important step and I hope you do the same for others, because you may not be as lucky with them as you are with me since I forgive you. Let this be a lesson to ya, ok? I'll see you around.
- Bye bye to you too, Katsuragi. – Said Kaji before leaving the place as he carried Kenzo.
- C'mon Asuka. Why don't we go back home? – Suggested the Major with a gentle tone.
- Sure. First, I'll get out of this plugsuit. – Answered the girl, also leaving the room, reflecting about what just happened and what she'll do next, as she looked at the coagulated blood on her hands in disgust. – This so shameful. I can't believe I brought myself so low. This can not happen again. For the sake of my very existence, I have to be perfect.
On their way to the sickbay, Kaji asked:
- Mr. Anderson, I'm aware of your task here, but don't you think you took things a bit too far with Asuka?
- I certainly don't, Number 1. The Eva pilots are the fighters in the front line of a war against mankind's very extinction. I know what war can do to young people and for crying out loud, these people are children. Not even adults can deal with it properly and who knows what happened to them before all this. Now, the least I can do is to avoid them from suffering as much as possible, even if I have to bring all their anguish and sorrow upon myself to die with me and remain forever sealed in my grave, for their sake and for the sake of whole world. Also, this is nothing. I felt worse, much worse than this. – Answered Anderson in a somber way, still panting as he delivered his answer.
- You always want to act like a hero, right? – Spoke Kaji.
- Well, you know me, but I have to admit that Pepper packs quite a punch. – Talked Kenzo, chuckling a little bit, despite still feeling physically hurt.
Despite seeing that his boss wasn't worried about about his state, Kaji just look at him, worried about the lengths that could go for the children piloting the Evangelions. Being close to the infirmary, Kenzo and Ryoji came across Gendo, who was carrying Fuyutsuki out of there. Seeing that NERV's Vice Commander was also weak and being so close to both of them, they could hear that he was also wheezing.
- Is everything ok, Vice Commander? – Asked Ryoji
- Just routine treatment to a certain health issue of mine. Nothing to worry about. – Said Kozo.
- And Mr. Anderson, what happened to you? – Asked Commander Ikari.
- Let's just say that I was hit by a torrent of sadness, rage and confusion. – Responded the old American man.
- I know precisely how that feels. – Affirmed his subordinate in a playful way.
Not understanding exactly what Kenzo meant, before leaving, Fuyutsuki and Gendo respectively said:
- Ok, whatever you say. Let's go Gendo.
- Yes. Farewell to both of you.
Coming inside the sickbay, Kenzo said:
- Ok, Number 1. Just give me some painkillers so we can get out.
- Sorry, Mr. Anderson, but I don't want your wounds to swell up. Please, be strong and endure a little increase of pain while I'm treating you, ok? – Spoke Kaji in a nice manner in hopes that Anderson could understand the treatment he would need to go through.
- Oh, sweet mercy. Make it fast, okay? – Complained Ryoji's superior.
With Ryoji taking care of his boss's injuries, Yamato got out of that room as well and while walking in the corridor, with Misato following her back to the apartment, Asuka was think about what Kenzo told her after she snapped and started beating him. Suddenly, she heard her caretaker's stomach snoring. Due to that noise, the Second Child responded:
- Let's be quick so I can make dinner for us all. Shinji and the penguin are waiting for us and they might be hungry as well.
- Are you sure about that? You just fought an angel today and after what happened between you and Kenzo, aren't you worried that it may burn yourself out? – Reminded the Major.
- You are right. I remember you said something very similar to that before I could respond to that due to that stupid angel attacking Tokyo 3. – Recalled Yamato.
- Well, you can respond now. – Said Misato.
Jokingly, but also with a tone of melancholy, Asuka said:
- I don't burn out. I set more things on fire.
