This chapter was fun to write. Couple of cool reveals, at least for me, as this starts moving faster. I have gotten a couple comments regarding building up Shinji so he doesn't run away when the going gets tough. Yeah, that starts here.
I find writing Gendo difficult because I am trying to strike a balance between him being a masterful manager and realpoliker, and an off his rocker sadist. I am going to rewrite his first scene to try and convey that better.
Chapter 9
The conference room was dark but for the lights directly over the rectangular table, the rest of the room cast in shadow. At the table, Commander Ikari Gendo sat at the head, Vice Commander Fuyutsuki Kozo to his right. Beside the Vice Commander was the head of NERV military operations, Captain Katsuragi Misato. To Gendo's left were Dr. Akagi Ritsuko, head of the evangelion project, and her assistant, Lt. Ibuki Maya. In the shadows around them, various representatives of the subordinate departments within NERV stood; ready to give their input if called upon. Coffee and cigarette butts covered the table.
Gendo cleared his throat and laced his fingers together before beginning. "The operation was a success, however I use that description somewhat hesitantly. Can someone please tell me any way, short of us having failed to stop the angel, this op could have gone any worse?"
"Sir, no VTOLs were lost in this operation, Sir!" The head of NERV's air wing contributed. Misato groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She knew what was coming next. Unwritten rule of military conduct number thirty-seven: never be the first one to speak up when an officer is getting ready to chew out his staff.
"Indeed flight commander, but those same VTOLs also failed to secure the area and missed a pair of school children who were making no effort to hide." Gendo's voice did not rise as he spoke but the tone quickly became that of a parent scolding a child. It was made all the worse because between the commander's gloved hands and the reflection off his glassed, his face was almost totally hidden.
"Now does anyone else have any high points of this cluster fuck to contribute before we move on?"
Murmurs of "No, Sir" circled the room.
"Good, now… " Gendo sat up and took a drink from his coffee. Hardly anybody had slept and the battle had ended nearly 12 hours ago. "… Captain Katsuragi, as chief military officer and head of combat operations, what went wrong here and what do you feel we can change to do better?"
Despite the fact he could be down right cruel, Misato did have some respect for the Commander. He knew the most important rule of management: trust your subordinates. He did not second-guess her military experience or Dr. Akagi's scientific knowledge unnecessarily or try to involve himself in every decision. The call on the VTOL pick up of the errant kids had been correct, she had not been thinking about it clearly. His specialty, and where he would tolerate no deviance from his word, was running an organization.
"Thank you Commander…" Misato opened her valice and passed detailed damage assessments to the others before continuing.
"We originally detected the blue pattern early yesterday morning at 0530 local time. We confirmed it shortly afterwards, but did not call the pilots in until 1230. We were only able to deploy unit 01 as the angel approached the city. The fourth angel should be a confirmation of what we originally believed: The angels are targeting Tokyo-3. As such, I believe from now on the pilots should be brought in and placed on stand-by as soon as a blue pattern is detected, in order to give us more time to deploy the evangelions effectively."
Gendo turned to the blond "Dr. Akagi, do you have anything to add to this?"
"I agree in principal, however we are still getting too many false positives to launch operations at every pattern detected. I believe it would be acceptable to begin operations at confirmation though."
"Is that acceptable to you Captain?"
"Yes Commander."
"Good, see that it is implemented. Now please continue."
"Thank you. I would like to mention that the deployment of VTOLs for reconnaissance purposes was a success, and was vital when our feed from the Eva was lost. In the future, if sufficient weapons are available, arming these overwatch units may be useful. Moving on, Shinji's performance was not perfect, though it ultimately was his observation of an opening in the angel's attack that decided the outcome.
"Given the short amount of time we had to train the pilot, I do not find fault. He lacks discipline but given only a week of training he performed… adequately." Gendo Ikari, contrary to what most people thought, did give praise, even to his son. He just wasn't going to ever say it to the boy's face.
"Yes Commander. This is the most pressing issue however. The evangelion itself was heavily damaged. Between this and the current state of unit 00, we are currently without a truly functional unit. Furthermore, this showed the B-type equipment was completely inadequate. Now this will seem radical, but I think our entire philosophy on how to we plan to win these battles has to change." Misato said.
Gendo leaned forward and steepled his hands again. "I am willing to listen captain, continue.
"I was thinking about it, both angel kills so far have been in close range and unarmed. It reminded me of a saying in the military community regarding the value of superior training Vs. Superior equipment: you are the weapon, the gun, knife, whatever, is only a tool. Instead of teaching the pilots how to operate weapons, we should be teaching them how to fight, on their own, unarmed. With the repairs unit 01 will require, I believe we should not repair the B-type equipment, but replace it with something more suited to the close combat role I anticipate evangelions will continue to take. If needed we can always equip the units with the rifles, but they are not currently adapted to excel in close combat."
"Your analysis has merit. Dr. Akagi, in the interest of avoiding duplications of effort, has the evangelion project previously considered this possibility?"
Dr. Akagi took a long draw on her cigarette, thinking. After a moment, she spoke. "Well, we knew that in the beginning we would not have enough information about the enemy to specialize too much, so we designed the B-type equipment to be able to meet a variety of threats. Several other designs were put forth based on the same standard principles but not built, the thinking being we would produce that equipment which met the needs we observed and they would integrate with the existing infrastructure. I believe we have some designs for more durable equipment that could be of use here."
"Commander, there is something else. Our training syllabus is currently adapted from infantry combat programs, but anything from that background will be biased against significant close combat effectiveness. Melee weapon and unarmed training in armies is always based on the presumption that one is looking to gain a better weapon, or using pain to force compliance of a human subject. Neither of those applies here."
Misato paused and took a breath before continuing. She hated herself for even thinking of this idea, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.
"I think it would be fair to say we are not looking to train soldiers. The pilots need to think like assassins. They need to quickly assess their target and its capabilities, and then use versatile skills to attack in a way tailored to the threat. We need professional killers of angels, and that means we need professional killers of men to train them."
It was a good idea. No, it was a great idea. Their entire thinking had to change and Misato had seen it. So why did she feel so shitty for giving it voice.
"Captain Katsuragi… You have clearly given this a lot of thought." Gendo began. "While I am not a military man myself, I understand your reasoning. I also understand your concern for the welfare of the pilots and the dangers of putting them in contact with the people you believe we require… However I agree that is what we require. Work with Dr. Akagi and find suitable persons, I want a short list of recommendations on my desk by this time tomorrow. Now, on to the damage assessments for the surrounding area…"
Shinji Ikari opened his eyes to a familiar hospital ceiling. Just trying to sit up was sent shooting pain through his arms and chest.
"Here young man, let me help you with that." It was the nurse from the last time in her old fashioned uniform. She gently placed her hand on Shinji's chest so he would lie flat, then raised the bed up from the side.
Seated, Shinji looked at the nurse for a while. She tilted her head and looked into Shinji's cold eyes. Finally, he spoke.
"This isn't real, is it?"
"That very much depends on how you define real. Yes, you are experiencing this here and now. No, I am not a figment of your imagination. We can talk about the rest another time." She stepped across the room to the window and opened the blinds, letting daylight in. She then turned and sat down on the bed next to Shinji.
"First, I want to tell how proud we all are of you. You did a very brave thing protecting your friends like that. I am glad seeing what other do not was so useful."
"T-thank you. I just couldn't let them… get hurt."
"They would have died, as would many others, had you not fought the battle."
"I know… So how long was I asleep this time?"
"Oh not terribly long, but you felt the pain of your chariot, and while the fire did not burn your flesh, your body still reacted to the pain, so you may stay a little longer this time." She placed her hand on his leg and he instantly felt comforted, like there was this warmth coming from her touch
"Yeah it was…pretty…intense…" Shinji lost the thought as another occurred to him. Did she call the Eva a chariot? "W-what did you call it?"
"Call what?"
"The evangelion… the robot! You called it a chariot, why?"
"Oh, just being old fashioned, you are a hero afterall. To ride a giant into battle against monsters that threaten all life on earth, doesn't it sound like something out of an epic poem?" She said then reached down, lifting his school bag then looking inside. She pulled out the thick book the weird man had given him on the street.
"Oh I love this one, how do you like it?"
"I actually haven't started it yet…"
"It is a wonderful story…" She said as she opened the cover. "Would you mind if I read some of it to you?"
"I guess not, I don't want to keep you…"
"Nonsense, it would be a privilege."
And she read to Shinji from the storied book, about the warrior Arjuna and his friend and the driver of his chariot Krishna, who was in fact a god taken the form of a man. She explained that the word for such a being was Avatar. Shinji felt the strange word in his mouth and was even able to say it after a few tries, though it still came out like a-va-ta-ro.
She explained how it was a conversation during a larger conflict between two sides of one family and how Arjuna was hesitant to go into battle against his relations. Krishna explains to him why he must fight and do his duty and how both are connected to the universe as a whole. As she closed the book she suggested he try reading it for himself a few times over, as it can take time to really get metaphors through antiquated language.
"So, did you like it? It was not originally written in Japanese, so some of the language may have been a little clumsy and…"
"What…The…Fuck…"
"Such language, what is wrong young man?"
"What's wrong? I am sitting here listening to someone, who I am not even sure is real, read me a book about a frightened soldier being told why he needs to fight by a god who also happens to drive his chariot? Don't tell me you don't know what I hear in the Evangelion, which you keep calling a chariot, telling me why I have to fight. Am I Arjuna here? Is Krishna the voice in the Eva? What the fuck is going on?" Shinji was shaking, nervous and more than a little bothered by the realization that whatever is talking to him in the Eva may not just be in his head.
"Please calm down Shinji." She said and placed her hand on him again, and again warmth and comfort took hold of him. "Now I am happy to explain some things, but others will need to wait for another day. Please know I have nothing but your best interests at heart. Is that okay with you?"
Shinji nodded
"Alright. I cannot give you all the answers you seek, I can only help you along the path to wisdom. You are not Arjuna and this is a different situation. Krishna was the avatar of Vishnu and the Eva is not, nor does he speak to you in battle. The Gita has parallels to your situation, but it is not the whole of it. It is a religious text meant to have parallels to all of our lives. You do have a duty, a destiny, but you need to discover it yourself. If I give it to you, like a task or chore, it is not truly yours. I am just here to help you heal, like a nurse should."
"O-okay…" Shinji felt safe from her touch, but was still shaking. It felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff and her touch was hand keeping him from falling. One wrong move could mean falling, but she was keeping him safe. Like he was balancing between horror and comfort on the edge of a hair.
"Now the last time we spoke, I gave you two gifts, do you remember?"
"Y-you said that I was b-blessed to see what other do not. And in the battle with the angel…"
"That's right, you saw the true nature of things and triumphed because of it. Like I said before, the fire did not burn your flesh this time, but you felt it as if it was your own skin, your own hands. This has caused damage beneath the skin, damage that would not normally heal itself. You are going to be okay though, and this too shall be a blessing. You will be able to touch what others cannot, and resist pain that would destroy lesser men. You will have to accept not feeling the world the same way anymore though."
She smiled at Shinji and gave him a kiss on the forehead then took his hand in hers and lifted it from the bed. Shinji felt his own movement, but her hand around his was only a slight pressure, there was no sensation of texture or temperature. He swallowed and breathed ragged breaths. He tried feeling the beeding with his other hand but found it was the same. He moved, there was something there, but no fine detail. They sat in silence for several minutes, uring which Shinji bit his lip and held back the short breaths that he knew would lead to tears. He wasn't going to cry in front of someone else, he was better than that. When Shinji had calmed himself, she spoke again.
"Now about the other gift."
"What other gift?"
The nurse blinked once and stared at him. For being a hero he sure was dense sometimes.
"The wallet, you know with your new cash card inside?"
"Oh that was from you!"
Yep, still a 14 year old boy she thought. Thoughts take two steps and oh shiny happens.
"Yes, and you haven't used it yet."
"Um, well, Misato pays for groceries and I don't really need anything else so I guess I haven't needed to."
"I see. Well, should you need to you have it. Besides, we women do like a gift once in a while."
Shinji thought of Rei and blushed. "I um, well its not like that."
"Of course it isn't, have you forgotten our discussion about mind reading?" She said as Shinji began to turn a deeper red and stammer. With a giggle she stood up and touched a fingertip to his forehead.
"Now, you need to rest, so I will be making my exit now. May you be blessed to touch what others cannot, and so shield them from harm.
In Dr. Akagi's office, the good doctor and the captain sat together in front of the MAGI terminal. They were staring at a very long list. On it was every assassin, mercenary, wet works operative, and respectable terrorist affiliated with the intelligence agencies of the many UN member states, as well as UN organizations like NERV.
"Where are we even going to start?" Ritsuko said after they had been staring at the list in silence for at least 10 minutes.
"Well… can we sort them?" Misato asked. With a few keystrokes, the blond doctor had brought up a list of fields. There were well over 50 different criteria.
"We can organize by any of these."
"Jesus… I… Rits I don't know how to find someone good and I won't have to worry about with the pilots. I don't want some psycho who is going to kill one in training or fuck Shinji up even more."
"How about this…" Dr. Akagi began setting up a search function. "… We will sort by work with UN and NATO organizations, since they recruit high-level operatives from member states. That will sort out the mobsters and the terrorists. Then sort by years active, most to least. I figure we want someone experienced. Then we prioritize those who work alone and in small teams, then make those who specialize in firearms low priority. Finally, we exclude anybody currently involved in a mission. It is pointless if we can't get them right away, right?"
"Yeah, okay… "Misato began looking over the resulting list. "Woah, John Clark! I thought he was dead."
"Oh… he is, Second American Civil War. I'm sorry, I did not realize this included deceased persons." Dr. Akagi said then corrected her search to only show living subjects. They had a much shorter list now and began looking at each file.
"Wade Wilson. Long career, appears to be an expert in many forms of combat." Dr. Akagi suggested, bringing up the file.
"Also batshit insane. Next." Misato retorted.
Ritsuko rolled her eyes. Would probably fit right in around here she thought. "Dexter Morgan. Serial killer recruited from prison, yeah no forget I said anything. Next."
"Jules Winnfield… nevermind, says he is quote 'wandering the earth' with no means of contact."
Misato nearly squealed and pressed her finger to the screen "Ooooooh, Ding Chavez, I met him once, he was cute… Oh, back with Rainbow, no way they will let us have him in time. Next."
"The MacManus brothers could work… no, too firearm centric and their fundamentalism may be indicative of instability. Next." Ritsuko sighed as she excluded yet another entry from the list and immediately opened up another one.
"Duke Togo, If even half the stories about him are true he would just as good as a close range instructor as he would be teaching ranged combat. Plus he is Japanese." She said
"Yeah that is the problem, nobody knows what stories about him are true. He is either a super soldier or a hack with good publicity. Next." Misato responded.
"Hey this one already has a NERV file." Misato reached over her friend to tap the down arrow and keep reading. "Rits, your name is on here."
"Hm… Oh I remember him now. It was during early research into biological projection of AT fields. We talked to martial artists with confirmed incidents of paranormal activity surrounding their abilities because we suspected a connection with field generation. There was something there, but it did not match up with the data we had from impact, so we did not continue. We were actually interested in his teacher, but I guess he had died some time before." Dr. Akagi began chewing on a pen as she pushed her swivel chair away from the console. "I think I still have my notes, give me a sec."
Misato kept reading while her friend looked. "Rits, this guy is amazing. Looks like some black op had him running around killing scumbags left and right for, wow, nearly 40 years. Only stopped when the op was ended after impact. Most recent update says his teacher died shortly before impact and he had a student with him, child prodigy. Oh, that was you who wrote that."
"Yeah, I remember. Just found my notes." Ritsuko slammed the metal file cabinet shut with her foot as she rolled back over to Misato with sheaf of handwritten notes paper-clipped together. "He was looking damn good last time I saw him, given he claimed to be pushing 70. Also had a student of his own, kid, looked to be about 14."
The doctor pulled a picture from her notes. It showed a shirtless man with dark hair, though Misato could see some grey in it. His body looked… powerful. Not like a body builder was muscular, more like sumo wrestlers when they lose all the fat. Muscles like they were carved out of marble, incredibly strong but still shaped like a person should be. It reminded Misato of some of the special operations guys she had known (and dated). That body was a weapon better than anything money could buy, and the brain at the top was usually pretty sharp too.
"Hey Ritsuko…" Misato said as she continued reading.
"Yeah?" Ritsuko said, looking up from her notes, pen still hanging from her mouth.
"If he was working for some UN black op, why does he already have the same NERV security clearance as me?"
"Hm, let me see…" Dr. Akagi took over the console again. "Oh I see it, the organization running the op, or what remained of it anyway, was integrated into GEHERN and so into NERV during the transition. Looks like he was never actually let go from the first one, CURE, so he is still technically an employee, albeit inactive."
They spent several more minutes reading about the man. As they reached the bottom and found current contact information, Misato smiled.
"Rits, I think we've found our man…" Misato stared down at the picture.
3 days later…
The commander, vice-commander, and head of operations of NERV stood on the landing pad as the VTOL approached. Onboard was NERV's close combat instructor and his apprentice. Gendo and Fuyutsuki wore their standard suits while Captain Katsuragi wore her tan military uniform with the pillbox style female officer's cover.
They had agreed to come on short notice and for a quite reasonable fee Gendo thought. They had forwarded a rather curious list of supplies to have ready for them, none of which were all that difficult to procure but Gendo had not the faintest idea what they would be used for in concert. They had also demanded room for a dojo, but the facilities of the geofront had more space than they really knew what to do with anyway so Gendo found it reasonable.
The VTOL touched down and as the engines slowed to a stop the hatch opened and a man who looked to be in middle age, tanned with salt and pepper hair, wearing dark slacks and a black leather jacket with a white t-shirt beneath stepped out, followed by a younger man, barely more than a boy. The younger one wore a blood red felt jacket buttoned up to his neck and dark pants, and had pale blond hair. Misato thought he looked Russian as the pair approached.
Gendo stepped forward and extended his hand. "Remo Williams, welcome to NERV."
End
Yeah I don't have anything particularly clever to say about this, other than I hope I struck a balance between build up and reveal. Granted its not a particularly well known franchise with tons of books and one cult movie from the 80's.
