After Evangelion

Episode 8: Battle! AE86 Vs S13

Shinji groaned in his sleep again, he was starting to have that nightmare again; all this week he hadn't been able to get a single hour of rest without this horrid dream having its say. Shinji managed to maintain some calm, every few moments Shinji would try to erase it by focusing on something else. His dream first race was now completely corrupted by the presence of his father chanting for him to practically die. Today he had to race the blue Siliva; Touya had met him on Friday to confirm that he was a go ahead for the race.

Notably, Shinji's lack of sleep was affecting him now; he was constantly falling asleep in class and at work. He couldn't afford to loose is sleep, but these were the only times he could at least try to make up for the sleep. Shinji was gambling on the prospect that he would be able to get some sleep tonight. If he didn't, this final backup was in class when Shinji could sleep then. Work demanded him to be awake all the time so there was no way he could actually sleep then, then he had to do the race.

Shinji had thought about the prospect of loosing on purpose, which was quickly followed up by the reactions that might come from that. He hadn't gotten his timing down on the initial half of the road. Shinji also hadn't managed to understand anything Sousuke had said to him the other day.

'oh no' Shinji thought as he found himself in the dream again, again it was the same décor of cave grey and white that made the environment of the NERV labs a disturbing feeling of comfort. Something was out of the ordinary this time, Shinji was on his own this time, Rei, Asuka and Toji were absent from their usual spots on the floor. It became a disturbing reality that Shinji was now operating under the impression that this was no normal nightmare; if such a thing was norm for him.

Shinji found himself surrounded by bodies. The air was a foggy red as the smell of blood and crazy sound of silence echoed throughout the surroundings. Shinji somehow guessed why this was. He managed to figure out where he was finally; he was in the main control room of the NERV headquarters. He slowly maneuvered around the fallen bodies, noticing and starting to realize who they were. He wasn't frightened when he saw the body of Misato lying on the floor, her body facing down, fortunately covering the bloodied face from Shinji's sight.

The bridge bunny trio was dead at their stations, the doctor was slumped against the wall with a curtain drag of maroon liquid running up the wall another meter. Shinji looked over the side and down at the other minor control stations, everyone was dead, everyone but one person.

"You caused this" echoed the deep voice above "you caused this and everyone died because of it"

"I didn't…" Shinji turned to face the station platform above the bridge bunny's platform. There he saw Gendo, sitting there like a judge looking down on a convicted criminal.

"You continued to be childish and forgot your responsibilities" Gendo bellowed his gruff deep voice.

"I didn't kill anyone!" Shinji yelled back "you killed them, all of them"

Shinji turned to leave the bridge and ran down the corridors trying to get out of the building. All around him, he saw everyone on the ground; he noticed that everyone's pose indicated that they died of gunshot wounds. He winced and kept running until he found himself in the car park that Misato used.

"It's your fault, don't bother running away" the voice of the villainous creature that was his father, echoed loudly in the hanger like place. Shinji ignored the noise and to his undeleted surprise; found his AE86 parked in the usual spot that occupied Misato's old sports car. He knew why it was there and ran to it. He quickly got inside and turned the engine on; the car was ready for him. He didn't hesitate hitting the accelerator and started driving as fast as he could up the long ramp to the surface.

Shinji noticed straight away that he could see more cars behind him, NERV's security division cars. They were mainly old crestas, nothing his AE86 couldn't be outrun by. Shinji finally broke the surface and immediately started driving in the direction of a road he knew that led him out of town. Shinji drifted around the street corners with precision and speed, not wanting to loose out to those dumb cars behind him.

He could see everywhere people on the ground, dead, in the same manner of that in the NERV headquarters. Shinji finally managed to get to the outskirts of the city and found road that led up a mountain. It was a mountain road similar to his new home, he was driving as fast as he had ever know his car to travel, he noticed with some degree of ease that he was managing to make very few mistakes in his technique up the hill, it was like being scared actually helped.

"it's all your fault"

Why could he hear his father still? Shinji managed to find out that answer in less time then he wished to know. In looking in his rear view mirror, he only saw the stomp of the feet of a purple and black foot, a massive one at that. His Eva unit, EVA-01 was hot on his tail and ready to crush him. His father was no doubt piloting the massive machine, ready to kill his only son. At present, Shinji was driving up a hill, in an underpowered car, with little to defend himself except the ability to turn at fast speed around the corners.

Shinji started to pick up his pace; he tried to hold the gear shift out a lot longer, trying to push more speed into his cornering. His 86 was working for him harder then it ever had to, but it wasn't letting him done. The roadway started to level out, Shinji noticed that he must've been at the top of the mountain by now. But at the same time, the corners were starting to get harder and harder for him. The speed of which Shinji could manage to maintain a steady pattern was starting to wear out thin; Shinji was starting to make more critical mistakes in his cornering and braking.

Shinji didn't know what speed he was going or what gear he was in anymore, he had lost track of such matters, his eyes were direly focused on the road ahead when he did a corner and the rear view mirror when he was on a straightway. The Eva unit was still there, it wasn't getting closer, at the moment, but the more mistakes he made, the closer it got to Shinji. Shinji knew what happened to things that got squashed by the foot of an Evangelion, and he never thought of the possibility of it happening to him.

The sharp reality was that Shinji was loosing, his skill just wasn't letting him run away from the Eva any faster then he wanted to. He was loosing now and it was only a matter of time before the massive steel beast was on top and able to crush his skull into the pavement. Shinji refused to give up, he refused to believe his own father, and he refused to let that excuse of a human blame him for his own stupid mistakes. Shinji kept trying to beat out his skill against the road, a winding never ending road that now was starting to go downhill, the pressure mounted on him to go faster and to perform more exact breaking methods on a smaller road.

It was a total nightmare to road racers, and it was added by the presence of the Eva, which its own appearance managed to scare Shinji into any form of manic fit. He just couldn't keep up with it anymore, Shinji was just not that skilled, his mistakes were making him almost grind the guardrail with his bumper, and it was only a matter of time. He guessed that it didn't matter how fast he went or how far Shinji went, he just couldn't keep up; then it happened, as Shinji entered the hairpin, his mind twitched for only a second but it did it; his mind reset and he lost track of the things he was meant to do,

He over steered and bumped his front left corner with the inner guardrail, he had lost control, before he knew it the car was spinning way to far out of control , his drift had reached the point where he couldn't pull himself out of this. The car skidded and did all kinds of things, but it crashed end first onto the outer guard rail and kept grinding the side of the car along it, until he came to a stop. Facing backwards, he could see the Eva's quickly approaching him, he tried to start up and drive again, but it was too late, he spent his last few seconds hitting the accelerator, the Eva rose its giant foot and piled it directly onto the Trueno, then it was black.


"Wake up!" Whispered the voice again

Shinji opened his eyes with sudden, the pain of his dream finally approached his physical body, the whole affair jolting every single organ in his body to an overload, his whole body reproached to the point where…

'Oh jeez I'm going to…' Shinji jolted up and tried to find his window, but he was on the floor. He stumbled onto his feet and in a half blind tired to find the window, then it came. Shinji immediately held a hand against his mouth as he finally found the latch and opened his window before he threw up. It took five minutes for him to completely dry himself of the contents of what he guessed where the contents his dinner from last night and some extra stuff.

Shinji had for a long time had the tenancy to throw up like this when he had a violent nightmare like this. For the first couple of weeks after his move to this small town, Shinji seemed to develop this habit reaction, for this reason came to the resolve to puke out of the window into the gutter of the roof. He knew that it was a purely disgusting thing, but Shinji also had a short 'hold in' time.

He thought about what just happened, he had puked two days ago, but he had been awake enough to leave the room and find the toilet to do it. In his dream, but this time, he was disorientated by his fall of the bed. Shinji then finally remembered something, and he hoped she was okay.

"Rei" Shinji turned to face Rei who was standing up and giving the exactly look excepted of someone who got crushed by a falling person in the middle of their sleep. But she also looked more worried about Shinji then herself.

"Shinji" Rei asked in a semi-monotone voice, "did it happen again?"

"Yea…" Shinji pushed himself away from the window sill and sat down on his bed, eventually lying down again, still with the presence of Rei looking over him. Rei wondered why Shinji was so sick all of a sudden, he didn't tell her what the dream was about, despite her asking every night this week.

"Are you alright?" Rei asked again

"I'll live" Shinji spoke "how about you, anything broken"

"I don't feel or appear to have sustained any physical harm from your decent to on top of me"

"Sorry about that" Shinji sighed.

Rei lay down again on her futon on the floor. Shinji managed to calm down even more now that she was confirmed okay. Although he knew that Rei was lying, she obviously can't hide the fact that she was more worried about Shinji's mental state then her own health. What a strange girl, made stranger when combined by her history and her other mental and physical attributes.

"Shinji, in the novel I was reading before…one character had a nightmare where she thought she was about to die. When she woke up, her roommate listened to this character about what had happened and helped her resolve her fear of what she saw in that dream" Rei asked quietly "do you want to talk about it?"

'Since when did Rei read novels?' Shinji hadn't noticed Rei with any possessions of that nature before and didn't think it was out of the ordinary for her to own nothing. He did recall Kensuke telling him that she had bought something; he couldn't recall the name of it though.

"I'm sorry Rei" Shinji replied "it's nothing I can say that easily, I'm just afraid it might be hard for you to understand"

"Why are you afraid to tell me?" Rei spoke,

Shinji groaned a sigh, Rei noticing the reluctance to telling his problems.

"I see" Rei replied "then I request that we swap positions, just in case you have that nightmare again"

Shinji sighed as he saw Rei get up. At least this time she had been wearing something that was not alarming to his mental physic. He started to wonder about the prospect of these dreams occurring this often. In that case, he would have to understand Rei's wish and take permanent residence on the floor until she and the doctor found accommodation for themselves.

Shinji surrendered his bed and fell to the floor, still tired despite his four or so hours he managed to get tonight. Rei saw him drop to the floor and start to sleep again on her futon. She got into his bed and started to get her body use to the bed comfort of a spring mattress. It felt odd that she was in his bed, but that thought quickly subsided as her subconscious took over and she fell asleep. They would wake up again in 40 minutes to face another day.


Location: Mecha gamers, Karasuyama-2

Time: 13:44hrs

Date: September 23nd, 2017

"Man you look tired" Kensuke took a look at Shinji who was slumping at the counter desk and was quite literally ready to die if he could. All throughout today, the precious four hours of sleep he got dissipated over the course of the morning. He had his final practice run before he had to face Touya. Shinji didn't know much longer he could take this abuse on his body. He figured he could sleep in the back room for a few hours, if he covered the store for the first half of the shift.

However, much to Shinji's apparent disliking, Kensuke was going out for the second half of the shift to do some errands before he went to the race meet. He supposed that it was his revenge for all the times that Shinji decided to leave the store without warning. So he was left to monitor the store himself; he wished the boss would hurry up and take a look at Asiska's resume and hire her, she would really help out right now.

"Just let me die" Shinji spoke in a low and tired voice "please…"

"Sorry man" Kensuke smiled "it's my turn to skip out and leave you with the store"

"Go to hell…" Shinji groaned, barely able to stay awake

Kensuke left and Shinji felt like wondering if he should really bother with the store and just sleep at the counter, if someone wanted to buy something, they would wake him up. No; he was tired and he really needed to sleep, but he had is priorities in order, he had to work. Shinji figured he could stand another hour before he couldn't physically do this.

"Hello?"

Shinji's head was on the bench, he heard a voice, meaning a customer. He sighed as he lifted his head up and looked at the person. At that moment he didn't know if he should feel relieved or if he should just hope he would die just now. Her presence thou did formulate some hidden energy to reimburse Shinji into mortality for a moment.

"Asisaka-san?"

"Hey Shinji" she said as shy as usual "I though I would come by and say good luck but…are you alright"

"Not really" Shinji yawned "I'm so tired…"

"But don't you have a road race tonight?" she replied worried

"I know…" he sighed "I just couldn't get any sleep last night"

Asisaka didn't know what she could do, she wanted him to win tonight, at the very least for the prestige of the local racers here. Always a shy girl, Asisaka never interacted with boys a lot, only Sousuke and from here, she was very knowledgeable with cars. She instantly respected Shinji when she learned that he was a road racer. She wanted to be a racer herself when she could afford a car and got her license.

"Um…"Asisaka spoke "do you want me to help out?"

Shinji didn't here that part at first, but when he did,

"Wha?"

"Well, you see…I've worked in stores before so I know to operate the machines and stuff" Asisaka started to babble "and if I'm going to work here…like your boss said…I could maybe…"

Shinji somehow wondered for a moment if it would be okay to pretend she was an employee for a few hours. On the one hand, he really couldn't care; it meant he could get some sleep in the back room. But he had only known her for at least a fortnight. He didn't want to give the impression that she was going to be used. One simple thing became something harder to imagine, he then wondered about it for a moment.

"I know that I'm only new…but I'm very trustworthy, honest...please"

'Why does she want to help me so badly' Shinji wondered to himself "I suppose…as long you don't have any troubles with doing anything else"

"Oh no, I have no other plans"

Shinji quickly gave her a tutorial over the store and where he could be found. She seemed willing, but at the same time he wondered if this was taking advantage of the innocent. He crashed on the couch in the backroom and quickly fell asleep hoping his morals wouldn't haunt him…although if it replaced that nightmare…Shinji could tolerate that kind of dream.

"Shinji-kun…Shinji-kun" the soft voice spoke

"Muh…wha?" His mouth breathed out his moans of confusion. He briefly opened his eyes to see that Aisaka-san was standing over his tired wreckage of a body.

"Oh, Asisaka-san" Shinji yawned and rumbled the strength to sit upright "is something the matter?"

"No, you just told me to come to you at the end of the shift to wake you up"

Shinji glanced a look at his watch; 6:30pm. He didn't except to be able to sleep for almost...Shinji did the mental arithmetic and realized he had been about to get almost four hours sleep. Not a single dream, not anything; Shinji was amazed that he managed to get a decent length of sleep without that nightmare, or any dream for that matter.

"6:30pm?" Shinji suddenly realized something "didn't I tell you to wake me up at 6:00pm?"

"Yes you did" Asisaka retreated whatever courage; she had been waiting for him to wake up for the last half an hour, she didn't have to wake up Shinji. She felt he really needed the sleep, and he found him kind of cute sleeping. She closed the shop up herself and waited on a chair next to the couch in the backroom; almost falling asleep herself, she then decided to wake him up so he could get ready for the race tonight.

"I suppose I needed it" Shinji sat up and un-kinked his arm before observing his surroundings "is Sosuske going to hit me if he finds you late home"

Asisaka realized she had forgotten that fact. She kept her mouth closed, but Shinji could tell by the red embarrassment on her face that Asisaka just remembered that.

"Come on" Shinji said "he is going to head up to the starting line of the course right?"

"Yea…but…"

"Come on, ill give you a ride" Shinji got up "I do owe you the favor after all"


Location: Mt Kira Road, Karasuyama-2

Time: 19:44hrs

Date: September 23nd, 2017

To insure that Misato didn't get the wrong impression, Shinji had rung ahead to ask her to take a lift with Ritsuko in her car; on the excuse he would be late from work. When Misato offered to pick him up from his workplace; Shinji said he had to do something else on the way home as well, as that would be why he was so late.

Shinji led Asisaka down the narrow street to his home, the tofu shop with the black Trueno parked on the side driveway. He felt odd that he was taking a girl home with him; he had done so, with Hikari and Rei, but they were friends and he was comfortable with them. Asisaka on the other hand two weeks ago was just that shy girl who came in to do the pickup order. Shinji sometimes reflected on how he managed to attract this sort of attention.

Surely enough, and to his relief, the blue and white FC was gone and all the lights were out. This didn't mean anything Shinji knew as Misato could be hiding a camera, or even she herself was watching Shinji and discover whatever his secret was. After he had quickly changed upstairs; he and Asisaka left in his black Trueno for the mountain. Until he reached the started of the pass, she had remained quiet as a mouse, wondering how to talk to him.

Shinji didn't mind the quiet; he still had some difficulty in driving and talking at the same time, although he had the same degree of displeasure of trying to talk to this girl.

"So you didn't have any problems in the store" Shinji spoke finally

"None" Asisaka replied meekly

"So you now know how the store works" Shinji replied "it shouldn't be a hard thing to get use to if you get the job for real"

"Yes"

Shinji mumbled a shrug and continued to drive up the mountain, still feeling some morbid amount of responsibility for taking advantage of her time for his sleep. He noticed how refreshed he was now, it wouldn't last long thou. He might be able to park the car somewhere else while another race went ahead of him. Shinji wanted to feel completely alert for this race, the four hours of sleep would complement his ability to stay awake, but not his ability to concentrate.

'knowing Misato, she bought some takeout' Shinji thought pleasingly, the food would be hot and energy proficient, all Shinji had to do know was get focused and be ready to deal with the race ahead.

At the mountain top, Ritsuko was showing Misato how stiff upper lipped she could be on any given day of the week. For the last ten minutes, they had been parked in a spot, which itself took fifteen minutes to acquire. Misato felt bad for Rei that her only example of an adult was this doctor, whom wasn't the most sociable person when it came to people younger then herself.

"Look how many kids are up here" Ritsuko noted with displeasing looks "doesn't anyone complain?"

"Yes" Misato said sighing "and you sound a lot like that woman"

Misato was looking around for the maroon R-32 they encountered last time they were here; it wasn't so much she was interested in him. But more or less she judged, he was the go-to person when it came to the affairs of road racers. In lead on an invisible leash, Rei kept good measure staying almost precisely 2 meters in front of the two middle aged women. To everyone else here, the girl looked like bait, if it were for the mother behind her.

Everyone in the road racer area was present during the last race and by now knew who Misato was; Ritsuko and Rei on the other hand seemed to be total strangers to this game.

"Keiichi-san" Misato cheerfully found the owner of the said car; he was talking to what she could guess were the race officials for tonight.

"Ms Katsuragi-san, good to see you again" Keiichi greeted. "So what brings the tofu shop manager here?"

"You know well why" Misato replied in humor "besides, what is a lonely lady like me going to do on a Saturday night?"

They both laughed, while Ritsuko now assumed that Misato had converted from her normal reality to this strange and crazy underground one that didn't seem to notice the legal ramifications of their actions.

"Well, where is Shinji" Keiichi asked

"He said he would be late this time, so we went up my friend's FC"

"An FC?" Sousuke spoke up from behind the group "that white blue FC?"

"Yes" Misato complied "don't worry, I don't have a driver for that, nor do I own the car"

Keiichi nodded and continued to explain to Misato when the race for when Shinji would be tonight. As she and Shinji both separately hoped, there would be one race before their race with Touya.

Misato said her complements to the DK and two or three other road racers whom were giving her body a good look. Misato felt quite comfortable with that, at the same time the irony that this was the result of a diet routine that Shinji enforced on her, despite her whining and bickering. That part she hoped would never spill out in detail yet.

Five hundred meters down the road, at roughly the half way point of the race. Another bunch of people gathered on the side of the road ready to watch the event. Despite her displeasing thoughts on this, even Hikari found it amazing that she was even here. At much presence of Toji; she agreed to watch Shinji's race tonight.

Kazuma and Kensuke both had gone over to the next town in the AE92 to pick up Naoko earlier so she could be here as well. The entire party had been setup and was now ready for Shinji's downhill race.

Kensuke earlier had gone to the shop to give the camera to Misato; at the likeliness she could get Shinji to add the camera again. Kensuke almost glowed from excitement, or stupidity as Toji called it; every time he heard some random comment about Shinji and his AE86. All the comments were good so far, and despite a lot of people's skepticism about the background of this racer, none were willing to question the victory he pulled against Takashi.

"So when is this race meant to start?" Naoko asked as she rummaged through the bags for chips; Kensuke wondered how that girl could eat so much and still be the top athlete at school.

"I'm not sure" Kensuke replied honestly "I'll call Misato"

Kensuke walked off to make his call in semi-private. At the same time, the Karasuyama-2 crime due left Toji and Hikari alone. If there was one thing Naoko was scary for, it was not only that she setup situations for lovers, but then she video tapped them like a stalker would and use it as evidence if they ever denied it. Hikari had grown to feel uncomfortable around her when she learnt this fact.

"Hello, Misato" Kensuke finally got through "do you know when Shinji is suppose to start?"

On the top of the mountain, Misato could hardly hear the kid on the phone, already the first two cars, a red Mazda MX-5 and a blue Nissan SX-180 were lining up and were revving their engines as a war cry.

"I talked to the master of events, he starts after this bunch; so twenty minutes time" Misato then asked the question "is Shinji down there with you?"

"No, I thought he was already here"

Misato felt bothered by that fact, and even more concerned about a 'what if' scenario. She decided to go confirm her worst fear first. She looked around for Keiichi.

"Keiichi-san" Misato found him with Sousuke, who seemed to be trying to look for someone.

"Ms Katsuragi-san?" Keiichi wondered what was going on

"If you started a race and my driver came up at the same time, what chances will there be…"

"practically zero" Keiichi assured her "we have radios and blinker lights at various corners on the track, if a car started coming up, we would inform the drivers by flashing the lights, or make the uphill car pull over"

That insured the problem, Misato then wondered what the problem that occupied both him and Sousuke was.

"Her name is Asisaka, she is Sousuke's younger sister" Keiichi came clean "nobody has seen her since midday, according to Sousuke, she went to see your driver at a shop of some sort"

Misato did the math in her head, and then chanced it that she already knew the answer.

"Don't worry then" Misato then realized the reason for Shinji's strange request before "I'm sure she is in good hands"


As true to her word, after the first race had concluded, the black Trueno pulled up alongside the road beyond the starting line and looked for a place to turn around. Inside, from what she could tell, Shinji was driving with a smaller female passenger. Misato would have a field day later on toying with Shinji

"Asisaka!" Sousuke first spoke when she got out of the car, before looking at Shinji who looked like he was lost and embarrassed

"Sorry oni-chan" Asiaka bowed "I took over Shinji's position so he could sleep this afternoon"

Behind the crowd, Ritsuko and Rei watched on as they saw the crowd of racers crowd around the two vehicles, it was the driver she was concerned about, as a doctor, she knew that even if he took several hours to sleep, he lacked the 15 or so minutes of deep sleep he got during a normal night's sleep. Since his body was under an incredible amount of stress in the last week; his ability to retain any sleep was lost.

Shinji probably couldn't have agreed anymore. 4 hours of sleep only made it possible for him to regain control of his body, walk around and do things; but his ability to concentrate was lost within an hour.

"Shinji-kun" Misato joked, "How many girls does this make it? 3? 4?"

This comment sparked a reaction from Sousuke and Keiichi to look at Shinji and Misato in utter shock. Sousuke looked over at his younger sister with greater concern.

"Misato!" Shinji argued "I'd never do that!"

"I know" Misato chuckled, and turned "don't worry guys; this kid wouldn't try anything, he's too scared"

"Hey!" Shinji echoed back his fury to Misato, the argument died quickly after that and the preparations for the race began. Quietly Sousuke brought her sister to the side and asked her simply

"Did he?" Sousuke got a shake of the head by his sister, confirming to him his best hopes. The cars were lined up and the drivers prepped. Shinji felt tired, and promised himself that once this race was over, he was going home. Misato confirmed that and said she would be going home in Ritsuko's FC. Meanwhile, Touya was concentrating close to the conversation with Takashi.

"Listen, don't underestimate this runt, he beat me with something I haven't even figured out yet"

"I don't think I have to worry about that tonight" Touya commented. Takashi and Yuki both spluttered angry looks, thinking their friend was still too proud.

"He has skill, ill admit" Touya commented "but he doesn't have the stamina we road racers have"

"What?" Yuki asked

"We road racers have learnt how to concentrate on the road and how to use our minds, prepare our daily schedule around a race" Touya gazed over at Shinji who was eating a quick snack given to him by Misato "Shinji is still in high school, and add that he has a job in the early morning, he has already spent most of the energy for his concentration on his school and job"

"That made no difference to me!" Takashi rebutted

"There is one difference" Touya spoke "notice his stamina?"

Yuki took a closer look and nodded in agreement; only a road racer could tell if someone was loosing sleep, there were certain signs to look for, it was hard to define them, they weren't seen, just felt.

"Sleep depriving stress" Yuki commented before changing his tone "but what if he falls asleep while driving, shouldn't we abort then?"

"No" Touya said "if he wanted out, he'd have told me yesterday, once committed, you must fight"

The further minutes only made Shinji more nervous as he was standing by the car waiting. Misato installed the camera and it was rolling, he was as ready, but his nerves were telling him to go to bed.

"Road is clear" Keiichi yelled "ready for battle"

Both drives nodded and made formal introductions

"Touya" he spoke in a low threatening voice

"Shinji" replied with an equally low tone, wanting to show that he wasn't afraid. Shinji got into his black Trueno and started the engine and sat back. His mind was at one, it was do or nothing.

"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1….GO!"

At once both Touya's Blue Siliva and Shinji's black Trueno floored it on the spot and catapulted forwards with charging speed down the straightway. Shinji focused hard straight away, he needed to push his mind at his fullest to try combat the first turns of the course, the turns he was incapable of perfecting.

The corner came up ahead, the crowds were on both the inside and outside track, Shinji decided that attacking this corner with the aggression that he did earlier in the week might cause damage to spectators, so he reduced his speed. Touya noticed this and made the advantage to get out of the neck and neck and get in front of the Trueno.

The corner came, despite the speed that Shinji was going at; his corner almost grazed a dent in the guardrail. Shinji blinked a few times, he wanted to race like in that dream, he was fast and on track.

'Your not going to win' Shinji heard the low voice of someone, he swore was thinking of his dream then. Shinji shook his head and focused again on the hairpin ahead. The race wasn't anything yet, but the S13 had already broken some pace distance from the 86.

'When I was your age Ikari, I didn't play with the big boys unless I knew how to win' Touya thought to himself 'your not like me though, your foolish instead' Touya smiled as he hit the brakes and spun his wheels to drift right around the corner. His Blue Nissan performed the drift almost perfectly, the drift placed him close to the crowd on his exit, but he was confident that he could beat this brat on a bike.

The Trueno followed behind, with almost identical drifting integrity, slower. Shinji was concentrating too much about his corners and the crowd to worry about his speed

'You're a child Shinji' the voice echoed again. Shinji swear it was nearby; then he saw it in the crowd, he saw him. His eyes couldn't look that far normally, but at the head of the next corner, Shinji saw him. Gendo Ikari.

'Impossible' Shinji thought' his mind froze for a second, then he relapsed and he saw what he could only panic to. Shinji's approach time was off by that critical second and his mind snapped instantly to turn the car around the corner as best he could, his drift was crazily performed but it managed to turn the Trueno around the corner at the right time; with the cost of the paint job on the back left corner of his car. He heard the smashing noise as the light bulbs were impacted against the iron guardrails.

His focus twitched again as he attempted to regain focus. As he tried to get his rhythm in place again, he found the Siliva, it was further ahead then before, thanks to Shinji's mental stall. He had it, he needed to forget it and floor it; at once Shinji accelerated as fast as he could, shifting up to fifth gear on the straightway,

'Your going to lose' the voice echoed again 'and your going to run away like the child you are'

'No' Shinji saw it again, this time, there wasn't one Gendo, the whole gallery was Gendo. The man wearing a black coat and glasses with a reflection that made you wonder how much he cared. What was Shinji thinking? He tried to focus off the presence of Gendo again. Then the corner came, Shinji knew it this time and focused on it, no lapse in time, just this time, he was coming in faster then needed.

'Die Shinji…." The echo boomed, Shinji screamed and turned the wheel, and used the brakes. He downshifted and then turned the car, took one wide swing and for a moment almost lost control of its own momentum forwards. Shinji set himself up again, his mind was nuts, he couldn't even concentrate properly anymore; he was loosing a battle against himself. It wasn't even about Touya anymore, it was about his father; he had to beat his father.

Shinji didn't care for his life before, and he most certainly now was starting to revert such feelings, as he accelerated down the straightway, now doing his best to ignore the chants of an evil and sinister rhythm. His body was pushing out all it could to defeat his mind. His nightmare was now breaking beyond the frontier between sleep and his real life, it was the final battle, and Shinji had run away so much in his dream, it was time to not be defeated.

The back Trueno screeched around the hairpin with speed as it virtually drifted around like it was on a set of tracks, Shinji was furious now, at his mind for triggering this. He wanted to defeat it thought, but the faster he went, the louder it got. Shinji pushed on in his marathon battle to defeat his father, whom now consumed the body of Touya and was now driving the Blue Siliva

'You'll never defeat me, you child' his taunt echoed in his mind 'you'll never defeat anyone'

Shinji responded in kind, by pushing his car faster around the next corner, his mind was completely dead of concentration; whatever he was focusing on wasn't the race. Shinji pushed the gears down on the corner and kicked his brakes with panic as his speed again was faster then the cornering allowed, but Shinji was determined to beat that with a sharp and power drift. He did so continuously, but already now both rear headlights were damaged Shinji's Trueno was showing some impressive scratch marks on the front and back of his car.


"He's doing what?" Misato replied the man over the radio "both sides?"

Misato had heard this since the first time Shinji scratched the car. She wasn't all that worried about the car thought, what was Shinji doing? He wasn't falling asleep was he?

"Its stress induced hallucinations" Ritsuko spoke up, gaining the attention of other road racers around Misato

"What?" Misato asked

"If Shinji were falling asleep, he would've crashed by now or his pace would've slowed down at this point" Ritsuko replied. Keiichi and Sousuke both nodded and found themselves confused too. Ritsuko noted them and expanded her gaze to include the two road racers.

"That doesn't make sense, he is going faster, if he were having hallucinations, he means he has lost concentration" Sousuke explained

"In cases were the driver hasn't sleep for a while and isn't properly ready for a race, that's true" Ritsuko noted "but at the moment, Shinji is using his concentration to fight off his hallucinations. Leaving him to race on nothing but his skills and knowledge of the course"

"That's crazy" Misato spoke

"That's possible" Keiichi spoke "but that theory works if he wasn't at racing pace"

"But Shinji hasn't got a choice" Ritsuko spoke "a hallucination might mislead him to turn left instead of right. His concentration can't contradict that, but his memory of the course will, and Shinji will be wise enough to pick the latter of his mind's opinion"

"But then what happens if he runs out of concentration" Sousuke said

"At the moment, his concentration is fighting off his hallucinations, but even that can't last forever, and when it does, he won't have much in the way of defense for his memory. His hallucinations will push him to mislead the path he is going and make him pick a fatal line instead of the best one"

"But one thing I don't get" Keiichi spoke "even if he had his concentration, his memory of the course is only able to keep up with him for a certain pace; in fact he hasn't slowed down, he needs to fight that and keep real-time updating of where he is"

"That's because whatever Shinji is fighting in his hallucinations is also racing him" Ritsuko look down the straightway "tonight he is battling someone else in that Siliva"

"But that's Touya driving, what or who else is he racing?"


Shinji wasn't ready to quit yet, his mind was more determined now, up ahead was the straightway midpoint and there started the most familiar part of the course for Shinji. He smiled as he started speeding up, Touya was 3 seconds ahead of him, but Shinji didn't see Touya in the seat, he saw someone else he wanted to beat.

Shinji was determined to not leave his father to outrun him in this car. He took the next corner with tight ease and pushed his limits further then before. Shinji didn't want to lose now, he had to gone too far now to just retreat and let this man that haunted his life for years just step all over him again.

Shinji took the next corner tightly as he braked and accelerated out of his drift with crazy speed, his concern for hitting the outer guard rail was replace now about his fear of hitting the inner guardrail. Shinji had already scraped his right side and his left indicator light was now broken.

Shinji had his eyes fixated on the 4 red dots that made up the Siliva's brake lights on every straightway, the driver disturbingly visible the mirror angle. Gendo was there now; he was smiling back at Shinji in the manner of taunting him to surrender.

'no I wont you bastard' Shinji saw the Siliva disappear around the corner, only to be met two seconds later with the Trueno hot on his tail again.

'The kid is catching up?' Touya saw behind him that the black Trueno was slowly catching up, he had thought the two dings he had done in the first few corners would've scared Shinji to retreat and slow down, but whatever he was thinking made him go even faster.

Inside the car, Shinji was fighting his body to stay focused on the road, he couldn't stand it now, and his concentration fighting off his father's chants were failing as his ability to ignore was slowly being degraded. Shinji knew that if he was going to defeat him, he had to defeat this first. The bastard wasn't going to mislead him.

'Just focus on the red dots' Shinji did so, they were the only things he could do now, his mind wasn't trusted enough to its memory of the course, he just trusted his timing around corners. If he could keep the taillights in his sight, he could beat him.

Shinji reduced his gap from 2 seconds to just behind Touya, Shinji wasn't trying anything though, when those red lights flash, he braked, when the sped off, he caught up. When he saw them move left or right, he moved left or right. His eyes focused on the car ahead, it was the only thing he could use to beat.

'I've got to beat this bastard' Shinji kept saying 'tell me to run away? I wont run away from you bastard!' Shinji kept saying as he continued to take the next corner, he his hand yanked the gear stick back to second and throttled it to first; then reserved the pattern when he catapulted out of a corner. Ahead of Shinji, Touya was now starting to be afraid of Shinji's pattern, he was literally on his back, and he was staying tighter then he could handle, Touya pushed his pacing faster, only to be matched by Shinji by the next corner.

'Was he pretending to fail before?' Touya asked himself 'did he ding his car on purpose to make me think he was bad?' Touya throttled into 4th gear and accelerated down the hill with the Trueno following dangerously close.

'it's time to end this you bastard' Shinji swore again as he saw his opening in the straightway, he stopped focusing his eyes on the brake lights of his competitor and swung a bit to the left, Shinji looked to the road for the first time since he started staring at the skyline's rear.

Touya saw Shinji starting to make his move, and saw the corner ahead. Shinji wanted to take him from the inside, bad thing to do considering his positioning on the course. The entire setup Shinji had been looking for was dangerous though. Shinji felt his opening and started accelerating down until he was neck and neck with this monster that only pleased him with death of others. Shinji was borderline crazy, well maybe not that, but he was now at a point where his life depended on sanity remaining.

The crowd saw the whole thing, the inside corner was on Shinji's side; the Trueno started to drift on the relatively wide corner and gained the lead, but for only a moment. Touya's belated attack pushed him to overtake him from the inside, he had to time perfectly his run, but he did it. The Trueno's drift opened a gap large enough for his blue Siliva to explode out of the corner and use the time the Trueno recovered from is cornering drift to cut in. Touya retained the lead and took his entire engine's might to snag ahead before the Tureno had a chance to speed up.

Shinji was furious with himself for not being able to protect his short lived lead. That bastard Gendo was back in the lead…yes, its Gendo in the seat, not some jock who thinks you can't drive; it's the bastard father who thinks you can't exist. Shinji knew now he couldn't just give up. He had to win; his objective wasn't to let this bastard win.

Shinji managed to catch himself dangerously close to his opponent's tail and readied to take him over. Shinji pulled to the left and made his attack for the outside, up ahead was an S corner set with a hairpin. He had to attack this man called his father. Shinji accelerated his car and belated trying his attack until the corner.

Touya knew he was going to take the attack and try cut his drift off, he was going to try again from the outside. Shinji refused to believe in defeat now, die or not, he did not want to lose.

'GO' Shinji braked right on the mark and pushed his Trueno into the corner turn, at that moment, Shinji saw the headlights of the Siliva pass from behind him to his left side and saw the Siliva start to turn into a drift line, it pushed Shinji closer to the line and closer to the outer gutter, Shinji however still nosed his car over the point where the gap between the inner gutter and the Trueno made it impossible for the Siliva to overpass, however his counter drift was needed and this is where Shinji's ploy failed.

At the moment his Trueno gained forward space on the middle of the road, the Siliva straighten out to the right of the Trueno and on the inside edge of the next corner, the Trueno's counter drift swung mere few inches from the bonnet of the blue Nissan; Sending a chilling message to Touya that Shinji was serious.

Shinji's drift was fantastic if it wasn't for the wide turn line and the Siliva has already marked time and blocked Shinji being able to stop the Siliva from gaining the corner. The angle let off at the end of the curve and the cars were neck and neck. Shinji knew that the next hairpin was tight and the Siliva would just take the corner from the outside and block Shinji's inside track and then nose ahead.

Shinji had to pull his run now or never, the finish line was too close ahead to not pull it now, Shinji accelerated faster and prepared for the corner swing. Touya made no apology for keeping dead on his tail, he was now seeing the broken headlights of the black Trueno now, he refused to believe if but the 'runt' was beating him. But then his next move to block Shinji was interrupted by the Trueno's unexplained turning, Touya couldn't understand it, but Shinji was breaking around the corner with no drift at a higher speed. But he could see what he was doing; he was still fast enough to drift and keep the Trueno in sight.

'Hooking the gutter?' is that your little trick, 'well….' Touya fronted his car on the straightway and speed faster towards the final corner, Shinji saw what he was attempting, but guessed wrongly. Shinji took the dive for the corner and made himself ready to…Shinji jerked himself when the Siliva turned outwards for the outer edge of the corner, only to have him doubt back and; Shinji blinked and realized the trick that the bastard was going to do, the bastard that was Gendo wanted to beat him with. Shinji wasn't out of ideas yet and risked everything,

"Shit!" Touya saw it happen. He had taken the inner corner of the track and blocked Shinji from hooking the gutter at the start of the hairpin, but Shinji had drifted till he was half in front, then sped right in front of his Siliva, with some sort of fate in the balance, he forced Touya to panic break, Shinji then used the advantage of the open to impulsively duck for the gutter at the halfway point, the wheels hooked, barely and rode him to the end of the hairpin.

It was as simple as the overtaking on the last three corners, but Shinji was crazy to pull it off in front on the outside edge of the car instead of behind it from the inside. It wasn't a simple block; it was a dive for the gutter, if the Siliva didn't brake, the Nissan would've slammed direct on the driver side and most likely roll the car off the corner and into the gallery.

Touya's heart was healthy, but nothing was expecting him to see this. It wasn't a block; he took him out and started the gutter run, during the corner. Inside the Trueno, Shinji saw ahead the finish line, he could stop it now, he high the accelerator hard and fast, he kept kicked it, and he kept screaming it. Looking ahead at the invisible barrier that separated him between now and victory; he didn't flinch.

Touya did everything he could but it was useless; his near miss brake stalled him from taking a neck to neck, he lost a full second. He kept hitting the accelerator, but the tip of his car's bonnet could only nose ahead of his destroyed rear lights when Shinji past the finish line.


Shinji took a good five hundred meters to slow down and turn around. He slowly drove up to the parking lot and closed his eyes. His adrenaline was now there, the last five minutes when his dream invaded his life; it was like the moment he past the line the voices and his father disappeared. What just happened? He couldn't figure out; when he past the line, did he really beat his father?

Shinji was feeling sick now, so it was no surprise when he stopped, he ran out of the car and located the nearest bush to throw up behind. Touya had already stopped and was waiting for him when he saw Shinji stop abruptly and run in the direction of the bushes. Naturally, he followed, cautiously.

It took a decent five minutes before Shinji was dry enough to speak again. When he was he got up and coughed up remaining parts of whatever was in his stomach. Shinji searched his mind again for an answer to his questions. Shinji didn't have to walk far when he saw that Touya had followed him as far as to his own car.

"If you need, I can call the doctor" Touya spoke

"I'm alright" Shinji lied, he felt something like he was lighter. He thought about his answer for a moment, and then he realized what the meaning of tonight was.

"Well, I guess I owe you and Takashi an apology" Touya said "I don't know what inspired you but that took some guts"

"I just didn't want to lose tonight" Shinji said "I had to beat myself tonight"

"Huh?" Touya didn't understand "you beat yourself?"

"Never mind" Shinji spoke "it's a hard thing to say, but thanks for helping me"

"Sure you don't want to see a doctor?"


Some twenty minutes past and Misato, Shinji and company had left the scene; Misato driving now exhausted Shinji who was no longer awake. Takashi came down with Yuki, thinking that Touya was pissed. Instead when the found him, he was in his car thinking.

"It was strange, I thought he was dazed in his sleep, but he never left my tail after the halfway mark" Touya explained to Takashi "but whatever he was pushing for, he must've wanted the victory pretty badly, because he told me that he was battling himself"

Yuki and Takashi gave him confusing looks,

"One things for sure, he is still quite something" Takashi looked back up the mountain "give him time and we'll see some amazing things on this mountain"


A/N and ten hours ago i was thinking of skipping this week. sorry ppl if the quality isnt as good. 2 more weeks till summer break, then ill be able concerntate on this better, so while i cant promise a chapter next time, i will try.

anyway, as per usual, read then review.

P.S for you asuka fans, dont worry, she's coming...later.