Covenant Red
Chapter 10: Faith
Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion.
/\/\/\/\
It arrived before dawn, beneath a ceiling of dusty clouds. Past waters and hills, into the valley of steel and glass towers that crowded the sky. Isolated bursts of rain lingered to become a steady, unrelenting deluge. Weather and terrain were neutral obstacles, temporary hindrances lengthening the placid inevitability.
Kensuke peered at the Nephilim through his scope as it wobbled towards a deserted intersection. The teardrop-shaped creature was the size of a small couch, covered in haphazard streaks of rusty metallic green.
Another weird-looking one, he thought. "I've got a clear shot."
"No reason to give up your position yet," Asuka said back. "We'll hit this rotten egg first; be ready to back us up. What about it's AT field?"
She and Toji were on either side of the intersection behind cover. Rei was out of sight around a nearby corner.
"No field, no eye," Kensuke reported from his high-rise perch. "It doesn't seem very threatening."
"Such things change quickly."
The Nephilim moved past her into an open expanse of slick asphalt and Asuka fired. The bullets passed through it, peppering the face of a building. The Nephilim's shape lost composure and slunk to the street, expanding outward in all directions dozens of yards, encompassing both Asuka and Toji.
"A shadow?"
From its edges jagged pillars rose and connected overhead into a black dome, trapping the two Children inside.
"Are you okay?" Kensuke panicked. The Nephilim's AT field appeared around the dome in a pulsating geometric canopy, vivid against the rain.
"Terrific," Asuka replied. "Zero visibility in here. At least it's blocking the storm."
"I'd punch us out," Toji said, "but I can't see a thing."
"Don't go wandering off. Stay where you are and I'll find you."
The AT field canopy abruptly stopped pulsing outward, inverting to inward. The dome began shrinking. Kensuke peered at the street left in its wake; nothing remained. It was disintegrating the asphalt.
A weaponized AT field? "Guys?" he began. "Problem."
The eye opened inside the dome, illuminating Asuka and Toji in deep red. She fired at it, the bullets ricocheting wildly back at them.
"Don't do that again," he said.
"Noted."
"Don't touch the walls," Kensuke warned. The dome was growing smaller at a steady pace. "It looks like its eating the street." He scoured the outside again in desperation. "I still don't see the eye. What do I do?"
Asuka crossed her arms in thought. Everyone waited. The dome shrank.
"Running out of time," she muttered. She unsheathed the combat knife on the small of her back and tossed it to Toji.
After a fumble he grasped it. "Careful!"
"Your blood skill might generate enough force to cut through the AT field to the eye," she told him. "Aida can't see it, so if he snipes he might hit us. First," she addressed Ayanami, "start weakening the field."
Rei had approached the Nephilim from her cover, standing alone at the edge of what remained of the street intersection.
"Understood," she said, and held a hand toward the dome.
Toji planted his feet and thrust the knife at the eye. The AT field flared against it, preventing contact. He frowned.
"I'm at the limit here," he said. The knife strained in his grip and he was forced backwards a step. The dome closed in. "Any other ideas?"
Kensuke watched from above as the inverted field coalesced at a single point, and told them. "It must be where you're attacking the eye."
He held his tongue. Taking a near-blind shot with Asuka and Toji in such close proximity was too risky. He couldn't ask them to place that kind of trust in his abilities. The rifle WILLE issued him was modified against Nephilim physiology and AT fields. It would, at the least, cause irreparable damage to a human.
"Aim high," Toji told him.
"We're dead if you do nothing," Asuka agreed. "The Second will keep the field focused on our side of things. Now, hurry up and finish it off."
After a breath and a prayer Kensuke fired. The shot holed the top half of the Nephilim eye. The black dome rippled twice and dissolved into the rain, revealing the two unscathed Children teetering on a three yard wide circle of street. Around and beneath it was cleaved away, laying bare cross sections of underground pipes and sewers.
"Target eliminated," Rei reported back to HQ.
"Good job," Aoba told everyone. "Head home."
Through his scope Kensuke saw Toji and Asuka leap back to the untouched street. Toji offered a thumbs-up in his direction. A VTOL approached, floodlights slashing through the rain. Kensuke stood and waved, waiting for retrieval.
He allowed himself to relax. The Nephilim was dead, having barely made any progress into the city. WILLE's aboveground front was nowhere in sight. There was no reason to retreat back to it, no reason to wake up Ikari, no reason to see Soryu act strangely with him. There was no reason to ask more questions he wasn't getting answers to.
It was just another day.
/\/\/\/\
It still rained. The Children huddled beneath a tarp in WILLE's provisional camp at the edge of the battlefield waiting for the van back to the trams and HQ. Asuka slid across the middle two seats when it arrived, getting comfortable.
"Still?" Toji complained.
"Still. It's bad enough I have to ride in this cramped junker with your gross, sweaty butt. I am not letting you touch me. Get in the back."
With a long-suffering sigh he got in the back. Kensuke climbed in beside him without being told.
"What about Ayanami?" he asked, pointing to the girl still standing outside. Due to the heavy armor on the van, only two seats were usable on both middle and back rows. "You can't call her butt gross or sweaty."
"The hell I can't. You don't have to share a locker room with it. Then again, I bet you'd like that. Pervert."
This was delivered not with her usual, carelessly laid-back abuse. She sounded truly disgusted.
"No, I wouldn't!" Kensuke objected. "And you're changing the subject!"
"Not my fault you're easily distracted. I really don't get the whole puppet attraction thing. You're such a deviant."
"I'm not— It is not like that."
"Give it a rest, you two," Toji sighed.
"Just let her in the van," Kensuke tried. He glanced at Rei. "It's still raining pretty hard. And, I mean, we're all heading to the same place so it makes sense to travel together."
Asuka did not move. "It's not sitting next to me," she stated. "It'll just have to walk back to its cell."
Kensuke looked at Toji for support, who ignored him. "Fine. She can have my seat. I'll wait for another van."
He made to leave. Asuka jammed a foot against the window to block him in. "No, you won't. Humans take priority. This Turing Test reject can wait. Not like it did anything important."
"Soryu—"
"Shut up. Why you continue to defend it defies comprehension—"
The armored guard in the van's passenger seat got out. He eyed the teenagers. "Call from the Commander. Get back to HQ." He gestured to Rei, who had absorbed the entire exchange with an idle apathy. "Get in the front."
She watched him move back, one hand planted on his sidearm, before calmly entering the van.
The doors shut. The vehicle rumbled to life. Asuka relaxed.
"Crank up the heat, will you?" she called to the driver. "Nephilim usually pick nice, sunny days to bother us." She let her foot sway, hitting the passenger seat's back just enough for Rei to feel it. "Your cousins are getting dumber."
Kensuke frowned.
"Let it go," Toji breathed his way.
Asuka's foot continued to hit the seat. Rei did not react.
They rode.
Damn it, Kensuke thought. How could they function so efficiently in battle and suffer such disharmony out of it? The trust they placed in him during the fight seemed to vanish. He was riding in a van full of hostile strangers.
Why did Asuka treat Rei so poorly but reserve such kindness for Shinji? They were both Nephilim, so the reason must lie beyond simple prejudice. With Rei, it was scorn and abject cruelty, above and beyond the usual idle irritation. Asuka acted like not killing her in cold blood was a struggle. Toji seemed content to accept that but Kensuke could only see problems arising from it all.
People treated him like a person, so he felt like a person. He wondered what Ayanami thought of herself after being treated like a monster by everyone.
They arrived at base. The Children headed to their respective locker rooms, the entrances facing one another in the same hallway. Toji ducked in the men's without a word. Kensuke lingered outside as he saw Asuka turn on Rei.
"This is the lady's room," she said, and pointed up at the placard beside the door. "See? Women only. Humans only. Go find a dark closet to change in or something."
Rei was unresponsive. She did not move.
"Just stay outside until I'm finished," Asuka said, and entered.
Rei waited in a small puddle, still dripping from the storm. Kensuke approached.
"Hey, how are you?"
She glanced at him. "My body is recovered."
"That's good." He recalled her bleeding freely from her nose and ears. Her blood was red, like a human. "That's good. I'm glad this fight wasn't as dangerous as last time."
"Every encounter is dangerous."
"Yeah. You're right." He watched her wait by the door with placid indifference, just like she absorbed the abuse from Asuka. "Hey. I'm sorry about Soryu. I mean, it's no fun getting insulted by her all the time. Heh. I have some experience with that."
"It is of no concern."
"I wish I could look at it that way. Maybe I'm being too self-conscious around her. If I try a little nonchalance she might open up without realizing it. Then again…" It isn't working for you.
His eyes fell on her neck. Any bruising had cleared up, though the bomb collar remained, pressing tightly against her pale skin. He tried to push away the negativity of her situation.
"So," Kensuke began, "what are your plans for the rest of the day? I mean, yeah, we have to go to the debriefing and all, but that won't take forever. What is there to do on base besides train? I remember seeing a library, and then there's that huge garden place… Um, hey! I know. We could all catch a meal after the debriefing. Well, Soryu probably won't, but I could bug Toji and maybe Ms. Ibuki and the other lieutenants and we could all go to the caf and… It's not really the same as a real restaurant, but…"
He trailed off. It dawned on him how truly miserable being trapped alone on base must be.
"We could all at least try to be more friendly and—"
Rei turned to look at him. He backed up a step despite himself.
"What you humans do means nothing to me," she told him.
She returned to the locker room door, waiting for Asuka to finish.
It felt like she slapped him. Kensuke would have preferred it. He had no rebuttal for what she said.
After wasting a moment in awkward silence staring at her back, he retreated to the men's locker room to change. Toji did not offer conversation.
When the debriefing began Kensuke sought out Rei from his seat. She sat alone near the back, coolly at attention, absorbing the meeting without any noticeable reaction. When the lights dimmed for the main monitor, her red eyes glowed in the dark. Along with the display on the bomb collar.
It was just another day, Kensuke told himself again.
/\/\/\/\
"… government then passed Resolution 7-41, the so-called 'Baby Bill,' which promised tax benefits for married couples expecting children, in response to the continual decline of national birthrates. Not just here, but most developed countries used financial incentives to encourage population growth in the face of such dramatic drops in pregnancies. Why, even scientific advances in the field of IVF bore little fruit, and so…"
The teacher continued the economics lecture, wandering seamlessly from global affairs to gauzy recollections of his youth. Not from senility, but a deep yearning for days past and a hope his students would realize what was lost so they could acquire the drive and motivation to reclaim it.
The bulk of it was lost on Kensuke. As his teacher entered an extended digression on the insidious proliferation of multi-nationalist corporations destroying local cultural pride and identity, he tuned out completely.
It rained since the battle yesterday. He idly watched it come down in sheets beyond the classroom windows. He never minded the rain; it was an invitation to stay indoors and waste time electronically, and he liked how it smelled after a storm.
He glanced at Asuka. She looked gloomy. Or, the approximation of gloomy. It was hard to peer past her beauty. He wondered if the weather dampened her mood. Kensuke turned to Toji, asleep on his open desk terminal. Maybe it was just a girl thing.
Classes eventually ended. The students packed up to depart. Toji rose languidly and began stretching.
"Ah, a nap before a workout. Nothing better."
"You still have basketball practice in this weather?" Kensuke asked.
"Our captain managed to snag half the gym today. Despite people moving away, securing areas for sports is still tough." He smiled. "So, you change your mind? Want to sign up for the team?"
"Nothing good has ever come from me competing athletically. I'll pass."
"All right," Toji said, heading out. "But don't come crawling when the class rep gets on your case for not joining any clubs."
That was Kensuke's cue to duck out of school as well, hoping to avoid any extra attention from Horaki. He headed home, checking his phone for missed messages from WILLE. The evening appeared free; no planned training sessions or surprise medical appointments. He was mildly disappointed. He wanted the opportunity to say no to them, when the fate of the city wasn't at stake. Ditching an actual attack was unthinkable, despite his antipathy. His only chance for rebellion was disrupting WILLE's schedule which he admitted was ultimately pointless.
He arrived home to multiple familiar domestic crises. The dishes could wait. Cleaning the bathroom could wait. Homework could always wait. Kensuke checked his closet. Laundry could no longer wait. He filled the hamper and headed back out into the rainy city.
The apartment complex did boast laundry facilities in the basement, but as Kensuke soon found it was almost always in use or booked for use. The building housed most of the WILLE workforce between shifts and most seemed to arrive at the same financial conclusion regarding washing machines.
So he found a close, cheap laundromat with free wi-fi and came to reserve Thursday nights for laundry. Toji had practice and homework usually tapered off midweek. Aside from WILLE he had no other responsibilities. He brought his phone and wasted time on mobile games until the laundry cycle was complete.
Kensuke dumped the first load into a washing machine and sat before it to start his dinner. Living on his own still had not impressed on him the need or desire to learn how to cook. He had a microwave so frozen meals were good enough. His stipend was generous, he grudgingly admitted, so eating out was an option as well. It wasn't the healthiest diet but he relied on his genetics to ward off weight until now and he saw no reason to change things. Even on laundry nights, when his dinner consisted of whatever he could cobble together from the laundromat vending machines. He opened his first bag of chips with his teeth as he scrolled through his phone, looking for a game to pass the time.
The laundromat entrance rattled open. A cold gust of wind and water searched him out. He shielded his phone's screen and glanced at who entered. The Thursday regulars were already present: Kensuke, an elderly man who sat patiently in his undershirt while his clothes ran, and a woman with a taste for animal prints. At the door was an unexpected face.
"Whew!" Mana Kirishima said, shaking her umbrella out. "What a storm."
The proprietor, a middle-aged man without humor, eyed her from behind the front desk. "No loitering."
"Ah, don't be like that. It's raining cats and dogs out there. I'm soaked." She displayed herself, but saw he would not entertain her wiles. "And I'm meeting a dear friend here for dinner. Your loyal customer."
She signaled for Kensuke to hurry over. He trudged to her side.
"Yeah," he said. "I sort of know her. Can she stay for a while?"
"Fifteen minutes if she buys something." The man nodded at the vending machines before turning back to a small TV behind his desk.
"It's a deal!" Mana said. She elbowed Kensuke. "Psst. Give me some money."
A few yen poorer, Kensuke returned to his washing machine and sat. Mana followed carrying a soda. Despite himself, he failed not to stare. She was in business attire and heels, looking mature beyond her years. Neglected fetishes rushed to the surface. Only her impish grin reminded him she was just a couple years older than he was.
"Oh, the get-up?" she asked, spinning on a heel. "I was out with some other paper-pushers for a government function in town. On my way back to the train I saw you across the street. I couldn't just not say hi. Hey, what's with that incredulous look? It's a small city."
"It is not a small city."
"Then it's fate," she said dreamily. "Or you're stalking me."
"I bet you'd be flattered. No. This is where I always do my laundry. The apartment is too busy."
"God, I'd hate to live near the people I work with." She grinned sheepishly. "Oops. How on earth could I possibly know that about you?"
Kensuke just scowled at her.
"It's no fun if I can't tease you," Mana complained. "Why the rainy mood, sunshine?"
"Do I really have to tell you? If WILLE keeps tabs on me, I can't believe your bosses don't."
She had the good manners to look contrite. "Hearing about you at a debriefing is way different than talking to you in person, Aida. I'd like it if you told me yourself."
Well, shit, he thought. Why did Mana have to be a cute girl? It wasn't fair to turn on the charm like that and bring his defenses down. Was the sexual warfare a conscious decision, or didn't she realize how devastating she could be?
He told himself he was getting too paranoid. Not everyone shared WILLE's deceitful ways. He refocused; a cute, older girl was taking an interest. While romance was not on his short list at the moment, he did enjoy Mana's company.
"I found out I can't have children," he said. "WILLE won't take the risk with anyone who has a blood skill."
"Oh."
"So, you did know already?" Kensuke asked. "Even when we first met?"
"I didn't have concrete evidence, but since Soryu and Suzuhara were sterilized, I assumed." She looked away. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before."
"It didn't exactly come up. Forget about it." He sighed and leaned back against the washing machine. "It's not like I wanted kids today or anything. Maybe I'm making too big a deal of this."
"No," Mana said slowly. "You are not. They had no right to do that to you. I don't care about their justifications; at least Suzuhara and Soryu signed up for it. You weren't given any choice."
It was comforting to finally find someone to commiserate with. His normal contacts were all either loyal to WILLE or completely ignorant of its existence. There was an easy calmness in speaking to Mana. Even if he was being spied on, Kensuke felt like Kirishima was trying to be genuine with him. She might indeed be a UN agent but she was upfront about it.
"As shitty as it is, I'm glad you found out," she told him. "Even if it was through a secondary. Then again, it's not like my higher-ups tell me everything, either."
"I met your boss a while ago," he remarked.
"Mr. Kaji?"
"Yeah. He seemed really, um, cool." There was no way around that fact. He regretted bringing it up.
Mana groaned louder than necessary. "Well, then the performance was a success."
"Excuse me?"
"That's his whole shtick. He makes people relax, gets them comfortable and off guard, then swoops in for the kill. I swear to God the crap I've seen him pull with female agents or UN delegates is obscene. He just can't keep it professional. If he wasn't hot he'd be buried under sexual harassment lawsuits."
"So you think he's hot," Kensuke sulked.
"Hey, I'm trying to be honest with you. Yeah, he's good-looking, but I'd rather gargle razorblades than kiss the hypocritical bastard." She noticed his shocked expression. "Don't get me wrong. I'd take a bullet for him without a second thought but his 'appreciation' of women is disgraceful for someone who seeks truth."
"You'd die for him?"
"Of course." Mana's voice was clear and steady. "He saved me. He writes it off as doing his job but he risked his safety for mine. I can't forget that."
Oh, Kensuke thought. So her dedication wasn't out of love, but obligation. She felt indebted to the man. He being unfairly handsome was a freak coincidence.
"He's the one who opened my eyes," she went on. "He's the one who taught me how important truth is." She looked at him. "I want you to understand how important it is, too, Aida."
"I'm not a pathological liar."
"I know. I think your heart is in the right place. Most of the time." She smiled and slid down beside him against the washing machine. She started on the remainder of his chips.
"Help yourself," he frowned.
"That's right. We're just two people hanging out in a laundromat sharing a meal." Mana ate. "Have you heard of a group called SEELE?"
"Should I have?"
"I think so. They're the ones creating Nephilim." She had his attention and continued on in a quiet, casual tone. "It was SEELE agents that freed the Nephilim that attacked your old home, the one being transported by the UN fleet. The naval crew was infiltrated, which is troubling enough, but there was apparently no real plan other than letting it loose. Nephilim possess some kind of innate drive that leads them here, to WILLE HQ. And it followed, even wounded. Right through your old apartment building."
Kensuke tried to ignore the cold sweat beading his forehead. The memory of the structure collapsing before him, killing his neighbors and the cute girl in the market, gleefully sprang to his attention.
"We're figuring the fact it was injured messed with its navigation a bit," Mana went on. "Normal Nephilim don't just plow through stuff in their way. As you probably saw, there were lots of casualties. Although it wasn't the highest body count from an attack."
"So why is this SEELE group making monsters?" he asked, desperate to change the conversation slightly.
"A good question," she said. "We've known about them for decades, but it isn't like they have a sitting stronghold somewhere we can raid. They stay hidden, creating fronts or infiltrating existing organizations to achieve their ends. The UN and SDF have quietly dismantled a few mobile lab sites, but they keep popping up. As for what they're trying to accomplish with Nephilim, I can't say. It's super top secret. I wonder if even Mr. Kaji knows…"
She shook her head.
"They used a genetics lab at first, in this city, luring in brilliant scientists with the promise of power, money, and immunity from international medical law. That was the beginning of NERV."
"Soryu mentioned that name before," Kensuke told her. "I don't think she realized she said it, though."
"NERV was WILLE's forerunner. Soryu was a member, along with Suzuhara, and Katsuragi. Although back then, she wasn't the boss—"
He was horrified. "They were working for the bad guys?"
"Patience, Mr. Sniper. I told you SEELE stays hidden. Most people don't know they exist. Katsuragi didn't when she joined NERV, and the Children certainly didn't, either. They were all recruited under the leadership of two people, handpicked by SEELE to oversee their wishes. Gendo and Yui Rokubungi ran NERV like an authoritarian empire, quickly building power and influence."
Mana was solemn.
"Others tried to replicate their success. A lot of kids were subjected to all sorts of experiments because of it. I asked you before, why can only kids be given Nephilim blood and survive? It has to be what NERV started seventeen years ago. It coincided with the decline in global birthrates, as well as the creation of the first Nephilim."
Kensuke bit his tongue, trying to remain patient. Questions he gave up on having answered rushed to be heard.
"Nephilim weren't originally intended for combat," she told him. "And they weren't always so strange looking. You must have noticed it. How they look less and less human. Heck, Ayanami could almost pass for normal in comparison."
"Physically," he said quickly.
She eyed him. "Mmm. Anyway, the point is their increasingly bizarre appearances and abilities reflect SEELE's failed attempts to replicate NERV's methods."
"What were Nephilim supposed to be for?" he asked.
"Fifteen minutes is up," the proprietor called over to them.
Mana glowered, extorted another handful of money from Kensuke, and made a show of buying another soda. The proprietor went back to his TV show.
She returned to her seat. She opened the drink and took a sip. She looked at him, deadly serious.
"Do you believe in souls?" Mana asked.
Not the question he was expecting. Kirishima struck him as a fun girl, albeit with an underlying pragmatism necessitated by her job. He did not see her as devoutly religious, or spiritually new age.
"Um…"
"No, I agree with you," she said. "Unless I can see it with my own two eyes, I can't believe in it. But apparently NERV found a way to digitize a person's soul. Or, digitize what they thought was a soul. It was more than simply recording memories. It was enough to start experimenting with putting it in different bodies.
"NERV was presented as a biomedical firm to the public, specializing in artificial limb and organ growth. In a sense, they were. Cloning is simply the extreme. It's also wildly illegal and unethical. They were just trying to cheat death. When your body got too old, or too sick, or too injured, they'd download you into a new one."
"That might not be terrible," Kensuke said. "I mean, what about kids with terminal cancer? Digitize them into a healthy body."
Mana was somber. "NERV and SEELE were not altruistic. They were not looking to cure the world's ills. They were playing God, because they could. And they played it on a mountain of blood and sacrificed lives. You've seen firsthand what their experiments brought forth. It destroyed your old home. It threatens your life every other day. And life is meant to be precious. Creating new bodies, soul-swapping… they negate what makes a human, human."
He was quiet. So much for idealism. She spoke with the weight of experience.
"But technology only goes so far," she went on. "A clone is a lesser copy, and degrades fast. What NERV had, and what remains in WILLE's underground maze, was some new technology, giving birth to a new type of clone. It was stronger, more resilient, and gifted with strange abilities from its blood. They called it a Nephilim."
"You mean Ayanami?"
"Think of her as version one. That Ikari guy is version two, a refinement. But neither were quite the empty husks they were aiming for. Then again, what do you call a manufactured person?"
"You're saying Ayanami and Ikari don't have souls?" he asked quietly.
Mana shrugged. "Like I said, if I can't see it I can't believe it. I'll leave that particular theological query to the philosophers. But you have experience with them. Do they strike you as human?"
Kensuke was silent.
"It's best to at least be on your guard," she told him. "The two Nephilim working with WILLE don't have a great track record at preserving human life. Two 'accidents' involving them killed a lot of people. My security clearance is only so high and details are closely guarded, but the Rokubungis died in the first somehow. It was a massive loss for SEELE. They tried to swoop in and take control of NERV in the aftermath, but Katsuragi got wind and repelled them. I heard it was… unpleasant.
"She dissolved NERV and formed WILLE under the UN's supervision. But SEELE had enough research to begin making Nephilim of their own, albeit without the Rokubungi's finesse. So instead of walking, talking humanoids like Ayanami and Ikari, you get weird shadow egg creatures you fought the other day."
He didn't want to believe that. The only difference between Ayanami and the other Nephilim was creative finesse? Rei seemed to possess a logical sentience alien to the other Nephilim. Was that the only thing keeping her from assaulting WILLE? Did she harbor the same murderous instincts, deep down?
"The second accident," Mana went on, "occurred after WILLE's inception, as they began defending the city against SEELE's attacks. Again, I don't know the details, but somehow Ikari's powers went out of control. Dozens of WILLE personnel died. After that, Ikari was sealed away and Ayanami was locked up."
Kensuke looked at her. "Wait. The Commander told me Ikari's blood skill was always uncontrollable. That he…" He trailed off. Then how did Asuka seem to know him so well? That made no sense. If he was a walking roman candle how did he manage to get her to care for him?
"Really?" she asked. "That's what she told you? My, my, why would she lie like that? Unless it was to keep you from asking more questions. Questions about WILLE's birth and NERV and SEELE. I'm sorry, but by now you shouldn't be surprised by them not being straight with you."
He tried to absorb everything. "Why are you telling me all this?" he finally asked.
"I meant what I told you before. You deserve to know the truth about the world around you. Especially when you're risking your life to safeguard it."
"For what end? Are you trying to recruit me?"
"Mr. Kaji is fond of reminding me that even if WILLE and the UN don't always see eye-to-eye, our current goal is the same. I can't condone everything Katsuragi does but I know she inspires loyalty. You've thrown your lot in with her, huh?"
Kensuke remembered what Toji told him: Misato essentially saved him after he was first exposed to Nephilim blood. Another commander might snuff the risk out immediately before he awoke. She vowed to protect his life. She saved him, maybe like how Kaji saved Mana.
He smiled without humor. "I can't back out now."
"I get it," Mana told him, shrugging. "You get cool toys, a secret base, and I'll admit they've got some hotties on staff. The UN and SDF can't compete with a real live sci-fi movie."
"That's not it."
She gave him a look.
"Okay," he said, "that's part of it."
"Thanks for the honesty. It's an endearing trait. Please keep it, even as—"
"Fifteen minutes—" the proprietor began.
"Okay!" Mana shouted back. She sighed and stood. Kensuke followed her up. "It is pretty late. I don't want to miss the last train home. Unless you'd give me shelter from the storm."
Her flirtations fell on ears deafened by their previous conversation. "My couch is small, but you should be able to fit on it. Or I'll just spot you the yen for a hotel. WILLE isn't as cheap as you might think."
She shook her head. "Still not in the teasing mood. You need to keep your eyes open, Mr. Sniper."
She made her way back to the exit. Her umbrella was dry. Outside, the city remained cloaked in rain.
"I guess I should say thanks," he told her, "for telling me all that stuff. I was beginning to make peace with never knowing anything."
"Ignorance may be bliss, but it isn't productive." Mana gazed at him, trying to keep off the grin itching her lips. "I meant it last time, and I mean it this time: be careful out there, Aida. You know, since we live in such dangerous times and all." She cuffed him on the arm.
"Yeah," Kensuke said back as she left. "You too." He opened the laundromat door and poked his head out after her. "And be careful in those shoes! The streets are… wet and… damn it."
She disappeared into the rain and he slumped. He couldn't come up with a cooler parting line than that?
/\/\/\/\
End of chapter 10
Author notes: I brought back Mana "Ms. Exposition" Kirishima for another info dump. Devoting much more time to the back story strikes me as diversionary.
Next chapter: Wait, what? More back story? At least it isn't an info-dump.