10.

Police Captain Saburou Koga sat at his desk, staring at the reports and growing more irritated by the passing moment. He had just spent nearly two hours with an almost incoherent witness who claimed to have seen the monster from third impact. It was obvious that the girl was scared witless, but her story didn't make much sense, and neither did the footage taken from the shop's security cameras. They showed three very oddly dressed females, apparently buying perfectly ordinary (albeit fairly pricey) clothing.

Without the footage, Koga would have been inclined to dismiss her testimony as hysterical fantasy. With it, he would have thought it some kind of elaborate practical joke, at the assistant's, or perhaps even at his own police department's expense. There were many out there who had not forgiven Nerv, or SEELE, or the UN, or the JSDF for the catastrophe they had been party to, and who may now view any such organisation with distrust, even a public organisation like the police. It was not beyond the realms of possibility that such individuals might attempt to embarrass or wrong-foot the police, or the fledgling council that served the city. In that scenario, it was even possible that the hysterical assistant was a part of the hoax...

But that wasn't taking into account a café load of unconnected eye witnesses, all claiming to have come face to face with the first child.

Some form of mass hysteria? It was possible – hell, anything seemed possible these days – but Koga didn't think so. These people had seen something. What it was, he didn't know, but he wasn't yet ready to accept that the one who had so nearly destroyed the world had returned.

One thing was for sure, his workload had tripled since the café incident. It had taken a day and a half to process the statements of those present in the café for Ayanami Rei's dramatic reappearance, and a further three days to work through them all, getting a complete picture of what had happened. Some of the witnesses claimed the apparition had kidnapped a patron and spirited them away. Others said there had been a violent confrontation, before the first child had fled. Then there were the ones that said the second child had been waiting for a clandestine meeting (in a busy cafe, if that could be believed!), and one man had even claimed to seeing Rei Ayanami performing magic, levitating and throwing chairs around.

Koga was good at his job and instinctively knew which statements to disregard and which to compare to others, but it had still taken a long time to get on top of just what had gone on – which apparently hadn't been much. Rei Ayanami, or someone who looked like Rei Ayanami, had arrived, had met with another patron (likely Asuka Langley Sohryu) and had left again with the patron in tow. He had just got to the point where he was thinking of paying the young German a visit with his partner – and plenty of ammo for their service revolvers, just in case.

And then this. The shop assistant had turned the case from an odd anomaly into a series of related incidents, the beginnings of a pattern. Patterns were meat and drink to people like Koga, and yet this one was particularly unattractive to him.

She couldn't have returned, surely?

"I dropped the girl off at a friend's," said a voice from behind him. Koga looked up into the face of his partner, Suzuki. The man had an honest, open face and was young, only just half Koga's age at twenty-six, with a full head of dark hair, where Koga's was receding.

Not that he was jealous of that.

"She was still pretty shaken up, but her friend promised to look after her."

"Good," replied Koga, automatically, turning back to his work and the security footage on the monitor in front of him.

Suzuki pulled the chair over from his desk and sat down next to Koga.

"You think she's come back?"

"What do you think?" asked Koga, fast forwarding the footage. Suzuki shrugged.

"That attendant was clearly terrified."

Koga looked at him. He was a good man, enthusiastic and intelligent, though very green with it. He hadn't been a policeman long, certainly not since before third impact, but his work ethic and quick brain had allowed him to progress quickly to Sergeant in the investigative branch. That and the fact that nobody else seemed to want to work for a policing body any more. The apathetic view the public had to his job didn't bother Koga. Somebody had to do the work...

"Her testimony is also consistent with the security footage," continued Suzuki. "It seems a strange thing for the first child to do, though: go around clothes shops terrifying clerks..."

"Perhaps we're just supposed to think the first child has returned," replied Koga.

"The footage suggests they're trying to go incognito."

Koga snorted and waved a hand at the screen, upon which three girls were dressed in trench-coats, berets and dark glasses. If two of them were supposed to be Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Sohryu, the other was likely Maya Ibuki, the only other personal acquaintance of Rei Ayanami known to be in the city. They also looked ridiculous.

"Nobody in their right mind would dress that suspiciously if they wanted to avoid attention! It's a prank, has to be. This poor girl was just hoodwinked by some pranksters."

Suzuki shrugged.

"It's a pretty sick joke if it is." He picked up a file from his desk and handed it to Koga. "It's also a very elaborate one. Look at the colour of their hair. Brunette, Red and Dark. Now check the file photos."

Koga flipped through the folder holding the three Nerv personnel files until he reached photos of Rei Ayanami, Asuka Sohryu and Maya Ibuki. He knew what he would find as he'd already done this himself, but there they were again, just as confirmation.

"We know the dark hair is a wig, covering hair that's blue underneath, which means they fit the photos perfectly. Brown hair is common, but red isn't, and blue... Well, what are the chances of such a group of females that aren't those three being together in this city? Pretty slim, I'd say."

"They could be wigs as well..."

"Which would mean the Ayanami lookalike was wearing a wig over a wig. Why? If you're going to prank someone, why not just wear the blue wig and have done with it? Why cover it up?"

Koga knew all of this himself – he'd already come to these conclusions, but hearing his partner repeat them was important to him to confirm their validity. That didn't mean this was Rei Ayanami, however.

"Even if it is them, what could they possibly gain from frightening a shop assistant?" he asked.

"I don't know..." admitted Suzuki. "We could go and interview Miss Sohryu or Miss Ibuki?"

"I'm not ready to do that yet," said Koga. "I'm not ready to rake over all those old memories and start opening old wounds. Especially if this is a prank."

And he was in no rush to meet with Rei if it was not.

A voice cut short any further debate.

"Captain?"

Koga looked up and found a junior officer standing by his desk. The lad was young and obviously nervous, perhaps even a little embarrassed.

"What is it?" Koga asked him.

"Sir, there's a lady at reception who says she's seen... well..."

Koga and Suzuki exchanged glances.

"A monster?" asked Koga. The man flushed, but nodded.

"Fine. Suzuki, you're with me for this."

The younger man stood and grinned.

"Let's get going!"

When they reached the reception area of the police station, they found the desk clerk being berated by a woman who looked to be in her late forties or early fifties, around about Koga's age, he thought. She was railing at the clerk for being unhelpful, or unbelieving, or perhaps both, as she seemed to keep changing tack faster than the clerk could follow. Having said that, she did not seem to have lost possession of her faculties and was as lucid as the next person. The lady clutched a dog-eared and slightly damp novel in one hand and there was a dripping umbrella tucked under the other arm. She had obviously just come in from the rain.

"You don't understand," she was telling the desk clerk in angry tones, "I saw her, she's come back from the dead. We have to inform the relevant authorities!"

"Please madam, could you keep your voice down. People don't come back from the dead."

"Don't give me that," snapped the woman, "after we all did pretty much the same thing."

The clerk blanched, clearly upset by the memory.

"That's different, if you –"

Koga broke into their debate, drawing their attention.

"I'll take it from here, Shin-chan," he told the clerk. "Please madam, could you come this way."

"Who are you?" asked the woman suspiciously, showing no signs of complying with his request.

"Police Captain Saburou Koga. This is Sergeant Kuro Suzuki. I understand you have information for us regarding Rei Ayanami."

This caught her full attention.

"Yes," she said, made a little uncertain by his directness. The uncertainty was fleeting however. "Yes. I saw Rei-chan, not two hours ago."

"Then I would be very interested to hear what you have to say," Koga told her. "If you would please follow me..."

This time, the woman followed as he moved away. He took her out of the reception area and upstairs to the interview rooms. Behind him, the woman sneezed into a damp tissue pulled from one of her pockets.

"Are you okay, miss..."

"Naoko. Mizuho Naoko."

"Miss Mizuho –"

"Naoko is fine," said the woman, irritably, "besides, I'm married." She sniffed, rubbing her nose with the tissue.

"My apologies, Naoko-san," replied Koga, "are you all right?"

"I walked and ran here through the rain," replied the woman, "I've got a sniffle, that's all."

"Maybe the damp's given you a cold," ventured Suzuki, "perhaps I could get you some hot tea?"

The woman gave a derisive snort.

"Oh, please, I thought myths like that had died out long ago! You can't catch a cold from getting wet!"

"Oh... r-really?" replied Suzuki, turning a helpless look on Koga.

"I ought to know, I used to be a biologist, after all, and a human biologist at that, I could teach you a few things about physiology they never tell you at your academies," replied the woman, "but some tea would be acceptable." Suzuki just gaped at her sudden change of direction. "Hurry along then!" she snapped at him.

"R-right!"

Koga grinned.

"I'll have some, too," he told his protégé, "bring it to interview room three."

The younger man nodded and left them. They continued the short distance to the interview room and then Koga held the door as she passed inside.

"Have a seat," he told her. After glancing warily around the spartan room, which was bare save for a table and four chairs, she did so. Then she looked up into the corner of the room, spotting the discreet camera that hung from the ceiling there.

"Are you recording this?" she asked.

"I can turn the cameras off if it makes you more comfortable?" offered Koga.

"It makes no difference to me," harrumphed the woman. "There were cameras everywhere where I used to work."

"At Nerv?" asked Koga. She really did look surprised this time, but then she grinned.

"You're good. How did you guess?"

"You said you used to be a human biologist," replied Koga, smiling, "there wouldn't be much call for such a scientist in the new Tokyo area unless you were attached to Nerv. Plus you referred to Miss Ayanami as 'Rei-chan', suggesting a personal involvement with her."

Naoko nodded.

"I met her a few times, though I doubt she would remember me. My department was mainly theoretical and didn't cross much with Doctor Ritsuko. She was always much more 'hands on' than I was."

"I see," replied Koga, sobering at that. He knew about Doctor Akagi and what had befallen her.

The door to the interview room opened and Suzuki entered, carrying a tray of drinks. He set it on the table then handed one of the steaming beverages to Naoko.

"Here you go, that'll warm you right up. Can't say much for the taste, though..."

He grinned at the woman, who didn't even smile in reply. She drank deeply, however and made a contented sound as Suzuki took a seat next to Koga.

"So, first things first," said the Captain. "Why have you come to us?

"You're the police aren't you?" she replied, looking up in mild surprise.

"What I mean to say is that most people don't have a lot of faith in the public bodies these days."

Naoko snorted.

"What's the point of blaming the police for third impact? You might as well say the angels were brought down on us by the train drivers. You people still want to protect the citizens don't you, or have things changed?"

"No," conceded Koga, "things haven't changed that much."

Naoko sat forward and tapped a finger on the table top.

"It's the governments we should be keeping an eye on," she told them, "like the council and this emergency housing committee. Who are they a front for?"

Koga and Suzuki exchanged glances.

"You know, some people say the Police are merely enforcers for the government," attempted Suzuki. That received short shrift from Naoko, though.

"Now you're sounding like a hippy."

"Ouch!" said Suzuki, rubbing his forehead, ruefully.

"You know we have to report to higher authorities," said Koga. "What makes you think any clandestine organisation wouldn't get word of this?"

"Because you're both detectives. It's your job to find the truth – if you're any good at your job, that is, and I think you are. You wouldn't risk anything that might obscure that truth."

"Well, thank you, I suppose," replied Koga.

"Besides, it doesn't matter who knows about it. It's far more dangerous for Rei-chan to be running around rogue, especially if she's capable of the things we saw during third impact!"

That received silence for a few moments.

"Would you mind telling us: where did you see her?" asked Suzuki, sitting forward himself.

"In the lobby of my apartment complex. Miss Ibuki lives there too. Apparently, the Emergency Housing Committee put most of the Nerv survivors in the same complex. Obviously, they want to keep an eye on us... Miss Ibuki's apartment is a floor below mine. I'm guessing that's where she was taking Rei-chan. And that Asuka girl as well."

"Why were you in the lobby?"

"I had workmen in my apartment," answered Naoko. "The electrics are shoddy. I'd been out most of the day with the intent of leaving them to it, but when I got back they hadn't finished, so I sat in the lobby and read my book."

"Can your husband corroborate this?" asked Suzuki. She glared at him.

"He hasn't had that ability since third impact."

Suzuki looked a little unsteadied by this blunt statement. He started stuttering apologies, but Koga cleared his throat, overriding him.

"And you're sure it was Rei Ayanami?" he asked. "It couldn't have been someone else, a lookalike, or someone wearing a blue wig."

"She was wearing a wig, all right, but it wasn't blue," replied Naoko. "It was Rei-chan, I know it. I'd recognise her anywhere."

Koga sat back, defeated.

Half an hour later, having taken a statement from the woman and arranged transport to an acquaintance's apartment, Koga and Suzuki were once again left alone at the Captain's desk.

"Well?" asked Suzuki. The expectation was evident in the tone of his voice. Koga looked at him for a moment, then sighed.

"Fine, bring the car around. We'll go bring Miss Ibuki in."