Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it.

Opus Kouzo part #10

Shinji sat himself back down onto the holding room's bare metal seat, face grey and grim. In silence, he observed the malevolent counternance opposite him.

Carol Neils smirked. "You don't know how to do this. Kouzo didn't prepare you for this kind of dirty work." The smirk grew. "Could it be that your mentor is layed-up, and all because of me?"

Reflexively, Shinji's right hand flexed under the spartan desk. "Handling prisoners wasn't part of my NERV training, no. But...maybe SEELE membership included a few lessons in counter-interrogation techniques, right?" Shinji said in a low voice.

Neils sat back on her chair, hands bound but otherwise looking reasonably comfortable. "Oh, but you misunderstand. To get into SEELE, nothing less than a long history of politics, dirty money and spoilt innocence is a passport. But it is good to see you've somewhat grown out of your awkward, naive phase. Nothing less from the child of Yui and Gendo...'Ikari'." She tipped her head and gave Shinji a dangerous smile.

"He took my mother's name. I hope that wasn't the best psychological joker you have to play."

"Hmmph. That certainly would be embarrasing." the woman lounged back, looking content. "Too bad Gendo played the bastard card so heavily - if he hadn't pushed you away so hard, you might have come to join us. You've certainly taken the character of one of our own to heart."

Shinji sighed tolerantly. "Oh?"

She smiled, a a cat landing her paw on the mouse. "Agent Kaji, naturally. Although he did like to freelance on the side, he was a very capable man. You didn't have to copy his unsightly stubble, though."

"It has a certain practicality. Now, can we get down to business?"

Neils tried to look contrite. "Oh, my zinger didn't impress you? Well. You have grown up."

"Third impact can do that to a man."

"To a boy, whom I watched screaming at monsters, calling for your mother to make them go away."

"That's desperate."

"Perhaps." Suddenly the strong, powerful lady turned into a greying, over-worked beaurocrat. "Here I am, hauranged by a kid barely old enough to shave in a broken world. Maybe I could find just cause to feel a little desperate."

Shinji nodded gently, giving her a moment to compose herself. "Take your time."

The erstwhile doctor gave him a look that was at once grateful and pitying. "The worst of it is, this is the most relaxed I've been for decades. No responsibility, no world to screw over or save, no elusive destiny for a trusted colleague to **** up beyond all conceivable belief. Just a bit of verbal sparring, and the hope that you're only half as cruel as your father."

Shinji leant forward, sensing that she was done. "We'll see. Now - what is SEELE up to?"

Neils sneered and looked away. "Pah. What makes you and your Old Man think we're up to anything? Impact is over - there is no Technology of God left. We were the driving force of the post-impact world - people of vision and ability, pushing what remains of humanity we could to the nirvana we had sighted. So of course, when humanity has been once again plunged into darkness, what do you think we're doing?"

"So you're building humanity back into civilisation? Replacing our governments and infrastructure?" The young Ikari raised an eyebrow ironically. "With a battleship, an underground spy network and several small armies."

Neils rolled her eyes. "We seem to have been encountering some...resistance."

"Is this your way of testing him?"

Kouzo looked up from his hospital bed, exhasperation written in his expression. "I'm not exactly in a position to interrogate the woman. She shot me down. That doesn't exactly give me any mental high-ground to work with."

"You could have prepared him better." Monami Yakushiji spun on her heel to look out through the simulated hospital window. "I have people better suited for such a task. Why did you give it to him? Is it a part of grooming him as your successor?"

Fuyutsuiki lay back down, repressing a shudder. "No, no...I'm giving him his chance. If he can do this, we can take this all the way. If not, well...perhaps we'll leave our organisation in someone else's good hands."

"So you are testing him."

"...I guess so, yes."

"Hmmph. It's a lot you expect from him. And yet you let so much ride on this - I know you don't trust me to deal with SEELE in a way that would suit your sense of ethics. Unless...wait, perhaps you want him to choose not to do this anymore."

"..."

"Why? Why now? Maybe you regret what you're making him into."

"I don't want him to be like his father. Which is what I'm making him into."

"Maybe he wants to be like his father!"

"Then maybe it's me who I'm trying to save."

"Save yourself from what? Bringing down SEELE, or turning the boy into his father?"

Kouzo shrugged cryptically.

"You should have given this task to me."

Kouzo rolled his eyes. "Hmmph. You don't want prosperity. You want to feed your vendetta."

"Yes," she said quietly, wrapping an arm around herself in sad reflection. "And so does the boy."

"Sensei...you look...well."

Shinji's greeting in the small hallway by a set of wooden stairs caught Kouzo a little unprepared. Dressing-gown clad, he had been making his way back to his room after answering Nature's call. "You mean I look old." He sighed, leaning on his hospital-supplied cane with regretful acceptance.

"Well, at least it suits you." The boy winced as Kouzo swung the cane at his temple, but the mirth-filled grin wasn't wiped from his face even when the tip touched his ear.

"How did your date with that girl go? She did agree to a second one, right?"

Try as he might, Shinji couldn't help but blush a little. "Yes."

"And how did it go?"

"Ah, well...uhm, yeah it was...good. Great!"

"Ah. First base?"

The young man looked away. "Uhm...I don't want to tell you."

"First base is kissing, Shinji."

"Oh. Err...half-way?"

"Ah. She kissed you on the cheek."

Shinji blushed, unsure of if he was embarrased by the questioning or the fact that it had only gone that far. "W-well...anyway, w-we're going to watch a movie on Wednesday."

"Hmm. Your choice of movie, or hers?"

The boy fidgeted before answering. "Uhm, well...hers, technically. She chose the one I mentioned..."

"Smart girl. She'll have you wrapped around her little finger in no time."

A full, techinicolor blush. "Sensei!"

Fuyutsuki grinned. "Don't worry, that's a good thing." he said with a chuckle.

Blush still fully evident, Shinji digested this before nodding sagely. "I...well, maybe."

Silence claimed the hallway, each other basking in the intimate glow of having a comrade. After a spell, it was Shinji who broke the silence. "This is nice. Almost like...we're normal."

Kouzo nodded, amused grinning melted into a grim frown.

"I like this, Sensei. It's nice to be...normal." the boy said, his voice a little panicked, a little lost.

Fuyutsuki grimaced. "I'm sorry it couldn't last."

Shinji turned slightly, regarding the stairwell vacantly. "We've found something, haven't we?"

The old man nodded gravely. "JACES can't provide enough cover for us to move the organisation. We'll have to split into regional cells, which almost guarantees that some of our comrades will be found. As a cause, however, we will live on. Neils will be in your care, and you will recruit young miss Himari into your cell, along with a second and a member from JACES. I will go elsewhere with Yakushuji-san and the rest of our command cell. Your job will be to lie low, observe and plan with me remotely. And perhaps to try to extract information from Neils. I suggest a medium-term outlook."

Turning pale, Shinji dropped his head to study the ground. "You want me...to take Himari-san into my cell? And then play Adam and Eve while our men get chopped down by SEELE, and you and Ms. Monami work out how to handle Keele. Is that right?"

"Well...the Adam and Eve part..."

Shinji crumbled down until he was sitting against the wall. "...is this the only way? Abandon you, bring Himari into all of this...and for what? Why are we fighting SEELE, or whatever they are, anyway? What if Project E really doesn't exist anymore? What exactly is it that we're fighting?"

Kouzo shrugged. "That remains to be seen. Knowing SEELE was founded on the most morally bunkrupt and unscrupulous fellows in power doesn't fill me with confidence in their ability to lead humanity into a better future. At best, they'll shape the world for their comfort, Caligula-style and play Yakuza-games with each other. In time, perhaps we could rise from that, and perhaps it beats the uncertain anarchy that keeps breaking out. But if it's worse...well, we'll have to find that nut before we can figure out how to crack it."

"And you're going to hunt it."

"While you sit, wait, consolidate and hopefully prepare to become a rather effective nutcracker, yes."

Shinji ran a hand through his hair fretfully. "I hope this is worth it."

The Old Man could only give him a sad smile as reassurance.