New Mobile Report Gundam Wing © Bandai and Sunrise
Neon Genesis Evangelion © Hideaki Anno and Gainax

Chapter 11

"Do not be afraid, Heero Yuy. I did not come to bring you any harm." The boy murmured. Heero stood there, frozen at the thought of what possible business that he had with him.

"Who are you?" Heero asked quietly, clenching his fists in order to prepare for the worst. How this boy found him, pursued him - all of this was a mystery to Heero. How did he know where to find him and how did he know his name?

"You are in the presence of an Angel. Why are you so reluctant to speak to me?" He asked.

"An Angel?" Heero responded. At that moment, the boy slowly walked towards him. Heero stepped back, but suddenly felt his body pushing against another object - a wall, an invisible one! The boy chuckled.

"Silly young man, what are you so afraid of?" He grinned a little, "I've only come to chat, is all. You seem to be overwhelmingly afraid of nothing."

Heero returned to him a glare, "In that case, why don't you just tell me who you are?"

"Of course, you may refer to me as Kaworu Nagisa. If you prefer to call me by a more proper name, Tabris[1]is the name." The boy stated.

"Tabris..." Heero recited to himself, "You are an Angel."

"Didn't I just say that you were in the presence of one?" Kaworu smiled a little with a brief shrug, then raised out his hand to beckon him to follow, "Come, I'd like to show you something."

Heero didn't say a word. He walked besides Kaworu, approaching the bath. As Heero stared straight down at the clear, still water, he felt a rush of frustration arousing his being.

"Alright… So?" Heero whispered a bit bitterly.

"Tell me, what do you wish for this world to become?" Kaworu asked. Heero gave no answer. Kaworu tilted his head to look at Heero, "Do tell me."

"How do you want me to answer that question?"

Kaworu's smile now turned into a more blank face, "Surely it can't be that hard to answer. I am only curious."

"I suppose I don't want it to end up like my home world." Heero responded briefly.

"I see, very good…" Kaworu returned his attention to the bath waters, "Now tell me more, Heero, I'd like to know what do you think, feel about the universe in general?"

This was an even more difficult question than the last for Heero. He looked slightly upward at the walls reading "NERV" on it. All that came to mind when looking at these large letters was the fact that their world was much different from his – ideals, philosophies, etc. A world full of Angels, supposed servants of a higher being that he did not believe in.

Kaworu turned his head towards Heero once more, "What do you believe in beyond billions of universes?"

"Nothing." Heero replied, staring once more towards the water, "Absolutely nothing."

"Is that so?"

"If what you're trying to ask me is if I believe in a higher power – stronger than multitudes of worlds – than I believe in none."

"Than what exactly do you advocate?"

"Potential lies solely within the individual, and he or she can only bring change through their thoughts and actions alone." Heero replied. Kaworu paused.

"I see." Kaworu nodded and looked back down towards the water, "I see that you're not too different from me."

The boys now had their undivided attention at the water before them. Heero had no idea why he, too, was looking into a useless bath. Why Kaworu had followed him here was the main mystery, however.

Suddenly, as Heero observed the pool even closer, strange little symbols began to form within the floor of the bath. Several glowing lines in random motions scorched across the floor, forming into a message-like fashion. Heero studied the formations of these strange characters being drawn on the floor. After a few minutes, the lines stopped appearing, and what now lay across the floor were glowing symbols of some kind of text.

"What is this?" Heero asked.

"It's only a piece of information vital to you in your journey." Kaworu responded.

"Tell me, then." Heero turned to Kaworu, "What do they mean?"

"Did you not just say you don't believe in a God?"

"Well, I don't."

"What you have here is a token from I. I have provided you with a remnant of philosophy far beyond your understanding. I leave it open to you now for your own interpretation." Kaworu said and stepped back.

Heero glared at Kaworu with more resentment than ever, "You said this was vital to me. You will tell me this instant what these symbols mean, Tabris. Or else I'll…" Heero brought up one of his fists in front of him, ready to strangle Kaworu at any moment now.

"Kill me?" Kaworu asked, "I guess you don't know yet that I've already passed on from this world. That will do you no good." Kaworu continued smiling. Heero lowered his hands, and Kaworu immediately continued, "You have a long way to go in this world, Heero Yuy. You will continue to learn much more, maybe even more than what you've just witnessed. All I can do is wish you luck in this journey. You will need it."

Kaworu winked. He turned around and walked towards the way that Heero came in through. Heero followed shortly after, but as soon as Kaworu left his sight, the white-haired boy was nowhere to be found in the dark hallways, at all.

"Okay, class! Today we have two new transfer students today. Let's kindly introduce them after they write their names on the board!" The teacher announced as Duo waited silently outside the door.

"Hey, Heero! Come on, now's not the time to be shy!" Duo excitingly announced, nudging his friend, "It's time to meet new people!" Duo paused when suddenly the teacher beckoned him to go on in. He did so, and the teacher handed him a piece of chalk. Before turning his head to his new classmates, he first wrote his name on the board in fine, cursive handwriting, 'Duo Maxwell'.

"Well, hello Duo. A pleasure it is to have you in our class." The teacher remarked, "Why don't you tell us a brief fact about yourself?" She added.

"Well…" Duo paused, trying to think of a decent fact to tell the class, "I guess you can say I'm the grim reaper's partner-in-crime who's a part-time student every now and then?" Duo said embarrassingly. However, it seems the entire class burst out laughing! Duo briefly chuckled at the lame joke he cracked.

"Very funny, Duo." The teacher giggled, "How about you introduce us to your friend out there? But first, why don't you take a seat next to Mr. Aida over there?" Duo noticed that Kensuke was in the front row of desks, and there was a vacant one right next to him.

"Don't mind if I do!" Duo walked to his desk carefree. The entire class had their attention on him at how appealing he was being on his first day of school. However, they were now awaiting the next new student to come in, wherever he was. It had been about a minute, and nobody walked in.

"Does he not want to introduce himself? I mean, if he doesn't, than it's perfectly…" The teacher asked, but was interrupted by Duo.

"Nah, of course he wants to introduce himself!" Duo looked around and noticed one boy in a surrounding desk had a straw with a small, wet piece of paper stuffed in it. Duo snatched the straw out of his hands, and immediately blew from one end of the straw! Out of the other end, the small piece of paper flew out in the shape of a spitball and went flying towards Heero!

"Mr. Maxwell!" The teacher gasped in shock. The entire class started laughing again! However, Heero stormed into the room, appearing to Duo in his typical soldier-angry look! The entire class suddenly stopped laughing, and was now looking directly towards Heero who looked like he was going to kill someone. However, Duo then noticed his friend returned to a calmer state. Heero took the small piece of chalk and wrote his name on the board below Duo, then turned towards the class.

"Heero Yuy." Heero had announced shortly and walked over to his seat on the far left corner of the classroom. From there, he sat there quietly with his elbows on the table, his fingers intertwined, and his eyes closed.

"Alright, class. I hope you all treat Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Yuy with your utmost respect." The teacher smiled and announced, "In order to kick off this new semester, I have a five to ten minute meeting this morning I must attend. Please take at least five minutes of your time to take the survey that, under commands of NERV, has required all public facilities to conduct. You will find the sheets on my table. Thank you!" She said and exited the room.

Duo was the first to stand up to get to her desk and swipe one sheet. However, noticing Heero wasn't moving from his spot, Duo took another. He then took the other sheet he took, and crafted it gently into a paper airplane! The entire class now paused to see how this would turn out. Thus, Duo threw the plane in Heero's direction! Without even moving from his spot or even looking to see where it would land, Heero reached out his arm and grabbed it with one hand, opened it up, and took out a pencil to begin work on it! The entire class started laughing again at the humorous situation that Duo put up.

Duo head back to his seat, noticing that Kensuke was already answering the questions on the test.

"Kensuke, my man!" Duo grinned as he got Kensuke's attention, "This is a shocker, no? Had no idea that you went to this school!"

Kensuke blushed embarrassingly, "You were shocked? Well, there really isn't much of a choice of place to study here in Tokyo-3. After all, why else would we all be wearing the same school uniforms?"

Duo fidgeted, "Oh, right. Hehe." He proceeded to answering the questions on the survey.

1: How concerned are you with the safety of civilians during red alert situations? Duo had no idea how to answer this one. He wasn't even remotely knowledgeable of how the city has been holding up in the past couple years or so and yet was in one piece. He shrugged, took out his pencil, and wrote 'No idea.'

2: How well has Gendo Ikari's new plan for the city have been accommodating you? This was yet another question that he couldn't really answer. He knew that Heero had already met him face to face, but to Duo, this Commander guy was probably a typical military general character. Not to mention, he learned the day before that he was Shinji's dad. Duo had no idea what to write, so he jotted down, 'He's a great man with great plans for the city. I'd say he's done a fine job with handling Tokyo-3'.

He skimmed through the questions a little more, and many of them almost asked the same thing: How well has NERV done this or that for you? Duo just put down his pencil and rose from his desk to place the incomplete survey on the teacher's desk. Returning to his desk, Duo noticed that Kensuke had completed his copy of the survey.

"You know, Duo, I've never realized NERV having this much power over us in the past few months." Kensuke remarked.

"Oh?"

"Well, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure you're aware that Commander Ikari has undergone some vast improvements for the city, especially after you know what happened."

"Wait, what happened? Care to fill me in on this?"

"I can't really explain it to you, since I'm, of course, one of those civilians expected to stay in the shelters during Angel attacks."

"Heh," Duo chuckled, "What happened, some sort of nuke dropped on top of the city and now this Gendo Ikari guy is working to rebuild it?"

"Actually, you're actually quite correct. Except it wasn't just any kind of nuclear bomb."

Duo flinched, "Wait, wha?"

"Again, I'm not the one to ask all of these questions. I wish I knew, but you know, classified information kept in NERV Archives and whatnot. My knowledge of the whole ordeal is limited." Kensuke said as he returned his copy of the survey to the teacher's desk.

"Don't worry, buddy, I don't blame you." Duo smiled and now began to look around the room. However, it wasn't long before he saw some familiar faces! One the opposite corner of the room where Heero was sitting, there was a girl with short, light blue hair and stared out the window blankly. That must've been the same blue-haired girl that Heero had mentioned who orientated him into NERV – Rei.

"Something the matter, Duo?" Kensuke asked.

"Oh no, not at all! Nah!" Duo exclaimed as he glanced towards the way back of the room.

Of course, Duo found not only one familiar face, but there were two more. There was Asuka about four seats behind him, who appeared to be writing her survey in a rather upset manner. Duo wasn't too surprised to find her in this kind of mood, again – the same attitude she showed to him at the train station from days ago. All Duo knew was that she was just angry at something, and he only wished he could help.

There was also – about two seats to her left – Shinji who was looking down at his survey like it wasn't even there. Duo was glad that Shinji was back in perfect health, almost. Shinji wasn't even holding his pencil. He was agonizingly staring at the wooden desk before him, all dazed and miserable. Duo finally saw Shinji move after a whole five minutes of just watching him stare at it. Shinji stood up from his desk, walked over next to the teacher's desk, and tossed the blank survey into the trash can.

"What's his problem?" Duo asked Kensuke.

"Eh, you see…" Kensuke responded but was immediately interrupted when the door flung open.

"Okay, class! Sorry about that little intermission!" The teacher announced, "Now, Duo and Heero, why don't you come pick up the textbooks under your desk. In the meantime, class, I'd like you all to turn to page two-hundred and twelve, please!"

Duo's first class period of the day seemed to go by just fine. The bell had rung and the teacher dismissed her students. Duo and Kensuke stood up and made their way out of the door and into the school hallways.

"So what were you gonna say to me earlier, buddy?" Duo asked as he held his textbook and notebooks against his waist.

The boys stopped in the middle of the hallway, "Well, I've told you already that he really hasn't been himself lately because of reas-…"

"Speak of the devil…" Duo whispered when suddenly he noticed Shinji walk in between them! Duo could only see that Shinji was limping slightly with a tape recorder in his hands and was walking aimlessly. Duo murmured, "Man, you have no idea how sorry I feel for the guy…"

"Wish there was more I could do, too." Kensuke added, "But hey, you seemed to have gotten the whole class on their laughs just an hour ago. You should probably have a great idea to make him smile or something."

"You've known him longer, Kensuke. Why don't you try to cheer him up yourself?" Duo asked.

Kensuke shrugged, "I don't know. I just…Don't." Kensuke's eyes widened suddenly.

Duo waved his hand in front of Kensuke's face, "Hey Kensuke. What's up?" Duo turned around to see what was happening.

"Do you have the SLIGHTEST idea of how much trouble you'll get into with having this in your possession?!" Asuka yelled out loud to, apparently, Heero.

Duo and Kensuke were both frozen in their places when they saw what was just happening at this very moment! Asuka was waving a gun – a pistol – in Heero's face. Heero's locker was open, which is where probably Asuka found it. There was also a crowd of several students surrounding the two, each with the same, shocked expression that Duo and Kensuke were showing right now.

"That idiot…" Duo uttered.

"Just let the administration or the police deal with him! We best get out of her before he starts-!"

"No dude, I swear he won't start any kind of killing spree in this neck of the woods. But seriously, I don't know why the hell he carries that thing around on him all the time, even to school of all places!" Duo disdainfully remarked and charged through the crowd. Pushing through several people in his way, he hoped to reach the two quarrelers before the situation got worse.

"I've seen this gun before. NERV property, huh? What are you, Misato's boy or something?" Asuka mockingly questioned.

"No. So hand it back." Heero prompted her silently.

"Making demands of me, huh?" Asuka mocked again, "This is the new Student Council President[2] you're talking to, here! It looks like you're about to face a thirty-day suspension if there's anything I'll hand you!"

Duo jumped in between his friend and Asuka, "Now hold up just a minute, you two." Duo calmly interrupted them, turning to Heero first, "Listen, buddy, you can't bring firearms to school. Not only is it bad, but you could get into a lot of serious trouble, okay?" Duo thought about what he was saying and how foolish it sounded. He knew that Heero knew all this by dumb common sense, but of course, Duo only wanted Heero to get out of this without getting into any serious trouble in the future.

"Duo." Heero remarked, "I'm authorized to carry that around with me."

"Oh, are you now?" Duo bluffed.

Heero reached into his locker, pulled out a badge that read "NERV" on it. It looked pretty legit to Duo, but he still had some mild doubts about what kind of authority it gave him.

"I've been authorized by Commander Ikari that I'm now amongst the ranks of NERV Guard. I've been doing a favor for the students of this school by guarding them from any incoming threat from the outside. Make any sense to you?" Heero explained sternly.

Asuka looked at him confusingly, "Why didn't you tell me sooner that that was why you were concealing this thing?"

Heero, with a swift motion, swiped the gun out of Asuka's hand, "You wouldn't let me speak." Heero shoved the gun back into his locker, closed the locker, and took his books with him across the hallway. The crowd around them scattered back to doing their own thing.

"Great, so this new idiot is friends with another idiot in my life." Asuka grumbled to herself, but noticed that Duo was looking at her in shame, "What are you looking at? Get to class, you pervert!" Asuka held her notebooks tightly against her chest and made her way about the hallways.

Kensuke was walking beside Duo once more towards the opposite direction that Asuka head. He spoke out of nowhere, "That Asuka is kind of cute. Don't you think?"

"I guess, though she's definitely tough as nails."

"You have no idea." Kensuke added as he walked into his next classroom, "Oh, you have the same class as me again? That's…Awesome!"

"Yep, you bet it is!" Duo calmly declared as he followed Kensuke in.

Suddenly, a girl coming out of the class bumped into him! She was only a little shorter than he, and had short, but very dark hair – as black as a raven. She had dropped one of her books on the ground, which Duo immediately leaned down to help her pick it up.

"Oh, sorry miss! Didn't see you there!" Duo jumped and said. However, she didn't respond and Duo just watched as she walked out of his sight upon returning her book.

"Hey Duo, you coming?" Kensuke asked him as he already took his seat.

"Yeah…" Duo responded quietly, "I'm coming…"

The entire school day had passed, and it went by without problems save for the whole incident with Asuka and Heero. Students were flooding out of the building here and there to catch public busses, taking their bikes, or just to hang out around the campus with their friends. Duo walked out of the building with Kensuke, a little unknown where he was going to head next.

"You really are some kind of phenomenal person, Duo. I've never seen anybody make Mr. Kenta[2] laugh like that before."

"It's what I do, I guess." Duo shrugged.

Hey Duo, come hang out with us! Duo heard some girl yell from behind him. He only saw a group of preppy, popular boys and girls hanging out near a tree and were all looking at him to invite him over. Hey Duo, how good's your throw? Don't hang out with that nerd, Aida, come on and play some basketball! Duo heard the invitations from kids across the premises one after the other.

"You really do have a school full of Asukas, don't you?" Duo asked Kensuke, trying to ignore the several invitations into their gangs.

"Don't you want to be a part of the popular kids' groups?"

"I certainly don't wanna single out anybody on my first day of school. There's just so much to see, so much to do, and tons of people to meet! I was wondering, actually, if you could show me around town a little more. "

"I-I'd be honored, really!" Kensuke shyly said and smiled a little bit, with a small sweat dropping down his forehead, "In fact, it may not be the best starting point, but there is a new arcade downtown that I've wanted to visit. Care to join along?"

"I'm game! I haven't been too exposed to video games[3] before, so why not give it a try? Heh." Duo exclaimed.

"Come on, Shinji, you idiot! We have errands to do and we don't have until Christmas!" Asuka's loud voice was heard from behind them. The boys turned, noticing that Shinji was running out of the school building and darting towards Asuka.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Shinji yelled back. Shinji stopped in front of Asuka, huffing and puffing in place while holding his books weakly to his side.

"Idiot…" Asuka bitterly insulted. She walked out of the premises with Shinji following shortly after. Duo and Kensuke remained quiet until they were finally out of their sights. Duo thought about them walking together, and now concluded that he was right that those two have some kind of relationship going on.

Duo nudged Kensuke, "When was Christmas, again?"

"It's the end of August. Christmas actually isn't that far from now." Kensuke answered.

Duo suddenly noticed Heero walk in front of him. Trying to catch his attention, Duo spoke, "Hey, Heero! Kensuke and I are going downtown to hang out at the arcade. Wanna come along?"

"Not interested." Heero responded. He left the campus grounds and walked across the street. Duo noticed that Rei was on the other side of the street, waiting for Heero, presumably. Duo and Kensuke began walking out of the premises, too, and now began the walk to downtown Tokyo-3.

"I'm a little more interested learning about your friend." Kensuke asked.

"Heero?"

"Yes, him. He seems to be as silent as Rei. I thought one was enough but now that we have him, not to mention he's now meeting up with her. Are quiet people magnetically linked or something? Either way, I think things are just bound to get more interesting!" Kensuke remarked.

"Nah, being friends with Heero isn't necessarily a fun thing. I admit, these days I care for him like a brother, except, even in these times of peace, he still can't seem to find any happiness in his life at all. Being a soldier and all doesn't help, either." Duo dreadfully exclaimed.

"Could you tell me then about your experiences as a soldier?" Kensuke looked at Duo curiously,

Duo chuckled, "Alright, buddy. You seemed fascinated by that fact yesterday, so I might as well spit it out. It's a long story, though. I gotta warn you!" Duo smirked.

"You have a test today." Rei spoke softly.

"Hm?" Heero replied briefly.

"On chapters fourteen through sixteen, the organic make-up of the Angels. Have you read them?" Rei asked.

"Yes. There is one study I hope to pursue, however." Heero murmured back, with the symbols he looked upon the other night in the bathtub in his mind.

"You are free to learn of whatever you wish. Do inform me of the specifics of this study, however."

Rei began to walk along the sidewalk, with Heero following slowly behind. Heero thought for a moment of all of the books he's been given involving the structure and business of NERV, directly from the deepest part of the archives. Was this an honor? Or was it a curse?

[1] Tabris is the seventeenth angel and takes the form of a human boy commonly known as Kaworu Nagisa. Kaworu is notable for briefly being the pilot of Evangelion Unit 02. He is, like Rei, an Angel that takes the form of a Lilin (homo sapiens). Unlike Rei whom was created with DNA from Yui Ikari and Lilith, Kaworu was cloned from DNA directly from Adam, the First Angel. Kaworu is classified as a kind, intelligent young boy whom cares deeply for protagonist Shinji Ikari. Ultimately, it is revealed Kaworu was sent by SEELE in order to infiltrate Terminal Dogma in NERV to find the crucified giant of Adam, but turned out to be Lilith, instead. Kaworu is ultimately killed by Evangelion Unit 01 by his own desire and request.

[2] Just a heads-up that this is totally non-canon. In order to make the story flow a little better, I will be making up a lot of random (but very, very minor) events of things that didn't happen and names of non-existent characters in the Evangelion universe.

[3] Once again, non-canon business, except this refers to the Gundam Wing universe. In this case, I'm not even fully aware of the series' extracurricular approach, as it's never stated let alone implied.