Matsushiro
Rei and I sat in our EVAs, in standby mode as we watched the first field test for Evangelion-03. Tōji did everything right as I coached him through the process of first startup, knowing that this was the day and the shape in which the Thirteenth Angel, Bardiel, would attack, and knowing that I would be able to restrain him and remove his entry plug if it became necessary and Tōji could not dislodge the Angel on his own. But I had faith that with proper coaching, the Fourth Child would be able to overcome his invader, and perhaps even defeat it from within, all while leaving us with that oh-so-very useful Unit-03 on hand should Rei or I for any reason require backup. This was all that we had to gain, if only we played our cards right.
"Alright, Tōji, take one step forward," I instructed. He did as ordered, taking a step forth in EVA-03. "Now walk to me." It stepped forward again and again, swaying as it did so, not unlike a child taking its first steps–or a drunk Misato after a night at the bar. I hope that getting the delivery plane to change its flight pattern worked. Otherwise, we might be in trouble, although I doubt it. I trust in my abilities as a pilot. I have got to…
At that moment, I felt a presence within my EVA that was neither me nor Jaquelyn, attempting to infiltrate my brain and take it over from the Evangelion. I smiled predatorily as I realized just what had happened. Well, that was a more stupid move than I expected. Time to say good-night, Bardiel. Mind…CRUSH!
And with that, the threat of the Thirteenth Angel died screaming. Internally, I laughed as it left my mind, and with that, I turned my attention back to training Tōji, holding my hands out to him as he stumbled over to me. "This is really not manly…" he complained.
"No, but it is necessary. It might help to visualize the EVA as your own body," I suggested in a way that I hoped was helpful. "Now walk to Rei, and try to keep your swaying to a minimum. You look like a baby when you look like that–a baby, or a very, very drunk Misato."
[I heard that!] snapped Misato.
"You were intended to!" I returned. "Clear your mind and just think about walking to Rei. I had less training than you did, and I had to have the Third Angel give me a crash course in driving my EVA, so if I can do it there, then you can do it here. Trust me."
"Okay. Alright," said Tōji. "If you can do it under those conditions, I can do it under these. I can work with that. I can work with this." He pushed off of me and walked to Rei with a great deal more grace, which told me that the lessons were sticking. Thankfully, my apprentice had always been a rather quick study with most things, even if the underlying, foundational ideas seemed to escape him at times. Case in point, I knew for a fact he was no closer to thinking of the EVA as his own body than when we had started, but thinking of how he could do it in these training conditions if I could do it under more stressful ones certainly helped. After all, he never did have trouble giving voice to his thoughts, for which I was grateful; else, it would have made teaching him a far more difficult process.
"Very good, Tōji," I said when he completed the task I had set. "You're getting better."
"Thanks," he replied. "This is getting easier."
"Now, why don't we try something a bit more strenuous, like combat?" I suggested, pointing at the Evangelion-sized target range about half a kilometer away. A weapons locker tower deployed at that moment, which was no doubt Misato trusting that I knew what I was doing; I opened it, took out the pellet rifle inside, and handed it to him. He took it in both hands, setting it at the hip; I shook my head, going around him and adjusting his posture to fire from the eye. "You don't ever fire from the hip," I said. "It's grotesquely inaccurate at anything but point-blank range, and more than liable to get you killed; if you're firing at point-blank range, there's something tragically and drastically wrong with you. Now, having said that, fire just downrange. For this exercise, we'll use a target aid. Wait for the triangles to line up, then pull the trigger."
"Yes, sir," said Tōji, swinging his rifle over to the target range, then firing at the three EVA-sized targets one after another. When they were all down, we got a readout.
{Weapons accuracy: 86.4%} stated the digitized voice of the onsite MAGI.
"That's good. Your accuracy will increase as you get used to the gun," I assured him. "Now, unless there's more that the EVA-03 team would like for us to do in order to get them more piloting data, I think we're done here."
[Yes, that's fine, Shinji-kun. If we can just get EVA-03 back onto the catapult, we'll put it into Bakelite storage and retrieve the Fourth Child.]
"So, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the subject. How do you think the activation test went today?" asked Rei.
"You know, I think there's something to be said for 'pillow talk' that doesn't degenerate into 'business talk,'" I joked.
"Says the workaholic," said Rei, playfully swatting me. "I am serious. What do you think? You are always more critical of these things than I am."
"Not 'always,'" I objected, before looking up to the ceiling ponderously. "I think it went fine. Tōji's not a great pilot, but he's competent, and he tries hard to narrow his error margins. Given that Bardiel saw fit to attack me, and not Unit-03, means that the Angels are focusing in more on me, which is good. I'm fine to act as a diversion. But that also means that we now have four Evangelions to help out with the remaining Angels. Two are without Super Solenoid Organs, which might prove problematic, but we can work around that. Having a completed EVA is not all it's cracked up to be anyways, unless, of course, you yourself have a core with which to synch with the Evangelion's completed one, and I don't trust anyone but us with a core. Beyond that, the correction of his error margins, the acknowledgement that he's not the best, and might never be, but he tries hard regardless, makes him already a better pilot than Sōryu in terms of raw potential, and given the rather steep learning curve of piloting, that gap of practical ability that exists between him and her will rather quickly close."
She propped herself up to look down at me. "What are you going to do about Zeruel?"
"Yui managed to awaken the Beast–who we now know to be Jaquelyn–because the EVA ran out of power. We don't have to contend with Yui, I have Jaquelyn on a short leash, and EVA Unit-01 has unlimited energy to spend fighting the Angels. I only lost against the Fourteenth Angel initially because the internal batteries failed as I was going to claim victory," I explained. "And now that we can synch with our EVAs' completed cores, the danger to us and to our familiars–well, my familiar, your companion–in combat against this threat is minimal at best. We just need to make sure we remain mindful of our surroundings at all times."
"Glad to hear you have been thinking about this."
"'Glad to hear I've been thinking about this'? It's a battle against an enemy against whom I personally never claimed victory. Of course I'm going to be careful," I objected.
"Are you sure it is not because Zeruel wounded your pride?"
I scoffed. "You and I both know that I have no pride. It's a foolish thing that induces flaws and eggs people on to thoroughly questionable actions in the pursuit of its preservation. I have no need of it."
She smiled at me. "Of course you do not. I was only teasing, after all."
I smiled back at her, tucking a stray lock of pale blue hair behind her ear. "I know."
She grabbed my hand with both of her own, holding it. "I love you, Shinji. I want you to know that."
"I know," I replied. "I love you, too, Rei."
Rei and I were both in Central Dogma when the Angel of Strength, Zeruel, attacked. It came from the sky, firing its beam weapon directly at the layers of armor that protected NERV and annihilating the first eighteen of them. It was at that moment that we were deployed to the surface of the GeoFront, where the Angel was located, snapping to. "Rei, let's work together to take it out!"
"Right," replied Rei.
We ran out of NERV Central, retrieving our pellet rifles from the nearby weapons locker and taking cover. Motioning to Rei to go around to flank the enemy, I ducked out from behind and fired, distracting it and bringing it to me. I fired until the clip was empty, then tossed it aside, grabbed another one from the weapons locker, then continued firing. I waited until Rei got into position, just as the clip of the rifle ran dry; I tossed it aside, crouched a bit, popped my shoulder pylons, took out my prog knives and set to work.
I ducked low to avoid the energy beam, and then rolled to the side to avoid its arms, allowing Rei to come in from behind and take out one of its arms. It turned around and fired at her, launching its other arm at me; I dodged to the side and ran at it, slashing the arm off. Armless and with only its beam weapon, it turned and fired again and again. Rei and I backed off, then charged at the same time, impaling all four of our prog knives into the Angel's core. It slumped, then died.
"NERV Central? This is Pilot Ikari. Pilot Ayanami and I have neutralized the target."
"Well, that was a simple fight," I said as I walked into Central Dogma, toweling my hair dry from my shower. "Far simpler than I anticipated, certainly."
"That was…that was… What was that?!" cried Asuka.
"A couples' battle," stated Rei, walking in behind me.
"We were able to take the Angel out by working together," I said. "What of it?"
"I…I…"
"Someone like you could never understand," said Rei.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" cried Asuka.
"Exactly as I said," replied Rei. "Someone like you could never understand how we work together as a single unit."
"Well, whatever that was, it saved us a lot of time, effort and collateral damage, not to mention the civilian lives that were saved," interjected Misato. "What damage was done should not be too difficult to repair, and there was no damage to either Unit-00 or Unit-01. Good job, both of you."
"Arigatō, Misato," I responded.
"Don't mention it. In fact, I should probably be thanking you. You both saved me from having to do a lot of paperwork today," said Misato. "Shinji, Rei, in recognition of your exceptional, coordinated performance on the battlefield, both of you get the rest of the week off. Tōji-kun has yet to sortie anyways, and since Asuka's fresh, she'll make sure he survives if an Angel should attack."
"What?! Don't I get any say in this?!" cried Sōryu. "They get the rest of the week off, and I have to deal with Tōji?!"
"You'll do as ordered," snapped Misato, irritation at the Second Child finally boiling over. "If you don't, you'll be relieved of your duties as an Evangelion pilot."
The Second whined, but finally replied, "Alright, I'll do it."
"Arigatō gozaimasu, Misato," I said again, bowing, then turning to leave with Rei. But as we made our exit, I couldn't help tossing an extra little thing over my shoulder, as glibly as could be. "Oh, and Second? I wouldn't worry so much about the Fourth if I were you. He's a pretty fast learner, all things considered." And with that, we finally took our leave of NERV.
"I am…the Bird of Hermes…" A red glow filled the otherwise dark room, as the so-called 'Holy Lance' materialized in all its two-meter-long, pronged glory.
"What are you doing?" asked Rei, dressed in a sheer negligée as she looked into the room within which I sat, cross-legged, materializing the weapon that had originally belonged to my dead demonic father, Lelounh. "If you're trying to open the Gate, you have to know you're using the wrong activation code…I mean, after all, it's one of your Noble Phantasms."
"Unlike in Gil-nii's case, the Noble Phantasm's not the Gate, but the Eye of Dominion to which the Gate itself is tied," I pointed out. "The Eye of Dominion, which I would need to summon Nemo to access, and I don't want to have to do that unless pressed. And anyways, no, I'm not trying to open Hell's Gate. I make a point of not doing that casually, outside of combat, no matter what. I'm actually trying to call the Lance. You see, we said that theoretically, I should be able to manifest it and keep it manifested using my own S2 Organ, but we never tested it. This would be that test."
"It doesn't mean that you'll be able to use any of the Lance's three named abilities," she pointed out.
"On the contrary; my father's Noble Phantasm is exceptional like that," I said, standing up, then turning around to face her at last, the Lance gripped in my left hand. "True, he was a warrior, and the fact that his Noble Phantasm is a weapon reflects that, while I'm a commander, and the Eye of Dominion's two activation states reflect that, but a demon must always be as much a mage as they are a fighter. It's why it was such a handicap for me when I left home without any kind of magical training whatsoever."
"Oh? So what does your Sharingan tell you about your father's lance?" she challenged, standing with arms akimbo.
Sharingan: Absolute Heaven's Eye–one of the three Noble Phantasms I possessed–was a special skill that allowed me to structurally analyze and reverse-engineer any technique I came across, if I was paying close enough attention. I grimaced; using that name reminded me of the world from which that name came, and nothing but bad memories and indignities came from that. It just goes to show you that whoever poses that question about whether it's better to be the best player on a shit team or the worst player on a great team has no idea what they're asking–I mean, my life as Uchiha Itachi certainly attested to the latter being the better, if only for the parade of indignities inflicted upon me by the former. "The choice between Lancea Longini, Gungnir and Gáe Bolg is one of name and mana distribution. The first puts only strain upon the user's body, as the move completes a magic circuit between the body of the wielder and the weapon, through which mana can flow. The second is a bit more complicated, as it requires you to fill the weapon with a certain quantity of intent-driven mana, then cast the weapon towards one's foe and watch it work. You'll burn out your ki reserves if you're stupid with it. The last of the three is more taxing because it reverses cause and effect, screwing Causality itself over in the process. But I'm putting mana through the part of the crest in which it's located to manifest it in the first place, so, while ordinarily just holding it doesn't mean you can use it, the fact that I pull it out of my own armory every time I want to use it means that if this body can manifest it, then it can use it."
"Fair point," she conceded. "So, I take it you plan on using this against the JSSDF forces during the final battle?"
"I mean, I'll open Hell's Gate if I have to, but only so far," I explained.
"Only far enough to mimic our older brother's Noble Phantasm?" she asked.
"Yes. Only that far," I affirmed. "I won't bring forth my legions to deal with such a pittance–I can handle the JSSDF with only that much power at my disposal."
"I don't doubt that you can," she sighed. "Alright. If you don't wish to use the Gate's full power, I won't ask you to. As I said, it is one of your Noble Phantasms. Its use is up to your discretion. And you know, that ability of yours is pretty handy. There's really no way to counter its sight."
I shrugged. "Well, a weapon's only as good as its wielder. I hate the name 'Sharingan,' though; it reminds me too much of the world that name came from, which I'd just as soon forget. If I have to think about Sasuke's stupidity one more time…"
She chuckled. "Understandable, but we don't exactly have another name for it right now. Unless, of course, you have any suggestions?"
I thought for a while as she stood there, until it came to me. With a smile on my face, I said, "Imperial Privilege."
"Pardon?"
"I wish to call it 'Imperial Privilege.' It sounds much more dignified, no?" I said.
"Since you–since we are generals of the Crystal Empress?" she asked, shaking her head. "You know, Shinji, sometimes I really don't get you."
I smirked. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"If you must," she sighed. "Now, will you please dismiss that thing back to your armory and come back to bed?"
I nodded. "Certainly." With that, I dismissed the Lance of Longinus back to my personal armory in Pandæmonium, and then went into our bedroom with Rei.
"And I want you to at least consider adding Nemo to your magic crest," she said as we climbed into bed.
"I have, and I have decided that I don't wish to have to draw her into this backwater world," I said, adamant.
"Suit yourself. Now, let's go to sleep."
"Yes, Rei."
The next day, we decided to go on a picnic, and so we packed up and walked out of the limits of Tokyo-3, hiking to the spot where I had gone to play my cello, so long ago now, it seems–before I had even confessed my feelings to Rei. The waterfall was as brilliant and peaceful as ever in this world of eternal summer, so we sat on the blanket we had brought with us for the occasion and took in the view from the cliff. We could quite literally pick out our apartment building from where we were–ours, and the one that Sōryu shared with Misato. In fact, if I so chose, I could cause my Angelic eyes to pick out the number of tiles on the floor every time that door opened and closed behind one of them. Of course, I didn't want to think of the state of mess that that apartment would be in between the two of them, as destructive as they each were, and so even though I knew it to be possible to do so, I restrained myself; some knowledge has to just be taken on faith, if only because proving it would be too traumatic an experience.
As we sat, I opened up the basket and took out the vegetarian bentō that I had prepared, one for each of us. Rei, as a Faerie, had a more restricted palette than my own; I, for instance, could eat seafood without vomiting it up, as was evidenced by the presence of a bit of tempura in my bentō, while hers only contained vegetables and a few protein-containing plants, since she didn't care for the taste or texture of tofu–something for which I found it hard to blame her; tofu is an acquired taste, and I wouldn't expect Rei to devote her time to making tofu taste good. Hers was mostly devoted to ensuring her protein count remained high, together with her blood's iron resistance, which was fed with the same foods that humans use to build up their blood iron content. With me, I brought my cello on my back, and as we ate, I casually conjured a chair with projection magic; then, when we were finished, having put the two bentō boxes away in the basket, I sat upon that chair, taking out my cello and began to play the two-hour-and-change-long Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, by Bach, from memory, at performance tempo, and without flaw. When it was finished, Rei applauded, and, dispelling the chair and telekinetically putting away the cello, I laid down and rested my head in Rei's lap, and we enjoyed the view. Then, I sat up, kissed Rei while putting the basket off of the blanket, and laid her down atop it; after a few moments during which clothing was removed, we became one in that beautiful clearing, and as we coupled, I wished again and again, with every breath I took, that Rei would keep her promise, and that our time together would never have to end.
We were, unfortunately, on active duty when Arael, the Angel of the Birds, appeared in orbit above Tokyo-3. Unfortunate not because the Fifteenth Angel was any threat, but rather because I wished to witness Asuka Langley Sōryu's downward death-spiral a second time, as sadistic as that might seem. But hey, anyone who accuses me of being unduly cruel by wishing a mind-rape upon her at the hands of the Angel who was her groupie obviously hasn't had to live with the bitch for the better part of the year, only to accidentally force themselves into an end-of-the-world scenario where she was the only other person in the world. Really, the realization that that had been what I had done during Third Impact was more stereotypically hellish than the landscape that the event had left behind by that apocalypse–I had stumbled my way into a "Bad End," the type you only get to see in visual novels.
Although, come to think of it, perhaps it wouldn't take too much for me to bring that downward spiral about myself. Sōryu was inside EVA-02 when the alert sounded, muttering to her EVA that it was a puppet, and I was watching this by Ritsuko's side, since Akagi, strapped for how to fix the Second Child mentally, had asked me to view it so that I could help restore her to proper working order. Such an attempt, naturally, was dead on arrival, and so I was treated to my own private show, a window into the bratty German's troubled psychology, unable to think of anything but how I could go about driving her off the edge and into demented territory–and the best part was that she was still attracted to me, perhaps more so now that I showed her that one, I was and always would be a better Evangelion pilot than her, and two, that I was taken, and so I was in a unique position to make her truly suffer. Arael entered Low Earth Orbit at that very moment, just as I was about to lose the battle not to break out into a wide, feral grin, for which I was thankful; that, understandably enough, would not have gone over well with the techs who were in the room with me.
"Pattern Blue confirmed!" cried Maya.
"Major Katsuragi, what are your orders?" the head of the Science Division asked.
"Send out Rei in Unit-00 with the positron rifle. Asuka will be there to back her up," decided Misato, who was standing at Akagi's other side.
[No way!] shouted the Second Child. [I'll take point!]
Misato was about to argue the point, but was silenced when I walked around Ritsuko and placed my hand on the Operations Director's shoulder, causing me to reflect that the amount of clout my performance in the EVA this time around gave me with my commanding officers was truly a boon sometimes. As for me, my day was made; I would get to watch as Sōryu met her number one fangirl from a front-row seat, quite possibly with popcorn on hand. Well, okay, maybe not that last part, but whatever, really. Bottom line was that it certainly was good to be me this day. "I'll get down to the cages and keep in reserve in Unit-01. However, this case seems to be pretty open and shut. I doubt you'll need to deploy me."
"Okay," said Misato. "I'll go with that."
Atta girl, I thought as I took my hand off of Misato's shoulder and went down to the men's locker room, changing into my plugsuit and going out into the EVA cages. I climbed into the entry plug and waited as I was inserted; then, Misato, who I guess somewhere along the way saw me as the de facto leader of the EVA corps, fed into my entry plug footage of the inside of Asuka's entry plug, as well as footage of what was happening in the city around Unit-02. As such, I was able to watch as Asuka raged at the Angel, since it was just out of range of her positron rifle. Wait for it… NOW!
Suddenly, the Hallelujah Chorus of Georg Friedrich Handel's most famous oratorio, Messiah, began blaring through my connection to the EVA, as a light shined down from the heavens and Arael began her mind-glomping of the Second Child. This time, as she shrieked in horror and agony at the ordeal that, compared to how Leliel had merged with me, was as a lover's caress, I was unable to suppress my grin, and as she cried out for it not to "come into her," I sat back, finding myself in a good mood. It wasn't until she began shooting wildly that I acted, schooling my expression into one of controlled alarm and opening up a comm channel to the Operations Division.
"Misato, launch the catapult!" I urged.
She nodded. "EVA-01, launch!" Misato hit the control and sent me flying up to Tokyo-3's surface, just as Rei lined up her shot and fired her positron rifle at the Angel in orbit. I stepped off of the catapult, ran over to EVA-02 and tossed her out of the way of the light once she had collapsed into a heap within the entry plug, thinking to myself, Playtime's over. Now it's time for business. With that in mind, I placed myself directly into the path of Arael's light, almost basking in it for a moment before getting to the business of slaying the Angel.
"I am…the Bird of Hermes…" The Lance of Longinus took form in my left hand, and I stood with my feet apart, rearing the polearm back like a javelin, putting up my other hand as a mark. Then, I closed my eyes and concentrated, building up the mana within the Lance to greater and greater levels. Fun fact: the amount of mana that was required to execute Gungnir was directly proportional to the range at which one wished for it to work. That's why I usually preferred to use it at mid-range; I'm far enough away from the enemy to justify its use, but not too far for its use to be dangerous. Not so here. The moment she realized what I was doing, Rei opened up a channel between her EVA and mine, but before she could say a word, I opened my eyes, having dropped all of my illusions, and cried out to the heavens, "GUNGNIR!"
I threw the Lance, and as before, the weapon elongated until it was little more than a red streak through the air, and then, when it was close enough to its target, it resumed its flight, snapping back to its original size and streaking through the air to my foe. "Shinji, what were you thinking?!" chastised Rei. "Using Gungnir at that range, while your core is synchronized with Unit-01's?!"
I swayed on my feet–or, at least, I did within the EVA; then, the cyborg slumped limply as I lost consciousness.
I woke up later, staring up at the familiar ceiling of the NERV medical ward. I looked to the side to see Rei seated at my bedside, looking as impeccably dressed as ever, but seeming a tad bit…shaken, for lack of a better word. I reached out to her, and she slapped my hand away. "Don't ever scare me like that again," she snapped, standing up and storming out.
"It worked," I pointed out, stopping her at the threshold to my room.
She turned her head half to me. "Yes, it did," she said. "But at what cost?"
Alarmed, I looked down at my left arm, hoping against hope that that part of my magic crest was still there. When it was, I looked up in confusion, until I realized what she had said. I looked back at the doorway to see her gone. True, if I were still in a human body, I would have burned out my magic circuits and quite possibly died, and though I was tempted to go, "But I'm not in a human body," I saw her point too well to take that position. The point was that she was still pissed at how far I was willing to go to achieve victory within a certain timeframe, which was, of course, however far it took. "But that's one of the reasons I rely on you, Rei," I said to the empty room. "To tell me when I'm going too far."
Within that empty room in the medical ward, I looked out at the GeoFront, and sighed.