After Evangelion

Episode 10: The new teacher

Shinji woke up to the sound of his alarm clock find that the air was a lot cooler this morning. It didn't feel bad at all; winter was coming after all, and it didn't worry him a bit. He didn't immediately get out of bed; he had plenty of time to do that and it was only a Wednesday. For a few minutes, he looked out the window up to the sky to see what kind of weather; he couldn't see the stars that normally were visible, instead he was rewarded with the dull view of clouds.

'Overcast hmm?' Shinji pondered. He wasn't exactly annoyed about the prospect of rain, but it was disconcerting because it meant he couldn't exactly drive as fast today. He pondered about the day ahead; after the driving lesson Shinji gave Ritsuko the previous Sunday; he had agreed to teach Rei, but only under the condition that if she wanted to. Fortunately or unfortunately; Rei had genuinely wanted to drive for herself. Shinji sighed and started the teach Rei the basics, which ate up all of his spare time gained when Asisaka took his shift on certain afternoons.

Shinji felt that he had lost control of his life from this point; until he either moved out or Ritsuko got the money she was promised. This was a probability which grew by the day, Rei and the Doctor had been with them for almost three weeks now and she didn't even keep to her original promise of getting a job. This was also eating into Misato's patience as she continued to allow her friend to freeload off her house.

Before any more time marched on, Shinji slowly got out of bed, tip-toed around Rei and walked out the door, carrying clothes to change in. he was surprised to learn that Misato was already up this morning.

"Good morning Shinji"

"Morning?"

"I know it's out of habit, but doctor annoyance was snoring last night"

Shinji shrugged it off and changed while Misato went downstairs to load the Trueno. It had taken only three days in the repair shop; despite the speed of the Mazda being a nice change; Shinji was glad to be driving his car again from this morning onwards. He was familiar with the car, knew the limits inside and out, the pace would be slower of course, but it was something he could live with.

After a short change into something that was acceptable in the public eye, he walked downstairs to find that Misato was carrying the last box out now. Downstairs it was colder; a definite sign that it was starting to creep towards winter. He didn't bother; the Trueno with a heater is what he would simply answer it with. He walked outside to find the car was loaded, and that Misato was in the passenger seat.

"Misato?"

"Don't mind me" she replied with a yawn "I'm going to come with you today"

Shinji gave up caring a moment later and got in the drivers side of the car. Slowly he started up the car and drove down Cherry Blossom Avenue towards Mt Kira Road. He felt tired and at the permission of Misato, the two of them stopped by the gas station near the bottom of the road to pick up express coffee and energy bars, only to find it wouldn't open for another 30 minutes. As Shinji had predicted, the weather was miserable and the usual dawn light that occupied this time of day was delayed by a thick cloud cover that had rolled through the valley over the course of the evening.

He could tell that it was going to be a cold and slow day, but nothing could be done though; and he had a full day ahead with both school and another installment of driving lessons for Rei. This perpetual annoyance started on Monday when Shinji took Rei out in the Mazda to see what she could do; apparently she knew the basics of driving, just as Ritsuko said, but once she accelerated, it was a different story.

From what Shinji could guess, it was the equivalent to a panic for her. Such problems were because her mind ended up in conflict about the morality of speeding. Such thinking had dangerous results; Rei had almost crash the FC head on with the guardrail. After that embarrassing lesson, Rei was talked to by Ritsuko to clear up that problem in her mental thinking.

Yesterday Rei did a little better, she didn't loose concentration, but her inability to time her clutch and braking resulted in some speculator spinouts on the hairpins, and a nice scratch on the back right corner of the FC. Shinji wasn't going to enjoy today, as he expected to have such event to now occur everyday when he had to teach Rei. What further worried Shinji was that the training would take place in his 86 now. The FC was in the shop for the minor ding. Thus it seemed that Shinji would have to sacrifice his beloved car to the crazy erratic style of Rei.

It wasn't fair; it wasn't because of his car or his previous accidental scratches that he managed to give his car. Ritsuko determined that the 86 could stand the damage because it was a cheaper and old vehicle. Well the initiative was there; but he could hardly call his car old, it was a 'second generation' AE86, and it wasn't the genuine mid 1980's model. The Mazda FC that Ritsuko owned in fact was made in the same year the production line switched over to the FD model of that sports car. The faster car was also the older of the two.

Shinji didn't like it when Ritsuko was commanding. It was clear that the little lesson on Sunday only did the opposite effect and gave her more abridged notification of the problems that had to be overcome to make the theory even probable. That's what made Ritsuko so dangerous, she didn't know how when to say no.

For the majority of the climb this morning, Shinji drove slowly, as he discovered to find Misato actually fast asleep before they arrived to Chisame's hotel. It was a strange thing for Misato to fall asleep like this. Shinji didn't blame her though, the fact she found Shinji's driving comfortable enough that she could actually sleep was assuring in her trust. Then again, it could've been that Misato, like she appeared, hadn't managed to get any sleep last night.

Shinji decided today to drive extra slow and calmly, even doing his best to quietly open the Trueno's boot without means of waking her. Shinji had focused a lot on driving as calmly as possible until he left Chisame's hotel.

"How long have I been sleeping?" Misato started "and where are we?"

"We just left Chisame" Shinji said "I didn't wake you up, it seemed to you needed the sleep"

Misato yawned for a moment before looking for her coffee. It then came to her that she didn't take the flask that she had prepared before. But for some reason she could still smell the unmistakable coffee beans in hot water that she relied on for energy. Before she could even guess, Shinji explained

"You can thank Chisame later"

Misato shrugged and opened the flask to drink the contents. Shinji continued to drive ahead.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Shinji said "or did you just want to get some sleep"

"I wanted to ask you how you're doing with Rei, and what we're doing about Ritsuko"

"Well, Ritsuko has already committed to making Rei drive, despite her disliking for it"

"I'm going to tell Ritsuko she has a deadline" Misato said, this made Shinji turn to look at her, "if she doesn't get a job in two weeks, they can look for different accommodation"

"Is Ritsuko even looking for work?"

"Yes, but she is being unrealistic in her job hunting" Misato explained "I've even managed to get her a possibility, but she refuses to go and consider it"

"Where is the job?"

"There is an opening at the hospital in town, a GP position in the clinic section and the lab section needs a new chief"

"How did you arrange that?" Shinji asked in surprise,

"I know the doctor" Misato explained "for one, she goes the local community business meeting, and she buys goods from us"

"…and you asked her about it didn't you"

"Smart cookie" Misato replied "she said that she'd take on Ritsuko no problem"

"Then how come the doctor hasn't?"

"I found out why" Misato said angrily "she said that she has past the age for finding a new career and is waiting for that professor in Kyoto to give her the money"

"You're kidding"

"She intended to retire rich and of all places, where we live" Misato said "I'm going to give her an ultimatum today and hopefully she'll try the hospital first"

Shinji nodded in agreement before continuing to drive to the next hotel. Shinji decided to not go fast, even if Misato was awake. It felt like he would need his concentration and energy for today.

Location: Karasuyama-2 Public high school, Karasuyama-2

Time: 08:55

Date: September 27th, 2017

While the rest of the morning had gone right to plan; from this moment on, everything would spin drastically out of control. Shortly after their arrival back at the store, it started to rain heavily in the small township. Not that rain was a terribly bad thing given the heat that this summer past had been, but this type of weather was infamous for doing many things. At the very least though, Shinji had a proper excuse to save his Trueno from getting damaged from Rei's inexperienced skills.

The classroom was starting to fill up with the usually buzz that came with the 30 or so students, all communicating their stories of what happened since they last saw each other on Friday. While others wouldn't have preferred it; Shinji actually liked the loud and lively company of this class, given his experience at a Tokyo-3 middle school was quite bizarre. In those classes which barely broke twenty students a grade, the atmosphere was a pin drop of tension.

The Tension here was nonexistent; everyone was carefree about the ordeal. However this would change in a while the normal mood of a classroom bored of the class.

"Shinji, I saw the video last night" Kazuma said "that was unreal man, I mean seriously that was damn hardcore drifting"

Unaware of the real reason why there was no sound, Kensuke had purposely deleted the audio of the entire race, the screaming near the end was chilling and somehow it reminded him of the one experience inside the evangelion. Because of this, Kensuke couldn't look at Shinji straight today. He had heard of his concentration being tested during the race; but he didn't expect to hear the screams of an insane manic.

Toji, Kazuma and Naoko had seen the video as well, now very much proud of their friend's ability, last Saturday had proven them the race with the Sileighty wasn't a fluke. He was a genuine road racer and the only real challenge that their town had managed to grow. Albeit that Shinji wasn't homegrown at all; which to some of the visiting road racers actually place question on Shinji's background.

"Shinji; how is the training with Rei going?" Toji asked

"As I was when I first learnt, but worse" Shinji replied

He had told them all about the experience on Monday when he almost ended up in hospital, now he told them about yesterday when she did nothing but spin out the FC on the hairpins.

"I keep telling myself that Rei might be able to if she has practice, but I don't know"

"She's driving the FC?"

"That's the plan" Shinji said "I've suggested the idea to Ritsuko that she should stick to one vehicle…but I have my own reasons"

"Don't want her to dint your precious 86?"

"It's not like I don't trust her, but I don't like the idea of my car getting that sort of treatment"

"Ritsuko thinks that the 86 and the FC are similar enough to work for her" Shinji replied "but the engine that my car has isn't anything like the 13-B turbo Ritsuko's car has"

"That's true enough" Kazuma replied "but I can't see Rei behind the wheel of the FC however"

"I'll give it a week" Shinji said

"Hey, ill tell you what" Kazuma "When do you have a practice session?"

"Tomorrow or Friday night I guess"

"How about Toji, Kensuke and me come along to watch the practice?"

"You're kidding me right?"

"No" Toji spoke "I want to see this practice for myself first"

"Won't Hikari object?" Shinji groaned "I mean she laid it into me on Monday when she was alone with me"

Hikari had been judicial about the whole race on Saturday, despite seeing it for herself; she was convinced that he should pursue a path in such a dangerous sport. Shinji had agreed with her on that, he didn't want to pursue it professionally, or beyond what he already had done. But Ritsuko was now pushing stuff in his face. Even if he could, Shinji didn't want to face Hikari after that episode, after all she didn't even approve of him driving yet.

"Listen, I'll explain it to her that it can't be helped" Toji replied

"Alright"

At that very moment, Hikari came in to commence the morning meeting before the homeroom teacher arrived.

"Okay, can I get your attention please?" Hikari took the podium in front of the classroom.

The class had learnt enough times that Hikari was a lean and mean class rep to be dealt with. Whatever her experiences in Tokyo-3's middle school system did to her, she was a professional, if there was such a thing. Hikari waited at class slowly calmed down and took its seats. When hikari took over the role of class representative, this class was one of the most disorganized in the entire school. Shinji knew what kind of character Hikari was and he even bet with Toji and Kensuke on how long that it would take for her to get the class in shape. However, none of them expected Hikari to take less then a month to turn it into the kind of classroom she uses to command.

The meeting was more of less a regular announcement of school duties, team announcements, the only in-class related subject was assigning Rei to a timetable for classroom cleaning. This pleased Shinji, it now made 2 afternoons open for him to force Ritsuko to not do a lesson, especially when one of those afternoons he had off from work. The last announcement was that a new teacher was being assigned to them; the 25yr old male teacher was going to take over English and history for the remainder of the semester, but their homeroom teacher would remain. That was typical, they all just handed in the report and expecting an easy going teacher to mark them, and now they were going to be looked at by a brand new teacher straight out of Tokyo-2 University.

"Well, however this guy is, we don't have him until after lunch" Kensuke noted,

Shinji nodded in agreement, but something was nagging at him that the afternoon wasn't something to look forward to for the same reasons. English was one of Shinji's weaknesses and one of Rei's strange points. Then again, Rei's education as far as he knew so far was a strange mix, which left the homeroom and science teachers confused.

Last Friday, Shinji had to quietly remind her that she didn't know about LCL and that you couldn't recall the exact specifications of the Evangelion's height and other technical facts that only a pilot would know. But telling Rei that didn't make sense to her and she almost did so, only to be literally saved by a bell. Shinji wondered what this new teacher was like, only to slowly drift into a stare out the window at the falling rain.

The weather didn't really get any better by lunch time; in fact it felt like it only got worse. By lunchtime, the cold outside made a relaxing feel from the stuffy body heat of 40 students in the classroom, it couldn't be helped, even if you could go downstairs to the cafeteria, it would be just as bad, the humidity would only make it worse.

So out of the two places, Shinji decided to just eat his lunch in the classroom, his joined him and added a table to form a rudimentary table for the eight people sitting here. Hikari was absent for the moment, she lost the toss and was the one going to get lunch today from the canteen.

Shinji always made his own lunch, and today was no different, although he now was preparing Rei's meals as well; which could've only caused suspicious to anyone who didn't know Rei's immediate background. Shinji didn't really care what people assumed. Naoko would think dating and Kazama would probably confirm it by some physic means.

In any regard, Shinji had more problematic concerns, like making Rei a lunch she would eat. It had taken him a while to remember that Rei didn't like to eat meat of any description. Thus her lunchbox usually would contain only rice balls or vegetables. He had taken two days to make something she could eat and a further day before he could perfect something that even made Rei comment positively on.

It somehow made Naoko and Hikari jealous, of the times they got to sample it; they quickly became annoyed with Rei that she got to have a sample. Thought Hikari was more then accepting, Naoko complained.

"Why don't you ever make my lunch for me?"

"Cause I think your able to handle it"

"Then why Rei" Naoko replied "she doesn't even say thank you"

"Well, Rei needs help making hers"

Everyone minus those who didn't know already had agreed that Rei needed an excuse for being so quiet all the time. While it didn't seem to be necessary, they still used the excuse that Rei had previous mental problems in the past. As of yet, Naoko and Kazuma had both come up with their own conclusion that Rei was just a very quiet bookworm. However, by the simple curiously of supplying this quiet girl lunch, Shinji had inadvertently caused the two friends to further speculate something to more along the lines of a hidden relationship.

Shinji continued to eat lunch, ignoring the speculation that the two drama-deprived counterparts craved in their spare time. Hikari left in advance to do some business before the afternoon class. Toji and Kensuke, along with Shinji and Kazuma decided to bear the remaining 40 minutes of class with card games.

"So Shinji, have you thought about the offer?" Kazuma asked

"What offer?" Shinji said forgetfully

"Damn Shinji" Kensuke said "to watch over you while you're practicing with Rei!"

"Yea…sure…but I don't know…you guys really don't want to"

"Don't worry" Kensuke said with a disbelieving tone.

He had an alternate motive, which was to find a way to get into the passenger seat of the AE86 with Shinji. He wanted to be where his video camera recorded on the first two races but no opportunity had opened it itself, until now that is.

Toji nodded approvingly as if to back Kensuke's point.

"Alright, but if Misato says no, its no"

The afternoon class couldn't have been anymore discomforting, even before the teacher had come in the air in the room which was slate from this morning was still occupying the room and the stench of the handful of guys and girls who went to play in the hall only made the whole atmosphere a lot worse then before. But the worst part hadn't started yet. From what rumors were around, Shinji had learn that the other class had experienced what they described as 'a teacher so full of himself, that it was impossible to believe he was a registered teacher' Shinji didn't really care, no man was worse then his father and none had yet come even close to it. Shinji experienced the height of evil in his time at NERV and didn't expect anyone like a teacher to even pose a threat to his peaceful world.

That conclusion was only now going to be rewritten; the door opened as a tallish young man with blond hair walked into the room, he didn't appear to be sweating from the internal moisture and heat that the building current had. He even apparently looked like he had gone out to clean himself up. Girls could've found him attractive if they hadn't picked up the vibe of someone already too proud of himself.

"Good afternoon" he said in a force obviously played for acting

"Good afternoon sensei" the class replied,

"My name is Ryouske, or as they knew me in Tokyo-2 university, Great Teacher Ryouske"

In a dozen male minds, including Shinji, their moods at the moment he finished speaking dropped further to the floor with the same thought, they all instantly and discreetly hated this new teacher, He went on explaining the role that the students would be doing in the class for the time he was here; apparently he was here until Christmas, which was now 11 or so weeks away. Shinji managed to ignore the teacher entirely as he managed to concentrate on the work he had eventually given out some 30 minutes into the lesson.

He didn't notice the look that he was giving him and Rei. The class continued on as per usual, among the poison smell of the afternoon, sweat and the outside moisture mixing in, and the general nature that the class had unilaterally agreed a dislike in a single thought that the teacher; who spend the 30 minutes wasted talking about his background and very much little to do with the class lesson he was suppose to teach.

"Ikari-san"

"Yes Sensei?"

"Can you answer question 16?"

Shinji replied with the correct answer, noticing that it annoyed the teacher a bit, like he was expecting him to by unable to answer.

"Um….who can answer number 17?" Ryosuke asked which got the replied in the form of 3 hands

"Ayanami- san"

"Yes Sensei?" Rei replied in her monotone voice

"Can you please answer 17?"

Rei replied and was slightly incorrect; Shinji noticed this time that the teacher noted some pleasure.

It didn't take long for Hikari to notice that despite the fact that several other people kept putting up their hand, This Ryouske-sensei was constantly picking Rei, Shinji or Toji to answer. After Hikari noticed it, it didn't take long for everyone else to notice it,, but nobody seemed to know why; there wasn't anything special from the three, expect all of them had come from Tokyo-3 and after the last angel attacked.

Apart from this certain fact, nobody else really knew the other unique things about them, expect of course Hikari and Kensuke; who knew that in the room were 3 out of the 4 Evangelion pilots and they all had backgrounds that would make the strongest in this room sick; One had been cloned multiple times, one was the son of the commander who had been charged with heinous war crimes, and the last being involved in a 'accident' which cost him two limbs.

Everyone expect Rei had a dark thought for a long hour about the true intentions of the teacher. Eventually, after the said hour, the teacher had expanded the number of students to include Hikari and Kensuke. Now the rest of the class, especially Naoko and Kazuma were trying to figure out why only the 'Tokyo-3 kids' were being picked on for questions.

Naoko pondered in her chair to the possible reasons that they were the only ones being called. They all lived to toyko-3, they all went the same middle school, though with population the way it was, that couldn't be helped. Ryosuke didn't mention going to Tokyo-3 ever in his 30 minute display of self-importance. Naoko was smart, which was what made her dangerous. But she couldn't seem to link Rysouke's motive towards Shinji and the rest.

"That'll be all for today, please remember to read page 200 to 250" Ryosuke said, getting the reply of something that sounded like a gasp and a groan at the same time. Given that the usual homework consisted of 8 to 10 pages max, it was no surprise that everyone in the room was suddenly very annoyed with the teacher who claimed to be the greatest.

"Rise!" Hikari started the procedure to end the exhausting day "Bow!"

"Good Afternoon Sensei"

Everyone in the room was relieved to leave the room, even thou the hallways were just as humid, it was a relief as the air was slightly fresher then what it was normally.

"I don't know what was worse, the smell of sweat, or that jerk!" Hikari said "Great teacher Ryosuke…jeez, anyone be a jerk that easily"

The whole group had listened to her outburst in surprise, usually because the outbursts came from the three stooges first. Whatever the matter, Kensuke was already clearing out to go to work; Where Asisaka would already be waiting for him. Shinji continued to pack and then waited for Rei, they had only 1 umbrella and Rei was apparently more prone to colds then he was. Toji would do the gentlemen thing and escort Hikari to her part time job with his umbrella, Naoko and Kazuma decided however to walk home with Shinji and Rei.

The group walked down the hallway and then outwards the northwest entrance where the teachers parked their cars. Usually teachers owned a medium sized family car or a mini or some sort, but one car stood out from the bunch; a black Nissan GT-R 34.

"Who do you suppose drives that beast?" Kazuma said"

"I can guess one person" Shinji turned to look towards the building, and surely enough as if on cue, a grey umbrella popped up and started a semi-jog down the path to the parking lot.

"Great Teacher Ryouske owns that GT-R 34" Shinji sighed "if I didn't know someone who had a even greater ego then him, he would've become the new king"

Shinji and the gang ignored him and walked down the street entrance walking towards the corner, just as they cleared the entrance, the Skyline raced out of the parking lot and cornered badly out and down the street. If the noise and surprise of barely missing Rei and Shinji wasn't enough it was the puddle of water that splashed on to their legs and back that did.

Shinji managed to remain calm, only feeling like screaming out at the car which since had left his vision. He then inspected Rei whom was now thoroughly soaked below her waistline. He sighed and picked pace to get home as soon as plausible. Kazuma and Naoko didn't seem to mind, given how the rain was now getting worse, despite the fact that Shinji could see a line of white blue somewhere a little further away.

The absence of what passed as normal conversation lacked for a few minutes and 2 blocks. Eventually someone had to break the ice formed. Kazuma decided to ask the obvious question.

"Shinji, do you know why that teacher was picking on you and Rei?" Kazuma said

"I have no idea" Shinji said. He actually didn't give it any thought and while he was on the subject, he then seemed to notice the strange pattern that this teacher employed, not once in the entire 90 minutes of class they actually were learning did anyone else expect him and the other two Evangelion pilot present. There was no reason for the provocation, he took the class as seriously as everyone else, he answered every question correctly, and he surely continued to work as hard as everyone else.

But the one dark thought that Hikari and Kensuke had over three hours ago was now festering in Shinji's mind, expect this thought was being by the negative aura that could make anything possible.

"Shinji, Naoko and I are going to see Kensuke now, you want to come"

"No thanks" Shinji said "this is my first afternoon off work, I just want to go home and get some rest"

The group of four split evenly, Naoko and Kazuma walking off to the store, Shinji and Rei walking home as soon as possible. The walk was mostly silent, Rei rarely asked questions at all, let alone found the reason to ask them at all. Shinji had pondered about the thing Misato was going to do today. She said that she would tell Ritsuko today that they had to get ready to move out and that was final.

Shinji didn't doubt that Misato would do it, but he didn't have faith in her that she would be able to convince her friend and the girl that came with her to move out. The money that the professor was clearly not going to come and there was now a demanding need for Ritsuko to look for a job, which Misato had confidently setup for her in the previous week.

When Shinji got home, he was surprised to find that the tofu shop had been closed up, and still surprised further that his Black Trueno was still parked besides the building. This did really limit a lot of options, they couldn't be home, and cause there hadn't been a day in the store's operation where it was closed. Shinji entered through the backdoor and found out that Misato and Ritsuko went home. He then managed to speculate on where they went.

'She closed up the shop, so they somewhere, the rain makes it hard to go anywhere, but they didn't take the car, so they went somewhere local' Shinji though to himself. Before he could, he turned around and just then noticed that Rei was still standing outside near the Trueno

"What are you waiting for?" Shinji wondered at the obscenity of crazy reasons that Rei might reply with

"I'm not sure" was all that came out of Rei's mouth,

"Well, come inside already" Shinji replied 'jeez I got enough problems with school and home and this racing business; god knows what kind of problems I would get if you were sick'

Shinji opened upstairs to find that the household was left relativity clean when compared to the average day, no beer cans were around the table and the kitchen had actually been left intact; Evidence that Misato and Ritsuko went and had lunch somewhere instead. Shinji decided first to dispose of their wet clothing and to get comfortable and dry.

"Rei, you can change first" Shinji said as he took her bag and went to put them on coat hooks in the laundry downstairs. Rei complied and walked into Shinji's room to start getting changed. Some 20 minutes later the two had changed out of their clothes and were now enjoying what was now a relaxing afternoon, Shinji collapsed on his bed and look skywards out the window; he'd have to go out in that weather in another few hours.

But Shinji decided that he would have rest now. He rolled his head over to notice Rei was already doing her homework, reading a small book of some description. It was strange how he now felt comfortable with Rei in the same room; Shinji dozed off with the sound of the clock on the desk chirping every second away and the rain pouring on the tile roof.

His dreaming was short lived however; about an hour after he closed his eyes, he abruptly heard the door downstairs almost being kicked open. Shinji took only a few seconds to go from a blissful sleep to fully awake and alert.

"Rei, what was that?" Shinji said in reaction, though Rei was just as equally surprised and didn't know herself. The two teenagers waited in the room in silence to hear any follow up noises, it only too another three seconds before a familiar voice got rid of the nervous tension

"Ms. Katsuragi and the doctor are home" Rei announced the same moment Shinji figured the answer for himself. Shinji listened to hear that both of them were yelling something incoherent. Which could only mean one thing; they had gone out for lunch and just spend 5 hrs yelling at each other and now they decided to bring their fight home where no witnesses would be present to see the two middle aged women rip each other to bits,

One thing Shinji concluded as he walked out of the room; Misato didn't get the reply that she was expecting out Ritsuko. He sighed more and walked down the stairs to meet the two. To his surprise, he found that Misato and Ritsuko were barely able to stand up straight let alone yell at each other coherently.

Shinji then managed to add that to the equation of what had happened and figured out then the entire story. Misato must've taken Ritsuko out to a bar; Shinji recalled there was one, a few blocks down on a side street off Cherry blossom Avenue. Evidently Misato must've used the rain as an excuse to close shop for the day, they never got customers on a rainy day; to go to the bar to get Ritsuko and herself drunk, then tell her to leave the house.

The plan wasn't thought out well, because Ritsuko was very strong in resisting alcohol and in order to get her drunk, would've required a fair bit of booze. He couldn't fathom what took place, but he ended up guessing they shared a few bottles of sake between them.

"Rei, come and help me" Shinji called the girl out "help me get these two to bed"

"What do you mean?!" Misato yelled at Ritsuko, "'I Have to give a room to sleep under?'"

"You heard me!" the clearly drunk doctor replied with equal anger "where do suppose me and Rei sleep?!"

"Rei doesn't cause a mess"

"come on Misato, lets go to bed" Shinji took her my the arm and started moving her bulk towards the bedroom, Rei did the same expect she had extreme difficulty keeping the doctor steady"

"…and your Miss cleanliness?!"

"At least I have a job and I have a firm footing" Misato yelled "if you want to do better then me, and then go get a job you lazy ferret!"

That made Ritsuko past the line where was a controlled drunk; she moved rapidly and whacked Rei in face and knocked her 'daughter' out; sending her to the floor with a bleeding nose. Shinji saw that and was now at a loss of patience as he grunted Misato away from Ritsuko who almost caught up, only to trip over the chair in front of her and fall over onto the couch from the back.

Shinji ignored the Doctor's ungraceful trip onto the living room couch; here he was, with three girls in the house; two were drunk and passed out while fighting and one was knocked out and on the floor, what made him not snap was his concern for Rei's well being. He quickly moved Misato onto her bed and dropped her down, he'd get her into the bed in a few moments, but his next concern was Rei.

He walked out to find that Rei managed to get herself to her feet, however managed to attempt to move the doctor again, only minutes after she was knocked out.

"Rei, don't worry, I'll handle her" Shinji said "please go stop that bleeding"

Shinji found it odd and disturbing in one way that Rei didn't even notice she was bleeding. However she was following his instructions and walked to the bathroom. Shinji turned his attention to the doctor, who thankfully knocked herself out with her trip. If there was on thing that didn't make sense, it was how out of the two, Ritsuko was the violent drunk, where as Misato was just drunk.

He slowly moved her down the hallway into the bedroom where he had just put Misato on the bed, which thankfully didn't roll onto her stomach or puke into her pillow. He carefully placed Ritsuko down on the futon beside Misato and made sure she wouldn't do the same; then came the task that Shinji hated for as long as he had lived with Misato. From time to time, and with Misato's request many years before, he had to change her out of her clothes and put her in bed.

He was glad that he wasn't made to change the undergarments; his sanity rest assured that it wasn't required, but for any healthy young teenager male, this was the sort of job that was considered short of a sick nightmare. He begun to remove her shoes and socks, tossing them into the hallway to be put near the door or in the laundry, he then slowly moved took her pants and took her shirt, which smelt of puke and threw them into the forming pile of laundry.

Once Misato was done, he covered her with a blanket and pushed a pillow either side of her; given her tenancy to roll over on to her stomach in her sleep. Then came Ritsuko; Shinji was use to Misato, he had done it enough to be use to her body by now, Ritsuko in the other hand was a different matter.

He started in the same manner of Misato, taking the shoes and socks off and throwing them in the hallway, but Ritsuko proved virtually impossible to change in her sleep, unlike Misato who was use to it, the doctor kept squirming around whenever she was touched. It eventually took twice as long to put the doctor to bed, to which Shinji was relieved to only get away with a kick in the arm.

Shinji left the middle aged women alone, wondering why his life seemed to be either about work or school or taking care of two women twice her age. He then proceeded to his next problem, taking care of the last of the three girls in the house. Apparently, and to his shock, Rei was in the bathroom still, while washing the blood away from her face and trying it seemed to stop it getting onto her already bloodied up shirt.

"Rei, what are you doing?!" Shinji asked

"I'm trying to stop the bleeding"

"That's not going to stop it" Shinji on his own grabbed a few tissues from the box on the counter and on his own held Rei's noise as he blocked the burst vain.

"Now hold it like I am doing now and hold it down for 5 minutes" Shinji instructing Rei, who did once he stopped pinching her nose "haven't you ever had a nose bleed before?"

Shinji found it odd that Rei, who had some common sense to cover a head wound, didn't know how to stop her nose bleeding. Rei didn't answer expect shook her head to indicate she didn't have a nose bleed before. Shinji sighed with some content and went to wash his face. It was five o'clock now, and it was time to do the delivery run.

Shinji hated driving in the rain just as much as he hated Ritsuko, but he was damn glad he didn't have to teach Rei to drive in this today. Thanks to Misato's failed attempt to convince Ritsuko to get a job, the woman wasn't sober or awake to force him to do something he already despised doing. However, he still decided to bring Rei along.

Shinji had some rather odd reasons for this; one was that he didn't want to leave Rei there alone to take care of two drunken women who couldn't seem to take care of themselves. The other reason he had forgotten and was sure that he couldn't recall it in the exact same words that he previously remembered. However, Rei agreed on her own whim and now was quietly sitting in the passenger seat.

The drive up the mountain was a quiet one, he for some strange reason continued to deliver the packages in the same order he did if he was practicing. Shinji assured himself that he was not going to practice in this weather, especially with Rei in the passenger seat and his two guardians currently incapacitated at home. Shinji noticed that Rei herself was 'relaxing' in her seat as she gazed out the window at the now dark skies.

Despite the fact that Rei was by default of her upbringing; unsentimental; her gentle demeanor and innocent look and facial expressions constantly gave away this impression of a quiet and calmly relaxed young lady. Shinji thought nothing of this from the Rei he knew; the first Rei he 'met' had helped her discover, develop and learn some feelings and almost managed to learn how to interpret them. When she died however, these feelings that took months to learn had instantly been locked away again, her clone knowing about them, but again forced to rediscover them.

Shinji felt that looking at Rei knows; he could overlook and even pretend to believe the cover story of the previous clone's death, if it were to make her easier to look at her. No, he had finally overcome that fear of Rei that haunted him for a long time. Shinji simple didn't lie about the death of the previous clones, he didn't pretend anything, and this Rei was the last clone ever he knew would exist.

"Shinji" Rei broke the silence

"Yes" Shinji said as he sped the car into 4th gear on a stretch of road,

"Why did you worry about when my nose was bleeding?"

"Well" Shinji said, unable to reply straight away "you could loose a fair bit of blood that way"

"Unlikely" Rei said,

"Well…" Shinji tried to think of something to explain it, in her point of view he noticed, there was virtually no reason for him helping her. "I guess I'm use to helping people out all the time…"

"Like how you undressed and put Ms. Katsuragi and Dr. Akagi to bed before?"

Shinji shuddered at the though for a moment, for a second loosing concentration of the road "Well something like that, yes…"

Rei pondered the thesis in her head, something that a normal girl wouldn't do, but like Rei, she always seemed to do the thinking for something that nobody did the thinking for. Shinji finally figured out what he had to say,

"Rei, when it's a close friend or family member, it's natural for you to be worried or concerned about their well being, when their hurt or sick, naturally for you to be concerned"

"So you were concerned about me?"

"Yes"

"…and you were concerned about Ms Katsuragi?"

"Yes"

"…and Dr Akagi?"

"Well…" Shinji paused for a moment "I wouldn't say worried, just that it had to be done"

"I don't understand"

"Well, it's a little more complex to explain" Shinji replied honestly "…and I can't think of the words right now"

Rei sat their pondering the comments as Shinji pulled into the driveway for the Sohma family hot springs estate. The task of unloading the final crate of tofu didn't really take long, Rei didn't leave the car as instructed, and he felt that the old lady might take the opportunity to chew both of them at once for some mundane reason. The lady however noticed Rei and made argument at both her absence in doing her job and the further mundane complaining that the two teenagers in a car would and could only mean one thing.

Rei didn't hear this; then again, Rei wouldn't have understood a whole lot of it. Shinji ignored it too and that was because it was nonsense and he already had been disturbed once this afternoon to be able to feel disturbed by this. After a short 10 minutes of being yelled at, Shinji got in the car and drove off towards home. Given the ample time Rei had to her to think out the various things said before, it wasn't surprising that Rei would reply straight away.

"Shinji"

"Yes"

"Am I…" Rei spoke with a momentary pause "…a close friend?"

The one thing that Shinji felt strange then was at the same time, despite how simple the question may have sounded, he didn't know himself. He took a few seconds to think his answer out, wondering if every second her question was left unanswered mattered.

"I think…" Shinji said "…your someone I would care about"

It was a simple answer and to Rei that managed to explain and answer her questions for her. Rei found her heart warming with some emotion, what was it called? Rei took a moment to recall the symptoms, it was something like she 'liked and found comfort' in it, yes, she found the response 'comforting'. Rei then wondered if she had experience the same feeling or worry for Shinji before. What surprised her in a minute of recalling was that in the recent race, she did remember feeling some discomfort in hearing that Shinji was in trouble.

What would this mean? That she cared for Shinji if he was hurt or sick? Just like he was when her nose was bleeding? No matter that, her feeling kept coming back to the sincere comfort that someone cared for her. Rei couldn't exactly understand it, although she had just figured it out for herself.

Shinji drove on at the posted speed, visibility was bad now and Shinji couldn't memorize the course off by heart yet. He didn't notice the car parked just outside the driveway had started moving a few minutes after he started driving back towards Karasuyama-2.

"Rei, you want to get takeout?" Shinji asked suddenly

"Why?"

"Well, there is no real point in going home and disturbing our guardian's sleep with making dinner"

"That sounds alright, but where could we…"

"There is that family's restaurant on the other end of Cherry blossom Avenue"

Rei pondered over what was served at such places, usually meat product meals. She considered objecting, but then she decided to ask the previous question again.

"Why?"

"Well, I suppose its not often you and I have time to ourselves, and we are after all 'irresponsible teenagers who don't have any decency'" Shinji joked,

"What do you mean?" Rei didn't notice the tone of sarcasm in his voice, "Are we suppose to be?"

Shinji noticed how Rei interrupted the last sentence, and quickly he scurried up a reply to suit her. Shinji thought hard about his reply, usually he really didn't have do think this much about a reply to a girl, but in Rei's case, she was very gullible to believe everything in a literal sense.

"No, not really" Shinji said, "its just a joke, some call it sarcasm"

"Oh…I'm sorry" Rei reacted "I didn't understand"

Shinji shrugged it off "Don't worry, not a lot of people can tell the different if someone is being sarcastic or not"

Rei almost smiled, the sense of being unable to understand was replaced with the warm and good sense that she was only acting normally, or at least as normal as Shinji said people acted. The atmosphere in the car was now more relaxed, but this calm wasn't going to last. No less then 300 meters behind the Truneo, the black r34 was prowling behind, dimming its own headlights to only focus enough to see the Trueno.

Shinji noticed the flickering of the light by accident, a pair of low blue lights through what he assumed was heavy ran, but he wasn't able to react when the lights flash golden bright in the rearview mirror. The R34 floored power and sped up to the 86. Shinji's first reaction was to speed away from the car behind him. His second reaction was to realize that speeding in this weather was crazy.

"Rei, hold on" he said quickly, Shinji noticed that he managed to return the lights to a normal glare, but he couldn't see the car. That meant it was black painted. Shinji picked up speed and tried to loose it, but he noticed that the car was tailgating no less then 2 meters from his rear.

"What the hell does this guy want?" Shinji guessed the reasons, and realized that it was a road racer; he was looking for prey to hunt on the mountain, but in this rain? Shinji sped up again, he didn't completely floor it, and Shinji wasn't about to race with Rei in the car, in these conditions. Besides the fact that the ties wouldn't grip the road well, which further questioned the sanity of the driver behind him.

Shinji entered the next corner and slowed down dramatically, he didn't drift around the corner, and Shinji was too concerned about the weather to risk anything. Shinji cleared the corner and sped up again. The car behind him had actually drifted and was now slowing down.

"Okay" Shinji looked in his rear view mirror, "you want to play?"

Shinji had no choice now but to try loose this guy, cause he sure as hell wasn't going to leave him alone. Shinji put his 86 into gear and sped down to the next corner. Shinji spotted and carefully timed his approach; he decided to do everything a lot slower then normal.

Shinji hit the brakes and did what he normally did in a drift. To some amazement, he managed to get a drift happening, it wasn't really as fast as he had managed to do in his last race, but for these conditions, it was effective. Shinji noticed now that the rain made it easier to skid and his braking needed to be gentler. Shinji leveled out on the straightway and started to kick in some speed, it was a long straightway and Shinji hoped that it might be enough to outrun the bastard in that black car.

Despite the distance, his 86 didn't have the need power to outrun the R34 behind him. Shinji started calculating his breaking for the next corner. Shinji started to make his approach and braked lightly this time but Shinji hadn't encountered on what happened next.

The R34 continued and didn't brake at the same moment the Trueno did. As the tail end of the car started to swing out the Black car tapped the rear bumper and then braked. The results were only predictable. Shinji instantly reacted to the bump and tried to regain control of his Trueno; the car had been pushed in a direction that couldn't be controlled by the rear brakes. But Shinji was experienced in spinouts and pulled the parking brake and moved the wheel.

The Trueno skidded out of control as it entered the high speed corner, Shinji tried to hit the accelerator and try to push the car out of the side slide, but it was hopeless, The Trueno impacted and grazed its left side along the guardrail, it sparked as the screeching car rubbed the guardrail and the gravel slowed the car down. Shinji kept his eyes on the car that was performing the drift he was going to do, as the Trueno slowed down, he caught a glimpse of the tail of the other car, the 4 red eyes and in the center he saw a little emblem on the back

"GT-R…" Shinji growled, it took him only a second longer to realize what happened. He found Rei had held on, but the sudden impact made her hit her head on the dashboard. Shinji felt a chill in his spine and his mind raced a thought in only a second.

"Rei! Are you alright "

She didn't reply straight away, Shinji un-clicked his seat beat and moved Rei's head off the dashboard, she was bleeding at the head and her eyes were closed. It took a few more seconds, but Rei regained consciousness,

"Rei!? Can you hear me?"

"Shinji…are you okay?"

Shinji almost panicked, but he was not wasting any time; Rei needed medical attention.

"Hang on; I'm getting you to the hospital"

a/n IVE RETURNED

ok...moment over, my pc decided to screw up just after xmas and ive been saving up parts to do the repair work on my own (which i do, considering i built this sucker) i kinda felt this chapter really needed a booster, but i dunno how its ended up, ill let everyone decide that. Tell me what you think, keep reading and reviewing!

Republic of imac