Shinji sat ramrod straight, feeling very awkward. Women's clothing surrounded him, and Asuka's small handbag lay propped in his lap. He felt he was in a space that was not meant for men, and his being here was somehow in violation of unwritten laws or code. The fact that there were only women milling about this section seemed to highlight this assumption. He didn't know why it should bother him: women were everywhere in his normal life. There just seemed something about this place: it's design, or layout or...something. Or perhaps it was the fact they were supposed to be in school. That might be why he kept getting glares full of judgement. That, or the fact he was sitting with a purse in his lap.
In hindsight, he reflected, it was probably because Asuka had made him sit close to the dressing rooms, so she could keep an eye on both him and Rei. That felt strange to him, to be so close to such a forbidden area.
Well…that and the stand next to him displaying panties and bras. So, either the shoppers in the area were unhappy with his proximity to the dressing rooms, or his sitting next to the unmentionables. Shinji was just plain in a bad spot. In his defense, he adopted a strategy of staring straight ahead at a point on the far wall, in the vain hope that this would somehow communicate he wasn't here for any bizarre, sick reasons.
This was business.
"Hurry up and come out!" Asuka hollered, her arms crossed and her foot tapping impatiently. "You've been in there for…how long has she been in there for, Shinji?" He blinked, caught off guard, and began stammering. "Oh, never mind," she hissed, "stop before you hurt yourself. You've been in there a long time!"
The curtain to Rei's stall slid open, and she stood there practically half-naked, causing Shinji to blush furiously. The clothes Asuka insisted she try were hung in disarray about her frame. "This is not practical," she snapped. "I cannot understand how it is supposed to be worn."
"Rei, close the curtain!" Asuka snapped, pushing into the booth and snapping the curtain shut behind her. Shinji felt a sweat begin on his lower back. When Asuka was out here, he had the mild excuse that he was helping her. Now, she was gone. He was a teenage boy, sitting outside of the dressing rooms, next to women's undergarments, holding a purse. He was vulnerable.
"Honestly, you've got these all in a twist." He could hear Asuka and Rei through the curtain, the sound of something metallic clicking.
"I don't like these."
"Well, you don't have to get them, just try them on."
"Why would I try something on I'm not going to buy?"
"To see how it looks, of course. Stop that, keep your arms up!"
"This is pointless."
"Only if you make it pointless. There." Asuka emerged, looking weary. "It's like trying to put a dress on a limp cat."
"Have you…done that before?" Shinji asked.
"Did you really just ask that question?" Asuka retorted, peevishly. "Rei, come out here and show Shinji."
"Why?"
"So there's a point to trying on those clothes." Rei stepped out, and Shinji blinked. Now that Asuka had attacked the tangle of straps, the clothes looked much nicer. They were, as Rei pointed out, not practical, but the effect was quite striking. Jarring, in fact: to see Rei in anything other than a school uniform or a Plug Suit was…something. It wasn't Rei's style at all, but it didn't look bad on her either.
"Hmm…yeah, it's not you," Asuka said. "Looks nice, but it's not you."
"I don't understand," Rei said. She looked harried, and sort of cornered.
"Those don't look like something you would wear a lot."
"I told you that already," Rei said. She was sounding less and less passive these days, but this felt very much unlike her. Shinji could detect her irritation, and though her voice was still flat and lacking in inflection…there was the distinct hint of frustration in her tone.
Asuka threw up her hands as though Rei were a lost cause, and bullied her way back into the booth. There was the sound of muttering, the swish and snap of fabric and buckles…then silence.
"I'm stuck," Rei said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Yes, I can see that," Asuka replied. The silence carried for a moment. Then there was the sound of furious movement.
"Stop that," Rei said.
"Just give me a second, I think I can…."
"Stop it, I don't like what you're doing."
"Oh, come on! They treat us worse at the HQ."
"I don't like it because you're the one doing it." The curtain snapped open, and Asuka made a grand exit, looking very irritated.
"She's hopeless," Asuka declared, sliding the curtain shut with gusto.
"She wasn't going to get that anyway, so why make her try it on?" Shinji asked.
"I don't like this," Rei declared.
"I should be doing this with Hikari. She understands how this works," Asuka grumped.
"Can't we just let her try on the normal stuff?" He gestured at the pile on the bench next to him. "She wanted regular clothes."
"She liked that weird shirt," Asuka offered in her defense. Shinji decided not to point out that her response didn't really explain why she had insisted Rei try that item in the first place. He had a hunch it had to do with the complexity of the item, something to stretch out the visit. Asuka seemed to be regretting her decision, though.
"…My left arm is numb," Rei said. Shinji looked at Asuka, silently insisting that she head back in the booth and sort out whatever she had gotten Rei stuck with. Asuka refused to meet his eyes, but finally snarled and hustled back behind the curtain. The sound of furious pulling and grunting could be heard.
"I said I don't like that!" Rei snapped.
"Deal with it," Asuka replied. The grunting and cursing became louder, and Shinji swallowed in embarrassment. He then realized he wasn't alone, and turned to see a woman holding a bra and giving him a very skeptical look. One of the girls cried out, but he couldn't tell which one it was.
"I'm supposed to be here," Shinji told the woman. She did not reply.
Finally, the curtains snapped open, and Asuka emerged triumphantly with the treacherous clothing in both hands. Rei wobbled behind her, unclothed and looking punchy. Asuka marched over to a shelf, gathered her breath, and laid the clothes there for one of the store staff to deal with. She then turned, marched by Shinji, grabbed the pile of clothes, and thrust them at Rei.
"Rei, try these on," she said.
"I don't want to."
"Rei, trust me."
"You said to trust you on the last item," Rei said. There was a distinct strain to those words.
"Trust me…please," Asuka grated. Rei gave her a skeptical look…then accepted the clothing. When she didn't close the curtain, Asuka did it for her. She turned, rubbing her temples, and noted the woman standing next to Shinji. She blinked for a moment. "She's an exchange student," Asuka announced. Something about a red-haired, obviously Western girl saying that seemed more than the woman was willing to deal with. She left to find something more interesting on the other side of the store.
After a few tense minutes, Rei emerged. Her outfit looked natural, much more comfortable, and she seemed satisfied with it. More than satisfied, somehow. And Shinji noticed.
He perked up, and found that he was gawking. Sheepishly, he glanced at Asuka, expecting some sort of abusive remark, but it didn't come. She was concentrating.
"You shouldn't wear those pants and that shirt together," she said, "The colors don't match."
"I like these," Rei said.
"Okay, just don't wear them together."
"What do you mean by 'the colors don't match?'" Asuka looked like she was about to say something mean, but bit it off before she did. Yet again, she stepped into the booth, and began organizing the clothes she had picked out for Rei.
"Wear this with this…these pants with that top. This skirt would look nice with this shirt," and so on down the line. She finished with, "Now, take off the shirt and put this one on, and then wear that shirt with these pants instead." She closed the curtain and crossed her arms, impatient. "I want to try on clothes," she mumbled.
"Maybe we should have done that first," Shinji said. "She would have learned how this works."
"That's what I wanted to do, but she was demolishing mannequins," Asuka said, her voice low. "I thought she had more sense than that."
"I think she does," Shinji reasoned. "She's probably just…overwhelmed right now. This has got to be a lot more than she's used to, right?" He squinted in thought. "In a way, it kind of reminds me of you."
"Me? She's nothing like me!" Asuka said, scoffing.
"Right now she is: she took a direct route to the thing she wanted." He shrugged. "You do that." Asuka seemed to mull on that for a moment, studying the curtains.
Asuka opened her mouth as if to say something, but Rei returned in the new outfit. Shinji had no clue whether it looked better than the last set. Color combination and women's clothing were things quite beyond him. Rei seemed to notice, though.
"I like this," she said, and then closed the curtain rapidly. Asuka blinked. There was a frenzy of activity behind the curtain, and then silence. Shinji and Asuka craned their heads like dogs, waiting. The curtain whipped open again, and they bounced in surprise. Rei was wearing a new outfit. "I also like this," she said, and swish again went the curtain. The frenzy started once again.
"Is she…enjoying this?" Shinji asked.
"Why would you think I know?" Asuka muttered. The curtain popped open again one more time, and Rei marched out in a t-shirt and pants, the clothes in her arms.
"I also like this," she declared. "I'm ready to go."
"You still need to pay for that," Shinji said.
"And you didn't try all the outfits," Asuka protested.
"I know," Rei replied, and began marching towards the front of the store. Shinji and Asuka hurried after her, and caught up at the checkout counter. "These are my school clothes," she was saying to the hapless clerk. "I am not buying them. I am paying for all of these. The clothes I'm wearing haven't been paid for. You will need to scan the tags." She presented her Nerv card. "This is how I will pay."
Despite the awkwardness of the situation, between Rei's stubbornness and Asuka's belligerence, they were able to get the items purchased. As they left the counter, Shinji could read the relief on the clerk's face. He turned back towards the girls when his world became a plethora of shopping bags.
"Carry these," Asuka said.
"What?"
"You're the man, you have to carry these."
"…Sure?" He accepted the bags cautiously, as Asuka looked forlornly back at the store.
"There were things I wanted, too," she whined. "And we can't go back in there now. You made an absolute mess out of this, R—" she turned, to realize she was talking to an empty space. "Oh, come on! It's like I'm talking to myself!" she fumed.
"Rei?" Shinji asked, turning in a circle. He and Asuka both glanced around the storefronts, before spying a familiar blue patch further down the mall.
"Do we need to get a leash for her?" Asuka snapped, stomping towards her. Shinji followed with the bags. "Hey, you can't just go wandering off like that," she called loudly. Rei ignored her, fixated on something.
"This is next," Rei said, pointing.
"You picked the last place, it's my turn," Asuka said. She cast a cursory glance in the direction that Rei pointed, and did a double-take.
"Huh…they have a karaoke bar here," Shinji commented as he caught up, in genuine surprise.
"How did I miss that?" Asuka whispered to herself. As she stood flabbergasted, Rei marched into the bar. Shinji glanced at Asuka, shrugged helplessly, and hurried after Rei.
For a long moment, Asuka stood there alone, stubbornly refusing to follow them in. She straightened and carefully composed herself. Very calmly, she zipped her purse open, shoved into it and screamed. After five seconds, she straightened up, zipped the purse closed, and marched after the other two.
"I'm still trying to figure out what the damned Lance is," Misato mumbled. Kaji was treating her to lunch, which meant a maid café. His taste in eateries seemed to be devolving, but Misato had long since stopped questioning it. And if there was the barest twitch at the corner of her temple, Kaji was a gentleman enough not to mention it.
To be frank, it did serve a good purpose: it was very hard for a Sec team to look inconspicuous in a maid café, for one thing. Further, Kaji had a static generator somewhere on him, so any outside surveillance would be hindered as well. Plus, the booths here afforded a certain privacy. And it could have been the tsundere café. As tempting as it would be to watch professional tsundere negotiating with Sec men and vice versa, Misato had deemed this the better of the two options.
"I can tell you it's something capable of penetrating an AT Field," Kaji mused, "but that's it."
"That's kind of vague," Misato mumbled, lying down on the table and draping an arm over her head like a petulant child. "An AT Field can negate another AT Field. Hell, a Prog Knife can crack one with enough effort."
"You're not following," Kaji said. "It's an object that can completely nullify and pierce an AT Field. Period." At that, Misato sat up. Now…that was interesting.
"Where'd you hear about that?" she asked.
"Here and there," Kaji said with a grin, and she shivered as a foot slid up along her calf. "I really couldn't tell you. Not that it matters, because that is all I heard on the subject."
"Liar."
"Honest truth," he said, holding up his hands. His face was serious, and his eyes steady. Misato huffed. He was telling the truth.
"If we have something like that lying around, why didn't I know about it?" She squinted. "Can you imagine how many of our battles could have been over…like that?" She snapped her fingers. "All the uncertainty, the…pain." She swallowed her next words as a pretty girl in an ankle-length black dress and white frills approached their table and deposited their drinks. She bowed politely, then vanished. "How much the kids have been hurt…was it all unnecessary?"
"I'm frankly surprised it exists at all," Kaji said. "What I have heard about it, it sounds…well…theoretical, frankly. Like a thought experiment."
"Hmm." She closed her eyes. "Kaji, let's say Rei…retrieved the Lance, or whatever. And we saw what it was."
"Yes."
"And she used it to kill the last Angel."
"Okay."
"How would she do that?"
"…Pardon?"
"Is the Lance a gun, or projectile weapon, or something?" She opened her eyes and studied him.
"It's…well…it's an object. I guess it could be." He leaned back and linked his hands behind his head, thinking. "…I have no clue."
"Okay, so…let's assume…." She punctuated her words by running her own foot up Kaji's calf. He smiled, but didn't return her gaze. "…That the Lance is an object by itself. How was Rei supposed to attack the Angel with it?"
"…Well, an Eva should be capable of hurling an object to the velocity necessary to escape the atmosphere ow!" He sat up. Misato had kicked him not-too-gently in the shin when he said that.
"And how do we get it back?" she said. Kaji blinked.
"That's…Misato, that sounds like the Million-Dollar-Question." He leaned forward. "If we have a weapon that powerful, and we don't use it…and on the other hand, the one time the Commander authorizes it, he does so for a time that we could never retrieve it…."
"That is…strange."
"Very strange." He traced a finger along his lips. "What did Ritz say about it?"
"What do you think?" Misato's face darkened, and she leaned back, staring at her drink. Kaji took a sip from his.
"Thinking that she's keeping secrets from you?" he asked.
"Don't be stupid, Kaji. I know she is. Just like you are." Kaji gave her a hurt look, but Misato narrowed her eyes. "Oh, you're not?" He opened his mouth, and then shrugged helplessly. She held up a hand. "No, don't try and talk your way out of it. You'll just end up lying, and then where would we be? Right back to square one." She plopped her head on the table. She was in a foul mood now.
Kaji sighed, detecting the shift. He glanced around the café, noting the crowd. He doubted any of them were Nerv goons, but it was always hard to tell. Misato sat up.
"The kids are skipping school today."
"Oh?" He turned back to her.
"Mm-hmm. Rei's decision."
"No."
"Yes. Rei popped up outside of my apartment today and said that the kids were, I kid you not, going to karaoke."
"…Huh."
"That's what I thought," Misato said. "I gave her my blessing. I figured sure."
"The kids can certainly stand to be spoiled now and then," Kaji agreed. He sat mulling on that for a while. "It was Rei?"
"I can't make this up."
"…Rei?"
"Cross my heart." Misato held up a palm.
"She's been…reaching out lately, hasn't she?"
"That's one way of putting it," Misato murmured. "The changes in all the kids are coming so fast and frequent these days I just can't be surprised anymore."
"Think you'll try to submit Merritt's proposal again?"
"For counseling? Not yet. I need to find the right time to sneak something like that in. Though I still can't, for the life of me, fathom why the Commander put the brakes on that." She sat up. "Is he trying to break them? Or is he genuinely afraid of the Americans learning something from counseling the Children?"
"Tough to say…though that does remind me: what do you know about the Marduk Institute?" Misato blinked: why would he bring up the Marduk Institute?
"As much as I should, I guess."
"Did you know they had nothing to do with selecting Samson for Grendel?"
"I'd figure that," Misato said.
"Of course, but I've been digging on Samson, right? Not a lot of information there, but it turned up a lot of things on the Institute."
"Really? Like what?" She took a sip from her drink.
"Like that it doesn't exist." Misato gagged, coughing on her drink.
"…Huh?" she gagged, pounding her chest. In response, Kaji slid a memory stick across the table.
"That's enough for today. Just enough to whet your appetite. Everything else I've learned is on this." He tapped the stick, then leaned back, smiling. "Frankly, I'm impressed I got all that. I think with the Americans distracting everyone, I just got lost in the shuffle."
Misato was about to ask another question when Kaji scratched his chest, which meant he was turning off the static field. Misato's mouth snapped shut, and her phone began buzzing. Kaji's did as well. The field had prevented incoming calls, and now that it was gone, a flurry of messages flooded their devices. She flicked her phone open.
The latest of thirteen messages said, Where the hell are you!? Get back to the Front NOW! - R
"What the hell?" Misato mumbled. Kaji was squinting at his phone.
"Ritsuko's been hounding this number trying to find you," he said. He stood up and glanced towards the front of the store. "Do you think it's another Angel?" Misato wasn't listening, but instead dialing Ritsuko's number. The phone rang once before she answered.
"Why are you not answering your phone!?" Ritsuko raged.
"The building we're in must have blocked my signal. What's the problem?" Misato said.
"You need to get back here now. We're in the middle of what could be a crisis."
"It has to be, if you're getting this worked up. When was the last time you got worked up over anything?" Misato asked. Ritsuko seemed uncharacteristically angry.
"Colin has developed a habit of popping up in dark corners. I've run into him five times in the last hour," Ritsuko said. "It's made me…edgy."
"You don't say?"
"Look, just…get down here. I'm serious, we have what could be a big problem developing on the horizon."
"Can I get a heads up on it?"
"Well," Ritsuko said, "…Dongfeng Aerospace City has disappeared, along with Unit-04."
"…Could you say that again?" Obligingly, Ritsuko repeated it. Misato sat in silence for a few seconds, trying to suss out exactly what Ritsuko was saying. "I don't understand."
"Then you need to get down here this minute," Ritsuko said, and hung up before Misato could reply.
