Creation began on 03-23-22

Creation ended on 07-22-22

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Broken and Unbreakable: More than Human, Less than Human

A/N: Why is it that when people desire to be more than human, they consider it an act of the gods, but when others find out, they deem them to be less than human and label them monsters or freaks?

The list of casualties was minimal, with only three people actually injured by the woman that killed herself in an attempt to kill Shinji, the one NERV designated the Fourth Angel. And retrieving the boy was without difficulty since the public kept their distance; the fact that it was Shinji that fought the woman and survived being set on fire gave the boy a measure of notoriety that made the task of anonymizing him next to impossible. This and the fact that he was now famous and infamous for surviving a train derailment that killed over two-hundred people. But now came the trouble of making sure he was fit for active duty when the next Angel came due to sustaining injuries that were a surprise for him to have.

"How bad are his burns?" Fuyutsuki asked Ritsuko as they stood outside the trauma ward in NERV HQ, waiting for an update on the boy.

"He has fourth degree burns on his hands that went straight to the bone," she revealed. "Lesser burns around his body, but they'll recover in a few hours. The biggest concern is whether or not he'll retain complete function in his hands. But I will say this: He has surprised people with his invulnerability and augmented strength levels. It's unlikely that he can be harmed by humans, but these Angels, even when forced to assume human form, are the only ones that are actually able to harm him."

"How long until he fully recovers?" He asked her.

"Give or take, two days."

"Just two days?"

"We don't know much about his rate of recovery as an…Unbreakable yet."

So far, it seemed like these abilities Shinji possessed were like those from out of a comic book or something. He possessed strength capable of lifting over four-hundred pounds, possibly more, and could survive getting hit by a car, a train wreck, a murder-suicide by fire, and only the kami knew what else he could take that wouldn't kill him. But they were getting ahead of themselves if they went too far with just what he was capable of and how to best put his abilities to use. Despite his being the only one they had that could deal with the Angels, he was still just a fourteen-year-old boy that had been put through something so traumatic and relentless that they forget that he did have a life of his own, despite its limited pleasures.

"No prison time? No death sentence?" Shinji had questioned when he was being asked to deal with the remaining Angels after murdering his father.

The Committee had decided that they would overlook the murder of Gendo…and if the Third Child could defeat the remaining ten Angels that were left, then they would not just overlook the murder…but forget about it completely, pardoning the boy and allowing him to walk away. It wasn't something that NERV was expecting to actually happen, but if Shinji could do it, then it was something he had to look forward to, as he was informed by Fuyutsuki.

"You defeat the remaining Angels, Shinji Ikari," he told the boy, "and you're a free man."

But only if he could defeat the remaining Angels. Right now, he wasn't free…but he wasn't imprisoned, just being monitored by the paramilitary agency. But they should be fortunate; because the Angels were forced to assume human form, they were not dependent upon some artificial behemoth they spent years building after the shift in the so-called enemy came and changed everything. It had been reduced to a complete waste of time and resources to build the Eva when the Angels no longer needed to be unexpected in size.

-x-

"…On the other hand, disposing of the Angels is simpler now that they take on human form," went Hyuga to Misato and Ritsuko as they were talking about the aftermath of the Fourth Angel attack. "This one was so charred that it was brittle to the touch. We just swept her remains into a capsule and locked it up with the other Angel's corpse."

"Will anything be easier if we can find any other people like the Third Child?" Misato asked, wanting not to be reliant on this kid that killed his own father and made everyone within the base cautious of each and every action he made.

"I doubt we'd ever find others like him," Ritsuko gave her opinion. "Even if we could find three more, they're under no obligation to aid us in dealing with the Angels. The only reason we even have the Third Child is because he has incentive to do what he can. His freedom in return for his services. Can we even be certain that he's not the only one that exists?"

"Are Unbreakables even all that different from regular people? Do they give off a sort of radiation that can be detected? Do they stand out because of their abilities? Are they even human like we are?"

"The Third Child's human…to a degree. He's lived for fourteen years and has a life like we all do outside of NERV." Hyuga stated. "It's not really his fault he was dealt an awful life. It's really his father's fault; the man didn't really inform him about why he was to come here until after he showed up. Didn't even ask him if he was alright after his experience with the train derailment. And then with what the Third Angel told him about people like himself and his father being incapable of having a relationship, I can't really blame the boy for murdering his father. He brought his death upon himself."

If it had been Ritsuko's final say, she would've had Hyuga fired or transferred to a different NERV branch. But Misato, on the other hand, had to agree with Hyuga that Gendo had brought his death by Shinji upon himself, and if he was incapable of being anything other than antagonistic towards Shinji, unable to do right by him, then it was really his own fault he died.

"Is it true that he bench pressed over three-hundred pounds?" Hyuga asked them.

"Not knowingly," Ritsuko informed.

"Someone that can do that could feel like they're unstoppable."

-x-

"…You saw him?!" A schoolgirl asked the camera-holding boy during class.

"You filmed him?!" Another boy questioned.

"The woman with the whips tried to burn him to death, but only ended up burning herself to death," the camera boy explained. "He didn't even get charred anywhere else but his hands."

"Really?" Another girl with pigtails spoke. Only his hands were burnt?"

The boy with the camera showed the footage he got of the fight between the boy and the woman with the whips of fire.

"No way," some of the teens reacted, seeing the boy get his hands seared by the woman's whips.

"Goodness," others went as the camera boy was nearly hit by a car, were it not for the boy that survived the train wreck getting him out of the way.

"He's inhuman," the camera boy stated.

"And this woman was out to kill him?" A boy in a tracksuit asked.

-x-

Even with his bandaged hands in recovery, Shinji was bored stiff with nothing to do beyond being tested to see what he could do, which wasn't really much of anything after that bench pressing stunt the scientists did. In his quarters, reading a book, or rather, trying to read a book, he sat on his bed with a vacant expression. And then, he threw the book away from himself; he had nothing against science books with atoms or cellular activity, but they meant nothing to him. There was no excitement, no sense of satisfaction or anyone really having any fun or adventures. But he was restricted for the time being; unless there was an Angel attacking, he couldn't leave the base.

Even without the threat of prison looming over him, he still felt like he was in a prison because of his limited privileges. There wasn't even a television with which to watch the news, to know what was going on. No radio to listen to people singing or blasting off about something trivial. Hell, he didn't even have one measly video game to entertain himself.

Not that any of those would matter, he thought as he looked at his left hand. I feel trapped in a cage, wanting to escape.

And in a sense, he was trapped in a cage, needing to escape. But he couldn't. He couldn't risk putting his freedom on the line if someone thought he would try something.

-x-

Because it wasn't so much something that involved the Evas, NERV had little ability to erase the footage that had been circulating over the Internet about the fight between the Third Child and the Fourth Child, as some people claimed it looked more like someone was making a movie based off a comic book that was rarely read. But what really caught NERV's attention was what was spoken between the two fighters.

"…I don't hate them for hating me," they heard Shinji say to the Angel after she spoke of people's dislike of him that put into question his obligation to protect them. "They don't even know the real me. I don't even think I know the real me."

And the boy filming this fight had the gall to say that the Angel was attractive, despite the fact that he was in danger of being killed by a car, were it not for Shinji intervening and getting stuck under it with the Angel, who then set herself on fire to try and kill Shinji, which only burned away his clothes and the whole car.

"It's hard to see him as a person when he's like that," went Maya, seeing him on the ground with just his hands burnt.

"Is this Hell?" He asked the boy that filmed him.

-x-

Shooting hoops in the schoolyard, the boy in the tracksuit wondered about the boy that had been targeted by the woman with the whips. He knew that he was that boy that survived the train wreck, but that was it. He was fortunate that nobody he knew was on that train; his sister and grandfather were supposed to take a train back, but missed it on account of his sister sleeping in, probably the only thing that saved them from being on the train the boy had been on.

Just who the Hell is he, anyway? He wondered as he threw the ball towards the hoop. Why would anyone want to kill him? All he did was survive a train wreck…and a car being set on fire…and from what I hear, a car sending him into a lake. There's nothing really special about any of those.

As the ball slipped into the hoop, at around the same time, a loud bang could be heard.

To be continued…

A/N: Shinji's in recovery, people know of him, but they don't know him, so they don't really treat him like a person, just a thing that looks like a person, and he has no actual freedom at the moment until the humanized Angels are defeated, something he longs for. And as for the ending of the chapter, I'll let you guess what it could mean until the next chapter. Until this, try and stay hopeful of the next day being one without issues.