+++++ Tokyo-3 Academy. +2

Washu was pleased beyond reason to see a cadre of Shinji's fellow male students standing guard outside the locker room. Several of them were speaking with their girlfriends or female siblings and explaining that while they couldn't describe what was going on, they felt that it was important that the room remain Shinji's for as long as he needed it. Their position was buttressed by both Sasami and Hikari standing there directing general traffic away from the area with firm motions.

This all served to balance the displeasure she felt at the extreme methods the new gym instructor had taken to begin Shinji's journey towards recovery. That recovery would be aided, in her opinion, by taking advantage of the approval Misaki had given Sasami. "Thank you, gentlemen. Please stay here for another few minutes, if you would. I will be going in and speaking with Ikari-kun to get his side of the story." She looked among the male students, making sure to let them see her approval. "It shouldn't be too long, but the decision to keep him away from gawking gossips was the correct one."

"We'll stay here as long as you need us, Hakubi-sensei," Morimoto stated indifferently to the praise. "Class 1A doesn't tolerate people bullying or belittling people, right Class Rep?"

"Exactly correct." Hikari bowed slightly to the teacher. "I will remain here as well, and do what I can to keep the rumor mill from going berserk."

With her smile renewed, Washu inclined her head in gratitude and walked into the locker room announcing her presence, "It's just me, Ikari-kun. The school nurse seems to have disappeared, and I heard that you had become injured during P.E. today." After the door had closed behind her, she flicked her finger back towards it to create a wall of white noise to dampen any possibility of sound leaving the room. "I'm going to come over, ok? Don't worry, I promise I'm not here to tease or hurt you." As she drew closer, she saw that it was unlikely Shinji had heard her at all.

Sitting in the tub of now tepid water, Shinji rocked back and forth with his eyes focused on a point thousands of lightyears away. The fugue, if it was one, didn't seem destructive in any way. This wasn't a bomb primed to detonate with one wrong move, or a child that would devolve into a sobbing mess with one wrong scare. It was just how Shinji processed unexpected and overwhelming data. Everything else shut down, and in its place the rationality of the world was once more reassessed.

With her opportunity presented to her, Washu sent a small stream of microscopic biological machines towards and through his ear. She'd programmed them to make moderate changes to a few key components of his endocrine and cardiovascular systems. Nothing that would drastically overhaul anything, just…enough. Nobody could hold her to account for enough. By its very definition, it was enough. Setting one hand on his shoulder, she crouched down and smiled. After several seconds had passed, he slowly looked over and saw her there. "Hiya. Feeling any better?"

"I…." Looking around, Shinji realized he was still in the bath, in the locker rooms. "I'm sorry."

"There's no reason to be, my dear." Lightly stroking his back, she kept her calm smile in place. "I understand that you might not be eager to answer these questions, but I'm obligated to ask them in order to keep my job as a teacher, ok?"

He blinked in confusion. "I…I…ok?"

"Are you still living with the person who gave you these scars and broken bones?"

"N-no."

"Do you feel safe living where you do?"

"Y…n…."

"It's ok," she assured him. "We'll come back to that one later. Since you've moved here, has anyone hurt you?"

"…The…uhm, the 'Angel'," he replied honestly. "I…uhm, I was also in a car when an N2 mine was dropped nearby."

"But no humans?"

"N-not…uhm…not physically."

"Ok." Standing up, she offered both hands to him to grasp in order to steady himself. "Do you think you're ok enough to stand up and walk? We should get you in some clothes before you catch a cold."

"Y-yes, ma'am." As had happened often of late, whatever it was that was radiating off of his teacher made little sense to him. That didn't stop him from wishing it would continue, though.

+++++ Tokyo-3 Academy. +2

The gathering of students outside of the lockers made way for the wheelchair that Washu had put Shinji into. The conquering hero was greeted with a mixture of statements of relief and reassurance, each person setting a hand on his shoulder, or on the top of his head, and looking him in the eye to do so. After Washu briefly updated everyone on the basics, that he would be ok and that he simply needed a little extra time after the excitement of the past several days, those same students told him that they hoped to see him again tomorrow and went on their way to their homes.

"Horaki-chan," Washu winked where only the class rep could see, "I would like it if you could make certain he gets home. He is not to get out of the wheelchair unless he absolutely has to, and I would like it if you made certain that he eats properly."

Before Shinji could protest, Hikari bowed in acceptance of her task. "I will be glad to, sensei." Standing back upright, she looked to Shinji and gave him a driven grin. "I have a couple of stops to make myself at a pair of stores for some food for my house, we'll make sure to get you something healthy too."

"Would you mind if I came with you?" Sasami already knew the answer, but asked in order to give the appearance of deference to Hikari.

"We'd be happy to have you along." Hikari, this time, winked to Sasami where Shinji couldn't see. "That way, in case he falls asleep on the way you can help me find his apartment."

"Then I will leave him in your hands," Washu declared confidently. "You both have my cell phone number, in case something goes wrong. Seeing as his guardian of record is the same person who likely was responsible for his living conditions, I'll be glad to serve in loco parentis." Wiggling her fingers in farewell, she gave extra attention to Shinji's confused return wave before leaving.

Before he could try another form of protest, Hikari hopped behind his wheelchair and set them off towards the exit. "Ok, so the first place we're going to visit is where I find a lot of really great deals on vegetables and fruits and nuts and things like that. The woman who runs the shop has somewhere in the area of ten million grandchildren, and the farm they run uses what is essentially free labor to keep their prices low. Since their stuff is just as good as the major markets except for the occasional physical blemish that doesn't do anything to the taste or nutritional value, she's able to undercut them and make up in volume what she loses in individual transactions."

"I should probably buy some more tofu myself," Sasami added, simply to make sure there was a conversation for Shinji to join in on. "I didn't think I was on as much of a kick as I was for it, and I'm almost out."

"What do you like, Shinji?" Hikari leaned forward slightly, her face appearing far enough over his shoulder that he looked up into complete innocence. "Anything in particular?"

"I…I…." Two beautiful women, with wonderful hearts, were going to be pushing him in a wheelchair around town. What did he do? What did he say? "My whole life I've only ever been given rye bread, undercooked rice, undercooked pasta, and water." From the sudden panic in his eyes, he made it clear that he had not intended to just say what he had. "I had two slices of bread each morning after I turned twelve, and only one slice before that. When I was given dinner, it was only ever one cup of undercooked pasta or rice. If I wasted a crumb, I was beaten until I was bleeding."

In Sasami's mind, she heard Washu's voice. Ok, that worked. You've got a three-hour window to get him to be honest around our good class representative. After that, if he's not inclined to be honest, he won't be. Try and get him to open up some, so she knows what she's getting in on.

With Sasami occupied listening to a voice the others couldn't hear, Hikari took charge of the response to a statement that made her feel a wide array of deeply negative things. "Ok…ok. That explains why you looked at what was probably the most slapdash breakfast I've ever made like it was a feast beyond comparison." Blowing out a sharp breath, she smothered the flames of righteous fury boiling up in her gut. "Then that means that you haven't had a chance to try a lot of stuff. While we're out today, we'll get little nibbles of things, try to fill out a flavor profile that we can build from. What do you think, Sasami?"

"Hmm?" Quickly replaying the bits she'd missed in her mind, she nodded firmly. "I think that I'd like to find who you used to live with and have a chat with them, Shinji-kun. I think it's something of a miracle that you're not a feral psychopath. I also think you're going to adore carrots."

"I don't want you to meet him," Shinji shook his head slowly, looking down at his lap where he'd folded his hands, "because he'd probably hurt you. Neither of you should be hurt. You both deserve to be happy." The sound of a car door slamming caught his attention, and he looked up to see a man that proportionately was the size of four large men approaching with a rigidly displeased expression. "Who's that?"

"Hi daddy," Hikari's greeting was bright and cheery. "It took us a little bit to get out of school, Gen-sensei let Shinji push himself today."

Toshiro Horaki waved away the issue. "You were performing your duty, child. That is not something I am concerned with." Dropping down to one knee, in an effort to even out the height difference enough that Shinji didn't need to lay his head so dangerously close to Hikari's breasts to see him, the big man took the measure of the son of Gendo Rokubungi and Yui Ikari. "My name is Toshiro Horaki, and I serve as a representative of a group that is very interested in the son of the Ikari bloodline. Might I ask you a question, Ikari-san?"

"You just did." Shinji blinked twice, not intending to be glib with a man that could probably tear him in half with a sneeze.

"Indeed," Toshiro laughed with good humor. "Where was it that you lived, before arriving here in Old Hakone?"

"Nagano. The west habitat, near the former Sunset Farms village. In a building that faced west, on a wooded switchback trail." He certainly hadn't wanted to give out that information.

"Thank you. Where do you live now?"

"District F, block six, apartment twenty-four."

"Indeed?" Pursing his lips, Toshiro nodded slowly at some inner plans. "Fair enough. May I entrust my daughter to your care for the afternoon and evening? I have business I must be about, and would not want her to suffer for lack of appropriate care."

"I will protect her with my life, sir." While not wrong, Shinji couldn't figure out where the confidence to make such a bold claim came from. "Neither her nor Masaki-san will be hurt as long as I'm still breathing."

"Good man." Patting Shinji on the shoulder, Toshiro stood back up to his full height. "Nanako will be your driver today, child. She has a vehicle that is wheelchair accessible, and my permission to use the business accounts to see to repairing what has been allowed to break so badly."

"Ok, daddy." It wasn't what Hikari had planned, but she had seen her father in a mood like this in the past. A willow had to know when to bend when a typhoon came through, if it wished to remain standing. "I was going to buy you some barbecue chips while I was out, is there anything else you would like?"

"Hrmph…no, that is enough. Thank you." Turning on his heel, the man mountain made his way back to the car he'd exited and was gone.

Hikari grinned at Sasami's questioning look. "He's not supposed to have salty stuff like that, but every once in a while I give him some so that he's happy. The doctor gave me permission, so long as I monitored his intake."

"He's a very large man," Shinji added. "But I wasn't afraid he would hurt me."

"Daddy only hurts people who deserve it. You don't deserve to be hurt any more than we do." It was Hikari's turn to pat him on the shoulder, after which she pushed the chair towards the good friend of her family who had been waiting patiently nearby. They had shopping to do, and experiences to enjoy.

+++++ NERV Tokyo-3. +2

As Gendo read through the report he'd just received, he began to struggle for the first time in quite a long time to make sense of something unexpected. The Shirakami, an organization that his wife had once had ties to, had just terminated SEELE 07 and sent the equivalent of a sternly worded letter to SEELE 05 telling her to leave the country before the end of the day. Seven other organizations, all known confederates of the Shirakami, severed all business ties with anyone and anything associated with SEELE, NERV, or Project E. In short, two sevenths of his red book funding had just evaporated in addition to a full third of his black book funding.

A beep on his phone informed him that more bad news was coming, and with the push of three buttons he darkened the room and joined a holo-conference with the Chairman of SEELE, Keel Lorenz. "Good evening. I did not expect you to need a status report for another day."

"I am calling you as a favor, Rokubungi," the Chairman intoned with half of a growl. "We have just been sent two very explicit warnings regarding the pilot of Unit-01. Unless his life is endangered, do not interfere. He is being protected now far better than your domesticated wolves could ever hope to, and the scenario will be thrown into chaos if the situation is upset. Our need for you has diminished greatly now…do not push what little luck you've been graced with."

The link was terminated from the other side, leaving Gendo sitting in his cavernous office more confused than he had been mere moments ago. Switching the room's lighting back on to a low setting, he dialed the only man that he trusted to not betray him. After two rings, the line connected. "Professor, we need to talk."

+++++ Tokyo-3 Markets. +2

Shinji caught sight of a man in a business suit getting clubbed on the back of the head and dragged back into an alley in a daze. One of the two men responsible saw that Shinji had seen this and gave him a cheeky grin and a friendly wave. "I…I think another man just got hurt by someone."

"Don't worry, Shinji-kun." Nanako Dojima, a woman only five years older than them, patted him on the shoulder. "He won't be robbed or anything like that. They're just asking that he go home and stop trying to intimidate people in a place where he's not welcome."

"Oh." Without any real knowledge of the world he now was a part of, he simply accepted the confident answer as a factually correct answer. "I guess it isn't nice of him to try and intimidate people."

Sasami had seen far more than Shinji had of the cleanup, and was much more familiar with the fact that Hikari's father was a very influential man in the area. The men that had been spying on Shinji for the past several days were being informed that the length of their leash had been reduced. She'd seen similar happen back on Jurai, when a sudden change in the balance of power made old habits unwelcome. "What did you think of the daikon, Shinji?"

"It…burnt my tongue. I liked it."

"That's spicy," Hikari offered helpfully. "Daikon tends to have a much more mild flavor than regular radishes, and are a bit more sweet. If you'd like, I can make you a salad for lunch tomorrow that will have some daikon mixed in?"

"That would be nice. You make very delicious food."

"Why don't we have Sasami make you breakfast, then? I'm sure she'd love to get your opinion on her cooking, since you're coming in without preconceptions on the dishes."

"I wouldn't mind at all," Sasami agreed amiably. "I like cooking."

Shinji continued to look around the area they were moving through. Without having to pay attention to where his feet were going, due to riding in a wheelchair being pushed by Nanako, he was free to take in a strange new world that had strange and wonderful things within it. "I should learn how to cook. If I am paid enough to buy things to make, that is."

"I wouldn't worry too much about money, Shinji-kun," Nanako chuckled. "I think you'll find people around here will tend to be pretty generous, considering your situation. That one," she pointed to another shop.

Hikari changed their bearing, looking at the name of a store she hadn't spent much time in. "Why here?"

"Because if I let him out of my sight today without giving him chocolate, I deserve the ass kicking your father will bestow upon me for that grievous sin." Handing Shinji's chair to Sasami and jogging ahead to open the door, Nanako held it for everyone to pass through. "He's underweight anyway, it's not like a sample session is going to tip the scales."

+++++ Tokyo-3, district F, block six, apartment twenty-four. +2

It had been five hours since the outing with Hikari had started. Five hours of strange feelings, strange encounters, and strange happenings. Five hours of new experiences, new understandings, and new hope. When Shinji looked through the front windshield of the SUV he was riding in from his position in the back seat next to Sasami and saw what had once been his apartment building, he felt an old familiar sensation: loss. "That's…that's where I live."

"Lived," Nanako corrected, throwing the vehicle in park and stepping out to approach several men dressed in construction worker outfits that looked like they were anything but construction workers.

Sasami had more than a passing suspicion of what was happening, but chose to express empathy rather than give voice to more cynical thoughts, "I'm sorry, Shinji. This…I mean, I'm glad you weren't in there! I didn't feel an earthquake or anything."

"Everything happens for a reason," Hikari stated with a thoughtful murmur. "A lot of these buildings look like they're about to fall down as well. I don't have a clue why they thought putting you here was a good plan."

Ducking her head into the driver's side window, Nanako held up Shinji's bag where he could see it. "This yours?"

"Y-yes." Reaching forward and accepting the parcel, confusion began to run riot through his mind. "How did you find it?"

"Construction crew that came in to assess the damage found it. They put it in a box labelled with your apartment number. Since the building collapsed in a way that didn't do a lot of damage to the room itself, they were able to find it and set it aside for if you showed up to claim it. Hope you weren't attached to the bed, it was pretty beat up." To Hikari and Sasami, Nanako was lying through her teeth. To Shinji, she'd given a perfectly reasonable explanation that left him without any doubt that he had simply had a stroke of luck. "Sorry ladies, but we're going to have to take another detour. I doubt Toshiro-san wants me to leave Shinji-kun on the street, and it's a little late to report the incident to his HR to find new housing, so we'll just spring for a hotel for him for a couple of days. Gimme a few, I'm going to check on something and then we'll get going."

Unzipping the bag, Shinji found the most important items sitting atop the little clothing he owned. "Oh good…I had left this on the bed. I was worried it had been broken."

"An S-DAT player?" Hikari whistled low. "You don't see those often anymore."

Tucking his prized possession back in where it wouldn't be hurt, he zipped the bag closed again. "It was my mother's. She stored it in the cello she passed down to me when she died. She altered it herself, I think. The batteries can be charged by shaking it, which meant I could hide it…I hid it from him." Hugging the bag, he thanked whatever lucky stars had protected it. "I hid it from him for fourteen years." Unaware of its passing, a tear trickled out of his eye. The overwhelming amount of input was starting to catch up to him, and the unanticipated anxiety of possibly losing the gift from his mother had pushed everything over the cliff.

Sasami trusted that she wasn't the only one who joined him in processing the sudden shift in emotions in the tried and trusted method of crying it out. Laying a gentle hand on Shinji's knee, she looked to Hikari and found that her trust was well placed. The freckle-faced class representative shed tears without shame, nodding in approval for Sasami's efforts at showing Shinji that they were there for him. The day was ending, but a friendship was now beginning.

+++++ Author's Notes.

DJexe:

RE: Toji.

There are so many ways to parse Toji's behavior in the original series, but one thing that I'm fairly sure of is that he didn't handle being challenged very well. He was an act first, think maybe sometime later kind of guy. You never see him, or Kensuke, hanging out with anyone else either. Now, that's probably because of the need to keep the narrative focused in order to not overwhelm the viewers, but it also could be because the people around the two of them held them in low esteem. I'm hoping to, at some point, stop using him as a bully...but it ain't in this story.

RE: Misato.

The best part about giving characters an ass chewing is that you can then show them growing by learning from their errors. Without conflict, they just don't grow up right.