Disclaimer: Neon Genesis: Evangelion is not my property. It belong to
GAINAX and all affiliates. I am not asking for any money for this
written work. It is permissible to copy, quote, distribute, or in any
other way reproduce the following texts only if they contain this
disclaimer and credit to the author, or I will strike you down with
great vengeance and furious anger.
*With One Flashing Accord/To Remove What Hides Our Heart...*
Commander Gendo Ikari had just finished reading a large document that
sat in front of him. It contained information about the next
Evangelion, the production model. Ikari placed the sheets back into a
folder marked 'Top Secret' and addressed the man standing behind him.
"So Unit Two will not be ready for another two weeks?"
"I'm afraid so," said Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. "There's just too much
red tape. Also, we're having trouble finding a large enough fleet to
transport the Eva."
"Understood. What's the repair status on Unit Zero?"
"It's going quite well. If all goes to plan, Unit Zero can be running
in ten days."
"So we have no other protection but Unit One?"
"That is correct. But it seems to be working so far."
"Yes. But not without its share of problems. The old men of Seele are
still sore about that stunt Katsuragi pulled with the last Angel."
Suddenly, a loud siren sounded. From the area below him, Ikari heard
Lt. Ibuki call out, "Blue reading off the East Coast. It's definitely
an Angel!"
"The next Angel, hmm?" said Fuyutsuki.
"Call Captain Katsuragi and the Third Child here. Now!"
The phone rang at Misato's apartment. Shinji answered it, as Misato
was in a comatose state on the floor in her room. He hoped it wouldn't
be important.
"Uh, hello?"
"Shinji?" Shinji tried to place the voice, but couldn't. He decided it
was too early in the morning for his recall to be working properly.
"Who is this?" he asked, still not at full alert because he had been
woken by the ringing phone.
"This is Lieutenant Aoba. There's been a state of emergency declared.
We need you and the Captain down here now."
"But, Misato's still...sleeping..."
"Well, wake her up! This is important!"
"Yes, okay."
Shinji hung up the phone and steeled himself to do one of the tasks he
hated most: reviving a hung-over Misato.
"Well?"
"The Third Child may not arrive here on time, Commander. His
guardian..."
"I suspected as much. Very well. Brief Rei and have her on stand-by at
the holding cage. Be prepared to re-write Unit One's personal data
files if necessary. I want this Angel stopped before it reaches the
land."
"Yes, sir!"
Shinji walked into Misato's room, to find a crumpled heap lying on the
floor, just as he had thought. Oh well, he had done this before...
"Misato...Misato, wake up..."
He got a response: a mumbled, "Just five more minutes..."
Dammit, why did she have to be like this?
Shigeru sped through the streets of Tokyo-3. Without any of the
traffic due to the evacuation, he could make the trip to Misato's
apartment in perhaps one-third of the time. The Third Child wasn't
necessary for this mission (or so said the Commander), because they
had Rei, but Misato should be at Nerv to oversee everything. Protocol.
And seeing as they would need to configure Unit One for Rei if Shinji
wasn't there, why not kill two birds with one stone?, thought Shigeru,
swinging the wheel to turn a sharp corner.
Shinji heard the tire skid, even from the apartment, because of the
large scarceness of cars in Tokyo-3 this morning. However, he didn't
really begin paying attention to the sound until he heard his name
being called from below.
"Shinji! Shinji!"
Shinji ran to the balcony and looked down. There was a car, and
someone standing by it that he couldn't identify from this level.
"Shinji! Get Misato down here now!"
Well, getting her to the elevator might be easier than trying to wake
her up.
After a few rounds of instant coffee and some jerks from Shigeru's
reckless driving, Misato came out of her totally unconscious state.
Shinji just looked out the car window and tried to hold on if the
Lieutenant tried to do something stupid, like taking an intersection
without braking. Lt. Aoba, throughout the whole trip, had his head
close to the wheel, as if he was a racecar driver. Shinji thought to
himself, _He must have other hobbies, besides playing the air guitar._
After suiting up, sitting in the entry plug and experiencing the odd
sensation of LCL filling his lungs and supplying them with oxygen,
Shinji waited for his instructions on the intercom. At the moment, all
he heard was Misato and Ritsuko arguing mildly about Misato's coffee.
"Shinji, can you hear me?" Good, they've stopped, thought Shinji as he
heard Misato's voice directed toward him.
"Yes, I can hear you."
"This Angel is coming in from the sea. It's important that you try and
stop it before it reaches the land. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I get it. Not to fight near the people, right?" An unpleasant
memory flashed through his head: Toji hitting him, because of his
injured sister.
"That's one of the reasons. Just remember all of the simulations and
you should have no trouble. Ready?"
"I'm ready."
"Launch Eva!"
The Evangelion shot up the tube to the surface. After the initial jerk
of stopping, Shinji surveyed his surroundings; a scattering of
buildings to his left, and in front of him, the open ocean.
And the Angel.
It looked more like the first Angel he had fought; that is, it was
vaguely human in shape, as opposed to the other two Angels he had
seen. At first glance, the large greyish blob didn't look like it was
capable of destruction on a citywide scale, but (as Shinji had learnt
well in the past month or so) appearances could be deceptive. He
gripped the controls, feeling the Positron Rifle his Eva held instead
of the metallic grips, due to the LCL, synchronising his thoughts with
the Eva's actions. He charged.
The Angel twisted it's what-could-have-passed-for-a-head, seemingly
looking at the running Unit One. Before giving it time to attack,
Shinji raised the rifle and fired.
Underground, Misato and Ritsuko watched the screen with an almost
hypnotic intensity.
"He can't miss at that range, can he?" asked Misato.
"I shouldn't think so. But still, we know almost nothing about the
Angels," Ritsuko replied, not lifting her eyes.
_Except that they have the same DNA as us,_ Misato thought but didn't
dare speak.
On the screen, the smoke was beginning to clear. Shinji had learnt
from his mistake with the second one, Misato saw. She could make
out...two? Were there two shapes in the smoke? Had Shinji split it
down the middle?
Then a glowing green light began to pulse in the smoke. The Angel was
still alive!
"Shinji! Look out!" Misato yelled into the intercom.
Before the Eva had chance to move, Misato saw the light flash, and
heard Shinji's scream, and knew this battle was over.
"The Angel appears to have split into two divisions following the
attack on Unit One. It currently is in a state of regeneration, after
being wounded by Unit One's Positron Rifle, which we have calculated
to end in eight days. Seeing as we only have Unit One at full repair
status..."
"What about Unit Zero?" Misato asked, interrupting Maya's report.
"Unit Zero cannot be repaired in that space of time, Captain."
"Actually, it can," Fuyutsuki said from the back of the small
projection room. "The Commander likes to have flexibility on the
repair projects, in case of situations like this."
"So can Unit Zero be ready before the Angel has healed?" Misato asked
Fuyutsuki.
"It's possible."
"What for, Captain?"
"Unit One won't be able to handle both Angels. I believe we should use
both Evas in a simultaneous attack, eight days from now."
Gendo Ikari opened a drawer in his desk with a telephone inside it. He
picked up the receiver and rapidly dialled a mobile phone number.
"Hello," a pleasant male voice answered on the other end.
"It's me."
"Ah, yes. To what do I owe the honour?"
"When will you arrive in Tokyo-3?"
"When you send over the new Unit. All of the documentation is in
order, I believe."
"Correct." A pause. "You have it with you?"
"I'm looking at it now. You seem to be very anxious to get this into
your possession, Ikari."
"I told you not to use my name on this line."
"Sorry." The man's voice suggested that he wasn't at all. "Until we
talk again..."
"Goodbye."
"How do you feel, Shinji?"
"My head still hurts...but it's been worse." Shinji replied to Misato,
and mentally added to himself: _being on this noisy train doesn't
help._
Shinji's headache had been getting better after he got off the train,
and just walking back to the apartment seemed to help as well. He
decided to take his mind off it by talking.
"How are we going to defeat this one? If there are still two of
them..."
"I've thought about that. Shinji, you and Rei will both be attacking
the Angel in eight days. But seeing as both parts are controlled by
the same mind, you will need to attack simultaneously, in order to
catch it off-guard."
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, Misato."
"Well, you should actually thank Dr. Akagi for it. But there could be
one or two...problems..."
"What sort of problems?" Shinji asked cautiously.
"Your sync ratio has to rise significantly for you to be able to pilot
the Eva with enough precision. But the tests should take care of that.
You'll going to have to be pulled from school for a week. Rei too. But
I'm sure you catch up."
Shinji sighed inwardly. He didn't exactly dislike the sync tests, but
if he had to go through a whole week of them...
"What's the other problem?" he asked, not really wanting to know. They
had reached the door of Misato's apartment.
"The mission needs you to be not only in tune with your Eva, but in
tune with your fellow pilot as well. Seeing as we can't get the same
results from anything like the sync tests..."
Misato's door slid open, and Shinji saw who had opened it.
"...You and Rei will be living together."
After his initial objection (which he never voiced), Shinji saw that
maybe Rei being at the apartment might not be such a bad thing. After
all, he decided over the evening meal, she was a far better cook that
Misato was. And not nearly as embarrassing.
"These aren't quite the readings we're looking for, are they?" Misato
asked, glancing at the various displays over the screen looking in on
the tank of LCL.
"No...Shinji isn't doing as well as we expected. And it's been three
days," Ritsuko replied. "Maya, lower the plug depth for Unit One
another point three percent."
"Is this really helping him? Trying to force his synchronisation?"
Misato said, not without some compassion in her voice.
"We're on a tight time schedule. It can't be helped." Ritsuko pressed
down on a button on the control panel, activating the intercom.
"That's all for today. You two can go and get cleaned up now."
The various displays shut down, corresponding with Maya flipping off
switches across the panel.
"How are they getting along? At home, I mean?" Ritsuko asked out of
interest.
"I think Shinji's gotten used to the idea. As for Rei...well, she
never really changes."
Shinji lay awake in his room, staring at the ceiling. The day's sync
tests had really worn him out, but still sleep did not find him. He
was in the middle of considering drinking one of Misato's beers to
knock himself out when he heard a noise from the living room.
_Rei,_ he thought. _Is she awake too?_
Shinji, deciding that at the moment anything was better than the
silent agony of waiting for sleep to come, quietly crept out of his
room and slowly tip-toed his way to the living room.
In the darkness, he saw Rei's short-haired shadow played across the
wall by the faint glow of the streetlights below. She was sitting
cross-legged on the makeshift bed, seeming to Shinji that she was
having a greater difficulty sleeping than he was.
"Uh...Rei, why are you still up?" Shinji asked as he moved to sit next
to Rei, who never flinched, not even to see who spoke to her.
"I find it hard to sleep somewhere that is not my room," was her
reply.
"Can I talk to you? I...can't sleep myself."
"If you wish, Pilot Ikari."
Pilot Ikari. He hated being called that. It reminded him of his
father, and of Eva, both as mysterious and frightening as the other.
"Rei...could you call me Shinji?"
"Why?"
"Because...because here I'm not a pilot."
No response.
In the darkness, Shinji felt a question rise to his mind. If he asked
it, he felt...he _knew_ that he would almost kick himself for asking
it, but the old habits _do_ die the hardest.
"Rei, how do you feel about my father?"
"How am I supposed to feel?" Rei asked in her simple monotone.
"You mean you don't know?"
"No...what does it look like I feel, Shinji Ikari?"
Shinji recalled the time he saw Rei and his father talking in the
holding bay.
"You look...happy, Rei."
"Happy..." She paused, as if rolling the very concept around in her
head, trying to fathom all of its implications. "What is happiness?"
Before Shinji could think of a response, Rei turned her head to look
at Shinji, moving for the first time in the conversation.
"Could you show me...happiness?"
Shinji would later try to analyse what had happened at that moment.
Maybe it had been the pale light on Rei's face, the soulful longing
behind her soulless words, or maybe it had just been his chronic lack
of sleep. But these thoughts didn't come until later. Now, he only
reacted.
He leaned over and kissed her on the mouth.
To Shinji, the kiss seemed to last forever. He felt he almost choked
on his own tongue with the realisation that Rei was kissing him back.
To Rei, it was as if the kiss had set off a blinding light, a
radioactive flare in her mind, seeking out all the emotional
experiences in her memory up until now and burning them with its very
brightness.
When they finally broke, Shinji realised that his hand now rested on
Rei's shoulder. He stared into her deep, red eyes, and for the first
time, he thought he saw compassion in them. Later, he would think he
saw even amazement.
"Thank you, Shinji," Rei whispered in the darkness, and lay down to
sleep.
After a moment of self-deliberation, Shinji lay down beside her.
"Are these readings correct?" Maya asked in disbelief. When she didn't
get a response, she glanced at Ritsuko, who was still staring at the
screens.
"They all...look right. But a five-point jump, overnight...maybe it
just took time before Shinji began to show results."
"Those aren't the readings I'm talking about, Doctor..."
Ritsuko, not quite comprehending what Maya meant, thought about other
readings. _What_ other readings? _Rei?_
But Rei's sync level never changed...
The display next to Shinji's told her otherwise.
Five points higher.
"What happened to those two last night?" Ritsuko asked in disbelief.
Later that night, Shinji watched the floor of Misato's apartment
intently. Misato was absent from the apartment, having gone back to
Nerv to talk in detail with Ritsuko about him and Rei showing
something after four days of sync tests. Both of them had been
congratulated, but no one had noticed that Shinji was trying to avoid
talking to Rei, feeling too awkward to say anything.
Rei had come to sit next to him on the couch, and he had been so
deeply absorbed in thought that he almost jumped a little when she
spoke.
"Shinji...," Rei said, seeming to Shinji to be as nervous as he had
been feeling. That was the second time he had heard her say his name
like that, and he was beginning to realise what it was that made him
kiss her that night.
"Y-yes?" he asked, stumbling over his words and looking up from the
floor, into Rei's eyes.
"Would you...kiss me again?"
For a second Rei thought that Shinji was going to refuse, so she was
almost surprised when he jerked forward quickly and pressed his lips
against hers.
She thought he had only intended the kiss to be short, but it changed
rapidly into something else. Rei closed her eyes, lost in the moment,
letting Shinji's warm breath play gently across her cheek. She clasped
her hands around the back of his neck, drawing herself close to him,
feeling his heart beat rhythmically. New emotions were beginning to
clarify themselves in Rei's mind, as she felt Shinji's hands nervously
touch her back, and then grow confidence, tightening and holding her
close. She was, for the first time in her life, feeling a sense of
self, a sense of _being,_ and...
_It is very...pleasant,_ she though to herself, as the pair separated,
still in each other's arms.
"Hello! I'm home! You two had dinner yet?" Misato's voice and the
sound of the closing door broke the silence in the apartment.
Shinji watched the analogue counter slowly click over as the elevator
descended. The events of yesterday played over in his mind: Rei...he
wondered how he really felt about her. Did he like her? Did she like
him? He glanced over to her, and was about to say her name, when she
beat him to speaking.
"Shinji?"
"Yes, Rei?"
"I feel...strange. There is no physical discomfort, but it seems like
there is something missing. I feel an...emotion towards you that I
don't know how to describe. It is not respect or admiration, but it
seems similar, yet different. Do you know what I feel, Shinji?"
Shinji stepped closer to Rei and said, "I think that's...love, Rei."
"Love..." She paused and considered. "Do you feel...love too? Do
you...love me?"
"I...think I do."
Rei turned her gaze away from the elevator doors and towards Shinji.
For a second, they stayed unmoving, until Rei held out her hand to
Shinji. He took it, his nervousness beginning to fade, and she felt
herself smile at him. He smiled back, and knew that he truly was in
love with her.
Over the next three days, both pilots trained, synchronised, amazed
Ritsuko and Maya, and got closer. The operation to destroy the Angel
was carried off perfectly.
Rei got off the train, thoughts clouding her mind. _Is this over? As I
am returning to my room, will this stop what has begun?_
In her barren apartment, Rei felt all the old, familiar, lifeless
emotions come back to her. She couldn't go back to this room. She
would go back to be with Shinji.
But...
The Commander's glasses, the pair that had broken when he had saved
her life, and smiled at her, lay on the desk next to her bed. She had
attached such importance to them, but for what? Had not the exact same
thing occurred with Shinji, the only difference being that the second
time, she had smiled back?
She picked up the glasses, an object that just a week ago was the only
window she had to any emotion, and swept them into the rubbish bin
that sat beside the desk, along with several old bandages and scraps
of paper. It was the last time she would see them.
Ten minutes later, Rei had boarded a train to Misato's apartment.
Fifteen minutes later, she stood in front of the apartment door.
Twenty minutes later, she was in Shinji's arms.
Shinji sat on Misato's couch, with his arms around Rei, hardly paying
attention to what was on the television. He tried to think how this
had come about, him and Rei, and decided the same decision he always
had: they had just 'found each other'. They weren't 'going out', or
'an item', they were just...helping each other with the fact that they
were Eva pilots. He wondered what Toji and Kensuke would say...and
realised that he didn't care.
Rei sat on Misato's couch, with her arms around Shinji's waist and her
head resting on his shoulder, hardly paying attention to what was on
the television. She was trying to cope with all these new
thoughts...new emotions. Love, to Shinji...satisfaction, at the
completion of a successful mission...fear, at what else she may
feel...anticipation, for much the same reason.
Misato sat in a chair, holding a beer in one hand and watching the new
couple with some interest and faint amusement, hardly paying attention
to what was on the television. Rei and Shinji had 'come out', as it
were, two days ago, and still she was amazed at how much they had
changed. Shinji had been quiet, and Rei had been downright reclusive,
and in Misato's mind, neither of them would have had any contact at
all with the opposite sex if they could avoid it. Well, maybe Rei...if
she was ordered to. But now...it was as if Shinji had found a way to
'unlock' Rei from her apathy, and they had then both found something
to cling to at the torrent of Nerv and the Angels washed them
downstream.
-Derek Zischke
ageless_strange@optusnet.com.au
"Do you suffer from long-term memory loss? I can't remember..."
-Chumbawhamba
GAINAX and all affiliates. I am not asking for any money for this
written work. It is permissible to copy, quote, distribute, or in any
other way reproduce the following texts only if they contain this
disclaimer and credit to the author, or I will strike you down with
great vengeance and furious anger.
*With One Flashing Accord/To Remove What Hides Our Heart...*
Commander Gendo Ikari had just finished reading a large document that
sat in front of him. It contained information about the next
Evangelion, the production model. Ikari placed the sheets back into a
folder marked 'Top Secret' and addressed the man standing behind him.
"So Unit Two will not be ready for another two weeks?"
"I'm afraid so," said Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. "There's just too much
red tape. Also, we're having trouble finding a large enough fleet to
transport the Eva."
"Understood. What's the repair status on Unit Zero?"
"It's going quite well. If all goes to plan, Unit Zero can be running
in ten days."
"So we have no other protection but Unit One?"
"That is correct. But it seems to be working so far."
"Yes. But not without its share of problems. The old men of Seele are
still sore about that stunt Katsuragi pulled with the last Angel."
Suddenly, a loud siren sounded. From the area below him, Ikari heard
Lt. Ibuki call out, "Blue reading off the East Coast. It's definitely
an Angel!"
"The next Angel, hmm?" said Fuyutsuki.
"Call Captain Katsuragi and the Third Child here. Now!"
The phone rang at Misato's apartment. Shinji answered it, as Misato
was in a comatose state on the floor in her room. He hoped it wouldn't
be important.
"Uh, hello?"
"Shinji?" Shinji tried to place the voice, but couldn't. He decided it
was too early in the morning for his recall to be working properly.
"Who is this?" he asked, still not at full alert because he had been
woken by the ringing phone.
"This is Lieutenant Aoba. There's been a state of emergency declared.
We need you and the Captain down here now."
"But, Misato's still...sleeping..."
"Well, wake her up! This is important!"
"Yes, okay."
Shinji hung up the phone and steeled himself to do one of the tasks he
hated most: reviving a hung-over Misato.
"Well?"
"The Third Child may not arrive here on time, Commander. His
guardian..."
"I suspected as much. Very well. Brief Rei and have her on stand-by at
the holding cage. Be prepared to re-write Unit One's personal data
files if necessary. I want this Angel stopped before it reaches the
land."
"Yes, sir!"
Shinji walked into Misato's room, to find a crumpled heap lying on the
floor, just as he had thought. Oh well, he had done this before...
"Misato...Misato, wake up..."
He got a response: a mumbled, "Just five more minutes..."
Dammit, why did she have to be like this?
Shigeru sped through the streets of Tokyo-3. Without any of the
traffic due to the evacuation, he could make the trip to Misato's
apartment in perhaps one-third of the time. The Third Child wasn't
necessary for this mission (or so said the Commander), because they
had Rei, but Misato should be at Nerv to oversee everything. Protocol.
And seeing as they would need to configure Unit One for Rei if Shinji
wasn't there, why not kill two birds with one stone?, thought Shigeru,
swinging the wheel to turn a sharp corner.
Shinji heard the tire skid, even from the apartment, because of the
large scarceness of cars in Tokyo-3 this morning. However, he didn't
really begin paying attention to the sound until he heard his name
being called from below.
"Shinji! Shinji!"
Shinji ran to the balcony and looked down. There was a car, and
someone standing by it that he couldn't identify from this level.
"Shinji! Get Misato down here now!"
Well, getting her to the elevator might be easier than trying to wake
her up.
After a few rounds of instant coffee and some jerks from Shigeru's
reckless driving, Misato came out of her totally unconscious state.
Shinji just looked out the car window and tried to hold on if the
Lieutenant tried to do something stupid, like taking an intersection
without braking. Lt. Aoba, throughout the whole trip, had his head
close to the wheel, as if he was a racecar driver. Shinji thought to
himself, _He must have other hobbies, besides playing the air guitar._
After suiting up, sitting in the entry plug and experiencing the odd
sensation of LCL filling his lungs and supplying them with oxygen,
Shinji waited for his instructions on the intercom. At the moment, all
he heard was Misato and Ritsuko arguing mildly about Misato's coffee.
"Shinji, can you hear me?" Good, they've stopped, thought Shinji as he
heard Misato's voice directed toward him.
"Yes, I can hear you."
"This Angel is coming in from the sea. It's important that you try and
stop it before it reaches the land. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I get it. Not to fight near the people, right?" An unpleasant
memory flashed through his head: Toji hitting him, because of his
injured sister.
"That's one of the reasons. Just remember all of the simulations and
you should have no trouble. Ready?"
"I'm ready."
"Launch Eva!"
The Evangelion shot up the tube to the surface. After the initial jerk
of stopping, Shinji surveyed his surroundings; a scattering of
buildings to his left, and in front of him, the open ocean.
And the Angel.
It looked more like the first Angel he had fought; that is, it was
vaguely human in shape, as opposed to the other two Angels he had
seen. At first glance, the large greyish blob didn't look like it was
capable of destruction on a citywide scale, but (as Shinji had learnt
well in the past month or so) appearances could be deceptive. He
gripped the controls, feeling the Positron Rifle his Eva held instead
of the metallic grips, due to the LCL, synchronising his thoughts with
the Eva's actions. He charged.
The Angel twisted it's what-could-have-passed-for-a-head, seemingly
looking at the running Unit One. Before giving it time to attack,
Shinji raised the rifle and fired.
Underground, Misato and Ritsuko watched the screen with an almost
hypnotic intensity.
"He can't miss at that range, can he?" asked Misato.
"I shouldn't think so. But still, we know almost nothing about the
Angels," Ritsuko replied, not lifting her eyes.
_Except that they have the same DNA as us,_ Misato thought but didn't
dare speak.
On the screen, the smoke was beginning to clear. Shinji had learnt
from his mistake with the second one, Misato saw. She could make
out...two? Were there two shapes in the smoke? Had Shinji split it
down the middle?
Then a glowing green light began to pulse in the smoke. The Angel was
still alive!
"Shinji! Look out!" Misato yelled into the intercom.
Before the Eva had chance to move, Misato saw the light flash, and
heard Shinji's scream, and knew this battle was over.
"The Angel appears to have split into two divisions following the
attack on Unit One. It currently is in a state of regeneration, after
being wounded by Unit One's Positron Rifle, which we have calculated
to end in eight days. Seeing as we only have Unit One at full repair
status..."
"What about Unit Zero?" Misato asked, interrupting Maya's report.
"Unit Zero cannot be repaired in that space of time, Captain."
"Actually, it can," Fuyutsuki said from the back of the small
projection room. "The Commander likes to have flexibility on the
repair projects, in case of situations like this."
"So can Unit Zero be ready before the Angel has healed?" Misato asked
Fuyutsuki.
"It's possible."
"What for, Captain?"
"Unit One won't be able to handle both Angels. I believe we should use
both Evas in a simultaneous attack, eight days from now."
Gendo Ikari opened a drawer in his desk with a telephone inside it. He
picked up the receiver and rapidly dialled a mobile phone number.
"Hello," a pleasant male voice answered on the other end.
"It's me."
"Ah, yes. To what do I owe the honour?"
"When will you arrive in Tokyo-3?"
"When you send over the new Unit. All of the documentation is in
order, I believe."
"Correct." A pause. "You have it with you?"
"I'm looking at it now. You seem to be very anxious to get this into
your possession, Ikari."
"I told you not to use my name on this line."
"Sorry." The man's voice suggested that he wasn't at all. "Until we
talk again..."
"Goodbye."
"How do you feel, Shinji?"
"My head still hurts...but it's been worse." Shinji replied to Misato,
and mentally added to himself: _being on this noisy train doesn't
help._
Shinji's headache had been getting better after he got off the train,
and just walking back to the apartment seemed to help as well. He
decided to take his mind off it by talking.
"How are we going to defeat this one? If there are still two of
them..."
"I've thought about that. Shinji, you and Rei will both be attacking
the Angel in eight days. But seeing as both parts are controlled by
the same mind, you will need to attack simultaneously, in order to
catch it off-guard."
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, Misato."
"Well, you should actually thank Dr. Akagi for it. But there could be
one or two...problems..."
"What sort of problems?" Shinji asked cautiously.
"Your sync ratio has to rise significantly for you to be able to pilot
the Eva with enough precision. But the tests should take care of that.
You'll going to have to be pulled from school for a week. Rei too. But
I'm sure you catch up."
Shinji sighed inwardly. He didn't exactly dislike the sync tests, but
if he had to go through a whole week of them...
"What's the other problem?" he asked, not really wanting to know. They
had reached the door of Misato's apartment.
"The mission needs you to be not only in tune with your Eva, but in
tune with your fellow pilot as well. Seeing as we can't get the same
results from anything like the sync tests..."
Misato's door slid open, and Shinji saw who had opened it.
"...You and Rei will be living together."
After his initial objection (which he never voiced), Shinji saw that
maybe Rei being at the apartment might not be such a bad thing. After
all, he decided over the evening meal, she was a far better cook that
Misato was. And not nearly as embarrassing.
"These aren't quite the readings we're looking for, are they?" Misato
asked, glancing at the various displays over the screen looking in on
the tank of LCL.
"No...Shinji isn't doing as well as we expected. And it's been three
days," Ritsuko replied. "Maya, lower the plug depth for Unit One
another point three percent."
"Is this really helping him? Trying to force his synchronisation?"
Misato said, not without some compassion in her voice.
"We're on a tight time schedule. It can't be helped." Ritsuko pressed
down on a button on the control panel, activating the intercom.
"That's all for today. You two can go and get cleaned up now."
The various displays shut down, corresponding with Maya flipping off
switches across the panel.
"How are they getting along? At home, I mean?" Ritsuko asked out of
interest.
"I think Shinji's gotten used to the idea. As for Rei...well, she
never really changes."
Shinji lay awake in his room, staring at the ceiling. The day's sync
tests had really worn him out, but still sleep did not find him. He
was in the middle of considering drinking one of Misato's beers to
knock himself out when he heard a noise from the living room.
_Rei,_ he thought. _Is she awake too?_
Shinji, deciding that at the moment anything was better than the
silent agony of waiting for sleep to come, quietly crept out of his
room and slowly tip-toed his way to the living room.
In the darkness, he saw Rei's short-haired shadow played across the
wall by the faint glow of the streetlights below. She was sitting
cross-legged on the makeshift bed, seeming to Shinji that she was
having a greater difficulty sleeping than he was.
"Uh...Rei, why are you still up?" Shinji asked as he moved to sit next
to Rei, who never flinched, not even to see who spoke to her.
"I find it hard to sleep somewhere that is not my room," was her
reply.
"Can I talk to you? I...can't sleep myself."
"If you wish, Pilot Ikari."
Pilot Ikari. He hated being called that. It reminded him of his
father, and of Eva, both as mysterious and frightening as the other.
"Rei...could you call me Shinji?"
"Why?"
"Because...because here I'm not a pilot."
No response.
In the darkness, Shinji felt a question rise to his mind. If he asked
it, he felt...he _knew_ that he would almost kick himself for asking
it, but the old habits _do_ die the hardest.
"Rei, how do you feel about my father?"
"How am I supposed to feel?" Rei asked in her simple monotone.
"You mean you don't know?"
"No...what does it look like I feel, Shinji Ikari?"
Shinji recalled the time he saw Rei and his father talking in the
holding bay.
"You look...happy, Rei."
"Happy..." She paused, as if rolling the very concept around in her
head, trying to fathom all of its implications. "What is happiness?"
Before Shinji could think of a response, Rei turned her head to look
at Shinji, moving for the first time in the conversation.
"Could you show me...happiness?"
Shinji would later try to analyse what had happened at that moment.
Maybe it had been the pale light on Rei's face, the soulful longing
behind her soulless words, or maybe it had just been his chronic lack
of sleep. But these thoughts didn't come until later. Now, he only
reacted.
He leaned over and kissed her on the mouth.
To Shinji, the kiss seemed to last forever. He felt he almost choked
on his own tongue with the realisation that Rei was kissing him back.
To Rei, it was as if the kiss had set off a blinding light, a
radioactive flare in her mind, seeking out all the emotional
experiences in her memory up until now and burning them with its very
brightness.
When they finally broke, Shinji realised that his hand now rested on
Rei's shoulder. He stared into her deep, red eyes, and for the first
time, he thought he saw compassion in them. Later, he would think he
saw even amazement.
"Thank you, Shinji," Rei whispered in the darkness, and lay down to
sleep.
After a moment of self-deliberation, Shinji lay down beside her.
"Are these readings correct?" Maya asked in disbelief. When she didn't
get a response, she glanced at Ritsuko, who was still staring at the
screens.
"They all...look right. But a five-point jump, overnight...maybe it
just took time before Shinji began to show results."
"Those aren't the readings I'm talking about, Doctor..."
Ritsuko, not quite comprehending what Maya meant, thought about other
readings. _What_ other readings? _Rei?_
But Rei's sync level never changed...
The display next to Shinji's told her otherwise.
Five points higher.
"What happened to those two last night?" Ritsuko asked in disbelief.
Later that night, Shinji watched the floor of Misato's apartment
intently. Misato was absent from the apartment, having gone back to
Nerv to talk in detail with Ritsuko about him and Rei showing
something after four days of sync tests. Both of them had been
congratulated, but no one had noticed that Shinji was trying to avoid
talking to Rei, feeling too awkward to say anything.
Rei had come to sit next to him on the couch, and he had been so
deeply absorbed in thought that he almost jumped a little when she
spoke.
"Shinji...," Rei said, seeming to Shinji to be as nervous as he had
been feeling. That was the second time he had heard her say his name
like that, and he was beginning to realise what it was that made him
kiss her that night.
"Y-yes?" he asked, stumbling over his words and looking up from the
floor, into Rei's eyes.
"Would you...kiss me again?"
For a second Rei thought that Shinji was going to refuse, so she was
almost surprised when he jerked forward quickly and pressed his lips
against hers.
She thought he had only intended the kiss to be short, but it changed
rapidly into something else. Rei closed her eyes, lost in the moment,
letting Shinji's warm breath play gently across her cheek. She clasped
her hands around the back of his neck, drawing herself close to him,
feeling his heart beat rhythmically. New emotions were beginning to
clarify themselves in Rei's mind, as she felt Shinji's hands nervously
touch her back, and then grow confidence, tightening and holding her
close. She was, for the first time in her life, feeling a sense of
self, a sense of _being,_ and...
_It is very...pleasant,_ she though to herself, as the pair separated,
still in each other's arms.
"Hello! I'm home! You two had dinner yet?" Misato's voice and the
sound of the closing door broke the silence in the apartment.
Shinji watched the analogue counter slowly click over as the elevator
descended. The events of yesterday played over in his mind: Rei...he
wondered how he really felt about her. Did he like her? Did she like
him? He glanced over to her, and was about to say her name, when she
beat him to speaking.
"Shinji?"
"Yes, Rei?"
"I feel...strange. There is no physical discomfort, but it seems like
there is something missing. I feel an...emotion towards you that I
don't know how to describe. It is not respect or admiration, but it
seems similar, yet different. Do you know what I feel, Shinji?"
Shinji stepped closer to Rei and said, "I think that's...love, Rei."
"Love..." She paused and considered. "Do you feel...love too? Do
you...love me?"
"I...think I do."
Rei turned her gaze away from the elevator doors and towards Shinji.
For a second, they stayed unmoving, until Rei held out her hand to
Shinji. He took it, his nervousness beginning to fade, and she felt
herself smile at him. He smiled back, and knew that he truly was in
love with her.
Over the next three days, both pilots trained, synchronised, amazed
Ritsuko and Maya, and got closer. The operation to destroy the Angel
was carried off perfectly.
Rei got off the train, thoughts clouding her mind. _Is this over? As I
am returning to my room, will this stop what has begun?_
In her barren apartment, Rei felt all the old, familiar, lifeless
emotions come back to her. She couldn't go back to this room. She
would go back to be with Shinji.
But...
The Commander's glasses, the pair that had broken when he had saved
her life, and smiled at her, lay on the desk next to her bed. She had
attached such importance to them, but for what? Had not the exact same
thing occurred with Shinji, the only difference being that the second
time, she had smiled back?
She picked up the glasses, an object that just a week ago was the only
window she had to any emotion, and swept them into the rubbish bin
that sat beside the desk, along with several old bandages and scraps
of paper. It was the last time she would see them.
Ten minutes later, Rei had boarded a train to Misato's apartment.
Fifteen minutes later, she stood in front of the apartment door.
Twenty minutes later, she was in Shinji's arms.
Shinji sat on Misato's couch, with his arms around Rei, hardly paying
attention to what was on the television. He tried to think how this
had come about, him and Rei, and decided the same decision he always
had: they had just 'found each other'. They weren't 'going out', or
'an item', they were just...helping each other with the fact that they
were Eva pilots. He wondered what Toji and Kensuke would say...and
realised that he didn't care.
Rei sat on Misato's couch, with her arms around Shinji's waist and her
head resting on his shoulder, hardly paying attention to what was on
the television. She was trying to cope with all these new
thoughts...new emotions. Love, to Shinji...satisfaction, at the
completion of a successful mission...fear, at what else she may
feel...anticipation, for much the same reason.
Misato sat in a chair, holding a beer in one hand and watching the new
couple with some interest and faint amusement, hardly paying attention
to what was on the television. Rei and Shinji had 'come out', as it
were, two days ago, and still she was amazed at how much they had
changed. Shinji had been quiet, and Rei had been downright reclusive,
and in Misato's mind, neither of them would have had any contact at
all with the opposite sex if they could avoid it. Well, maybe Rei...if
she was ordered to. But now...it was as if Shinji had found a way to
'unlock' Rei from her apathy, and they had then both found something
to cling to at the torrent of Nerv and the Angels washed them
downstream.
-Derek Zischke
ageless_strange@optusnet.com.au
"Do you suffer from long-term memory loss? I can't remember..."
-Chumbawhamba