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.
*Replacements/The Fifth Child*
"The Eva is not responding to our commands. It seems to be being
blocked...from inside the entry plug."
Makoto spoke into an intercom microphone. "Shinji? Can you hear me?"
"Yes."
There was an eerie coldness to his voice, a dispassion that Makoto had
never heard him speak with before, and it was so different from his
normal tone and so similar to the Commander's, it almost scared him.
"Shinji, you have to release the Eva."
"No." The coldness remained.
"Shinji...your father has ordered you..."
"My father?" The coldness in his voice began to break, and now Makoto
saw what it hid: pure rage.
"That bastard! He made me try and kill Toji! He did it using my own
hands!"
A beat.
"Can you hear me, father? Are you there?"
"Increase the pressure in Unit One's entry plug," Ikari said, somehow
seeming to ignore his yelling son.
"But...," Maya protested weakly. "That could bring serious damage to-"
"Do it! I have no time to waste on an insolent child."
"Yes, sir," Maya said reluctantly, and pressed a button.
In the entry plug, Shinji felt his lungs and his brain fight a battle
of which organ could burst out of his body first, as his skin seemed
to want to implode on itself. He fought, both with his mind and his
body, for control of the Eva, repeating over and over through gritted
teeth, "I mustn't run away...I mustn't run away...I mustn't run
away...I mustn't run away..."
A heaving feeling in his stomach disrupted his mantra, and he knew he
was going to lose control. He vomited into the LCL seconds before he
lost consciousness.
"Shinji?"
Shinji turned his head to the hospital room door, wincing as he felt
pain flit across his neck from when Toji's Eva had choked him. He saw
Rei standing in the doorway, hesitant.
"Come in...I'm awake."
Rei slowly walked over to Shinji's bed and knelt beside it.
"How do you feel? I heard someone say you were injured pretty
badly..."
"I don't know. I feel pretty sore all over."
There was a long pause in the conversation, and when Shinji couldn't
catch Rei's glance, he knew that there was something she was avoiding
saying.
"What else do you have to tell me?" he asked, fearing it would be bad
news.
"Shinji...," Rei started, not looking up from the floor. "I don't want
to be the one that tells you this...the Commander wants to see
you...us."
"Oh." He turned his gaze toward the ceiling again. "I'm going to tell
him I'm leaving. I mean it this time. He's gone too far."
Rei looked at Shinji, and placed her hand on his.
"Shinji..."
The hospital door opened, and two members of Nerv security entered the
room.
"Shinji Ikari? You have been summoned to explain your actions to the
Commander."
"I quit. I don't want to be a pilot anymore."
Shinji's words hung in the air of the Commander's room. For the first
time since he was brought to Nerv, Shinji didn't feel any awkward
emotion toward his father.
"You disappoint me, Shinji. You're running away again."
"This time, it's for the right reasons." He turned and began to walk
away.
"You're aware that you lose all of your privileges at Nerv, aren't
you?" Gendo's voice was threatening, even in a question that was meant
for the tone of concern.
"Yes, I am. Goodbye, father."
"Into the tank, Rei."
"No."
"Rei..."
"Is that what I am for? The fuel for an instrument of destruction?"
"You know that's not how the plug works."
"But it is. Why do you need pilots now, anyway? I'm sure the DummyPlug
would respond better to your commands than some of the current
pilots."
Ikari suddenly realised how close he was to witnessing Nerv falling
apart, because of a simple error in judgement.
"I'm leaving, Commander."
Damn.
"Things are not looking good, Commander. Seele never expected the
pilots undergoing a mutiny."
"What concerns Seele are the Angels, not the pilots."
"But if we have no pilots, we cannot fight the Angels."
"The loss of three pilots...we will just have to wait for the fifth
child."
"We cannot rely on the DummyPlug, Ikari..."
"We cannot rely on Unit Two, either. Perhaps this time, Marduk must be
forced to deliver."
"What? You quit? _Both_ of you?" Asuka, despite the hospital
sedatives, seemed to be her regular, loud self to Shinji.
"That's right, Asuka."
"So I'm the only one left...," she said to herself. "Well, I guess
this must prove my superiority to _you,_ Third Child."
"I thought you'd say something like that." Shinji turned to leave, but
stopped when he reached the door.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Hikari might come here to see you soon.
Right now, she's in with Toji..."
"That figures."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What? _Nothing!_ It doesn't _mean_ anything."
"I'll let you catch up on your rest. Goodbye, Asuka."
"Goodbye, Shinji."
After Shinji had left, Asuka felt the fear creep in.
_I'm the only one left. It's all up to me, now._
"Ikari, your request to move up the selection for the fifth child is
unjustified. We see no need for another pilot at Nerv without an Eva
to be piloted."
"My request is justified. Units One and Zero are both undesignated."
"What?"
"What happened?"
"How did you lose another two pilots, Ikari?"
"They left. Of their own free will."
"But they can still pilot."
"They would refuse. A motionless Evangelion is of no use to me, or to
you."
"But the DummyPlug..."
"...Is still too unstable. Rei is gone: the project cannot advance.
Without another pilot, your scenario of the Dead Sea Scrolls will fall
apart."
"Given one more reckless action like this, Ikari, and your position as
Commander will be revoked!"
"I will expect the file on the fifth child tomorrow."
The various screens of Seele shut off, and darkness filled the room.
"Misato's working late again, isn't she?"
"Mm-hmm."
"So it's just us for a while?"
"Mm-hmm."
Shinji looked up at Rei, to see her cooking something in Misato's
kitchen.
"Rei, do you want any help with that?"
"No, I'm fine." She checked around the kitchen to see that everything
was going as it should. "I'm finished anyway."
"Did we do the right thing? Leaving?" Shinji asked as Rei sat down
beside him.
"The Commander has no regard for human life. He believes the end
justifies the means. Tell yourself that whenever you doubt your
decision. That's what I do."
"Asuka's still there...but I don't think either of us could persuade
her to leave."
"Neither do I. She holds too much importance to her position as an Eva
pilot."
"Yeah...say, Rei, what are you doing tonight?" Shinji asked, changing
the subject to get his..._their_ minds off the day behind them.
Rei smiled and moved closer to Shinji. "I think I may already have
plans."
"Then we'd better make out now," he said, placing his arms around Rei.
"That sounds like a good idea to me..."
_RIIINNNGGG!!!_
Rei's eyes widened. "Dinner!" She quickly jumped us off the couch and
hurried into the kitchen.
"Can't it wait?" Shinji called after her.
"Only if you like burnt food!" Rei called back.
Over an unburnt meal, Shinji asked Rei, "So...can your plans be
cancelled?"
"For you...any time."
"What the hell is wrong with them, turning down the opportunity to
pilot an Eva? Do they _like_ evacuation drills and hiding in the
ground? Why would _anyone_ want to be _demoted?_" Asuka quietly ranted
to herself as she walked to her apartment. "I don't understand those
two...they spend too much time with each other to _comprehend_ how
important being an Eva pilot is!"
Asuka's train of thought shifted slightly as she reached her door.
"I wonder if they've got a replacement yet? ...I hope he'll be cuter
than Shinji...I don't know _what_ Rei sees in him."
"Shinji? Rei?" Misato called softly into the darkened apartment. No
one answered her. "Pen Pen?" She sighed. "Is anyone awake?"
As she walked past Shinji's room, she saw where they both were: Shinji
asleep on the floor, on the spare mattress that Rei slept on, next to
Rei, their arms around each other, both of them looking very peaceful.
Misato smiled to herself. It was good to see that Shinji had someone
to support him, to comfort him...and that she had been right about
them. No one could stare that long at a photograph and not be
interested.
Shinji, in the dimness of the morning, was faintly aware of three
things: his proximity to the floor, his proximity to Rei, and a dull
ringing. Ringing?
_The alarm!_
Shocked into alertness by the realisation that he was late for school,
Shinji began to shake Rei awake.
"Rei...Rei, we're late."
"Hmm?"
"We're late for school!"
"Where are they?" Asuka wondered to herself. She had been waiting for
Shinji and Rei to arrive for a good ten minutes, and usually she had
to be waited for by them. She was under the impression that she had
gotten up too early.
She heard a noise coming from the top of the hill. Faintly, but
clearly being yelled.
"Asuka! Asuka!"
Shinji, yelling, and Rei, both running.
"What happened to you two this morning?" she tried to ask as they got
close. However, they both just ran past her. Shinji looked back and
yelled, "No time to talk! We're late!"
"Late? Hey, wait for me!" Asuka started running after them.
"Answer your names accordingly. Ayanami, Rei? ...Ayanami, Rei?"
"Here!" Rei, Asuka and Shinji appeared in the doorway, flushed and out
of breath.
"Ayanami, Sohryu, Ikari, you're late!"
"We know," the trio said simultaneously to Hikari, the class rep.
"Take your seats. And don't let it happen again!"
Near the end of a lesson on history that Shinji knew to be covered up
by Nerv, a message came for one of the members of his class to report
to the principal's office.
"Are you Kensuke Aida?" the tall man with the dark glasses asked.
"Yes..." _Who is this?_ thought Kensuke. _He's definitely_ not _the
principal._
"You have been chosen by the Marduk Organization to be the Fifth Child
in accordance with the Human Instrumentality Project, and the
designated pilot of Evangelion Unit One. If you could familiarise
yourself with this document..." He proceeded to pull a small book out
of his suit pocket that Kensuke recognised as a Nerv handbook; he had
seen Rei and Shinji reading them sometimes.
"I'm...I'm an Eva pilot?" he asked, taking the handbook and hardly
believing that he had woken up this morning.
"That's correct, Pilot Aida. Your briefing and basic training will
begin after your classes have ended for the day. Look for the black
car."
"I'm an Eva pilot..." Kensuke repeated to himself, and suddenly, it
clicked in his mind.
"I'm an Eva pilot!"
After the Second Sector agent watched the new pilot run out of the
room, yelling for joy, he took out a mobile phone from his other
pocket.
"He's been told, sir -- he was slightly more...enthused than the last
pilot -- yes sir, we'll be there to collect him for training."
"I'm a pilot! I'm an Eva pilot!"
"What?" Shinji was glad that he, Rei and Kensuke were the only ones in
the room. Everyone else had gone elsewhere for lunch.
"Yeah! I'm one of you now!"
"You're joking," Shinji said rather flatly. This was too much to take
in, in a short time.
"I'm not! I got a handbook!" Kensuke flashed a Nerv handbook in font
of Shinji's face.
"Huh."
Kensuke finally realised how disinterested Shinji was. "What do you
mean, 'huh'?"
"I mean, Kensuke, being a pilot isn't all it cracked up to be."
"Why else would we have left?" asked Rei plainly, joining the
conversation.
"But...being an Eva pilot has always been my dream...I didn't know you
_quit_..."
Shinji, seeing how much he could have ruined Kensuke's ability to
pilot just by telling him that he and Rei left, had to tell him
something positive. He couldn't think of a single thing. Rei, however,
could.
"Kensuke, you'll be defending the human race from the Angels. That's
an important job."
"So why did you and Shinji leave?"
"We...just couldn't take the strain anymore."
"Well...I guess it can't be too bad on my first day, right?"
"Has Unit One's personal data been recorded?"
"Fully recorded, sir."
"Prepare for clearing of Unit One's memory files." To himself, Gendo
thought, _I'm sorry, Yui._
"This is just going to be a standard activation test. The entry plug
will begin to fill up with a liquid called LCL. It's designed to give
life support and boost synchronisation with the Eva. You have to
relax; you can't actually drown in LCL. Have you got that, Kensuke?"
"Yeah, I think," Kensuke replied, and thought to himself: _Why would
Shinji turn down a job like this?_
The LCL began to gush into the plug, and although Misato had told him
not to fight it getting into his lungs, he couldn't deny his natural
response. After he felt he couldn't hold his breath any longer,
certain that despite what he had just heard, he _would_ drown in the
LCL, he released his breath...and found he could breath while
submerged in the liquid.
"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"No ma'am."
"You can call me Misato, Kensuke."
"Alright...Misato."
"He's synchronising quite well for his first time in an Eva. It's not
as impressive as Shinji, but still..."
"They all should sync well, Ritsuko. All of the children in his class
are Fourth Level candidates."
Ritsuko glanced across at Misato. "You've been talking to Kaji again,
haven't you?"
"No..."
"If you play with fire, Major Katsuragi, you will get burned."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a warning."
Several moments passed in silence.
"It is quite impressive," Ritsuko said after the silence.
"He did seem pretty eager to pilot an Eva. Maybe that why he was
selected ahead of any others; he wants to be a pilot."
"Maybe."
"What's this question here about?" Shinji asked Rei, handing her his
notebook.
Rei looked at the page for a moment, took Shinji's pen, and made some
quick strokes on the page, then handed them both back to Shinji. "This
should help."
Shinji, after a quick glance over what she had wrote, realised it did.
"How do you do that, Rei? This kind of thing never sticks with me."
"Natural aptitude, I guess. Like you and your Eva."
"Not anymore. It's Kensuke's Eva now." Shinji thought for a moment
about what he had just said. "Rei..." he asked, disliking distracting
her from the book she was reading.
"Hmm?"
"What do we do when the next Angel attacks?"
At his words, a klaxon siren sounded, followed by a recorded voice.
_"A state of emergency has been declared. Please evacuate to your
designated shelters. A state of emergency..."_
Shinji and Rei looked at each other.
"I guess we find out!"
"Dammit, not now!" Misato yelled at the red 'Alert' screens. "Find
Asuka! Get her to the cage!"
"Wh-what's going on?" Kensuke asked from inside the plug, a jolt of
fear sent into him from the siren and the commotion of people over the
intercom.
"It's an Angel attack," he heard Misato say. "We need to get you out
of the Eva, Kensuke."
"What for?"
Misato was taken aback by the question. "You...you haven't even been
through basic weapon's training yet..."
"But Shinji fought, his first time in an Eva!"
"Kensuke, it's not safe to-"
"Let him go out," Ikari said from above her. "We need to be able to
intercept the Angels before they reach the Geofront."
"But he hasn't had any training..."
"Do it! We need the time!"
"Yes, sir." Then, louder: "Launch the Eva!"
Up on the surface, Kensuke saw the Angel immediately. It looked like a
floating torso. With no regard for tactics (but in actuality, an
intelligent move, distracting the Angel from breaking through to the
Geofront), Kensuke raised his rifle-
"Eat _this!_"
-And fired.
Small explosions rippled across the Angel from the bullets of the
Positron Rifle. The Angel was slowly turning toward Kensuke's Eva, but
Kensuke was unaware of that fact. He was only aware of the headrush of
being inside an Eva, inside combat.
The rifle stopped firing.
The Angel began its offence.
In place of arms (using the torso model, as Kensuke saw it), there
were what appeared to be two short ribbon strips. These strips now
unfolded, and to Kensuke, looked like whips. These whips flew through
the air toward Kensuke's Eva at an amazing pace.
Kensuke was almost knocked cold after the first hit. As he tried to
move the Eva, the other whip hit him again, knocking him to the
ground. Certain he was going to die, Kensuke began to panic as the
Angel started slowly drumming on the Eva's armour plating.
Then the Angel stopped.
Kensuke opened his eyes, and saw a gaping hole in the Angel. It was
the last thing he saw, until he woke up in the same hospital that Rei,
Shinji, Asuka and Toji had woken up in, except for the blinding light
of the Angel exploding.
The light on the screens cleared, showing a fallen Unit One, and a
victorious Unit Two.
"Way to go, Asuka!" Misato yelled.
Asuka's reply came over the intercom: "That was too easy."
"Get a rescue crew to Unit One!" Ritsuko yelled to the various
technicians in Central Dogma, wondering how they could have forgotten
about the pilot. "Now!"
"You can't go on using the children as decoys, Ikari."
"It worked, didn't it? He's still alive, isn't he?"
"Yes...but still, one day, you will overestimate their ability."
"Or underestimate it..."
"What was that, Commander?"
"Nothing. Prepare a repair crew for Unit One, Fuyutsuki."
"Yes, Commander."
"Hey, Kensuke..."
Kensuke slowly opened his eyes, to see Rei and Shinji standing beside
his...bed? Was he in a bed? _Why_ was he in a bed? _Where_ was he?
"Where am I?"
"In hospital. You kinda got knocked out in the Eva."
"The Eva! What happened?"
"Asuka shot the Angel from behind, and it blew up. Or that's what we
heard, anyway."
"Congratulations on your first battle, Pilot Aida," Rei said, shifting
the subject slightly.
"What am I being congratulated for?"
"Surviving."
Kensuke was silent. He now realised (as he had before he lost
consciousness) how close he had been to death.
"Are you going to stay on?"
A long pause from Kensuke, then: "Yeah, I guess." He smiled slightly.
"After all, this is what I waited for my whole life.
"But I can understand why you guys quit, now."
-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.
*Replacements/The Fifth Child*
"The Eva is not responding to our commands. It seems to be being
blocked...from inside the entry plug."
Makoto spoke into an intercom microphone. "Shinji? Can you hear me?"
"Yes."
There was an eerie coldness to his voice, a dispassion that Makoto had
never heard him speak with before, and it was so different from his
normal tone and so similar to the Commander's, it almost scared him.
"Shinji, you have to release the Eva."
"No." The coldness remained.
"Shinji...your father has ordered you..."
"My father?" The coldness in his voice began to break, and now Makoto
saw what it hid: pure rage.
"That bastard! He made me try and kill Toji! He did it using my own
hands!"
A beat.
"Can you hear me, father? Are you there?"
"Increase the pressure in Unit One's entry plug," Ikari said, somehow
seeming to ignore his yelling son.
"But...," Maya protested weakly. "That could bring serious damage to-"
"Do it! I have no time to waste on an insolent child."
"Yes, sir," Maya said reluctantly, and pressed a button.
In the entry plug, Shinji felt his lungs and his brain fight a battle
of which organ could burst out of his body first, as his skin seemed
to want to implode on itself. He fought, both with his mind and his
body, for control of the Eva, repeating over and over through gritted
teeth, "I mustn't run away...I mustn't run away...I mustn't run
away...I mustn't run away..."
A heaving feeling in his stomach disrupted his mantra, and he knew he
was going to lose control. He vomited into the LCL seconds before he
lost consciousness.
"Shinji?"
Shinji turned his head to the hospital room door, wincing as he felt
pain flit across his neck from when Toji's Eva had choked him. He saw
Rei standing in the doorway, hesitant.
"Come in...I'm awake."
Rei slowly walked over to Shinji's bed and knelt beside it.
"How do you feel? I heard someone say you were injured pretty
badly..."
"I don't know. I feel pretty sore all over."
There was a long pause in the conversation, and when Shinji couldn't
catch Rei's glance, he knew that there was something she was avoiding
saying.
"What else do you have to tell me?" he asked, fearing it would be bad
news.
"Shinji...," Rei started, not looking up from the floor. "I don't want
to be the one that tells you this...the Commander wants to see
you...us."
"Oh." He turned his gaze toward the ceiling again. "I'm going to tell
him I'm leaving. I mean it this time. He's gone too far."
Rei looked at Shinji, and placed her hand on his.
"Shinji..."
The hospital door opened, and two members of Nerv security entered the
room.
"Shinji Ikari? You have been summoned to explain your actions to the
Commander."
"I quit. I don't want to be a pilot anymore."
Shinji's words hung in the air of the Commander's room. For the first
time since he was brought to Nerv, Shinji didn't feel any awkward
emotion toward his father.
"You disappoint me, Shinji. You're running away again."
"This time, it's for the right reasons." He turned and began to walk
away.
"You're aware that you lose all of your privileges at Nerv, aren't
you?" Gendo's voice was threatening, even in a question that was meant
for the tone of concern.
"Yes, I am. Goodbye, father."
"Into the tank, Rei."
"No."
"Rei..."
"Is that what I am for? The fuel for an instrument of destruction?"
"You know that's not how the plug works."
"But it is. Why do you need pilots now, anyway? I'm sure the DummyPlug
would respond better to your commands than some of the current
pilots."
Ikari suddenly realised how close he was to witnessing Nerv falling
apart, because of a simple error in judgement.
"I'm leaving, Commander."
Damn.
"Things are not looking good, Commander. Seele never expected the
pilots undergoing a mutiny."
"What concerns Seele are the Angels, not the pilots."
"But if we have no pilots, we cannot fight the Angels."
"The loss of three pilots...we will just have to wait for the fifth
child."
"We cannot rely on the DummyPlug, Ikari..."
"We cannot rely on Unit Two, either. Perhaps this time, Marduk must be
forced to deliver."
"What? You quit? _Both_ of you?" Asuka, despite the hospital
sedatives, seemed to be her regular, loud self to Shinji.
"That's right, Asuka."
"So I'm the only one left...," she said to herself. "Well, I guess
this must prove my superiority to _you,_ Third Child."
"I thought you'd say something like that." Shinji turned to leave, but
stopped when he reached the door.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Hikari might come here to see you soon.
Right now, she's in with Toji..."
"That figures."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"What? _Nothing!_ It doesn't _mean_ anything."
"I'll let you catch up on your rest. Goodbye, Asuka."
"Goodbye, Shinji."
After Shinji had left, Asuka felt the fear creep in.
_I'm the only one left. It's all up to me, now._
"Ikari, your request to move up the selection for the fifth child is
unjustified. We see no need for another pilot at Nerv without an Eva
to be piloted."
"My request is justified. Units One and Zero are both undesignated."
"What?"
"What happened?"
"How did you lose another two pilots, Ikari?"
"They left. Of their own free will."
"But they can still pilot."
"They would refuse. A motionless Evangelion is of no use to me, or to
you."
"But the DummyPlug..."
"...Is still too unstable. Rei is gone: the project cannot advance.
Without another pilot, your scenario of the Dead Sea Scrolls will fall
apart."
"Given one more reckless action like this, Ikari, and your position as
Commander will be revoked!"
"I will expect the file on the fifth child tomorrow."
The various screens of Seele shut off, and darkness filled the room.
"Misato's working late again, isn't she?"
"Mm-hmm."
"So it's just us for a while?"
"Mm-hmm."
Shinji looked up at Rei, to see her cooking something in Misato's
kitchen.
"Rei, do you want any help with that?"
"No, I'm fine." She checked around the kitchen to see that everything
was going as it should. "I'm finished anyway."
"Did we do the right thing? Leaving?" Shinji asked as Rei sat down
beside him.
"The Commander has no regard for human life. He believes the end
justifies the means. Tell yourself that whenever you doubt your
decision. That's what I do."
"Asuka's still there...but I don't think either of us could persuade
her to leave."
"Neither do I. She holds too much importance to her position as an Eva
pilot."
"Yeah...say, Rei, what are you doing tonight?" Shinji asked, changing
the subject to get his..._their_ minds off the day behind them.
Rei smiled and moved closer to Shinji. "I think I may already have
plans."
"Then we'd better make out now," he said, placing his arms around Rei.
"That sounds like a good idea to me..."
_RIIINNNGGG!!!_
Rei's eyes widened. "Dinner!" She quickly jumped us off the couch and
hurried into the kitchen.
"Can't it wait?" Shinji called after her.
"Only if you like burnt food!" Rei called back.
Over an unburnt meal, Shinji asked Rei, "So...can your plans be
cancelled?"
"For you...any time."
"What the hell is wrong with them, turning down the opportunity to
pilot an Eva? Do they _like_ evacuation drills and hiding in the
ground? Why would _anyone_ want to be _demoted?_" Asuka quietly ranted
to herself as she walked to her apartment. "I don't understand those
two...they spend too much time with each other to _comprehend_ how
important being an Eva pilot is!"
Asuka's train of thought shifted slightly as she reached her door.
"I wonder if they've got a replacement yet? ...I hope he'll be cuter
than Shinji...I don't know _what_ Rei sees in him."
"Shinji? Rei?" Misato called softly into the darkened apartment. No
one answered her. "Pen Pen?" She sighed. "Is anyone awake?"
As she walked past Shinji's room, she saw where they both were: Shinji
asleep on the floor, on the spare mattress that Rei slept on, next to
Rei, their arms around each other, both of them looking very peaceful.
Misato smiled to herself. It was good to see that Shinji had someone
to support him, to comfort him...and that she had been right about
them. No one could stare that long at a photograph and not be
interested.
Shinji, in the dimness of the morning, was faintly aware of three
things: his proximity to the floor, his proximity to Rei, and a dull
ringing. Ringing?
_The alarm!_
Shocked into alertness by the realisation that he was late for school,
Shinji began to shake Rei awake.
"Rei...Rei, we're late."
"Hmm?"
"We're late for school!"
"Where are they?" Asuka wondered to herself. She had been waiting for
Shinji and Rei to arrive for a good ten minutes, and usually she had
to be waited for by them. She was under the impression that she had
gotten up too early.
She heard a noise coming from the top of the hill. Faintly, but
clearly being yelled.
"Asuka! Asuka!"
Shinji, yelling, and Rei, both running.
"What happened to you two this morning?" she tried to ask as they got
close. However, they both just ran past her. Shinji looked back and
yelled, "No time to talk! We're late!"
"Late? Hey, wait for me!" Asuka started running after them.
"Answer your names accordingly. Ayanami, Rei? ...Ayanami, Rei?"
"Here!" Rei, Asuka and Shinji appeared in the doorway, flushed and out
of breath.
"Ayanami, Sohryu, Ikari, you're late!"
"We know," the trio said simultaneously to Hikari, the class rep.
"Take your seats. And don't let it happen again!"
Near the end of a lesson on history that Shinji knew to be covered up
by Nerv, a message came for one of the members of his class to report
to the principal's office.
"Are you Kensuke Aida?" the tall man with the dark glasses asked.
"Yes..." _Who is this?_ thought Kensuke. _He's definitely_ not _the
principal._
"You have been chosen by the Marduk Organization to be the Fifth Child
in accordance with the Human Instrumentality Project, and the
designated pilot of Evangelion Unit One. If you could familiarise
yourself with this document..." He proceeded to pull a small book out
of his suit pocket that Kensuke recognised as a Nerv handbook; he had
seen Rei and Shinji reading them sometimes.
"I'm...I'm an Eva pilot?" he asked, taking the handbook and hardly
believing that he had woken up this morning.
"That's correct, Pilot Aida. Your briefing and basic training will
begin after your classes have ended for the day. Look for the black
car."
"I'm an Eva pilot..." Kensuke repeated to himself, and suddenly, it
clicked in his mind.
"I'm an Eva pilot!"
After the Second Sector agent watched the new pilot run out of the
room, yelling for joy, he took out a mobile phone from his other
pocket.
"He's been told, sir -- he was slightly more...enthused than the last
pilot -- yes sir, we'll be there to collect him for training."
"I'm a pilot! I'm an Eva pilot!"
"What?" Shinji was glad that he, Rei and Kensuke were the only ones in
the room. Everyone else had gone elsewhere for lunch.
"Yeah! I'm one of you now!"
"You're joking," Shinji said rather flatly. This was too much to take
in, in a short time.
"I'm not! I got a handbook!" Kensuke flashed a Nerv handbook in font
of Shinji's face.
"Huh."
Kensuke finally realised how disinterested Shinji was. "What do you
mean, 'huh'?"
"I mean, Kensuke, being a pilot isn't all it cracked up to be."
"Why else would we have left?" asked Rei plainly, joining the
conversation.
"But...being an Eva pilot has always been my dream...I didn't know you
_quit_..."
Shinji, seeing how much he could have ruined Kensuke's ability to
pilot just by telling him that he and Rei left, had to tell him
something positive. He couldn't think of a single thing. Rei, however,
could.
"Kensuke, you'll be defending the human race from the Angels. That's
an important job."
"So why did you and Shinji leave?"
"We...just couldn't take the strain anymore."
"Well...I guess it can't be too bad on my first day, right?"
"Has Unit One's personal data been recorded?"
"Fully recorded, sir."
"Prepare for clearing of Unit One's memory files." To himself, Gendo
thought, _I'm sorry, Yui._
"This is just going to be a standard activation test. The entry plug
will begin to fill up with a liquid called LCL. It's designed to give
life support and boost synchronisation with the Eva. You have to
relax; you can't actually drown in LCL. Have you got that, Kensuke?"
"Yeah, I think," Kensuke replied, and thought to himself: _Why would
Shinji turn down a job like this?_
The LCL began to gush into the plug, and although Misato had told him
not to fight it getting into his lungs, he couldn't deny his natural
response. After he felt he couldn't hold his breath any longer,
certain that despite what he had just heard, he _would_ drown in the
LCL, he released his breath...and found he could breath while
submerged in the liquid.
"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"No ma'am."
"You can call me Misato, Kensuke."
"Alright...Misato."
"He's synchronising quite well for his first time in an Eva. It's not
as impressive as Shinji, but still..."
"They all should sync well, Ritsuko. All of the children in his class
are Fourth Level candidates."
Ritsuko glanced across at Misato. "You've been talking to Kaji again,
haven't you?"
"No..."
"If you play with fire, Major Katsuragi, you will get burned."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a warning."
Several moments passed in silence.
"It is quite impressive," Ritsuko said after the silence.
"He did seem pretty eager to pilot an Eva. Maybe that why he was
selected ahead of any others; he wants to be a pilot."
"Maybe."
"What's this question here about?" Shinji asked Rei, handing her his
notebook.
Rei looked at the page for a moment, took Shinji's pen, and made some
quick strokes on the page, then handed them both back to Shinji. "This
should help."
Shinji, after a quick glance over what she had wrote, realised it did.
"How do you do that, Rei? This kind of thing never sticks with me."
"Natural aptitude, I guess. Like you and your Eva."
"Not anymore. It's Kensuke's Eva now." Shinji thought for a moment
about what he had just said. "Rei..." he asked, disliking distracting
her from the book she was reading.
"Hmm?"
"What do we do when the next Angel attacks?"
At his words, a klaxon siren sounded, followed by a recorded voice.
_"A state of emergency has been declared. Please evacuate to your
designated shelters. A state of emergency..."_
Shinji and Rei looked at each other.
"I guess we find out!"
"Dammit, not now!" Misato yelled at the red 'Alert' screens. "Find
Asuka! Get her to the cage!"
"Wh-what's going on?" Kensuke asked from inside the plug, a jolt of
fear sent into him from the siren and the commotion of people over the
intercom.
"It's an Angel attack," he heard Misato say. "We need to get you out
of the Eva, Kensuke."
"What for?"
Misato was taken aback by the question. "You...you haven't even been
through basic weapon's training yet..."
"But Shinji fought, his first time in an Eva!"
"Kensuke, it's not safe to-"
"Let him go out," Ikari said from above her. "We need to be able to
intercept the Angels before they reach the Geofront."
"But he hasn't had any training..."
"Do it! We need the time!"
"Yes, sir." Then, louder: "Launch the Eva!"
Up on the surface, Kensuke saw the Angel immediately. It looked like a
floating torso. With no regard for tactics (but in actuality, an
intelligent move, distracting the Angel from breaking through to the
Geofront), Kensuke raised his rifle-
"Eat _this!_"
-And fired.
Small explosions rippled across the Angel from the bullets of the
Positron Rifle. The Angel was slowly turning toward Kensuke's Eva, but
Kensuke was unaware of that fact. He was only aware of the headrush of
being inside an Eva, inside combat.
The rifle stopped firing.
The Angel began its offence.
In place of arms (using the torso model, as Kensuke saw it), there
were what appeared to be two short ribbon strips. These strips now
unfolded, and to Kensuke, looked like whips. These whips flew through
the air toward Kensuke's Eva at an amazing pace.
Kensuke was almost knocked cold after the first hit. As he tried to
move the Eva, the other whip hit him again, knocking him to the
ground. Certain he was going to die, Kensuke began to panic as the
Angel started slowly drumming on the Eva's armour plating.
Then the Angel stopped.
Kensuke opened his eyes, and saw a gaping hole in the Angel. It was
the last thing he saw, until he woke up in the same hospital that Rei,
Shinji, Asuka and Toji had woken up in, except for the blinding light
of the Angel exploding.
The light on the screens cleared, showing a fallen Unit One, and a
victorious Unit Two.
"Way to go, Asuka!" Misato yelled.
Asuka's reply came over the intercom: "That was too easy."
"Get a rescue crew to Unit One!" Ritsuko yelled to the various
technicians in Central Dogma, wondering how they could have forgotten
about the pilot. "Now!"
"You can't go on using the children as decoys, Ikari."
"It worked, didn't it? He's still alive, isn't he?"
"Yes...but still, one day, you will overestimate their ability."
"Or underestimate it..."
"What was that, Commander?"
"Nothing. Prepare a repair crew for Unit One, Fuyutsuki."
"Yes, Commander."
"Hey, Kensuke..."
Kensuke slowly opened his eyes, to see Rei and Shinji standing beside
his...bed? Was he in a bed? _Why_ was he in a bed? _Where_ was he?
"Where am I?"
"In hospital. You kinda got knocked out in the Eva."
"The Eva! What happened?"
"Asuka shot the Angel from behind, and it blew up. Or that's what we
heard, anyway."
"Congratulations on your first battle, Pilot Aida," Rei said, shifting
the subject slightly.
"What am I being congratulated for?"
"Surviving."
Kensuke was silent. He now realised (as he had before he lost
consciousness) how close he had been to death.
"Are you going to stay on?"
A long pause from Kensuke, then: "Yeah, I guess." He smiled slightly.
"After all, this is what I waited for my whole life.
"But I can understand why you guys quit, now."
-Derek Zischke
ageless_strange@optusnet.com.au
"Do you suffer from long-term memory loss? I can't remember..."
-Chumbawhamba