In the Kingdom of Tokyo-03
"It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord."
- Lamentations 3:26
The ceiling was white. So was everything else for that matter. It felt foreign. It wasn't Eva. I was covered in a white sheet. Not much else. Yoko was asleep on the floor next to my bed, covered lightly in a sheet as well. She didn't even stir as the doorknob turned. I dropped to the bed, some animal instinct telling me to feign sleep. Footsteps approached my bed. They were heavy, but not as heavy as an adult's. I figured it must have been Touji. Kou spoke.
"Well, looks like you screwed yourself up, moron. I certainly wouldn't have taken that blast for a weakling like you," he poked me, "Heh. You don't even know what I'm saying, do ya? You fucking corpse. Wanna know what I think? I think Yoko looks damn good right now. Pity she's so devoted to you, eh? God knows, I'd've fucked her brains out if I were you. I could have had her. And damn, that would've been fun. But, you'd know about that, wouldn't you? Eh? Fool. Look at her. She's really quite gorgeous, you know? But you know all about that, don't you? She's sleeping, just all peaceful. It's great how the top two buttons on her shirt are unbuttoned. Wonderful view. Look at how they're rising and falling as she's breathing. Red bra, wonder if the panties match. Ha. She's all curled up, like a little girl. Her legs are great, too. Her stockings, all new and tight, show them so damn well. She's really quite amazing. Well, I don't even know why I came here. Hell, I got a good show. I'm leaving for dinner, maybe she'd like to come? Hell, let her sleep. I'm outta here." He left, letting the door fall shut quietly behind him. I raised my head and opened my eyes. I leaned to see more of Yoko, make sure he hadn't done anything silently. I pain jolted my left side. I ran my hand down and found a bandage. It wasn't as bad as I thought it had been. I leaned over the side of the bed, despite the protest of my injured side. I pulled Yoko's covers up over her chest, covering the undone buttons. I pulled my body back into bed and lay back, refusing myself sleep, committing myself to watch over Yoko. I lay awake, devoting my entire mind to staying awake to protect her from him, should he return. Eventually, maybe ten minutes, maybe an hour, later, Yoko stirred, waking from her rest. She stood up, stretched, and looked down at me.
"Good afternoon. At least, I think it's afternoon," I said to her. She smiled and laughed, checked her watch.
"It's 3:27, so yes, it is."
"Ah. Good. Glad I woke up, time to get dressed before dinner. Speaking of dinner, that's where Kou went. Just after he paid us a visit."
"Did he?"
"Yes, I'd say he very much did. Had a lot to say, for some whose audience
was nothing but a "corpse" and a sleeping girl."
"You know, It's hard to sleep
through monologue as frightening as that was," Yoko said.
"I didn't know you were awake."
"I didn't know you were, either."
"He kind of scared me."
"Scared you? Scared me's more like it. At least he wasn't talking about your body."
"Actually, I believe he was, just he was speaking in a strictly "lifeless" sense."
"Still, you heard what he said!"
"Well, he had one point."
"Huh?! Whaddayou mean?!" She looked flustered.
"He said you were gorgeous. I'm certainly not arguing with that. You are really good-looking." She blushed crimson, and turned away, a smile forcing its way onto her face. I fell back to the bed and she stayed turned. I didn't know what to make of her reaction. I mean, she had kissed me, right? Yoko finally turned, smiling, still, just slightly.
"Misato said she'd come by later. Said something about our new assignment..." She tariled off as, as if by magic, Misato opened the door.
"Well, good afternoon, Kojiro! It seems that you're awake. You've been asleep for a while, in fact, three days, making today Thursday. Now, on Saturday, we're headed to the beach." I was surprised. I apparently showed this, because Misato said, "That's right, we're going in to test the underwater functions of units 03-05. And, seeing as you kids are stressed, I decided you could use a vacation. Besides, winter isn't upon us, as of yet, so we'll get to have a nice time. I booked us some rooms at the hotel, which has an indoor pool, steam rooms, beach access, and is close to the NERV base in the area. We go this Saturday, remember, so do well in school, eh? I'm going to go see how the cafeteria is here. You kids need anything?" I shook my head, "No? Okay! Well, see you kids later!" Misato dissapeared out the door, undoubtedly in search of Kaji, or beer, or both. Yoko handed me a change of clothes that she had brought, folded, from my suitcase at home.
"Beach, huh?" I asked. She nodded.
"Yeah. I'll pack a suitcase for the both of us, we won't need much stuff. And besides, we still have a day of school left before we go." She turned away as I changed out of the hospital gown and into my normal clothing. We checked out of NERV's hospital. They handed me a clipboard to sign, and scanned my card. More ways for Gendo to know about everything that went on here. Yoko and I took a lift to the surface and walked downtown, looking for a restaraunt. We eventually ended up in a sleazy looking area of town, filled with neon signs, glowing, proclaiming, advertising "massage parlors" and nightclubs. Also, we had somehow lost ourselves totally. Yoko was looking edgy, jumping slightly at any sound. I tried to stay calm and collected, but the area was increasingly sleazier as we progressed. I didn't know that Gendo's megalopolis had areas as sleazy as this one. I was hoping that I would see some familiar landmark, a sign, a building. None came. As the slums grew increasingly dingy, I began to worry about our safety, even with my martial arts. Yoko was almost crying, I could tell. Her eyes were watering, and she was glancing over her shoulder every few meters. As we walked along, I eventually heard footsteps fall to behind us, matched well with our own so only a trained ear could hear. Yoko was oblivious, but I listened hard. There were only three of them, but they knew what they were doing, no doubt. I knew what we had to do. As we turned the next corner I pulled close to the wall, tugging Yoko along with me. As the first follower rounded the corner, I kicked out quickly to the head, trying to knock our trailer out. The person whom I had kicked, a young woman with black hair, in a black jumpsuit, caught my kick in an iron grip. She was experienced. She lifted my leg higher, at the same time pushing back on me so I tumbled backwards. I curled to a backwards roll, rolling to my feet next to Yoko. Yoko's eyes went wide. When I looked up, the woman had a gun trained on me, and her two companions, a burly man and a young, lanky man had rounded the corner. They also held guns, trained on Yoko and I respectively.
"Kojiro Kai Li?" Asked the young woman.
"That's me. What do you want?" I said, indignantly. She stared at me coldly.
"We have some questions to ask you. I think you should come with us." She nodded to the burly man, who disappeared back around the corner, returning minutes later in a black car. We were forced in at gunpoint, Yoko leaning close to me as we pulled away from the curb, the burly man's pistol trained at us from the front seat. They drove us a few blocks further into the slum, pulled over, and herded us into an alley, up a flight of side stairs, and into a small, dark apartment. Minutes later we found ourselves duct taped into chairs. The woman, obviously their leader, questioned us. She was particularly interested in NERV, and kept asking things about the Evas, despite my vague, non-committal answers. Eventually she got fed up and kicked me. Hard, across the left side where my injury was. I cringed, and Yoko cried out. The woman grabbed my collar and pulled me up.
"Now, tell me, what are the exact power specs for Unit-04?" I couldn't believe my weakness. The pain was breaking me. I opened my mouth to answer, and the door broke open. The Two thugs looked up, and almost immediately two shots rang out before they could draw their guns. They fell, blood rocketing from close range chest shots. The woman dropped and rolled, coming up with Yoko's chair between her and the door. Yoko, despite obvious panic, handled it. The woman fell to the floor, knocked unconscious by a quick kick, on Yoko's part, to the temple. Our rescuer entered the room.
"Kaji?" I looked on in surprise, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"NERV's locater modules in your cell phones showed us you'd ended up in a bad part of town. Misato figured I should come after you. Looks like her 'women's intuition' served her right yet again." He cut Yoko loose with a pocketknife, and proceeded to hack away at the duct-tape on my arms. My arms came loose, and I painfully removed the rest of the tape.
"Yeeeow!"
Kaji led us out the door, jammed the lock, and took us to his car. We got in, and Yoko looked Kaji's way.
"Who were those people, Kaji?"
"That's what I was hoping you could tell me."