Credits: Neon Genesis Evangelion (Shinseiki Evangelion) is copyright © Gainax, and not me. Repeat: I do not own Evangelion, or anything associated with it. That all belongs to Gainax, and probably some other companies incorporated here by reference, meaning "I don't know who you are but please don't sue me." I know you wouldn't want to see a young artist ruined for the sake of your own corporate gains, right? Right?
Prelude.
Sohryu Asuka Langley watched the trees pass by slowly as she walked to school, cradling her lunch and balancing a book-bag on one shoulder. Behind her, Ikari Shinji walked in silence, staring straight ahead. Ayanami Rei had doubtless already arrived at school.
Asuka's face twisted into a look of contempt. That dumb overachiever, she thought. Always has to be the best at everything. So cold and distant, too. It's like she's a machine or something. Well if that's the way she wants to be…
A bird twittered and was answered by a call from another bird, both hidden somewhere in the trees. Asuka heard leaves rustle as wings flapped furiously to escape into the sky, but she did not see the bird attempting to take flight.
From behind, Shinji watched Asuka's red hair shift as she walked, listening to the slight breeze perfumed with bird calls. His own book-bag was loaded with heavy texts, although after as many years of attending school he had grown used to the weight.
Asuka began to hum tunelessly to herself, forgetting that Shinji was even there, greeted only by the blank and barren road ahead. Shinji listened, Asuka's song drifting back to him. In due course they entered the city proper, and found themselves immediately surrounded by structures of steel and concrete stretching to the sky.
This place is so ugly, Asuka thought, though her humming had not ceased. Not even clean and polished, just…dirty. Shinji watched the occasional car speed by, which would soon enough disappear down the street, and he would forget it had ever been there.
As they drew closer to the school Asuka became more tense; her song died on her lips. A whole building, she thought, full of people I don't like and who don't like me.
Shinji let his mind wander, watching as the school came into view and then grew larger and larger, until at last it loomed over them and kept them in check with its imposing gaze.
Asuka grabbed the door handle and veritably ripped the door open; it flew back and the handle collided with the brick of the building itself with a hollow thud. Shinji followed Asuka inside, giving the door a timid push to keep it from closing on him.
The interior of the school was riddled with lights but seemed dim, and Shinji followed Asuka obediently to room 2-A as if for fear he might get lost. The room was still mostly empty; Shinji and Asuka at last parted ways and took to their separate desks, Asuka looking almost defiant as she took her seat, Shinji seeming to grow smaller without her presence.
Asuka scanned the room and saw Rei, sitting silently at her desk, staring intently at a textbook. Probably quantum physics or something, she though disgustedly. Rei did not seem to notice Asuka's penetrating glare; if anything, it seemed to make her focus all the more on her reading.
Shinji looked furtively around the room, as though expecting some kind of attack.
"Yo! Shinji!" Shinji sat bolt upright at the sound, as though his fears had been realized. The hail had come from a solid, confident-looking young man standing in the doorway: Suzuhara Toji. He smiled when Shinji looked over at him, and Shinji smiled too, glad to see his friend again.
From behind Toji a lanky, sandy-haired boy appeared, waving and holding a Sony camcorder. Aida Kensuke was Shinji's only other friend, and could usually be found wherever Toji happened to be as well. Shinji stifled a chuckle and the two came over to his desk.
The three launched into a discussion of the last night's homework, Toji attempting to wring answers out of his friend and Kensuke trying valiantly to steer the conversation toward the new robot model he had bought the previous day.
Those morons, Asuka thought, not really meaning it.
"Asuka," a bright voice said from behind her. She turned and saw the class rep taking her seat.
"Oh, hey, Hikari," she said, smiling. Hikari tossed her head, trying to get her bangs out of her eyes, and the movement made for such a comically aristocratic sight that Asuka had to force back a giggle.
"What!?" Toji's cry rang out through the room, distracting everyone except Rei. "Ya mean ya ain't done none 'a da homework!? Is dis da Ikari dat I know!?"
Shinji's response was too quiet to be heard, but Asuka knew that he had tried and failed to fit homework in amongst countless synch tests, medical exams, and the general chaos which had followed the attack of the eleventh Angel.
Eventually the bell rang and the teacher arrived. Hikari commanded the class to stand, bow, and return to their seats. The teacher started without hesitation to speak on the Second Impact, roughly the same speech they heard every other day, and Asuka's mind automatically began to wander.
The day outside was eminently fine-weathered, and sunlight poured into the room through the large bank of windows on one side. Asuka sighed and strained to see the field beyond, dusty and barren though it may have been. She turned to the small computer on her desk and began typing, trying to appear as though she were taking notes, although she was in fact attempting the evening's math homework in hopes that she could save some time that night.
She finished the equations with appreciable speed, but groaned when the story problems appeared. This is always the hardest part, she thought, ruing the fact that her German university had taught her no kanji. She pointed her mouse to a character she didn't recognize and made several keystrokes. A definition appeared on the screen.
"…and this event became known as the Second Impact," the teacher droned. At that exact moment the bell rang for lunch. "I suppose you're all dismissed, then," the teacher said, nodding at them. People immediately began milling about, getting sack lunches and bento boxes from desks and lockers. Asuka saved her work and shut down the computer, fishing into her desk for her lunch.
Students filed out of the room and through the halls, out into the open field behind the building. Asuka did not hurry to a table as many children did, electing instead to watch the others swarm to their places. Rei had chosen a table characteristically removed from the others, and was sitting alone, a sizable book open on her lap.
Shinji and his friends were all seated at a table together, Shinji listening as Toji and Kensuke talked nonstop about this or that. Just looking at them makes me sick, she thought, wondering how Shinji could stand them.
At length Asuka swallowed her pride and chose the only table which was almost bereft of people—the one at which Rei sat. Asuka seated herself as far from the other girl as she could and opened her lunch, staring at the rice balls and fish she had packed for herself.
Rei did not look up at Asuka's arrival, nor did she seem perturbed by the girl's stony silence. The rest of the schoolyard was loud enough, but in Rei and Asuka's corner there seemed to be no sound. Even the birds had ceased their calling as the two girls sat, each deliberately absorbed in her own thoughts.
Asuka stole a glance toward Shinji's table and caught Toji cramming half a rice ball into his mouth. That idiot, she thought. Kensuke had turned his camera on the scene and was filming it, trying to hold the recorder steady between peals of laughter.
Shinji looked up for a moment and spotted Asuka watching them. He smiled slightly but stopped short of waving to her. She could see Toji say "Ikari" around his mouthful of food. Shinji turned to him and Toji opened his mouth as wide as he could, revealing a mush of half-chewed rice ball. Shinji laughed obligingly, and Asuka turned away, repulsed.
"I don't know how he can stand them," she said aloud. Rei responded not at all, and Asuka looked over angrily at her intense, silent form. "And what about you?" she sneered. "He's got a thing for you, y'know."
Rei spared Asuka the barest of glances. "I do not know what you mean."
"You do!" Asuka shouted, suddenly enraged. "Just because you're a cold, indifferent bitch doesn't mean he doesn't care about you! Look at me when I'm talking to you, dammit!"
Rei had turned back to her book, but now focused the full force of her gaze on Asuka.
"Are you afraid, then?" she said, her voice completely level. "Afraid that if he cares about me, he will not care about you?"
Asuka was struck dumb by the girl's even reply. For a moment she stared blankly at Rei, uttering half-sounds and trying to digest the girl's riposte.
After some seconds Asuka leapt to her feet and dashed back into the schoolbuilding, fighting tears. Rei turned dispassionately back to her book.
