"Heya, my name is Matsuo Hatsuyuki. Today is my first day working at NERV. I hope I can be of some help!"
My words broke the silence in my bathroom. No matter how many times I practiced saying those words to myself in front of my mirror, which I had many times over the past couple days, they just felt forced. I've always had better luck winging my introductions anyway, so I don't know why I even bothered trying to practice in the first place.
"Good day, my name is Matsuo Hatsuyuki, it's a pleasure to meet you.", I sounded like I had a stick up my ass. "Today marks my first time working at NERV. I hope I can provide assistance in your research!"
I was never good at putting on neckties either. Maybe that's why I was practicing my introduction, because I couldn't tie the darn thing, and so I was just filling time while stubbornly flipping it around my shirt's collar.
I left my apartment without a tie today.
As you heard, my name is Matsuo Hatsuyuki, and today is my first day working at an organization called NERV. It's purpose is simply stated, to save the world from those beings called "Angels", and to prevent the world from experiencing another catastrophe like the Second Impact.
What else can I tell you, hmm. Well, I'm 22 years old, I have a teaching licence with a minor in computer sciences. I wouldn't consider myself attractive or fit. I'm certainly no socialite, heck, I barely talk with my younger sister, unless for important things. I'm quite good at keeping my head down and doing my work. Professors and fellow students throughout my life have told me that's no way to live, but I guess I don't really know any other way. It's just what I've done, ever since...
It was still early in the morning when I left my apartment complex, a cozy little building in the center of Tokyo-3. It was a small apartment, but for the last couple days since moving in, it had come to feel more like home than my university dorm did. Because it was so early, I decided to opt against taking my car to work, and just enjoy the city sights on my way to the Geofront, I hadn't been able to peek around at all due to being busy, after all. Luckily, it was quite the sunny day, and there was a coffee shop on the walking route I was using as well. Talk about making a good first impression, Tokyo-3, hopefully I can make a similarly good one of my own to my colleagues.
The warm wind lightly tousled my hair as I sipped on the cheap coffee, walking steadily towards my destination. Early morning, these barren, white-tiled sidewalks and empty stretches of road made themselves known to me. It succeeded in sending a chill up my spine, knocking the boost of energy the weather had been giving me down a couple pegs. Desolate, mechanical obelisks fronting as buildings, tightly grouped together upon the lowering platforms in case of emergencies, an unnervingly ominous setting, if one wasn't prepared. Admittedly, I'm no city boy, but I didn't mind the industrial vibe Tokyo-3 gave me. The loneliness that permeated at this time of day felt more natural to me than the hustle and bustle of the afternoon, anyway. However, as I walked down a sideroad, shortcutting my way to the Geofront's main gates, the chill in my spine refused to subside. This entire place seemed otherworldly, though knowing what lay deep underneath it all, maybe it really was.
Even with my relatively leisurous pace and coffee-sipping, I still made it to the Geofront gate with more than enough time to spare. My mind ran over my introduction again and again as I fumbled my ID card out of my wallet. The soft beep of the card swipe did calm me a bit, relieved that I hadn't messed that part up, and as the gate itself opened and I took my step onto the escalator moving downwards into the Geofront proper, I felt a slight respite.
Seconds later, the view this escalator ride provided took my breath away once again, just as it had the first time I arrived. An impeccable forest, a deep green ocean of trees stretching as far as the eyes could see, with man-made mountains lining my peripheral vision, and a lake of clear water tied the portrait together. The streaming light from the glass ceiling above and fresh air that seeped in around me made this wide, open cavern of the Geofront feel more like the real world than the industrious city above, even if the only things down here were NERV Headquarters, and it's facilities, interwoven deep into the earth below.
As the ride came to a stop, a set of automatic doors opened in front of me. I knew the direction I had to go to reach the lockers, but the sparkling clean off-green hallways that winded at obtuse angles really played with my head. Even the map I had received didn't do much for me, as after I had turned a couple corners in what I thought was the right direction, I ended up at a dead end. Scratching my head and turning around, a voice snapped me out of my stupor.
"Lost, new guy?", a deep voice chuckled. I looked up from the map to see a couple of men in NERV technician outfits smiling at me, some talking amongst themselves out of earshot.
"Y-Yeah, these hallways all look the same to me.", one of the men let out a hearty chuckle, as the one who had spoken before, a man looking to be slightly older than me, wearing his brown hair straight and medium length, strode towards me, slinging his arm around my shoulders.
"The name's Shigeru Aoba, newbie, and take this information well", he started, jovially, "you get lost down here, you could end up in a real nasty spot. Lotta unmarked red tape and all that, y'know?", he patted me on the back. The other men had already walked down the hallway I had just come from, and as Aoba sauntered ahead of me, he spoke again, over his shoulder. "Because I'm such a nice guy, I'll show you the way to the locker room today, so keep the pathing in mind, yeah?"
I committed the exact steps to memory. As it turns out, I had just taken one wrong hallway, nothing too major, but what Aoba had said about the red tape areas certainly brought back the anxiety I thought the trip down here had gotten rid of. I entered the locker room, which smelled of cigarettes and coffee, fitting enough for what I assumed it would've smelt like. Aoba informed me that all my necessities should be in my designated locker, and if anything was missing, I had to inform whoever I was working under. I placed a couple belongings in the locker, fitted myself with the drab beige jacket and pants of a NERV technician, packed my ID card into my pocket and headed off towards my next stop.
An instructor I came to know quite well in university had connections to NERV. He's the whole reason I have a job here, after all, so I assume he had some sort of ability to pull strings, or put a good word in. He was an older man who took a liking to my attitude, and he had said on multiple occasions I deserved a good job. I never did think I was doing anything particularly special, but I trusted his judgement on the subject more than my own.
The final week of my courses, just a short month ago, he had called me aside, in a more jolly mood than I was used to seeing him in. He had gotten through to NERV with my recommendation, and explained what I would need to prepare, and where I would need to go, what time the interview was, what to bring up in that conversation, basic stuff.
An opportunity to work with an organization like this comes along once in a lifetime, to be able to fight for humanity's best bet at a better future, I would've been foolish not to take such an offer, I felt like I had to grab it, with fervor. At least, that's what I told myself, how I convinced myself this was beyond anything I had done, and perhaps beyond anything I'd ever do after. The reality of this situation at hand felt far more mundane to me, like it was hard for me to quantify what exactly the weight of all of this was. I acted overjoyed, at least, I was always good at playing parts, just to make my old instructor happy. This was his plan for me, not my own, afterall. Yet, deep in my chest, a fire burned, a feeling I don't believe I had felt before. Was this excitement? Doubt? Guilt, maybe? Whatever it was, it was yet another thing I found difficult to quantify.
Perhaps it was fear. I didn't have a real path for myself in mind, getting to this point, I just did what others thought was best for me. This autonomy I had newly picked up for myself in Tokyo-3 did scare me. What if I mess up? What if I'm the cause of some critical failure that dooms us all? What if, what if, what if. That brand of poison was dangerous, so I knew keeping myself above it, and just focusing on what was in front of me, was for the best.
"...Dr. Ritsuko Akagi.", I spoke the name softly, looking up at a door with the same name etched onto it. This must be the place. As the door slid open, the smell of cigarettes once again entered my nostrils, almost making me gag this time. A slender, blonde haired woman, looking to be in her early 30s, sat in a swivel chair at a large desk, just a few feet in front of me, with multiple monitors present on that desk, seemingly showing readouts of something, I couldn't tell for sure what. She wore a slightly messy looking lab coat and was taking a cigarette out of her mouth, the butt of it stained red with her lipstick. She turned to look me straight in the eyes, opening her mouth to say something, but she closed it and just smiled, expectantly. I hesitated for a moment, before buffoonishly blurting out my name and rank, and following it with a deep bow.
There was a moment of silence, one of the loudest, most awkward silences I had ever experienced. All that preparation, for what, to botch my introduction that hard?
The silence was smashed by a loud laugh from the woman, instantly sucking all of the tension out of my body. "I figured that's who you were, Hatsuyuki. Commander Ikari told me I would be having a new recruit to my crew today, so it's good to have a face to put on the name.", she walked over to me briskly and put her hand out. I chuckled sheepishly and gave her a handshake. "I hope you can assist me in the research and development processes that we're carrying out here.", she added.
"It'd be my pleasure, Dr. Akagi.", I couldn't help but crack a small smile, she was kinder than I had expected her to be, at least initially. I felt I came closer to meeting the real Dr. Akagi after we started moving into the labs, where her words became more curt, and she became absorbed in the work we were doing, wasting no time in explaining things quickly, sending me on errands, and having me assist in some entry-level technical processes. The tech I would be working with here wasn't much different, in theory, from what I had aced in university, so it came quite naturally to me, and I cleared each task she gave me without any hiccups. While I don't think I impressed her, per se, I at least showed her my diligence.
I spent the rest of the day introducing myself (in much better spirits) to multiple people around the NERV facilities, and following whatever orders Dr. Akagi gave me. Before I knew it, the day was winding down. I sat on an uncomfortable desk chair in a cramped office, just a few doors down from the locker room, checking and rechecking code strings that filled the screen in front of me, I thought to myself how nice it would be if this room could become my own personal office. Not too shabby for a one person work space, out of the way, in short walking distance of both the lockers and cafeteria? Wouldn't that be nice. Suddenly, Dr. Akagi tapped my shoulder. Even though I had almost jumped out of my skin, her voice was calm. "Come with me, before the end of the day, I'd like to show you just exactly what we'll be doing down here for the future of your job.". I was certainly intrigued.
Telling my younger sister about my new job had come with its own specific set of troubles. She was a bit hyperactive, far too off-the-wall for me to ever catch up with, and to compound upon that, we weren't exactly close either.
I could tell she was happy for me, but if anything, it just made me realize how little we had to talk about other than things in the moment. I struggled to keep the conversation going past her congratulations, but luckily she took the head in it, as she usually did, before I had even finished explaining to her everything. She went on telling me about some cool thing she read the other day about plants, something about her new boyfriend being a jerkass, a tangential story about our uncle from a few nights ago. I enjoyed that she felt comfortable sharing things with me, but it was still tough finding something to truly care about in what she was saying. After a couple minutes, I was finally able to get out that I would be moving to Tokyo-3 for the foreseeable future, and that I wouldn't get to see her for a while. She just told me that if ever I wanted to visit her, I knew where uncle Wataru's house is, and where he hides the front door key. We chuckled awkwardly and said our goodbyes.
I felt a wave of relief being off the phone with her. I guess I really am just a lonely guy. It was fine, though, I was better off that way, probably.
The shadowy hallways that Dr. Akagi led me down were making my skin crawl. In the back of my mind, I realized that I had no worldly clue of what she could possibly want to show me. The only hint to anything I could think of was Commander Ikari's words when I did my interview. "Your first day shall house the truth of the job you will be taking part in. I hope you come to understand the importance of this facility at that time, as once you are provided with this information, your life will not go back to the way it was before. You will belong to NERV, until the day you die.". A cold, cryptic message, for sure, but I thought at the time, this is a facility working to protect the world, could anything they have on display here possibly be that bad?
Large steel doors, similar to those found in a bunker, opened before us. The first thing that hit me, as with most rooms I entered in this facility, was the stench. Not cigarettes this time, however, "blood?", I pondered aloud.
Dr. Akagi, a few feet ahead of me, flicking on multiple light sources in the darkened room, corrected my position with a quick, "LCL". No further explanation necessary, I suppose. As the lights quickly clacked on, and my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I was met face to face with a demon.
It's purple-shelled face, seemingly lifeless, was within reaching distance of the platform we were standing on, the creature's armored body submerged to it's shoulders in this murky, amber, blood-smelling liquid. It had to've been 10 stories tall, noticing the veritable abyss the liquid before us stretched down to. Cables and monitors scattered throughout the room, the thing itself was hooked up to every kind of device imaginable, putting out readings unintelligible from where I was standing. It's eldritch form shook my core, but the most startling thing was its mouth. I couldn't get quite a good look at it, but what I could make out, it had what looked to be a clenched jaw. It took effort to wrench my eyes away from it.
"I-I don't understand, what is this thing?", my eyes darted around the room, desperately searching for something, some key, to magically explain everything, but it was just silence for a few minutes. When Dr. Akagi finally spoke, she sounded friendly again, just as she had when I met her this morning, almost showing pride in… whatever this thing was.
"This is what we call an 'Evangelion', a machine crafted for the purpose of fighting Angels. This is what your assistance will be required for, as the job MAGI had given you, specifically, was to help in it's research, development, and testing."
The heavy block of my apartment door's lock retracted into place as I turned the key, the clunk of the metal and weight of the door felt satisfying, felt safe, as it shut behind me. I headed straight to my shower after locking the door, storing my work bag in the small closet just past the entrance. The hot water hit me with a surprisingly refreshing feeling, temporarily taking my mind off what haunted me. But only temporarily. I couldn't shake the form of the Evangelion from my mind. My shower ended hastily.
My apartment was small. A living room barely big enough to house a single TV and a couch. A dining room that shared space with my porch, barely big enough to fit the small table and two chair set I had bought the day I arrived. A short hallway jutting off from the living room that led to a bathroom, a closet, and two bedrooms at the end, across from one another. I was using one for storage right now, and the one I was using to sleep in was hardly what I would consider finished yet. Regardless, I felt no urge to do work on it tonight, I just wished to sleep. Setting my alarm for the next morning, I gave myself an extra half hour to rest. My car would be used tomorrow, so no need to force myself awake at the crack of dawn again. I laid back above the sheets, hoping the cool air would ease my thoughts, but no luck.
The insides of my eyelids only served to flash images of the Evangelion in my subconscious. My eyes cracked open for the umpteenth time. My clock flashed 4:22am, so I knew then that the extra half hour wasn't going to do diddly-squat for me, come morning. "Why did it have teeth?", I spoke aloud in the empty room, in a failed attempt to arrive at some sort of epiphany. It's creation was beyond me, maybe that was for the best. Dr. Akagi said the Evangelion was the key to this battle for humanity. Maybe, I really didn't have to understand it. Just keep my head down, do my job, and the world will be saved by everyone else. No need for me to get more involved than necessary, right? Just do my job. Just do my job. Just do my job, and everything will work out…
I didn't get much sleep that night.
Author's Note: I'm not a writer, it's actually been darn well near a decade since I last wrote anything seriously. I am, however, a very recent (and seemingly obsessive) fan of Evangelion. I also loved the story brought up by Asuka's route in the Raising Project game, as she's easily my favorite character, so I figured I'd try my hand at adapting the story more naturally, with my own twists added to the originally bland protagonist. Asuka herself will show up in due time, however, please understand I need to flesh out Matsuo first and foremost in order to make a lot of what I have planned for the future work better. This is quite the undertaking, as the current plan is to cover the ENTIRE TV series worth of content, almost in a day-to-day format, or at least how it was covered in Raising Project. This does mean to expect a lot of fluff and relationship-building between the main characters as the fic goes on, alongside the usual Evangelion pain and suffering.
Anyhoo, I hope you all enjoyed this prologue. It was a lot of fun to write, and since I have a lot of free time on my hands, I'll hopefully be able to update this semi-regularly? Look forward to that!
