PART I

ACT V

SCENE II

(A different store. ASUKA and HIKARI both stand before a mirror while MISATO stands by, smiling at them.)

MISATO: I never got the chance to go to school dances when I was your age. In someway I envy you.

ASUKA: You are coming as a chaperone though, Misato.

MISATO: It isn't the same though, Asuka… I sometimes can't believe it has been fifteen years since Second Impact. I've heard you and Shinji talking about your own nightmares and I am glad to know I am not alone.

HIKARI: (Surprised.) Nightmares, Misato?

MISATO: Yes, Hikari. Nightmares… Nightmares of being present for Second Impact in Antarctica.

ASUKA: Have… Have you ever thought about… Talking to Kaji about them?

MISATO: I have.

ASUKA: And have you?

MISATO: … No.

HIKARI: Why not?

MISATO: (Unable to give an answer, she sits down upon a nearby chair, her gaze on the floor.)

ASUKA: Why don't you talk to me and Shinji about them?

MISATO: (Not taking her eyes off the floor.) My nightmares aren't like yours and Shinji's, Asuka. You might both understand what it means to lose a parent and be abandoned by your surviving parent, but you can't imagine the hell I saw… The hell that comes back to me in my nightmares.

ASUKA: Me, Shinji and Rei go through hell too fighting the Angels!

MISATO: But it isn't the same! Unless you've been through what me, Kaji and others of our generation went through you can't possibly imagine it! Hearing about it in school and actually living through it are two different things! (ASUKA looks away from MISATO, unsure of what sort of argument to make and so a period of silence passes between the three.)

HIKARI: (Clearing her throat.) So, uh, Asuka, you never told me how you got past your crush on Kaji. (MISATO raises her head, actually looking at ASUKA for the first time since the discussion of nightmares began.)

ASUKA: I came to a realization, Hikari. I realized that I have fallen under the spell of a handsome face, when all that time my heart had been telling me that I love Shinji.

HIKARI: Have you told Shinji that? (ASUKA shakes her. EXEUNT.)

NOTES

Asuka's describing her crush on Kaji as having "fallen under the spell of a handsome face" all while her heart told her that she loves Shinji is actually a reference to a scene from the 1982 adaptation of "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" where Esmeralda realizes the same thing in regards to her infatuation with Phoebus, though admittedly Kaji is a better person than Phoebus. It might not be entirely accurate in regards to Kaji just being a handsome face as he is more than that, but it still works in my opinion.