A/N: I'm not going to write for a while. I'll post in the review section when I start the next chapter.
The Past and The Present
Kensuke had repeatedly called Touji's house but always got the answering machine. He sighed angrily as he hung up the phone and laid down on his bed.
'Where could he be....' Kensuke thought, 'Maybe Shinji knows'
Kensuke quickly dialed Shinji's number. He waited patiently for it to ring over and over again until finally a machine picked up. Again and angry sigh as the 'end call' button was pressed.
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Touji stood on a sidewalk not far from the house of a certain brown haired girl. He had been there all night, but no signs of Hikari coming home. He had asked Kodama, Hikari's sister, if Hikari had come home but the answer was no. Touji could not think, he could no longer feel his legs, he felt wide awake, and he wasn't even hungry. Occasionally a dog walker or a jogger would run by. Some of them say a greeting or give some sort of gesture. Others say nothing, probably mistaking him for a statue. Suddenly a siren, that the inhabitants of Tokyo-3 knew too well, went off.
'An angel?' Touji thinks. He takes his eyes off of Hikari's house and looks around. Already, some people were racing out of their houses heading to their designated shelters. It didn't take long for Hikari's family to do the same. Touji stopped Kodama, the one he was most acquainted with.
"Did Hikari come home?" Touji asks, his voice trembling for he knew the answer.
"No" The older girl replied simply.
"Well, what are you going to do?!" Touji shouts, getting anxious.
"Nothing, she's not stupid. She'll know to go to the shelter"
"But.."
"Come on, unless you want to die" and with that Kodama runs after her family to catch up.
Touji was left their, in the midst of so many people running for their lives. Yet he calmly stood still thinking of nothing but Hikari.
"I have to find her" Touji says to no one in particular and runs off.
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"W...Wi.. Will y..you" Hikari takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. Touji stands in front of her looking unamused. Hikari continues breathing deeply looking from her feet to Touji's face and back to her feet.
"Will you go out with me?" Hikari finally asks.
Touji looks momentarily surprised but then goes back to his unamused look. To Hikari's surprise, Rei suddenly appears next to him
"I'm sorry but-" Touji starts.
"NO!" Hikari shouts.
Suddenly everything goes black. No, Hikari was just staring into hear knees. She picks her head up and looks around.
"A dream?" She says, knowing no one was there to hear her. She then realized what had awakened her from her nightmare. A siren.
She stands up and opens the stall door. She was in school, in the girl's bathroom. She had heard Asuka come in last night, but Hikari had kept her feet up, and Asuka had not bothered to look into every stall. Asuka had called her name, but Hikari was not in the mood to talk at the moment. Hikari walks up to a mirror to examine herself. Her eyes were bloodshot and swelled.
'Figures' Hikari thinks. She exits the bathroom and walks toward the entrance. An angel was approaching, and she should be running to a shelter right now. But her feet refused to run. They barely agreed to walk.
She began to tear as she thought about the night before. Nothing was important to her at the time. She could die today, and she would not care. She continued to walk and turned the cornered. Shocked is an understatement to describe Hikari's emotions.
She stood face to face with Touji. Actually it was more like face to chin since Touji was somewhat taller than her.
"Clas... Hikari" Touji says.
Hikari was lost for words. She stared blankly and then remembered she was still tearing. Hastily, she rubs the tears out of her eyes and looks back at Touji.
"What are you doing here? You should be at a shelter" Hikari says, as calm as she can.
"What about you?"
"I..." Hikari now realizes she had no explanation. She was depressed, but it would hardly justify her endangering herself to such an extent.
"I'm sorry" Touji suddenly says.
"What?"
"I'm sorry about last night, I didn't know it would upset you"
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"Why was she crying, anta baka?" Asuka says in disbelief.
Touji just looks at Asuka as they walked up the stairs of the school, in search for Hikari.
Asuka thinks for a moment.
'I could tell him, almost everyone already knows.... But then again, what if he doesn't like her back...'
"Well?" Touji asks.
'Well, he did chase her after she left....' Asuka then says, "Because... she likes you"
"What?!"
Asuka sighs heavily, "It's obvious! I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet"
"No she doesn't" Touji says.
"How would you know?"
"I... well...." Touji did not know.
"She does" Asuka says firmly.
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Hikari looks at Touji. Touji does the same back. He still did not believe she actually liked him, but he was pretty sure it was his fault Hikari was upset.
"I.. do you like Ayanami?" Hikari asks. The two continue to talk, completely forgetting about the angel.
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"I'm sorry, because of my rash decisions the Eva unit 01 was damaged by the angel" Misato says to the screen which reads "sound only".
Misato, Ritsuko and all three pilots stood in front of the screen.
"It's not a problem. We are lucky to only have such a small casualty" The voice belonged to Fuyutsuki.
"Indeed, good work Major Katsuragi" the voice of Gendo says.
"Thank you" Misato replies. She purposely had left out Shinji's hesitation during the attack. She knew what the consequence would be especially after his last battle.
"Is the pilot of the unit 01 there?" Gendo asks.
Shinji, startled, replies "Hai"
"Good work... Shinji" Gendo says.
Shinji, now even more startled stutters "..H...hai"
"Major Katsuragi, I will leave the rest up to you" Gendo says.
"Hai" Misato replies. The connection terminates. Misato then turns to the pilots.
"Good work all of you. I'm taking all of you out to dinner wherever you want to go, my treat!" Misato says enthusiastically.
"Anywhere? Well then we're eating steak" Asuka says as she takes out a restaurant guide.
Shinji had no reaction to this, since he was deep in thought. His father's words echoed in his head as he envisioned Gendo saying that to him in person.
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"You're coming today, alright?" Asuka says as if it were a statement.
"No, I don't like meat" Rei says simply.
"What?!" Asuka says, "Err.... fine what if we just go have ramen?"
Rei does not respond at first but then looks back at Shinji who was trailing behind the two girls. Rei stares for a moment and then turns back to Asuka.
"I'll go" Rei says.
Asuka was annoyed with the stare Rei had given Shinji. But she decided not to mention it at the moment. She would keep it locked up in the depths of her mind, never thinking about it. Like all the other painful memories.
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Touji is on his knees with tears in his eyes and blood trickling from his fist from gripping so tightly.
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Dinner was nothing special. It was a ramen stand, and not much conversation had gone on. Mostly Asuka and Misato talked while Rei and Shinji sat on either side of them and ate silently. Once in a while Asuka or Misato would attempt to include one of the two into the conversation.
"Hey Rei, how's school going for you?" Misato asked, looking over at Rei.
"There are no problems" Rei says not looking up from her food.
Misato could think of nothing else to say so after a few seconds of silence, Asuka started the conversation again. Asuka attempted as well asking Shinji "How did you like Germany?", but only got a simple "It was all right". Asuka then just shrugged and went back to talking to Misato and eating her food. Asuka was in a good mood, to say the least. She had just killed an angel and now she was eating something decent. Shinji had stopped cooking for everyone so she was forced to make herself instant food or resort to Misato's cooking.
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It was only when Asuka had returned from dinner that she remembered about the situation with Hikari and Touji. Asuka's mood went from good to bad in an instant as she ran to the phone and dialed Hikari's number.
Shinji had walked in behind Asuka and saw her running to the phone. He calmly took his shoes off and walked into the living room. He had an idea about who Asuka was calling. He had an idea who it was, and if that was the indeed the person Asuka was calling, he would not like what she was about to hear.
Shinji quickly walked into his room, got his SDAT player, and went straight to his bed. He plugged in his earphones and turned the music as loud as it would go.
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"Guten Morgen!" can be heard several times by the students. Shinji was standing in front of his classroom door. Students went in but Shinji just stood there.
'I'm sorry Kat, I love you too much to leave you..... No way, way too corny. Hmm... I'm sorry but I broke your promise...and then I'll smile.' Shinji forces a smile but then sighs. 'Please, what the hell is that? ... Maybe if I say I missed the plane.... that might work but then she'll think I did it on purpose....' Shinji opens and closes his hand as he continues to think hard about what he was going to say to Katharina. After a while he closes and keeps the fist. 'Alright, I'll just go in there, not say anything, and see what happens'
Shinji then takes a deep breath and opens the door to his classroom. He walks in and closes the door behind him. He takes another breath and looks straight ahead as he walks to his row. He makes sure not to look in Katharina's direction for he wanted to avoid eye contact as all cost. He then looks straight at the floor as he makes his way to his seat and then sits down. He then waits for... well the unknown. Maybe a smack, maybe a yell.... maybe even a hug or a kiss.
But none comes as Shinji slowly looks toward Katharina's desk. He finds nobody sitting there. He looks around confused. He looks at all the people, making sure he was in the right class. He was, and Katharina was not here, and Shinji wanted to talk to her. Badly.
The teacher walks in and walks to her desk in the front of the room. She says "Guten Morgen". The whole class responds except for Shinji. He just looks at his desk, then stands up and runs out of the classroom. He runs down the hall. He hears his teacher screaming but that doesn't mean anything to him. Down the stairs and out the door. And then to Katharina's house.
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Shinji was panting as he staggered down the street. He had finally made it to Katharina's block. He stops against a while for a second to catch his breath. After calming down a bit he begins to walk again, but he sees to men walking out of Katharina's house. Shinji freezes and stares at the two men. They were pretty talk and were rapidly talking in German. Shinji's body goes numb as he makes out the words "Dumm madels" and "Leichen". Shinji wants to run into the house, but he doesn't as the to men turn the other way and walk. Shinji waits until they are completely out of sight and then runs into Katharina's house.
"Kat?!" He calls, "Lea?!"
Lea was Katharina's older sister who was also her guardian. Shinji had only briefly met her twice when she walked out while Shinji was kissing Katharina good-bye. He had not made a good impression on her so he never spoke to her again.
Shinji walked around the house looking into every room afraid of what he might find. Afraid, and yet he needed to look in every room. He had to do it. He could feel his heart beating faster and his breathing getting heavier. He opens the closet and sees Lea in the corner of it, shot in the head. Shinji gasps sharply and quickly slams the door shut. He gasps for breath as his knees give away and he falls to the floor. After regaining himself he decides to leave.
'I can't do this' Shinji thinks as he stands up shakily. He walks back the way. As he walks past a Katharina's room he sees a door in the corner of his eye that sends a shiver down his spine. It was Katharina's closet.
'I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away." Shinji continuously repeats in his head. He slowly makes his way into Katharina's room and toward her closet. He places his hand on the knob and then freezes.
"I mustn't run away" Shinji says out loud between his deep breaths. He then opens the door.
"Kat?" Shinji says in a whisper.
A cough is heard and then some attempts to say something.
"S....Sh.... Shin....j..ji?" Katharina says barely audible.
"Kat who did this?" Shinji asks.
Katharina coughs violently.
"I....I'll get help!" Shinji says loudly. "I'll be right back! Hold on!"
Katharina takes a deep breath and whispers "No"
"What?"
"I'm doing to die. There's no running from it. I want to talk to you until...."
"Kat your not-" Shinji immediately stops talking when he hears Katharina's voice.
"G...Go.. b..ack"
"I...."
"L..et. m..me" she coughs again and then wheezes as she takes a deep breath.
"Let m..me die i.n. peace..." Katharina says as she forces the weakest smile. But Shinji does not see it, for he cannot bear to look at her.
"Kat you're going to live"
"Promi...se m..." Katharina takes another breath, "Me" she finishes.
Shinji closes his eyes in an attempt to stop the tears. He then crouches to look at Katharina. Her body was covered in blood and one of her eye was gashed. But Shinji stares intently.
"I promise" Shinji says firmly.
Katharina smiles, this time it is genuine and this time Shinji sees it.
"I..m sorry"
"What?" Shinji asks.
Katharina coughs once and then takes a deep breath. She then attempts to clear her throat. Her voice was surprisingly steady and almost normal.
"I bet I have a really ugly smile right now, so I'm sorry" Katharina says. She then coughs one last time and the smile disappears from her face, forever. Shinji stares at Katharina. Urging her to move. Just move a little. Or take one tiny breath. He waited in vain.
Shinji's eyes dilated. He opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. He fell backwards and crawled backwards away from the closet. He attempted to scream again, but again no voice came. He looked at Katharina again, her face looked lifeless. Disgusted Shinji kicks the door closed.
Shinji stares at the door for a long time. He then breaks down and starts sobbing, with his head between his knees.
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My Rants
I think this chapter is pretty long. At least it seemed so when I was writing it. Anyway, I'm not going to start the next chapter for a while. A bunch of crap going on in my life. Yeah, I'll probably be back by March though. Because I know all of you are dying to read more of my writing. lol I'm joking of course. All right I didn't consult my translator once again but this is what the German is supposed to say.
Dumm madels - Stupid girls
Leichen - Body or Dead body
Guten Morgen - Is obviously good morning I can't get that wrong.... I think
Thanks for the reviews!
Oh I need some advice. For the future. I've decided I am going to write a "sequel" to this after I'm done. I'm going ot have Kat in it but I'm probably either going to make Evangelions, Angels, etc a minor part in the story if any at all. So it will focus more on Shinji, his classmates, regular every day stuff, etc. So here's my opinion, should I make more (by more I mean 1 or 2) characters that are about Shinji's age and have them in his class? I will of course include the adults but I think it's still not enough to make a story out of. The thing is I hate author created characters. Maybe not hate but highly dislike. I love doing it but I hate reading about them. So whatever, tell me your opinion guys. If it's going to be a really thought out one (like more than a yes or a no) I would appreciate it if you email it to me. Oh well, read and review please!