Creation began on 10-10-22
Creation ended on 11-05-22
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Different from You: Fitting In
It didn't seem like much of a surprise for them to see the girl looking around the place, holding her teddy in her arms. When she looked at a discarded beer can on the floor nearby, she looked at Shinji and pondered asking something.
"It's…messier than the last time we were here," she stated, sniffing the air, "and…it still smells like you here."
"Really?" Asuka questioned. "It smells like this idiot?"
Shado simply looked at her like she had said something out of line.
"You mean that this place smells like your father, Shado?" Misato asked her, sounding more caring than Asuka could've.
Shado looked at her and nodded in the positive. This confused Misato; how could this child know what smelled like her father? It made no sense to the adult woman.
A sliding sound was heard and Shado turned to see the other refrigerator that served as Pen-Pen's home had opened up to show said bird coming out to go to the bathroom.
"Space Bird," she pointed at him.
Pen-Pen looked at the little girl and noticed she had a similar appearance to the only man in this unit. It didn't take much for him to see that it was likely the two were related.
-x-
"…I find it hard to fathom that this little girl is related to the Third Child," several NERV personnel spoke during the nightshift that day.
"Heh. Two-hundred yen says the Third Child breaks under pressure from having to look after the girl. Any takers?" A male worker wagered.
"Five-hundred yen says everyone gives him lip over having a kid at his age," a female worker challenged the wager.
"Seven-hundred yen on him trying to find a family for her to live with," another male worker added in.
"I bet a thousand yen that he will put up with the girl because she really cares about him," they heard Fuyutsuki say, surprising them in the room with his wager.
"For real?!" Four other workers asked.
"For real," he meant it.
"Why, sir?" Another woman asked him.
"Apparently, in the girl's own words, I'm the Subtle Elder."
"Subtle Elder? Is that what she calls you, sir?"
"Because she's never seen or heard of me raising my voice."
"Is it true that she called her grandfather…a monster?"
"Not a monster. The Monster."
"So, she's afraid of him?" Another man asked.
"Wouldn't you at her age?"
"That's debatable. I heard she's afraid of the Second Child, though."
"The Angry Harpy Lady."
"Angry Harpy Lady? I wonder where she got that designation for her?"
"Probably from the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game," suggested a female technician. "There's a card with the name Harpie Lady."
"It kinda makes sense," went Hyuga; if Shado only knew of a handful of people affiliated with NERV, there had to be designations for nearly every one of them if they were known to the girl. "The Second Child is attractive, but she has an attitude that doesn't match."
"I think the designation is meant to invoke the fact that she sees the Second Child as an unfriendly person," Maya stated. "She does have a tendency to raise her voice about anything she decides to complain about, which now seems to include the girl."
"And she can't pronounce people's names," said Shigeru. "How many kids her age have difficulty pronouncing people's names and have to use innovative designations?"
Fuyutsuki wouldn't have known how to answer that question; Tokyo-3 wasn't known for being a child-friendly location.
-x-
Asuka couldn't deny it, no matter how much she wanted to. The mere sight of Shinji wiping Shado's mouth after she finished eating dinner made her disgusted with how Shinji just went and…chose to play the sick role of this girl's father. His willingness to look after this child made her uneasy with anger; he was willing to do anything for her…and he was already useless at everything else that he did. And worse, the girl was now sleeping in his room; even if she raised her voice over this, it wouldn't matter because, as she understood it, she was the Angry Harpy Lady, upset with anything and everything anyone said or did.
It's sick and disgusting, him having a little girl sleep in his room, she thought as she lay in her bed. And Misato supports this simply because the girl is related to him. This is just wrong!
Meanwhile, in Shinji's room, after Shado fell asleep in his bed, Shinji, laying on the floor beside the bed, had to ponder the other things he learned from Shado that, simply due to nothing of the sort happening at all here, or rather, nothing had happened yet, that she described to him as bad people she never saw making parts of the city fall down before his father made it so everyone that worked at the Geo-Front couldn't leave it. If something similar to what she had experienced were to happen here, then he had to consider that his father was more of a monster than his daughter had stated.
The last Angel that I faced before Father forced everyone that works at the Geo-Front to stay in it, according to Shado, who only knows because I told her, was some guy around my age that seems like Ayanami, he thought as he looked up at the ceiling. Why did I keep Shado informed of things like this? It sounds like I was being irresponsible.
"…You needed someone to talk to that could tell you that you were going to be okay," Shado had told him. "If there are no secrets being kept, you can't lie to anyone you care about."
You can't lie if there are no secrets to hide? So, I was always being honest to Shado…because I didn't want to lie to her about anything that was going on.
Beside him, on his desk, two drawings of two of the monsters she had described as these Angels she never saw him face until after Rei and Asuka were in so much danger that he needed to save them. One resembled, according to Shado, a bird with long wings, and the other shaped like a noodle. If what she told Shinji was true, and not only was she from an alternate universe with an alternate timeline, then Shinji had become aware of a revelation that had been unknown to him: There were at least five Angels NERV was yet to face, meaning he had to be careful of them when and if they ever made themselves known to the world. His daughter's limited knowledge of these facts made her a boon, a helpful tidbit of information that would've been likely denied to him by the adults in his life if they knew more than he could've known.
How am I going to make this work out? He thought as a new series of questions ran through his mind. How do I look after Shado outside of NERV? How did I look after outside of NERV? Did anyone my age know about her besides Ayanami and Asuka? Did I trust anyone my age to be around her when I wasn't? Was there anyone that I had problems with being around her? How am I going to do this, Shinji? How am I supposed to do this?
These were some of the questions that ran through his mind as he tried to sleep. The only thing that made sense to him about dealing with Shado…was that he was trying to be the complete opposite of his own father, making his daughter a constant part of his life, trying to establish a positive relationship with her.
-x-
Not knowing the girl was one thing Gendo didn't mind when it came to…his grandchild, but her presence was going to likely interfere with the Third Child's ability to pilot the Eva, and he couldn't have that. But how was he going to deal with the girl when her very presence was like that of a parasite? Just the fact that some of the personnel at NERV had already seen her and the rest were starting to know about her existence would compromise things. While it might've been simple enough to blame the Twelfth Angel for this predicament, Gendo blamed Shinji…or at least the one that was from an alternate dimension and had fathered this girl more than four years ago with some woman that wasn't around…and felt it was easier to do so than the Angel…because all the Angel was open a pathway to some other place within the fabric of reality and possibility…while the little girl somehow managed to find the pathway and end up in the Entry Plug of the Eva when it shouldn't have been possible.
"Once Unit-01 was inside the shadow-like body of the Twelfth Angel," he recalls Ritsuko explaining the details of the Twelfth Angel's properties, "it was no longer bound to the limitations of our reality. Inside the Twelfth Angel, anything was possible…including the impossible. So…even if the Entry Plug was still inside the Eva, the little girl would've still found a way to get inside because the realm within the Angel wasn't bound by any rules governing reality. But how this child managed to get through to this reality, and under such extreme circumstances…makes her an interesting subject. She's living proof that alternate realities exist. She's proof that there are other universes where life can take different paths based on choices made by people."
But Gendo wasn't interested in any of this, only that this child of the Third Child didn't interfere with his scenario, which he felt she was doing, even without meaning to. What bothered him more than anything else about the girl was that she had a look nearly similar to a younger Yui Ikari, albeit she looked more like Shinji did when he was a small child, only livelier. Worse was the likelihood that her presence would cause more issues than NERV was prepared to deal with, and not the situation with the Angels…but with other people that would be after the girl simply because she existed.
If she were Yui incarnated within a child-like body, she would be invaluable, Gendo thought as he sat in his office, looking at a photo of Shado as she slept in the trauma ward after she was cleaned of the LCL and Angel blood. But is she really a little girl? Or…is she not who she seems to be?
Gendo began to suspect that the little girl might've been worth more to him than she could've been to the Third Child.
-x-
Shinji awoke to the next morning to find that Shado was asleep beside him. It was surprising, considering that he had her in his bed before going to sleep last night on the floor. He had to suspect that she either awoke in the middle of the night or sleepwalked a little and went back to bed beside him.
She's your daughter now, Shinji, he told himself. Whatever quirks she has are your issue to deal with, for better or worse.
"Mmm…" He heard Shado mumbled as she stirred from slumber, looking up at him. "Good morning, Daddy."
"Good morning, Shado."
As the morning started, Misato came out of her room as her morning ritual for her morning beer was a must. She noticed Shado sitting at the table with Shinji, eating breakfast, while Pen-Pen was nearby his refrigerator eating his breakfast.
"Good morning," the little girl greeted her.
"Good morning," she replied, groggily.
"Booze or 'foffee' (coffee)?"
"Huh?"
"Booze or 'foffee'?"
"'Foffee'? Oh, you mean, coffee! That doesn't taste the same as my usual drink."
"But booze smells cold and odd."
Misato looked at Shinji like he had something to do with Shado's vocabulary and opinions.
"I only know what she tells me," he defended, "and she told me something that I find crazy. You went and…"
Bash! Asuka came out of the bathroom, dressed in a red towel and damp.
"It's too hot!" She raised her voice, and Shado got out of her seat and hid behind her father.
"Did you try turning the nuzzle?" Shinji asked her, and noticed a small wet spot on the chair. "And it looks like you caused Shado to have an accident by coming out of the bathroom in a fit of unnecessary fury."
Misato noticed the little girl's shirt, one of her father's shirts, was a little wet, indicating that she did have a scare that was enough to shake the girl's bladder. And she also realized that Shado only had her clothes that she had on when she escaped from the Twelfth Angel with Shinji. Since it wasn't a school day, it was likely that Shinji would need to make sure Shado had more variety in her wardrobe.
"Oh, how can coming out of the bathroom cause her to piss herself?" Asuka questioned.
"It's the way you came out of the bathroom," Shinji restated. "You raised a fit over something trivial and easily fixable."
Shado poked her out from behind Shinji and looked at Asuka like she was exactly as her father pointed her out as.
"Angry Harpy Lady," she uttered.
"On a lighter note, there's no school today, so Shinji will be able to do something good with Shado," Misato stated, and both father and daughter looked at her with confused looks. "Clothes shopping. Shado only has one change of clothes. She can't wear the same thing over and over again, can she? Not unless she has multiples of the same outfit, which she doesn't."
"Yeah, that's right," Shinji uttered. "Where's the mall?"
"You three are nuts right now," went Asuka as she went back into the bathroom.
"Angry, Angry Harpy Lady," said Shado.
"We live with it," Misato told the girl, but she knew where she was coming from; the girl had never seen or known Asuka to be anything but upset over something or someone, not even smiling without it seeming cruel. "Maybe 'foffee' isn't so bad to have today."
-x-
"…If he didn't show up at school yesterday, something must've happened at NERV," went Kensuke to Toji as they and Hikari went to Misato's apartment.
"And you think Ms. Misato's going to tell us anything?" Toji suggested.
"Better her than Soryu."
"Yeah, definitely better than Soryu."
"Hey," went Hikari, "we don't know what's going on until we get some answers."
They approached the front door and Toji rang the bell. In less than a minute, the door slid open to reveal the adult woman.
"Hello," Misato greeted them.
"Hello, Ms. Misato," Kensuke and Toji replied.
"Hello," Hikari added.
"Did something happen to Shinji?" Kensuke asked Misato. "He wasn't at school yesterday or the day before."
"Shinji? He's fine. He's…"
"Who's that?" Toji asked, pointing behind the adult woman.
Misato looked back and saw a little girl in an oversized shirt, looking at them as she had come out of the bathroom, a little damp.
"Oh, that's…that's…" She wasn't sure how to address Shado to the three without it sounding crazy or ridiculous to disbelieve.
The girl simply turned the other way and walked down the hall into Shinji's room.
"Did she just go into Shinji's room?" Hikari questioned.
"Yes," Misato answered. "Yes, she did."
"But…why would she do that?"
Soon after, Shinji came out of the bathroom and took notice of the three teens outside.
"Yo, Shinji!" Toji greeted.
"Hey," he greeted back, sounding a little surprised to see them. "I, uh…I'm just gonna…go do something for now."
And he retreated back into his room.
"Okay, what is going on here?" Hikari asked Misato. "Who was the girl, and why did she go into Shinji's room?"
"I don't think you'd believe me if I told you," Misato expressed.
"What, is she, like, his cousin or something?" Toji asked her.
"No, not in the least; Shinji doesn't have any other adult relatives besides his father, and they're not on good terms with each other."
"His sister, then?" Kensuke suggested.
"No. He's an only child."
"Well, she can't be your kid; she looks more like she takes after Shinji," Hikari stated her opinion of the girl. "Hold on. Miss Katsuragi…is that little girl… Is she related to Shinji…directly? I mean, is she…his?"
"That's not possible," Toji expressed to the girl. "Shinji's our age and the kid is probably four or five years old; he'd have to have been…nine or ten when he…and that's just assuming that something happened to him."
"Maybe you three should come inside," Misato suggested, wanting to take this conversation private. "It's complicated."
They came inside and went to the living room where Asuka was watching the news.
-x-
It was just a random question that had been asked by lower-level NERV employee, but Fuyutsuki couldn't deny that it might've been something that Gendo would be curious about, as well. The idea being that, since Shado came from an alternate universe where NERV existed, how much did the girl know about what they did here regarding the Angels. Exactly how much did the girl understand? How much could she tell them if they wanted to know something? And if there were things she could tell them about that related to NERV, the Evas and the Angels, what did Gendo want to know about that related to himself?
"…If the girl knows things, it'd probably be best not to hassle her with a multitude of questions she won't know how to answer if she can't tell you what you want to hear," Fuyutsuki heard Kaji say, trying to sound moral towards the girl's current status as a resident within a new world that wasn't her own. "It's not something we should forget that she's only four years old and in an environment totally alien to her, even if she's been around it for some time."
"The issue with Ikari is that he's one to disregard the mental health of younger people if they know things he wants to know about," Fuyutsuki informed him.
"And a younger person that is more afraid of him than they are of an actual monster?"
"I don't believe that there's a difference between an Angel and a person that is, in a child's mind, frightening if they don't know how to be like a regular human being."
"Especially this particular child?"
Fuyutsuki didn't say anything further, but understood that this particular child had every right to be afraid of her grandfather; if Gendo treated his own son like a complete stranger with absolutely no interest in getting to know him, then the same applied to his own granddaughter, who viewed him as a monster. This would make fitting in difficult for the girl.
-x-
It was a short story, but it had some impact to the three teens as they sat in the living room where they were introduced to Shado. The three were slightly bothered by the fact that she was revealed to be Shinji's daughter, but it was slightly more disturbing that Shinji and Misato were acknowledging this; Asuka didn't say anything during the entire conversation. And then, there was Shado, who sat beside Shinji, holding her teddy in her arms, just looking at the three.
"…So…that's pretty much it," Misato told them. "Questions?"
Hikari raised her left hand up.
"Yes?" Shinji asked her.
"You're Shado's father?" She spoke. "And she was in the Eva with you when the Twelfth Angel was defeated? And…her being here is complicated because of what happened during that attack? It's odd because…you never once mentioned having a daughter."
"Oh…" Shado went, wondering why this girl's words seemed so…displeasing.
"There are…many things I don't mention about my past, Horaki," Shinji told her. "I don't talk about my father because he's not exactly been a positive influence in my life, and he's the second of two people Shado is afraid of, and for different reasons."
"Funny, though," went Kensuke, "that you have a kid at your age…and she happens to be afraid of Soryu."
"Not funny," Asuka spoke up. "It's childish."
"Well, she is a child," Hikari had to defend. "A toddler. She's at the age where she's able to decide for herself who frightens her and who doesn't."
"She can't even pronounce people's names. Instead, she has to give them designations that relate to something they're not exactly."
Shado held onto Shinji because Asuka was raising her voice again.
"What exactly does she call you?" Hikari asked Asuka. "If she can't pronounce your name, what is your designation?"
"Angry Harpy Lady," she reveals.
"Uh, that kinda makes sense," Toji uttered.
"What?"
"Don't you read mythology? Harpies were these beautiful women with bird attributes and a vicious temperament. If that's your designation because she can't say your name, it has to relate to two things about you: You're attractive…but you have an attitude."
"And she calls her grandfather one word that has many meanings, and she's terrified of him."
"What does she call your old man, Shinji?" Kensuke asks.
"The Monster," he answers.
"The Monster?" Hikari questions. "Is he…that scary to her?"
"Very," went Shado. "He makes people go bye-bye when he decides to be the Monster."
"What do you mean by that?" Toji asks. "He makes people go bye-bye?"
Before Misato or Shinji could tell Shado not to say anything about it, the little girl made the gesture to indicate what she meant by what she said. The hand gesture wasn't lost to Kensuke.
"You mean, you saw the guy kill someone?" He asked.
"Kensuke," Shinji uttered.
"Is that the word he did to the Ghost Girl?" Shado asks. "He…'kilt' (killed) her?"
"Ghost Girl?" Hikari spoke, confused. "Who does she mean by that?"
"Ayanami," Shinji explained. "Angry Harpy Lady for Asuka, Ghost Girl for Ayanami."
"But hold on. Shado says she saw your father…do this to Ayanami…but…Ayanami is alive, so…that's not possible."
"Ghost Girl is not like everyone else," Shado stated her opinion. "She can be everywhere and nowhere, which is why she's creepy."
This was something new to learn of. While Shado viewed Gendo and Asuka as being scary and people to fear, Shinji didn't expect his daughter to find Rei creepy.
"Uh, what other designations do you have for people you've seen, Shado?" Toji asked, trying to change the subject. "What do you call Ms. Misato?"
"Boozer Bird Lady."
All three guests looked at Misato with some confusion. Her designation by the girl seemed…odd because it related to two things in her life that were true: Her alcoholism and Pen-Pen.
"You have a designation for me, Shinji?" Toji asked his friend.
"I do not," he responded; he didn't expect having to introduce Shado to these three, so he didn't know how to have Shado address them if she couldn't pronounce their names properly.
"Well, we just call Horaki here the Class Rep," Toji pointed his left thumb to Hikari.
"Why?" Shado asked.
"She's the student boss," Kensuke stated.
"You mean, she's 'hossy' (bossy) like Angry Harpy Lady?"
"Huh?!" Hikari went.
"She means bossy," Shinji clarified.
"Oh. I am not…bossy."
"Actually, you kinda are," Toji expressed.
"Toji Suzuhara…"
"Can Shado say 'otaku'?" Kensuke requested.
"O…haku?" Shado spoke.
"Otaku."
"O…taco?"
"Close enough."
"You want her to call you 'Otaku' if she can't say your name?" Shinji asked Kensuke.
"Yeah."
"O…ta…ku," Shado tried to say properly. "Classy Lady (points to Hikari) and Otaku (points to Kensuke). Classy Lady and Otaku."
"Classy Lady, huh?" Toji asks Hikari. "I guess that's your designation until she can say your name properly, Class Rep."
Hikari could've spoken out over this, but after looking at the little girl, she found her opinion over her designation to be moot; if Shado couldn't pronounce names correctly, then designations were needed to identify people she had seen or had interactions with. Plus, the girl was cute when she tried to pronounce words.
"Uh, just one question," she uttered instead. "Why is she dressed like that?"
Shinji looked at Shado's current attire and sighed at how she had a slight accident earlier.
"Asuka complained about something minor earlier," he explained.
"Figures," Toji and Kensuke expressed.
"Oh, shut up, stooges," Asuka told them. "Is it really my fault if she's scared of her own shadow every time something happens?"
"If you're among the people that scare her?" Misato responds. "Yes, it is."
-x-
Across the ocean, over the sky, in the lands of the United States, situated in an expanse of desert terrain, a brief flash of light was seen for only three seconds before disappearing, but long enough to raise a cause of concern to those that were suddenly aware of it.
-x-
It was unusual and not so relevant to Asuka, who found the situation to be bothersome, despite the fact that people did this on a regular basis. Simply because it was a necessity, they were at the mall looking for new clothes for Shado…and she had little to no opinion over any choice of clothing for the four-year-old.
"How come you don't have a suggestion for her, Asuka?" Hikari asked, helping Shinji find clothes for Shado.
"I don't see what the fuss is all about," the redhead stated. "Clothes are clothes, regardless of what she wears."
"Except most of the time," went Toji, who was also around to help Shinji, "women spend more on clothes than they do most other things."
"Where'd you hear that from?" Asuka questioned.
"My sister."
"On the plus side," went Kensuke, who was filming everything, "it's not a bad thing to see a little girl wear new clothes until she finds something she likes."
They were outside a dressing room where Shinji was helping Shado put on new clothes.
"What do you think?" They heard Shinji's voice behind the curtain.
"I like it," they heard Shado respond, and then her father came out from behind the curtain.
"What do y'all think?" He asked them, pulling the curtain to show off Shado's look.
"Ooh," Toji and Kensuke reacted.
Shado, wearing a dress completely different from her previous outfit, stepped out of the small room and looked up at the teens.
"Um…how do I look?" She asked them.
A predominantly dark dress with a pink upper top and short sleeves, the dress looked like the upper half of a cat's head, complete with ears and blue eyes. Behind the dress, tied by a small sash, a tail-like appendage hung from the girl's back and extended to her legs. She spun around once so they saw the entire outfit.
"Pretty," Toji expressed with a small smile.
"Very nice, Shado," Kensuke added, recording her with his camera.
"You're very cute, Shado," went Hikari, being honest.
"I love it," Shado told Shinji.
"Me, too," he responded, feeling happy that she was happy.
To be continued…
A/N: This chapter is slightly longer than the previous chapters, but I hope it impresses some of you out there with the evolution of Shado Ikari and her interactions with others. For those of you that probably didn't notice towards the end of this chapter, I decided to have Shado wear a variation of the outfit worn by Kimi Shirokado from Housing Complex C, only with pink sleeves instead of white, which aids in her standing out. To those that find it odd for Asuka to dislike Shado this much, it stems a little from her own childhood because she never really had anyone pay her that much affection that had nothing to do with what they were doing, and she can't stand to see Shinji become attached to a girl from another universe just because the kid calls him her father and he accepts the role wholeheartedly. And as for Gendo, his idea is up for you to decide on how to question until later in the story. Personally, I find it to be just the hopeless desire of a crazy madman.