Keitaro laid down on the hospital bed, wondering when he'll get out off hospital. He was getting lonely and he didn't like being lonely. The door opened. It was Hikaru.

"Hi! How are you doing? Feeling better?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah. I'm fine, I guess." answered Keitaro. He sighed. "When am I allowed out?" he asked getting up. "Oh, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. The doctor says you've made a full recovery and can leave any time to want." Keitaro threw the covers off and got off the bed. "Great! Where's my stuff? Oh wait. Never mind. I've found them." He said approached a chair with his belongings on. He sighted a card with his picture on it and NERV in big blue letters, on top of his stuff. He picked it up and eyed it for a minute. "NERV Identification Card, huh? Interesting." He said putting it down on a nearby table. "Oh, and I have a present for you." said Hikaru pulling out a red box and handing it to him. He opened it and his mouth dropped in amazement. It was a brand new handgun. It was silver and had his name engraved on it. The handle had a nice cushiony grip and folded into the palm of his hand perfectly. The barrel was polished to the point of seeing himself in it. On the other side, it had 'NERV' engraved on it. "I don't know what to say, except, thank you. This is a really nice present." he finished with a smile. "I got that custom made for you. Now remember, you need to take firearms training to use it, okay? I'll take you tomorrow into NERV's private training centre. But, in the mean time, get dressed and I'll take you to your new home."

The drive back to Hikaru's apartment didn't take very long, even though it was on the outskirts of the city. They stopped outside a tall apartment building; you could see people on the balconies. One of the people looked familiar, they had red hair. Keitaro saw them run back into their apartment room.

"I'm sorry that we have to use the stairs, the elevators aren't working." said Hikaru to Keitaro as they climbed the stairs. "Its okay. I'm getting a workout here." he panted. "Yeah, maybe now you should carry me." she said struggling under Keitaro's weight.

Finally, they'd reached the apartment. The door had a sign on it that said, 4-C. "Here we are. Welcome home, Keitaro." said Hikaru taking out a key and unlocking the door. The door opened.

"Hi!" it was Eve. Hikaru looked surprised "Oh, your home already?" she asked.

"Yeah, we finished our lessons early and thought we'd come home." came a voice behind Eve. A boy with brown hair and blue eyes walked up to the door. He was a taller than Eve. But he looked the same age as her. He held his hand out for a handshake at Keitaro. "Hi. You must be Keitaro. Nice to meet you, I'm Adam." he said with a smile. Keitaro took his hand and gave a firm handshake. "Yeah, it's nice to meet you too, Adam." He said sounding uneasy. "Keitaro, for some reason, this is my idiot twin brother." said Eve.

The apartment itself was large and had three bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom with a shower and a 'back' room leading out onto the balcony. The tidiness of the apartment was okay, only a few dirty dishes and clothes on the floor. Keitaro decided to sleep in a bedroom on his own, where he'll the space for practicing a hobby of his, Sword fighting. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to practice on, but he was able to find a stick big enough to practice with, the curtain pole. He'd just finished practicing when a knock came at the door. "Come in!" he called. The opened and Eve walked in. "Hi, just seeing how you were doing." she closed the door behind her as she said this. "Oh, I'm doing fine. Just practicing my sword technique." He said holding up the stick. "With the curtain pole, I see." she stared at the window, then turned back round and faced Keitaro. "Yeah. Besides, I like to sleep with the starlight shining on me." He finished then smiled. Eve raised an eyebrow, and then chuckled. "What? There's nothing wrong with that." He started to laugh himself. Eve stopped laughing. "About the battle you went through. That was impressive. I mean like, you haven't had any training and you beat the Angel easily, plus you destroy an A-Field." she said, trying not to sound too impressed. "So that's what that barrier thing was. Oh, by the way. Can you pilot the Evangelion too?" he asked. She looked a bit unhappy when he asked that. "Yeah, but not as well. In fact I'm kinda' afraid to pilot It." she looked down at the ground when she finished. "Why?" he asked sitting down on the bed. She sat down next to him and replied. "About two years ago, I was the test pilot for the Devil Eva. Everything was going smoothly, and then the test began. I don't remember what happened, but when I woke up in hospital, I was told that the test went wrong and the Eva had destroyed the Test Facility, which was two miles away from the city, thankfully. But, people had died and I felt responsible for it. A survivor of the Russian Attack ten years ago was there and luckily he survived the incident. He told me it was just like the Russian Attack, which made me feel worst." A tear began to shed in her eye. Keitaro decided to put his arms around her and hug her to make her feel better. "There, there. That was in the- huh?" he was cut off by Eve throwing herself on him and crying on his shoulder. He was quite surprised by this, but it made him feel better to know that he was needed. "You stink." she sobbed. This was not the reply Keitaro was hoping for. "Pardon?" he asked, sounding very surprised. She lifted her head and started to laugh. "You smell, reaaallly bad." Keitaro started to laugh also. "Okay. I'll go take a shower then." He got up and walked to the door. "Keitaro?" she asked. "Yes?" he replied, turning around. "There is a Sync Test tomorrow, and I'll be taking it too." She finished, getting off the bed. Keitaro nodded. "Don't worry. I'll be there."

He really needed this shower, because he did stink, he admitted.

He stepped out the shower, grabbed a nearby towel and started to dry himself. "Ah, I needed that." he said, taking a deep breath. A knock came at the door. "Who is it?" he asked. "It's Adam!" came the reply. "I've got some new clothes for you." Keitaro wrapped the towel around his waist and opened the door. "Thanks. Where are they?" he asked, seeing that Adam didn't have the clothes. "They're in your room." he replied.

They were and all as well. He took a look at the pile of clothes in front of him. There was his favourite colour in there and his favourite lower body clothing, red and jeans. He got dressed into his new clothes (which fit very comfortably) and walked out into the living room. Nobody was around. "Huh? That's strange. Where is everybody?" he asked himself. Then he heard talking coming from the direction of the back room, he decided to investigate. He walked into the back room and saw Hikaru, Eve and Adam on the balcony. He opened the balcony door. "Hey guys. Why you out here?" he asked, wondering what they were looking at. "Oh, hey. We were just looking at the Red Ring of the planet." said Hikaru, pointing up at the ring that encircled the Earth once. He walked up to the edge of the balcony and looked up. "We were just discussing how it got there." said Adam, also looking up. "One of Hikaru's theories is that it's made of dust from Mars." said Eve mockingly. "Hey! It's possible! What do you think it's from? Blood belonging to a giant monster?" asked Hikaru, also mockingly.

The discussion went on till it started to get dark. "Well, I'm turning in for the night. Keitaro? You've got school tomorrow, so wake up early, because you don't want to be late for your first day at high school, do you?" asked Hikaru to Keitaro. "Pardon!?! First day!?! He hasn't gone to school, ever?" asked Eve, very surprised. "That's right. Never gone to school." finished Keitaro with a smile. "Do you mind explaining?" asked Adam, also quite surprised. "Well, you see, I was abandoned on the streets at the age of six and I had to live on the streets, because my mother was dead and my farther was the one who abandoned me." he clenched his fists as he mentioned his farther. "Luckily for me, I group of homeless teens found me and raised me, they taught me everything I know." he finished and turned towards the balcony.

For some reason, Keitaro was having trouble sleeping. Bringing up the subject of his farther abandoning him haunted him. Why did he abandon him? Did he have a good reason? Or was he just a bastard who deserved to die? But it didn't matter now. He had a roof over his head, a nice place to sleep and food, that's all he needed now. He heard the toilet flush outside his room. It might of being Eve; all that water was not good for sleeping. There was a knock at his door. It started to open slowly. He heard ruffle and then a voice. "Keitaro?" it was Eve all right. She sounded very tired. "Yeah?" he asked quietly. "Can I sleep in your room tonight? Adam's keeping me awake with his snoring." she did sound very tired. "Go on! Let her! Don't be a jerk! She needs her sleep!" a voice rang through his head. "Okay. You can sleep in my room tonight." he replied. "Thank you." she said, sliding under the covers with him. He then slept very well with her next to him.

The next day, knocking on the door waked Keitaro up. He got up and saw that Eve was still asleep next to him. He walked up to the door and opened it. "Morning! Hope you're ready for today; it's a busy one. First you've got school, then after that I'll pick you and Eve up for the Sync Test with the Devil Evangelion, and then you've got Evangelion Rifle training and last you've got firearms training with me." said Hikaru, seemingly not bothered that Keitaro looked like the living dead. Then Hikaru saw Eve in Keitaro's bed. "What did you two get up to last night? I thought I heard knocking." she laughed. "No Hikaru, that was the monkey who's behind the controls of your brain, knocking." replied Keitaro. She went a little red and walked off. He laughed and walked back into his room to wake up Eve. He gave her a little shake. "Eve? Time to wake up, you're going to miss school." he said while shaking her. Her eyes slowly opened. "Morning. Sleep well?" he asked with a smile. She got up and rubbed her eyes. "I slept very well, thanks to you." she said, sounding quite tired still. "Glad I could be of help. We better get ready of school. I don't want to miss my first day at school, do I?" he finished with a smile.

After breakfast (they had pancakes, yum!) the three of them decided to walk to school, since it wasn't very far away. Keitaro decided to stop for a second to check he had everything. "Yep, that's everything." he said, zipping up his bag. He stood up and saw two teenagers who looked about his age, across the street. One was a girl, with blue hair and red eyes and was wearing a girl's school uniform. The other was a guy, who had grey looking hair and red eyes also and was wearing a boy's school uniform. He turned to Adam and Eve. "Hey guys! Who are th-" There were gone. "Who, what Keitaro?" asked Adam, looking confused. Keitaro had a look around before replying. "It probably was nothing, I thought I saw, something that's all." Adam looked at him a little worried "Oi! You two! Hurry up! We're going to be late" shouted Eve down the street.

They ran full speed into their classroom, just in time for the bell. "Pheww. We made it. No thanks to you, Mighty Angel Destroyer!" Eve spun round and faced Keitaro. "Well excuse me! It's not my fault I hallucinated!" he snapped back. "Err, guys? Maybe we should sit down?" said Adam, sounding nervy. "Don't you start!" she shouted back at Adam.

"Ahem!" came a voice behind Eve. "Maybe you should sit down." Eve spun round and met the face of the teacher. "Oh. Hi sir! Hope we're not late." she said, sounding embarrassed. "No. You're just in time. Please sit down the both of you." Adam and eve sat down at desks that had a computer fitted into it. "You must be Keitaro." said the teacher turning to Keitaro. "Class! This is Keitaro. Now, this is his first time at a school-" The class burst out laughing. This didn't seem to bother him at all. When the class started to calm down, Keitaro walked out in front of them and said, "So. You think it's funny that I was abandoned on the streets at the age of six, and was homeless for ten years, living of scarps in restaurants and had no family to turn to? Well, I see who the mature ones are around here." He had made a big impact on the class, most of them looked ashamed. He smiled and sat at the nearest desk. "Well, very good way of calming them down, Mr Juroroachi. Now, let's get on with the lesson." said the teacher, who looked impressed.

Half way through the lesson, Keitaro got a Private Message on his computer. It read: "Hi! Are you the pilot of the Evangelion?" he looked at it for a couple of seconds and replied: "Who are you and how do you know about the Evangelion?" The reply was: "There was a news report about it and I have a family member working in NERV. She's Head of Research there. Oh and I sit on the middle column at the back." He turned around and saw whom he was talking to. She was a pretty girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, but she didn't look Japanese. She waved at him. He turned back round and replied: "How are you related to Dr Toragotchi? And are you from Japan?" The reply was: "She's my mom. I'm Amane Toragotchi, and yes, I'm from Japan, but my dad was American, but I don't want to talk about him right now." Dr Toragotchi had a daughter? This was new. He replied again: "Ah, another person who despises their dad." The reply was: "No, I don't hate him, he died when I was little, that's why I don't what to talk about him." He felt a bit stupid now. "Oh, sorry. My mother died when I was little, so I can sympathize with you. But, to answer your before question: I do pilot the Evangelion." The reply was: "Wow! Then that means you're the Forth Pilot! I'm the First! This so cool!" He stared at the screen again to make sure he'd read it right, then replied: "You're an Evangelion pilot too!?!" he was quite shocked. The reply was: "That's right, but my Eva is being transported from America and won't be here for another week, so in the meantime, I'm training. Hey, do you want to have lunch with me? Because then we can talk without using the computers." He replied back: "Okay then, I'll see you at lunch." A few minutes later the bell then went and he logged off the computer.

The lunch hall was busy like if it was rush hour in the city. Eve was waiting for Keitaro to finish getting his food. "Hey Keitaro! Over here!" he cried out to him as he left the line. But he didn't hear her and sat with a blonde girl. "What? He's sitting with the American?" she turned round to look at her best friend. Shizuke Yaminochi.

"Why does that bother you? It's not like you like him or anything like that." she said, looking over at him. "But he certainly is cute." Eve gave her a look and replied "Yeah, but, I'm just wondering why he's sitting with the American. I mean like, does he even know her?" Shizuke straightened herself out and asked "Do you like him?" Eve blushed "What do you mean?" she snapped back. "I mean; do you fancy him? Because maybe you should try and find out." replied Shizuke with a serious look. Eve started thinking. Did she like Keitaro and if she did, why?

Finally school had ended and Hikaru was waiting for Keitaro and Eve. She leaned against her car and watched the students come out off school. There she saw Keitaro with, not Eve, but with another girl. "Hey, who this?" she asked herself. She saw him wave at the girl, who walked off, waving back. He walked up to Hikaru. "Hey, who was that?" asked Hikaru. "Just a friend. Her name is Amane Toragotchi." He replied. "No kidding. The doctor's kid?" she asked looking surprised. "Yeah, she's pretty nice too." He said, smiling. "Well, be careful, you don't want Eve to get too jealous, do you?" she asked, starting to laugh. "What was that Hikaru?" a voice said behind her. She swung round and saw Eve, with Adam next to her. "Oh hey, ready to go?" asked Hikaru.

The car ride was a little silent, which was awkward. The silence was broken by Eve. "Hey, Kei?" Keitaro looked up "Don't call me Kei, only my parents did that. Yes?" Eve turned to face him. "Sorry. I didn't know. How do you know if you like someone?" Keitaro turned to look at her. "I don't know, I just know if I like someone. I'd you ask?" Eve looked forward again. "No reason, just wondering." Keitaro resumed looking forward as well.

"Okay, Keitaro. Are you ready to start the test?" asked Dr Toragotchi, over the comm. Link.

Keitaro sat in the Pilot Pod of the Devil Evangelion, ready for the test. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's begin." he said into the comm. link.

"Right, flood the Pilot Pod and activate synchronization." commanded the doctor.

The test went very well. Nothing went wrong and he had an overall Sync Level of 9, which was very good for an untrained pilot. Now it was Eve's turn. The Eva was prepared and the test began, that's when it happened. The Eva's eyes turned red and it roared. It tore out off its restraints and walked towards the control room window. "Everyone out! Now!" shouted Hikaru. Everyone in the room ran out in blind terror as the enraged Evangelion got closer. Hikaru was the last to exit the room as the Eva destroyed the control room. "Is everyone here?" she asked, looking around. "Wait, where's Keitaro?" She couldn't see him anywhere. Keitaro was fine, but didn't care about his health at the moment. He ran down the corridor and into the 'Docking Bay'. The Eva was pounding against a wall when he ran in. He leaned against the railings of the walkway. "EVE!" he shouted, hoping she could hear. The Eva turned to look at him. He stepped back in fear and started to sweat. The enraged Eva walked towards him and stared for a couple of seconds at him. "Please stop." He said under his breath.

"Okay." It was that voice again, this time in his mind.

The Evangelion came to a full stop. The Pilot Pod had obviously tried to eject, but failed, as it stuck out the Eva's back. "Eve!" he cried out, running down the stairs as the Eva collapsed on the floor with a crash. He climbed up to the Pilot Pod and grabbed the hatch door, he wasn't caring about the fact the Pilot Pod was scorching hot, and his hands were getting serious burns on them. He finally pulled off the hatch door, not caring that his hands were full of pain, bloody and charred. "Eve!" he cried out, seeing her with her head hanging and not moving. Then she began to move. "Oh thank god! You're okay!" He jumped in and gave her a tight hug. "Keitaro? Is that you?" she said quietly, she sounded really weak. "Yes. It's me, I'm here. Don't worry." He began to cry. "Why you crying?" she asked, he sounded a lot better now. "Because, sometimes you got to cry to show your emotions, I'm happy because you're okay and plus, I'm in a lot of pain here." he said, holding up his hands and looking at them. The flesh had been burnt severely, was black in places and was bleeding. "Maybe, we should get you to the infirmary." suggested Eve. "Okay, but, let me ask you something first." he said. "Okay, what is it?" she asked. "Friends?" he asked back. "Yeah, friends." she smiled when she finished and hugged him.