Kaoru Kamia awoke at 7:59 A.M. and instantly knew that it would be a
bad day. Had she awoken at 7:30 A.M., she could have rolled over, tightened
her blanket about her shoulders and gone back to sleep. But some strange
twist of fate had caused her to wake up right then. In one minute, the
alarm would ring and she would be forced into yet another chaotic day.
Groaning, she pushed the covers aside, jumped out of her trundle bed, and raced to disable the alarm clock before it could ring. It seemed to be a point of honor- if she was already up, Kaoru didn't want to listen to that angry, impersonal noise. Her bedroom was small enough that she easily reached the opposite wall in time to stop the alarm.
Grabbing a blue sweater and a pair of slacks from her small closet, she dressed herself in her small room. A quick stop in her small kitchen provided Kaoru with a piece of toast for breakfast. Then, in her small bathroom she brushed her teeth and pulled back her long, straight-as-a- stick black hair into a ponytail- couldn't have her hair interfering with her work! Finally, she grabbed her backpack from her small sitting room and left for work- late as usual.
Ok. So the apartment was small. Kaoru had been amused when she first saw it that she could hop across from the doorway, totally across the sitting room (devoid of the couch at the time, of course) past her two burner stove in the kitchen, and onto her bed in only five paces. After only a week and a half of habitation in the apartment, she realized that she would spend so little time in her rooms that size became irrelevant. Plus, it was free of rent. As an intern at NERV headquarters, the eighteen year old was entitled to room and board- however small the accommodations might be.
Kaoru grimaced as she stepped off the train at the station that should have allowed her to transfer to the special access train that took government employees directly into the geofront. She had forgotten that her research team had agreed to meet in the field today. Saito-sensei, the group's temporary supervisor, known for his wolf like viciousness, had given specific instructions to meet at the site of the fallen fourth angel, which had just been slain two days earlier. He had told the group the exact location of their temporary field lab, but Kaoru hadn't paid much attention. How difficult could it be to find a sixty meter long fallen monster?
The swath of destruction was easy enough to spot. Following it was another thing. Whenever she managed to get around a particularly nasty pile of debris, security would spot her and demand identification. Every time was the same.
"Excuse me miss?" The officer would usually scowl at Kaoru, thinking that the eighteen year old was far too young to have proper authority to be wandering the streets of the city so carelessly. "This is a restricted area. I'll need to see some identification before I let you continue."
At this point, Kaoru would grit her teeth, smile sweetly and offer her I.D. card to be scanned by the guard. After some fumbling around with the computerized card reader, the security guard would have no other option but to hand the card back to the young woman. "The card cleared; you're free to continue. Have a nice day."
A nice day indeed! The first identification check was expected, the second reasonable. The third I.D. check came as an annoyance. After the fourth, Kaoru was mad. Each episode would cost her five minutes, at least. She was expected to meet her group at 9:00- at 9:40 she was almost ready to turn around and leave. Suppressing a shriek of annoyance at the sight of a group of people in the distance, she brandished her security card and thrust it violently to the first person she came across.
"Ah. Despite the fact that you are obscenely late, there is no need to shove your identification card in my face. Rest assured, I remember who you are, Kaoru." Kaoru flinched- the steely voice could only belong to the wolf himself. Blushing as the anger receded from her vision, Kaoru regarded the man in front of her as they both entered the tent in front of them. Hajime Saito, the Wolf of Mibu, was known for his steely disposition and wit that matched the sharpness of the archaic katana that he wore on his hip in lieu of the '98 derringer most NERV personnel used as protection. As a lab technician in the genetic reconstruction and assessment department, he generally kept to the uniform required to those of his status. Today, because of the extreme circumstances in the field, he sported a dark navy pair of pants with twin satin strips running down each leg. The shirt he chose was a long sleeved tight navy of the same color.
"Your tardiness has forced your comrades to start without you. Grab a lab coat, collect your samples and do try to catch up. Oh, and be prepared to stay an extra hour today to make up for your lateness.
"Hai, sensei." Kaoru replied, she had long since learned not to argue with the wolf.
The field lab had been set up in a large orange canopied tent alongside Samshel, the fallen angel. Kaoru was grateful the angel was due to be removed in three days- given a week and the monster would 'ripen'; emitting putrid air into the Tokyo-3 atmosphere. The lab had a basic setup. Whereas it was nearly impossible to maintain a sterile environment out in the open air, the work done in the field did not require a contained environment. Several tables were set up with supplies for extracting DNA from blood or LCL. All but one of these stations was in use by the four other interns working as Kaoru's research peers. A central table contained a sink for hand washing and several trash receptacles for the various biorefuse that would be discarded. In the corner of the tent sat two steel tables which held identical dissection trays. No one had been able to discover what was to be dissected there. The angel seemed too large to provide small enough organs for the trays.
Tossing her backpack next to the coat rack, Kaoru grabbed a lab coat, donned a pair of latex rubber gloves, and claimed the remaining extraction station.
"Oi Missy! Glad you could make it!"
"Hi Sano!" Kaoru afforded a warm smile to her friend of one week. Relationships in their peer group were still being formed, but as the youngest intern, Kaoru felt a special affinity towards the only other person not yet in his twenties. "So what'd I miss?"
"Looks like you didn't miss much." The brown haired nineteen year old said, glancing down at the LCL stains on Kaoru's slacks.
"Ugh. You decided to walk here? What a filthy girl! You don't approve of such disarray, do you Aoshi?" As the second oldest intern at twenty two years old, Megumi Takani tended to look down upon the 'youngsters' of the group.
Pipettor in hand, Aoshi Shinomori looked up from his work long enough to shrug. At twenty five, Aoshi was the group's only PhD candidate, so he tended to take his studies very seriously.
"Hmph." Megumi too, diverted her attention to the several vials of buffer on the table in front of her.
"Hey babe, why don't you ignore those loosers and let me show you what you're missing!"
Taking a deep breath, Kaoru suppressed the urge to punch Yoita, the intern who would hit on anything with boobs.
"The only thing I'm missing right now from you is your absence."
"Alright, alright!"
A fierce look from Sanosuke prevented the twenty year old from continuing. Brushing aside a strand of hair that had escaped his red headband, he turned back to Kaoru. "So where were you? You get lost or something?"
Kaoru knew her friend was joking but winced as the truth was revealed. "Yeah, something like that."
"You lucked out if all Saito did was ask you to stay an hour later. He's been really off lately."
"Like he was ever normal. He looks like he could really use a cigarette."
Sure enough, Kaoru and Sano watched as their mentor bend down to retrieve a fallen pencil. The material of his shirt shifted, revealing a large square nicotine patch that interrupted a bushy line of hair on the small of his back.
"Oh God!!! I've been scarred for life! No one should have to see that!" In his exasperation, Sano flung his arm before him to hit the table in emphasis. Missing the corner by an inch, he smiled sheepishly as Megumi, who had witnessed the whole ordeal, stifled a giggle from her corner of the room.
"Don't people usually wear those on their arms?" Kaoru was confused. "Never mind. I don't think I want to know the wolf's logic behind that..."
Sneezing twice, Saito looked to the back of the tent. "Show's over. Get back to work."
Pushing aside the glove on her right hand, Kaoru took a small sterile lancet and pierced the skin on her pinky finger. Blood slowly trickled out of the wound into a collection tube; it would later be used as a human control. She set the sample aside and chose eight more tubes. "Oi! Where are the angel samples?"
Surprisingly enough, Aoshi replied. "Check the fridge next to the sink. I retrieved some extra samples before you came. Use them."
"Thanks."
Kaoru found the samples easily enough. She selected eight, and set the rest back in the freezer. Every sample contained LCL from the fallen angel. By examining DNA from various parts of the angel, the interns would check for internal mutation in the angel's genetic code. It was redundant to take quite so many samples, but it would provide plenty of extract for future studies.
Sitting down at her station, Kaoru arranged her supplies before her. Extracting DNA from LCL was similar to extracting DNA from blood. One would filter out the angel's equivalent to plasma and platelets and then add a special buffer to the remnants. This would leave a serum full of uninhibited DNA which would be ready for replication. The whole process could be completed mechanically back at NERV in only twenty minutes. The extreme location of the field lab made such mechanizations impractical, which left the interns manually repeating the process.
Kaoru didn't mind the extra work. Although tedious, it gave her time to think. From her position in the back of her tent, she had the perfect view of Aoshi's broad back and muscled shoulders. He might have the personality of a brick, but he sure had a nice body...
She capped a tube and set it against the vortex machine to shake. It had been a long week of work- and she still had three more to go. All of the interns would do basic work in their first month at NERV. At the end of that period of time, they would each be put into a specific, more permanent position suited to their abilities. Kaoru hoped she would be far away from Saito- his squinted eyes and thin lipped smile gave her the creeps.
Tossing out nine vials of filtrate waste, Kaoru was left with nine tubes of clear extract, neatly aligned in the neon pink rack in front of her. "Oi Saito! Where do you want the samples when we're done?" Finishing only twenty minutes after her comrades, she was ready to go to lunch. If she hurried, she might be able to catch up with the rest of the group before they finished eating...
"Ahhh...Saito-Sensei?" The rustling of the cloth makeshift tent door caused the young intern to look up from her table in time to see her mentor enter the room.
Quickly pocketing a sleek black cell phone, Saito glanced at Kaoru's work. "Make sure your samples are clearly labeled and put them back in the freezer. Do be certain to put your initials on the vials this time- your work is your responsibility. If the samples become contaminated we need to know who is at fault." Abruptly turning, Saito faced away from the lab tables, keeping his hands clasped behind his back. Kaoru blinked in mild surprise. "Tell your comrades that you needn't bother return after lunch. Something urgent came up and I am needed elsewhere." Before Kaoru could respond, he exited the tent, leaving only an uncomfortable stillness behind him.
*
Kaoru stepped out of the tent into the sunlight of a cloudless spring afternoon. Cleaning up in record time after her mentor left, she was more than ready to take the rest of the afternoon off. There was still so much to do! Although she had been living in Tokyo-3 for almost two weeks now, Kaoru still needed to make her apartment feel like home. The cardboard box bookshelves definitely needed to be replaced... Frowning, she turned the corner that would lead her back to the special access train station that would take her home.
"Sano! What are you still doing here?"
Her tall friend was standing on the street corner staring at the bulk of the fallen angel that sat fifty meters behind their orange research tent. Turning around, he greeted her with a sheepish grin and downcast brown eyes. "I...uh...had some stuff I wanted to take care of. I overheard the wolf tell you that we don't need to come back this afternoon, so I figured I might as well wait for you to finish..."
Kaoru found herself briefly hiding a tiny smile with the back of her hand. "C'mon! Let's go catch the train!"
*~*~*
Steely footsteps outside office 27-A-3006 in the heart of NERV headquarters alerted Hajime Saito to the presence of a visitor long before anyone reached the door. Easing back in his black leather office chair, the Wolf of Mibu took a puff on his cigarette and waited. Not one minute later Saito's patience was rewarded by a staccato knocking at the door.
"You may enter." His voice was more of a growl than anything else.
The door opened and in walked a demon in human guise. A black hooded cape couldn't quite hide the thin wiry, albeit short, frame of the man that stood in the doorway. Something in his movements suggested a controlled grace, carefully honed over years of vigilance. His thin lips turned down slightly in distaste as he entered the room. With indifferent amber eyes, the man glanced about the tiny office- checking for possible hidden cameras and escape routes. The slight movement of his head knocked a single lock of red hair out from under his black hood.
"Ahh...So I see it still bleeds." Saito's voice took on a slight air of mockery.
And indeed, a single freshly made cut extended from the base of the man's left eye to just above the left side of his chin.
"It is of no concern to you, Wolf." The man's voice was gravelly, on the verge of becoming menacing.
"Sit down, Battousai, we have much to discuss. The experiment had been deemed a success. A completely untrained pilot was able to not only synchronize with eva unit-01, but also to awaken her! We need only to find the other piece to this puzzle before we can put the Instrumentality Project into effect."
Battousai's voice remained flat; unimpressed. "And what news have you passed on to your superiors?"
"General Fuyutski knows everything he needs to. He entrusted me with the five most likely candidates; we should know who the counterpart is by the end of the allotted month."
"I see."
"I want you to continue your observations of the five under the guise of guarding the compound. Report back to me any unusual behavior and watch for any Signs. But for now, I need to run a few more diagnostic tests. Follow me." Standing abruptly, Saito left the room without a second glance back.
"As you wish."
Groaning, she pushed the covers aside, jumped out of her trundle bed, and raced to disable the alarm clock before it could ring. It seemed to be a point of honor- if she was already up, Kaoru didn't want to listen to that angry, impersonal noise. Her bedroom was small enough that she easily reached the opposite wall in time to stop the alarm.
Grabbing a blue sweater and a pair of slacks from her small closet, she dressed herself in her small room. A quick stop in her small kitchen provided Kaoru with a piece of toast for breakfast. Then, in her small bathroom she brushed her teeth and pulled back her long, straight-as-a- stick black hair into a ponytail- couldn't have her hair interfering with her work! Finally, she grabbed her backpack from her small sitting room and left for work- late as usual.
Ok. So the apartment was small. Kaoru had been amused when she first saw it that she could hop across from the doorway, totally across the sitting room (devoid of the couch at the time, of course) past her two burner stove in the kitchen, and onto her bed in only five paces. After only a week and a half of habitation in the apartment, she realized that she would spend so little time in her rooms that size became irrelevant. Plus, it was free of rent. As an intern at NERV headquarters, the eighteen year old was entitled to room and board- however small the accommodations might be.
Kaoru grimaced as she stepped off the train at the station that should have allowed her to transfer to the special access train that took government employees directly into the geofront. She had forgotten that her research team had agreed to meet in the field today. Saito-sensei, the group's temporary supervisor, known for his wolf like viciousness, had given specific instructions to meet at the site of the fallen fourth angel, which had just been slain two days earlier. He had told the group the exact location of their temporary field lab, but Kaoru hadn't paid much attention. How difficult could it be to find a sixty meter long fallen monster?
The swath of destruction was easy enough to spot. Following it was another thing. Whenever she managed to get around a particularly nasty pile of debris, security would spot her and demand identification. Every time was the same.
"Excuse me miss?" The officer would usually scowl at Kaoru, thinking that the eighteen year old was far too young to have proper authority to be wandering the streets of the city so carelessly. "This is a restricted area. I'll need to see some identification before I let you continue."
At this point, Kaoru would grit her teeth, smile sweetly and offer her I.D. card to be scanned by the guard. After some fumbling around with the computerized card reader, the security guard would have no other option but to hand the card back to the young woman. "The card cleared; you're free to continue. Have a nice day."
A nice day indeed! The first identification check was expected, the second reasonable. The third I.D. check came as an annoyance. After the fourth, Kaoru was mad. Each episode would cost her five minutes, at least. She was expected to meet her group at 9:00- at 9:40 she was almost ready to turn around and leave. Suppressing a shriek of annoyance at the sight of a group of people in the distance, she brandished her security card and thrust it violently to the first person she came across.
"Ah. Despite the fact that you are obscenely late, there is no need to shove your identification card in my face. Rest assured, I remember who you are, Kaoru." Kaoru flinched- the steely voice could only belong to the wolf himself. Blushing as the anger receded from her vision, Kaoru regarded the man in front of her as they both entered the tent in front of them. Hajime Saito, the Wolf of Mibu, was known for his steely disposition and wit that matched the sharpness of the archaic katana that he wore on his hip in lieu of the '98 derringer most NERV personnel used as protection. As a lab technician in the genetic reconstruction and assessment department, he generally kept to the uniform required to those of his status. Today, because of the extreme circumstances in the field, he sported a dark navy pair of pants with twin satin strips running down each leg. The shirt he chose was a long sleeved tight navy of the same color.
"Your tardiness has forced your comrades to start without you. Grab a lab coat, collect your samples and do try to catch up. Oh, and be prepared to stay an extra hour today to make up for your lateness.
"Hai, sensei." Kaoru replied, she had long since learned not to argue with the wolf.
The field lab had been set up in a large orange canopied tent alongside Samshel, the fallen angel. Kaoru was grateful the angel was due to be removed in three days- given a week and the monster would 'ripen'; emitting putrid air into the Tokyo-3 atmosphere. The lab had a basic setup. Whereas it was nearly impossible to maintain a sterile environment out in the open air, the work done in the field did not require a contained environment. Several tables were set up with supplies for extracting DNA from blood or LCL. All but one of these stations was in use by the four other interns working as Kaoru's research peers. A central table contained a sink for hand washing and several trash receptacles for the various biorefuse that would be discarded. In the corner of the tent sat two steel tables which held identical dissection trays. No one had been able to discover what was to be dissected there. The angel seemed too large to provide small enough organs for the trays.
Tossing her backpack next to the coat rack, Kaoru grabbed a lab coat, donned a pair of latex rubber gloves, and claimed the remaining extraction station.
"Oi Missy! Glad you could make it!"
"Hi Sano!" Kaoru afforded a warm smile to her friend of one week. Relationships in their peer group were still being formed, but as the youngest intern, Kaoru felt a special affinity towards the only other person not yet in his twenties. "So what'd I miss?"
"Looks like you didn't miss much." The brown haired nineteen year old said, glancing down at the LCL stains on Kaoru's slacks.
"Ugh. You decided to walk here? What a filthy girl! You don't approve of such disarray, do you Aoshi?" As the second oldest intern at twenty two years old, Megumi Takani tended to look down upon the 'youngsters' of the group.
Pipettor in hand, Aoshi Shinomori looked up from his work long enough to shrug. At twenty five, Aoshi was the group's only PhD candidate, so he tended to take his studies very seriously.
"Hmph." Megumi too, diverted her attention to the several vials of buffer on the table in front of her.
"Hey babe, why don't you ignore those loosers and let me show you what you're missing!"
Taking a deep breath, Kaoru suppressed the urge to punch Yoita, the intern who would hit on anything with boobs.
"The only thing I'm missing right now from you is your absence."
"Alright, alright!"
A fierce look from Sanosuke prevented the twenty year old from continuing. Brushing aside a strand of hair that had escaped his red headband, he turned back to Kaoru. "So where were you? You get lost or something?"
Kaoru knew her friend was joking but winced as the truth was revealed. "Yeah, something like that."
"You lucked out if all Saito did was ask you to stay an hour later. He's been really off lately."
"Like he was ever normal. He looks like he could really use a cigarette."
Sure enough, Kaoru and Sano watched as their mentor bend down to retrieve a fallen pencil. The material of his shirt shifted, revealing a large square nicotine patch that interrupted a bushy line of hair on the small of his back.
"Oh God!!! I've been scarred for life! No one should have to see that!" In his exasperation, Sano flung his arm before him to hit the table in emphasis. Missing the corner by an inch, he smiled sheepishly as Megumi, who had witnessed the whole ordeal, stifled a giggle from her corner of the room.
"Don't people usually wear those on their arms?" Kaoru was confused. "Never mind. I don't think I want to know the wolf's logic behind that..."
Sneezing twice, Saito looked to the back of the tent. "Show's over. Get back to work."
Pushing aside the glove on her right hand, Kaoru took a small sterile lancet and pierced the skin on her pinky finger. Blood slowly trickled out of the wound into a collection tube; it would later be used as a human control. She set the sample aside and chose eight more tubes. "Oi! Where are the angel samples?"
Surprisingly enough, Aoshi replied. "Check the fridge next to the sink. I retrieved some extra samples before you came. Use them."
"Thanks."
Kaoru found the samples easily enough. She selected eight, and set the rest back in the freezer. Every sample contained LCL from the fallen angel. By examining DNA from various parts of the angel, the interns would check for internal mutation in the angel's genetic code. It was redundant to take quite so many samples, but it would provide plenty of extract for future studies.
Sitting down at her station, Kaoru arranged her supplies before her. Extracting DNA from LCL was similar to extracting DNA from blood. One would filter out the angel's equivalent to plasma and platelets and then add a special buffer to the remnants. This would leave a serum full of uninhibited DNA which would be ready for replication. The whole process could be completed mechanically back at NERV in only twenty minutes. The extreme location of the field lab made such mechanizations impractical, which left the interns manually repeating the process.
Kaoru didn't mind the extra work. Although tedious, it gave her time to think. From her position in the back of her tent, she had the perfect view of Aoshi's broad back and muscled shoulders. He might have the personality of a brick, but he sure had a nice body...
She capped a tube and set it against the vortex machine to shake. It had been a long week of work- and she still had three more to go. All of the interns would do basic work in their first month at NERV. At the end of that period of time, they would each be put into a specific, more permanent position suited to their abilities. Kaoru hoped she would be far away from Saito- his squinted eyes and thin lipped smile gave her the creeps.
Tossing out nine vials of filtrate waste, Kaoru was left with nine tubes of clear extract, neatly aligned in the neon pink rack in front of her. "Oi Saito! Where do you want the samples when we're done?" Finishing only twenty minutes after her comrades, she was ready to go to lunch. If she hurried, she might be able to catch up with the rest of the group before they finished eating...
"Ahhh...Saito-Sensei?" The rustling of the cloth makeshift tent door caused the young intern to look up from her table in time to see her mentor enter the room.
Quickly pocketing a sleek black cell phone, Saito glanced at Kaoru's work. "Make sure your samples are clearly labeled and put them back in the freezer. Do be certain to put your initials on the vials this time- your work is your responsibility. If the samples become contaminated we need to know who is at fault." Abruptly turning, Saito faced away from the lab tables, keeping his hands clasped behind his back. Kaoru blinked in mild surprise. "Tell your comrades that you needn't bother return after lunch. Something urgent came up and I am needed elsewhere." Before Kaoru could respond, he exited the tent, leaving only an uncomfortable stillness behind him.
*
Kaoru stepped out of the tent into the sunlight of a cloudless spring afternoon. Cleaning up in record time after her mentor left, she was more than ready to take the rest of the afternoon off. There was still so much to do! Although she had been living in Tokyo-3 for almost two weeks now, Kaoru still needed to make her apartment feel like home. The cardboard box bookshelves definitely needed to be replaced... Frowning, she turned the corner that would lead her back to the special access train station that would take her home.
"Sano! What are you still doing here?"
Her tall friend was standing on the street corner staring at the bulk of the fallen angel that sat fifty meters behind their orange research tent. Turning around, he greeted her with a sheepish grin and downcast brown eyes. "I...uh...had some stuff I wanted to take care of. I overheard the wolf tell you that we don't need to come back this afternoon, so I figured I might as well wait for you to finish..."
Kaoru found herself briefly hiding a tiny smile with the back of her hand. "C'mon! Let's go catch the train!"
*~*~*
Steely footsteps outside office 27-A-3006 in the heart of NERV headquarters alerted Hajime Saito to the presence of a visitor long before anyone reached the door. Easing back in his black leather office chair, the Wolf of Mibu took a puff on his cigarette and waited. Not one minute later Saito's patience was rewarded by a staccato knocking at the door.
"You may enter." His voice was more of a growl than anything else.
The door opened and in walked a demon in human guise. A black hooded cape couldn't quite hide the thin wiry, albeit short, frame of the man that stood in the doorway. Something in his movements suggested a controlled grace, carefully honed over years of vigilance. His thin lips turned down slightly in distaste as he entered the room. With indifferent amber eyes, the man glanced about the tiny office- checking for possible hidden cameras and escape routes. The slight movement of his head knocked a single lock of red hair out from under his black hood.
"Ahh...So I see it still bleeds." Saito's voice took on a slight air of mockery.
And indeed, a single freshly made cut extended from the base of the man's left eye to just above the left side of his chin.
"It is of no concern to you, Wolf." The man's voice was gravelly, on the verge of becoming menacing.
"Sit down, Battousai, we have much to discuss. The experiment had been deemed a success. A completely untrained pilot was able to not only synchronize with eva unit-01, but also to awaken her! We need only to find the other piece to this puzzle before we can put the Instrumentality Project into effect."
Battousai's voice remained flat; unimpressed. "And what news have you passed on to your superiors?"
"General Fuyutski knows everything he needs to. He entrusted me with the five most likely candidates; we should know who the counterpart is by the end of the allotted month."
"I see."
"I want you to continue your observations of the five under the guise of guarding the compound. Report back to me any unusual behavior and watch for any Signs. But for now, I need to run a few more diagnostic tests. Follow me." Standing abruptly, Saito left the room without a second glance back.
"As you wish."