The Pony Express
Chapter 2: The Cup Flowth Over
Red Horseman
* * * *
Water sleeps... but your enemies don't.
--Water Sleeps: A Black Company Novel
Book Three of Glittering Stone
* * * *
Hikari Horaki was the model class representative at her preparatory school. She knew when the hammer needed to fall on students and when a kind word or gesture would work. Some students would describe her as a strict disciplinarian, but they were the ones who felt they could slack off and received her wrath. Others would describe her a best friend, someone who was there for people when they needed a shoulder to lean on. But none of that mattered to the brunette as she picked up her pace to reach the administrative wing. The walk to the secured area gave her too much time to dwell on non-academic thoughts.
Her social life was stuck in neutral and if she didn't do something soon it would quickly shift into reverse. She knew she was good looking and had received many an offer for dates or one night stands. She had politely refused all of them even the ones for sex, though she had come close to hitting a couple guys. There was one person she had had her eyes on for a couple years, but she didn't know how he felt. Over the weekend, he had grudgingly accepted her request for him to accompany her to the mall and she had all but asked him if he wanted to go steady. And like all her other subtle hints, it had flown over his head without registering in the slightest. Some of her friends had told her to give up while others had said that she'd have to ask in blunt direct way.
With a shake of her head, she banished her worries over her private life and smoothed her skirt with one hand while triggering the door. She was surprised that except for a few people the normally bustling room was empty of teachers and administrators. One teacher rushed past her with a sympathetic look and dashed out the door while she made her way to the principal's office. Sliding her identification card through reader and registering with the school's computer, she hesitantly walked through the final door to her destination.
Hikari shivered as the men in the room broke their contest of wills at her entrance and focussed on her. The head administrator was agitated, his stony facade shattered something she had never seen him like in her entire time at the school. And if he was flustered, she briefly wondered if she even had a chance with whatever had caused him such discomfort. With that thought, she turned her attention to the other man in the room, and the obvious source of hostility in the room.
He was handsome in a rugged sort of way, she decided as she studied him with guarded eyes. The man looked like someone that could take care of himself and expected respect from others. Hikari blushed, feeling completely naked under his dark blue eyes as they traced over her body taking in every detail. Her cheeks burned hotter when he smiled, though she wondered if it was because he liked what he saw or something else. Whatever it she didn't have time to dwell on it as the principal cleared his throat getting her attention again.
"This is Shinji Ikari, a transfer student from Earth." He bit off the last word like a curse. "He's been assigned to your class so I'd appreciate it if you showed him around."
"That is completely unnecessary," Shinji told him.
The principal turned red. "She'll show you around and get you settled in. Is that understood, Mister Ikari?"
"Yes, sir."
- - - -
The walk out of the office and back into the main corridors of the school were tense and quiet for Hikari. Normally, a transfer student would be a break from the routine and a chance for her to get to know them. But with the tension that had filled the principal's office and his last outburst as they had left set her on edge. Transfer students no matter what their age always seemed to be full of nervous energy or quietly subdued but not this one. He was calmly walking next to her, unaffected by anything that had just happened or could happen. In fact, he had the air of boredom about him, like moving to a new planet and school wasn't something new to him.
Flipping open the old-fashioned hardcopies given to her by the secretary, she decided to concentrate on something else. And was caught unprepared for what was contained in his records. She felt a little jealous at his grades and accomplishments at his last school, and hoped that he wouldn't decide to run for her representative position. That was until she noticed his absenteeism record and wondered how someone who missed so much school could have grades like his. The pang of jealously returned when she flipped back to first page and saw what school he had attended.
All her life she had attended schools with strict discipline and teaching regimes never wondering if she had missed anything. But as she studied Shinji's record she felt that she had missed out on too much in her life. The vast majority of his grades had come from individual projects and experimentation with standardized tests representing a small fraction. She closed his records with a snap and couldn't help but sigh in resignation at how her life had turned out.
"Something the matter, Miss Horaki?" Shinji asked, fully aware of her actions.
"Just wondering about what could've been," she answered. "And don't call me Miss Horaki, I'm only nineteen years old."
He nodded though he wondered what her age had to do with anything then remembered Rebecca had been the same. It was like they didn't want to feel old though they hadn't reached a tenth of their potential biological age. The scientific community had reached three hundred as the longest a person could live if they never swapped bodies. And he knew he was digressing from what was relevant with the young woman.
"All right, Hikari." A gentle touch got her moving again. "As for what you said, I wouldn't dwell on it too much. You could spend your entire life hating yourself because you'll always wonder if you could've been happier. Make the best of the situations thrown to you in life."
"You're talking from experience?" She asked boldly.
"Of course."
"Oh, sorry." The bell echoed off the walls but she didn't hurry. "Can I ask what got the principal so angry or is it private?"
"These."
At first she thought he had gestured at his ears and assumed that he was wearing earrings, something prohibited by school rules for both sexes. But her humorous grin disappeared when she realized he had pointed higher up on his skull. She chastised herself for not noticing the polished titanium sockets embedded into his skull. Though she couldn't really blame herself for not noticing since they were only the size of a thumbnail. And if the school was adamant about not allowing earrings their policy on sockets was even worse. So if Shinji had been accepted and not told about his operation the school could reverse their decision.
"Addicts rarely go through the expense of multiple sockets to feed their habits," he bluntly reassured her. "Nor do they buy the best doctors or equipment on the market."
- - - -
Touji Suzuhara was a passionate man, both his friends and enemies could attest to that facet of his personality. He routinely settled things with his fists instead of calmly figuring out the problem. He also had been labeled the class enforcer because of his fervent willingness to do anything for class representatives, something that hadn't been lost on the rest of the students. And it was that leap to action that caused a lot of headaches for him, his best friend and the class representative. Yet at the moment he wasn't enforcing any school or class rules instead it was something far more personal.
His zealous tendencies multiplied a hundred times when it involved his younger sister. He had been very protective of her before their mother's death and afterward he took even great pains in sheltering her. And he had failed just once in his duties over the years. That failure had caused almost as much damage to his sister as the funeral and he had never forgiven himself. He had also not forgotten who or what had caused his sister so much pain, and that was why Shinji was pinned to the wall.
Yet despite the hand on his throat, the smaller man didn't show any of the fear most had when confronted by Touji. Instead he simply stared at the bigger man with the calmest eyes the other had seen, and causing the enforcer to shiver. He remembered watching a film in class once on the subject of Terran sharks and had walked away impressed by the fish. But what he had never told anyone was that the eyes of the predators had disturbed him when they swam past the cameras. Those eyes reflected a cruel intelligence just waiting for the men to make a mistake in their presence. And Shinji's eyes held the same intelligence, albeit without the cruelty, as he waited for Touji to make the next move.
"Touji, your neck!"
The larger man turned and looked at his best friend. "What about it, Kensuke?"
"You're..." Kensuke didn't finish instead wiping a hand across his friend's neck and cried out.
Touji reached up and touched his own neck feeling a warm viscous liquid under his fingertips. He turned back to Shinji realizing why he had been so eerily calm during the proceedings. Carefully, he lowered his target to the ground and released his hold on him before backing away. It was only because of that action that he saw the minute twitch of Shinji's hand and a flash of light. He had never been in control since cornering the new student in the schoolyard. With that realization, he retreated dragging Kensuke behind him as they made their way back into the building and the school nurse.
"I see you met Touji and Kensuke."
Shinji turned to see Hikari step out from behind a copse of trees and make her way to him. The petite young woman looked at the beginning of bruises on his neck before sighing and sitting down at nearby table. He stood there unsure of his standing in her eyes and the school's as she efficiently laid out a lunch and gestured for him to join her. Sitting down, he briefly studied her seeing a hint of regret before turning his attention to the meal. Over the years, he had become quite an expert in spotting machine-produced food and meals. So he felt a little shocked that a real person had carefully prepared seeing everything before him.
"You made all of this."
The brunette blushed at the awe in his voice. "You don't have to try to impress me."
"I'm not." He laughed. "It's just that my own cooking skills are so inadequate that I could never approach what you've done."
"You can't be that bad," she stated. "I can always give you tips if you want."
"Maybe."
"Good. Now let's eat before lunch is over."
"You said something about meeting Touji and Kensuke earlier," Shinji said after they had been eating for a few minutes. "Did you expect something like that to happen?"
"Yeah, but not like that. Normally those two are so eager to meet the new people that we share lunch with the transfer." She placed her chopsticks on the table and picked up her drink. "It's not really your fault and I should've warned you, but it slipped my mind."
"They thought I was a buttonhead, or at least Touji did?" He didn't need her confirming nod to know that. "Did something...happen?"
Again came the curt acknowledgement. "Yes. About three years ago, a gang in the outskirts of town kidnapped Touji's sister.
"And they raped her?" This time it was a shake of the head. "Organ theft, torture, age accelerated her."
He kept listing the various illegal activities he had heard about through his contacts. With each one, Hikari grew as the saying went green around the gills but he hadn't touched on the correct one. He paused and had to search his memory for the most obscure thing he could think of, but again received a negative reply from the young woman. Finally, as he was about to speak she held up a hand and stopped him from uttering anything else.
"Please stop," she begged. "I know you're trying to help but do you really know what happens during some of those...activities?"
"Yes."
Hikari decided not to pursue that subject. "It wasn't anything that grotesque, but it was devastating to Touji's family." She swallowed and gathered her courage at his impatient stare. "They turned her into an addict at the age of twelve."
"I see."
- - - -
Misato came through the door of her apartment dead tired and simply wanting a beer followed by a long hot bath. What she got instead was a scene she had seen and participated in many times during her tour with the Corps. Strewn about the floor of her apartment were guns, uniforms, ammunition, holographic projectors, and other various instruments. And Shinji was lying in the middle of all the hardware ignorant of her presence with a laser-optic cable attached to each of his interface sockets.
Stepping over a plasma rifle, she made her way through the mess and bent over to inspect his face only to see an occasional twitch of his eyelids. Straightening, she sighed and walked into the kitchen and grabbed a six- pack of beer before sitting at the table. The week since he had arrived had been a time of adjustment for the both of them and she had thought they were doing okay. They had had a few arguments but she had expected that since receiving her orders. For so long, Shinji had lived on his own and by his own rules that forcing him into a subordinate position would've rankled him. She had decided she would allow him the space that he was used to, only enforcing the rules when he finally fell under her authority.
As she downed her second can of beer she toyed with the idea of jacking in and seeing what was occupying the man. But she quickly shot down that idea on several grounds ranging from professional to personal. The strongest decision not to interface with Shinji was mainly from a hardware point of view. It had been five years since her last upgrade and only one since Shinji's, and she didn't want to cause a disruption. Placing her beverage on the table, she rubbed at her temples while cursing herself under her breath.
"I need to get out more," she muttered.
"Why is that, Misato?"
She looked embarrassed as Shinji walked past the table and toward the cabinets to start pulling out ingredients. As she watched, he quickly put together the beginning of a small meal, the first time either of them had cooked in a week. A hint of jealously welled up inside her at how effortlessly he worked compared to her own efforts. But she got her jealously and embarrassment under control by the time he had placed the food in the oven and walked over to refrigerator. He pulled out a container of juice and soon joined her at the table with neither speaking.
"So how was school?" She asked after the silence had grown too thick.
He shrugged his shoulders. "School is school no matter what planet or system it takes place in."
"Meet anybody?" This time she was rewarded with an embarrassed look.
"Yeah."
Besides meeting Hikari, Touji and Kensuke his inbox had been full of messages from students in his homeroom and those that had witnessed his altercation during lunch. A majority of them had simply been the typical things sent to new students on their first days. A few had taken Touji's position of labeling him an addict and had warned that things could get rough if he stayed. The risqué messages from quite a few of the female students were the ones he had been least expecting.
Despite his profession that required him to seek out people, interact with others, and generally be outgoing he didn't make friends that easily. Rebecca and Kaname had sought him out and had made the first moves in their relationships. Others had become his friends once they saw he hadn't been a threat to them and seen how smart he was. But the girls at his new school baffled him and he briefly wondered if their parents knew of their other sides. A quiet cough brought him back to the present and he saw Misato with a goofy grin on her face, and groaned.
"So what were you doing when I came in?" She decided that she'd spare any embarrassment for the moment. "And what's with all the hardware in my living room?"
"I was doing some research and talking to my co-workers, who'll be jumping in early next week. As for the weapons-" Again he shrugged his shoulders. "I'll be going out later so don't wait up for me."
Misato narrowed her eyes, not having heard anything. "You got a new contract?"
"No. Just some surveillance of the local areas."
- - - -
Lying to people was part of the written job description of his profession and over the years he had become an expert. He felt slightly bad at lying to Misato about what he was doing that night since he thought she was really a nice person. But he hadn't wanted her either reporting his activities to his father or, it was remote, following him. And he didn't need an amateur, who could cause a shit-load of trouble, trailing behind him. Also he didn't want her following because some of the things he would be doing were outlawed.
It had been easy to break into the main Martian Ministry of Justice's mainframe and gather all relevant data on the gang he was looking for. He had found the cases labeled unsolved with no leads, though he found it odd that no one had put the pieces together. The gang's modus operandi and selection of targets should've put detectives in the general vicinity where they could've tracked down the criminals. So with that thought, he reached down and touched the heavy pistol at his hip reassured by the cool ceramics and metals.
For the last five hours, he had been purposely weaving his way through the main entertainment and shopping district of Olympus City. He had stopped no one or asked any questions instead letting his eyes and ears backed up by his liquid crystal guide his feet. It had always been a successful strategy on his other jobs and it didn't fail him in his current operation as he mapped the district. He had traced the outlines of places that were heavily enforced, areas that gang members would avoid like the plague. And every five minutes, his internal map had been updated with new data until he had narrowed it down to the spot he was standing at.
The intersection he was studying with a critical eye didn't look like a heavy crime area. There were no signs of gang graffiti nor were any of the lights broken above the clean streets. None of the surrounding buildings had any overt security meant to deter crime and they weren't the typical pawnshops surrounding such areas. But it was misleading, and Shinji quickly saw how things would've taken place once the criminals had found their target.
Four secondary streets from the district intersected at that one hub before they joined a tertiary transportation node. Maglev trains screamed into terminals every ten minutes while personal vehicles darted all over the place in the search for parking. Twelve banks of lift tubes carrying both cargo and people also served the entire area. All in all, it wouldn't take much to separate a person from their compatriots and transport them to a hideout, especially with the weak security.
Shinji grinned and stepped away from the building he had been leaning against and walked into the crowd. Abrupt movement drew the human eye to its location and that was what Shinji had been waiting for. So it was easy to spot the kidnapping as it took place right in front of an officer and maybe twenty feet from him. He never picked up his pace as they walked the girl past the lift tubes and maglev terminals into the darkness of the city's outskirts. With a mental command, he switched to night vision and locked onto the group with one of his programs. As long as he stayed within eyesight of the criminals and their target he would never lose them to the darkness or crowds.
For half an hour, he trailed them picking up his pace only when they picked up their own as they trotted down the streets. Again he grinned when they stepped into a poorly maintained building off the main streets with few residential units nearby. And his implant told him there was too much power usage for such a building for the current time. A mental command caused his civilian clothes to shimmer before becoming his normal work clothes with necessary weapons. Flipping the safety off on his carbine he strode toward the darkened building and his answers.
- - - -
A flip of his wrist caused a head to go flying in one direction while the headless corpse dropped in a pool of blood. Other such bodies littered the hideout attesting to his unwillingness to show mercy to the gangsters. To him they didn't deserve the title of human beings instead he labeled them as parasites and killed them appropriately. The kidnapped girl alternated between retching and screaming as she huddled in the near corner. His heavy pistol boomed when one addict lunged at him with a makeshift spear and was thrown backwards his guts spilling out a large hole. Replacing his pistol in its holster, he drew a small blade and made his way to a man at the far end of the room.
Shinji didn't know and didn't want to know how the operation he was busting could stay hidden from the authorities for so long. He hoped that the authorities were on the trails of the smugglers as he stared at the quantity and quality of stored medical supplies. Not only that but the labels on some of the storage bins hinted at state of the art implants, a massive loss no one could overlook. So it was with trepidation that he stopped in front of the sole survivor wondering if what he saw was reality.
"Here, you look you could use this."
Shinji looked up just as a cold can pressed against his forehead breaking him out of his reverie of the night. He stared at the beverage like he had never seen it before and the hand holding it shook. Looking up, he saw Misato standing in front him wearing jeans and a ragged T-shirt. Reaching up, he took the offered drink causing the violet-haired woman to smile and sit next to him. They sat there quietly drinking their drinks and watching the far sun slowly slide above the horizon.
"For someone who just got here you sure moved fast in leaving your mark," she finally commented. Getting no reply she continued. "Several high- ranking officers have staked out their careers in finding you. Of course, no one promised on following the trail of stolen goods or the files found on the computers." She paused taking a long swallow. "I thought you said that you didn't have a contract pending on Mars."
He pressed the cold can to his head. "I didn't."
"Fifty men are dead because..."
"They deserved to die!"
"Did they?"
Liquid sprayed from his hand as he violently crushed his drink at her statement. Misato watched with a critical eye while his emotions raged and knowing that his anger wasn't normal. It wasn't the first time she had seen someone react almost violently when questioned about their actions. She had gone through such motions before and helped the troops under her command cope. Sighing, she tossed her empty can and watched it arc through the air to land in a trash receptacle a few feet away.
"Did you have an anchor before?" she asked quietly.
"No," he answered emotionlessly.
Misato nodded. "A girlfriend perhaps."
"Two of them."
"Then they were your anchors. Helping you to keep from going off the deep end after a mission, right?" She didn't need to see his face to know her words had hit home. "It's nothing to be ashamed about, Shinji. I went through what you're feeling so many times that I lost count."
"When I first started do this kind of work I thought it was just a phase. But it still hurts so much. I feel like I'm going to puke, but I feel proud." He shook his head. "Does it ever go away?"
"Only when you stop killing, or grown used to killing. And if you've grown used to taking someone's life than it's too late." She pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "Want one?"
He waved a hand. "No thanks."
"Good choice. It's a nasty habit, but it's not like it'll kill me." Smoke jetted out into air. "So you want to tell me what happened."
Shinji was reluctant to tell Misato what had happened, but relented when he knew he'd found a kindred spirit. He started out slowly talking about day at school and all that had occurred at that time. Misato learned of his conversations with Hikari, the altercation with Touji and Kensuke, his research and surveillance. Finally he reached why he had did it and he found trouble putting it into words. But he finished his tale only to find Misato grinning almost insanely.
"You're father was right when he said your morals were both your strength and weakness."
"Actually he said my friends are my weaknesses," he corrected her.
"It doesn't matter." She reached out and squeezed his hand. "It's admirable that you decided to take revenge for a person you never met. And on top of that you did for the sister of the man who wanted to beat you up."
"Something still doesn't make sense."
Taking the tip of his blade, Shinji inserted it into a thin narrow aperture and twisted breaking the seal of the helmet. As the metal unsealed with hiss and fell to the ground he stepped back dropping the knife and grabbing his gun. The man's skin had a red tint, which he finally linked to LCL from the creature's smell. His scalp had been peeled back and the cables bored directly into the brain bypassing any sockets. More disturbing were the man's eyes when Shinji lifted the pistol to his forehead. They were completely empty of fear and held no signs of insanity normally associated with addicts, and then he smiled.
"Shinji Ikari, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," the creature's voice was clear and strong. "You're reputation proceeds you."
"How did you..."
"Your skills are very good, but clumsy to one who has been in the face for decades. By the way I am Shamshel."
"I don't care who you are," Shinji shot back. "I'm here to kill you, or don't you care?"
"It matters not whether I live or die," Shamshel stated. "And killing me will accomplish nothing. You have no idea of what you're getting yourself into boy."
"We'll see about that." With that, Shinji sent an irradiated bullet through bone and biological brain matter to fry the man's liquid crystal.
- - - -
"So you want to tell us what happened."
Shinji looked up from his meal and immediately went on guard at who was approaching. Hikari was in the lead holding her normal boxed meal, but it was who was following that put him on edge. Touji and Kensuke were a short distance behind the brunette carrying their lunches. Yet what made Shinji relax were the looks on their faces when the class representative sat down across from them. In fact, Touji wouldn't even meet his eyes as he sat next to Hikari while Kensuke sat on her other side.
"What makes you think anything's wro..."
The bounty hunter grinned when Touji cried out. "Nothing's wrong, Hikari."
"Then why are you so..." Her brows furrowed as she thought. "Subdued lately." She nervously opened her lunch. "You weren't exactly a conversationalist that first day but you didn't avoid people.
"Yeah, you were like an ice man on the first day," Kensuke piped in. "We thought you were going to be like the Ice Maiden."
"Kensuke! Don't talk about Miss Ayanami like that."
Learning that Rei was in the same class had come as quite the shock to Shinji, but he had gotten over it. Her cool personality that he had witnessed during the mission was in even greater effect at school. The few conversations they had had were short and always initiated by him. And then she had been absent from school the last half of the week and he hadn't been able to get anything from Misato. Yet her disappearance wasn't what had put him into his current state of melancholy. A grunt knocked him out his own world and he saw Touji glaring at Hikari who had an innocent look.
"You don't have to apologize," Shinji preempted. "I'd have done the same thing if our positions were reversed."
Touji shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "It can't work that way, Shinji."
"His sister chewed him out," Kensuke explained. "That's why he can't just let it go."
"You didn't have say that!" Touji's face was red but he finally met Shinji's eyes. "Look I was... wrong last week. I shouldn't have... tried beating you up without... getting to know you. I'm... sorry."
The two men studied each other before Shinji nodded. "Apology accepted, Mister Suzuhara."
With that the other three students were able to relax and started enjoying their lunches. Conversation easily flowed between Hikari and Shinji while Touji and Kensuke held their own discussions. Shinji noticed that the bigger man seemed almost hesitant when he spoke with Hikari and vice versa. He looked over to Kensuke and received a knowing smile, which confirmed his theories about the two not that he'd be able to do anything. But as the conversations and lunch drew to a close, Shinji became aware of all three nervously looking at him before Kensuke finally cleared his throat.
"I have my own ship," Shinji said beating him to the punch. "That's why I have these sockets and why I can't have them removed no matter what the school says."
"Your own ship," Kensuke whispered on the verge of drooling. "Damn, you're so lucky." He glanced at his friends who nodded. "But that wasn't what we're going to ask you about."
"Then..."
"Touji's sister wants to meet you and she won't take no for an answer."
- - - -
Yuri Suzuhara despite everything that had happened to her in her fourteen years of life had a positive outlook on everything. But at the moment she was completely scared of what she was going to learn. She had had her brother invite the new student over to their house in order to apologize for Touji's behavior. Shinji Ikari didn't frighten her like her kidnappers had he even went out of his ways to reassure her at times. Dinner had gone smoothly with her brother and his friends, but then Shinji had brought up something that exhilarated her.
He had said that he had brought a couple of co-workers with him and they were waiting outside. He had asked if he could invite them in and she had acquiesced knowing he had been speaking solely to her. The man and woman who had entered had sockets just like Mister Ikari, but for different purposes as she learned. They had slowly explained what they had learned from Shinji and his conversation with Hikari. The man and woman then went on to tell all present what they proposed to do if she agreed. Her brother had protested loudly until she had rested a hand on his arm and telling him to be silent. She had asked the duo what would happen if they found what they were looking for and they had told her.
And that was how she had ended up in her current situation with three other people floating around in her head. It was a weird sensation to say the least as at times it felt like she was in an enclosed space with others that she couldn't touch. At other times, she felt her body react to their probes in various embarrassing ways, something she had only felt in the privacy of her room. And at other periods she had felt her brother's presence, which had the effect of reassuring and amusing her. At times his thoughts centered on her wellbeing only to drift to images of Hikari, which was currently happening. But her smile evaporated when the presence of the three people disappeared.
She found the image of the living room to be both comforting and frightening as she slowly woke from her stupor. The feeling of having others in her head had been weird but almost reassuring in a strange way. It was like she wasn't alone in confronting the addiction that had been forced upon her. And as she blinked away the crust in her eyes the fear that they hadn't found anything reasserted itself upon her mind. Yuri gratefully accepted the class of water from Hikari and took small sips trying not to worry, and failing. The two scientists, she had put the label on them, were quietly talking among themselves and Shinji about what they had found. Finally they turned around and faced everyone in the room with blank face and she felt a surge of panic.
"Well, we have both good news and bad news," the woman, Maya Ibuki, said. "The good news is that we can repair the damage inflicted upon you and get rid of the implanted addiction."
Makoto Hyuga raised a hand. "The bad news is that it'll take sometime to... um... rewire Yuri's brain."
With a press of a key, Makoto projected a 3-D image into the middle of the room before anyone had a chance to talk. Various colors highlighted portions of Yuri's brain while columns of data scrolled past at incredible speeds. The only person besides Maya and Makoto that could interpret the information and come close to understanding it was Shinji. He knew what most of the data concerned since he had seen it all before his operation to receive his crystal and sockets. And he immediately understood what Makoto was taking about when the hologram stopped rotating and red lines appeared on the image.
"The nano-machines that the underground used are quite advanced yet simple in their own way," Maya began. "Unlike normal nano-technology, which are programmed to continuously reproduce until their programming is carried out these are the opposites. They slowly take over the victim's brain as per their internal programming but they have a limited life span, which is normal."
She paused and took a drink. "The difference is that as they die the survivors induce a subconscious desire on the part of the victim to search out a certain drug. This drug briefly overrides the death programming and the nano-machines reproduce. During this burst of reproduction, they go farther into the victim's brain. This has the effect of causing shorter life spans that in turn means the victim has to search out the drug sooner and so forth until they can't live without the drug. Once they are completely under control of the technology and drugs." Maya shrugged her shoulders. "I can't really tell you."
"And you learned all of that in-" Touji looked at the clock and was surprised. "Six hours of rummaging through my sister's head."
"Yes we did!" Maya snapped and looked like she was going to say more, but Hyuga's hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Unlike Shinji who still retains approximately sixty percent of his biological brain we only have twenty percent of ours left," Makoto said. "That means our liquid crystals are physically twice as big as his. Physical size doesn't really matter instead what's important is the processing power that is contained in our skulls, which is six times as fast as Shinji's." He smiled at the confused looks from the students. "What I'm trying to say is that Maya and I carry the equivalent of a second generation supercomputer capable of sixty billion computations per millisecond."
"So that means in the six hours since we started we mapped your sister's brain and everything that has been altered within. Also we isolated a sample of the nano-technology and forced it to give us its encrypted primary programming," Hyuga accepted the drink offered by Hikari. "Then we had to break the security surrounding it and understand what we were seeing. After that we had to run models on how the technology worked on the human brain. And once all those models were done running and we got the results we pulled out and here we are."
Touji rubbed his temples understanding very little of what had been said. "Stop, please. Just tell me the bad news without any long winded explanations."
"The first thing that we have to do is remove the offending nano- machines from your sister's body. Once that is done we have to introduce our own and have them repair the damage done to her." A quiet cough from Shinji had Maya looking disappointed. "It's going to take at least six months and maybe more to 'repair' your sister, Touji."
The man looked at the scientists before turning to stare at his sister and then began to laugh. "That's the bad news! I thought you were going to say..." Tears were streaming down his face but then he got serious. "I want to do it and I'll try to find a way to pay for it. But at the moment we can't afford it."
"It's not going to cost a thing," Shinji told everyone gathered.
- - - -
Misato lifted her head from her kitchen table when she heard the front door open. She got to her feet and walked into the living room at the same time as Shinji and they stared at each other. They both reached the same conclusion that the other looked like death warmed over. On Misato's part it was because of a night out on the town with Ritsuko and Aoba while Shinji's was from his visit to the Suzuhara residence. He attempted to walk down the hallway just behind Misato when a hand stopped him on his arm.
"A young woman by the name of Rebecca Miller called while you were out," she told. "Said that she was wondering why you hadn't made any attempt in contacting her."
She watched him nod his head before he pulled out of her grip and walked away from her. His door opening and closing was particularly loud in her ears, and it wasn't from her drinking. Since his personal vendetta and her talking about his uses of his girlfriends he had become more withdrawn. And she knew that he had been and was still going through all the past events spent with those girls for personal faults. He was questioning himself and his emotions, and whether he had simply been using Rebecca and Kaname instead of loving them. So it was with those thoughts that she strode to his door and slammed it open.
"I knew you were going to follow me." He said inviting her in.
His room was immaculate, a condition he took great pains in maintaining since moving in two weeks ago. All the tools of his trade were nowhere in sight while his desk held only his computer and its peripherals. There was an old fashioned stereo against one wall, but she didn't even know if he listened to it. She was surprised to see a cello case lying on the floor the musical instrument gleaming in the light. Nowhere in his files or their conversations had been any indication that he played am instrument. He noticed her gaze and walked over to the case and gently closed it before sitting at his desk.
"You're not going to call her."
"No," he answered. "I've been thinking, probably too much in too short amount of time. But I decided it'd be easier this way. Better to make a clean break of it than doing something I'll regret."
"Shinji..."
He smiled weakly. "Yes, I'm running away if you want to look at it that way. You know when we broke up she said the reason why we couldn't go on was because she was scared." Shinji lifted his head and stared at Misato. "She was scared that she'd wake up one day to hear that I'd been killed. We stayed friends even after our break up, but you know what."
"What?" she answered without conviction.
"When she comforted me the night before my transfer I felt no love coming from her." He looked back toward the floor. "She told me the words but there was nothing behind them. And as I thought this week about what you said, I realized that I had been doing the same. I was telling them I loved them and taking them to bed though I never meant the words."
"It's still wrong not to call her about your decision," she shot back.
"It's my life and I have to live with whatever happens in it."
Misato knew that nothing she could say would change his mind or conclusions he had drawn. She could say that he had overanalyzed his actions and those around him seeing things that hadn't been there. She could tell him that cutting things off without a valid reason caused more pain than it deflected. That he was hurting and feeling guilty was apparent but it could be coming from more than one source. So nothing that there was nothing she could do, Misato did what she normally did in such situations.
"So what were you doing at Touji's place?"
"Helping figure out what happened with his sister and then finding a way to correct it," he told her.
"I take it that you were successful."
He grinned. "The diagnostics is complete but the treatment has just started. It's going to take a few months to repair the damage done the underground." Shinji paused, gathering his thoughts. "Does the word SEELE ring any sort of bells, Misato?"
She shook her head. "Just that it's German for soul. Why do you ask, Shinji?"
"No reason."
- - - -
Gendo Ikari leaned back from the computer screen and frowned at what he had just seen. He really didn't care about his son or his actions, and he had no qualms about using him. It didn't matter to him that Shinji was a bounty hunter or how many people he bedded in his life. But it became his problem when his son became involved with things that didn't concern him. And the report he had just received from Captain Katsuragi justified him becoming an active participant in his son's life.
Pressing a key, he classified the report and secured it in a remote sector with others like it. Standing, he went over to the large armored viewports and stared down upon the red planet. For so long he had lorded over others holding their lives and livelihoods in his fingers like a cruel puppeteer. Controlling others had been his life until he had met Yui Ikari fifty years ago and fallen in real love. She and their son had changed his life for the positive until her death ten years ago. And since that day so long ago he had grown accustomed to the strings woven about him by others.
So he wasn't surprised when half an hour later a light began flashing on his desk interrupting his work. Gendo informed his secretary that he would be indisposed for the rest of the day and to cancel all appointments. He then placed a call to Fuyutsuki asking his subordinate to join him in his office. When the gray-haired gentleman finally stepped through the doors of the office both were prepared for what was going to happen.
The room disappeared and thirteen black monoliths quickly encircled his desk causing Gendo to smirk. Shinji must've caused enough trouble to upset the old men enough that they didn't want to show their faces. That assumption lasted mere seconds before the monoliths shifted into the visages of his controllers. But none of his anger or resentment was visible on his face as he stared at the leader of the council. Kihl Lorenz claimed to be the oldest living person alive, though he had done nothing to prove it.
But he didn't care about anyone's claim to be the oldest human being as the old men talked among themselves. He felt satisfied that his son had been able to throw the members of SEELE into such disarray with such ease. He didn't know how Shinji had done it, but he had taken out a major node of operations in a single night with no trouble. Of course that would change if or when the men before him figured out who had committed such an act of disrespect. The addition of sound gave him enough warning to bury his emotions and he was an empty shell when Kihl leaned forward.
"Some information has recently come to our attention concerning operations on Mars," Kihl began before glaring at Gendo.
"Mister Ikari, I would like to discuss your son and his recent actions."
* * * *
Five more characters enter the scene though I still have to flesh out a few the ones that were introduced in chapter 1. With SEELE showing up that just leaves Asuka and Kaji. Sadly they won't be showing up in the next chapter. What about the Angels you ask. They won't always be people or things; they might be names of operations like chapter 1 and such. If they show up at all.
Anyway, C&C is welcome at eva_pilot9@doramail.com
Red Horseman
* * * *
Water sleeps... but your enemies don't.
--Water Sleeps: A Black Company Novel
Book Three of Glittering Stone
* * * *
Hikari Horaki was the model class representative at her preparatory school. She knew when the hammer needed to fall on students and when a kind word or gesture would work. Some students would describe her as a strict disciplinarian, but they were the ones who felt they could slack off and received her wrath. Others would describe her a best friend, someone who was there for people when they needed a shoulder to lean on. But none of that mattered to the brunette as she picked up her pace to reach the administrative wing. The walk to the secured area gave her too much time to dwell on non-academic thoughts.
Her social life was stuck in neutral and if she didn't do something soon it would quickly shift into reverse. She knew she was good looking and had received many an offer for dates or one night stands. She had politely refused all of them even the ones for sex, though she had come close to hitting a couple guys. There was one person she had had her eyes on for a couple years, but she didn't know how he felt. Over the weekend, he had grudgingly accepted her request for him to accompany her to the mall and she had all but asked him if he wanted to go steady. And like all her other subtle hints, it had flown over his head without registering in the slightest. Some of her friends had told her to give up while others had said that she'd have to ask in blunt direct way.
With a shake of her head, she banished her worries over her private life and smoothed her skirt with one hand while triggering the door. She was surprised that except for a few people the normally bustling room was empty of teachers and administrators. One teacher rushed past her with a sympathetic look and dashed out the door while she made her way to the principal's office. Sliding her identification card through reader and registering with the school's computer, she hesitantly walked through the final door to her destination.
Hikari shivered as the men in the room broke their contest of wills at her entrance and focussed on her. The head administrator was agitated, his stony facade shattered something she had never seen him like in her entire time at the school. And if he was flustered, she briefly wondered if she even had a chance with whatever had caused him such discomfort. With that thought, she turned her attention to the other man in the room, and the obvious source of hostility in the room.
He was handsome in a rugged sort of way, she decided as she studied him with guarded eyes. The man looked like someone that could take care of himself and expected respect from others. Hikari blushed, feeling completely naked under his dark blue eyes as they traced over her body taking in every detail. Her cheeks burned hotter when he smiled, though she wondered if it was because he liked what he saw or something else. Whatever it she didn't have time to dwell on it as the principal cleared his throat getting her attention again.
"This is Shinji Ikari, a transfer student from Earth." He bit off the last word like a curse. "He's been assigned to your class so I'd appreciate it if you showed him around."
"That is completely unnecessary," Shinji told him.
The principal turned red. "She'll show you around and get you settled in. Is that understood, Mister Ikari?"
"Yes, sir."
- - - -
The walk out of the office and back into the main corridors of the school were tense and quiet for Hikari. Normally, a transfer student would be a break from the routine and a chance for her to get to know them. But with the tension that had filled the principal's office and his last outburst as they had left set her on edge. Transfer students no matter what their age always seemed to be full of nervous energy or quietly subdued but not this one. He was calmly walking next to her, unaffected by anything that had just happened or could happen. In fact, he had the air of boredom about him, like moving to a new planet and school wasn't something new to him.
Flipping open the old-fashioned hardcopies given to her by the secretary, she decided to concentrate on something else. And was caught unprepared for what was contained in his records. She felt a little jealous at his grades and accomplishments at his last school, and hoped that he wouldn't decide to run for her representative position. That was until she noticed his absenteeism record and wondered how someone who missed so much school could have grades like his. The pang of jealously returned when she flipped back to first page and saw what school he had attended.
All her life she had attended schools with strict discipline and teaching regimes never wondering if she had missed anything. But as she studied Shinji's record she felt that she had missed out on too much in her life. The vast majority of his grades had come from individual projects and experimentation with standardized tests representing a small fraction. She closed his records with a snap and couldn't help but sigh in resignation at how her life had turned out.
"Something the matter, Miss Horaki?" Shinji asked, fully aware of her actions.
"Just wondering about what could've been," she answered. "And don't call me Miss Horaki, I'm only nineteen years old."
He nodded though he wondered what her age had to do with anything then remembered Rebecca had been the same. It was like they didn't want to feel old though they hadn't reached a tenth of their potential biological age. The scientific community had reached three hundred as the longest a person could live if they never swapped bodies. And he knew he was digressing from what was relevant with the young woman.
"All right, Hikari." A gentle touch got her moving again. "As for what you said, I wouldn't dwell on it too much. You could spend your entire life hating yourself because you'll always wonder if you could've been happier. Make the best of the situations thrown to you in life."
"You're talking from experience?" She asked boldly.
"Of course."
"Oh, sorry." The bell echoed off the walls but she didn't hurry. "Can I ask what got the principal so angry or is it private?"
"These."
At first she thought he had gestured at his ears and assumed that he was wearing earrings, something prohibited by school rules for both sexes. But her humorous grin disappeared when she realized he had pointed higher up on his skull. She chastised herself for not noticing the polished titanium sockets embedded into his skull. Though she couldn't really blame herself for not noticing since they were only the size of a thumbnail. And if the school was adamant about not allowing earrings their policy on sockets was even worse. So if Shinji had been accepted and not told about his operation the school could reverse their decision.
"Addicts rarely go through the expense of multiple sockets to feed their habits," he bluntly reassured her. "Nor do they buy the best doctors or equipment on the market."
- - - -
Touji Suzuhara was a passionate man, both his friends and enemies could attest to that facet of his personality. He routinely settled things with his fists instead of calmly figuring out the problem. He also had been labeled the class enforcer because of his fervent willingness to do anything for class representatives, something that hadn't been lost on the rest of the students. And it was that leap to action that caused a lot of headaches for him, his best friend and the class representative. Yet at the moment he wasn't enforcing any school or class rules instead it was something far more personal.
His zealous tendencies multiplied a hundred times when it involved his younger sister. He had been very protective of her before their mother's death and afterward he took even great pains in sheltering her. And he had failed just once in his duties over the years. That failure had caused almost as much damage to his sister as the funeral and he had never forgiven himself. He had also not forgotten who or what had caused his sister so much pain, and that was why Shinji was pinned to the wall.
Yet despite the hand on his throat, the smaller man didn't show any of the fear most had when confronted by Touji. Instead he simply stared at the bigger man with the calmest eyes the other had seen, and causing the enforcer to shiver. He remembered watching a film in class once on the subject of Terran sharks and had walked away impressed by the fish. But what he had never told anyone was that the eyes of the predators had disturbed him when they swam past the cameras. Those eyes reflected a cruel intelligence just waiting for the men to make a mistake in their presence. And Shinji's eyes held the same intelligence, albeit without the cruelty, as he waited for Touji to make the next move.
"Touji, your neck!"
The larger man turned and looked at his best friend. "What about it, Kensuke?"
"You're..." Kensuke didn't finish instead wiping a hand across his friend's neck and cried out.
Touji reached up and touched his own neck feeling a warm viscous liquid under his fingertips. He turned back to Shinji realizing why he had been so eerily calm during the proceedings. Carefully, he lowered his target to the ground and released his hold on him before backing away. It was only because of that action that he saw the minute twitch of Shinji's hand and a flash of light. He had never been in control since cornering the new student in the schoolyard. With that realization, he retreated dragging Kensuke behind him as they made their way back into the building and the school nurse.
"I see you met Touji and Kensuke."
Shinji turned to see Hikari step out from behind a copse of trees and make her way to him. The petite young woman looked at the beginning of bruises on his neck before sighing and sitting down at nearby table. He stood there unsure of his standing in her eyes and the school's as she efficiently laid out a lunch and gestured for him to join her. Sitting down, he briefly studied her seeing a hint of regret before turning his attention to the meal. Over the years, he had become quite an expert in spotting machine-produced food and meals. So he felt a little shocked that a real person had carefully prepared seeing everything before him.
"You made all of this."
The brunette blushed at the awe in his voice. "You don't have to try to impress me."
"I'm not." He laughed. "It's just that my own cooking skills are so inadequate that I could never approach what you've done."
"You can't be that bad," she stated. "I can always give you tips if you want."
"Maybe."
"Good. Now let's eat before lunch is over."
"You said something about meeting Touji and Kensuke earlier," Shinji said after they had been eating for a few minutes. "Did you expect something like that to happen?"
"Yeah, but not like that. Normally those two are so eager to meet the new people that we share lunch with the transfer." She placed her chopsticks on the table and picked up her drink. "It's not really your fault and I should've warned you, but it slipped my mind."
"They thought I was a buttonhead, or at least Touji did?" He didn't need her confirming nod to know that. "Did something...happen?"
Again came the curt acknowledgement. "Yes. About three years ago, a gang in the outskirts of town kidnapped Touji's sister.
"And they raped her?" This time it was a shake of the head. "Organ theft, torture, age accelerated her."
He kept listing the various illegal activities he had heard about through his contacts. With each one, Hikari grew as the saying went green around the gills but he hadn't touched on the correct one. He paused and had to search his memory for the most obscure thing he could think of, but again received a negative reply from the young woman. Finally, as he was about to speak she held up a hand and stopped him from uttering anything else.
"Please stop," she begged. "I know you're trying to help but do you really know what happens during some of those...activities?"
"Yes."
Hikari decided not to pursue that subject. "It wasn't anything that grotesque, but it was devastating to Touji's family." She swallowed and gathered her courage at his impatient stare. "They turned her into an addict at the age of twelve."
"I see."
- - - -
Misato came through the door of her apartment dead tired and simply wanting a beer followed by a long hot bath. What she got instead was a scene she had seen and participated in many times during her tour with the Corps. Strewn about the floor of her apartment were guns, uniforms, ammunition, holographic projectors, and other various instruments. And Shinji was lying in the middle of all the hardware ignorant of her presence with a laser-optic cable attached to each of his interface sockets.
Stepping over a plasma rifle, she made her way through the mess and bent over to inspect his face only to see an occasional twitch of his eyelids. Straightening, she sighed and walked into the kitchen and grabbed a six- pack of beer before sitting at the table. The week since he had arrived had been a time of adjustment for the both of them and she had thought they were doing okay. They had had a few arguments but she had expected that since receiving her orders. For so long, Shinji had lived on his own and by his own rules that forcing him into a subordinate position would've rankled him. She had decided she would allow him the space that he was used to, only enforcing the rules when he finally fell under her authority.
As she downed her second can of beer she toyed with the idea of jacking in and seeing what was occupying the man. But she quickly shot down that idea on several grounds ranging from professional to personal. The strongest decision not to interface with Shinji was mainly from a hardware point of view. It had been five years since her last upgrade and only one since Shinji's, and she didn't want to cause a disruption. Placing her beverage on the table, she rubbed at her temples while cursing herself under her breath.
"I need to get out more," she muttered.
"Why is that, Misato?"
She looked embarrassed as Shinji walked past the table and toward the cabinets to start pulling out ingredients. As she watched, he quickly put together the beginning of a small meal, the first time either of them had cooked in a week. A hint of jealously welled up inside her at how effortlessly he worked compared to her own efforts. But she got her jealously and embarrassment under control by the time he had placed the food in the oven and walked over to refrigerator. He pulled out a container of juice and soon joined her at the table with neither speaking.
"So how was school?" She asked after the silence had grown too thick.
He shrugged his shoulders. "School is school no matter what planet or system it takes place in."
"Meet anybody?" This time she was rewarded with an embarrassed look.
"Yeah."
Besides meeting Hikari, Touji and Kensuke his inbox had been full of messages from students in his homeroom and those that had witnessed his altercation during lunch. A majority of them had simply been the typical things sent to new students on their first days. A few had taken Touji's position of labeling him an addict and had warned that things could get rough if he stayed. The risqué messages from quite a few of the female students were the ones he had been least expecting.
Despite his profession that required him to seek out people, interact with others, and generally be outgoing he didn't make friends that easily. Rebecca and Kaname had sought him out and had made the first moves in their relationships. Others had become his friends once they saw he hadn't been a threat to them and seen how smart he was. But the girls at his new school baffled him and he briefly wondered if their parents knew of their other sides. A quiet cough brought him back to the present and he saw Misato with a goofy grin on her face, and groaned.
"So what were you doing when I came in?" She decided that she'd spare any embarrassment for the moment. "And what's with all the hardware in my living room?"
"I was doing some research and talking to my co-workers, who'll be jumping in early next week. As for the weapons-" Again he shrugged his shoulders. "I'll be going out later so don't wait up for me."
Misato narrowed her eyes, not having heard anything. "You got a new contract?"
"No. Just some surveillance of the local areas."
- - - -
Lying to people was part of the written job description of his profession and over the years he had become an expert. He felt slightly bad at lying to Misato about what he was doing that night since he thought she was really a nice person. But he hadn't wanted her either reporting his activities to his father or, it was remote, following him. And he didn't need an amateur, who could cause a shit-load of trouble, trailing behind him. Also he didn't want her following because some of the things he would be doing were outlawed.
It had been easy to break into the main Martian Ministry of Justice's mainframe and gather all relevant data on the gang he was looking for. He had found the cases labeled unsolved with no leads, though he found it odd that no one had put the pieces together. The gang's modus operandi and selection of targets should've put detectives in the general vicinity where they could've tracked down the criminals. So with that thought, he reached down and touched the heavy pistol at his hip reassured by the cool ceramics and metals.
For the last five hours, he had been purposely weaving his way through the main entertainment and shopping district of Olympus City. He had stopped no one or asked any questions instead letting his eyes and ears backed up by his liquid crystal guide his feet. It had always been a successful strategy on his other jobs and it didn't fail him in his current operation as he mapped the district. He had traced the outlines of places that were heavily enforced, areas that gang members would avoid like the plague. And every five minutes, his internal map had been updated with new data until he had narrowed it down to the spot he was standing at.
The intersection he was studying with a critical eye didn't look like a heavy crime area. There were no signs of gang graffiti nor were any of the lights broken above the clean streets. None of the surrounding buildings had any overt security meant to deter crime and they weren't the typical pawnshops surrounding such areas. But it was misleading, and Shinji quickly saw how things would've taken place once the criminals had found their target.
Four secondary streets from the district intersected at that one hub before they joined a tertiary transportation node. Maglev trains screamed into terminals every ten minutes while personal vehicles darted all over the place in the search for parking. Twelve banks of lift tubes carrying both cargo and people also served the entire area. All in all, it wouldn't take much to separate a person from their compatriots and transport them to a hideout, especially with the weak security.
Shinji grinned and stepped away from the building he had been leaning against and walked into the crowd. Abrupt movement drew the human eye to its location and that was what Shinji had been waiting for. So it was easy to spot the kidnapping as it took place right in front of an officer and maybe twenty feet from him. He never picked up his pace as they walked the girl past the lift tubes and maglev terminals into the darkness of the city's outskirts. With a mental command, he switched to night vision and locked onto the group with one of his programs. As long as he stayed within eyesight of the criminals and their target he would never lose them to the darkness or crowds.
For half an hour, he trailed them picking up his pace only when they picked up their own as they trotted down the streets. Again he grinned when they stepped into a poorly maintained building off the main streets with few residential units nearby. And his implant told him there was too much power usage for such a building for the current time. A mental command caused his civilian clothes to shimmer before becoming his normal work clothes with necessary weapons. Flipping the safety off on his carbine he strode toward the darkened building and his answers.
- - - -
A flip of his wrist caused a head to go flying in one direction while the headless corpse dropped in a pool of blood. Other such bodies littered the hideout attesting to his unwillingness to show mercy to the gangsters. To him they didn't deserve the title of human beings instead he labeled them as parasites and killed them appropriately. The kidnapped girl alternated between retching and screaming as she huddled in the near corner. His heavy pistol boomed when one addict lunged at him with a makeshift spear and was thrown backwards his guts spilling out a large hole. Replacing his pistol in its holster, he drew a small blade and made his way to a man at the far end of the room.
Shinji didn't know and didn't want to know how the operation he was busting could stay hidden from the authorities for so long. He hoped that the authorities were on the trails of the smugglers as he stared at the quantity and quality of stored medical supplies. Not only that but the labels on some of the storage bins hinted at state of the art implants, a massive loss no one could overlook. So it was with trepidation that he stopped in front of the sole survivor wondering if what he saw was reality.
"Here, you look you could use this."
Shinji looked up just as a cold can pressed against his forehead breaking him out of his reverie of the night. He stared at the beverage like he had never seen it before and the hand holding it shook. Looking up, he saw Misato standing in front him wearing jeans and a ragged T-shirt. Reaching up, he took the offered drink causing the violet-haired woman to smile and sit next to him. They sat there quietly drinking their drinks and watching the far sun slowly slide above the horizon.
"For someone who just got here you sure moved fast in leaving your mark," she finally commented. Getting no reply she continued. "Several high- ranking officers have staked out their careers in finding you. Of course, no one promised on following the trail of stolen goods or the files found on the computers." She paused taking a long swallow. "I thought you said that you didn't have a contract pending on Mars."
He pressed the cold can to his head. "I didn't."
"Fifty men are dead because..."
"They deserved to die!"
"Did they?"
Liquid sprayed from his hand as he violently crushed his drink at her statement. Misato watched with a critical eye while his emotions raged and knowing that his anger wasn't normal. It wasn't the first time she had seen someone react almost violently when questioned about their actions. She had gone through such motions before and helped the troops under her command cope. Sighing, she tossed her empty can and watched it arc through the air to land in a trash receptacle a few feet away.
"Did you have an anchor before?" she asked quietly.
"No," he answered emotionlessly.
Misato nodded. "A girlfriend perhaps."
"Two of them."
"Then they were your anchors. Helping you to keep from going off the deep end after a mission, right?" She didn't need to see his face to know her words had hit home. "It's nothing to be ashamed about, Shinji. I went through what you're feeling so many times that I lost count."
"When I first started do this kind of work I thought it was just a phase. But it still hurts so much. I feel like I'm going to puke, but I feel proud." He shook his head. "Does it ever go away?"
"Only when you stop killing, or grown used to killing. And if you've grown used to taking someone's life than it's too late." She pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "Want one?"
He waved a hand. "No thanks."
"Good choice. It's a nasty habit, but it's not like it'll kill me." Smoke jetted out into air. "So you want to tell me what happened."
Shinji was reluctant to tell Misato what had happened, but relented when he knew he'd found a kindred spirit. He started out slowly talking about day at school and all that had occurred at that time. Misato learned of his conversations with Hikari, the altercation with Touji and Kensuke, his research and surveillance. Finally he reached why he had did it and he found trouble putting it into words. But he finished his tale only to find Misato grinning almost insanely.
"You're father was right when he said your morals were both your strength and weakness."
"Actually he said my friends are my weaknesses," he corrected her.
"It doesn't matter." She reached out and squeezed his hand. "It's admirable that you decided to take revenge for a person you never met. And on top of that you did for the sister of the man who wanted to beat you up."
"Something still doesn't make sense."
Taking the tip of his blade, Shinji inserted it into a thin narrow aperture and twisted breaking the seal of the helmet. As the metal unsealed with hiss and fell to the ground he stepped back dropping the knife and grabbing his gun. The man's skin had a red tint, which he finally linked to LCL from the creature's smell. His scalp had been peeled back and the cables bored directly into the brain bypassing any sockets. More disturbing were the man's eyes when Shinji lifted the pistol to his forehead. They were completely empty of fear and held no signs of insanity normally associated with addicts, and then he smiled.
"Shinji Ikari, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," the creature's voice was clear and strong. "You're reputation proceeds you."
"How did you..."
"Your skills are very good, but clumsy to one who has been in the face for decades. By the way I am Shamshel."
"I don't care who you are," Shinji shot back. "I'm here to kill you, or don't you care?"
"It matters not whether I live or die," Shamshel stated. "And killing me will accomplish nothing. You have no idea of what you're getting yourself into boy."
"We'll see about that." With that, Shinji sent an irradiated bullet through bone and biological brain matter to fry the man's liquid crystal.
- - - -
"So you want to tell us what happened."
Shinji looked up from his meal and immediately went on guard at who was approaching. Hikari was in the lead holding her normal boxed meal, but it was who was following that put him on edge. Touji and Kensuke were a short distance behind the brunette carrying their lunches. Yet what made Shinji relax were the looks on their faces when the class representative sat down across from them. In fact, Touji wouldn't even meet his eyes as he sat next to Hikari while Kensuke sat on her other side.
"What makes you think anything's wro..."
The bounty hunter grinned when Touji cried out. "Nothing's wrong, Hikari."
"Then why are you so..." Her brows furrowed as she thought. "Subdued lately." She nervously opened her lunch. "You weren't exactly a conversationalist that first day but you didn't avoid people.
"Yeah, you were like an ice man on the first day," Kensuke piped in. "We thought you were going to be like the Ice Maiden."
"Kensuke! Don't talk about Miss Ayanami like that."
Learning that Rei was in the same class had come as quite the shock to Shinji, but he had gotten over it. Her cool personality that he had witnessed during the mission was in even greater effect at school. The few conversations they had had were short and always initiated by him. And then she had been absent from school the last half of the week and he hadn't been able to get anything from Misato. Yet her disappearance wasn't what had put him into his current state of melancholy. A grunt knocked him out his own world and he saw Touji glaring at Hikari who had an innocent look.
"You don't have to apologize," Shinji preempted. "I'd have done the same thing if our positions were reversed."
Touji shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "It can't work that way, Shinji."
"His sister chewed him out," Kensuke explained. "That's why he can't just let it go."
"You didn't have say that!" Touji's face was red but he finally met Shinji's eyes. "Look I was... wrong last week. I shouldn't have... tried beating you up without... getting to know you. I'm... sorry."
The two men studied each other before Shinji nodded. "Apology accepted, Mister Suzuhara."
With that the other three students were able to relax and started enjoying their lunches. Conversation easily flowed between Hikari and Shinji while Touji and Kensuke held their own discussions. Shinji noticed that the bigger man seemed almost hesitant when he spoke with Hikari and vice versa. He looked over to Kensuke and received a knowing smile, which confirmed his theories about the two not that he'd be able to do anything. But as the conversations and lunch drew to a close, Shinji became aware of all three nervously looking at him before Kensuke finally cleared his throat.
"I have my own ship," Shinji said beating him to the punch. "That's why I have these sockets and why I can't have them removed no matter what the school says."
"Your own ship," Kensuke whispered on the verge of drooling. "Damn, you're so lucky." He glanced at his friends who nodded. "But that wasn't what we're going to ask you about."
"Then..."
"Touji's sister wants to meet you and she won't take no for an answer."
- - - -
Yuri Suzuhara despite everything that had happened to her in her fourteen years of life had a positive outlook on everything. But at the moment she was completely scared of what she was going to learn. She had had her brother invite the new student over to their house in order to apologize for Touji's behavior. Shinji Ikari didn't frighten her like her kidnappers had he even went out of his ways to reassure her at times. Dinner had gone smoothly with her brother and his friends, but then Shinji had brought up something that exhilarated her.
He had said that he had brought a couple of co-workers with him and they were waiting outside. He had asked if he could invite them in and she had acquiesced knowing he had been speaking solely to her. The man and woman who had entered had sockets just like Mister Ikari, but for different purposes as she learned. They had slowly explained what they had learned from Shinji and his conversation with Hikari. The man and woman then went on to tell all present what they proposed to do if she agreed. Her brother had protested loudly until she had rested a hand on his arm and telling him to be silent. She had asked the duo what would happen if they found what they were looking for and they had told her.
And that was how she had ended up in her current situation with three other people floating around in her head. It was a weird sensation to say the least as at times it felt like she was in an enclosed space with others that she couldn't touch. At other times, she felt her body react to their probes in various embarrassing ways, something she had only felt in the privacy of her room. And at other periods she had felt her brother's presence, which had the effect of reassuring and amusing her. At times his thoughts centered on her wellbeing only to drift to images of Hikari, which was currently happening. But her smile evaporated when the presence of the three people disappeared.
She found the image of the living room to be both comforting and frightening as she slowly woke from her stupor. The feeling of having others in her head had been weird but almost reassuring in a strange way. It was like she wasn't alone in confronting the addiction that had been forced upon her. And as she blinked away the crust in her eyes the fear that they hadn't found anything reasserted itself upon her mind. Yuri gratefully accepted the class of water from Hikari and took small sips trying not to worry, and failing. The two scientists, she had put the label on them, were quietly talking among themselves and Shinji about what they had found. Finally they turned around and faced everyone in the room with blank face and she felt a surge of panic.
"Well, we have both good news and bad news," the woman, Maya Ibuki, said. "The good news is that we can repair the damage inflicted upon you and get rid of the implanted addiction."
Makoto Hyuga raised a hand. "The bad news is that it'll take sometime to... um... rewire Yuri's brain."
With a press of a key, Makoto projected a 3-D image into the middle of the room before anyone had a chance to talk. Various colors highlighted portions of Yuri's brain while columns of data scrolled past at incredible speeds. The only person besides Maya and Makoto that could interpret the information and come close to understanding it was Shinji. He knew what most of the data concerned since he had seen it all before his operation to receive his crystal and sockets. And he immediately understood what Makoto was taking about when the hologram stopped rotating and red lines appeared on the image.
"The nano-machines that the underground used are quite advanced yet simple in their own way," Maya began. "Unlike normal nano-technology, which are programmed to continuously reproduce until their programming is carried out these are the opposites. They slowly take over the victim's brain as per their internal programming but they have a limited life span, which is normal."
She paused and took a drink. "The difference is that as they die the survivors induce a subconscious desire on the part of the victim to search out a certain drug. This drug briefly overrides the death programming and the nano-machines reproduce. During this burst of reproduction, they go farther into the victim's brain. This has the effect of causing shorter life spans that in turn means the victim has to search out the drug sooner and so forth until they can't live without the drug. Once they are completely under control of the technology and drugs." Maya shrugged her shoulders. "I can't really tell you."
"And you learned all of that in-" Touji looked at the clock and was surprised. "Six hours of rummaging through my sister's head."
"Yes we did!" Maya snapped and looked like she was going to say more, but Hyuga's hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"Unlike Shinji who still retains approximately sixty percent of his biological brain we only have twenty percent of ours left," Makoto said. "That means our liquid crystals are physically twice as big as his. Physical size doesn't really matter instead what's important is the processing power that is contained in our skulls, which is six times as fast as Shinji's." He smiled at the confused looks from the students. "What I'm trying to say is that Maya and I carry the equivalent of a second generation supercomputer capable of sixty billion computations per millisecond."
"So that means in the six hours since we started we mapped your sister's brain and everything that has been altered within. Also we isolated a sample of the nano-technology and forced it to give us its encrypted primary programming," Hyuga accepted the drink offered by Hikari. "Then we had to break the security surrounding it and understand what we were seeing. After that we had to run models on how the technology worked on the human brain. And once all those models were done running and we got the results we pulled out and here we are."
Touji rubbed his temples understanding very little of what had been said. "Stop, please. Just tell me the bad news without any long winded explanations."
"The first thing that we have to do is remove the offending nano- machines from your sister's body. Once that is done we have to introduce our own and have them repair the damage done to her." A quiet cough from Shinji had Maya looking disappointed. "It's going to take at least six months and maybe more to 'repair' your sister, Touji."
The man looked at the scientists before turning to stare at his sister and then began to laugh. "That's the bad news! I thought you were going to say..." Tears were streaming down his face but then he got serious. "I want to do it and I'll try to find a way to pay for it. But at the moment we can't afford it."
"It's not going to cost a thing," Shinji told everyone gathered.
- - - -
Misato lifted her head from her kitchen table when she heard the front door open. She got to her feet and walked into the living room at the same time as Shinji and they stared at each other. They both reached the same conclusion that the other looked like death warmed over. On Misato's part it was because of a night out on the town with Ritsuko and Aoba while Shinji's was from his visit to the Suzuhara residence. He attempted to walk down the hallway just behind Misato when a hand stopped him on his arm.
"A young woman by the name of Rebecca Miller called while you were out," she told. "Said that she was wondering why you hadn't made any attempt in contacting her."
She watched him nod his head before he pulled out of her grip and walked away from her. His door opening and closing was particularly loud in her ears, and it wasn't from her drinking. Since his personal vendetta and her talking about his uses of his girlfriends he had become more withdrawn. And she knew that he had been and was still going through all the past events spent with those girls for personal faults. He was questioning himself and his emotions, and whether he had simply been using Rebecca and Kaname instead of loving them. So it was with those thoughts that she strode to his door and slammed it open.
"I knew you were going to follow me." He said inviting her in.
His room was immaculate, a condition he took great pains in maintaining since moving in two weeks ago. All the tools of his trade were nowhere in sight while his desk held only his computer and its peripherals. There was an old fashioned stereo against one wall, but she didn't even know if he listened to it. She was surprised to see a cello case lying on the floor the musical instrument gleaming in the light. Nowhere in his files or their conversations had been any indication that he played am instrument. He noticed her gaze and walked over to the case and gently closed it before sitting at his desk.
"You're not going to call her."
"No," he answered. "I've been thinking, probably too much in too short amount of time. But I decided it'd be easier this way. Better to make a clean break of it than doing something I'll regret."
"Shinji..."
He smiled weakly. "Yes, I'm running away if you want to look at it that way. You know when we broke up she said the reason why we couldn't go on was because she was scared." Shinji lifted his head and stared at Misato. "She was scared that she'd wake up one day to hear that I'd been killed. We stayed friends even after our break up, but you know what."
"What?" she answered without conviction.
"When she comforted me the night before my transfer I felt no love coming from her." He looked back toward the floor. "She told me the words but there was nothing behind them. And as I thought this week about what you said, I realized that I had been doing the same. I was telling them I loved them and taking them to bed though I never meant the words."
"It's still wrong not to call her about your decision," she shot back.
"It's my life and I have to live with whatever happens in it."
Misato knew that nothing she could say would change his mind or conclusions he had drawn. She could say that he had overanalyzed his actions and those around him seeing things that hadn't been there. She could tell him that cutting things off without a valid reason caused more pain than it deflected. That he was hurting and feeling guilty was apparent but it could be coming from more than one source. So nothing that there was nothing she could do, Misato did what she normally did in such situations.
"So what were you doing at Touji's place?"
"Helping figure out what happened with his sister and then finding a way to correct it," he told her.
"I take it that you were successful."
He grinned. "The diagnostics is complete but the treatment has just started. It's going to take a few months to repair the damage done the underground." Shinji paused, gathering his thoughts. "Does the word SEELE ring any sort of bells, Misato?"
She shook her head. "Just that it's German for soul. Why do you ask, Shinji?"
"No reason."
- - - -
Gendo Ikari leaned back from the computer screen and frowned at what he had just seen. He really didn't care about his son or his actions, and he had no qualms about using him. It didn't matter to him that Shinji was a bounty hunter or how many people he bedded in his life. But it became his problem when his son became involved with things that didn't concern him. And the report he had just received from Captain Katsuragi justified him becoming an active participant in his son's life.
Pressing a key, he classified the report and secured it in a remote sector with others like it. Standing, he went over to the large armored viewports and stared down upon the red planet. For so long he had lorded over others holding their lives and livelihoods in his fingers like a cruel puppeteer. Controlling others had been his life until he had met Yui Ikari fifty years ago and fallen in real love. She and their son had changed his life for the positive until her death ten years ago. And since that day so long ago he had grown accustomed to the strings woven about him by others.
So he wasn't surprised when half an hour later a light began flashing on his desk interrupting his work. Gendo informed his secretary that he would be indisposed for the rest of the day and to cancel all appointments. He then placed a call to Fuyutsuki asking his subordinate to join him in his office. When the gray-haired gentleman finally stepped through the doors of the office both were prepared for what was going to happen.
The room disappeared and thirteen black monoliths quickly encircled his desk causing Gendo to smirk. Shinji must've caused enough trouble to upset the old men enough that they didn't want to show their faces. That assumption lasted mere seconds before the monoliths shifted into the visages of his controllers. But none of his anger or resentment was visible on his face as he stared at the leader of the council. Kihl Lorenz claimed to be the oldest living person alive, though he had done nothing to prove it.
But he didn't care about anyone's claim to be the oldest human being as the old men talked among themselves. He felt satisfied that his son had been able to throw the members of SEELE into such disarray with such ease. He didn't know how Shinji had done it, but he had taken out a major node of operations in a single night with no trouble. Of course that would change if or when the men before him figured out who had committed such an act of disrespect. The addition of sound gave him enough warning to bury his emotions and he was an empty shell when Kihl leaned forward.
"Some information has recently come to our attention concerning operations on Mars," Kihl began before glaring at Gendo.
"Mister Ikari, I would like to discuss your son and his recent actions."
* * * *
Five more characters enter the scene though I still have to flesh out a few the ones that were introduced in chapter 1. With SEELE showing up that just leaves Asuka and Kaji. Sadly they won't be showing up in the next chapter. What about the Angels you ask. They won't always be people or things; they might be names of operations like chapter 1 and such. If they show up at all.
Anyway, C&C is welcome at eva_pilot9@doramail.com