Author's Notes- Okay, completely new chapter, spliced together from pieces cut from the last chapter and the beginning of the next chapter. The chapter title itself is temporary, until I find my songlist, which I seem to have misplaced. I added/split this chapter because the original was too long, and I wanted to make some changes after reading the reviews from the previous chapter. Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed. Your input is important to me and does influence the course of the fic. Remember, reviewing is just like voting, except I don't hold recall elections .
Disclaimer- I do not own Evangelion or Jekyll and Hyde.
Asuka waited outside for Hikari, holding the lunch she had made for herself that morning. It was the second day that Shinji had been absent from school. She hadn't seen him since the night after the battle with the thirteenth Angel, and his bed had not been slept in since then. She knew he had been back the night before, taking things that he needed, but he hadn't left.
At least not yet. He was only coming back when no one was home. Asuka had left the door unlocked the morning before, almost on accident. She had remembered it a few seconds after leaving, but had restrained from locking the door. But he was not going to leave without giving her a chance to have another talk with him.
She had made sure of that.
Right now she was content to wait until he decided he was ready to grow a spine and face her. She knew he wouldn't leave without taking his wallet and S-DAT player with him. They were both there when she woke the morning after he had left, and though he had been back in the apartment, he hadn't taken them.
No, he couldn't take it when she kept it with her whenever she had to leave the apartment. That had been a stroke of genius on her part. Though she had found herself running her fingers over the switches of the small player absentmindedly lately.
Asuka hadn't listened to what was on the tape. She didn't care to know what kind of music Shinji listened to, though she tried to guess. Probably soft soothing music. Old classical music, the kind they put on those crappy relaxation tapes because there were no royalties to be paid out. Boring music. Nothing with a halfway decent beat or vocals, if any of his music had vocals. She could see Shinji preferring purely instrumental music.
Then again, she could have be mistaken. Shinji could be listening to anything with those earbuds of his. He might be listening to rock, or pop music. Hell, he could be listening to Scottish bagpipes for all she knew.
She was tempted to go back to the classroom and grab the player, just to listen to a few seconds of music and confirm her hypothesis, but resisted the urge. Right now she just wanted to sit down and eat lunch with Hikari and get her mind off anything Shinji-related for a few minutes.
But after waiting for Hikari for half of the lunch period, she got impatient. She finally found Hikari in the classroom, still sitting at her desk, playing with the rice in her uneaten bento.
"Hey Hikari. You alright?"
"What?" Hikari said looking up from her bento and finally noticing Asuka. "Oh, sorry Asuka, I forgot you were waiting."
"Meh, its no big deal." Asuka said brushing off the apology. "But what's up with you lately? You've been completely zoned out the last two days. You didn't even notice when the teacher showed up."
"I just didn't get much sleep last night," Hikari explained. "I had too much on my mind."
"Is this about that ape, Suzuhara?" Asuka asked. She knew it was a bad idea to tell her that Touji got hurt, but she would have worried about him even if she hadn't found out, so it was better that she knew the truth.
"Asuka, that's not nice," she scolded. "You'd see that Touji is a very nice guy if you'd just give him a chance."
"Oh yes, nice." Asuka scoffed. "Trust me, you don't want to know what kind of a first impression he leaves behind."
"I've known him longer than you have, Asuka. He's just… impulsive. He does stupid things without thinking about them first sometimes."
"Yeah, yeah." Asuka realized she wasn't going to get through to her friend, and that putting down Suzuhara wasn't helping things. "You really are worried about him, aren't you?"
"Its… Its just not knowing how he's doing, that's all," Hikari said. "You haven't heard anything new?"
"Hey, if I knew anything, you'd be the first to hear about it. And no news is supposed to be good news" That did little to help Hikari's mood. Asuka sighed and pulled out her cell phone.
"I still don't know what you see in that stooge," she said, "but lets see what we can do."
Asuka quickly called Misato, who had been release from the hospital the day after Shinji had taken off. She had been spending much of her time at Nerv coordinating Section Two agents in searching the city for him. Despite the Commander's disapproval of her waste of Nerv resources, he allowed her to continue the search, even if it was only to placate her.
Asuka didn't have to wait long, as Misato picked up on the first ring
"Misato? Yeah we just started lunch." She frowned as Misato asked her about Shinji. "No, he didn't show up."
"Look, Misato I'm here with Hikari right now, and we were wondering, have you heard anything new about Touji?"
"That's great news Misato," she turned to Hikari. "Misato said he's awake and the doctors are looking him over this morning.
"What? Sorry Misato, I didn't catch that last part. Uh huh. Okay. Sure I'll ask her."
"What is it?" Hikari asked.
"Misato wants to know if you'd like to see him to day after school."
Hikari could barely contain her enthusiasm. "Yes! Well, if its not a problem. I mean, It would give me a chance to bring him all the assignments he's missed."
"Sure Hikari." Asuka said with a smirk. "I'm sure the stooge will really appreciate you caring so much about his academic performance. Misato? Yeah she says she'd love to."
Unfortunately, by calling Misato and asking about the stooge, Asuka effectively volunteered to accompany Hikari to see him.
Misato met them at the main gate, looking much less frazzled than she had when Asuka last saw her, though it was still strange to see her arm in a cast. Hikari, ever polite, asked Misato how she was doing, Misato answering that she would feel better after she was able to go home and relax.
Asuka mentally translated 'relax' as 'grab a beer… or twelve'.
While Misato went with Hikari to get a visitor's badge, she had Asuka go on ahead to Suzuhara's room to check in on him and tell him they would be there soon. She knocked on the door, and heard Suzuhara shout, "Come in."
She pushed open the door. Inside, Touji was sitting up in his bed, reading a sports magazine. He hadn't looked up yet, too engrossed in whatever he was reading. Probably just looking at the pictures, Asuka though, though she restrained from voicing the remark.
Okay, Asuka thought, he hasn't done anything stupid…yet. You can afford to be nice to him this once. Just remember, your doing this for Hikari.
She closed the door behind her. "Hey stooge, how're you feeling?"
Sheisse! Well, maybe he won't notice the insult.
"Not bad at all, gorgeous," Touji said with a smirk, putting down his magazine. "They say I should be out of here in a couple of days"
Twitch. Gorgeous? Not that she couldn't understand, what with her stunning good looks and all, but the jock would never call her gorgeous, especially when it guaranteed a first-class ticket to pain central. Unless…"Okay, what kind of drugs have they got you on?"
"I have no idea, but they must be good, cause I feel great," he grinned. "So? Where's my get-well kiss?"
"What?!" Okay, screw polite. Drugs or no drugs, the idiot had just crossed the line. "What did you just ask me, stooge?!"
"Well, I have been sitting here alone this whole time, I thought the least I could get was a kiss from my girlfriend."
"What the hell?! Girlfriend?!?" She shook her fist over his head menacingly. "Did you actually damage that lump of rock you call a brain?"
"Ummm… yeah." He answered awkwardly, ducking to distance himself .
Oh crap, I was only joking, she thought, only now really taking note of the bandages wrapped around Suzuhara's head. She knew he got shook up pretty bad in the last battle, but she had no idea his injuries had been this serious. Why hadn't Misato told them? Oh no… How was she going to break it to Hikari? And Shinji? Shinji would probably blame himself for the whole stupid thing.
"Sorry," Touji said, grinning innocently. "The nurse said that a girl was coming to see me and I just assumed she would be my girlfriend, especially when I saw how damn hot you are."
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not," Asuka said, still feeling a little flattered by Suzuhara's words, though she was not going to show it. "And what would give you the impression that I was your girlfriend anyways. You think you could possibly have a snowball's chance in Hell with me?"
"Well, you did take the time to come and see me, and you are the only one to visit me so far." He said that last bit with a disappointed frown. "I would have thought more of my friends would have been by to see me."
Asuka kept back a cutting remark about the number of friends Suzuhara had. A long, awkward silence passed before Asuka spoke up.
"Hey, I'm sure they all wanted to, but this is a military facility," Asuka said trying to cheer up the depressed jock and wondering where Hikari was. "Its kind of hard to just casually walk in here."
"But you went through all the trouble for me?" he said grinning childishly. "How sweet of you."
Asuka turned away, looking at her reflection in the mirror over the sink on the wall opposite from Touji's bed. Ok Asuka, just stay calm. Breath in, breath out, breath in… Crap, she couldn't keep this up forever. She had no reason to talk to Suzuhara, even when he had all his marbles with him. She had no idea what she was supposed to say to him now, especially when he was trying to flirt with her. Where the hell are Misato and Hikari?
. . .
Hikari was beginning to wonder what was taking Major Katsuragi so long. She had said she would be right back with that visitor's badge, but it had been several minutes already. She nervously drummed her fingers together in her lap. Misato had told her to wait, but she was a little apprehensive about Asuka and Touji being alone together for so long. She was already nervous enough about seeing him.
That, and sitting alone in the hallway was starting to make her uneasy. It was far too quiet, and colder than she would have liked. She hadn't seen anyone at all since Misato had left her there.
She walked over to the nurses station. Maybe if she asked politely they would let her in to see Touji without the visitor's badge. If not, then she could at least warn the nurse to have some extra bandages ready. She looked around for one of the nurses, but after a few moments of seeing no one, Hikari peered behind the counter. "Um, excuse me?"
There was no one behind the counter.
Maybe it was the cold of the hallway, or the hollow echo of her own voice off the empty walls, or maybe the product of too many nights watching her sisters play survival-horror games, but Hikari shivered, rubbing her arms as goose bumps rose up on her skin. She slowly backed away from the empty station, half expecting a mindless zombie to grab her and gnaw on her neck.
"Can I help you, miss?"
Hikari yelped, jumping a good ten centimeters into the air. Ok, she told herself, its not a zombie, you're being silly. Now just turn around and forget those stupid video games.
She turned, looked at the pale, dead, open-jawed face and almost screamed. God, that leering face. He was wearing a black suit like a Section Two agent, but with that face and that disheveled black hair, he looked like he could have stepped right out of Biohazard.
Gulping to clear her throat she replied, "I… I'm just trying to find the nurse or a doctor…"
"A doctor? Are you feeling ill?" he asked, starting to get uncomfortably close. He ushered her back over to the chairs "Perhaps you should sit down,"
He ushered her towards the chairs.
"HEY!" came a voice echoing down the hallway. "What are you doing out here again?"
"Ah! Doctor Hartzell," the unnerving Section Two agent said jubilantly. "Looking lovely as always, I see."
"That doesn't answer my question," she said unfazed. "I thought I told you to stay at your post. Your disturbing the patients and my nurses refuse to work when you're around."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea I was such a distraction," he said, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I was just getting some green tea from the vending machine when I ran into this young lady here. You might want to take a look at her. I think she's sick."
The doctor pushed the agent out of the way. "Let me see." She looked Hikari over, noting that the color had returned to the young girl's face and that she seemed to be staring apprehensively at the Agent.
"She's not sick, you idiot," the doctor said, "you just scared the hell out of her."
"But she said she was looking for a doctor."
"I just wanted to find someone who can tell me where Touji Suzuhara is," Hikari said timidly.
"You must be Hikari," the young doctor said. "Major Katsuragi informed us you were coming in today."
"Can you tell me anything about how he's doing?"
The doctor shook her head "Sorry, but I'm not his physician. I don't know the particulars of his case."
"Oh."
"But I don't see why you can't go see him now. His room isn't far from here."
"Really? Thank you very much doctor." Hikari said enthusiastically but still politely. "But what about the visitor's card. Major Katsuragi said she needed to get me one."
"That's not a problem. Agent Kimura is the guard on duty today. And since he has already met you, I doubt he'll put you under arrest."
The agent in question raised his hand to correct the doctor, confirm her assurance, or to volunteer his services in escorting Miss Horaki to Mister Suzuhara's room. But he didn't get a chance as the doctor reacted quicker than he could.
"You!" Doctor Hartzell shouted, snapping her fingers and pointing down the hall. "Back to your post before I call your Lieutenant."
"Ah, yes, I should be getting back anyways," the agent said. "I'll just grab that tea on the way back."
With that the agent left, walking calmly down the hallway talking to himself. Hikari was almost certain she caught something about 'school uniforms' in his monologue, but couldn't be certain and was pretty sure she didn't want to know.
"Umm, is that guy…" Hikari started to ask, not quite sure how to politely phrase what she wanted to say.
"Kimura? He may be creepy and a nuisance, but he's harmless," the Doctor assured her. "I actually met his family when I went out a few weeks ago. He has a charming wife and they have a beautiful little girl. He's actually a very nice person, even if he does act strangely. "
Hikari was still a little skeptical, but there were more important things on her mind. "Could you show me where Tou… Mister Suzuhara is?"
"Sorry, but I have to see another patient," she said, smiling at the self-conscious and nervous Hikari, "but his room is number 428. Just go down this hallway, take the first right, then another right at the end of that hall. His room is on the left side of the hall."
Hikari repeated the directions in her head, thanking the doctor again before leaving at an enthusiastic pace. She saw Agent Kimura in the hallway, he still had that strange, leering look on his face, but she still smiled politely. The agent returned the smile, inclining his head towards her as he passed by on his way back to his post.
Hikari followed Doctor Hartzell's directions, counting down the numbers on the left side when she got to the right hallway. 434... 432... 430... 428. She stood there in front of the door for a few moments, trying to calm the fluttering in her stomach and heart. Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand to knock.
Before the strike could fall, a pair of lean, but no less powerful arms ensnared her. One wrapped around her waist and pulled her backwards, her fingers barely brushing the door in their fall. She cried out in panic, he voice dying in the hand that covered her mouth. She struggled against her captor, but whoever it was slightly stronger than her, managing to pin one arm and resist the other which pried at the fingers covering her mouth. But Hikari continued to struggle, even as she was pulled into a small room nearby.
Next chapter-the Act 1 finale: The arrival of the Angel of Might.