Chapter 3: First Meetings
Back then, Shinji took a lot of crap from a lot of people. Especially when Angel attacks went bad. A good deal of it was from Toji and me, but that's beside the point. He took insults that no one would have blamed him for striking back at and didn't. I don't think any one of them could bring themselves to say anything close to it now. It's just not done. Not to him.
Period.
---Kensuke Aida
3 weeks later in Shinji's school a young man was upset "Kensuke are you sure you saw him coming this way?"
His bespeckled friend rolled his eyes "Yes I'm sure."
"You realize you've said that every school day for the last THREE weeks." Touji was obviously annoyed with his friend.
"I know that but its like the guy can just disappear at will. Besides aren't you taking this just a bit a too far?"
"TOO FAR! Because of that son of a bitch my sister is in the hospital! I have to do this."
Kensuke got an apprehensive look on his face "Come on Touji he's the biggest guy in the class. I mean he's friggin HUGE!"
"He's not that much bigger than me. Besides guys like that are always slow. I'm the fastest in the school. He'll never lay a finger on me."
As they were talking both felt a gust of wind. "What ever Touji. There's just something about him."
"Oh stop with you stupid hero worship alright. He's just some stupid punk and I'm going to show him the consequences of his actions. What is taking him so long anyway?"
"Well he wasn't that far away when I came over here...." Kensuke got an apprehensive look on his face and walked around the corner.
Touji just stood there waiting for him until his friend returned and when he did he looked dismayed "Don't tell me."
Kensuke nodded "Yep he got away again. I swear it's like he can fly or something."
—
While the two friends broke into an argument over the ability of Kensuke to locate people the person they were trying to locate was on a hill overlooking the city of Tokyo-3. He was alone at this scenic point leaning against a steel railing that kept people from getting too close to the cliff face. This was not the first time he ever came here. Misato took him there after his first battle. Every day after school he came here to think.
What am I? He unconsciously gripped the handrail and began to squeeze. Is my Uncle right? Am I just a freak? Then he noticed that he had crushed the rail. There is your proof right there that I'm not normal. No one should be able to do that and not know it. Hell Misato nearly freaked when I cleaned the apartment that first night there. The last thing I need is her thinking I'm a freak. Things were bad enough with Uncle on the farm when I accidentally broke the equipment with my bare hands.
Shinji turned his back to the city. So I guess this is it for me. No one can know. That's the way it has to be. She doesn't need to know she's living with a freak. Shinji then pulled out his SDAT and put it on. He turned around to watch the city till the sunset.
—
Berlin-2, Germany
A man in a suit and tie walked down the hallway of NERV Germany Branch with a suitcase in hand. His ponytail bounced behind him, and rubbed his unshaven face before he entered the command center.
"Ah, Mr. Ryoji, we were beginning to wonder if you would join us," the commanding officer stated with a raised eyebrow.
"We didn't help fund the construction of Evangelion Unit 02 for me not to show up and make the boss ready to beat me down again."
"Again, isn't he getting a bit old for that?" the female commanding officer smirked.
"You'd be surprised what the old man can do these days," Mr. Ryoji nodded, before turning his attention to the screen, "So that's our four eyed monster, huh, Natalie?" he said with a wink, making the commander blush.
"All systems ready, Synch Ratio is strong, all lights green," one of the control workers stated from her station.
"Ok, then, open a comm with the pilot," the commander stated. "Asuka, can you hear me?" She asked as a window popped up on the screen with a redheaded girl with bright blue eyes and a dull look on her face.
"Yes, can we do something fun yet?" the girl groaned.
"Ok, Asuka, I want you to try walking now," the commander stated as if she was speaking to a five year old.
"Walking? WALKING! Is that it? Mien Gott! I have never …" The girl ranted.
"Just do it, Asuka!" The commander snapped, and the girl groaned again before the Evangelion began taking steps forward.
"Walking … walking … see? I'm walking … can we do something fun YET?" Asuka complained.
"Klugscheißer, (smart ass)" the commander said under her breath, "Ok very good, Asuka, now there is a weapons platform fifteen meters ahead of you. Go to it and draw the assault rifle and stand by."
Unit 02 sluggishly made its to the platform and pulled the Assault rifle, "Got it, can I shoot something now?"
"Yes, we will have multiple targets pass up, try to hit them directly on the target," the commander instructed.
After a several minutes of target practice, the commander spoke up again, "That's enough for today, Asuka. Excellent job! You had a 70% accuracy rate."
"70%?" Asuka gasped, "The sights are off on the stupid gun or the targeting computer on my 02 has a bug, you WILL get on that, won't you?"
"Of course, Asuka, now move back to the elevator platform, good work today," the commander said as the window closed and she sat down roughly, "Thank god that's over."
"I take it the pilot's hard to handle?" Ryoji asked, watching the woman rub her temples.
"She's a pure ball of energy, Kaji," the commander stated.
"I'll talk to her, see if I can't calm her down a little," he replied.
"Good luck. She has a hard enough time working with women," the commander shook her head, "Even worse with men, she thinks all males, human or otherwise are all perverts."
"I might persuade you otherwise," Kaji smirked.
"Ha! After last night you can't tell me-" the commander shot, but covered her mouth quickly turning crimson.
"See? I knew you liked that, didn't you, babe?" Kaji laughed, before flashing a grin and a wink, "So, are you going to come back to my room again tonight, Nate?"
"I … um … is ten too late?" the Commander whispered shyly.
"Perfect, see you then," Kaji turned toward the door, "Now gotta go put my charms on Ms. Sohryu."
"70%, there's no way that can be right," Asuka growled, stepping out of the women's locker room, "That good for nothing commander probably read it wrong, yeah, that has to be it!"
"Awe, did the lil girl get a bruise on her ego?" stated a voice from behind her.
She spun around to see Kaji leaning against the wall beside the door, a smirk plastered on his face, "Who the hell do you think you are?" Asuka snapped. "You were probably just standing there trying to get a peak of me naked, weren't you? Dirty old man!"
"Hey! Who's old?" Kaji replied, a hurt look on his face.
Asuka snorted and crossed her arms, "What do you want, jackass?"
"Just to talk to a lovely young woman, that's all," Kaji replied taking Asuka's hand and moving down to kiss it.
"Oh go take a cold shower, crap face," Asuka snapped, jerking her hand away.
'This girl's trying my patience,' Kaji thought, taking a deep breath, "If you keep up that attitude, you'll never be a good Eva Pilot, not as good as the pilot of Japanese's Unit 01 anyway."
"WHAT?!?" Asuka screamed, getting in the surprised Kaji's face, "You listen, and you listen good, you long haired freak! I AM the greatest Eva Pilot every to be born, I AM better then any of the other Eva Pilots, AND I am not going to listen to YOU telling me crap that is just THAT: CRAP!"
"Crap? You want crap, Asuka, I'll tell you what crap is," Kaji asked, his demeanor making him seem a lot bigger. Asuka stared up in Kaji's narrowed eyes and took a small step back, "Crap is your piloting skills, your fighting skills are pathetic, and your ego is nauseating. When you get over yourself and finally pull your head out of your ass you MIGHT actually make a decent Eva Pilot, but until then I don't even want to hear you making pathetic excuses and blaming your green mistakes on everyone else but who is REALLY responsible: YOU! Am I clear, young lady?"
"W-What … did you say your name was again?" Asuka asked, her head bowed, her ginger bangs hiding her eyes.
"Huh? My name's … um … Kaji Ryoji, why?" Kaji asked in confusion.
"Ryoji?" Asuka asked, looking back up with a smile and stars sparkling in her eyes. "Doesn't Asuka Langley Sohryu-Ryoji sound nice, Kaji?"
"Um … I … err … I've gotta go, Ms. Sohryu, I'll … uhh see you around!" Kaji turned, but gulped when the girl grabbed his arm and started snuggling against it.
"KAAAAAAAAAAAJIIIIIIIII, Don't leave me alone … stay with me, pleeeeease?" Asuka whined, gripping his arm so tight Kaji couldn't feel his forearm or hand anymore.
'Great … she likes strong guys,' Kaji thought while rolling his eyes, 'if the old man could see me now … he'd probably laugh his ass off.'
A few days later Shinji was sitting in his class in his seat staring out the window. Class was about to dismiss for lunch when he noticed someone was next to him. He turned and saw his classmate Touji Suzuhara glaring down at him.
"You and me outside right now!"
What does he want? Shinji thought to himself. He only knew the boys name he knew nothing about him but the third child followed him outside. As soon as they reached the roof of the school Touji spun around and socked Shinji solidly in the jaw. The fact that one went down wasn't surprising but that both did was.
"MY HAND! GODDAMNIT!" Touji was up quickly hopping around in pain and his friend Kensuke tried momentarily to calm him down and then turned to the calmly sitting Shinji.
"WHOA! What are you made of steel?"
Shinji just looked at the hopping boy then looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry? SORRY!" Touji ran up and hauled Shinji back up to his feet. "You're damn right you're sorry! Because of you my little sister is in the hospital for god only knows how long!"
Shinji continued looking away from the raging student "What else you want me to do. I can't change what happened."
"YEAH WELL MAYBE I OUTTA THROW YER ASS OFF THIS ROOF AND SEE HOW YOU TAKE THAT TOUGH GUY!" At this Point Kensuke grabbed onto his friend and attempted to pacify him.
"Come on Touji... You can't do that. You'd kill him. Hell, just hitting a pilot is probably a bad idea."
"Ikari." A soft voice came from near the door to the staircase. It stopped all three boys quickly. They all looked over at the bandaged form of Rei Ayanami "We just received an emergency call. I'll see you there." Then she turned and quickly walked away.
Shinji slipped from Touji's grip and jogged after the First "Hang On. I'm coming too."
The two best friends stood there quietly for a moment. Then Kensuke commented as he pushed up his glasses "I think he slipped away again."
"BITE ME!"
—
Some time later in one of the many shelters in and around Tokyo-3 Kensuke and Touji were sitting waiting for the clearance to leave. However the otaku was getting frustrated with the lack of footage of the battle.
"Damn! They're doing it again."
Touji looked over at his friend, "Doin what?"
Kensuke showed his friend the screen on his TV/Camcorder combo unit. On it was just text showing nothing of the battle that was about to occur. "Its all words again. They never show us civilians anything and this is just sooooo big!"
Touji just looked over at his friend, "You really do get off on this stuff don't you?"
"Come on I just to need to see it once. At this rate I'll never see it...unless" Kensuke just stopped and got a thought full look on his face.
Touji looked over just in time to see it "Uh oh...I know that look Ken. That look never leads to any good."
"Touji... Lets sneak out."
"ARE YOU NUTS! WE'D DIE!"
"QUIET YOU!" Seeing that his friend had calmed somewhat he continued. "That could happen if we stayed here anyway. Don't you think YOU should see this."
"What you talkin about?"
"That Robot protected all of us in that last fight. You didn't even think about that before you hit the pilot."
"Not that it did me any good. My hand is still sore from that."
"That doesn't matter now. He's out there doing it again. Don't you think you owe him one?"
"Alright I'll go but only to make sure you don't get yer ass killed."
"Riiiiiight."
Touji called out to a girl sitting near by "Hey Class Rep...Kensuke and me gotta hit the can."
Hikari Hokari the Class Representative for the boys class rolled her eyes at Touji "That's Kensuke and I… and make it quick."
—
Once they made it outside Kensuke shot off like a bullet to a nearby hill. His timing was perfect as just as he got to a perfect vantage point they spotted the Angel. Touji quickly voiced his opinion of it "Damn that's an ugly bastard."
Suddenly from what seemed to be a building a massive door opened and out stepped Evangelion Unit 01. Quickly it drew its Rifle and fired. Round after round pounded the angel till it was clouded in smoke. Kensuke pumped his fist in the air and continued to record it. "ALRIGHT HE GOT HIM!"
"Well at least this time the new kid did it right." However their joy was short lived as suddenly twin purple glowing whips shot out of the smoke and lashed at the Eva. Fortunately only the rifle was destroyed as Shinji fell backwards into a building.
Touji's jaw dropped. "He's getting his ass kicked already?"
"I'm sure he's just getting warmed up. There is nothing to worry about." However his optimism was not to be rewarded as when the defender of humanity arose only to continually retreat from the whipping attacks of the Angel. More than a few buildings were sliced right threw as Shinji fell back awkwardly. "Okay maybe we should worry."
"You think?" Then with a mighty snap the umbilical cable was destroyed and 01 fell on its rear against a building.
Kensuke looked over to his best friend "Well it could be worse."
"HOW?"
"They could be right here." Then both boys looked over at the battle. "Hey... where'd the Eva go?"
Then they looked up "INCOMING!" and both boys did what came natural. They screamed their lungs out and cowered.
With a mighty strike and shake of the earth Unit 01 struck the hill the boys were standing on. Touji looked up. "I'm alive… Ken!" He turned to his left and was truly glad to see his friend alive and whole next to him.
"I'm here Touji… in once piece and damn am I glad I actually went to the bathroom before coming up here."
"Me too Kensuke… Holy Shit that was close." Then both boys realized how close it really was when they both noticed that they were between two of the Eva's fingers. They then looked up at the face of the Eva, which appeared to be looking right back at them.
Then Kensuke looked back in the direction the giant was launched from just to see the Angel floating above them "I have a bad feeling about this."
Touji looked up "THIS IS BAD! VERY BAD!"
The angel lashed out but the Eva did something that surprised Touji. It grabbed the whip-like appendages and held on. "Why don't he just get clear?"
"It's because we're here. If he moves we're dead."
For about a min things were deadlocked like that. The boys were both scared out of their minds but the started moving uphill in hopes of getting away. Then they heard loud hiss and they noticed that a large tube labeled Eva-01 had come out the back of the neck of the mecha.
From a loudspeaker they heard what seemed to be a familiar voice "Come on you two, get in!"
Kensuke froze and Touji for a moment had to pull him along toward the waiting plug. Then the otaku shot forward like a bat outta hell towards it. Both boys quickly climbed up and jumped into the plug. Only realizing as they hopped in that it was filled with a liquid and before either even thought of climbing out they were sealed in.
Touji freaked about the fact that he was breathing what he thought was water and Kensuke worried about his camera. Then they both noticed who was sitting in the pilots seat. It was Shinji.
"It's that damn guy!"
Shinji didn't even turn around to reply "Be quiet, you'll distract me."
Kensuke, thankfully, successfully restrained Touji. Any further commentary from them stopped when they heard a female's voice "Shinji get out of there now and get back to a retrieval elevator now."
Neither boy knew who the woman was giving orders but both riders agreed. Neither one though heard the pilot muttering something "I must not run away. I must not run away."
Quickly Shinji had the Eva use its legs to kick the Angel back down to the foot of the hill.
"Alright Shinji use retrieval path 34 its on the other side of the hill." Shinji however had another idea. Pulling out the Progressive knife from the sheath in its shoulder compartment. With a feral cry he commanded Unit 01 to charge the already advancing Angel. Simultaneously 3 voices, one female and two male, cried out the same thing "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
The Angel struck first and Shinji cried out in both anger and pain as he felt the arms to run right threw his Eva. The Eva paused and Kensuke and Touji both screamed in terror. Then with fury renewed the Eva closed the distance between them and stabbed the Angel in the core. Shinji continued to cry out as he tried to force the knife deeper into. Other than a second woman's voice counting down the remaining power there was no since of passing time. It was if it was a war of wills between Shinji and the Angel. Just as Timer reached 3 the Glow from the core and the tentacles faded. Shinji had won. After the power went out in the Eva Shinji's shoulders slumped as if a great weight had been lifted from him.
Slowly Touji approached Shinji "Ikari… Hey man, are you alright?"
Shinji just leaned back into the seat "I'm fine… I'm fine."
No one in the plug believed it.
To Be Continued....
Fusion Blaster: Well There is that. Hopefully this chapter lets y'all know while Shinji may have gifts he's not completely different from cannon. Plus you get Cowboy's take on how Kaji met Asuka. We figured it'd be cool to show her in Germany for the occasional change up. Well now we also have our first on screen Angel battle. From an never before seen POV...well as far as I know anyway. It just struck me tonight as I wrote this to do the battle from primarily the POV of Kensuke and Touji. Hope y'all like it. Drop a review.
Classic Cowboy: Asuka's little background scene was a blast to write and I hope you all liked it. In the words of the announcer of Toonami: The best is yet to come! Enjoy and don't forget to review!
