Several concerned fans ask me to write a little bit more details about the future Shinji, well I guess I should do it…I hoped I didn't have to put it up, because now the story just a little bit less humorous…Also my little sister from the other coast mention this is not my normally writing style (chapter 1-6) so… well. Don't worry, it is still not completely "serious".
Yes, I did find the "best laid plans" by Ryoma an inspiration. However, his serious disrespect to Kensuke is what prompts me to write a R+K pairing. I just didn't like the part about Kensuke pretending to "live in a NERV ammo storage" and desperately try to get Ayanmi.
Disclaimer: Disclaimer has been removed due to budget cuts, if that don't tell you I got nothing worth suing, nothing will.
Yea, I got enough funds for rants but no disclaimer, but then again, you should go look at the U.S budget policies this year, and they are suppose to be the excellence of the United States people right?
Chapter 7: Darkening hour
Munich, Germany, 2003
"Unfamiliar ceiling." Shinji murmured as he finally woke up from his concussion-induced nap. Blinking once, he turn his head around to find himself staring face to face with a red-haired girl holding the same teddy bear. After several long seconds as the two trade stares back and forth, Shinji decide to break the ice.
"Oh hello."
The little chibi-like Asuka smiles and wave back: "Hello to you to mister, thank you for saving me."
What a carefree child, Shinji thought and friendly too, she is so different than the one I know,
Before he can finish can finish the thought, the little Asuka pinch him on the nose, hard.
Well, maybe not that different.Biting his lips to prevent the pain from transforming into a scream, Shinji wretch his nose free from the Vise-like grip. It seems that even at a tender age Asuka has a terrible fascination with his nose, regardless is pinching, punching, or displaying feminine assets at to generate massive bleeding.
"What did you do that for?" Shinji asks carefully, so he not to alienate the girl with a bout of rage.
Asuka replied with her trademark killer smile: "You were staring at me, I don't like been stared at by strangers."
"Oh sorry, didn't realize." Shinji quickly apologizes, which earned him another dazzling smile from the little girl. Oh yes boys, eat your heart out. This girl is born to kill. "So who is your little friend?"
"Oh this is Wobby {Ok I am really bad at naming children's stuffed animals, hang me for it-Author} he is my bear."
"Hello Wobby." Shinji said it with a perfect straight face, remembering how his father used to demean everything he did as a waste. Much to his surprise, a crystal clear image of his father popped up in his mind, for a second, Shinji was back at the EVA hangars with his father standing over him saying "you are useless, the only reason I call you here is because I want you to pilot the EVA." Summoning all his mental reserves, Shinji banish the image from his mind.
The purge of his father's image was a little more difficult than he thought, as sweats begin to cover his forehead before the last vestige of his father's demon fade from his mind. When the fog finally clears, he found the little girl left.
Looking around the room, for the first time, he found his tattered clothes (minus his underwear, which to his relief is still on him) on the side of a chair. A fresh suit of clothes, nicely folded, sat on the same chair.
I guess they want me to put that on. Oh well, cant wear my old cloths any more, it is falling apart.
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Roughly ten minutes later, down stairs
Climbing down the stairs, Shinji found himself in a kitchen with Asuka's mother cooking. Her daughter nowhere in sight, Mrs. Sohryu busy making some stew while reading some obscure lab report sitting on the kitchen counter. Looking up, she sees Shinji standing in front her, wearing a simple white shirt and Grey pants.
"You feeling ok? It is the first time someone faint when I mention my name, so I got kind of surprised and decided to carry you to my house."
Blushing red at the image of her carrying him through a crowded street with a little toddler in tow, Shinji lower his head and said nothing, through his face certainly spoke in volumes.
"Don't worry about it. So, why don't you tell me who you are and where you are going while I make dinner?"
"My name is Simon Illyan," Shinji lied because he is unsure if the lady knew his father, so choose one of blandest character based on a book series he read a lot ago as a fib "And um, I don't have where to go."
"No where? Truly?" But before Mrs. Sohryu can complete her question, a waft of acrid smell following a jet of flames burst from the pot and fill the air, coughing rapidly, she quickly run to the kitchen sink and got a glass water and pour it into the stew pot. Of course, if Mrs. Sohryu remembers her elementary physics, She should have recalled that oily flames and ice water is truly bad combination.
IT EXPLODED!
With reflexes trained by a year of living with Misato's cooking accidents, Shinji jump into action; and within seconds, the rebellious stew was brought under control, leaving the two with blackened faces and a bucketful of inedible goo.
What is with pre-second Impact women and their cooking abilities? That would have been an interesting lecture to learn about in school Shinji thought, after several heartbeats, he asks:{The author stare at his girlfriend's baby sister's latest cooking, a horribly botched up Campbell tomato soup…then move to delete the 'post' and add the word 'pre' to the paragraph above. come to think of it, do you know the more than 75% of Asian American family have their oldest teenage boy cook for them, using lames excuses such as "You wont get an girlfriend/wife/soul mate if you cant cook."}
"Do you, umm, want me to cook?"
"Oh can you? Thank you dear, I really
need sometime time to work on the new research data, the boss expect me to send
the research data next week, and I barely started."
"What research data?" But Mrs. Sohryu already wanders out the room, calculator and paper in hand. Sighing once, Shinji turned around and fasten his apron as he begin his war against the carrots…
Well, at this she didn't leave with a Yesibu in hand.
The sudden images of Misato's final hour and the bloody cross nearly made Shinji faint in pain.
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Later that evening:
"Mommy, you didn't make this." The little Asuka quipped as she spooned away at her stew.
"No, Simon here did, Asuka, say thank you to Simon." Mrs. Sohryu replies.
"Thank you Simon." Asuka thank Shinji in that childish-and carefree voice of hers. For a second, their eyes met, then Simon/Shinji quickly break away. If anyone looked carefully, he or she would realize Shinji is squeezing his silverwares rather tightly. For the most of part, Mrs. Sohryu is busy reading some/correcting more notes as she continue to eat her stew.
After several moments as the three dig away at Shinji's bounty, Mrs.Sohryu suddenly stopped and start to look at Shinji.
"Hey Shinji, didn't you say you have no where to go?"
"Yea, well I figure I will go to school later as soon as I can find a job and a place to stay."
"How bout I offer you a job? I work for…a research institution and they pay a decent salary, with my husband being…away, I really don't have enough time to take care of her, would you mind taking over that duty? And a few simple house chores, I will let you stay here and pay you a small salary."
"Yes big brother, can you stay with us?"
Big brother, Shinji liked that idea, someone who is family to him besides his soon-to-be-dead father. Wipe his hand on a napkin, he extend his left hand to meet the little girl's. "You got you self a deal."
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For the next six months life become relative normal in the Sohryu household, Shinji cooked, cleaned and play with Asuka, in essence, he became her big brother and father at same time. One evening in December, like any other evening, after Asuka take her daily bath and went to bed, Shinji promise he do read to her. Knocking on the door then waited until he heard the sound "come in", Shinji walk into the room with another reading book in hand.
Looking at the smiling Asuka in bed, Shinji sat down and begin to read the story, The story is about a group of kids who piloted giant war machines to save their home colonies from destruction, with one particular emotionless child who fought when all hope seem lost, then saved their oppressors from certain destruction by preventing a group of radicals from crashing their spaceship on to Earth.
"Big brother?"
"Yes Asuka?"
"Heero was very brave was he not?"
Pausing a second, Shinji replied: "Yea, he was. He saved everyone in the end."
"I am going to be a Hero like him someday. My Mommy told me I am a very special girl, I will gets to pilot giant robot too if I train hard enough, then all the kids who like to pick on me in school will have to admire me, then everyone will like me, and daddy will come back."
The picking on by kids in school was nothing new, Shinji end up protecting the little girl from her vicious classmates almost at least three times a week, but the mention of a father caught Shinji's attention. So she is not the only one who was abandoned by his father. He thought. Closing books, Shinji sighed. "Ms. Langley," and then begin to stare at his younger charge's eyes. Asuka immediately caught that tone and look, which signify she said something wrong.
"Piloting an EVA will not make your life easier, it will not make you respectable," As images of the past flashes through Shinji's mind, so blurred he could not even grasp them. With a pained smile, he banish the images and continued: "It will not make friends for you, But it may just cost you everything you loves. An EVA is a lie in my opinion, what is truly make you different than anyone else, is in there, not by what you do, but just by who you simply are. Why don't you think about that."
{The author believe in a complete reverse of the theory above, after all, the road to hell are all paved with good intentions.}
Reaching out with one hand, Shinji turns off the light by Asuka's desk, and then gets up to leave the room.
"Big brother?"
"Yes?"
"When I grow up, I am going to marry you. Wobby said it is an good idea."
Blinking once to push away the tears and regrets, Shinji only said: "Good Night little sister." Then close the door behind him…
And come face to face to an emotionless Mrs. Sohryu.
"You know about the Human Instrumentality project, and what the EVAs are really for." Her voice trembling, her eyes a blaze as her face spell out an accusation for betrayal.
Normally, such an "look" from any other adult would have send Shinji scrambling into his "I am sorry" defensive shell, but past months the haunting memories of his father and the final hours of the third Impact put a fire-forged spine into Shinji's back. Pulling a poker face that would have sent his father to his dead-bed sick with envy, Shinji stared back at her.
"I know…some."
"Who are you? Simon Illyan? That name is so fake, it is not Asian, are you some foreign spy? Out to sabotage the project? Feeding ideas to my little girl?"
"If you are so familiar with the project, then how could you allow your daughter to be part of that freak show?" The extra emphasis on daughter floats heavily in the air between them.
"She was borne to pilot an EVA, that is what she meant to be."
"Is your only child nothing but an spare part to inserted in a machine?"
"How dare you, a stranger who dare to accuse me what is best for my own child? Or what the project means for humanity?"
"Did Humanity choose for it?"
"It will be the final evolution of the human race."
"No, it will be the final extinction of the human race."
To Shinji's surprise, Mrs. Sohryu break down and cried: "You sound so much like my husband you know that? That idiot lost his objectives the day Asuka was born, and he paid it with his life."
In a tone that sounded more like a statement than a question, Shinji asks: "So her father will never come back will he."
"No, the NERV leadership made sure of that."
Another life claimed by NERV. Shinji could not even be sad this time. Seeing the young boy is not talking, Mrs. Sohryu continued: "Now you understand why I couldn't say anything else, if I tried to stop NERV from claiming my daughter, I will be dead and then she will end up being in there anyway, no hope, no hope."
"I see." The revelation of NERV's even darker underbelly made Shinji's blood cold to the point of crystallization, then a second later the fire of resolve come surging into him like a volcanic eruption, demanding him to see NERV in flames before all this is over. "There is hope, I will see to it that NERV will go down, one way or another."
"You can't fight NERV, it is huge with billions upon billions of dollars, and with multi-national Governments backing it up, all not knowing what is really all about. They all see what they want to see, and they ignore what is not pretty."
Recalling the days where he had just pilot EVA for his dad's praise, no his dad's lies, Shinji can only sigh: "Ignorance is a bliss, truth can be harsh sometimes, but even greatest dragons have their weak points, I will find them, and I will do whatever it take to make sure your husband and the countless others who were struck down by that insidious beast be avenged."
"Simon?"
"Yes?"
"I want you to swear for me, if you truly care about your little sister, I want you to promise you will take care of her, no matter what happens."
Placing his right hand on his breast, Shinji swears: "I promise, upon my father's grave, I will defend her and protect her for the duration of her life and mine."
If she only knew the irony in that sentence.
Satisfied, Mrs. Sohyru turned around to leave, but before she vanishes around the hall, she pause and asks: "So your father was killed by NERV too?"
"You can say that."
Then She left, and Shinji closed his eyes and cried.
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Main while, several years later {ok this really don't make sense, but I mean main while as if it were a connecting sequence in a anime scene, ok I am shutting up now}
Time: roughly early evening (before Rei and Kensuke meeting).
All is quite in the Kagusti household as the Germany sisters watch their favorite TV show while Shinji is cooking in the kitchen, Pen-Pen, of course, is soaking away in the hot-tub, washing a way a day's worth of aches and pain from doing…absolutely nothing.
"Asuka?" Shinji call out from the kitchen as he hanged up the phone and finish spicing up the sausages he was preparing.
"Yes Shinji?" Two voices replied him.
"No, you are Tsuka remember?"
"Oh yea, opps."
"It is the smallest thing that is going to get us caught, we have to be careful."
"Are you saying something?" That is Shinji again, peeking his head out the kitchen to see if anything is wrong.
"Nothing! Baka!" the two Asukas turned around to face Shinji, which earn a blush from him and he quickly retreat back into the protective confines of the kitchen.
"So you were saying something?" Tsuka finally decide to ask as the commercials came up.
"Misato is going to be late again, she said she is going to pick up some groceries."
That earned the ire of the younger redhead as she begins to murmur something about a 30+ harlot stealing her man. Tsuka on the other hand only chuckles at the antics of her "younger" sister, until she shot her a death glare, which then prompted the older sister to beam a smile that did nothing but infuriate Asuka.
"Are you going to say something?"
Tsuka did nothing, but instead trace her finger above her head in a circle as if to signify a halo. Cursing under her breath, the other girl turn around to concentrate on the TV. After a while, Tsuka poke Asuka in the arms and whispers into her ear:
"You know the only thing she is going to pick up is beer."
"Can't be, the fridge is stuffed to the grills."
"Then you know what this means."
"No, not really."
"She is coming to interrogate me about my origins, and hoping for a surprise to knock us off balance."
"I thought you took care of the
matter."
"Mostly, I manage to get into NERV files and alter them, but if they check backward, that trail will end up suspicious because 'our' hospital was destroyed in the Earthquake of 2007."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Ok here is what we do…mumble, mumble"
Several seconds and two beers and one drunken waterfowl later,
"Oh Shinji-kun…" Tsuka calls out.
Shinji, without the wisdom of his elder-self, peek his head out from the kitchen in curiosity.
"Come sit with us."
Like a siren attracting unwary sailors, Shinji walk toward the living room in confusion, tentatively he sat down between to the grinning twins. Before he can even open his mouth to ask what is going on, he found his mouth closed with a deep kiss from Tsuka while at the same time, Asuka use the distraction to undo Shinji's pant belt.
And lo and behold…
{No, no, not that!-Author}
…Misato walk into the room with a silent Rei in tow, with a grim look and words forming out of her mouth with something like "Tsuka, I have something to ask…" only to have them completely swallowed back into her mouth as she watch the passionate scenes unfolding in front of her.
"What…. What is the meaning of this?" Misato shuttered.
Shaken with fear, Shinji stood up to explain…only to have his pants falling down and his manhood open in display to all the females in the room. Ignoring Shinji's salute from the nether regions, Misato tried to get back to…ok maybe she couldn't ignore it. Asuka can barely keep her face straight as laughters threaten to explode out of her belly, while Tsuka look thoughtfully at Shinji's magic wand but made no comment. Finally there is Rei standing there, staring and staring, a bit dangerously lower than usual. One can almost hear the atmosphere crackle as the estrogen production in the room rises to a suffocating point…
Surprisingly, Rei is the first one to talk: "Something is burning."
Blushing furiously until his face turned purple, Shinji shouted: "My sausages!" Then start running toward the kitchen…
…Only to be tripled over by his own pants and collapsed on to the floor with a thud.
Sufficiently to say, Tsuka is not going to be the one getting interrogated tonight.
{I will mercifully cut this off now. The original version is well hidden in my hard-drive and shall never see the light of day! Some of those comments are just down brutal and it would be wrong since I found out there are actually real fan-girls for NGE out there and the jokes removed, however funny, is deeply inappropriate for the young children and ladies-author}
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The plot thickens in the next episode of NGE as Shinji (past) came face to face with his father for fate of a young Asuka, Kaji make his first entrance of the show, A explosion took place in a suppose secure NERV installation in Russia, and a gigging Rei walking into class telling what she saw last night??
Stay tuned for the next episode of: "NGE: Armageddon averted?"
Author's note: The Xia computer does not drive many insane because it is own personality, it is the fact when kept in passive mode, the device often mistake human intentions and replay their old memories back that people prefer to be forgotten, loop that several time a day will often generate insanity in a quick order. It is process may be slow or quick, if the person in question realize what is going on. Kind of like Asuka's mind rape but in a much slower pace.
If anyone can guess where the name Simon Illyan come from, Email me and your name will be included in the next chapter, possibility as a character even. J
