Disclaimer: Check the Prologue.
AN: This will start immediately after the Prologue, with Shinji reaching his home after coming out of the hospital' emergencies.
To note as well that this is in no way either a subtle or obvious negative opinion about France and their citizens. I simply chose France out of the blue, really. I definitely mean no offence and/or disrespect with the French Ambassador and "his" actions.
To Laser Crusader: "…I am just dying to know where you are going with this…." That makes two of us, you know. I too am dying to know where I'm going with this! Humongous Sweat-Drop Apart a few ideas for the future, I'm still a bit unsure where I'm heading to exactly…
To GuppyLips: Really? You're a fan of GxS too? Well, what a coincidence that my next work will be one indeed! ROFLOL About your comment whether someone will try a shot at TI, I've been hanging around with an idea here, something deeply inspired by the movies "Fight Club" and "Death and Rebirth"… Though I'm still unsure whether to pursue it or make an Omake in the end featuring the ludicrous possibilities conjured by my insane brain…
To the anonymous reviewer: GxS is a pairing featuring Gendo and Shinji. And a joke, so rest assured that I'm not serious about it! (About going with THAT pairing, of course!)
This is narrative.
"This is a dialogue."
"THIS IS SHOUTING."
'This is a quote/EMPHASIS made either during a dialogue or narrative.'
These are thoughts.
These are mouthed and facial expressions before, during, and after, a dialogue.
This tells where and when the following happens.
(These will be Author Notes)
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Around 01:17 AM
Katsuragi/Ikari/Sohryu ResidenceSwiping his card, the front door opened, allowing Shinji Ikari entrance to the residence where the Director of Battle-Operations and two Eva pilots lived, along with a warm-water penguin. Discarding his shoes, Shinji headed further inside, passing through the living room, which was pitch black and deserted, then by the kitchen, in an equal state, to the living room, both in a tidy and organized manner. Finally reaching his bedroom-door, he slides it open, and enters his Spartan room. Once inside, he first turns the ceiling light on, then, carefully, removes his wrinkled and dirty clothing and turns off the light. Not having the willpower to change for the pyjamas, he lets himself fall over his futon, using his arms to prevent his face from hitting the pillow.
Stomach down, lying the left side of his face against the pillow, Shinji looked first to the wall, and then ascended his exhausted gaze to the window. Seeing, but not observing them, he saw the black sky, with a bright dot here and there. Suspiring, he pondered. Would the Angels keep attacking? That was a difficult thing to answer, after all Lillith and Adam no longer existed. Not in this mortal plane, at least. Chuckling wearily, he thought
I wonder if those who throw half-jokes at God and his Kingdom are still allowed entrance there… Or are they banned permanently for having a bad mouth? …Perhaps I'll be sentenced to the Limbo for not having faith in Him…
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7:58 AM
Blinking and feeling a sting in his right eye-socket, Shinji tasted his own saliva for a couple of moments, and then, with both eyes groggily open, he rose from his futon and went straight to the bathroom. Opening the bathroom door, he came face to face with Asuka Langley Sohryu, dressed in a bathing robe, somewhat loosened around her cleavage and waist.
A moment passed, before his brain registered just what was happening, so Shinji, never gazing elsewhere asides her cerulean eyes, cleared his throat. During all this, neither moved a muscle whatsoever. Asuka, and this most who had seen her at least once would find astonishingly surprising, only huffed, without lowering her eyebrows or snarling, clenched the robe tighter around her body, and passed by Shinji, elbowing him with her left side, and departed for her room, but not without first saying in a casual tone
"Remember next time not to walk around the apartment with only the underwear on, dumpkopf. Misato's bad enough as it is…"
Arching his left eyebrow, Shinji, without lowering his sight, touched his belly and legs and confirmed silently that he could've remembered to put a robe on before leaving his sanctuary. Sighing in a frustrated manner, he entered the bathroom and took a warm shower, taking special care in not wetting too much the skin around his new wounds, which were covered with impermeable bandages.
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15 minutes later
Exiting his bedroom now dressed as usual, with black pants and a white button-up shirt, Shinji headed to the kitchen. Entering it, he saw Asuka sit on the table, eating a bowl of cereals in milk.
In the next minutes, Shinji prepared a small bowl of miso soup, and drank it somewhat rapidly. Looking at the wall clock, he noticed that they, he and Asuka, had around thirty minutes until class began, so, cleaning his mouth with a paper napkin, he rose from the table at the same time than Asuka, picked up his and hers bowl, which he could almost swear she thanked him with a very small and near imperceptible nod, and put them in the washbasin. He then headed to his bedroom, where he grabbed his small backpack, and went to the front door, where he joined Asuka putting her shoes on. A few moments later, they were in the elevator, going down to the ground floor. And so this continued, both in complete silence, until reaching the classroom of 2-A, where they separated for their seats. Or should. Instead, Asuka joined Hikari and a group of girls, her face immediately rejoicing, while Shinji went to Rei's seat, and sat at the seat in front of her. But not before reviewing that whatever relationship he and Asuka had was now shattered, and all because he didn't asked her to help them in coming out with the full truth about NERV. But why oh why can't she understand that 'it all comes down to confidence'? (1) I mean, she always lashed out at me, blaming or mocking me for whatever happened. I was her scratching-post, for crying out loud. Violently speaking, of course… Damn it, I didn't had any reason to trust her! … Had I? …I mean, she's a girl who vents everything on everyone else BUT her due to her tragic past. She's not the one to blame for it, but… If only I knew of a sure way to help her… No, if only she ALLOWED me to try to help her, but she won't let me… She's too far distanced from the world; she refuses to recognize the cold truth, to admit the burning facts…and I'm pretty much sure she hates me by now, so it's really not up to me any longer to help her out! …
Seating in front of Rei, he smiled a bit and greeted her. Rei, diverting her gaze from outside to him, smiled a bit. Both talked, she asking him if his new wounds were paining him a lot, while he asked her if anyone came to her and initiated talk. And so it went until their teacher entered the class and Hikari Horaki, the Class Representative, ordered the students to rise, bow, and sit. And so the class went along, with the students finding something else to do besides listening to their teacher talk about life before the Second Impact… As usual…
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Mid-morning
Central Dogma
Sitting in his chair, Aoba started to check all systems under his responsibility. Several minutes passed until all systems gave signal that everything was running with optimal efficiency, so he turned to Makoto and asked
"So, have you seen Ibuki yet?"
Makoto, looking up from his console, fisted his right-side auricular and responded
"Nope, Hiroko told me he hasn't seen her in over three days from now. Doctor Akagi has been holding her and three more techs all bundled together in one of the labs working double-times over rebuilding the virtual aspects of the Magi."
Aoba, redirecting his face towards his console, replied slightly smirking, though Makoto couldn't see it
"It's probably going to take them over a month to get it back online."
Makoto, spending a moment reflecting, frowned and said
"Yeah, too bad Shinji didn't remember that Tokyo-3's presidency is completely dependant of the Magi…"
Aoba thought to himself Then again, maybe he did remembered that detail… and then he was going to throw something in his defence but someone beat him to it
"A necessary sacrifice, Lieutenant. The Magi was full of critical information regarding the initiation of a Third Impact. Shinji thought that it would be best to delete everything about it, to try and impede anybody else of taking over the command of SEELE." She looked like she was about to add more, but instead she just looked at her shoes, face clearly indicating she was thinking seriously about something.
Aoba, noting this, felt the need to add a line
"Well, at least no Angel has appeared yet… I wonder if Shinji's actions brought an abrupt ending to this threat."
Makoto, not diverting his gaze from one of his monitors, which was displaying useless data at the moment, though it cast a nice enough reflection of his, and someone else, said
"Let's hope so, otherwise we'll be hard pressed fighting them without the Magi."
The authoritative voice from Misato silenced their voices, though not their doubts
"That's the reason NERV now exists: to protect Mankind, and not to cause a Third Impact. Just as long as we keep our heads together, we'll be able to defeat them."
A new voice sounded then, after Misato's speech. This one, though it carried some kind of feminist weight, it came from a male throat, somewhat accented by his French education
Ahhh "But that is precisely why we now visit your installations, Major, to ensure that NERV is carrying out UN's orders. After all, it would be terrible for everyone, were the UN to discover NERV is once again going rogue!"
Misato, giving the man a curt bow, took note of him: around her size, short brown hair with grey locks combed sideways, face wrinkled by age and who knows what else, cunning eyes with well-trimmed light-brown eyebrows, the man carried a somewhat pudgy pose, having, without much room for a doubt, an average overly-sized belly. Not too big, but noticeable. Well dressed too, in a sober dark-blue suit with a light-blue striped tie, and a most-faint sky-blue buttoned shirt. The French Ambassador had a military UNATCO officer escorting him, whom was armed with a holstered handgun and carried a regular MP5, and was dressed not in a combat fatigue but a uniform. To note that he also had a radio online, which made her remember that these officers would acknowledge their position every five minutes to the UN Command. Diverting her attention from these two new faces, she turned her gaze back to the bridge bunnies silently. She heard the Ambassador say
"Tell me, I have heard that the Americans have completed their EVA unit. Do you know what will be made of it?"
Misato, giving the man a momentary glance in his direction, responded
"Only the UN and the American Government will know about that. Whether it stays with them or is relocated to here, frankly I don't know."
"Do you think they will wait for a new Angel to attack before making a decision?"
Tempted to give a shrug, Misato replied negatively, saying that she didn't had any information whatsoever. The Ambassador, however, was not quitting so easily.
"And has there been any new pilot found for the new unit?"
This bugged Misato considerably more. Only some, apart from the UN and a select few Presidents of other Nations as well as she, knew about the truth regarding Shinji's class, the 2-A. Remembering once more the oath of non-disclosure to any non-authorized individual, she said
"The Marduk Institute hasn't told us anything yet. Besides, they're probably not going to look for a pilot until a decision about the unit is made first."
The Ambassador, spending a moment gazing at the back of her red coat, replied
"I see… Tell me then one last thing, is NERV capable of currently engaging an Angel in combat?"
"Yes, Mr. Ambassador. We have Units 00, 01 and 02 fully charged and prepped for engagement. As for the Children, you know they passed the UN inquiry and were deemed suitable pilots. We also have a military contingent under our orders, as well as the full support from the JSSDF. – Seeing that he was about to reply something, something her gut instincts say that it would be derogatory, she added – Of course, NERV still needs the UN and the remaining Global entities to support her, because the Japanese Government can't do so on his own."
Smiling predatorily, he bowed, curtly, and left, with the officer following him. As he departed, however, Misato heard him make an amused comment
"Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera…" (2)
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Lunch hour
Tokyo-3 High School
Hearing the Class Rep give everyone in class the commands to rise, bow and leave for lunch, after the teacher of course, Shinji laid his head back and suspired languidly. Getting up, he joins Touji heading for the cafeteria. Once there, the two stand in line, viewing the tables with kids around their age having lunch and talking.
Minutes pass, as the two slowly advance through the waiting line.
As the moment comes for Shinji to get his dish, the man behind the counter, an individual wearing the customary clothes for the job, such as the white apron and cap as well as a slightly bruised face, looks at Shinji for a moment, then crouches and comes back again with a dish, this one having several noodles along with salad, and a very small transparent jar. Shinji smiles and puts the plate and jar in his tray. He was about to move forward and head for a table, when the cook cleared his throat. Shinji turned and saw the cook pass him a soda and a plastic cup.
Thanking him properly, he looks at Touji, who makes a gesture with his head pointing the table chosen. Shinji nods and heads towards it. Reaching it, he lowers his tray, pulls a chair, sits, and looks around at the cafeteria, waiting for Touji to arrive before attacking his lunch. Looking at his direction, towards the counters, he noticed that, a bit more aback, Asuka was there was well. Confused for a moment, he recalled he hadn't had time for making her lunch, and, apparently, she hadn't made one for herself. This he deemed slightly bizarre, since he knew she had learnt how to cook back in Germany… Perhaps she had been counting on him to make her lunch… Or perhaps she hadn't bothered with making it herself…
Suddenly, a black shape was in front of him, blocking his sight from Asuka. Looking up, he sees Touji lower his food tray to the table. Blushing minutely, Shinji clears his throat, grabs the chopsticks, and starts munching.
A few moments after, Touji asked Shinji if he knew about the new Tekken-games had already arrived at the Arcade where they would usually hang out. Shinji was going to reply that he had no idea, when a shadow was cast over his plate. Looking at his left, he saw Asuka standing there, with her tray in hands, looking at him impassively. Noticing that Hikari was nowhere in sight, and that the seat at his left was vacant, Shinji swallowed and averted his eyes away from hers, back to his plate, where he continued to lunch as if nothing had happened at all.
Leave the decision to her. Act like you don't give a damn about her decision, whatever it is… Just act. These were his thoughts during the near ten seconds Asuka stood at his left. Then she walked away and joined a group of girls from his class. This Shinji saw from the corner of his eyes, not deliberately paying attention to her in front of everybody. Sighing almost mechanically, he looked at Touji and saw him gazing at his eyes, as if intent on reading the inner journal of his heart. Then he smiled, chuckled, and went back to eating. Shinji, confused by Touji's reaction, opened his can of soda and drank a bit.
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TBC
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1 – Quote from Edward Burns in the movie 'Confidence'.
2 – It's an old French proverb, if I'm not mistaken, which means "God helps those who help themselves."