A/N: So, I was out of town without a computer I could freaking Word Process on. For a week. I nearly died.

Not so much, actually.

I did, however, get my Oceanborn and Century Child CD's at last. Joy.

No reviews? Sucked that much, eh?

KOH

LUSAKA (Reuters) - A 50-year-old Zambian man has hanged himself after his wife found him having sex with a hen, police said Friday.

The woman caught him in the act when she rushed into their house to investigate a noise.

"He attempted to kill her but she managed to escape," a police spokesman said.

The man from the town of Chongwe, about 50 km (30 miles) east of Lusaka, killed himself after being admonished by other villagers.

The hen was slaughtered after the incident.

Source: iWon news.

It turned out that the last wizard to have multiple animagus forms had been some unnamed sap from the far reaches of the Galapagos Islands, and was only known of because one of his forms had happened to be a small sperm whale. It had come as quite a shock to the man when he had abruptly become a watergoing mammal several hundred times his own size in the middle of his hut. Needless to say, rebuilding had been required.

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Ocean Red

Chapter 15: Game On

A Neon Genesis Evangelion Fanfiction

By CrimsonNoble

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Nodachi tilted his head. Ordinarily, this was not a special occurrence. And it still wasn't a special occurrence. The only special thing was what he was gazing through, the end of a scope one always wanted to be on. The unlucky object on the other end, the wrong end, exploded almost instantly after he caressed the trigger.

He forced himself to do a mental calculation that took at least four minutes to complete, and his finger drawing in the dirt he was lying on to keep some of the figures in his short term memory. Eventually he came up with an approximate speed of the bullet, and scowled darkly. There wasn't any particular reason for his scowl; he just felt that a scowl would be intimidating at the moment. And it was a magnificently intimidating scowl.

There just wasn't anyone there to see it.

He sighed with the wasted effort, and let his hands drop limply to his sides. A mumble of discontent rumbled through his chest, becoming a hiss as it whistled between his parted lips.

Then the gun fell on his foot, and he yelped before hopping around, gripping it tightly. That was a problem. The gun was darn heavy.

Shinji dropped to his ass, peeling off his boot and sock to investigate his foot. It was swelling nicely, and he could already tell that he was going to have problems getting his foot back in. He was grateful to note that, despite how it looked, no bones had broken. It was just going to annoy him for a few hours, then fade. Or rather, that was what past experience had taught him, and if he couldn't trust past experience, what could he trust?

He stuck his forefinger into his mouth, laving it with his tongue, and then prodding curiously at his foot. His skin had, fortunately, not broken, and he figured that it probably wouldn't even bruise. Just prevent his boot for a while.

Grumbles fled his lips as he stood, lifted the footwear not on his foot, and walked away, limp barely evident in his shuffling steps, neither foot quite leaving the ground as he moved. Maybe he could snitch some morphine for it…

Movement halted at the thought. Morphine? Where had that come from? Was he already sinking back into the addiction mentally?

It was a worrisome thought. Well, it would have been worrisome if he had known what the word meant. He described it as, "A thought that makes me want to kill something," or, "Your doom."

That was, of course, when he bothered to describe it at all. Which was an event about as rare as the apocalypse, but less doom-bringing. Strangely, such thoughts were often accompanied by flying pigs, which he hunted down ruthlessly for food. Hey, flying pork was still pork. It just had some extra bits. But that was easily fixed; all he had to do was pluck it. And it was better sport. Well, not all that much better, but then he couldn't exactly have flown well on wings that small either.

Well, he wouldn't fly on wings in the first place. He'd take plain steel-and-rubber any day.

--

Shuriken hopped off the bed, barely missing her brother's bag as she did so. He had, for reasons unknown to her, collected a great deal of small razors recently, most of which were residing within the bag. It was not something she wanted to land on.

She glanced at the clock before flopped down to lie on her back, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Wakizashi. "He's late, late, late, late, LATE!" She snapped, her voice rising on every repetition of the word 'late', though Nodachi had three minutes before the appointed time of arrival actually came. She was highly impatient to get to work, it had been weeks since she had been allowed to kill anything, and the boy had seen fit to include her in his mission from NERV. She got to kill the wife, as he had claimed the father for himself. It wasn't fair, he got to kill both the daughter and the father, but she only got the mother.

Her lips drew into a magnificent pout, impatient for the event to begin. The Ancient One was coming along, to supervise their work. Personally, Shuri' was glad he was going, just so Nodachi wouldn't get carried away and kill the targets before she'd had her fun. Couldn't have that.

At exactly thirteen seconds before the clock hit the appointed time, 'Dachi burst through the door, somehow managing to have stuffed his swollen foot, though by now it wasn't nearly as large as it had been, back into his boot. Promptly, without bothering to shut the door, he started stripping out of his school uniform, glaring feebly at the Ancient One, for he had been unable to remove the gearsuit.

Over the sleek black material, he tugged on a long sleeved shirt almost three shades darker than navy blue. He strapped only the NERV SIG-Sauer to on, in the shoulder holster. A pair of fairly nice, but well-worn jeans were pulled on, and to the inner thigh of his left leg he strapped a knife. He'd decided on carrying the majority of the tools he was going to use in the bag, simply because it would take less time to pack up afterward.

He reached for his jacket, merely a windbreaker, and tugged it on in an effort to make the gun less obvious. He had a concealed carry license, not a "carry in full view of the entire world" license.

And finally, he picked up his bag. Slinging it over his shoulder, he offered, "Ready, are you?"

Shuriken nodded rapidly, her own instruments concealed on her person in rows and rows of straps around her abdomen. Wakizashi languorously unfolded himself in a way that imply that he had far more joints than he actually did, and stood.

"Well. We have an appointment to attend, so let's go already."

He neglected to remember, of course, that it was his fault they were almost late.

--

The Section Two officers assigned to guard both the First and Third Children were more than slightly surprised when three people exited the apartment, which was supposed to be abandoned aside from the Children. Those assigned to the First were more surprised, as they had been the ones watching the apartment since forever, more or less. The First went in, and didn't come out unless it was for NERV or school.

The three people split, and after a hasty conference, which would later be looked upon as a terrible idea, the Third Children's guards split to follow each.

The girl walked into an alley. The agent followed her, and moments later she walked back out, her outfit exactly as it had been before she had entered. The agent did not, his outfit a completely different color.

The well dressed man entered another apartment complex, called an elevator, sent it up, and walked out the back. The agent followed the elevator, unaware that his target had not been in it until he had searched the entirety of the floor the quarry had sent it to. And by then, it was too late for him to follow.

The Third Child stepped into a subway station, and ducked into a bathroom as a train prepared to depart. He did not exit until he was absolutely certain the train was gone, and then he returned to the ticket machine at exactly nine past ten.

He purchased his ticket, boarded the necessary train, and seated himself. Precisely fifteen seconds after he had left the machine, the girl stepped up to another one, purchased an identical ticket, other than the serial number at the bottom, and boarded the train. The man took longer, a full seventeen seconds before he purchased his, and boarded the train, seating himself in the second compartment from the front.

Twenty-eight seconds later the train left the station. Ten minutes later a confused Section Two agent exited a train from the opposite direction, searching for his charge, who had apparently vanished from the face of the planet, for how much success he was having locating the Child. The commander was not going to be pleased.

Fifteen minutes later, the three exited the train, Nodachi arriving first at the top of the staircase, and moving to the side to lean against the wall of the outside. Wakizashi passed shortly thereafter, walked past his student without acknowledging him, and continued down to a pay phone where he stopped and picked the receiver up off of the base, pretending to put coins in, but actually palming one over and over again. It was almost a full five minutes later when Shuriken exited, whereupon 'Dachi pulled his Diskman out of his pocket, rapped the lid sharply several times, and cursed, as if it had run out of batteries. He fell into step mere feet behind his sister.

He passed 'Zashi, who slammed the receiver down in disgust, and followed his children. He took a right at the first corner, following his daughter as his son went straight. Shinji turned at the next street, meeting Shuri' at the next intersection, but ignoring her as he crossed. The Ancient One continued his path, turning left and crossing at the third intersection. Shuriken continued for another two before turning right, and continuing straight. The Child continued straight for two intersections, where he crossed, ignoring the order from the streetlight to stop, leaving his faux-father at the corner.

He was the first to arrive in front of the target's house, where he leaned against the wall and waited with hands thrust deep into his pockets. Shuriken crossed the street, throwing a fig in the general direction of a wolf whistle. She crossed her arms under her breasts, resting her weight on her left leg as she glared at her brother, who babbled randomly and incoherently until their father arrived, and broke them apart. He escorted the younger pair, who were still glaring at each other, around the side of the house and to the side gate. He slid a card through the reader, watched as the display went from red letters on a red-tinted screen to a mass of bright red, and then pushed the portal open. Nodachi and Shuriken followed him in.

Once within the wall, Shinji issued instructions to his sibling. "Right. The kid's out tonight, thank the random cosmic winds for western holidays, and won't be home for another three days. The woman should be either cooking or reading. Check the kitchen first, make your way to the inside of the front door, and it's the room at the end of the hall. If she's not there, she should be upstairs, in her office. Third door to the left from the stairs next to the kitchen." He stopped, unzipped his bag and fished inside it for a moment before producing a rag and a small bottle. "Here. Chloroform. I don't care if you use it to knock her out, or just gag her. Just don't do anything that might wake her husband."

He reached inside again, coming up with something not unlike a syringe, excepting the fact that there was no part for contents. Up to the side of the house he lead the Ancient One, inserted one end into the door's lock, and pressed the other. The lock snapped with a small bang, timed perfectly to coincide with the ringing of the front doorbell by his sister, who hastened to reach the corner of the house before the woman opened the door, where she halted and watched. Just to get a good look at her. Never knew which one might be the woman, these days.

'Dachi pushed the door open before slipping in at Shuriken's signal, a double-burst of static on the ear-jewel. His mentor followed, slipping into another room to investigate the quality of their décor. There might be something worth profiting off of in this venture after all. Shuriken followed, passing her brother as he waited for her to check the kitchen. It was her job to take the wife if she was there, and if not, she would have to go upstairs first.

Luck was with the killers, and the woman was seated at the table, a book propped open in front of her, sucking lazily at a cup of what was either vodka or water. Shuriken slipped up behind her, the child holding her breath, and in one swift movement wrapped her arm around the woman's throat immediately following an exhalation. Shuri' stuffed the rag into the woman's mouth, and rapped her sharply on the temple with just enough force to stun her while she pulled the prepared duct tape out and bound the woman to the chair, adding a bit more around her hands than strictly necessary, and wrapping it quickly around the woman's head, keeping her mouth shut and the rag inside.

She turned to see her brother at the door, nodded once, received a malicious grin in return, and turned back to her new toy. This would be… fun.

Nodachi slipped up the stairs, possibly less quiet than he should have, but then all the awake inhabitants (apart from his family) had been silenced already. He cracked open the door to the bedroom, made sure the man was asleep, and entered, wincing as the door squeaked. The man didn't stir. Shinji slid forward, pouring some of the contents of a second bottle of chloroform onto his own rag, and observing the odd sensation that came through the latex glove he wore. Perhaps it was being overly cautious, but…

He pressed the rag over the man's face for a count of ten, and then stuffed it into a plastic bag that went back into his duffle. Out came his own roll of duct tape and with it, he bound the man's arms to the corners of the bed. He used one hand to pull the sheets down, observing thankfully that the man slept naked. There would be no need to strip the man. He bound the man's ankles to the remaining corners, leaving him naked, uncovered, and spread-eagled.

'Dachi almost snapped his fingers. There was something he had forgotten, specifically his diving cap to prevent leaving stray hairs. He quickly rectified that problem, and exited the room, scanning as he went for anything.

He found Shuriken toying with a kunai above her helpless victim, who had been moved from the chair to the table, and spread eagled, much to the amusement of 'Zashi, in much the same way he had tied the husband. "So," he asked, "do tell why you aren't wearing gloves? The JSSDF has your fingerprints on file."

Shuri' snorted. "First off, that's stupidly high in classification. Almost as high as your psychiatric evaluation."

"Hey!" He objected, "Yours is just as high!"

"Yeah, whatever. Second, they're not civvies."

"What?"

The Ancient One broke in. "I found the most fascinating concealed cupboard in the living room. It was behind a picture, terrible defense, everyone knows about it, and contained what I wouldn't hesitate to call incriminating documents. The JSSDF will be most interested in this."

Nodachi raised a speculative eyebrow. "Who are you going to leak it through this time?"

The red eyed man considered. "I'm not sure yet. Maybe that one vying for a promotion in counter-espionage… indebt him."

Shuriken nodded. "Not a bad idea. He does have a daughter, right?"

"Yes." He replied after a moment's thought.

"Good." She announced.

"Right then. Let's get on with it. Are you staying to watch, or are you going to go?"

Wakizashi shook his head. "Staying. I want to see how you handle it. She," he gestured at Shuriken, "would make an excellent interrogator. I don't know about you yet."

The Child laughed along with his sister. "I know well enough for the both of us," he responded happily, "but feel free to observe and learn."

"Pliers?" Shuri' requested.

Shinji dug into his bag, and came out with a pair of needle nose pliers. He gave them to her silently, smiling cheerfully.

Shuriken took them with a nod of gratitude, and tapped them against the woman's flat abdomen, just above her navel, visible after the girl had cut the woman's shirt off, and following that her bra. Psychological torture, people felt far more vulnerable naked.

Realization dawned in the woman's eyes as the youngest present seized one finger and applied the pliers to her fingernail.

"This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me. Just be thankful you don't know anything worth knowing," she comforted. And then she ripped outward, tearing the nail free from the woman's hand.

--

Nodachi observed the corpse, which only moments ago had breathed its last. "Very nice work. One question though."

Shuriken wiped her hands on the rag she'd removed from the mouth. "Sure."

"How did you find out her maiden name?"

He was referring, of course, to the initials carved inside a heart on the woman's flesh, just above the left breast.

END CHAPTER

Secondary AN: I'd describe in more detail, but I expect that would get me banned. Not a very nice thing, suffice to say.

Review, flame, don't, go ahead.