Well, hope you've been enjoying this fic…I've been having fun writing up stuff for it, although I simultaneously have to write up ideas for new fanfics and current ones. I should really stop creating fanfics, write:D
But I just can't stop...
Well, anyway, let's start the show.
Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or its characters. Gainax does, and they rock. Who else could create both Evangelion and FLCL! I also don't own anything that happens to be referenced in this story.
Shinji Ikari writhed in the darkness, fighting the horrible burning feeling ripping through his body.
His eyes twitched and his body shook violently as he fought the darkness, fighting for his life, fighting to not succumb.
He struggled with the pain in his chest, his Evangelion stumbling about oddly, almost drunkenly as the white monstrosities began their solemn advance.
Tokyo 3, Japan
"Are you okay?"
Shinji instinctively replied in the darkness, his voice hoarse as his eyes painfully opened.
"I'm…fine…"
The light burned into his eyes, and he could remember nothing. He felt hot and dirty, and there was some deep pain all over his body, or maybe not at all, he couldn't really tell. All he was sure of was that he was lying down on his back on some hard surface.
He coughed, slowly, almost dreamily looking up at the woman staring down at him. She was a middle-aged woman, vaguely attractive, with blonde hair, who looked rather familiar, although Shinji's mind was too rattled to make the simple connection.
"Hold on, dammit!"
He could feel her hands wrap around his arm and slowly drag his limp body across the street, just as another explosion seemed to shake the ground. It was then that he noticed the flames in the air, flying up and dancing as they consumed the car. It was then he remembered.
Touji smiled as he stopped by his car, staring at a little child playing in a sandbox in the distance, along with two other little girls.
"So that's…"
He walked to the driver side of his car and pulled out his keys, chuckling to himself as he fumbled with it and opened the door, peering at Shinji.
Shinji stopped, noticing a shiny coin on the sidewalk, glinting the light into his eyes.
"Heh, guess this is my lucky day."
Shinji bent over to pick it up while Touji sat down in his car, sticking the key into the ignition and turning it, stepping on the gas.
Shinji gasped in surprise as the coin slid across the ground, sliding as if guided by some unforeseen force towards Touji's car.
And then there was only fire, and screaming, flesh and metal, and glass.
"Touj-"
The woman interrupted him, shaking her head.
"Just lie still; you're alright, no major injuries."
Shinji groaned as he brought his body to a heaping, kneeling position, looking about the dusty street.
People scrambled around in total bedlam, running from the flaming car. Part of a wall is strewn all across the street, along with bricks and glass everywhere. In the distance, a black sedan sped off, leaving a trail of dust.
Shinji groaned in pain and confusion as he noticed a cross hanging on a necklace, sticking out of the dirt. He picked it up and pocketed it, standing up slowly and then finally remembering something odd.
"Ritsuko!"
He peered around for the woman that had helped him, but she was nowhere to be found.
Tokyo 3, Japan
The Next Day
Shinji stared solemnly out the car window, as a pale woman with soft red eyes drove the small black sedan, behind a hearse and a group of many other cars full of people dressed in black.
Shinji's face is bruised and he has a gauze pad over his right ear. He stared up at the car roof as they dried in silence, sighing.
Slowly his left hand reaches over on top of the seats, reaching for Rei. Her soft pale hand meets his, and their fingers embrace.
He shivered but then steadied his body, memories of Touji passing through his slender frame as if he were Touji dying and reliving his life.
"Sorry, transferee, but I had to hit you. I wouldn't have been satisfied 'til I hit you."
Touji had been the only one that had truly understood him, other than Rei and Kaworu.
"If you go away from here, we'll also have to leave this city some day. But we can't say anything to blame you; we saw you suffering in the Eva. If I find anyone who blames you, I'll give them a good crack to the head! So c'mon, don't look so gloomy..."
Asuka…had never truly tried…
Tokyo 3, Japan
Tokyo 3 Memorial Cemetery
The somber funeral procession made its way down across the trimmed grass, the casket and pallbearers behind them. Kensuke and Shinji carried the head of the casket, both looking grimly and silently at points in the ground.
Dozens of cars are parked along the length of the narrow road, and multiple men in dark suits coming out of similarly dark sedans emerge with their wives, girlfriends, and children.
Hikari is there, tears streaming down her face. Maya was there as well, along with Aoba, who was trying to console the former technician, who was crying quite heartily for someone who hadn't known Touji that well. Also, there were the other various people who had been with Touji through high school and college.
People still arrived to the cemetery behind the procession, however, people with sad eyes, people with pale skin, and people with blazing crimson hair.
Tokyo 3, Japan
Hikari's Apartment
They sat there in the living room, silent, somber, Shinji seeming the most grim of all.
Hikari peered at him and sighed, trying to start up at least a nice conversation.
"I just remember him as always being kind and strong…Don't you agree, Shinji?"
Kensuke interrupted before Shinji could respond, sensing that the former Third Child was hardly in the mood to speak.
"Did anyone see the police report? It sounds like it could've been a detonation job, to me at least."
Hikari grumbled, irritated with Kensuke. Now was not the time to dwell on Touji's death and its circumstances, instead it was time to speak of the memories they had shared.
"The paper said it was electrical Kensuke; a freak accident."
"Bullshit, somebody's covering up something"
The entire room stiffened at the latest voice, the source of it strolling through the room, a young, ravishingly beautiful woman with long reddish hair, dressed in an attractive black dress.
Shinji Ikari stiffened as he noticed Asuka Langley Sohryu was now within five feet of him.
"Asuka! No! Please…I need you! I love you!"
Asuka Langley Sohryu shook her head spitefully, grimacing.
"No…no…you killed him…you…you killed him you bastard…"
The former Third Child simply turned away from Asuka as the young woman sat down, not wishing to show his spiteful face to her, simply deciding instead to remain silent and oblivious.
Why…would she come anyway? They weren't friends at all…they hated each other.
If only Rei hadn't left…if she'd been here right now, I could've faced her…with her by my side…I…hmm
Hikari smiled despite the occasion, glad her good friend had come, not noticing or thinking about Shinji, and gave the German a good hug, then taking a seat and responding to Asuka's words.
"Why do you think that?"
Asuka sighed, frowning.
"Cars don't explode that way. Any simpleton knows that."
"But the paper…"
Kensuke shook his head, joining in once more.
"That was set, I'm telling you!"
"By who? But why? Touji didn't have a single enemy in the world…"
"How can you really be sure?"
"You're talking about Touji here…Who'd want to hurt him?"
Kensuke sighed, turning to Shinji.
"Hey Shinji, did he talk about anything when you guys went out? Anything important or weird or something?"
It was then Asuka realized Shinji was in the room, the vaguely handsome young man dressed in a dark suit.
They locked eyes for a few moments, Asuka's a face of confusion, and Shinji Ikari's a cold glare, the face of his father.
I don't want to share it with them…they don't deserve to know…they did nothing for him! He came to me, dammit!
Finally Shinji relented, peering only at Hikari and then Kensuke, his voice almost a whisper.
"He was upset. He thought people were…following him."
Kensuke raised an eyebrow.
"You're kidding. Who?"
Shinji averted his gaze from his three former classmates, speaking hesitantly.
"He didn't know…Demons…"
Asuka seemed to twitch, struck by the word, and then shake her head.
"What do you mean, demons?"
Shinji stared her straight in the eyes, his eyes cold and emotionless, and spoke.
"He told me he was going to Hell."
The statement seems to have an obvious impact on the group, Shinji most of all. There is an immediate silence, all eyes averted from any other human being in the room
Kensuke scratched the back of his head.
What'd he say that for? What made him say that? Strange, huh? Strange."
Asuka interrupted him, sighing as she addressed Shinji, trying to overlook the obvious current of pain between them.
"What else did he say, Shinji?"
Shinji sighed, responding to Asuka's question but addressing it to Kensuke.
He was scared. He saw these creatures coming out of the woodwork. They were tryin' to get him, he said.
Asuka's arm seemed to twitch and shake, if only for a second or two.
"Huh…Weird. How long had that been going on? Probably schizophrenia…"
Hikari frowned at the redhead's bluntness, and then sighed.
"A couple weeks, I guess…That's what he told me."
"Did…he say what they looked like?"
"Uh…no, not really."
"Excuse me a minute…I'll be right back."
Kensuke smirked.
"In one end and out the other, huh Asuka?"
Asuka flashed a wavering attempt at a smile and then hurried to the bathroom, the cup of water in her left hand shaking violently, spilling on the carpet as she walks.
Kensuke chuckled.
"Still a crazy spastic huh? That redheaded demon of ours."
No one laughs. There is an uncomfortable silence.
Eh, short chapter? For story purposes, I insist…The next chapter'll be longer…Hope you're enjoying the weirdness so far, while things begin to shape up and slowly become semisolid in the shadows.
Well, anyway, see you next chapter.