Disclaimer on chapter 6.
A/N: Do you remember love? I forgot!
--
Asuka found herself lying on the rock she had sat on with Shinji. She remembered a song, a beautiful song that a beautiful voice had sang. Her hunger and thirst was still there, but she had this feeling Shinji being there had been an illusion, a dream. However, the smell of cooked meat in the air dispelled such thoughts.
"Shinji...?" Asuka asked the food, and found the familiar figure by her feet. She sat up, and found a frail, yet powerful arm wrapping around her back and onto her shoulder, and pushed her head down into the side of a stomach.
"You know, Asuka... I always wanted to hold somebody like this." Shinji's eye didn't show the embarrassment or nervousness it would normally have held.
"B-baka-Shinji! Are you trying to take advantage of me!" The person the arm had held screamed, horrified.
"No, that wasn't my intentions. Kaworu... He did this to me on the day we had know each other... When I needed comfort..."
"Quit making up excuses, you pervert!" Asuka pushed Shinji away, or tried to. But one arm wasn't enough, and she didn't dare use the bandaged one.
"He had red eyes, like Rei. He smiled, he always smiled." Shinji murmured to the sky, as he sat beside Asuka, waiting for the water to boil over the camp fire. "He comforted me, he understood me."
"Baka-Shinji, get a grip! You haven't stopped mumbling about Kaworu since I stopped your murderous rage!" Asuka screamed to the first and last person she could hope to relate to for the time being.
"His gray hair... It only made him look smarter... Wiser..." The broken boy continued, ignoring the frustrated girl beside him.
"Baka-Shinji, listen to me!" Said girl, determined, continued to shout.
"He was Tabris, according to the scrolls. He was the 17th angel. He told me Lilims deserved a future, a future he gave his life and his purpose for." Shinji smiled bitterly at this memory. A desperate slap met his face, but he was unfazed. "He gave me two gifts... One was an ancient tablet, though Ritsuko couldn't decipher it. Another was the song itself. It was just a single gift, really."
The girl cried tears of frustration, as her last hopes of survival was now a mumbling fool.
"You know, I cried when I met him. I cried for you and Rei. I cried like you are now, frustrated I couldn't help either of you. He cheered me up, he was somebody I could talk to. Now, where was I... Yes, he died-"
Tuning the boy out, she couldn't feel anything but frustration, anger, and pity all at this young man who was old beyond his years, mumbling like an old man about his memories. His pathetic memories that the great Sohryu Asuka Langley was too good to listen to.
Fortunately for the irritated, crying girl, he stopped when the water reached the boiling point. He left the red haired girl still mumbling, but Asuka didn't bother to hear what, until she asked the question her stomach was dying to ask.
"Shinji, what are you cooking?" Asuka asked.
"I made beef ramen for Kaworu. But he was more like Rei than I thought. He didn't like meat."
"Shinji, shut up about that god damned Kaworu! All you've been talking about is 'Kaworu Kaworu Kaworu'!" Asuka screamed at the cooking boy. "Just shut up about this stupid god damned Kaworu bastard!"
As soon as the last few words were spoken, she found another knife soaring less than an inch from her face, this time cutting a few strands of hair.
"Don't... Talk about him... like that..." Shinji shook violently, clenching and unclenching his hand, as if fighting back his urge to kill Asuka right there and then.
"S-Shinji! What are you doing!" Asuka cried out in surprise.
"What I feel like doing." The coldness of the words chilled Asuka to the bone, as it sank deep beneath her skin, freezing her in place. "What, Asuka? Not going to say anything else? Not the Asuka I know." A dark grin appeared on the boy's face, as he dumped the noodles he had made into the water.
"S-Shut up!" Asuka had tasted true fear for her second time in a span of two days, and it didn't sit well with her. "You're just a spineless wimp!" She forced those words out, as her subconsciousness kept convincing her to shut up.
"Kaworu was the one to give me the right to live. Who are you to judge who I am?" The boy growled, his eyes narrowing at Asuka, who froze again. She had not expected Shinji to have changed so much, and she felt her heart aching, as if somebody was toying with it.
"Nobody has rights... Nobody can tell me what to do. Nobody can tell me who I am. What I am is what Kaworu says I am. You're no exception, Sohryu Asuka Langley." The boy stood from the campfire, and held in his eyes the expression of his father. Cold, emotionless. He turned to stare into the light blue eyes of the girl he was left with. "Kaworu would laugh at me if he saw me now, wouldn't he?" His expression changing to a mocking smile.
Asuka found herself tumbling backwards, but fell backwards onto the pile of rubble she was sitting and sleeping on a while ago.
"Asuka, for your own good, watch your mouth." The brown haired boy warned, as he turned back to the noodles he had made. Then his facial feature softened, as the ramen cooked, as if bringing back a lost, pleasant memory.
"S-Shinji?" Asuka stammered in fear, as she tried to recover from her fall.
"Yes, Asuka?" Replacing the anger and void of before, a caring, meek reply came, and it totally caught Asuka off-guard. "Asuka? Are you ok?" The boy turned.
"I-I'm fine, Shinji." Her heart felt like leaping out of her mouth, as the sudden change in behavior made its impact into her mind.
"That's good to hear, Asuka." A dazzling smile made its way up Shinji's soft, caring face. An exact opposite of the Shinji who had just threatened her life. Slowly, Asuka found her legs moving closer and closer to the boy uncontrollably, and her arms finding its way around his left arm. The boy blushed deeply, and pulled away. "A-A-ASUKA! W-what are you doing!" He stammered, embarrassed.
"Baka-Shinji, can't I get close to you?" Asuka said in an annoyed tone, though she was happy that the old Shinji was back.
"S-Sorry Asuka, the ramen is about done. I'll serve yours first." The shy boy handed Asuka a drink he produced out of a bag he had found, and began filling up the first bowl with noodles.
"Shinji, where'd you get the food?" Asuka asked out of curiosity, she was glad that she had food.
"You... Wouldn't want to know." The pained expression on his face was enough to tell Asuka that he probably wasn't proud of it.
"Oh come on, Shinji. There's no one left here anymore. Not like we're stealing from them." Asuka commented, trying to cheer him up.
"I didn't steal..." The boy looked away, as he handed Asuka the noodles and the beef, telling her to help herself as he began to fill his own bowl.
"Then how did you get it?" Asuka was confused. If he didn't steal, how DID he manage to get the food anyways?
"The animals... They're still alive..."
"So?"
As soon as the word left her mouth, Asuka smacked herself mentally for being so stupid. She realized what the knife that had cut off strands of her hair had been used for.
"I..."
"Nevermind, I understand." Asuka cut in, hoping she stopped Shinji from blaming himself over the death of a cow or ox or something. "It's alright, you had to do it to survive." She smiled a cheerful smile, hoping it would infect her companion.
"No, I could have used the knife to do it... But..." Shinji's voice was filled with guilt, as he confessed.
The force of the confession hit Asuka like a hundred bricks as she saw the wildly dotted, deep red blood stains on Shinji's shirt. She had never bothered to look at his shirt, she realized. She had been busy staring into the deep blue eyes that had drawn her in so easily. She quickly looked away and began eating. "Oh god, I don't want to KNOW anymore."
"Would you believe me if... I said I liked the feel?" A sadistic grin appeared on the boy who was barely able to confront her just now. His eyes seemed to glow an eerie color as he turned to face the beauty he had just fed. Like as if he fed her to eat her later.
"F-Finfe? Wosof yoo mosbings?" Asuka felt the waves of creepiness wash into her spine as she ate her warm, delicious meal.
"Hm? I don't quite understand, Asuka..." The boy's look did not change, but his tone is that of the 'normal' Shinji.
Swallowing what was in her mouth, though forcefully due to the images Shinji had implanted in her mind. "Shinji, what's with your mood swings?" Asuka asked again, clearly, without stuttering this time.
"I... I'm enjoying blood, Asuka. Kaworu wouldn't forgive me, but I'll do my best." His sadistic smile turned bitter. "I think... I think I'm going mad."
"Ya THINK?" Asuka was taken aback by the uncertainty of the boy's voice, having experienced his threatening demeanor twice already.
"Y-Yes." The poor boy stammered, surprised at Asuka's outburst.
"Well then, after we finish eating, we gotta find you that SDAT." Asuka said in her arrogant tone, like a leader leading an army into danger. "Who knows how that saved your weak psyche from being ripped and torn? Maybe it has awesome powers." Asuka smiled, and began wolfing down the rest of her ramen.
Smiling, Shinji could only follow her lead, as he suppressed the memories of laughing maniacally after the ox's gruesome death. "Blood... So much... Blood..."
--
Shinji looked at what was the ruins of their apartment, blown apart by the JSSDF's N2 mines.
"Those bastards... They never gave the people a chance..." Shinji's fist clenched, and did not unclench like it usually did. They simply dug deeper and deeper into his palm.
"Now Shinji, direct your anger at the rubbles and dig out your SDAT!" Asuka instructed, as she sat on a piece of rubble, filing her nails with a file she found along the way.
"Uh, Asuka, aren't you helping me?" Shinji asked, but he knew the answer.
"Baka-Shinji, it's your SDAT! Why do I have to get MY nails broken for you?" Asuka's scowling face told Shinji it was better to leave it and start digging. He dug until his nails broke, and his hand began to bleed. Desperately, he tried to get his mind off of the red liquid that flowed freely out of his fingertips, and simply dig. "Blood... Don't think... About blood..." He chanted to himself. "Don't think about blood, don't think about blood..."
"What kind of mantra is that, Shinji?" Asuka looked up from her perfect nails, seeing the wide-eyed, hysterical expression on Shinji's face as he threw dirt and stones tainted red away from the hole he was digging in. "Shinji! What are you doing!" Asuka screamed, seeing the wounds he had inflicted on himself.
"Blood... So much blood... Asuka, I turned those people into blood... Blood up in the sky..." He murmured, madly, as he slowly brought his shaking, bleeding hands up from the hole he had clawed through.
"Shinji, you're not going to start babbling about Kaworu and death again, are you?" Asuka asked, worried that she might have to abandon him this time. She can't live without him, and she knew it. She didn't know how to cook with one hand, and she couldn't order take out anymore. It would be hell either way if he acted up, and if he returned to the way he was, she might have a chance at heaven.
"Asuka, they're not mad at me, are they?" Shinji shivered all over, as his fears began to take their toll on his body.
Asuka was stunned by this question. How was she supposed to know? And why is he asking HER for advice? Shes a stuck up, arrogant girl that had pushed him to this state, and yet he was still willing to be with her, care for her. "Now to ask for my advice, isn't it going a bit too far?"
"Asuka?" The boy asked again.
"N-no, of course not, Shinji. They... They must be happy that they're in heaven now." Asuka tried her best to sound convincing, but it didn't come out right at all.
"Don't lie to me! I can't close my eyes anymore, Asuka. Every time I close it, I see blood. Bloodied men angry at me, cursing me." He sobbed, as he hugged himself. "Nobody cared what I had gone through."
"Shinji... That's enough..." Asuka's soothing voice did nothing to stop the boy, however.
"Animals... They all wanted to kill me. They think I'm lower than them. I'm lower than scum. I know I am. But I tried, I tried, Asuka." His sobbing became louder and more apparent.
"Shinji, every man would die for something I'm about to do for you." Asuka smiled, as she leaned forward. "Well, I guess... I guess the least I could do... Is sacrifice for him a little dignity. After all, he was my first... No, no! Don't think like that!" She thought to herself.
Shinji pushed her away, as he backed off. "No... Don't... Don't come near me! I... I want blood, but I don't want yours, Asuka." He shivered and shook.
"But Shinji, I know a spell that will make you smile." Asuka smiled, hoping the smile with chase away his bloodlust.
"Asuka, that's something only elementary school kids would say." Shinji smiled weakly at the incredibly childish phrase Asuka had used, as he looked into her uncovered, sapphire eye.
"But it works, doesn't it? You're smiling." She teased.
"Yea, you're right, Asuka. Thanks."
"What for?" The confused girl asked.
"Being here. With me."
"Well, baka-Shinji, you need me and you know it, so I'm gonna make you my slave." Asuka grinned, and clung to Shinji's arm. "And your first task, be my pillow for tonight."
"But we haven't even eaten lunch yet!"
"Quiet, slave! Don't correct your mistress!" The red haired girl joked.
"Well then, mistress Asuka, I suppose you want something special?"
"Yea, let's go food hunting!"
--
The unlikely pair, a sane boy driven insane and an insane girl reverting to sanity, drove along the countryside of Tokyo-3 in a JSSDF truck. They felt the breeze on their faces, and it was a good feeling, fortunately for Shinji Ikari.
"BAKA-SHINJI! If you hadn't wrecked the only good vehicle with a key in it, my hair wouldn't have been messed up!" Asuka shouted.
"I'm sorry! That bastard was inside!" Shinji retorted, covering his face in case of an incoming attack.
"EEEK! CONCENTRATE ON THE DRIVING! JERK!" Asuka screamed as she braced herself from crashing into the railings of the mountain road they were driving on.
"Hey, don't blame me! I never learned how to drive and you're distracting me!"
"Don't tell me your little vampirism got you a backbone, Shinji!" Asuka, despite her reactions, actually enjoyed Shinji arguing with her for once. It gave her a sense of competition, and it was a competition she knows she'll win. Winning felt good. So Shinji was making her feel good.
"Want me to bite your neck?" Shinji showed her his sharp, sharp fangs, which was quite dull, actually. He looked as intimidating as a beaver, and Asuka couldn't help but laugh as his horrible display of power.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Baka-Shinji! That... Was... Hehe... HILARIOUS!" Asuka fell over clutching her hurting stomach, crashed into Shinji, and made him steer right into the railings they had just avoided a minute ago.
"AIYEEEE! ASUKAAAAA!" Shinji shouted as the tires screeched in his emergency break. The military truck hang in perfect balance, half on the road, half threatening to dangle off and roll on the green hill below.
"Baka-Shinji! This is all your fault!" Asuka growled at the driver, who promptly did the most expected thing.
"Look! Asuka! I think we found our lunch!" Shinji smiled. Down the hill, a group of runaway hen could be seen.
"Good job, Shinji. Get the tranquilizer gun and taser! We're gonna catch ourselves a few months supply of eggs!" Asuka smiled, as Shinji jumped out the truck and ran to the back for the two weapons he was asked to get. "Breakfast will taste much better now." She smiled to herself.
"Asuka! Taser or tranquilizer?" Shinji asked from the back.
"I'll take the tranquilizer." She replied, and was promptly smacked in the head by the barrel of a gun. "Baka-Shinji! Watch where you point that thing!"
"Sorry!"
Then the bird hunting began.
--
"Whew, that was more fun than paintball." Shinji wiped the sweat off his forehead as he tied up the last of the hens. Chasing chickens to stun them had been a difficult job. All Asuka had to do was shoot them from afar, but he had to chase them around to get within range.
"You almost zapped me three times, you jerk!" Asuka shouted, obviously unpleased. "I swear you were trying to take advantage of me!"
"W-What! It was an accident!" Shinji stammered, blushing at the suggestion.
"Pfft, right it was an accident, but A: Accidents don't happen three times in a span of 10 minutes, and B: The third time it happens, you don't conveniently lean into the behind of the beautiful girl the 'accident' happened to." The tease in her tone was clearly evident, but dense little Shinji didn't detect it and blushed like a tomato.
"A-Asuka, it was an accident, damn it! You try handling a taser around me stunning chickens!" Shinji retorted.
"Well, I would've purposely stunned you so you don't try to shoot me with the tranquilizer gun!"
"Eat this, Asuka!" Shinji switched the variable JSSDF Taser to low voltage, and gave Asuka a nasty shock.
"JERK! TAKE THIS!" As payback, Asuka shot Shinji with the tranquilizer. Then she realized her mistake. "Oh crap, I got too carried away..."
--
Shinji woke up groggily, and found himself staring at the night sky. He chuckled and smiled at the memories of how he ended up this way, but the smile faded as the red halo and the black moon assaulted his mind like the Fifteenth did to Asuka.
"No... No! Go away! GO AWAY!" Shinji squeezed his eyes shut, but the images only got worse, as what they're saying could be heard in his mind.
"YOU BASTARD!" A man shouted, throwing a rock at him. It bounced off harmlessly from Shinji's AT Field.
"YOU KILLED US, YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING!" A woman shouted.
"I am disappointed, Shinji..." Misato's image appeared, and raised her gun.
"Shinji... You're useless. Leave. Go back to the world you created, the world where we cannot live as a family." The commander of NERV, father to Shinji appeared. His face still emotionless, though his voice seeped with hurt and anger.
"NO! GO AWAY! I'M SORRY! I TRIED! I TRIED!" He screamed, tears squeezing out of his tightly shut eyes. He heard faint, rapid footsteps on the grass he was lying on. The sound of a gun loaded could be heard.
"Are... Are they here? They're here to take me away? I never believed in ghosts." Shinji smiled to himself. "I never believed in them. I guess they are real, after all." He relaxed his eyelids, and awaited the end... But it never came. "Huh? Isn't he going to shoot?" Shinji opened his eyes, and saw the familiar red hair flowing over him.
"BAKA-SHINJI! What are you doing screaming out in the middle of nowhere?" Asuka stepped on the poor boy's ribs. "Up and at em, you're gonna cook dinner cuz you never got me lunch!" Asuka leaned down and looked at the boy in the eyes, and was about to continue, but the tears in the deep ocean orbs stopped her in her tracks.
"Asuka... I'm scared." He said, void of emotion.
"Scared? Scared of what?" Asuka was confused. What is he scared of?
"Every time... Every time I look at that thing... The images return, Asuka..." Shinji's tears began to flow again. "They want me dead... Kaworu can't save me... And... And dad swore at me for not following his plans, Asuka." He stayed motionless, but the soulless look in his eyes were enough to tell anybody how the hurtful memories are eating away at his head. The warm breeze blew strands of his hair into his eyes, being soaked, as if they were trying to absorb the pain.
"Shinji..." Asuka took her foot off his chest, and knelt down beside him
"Mother... Mother won't be back now. Not ever... Not ever again!" He screamed. "And dad... Dad says it's all my fault..."
"No, Shinji... None of it is your fault. Nobody was there to guide you... You were confused, Shinji." Asuka gave him an intimate embrace, an embrace most man on Earth would have died for had they not turned into puddles of goo.
"Asuka?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you." Shinji forced a smile, slightly, but it was still a smile.
"You're welcome." Asuka looked up into the sky as she rested her slave's head on her shoulder. "You ARE my slave, after all. The great Sohryu Asuka Langley needs loyal servants, you know." She joked, hoping this time Shinji's smile wouldn't be so forced.
"Yes, mistress Asuka." Shinji instead closed his eyes, and let himself indulge in dreams as the bloody smell of Asuka's hair hypnotized him.
"... Blood...?"
--
Shinji woke up in middle of an empty corridor.
"Hello? Anybody there?" The words echoed back to him, as it reached the end of the hall.
Shinji followed the pathway, and found himself face to face with a mirror.
"Shinji Ikari, I assume?" The mirror image flickered and became a life of its own.
"Wh-What the hell is going on?" Shinji was spooked out.
"I am... Shinji Ikari, too. I am, along with the two beside you, what makes you... You." The mirror Shinji smiled, as he gestured towards the real Shinji's left and right.
"What... What is the meaning of this?"
"I am... Shinji Rokubungi. The one who inherited your father. The one who won't accept the facts. The one who will sacrifice everything for a dedicated goal."
The mirror to Shinji's right flickered and became a being too. "I am Shinji Ikari. I am... The boy everybody knows, a meek, easily embarrassed little boy. Everybody loves me, but I deny everything."
The mirror to Shinji's left flickered and became the third being. It simply growled, as blood dripped from the flesh torn by this Shinji's teeth.
"Ah, please excuse him. Shinji, that is also you. The nameless primal survival instinct that will protect you in a pinch. But..." Shinji Ikari seemed unwilling to go on, his meek voice not sure if he should continue.
"But...?"
"You won't... Be able to control him once it is free. The more sadness and despair you harbor, the stronger and less intelligent it becomes, until it breaks free of your emotional bondage and unleash the pent up rage inside of you to those outside without a thought." Shinji Rokubungi continued for his weak counter part, his voice was without doubt. "He is already released, Shinji. As soon as you wake up, he would consume you a slowly by taking control over you time from time."
"Why!" The real Shinji refused to believe it.
"A reminder..." Was all the real Shinji could hear, not even knowing who spoke them, as the beast lunged at him and seemingly merged into his body.
"AAAAHHHH!"
--
"AAAAHHHH!" Shinji screamed, waking from his slumber. He immediately picked up on a scent he had been smelling throughout his dream.
"Blood...? Yes... Blood..."
"Shinji? What's wrong?" Asuka asked her companion, groggily. She was about to fall asleep too. It was still night time, and she STILL didn't get her dinner yet. She was exhausted.
Shinji simply started chewing on the nearest source of the smell-Asuka's hair.
"What are you doing, baka-Shinji?" Asuka asked, surprised, but not angry.
"Blood... You have blood on you..." Shinji smiled, and started trying to pull on Asuka's hair.
"OW! Baka-Shinji! What the HELL are you doing!" Asuka screamed, her hair began to feel the pain of Shinji's pull. "Stop eating my hair!"
"Blood... Asuka... Why are you covered in blood?" Shinji asked with the smile on his face, looking at Asuka with hungry eyes. He looked like a beast ready to eat the girl if he was not pleased by the answer.
"It's LCL, idiot!" She screamed, meeting the boy's starving gaze. "And you just tried to eat my hair, don't look like that!"
Just then, the boy pushed Asuka away and turned around, barfing uncontrollably, blood and food mixed together.
"S-Shinji!" Asuka screamed, horrified and wanting to barf herself. Then the boy stopped, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. The horrible stench of vomit made worse by the stench of blood.
"Asuka... I... I had a dream..." Shinji shivered again, like a meek little boy he was before Third Impact.
"Must be a perverted one, baka-Shinji." Asuka snorted, unpleased by how he thought her hair was that nasty. "I need to wash it, sometime soon." She thought to herself.
"There... There was father's me... And mother's me... And my me..." He explained shakily. "The my me... He wants blood, Asuka... I'm scared of blood..." He continued.
"You're not making sense, Shinji." The girl he was telling this to was lost, extremely lost.
"I... I want blood... But blood scares me, Asuka... They bring memories..."
Looking down at her plug suit, Asuka made up her mind.
"Baka-Shinji, so we just don't have to remind you of blood or the sky, right?" An annoyed Asuka asked, frowning at the boy who had laughed just hours before. "Here, take this." She threw the strap of a gun at him. "Tie it around your eyes, baka-Shinji, and don't you DARE move from this spot!" Warned Asuka, as she disappeared into the interior of the truck.
"Asuka... Don't pity me..." The boy finally broke down to tears, as he curled in a ball with vomit in front of him. "I don't deserve your pity..."
--
Asuka made the mental list in her mind longer as she looked for the army knife to cut her blood red plug suit out with. The list consisted of all the things that would make Shinji weird, and she would figure out how to deal with the way he's acting when they got settled down somewhere.
"Ok, baka-Shinji gets bloodthirsty when blood is mentioned, super-angst-emo when he looks at the sky or have a nightmare, and normally he goes all murderous but he doesn't want to kill me. But he will if I insult this Kaworu guy. That should be about it, right Asuka?"
Seeing the knife sheathed in a corner of the truck, she made her way to retrieve it. But another thought crossed her mind.
"Why am I bandaged? Whatever happens to the Eva doesn't happen to me anyways. So why am I being bandaged like this?" She thought to herself. "Might as well cut off the bandages and see for myself..."
Pulling the knife out, she brought it to the back of her wrist, and ripped it upwards to her elbow. She clawed into the cut, and ripped the rest off.
"Geez, nothing. False alarm then, I guess?" She sighed to herself, as she decompressed her plug suit.
"Didn't even need the damn knife. But I need privacy when that pervert is around." This time, her mind spoke out loud. She slowly removed the eye patch that covered her eye, and looked into the sparkling blade she held. "My... My eye is fine too!" She screamed in joy.
She decompressed her plug suit, and quickly removed it to check her stomach. Smooth, silky skin still there. She jumped in joy, shouting various cheers, as the truck shook violently to protest.
--
"So... I guess I didn't leave her any physical scars..." Shinji moped to himself, hearing Asuka's screams of joy. "I'm glad." He smiled bitterly, and rose to his feet. The strap he was supposed to blindfold himself with was forgotten completely.
"Asuka... I still need you..." He sighed loudly to himself. "But you don't need me... I'm so weak... And useless... There's no telling when I'll hurt you, and there's no longer a reason..." He was about to leave, when a loud bang, followed by a loud, horrified came from behind him.
"ASUKA!"
--
The truck's protest didn't end when Asuka stopped jumping in joy and started admiring her own beautiful body. "I really shouldn't have jumped with that dangerous weapon in my hand, but-but-but I'm so happy!" She giggled to herself, not noticing the danger she was about to face. She shifted her leg and posed like a model, rolling a gallon-bottle of water they had brought with them into the front, and the impact caused the truck to actually lean forward. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. However, this particular truck was half on the road, half hanging over a hill.
The side that hung over the hill was the side that the bus was leaned towards.
The military vehicle dropped and rolled down the hill, and Asuka finally grasped the full seriousness of the situation.
She came up with a natural reaction-Scream.
--
Shinji ran to the rolling vehicle faster than he thought he could ran himself, and dove right through the denim cover of the back with sheer force of his shoulder. He felt the bone dislocate with a loud snap as he ripped through, but it didn't matter. He was going to save Asuka from the runaway bus, and his own sacrifice is a small price to pay.
The startled girl inside the truck stood there, stunned, seeing Shinji rip right through the tough material with his body alone. She never thought he could be this strong. Suddenly, she was swept off her feet with a grimace on the boy's face, as he jumped out and rolled away just before the truck was smashed into the rocks at the bottom. There was no dramatic explosion, but from sound of it...
"It... sure would have hurt a hell of a lot more down there..." Shinji commented, completely oblivious to the fact that he was holding a nude Asuka, with a dislocated arm somehow wrapping around her body, touching her right breast. But the knife that was stabbed into his side during the ferocious charge had been known.
In another time, in another world, this would've been a tragedy of an end, but in this time and world, this was simply the beginning to a cow's digestion of a relationship. The invincible Shinji would live, yet again.
To be continued... Maybe?
A/N: Have you had this feeling when you WANT something, but was afraid of it? I had that experience quite a few times, and I used that as a basis for the idea in this story. This chapter is not as screwed up as the first of the sub-series, but I feel it connects pretty well.
I intend to explore Shinji's insanity as spontaneous personality changes caused by varying circumstances. The conflicting feelings of his three identities will bear fruit to the insanity I portray. Of course, throughout the little Third Impact series, Asuka will help our insane little hero. Or else he'd be dead from being insane so much already with what I've got planned for the grand finale of this sub-series.
Of course, the moral of this chapter is: Never play around with knives, lest you stab somebody while they try to save your life.