Disclaimer on chapter 6
A/N: After writing about another world, yet another corny plot has landed on my face!
--
"Why are you requesting his transfer?"
"He is trustworthy." Shinji declared, in his uniform. His leg was now fully healed, though it was still awkward to move around.
"I see. Permission granted. Do not disappoint me with your efforts, Shinji Ikari."
The voices could no longer be heard in the dark room, as Shinji sighed a breath of relief.
"Kaji... Thank god you're alive..."
--
Kaji, upon hearing his transfer, immediately moved into the NERV HQ, happy that he was wanted once again, and perhaps now he can woo the female techs like the old times.
However, the reply he got when he made his grand entry was not as predicted.
"WHAT!" Everybody in the room shouted in unison, as if they had all seen a ghost monkey dancing on a pole.
"Um... Hi?" Kaji waved nervously, trying to smile.
"I thought you were dead!" Shigeru cried out, while Makoto simply cursed under his breath.
"I wasn't dead, I got this girl pregnant and she killed my killer and kicked me in the... You know... A few times." Kaji explained cheerily, as if it was casual.
"YOU WHAT?" The whole bridge stared at him wide-eyed, as if he grew three more limbs or something. The whole bridge except Shinji and Misato, at least. Misato simply twitched with anger, as Shinji sat unaffected.
"Agent Ryoji." Shinji said in his commander voice, which he had been practicing the last week out of having nothing to do aside from scheduled tests and projects, Asuka mad at him and all.
"Hey, Shinji. Why'd you transfer me here?" Kaji smiled at the boy, and walked over to the commander's desk.
"K-Kaji! Try to be more serious!" But practicing a week does not make perfection. Perfection came from a lifetime's act. But the calmness was remarkable, if only he didn't stammer. Kaji laughed at the effort Shinji was putting into being a commander. "You're here to lead a special Section 2 team designated to guard Asuka and Rei." Shinji regained his composure, and managed to deliver the order without a hitch.
"What about yourself?" Kaji asked, and Misato answered for him.
"Asuka pissed the kid off, so he's sexist now." She said bitterly to Kaji. His mere presence had induced her into a rage-filled calm, insulting everything and everyone. Kaji cowered from her deadly gaze, and Shinji felt insulted.
"Misato! I'm not sexist! I'm missing school constantly right now but they're not. Besides, it's not like they can wear their uniforms outside of NERV." Shinji retorted, unlike the statement about him.
"Sorry Shinji, I just needed a point to get across to SOMEBODY!" With the last words, Misato's eyes practically shot out streams of super-heated photon energy at the somebody she was referring to, as Kaji began to sweat out every drop of H2O in his body.
"Now, Misato, d-don't be unreasonable!" Kaji forced a smile, hoping to calm her down.
"This is PERFECTLY reasonable!" Kaji tried to look for an escape, and seeing his escape in the form of a brown haired commander boy, he quickly concentrated what was left of his psyche on him.
"Off to duty, sir!" He shouted, as he ran off the bridge like a scared rabbit. The rest of the bridge crew could have sworn that the air between the two had warmed up considerably.
Except Makoto. The aura around him made the room temperature drop like a stone.
--
Kaji sighed, Misato still had not forgotten his sin, even though he had been coming and going like a shadow for the past few months. He was stationed outside the school, like Shinji had asked him to do, but not according to Shinji's wishes he didn't let Asuka know he was there.
"I knew I should have given you that beard-growing formula and taught you how to shave." He thought to himself. He didn't want a girl clinging onto him, drawing all the attention to him. He didn't like attention, because he was a living corpse technically, a dead man who had his personal files re-entered into the government computer as a special case.
Unfortunately, it seemed as if Asuka had a Kaji-detector, because she was right under the tree he was hiding in when he broke out of his thoughts. Fighting his urge to scream, slip, and fall on top of her, he hugged the trunk of the tree tightly praying his dangling sniper rifle would not make a noise.
God didn't grant wishes to sinners.
The gun smashed into a twig, snapping it, and having it fall into the food Shinji had made for her. Kaji banged his head against the trunk silently for his stupid blunder.
"BAKA-SHINJI! What's with him nowadays? Yesterday he packed me a box of wasabi products, and today he gave me a TWIG on an otherwise PERFECT lunch!" Asuka fumed.
Kaji wiped a sweat off his forehead, and sighed a sigh of relief that Shinji had saved the day in the most unexpected manner.
"Asuka, you know Shinji is trying his best." Hikari pleaded, hopefully to get Asuka off Shinji's back. "He hadn't come to school since that attack here, and it wasn't as if he came that often before either."
"That's because baka-Shinji is an idiot! Like that time in the hospital after the skirmish. I woke up from a coma an-"
"And he gave you heart shaped sushi and sashimi with a lobster on rice with crab broth. Yes Asuka, you told me about 10 times about how disgusted you were with a dreamy look in your eyes." Hikari cut in, with an uninterested tone.
"What! I certainly did NOT look dreamy!" The red haired girl switched to her fuming demon mode, in a last ditch defense.
"Whatever you say, Asuka. You know, you have it so easy with Shinji." Hikari smiled. "He is caring, passionate, and he can be hot blooded too! Can you imagine that? I never thought he was a super robot nerd." Hikari giggled at the thought, as if that was amusing in an extremely cute way.
"Baka-Shinji, hot blooded? Hardly!" Asuka laughed at the thought, as she threw the twig up into the tree, where it landed on Kaji's new uniform, with oil all over it.
"Damn it, Shinji better have a free cleaning bonus for this!" Kaji thought to himself, as he continued eavesdropping.
"Oh come on Asuka, if you didn't threaten to kill him for everything he does, he would have showed you." Hikari's smile beamed with radiance, as if the mention of Shinji with a burning soul could tell you the meaning of life. She finally took the first bite of her food, and waited for Asuka to stop blushing with anger and embarrassment and answer.
"Hikari, some jokes are just unbelievable!" Asuka laughed again. "Really, try harder. Maybe Touji actually picking up on your subtle hints would have me fooled."
Hikari blushed heavily at the joke Asuka had made, and looked down playing with her food. Apparently she was eating curry.
"A-Asuka!" She protested, smiling. "Touji offered to make me lunch..."
"HE DID WHAT?" Asuka screamed, drawing attention of everybody in a radius of 50 meters.
"A-Asuka! Not so loud!" Hikari protested meekly, blushing even more than before. The heat could be felt radiating from her head.
"Sorry Hikari. Now, are you saying he's giving YOU lunch? That stooge?" Asuka was surprised, and she didn't bother to hide it.
"Actually... He made what I'm eating right now..." Hikari looked shockingly like Shinji when he was embarrassed, except she was a girl and Shinji was a boy.
"Now... Slow down Hikari..."
So the girls talked and giggled amongst themselves, while Kaji had one thing on his mind.
"So this is why you're asking me to take care of it. I feel my masculinity declining!" He thought with a growl on his face.
--
Shinji suddenly felt a pang of guilt. "Cursed sixth senses." He thought, as he drank the rest of the contents in his can.
It was lunch break, and everybody was eating the meal of their choice. Shinji had gotten a bowl of ramen, and shaped the noodles into a little heart with his chopsticks. Then he ripped it apart for no apparent reason. Unfortunately for him, Misato had been watching.
"Awww, little Shinji heartbroken?" She teased, a trademark mischievous grin on her face.
"W-w-what are you talking about Misato? I'm just feeling artistic, heh... heh..." Shinji laughed nervously trying to shrug off Misato's surprise attack.
"You know Shinji, assigning Kaji instead of watching her yourself was a pretty dumb move." Misato seemed to cringe at the mention of Kaji, but Shinji shrugged it off as his imagination.
"I-I don't understand!" He lied, as he averted his gaze and quickly feasted upon his ramen.
"Now, don't give me that meek little 'I don't know what you're talking about' act, Shinji." Misato leaned, giving him a nice view of her well endowed body. Makoto's aura just got colder.
Shinji could only blush and stammer, explaining with limited success he wasn't thinking about Asuka. His diplomatic skills could use some help, though, as he had failed to satisfy Misato with his unbacked claims.
"Now, you made heart-shaped sushi for her, it must mean you feel SOMETHING, right Shinji?" Misato said, unaware that she had just announced the little gift he made for her to the whole bridge crew. Makoto's aura suddenly stopped freezing the air around him, as he looked incredulously.
"Shinji! I never thought you were that kind of kid!" Makoto beamed with a smile, as he walked up to his commander and gave him a big pat on the back. The aura around him warmed up rapidly, or so it seemed. "Wow! Good luck on getting Asuka!" He laughed, and went back to his station. "And don't you dare touch my Misato!"
Maya watched Makoto doing something so absurd with her jaw dropped. That had been the second weirdest thing that had happened, first being Kaji's revival. Third being Misato's information about Shinji's heart-shaped food. She was about to speak, but Shigeru had beaten her to the punch.
"Shinji! That's amazing! Care to teach me a few things or two?" Shigeru smiled as he turned from his station. "My girlfriend was pretty jealous of my fans, you know. Asuka must get jealous a lot, you stud!" He laughed at his own joke, which only Makoto had found funny.
He looked at his make-shift teacher, professor Fuyutsuki, for understanding. What he saw was an old man trying to drown his laughter with food. He sighed in despair, but at least it was over.
Until Maya had to insert her own input.
Blushing, the young tech began talking. "I-I think you make a really cute couple, commander." Her sweet, sincere smile could make flowers bloom, if flowers grew in the Geo front.
"Kaji, want to switch yet?"
--
Kaji mentally kicked himself for the millionth time, as he continued staring through the binoculars at the girls changing for P.E.
"Shinji, this is cruel!" He thought to himself, obviously not happy. "I'm not a pedophile, but why is it that almost every girl in your class is well endowed in some form?"
Kaji sighed. His orders were to not let Asuka out of his sight. Assassins might be sent, for SEELE was far from dead. He began mentally bashing his head against a mental wall.
"Ikari, now you're just messing with my head. I'm not justifying peeking at underaged girls! I'M NOT!"
Asuka stepped out into the track field, as the binoculars spotted a red line searching for the intended target-Asuka's heart. The experienced spy took his sniper rifle with record speed, as his red line traced the sniper's red line back to the sniper himself.
Two muffled shots were heard. The second into a tree, the first imbedded into an assassin's head. Two section two men seemed to appear out of nowhere, and began carrying the dead body to the disposal.
"Another to add to the pile of Angel feed..." Kaji murmured to himself, as he made sure his sniper rifle was fully loaded and ready to fire again. That single bullet could mean life or death in this assignment. So far, 2 assassins had been shot down. Before, section 2 were able to take care of it themselves. There was no use for Kaji, until SEELE stepped onto the stage. Now they were dealing with professionals, rather than religious zealots who just wanted to hunt down the Children with whatever method they were familiar with. He resumed watching over Asuka, feeling his dignity draining with increasing momentum.
--
Shinji received report of a second man sniped. Sighing, he knew the dangers Asuka had exposed herself to everyday, and blamed himself for it. If only he had not gone on that rampage at the end of their lives as the last two on Earth, this rebellion might never have shown up. The keyword was might, but Shinji was still blaming himself. Depression got in his mind as soon as fighting to protect Asuka and Rei began, though Rei was relatively safe because she had an innate sense of self-protection. Her sixth sense was extremely effective.
But the development of the new uniforms had solved that crisis. However, the suits were considered hazard suits, and was not to be used in normal conditions due to high maintenance costs. However, with the new funding plan they had gotten themselves through the new committee, they had more than their share of money.
"Shinji, it isn't good to brood like this." A calm voice startled the commander in deep thought.
"Ka-Kaworu! Don't jump on me like that!" Shinji was more scared than he showed. If wasn't pleasant to be sneaked up on while you're brooding over the subject of assassins.
"Whatever could be your trouble?" The boy said casually, with a pleasant, ethereal, and yet human voice. His voice was what one would call angelic.
"Ramiel."
"Brother Ramiel?" Kaworu was confused.
"Yes. Research had been fruitless, we can't create a weapon based on him." Shinji explained, feeling another pang of guilt from using living creatures like this.
"Ah, I see. But have you thought that perhaps what you are searching for is the mind of Ramiel?" Kaworu smiled, despite the fact Shinji was toying with the life of his brother. He knew why he did it, and he forgave him "You are searching through his components, rather than his innate sixth sense. Why do you think he never shot you, or any of the technicians?"
Shinji simply started to brood once again. The plans for their safety had been shattered and destroyed, while the scenario simply moves on. He would get the UN to agree to the usage of the suits outside of NERV one way or another.
--
"Another one! Asuka sure is popular." Kaji sighed, as he reloaded his clip. The last one had taken three shots to avert his line of fire. Now he knew how Section 2 must have felt, dealing with fanatics everyday.
Kaji watched as his lackeys threw the third one today into the sack. It was almost time for Asuka to leave school, and his job would finally be over when Misato came by to pick her up.
--
"You know, Kaworu. There had never been so many attempts on her death in a single day." Shinji said to his gray haired companion. "What do you think?"
"SEELE is acting." The grim tone in the boy's voice was a contrast to his normally happy, cheerful voice.
"I can tell." Shinji sighed to himself, as he authorized the usage of the Children's exclusive uniform outside of NERV despite the fact that he had yet to contact the UN. "Forget those stuck up bastards, I control the world's most powerful military organization." He grinned to himself, uncharacteristically.
Kaworu looked at him with a hint of worry, but said nothing.
--
"Whew, that was a hectic day!" Kaji wiped the sweat off his forehead, as the blue, battered car sped off into the distance. It had been strange. 3 attempts at her life in a single day? There was certainly something up with this turn of events. Just then, he heard a call from one of his agents.
"Kaji, sir, Rei has been shot! Medical team is coming, but there's a small army here!" The man shouted over the gunfire. "We require assistance!"
Rei had not been to school today, and another team was sent to take care of her. The team was relatively small compared to Kaji's, however, since Asuka would be in school grounds and the assassination of the assassins must be done in the utmost secrecy. This proved a bad decision, however, as it was just proven that Rei's sixth sense could not handle everything.
"We're on our way, you report to Ikari!" Kaji shouted back, as he broadcast the command to his team.
"Well, back to the hectic day!" He thought to himself, as he jumped off the tree and into the NERV issued car.
--
"Do you think Rokubungi is adequately prepared to defend the children from the upcoming Jet Alone's completion?"
"Kaji is with one of the children. Whoever he was with would be safe for sure."
"Good."
"Though it would appear that Shinji himself is worrying about future attempts like this."
"We can expect the UN to receive a reality check by the boy."
--
Shinji nearly destroyed the agent's ear drums as he shouted into the man's ears. His voice dripping with rage.
"I-I'm sorry sir!" The poor man stammered in fear.
"WHAT WERE YOU DOING? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GUARD HER!" The fuming boy continued the assault, as the agent simply stammered out apologies.
"Is something the matter, Shinji?" Kaworu asked from where he had been sitting.
"Apparently, Rei was shot." Shinji had channeled all his fury into the slamming of the phone, destroying it. His voice was level and calm once more. Kaworu visibly frowned and had his teeth bare for a second, but it quickly disappeared into a smile.
"Rei will pull through, Shinji."
"I hope she will."
--
The gunfight had been more of a bullet show, as clips upon clips of bullets were wasted into the walls which the two sides hid behind.
The armored ambulance crashed into the scene just as Kaji and the other agents arrived. Quickly loading the injured girl into the back, the ambulance crashed its way out of the crossfire. The arrival of Kaji's men had turned the tables considerably against the assassins' favor, and one by one they were shot down.
"I guess we failed, somewhat. But why are they targeting Ayanami anyways? She doesn't even have an Eva anymore." Kaji thought aloud to himself, as he made his way back to his transport after the bloodshed. "I guess they just didn't want a backup pilot."
--
The monuments rose from the projectors, marked 01, 04, 06, 11 and 12.
01: "Curses! They will surely guard the Second Child more closely now."
04: "Indeed. We accomplished nothing today. Rei is irrelevant to our scenario now that she has no value in Third Impact, and her Eva destroyed."
06: "I believe we should stop. Our personnel are not replaceable as before."
11: "No matter, our Jet Alones are to be completed within the next 24 hours. We have 9 copies, each wielding a replica lance."
12: "Indeed. Though database on such weapons were erased, the copy in our minds were not."
The monoliths faded, and the room was silent once more.
--
Shinji wasn't having a good time. Two weeks ago, it was Asuka. Now, it was Rei. Except this time, he had to prepare for the attack that the committee had informed him of. Probably the last before he went on the offensive with his Eva. Asuka would remain in HQ since her Eva was still not yet installed with an S2 engine. He couldn't possibly spend time with Rei at this crucial moment in time, and then there was Kaworu.
"Kaworu, can you stay for me?" Shinji asked his friend, to support another friend in this time of need.
"Of course, Shinji." Kaworu smiled, as disappeared into the hospital room. A pillow and a blanket already prepared, as if he knew he was going to be asked that.
"Kaworu always knew me best..." Shinji smiled to himself, as he made his way towards the command bridge. Sitting at his desk, Shinji began to brood over the attack scheduled sometime this week.
"Misato, what do you think we should do?" Shinji asked his guardian, looking for advice.
"Isn't it obvious? They don't have an AT field, but if your committee was right, they have the lances. They're just like a humanoid angel." Misato shrugged. "We can't really plan for something as simple as a 2 on 9 battle royal, can we?"
"I guess you're right, Misato. But I'm worried about Asuka." Shinji sighed, and as if on cue, the door opened and in pops Asuka.
"Worried about what, baka-Shinji?" Asuka asked as she walked to the commander. She had been keeping up her facade of strength, smiling confidently.
Shinji was not in the least worried about how she's acting at this moment, and simply had cut straight to the point. "I want you to fight 9 Jet Alones with me, each armed with a replica lance." The stern look in his face dispelled the notion that this was a sick joke from Asuka's reflexive mind.
Seeing what he was worried about, Asuka simply grinned. "No problem!" She said, as she skipped happily out of the bridge. "Baka-Shinji! I'm over it already!" She shouted, before completely going out of earshot range.
Shinji smiled at that, and turned back to Misato.
Misato was smiling too. Along with the entire bridge crew. At him.
"... I hate you all..."
To be continued... Maybe?
A/N: A sort-of-filler chapter. I wrote it mostly to land Kaji a place in this story, and it serves no further meaning.
Next chapter, a toned town version of the final battle before Third Impact!
For you, my loyal readers, an omake!
--
Kaji sat at the good old desk he had relied on during his last stay in NERV HQ. He typed something into the console in front of him, and he saw something not meant for his eyes.
"Oh... My... God! My binoculars had a live feedback mini-video camera directed to... The commander's office! So that's why..."
-
Shinji replayed the video Kaji had shot for him for the 50th time, and smiled to himself as he began to see Asuka changing. "Yes... As long as I put up my spineless front, nobody will suspect a thing!"