Sins and Retributions
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Shinji: Eva Pilot, Boyfriend and Pack mule
The pilot of Unit 01 staggered under the massive amount of bags, and almost fell over.
Asuka looked at Misato and said, "Well, it looks like we got to go out together after all. Wasn't it nice of Shinji to invite you and volunteer to pay for the whole trip? Right Shinji!"
Upon hearing his name, Shinji quickly uttered, "Yes ma'am."
The redhead scowled at him, but finally let up and said, "That's what I thought… and don't call me ma'am! It makes me feel old, just like Misato!"
The purple haired Sub-Commander glared at Asuka and cried out, "I am not old! Besides, I hate it when people call me ma'am too!"
After several minutes of arguing, and Shinji entertaining himself, the Second Child rounded on him, "This is entirely your fault, you Idiot!"
He rose to the occasion, "ME! What did I have to do with it!"
The girl shot back, "You called me ma'am! You jerk! Take responsibility for your actions, Third Child!"
The whipped and beaten Shinji sighed, "Alright…"
The two women he accompanied just looked at each other, and Misato chuckled, "Man Asuka! How tight is his leash?"
With a wicked smile, the girl replied, "Tight enough to keep that Dummkopf in line."
Shinji bowed his head and pushed on, burdened with all of the shopping bags of his roommates.
(-----)
Asuka sat in the car, while Shinji and Misato threw all of the bags into the trunk of her car.
Once Misato shut the back hatch, Shinji spoke to her, "Misato… I need to talk to you."
The Sub-Commander looked at him and smiled, "Alrighty then, but first, you need to start talking."
The boy shook his head a little, "Oh yeah. Anyway… I'll understand if you don't want to, but…"
Misato cocked her head to the side, and she made a confirming noise, then Shinji continued in a hurry, "I want you to adopt me."
Misato's head jerked back and she said, "Huh? What did you just say?"
Shinji's gaze focused on the hard top of the car and he said, "N-Nothing… Just forget it…"
Misato quickly stopped him, "No, No, No. I was just making sure I heard right and wasn't filling in the sentence. Are you sure about this Shinji?"
The young Ikari nodded and said, "I am… You're already like a mother to me in everything but title."
The woman felt like she had just climbed Mount Everest with nothing but a toothpick. In truth, that task would have been easier than getting this troubled boy to open up to her, but she succeeded.
Misato wiped tears away from her eyes, and she said, "I'll adopt you… but you have to promise me not to take Katsuragi as your surname. You need to always remember that you are the son of Gendo and Yui Ikari."
The Third Child looked directly into Misato's eyes and said, "I could never forget that. I see them every day… when I look in a mirror… when I pilot Eva… I see them every day."
A resounding thud brought the two back to reality, and Asuka kept punching the hard top roof of the car as she shouted, "Get your lazy asses into the car! Are we going to leave while I'm alive!"
The purple haired woman jumped into the car and blasted out of the parking lot, barely allowing Shinji the time to get in and buckle his seatbelt.
(-----)
Shinji struggled to push all of Misato and Asuka's stuff into the apartment. Once all of the baggage had been placed into each respective room, Shinji collapsed on the floor and ran his fingers through his hair, "Man… Why do I always have to do the dirty work?"
After a few minutes, Shinji pulled out his cell phone and dialed a few numbers in, then waited for the other end of the line to pick up. "Hey. Toji, this is Shinji. I was about to go out for a run. You game?"
The other end of the line called back, "Ready when you are Ikari. Just give me a time and place."
Shinji smiled and said, "Um… How about we meet at school in ten minutes?"
Toji's voice floated back to Shinji's ear, "Fine by me. See you then, dude."
Shinji scribbled on a piece of paper then put it on the fridge, that way, Misato would have to see it when she made her inevitable beer run. The boy opened the door and started to jog to his school.
UNIT 0P
Toji Suzuhara stretched his legs out and waited for Shinji to get to their meeting place. He rolled his neck around, and then pulled his knee close to his chest. Shinji came into view and was standing next to the jock within a few seconds.
"Hey! What's up?" Toji called out.
The Pilot of Unit 01 sighed and shook his head, "Eh… I just got back from a shopping safari with Asuka and Misato. They just about emptied my bank account. Well… They just about emptied my NERV bank account." The boy chuckled, "I knew this would happen, so I planned ahead and threw three quarters of my money into a different account."
Toji grinned broadly and roared, "Shinji! You dog!"
Shinji shrugged and motioned with his hand, "Shall we?" Toji nodded and the two began their run through Tokyo III.
(-----)
Asuka glided into the kitchen and noticed the note that Shinji had left. Immediately she knew it was his, because she had seen his handwriting so often. The girl rolled her eyes and murmured, "Out with that stooge again? Whatever."
Asuka's cerulean eyes flowed over the kitchen, like a burst of water, and she shrugged, "Looks like I gotta find something to entertain myself with then."
The German flopped onto the couch and turned on the television. After five minutes of searching for a program to watch, Asuka disgustedly slammed the remote onto the table, "Damn Japanese televisions… they never have anything good on."
Pen-Pen waddled through the kitchen and the tigress on the couch sprung into action. The helpless penguin was caught in the grasps of Asuka Langley Sohryu could do nothing but wail in terror. The German girl held him by the skin on the back of his neck and examined him with curiosity. To Pen-Pen the girl looked like a child, just a harmless child.
His thoughts immediately changed when she cracked a devilish smile, "Wunderbar…"
Pen-Pen's face went blank and he became slippery with sweat. Asuka clutched tighter and pulled him into her room.
(-----)
"Yeah, I got a gun from Kaji. If you want, I could probably get him to take us shooting," Shinji Ikari said to his friend Toji Suzuhara.
The jock gaped, "Really! We could go shooting! What about Kensuke!"
The pilot of Unit 01 shrugged, "Hell, I don't know. Let's bring him too."
Toji blanched, "You mean… give a gun to… Kensuke?" Toji could see the trigger-happy hacker with a real pistol, and quite frankly, it disturbed him. The jock spoke again, "Maybe it'd be best if we didn't bring Kensuke. Do you really want him using a gun?"
As the duo continued to run, Shinji pulled out his cell phone and dialed seven digits, then waited a minute. He spoke into the receiver after a few seconds of ringing, "Kaji? Hey, this is Shinji… Yeah… I was wondering if you could take me and a friend shooting? Thanks Kaji… Now? Okay… see you in ten minutes."
Shinji snapped the phone shut and looked at his buddy, "We gotta get back to the school. Kaji is gonna pick us up there then we can go shooting. Do your parents care about stuff like this?"
The jock snorted, "Hell, I'm the only one at home nowadays. Sis is still in the hospital, but she's getting out soon."
The majority of the stooges began to sprint back the way they had came from and back to their school.
(-----)
Asuka flew out of her room and ripped the phone from the hook, then spoke in a honeyed voice, "Hello? ... Oh! Hey dumb ass! ... Sorry, I couldn't resist that… Kaji? Oh! Alright! See you at dinner, Shinji."
The girl slammed the phone back down, though she wasn't mad, and pranced back to her room with a few things in her hands.
After a few minutes in her room, Asuka re-emerged and strode down the hall, "Hey Misato! Come here! I got something to show you!"
The purple haired Sub-Commander of NERV poked her head out of her room and followed Asuka to her room. Asuka proudly held up an Evangelion model that she had created.
She smugly cried out, "I call it Unit 0P!"
Misato scratched her head and squinted, "I can't really see it, you need to turn the lights up higher. It's like a cavern in here."
Asuka snorted, "Just because you own the place doesn't mean you can tell me how to have my lights. I like them like this thank you very much. Besides, what do you think of Unit 0P?"
Misato looked at it, "Kinda fat for an Eva, isn't it?"
The German girl smacked herself in the forehead, "This is Unit 0P! P… Pen-Pen! Get it now? It's Pen-Pen's Eva!"
The older woman raised an eyebrow, then burst into a large grin, "OH! I see it now! …How did you make this thing?" The redhead pointed to the recycling bin out in the kitchen, "Found a use for your beer cans."
Misato roared, "Now THIS is true art!"
Asuka sighed, "Goddamn I was bored…"
(-----)
Gunfire rang throughout the hall as Toji, Shinji and Kaji each rapidly pulled the trigger of their guns.
Once each had stopped, they stepped behind a yellow line and called for a ceasefire. The other gunners stepped behind the line and one of them shouted, "CLEAR!"
Everyone shuffled onto the range and retrieved their targets or just went to see how they did.
Toji had done reasonably well for his first time shooting a gun, but he was nowhere near the level that Shinji and Kaji were on. Once everyone had finished their business on the range, the shooters retreated behind the yellow line again and another man bellowed, "CLEAR?"
The whole range responded in unison, "CLEAR!" The firing began again.
(-----)
Kaworu poked at a black device on his table warily. 'What is this?'
The thing fired up and started wailing. With godlike reactions, the former angel slammed a kitchen knife through it and sighed from relief, 'Safe again…'
The boy turned and started to fill in a knife hole in his wall with a crude plaster mix that he had created.
A knock at his door alerted him to somebody's presence, and he called out, "Enter!"
Rei Ayanami slowly stepped into his sight and she said, "Why did you not answer your phone?"
The silver haired youth looked around and said, "My telephonic device didn't ring… Oh, you must be referring to that."
He pointed to the black device now impaled on his kitchen table.
The calm First Child spoke in a boring tone, like usual, "Why did you feel the need to eviscerate a telephone?"
Kaworu shrugged, "I had no clue what it was, and it started to beep. So I just kinda stabbed it."
Rei gripped his ear and said, "You need to stop stabbing every piece of technology NERV gives you. Do I make myself clear?"
The young man whimpered, "Yes ma'am… Have you been taking lessons from Pilot Sohryu?"
Rei rounded on him and flashed a smile, "Can you tell?"
Kaworu rubbed his ear and said, "I believe so… What do you have planned for today?"
(-----)
Toji smiled happily, "Thanks Shinji. Thanks Mr. Kaji."
The older man shrugged, "It was nothing. Besides, you never know when somebody needs to be able to shoot a gun. If anything, this ought to help out against your friend Aida in shooting games. I would love to see his face when you hand his ass to him."
Toji chuckled demonically, "I think I could arrange that."
Shinji shrugged and said, "I never got the hang of those games."
Toji stopped laughing and looked at Ikari like he was an alien, "You're joking, right? It's easy! You can have my Counter Strike disc to install it and me and Ken will help you through it, okay?"
Reluctantly, Shinji nodded. As an afterthought, Toji said, "Don't let Asuka play it either. I would hate to be the one up against her. Knowing her, she'd find the address of every single player that beat her. I think we all know what happens then."
Kaji looked over at the boys, "I didn't know people your age played Counter Strike. What's your user name?"
The jock replied, "BitetheBullet. You?"
Kaji looked down at the boy and said, "SmurfBuster!"
Toji snorted, "The Smurfs! My Sis watches that show!" Kaji grinned, "So did mine, that's why I hate them so much. One by one, they stole my sanity! I used to have nightmares until just a few yea- never mind."
They looked at Shinji when he said, "I plan on just using my real name… Will it be open?"
Kaji chuckled, "You're lucky. Counter Strike installed a new program that takes all of your personal information and uploads what you want. They made a program that takes the user's real name and deletes all other duplicates, giving you your own name if you choose it."
The Eva pilot was dumbfounded, "That's convenient! That'll probably piss off somebody with my name as theirs."
Toji looked at the boy and said, "Dude. That'll piss of half the network. You really aren't aware of how popular you are, huh?"
The boy stood with a pensive look on his face, "Maybe… Whatever, I am the only one allowed to be named Shinji Ikari."
(-----)
Shinji said his goodbyes to Toji and Kaji, then stepped into his apartment. Asuka immediately greeted him, "Hey Shinji!"
The girl pressed something into his hands, "What do you think!"
The boy looked into his hands and saw Unit 0P. "It looks like Pen-Pen in an Eva."
The girl smiled, "I know! It's made of 100 Beer Can metal. I found a use for Misato's waste."
The boy smiled, "Asuka… This is really good."
The girl snorted, "Whatever. I used math to make it. Watch this."
The girl touched something on the back and it made a noise similar to Pen-Pen, then a compartment on its shoulder opened up. Unit 0P pulled out a progressive knife like Asuka's then the blade flicked open from it.
Shinji sighed, "It would have been completely fine the way it was. Leave it to Asuka to make everything perfect."
The girl smiled arrogantly, "I can make anything perfect!"
The pilot of Unit 01 grinned, "Wanna bet?"
The redhead repeated her phrase and Shinji replied, "How about making dinner perfect then?"
The girl glowered and said, "That's your job! I'm just the assistant there! Now get your ass into the kitchen!" He smiled and chuckled, "Okay then. Care to help?"
(-----)
Asuka sat on the counter and examined Shinji cooking. The boy was lost in his thoughts and the girl brought him back to reality, "Idiot… When's it gonna be ready?"
He shrugged, "Ten maybe twenty minutes… Asuka… Why did you really come back from Third Impact?"
The girl slumped a bit in her position then slowly began to talk, "Everything was so hectic before it… but when it happened, I was at peace. I had my parents… I had a normal life. I lived back in Germany. The thing is… well… I had never been in Japan. I was in the middle of class and we started to talk of Japan and Tokyo III. They mentioned Yui Ikari, and I asked if she had a son named Shinji. No. She didn't."
"You were gone from the world. I didn't really know who you were, but I felt like you meant something to me. I stopped going to school and just stayed in my room. At one point I just said to myself, 'This life is bullshit! Who is this Shinji Ikari? Why would he mean anything to me?' I just kinda snapped and told Lilith to get the hell out of my head and all I wanted to do was get back to you."
Shinji looked down at his food, and said, "Before Third impact… nah. Never mind…" Shinji finished cooking and served the food to his roommates then retreated to his room.
Asuka opened the door that lead to Shinji's room and slowly stepped in. "Shinji…? Shinji…?" she called out.
Nobody answered her in the dark room. She felt her way around the room and touched the lumped body of Shinji Ikari that was raggedly breathing.
She slowly said, "What's wrong Shinji. You can tell me anything." The boy continued repeating a phrase at a low volume, "I'm so fucked up."
Asuka flipped him over and forced him to look at her in the dim room, "Start talking. I know something is bothering you."
The boy gulped and began to talk, "Before Third Impact… you were in a coma… and… and…" Shinji couldn't hear himself say it but he knew he did from Asuka's surprised countenance.
The girl started down at him and quietly said, "I always knew you were a pervert."
Shinji bowed his head, "Aren't you going to hurt me?" When she did nothing, he started begging, "You have to! I deserve it! I'm so fucked up. Do it! I did something horrible. So hurt me… You have to! You have to do it so that I know you hate me for it!"
She replied to him with anger in her voice, "Shut up Shinji!" Her voice softened, "You should forgive yourself… I already have."
The young man shivered, "You have to… I did something horrible. I'm just some fucked up kid. I don't deserve you…"
The redhead looked at Shinji and flicked him on the forehead, though there was no anger in her eyes, "You're my Dummkopf, got it? If you don't deserve me, then I shouldn't be here! I would have stayed in the LCL if you didn't deserve me. You did do something horrible. But I still forgive you. You had a lot of shit running through your mind back then. I don't want to hurt you."
The boy began to cry into her chest and sniffled, "Why… Why don't you hate me? I did something terrible."
The girl laughed, "I love you too much to hate you."
Shinji cried even harder, and Asuka stroked his head and calmed him down. She smiled lightly, "At least you feel sorry for it. There's only one comforting thing about that… At least it was me, and not somebody else."
Shinji looked up, tears still in his eyes, "How can you say that?"
The girl hugged him close, and then whispered into his ear, "I know that you want me, and I know that you're a boy."
Shinji spoke, "Didn't you say that you want me to want all of you? Not just your body?"
The pilot of Unit 02 stroked his head and said, "Sometimes it's good to know that you're wanted, even if it's only physical… Shinji?"
The boy looked up again, and indicated that he was listening.
Asuka continued, "Third Impact did screw with our lives, but the aftermath… Well, just look at us now. You know… I came back just for you. Having people here is a bonus, but frankly, I couldn't give a damn if we were the only ones here."
Shinji clung tightly to the girl and she said, "If you weren't feeling this bad, I'd think you were trying to do something perverted."
Shinji opened his eyes, but realized where his head was and pulled back, "S-Sorry…"
The girl snorted, "Don't worry about it. We already know you like them."
Shinji blushed heavily and uttered one single word, "Thanks…" Asuka pinned him down to the bed and closed her eyes.
(-----)
Shinji sat at his desk barely listening to his biology teacher as he absently thought, "Isn't a teacher in high school supposed to teach, not lecture?"
Shinji was having trouble staying awake, as the teacher always turned off the lights and had a slideshow running on the wall.
He was thankful that Mr. Eddmann had sat him in the corner closest to the teacher's desk and in the back. Shinji felt certain that he could fall asleep with no problems, 'Hell, if I don't it'll be the first time.'
His laptop was sitting in the back of the room along with everyone else's, because the teacher forced them to take notes one a printed out version of his slideshow. Tim Eddmann was an American man who transferred from an American high school, around his early sixties. He had short silver hair, and rolled his sleeves up, revealing parts of tattoos.
The pilot of Unit 01 glanced at Asuka and stifled laughter as the teacher attempted to say a joke and failed miserably at it, though the Mr. Eddmann thought it was hilarious. Asuka sat in the back of the class room on the opposite side from Shinji, so those two would communicate with hand signals when the teacher wasn't looking.
Shinji had no need to study in this class at all, because he was an auditory learner. As long as something was happening, he would understand it. So Shinji could sleep in the class and wake up, knowing exactly what happened in the class.
One of the other reasons he could sleep through class was the fact that he had his back covered by one of the man's former students. Though this man was old enough to work with Misato, he had the sense to help out some younger generations. Within the disc that contained his biology textbook, Shinji found a hidden file called 'Borderline Sanity.'
Within it, the boy found every single test that the teacher gives out over the year. At the top, the author states that Mr. Eddmann uses the exact same tests every year. Somebody had gone out of their way to flip this teacher the birdie.
Shinji uttered a thank you to the man and went back to sleep.
Kaworu sat in the back of the classroom and acutely focused on the lesson. What nobody really knew was that Kaworu could whip his pencil like a throwing knife at anything in the room. One fly had succeeded in annoying him for far too long. With no warning, the boy flicked his wrist and the pencil shot into the ceiling.
Asuka silently chuckled to herself, and quickly got her stuff as the bell to end the day rang.
Kaworu jumped and retrieved his pencil from the ceiling then put it back into his pocket.
Asuka kicked Shinji in the leg and said, "Wake up Dummkopf! School's out, let's go home." The boy groggily stood up and exited the class room.
(-----)
Unit 01 fired up as the synch tests began. Shinji opened the music program within the cockpit and maintained the low volume. The young man focused his thoughts upon his mom and dad, and slowly they faded into sight.
Gendo spoke with his usual greeting, 'What!' Yui elbowed him and said, 'Don't mind your father, dear. He's just trying to stay in character.'
Shinji chuckled, and thought to them, 'It's been a while since we've talked together like this, so I decided to take a solo synch test.'
Yui smiled and replied, 'That's good. We don't really have a sense of time in here though, so it feels just like yesterday that you were talking with us.'
Shinji recoiled, 'Really? But it's been like three weeks!' Gendo assumed his infamous position and said, "Well, it's not like we haven't been busy…"
Shinji about stood up and said, "If you dare get any fluids all over Unit 01…!" Yui elbowed them both and said, 'Grow up! Both of you! Besides Shinji… what your father and I do can't really affect anything in your plane of existence.'
Shinji knew that his father and mother were happy to see him again, and they began to banter of this and that. His conversation drifted towards what happened last night.
He told of what he had done before Third Impact. Gendo smirked, 'Thank God! I wasn't sure if you were gay or not… Wait… Are you a necrophiliac!'
Yui opened Asuka's book and proceeded in administering a severe beating, then Gendo spoke to his son, 'How did we end up with women that do this to us, son?'
Shinji sat back and said, "I don't know dad. You're lucky that mom is going easy on you. Asuka has done far worse… But I love her anyway…"
(-----)
Kaji sat at his computer and blinked a few times, he then cursed at his computer and called Ritsuko. "Hey Ritsuko! I need a favor…"
He ran to the control room and sat in Dr. Akagi's chair, then plugged his laptop into the MAGI. "This'll get rid of that damn lag! Alright Mr. Suzuhara, let's see how you deal with me now!"
Kaji flew through the level and gunned down six people and then viciously annihilated Toji within Counter Strike.
(-----)
Shinji had ended his tests and checked his results. "What the hell? My synch was at 500!"
The boy dismissed it, because his synch had steadily been increasing since after Third Impact. Shinji hopped into the shower and ran all the way home. As he entered, he realized that Asuka was not present.
The girl had left him a note on the table indicating that she would be with Hikari until dinner. The pilot of Unit 01 sat on the couch and fired up his laptop, then began Counter Strike. As he entered a server, Kaji and Toji immediately joined up with him.
Toji and Kaji cautiously entered the battle, as it was three on six. Shinji moved his mouse a few times, then the whole map could hear a knife scraping against one of the walls. As if he was invincible, Shinji darted through the old map of Aztec Ruins, constantly sneaking up on people and eviscerating them.
When his first round was ended, the boy had four kills with his knife. This… thrashing elicited many responses of retarded words such as 'N00B.'
Shinji almost fell out of his seat as he laughed at how stupid people could be in making up words. The boy continued to play for a short time but finally said goodbye to his friends and logged off.
(-----)
Shinji was lying in his bed, listening to his SDAT player. As he was about to fall asleep, his door snapped open. Shinji paused his music as footsteps came closer to his bed. The blankets that covered him were lifted and a body slid into the bed next to him.
The foreign body nibbled on his ear and Shinji shivered at the contact. The voice that he recognized as Asuka's drifted to his ears, "At least I know you're still awake."
Shinji rolled over and looked into Asuka's eyes, "Hello." The girl snuggled close to him and kissed him.
Once they had finished, Asuka gazed into his eyes, "Shinji… What… What do you think of me?"
He could tell that the girl was being serious, and he replied, "You know how I feel about you. If I have to tell you again, I will. Asuka… you are the most beautiful person I've ever met… not just physically, but your body is not under super-model cut."
Asuka held on tighter and whispered, "Shinji… Thank you… Sometimes I just can't tell what I'm worth…"
Shinji returned the embrace and also an answer, "Asuka… You're worth way more than you think… to me and to others." Asuka's breathing regulated as she fell asleep.
Shinji stroked her hair and let her breathing lull him to sleep.
(------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------)
Just be patient… Anyway, get ready for the last chapter of 'Sins and Retributions'!
Outtake
'I… I lost?'Shinji thought, 'How can I lose to this 'Crazy Bird' fellow? I was kicking butt!'
Deeper in the apartment, a devious penguin squawked, 'Serves that asshole right! He stole my name!'