The image of the Miyamoto twins stood before their employer, Fredicoh. The mad man tapped his chin repeatedly as he considered the news that his most favorite assassins have brought to his ears. "Soooo, you are saying that they are Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Sohryu?"
Souske nodded. "This is no doubt in our minds. They have to be them. We can sense too much…" He let the words trail on, for he was lost for words on how to describe their assurance.
"Anxiety", Kanomai finished for her brother. "We can sense they are hiding something. And while we were at their apartment, we found traces of them searching for anything related to NERV, SEELE, and the Evangelions."
"Interesting, yes, very interesting indeed." Fredicoh puckered his lips as he thought about the evidence the assassins had brought him. They had never failed him once before. On all of the missions he had sent them on, wherever it would be assassinations, recon, interrogations or just downright random destruction, Souske and Konami had accomplished them all with overwhelming success. Even though they were dealing with the Second and Third Child, Fredicoh had no reason to believe that the twin assassins were mistaken. "Okie dokie, its time to have some fun! I'll go get the new guy. You two make sure Ikari and Sohryu don't get squashed into a million pieces! Adios!" With that, the images of the twins disappeared, and Fredicoh exited the dark room in a dash.
Three hours later, a small fleet of cruisers belonging to ARGENT hovered above the skies near the Massachusetts town. In a mere six hours, they would get to the job Fredicoh, and Lorenz, demanded of them.
Destruction was what the two men had in mind.
And in one of the cruisers, a black Evangelion slept.
His name was Alexander Kurosawa, and his aim was perfect. It was said among his soldiers that he never missed a shot. Although the man was never one to brag – he was a man of chivalry after all – it was true that he was an expert marksman. He had been teaching himself the art of weaponry even since he was nine years old; training that certainly helped him to become the head of NERV.
Kurosawa steadied his aim as the image-message of his best friend and second in command, Colonel Kalem, alerted him to SEELE's intent. "This is madness Alex! How in God's name can Lorenz permit something like this?"
"It is quite simple. He has a dream, and he will do anything to accomplish it."
Kalem wasn't convinced. "At the cost of burning a town to the ground?"
Kurosawa did not drop his shoulders even an inch as he perfected his aim. "You have done the same, old friend."
"Not for personal gain!"
"Calm yourself Marcus", Alexander scolded lightly. "Remember, you are their tool. Nothing more."
"That will change soon when the public learns of this."
"The public will never know. Remember, SEELE commands everything."
"We were better off with the angels…"
Alexander nodded in agreement with his friend. "Indeed. The ones that risk our destruction the most are not the invaders…" He paused as he shot his rifle. A pigeon fell of its branch, oblivious that it was his target all along, not the dummies that lined up against the wall. "But the defenders themselves."
"This is so aggravating." It was seven at night, and a week had passed since the two Children had met Souske and Kanomai. Shinji was watching some meaningless television programs that he could really give a rat's ass for, and Asuka was mumbling some German curses under her breath.
By the shuffling of papers, Asuka's groans, and her totally ignorance to what Shinji was up to, he concluded she was once again going through love letters.
" 'Will you be mine forever'? How over dramatic…." She tossed a love letter behind her back. She picked up another from the apparently infinite pile. " 'The one I love is you', 'A phoenix on the rising sun', 'You are the light of my soul'," and the list went on. Asuka must of have had announced a few dozen or so horrendously thought out titles. "Well this one takes the cake!" she announced to no one in particular. " 'I am sex compressed in a can' ". She sighed before ripping it to shreds. She turned to Shinji. "Honestly, I thought Americans were more creative than this!" He gave no response, as usual. When the Sohryu was dealing with anything that involved romance, Shinji knew full well that it was best to put up a restraining order.
Suddenly, Asuka realized something.
She was bored.
"I'm bored", she announced. In a flash, Shinji turned to face her, his already pale skin as white as bone. He knows all too well what happens whenever the red head gets bored.
It usually involves something that he regrets.
"Hey Shinji, have you ever written a love letter?"
"What?"
"You heard me", she said proudly.
"No."
"Wanna learn how?"
"Um…." Shinji allowed the words to trail off in an attempt to piss Asuka enough that she would get off the subject. It didn't.
Cracking her knuckles, Asuka grabbed Shinji by the arm and rose him up. He was trapped. "Okay, I, the great Asuka Langley Sohryu, am going to teach you how to write the love letter of all letters! But only because you are a spineless idiot who barely deserves my pity! Understood?"
Shinji rolled his eyes and groaned. "Yes…"
She whipped him to the kitchen table, and pushed the pile of love letters off of it. In the same motion she grabbed a pile of paper and a half dozen or so pens and handed it to him. She slammed one paper onto the table and practically thrusted a pen into his hands. "Now," she said in a very dramatic tone, no doubt a result of her 'I am the queen of the world' complex, "in your hands, you have the power to either make the said girl either fall over heels over you, or make her despise you for all of eternity!"
Shinji's nervous gulp could probably be heard all the way to the bottom floor of the apartment. "Now, the first step is to fold it over."
Shinji rolled his eyes. This was insulting to his intelligence (not to say that Asuka thought he had any intelligence to begin with…)! Deciding that ignoring her command for any longer would most likely end in his immediate demise, Shinji folded the paper over.
"Now, you get to write the salutation." They both stared at each other for a few moments, not saying anything at all. Finally, Asuka broke the silence. "Now here, you've got to tell that red head, the most beautiful girl in the whole school with those nice blue eyes and those nice hips that you really do care about her, and aren't just another horny kid who wants to get laid! All in anything less than five words, maybe six if you're lucky. Got it?"
Shinji raised his eyebrow. "I'm supposed to write a love letter to you?"
Asuka blushed. "Wha-what?"
"You described yourself as the person I am supposed to write to."
She never realized that she had done just that. 'Damn, it must be late! I wouldn't make that mistake in a million years if it was the afternoon…' "Well, it's just a test, you know, so sure, you could, if you really have to…"
Shinji just groaned, signaling Asuka to move on with the subject, which she was all too happy to do. "Well, you do know what a salutation is, right?"
"Of course I do! It's all those corny titles you keep on muttering off."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Write something!"
"Yeah, I could write something off of the top of my head, but it would probably be something really corny, you know, with me being spineless and all." The last comment got under Asuka's skin real bad. 'Since when did this kid learn to smack talk?', she asked herself repeatedly in an attempt to keep herself from smashing his face into a million pieces.
She clapped her hands together to revive her falling spirits. Even though Shinji was being cocky, Asuka knew full well that Shinji was no Casanova. And if there was one person that could make him one, it was going to be her. "All right fine! We'll skip the greeting. Now, if you want to wow a girl, you need to have the right paper. Simple bland white paper won't do at all! Bring out your wallet, and spend an extra couple of dollars on the expensive kind. The one with hearts, bunnies and sparkles are usually good ideas to start. Rose scented gets you extra points."
Shinji nodded in agreement. 'He's actually interested in this romance crap? Not to say I don't like romance, but...' "Okay, whatever, back on track here! You've got the romantic greeting, the presentable paper, now we need to get the writing! You get major points if the pen is scented, and you have a date automatically if it's written the old fashioned way."
Shinji raised his eyebrow. "Old…fashioned way?"
Asuka smirked what she called her sexy smirk. She neared her face closer to Shinji's. "Calligraphy."
Shinji's eyes widened. "Oh god…" Shinji knew how hard it was to write calligraphy. He attempted to write a series of letters in that style for art class a few days ago. It took him an hour just to get one letter finished! Granted, it was a letter that spread across half a poster, but that was not exactly the point of the matter.
"Aw come now Shinji, even a bone head like you has to know that we girls appreciate good work ethics!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but…oh, never mind."
Asuka just rolled her eyes before she continued with her lecture. "Once you mastered the art of calligraphy – which I doubt you're going to accomplish anytime soon – you get to move on to the really important part." She paused for dramatic effect. "The body. Now, whatever you do, don't write a message! If you do, even if it is on the most expensive of papers, even if it has calligraphy, no girl will go for a boring message."
Shinji had realized that Asuka had just contradicted herself – moments ago, she was saying that no sane girl would resist calligraphy. "But Asuka –"
"Shut up! I'm talking here! Jeez…" she allowed the words to trail off as she massaged her head in an attempt to relax her nerves. "Now, be grateful that I am teaching you the true secret to love letters! In fact, you should say thank you." She grinned semi-evilly. "Say 'thank you Asuka'."
Shinji rolled his eyes. No girl in his mind was even worth going through this much crap to go out with. Regardless, he came this far, he might as well finish Asuka's perverted sense of torture. "Thank you Asuka…"
"Now, to get a girl to go all gaga over you, you've got to write a poem. Even if you attempt to write a poem, chances are the girl will think that it's cute and if you presented everything else good enough, you pretty much got a date. But, if you actually write a good poem, the girl will be on cloud nine."
Shinji rubbed his chin, a trait that he had unknowingly inherited from his father. "Well," Asuka said, breaking the silence, "since I see that you're so busy, I'll go watch some TV! I'll check up on your oh so romantic love letter writing later!" Before Shinji could even suggest a form of protest, Asuka's seat was now vacant, her form sprawled across the couch and the television was dramatizing some stupid soap opera.
Sometimes, during the commercials, Asuka would glance back at Shinji to see how he was doing. When Shinji was chewing on the middle of the pen, he was deep in thought. The end meant he was onto something, and if he nibbled on his finger nail he was about to write something down.
Asuka could read him like a book.
Eventually, her random glancing back at Shinji bored Asuka. She got up, deciding to take a shower. "I'm taking a shower", she announced. "If you even think about peeking, you're a dead man, understood."
Shinji nodded in recognition as he continued with his work.
Once in the bathroom, Asuka began the ritual of getting ready for the shower. She would always start by unclipping her hairpins, swaying her hair from left to right to determine wherether or not she needed a hair cut.
She concluded that she did.
Then, someone started to knock on the doorknob. "Asuka?"
She did what was natural, and screamed. "The hell! You're wiggling the door knob! Stop trying to peek you pervert!" She ranted on how she was going to kill him if she saw him glancing at her naked body.
Never mind the fact that she didn't even take off her shirt yet.
Shinji blushed from behind the door. "I am not! I just wanted to tell you that I'm done…"
"Well, leave it somewhere! Jesus Shinji, don't you know ladies want privacy in the bathroom?"
"Like you're a lady…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing! Nothing!"
Asuka undressed and got into the shower as quickly as she could, so that Shinji would not bother her again with another question or remark. She refused to leave the bathroom until she was completely dried and had clothes delivered to the doorstep. When she left the bathroom fully dressed with not a hint of moisture on her form, she found a letter on the table.
'To a Miss Sohryu Asuka Langley'
Asuka rolled her eyes. "He needs work on the title." She could see a great deal of eraser marks around every other letter. Asuka could at least say that he attempted the fancy handwriting. Reluctantly, she opened up the letter.
She took a deep breath, preparing for a disaster.
If there could be one thing I could be,
I would be your tear,
So I would be born from your eye,
And die at your lips.
If you'd give me the honor,
I would listen to your words,
And not allow them to slip by.
Rather I would cherish them,
As golden words from above.
If I could make one promise,
I would promise to cherish you,
To be yours until our lives end,
So that you would know,
That there is a meaning to this world.
Asuka shivered. It wasn't one of fear, or hate, or rage….it was one of complete shock.
'Shinji wrote this? Spineless Shinji? That baka Shinji? The one who couldn't even ask a girl out to a school dance, wrote this? This letter, a letter that touched me more than all the others I got combined? The person I hate more than anything, for being better at the one thing I am good at, the one thing I am good for in this world, wrote 'this'?'
Asuka never realized that several tears slipped down her cheek. Mustering up her courage, she slipped the letter into her pocket.
This was one letter she was going to keep for a long time…even if it was from that idiot Shinji.
At that exact moment, Shinji entered the room, his book bag hung over his shoulder. With a grunt, he plopped it down.
"What do you want?" Asuka said in a tone harsher than she felt towards the boy.
"Doing homework, what else?" He yawned before bring out some notebooks.
"Ice cream."
"What?"
"I said I want ice cream."
"Well, what do you expect me to do about it?"
"What else? We are going to get some ice cream!"
"What? But I've got homework…"
"Like I care, Shinji-kun! If I say I want ice cream, we are getting ice cream!" In her attempt to get Shinji out of the house, she never even realized that she called Shinji her friend.
"But Asuka…uh, I mean, you only have your PJs on…"
"So what? I have a sweater I can put on? And so do you! So get dressed! We're going out!"
"What?" But before he could complete his sentence, which would of have been an stammering mess anyways, Asuka pushed Shinji into his room, shaking her fists violently. Shinji knew full well that if he didn't comply, he would have a black eye soon enough.
But he didn't slow his pace.
"Out? We are going…out?"
Behind a closed door, Shinji smiled. And even if she wouldn't admit, so did Asuka.
Shinji could spend his whole life with the red head German, and he was certain that he would never come to understand her. Even if there were thousands of essays written on her by the greatest of sages, Shinji would still be baffled by her persona. One moment, she was as commanding and overpowering as usual, instructing with her usual raging attitude how to construct a love letter. The next, she was actually being somewhat kind to him, with her suggestion (although demand would be a far better term) on getting some ice cream. Now, she was back to her old self, complaining irritably of how cold it was and why so many people had to be in line at the Ice Cream parlor.
"This is perfect! We just had to go the day it's packed! Mein Gott!"
"Err, Asuka, it's full of people every day."
Asuka turned to face Shinji and shot him a glare. "Shut up, Third Child."
Shinji just rolled his eyes, and decided to wait out both the line and Asuka's rambling. They reached the shop sooner than he expected.
"Ha!" Asuka declared triumphantly when they were the second to last person. "I knew we would get there eventually!"
"Maybe because everyone else got sick of your complaints…" Shinji murmured under his breath. Asuka just shrugged it off.
The window rolled away, and the person behind the counter asked what the two wanted.
"Just give me the double chocolate, with the cone." The attendant nodded, and waited for Shinji's response. Not knowing that it was actually his turn (he thought that Asuka, with her stomach that could easily be related to a warp hole, was thinking on a second order), Asuka had to elbow him in the stomach.
"Oh, sorry. Err, just get me peanut butter, with the cone as well." With a nod from the cashier, the window closed. A few minutes later, the two ice creams came into sight. The two dropped the money onto the counter, and with their ice creams in hand, they started to walk the empty streets.
As they walked the streets, to where was anyone's guess, Shinji just remained quiet, silently licking his ice cream and in some random instances, watching Asuka eat hers. He didn't really know what to talk about. If he asked how her ice cream was, he was certain she would say something about it being better than his. If he asked if she was cold, she would undoubtedly give him a stare and call him a pervert and claim he was thinking dirty thoughts.
No matter what he would do, she would think of something painful to tell or call him.
That is, until they saw the roses.
It was an odd sight indeed. Now, Shinji was not saying he was used to America, but he was fairly certain that no flowers would be in bloom in the middle of November. But now, he stopped half way through a lick, to stare at a floral shop, where a row of red tipped yellow roses stood.
"Asuka…look."
Even though she gave off a slight pout, Shinji could tell that even she was intrigued by the sight, probably even more so than Shinji since she lived in America for a few years before moving to Germany.
"Who would of thought? Roses, in the heart of November. Instead of being frozen solid…here they are, lying there like they were full of life."
"I guess", she shrugged.
Shinji walked past her, licking his ice cream. Asuka followed him until he stopped at the docks, on the edge of town. Granted, it wasn't a long walk – probably only an extra four or five minutes from the ice cream shop. By now, it was eight at night, and the bright stars could be seen in the night sky.
Shinji sat atop the pier, letting his feet swing slightly. "Did those roses remind you of something?"
"Like what?"
Shinji licked his lips, and licked another layer of his ice cream off. "When the school made us plant flowers in the destroyed districts. You know, that assignment that you pretty much, err, bitched about…"
"Get to the point, Third Child."
"Well, the roses were yellow. The ones we planted, I mean."
"I guess it's weird…" Shinji chuckled a little bit. "What's do damn funny?"
"Something Kaji told me...that roses all have some special meaning. He told me that yellow roses meant friendship or something like that. It's just kind of odd that the two of us always got yellow roses. Not red, white or pink…just yellow. Just yellow."
"I don't get you boys sometimes."
Shinji raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you give us a gift that's going to wither and die?"
Shinji shrugged. "Kaji told me it was because sometimes the most beautiful of things are those that do die, because you appreciate them all the more."
Asuka didn't say anything. Neither did Shinji.
Minutes passed, and the two just remained quiet. They didn't really know what to talk about. The previous conversation was too quiet.
Suddenly, Shinji turned towards the sea, letting of an aura of nervousness and fear. "You hear that?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Her question was answered in time when a pod splashed into the sea. Countless more followed suit. From the wreckage Full Metals emerged, prepared for war.
"Why?" Shinji asked. Asuka did not answer. There was only the wind of war as his conclusion.