A Fury's Passage To Death

Chapter 3

Finally the bell rang. School had been killer for Shinji that day. Luckily for Shinji a major soccer game was being played at the school today so class was dismissed early. Walking out to his car, he was to meet Touji and Hikari there. They would go out to lunch and return later for the futbol game. It would be just the three this time. Games before Kensuke and Asuka would be with them, but both had prior engagements. Kensuke was with Leigh and Asuka with Buddy.

Speaking of Kensuke and Buddy. It had been one week since the two had their fight. The tension in the classroom at school was so thick it was sickening. Both of the boy's got in numerous arguments during the week. Yelling at each other right in front of the class and being forced to leave the class became a regular thing.

As Shinji was walking to his car he was confronted be Ayanami. "Pilot Ikari, may I have a word with you?" Rei's monotone voice was unmistakeable. Since the day that Ritsuko had shown Shinji the truth of Rei's past, he could not look at her in the same way. For a while he was scared of the girl, but he got numb to the fear. He tried to at least be friends with the girl, but it was Rei who asked for him to leave her alone. When he told Rei that he knew of her past she told him he made her uncomfortable and to please stop talking to her. old her he just wanted to be friends, but due to her reaction he was unsure if she knew the concept of friends.

"What is it Rei?" Even with her request they engaged in small talk on the occasion. And with Rei it really was small talk.

"I wish to speak with you about Aida's actions lately." Rei's cold stare remained.

"He has been acting weird lately. I don't know he doesn't talk to me about anything. All he does is talk about that car." Shinji slowed down his speech for the last of that sentence. That car. It all began with that car.

"The drastic change in his behavior that has occurred is not natural. Has he been under the influence of narcotics or alcoholic beverages?"

"Not that I know of. But then again he does not talk to me." Shinji turned his gaze to the school, looking for his friends. "Why such the interest in Kensuke. Do you like him?"

"I have no attraction to Aida. I find his behavior disturbing and causes me discomfort. I wish for him to stop."

"So do I. Hey are going to the game?"

"It is a social action that I do not wish to attend."

"Then what are going to do? Were down two people in our group and could use an unfamiliar face to hang out with." Rei stood still. After a minute of debating in her head she agreed. A simple yes came from her, not a nod or any body language.

"Hey Shinji!" Touji yelled out while waving his hand. His other hand wrapped around Hikari.

"You guys don't mind having Rei with us do you?" Shinji asked. Touji and Hikari both shrugged. It been a while but the two had been able to get along with Rei. When people started to return to Tokyo-3 , Hikari and Rei were the only two females in the class for about a week. Hikari decided to help Rei . One day she took the girl shopping and purchased her many sets of clothes after Hikari uncovered that Rei had an almost endless supply of money saved up from piloting. She also forced the girl to be more social at school. In return Rei would use her clearance to get Hikari into to see Asuka in the hospital.

Touji just learned that Rei acted the way she did and to not question it.

They loaded up in the Alpine and left.

Asuka and Buddy sat in the home team benches. The game was a flop. Their school being beaten to a pulp. The score was so bad that most of the student's left already. Buddy had his posse with him. Souskye, Kira, and Rye all occupied Buddy. They were just Buddy's peasant's. They would do anything that he would tell them to do.

"Hey?" Buddy asked Asuka and his posse. "Is that Aida's car." The benches were placed at an angle allowing a direct view into the parking lot. The said car pulled up fully finished. The paint fully finished. The chrome all new. The car looked perfect and out came Kensuke and Leigh. They walked to the front of the car, prompt themselves on the hood, and preceded to make out.

"Yeah there is he is with my idiot friend." Asuka said looking strait ahead not really wanting to see what the two were doing.

"Your roommate. He's friends with the freak right?"

"Yeah." Again Asuka not interested in the conversation.

"You know were the boy lives?" Asuka nodded her head an affirmative. "Then how about we have some fun tonight?" The boy's all returned a resound full yes. Asuka had a questionable look on her face, but shrugged it off.

Shinji and Touji left the two girls at the benches when they noticed Kensuke show up. Even though he was acting weird he was still their friend and they could not abandon him. As they got closer to the car they could really see how good the car look. The paint was spit shine perfect. It didn't even have swirl marks from a buffer. The key mark that Buddy left was gone as well. The chrome gleamed brilliantly, and the interior was perfect.

"Wow Kensuke. The car has really gotten far along are you finished with it?" Shinji asked. Kensuke turned, rather annoyde with having to turn his attention away from his tongue in Leigh's mouth.

"Yeah, Christine is finished. Careful around her, I don't want anyone messing her up."

"You two want to sit with use? Hikari and Rei are saving us seat's." This time Touji came in.

Leigh look as if she was about to say something but Kensuke cut her off. "No we just stop bye to see if we were winning or not, and apparently we are not so you can go back to your precious seats and leave us alone."

Touji, Shinji, and even Leigh were stunned by his response. Not wanting to deal with Kensuke further the two boy's said their goodbye's in a polite way and left. Both Shinji and Touji kept quite. Still smells like blood.

Shinji walked out of his room. It was late at night close to midnight actually. He was woken awake by the sound of something moving through the house. At first thinking it was Pen-Pen till he heard key's rattling. He walked out to the room. The door was closed and the house dead for the night. Which is the way it should be.

He walked into Misato's room. There she lay all over her little futon. He almost had a chuckle at how she looked. If he hadn't seen her like this before he would fall on his hands and knee's and die with laughter. Which he almost did the first time he saw her like this. He closed her door and walked away.

He checked on Asuka's room. Just as he expected she was not there. The bed was made to look like a person was sleeping there, but Shinji was not an idiot. He knew for a fact that she hated having the covers over her head.

He then went to the kitchen and his suspicion was right again. His key's were gone. Heading to the window he caught a glimpse of his Blue Alpine leaving the parking building, driven by one redhead.

Asuka, Buddy, and his gang all walked into the parking house slowly. Kensuke lived in an apartment, but left his car in a garage across the street. It was a storage garage were one could rent a space for a monthly fee and not worry about the safety of one's belongings. Unfortunately Asuka was as good at hacking as Kensuke and she already took out the security system.

The area was as deserted as ever. Not a living soul could see or hear what they were about to do. The air itself was cold. Something not usual in post second impact Japan.

"We get caught, I never was part of this. I'll just say I was taking a crap." Kira, the only one sober in the group other than Asuka spoke.

"Don't be such a baby." Buddy said. He looked sorrowful. "I never thought you were such a baby, Kira. Honest!"

Kira flushed, "I don't care man. Just be careful."

"We will." Buddy told him. "We will." He had saved a seventh bottle of alcohol and had pretty decent footing for his state of mind at the moment. "Here enjoy yourself." He then handed the bottle to Asuka. She pushed the beverage away.

Not sure of why she came, she continued forward. Actually she was not sure why she was still with Buddy. After the sleep over she realized she wanted Shinji. It was hard for her to admit it, but she finally did to herself.

She really never liked Buddy to begin with. She figured since he was the popular guy and she the popular girl that they were a perfect match. And at first they were, for about a day. Then the only reason she stayed with him was for status at school.

"Don't want any? Fine more for me." Souskye returned with the keys to the room the car was in. the control box had to be broken into to gain the key, but this was Tokyo-3. The city once the most high tech city in the world was now a dump, all the buildings were made in a hurry and on the cheap, this allowed the boy's to easily break in.

They opened the door and walked in, except for Asuka. She stopped at the door. This caught the attention of Buddy.

"Listen if you guy's get caught, I am not a part of what ever you do in there. Got that?" The boy's just stared at her. "And if any one of you say other wise I will crush your balls with my own two hands, then feed them to my pet penguin at home." This forced laughter from the boy's. The combination of them being drunk and the words balls and penguin were the cause. The boy's then smiled and walked into the room.

She sat down on a near bye bench. Misato and Shinji are going to kill me if they find out I took his car.

She continued to stare out into the open. Being board of the scenery she looked up at the stares. Why am I here? I don't even like Buddy. And Kensuke, worked hard on that car. What are they going to do to it? Why am I such an idiot. I should not be here. Should have taken the advise of Hikari and stayed away from Buddy, instead I am aiding him in hurting one of my friends. I really am pathetic. She then put her face down into her hands and used them to support herself as she leaned into them.

The wind was blowing towards her, and she could hear – to much, she could hear.

A tinkle of breaking glass, muffled laughter, a loud metallic thonk.

More breaking glass.

A pause.

Low voices drifting to her on the cold wind. She was unable to pick up the individual words; they were distorted.

Suddenly there was a perfect fusillade of blows; Asuka winced at the sound. More breaking glass in the dark, and a tinkle of metal falling on the pavement-chrome or something she supposed. She found herself wishing she took that drink Buddy offered her. Alcohol was cheery stuff, according to Misato, and she could sure use some cheering up right about now. It sounded as if some pretty bad stuff was happening inside the building.

And then a louder voice, urgent and commanding, Buddy's for sure:

"Do it there!"

A mutter of protest.

Budd again: "Never mind that! On the dashboard, I said!"

Another mutter.

Buddy: "I don't give a crap!"

And for some reason this produced a stifle of laughter.

After about fifteen minutes of this, the boy' returned. Buddy walked out cool and relaxed, a three-quarters empty bottle in his hand. He was smiling and Asuka noted uneasily how bloodshot and weird his eyes were. It wasn't just alcohol. Buddy was no one to mess with; Aida would find that out, if nothing else.

"All taken care of my fair lady." Buddy said.

Asuka just stared at the boy. "Don't ever talk to me again." She turned and left. Tear marks could be seen on her face.

The boy's being drunk all laughed. They pointed fingures at Buddy rambling on about how he was told. Buddy Sousky returned to the boys, smiling that hard, gonzo smile and Souskye took a big drink of the beer. He nearly gagged. For an instant he had the image of puking into Buddy's face, and his unease became terror.

"If the cops get in on this," Buddy said, "you don't know nothing, you didn't see nothing. Like you said, you had to go in and take a crap."

"Sure, Buddy."

"We all wore our little mittens. We didn't leave a print right?" Buddy asked the boy's. A resoundful yes was herd. "Now let's get out of here."

Asuka walked into the house with her head down. The time was around three o'clock. Sitting inside was Shinji Ikari. He sat in the chair waiting for her. As she walked in she looked at him and stared intensely. Nether made a move for minutes. They just stared at each other.

Asuka took the key's out of her pocket and placed them on the counter. Shinji continued to stare at her as she returned to the room. This time she walked closer to Shinji. As she neared he could see the redness in her eye's. She had been crying a lot.

She got right up in front of him. Shinji stayed in the chair not moving. He just stared back at her, not sure of what to do. Did somebody hurt you Asuka, or did you do something? Before he could continue his thought she threw herself into Shinji's lap, wrapped her arms around him, lugged her head unto his shoulder and cried and cried.

Among her crying she continuesly said she was sorry.

"I'm sorry Shinji. I'm so sorry." She cried harder then before. An unusual place that Shinji was
caught in he did not know what to do. Why was she sorry? Surely not for taking the car. Not knowing how to handle the situation he grabbed her with his arms and pulled her closer to him. He then let her cry herself to sleep in his lap. He looked at the clock; one-fifteen. It was going to be a long day. He thought back. And it is Wednesday.