Tokyo-2, Inner District 5
September 30, 2041
0751 hours

"Oi, mate." – mulled Tōji to his ever-present buddy. – "I wonder if Kaworu's alright. Haven't heard of 'im all weekend."

"Did you go to his place?"

"Nah, I don't even know where he lives. He could've at least given us his phone number or something."

"He doesn't have a phone, did you forget?"

"Oh, right."

The overall atmosphere of the classroom was radically different from the usual bored resignation before class. They both knew what the commotion was about: whatever happened in the city last week, it left multiple blocks completely devastated and quite a lot of others in various states of damaged. Cleanup was still underway in some areas: clearing up debris, filling in craters, even demolishing the occasional building that became structurally unstable. It would take weeks to finish all of it, months to get everything back to the way it was.

And the worst of all, nobody had any idea what did this. They all heard the rumbling and felt the shockwave of explosions while cooped up inside the civil defense shelters, yet none knew what exactly happened. Speculations were abound in both the population and in the media, with both the government and the military refusing to comment at this time. There was considerable media coverage concerning the clearly visible damage to the city and the 10,000-strong division of troops camped out in the hills and nearby military bases, but the actual cause of all this was completely unknown.

Even so, no one seemed to not hear about the quarantined city block where the trail of destruction ended, complete with a large, vision-obscuring tent hastily deployed between several buildings to hide something on the ground.

"Maybe you should ask the class rep." – Kensuke offered, thumbing towards Hikari.

All that remark earned him was a slap on the back of his head. – "黙れ、アホ野郎! She'd bite my head off."

"Well, you're the one who wanted to know!" – the smaller boy whined, rubbing the now-sore spot. – "Why is it my fault you're chickening out?!"

"Chickening?! I'll show you who's–"

The yelps of Kensuke Aida as he suffered under Tōji's noogie was quickly noticed by the exact person they were just talking about. – "HeyheyHEY! Suzuhara, cut it out!" – was the only warning Tōji received before his ear felt as if a Combine Stalker's faceplate laser was aimed at it. For such a small girl, Hikari had a surprisingly strong grip.

The resulting cry of pain was promptly cut off by a quick slap to the face, courtesy of Hikari's paper fan. This caused a wave of laughter across the class, which only intensified as the two started arguing.

"-never seem to learn-"

"-buttin' in on-"

"-aggressive and irresponsible-"

"-none of yer damn business-"

"Why did you even do that to him?!"

"Like you're one to talk! What did you hit me for just now?!"

"You didn't stop when I told you to!"

"So what?! If I really wanted to hurt him, do you think I'd do it right in front of you?!"

While he meant 'right where you can dish out punishment', Hikari took it as 'right where you have to watch it'; argument or not, she couldn't offer an effective rebuttal through her blush. – "Wh-wh-wh-wh-WHATEVER! I don't want to catch you doing this again, understood?!" – Without even bothering to wait for a reply, she turned on her heels and marched back to her own desk...

...or to be more exact, tried to.

She barely covered a few meters before she abruptly stopped dead in her tracks, the two boys looking at her quizzically.

Ever so slowly, Hikari's head turned to the side until she was looking directly in the direction of Rei's desk, the boys' gaze following hers. Rei was sitting at her desk in her usual outfit, with her usual disregard towards the rest of the classroom, legs crossed and left elbow resting on the desk.

She was also holding a thin, sleek knife in her left hand, casually and methodically picking the dirt under the nails of her right hand.

After a few seconds, Rei slowly looked up at Hikari. – "Do you require assistance? If so, please specify the amount of physical harm I am allowed to inflict."

"No, thanks." – Hikari marched right up to Rei's desk and snatched the knife from the other girl, slightly wincing at the blade cutting her finger from just a slight touch. – "And give me that!"

The pale girl paused for a second. Then she reached down to her right boot and pulled out another knife, resuming her previous activity as if nothing happened.

That is, before Hikari took away that one too. – "What are you doing?! You shouldn't bring these to school!"

Rei glanced up at her. Then she slowly reached into her coat and withdrew a palm-sized metal disc. A quick jerk of her wrist and the object unfolded into a six-bladed shuriken-like weapon with a diameter just short of half a meter. Then she resumed picking her nails once more.

"How many of those things you've got?!" – Kensuke demanded incredulously.

"Many." – was all the reply he received.

"Hey, are you listening to me?! I said don't bring weapons to school!"

As Hikari tried to go in for the kill this time however, Rei suddenly held the shuriken away from her. With her other hand, she slightly nudged her shades down to reveal her crimson eyes and stared the other girl directly in the eye. No words, just an unblinking, unflinching stare.

Kensuke was the one who noticed the brunette sweating ever so slightly, hands unconsciously gripping her long skirt, knuckles trembling. Then Hikari suddenly looked to the side, breaking eye contact with what the boy was surprised to note was relief.

"Look..." – she started in a shaky tone. – "just... keep them out of sight, OK? Don't take them out openly, or I'll have to report you."

"I would like to have my property back."

"Sure... sure... just... put them away, alright?"

"Yes." – Rei slowly reached out and pried her knives out of Hikari's shaking hands before pushing her shades back up. As soon as she relinquished the offending objects, the twintailed girl immediately backpedaled directly away from the desk, almost walking directly into another one before she got her bearings and beelined back to her own desk, barely even noticing Mari's puzzled look.

"What was that about?" – Tōji wondered as Rei proceeded to stare out the window next to her desk, ignoring everyone once more.

Kensuke just shrugged. – "Women are illogical. But like I was saying, she'd probably be told if Kaworu was hurt badly enough to miss class."

Tōji scoffed. – "Yeah, I'm not nearly crazy enough to ask her anything after that." – He winced and reached up to his red ear. – "Damn paper fan... if I could, I'd fucking torch that thing with a flamethrower."

"Not sure that would be a good idea, man."

"Why not?"

"Because she might just get offended enough to get a steel-reinforced one instead. Those can injure, you know."

That was when Kaworu all but staggered into the classroom, barely paying attention to the other two's greeting before collapsing onto his desk like a ragdoll with its strings cut.

"What's up with you? You hurt or something?" – he heard Tōji ask.

"No... just too goddamn tired."

After another battery of tests, Yui finally let him go home yesterday night. He expected to go back the same way he came down, via elevator... only to be disappointed when the facility's choice for personnel transit turned out to be a high-speed train running on a track that started at the Geofront's ground level and spiraled around the cavern's circumference several times until reaching the top. It made some sense: elevators only worked if there was power to run them, while the train tracks were accompanied by a two-lane road for cars that could still work even during a blackout. It was also safer, considering that rolling down a slope is much less deadly than a multi-kilometer plunge down an elevator shaft at terminal velocity.

It was dark in the cavern when he left the facility, the lights at the top switched off to conserve power and simulate night for the plant life below. By the time the train made it topside and he breathed outside air for the first time in a day and a half, it was already past midnight.

Which came with the consequence of him not having slept all that much before going to school.

"What do you think happened on Saturday?" – Kensuke asked.

"Don't know, don't care. I just wanna sleep." – While the latter part was indeed true, Kaworu considered himself lucky for having that excuse for deflecting the question. – "You guys are still in one piece, I see."

"Yeah... unlike some others." – Tōji scoffed.

"Like who?"

"Like my sister." – the jock growled edgily.

Kaworu raised his head off the desk at that, tiredness suddenly taking a backseat to his general mood. – "...what happened?"

"Shelter collapsed. She took a giant chunk of concrete to her back; broke every rib and pretty much pulverized her spine. She was pretty much a goner on the spot."

Kaworu didn't consider himself particularly foul-mouthed... which didn't prevent him from letting one loose alongside the sinking feeling in his stomach. – "Shit."

"She was really fucking lucky, though." – Tōji shifted on his chair. – "Hospital's been stockpiling antlion larval extract for critical injuries, ya see. The vorts working there got crackin' with that alien space magic of theirs on her, soon as she came in."

That sounded much better, though. – "So she'll make it?"

"Make it?" – Tōji let out a chuckle. – "Dude, she's gonna leave the hospital this week. They're only keeping her in for observation but otherwise, she's already back on her feet."

"Damn lucky, that girl." – Kensuke remarked.

"Yeah. Never thought I'd say this, but thank god for Second Impact. If the vorts weren't here, she'd have died or gotten crippled for life." – The tracksuited teen's eyes hardened. – "Which is something I honestly wish should happen to the fucker responsible."

"You mean the military guys who fought inside the city?"

"I'm not stupid, man. Have you seen how the city looks like? I don't know what the hell happened, but it sure as hell wasn't an exercise gone bad or something. You just don't blow entire buildings away for the sake of practice. That shit was for real, no doubt about it." – He shook his head. – "Anyway, I know who I blame: the lazy fuck who designed that poor excuse of a shelter. I really hope that shithead gets thrown into prison or something."

"And let's hope the military got whatever they were shooting at." – Kensuke added.

"Yeah, that too."

"How is she?" – Kaworu asked.

Tōji shook his head again. – "What do you think? Only eight years old and almost died already. Of course she's spooked like crazy; gets visited by a psychologist every day."

"I hope she'll be alright."

"Thanks, man."

"Same here." – Kensuke then grinned. – "Though I have to admit, it's partly because watching an elementary schooler being able to whip his ass ragged with a verbal beatdown alone is priceless."

The corner of Kaworu's mouth inched upwards. – "Maybe she took lessons from the class rep?"

"Lessons? Man, if I didn't know better I'd think she's supposed to be called Sakura Horaki!"

Tōji only rolled his eyes in exasperation. – "Not funny, man. One class rep is enough, I really don't need another."

For some reason completely unfathomable to Kaworu, Hikari's most frequent target of 'disciplinary measures' was the jock. In less than a week, he saw her paper fan whack Tōji no less than five times, with Kensuke hinting at more during the four years of elementary school the three spent together (with Kensuke and Hikari having been classmates all along and Tōji transferring in from Osaka during fifth grade). Kaworu himself never really bonded with anyone in his old schools; it's not that he actively didn't want to, he just never felt that attached to anyone.

Sometimes he wondered whether he could've ended up as the fourth member of this little group, had he lived in Japan as a child.


Geofront, AEL Headquarters
One hour later

In her office, Yui paused her typing in contemplation. After Kaworu's unexpected synchronization with Lilith, she expected him to be able to replicate that feat with Unit-01 as well, but tested him regardless. Her prediction was right: after compiling all available data, the MAGI calculated the boy's sync ratio with the gray Eva at 43.57%. Even though Unit-01 used a blank sync profile to register a new pilot instead of using Rei's existing data like Lilith did, it was still abnormally high for a complete novice.

And she wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Doctor, are you sure these values are correct?" – Maya asked yesterday, after most of the staff left. – "I never thought he'd be that good."

"Rei had similar values with Lilith when she began and look where she is now." – Yui replied as she brought up the results of Rei's latest test. As always, the quiet girl's sync ratio was a rock-stable 79.99999%.

That was another anomaly they couldn't understand: for months now, Rei was stuck just a hairline below 80% but unable to surpass it, no matter her plug depth.

With both pilots showing anomalous scores, the technician crew were completely stumped. Unlike Yui.

She alone knew the probable reasons. Of all the several hundred employees at the AEL, only a handful had access to the data vault she opened a few days ago. Out of those, even less knew about the old files regarding Project Genesis. Not all data regarding the research was stored there, of course: the large majority existed only within the old labs in Sector T, at the very bottom of the facility.

The heart of her sins.

As far as Yui was concerned, those labs should've been destroyed long ago, collapsed to bury their secrets forever. Yet with the newer sectors built above them, it was dangerous to do so without risking the upper facility as well. Still, the entire area was off-limits to everyone but her, Rei and a handful of personnel under close observation for every second spent past the isolation tube. Not just because of the labs, but because of the risk of someone finding Sample A-0 as well.

The boy was still the issue primarily on her mind, however. Anomalous sync scores. Evidence suggesting some kind of telepathic ability. And if his medical report was accurate, accelerated healing as well. He was definitely more than what was immediately apparent, that much was certain.

Yui brought up an old photo digitally stored on her terminal. She took a moment to contemplate the scene: that of three children milling around the legs of two adults, both clad in white labcoats. Disregarding her younger self, she focused on the other adult: a dark-haired man with glasses.

"We were wrong, Gendo." – she spoke out loud, as if the digital replica of her ex-husband could somehow hear her. – "He wasn't a failure."


At the same time, Kaworu rested his forehead against the fence on the edge of the school's roof, shooing away his tiredness to focus on what Tōji said.

He had no way of knowing why exactly did the shelter collapse. Was it from the entity stepping on it? Was it from one of its attacks? Was it from a stray shot by the military?

Was it from something Unit-00 did?

He wondered whether it would've still happened if he would've been inside Unit-00 that day, instead of Rei. Then again, he wouldn't have been able to fight at all, much less fight as well as Rei did. Kaworu had absolutely no idea how in the world did she make something of an Evangelion's size move so nimbly. Her combat style was both acrobatic and brutal, meshing the pragmatism of street fighting with the fluidity of what he guessed was some kind of martial art. She also evidently wasn't a beginner, having struck quickly, precisely and without hesitation. It was clear that she fought before... and from the way she did now, Kaworu had a lingering suspicion that she didn't actually need weapons to kill someone. For all he knew, maybe she already did.

"You are not entirely incorrect."

Kaworu whirled around so quickly he almost lost his balance, startled by Rei's voice. She was less than two meters behind him, sunlight gleaming off her shades.

He had no idea how did she get so close without him hearing, especially with her trenchcoat not being very suitable for quietly moving around.

"What?"

She walked up to the fence, gazing at the cityscape beyond. – "To take a life... to alter another's destiny into one of finality is a terrible power." – she mused. – "A power most are afraid to wield and wish to prevent others from wielding as well. Yet others attempt to make light of it, claiming that death is not final. That one's being persists after the demise of their mortal shell, in denial of the cessation of existence that is the final destination in the journey called life."

"You don't believe in stuff like God and afterlife, then?" – he asked, standing next to her.

The reply was curt and to the point. – "Afterlife, no. God, yes."

Kaworu remembered the books he saw in her room. – "So you're religious?"

The girl silently nodded before continuing. – "The light of the soul can never be extinguished by darkness. I find solace in the promise of a better world... even if those promises are empty ones."

"I don't believe in God myself."

Rei tilted her head to the side. – "Indeed?"

"I don't like the idea of not being in control of my own fate."

"Understandable. Humans fear what they do not understand; the matters of the divine are said to be beyond comprehension. Unconditional belief has been a part of organized religion for centuries; religious leaders who abused their authority for their own ends could not be questioned without sanctions."

Kaworu nodded vigorously. – "See, that's another thing I don't like about religion. Every time someone bothered to ask 'why', the answer was always 'you wouldn't understand anyway, so stop asking'. I honestly can't get it why anyone could believe in something they don't know."

"They were not given a chance." – she pointed out. – "Submit or be subdued was part of the dogma used by multiple religions, despite their open hostility to and refusal to coexist with each other. To accept the authority of others is the very basis of civilization; it has been since before humanity's emergence, when authority only existed in the form of groups organized around alpha males. It is in our very being."

She turned back towards the city view. – "You need not look back into the past to recognize the truth. The ongoing guerrilla wars in Central Africa and the Middle East prove not all of humanity wishes to partake in the Confederacy's ideal of uniting us under one banner, yet our nation is attempting to enforce its will with an armed response. The Nereid Revolution proved that no one is allowed to leave the Confederacy if they do not agree with its ideals. No matter how much people wish to think otherwise, nothing has changed."

Kaworu couldn't help but agree with that. He himself heard of the incident last year: the Nereid colony repeatedly demanded a decentralization of the Earth-centric government and greater representation for the Confederate populace in shaping national policies, getting rejected each and every time. With public tensions reaching a breaking point, the colony announced their utter dissatisfaction with the Confederate political system and attempted to secede... only for the Confederacy to declare martial law and swarm the system with half of the Navy's carrier groups. The revolution died before it could even began, especially after the 'rogue' political leaders orchestrating the secession disappeared one-by-one in less than a week.

It was around that time the general folk started to realize their nation came quite far from the semi-democratic coalition of anti-Combine resistance cells it began as.

In the propaganda broadcasts that followed the incident, President Keel called the Nereid government 'subversive cowards'. He specifically invoked the infamous Wallace Breen as their comparison, branding them traitors attempting to break the Confederacy's unity from within for a petty attempt at a power grab.

Kaworu still remembered one of his favorite teachers being hauled away in handcuffs after calling bullshit on that within earshot of the class, his peers just standing there and looking after him in resignation, not able to do anything. Nobody heard from him again, with the position quickly being filled with another teacher who carefully avoided criticizing the nation's leadership.

It was all the more reason why the boy didn't want to go into politics.


Chapter rewrite complete on 15/06/04

One of the reasons I chose the Confederacy's form of government to be authoritarian is that I realized: a world-encompassing nation cannot be anything but heavy-handed. With all the ideological differences and racial hatred between the various demographics, a democratic state simply cannot exist for any meaningful length of time before either disintegrating from infighting or sinking into obscurity from nobody recognizing its authority anymore.

The other reason is that it would be too idealistic, not to mention impossible if SEELE are controlling everything from top-level leadership positions as they do. They still give you general welfare and the illusion of freedom, to give you no reason to revolt - but immediately yank the chain if you do something they don't like, staying in power via a combination of populism and putting clients personally loyal to them into positions of importance. Having been born and grew up in an ex-socialist Eastern European country, I have reliable second-hand sources on the matter.