Tokyo-2, Outer District 6
1956 hours
Kaworu hummed in annoyance as he realized he soldered the damn capacitor to the wrong place. This wasn't the first mistake he made today, courtesy of his concentration currently being disrupted by the loud electronic music coming from next door. Repairing damaged circuit boards without being able to pay attention was not an easy task, but it was one he had to do regularly in order to avoid sleeping in.
Or maybe he should stop silencing his makeshift alarm clock every morning by tossing it at the nearest wall, he idly wondered. That could work too.
For now, he carefully applied the soldering iron until the tin melted and he could force the component off the board without damage, casually blowing away the wispy fumes rising from the tin. He didn't like using unleaded tin because of the higher melting point, not to mention the fumes and being easily smeared. Most of the time however, he didn't have a choice in the matter: buying the tin cost him money, money he didn't really have the opportunity to spare until recently.
This particular batch of tin was the last one he brought with him from his previous home, melted off of an irreparably broken twenty-plus years old panel – like almost all of the tin supplies he ever used. He learned the tricks of the trade during his childhood in Austria, raiding a nearby scrapyard for parts and materials, then jury-rigging it all together. Most of his experience was based on simple trial-and-error, aside from the occasional moldy remains of a book containing some wisdom on the matter. Naturally, it didn't go completely smoothly all the time: ICs burning out from overvoltage, capacitors exploding from reversed polarity... he accumulated quite a long list of failures before he actually started building anything meaningful.
Back in the present, Kaworu distantly heard the door to the next room open and Shephard saying something unintelligible to Asuka. Her response was equally unintelligible but a few seconds later, the music turned off.
"Finally..." – Kaworu grumbled. He didn't exactly have a musical preference – courtesy of his former poverty – but it most definitely didn't include the kind of music Asuka was listening to. Nor Rei's, for that matter, but at least heavy metal wasn't so monotonous.
His door opening shook him out of his musing. – "Hey, idiot!"
"What is it?" – He looked up... and straight into the face of Asuka with a pair of small, rectangular glasses resting snugly on her nose.
"Dinner's ready, so get you ass out here."
Kaworu casually placed the soldering iron back to its socket and flicked off the transformer's power switch. – "Right. And what's with those glasses?"
Asuka visibly jolted in realization of someone unworthy seeing her no doubt embarrassing visage. – "None of your damn business. And if you tell anyone, I'll kill you!" – she growled before slamming the door.
Kaworu shook his head in annoyance. 'Here for barely a day and already strolling around like she owns the place... this will be fun.'
2143 hours
Asuka casually turned a page in the book she was reading. Dinner went pretty much as expected: her and that gray-haired creep exchanged verbal jabs nigh-constantly, but her father always stepped in before the situation escalated. Although she would never admit it, Asuka secretly enjoyed the sparring. A huge majority of boys she met during her almost-fourteen years of life practically salivated over the sheer amount of raw, natural beauty Asuka had the fortune of being born with; this, however, also meant they backed down far too quickly for her liking, in a futile effort to get on her good side. Little did they know that anyone who looked at her as if she was a piece of meat was automatically disqualified of her attention. Asuka was a woman and proud of it; she refused to be anyone's trophy.
Not that it really prevented her from flaunting herself at 'unworthy' males. Tempting – then saying "nuh-uh" with a seductive half-smile – was a great source of amusement for her. She frequently provoked jealousy from her fellow girls but that only served to fuel her fire more... especially once she realized her body didn't really care which gender she fantasized about during her private happy hours.
There were times – rare, but still there – when Asuka was jealous of someone else. Despite her otherwise borderline-goddess appearance, nature granted her a strictly average-sized chest. One of her new friends, Mari, was one such sore spot: Asuka was miffed quite a bit at the other girl's generous endowment. On the other hand, she did know about the occasional back pains large-chested women suffered from, lessening the jealousy somewhat.
As far as Asuka was concerned, the least her more endowed peers could do to compensate her was to serve as the objects of her fantasies.
She was fully aware, of course, that objectifying her fellow girls while refusing to be objectified herself was hypocritical. However, she had no illusions that her own wishes would in any way deter boys from imagining her face-down-ass-up in bed as they take her naked and sweaty body from behind. After all, even Asuka imagined herself like that once, only to come to the conclusion that having sexual fantasies about oneself borders uncomfortably close to narcissism – to say nothing of one knowing one's own body the best and thus quickly getting bored of it.
Still, Asuka didn't consider herself a slut. To be one would require her to be sexually promiscuous, but she could hardly be called that if she kept all her fantasies to herself. In her previous classes, she knew at least one girl who did the deed and went all the way (not that it did her boyfriend any good) but Asuka wouldn't follow that example. Not that she didn't want to try the real thing, but she would never jump into bed with a random guy who's more likely to brag about bagging her than actually appreciating her choosing him for her first time.
When fantasizing about her fellow girls however, Asuka had a simple rationalization: if being gay (and by extension, bisexual) wasn't considered 'normal' by the mainstream, it didn't count.
For that very purpose, she made sure to subtly evaluate the assets of every girl in her new class after PE. As expected, Mari was the unrivaled queen in that regard – although Asuka had a lingering suspicion the other girl caught onto her.
Tokyo-2, Inner District 5
October 9, 2041
0758 hours
"It's been ten days since the incident in Tokyo-2 that left several buildings damaged. Government officials still refuse to comment, citing that investigation into the incident is still underway and a reassurance that the military has the situation under control."
"This is fishy, man." – Kensuke commented to Tōji, referring to the news broadcast he was watching on his tablet. – "Sounds like a cover-up to me."
Tōji threw up his hands in defense. – "Don't ya come at me with that conspiracy theorist bullshit. Whatever you're up to, I don't wanna know."
"Hey, guys." – grumbled Kaworu as he dropped into his seat.
Kensuke was the first to notice Kaworu's distinct lack of enthusiasm. – "What got you in such a bad mood?"
Kaworu made an irritated sigh, resting his forehead on the desk. – "Guess who happened to move in at my place with her father, then decided to act like she owns the place..."
"I'm guessing a girl, based on you just having said 'she'."
"Bingo."
"And? Who is she?"
Without lifting his head up, Kaworu pointed at Asuka. – "Here's a hint: she's blond."
Everyone in earshot went dead silent at that.
Then everyone in earshot snapped their heads towards Asuka.
Then back at him.
A collective – "EEEEEHHH?!" – erupted from every single boy in earshot of Kaworu. And it wasn't just the noise: all of them collectively jumped out of their chairs and flocked around Kaworu's desk, trying to out-yell each other with incredulous questions.
"You really live with her?!"
"Lucky bastard!"
"Why you?!"
Kaworu covered his head. – "Guys, GUYS!" – he called out at the top of his lungs, getting the others to quiet down for a moment. – "Leave me alone! I didn't ask for it, nor do I want it!"
"Why the hell not?!" – one of the boys fired back, restarting the sonic storm of outrage.
What nobody in the class believed could ever happen happened: the group around Kaworu was so fired up that even Hikari failed to make them pipe down. Mari watched her friend get increasingly agitated in trying to get people's attention, face getting progressively redder at being ignored...
...until she reached into her sleeve and unsheathed her paper fan.
Then she reached into her other sleeve and pulled out a second paper fan.
Mari immediately winced. – "Oh, this is not going to be pretty."
A second later, the group of boys suddenly found their ranks being violently disrupted by a pigtailed dervish, arms moving so fast they could barely be seen as they relentlessly whacked everybody in arm's reach. She alternated her targets between every hit, but her sheer speed was such that the number of her victims just didn't matter. And she didn't attack just those on the group's outskirts.
No, she charged into the group like a human battering ram, those already under attack from her scattering to the wind like a disturbed flock of crows.
Kaworu's only warning was Tōji's sudden scream of – "FUCK ME!" –, followed by the jock diving over the desk behind him in panic.
Then Hikari raised both paper fans above her head and brought them down in an overhead strike. Straight onto Kaworu's head.
The sharp sound of the impact echoed across the classroom like a whip, making everyone wince.
Slowly, Kaworu raised his head and looked up at Hikari. – "...what did I do to deserve that?" – he asked calmly.
At the edge of his perception, he heard someone mutter – "What the fuck? Is this guy invulnerable?"
"I heard that!" – Hikari shot back at the whisperer. – "What kind of language is that?" – She then looked at the desk Tōji was hiding under. – "And I heard you too, Suzuhara! How many times do I have to tell you to not swear in class?!"
A scared whimper was the only sound that came out from underneath the desk.
"And you, Nagisa! What exactly were you trying to achieve, bragging like that?!"
"I wasn't bragging!" – Kaworu defended himself. – "Do I look like I want to live with her?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Every eye turned towards Asuka as she stood behind the scattered remnants left by Hikari's charge, hands on her hips. Kaworu idly noticed that she wasn't wearing glasses this time; he guessed she probably used contacts in public.
"What's your problem with me, creep?" – she asked again.
"Aside from you talking down to me every single time you open your mouth? Nothing." – Kaworu muttered.
"Good. I don't want you to think you're automatically entitled to anything, just because you happen to live with me."
"You already said that yesterday."
"And I'm saying it again, just in case you already feel like doing something that might result in my foot getting closely acquainted with your teeth." – Asuka then looked at the crowd and smirked. – "So don't you listen to this idiot, boys... but then again, don't get your hopes up either." – she added with a seductive wink before retreating to her desk behind Hikari's, ignoring the storm of squeeing that erupted behind her.
Mari didn't let the matter lie, however. – "So it's true? You two really live in the same apartment?"
"Unfortunately, yes." – Asuka grumbled as she sat down.
"He hadn't... tried anything, did he?" – asked Hikari.
"Of course not." – Asuka leisurely flipped her hair. – "Not yet, anyway. But if he does, I'll show him what 'world of hurt' really means."
Back at Kaworu's desk, the gang finally dissolved and Kaworu glanced back at Tōji, who was currently climbing out from under his impromptu shelter, cautiously making sure that Hikari wasn't nearby. – "See what I mean? You all gush over her looks, but Scheiße is she arrogant..."
Tōji shook his head, occupying his chair again. – "Man, I still can't believe you... What IS it with you and chicks?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, don't you dare pretend you didn't notice!"
"Notice what?"
"Anyway..." – Kensuke interrupted. – "Who's the other guy who moved in with you?"
Kaworu thumbed towards Asuka. – "Her dad. Military. Good guy."
"Military, you say?"
"Here we go..." – Tōji sighed.
"Hey, I just wanna see what his public profile says! No harm in that. So, he's got the same last name as her, right?"
"Yeah."
"Okay..." – Kensuke started tapping on his tablet. – "Got 'im." – he announced a minute later. – "Lieutenant colonel Adrian Shephard. Army. Enlisted in 2024, currently on Earth for an assignment. Married in 2027, Kyoko Soryu, one child. And... ouch."
"What?"
"Wife died in 2030. I'll see if I can find out more." – Kensuke resumed fiddling with his tablet.
Tōji glanced at Asuka. – "Man... that sucks. She was like, what, three at the time?" – he murmured.
"Seems like it." – Kaworu murmured back.
"Yikes. Yikes." – Kensuke said suddenly, visibly and audibly wincing.
"What?" – the other two asked in a chorus.
"Have you guys heard about that terrorist attack in Hamburg, back in 2030?"
"I haven't." – Kaworu spoke up.
"Some masked goons raised hell at a scientific convention, took over a hundred hostages. Police failed to smoke them out, so they called in the military counter-terrorist unit." – The otaku shook his head. – "It went as bad as it could possibly go: when the bad guys felt the noose tightening around their neck, they gunned down three dozen hostages, blew up half of the building and slipped away in the chaos. Not a single one of them was caught; hell, no one knows who they even were. I heard Keel read the CTs one hell of a riot act afterwards."
"That sucks, but... where does that come in?" – Tōji asked.
Kensuke glanced towards Asuka before lowering his voice. – "I found her mom's name among the casualties."
1036 hours
'I found her mom's name among the casualties.'
Those words kept repeating inside Kaworu's head. Throughout class, between classes, even while he was washing his hands in the restroom. It was like that tune he once heard as a child somewhere, refusing to leave the forefront of his mind for even a minute.
He was seeing the girl in a different light now. She was still irritatingly arrogant, yes, but there was also something else. It wasn't sympathy, it wasn't pity, it wasn't schadenfreude... he had no idea what the emotion was, but it was there. And most irritatingly, he had no idea what prompted it either. It didn't matter what part of the world one was in, it was almost impossible to find anyone who hasn't lost friends or relatives during Second Impact. The only thing that really differed in her case was that she suffered her loss after Second Impact – which, while rarer, still wasn't unheard of, thanks to the copious numbers of Xen wildlife roaming the countryside all over the planet. That was why the Confederate military maintained such a large ground-based force even in peacetime, after all.
But he did know better than to blame her attitude on her background. After all, if growing up with only one parent could make one like that, then he, having grown up without both parents, would be an utter psycho. Yet he wasn't (as far as he could tell, anyway), so that theory was bogus right from the start.
His thoughts were finally and mercifully derailed when he walked out of the restroom and immediately heard someone trying to get his attention. – "Um... hey."
It was the boy he defended on his first day in school.
"What? Me?"
"Y-yeah. You're Nagisa, right?" – the geek asked, eyes looking everywhere but him.
"Yeah." – Kaworu tilted his head to the side. – "Why are you nervous? I don't bite or anything."
"I know, it's just... some guys wanted to talk to you."
"Did the guys I saved you from put you up to this?" – Kaworu asked immediately.
The geek shook his head vigorously. – "No! I've been asked to give this message to you."
"Alright then... who are they?"
"I don't know them either; some are upperclassmen, I think. They're waiting behind the school right now... but if you don't have time, I can tell them that."
Kaworu shook his head. – "No, I'm coming. Lead the way."
Only when they were outside did Kaworu ask the question that was nagging him for a minute now.
"Say... did those guys bother you ever since? The ones I beat up, I mean."
"No, haven't seen them." – The geek paused in his step to turn towards Kaworu, eyes still downcast. – "Listen... I know this is probably going to sound ridiculous, but... if I can help you with anything, anything at all, I'd be happy to."
"I didn't save you because I wanted anything from you." – Kaworu protested.
"Even so, I still want to help." – the boy insisted.
As they rounded the corner of the school building, Kaworu spotted them. Eight boys in a group, quietly talking about something his ears couldn't catch. He almost immediately concluded that it wasn't a boss-and-underlings type setup. The atmosphere was just too different. He didn't quite know how, but Kaworu had a knack for noticing details like that about people, somewhere on an intuitive level.
What that intuition told him right now what that the gathering was a round-table arrangement of equals.
As he approached and the teens looked up at him, one of them, wearing a dark brown hoodie, pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against. – "You Nagisa?"
"Yeah."
Despite his face partly being hidden by his hood, Kaworu could plainly tell that the other teen looked him over. – "We've been hearing some interesting stuff about you."
"Let me guess... that I chased those three idiots away from him?" – Kaworu asked, thumbing at the geek behind him.
"And that you beat them up afterwards."
Kaworu cringed. – "That too?"
"The whole school knows." – one of the other boys added.
"For the record, they attacked me." – Kaworu said defensively. – "If you don't believe me, ask Suzuhara in my class. He saw the whole thing."
"Oh, we believe you alright." – Hoodie assured.
"So... what's this all about?"
Hoodie rested his back against the wall once more, folding his arms over his chest. – "Why exactly did you jump to help him?"
"Why, you have a problem with that?" – Kaworu challenged.
Apparently, there was no need to. – "Hell no! We're here because we agree with you." – The others all nodded. – "So, why?"
"Because he needed help."
"You don't like guys who pick on others?" – someone asked from the back.
"Did you guys know I came here from Vienna?" – Kaworu asked back.
"Now we do." – Hoodie replied curtly.
Kaworu sighed, resting his back against the wall himself. – "Back there, I used to know someone. Nice kid, about... two years younger than me; name's Kuchera. He was always that weak and helpless type; you know." – The others nodded. – "He too was bullied, as far as I can remember, right from when he started school. Sometimes, he told me how much he hated being like that and not being able to do anything against it. I wasn't that close to anyone back then, but... I guess you could call him my first friend. Anyway, he eventually got sick of always being a target and decided he couldn't take it anymore."
"There was this high schooler, out of a family with some really dangerous types. Some three years ago, he started harassing Kuchera for protection money."
Hoodie immediately put his hand up in a 'stop' gesture. – "Wait. A high schooler collecting protection money?"
"And not the only one either. There were a bunch of those in the neighborhood; some tried shaking me down too, but I was too poor for that."
"Man, that's fucked up." – Hoodie remarked, shaking his head in disgust.
"Preaching to the choir, my friend. I lived in that neighborhood for eight years, so I can tell you that what you have here in Tokyo-2 is paradise when compared to that. I bet that, even if you've been to Europe, you never went into the slums, did you?"
"The outer districts here have some deep shit too, from what I hear." – someone called from the back.
"Maybe." – Kaworu replied with a shrug, though that statement did rouse his curiosity. – "Anyway, Kuchera eventually decided he didn't want to play along and called the guy a son of a bitch."
"And?"
"The bastard lost it. Broke Kuchera's nose, kicked him on the ground hard enough to crack one of his ribs, then hauled him off with his gorillas and beat him with a lead pipe."
Hoodie cringed. – "Holy shit..."
Kaworu made a bitter smile. – "I only found out later that the guy's mother was a former prostitute. So that insult struck a bit too close to home."
"What happened to your friend?"
"Broke his spine in two places. He's never going to walk again."
"Holy fucking shit." – Hoodie murmured with undisguised horror.
Kaworu slowly nodded. – "I never liked bullies... but that was what made me hate them. I don't want anyone else to end up like that. I mean, weak people are targeted because they can't defend themselves – but if they can't defend themselves, someone else's gotta do it for them." – He shifted his balance to his other leg. – "Survival of the fittest is complete bullshit. A couple centuries ago, they wouldn't have survived with what they have – but look at this world." – he said, gesturing towards the city. – "They could do so much more the way they are, yet they're stopped from doing so by those backward idiots who want to solve everything the old-fashioned way and happily drag everybody else down with themselves." – He shook his head in distaste. – "I'm sick of it all."
"I know how that feels, man." – Hoodie assured. – "We all feel the same way here. That's why we wanted to talk with you."
"What do you mean?"
"We've been thinking of doing something about that. A group of like-minded people would achieve more than lone wolves, right?"
"From what I hear, Freeman did a pretty good job at being a lone wolf." – the geek pitched in, rousing chuckling from the group.
"But he didn't do things alone." – Kaworu spoke up. – "The whole resistance pitched in."
"Damn right." – Hoodie agreed. – "So, what do you say? Should we gang up and do this thing together? I mean, we all have family, friends, some of us girlfriends; none of us want them to end up like your friend."
"Well..." – Kaworu began uncertainly. – "I don't have anything against the idea, but... I'm not sure you'd want me. I mean, what I would do might be a bit... extreme for you."
Hoodie shrugged. – "Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, name's Tokiwa. What do you have in mind?"
Chapter rewrite complete on 15/07/04
Concerning Asuka's hair color: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's concept art on pages 3 and 20 of the original proposal for the Evangelion TV series portrayed her with somewhat brownish hair. I seem to recall something about the animation team drawing her with her signature orange hair entirely by accident born out of miscommunication, but I can't remember where I heard that, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. What I can say with absolute certainty is that Asuka's canon hair color is actually not red but strawberry blond (that is, heavily red-tinted blond but still a distinctly lighter shade than true red hair) and Sadamoto drew her with blond hair in the manga.
Here, she is straight-up blond, inherited from her father. Her mother was still a redhead, but that doesn't mean Asuka would necessarily be a redhead too: genetics-wise, red hair is recessive and can remain hidden for multiple generations before being expressed in a descendant. Her being blond was not a result of a sudden impulse or anything like that, but a holdover from the very early concept plans for this story.
Everything considered, it can be said that what you are reading right now is version 2.1 of something that came to my mind circa 2006. The first concept – version 0.1, if you will – was of a story rather similar to Homeworld. This was before I even heard about that game, so I was rather miffed at finding out that it was already done before.
Version 0.2 was when Half-Life came into the picture, evolving the concept into a Star Trek-esque space opera with HL characters (never seen Star Trek, but that's the best comparison I know of). This was the first one I wrote down notes for; I no longer have those.
Version 0.3 formed in 2007, a year or so before I saw NGE for the first time – and in hindsight, I'm glad I did. Originally, it wasn't an Eva story, just heavily inspired by it tech-wise. No character archetypes were carried over and I only finished two character concepts before moving on, no story whatsoever. The concept of a blond pilot girl comes from this one. No notes remain from this one either.
Then sometime in 2008, I decided to just go and turn it into an Eva fic, reaching back to the HL roots to establish a fusion between the two verses. And in 2010, I started writing version 1.0, titled Ascension Tetralogy at the time. While it had the same cast, it was quite different from SCE. For starters, it was a Super Robot story to the core, born out of my experiences with TTGL and Nobody Dies. Kaworu's character was that of a blatantly and deliberately stereotypical hotblooded dumbass with memetic!Kamina vibes, including calling his attacks and being overly theatrical. The Evas were also much more organic and Super Robot-y in nature. I actually managed to write this one all the way up to the Israfel battle before I had a mental breakdown and dumped it, as I had gotten fed up with cranking out over 150,000 words and receiving no feedback whatsoever (partly because of how little traffic this site's crossover section receives), feeling like I was working my ass off for nothing. Simply put, I was completely, utterly sick of it. I fucking hated it with a passion and regret that I ever made the choice to start writing fanfiction instead of only reading it. I still have the original, unedited chapters for this one, but not the notes; the chapters I'm going to keep for the foreseeable future, as my sempais, Gundam Kaiser and Marq FJA, both asked to look at them. There were some minor rewrites, but nothing worth noting here.
The thought of restarting came to me in 2012. Gradually, version 2.0 started forming in my mind. It was at this point that the story got retitled to Strategic Cyborg Evangelion, symbolically turning a new page. It was mostly identical to the current version, although Kaworu was still more confident than right now, and had a tendency to go on Hitler-like rants if he worked himself up. This attempt at rewriting gradually died off from lack of interest and motivation, starting back up last year. It was in last December that I decided the problem was not merely in the execution, but in the roots as well, and decided to remedy that by starting over from the beginning and fixing those problems instead of trying to write around them like before. I feel Kaworu's current portrayal does his character and Akira Ishida's supreme voice acting talent far more justice than before.
