Tokyo-2, Inner District 5
November 28, 2041
1038 hours
Even after over a month of being present at this particular school, Asuka still had eyes turning after her as she marched down the corridor. Not that she was showing off for attention or anything. Truth be told, she didn't even notice by now.
And even if she would notice it normally, her attention was elsewhere right now. Namely, the blue-haired girl she was in the process of catching up to.
"Hey, Blueberry."
If Rei was offended by the nickname, her face didn't show it. – "What is it?"
"You have anything to do today afternoon?" – Asuka queried as she matched step with the other girl.
"No."
"Then come over to our place at five." – Asuka glanced around and despite seeing no one within earshot (earshot of a school corridor abuzz with the sound of dozens of students idling between classes, that is), lowered her voice anyway. No knowing which of the guys salivating after her might be actively listening in, after all. – "Work business. The three of us."
"Understood."
"And tell your boyfriend too that he's not to go anywhere today."
"He's not my boyfriend."
Asuka waved the flat response off. – "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just tell him."
"Why not tell him yourself?"
Asuka scoffed. – "Where the whole class can see us? I'd never hear the end of it. You tell him."
"...very well."
Tokyo-2, Outer District ?
1834 hours
While carefully pouring the soldering flux back into its bottle, Kaworu inwardly wondered how many more times will Asuka interrupt him in the middle of soldering. So far, three times in just as many months. He was aware that she likely didn't know he couldn't let the flux he poured out alone or it will have evaporated by the time he got back, but it still annoyed him on some level.
At least she didn't comment on the smell. Yet.
Sealing the flux bottle, he made sure again that the soldering iron's transformer was off before walking out of his room. Back in his previous dwelling, his room was the only one that was heated in the whole building, so not leaving the door open when leaving eventually became a habit for him – a habit he still had, even with now living in a fully-heated building. It seemed to be around the right time of the year for snow to start lasting, so he began considering switching to his worn-out winter coat. He was somewhat sure he hadn't grown out of it yet... though even if he did, he now had the funds to remedy that.
He still didn't quite get used to having enough spending money for more than food.
Asuka apparently didn't share his habit of closing his room's door when he wasn't there, the door of her room just opposite of his being ajar. Judging from the lack of lighting inside, she wasn't in either – but Kaworu suspected she didn't go far, seeing as how that felt like a preferable alternative to being just that careless and/or stupid. She just didn't seem the type.
Besides, considering that she stuck her head into his room barely a minute ago to order him out to the kitchen, she couldn't have gotten far in that time anyway.
And indeed there she was, sitting at the kitchen table with Rei opposite of her. With Shephard off somewhere, that meant the three of them were alone in the apartment.
Asuka watched him sit down next to Rei before speaking. – "Right. So... with all of us here, we can begin."
Briefly closing her eyes, she sighed. And when those eyes opened again... it was as if it wasn't quite the same person behind them. Gone was the cocky, bratty teenage attitude, replaced with focus and steel.
"First off, I want to know how much experience you have in combat-related things. If I'm going to depend on you watching my ass, I'd feel a hell of a lot better knowing that you don't just talk the talk, but walk too."
"I am proficient in close quarters combat and marksmanship." – Rei spoke up.
"How proficient?"
"Enough."
"She killed the first Angel with just knives." – Kaworu added. No sense in hiding that, considering that Asuka did ask.
"Is that true?" – Asuka directed at Rei, who silently nodded. – "Nice. How about guns?"
"The colonel brought us to the security force's target range. He considered my performance satisfactory."
Kaworu resisted the urge to roll his eyes at that. – "Satisfactory, my ass. She hit the bullseye every time. Pistol, rifle, machine gun, didn't matter. I'm not a soldier, but I'd say she's really good." – He chuckled. – "Better than me, anyway."
"I take it you suck with guns, then?"
"Yeah."
"And close combat? Did you take self-defense courses?"
"No."
"Then what do you have?"
"Street fighting."
"...that's it?"
Kaworu sighed. What exactly was she expecting, that he was some kind of super soldier in hiding? – "You realize that I was technically homeless before I moved in here, right? I didn't exactly have the cash to sign up for karate training."
"I have been considering tutoring him." – Rei added.
"That's nice, but what to do with him in the meantime?" – Asuka replied. – "He's useless if he can't fight."
Even though he knew she was right, Kaworu couldn't help it but feel irritated at Asuka's casual dismissal of him. – "I can fight, thank you very much."
Asuka scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest. – "I watched your combat footage. You can't hit shit without automatic weaponry. What are you going to do, run up to the next Angel and punch it? Oh wait, you'd be dead by the time you get there if it's anything like the last one. This isn't a brawl between street punks, this is war. You fuck up, you die."
That was about the limit of Kaworu's patience. Even though he wasn't actively trying, he still found himself planting his hands into the kitchen table harder than he intended.
That is, hard enough to make the neighbor living below them look up at the ceiling in puzzlement from the noise.
"I've been out there twice now. Twice. Once I almost got my brain fried inside out, once I got the hill I was standing on blown up. I. Am. Still. Here."
Kaworu then sat back onto the chair, crossing his own arms.
"So you can assume that I'm generally aware of how dangerous this line of work is." – he added in a tone that hinted at his restrained anger. What was this woman thinking he was too stupid to even feel fear? He might've been a street urchin, but he wasn't stupid. He also wasn't the easily-angered type but he knew from experience that when he did get pissed, he got really pissed.
Fortunately, never to the extent of hurting people who didn't deserve it.
"Good." – Asuka replied curtly, leaning back in her chair. – "Just keep that in mind. I don't plan on getting myself killed because of you fucking up, so I expect you to return the favor. You too, Blueberry. If one of us dies, the others' chance of getting out of it will drop too."
"There are only three of us. We cannot afford casualties." – Rei remarked flatly.
"Exactly." – Asuka looked back at him. – "So Nagisa, shape up."
"What about you?" – he fired back. – "What do you know?"
"Learned military-grade CQC when I was a kid. Shooting, same. I also know how to pilot a battleframe and won the junior championship several times." – the blonde listed off in an almost bored tone. – "Your geek friend could probably tell you all about the Red Baron - but if you tell him who I am, I'll feed you to the next Angel. Got it?"
Kaworu indeed remembered Kensuke saying something in that regard, but got her message. If she didn't want to be in the spotlight, it wasn't his business. – "Got it."
Besides, it sounded like she was way more competent at this than he ever could be. Definitely explains her previous change in demeanor too... and while he hated to admit it, also proved her point and consequently defused his annoyance at her attitude. Compared to her, he really was nothing. Though if he was lucky, he might learn a thing or two from watching her at work down the line, so he filed that thought away for later.
"Bottom line, I'm the closest thing this team of ours has to a soldier. Which reminds me..." – Asuka shifted in the chair. – "We need to set up a chain of command."
"As acting operations director, the colonel is our direct superior, followed by my mother." – Rei remarked.
"And if we're cut off from them? Who has the command authority then?" – Asuka pointed out.
"Not me." – Kaworu hastily replied. Leadership was not something he desired, let alone wanted the stress of getting the hang of the hard way. Yet part of it was simple selfishness: he was having a hard enough time just staying alive as it is, if his previous battles were of any indication.
Unfortunately, all that earned for him was more dry snark from the blonde. – "You're not secretly a tactical genius? Who would've fucking thought."
Which only succeeded in pissing him off again. – "Alright, what's your problem with me? You can't open your mouth without trash-talking me."
"I said it before: if I'm to trust you to watch my back, I need to know if I can count on you. And so far, I'm not impressed. You want me to stop, earn it. Now..." – She got up and put a laptop onto the table, turned towards them, before picking up her own chair and bringing it around the table. – "I already watched your combat footage, but want to look at some of it again to ask about a few things. Make room."
Even despite the memory still being relatively fresh in his head, Kaworu was still amazed at Rei's brutal efficiency at dispatching Sachiel. There was no way he'd ever become that good. It wasn't a matter of training, experience, or even skill; the girl simply had an innate killer instinct she aimed like a laser-guided cruise missile, all but flowing around her opponent's attacks before counterattacking. He couldn't see it that well from within the cockpit, but it was clear as day when viewed from an outside perspective.
He was quite literally decades too early to even think of being on par with her.
"You're not lacking CQC skills, that's for sure." – Asuka mused. – "Where'd you learn?"
"I am self-taught."
"Bullshit."
"I am not lying."
"Right, and I'm a guy who had a sex-change operation. But your control skills are no slouch either; you're used to your ride, I can see that. That jump-flip thing? I don't know how something that heavy can even do that."
"Can battleframes do it?" – Kaworu asked.
"No. And the instructor would have you scrub the whole frame part-by-part if you were to try." – Asuka turned back to Rei. – "Right, so, the only problem I can see is that you're very flashy, jumping and spinning around like that. One day, someone's gonna interrupt you in the middle of it and then you'll be in a world of hurt."
"It was sufficient this time."
"But next time it might not be. Just keep that in mind." – Asuka warned before turning back to the laptop. – "Alright, next one."
This particular memory was not one Kaworu was eager to remember. Well, except for the part where he shot Shamshel point blank when she tried to ensnare him.
Even Asuka seemed to take notice of that one. – "Good move. Did you plan that one ahead of time?"
"No. I just figured that if it was aiming that energy shield at Rei, it might not be able to aim another at me at the same time. Besides, you try dodging fire from that close."
The girl nodded. – "Point. So it was 100% improvisation?"
"Yeah."
"Might not work next time."
"I know."
"Just saying."
Kaworu rolled his eyes. – "I know."
He couldn't help but wince when he saw that mysterious spear again, the memory of the literally head-splitting pain flaring up. Even so, he couldn't take his eyes off the screen when he saw it light up and transform his Eva before smiting his foe with absolute power that knew no impediment.
"...okay, what in the world was that?" – Asuka demanded, turning to him. – "What the hell did you do there?"
"I don't know. It wasn't me."
"You were the pilot. It had to be you."
"I said it wasn't me, okay? That thing almost tore my brain apart inside out."
Asuka just stared at him blankly before turning to Rei. – "What's he talking about?"
"He suffered severe intra-cranial bleeding from his gray matter. Doctor Sanada had to perforate his skull to release the pressure."
"That had to hurt."
"No shit." – Kaworu grumbled.
"What happened to that spear, anyway?"
"Mother ordered it quarantined and moved to secure storage. The colonel did not agree with the decision." – Rei replied.
"Of course he didn't. If it took down that Angel so quickly, it could've saved you a lot of headache against the next one. Speaking of which, whose idea was it to drop an Evangelion on it from orbit?"
"The colonel."
Asuka sighed, rolling her eyes. – "Why did I even ask... Anyway, we still need to discuss tactics. You're probably familiar with the saying that no plan survives contact with the enemy, right?" – Both members of her audience nodded. – "Right, so, I don't think we should stick to choreographed stuff. Even if we could practice in the Evangelions and pull it off, chances are the bad guys aren't going to play by our rules and if we can't improvise, we're done for."
She thumbed at Kaworu.
"To that end, we need to do something about him."
"Why?" – Kaworu asked.
"Because without training, you're the weak link."
"I will train him." – Rei added.
"But that will take time." – Asuka shot back. – "Time we might not have. Where can he do the most good in the meantime? He can't shoot, so keeping him at the rear won't work."
"What about midfield?"
"You mean maneuvering around to hit the enemy from the flank while the others keep them occupied? Putting him there could work, but blitzkrieg also happens to be my specialty. I'm not saying that I wouldn't be able to snipe or fight at close-range, it's just that defensive fighting isn't my best point."
"Then put me at the front."
Both girls looked at Kaworu. – "For what?" – Asuka asked in a skeptical tone.
"Rei's Evangelion can't handle close combat and you're better at moving around the enemy, right? If I can keep them busy, you can do far more damage that way than otherwise." – Kaworu reasoned.
"You do realize you're basically volunteering for cannon fodder duty, right?"
"Yeah."
"Which is about the most dangerous assignment you could possibly pull."
"You have a better idea?"
"Frankly, I'd replace you entirely if I had the choice, but I don't." – The blonde replied bluntly. – "So it looks like we're gonna have to work with that."
Kaworu shrugged. – "Look on the bright side. I can't possibly miss at that range."
"Don't be so sure. You'd be surprised what some of the people in the battleframe league can pull off."
Chapter finished on 16/11/01.
Asuka's use of the word blitzkrieg in this context is a bit of a misnomer. Instead of referring to an aggressive frontal attack aimed at crushing the enemy quickly, she's referring to what TV Tropes' Ace Pilot article calls a 'bushwhacker'; to quote the article, 'Bushwhackers are cunning, devious pilots who eschew easy-to-evade frontal attacks in favor of taking potshots from the rear or other blind spots. When engaged in a duel, they try to wriggle out of it and drop out of the enemy's field of view so they can come in from another direction and catch the foe off-guard. Frequently, bushwhackers will sacrifice spare weapons as decoys, distracting the enemy so they can ambush them from behind.'
Two well-known fictional examples of this are Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, though Asuka's style tends to take more after Char's aggressive attacks than 0093-era Amuro's tendency to set up traps and ambushes against his pursuer. This similarity is not intentional on Asuka's part; while chapter 14 already stated that Gundam exists as a fictional franchise in the SCE universe too (up until X, which came out a few months before Second Impact) and that Hyuga is familiar with it, Asuka isn't (since she doesn't have the cultural background for being familiar with it, unlike Hyuga).
It is true that this is a noticeable deviation from her style in canon where she tended to just rush in head-first. However, it is also worth noting that her impulsive aggressiveness in canon stemmed primarily from her wanting to one-up Shinji in what she perceived as him trying to muscle in on her specialty. In the one instance where Shinji wasn't a factor yet she was still aggressive, Asuka was operating on pure, blind rage with limited battery power that left her no option for anything other than attacking head-on while her Eva still had power.
