Tokyo-2, Outer District 6
December 7, 2041

"Morning." – Kaworu muttered, walking past Shephard who was sitting at the kitchen table with his back towards the teen, munching on a bread roll while reading something on a tablet. He briefly raised a hand in response but didn't look up.

Asuka, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. Not even when Kaworu returned to the kitchen from his morning business in the bathroom.

"Isn't she up yet?" – he asked while beelining to the fridge. He normally didn't bother with things like breakfast, but Rei was quite insistent that he start eating properly now that he had the money for it.

Shephard simply shrugged at the question. – "Nah. If she is, I haven't seen her."

"She's usually up before I am, if it's a school day."

The adult shrugged again and continued eating, leaving Kaworu to his thoughts.

He did peek into the girls' room earlier. Not to see anything he wasn't meant to see, though that didn't mean he didn't.

If the sight of Mari's underwear-clad bottom while the girl was snoring face-down with one leg hanging off the edge of the bed for lack of room was a sight he wasn't meant to see, that is. With her, he could never know. Nor did he have any clue how did she not fall off the bed already, for that matter. Hikari was sandwiched between Asuka and the wall in a fetal pose, having been the first one he carried into the room and put onto the bed; he could barely even see her under Asuka's outstretched hand all but elbowing her in the cheek.

He knew better than to try and wake anyone up. Plus he figured that Asuka likely was already awake, considering that they were supposed to go to school today. Saturday or no Saturday, if the ministry of education declares that the Friday lost due to last Thursday having been the 22nd anniversary of the Combine's final retreat from Earth is to be worked off today, they had no choice but to go to school on Saturday.

Thus him being up and about so early.

Kaworu was about to join Shephard at the table for a small jar's worth of yogurt (Rei picked it for him, allegedly for its nutritional value) when they heard steps. Slow, unsteady steps.

Coming from the direction of Asuka's room.

Both heads slowly turned to behold a hunched-over figure stumbling across their field of view, face completely obscured by tangled blonde hair.

Without a word, the figure disappeared towards the bathroom.

Kaworu silently swallowed and glanced at Shephard, but the man didn't seem to be angry.

Or maybe just wasn't showing it. He didn't know either way and figured that this wasn't a good time to practice the mind-reading shenanigans Rei has been teaching him.

He was about to resume eating when the sound of loud retching came from the bathroom.

"...that doesn't sound good."

"It happens."

Kaworu glanced up at the adult again, but nothing changed. The man seemed almost nonchalant at hearing his daughter being more than a little sick. Then again, Kaworu was never quite that drunk as Asuka seemed to be right now, so maybe he was overestimating the whole thing.

Another retching sound came from the bathroom's direction, but it was no longer accompanied by the splashing Kaworu heard earlier. And considering how Shephard looked up with a frown, it wasn't a good sign.

Kaworu just watched with his head firmly tucked between his shoulders as the man stood up and went to the bathroom. He heard Shephard eventually come back out and left the kitchen just in time to see him carry a visibly wet-haired Asuka into the living room, smeared vomit trailing down her cheeks.

"Serves you right." – Shephard muttered, laying her down onto the sofa. – "Now stay put or I swear I'll glue your ass here." – All he got in response was somewhere halfway between a growl and a groan.

"I don't want to sound like a jerk, but... didn't you say that you won't excuse her from school?" – Kaworu asked from the doorway.

"That was before I found her lying in a pool of her own puke. She's not going anywhere."

...that was most definitely a degree of intoxication Kaworu never experience before. Not even close. Nor did he particularly want to, seeing how visibly weak Asuka was as her limbs limply hung off the edge of the sofa.

"Gee, how considerate..." – came a muttered snark from Asuka's direction.

"Shut up, missy." – Shephard replied in a tone that was more annoyed that worried. – "I'm so going to kick your ass if you pull a stunt like this again."

"Wha's wid dis unh'lty fixation wid ma 'ss?" – the girl slurred in a pained tone, curling up into a fetal pose.

Though mouthing off while catastrophically hungover was what Kaworu half-expected from Asuka anyway, it still surprised him to some degree. Not a hint of sheepishness, embarrassment or humility. Either she didn't give a damn she messed up or she knew but didn't show. He couldn't tell in either case.

"So she's staying?"

"Yeah and I'm staying too."

"Don't you have work?"

"I do, but look at her!" – Shephard thumbed at Asuka over his shoulder. – "She can't even go to the loo on her own, do you really think we should leave her alone all day?"

"I could stay." – Kaworu offered. – "I'm pretty sure me missing one day isn't as big of a deal as you doing so."

"Kid... I can't ask that of you."

"You don't have to. It's my fault she's like this."

"I already told you not to worry about it. Plus I can excuse her from school, but not you."

"No, it's okay. I'll look after her."

Shephard opened his mouth to respond but whatever he was about to say was interrupted by the doorbell.

Kaworu glanced in that direction. – "Rei's here early."

"Might not be her." – Shephard remarked as he moved to answer the door.

"Then who?"

"Did you forget about my girl's friends?"

It clicked in Kaworu's head that it was only a matter of time until Hikari and Mari would be missed by someone. And as it would seem, it was that time already.

"I don't know whether I should be the one to apologize or Asuka. I mean, it was her fault but I did leave her unsupervised."

"It's not a problem, really. Hikari's not stupid; I'm pretty sure she learned whatever there was to learn from this."

If he hadn't heard the conversation, Kaworu would've guessed the new arrival walking into the kitchen alongside Shephard was a relative of Mari's, based on the glasses and chest size.

"Oh, hi. You're the princely exotic beauty I keep hearing about from the girls?"

"They call him that?" – Shephard asked in a '...huh?!' tone.

"No, I'm just paraphrasing." – the older girl (or young woman? Kaworu couldn't quite decide) replied without diverting her attention away from Kaworu. – "But better watch out all the same, or Mari will get into your pants faster than light. Kodama Horaki, nice to meet you."

"Uh, Kaworu Nagisa."

"Huh. I seem to recall they said you're a foreigner."

"I am... kinda. I don't really know myself, it's a long story."

"Guys, guys..." – came a groan from Asuka's direction, causing all three to look in the girl's direction and find her huddled up in the same fetal pose she was in when her father put her there, clutching the side of her head. – "Not so loud. Please. Thank you."

The other three shared a look. – "She's in pretty bad shape." – Shephard whispered to Kodama.

"I can see that. Been hungover myself before."

Kaworu sighed. – "Has everyone in this house been hungover before except for me, or what?"

Shephard shrugged. – "Hey, be glad you haven't."

"How did she get so drunk, anyway?" – Kodama asked Kaworu.

"Drinking contest. Makinami tricked her into trying to outdrink me."

"Kid says he never gets drunk." – Shephard supplied. – "I call bullshit on that, but he was definitely sober when I called him last night."

"Are you immune to alcohol or something?"

Kaworu shrugged. – "I don't know."

"Anyway, I'll be taking Mari too, like we talked about it on the phone." – Kodama stated, this time addressing Shephard.

"Right. Not sure if they're up yet, so feel free to wake them up."

At this point, Kaworu decided that the rest of their conversation likely didn't concern him. That, and he didn't want to test whether Shephard really wasn't pissed or just pretending he wasn't by getting in the way one too many times and potentially setting him off.


"Hey, kid. I'm leaving."

"Okay."

For what it's worth, neither Mari or Hikari made much of a ruckus when they left. Hikari definitely did not sound pleased that she was forced to call in sick despite being class representative and Mari's attempts at soothing her only made her even angrier, considering that Mari was the one ultimately responsible for the situation.

This actually make Kaworu breathe a sigh of relief. If she would've been blaming him... he didn't want to think about the repercussions.

"Keep an eye on her, will you?"

"Right."

"I called the doc's girl and told her you're staying, so don't expect her. If Asuka asks for something for her headache, give her water. No pills, just water."

He waited until he heard the entrance door closing before getting up. Passing by the living room on his way to the kitchen for a drink (of the non-alcoholic kind, that is), he glanced at Asuka but she was still where and how they left her; sleeping, maybe. He couldn't tell. Which was still better than her accusing him of having rigged the drinking contest somehow.

As he was trying to figure out what to do instead of school, Kaworu realized with some embarrassment that he didn't actually have anything to occupy himself with for the next couple of hours (or until Shephard got back home). He could go back to bed, but he guessed being asleep wouldn't really fit the requirement of him keeping an eye on Asuka. Ditto with his hobby, as he couldn't just toss a several hundred degrees hot soldering iron aside if she were to suddenly start choking on her own vomit or some other emergency that required his immediate intervention, seeing as he didn't feel like setting his own room on fire for her sake.

He could just study from his textbooks, seeing as he was supposed to be at school anyway, but Kaworu understandably didn't feel like studying simply because he had nothing better to do. However, that did give him an idea.

After checking that Asuka was still the way they left her on his way back from the kitchen, Kaworu briefly paused between their rooms before quietly opening the door to hers and stepping in.

He was half-expecting her to be a bit of a slob, but that didn't seem to be the case. Or maybe it was because of the company she had yesterday made her tidy up a bit. Either way, the room was quite a bit cleaner than his (which was faint praise indeed, he had no shame in admitting), with only one discarded set of clothes littering the floor and only a small pile of empty junk food packaging on the desk. And from what he could tell, Asuka didn't seem to have a habit of packing her school bag on the night before a school day.

But it wasn't her textbooks he was interested in; he had all of it himself, except for maybe puberty-related biology handbooks he had seen handed out in his previous school about two years back and which he, unlike some other boys in his old class, had no interest in. He guessed that maybe, just maybe, Asuka would happen to have a book or two he could pass his time with. Kaworu had no such possessions himself, so he had to borrow. And besides, this was the least she could do after she nearly got him into trouble.

And sure enough, she seemed to have about a dozen books lined up on a shelf. He could only hope she wasn't into sappy romance novels or such... because if she was, he might just go fetch a school textbook after all.

Then his eyes paused on a relatively thin book with a red cover. Carefully pulling it out from between two thicker books, Kaworu's eyebrows went up at the title: Der Röte Kampfflieger. A quick peek beyond the cover showed that it wasn't actually in German, though, which was fine by him. A book's a book and all that matters is that it's in a language he can read, even if the interior of the cover stated it was a retranslation of something from 1918.

Thus, he went back to the living room, sat down on the couch opposite of Asuka, cracked the book open at the preface and started reading.

Kaworu then summarily lost track of time up until the point where he heard Asuka grumble – "That's mine."

He looked up to see her glaring at him from where she was lying. – "Hm?"

"I said that's mine. Are you deaf?"

"No."

"If you go into my room again, you're dead."

Kaworu shrugged. – "Well, I had to do something. I too get bored, you know."

"It's not about boredom, it's about 'my stuff is not your stuff'." – Asuka growled. – "Are you seriously that dense, or just a kleptomaniac?"

"If I was a kleptomaniac, do you think I'd flaunt it?"

The blonde opened her mouth to respond, but visibly paused before actually doing so. – "...point. Just give it back when you're done."

"I wasn't going to keep it."

"Good."

"Was this guy your childhood hero or something?"

"No. It's just a book written by a guy who's been dead for more than 120 years."

"Why did you borrow his moniker for your hobbies, then?"

Asuka turned to her other side, facing the backrest. – "Cause it sounded cool."

Kaworu wasn't sure if he believed her; the analog indicator was leaning more towards the 'no' end of the scale on that.

Shrugging, he resumed reading (he made it quite far into the book, he realized) until he heard her again. – "You're German too, aren't you?"

"Austrian." – he corrected, putting the book down. – "Not that it matters much, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there haven't been an Austria since Second Impact and I apparently have a Japanese name, so I'm not native there anyway." – he clarified with a shrug.

"With how you look like, I can't even tell if you're Asian or not."

"Apparently you're not alone with that. Tōji asked too when I came here."

He heard her scoff. – "Suzuhara wouldn't be able to tell his own ancestry if he looked in a mirror."

"Speak for yourself. Your dad said you have some Japanese blood yourself."

"What about it?"

"Your hair makes it hard to tell too. I never would've guessed it myself."

Asuka sighed with a hint of tired exasperation. – "Listen... if you're trying to woo me by complimenting on my looks, don't bother. I've heard that enough times already."

"I'm not interested in that stuff."

A momentary silence descended over them before Asuka glanced at him above her shoulder.

"...are you gay?"

"No!" – Kaworu sputtered. – "I just... I don't care much for all this dating and romance and sex stuff. I mean, why is everyone all crazy about it? It's as if their whole world revolved around getting laid."

"Bullshit."

"I'm serious."

"And I'm an idiot who takes that at face value." – She turned to fully face him. – "Why did you leave and come here, anyway?"

"I, uh... I got expelled from school."

At that, Kaworu saw Asuka assume a '...what.' expression so bizarrely like Shephard that she almost looked like a younger version of the man. – "Seriously?"

"...yeah."

"You mean to tell me you only made it a few weeks into high school before you got yourself kicked out?"

"One week, if it matters."

"What did you do?"

Kaworu's look darkened. – "Someone tried to extort a friend of mine for cash. He refused, so they beat him up so badly he's crippled for life. Ringleader got away with it because he was the son of our school's principal... but the fucker's luck ran out when he tried to shake me down too and ended up in the hospital for his trouble."

Asuka just stared at him.

"What?"

"I don't think I ever heard you swear before." – the girl remarked.

"Well, I'm not going to cry for him. He got what he deserved. The guy I beat up, I mean."

"What, are you some kind of vigilante hero wannabe or something?"

Kaworu shook his head. – "I'm nothing like that. Just an ordinary guy."

"Ordinary guys don't nearly kill people for hurting someone close to them."

"I wasn't trying to kill them." – He leaned back, eyes glancing up at the ceiling. – "I don't like bullies... no matter where they're from."

"How does that make you any better than them?"

Kaworu looked back down at that. – "What do you mean?"

"You beat them up, they beat others up." – Asuka remarked. – "What's the difference?"

"Helping someone else versus helping yourself."

"Ends justify the means?"

"That's not it. If the little guys can't stand up for themselves, who will?"

"And if it's the little guys who are being the bullies? Then what?"

Kaworu's brain promptly ground to a halt at the girl's counter-argument. Because for all he tried, he found no flaw in her logic. Stopping the strong from abusing the weak is one thing – but if he can do that by virtue of being even stronger, isn't he doing the same thing he abhors?

Of course, he wasn't going to feel remorse for that boy. What's deserved is deserved. But that didn't mean he didn't get the message.

"...then if I beat them up, I am the bully." – he said finally.

He could see a faint smirk in the corner of her mouth, although he couldn't tell if it was mocking or not. – "There may be hope for you yet."


Chapter complete on 17/09/26.

Kodama's appearance is based upon recently released artwork by Sadamoto. Before that one, there has been no official depictions of either her or Nozomi, only unofficial ones... and not all of them of the safe-for-work kind.