Alright, sorry that this second chapter took forever, life seemed to want to interfere again. Im gonna try to squeeze in as much of the next chapter as I can during winter vacation, so we'll see how it all turns out. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Preread by Voidhawk of the Phoenix Souls. Danke Schon meinem Freund!

Asuka at this point was concerned. Shinji had already fallen back to his knees and was shaking. While she REALLY didn't want to know what was going on, she felt that it was her duty to help her friend.

"Shinji, what's wrong?"

"…"

"Shinji?"

"…"

"Shinji!"

"…why?…"

"What Shinji?"

At that moment he snapped, pulling his head back and letting out an ear shattering scream towards the sky,

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

Asuka jumped back from Shinji's sudden emotional outburst. She had never seen him so emotional, even when he was breaking up with an old girlfriend! Honest to God, Asuka really had no idea what to say or do in this situation. In the past, she would just comfort him, but right now, he just looked emotionally unstable…

"Shinji…"

Shinji hadn't said a word since the scream, but there he was on the cold pavement, shivering, confused, trying to figure out what to do next. Everyone he had known… they didn't remember anything. Or was it him that couldn't remember? Was the whole EVA experience just a bad dream?

To say the least, he was confused. 'Ok, first, I need to compose myself!'

He slowly got up, wiped his eyes, and turned to face Asuka, giving her the best fake grin his face could muster. "I'll be alright, lets head to school."

Asuka realized he probably wasn't in the best mental shape right now, but it didn't sound like she was going to be able to convince him to go back home. She concluded that she'd just have to pry something out of him later, after meeting him in a more stable state.

For the time being, she just nodded, and started to follow Shinji down the sidewalk towards their destination. There was still one thing on her mind though, and she just HAD to know before they got to school.

"How'd you know that girl's name was Ayanami? She didn't act like you had ever seen each other before."

That comment made Shinji do a quick double take, before slowly turn to face Asuka. She immediately regretted asking that, after noticing the pure sad look he was displaying. "I REALLY don't want to talk about it…"

To that, Asuka nodded. 'Probably just some old girlfriend or something…' She concluded mentally.

"I'll tell you about it later, alright Asuka? I understand that I have been acting a bit… off today."

Now Asuka was really caught off guard by that one.

'Since when did he ever want to discuss his feelings?'

'What in the world is up with Shinji today?'

Never the less, her curiosity was peaked. But her conscious just HAD to get the better of her on this particular day… 'Don't try to pry now when he doesn't want to talk about it. You should consider yourself lucky that he's going to talk to you about it at all! Selfish German who…'

"Hurry up Asuka! We're gonna be late for class no matter HOW late Misato-san is at this rate!"

Asuka had been so caught up thinking, she didn't notice that she had started to lag behind. She immediately ran a bit to catch up to her male counterpart

"Oh, sorry! Guess I kind of just got lost in my thoughts." She said flashing a brief grin.

'Did Asuka just apologize to ME!' Shinji let the thought dance around in his head a little before just trashing it entirely.

'Well, I guess enough weird crap has been going on today, why not this? You couldn't surprise me right now if I walked into school and found out that Kensuke had converted to Mormonism…'

Unfortunately for Shinji's sanity, this wasn't too far from the truth…

"WHAT! Did you see her panties?" Asked a completely flabbergasted Touji Suzuhara.

While this had put Shinji into a rather embarrassing situation, he figured this was the perfect opportunity to look for any changes in either of his two friends He held all the cards here. He put on the most convincing face he could and said, "Well, it wasn't really a good look. Just a little flash."

Touji's reaction to this little morsel of info was the first thing Shinji had seen all day that he could really dub 'normal'. His jock friend griped his forehead and leaned backwards, letting out a slightly annoyed, "I can't believe you're the one who has all the luck- ow OW OW OW OW! WHAT'D YA DO THAT FOR, CLASS REP!"

The fore-mentioned class rep, Hikari Horaki, had apparently snuck into the vicinity while they were talking. And by the way she had hold on Touji's ear, it didn't look like she was too appreciative of the current conversation

"Suzuhara! Just what exactly were you talking about!"

'Holy crap… is it just me, or did Hikari get a lot scarier?' Shinji thought as she was talking. He made another mental note not to mess with her in this lifetime.

"Go change the water in the flower vase right now Suzuhara! Understood!"

"Yes ma'am…"

As Shinji watched a defeated Touji head for the front desk, he decided that he could take this time to pry some information out of Kensuke. And while he was at it, he might as well see if there were any notable changes in his otaku friend "Geez Kensuke, poor Touji's so hen-pecked… Are they going out or something?"

Kensuke seemed rather bored at that comment and just nodded, before responding, "Probably, they've been acting like that for at least a week now. I'm surprised you never brought it up before now."

Now Shinji had definitely not expected this reaction. From Kensuke, he was expecting the worst. He figured he would have been ranting on about their sex lives or something to that sort. Then, something horrific came back to his mind from earlier that day.

"Kensuke? You're not a Mormon by chance… are you?"

Kensuke stuck a happy grin on his face, and answered back in the most disgusting happy cheery voice Shinji had ever heard.

"Why yesindeedyaleedoody!"

Shinji had to use every ounce of his self control to keep himself from bashing in Kensuke's face after that answer. 'How could anything be that disgustingly cheery!'

While Kensuke was unaware of Shinji's mental plight, his physical health was saved at that instant by the sound of a car screeching into the parking lot outside. Touji and many of the other class males could be seen rushing to the windows excitedly, much to the chagrin of many female members.

"Ah! It's Misato-sensei!" Touji shouted as he had his head sticking out the window. Even Kensuke was filming this 'special' occasion. "Ohhh, she's so gorgeous!"

Shinji couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the actions of his classmates. By the way she drove in, Shinji figured that Misato couldn't have changed very much… so it didn't warrant him getting very excited about it. Being as shortsighted as he is however, he didn't take into account the type of responses he would be getting from this.

"Hey, Shin-man, there something wrong? Normally you go ecstatic when Misato-sensei shows up!" Touji just couldn't understand why Shinji was just sitting there, he was probably the most obsessed of all the students when it came to their young teacher. "You sick or something man?"

Shinji had been caught off guard, and he knew it. 'Crap! Since when was Touji this observant!' "No! I was just thinking about some stuff…" He made a deep thoughtful face to add the finishing touch to his cover up.

"Whatever man, your loss."

The incessant bickering of the class resumed for another three minutes until the door was opened, and the Sex Goddess Gone Terribly Wrong known as Misato walked into the room, gaining a couple of cheers and whistles from some of the aforementioned male students. Shinji was about to get his stuff ready for class when he heard Asuka say to him from behind, "Hey, isn't that the girl you ran into earlier?"

Shinji looked up, and sure enough, Misato had a certain blue-haired schoolgirl companion following her quite closely into the room. Shinji was paralyzed.

'Rei…'

Before he could form another coherent thought, Hikari shut his subconscious up with the ol', "Stand up! Bow! Sit down!" routine. Shinji was hoping to quickly reorganize his thoughts, but quick speaking on the part of Misato squashed that hope in its entirety.

"Lighten up guys! Today, we've got a new blue-haired gal' here to introduce herself!" She quickly stepped out of the way to reveal the said "blue haired gal'".

"My name is Rei Ayanami! Nice to meet you all!" she greeted the class enthusiastically. Rei began to scan the room and the new people around her, when one face caught her attention.

'It's that same kid from earlier!'

Misato waited for a few seconds while Rei inspected her new classroom before asking the one question that stood between her and starting her class. "Alright Rei! Where would you like to sit?"

While Rei tried to make the process seem like it was requiring some thought, she had picked out her seat before Misato had even asked the question.

"How about… right here!" she said while walking over and sitting to the desk right in between Shinji and Kensuke. (If you can't figure out why they've been separated in a school environment, then stop reading this fic and re-take the 4th grade)

Having gotten that distraction out of the way, Misato took attendance, and started her class.

Shinji was caught off guard by two different things in about a time span of four seconds. Firstly, the lesson had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Second Impact. Secondly, Rei had been poking his shoulder since the class had started

"Yes Ayanami?" Shinji inquired to his once well known peer.

"You're the kid that ran into me on the way here, right?" Rei asked him quietly.

"Yah, sorry about that. I wasn't watching where I was going." Shinji slightly bowed his head to show his apologies.

Rei looked slightly irked by him trying to avoid what she was obviously trying to get to. "Who are you and how did you know my name?"

Before any form of an answer could be given to this last question, Misato decided to shut her students up in a way only she could possibly do. "Shinji! Rei! You two can start putting together that one night stand AFTER we're done with class!" She added with a suggestive wink, "Alright?"

As the entire class broke into laughter (except for Asuka, who probably could have broken her desk in two by moving at that exact moment), Shinji managed to spit back one thing, "Meet me after class! We can talk about it then!"

Rei simply nodded, and the two of them waited for the laughter to die down so that class could be resumed.

The class bell went off, and the Rep went through again what we are from this point on going to be called "The Routine".

While the rest of the class got up and excitedly ran off to lunch, Shinji was blinking hard at his desk, trying to comprehend the situation at hand. 'That was the first time I've actually learnt something while going to this school!' His thoughts were interrupted quickly (this seems to be a theme is this kid's life) by some prodding on his right shoulder.

"Ummm, are you actually gonna get up, or do you always sit here during lunch?"

Having been snapped back to consciousness, Shinji looked up to the origin of the remark to see the face of a slightly confused Rei. "Oh yah, sorry… guess I kinda' zoned out there for a minute. Where do you wanna eat? The Cafeteria, or the Roof?"

Rei had to think this one over for a bit.

'Well… If this guy IS a stalker, the cafeteria would probably be safer. But then again, the roof would probably be more comfortable. Ah to hell with it… this guy's too small to jump a 3rd grader.'

"The roof sounds like nice a nice idea to me!"

Shinji felt the weight fall from his back with that response. Alternative universe or not, he couldn't figure that the cafeteria food would be any good. (That and he didn't want anybody listening in). He gave Rei a small smile and said, "Alright then, just grab your lunch and we can head up!"

On the way up to the roof, Shinji realized something. He was screwed. If Rei really couldn't remember anything about NERV and the Evas, then there was no way he could explain things to her without her thinking he's a madman. He was either going to have to change the subject VERY quickly, or try to revive her memory. The first idea was sounding quite appealing at the time.

"So, Ayanami, you're new to this area right?"

Rei looked back at him while walking up the stairs, "Yah, I've been living here for about a week now. Today's my first day going to school here!" She seemed to be joyful about it, which was strange for Shinji. It would be hard to adjust seeing Rei with normal human emotions. After thinking about it for a while, Shinji realized that he had as much to find out about Rei as she did about him.

Was she still a "clone"?

Was she still part angel?

Or was she just like any other kid in this new world?

He was so caught up in his thoughts, he didn't realize that he was about to walk off the roof. "Hey, watch it! Don't think you'd wanna take a spill from up here!" Rei joked as he walked back to where she was already sitting, opening her bento. He sat down across from her, pulled out his own bento and replied, "Yah, don't think it would've been that pleasant…"

Luckily for Shinji, about half of the lunch period was spent in silence, with both confused teens eating their lunch in peace. But Shinji knew the question that was coming, and braced himself for the inevitable when he saw her about to speak

"Hey, what's your name anyway? I've been hanging around you this whole time and I don't even know your name."

Shinji let out a sigh of relief. 'A momentary reprieve !'

"I'm Shinji Ikari, nice to meet you Ayanami!"

He gave a slight bow and quickly asked her a question before she could get to her more feared one. "So, how do you think you're going to like it here in Tokyo 3?"

Rei had a small look of discontent on her face before she responded, "It's a nice place, but I've had to move so much over the last few years, I don't know how long I'm gonna be here…" She let out a small sigh and looked up at the sky, "It sucks… Not being able to stay in one place long enough to even make any friends. Not being able to get used to a town, I wish we could just stop moving!"

'Opportunity!' Shinji's mind yelled at him. And for once in his life, Shinji followed his instincts. "We could be friends if you'd like, Ayanami."

Rei's following smile and small chuckle at his request had Shinji mystified. While he had seen her smile, he had never before heard her laugh. "I'd like that Ikari-kun, thanks…"

The plan seemed to have worked. Rei looked like she had completely forgotten about why they had come up here to begin with. The rest of lunch was drained away by questions about each other, and about the Tokyo 3 area. As Shinji checked his watch and alerted Rei that they should get back to class, Rei decided to spook him one last time. "Don't think you've gotten off the hook about the knowing my name thing! I'll get you to talk one of these days!"

Shinji gulped and gave a small chuckle. "Alright, but you'd probably think I'm a madman for it. I already know Asuka will…"

"Asuka? Is she that red haired girl that was walking with you earlier?" Rei inquired.

"Yah, that's her. Do you wanna meet her by any chance? I think you two would get along fine!"

Rei looked hesitant for only a split second, before she replied, "Sure! That'd be nice!"

Hearing that brought a smile to Shinji's face as they both entered the classroom and took their seats. Shinji surveyed the room and noticed that both Kensuke and Touji were eying him with wide grins on their faces, while Asuka's jaw probably couldn't have dropped any lower. (Unless she put a hole in the desk of course).

Shinji then took a quick second to think over the situation 'Shinji and new girl meet, sit next to each other, go to roof devoid of other students, come back smiling, and acting like nothing had happened… ah shit…'

"Yes guys?"

Touji seemed to want playing the long game today, quickly flinching and looking around the room, "Oh, nuthin! Nuthin at all Shin-man! Don't be mindn' us, right Kensuke?" Kensuke seemed a bit confused until he saw the sharp glare coming from Touji, "Yah! Nothing at all, just watching you come in with the new girl!"

Shinji rolled his eyes and got out his supplies for the next class as Misato came back in. "Alright class! Where were we?"

"Alright class! That'll be all for today, you know the drill If you're on duty, you stay, if not, head on home!"

After waiting for The Routine to end, Shinji got up and stretched before looking around the room. As expected, a few people were almost 'racing' to get to him first. Touji from his left, Kensuke from his right, and Asuka from behind. Needless to say, he needed to get out of there…

"Hey Aya-" "SHINJI! WHAT THE HE-" "Asuka!"

The 2nd interruption was not expected by Shinji. "You have clean up duty today Asuka! Don't be trying to get out of it now!"

If looks could kill, I wouldn't be here writing this now. "Yes Misato-sensei…"

"You two also! Suzuhara! Aida! Get back here!" The class rep shouted from outside the door. It appeared that their escape plan had failed. This was Shinji's chance to get out of a potentially very bad situation, "Anyways, you want to walk home with me, Ayanami? You said you haven't been here very long, I could show you some places on the way home."

Rei looked over at Asuka, before turning back and asking Shinji, "Are you sure it's alright?"

"She's just a friend of mine, it's not like we're going out or something." He responded quickly.

Rei lightened up at this new information much more than Shinji thought she would. "Alright then! Lets go!" She grabbed him by the wrist and led him out of the building.

"If that little tramp does one thing to Shinji… I swear…"

"What was that about Shinji, Asuka?" Kensuke slyly remarked.

Asuka didn't think that Hikari had succeeded in getting those two back so quickly, and was in turn surprised when Kensuke popped up back her like that. "Ah, Nothing! Get back to work!"

Not wanting to get in any violent situations this afternoon, Kensuke wisely followed her advice and got back to scrubbing the chalkboard. 'Sure hope Shin-man will be able to survive the week with that one on his heel…'

After walking down the streets that separated the Tokyo 3 Municipal High School from Rei Ayanami's house, they had arrived at their destination. Shinji had been pointing out most of the great aspects of the city. He showed her restaurants, arcades, theatres, he even knew where a few secret bomb shelters were (strangely enough). Overall, it had been a great experience in the eyes of the almost Albino-like girl. Shinji seemed pretty nervous the whole time though, and Rei just couldn't quite figure out why. 'He's not acting like he's flirting or something… its almost as if he's been thinking about something else this whole time.'

"Ikari-kun? Is everything alright? You seem kinda distant."

Shinji had indeed been deep in thought, but he REALLY didn't want to reveal any part of his thought process to Rei. 'I'm already gonna have to talk about it once tonight… I really don't want to have to go through the same torment twice.'

Yes, Shinji was contemplating everything that had happened to him this day. In the blink of an eye, he had been brought from the destruction of the world, to a seemingly peaceful world, where all of his peers and family had led a normal life. Why was it just him? Why was he the only one who still had any memories of this terrible past? At least in the old world, there were people who could understand him, there were people who knew…

But here, he would just be looked down upon, he would be dubbed a madman.

'Though I could certainly try to get used to living this kind of life…' "Yah Ayanami, I'm fine, I was just zoning out again…"

"Well, we're here!"

Shinji looked up, and found himself staring at a very, very familiar building. He started to pay more attention to his surroundings, the sounds of construction in the background… sure enough, they were right in front of Rei's apartment in Shinji's old life. 'You're… kidding me…' "This, this is where you live Ayanami?"

She nodded, "Its really not as bad as it looks from the outside, I've fixed it up quite a bit!" She began to enter the building, "Thanks for walking with me today Ikari-kun! I had a great time!"

Shinji could only stand there, and dumbly stare back. He nodded, and turned around. He had to get away from this place, get away from his memories… He began to run, and he had no plans of stopping anytime soon…

After about an hour of wondering the city, Shinji found himself looking up at his parent's apartment. 'No matter how far I run, I always manage to find my way back to this place…' He entered the building, took the elevator up, and entered the door to his home. "I'm home!"

Shinji saw his mother peek her head out from around the corner, "Welcome home Shinji!" She then pointed towards his door, "Asuka's been waiting for you for about an hour now, where were you?"

'Well, looks like I'm gonna be discussing it with her after all.' "I was just at the arcade with Touji and Kensuke, we kinda lost track of the time!"

While Yui had a slightly stern face for a second, she quickly smiled and responded, "Alright, but could you at least call us next time? Its always good to know your children haven't been kidnapped."

Shinji snickered, and decided it was time to finally face the inevitable. He walked towards his room, and opened the door. As expected, Asuka was sitting on his bed, looking through one of his mangas when he arrived. "Alright baka, may the explaining begin!"

Shinji sat in his computer chair, and gave Asuka a serious look. "After hearing this, you're gonna think I'm nuts, so this is your last chance to back out."

Asuka snorted a bit and responded with a humorous tone in her voice, "You've been insane for a while now, so you're gonna have to work hard to shock me."

Shinji still had that hard face, but he sighed, "Then you'd better be ready to hear the craziest story that you'll ever be hearing…"

Asuka simply nodded.

…And so he began.

Hmmm, wonder how many of these chapters i'm gonna be leaving on the edge like that? Oh yah! ALL OF EM! (Sadistic laughter) Well, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! Please leave reviews if you enjoyed it, or wish to say something about the story! Flame if you must, I'll just laugh you off anyhow, so go right ahead and waste your time flaming me if you so desire, just one more review for me:D