An: Many apologies for taking all that time, IRL work issues and house improvements could no longer be ignored, but all is well enough now that I can get my ass to write again.
This is actually only a part of the scope of the chapter that I originally planned, but I decided that since I have a part that can be released, I will not sit on it for the next week or two.
Writing it was both fun and challenging at once, as I have not written much fast-paced action to the day, but I am quite happy with the result.
Major thanks bot to Cheerful Clatter who was as always indispensable in the role of editor and friend to the fic, 24karatDVNO who helped me out on characterisation issues, and ArwenHermione from over at Ao3 for giving me solid advice how to electrocute people in writing.
The good stuff is shared, whatever mistakes are left are solely on my head.
Lastly, if you did not already, and if you are in the market for close-to canon fic, do check out Shinji Ikari Documenting Project.
Suite No.6,02 Consequences dished
Asuka pulled Shinji back just in time for the delayed fist to swing in the empty air instead of smashing his face. Then she took two steps forward, placing herself in the way of any further strikes. The big hooligan looked at her and then at Shinji, then he let out a roar of incredulous laughter. He looked Shinji in the eyes and said with a dismissing tone, "Are you so cowardly to have your girl fight your fights? She would be better off with a real man for a boyfriend!"
Shinji felt anger growing strong inside him again and stepped forward, only to be stopped by Asuka's outstretched hand. She shot him a smile over her shoulder and turned back to the hooligan.
"Hell no! This is Shinji Ikari, you asshole! He protects this city every time you cower in the shelter with the rest of the civvies!" shouted Asuka as if challenging ANYONE to oppose her… No one did.
When Shinji heard it, he stood up straighter. 'It is true. Asuka, Rei and me against the end of the world… or a bunch of highschool bullies.' Even though it caused him pain from previous hits, Shinji smiled and looked around. The sudden change of odds gave the hooligans a pause.
Touji was kneeling by Kensuke's side; when he caught Shinji's eyes, he gave a thumbs up. Shinji nodded and felt relief. Whatever else had happened, Kensuke was not seriously injured.
He turned his attention back to Asuka and the leader of the hooligans. 'Nobody does anything until one of them strikes, then it all goes down,' he thought. He frowned when he did his math: 'Four against four. We planned for four against three…'
Shinji recalled Asuka's briefing on the roof: "Dummy and Jock Stooge will occupy the meanest-looking one, while Wundergirl and I each put one of the remaining two out of commission and then pile up on the remaining ones. That way, we have three separate nice and unfair fights, then home in time for tea and music!" It was a nice plan while it lasted…
"...and if this is THE Ikari, fat chance I believe that claim about such a wuss! I bet you are a pilot too!" called the big goon, as the other hooligans laughed.
'Looks like when they are not beating weak kids to get upskirt shots for them, they have a nice little friendship,' Asuka thought as she planned on how to take down that Onizuka character. 'I am by no means stronger, but I am faster and nimbler. Death of a thousand cuts for you!'
Asuka glared at Onizuka in defiance: "Hell yes I am: the best there is! That is why you tried to order pictures of me in the lingerie… right? Well, that ain't going to happen!" She smiled, bared her teeth really, and nodded when she saw one of the goons taking a step back…
She shot a glance to Rei, who was slowly moving to her left and looking intently at the two younger goons on that side, resting a hand on the belt she wore with her cosplay and on the taser in said belt. Asuka needed not worry about them: one would come down with twenty thousand volts in their system, and the other would be even worse off. Instead, she caught Shinji's eyes and inclined her head to the right. Shinji nodded and looked at the designated goon.
'If he needs help, Jock Stooge and him should be enough,' thought Asuka. She locked stares with the big hooligan again and tried the ground under her feet: 'Solid asphalt, good grip but pretty bad to fall on, so I just have to not fall!' Asuka ran the same calculus Shinji did a moment earlier: 'Either he starts it, or I start it, better if it is me.' Her plan was set: she would wait until Rei was close enough to strike, and then she would let fly.
The goon laughed at her: "I just took pictures of you from my younger brother, thought you were cute and made him spill where he got them from! Why should I trust you are anything special other than being a pretty exchange student?" The way he smiled when he talked about taking stuff from his brother, Asuka spared a moment to pity the boy. This asshole was going down hard - 'and I will enjoy it more than I thought I would!'
Another glance told Asuka that her "troops" were nearly in position… just a moment longer… She reached to her hair and unclipped the A10 neurolinks, putting them neatly into the pocket of her jacket before taking it off. She had considered showing the A10s as evidence of her being a pilot, and gaining a moment that way, but decided against it. For one thing, it would be a bitch to explain to Dr Akagi that she had gotten five hundred thousand yen worth of hardware destroyed in a street fight…
'Focus, Asuka, focus, you have an asshole to beat up right now!' She reprimanded herself and fell into a ready position. She snarled, "How about I beat you up to prove myself?!" With that, she set off and charged the leader.
-x-
Asuka did not look back. She did not need to. 'Win this, worry about other stuff later!' She ducked under a strike, half turned out of the way of another, and got in a fast jab at the hooligan's upper arm before ducking under yet another strike, passing her opponent and going for a kick to the knee.
She heard Shinji and Touji letting out a war cry and for a moment saw them closing in on the hooligans, but she paid them no mind. The one they called Onizuka dodged her kick by an inch and already turned to face her. His face turned into an aggressive mask as he let loose with kicks and punches.
Asuka felt the whooshes of wind coming from the strikes hitting spots where she was a moment, no, a half a moment ago. She dodged, weaved, and struck back like a toreador in the arena, and she felt more alive than the whole day before…
In thirty seconds, she got in no less than seven good hits. If she had been fighting someone her size, she would have been well on the way to ending the fight, but she was not… Onizuka spat out saliva mixed with blood from when Asuka hit his lip.
'Gut! Repeat twenty times and I am done with you!' she thought and made as if to duck beneath her target's arm again. He fell for it and almost walked away with Asuka kicking his palm flat. In the last possible moment, he managed to angle his hand so Asuka's shoe slid off the inner side of his palm, and Asuka had to dodge away lest she got caught.
Asuka quickly made three steps back and dropped in ready position, drawing in air by gallons. She grinned. 'This is fun!' she thought. Then she noticed something out on the very edge of her peripheral sight. Another hooligan was bearing on her, less than ten feet away and closing. Asuka made a step and then another back, keenly aware that she could not turn, not while still fighting the leader. Asuka got ready to grab the other kid, maybe twenty pounds heavier than her, and slam him into the asphalt… head-first if she could.
Then her second attacker spasmed, stumbled, and fell to the ground, still twitching. Next thing she saw was Rei Ayanami now standing over the senseless body and dropping a used taser with her other opponent, stopping for the moment, unsure what to do next. Asuka did not hear Rei, but managed to read "You will NOT interfere!" from her lips before she dove back into her personal battle.
-x-
Shinji found himself pressing on the Hooligan No.4 along with Touji. Now having the numbers, they ran their enemy around the pavement. All the bully could do was to cover and deflect their strikes and occasionally try for a kick of his own.
To his surprise, Shinji felt NO inhibition whatsoever: every strike was done with the intent to hit, hit hard, and hurt that asshole who bullied Kensuke. He felt a rush of satisfaction when a kick connected with the older kid's calf and the bully made several steps back, ducking and cowering from Touji before regaining his bearings again.
Touji shot Shinji a grin and yelled, "Good one, Shin-Man! Do it again!" Despite the pains from his previous fight, but fuelled by an adrenaline rush, Shinji leapt forward to do just that.
-x-
Rei turned to face her last enemy. She gritted her teeth. Her pains were worse today because she had cut down her painkillers to one third dose. She knew she needed her senses as sharp as she could make them.
Then she saw it. The remaining bully reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of brass knuckles. He sneered at Rei and yelled, "You broke the rules, bitch: the gloves are off now!" He took two practice swings with the brass knuckles.
Rei did not know and did not care what "rules" she had broken. She took her school bag off the ground and looked at the bully with disdain.
"This fight only has one rule. Win!" she said and set off, focusing all her strength and weight on the corner of her computer that protruded out of the bag. Her aim was true.
Rei would have hit the enemy in the solar plexus and put them out of the fight, but their aim was true as well. In the last moment, Rei ducked rather than trade debilitating hits. She hissed with pain as she turned around, readying for another strike while taking in the bigger picture.
'Need to end this, and fast. Shinji and Touji are fine, but Asuka might get in trouble…' ran through her mind as she focused back on her target. She looked the bully over, focusing on his movements. This one was fast, second only to the goon Asuka was fighting…
Rei lunged in, feinting a strike against the shoulder, only to drop the bag and hit the bully in his chest with her left hand. They both took several involuntary steps back and short difficult breaths, but soon recovered.
'Broken ribs denied: try again,' thought Rei, and she went on with a series of fast directs using all her physical strength.
-x-
Asuka felt like a hot iron had slid over her upper arm. She instinctively struck back, getting in a good hit in her opponent's hip with the back of her palm. It gave her enough of a window to disengage safely.
The redhead cursed as a strand of her hair fell from her bun. She traded three steps back for fixing it and then dove in again, this time almost getting a good hit in the neck and scratching her opponent with her fingernails before cleanly ducking and weaving from the path of half a dozen retaliatory hits.
"Face it, you can't dodge forever!" exclaimed the goon when she pulled out of the way of yet another strike that had the power to send her to hospital was it to connect properly. Asuka wasted no energy on a smart reply. 'do not get hit and hit him hard!' she thought and saw that the goon was about to try and kick her in the hip.
Asuka waited a second, almost too long to avoid the kick and felt a rush of air. Asuka did not pay any mind to it. She had ONE mission, ONE thing to do. And she did it. Asuka slammed the heel of her palm into Onizuka's left knee, hard. She smiled when she heard the grunt of pain and saw that her enemy now favored the other leg.
That almost cost her a few teeth as the goon immediately tried to hit her face with a couple of powerful strikes. But keeping out of the way was slightly easier now. 'That's it. Slow that elephant down, Sohryu!' she thought and started circling around her opponent, forcing him to put more weight on the wrong leg.
Even the goon now stopped talking, focussing fully on fighting. Shame, Asuka would have preferred him wasting some more energy. She tried to strike the left leg at every opportunity she got now
-x-
Rei hissed with pain when she turned yet again to face her enemy and sacrificed a moment to observe him. She was yet to make any really good hits, but she felt she was beginning to have the upper hand.
Her hooligan just bared his teeth and attacked again. He swung high, so Rei tilted her head and upper torso and let the hit sail by harmlessly. Rei hit the guy in the nape. The goon took several involuntary steps back and held the place where Rei hit with his opposite hand.
'He must be in serious pain now: time to finish this!' Rei thought and recalled Asuka's words to her from when they left school: "Beaten up, not dead: got me, Wundergirl?!" She got Asuka just fine: she did not understand why it was that this wretch should survive, but Asuka had demanded it so Rei would oblige.
It made things harder than they needed to be, but Rei would manage. Rei noticed an opening and kicked the goon in the free hand, sending his brass knuckles flying and breaking at least two bones while she did so. The goon was momentarily stunned, watching the shiny piece of metal sailing by…
Rei was not going to waste time on such things. She drew her breath, ignored her pains, and went in for the kill… on second thought, make that incapacitation. A kick in the thigh sent her target reeling back. She took another step further and delivered, planting her shoe firmly between the legs of the goon, forcing him to his knees.
Now she was going to get in the good hits, the important hits, the hits that would make the guy question his bully ways…
-x-
Shinji took a nasty hit in the guts and keeled over, trying his hardest not to puke right then and right there. Out of a corner of blurred vision, he saw the goon preparing for a finishing blow that would send him to the ground. Shinji knew that Touji was not in a position to help this time. He could not get up and put up a guard in time either. He knew he should be scared, but realized this was not the case.
Shinji was pissed… So he did the only thing he could and slammed his skull into the stomach of his enemy. The goon grunted and stumbled. It was all Shinji could do as he himself stumbled out of reach to try to kick the goon's leg. It made him stumble for a crucial few seconds longer…
Then Touji hit him with all the grace and all the energy of a speeding steam engine and took the goon to the ground, hitting him two times in the guts with a knee.
The goon ceased fighting and tried to curl into the fetal position. Touji let go and snarled, "Stay down, that's your ONLY warning!" He waited till the goon nodded and went limp before getting on his feet, and still looking at the fallen goon, walked to Shinji and helped him to his feet as well.
"That… was fast!" remarked Shinji in between breaths. Touji nodded and smiled. He said, "Real fights always are once someone starts landing hard hits. Nobody can stand and take it as a Terminator." Shinji nodded and looked around. Kensuke was sitting on the pavement, still shaken, but he smiled at them and gave a thumbs-up.
Rei was standing impassively over something… Shinji was sure that no healthy elbow should be twisted at that angle. He looked away and at the last fight that was still going on.
-x-
Asuka stepped away from yet another bone-breaking kick: she could not believe what was happening 'I've hit him so many times, been working him over for more than ten minutes, so how the Hell is he still fighting?!' She already felt the pain from the number of glancing hits she took, and thanked herself for taking all those lessons.
Yet at the same time as she slammed yet another kick in, hitting Onizuka in the forearm and just in the nick of time, he deflected the retaliation… Asuka Sohryu was smiling.
Her enemy was bigger and stronger, yet SHE hurt him, SHE bled him; SHE was about to put him down…
Asuka saw Rei moving her way clearly over to engage as well. She shot Rei a look and shook her head before launching yet another offense. Spotting a convenient lamp, Asuka started hounding Onizuka to it, intent on slamming his head against the steel and thus ending the fight.
And she almost got him there… but in the end she was just a hair too slow on a jump. Next thing she knew, Asuka was sitting on her ass, pain throbbing through her and rolling out of the way as fast as she could, trying to get on her feet again…
As Asuka got up and turned to raise her hands to fight again, she noticed three things in quick succession: She was too slow, and this time she was going to get hit properly. However, the third thing was that Onizuka was bleeding from the forehead so it obscured his right side's vision. And that was the side from which the Jock Stooge slammed into him and sent him stumbling half a dozen steps away from Asuka.
She steadied herself on her feet and charged in. She would deal with owing one to Suzuhara and feeling grateful and pissed at once later. Three seconds later, she hit the goon over the head one last time. Thirty seconds later, yet another hit in the left leg sent him down. A minute after that, Asuka had her knee pressing the bully between the shoulder blades, twisting his hand and hissing, "Give me ONE good reason not to break your bones, asshole! But it'll have to be the best reason ever, because the word 'mercy' isn't in my vocabulary right now!"
-x-
Shinji looked at Asuka and her prey in silent amazement. 'All possible odds were stacked against her, except speed. And she made it look easy!' He made half a dozen wobbly steps towards Asuka, but Touji gestured him away for the moment. Shinji frowned momentarily before he realized why: Asuka's opponent might still have a fight left in him and Shinji was not fit to stand in another one.
He instead watched intently, realizing that now was not the time to distract Asuka with compliments. Rei moved towards the mook she previously electrocuted and checked their pulse. She did so in such a disinterested fashion that Shinji was reminded of her checking the garbage bin.
The goon got his head off the ground enough to speak, spat, and snarled: "Fuck you, bitch! If you do it, I'll get better, I'll get back and you pray you just piss blood for the next three months!" There was something downright scary in the way Asuka listened to his rant, as if it was the wisest thing ever said by a man…
Then, slowly, gracefully, she started dislocating the fingers on the arm she held, speaking in a sing-song way, one word per each finger: "That… was… a… bad… answer…"
Once the painful howling got back to the level of background noise, she said in the same tone: "So, are there any better reasons not to cripple your ass?" This time there was no threat, nor a smartass reply.
Shinji watched the scene as it unfolded, feeling physically ill. Yet he was not repulsed by Asuka: 'She is past caring what this does to her!' That made him mad again. There was no justification for NERV treating anyone like THAT, let alone Asuka.
Shinji looked around, and his heart sank a further notch. Touji had a hard expression on his face, while Rei's was her usual blank. He realized that neither of them thought what Asuka was about to do was at all wrong.
And Shinji understood them. He later reasoned he would happily forget if the asshole Asuka was threatening got hit by the train.
'But I can not, WILL NOT, let Asuka hurt herself even more!' With that, he forced himself to ignore the pain and took a steady step forward.
-x-
Asuka grinned from ear to ear. She got a better grip to break the wrist. She did her best to ignore the little voice that reminded her that she was no longer actually fighting the hooligan. 'This is justice: eye for eye, tooth for tooth!' she thought as she waited for the goon to speak.
He eventually spat out: "Huh, if you don't care for yourself, how about me and my pals introduce your girlfriend to some steel tu-"
He did not get to finish the threat, for Asuka snapped his wrist and leaned closer, saying: "Did I interrupt your concentration? Go on, but if you want to say what I think you want to say, then the next thing I'll snap will be your neck!"
She said so with no more intonation than if she had said she was off to buy some groceries, grabbing the goon by the hair as he continued to wail. Asuka let go of the now useless limb and flexed her free hand.
The goon went rigid with fear; she could see his pupils dilate as the asshole fully appreciated the seriousness of the situation. "You ARE crazy!" he murmured.
"...hurt yourself, Asuka, this Thing is not worth it!" Asuka realized someone was talking to her, but that was not important right now. What was important was to end the threat. And it was this simple: the possibility lay in front of her. 'I should get on with it!' she thought. 'What am I waiting for?!'
"You are a good person with flaws. Try to see yourself as one, please!" Asuka could not discern if she heard Shinji say it, or simply remembered it from the previous evening. It did not matter. Looking up, she saw Shinji standing almost next to her, his hand extended.
She looked at him. "He bloody meant it: he would kill you! Shinji, I don't think that it will hurt me to put him out!" she bared her teeth in defiance.
"I… I won't!" wailed the goon. Asuka stared at him with malice. "You won't what?"
He was shaking now. 'Good,' thought Asuka, and she waited for his answer.
After some more wailing, the goon spoke again: "I won't touch your boyfriend, bitch - are you happy?!" He stared at her, clearly scared to death.
Asuka was silent for a moment, then she snapped: "And who says that when I am not one move from killing you, you won't change your mind, huh?"
To her surprise, it was Touji who answered. "We do, Red! Anyone want to hurt Shinji? They go through us, through NERV security, through Major Katsuragi… or more precisely, we go through them!"
Rei gave a short but empathetic nod and looked at Asuka. "I understand that if we are to fight this enemy again, there will be no restraints on me?"
Asuka nodded back. She looked at the goon, then at Shinji, then back. "Next time we fight, you die, understand?" She got up, taking in her opponent's nod. She threw an arm over Shinji's shoulder and leaned against him as the adrenaline wore off and the pain came. She caught Shinji smiling at her and grinned back through the pain.
Now that her anger abated somewhat, she realized that Shinji was right: she did not need another millstone on her conscience, and killing a downed enemy might have been just that…
None of the goons tried to move as the quintet set about retrieving their baggage. Kensuke, after trying to walk on his own, accepted Touji's help. Just before they set off, Asuka found Rei looking at her with… admiration? She thought about it for a moment. Eventually unable to decipher the bluenette, she asked, "What is it, Rei?"
"Your style of fighting, Asuka. It is very elegant. I was not taught to fight with grace. You were most impressive." Despite the visible pain, Rei bowed. Asuka felt taken aback. She supposed her form of Karate could be seen as such…
She nodded back. "Yours is more efficient, though. I would not want to face you."
Rei gave her one of her radiant smiles and said, "You will never have to, Asuka."
