+++++ Ritsuko's Lab. (Sunday + 1)

Back in the main lab, Maya was working in perfect unison with Ritsuko to get everything ready. "Seven and a half or eight?"

"Eight. He's deceptively large." Ritsuko noted the door opening, noted who entered, and continued to ignore anything not standing right next to her. "Might need to stretch to accommodate, and sliding could be a bit of an issue at first."

"Are you sure? He doesn't seem that big."

"I'm positive. He's not the kind of man to just throw himself out there. Eight."

Kyoko Zeppelin frowned, eyeing the daughter of her friend with a hint of disapproval. "Ritsuko, dear, what are you doing?"

Looking up at the woman that had taken the responsibility of detailing human sexuality to her at one point in her life, Ritsuko continued to have a little fun with her wordplay. "Explaining to a lifelong lesbian the intricacies of accepting a man inside of her."

"You- No- I- WHAT?!" Maya fumbled the sutures that she'd been getting organized.

With a heavy sigh, Kyoko shook her head. She adored Ritsuko, precisely for her ability to retain her calm in situations where calm was the only thing preventing chaos. "Play nice, dear."

"I-I-I was talking about the sutures, senpai! Besides," blushing a deep red and working to recover what she'd fumbled, she stated scientifically, "eight centimeters isn't more than average."

"I was using imperial measurements. He's at least eight inches," Ritsuko held her hands out at an appropriate distance. "At least." Turning her attention to the newcomer, finally, she let Maya sputter and flail. "What are you doing in my lab, auntie dear?"

It wasn't that Kyoko was unamused with the banter, really, more that she was genuinely concerned about the topic of said banter. "Your mother is helping the Commander gather intel on what happened in Nagano. I am, as you know, angry with the Commander that she did not allow Naoko or I to raise Shinji since she had so much piled on her plate with the death of Gendo. I did not feel like becoming angrier at a moment when that anger would be unproductive. So I came here to lend a hand to my favorite student."

"Fair enough."

"Eight inches isn't really that big either," Maya muttered to herself. "I mean…it's not like it's a meter long."

Ritsuko leaned over, stage-whispering, "If it's eight inches unerect, it's going to be bigger when it becomes erect."

"I'M GOING TO GO CHECK ON THEIR PROGRESS!" Storming off, blushing from toes to nose, Maya made an effort to retain some scrap of dignity.

The byplay was both amusing and relaxing to Kyoko. If her student was this calm, and making jokes, chances were good that they weren't about to lose the last pilot, and man, on Earth. When the door to the washroom opened and closed, she switched to professorial mode. "Analysis?"

"Face displayed no signs of asymmetry. Blood flow was regular, proven by healthy, if pale, coloration. His eyes were active, looking around and trying to ascertain a method of communication. I'm thinking that he's suffering from sudden aphasia or simply a bad reaction to being dunked in LCL." Ritsuko shrugged, setting the last tool in place and preparing to wait for her patient. "I'm hoping that it wasn't a bad reaction to being connected to the Evangelion. Our test pilot, may she rest in peace, was a woman. There may be something on either a parapsychological level, or even just a genetic level, that creates a unique challenge for someone like Shinji. We'll need to analyze the data, and I need to test his cognitive and reflex functions, before we know for sure."

"Mmm. B plus." Kyoko tapped her own neck. "You are forgetting the potential that whatever is in his spine is creating a resonance within the cockpit."

"The CT showed it was inert. The seat in the cockpit has not only greater density but a larger impact on resonance."

"The seat is also not sentient. Can you say as much about that implant?"

Ritsuko bit her lower lip in thought. "Silicon-based life?"

"Alien antenna? There are too many possibilities, my dear. I realize that the temptation remains to look first to Occam for answers, and to insist that logic must be capable of solving every dilemma, but do not blind yourself to the ephemeral. We've proven it exists, even if we can't quantify it."

"Voodoo bullshit is still voodoo bullshit," Ritsuko snorted. "Just because we haven't quantified it yet doesn't mean it is not able to be quantified." The washroom door opened again, this time with Maya leading the women carrying Shinji towards the bed. "Ok, ladies. We need to transfer him to the table, and then carefully flip him over."

When Maya still appeared to have a pinkish hue, Kyoko motioned for her to go over towards the monitoring equipment. "I will assist Frau Doktor Akagi, dear. Please make certain that the data recorders are all operating properly."

Misato saw Maya hesitate and pushed her gently to get her moving. "The Sub-Commander knows which end of the scalpel she's supposed to be holding, Lieutenant." With one woman in motion, she turned to the engineering staff that had managed to get Shinji in position. "Sergeant, please make sure that the plug for -01 is scrubbed completely. The four of us can muscle him into position here, and if we have to send him up soon I'd rather be certain that his equipment isn't going to cause him trouble again."

The engineer nodded, then hesitated long enough to crouch down and look Shinji eye-to-eye. "When you're up and healthy, I'll apologize again, ok? Just give me the chance to do so, ok?" Patting his cheek, she stood tall and took charge of her cohort. "Ok, ladies, we've got a day's work ahead of us and an hour to get it done. Pilot Ikari needs his gear ready to go, and Engineering isn't going to fail him, yes?" Receiving an enthusiastic response, she marched her team out the door before setting them to hustling back towards the Eva.

"We're going to start with a basic cognition test, nothing formal." Ritsuko was not wasting any time, as she had plans to perform actual science now that she felt more confident that what was happening was not irreparable. Crouching down so that she drew Shinji's attention, his forehead resting on a soft cradle, and his face exposed via a hole in the table tailor made for the purpose, she slipped her fingers into his hand. "Hi."

Shinji was able to look her in the eyes, and his hand reflexively gripped her fingers when she pressed. "Plrxw."

"I'd like you to squeeze my hand if you understand me." She felt the pressure increase on her fingers. "Ok, good. Twice for yes, once for no. Do you know that you're not making any sense when you speak?" Two squeezes. "Figured as much. Would you agree that your eyes are blue?" Two more squeezes. "That today is Sunday?" Two squeezes. "That Misato has one hell of a rack?" A spasm instead of a steady squeeze.

Misato barked out, "Rits!"

"That was diagnostic, dear," Kyoko stated with a hint of reproach. "Anyone with functioning eyes knows your secondary feminine attributes are quite charming. Getting him used to answering in the affirmative, then hitting him with a question that forces him to respond in a more controlled or vague manner allows us to determine his level of cognitive function."

Winking at Shinji, then standing back up, Ritsuko eyed Misato. "If he had simply responded with another 'yes', I would have been far more worried. Even a surface level analysis of his social profile would tell someone that he's not the type of man to be able to handle that question with just a yes or no." Focusing her attention on the miniaturized entry plug attached to the back of his neck, she ran her fingers lightly over the surface. "Say something if you feel me touching this."

"Lbqfx," Shinji replied calmly.

"Hmm. Interesting." She removed her fingers, crossing her arms and looking down at the protrusion with a scowl.

"I realize I'm stupid, but I'm not quite following why we're not doing more to make it so he can speak." Misato walked over to Shinji, sitting down on the floor and looking up at his face with a weak grin. "What makes you so sure that thing is causing this?"

Kyoko took a turn, reaching out and wrapping her hand around the metal tube. "Can you feel this, dear?"

Misato watched as Shinji became more placid, the worry he seemed to carry around with himself like a miasma vanishing to be replaced by a look that almost came across as physical pleasure. "I'd say he feels it."

"Smooth to the touch, wouldn't you say?" Kyoko looked across Shinji's body to Ritsuko. "This wasn't machined. We could reproduce something with a similar texture, to be certain," her hand slowly pumped up and down, displaying the anti-friction properties of the metal tube, "but not something that prevents proper grip."

"Uhm, doc?" The look on Shinji's face was one that Misato had seen more than a few times in her life. Embarrassment and joy twining together in a man as she demonstrated the skills she'd discovered, though far more of the first as Shinji clearly had no idea what was going on. "Whatever you're doing, you might want to be careful."

Ritsuko noted the skin around the tube starting to flex oddly. "No, no, keep going. Something's happening at the base." When Kyoko's hand stopped moving, she frowned. "What?"

"Does it happen just because I'm touching it, or does it happen when anyone touches it. Objectivity, dear. Remember to ask questions even as you're receiving answers." Removing her grasp of the metal, and gesturing for Ritsuko to try, Kyoko made it clear that the experiment would be done properly the first time.

"Yes, yes." Wrapping her own hand around the metal tube, she leaned in to see if the flesh was moving, and saw hints of motion but not to the prior extent. Placing her thumb at the top, she began to slowly slide the pad of her digit in a small, smooth, circle. At that, Shinji's skin began moving with greater animation. "Is this…doing what I think it's doing?"

Kyoko checked under Shinji's torso, then shrugged and looked back to Ritsuko. "He's flaccid."

"He's flushed," Misato corrected. "Rits, whatever you're doing I think it's probably best if you stop."

"His psychograph is…happy." Maya had been debating saying anything until the experiment was done, and was inwardly glad that Misato had spoken up instead. "I don't know if he understands what that means, considering the confusion I can see in his face."

"Is this happy?" Just as surprised as everyone else that he'd managed to speak comprehensible words, Shinji went to move his arms and was restrained by both Kyoko and Ritsuko. "W-what?"

"Syncope is one of the least worrisome things that might happen, dear." Kyoko kept an eye on his face as she and Ritsuko helped him shift to a seated position. "And you are both a handsome and well-built young man. Even if we managed to try and catch you, it isn't likely that any of us could do more than add to the chaos as you risked falling to the ground."

"O-oh." With his legs dangling off the side of the table, and Kyoko watching his eyes and face carefully, Shinji nodded slowly to show understanding. "I'm…I'm me."

Misato moved over to stand near Kyoko where he could see her. "Yes, that's usually how it works." She kept her tone light, though despite it being in the form of a question her words formed a rather firm order. "Could we get him a sheet to cover over with, please?"

His hands snapped together to cover his manhood, his body curling inwards. "I-I'm sorry."

"There's no reason to be, dear." Kyoko's smile remained on him, and she matched Misato tit for tat. "Thank you for your help, Captain. Please go ensure that recovery operations are proceeding on pace." When Misato hesitated for a moment, Kyoko turned her smile towards the junior ranking officer. A smile that had gone much less warm and inviting.

Despite wanting to protest, Misato recognized that she was being ordered by her superior officer to find somewhere else to be. "Yes ma'am." Cupping her hand over Shinji's shoulder, she risked further reprimand, "Come find me later. I'd love to spend some time getting to know the man I'll be working with."

Shinji nodded twice, answering without making a firm commitment. Shivering slightly when Misato's touch was gone, and tensing up when he felt Kyoko smooth her hands over his pectorals, he waited for the door to open and close before speaking again. "G-German?"

Moving her hands to his jaw, she lifted his face up to inspect his eyes again. "Ja. Mein Vater kam aus Wiesbaden. Du sprichst Deutsch?"

"Ein wenig. Mein Lehrer bestand darauf dass ich lerne." He was becoming slightly uncomfortable with her insistence on eye contact. "You…uhm, you look Japanese though."

"I favor my mother, and your accent is interesting. A strange mix of Hessian and Berliner." Tilting her head to the side, she asked bluntly, "Why aren't you embarrassed about being naked until someone mentions it?"

His gaze dropped, and she allowed his head to follow suit. "Deutsch...war nicht alles was sie darauf bestand…dass ich lerne." He pushed himself off the table, standing on his own and moving over to a nearby whiteboard that had mathematical shorthand written on it. "Mein Körper gehört mir nicht." He couldn't leave the room, not until he knew how to get out of the building. He had no interest in discussing his past. The simplicity of the language of mathematics gave him something to occupy his mind with, to leave his past where it belonged.

"Maya, dear, I'm going to write out a series of prescriptions. Nothing that should interfere with the synchronization tests, of course." Kyoko accepted the boundaries he'd just set down, and moved to engage a temporary solution while she figured out how many people would be required to present themselves for her wrath.

Ritsuko, satisfied that someone as intelligent as she was now had eyes on the same problem, instead moved over to buttress Shinji in her own way. If he didn't care about being naked, she didn't care either. It was his body, and as far as she could see there was no reason for him to be ashamed of it. Looking at her own shorthand, she determined where he was likely stuck and was about to explain the logical step she'd taken that had changed her attempt at a proof when he pre-empted her.

Shinji's voice was quiet, his tone grave, "Ritsuko-san…can I trust you?"

"I'd like to think so." Settling her hands in the pockets of her lab coat, she shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I'm not going to lie to you and say that I won't intervene if something terrible is about to happen, but if you need me to help you think through something I know how to keep my mouth shut."

"…Unit-01 isn't a machine…is it?" His eyes drifted over towards her, seeing his answer in the way her face had frozen stiff. "It's alive. There's…there's a living being, beneath the carapace. Beneath the restraints."

"That is exceptionally classified information. I won't insist…but can you tell me who told you?"

"Unit-01." He returned to his inspection of her math board. "When I…we…when the colors connected…." Reaching down, he picked up a dry erase marker, making a few small annotations in the tiny amount of white space available. "You have a rounding error there, I think."

"What did Unit-01 tell you?"

"Nothing. Everything." He looked at her again. "I need you to imagine that you've never seen the color red. Ok?" She nodded, and he continued. "You're inside a box. The box is all you've known. Someone outside of the box gives you little…cards. On each card is a word. Those cards are how you learned to speak, to read, to tell one thing from another. When you finally reach the concept of colors, each of the cards has the word written in the color that it says. Blue is blue. Green is green. Yellow is yellow." He paused, fidgeting with the pen as he made sure he was making any sort of sense. "But the word red…is written in ultraviolet. You can see ultraviolet. You don't know that it's called ultraviolet, but you know it from your own experience as a color. From that point on, you're taught that red equals ultraviolet. Yellow bleeds to orange bleeds to ultraviolet. Then everything bleeds back into blue, and the spectrum starts all over again. An enormous circle of light around…nothing." Rolling the pen in his hands, he made it disappear. "Then, you're out of the box. You're walking around, you're seeing the outside world for the first time, and you come to a stoplight. Green, yellow, and something you've never seen. But the instructions on the crosswalk tell you that you need to cross the street only when the lights for the street perpendicular to you…are red. The color that is not green, and is not yellow, must by default be 'red'. It literally cannot be anything else if everyone around you are sane, rational, actors. They're crossing when this color that is called red, but isn't red by what you've grown up learning, lights up." He reached over, slowly to not appear hostile, and 'pulled' the pen he'd made disappear out from behind her ear. "Unit-01 showed me red."

Ritsuko processed what she'd just been told. She could recognize the various philosophical and theoretical fixtures that he'd used to make his point, the combination of Yui Ikari's brilliance and what she had read of Gendo Rokubungi's intellect working together to make their son a natural logician. He'd uncovered something, and it was not something that he could describe. He'd inferred enough about it, in the way he had available, but she was asking him to try and explain color to a blind man. She hadn't seen what he had, and so she couldn't see what he was seeing. "I did have a rounding error there." She was going to love spending time with him. "Could I ask you to not spread around that Unit-01 is a living entity? At least not until some sort of official announcement?"

"I doubt sincerely anyone would believe me." Setting the pen down on the board's tray, he nodded. "But I'll keep my mouth shut…as long as I can trust you."

"Absolutely." Ritsuko turned, looking over to where Kyoko and Maya were debating specific drugs. "Auntie Kyoko, I'm going to get Shinji some scrubs to wear while we figure out how to clothe him, and then he and I are going to go grab something to eat and then head back to my temp room in the barracks quarter."

Kyoko looked back over towards the two youths that, in her opinion, should have been raised in the same vicinity as one another. Naoko's daughter ought to have babysat for Shinji, or acted as a big sister to him. He ought to have had the protection of someone with as much charisma and wit as Ritsuko. What she saw, when she looked over in the world they occupied, was a potential power couple that could accomplish miracles. "I'll have the medications delivered, dear. Please monitor him for a while after he takes them for any side effects."

+++++ Commander's Office. (Sunday + 1)

"Yes, Principal Hashiba. I understand that, and appreciate the gravity of the situation." Yui made another note on her list of things to do. "However, if we suspend school we are going to have an entire school's worth of students with nothing to do for half the day five days of the week. NERV has made, and will continue to make, donations to your school specifically to ensure that our employees can have faith that their children will be appropriately cared for. It would be…unfortunate, if I had to divert those donations to set up a rival institution in the GeoFront."

Naoko could hear the Principal backtracking rapidly. Making her own notes, she began to cross-reference possible issues Shinji might face being the only boy in a school that was now exclusively female. She'd make subtle inquiries with the right teachers, have them encourage the right students to speak with him. Biting down on the cap of her pen, she stifled a giggle. If she played her cards right, she could set Shinji up with a lovely little group of ladies that would keep him from dwelling on the past while helping her set up a brighter future for them all.

"I agree, it's wonderful to see everyone responding so calmly during this obvious time of crisis. I promise that we are keeping an unwavering eye on the situation, and are setting up a special evacuation route to bring every student here to the GeoFront to shelter in our most secure bunker. After all, if that enormous monster reappears, there will be no place safer for Japan's future than here." Yui's face never matched her tone of voice, as it tended not to when she wasn't speaking face to face with someone. Cold, stern, and austere, her physical beauty was often considered marred by her inability to do anything but display fake emotional responses. "Thank you, and do not hesitate to reach out to me if he has a difficult time adjusting. Yes…goodbye."

"Nicely handled." She wouldn't harp on her friend, it wouldn't accomplish anything positive. "I've come up with a list of teachers that I'll recommend strongly be reassigned to the class he ends up in. I've also got a list of students that are more likely to end up as Pilots than others." She offered her notepad, secure in the knowledge that Yui wouldn't take it, "If you want to read them?"

"No. I trust your opinion on personnel issues." Flipping back a few pages in her own notes, Yui tapped her pen nib against the page. "When do you think would be appropriate to ask him to have dinner with me?"

"I would wait a few days. Speak with him here, during or after tests with either Kyoko or I present. Ease him into the truth of the situation, that you were lied to by someone you thought you could trust. Show him the fake cards, fake pictures, and fake stories. He's angry, and he'll continue to be angry, but I don't think he's the type of man to hold a grudge." Unlike you.

She nodded, pulling out her phone and checking her calendar. "We'll use the executive meeting room, have a brief meeting tomorrow after he comes back from school. What do you think about assigning Lieutenant Ibuki as his EA?"

Humming internally with glee, Naoko feigned ignorance, "Why would he need an Executive Assistant?"

"Asking him to manage his own schedule, in addition to everything else he'll have to do, would only overwhelm him. He's just been let loose from a mockery of life, and I will not break him by asking him to suddenly manage school, work, and a social life all at once. Lieutenant Ibuki is close to him in age, has a solid track record of accomplishing her projects ahead of time, and has earned the approval of your daughter as a protégé. If the two of them become close, I would not mind having her as a daughter-in-law."

Yeah, no. We have bigger plans for your son than a nice, simple, marriage to a nice, simple, woman. "Mmm, I will give it some thought and get back to you. It's not that I don't approve of Lieutenant Ibuki, but I'd also rather not stifle her growth. As you said, my daughter enjoys her assistance, and taking her off of Ritsuko-chan's projects would slow us down even further."

Yui nodded, still not looking over to Naoko. "Acceptable. Please have a list of potential replacements, for either the position as his EA or as Ritsuko's assistant, on my desk first thing tomorrow." Closing her notepad, she stood up from her desk. "I am going to go meet with the Prime Minister, and receive updates on our military posture." Walking towards the door, she slowed down just before reaching it. "If…Shinji asks, please make certain he has my phone number."

Ha ha, NO."Of course, Yui. I'll make sure the option's available."

+++++ Author's Notes.

My stories tend to be filled with women because NGE is filled with women. My first story, You Are (Not) Complete, had a number of men that had a great impact on The Wanderer's life. Philip Benoit, Gendo, Kozo, Toshiro Horaki, Gen and Suzuki, Thor and the others in The Damned, the list continues. My second story, There Is (No) Hope, had much fewer men because there were honestly increasingly fewer people. It was a bleak story intended to create a bleak character. The reason for this story starting out the way it has is yet to be revealed, and is not due to any actual misandry on my part.

The number of male influences in Shinji's life in NGE canon is low. Kozo yells at him, once. Gendo undermines him constantly. Kaji makes an effort, a few times, to be a role model for a young man that he knows is doomed. Kensuke and Toji 'befriend him', for certain values of friendship. By and large, the story is about a young man's interactions with a conga line of women that all have their own lives going on at the same time, with robots fighting kaiju. His entire life is shaped by the influences those women that have been a part of it create. My stories reflect that, and are about how changing certain factors in Shinji's life will create an entirely new character each time. I could, and may, write a story about brotherhood. About rivalry. About hatred. I could, and may, not.

Who I choose to add, and subtract, is largely based around how they would impact the greater story at large. Certain Eva characters are simply too strong to use simply because they would become the story entirely. Others are simply too boring, or too pointless. Flatly, I am not Anno-sensei. He managed to make each character in NGE have a purpose and a point. He managed to have Kensuke provide more than just a person for otaku or mil-sim folks to latch onto. But that character doesn't fit in my stories, and so I either write them out or just never include them from the start. If you're here for Kensuke or Toji, I'd love to point you to any number of other authors who have written superlative works involving those two. Read those stories, let those authors know that you love their work, or use your own creativity and give them a new life the way I've tried to with Shinji. There's no wrong way to tell a good NGE story, I'm sure you can find yours.