MARCH 19th, 2015

TOWN OF YUSUHARA

8:30am:

*BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP*

He awoke from his sleep, eyes opening slowly as they glanced around his still-dark room. Shinji reached over to his digital alarm clock and shut it off, resuming his previous position in bed. He often took his time before actually getting up from bed, especially when he was feeling down. Sleeping was another of favorite parts of the day. He'd lay there for hours, mind completely shut off, just resting peacefully. But as soon as he was up again, the sadness came back to him.

And then it hit him again; today was the day.

'I'm... going off to war.' Shinji said in his head, trying to make some sense of it. 'This is really happening.'

He'd already packed his luggage the day before. He didn't have much to take other than spare clothes and other necessary belongings. The only personal item he was bringing with him that wasn't very important was his S-DAT, which he was planning to use on the trip to the big city.

Shinji slowly rose from bed, feeling his bed's mattress one last time before standing. He was going to leave the one place he felt the most safe from the world in.

It was like he thought he surely wouldn't make it back home alive. Shinji was deathly afraid of what he'd encounter out there. He'd seen veterans of the war about a year or two older than him after they returned from what was beginning to be dubbed 'the Angel War'. None of the survivors ever came back the same, it seemed.

That made him wonder which would be the worse outcome; to die in the battlefield, or come back a deeply damaged soul?

He left his room to go fix himself some breakfast. While his aunt and uncle always had the classic cereal and milk to start their day off, Shinji preferred making himself something from scratch. Sometimes, he'd go the extra mile and prepared a full-on mouth-watering breakfast. But today was no such day for that kind of luxury. He wanted to get things over with as soon as possible.

As he entered the living room, his caretakers ate their breakfast silently on the dinner table.

"Morning." Shinji said to them flatly.

His aunt acknowledged his greeting and said hi back, while his uncle just nodded.

Shinji went straight to the kitchen and looked around for what he could prepare himself today. He decided a simple egg and toast meal would suffice, as he didn't have the energy to make his usual meals that morning.

As the toasts heated up, he cracked open an egg and poured its inside contents onto a frying pan. Shinji found that he must've done it incorrectly, because the yolk broke and the yellow was drained from it. But for a few seconds, he did nothing as he watched the yellow spread onto the soon-to-be egg white.

He then observed the second egg he was about to crack open under the kitchen light, revealing the silhouette of the undisturbed yolk.

The inside of the unfertilized egg was probably the peak of comfort, he imagined. Just a tiny enclosed space, floating in a dense goo. There wasn't even an unborn animal in there, just a mushy substance in complete solitude. One that could grow to be a living, breathing, conscious organism had it actually been fertilized. But nothing would ever come of it. No creature was going to be born from this egg, and so there would be no suffering.

He then cracked open the egg.

12:01pm:

A vehicle was heard pulling up not too far from their door. This was likely Shinji's escort, as they had scheduled to appear at noon that day. His belongings were already packed, all of which were stuffed in a single briefcase. Shinji didn't really have much he thought was worth taking, and sat on the couch waiting to hear a knock on the door.

His aunt and uncle were off somewhere else in the house preoccupied with their own lives. Shinji wasn't expecting any kind of warmth from either of them, even in a troubling moment for him like this.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

'That's probably them.' He thought anxiously. 'I guess this is it.'

Shinji stood up defeatedly and went to open the door himself. Just as he did, this barely got the attention of both his caretakers. They walked over as well to say their goodbyes for now, but still stood a good distance from Shinji. The boy himself was a little nervous knowing these were NERV officials.

Immediately after opening the door, however, he hadn't expected to see who he was staring at just now; a fairly beautiful woman in uniform.

"Um..." Shinji let out, a little confused by the sight.

Looking behind her, he noticed two men also clad in military uniforms. Both wore sunglasses and looked very big and very strong. It was obvious that these men were her guards, and the woman herself was the NERV official sent to pick him up.

"Hi there, are you Shinji Ikari?" The woman asked with a smile, Shinji having nodded in response. "Well it's nice to meet you! I'm Misato Katsuragi, I rank as a Major and operations director for NERV."

Shinji had heard a lot about NERV from different sources; teachers from his school who served there before being discharged, a few unlucky veterans telling horrid tales of war, and most recently activists on the news trying to spread their anti-NERV sentiment. Everything he heard echoed the same description, that NERV was filled to the brim with ruthless men and women ready to send anyone to their death without any sense of remorse.

So a woman smiling at him was the last thing he'd expected to see that morning. It was also probably the last thing he'd wanted to see at all.

'What's she smiling about?' He thought angrily to himself.

"As you can probably already tell, we'll be your escorts this afternoon. Though before we leave, I just need to make sure you've got everything." The woman told him. "In the week preceding the arrival of your draft card, you should've also gotten your temporary NERV approval card."

"Yes." He replied unenthusiastically.

"And your introduction brochure? Did you have a chance to read up on that?"

Shinji nodded.

"Great! We should be on our way soon enough. But first, you can have a little more time with your family. Standard escort procedures allow a new recruit to spend an extra 30 minutes to say your goodbyes. We'll be waiting outside." She informed him.

Shinji looked back at his aunt and uncle, who just stood there idly watching.

'Family...' He thought.

He then waved goodbye to them as they did the same, and turned back around to the NERV officials.

"There's really no need to wait. We can just get going already." Shinji said, much to the Major's surprise.

"Oh- are you sure?"

"Yeah. It's no big deal. The sooner we get this part of the day over with, the better." He explained.

The woman's smile had noticeably faded by now.

"Alright then..."

Shinji grabbed his briefcase, checked his pockets for a certain item one more time, and stepped out of his doorway. Misato noticed a slight hesitation as he did so but didn't want to mention it. By now she could infer that there was no real closeness between Shinji and his caretakers. However, it still looked like he wasn't ready to leave just yet, or that he just didn't want to.

Minutes after having met this boy, she could already tell he was plagued by complicated emotions.

'What a heavy atmosphere.' She mused. 'But I guess it makes sense... even his father didn't show much concern when discussing bring his own son into the field.'

Misato knew full-well that this kid was directly related to the infamous Commander Ikari. So she had already expected some kind of disconnect between the boy and familial bonds since she knew Gendo to be quite the distant figure. But what she didn't know was how this didn't just apply to family, it seemed to apply to just about everyone.

She could see that there was no attempt from Shinji's end to kindly socialize with any of the people who were sent to pick him up.

The door behind him closed, and the one place he found comfort in the world was effectively cut off from his access. It was time to make his way up north to Tokyo-3, a city known to be one of the bleakest parts of modern-day Japan. And as usual, these things just happened to him. And he was going to go through with it regardless.

As the four walked down to the curb, Shinji looked forward and saw a vehicle marked with the red NERV logo. Actually looking at the vehicle itself, though he dreaded knowing it was what would take him to the city, was actually pretty impressive to a longtime resident of Yusuhara.

"Is that... a Spinner?" He asked.

Spinners were the most modern equivalent of the automobile; the only difference being that it could fly and travel longer distances in a shorter amount of time. It was also completely electric. Shinji had occasionally seen one fly overhead, as these vehicles were a lot more prevalent in Tokyo-3 and the more militaristic parts of Japan.

"Yeah. Never seen one up-close before?" Asked Katsuragi, to which Shinji shook his head to.

"Only from the distance. We don't see them very often here."

Shinji observed the half road vehicle, half aircraft and was able to see its details a lot better now that there was one right in front of him. Much to his surprise, the vehicle only had three wheels unlike the standard automobile. Its two main wheels were upfront, and also housed the engines it utilized for flight. The third wheel was right behind and centered. It was also the vehicle's largest wheel. The windows were also reinforced, should a Spinner enter a combat situation.

*PSSSHH*

The doors were opened and the pilots guided Shinji and Misato to the backseats.

This model of Spinner was also a little more spacious than the interior of a normal car. Shinji had never flown before, so this was a bit of a relief. He knew how uncomfortable airplane cabins were, as sometimes his uncle would come back from a business trip complaining of the crowded interior.

As soon as the two were properly seated and their seat belts were secured, Katsuragi noticed Shinji reaching into his pocket for something before stopping himself.

"Mind if I listen to my music?" He asked her.

"Oh, not at all. Go right ahead." She answered.

But for some reason, Shinji seemed to hesitate just a little.

"I don't mean to be rude or anything... if you'd preferred that I didn't you can just tell me." He added.

"Don't worry about that! It's fine, really." She assured him in a peppy fashion.

Although she didn't have any problem with it, she did feel like it was a little inconsiderate of him to space out in his own little world when there were others in the ride with him. But she decided to relax about it, since she figured there was a lot going through the boy's head. The Spinner's road engine started and they made their way down the street.

Eventually, almost 10 minutes had passed and they were still not in the air. Shinji removed a single earbud and turned back to Misato.

"I thought we were going to fly there? Tokyo-3's pretty far from here... won't this way take much longer?"

"Well, it's illegal for a Spinner to just take off from the road unless it's an absolute emergency. That's why cities have take-off pads made specifically for this kind of aircraft. It's a legal requirement." She explained.

"Oh, okay."

He placed his earbud back in and went quiet again.

Another few minutes went by, and Shinji's transport was finally arriving at the take-off pad. He had never been in a Spinner, let alone knew anyone that had. There was a great sense of anticipation in him. Misato looked over at Shinji and noticed his face was basically glued to the windshield. She had a good chuckle at that. All the while, she and the two pilots had done this loads of times already. To them this was just another day on the job.

She thought of maybe striking up a conversation about this to him, and how something that was extremely routine to her was a completely new experience to him. But upon seeing that he still had his earbuds on and had already decided not to bother socializing with any of them, she quickly put that idea aside.

'He's got a real dark aura to him.' Misato thought. 'Kind of like his father. But this is different, there's a certain... vulnerability that his father just doesn't radiate like he does.'

And for just a few seconds, she caught a glimpse from the past.

She sighed just as the Spinner centered itself on the take-off pad. the co-pilot pulled some switches on his side, and the road engine shut off completely. Replacing it, was a much louder and much different sound, something reminiscent of one of those old sci-fi movies Shinji would sometimes see on TV.

*FWOOOOP*

A charge up-type sound resonated through the interior of the Spinner and the low hum of the flight engines produced a controlled rumble. Even though he was feeling depressed about being drafted, Shinji felt a little sense of excitement as he waited for the Spinner to take flight.

"Wooow..." He said under his breath.

Finally, he saw the ground get further beneath the vehicle. They were off.

Dust was kicked upwards and outwards from under the spinner, and they inched forward as they began to pick up speed. In just a few seconds, his hometown of Yusuhara was nothing but a miniature model of a town, the cars the size of ants, and people were barely even visible anymore.

For a second, Shinji was completely lost in the view the spinner gave him from such an altitude. His music helped too, as he couldn't hear the confusing talk relating to coordinates and flight talk the pilots were relaying to air traffic control. He just couldn't take his face off the window.

Though Misato did feel a little disrespected sitting in the back with someone who was barely acknowledging her, the silence would do for now. She figured he really needed it and thought it would be best to just leave him be to collect his thoughts on the whole thing. She couldn't begin to imagine how she'd react to being sent out to battle at such a young age.

'In the end, this is one of the hardest parts of the job. Meeting such young people that might just get killed out there.'

1:49pm:

"We're approaching Tokyo-3 airspace, prepare for landing." The main pilot of the Spinner said to Misato and Shinji.

The former acknowledged his statement, while the latter was still completely spaced out while tuning out to his music. Misato reached over and tapped his shoulder, once again catching his attention.

"Hey- we're just about 15 minutes away from our destination. Better put that away for now so we clear out of this vehicle as quick as possible." She suggested.

Shinji silently nodded as he now removed both earbuds and stuffed his S-DAT into his pocket once more. At this point, although he did just as he was told, she could tell he was reluctant to put it away and wasn't too happy that she told him to do that. Misato was partly irritated by this subtle display of attitude, but decided not to think about it yet again.

'Teenagers sure are a lot of work.' She mused.

Shinji noticed just how bleak the climate up in the Hakone region looked. Whereas the rest of Japan - including his hometown of Yusuhara - was mostly sunny and surrounded by the never-ending summer heat of modern Japan, the Tokyo-3 area was covered in heavy overcast and fog. Barely anything in front of or around the Spinner was visible. At this point the pilots could only rely on the Spinner's navigation system to get around without trouble.

Then suddenly, in the distance amidst the gray skies of Hakone, the silhouettes of the large and monstrous towers of the city finally showed themselves.

"I think I see it." Said Shinji unexpectedly.

Finally, he was one to actually start some kind of conversation instead of the occasional question Misato had gotten from him throughout the entire ride. It wasn't really much, but at least it proved that he could initiate some kind of socialization.

"The Tokyo-3 skyline?"

"I think so. But I still can't see much in this weather. You think these clouds will clear up by tomorrow?" He asked.

Misato chuckled slightly.

"That's not exactly how it works up here anymore... not since the climate shift. Because of weather currents and Hakone's geography, these clouds are just kind of trapped in the mainland for most of the year. It's why it rains almost everyday here." Misato explained.

Shinji grimaced upon hearing this.

"Well that's just downright depressing." He stated. "Though it might be a welcome change... compared to that endless summer heat I was always walking through to get to school, I guess I could take in some fresher air. I mean that heat is just intensely exhausting."

Misato, though always the one to dislike being the bearer of bad news, chuckled again.

"Hate to break it to you, but the heat isn't going away anytime soon. This is an everyday tropical rainstorm we're talking about. And it's not like the raindrops themselves would refresh you either, since the sky is full of pollutants. A few drops won't hurt, but get too soaked with that stuff and you'll get rashes."

She heard a mild groan coming from Shinji's direction.

'The bad news just never end with this place... do they?' He thought.

"Oh by the way-" Misato began, knowing what she was bringing up would a bit of a touchy subject for Shinji. "-as soon as we enter NERV HQ, you have a special summons. Apparently it's of the utmost importance. I wasn't briefed on what this summons is about, all I know is that it's important."

His expression had somehow gone flatter than before, Misato noticed. Flatter than it had already been.

"A summons..."

Misato's expression had also flattened now. It seemed he already knew who it was he was going to meet, and already anticipated it was going to be an unpleasant experience.

"It's from my father isn't it?" Shinji asked her.

She opened her mouth to answer, but hesitated for a second. He had hit the mark perfectly, and it was clearly upsetting him.

"He's the one that wants to see me, right?" He asked once more.

"Yeah... yeah, it's from him." She finally answered.

Shinji looked out the window once more and went quiet again. Just when she began to kind of talk to him, he blanked out again. And much to her confusion, she didn't know why it was bothering her so much. Maybe it was the fact that this kind of transport was rather unusual for a new NERV draftee. But there was something about this kid that reminded her of something. Or maybe even someone.

But whether it was reminiscent of someone else or herself, she didn't know. Regardless, this all felt too familiar.

"Look I know it's not my place to say anything about this, but I had kind of figured things were not great between you two." She said. "And I'm not even going to begin to pretend that I understand what it is that caused it. But what I am going to tell you, is that I get it."

There was no reply from Shinji's end once again.

"Can you please look at me?" She asked him kindly.

There was something in the tone of her voice that had an affect on Shinji. For a moment, he wasn't thinking of her as just some NERV official, but as a person. She wasn't being stern, it didn't even sound like some kind of order. It was a genuine request. And the more he thought about it, he realized he was actually being pretty inconsiderate for the entirity of the ride to Tokyo-3. So he finally looked over at her.

Misato was staring at him directly in the eyes, and though he wasn't feeling all that comfortable about it, he could tell she was just trying to be nice.

"I don't understand what happened between you two... but I'm being honest here. I do understand what that's like."

Shinji wasn't sure of what to make of this. He had just met this woman, but she seemed to realize what was happening here, or at least to some extent. She was being very kind to him and he had no idea how to react. People had been nice to him before, but usually only due to social norms. Yet this woman actually sounded like she was concerned about what he was going through. And that wasn't something he experienced everyday.

Misato knew this kind of thing was going to be weird for him. She saw just how 'close' he was to his own relatives and surmised that intimacy was not his forte whatsoever. It was easy to guess that he rarely got this kind of heart-to-heart talk from anyone in his life.

So when she gave him a tiny smile, he really didn't know what to do with himself.

"I... appreciate it-" Shinji said to her, looking down at her name tag now. "-Miss Katsuragi."

"Oh boy..." She said back to him jokingly, confusing him.

"What? What is it?"

"It's just that I feel so old when someone calls me in such a business manner... and this is coming from someone who's been working at NERV for a few years now! And still I'm just not used to it..." Misato explained with a playfulness in her tone.

But Shinji's insecurity was being driven hard now. In his head, he had somehow already found a way to royally mess up and offend this woman.

"I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to say you're old. I mean-! No, you're not actually old. I was just-"

"Hey, relax! I was just joking!" She quickly butted in to calm him down. "I wasn't really being serious. I mean, I was being legit about the whole 'feeling old' thing, but you didn't upset me! What I was trying to get at was that you can just call me by my first name, Misato!"

Shinji thought about that for a second. This woman sure was being strangely kind to him despite it just being her job to pick him up for a day. But the more he talked to her, the more he realized he could let his guard down a little around her. She was peppy, which he was not expecting from a NERV employee of all people. And it was beginning to rub off on him a little, even if he knew he would be sent out to battle.

"O-Okay, Miss Misato." He said shyly.

'Could've done without the 'Miss' part as well, but whatever.' She mused. 'He's finally talking a little more.'

A few minutes later, Shinji noticed the Spinner was beginning to descend and slow down. He looked outside again to see exactly where they were and noticed just how close they had gotten to the city. He could make out a lot more structures not too far off from where they were currently at.

"Tokyo-3 Air Traffic Control, this is vessel 0-2.Q-713. Requesting permission to land, over." The co-pilot said into a radiophone.

"Vessel 0-2.Q-713, we copy. Permission granted, where exactly is your destination? Over." Replied a slightly distorted voice through a speaker in the front of the spinner.

"We're headed to the Geo Front, we have orders from NERV to transport a draftee, over."

"Copy that. Have a safe trip, over."

"Thank you, over and out." The co-pilot said as he put the radiophone back in its compartment.

The Spinner touched down on what looked like some kind of large metallic platform, big enough to fit a vehicle on it but not quite big enough for anyone to get off and walk on it. Shinji, having not been used to any of these high-tech contraptions, naively unbuckled his seat belt. But Misato was quick to stop him in his tracks.

"Not yet, we're staying inside the spinner for just a little longer." She told him.

"But why are we not getting off n-?"

*K-CHNK*

A large metallic object had just grabbed hold of the bottom of the Spinner, the loud sound making Shinji jump in his seat just a little. He could hear mechanisms go off under them as the aircraft shifted ever so slightly. Shinji put his seat belt back on and didn't question what was happening, trusting that this was all just part of the process.

Then out of nowhere the ground beneath them opened up, turning out to be a hatch of some sort. The platform the Spinner was attached to began to move downwards. Before Shinji knew it, they were moving down some kind of underground tunnel.

"Is this some kind of elevator? For cars?" He asked, looking around the industrial shaft they were headed down.

"Yeah. These are pretty prevalent around Tokyo-3. Sometimes I forget that these vehicle elevators exist only in this city..." Misato explained.

"But, why are we going down? I thought we were headed to those headquarters in the city you mentioned earlier."

"Oh we are. But NERV HQ isn't over at Tokyo-3, it's located inside the Geo Front." She said.

Shinji's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait, the Geo Front? We're actually going inside the Geo Front?" He asked in complete disbelief.

"Yup! We should be there in just a few minutes."

With Shinji now waiting with great anticipation, Misato remembered the stories she'd heard from her co-workers down at HQ. The Geo Front had become quite well-known by now, and most draftees or recruits were amazed by the sight of the underground space. To the rest of the world, only the rich lived down there. The only other exception were the people who worked at HQ, or served in battle for NERV.

Sure enough, soon Shinji was able to see a light at the end of the tunnel. He'd never seen pictures of the Geo Front before, only ever having heard of the place here and there. So going down to see it in person was actually kind of exciting. He could see another hatch open just as the elevator reached the entrance, and suddenly the Spinner was overwhelmed by what looked like natural skylight.

"That's... impossible..."

As soon as the elevator passed through the hatch, Shinji was presented with what looked like a completely different city from what he saw on the surface. But what was most curious to him was that it was surrounded by beautiful blue skies. He was perplexed.

"H-How?" Shinji asked in utter shock. "How is it that-? There are blue skies in here! And clouds! That's not- We've been descending for a while now haven't we? How is it that even-? Wha?"

"These skies aren't real. It's all just an advanced holographic image, in essence just playing pretend. Sure looks real though, doesn't it?"

Shinji nodded without a word, his mouth slightly hanging open at the sight of the place. They were still really high up from the ground as the elevator continued its descent into the vast underground space. The city section of the Geo Front was located to one side, though it still took up lots of area down there.

Looking over at the distance, he could its gargantuan buildings coming from both the bottom of the cave, and hanging from the very top. To Shinji, it gave the city's overall structure a sort of hourglass shape.

"Woooaah..."

Right in the center of the cave, a lake divided the underground into two main sections. The skies were so lifelike that the sun was reflecting right off the beautiful waters. There was even large amounts of surrounding vegetation that had somehow been able to survive down there, Shinji being able to feel heat radiating from the holographic sun. This place was truly a marvel to him, especially coming from such a humble town like Yusuhara.

"Welcome to the Geo Front, Shinji! Sure is something, isn't it?"

This place was like something he'd see in a dream, or some kind of modern video game. But it was all real. That's what amazed him the most. What he could only imagine as a distant fantasy was all very much real. And it was unbelievable.

"Is that where we're headed?" Shinji asked, pointing to the magnificent underground skyscrapers.

"No, actually. HQ is opposite those buildings. Over there- right across the lake." Said Misato, pointing elsewhere.

It was then that Shinji was able to see exactly where NERV HQ was, and what it looked like; a peculiar faded-white pyramid in the distance. There was a bridge that lead directly from said pyramid over to the city, and quite a long one too. At first, Shinji thought the car elevator would make its stop at the city itself, and that they'd transfer into another vehicle to get to HQ.

But upon looking at the path of the elevator, which was now a tube made of reinforced glass, he could see that it turned and lead directly into the pyramid structure itself. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get to get a close look of the fantastic buildings he marveled just yet. It was then that he was reminded that this wasn't just some field trip. He was going to meet with his father, and then he'd train for the war.

By now Shinji wasn't quite sure which of these he found to be worse than the other.