Neon Genesis Evangelion
A Thousand Years of Secrecy
Disclaimer: I own neither Evangelion nor Altered Carbon (or any other book in the Takeshi Kovachs series). If either Gainax or Mr. Morgan have an issue with any of the content presented, please contact me by e-mail to remove it.
Seven – Encouragement / Games
"You can see its whispers in the clash of two horsemen. They resonate across the whole of the Earth."
The sound of the western doorknob bolted him upright in the Saturday morning dawn. He began reaching for the Nemex under the mattress as a groggy-looking Misato Katsuragi peaked her head through the crack of the doorway.
She smiled at him, rubbing grit from her eyes. "Good morning, Shinji-kun."
He looked at her quizzically, retrieved his hand from the Nemex and ran it through his bed-head. The hair refused to comply.
"Something up?"
She opened the door a little wider and stepped over the precipice. The teddy bears were winking at him from her pajamas.
"Yeah, we need to talk. In private. I figured you'd want to before anyone else is awake," she said softly, looking over at Touji as she spoke.
He frowned at her.
"Or were you also planning on having me make waffles in time for breakfast?" The words drooped out of his sleepy voice, eyes blinking at her slowly.
She looked caught in the act, innocent smile gleaming at him. She bowed a little. "Well, you know I always burn them."
And he was lying back down again.
"Hey!" she whispered, just loud enough to not quite disturb Touji's snores. "I was just wondering! You don't have to cook if you don't want to. But, uh. We really do need to talk. Fuyutsuki asked me."
He propped himself up on his elbows now.
"You serious?"
"I'm afraid so."
"So what did I do this time?"
She grumbled something to herself but did not answer.
"Look, just get up okay. We can talk about this when you're... um, dressed." A grin sneaking between tangled strands of dark hair as her eyes dipped off his face.
Shinji followed her gaze down at himself under the covers. Well one part was awake at least. Sheepishly, he retrieved his pillow and put it over the offending bump in the comforter.
"Still sleeping in the buff, are we?" she said, laughing softly at him.
"Not. Funny. Misato."
"Really? But I thought it was." She winked at him. "Or are you just embarrassed cause you were dreaming about someone around here. Perhaps an unavailable older woman?" she said, striking a pose far too sexy for the pajamas with another laugh. She shut the door, leaving him to his privacy.
"That'll be the day," he retorted to the door. More laughter from outside his room.
Shinji moved through the motions of dressing in the early morning quiet of the city, which was surprisingly softer than it tended to be at night. Their apartment was on the corner of their building, and while it was not made to house six people comfortably, the view was a rather decent one.
The contractor had a solid record of construction from NERV's accounts and they had the benefit of living next to some impossibly old neighbors who just happened to be related to certain politicians holding office. "Insurance," Misato had said.
Shinji hoped things would not be escalating to that level just yet, even if the US was a bit unstable as an ally.
As he tip-toed out of his room and shut the door behind him, he spotted Kaji draped ridiculously over their only couch, drool pooling under his wide open mouth onto the new leather. Whatever refinement he had seen when first meeting the man shattered with the image.
Misato was sipping at something in the kitchen cupped in both hands.
"If he stays like that, no one's going to watch any TV there ever again," he pondered aloud.
"That stuff rots your brain anyways. Look what it did to him," she said, motioning for Shinji to take a seat next to her.
He laughed under his breath despite the early morning.
"So?" he said, sitting down.
"So."
More sipping.
"You want something to drink?" she offered.
He cringed.
"Can we just, oh I don't know, get on with it?"
It was then that Misato made the same gesture he'd grown to dread over his time spent with her in Japan. She smiled but her eyes weren't. It was the smile she put on whenever there was bad news afoot; when she was about to say how he'd won a new car but it just happened to be on fire. It was moments like these that made Shinji wonder if Misato had to smile through a lot of pain when she was a child. But she rarely, if ever, spoke about her childhood. It also gave her the nice habit of not bringing up his in return. As if she'd only known him from the day he moved to Tokyo-3.
She put the cup down and looked into his eyes deeply.
"What you did yesterday was wrong, Shinji-kun."
He rolled his eyes. "Not another speech on orders, please Misato-chan."
She grabbed his hand with hers gently and he froze under the grip. Something about that physical sensation. It was too similar, too soft to ignore.
"Shinji-kun. Nine times out of ten, Fuyutsuki agrees with the decisions you make but, he'd like you to ask before you make them. We can't just all play our cards how we see fit, even if we have the perfect strategy."
He groaned but did not pull away from her.
"I know that Misato-chan, I do understand. I may not be a sensei yet, but I am an Envoy."
She smiled at the pseudo-teenaged comment but it evaporated into something more serious. "We're on thin ice over here, Shinji-kun. This is not Japan. The Second Branch is... well, let's just say they aren't behaving as expected. We don't want to attract any more attention to ourselves than necessary."
"Look, if this is about the bike, I wanted it—"
"This isn't about the bike. It's not even about Touji. Just. Be careful. Okay?" She squeezed his fingers under hers. "This is just a breather. Sooner or later, SEELE will come knocking. Enjoy your time now but don't do anything... just, don't do anything I wouldn't do."
The layers of armor came peeling away at the physical sensation. The tone of her voice. He cherished these moments.
"Misato, I don't want to fight anymore." Just whispers now. "I'm tired of killing."
She pulled him into a hug with little resistance, placing his head on her shoulder, stroking his hair with one hand. This way he could not see the tears welling in her eyes. She put all her control into keeping her voice even.
"For right now Shinji, you may not have that choice. But one day, I promise. One day..."
They stayed like that for a few more moments, breathing against one another as the birds began to announce the new day had arrived. He withdrew first and she watched him stand, something proud in her gaze. Something about the boy she'd seen turn into a young man.
Kaji's open eye traced his back as it disappeared, shuffling into his bedroom; it snapped shut again before Misato could walk past.
"That one is burning." Rei's index finger extending like a sliver of moon in the kitchen. He quickly rescued the blackening square with his spatula.
"Thanks, Rei."
"You are welcome."
"Thefe arr mwonderfulmf!" Misato proclaimed around rapid mouthfuls.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Kaji admonished, stirring his eggs playfully. She bopped him on the arm and kept munching happily on a slice of toast.
Rei continued to supply and clean each needed instrument whenever necessary, like any good doctor's assistant. She had become so accustomed to his style he hardly ever had to ask any more.
Touji struggled in not-quite-fluent Japanese with Asuka over their half-devoured morning plates and the smell of a distinctly western breakfast which only he was at all familiar with. Apparently Shinji's imitation had been pretty accurate by the boy's yelps of delight. His new roommate was now asking about Germany as best he could, much to the Second Child's delight.
Shinji tightened a string on his apron, one of the few jobs he expressly did not regulate to Rei, sensitive areas and all. He flipped sausages at a frantic pace but with the even, careful motions of a seasoned chef. It was partly his growing-up and partly getting roomed with Misato that had turned him into a semi-admirable cook.
Kaji, who'd yet to truly experience the "Shinji breakfast," had found his face contorted in surprise upon his first bite and had happily relegated all further cooking duties to Ikari.
Rei, though she did not have to, waited by his side, helping where she could. Now that the cooking phase was winding down, Shinji did not truly need her help as before but she would always wait until he had seated himself to do the same, a quality he found oddly sweet in a way.
He glided the last of the waffles onto the two plates they set aside, guiding them in next to the scrambled eggs and bacon before proceeding to turn off everything that had been plugged in for the ordeal. Unusually, Misato had agreed to do the dishes for once as a special welcome to their new housemate. It was a kind of gratitude Shinji suspected Touji would only fully appreciate in hindsight once the chores really got under way for the four of them. For now, he remained blissfully unaware and engaged with Asuka.
"Shinji sit down, your making us feel guilty," Asuka urged from her seat.
"Yeah, Shinji, don't wear yourself out before the day has even start," Touji said.
"Started," Rei corrected, joining Shinji at the table.
"Right. Started." He took out his frustration with the language on a bite of golden eggs.
"So, what are you kids up to for your first Saturday in the city?" Kaji asked.
"Don't know," Shinji admitted with a shrug.
"We didn't actually really plan for anything special," Asuka continued.
"Well I'm sure Touji knows some cool places, right?" Misato said in English for his sake. She held the fork over her plate not quite comfortably, unused to the lack of chopsticks to rely upon.
"Yeah! Of course! Clubs, the mall, you name it. I've done just about everything there is to do here. Well besides the gay bars and stuff."
Kaji snorted a chuckle. Misato wrinkled her nose. Rei, oddly enough, quirked an eyebrow at the comment.
Asuka grinned wickedly, clasping her hands together suddenly. Everyone stared at her, confused.
"You want to go to a gay bar, Asuka?" Shinji asked.
"Arcades," she said. "Do you have any arcades around here?"
"Uh, sure we do," Touji said, scratching the back of his head.
"Perfect," she purred.
"Asuka used to beat a lot of knuckleheads back in Germany; betting and that kind of stuff," Kaji explained.
"Suckers never saw it coming until I had their money in my pocket." She smiled fondly at remembered beatdowns.
"It's a beautiful day today guys. Make sure you try and spend some of it outside," Misato said.
"Oh we'll walk there," Asuka assured.
Misato did not seem too impressed with the answer. She pulled away from the table, grabbing her plate as she did. "I guess I better get on with the dishes then. Bring me your plates whenever you're finished, mmkay?"
"Well I guess I'll hit the shower then... unless you wanted it first, Rei?" Asuka stood.
"A word, Asuka-chan," Kaji interupted.
"Yes, sensei. It's all yours, Rei."
The pale girl nodded at her roommate between bites of waffles completely devoid of syrup.
Asuka followed him out onto the living room balcony, closing the door as they exited. They kept their backs to the sliding door so as to stop any possible lip reading. Kaji spoke to the view pouring out beneath them, lit golden by the rising sun.
"Status on operation 176. We may have to accelerate the timeline forward, slightly."
"Yes, sensei."
She told him her progress.
"Right on time, Mr. Kaji," the sly voice welcomed.
He took a quick glance around their meeting place in the park, searching for the obvious points of surveillance and ambush with split-second precision. Satisfied, he decided to continue the conversation letting his conditioning passively hunt for danger.
"What do you want?" He kept it terse so Griff would make no mistakes about their relationship: one of mutual distrust.
He was wearing a white collared shirt and business jacket in contrast to the American's casual outfit. The folds of the jacket did a great job of hiding the Nemex's side holster even with Kaji's long stride and, it was non-descript enough to fit in, even in a West coast Saturday afternoon. This being despite that no one seemed to wear suits, even during the work week; a far cry from Japan's salary men masses who didn't even seem to slip out of the uniform on weekends.
Instead of replying, the spook, or whatever he was, pulled out a cigarette pack, offering one to Kaji. They were an expensive brand, non-processed tobacco from the East coast grown in atriums that were regulated like bio-weapons labs to keep pesticides out of the equation. The farmer on it waved to him with a friendly grin as Griff retracted the pack with a shake of Kaji's head—OLED paper, animating the tiny logo to make the little green man appear as if he had gone back to picking tobacco leaves off a row again.
"Just a little post-game huddle is all," he finally answered, putting a match to the tip of the white paper. Some part of the Envoy in Kaji wondered if this was a signal to someone watching that he had made contact with the target. But nothing shifted in his periphery so the sleeping dragon lay back down for the time being.
Around them the afternoon crowds of soccer moms and socialites stirred in the greenery, admiring a break from the sheer urbanity outside or headed some place else by foot—not that Americans tended to do anything by foot Kaji reminded himself.
"I don't have time for games, Griff," he dismissed, turning to leave.
"Aren't you even curious how I got your private number?" Griff inquired of his backside. Slowly Kaji spun around again.
"I imagine one of the only unregistered phones that Echelon couldn't peak into perked up your little friends' ears." It was not so much a guess as a statement of fact in the beautiful way Envoy intuition could assure that if one had enough pieces, the puzzle would invariably complete on its own.
He smiled and nodded as if he'd expected the answer all along. If he knew anything about Envoys, he should have.
"Very acute indeed." He spread his arms wide open as if to reveal he was unarmed. Not that Kaji couldn't spot the holstered low-caliber pistol. The gesture was probably more for dramatic effect anyways. But Kaji had already seen enough performance.
"Presumably you have something to tell me, Griff. I tend to have a... distaste for conversations without objective." He let the tone of his voice hint at the danger presented. He could see Griff nearly flinch, something shifting in his eyes at the aural signals of "you don't want to know what happens when you waste Ryouji Kaji's time."
"Of course, of course. No games, Kaji. Just a little information exchange is all." He made a placating gesture and a bow that could hardly be called one by Japanese standards.
"Make your offer."
"The children have been placed under observation."
His laugh cracked out into the breezy afternoon, sharp and completely empty of humor. "You're going to have to do much better, Griff. Why don't you actually try giving me something I don't already have."
"I was going to, if you'd let me finish," he responded indignant. "These are elements outside of my group's control. I have no guarantee of their motive or susceptibility to outside forces."
"Police grunts will be of no concern to us."
Griff smiled something ugly and let the tobacco flavor spill out of his mouth and into the air, taking in the view by their bench and letting Kaji stew.
"Typically police grunts don't use chameleoflage, do they?" A laconic smile followed as he scanned for Kaji's reaction.
Instead, Kaji's stare only burned back at him with an intensity of interest.
"Typically they don't, no."
"You aren't concerned for their wellbeing?" He misread Kaji's stoic face, filing away facts and shirking off any emotional discharge.
"What do you want in return?" He cut the line of inquiry as it was veering far too close to the matter of the Child Envoys.
"Information on our kraut friends." Kaji wasn't sure if he'd used the World War Two slang because he was afraid of being spied on or out of some genuine dislike. If he'd been in the American's position, he imagined it would be some combination of the two.
"Start with Marduk." No need to say anything more. Not yet.
"That's all you've got? A name?"
Kaji's stare blanked at him in reply.
"I want a more even trade for our next meeting," he grumbled and turned his gaze up into the towering oaks surrounding them.
"I'll take it down for consideration. Have a good afternoon." Kaji turned before he could make any sort of parting reply, stifling him. A bemused stare followed him out of the park.
When he was a safe distance away, he opened up his channel to Misato.
"Did you get the photographs?" he sub-vocaled to her.
"Do I like Yebisu? I'm uploading them to the MAGI right now via Suit-Link along with any partial name match for variants of Griff. Ibuki's helping break into their personnel files as we speak."
"That's my girl."
"How—how can she keep winning, it isn't possible. It's like some sort of curse." Touji released his grip on the joystick, slumping back from the machine in defeat.
She laughed over-dramatically, gesticulating wildly before them.
"No one dares to face Souryu, vanquisher of fools?"
Shinji shook his head. "Asuka, did you ever do anything besides play videogames during your free time?"
"Don't be jealous because you don't have my 'maddskillz,' Third. Honed in the dark allies and underbellies of Germany's sports bars, my talent is only rivaled by my incredible beauty," she announced, guffawing all the while.
Rei stepped up to the machine blasting music and sound effects almost on par with Asuka's volume.
"Uh-oh, blue's stepping up to the plate again. You may choose my character," she said, closing her eyes and broadly sweeping her hand across the character selection screen.
"That will not be necessary," the other girl replied quietly.
A crowd of eager males had formed behind them, a few of them eyeing more than just Asuka's superb technique. Quiet acknowledgements of her skill were passed between them during bouts to some set of arcade etiquette Shinji could neither decipher nor maintain interest in. He watched as Asuka chose a character revealing just a little more skin than her chosen outfit of tank top and denim miniskirt and quietly tried to imagine what it had felt to be like in the sunlight.
They'd been jumping from machine to machine for hours, all fighting games, and all apparently ones Asuka was familiar with. Shinji's eyes had slowly glazed over to the dazzling super-moves and ridiculous approximations of martial arts that ranged from physically impossible to downright wrong. Touji steamed in frustration at his side, aggravated at his continuous destruction by Asuka's nimble fingers and stinging technique.
Those few which had dared to challenge her outside of their Envoy ensemble all met an eventual death, much to the satisfaction of one beaming redhead. Asuka certainly knew how to gloat when she wanted to. Shinji's clumsy attempts to best her were often met with either swift annihilation or the cat-like toying of a superior player as she dodged, parried, and denied his moves with a gleeful pleasure. Can't be good at everything, he reasoned.
They'd only stayed so long because of Asuka's clever use of the palm pilot she'd tucked into her back pocket. Shinji didn't know how but, after some tweaking with the first machine she'd approached, they hadn't spent so much a quarter for any of the bouts played. Of course that didn't stop her from letting other suckers drop their money in if they wanted the challenge.
If the owner knew what was happening, he was content to let it slide—and why not? Asuka was drawing more attention to each machine she went to than the place had probably seen all week.
Shinji rubbed his brow at the raw noise the colorfully painted box spat at them upon Rei's incineration in some sort of move that was far too animated and flashy for his brain to look at any longer.
"I need a break," he said quickly. "Any takers?"
"Yeah," Touji replied, "I'm tired of getting my ass kicked. Let's get some sunlight and fresh air."
"Asuka, we'll be out front…" Shinji said.
"Sure, sure. Have fun," she responded, not looking away from the onscreen pummeling.
Shinji shaded his brow with one hand as he stepped out, buffering his eyes from the midday brightness he'd forgotten in the depths of "The X-Zone." Touji yawned and stretched beside him, equally relieved to be out of the chaos and sensory overload of the place.
"Man, and I thought I was competitive," he said around another yawn.
Shinji laughed and placed himself into a flimsy white plastic chair the farthest from the entrance he could find. Touji joined him.
"I guess that stuff will rot your brain, huh?" he thought aloud, not really to his companion.
"What was that?" Touji enquired, lazily taking in the boulevard's scenery from beside him.
"Nothing, just something silly Misato told me this morning."
"Katsuragi-san..."
Shinji looked over at the other boy, mild interest in his expression.
"What do you think of your two new senseis?"
"I really didn't know what I was missing," he began. Shinji grunted in agreement. "They're so different from Tatsuki-san. I haven't really spoken with Kaji-san all that much but he seems okay. And Misato..."
Shinji indicated for him to continue, truly curious.
"She seems like a good person."
Shinji smiled into the sky, leaning back in his chair.
"Misato-san is..." He searched for the right phrase. "A good human being. Yeah. A good person."
"Have you known her for a long time?"
"A little more than four years now. We used to live together back in—Japan." He had almost said Tokyo-3. He continued to tread lightly for Touji's benefit. Something tightened in the other boy's expression, Envoy senses picking up on the careful omission.
"She told me the truth about what happened to NERV. To Tokyo-3."
Shinji waited, deciding it was best to let Touji get whatever it was off his chest.
"She told me about how you handed in your resignation too."
Shinji made a tiny "ah" sound. "You feel the same way, then?"
"Hell no! I want those bastards to pay for what they did to my sister. I didn't really understand how evil those SEELE fucks were before but, now I'll do whatever it takes to stop them."
Shinji put a finger to his lips wearily. No idea who could be listening, after all.
He considered Touji's outrage for a moment. Maybe he and Misato were right. People who would sacrifice a whole city to get what they wanted did not deserve any sort of power. Then again, he considered, NERV had done almost the same to Tokyo-3 with its total inaction. Did Fuyutsuki really have any other choice? He desperately wished so though his logical mind would not readily accept it.
Touji blushed, embarrassed at his blunder. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have—"
"No worries. Just keep it low key in public."
"Right." Touji gritted his teeth, angrily flicking his vision down the street.
"I don't mean to play sensei, it's just..." Shinji started to apologize.
"It's just Tatsuki didn't teach me shit, that's what. I'm not angry at you. It's him really, the arrogant bastard."
Asuka and Rei burst free from the automatic doors under the un-lit purple and yellow neon-lettering, Rei one half-step behind her almost-skipping roommate.
"Done so soon?" Shinji joked, secretly thankful they didn't have to go back in and retrieve her from the electronic altar.
"Even winning gets old," she replied, smile still glowing as she strode towards them and joined them at the tiny table. Rei sat without a word, turning to gaze into the Saturday afternoon swing of the walking-street and its trendy people.
"Somehow I thought it would take a harpoon to get you out of there," Touji laughed.
"There was an incident," Rei said softly, not turning to join the conversation.
Asuka muttered what Shinji assumed were some very ugly curses in German to herself. He blinked at her. Touji mimicked his face.
"Idiots thought they could get a free peek while I was owning them," she answered, a light blush daring its way onto her composure for an instant.
Shinji put his head in his hands, groaning. "Please tell me you didn't, Asuka..."
"What?" she said innocently. "I just gave them a taste of a few of my favorite moves. In real life." She giggled maliciously to herself.
"The owner told us not to return. Ever," Rei finished.
"Of course. You had to just teach them a lesson," Shinji scolded.
"What'd you expect anyways with an outfit like that?" Touji prodded.
"And just what the hell is that supposed to mean, Fourth?"
He and Shinji shared a grin but did not dare to reply, much to her further annoyance.
"Asuka," Rei interrupted. "Is that not the girl we met at school?"
Momentarily distracted from her fury, Asuka followed the outstretched finger aimed down the street.
"Hey, you're right. That is her. The one that was crying all over me like some nutcase."
"Yes, I thought so," Rei continued. "It appears as if she's about to be mugged."
All four of them stood up simultaneously, turning in the direction Rei indicated.
"Hikari?" Touji said quietly.
"The Americans are getting too inquisitive into the Tokyo-3 matter."
Black slabs of artificial smoothness stared at him in the darkness, encircled with symmetric unity and perfect stillness.
"Continue to put pressure on the UN; if they don't fold we'll whet their appetite for the Rail Device. That should perk the military's interest enough to drop any progress on the N2 detonation." Keel's voice was smooth, revealing none of the German ancestry or accent that an aristocratic upbringing had afforded. The other accents of the room were stiffer, less accustomed to English than he.
"China is cracking nicely with our economic incentives. They should be fully turned shortly."
"Excellent. And what of the Ikari boy?" There was a tremor of fear and disgust in his voice as he uttered the name.
"What we've gained from our sources indicate the Suits are stored elsewhere and inactive. The CERN institute monitored no stray S2-type neutrinos to indicate otherwise. There is the possibility they may have not even been taken out of the protection of the fleet. We are still in the process of investigating the cargo disembarkation records of their flight."
"We will need that information before the Russians can effectively make any move," he cautioned.
"Have we completely ruled out using the Special Air Services? They're a bit more refined and suited to this sort of work." One of them spoke out of turn, Scandinavian accent thick and heavy.
"Special Air will not be participating except with some logistical information we're tunneling through Eurasia and a few preliminary guesses as to NORAD's response," Keel chided. "We want to maintain the façade of the alliance for as long as possible while the US continues to remain a wild card. If necessary we can always stage a coup for later. The Chechen ambassador's son has just enrolled as instructed so as to effectively cover our tracks. What is the status of Turner's continuing relationship with the First Branch and Langley?"
"His superiors will swiftly readjust his focus when we illuminate the Rail Device in further detail. The Langley contact is still beyond our reach, suggesting that he may be a tier one officer as we have suspected."
"How vexing. We will have to deal with that when possible. Turner's little fleet should pose no issues when we can open up the Chinese seaports and runways to our favor. Bribery should suffice if we must act any faster. Ikari?"
He shifted his stance slightly, not afforded the anonymity of an avatar within the darkness. But he would not have used one if offered. It was a sign of weakness in his mind. Fear. And he had enough conditioning to will away any sort of emotional candor they might try and exploit. He kept the mask of his face just as unreadable as the black columns, full of the emptiness he had practiced for so long.
"Progress has been slow but steady. If I had access to more of the Chinese weather network's processing power I would feel more confident in making the deadline agreed upon."
"Of course. We will devote the resources when they are available." He addressed the rest of the room. "Contact me only if something urgent changes, particularly in regards to the FBI's surveillance of the pests. Adjourned."
Ikari and the rest of them winked out of the darkness.
Seven Fin
A/N: I just wanted to clear up a few things. The second half of this story as planned should have about twice as much action moving at four times the pace. I'm sorry if the pacing of the story bothers you now but it's the only way I can include the proper amount of detail, particularly in regards to character development. What's the point in making a big splash if no one gets wet, right?
I've noticed some have you have pointed out that Rei needs more "screen time" which I'm really trying to fix, it's just she has a tendency to be so damn quiet all the time!
Also, I'd like to say sorry again for the sub-par quality of the last chapter when I first posted it. I re-did a lot of it and made a much better chapter in my revision with some more juicy details and I think it stands much better now than it did before.
Once again, you guys are the coolest readers EVAR! Seriously though, the reviews have been much better than I had expected. You guys are getting me really pumped about where this story is going. I very graciously hope that I shall live up to expectations set forth.
Japanese lesson for this chapter:
-bah, nothing came to mind. This chapter was pretty "American." :P