"Nerv on the mere surface level is a bureaucratic nightmare, so Gods only know what goes on beneath…" Ministry of the Interior Report to the Military Council for National Security
XIV
Aside from some nervous looking pedestrians on the pavement, the roads of Nakisawame were empty, rush hour postponed until the authorities picked up the pieces. Squads of fully armed and armoured soldiers moved up and down the streets, followed by the dreaded brown tunics of the Kenpeitai. Martial law was in effect for all the good it did. Pairs of the newer Type-17 model of HMAC, the Shingen, stomped around behind them, single cyclops eyes burning into all that crossed their path.
Just Marshal Bitchface reminding everyone who's in charge. Misato had to stop herself glaring at them. I can't believe what's happened to this country.
Nerv tower rose in front of them, a vertical block without even a spire atop it. Glass from top to bottom, the fierce sun blindingly glinted off it. Anyone inside was effectively shielded from view. Not that there was much to hide. Nerv tower served as a public front and little else. Only relatively unimportant departments resided here.
The CEO was rarely to be found in there.
"No one will force you to stay, Shinji-kun." Misato ventured as they pulled over.
"Hm." It didn't sound like he agreed.
Damn. Thought that Manju might have helped cheer him up a bit. She eyed the now empty paper bag. Regardless of his mood, he'd eaten it quickly enough.
They got out of the car and walked through the revolving doors at the entrance. Some guards came over to check them, but one look at her face made the armed men back off and salute.
One bit of bureaucracy I don't have to go through with this fucking place. Misato saluted back. I don't want to be here, they don't want to be here, and I doubt Shinji-kun does either.
The interior of Nerv tower was just as featureless and obscured as its exterior. Instead of glass, of course, there was whitewashed concrete and marbled floor of similar colour. A light security detail, two squads worth, stood guard over a few dozen clerks and administrators. This was a place of pencil pushing. The click of keyboards echoed through the corridors. Indeed, the only relief from the monotony was the brilliant sun that shone through the windows.
"I've been in graveyards more cheerful." Shinj muttered.
"Yup." Misato agreed. "There's a reason I don't come here if I can. Paperwork, am I right?" She offered a chuckle that got quickly stifled when Shinji didn't even lift his gaze.
"Where are we going exactly?" He asked.
"Department for lodgings. It's on floor twenty."
"This place has lifts, right?"
"Fortunately, yes. Ikari-san scrimps on air conditioning, but he's not that tight fisted."
Probably because he'd have to walk up the stairs himself. She suppressed a snort.
As in any other Nerv facility, the lifts were mercifully swift. The floors flew by as they ascended. All the better to Misato, as she felt nearly claustrophobic in the steel box suspended by wires.
I vowed never to be helpless again, but I still keep getting into these fucking things.
"A skyscraper, a hospital, an underground base…" Shinji mused aloud, dissipating a little melancholy at the same time. "How much money do you people have?"
"Enough." Misato answered with a wry smile.
The elevator pinged and the doors slid open. Aside from being at a far greater height, Nakisawame stretching out in all directions through the windows, floor twenty looked no different from the ground floor.
They went down a few corridors before they found the relevant desk. Throughout, Misato secretly double checked they were in the right place. She'd gotten lost in Nerv's facilities more than once.
Everything looks the same. How's it my fault I mixed up the toilets with the CEO's office?
At his desk, a solitary clerk drummed on his keyboard, monitor reflecting off his glasses. Misato could vaguely make out a vast email list he'd probably been sorting through for most of the day. She shuddered. What paperwork she couldn't dump on a hapless secretary was enough for her.
"Good morning." She said. The clerk returned a grunt but continued to type.
Oh great. It's going to be one of those days, isn't it? No helpfulness, just "have you signed this" or "you need to go to another department." Fucking paperwork.
"I need a form for Nerv accommodation."
The clerk looked up and squinted from behind his spectacles. He could only have been in his forties, but his black hair already had flecks of grey in it. "Ah, Director Katsuragi. You want to move again?"
"Not for me, for this one. CEO's son." She nodded at Shinji. The boy offered an awkward yet polite bow.
"Has he got a contract?" The clerk's tone remained monotonous, but he returned the bow.
"Er…no." A chill ran down Misato's spine. "He just got here."
"You'll need to get one, sign it, then come back here. Good day." The clerk looked back down at his monitor.
"Look, he's not staying long. Maybe about a month at most-"
"No contract, no access to company benefits. Those are the rules."
It was fortunate that the clerk was now focused on his paperwork again, for he didn't see her eye twitch.
That's that then. It's really going to be one of those days.
"Come on then, Shinji-kun." Misato ground her teeth together. "Let's get your paperwork in order."
Abruptly storming off, she heard Shinji trot along to keep up with her.
"I hope I'm not causing you any trouble." Shinji grimaced.
"Ugh, it's not your fault, Shinji-kun." She sighed. "You know the story. Going up and down from department to department to get 'the necessary forms'"- she made air quotation marks. "-to do something really simple. Fucking paperwork."
Misato winced. "Pardon me. Bad language and all."
"I live in downtown Kure." Shinji weakly smiled. "Believe me, I've heard everything under the sun."
Misato chuckled, then paused. Downtown? Kure's rough enough as it is, even without the riots.
"A nice kid like you from there?" She shook her head. "Whoever's looking after you must have raised you well."
Misato immediately realised she'd made a mistake when Shinji stiffened. His lips flattened as his fist balled, anger and fear flashing across his face in equal measure before he could smooth it away.
"Yeah." He muttered. "I suppose."
They walked silently back into the lift, making it feel like even more of a grave. Shinji's gaze had returned to the floor, icy and detached. Misato knew his look and began to realise the boy had more in common with his father than they both realised.
When he's in a certain mood, mind you. Misato folded her arms and looked away. Kid's got all the issues in the world most likely, and I'm a semi-functioning alcoholic who'll flirt with anything that moves. Probably for the best that someone else is taking care of you.
The lift doors slid shut, and she was stuck in the suspended death trap once again. It both helped and didn't that the lift was embedded into the heart of the tower, so Nakisawame, and the impression of a very long fall was hidden.
Misato tapped her foot as the floors flickered by.
I hate this.
"Probably should have asked reception first thing when we came in." Shinji said. "Would've been told which departments we need to go to in which order."
"I know." Misato grumbled. "Just thought I could probably get away with it. You know, being the Director of Eva Ops."
"Never how it works though, is it?" He shrugged. "Always some hoops to jump through."
She raised an eyebrow, curious as to why his tone was one of familiarity, but then the doors opened and there was a kerfuffle as three men in suits got in as they tried to get out. Misato and Shinji squeezed through, her question left behind, and they pushed on.
The relevant department was found straightforwardly enough, being near the main reception. There, a man sat behind his desk, as did dozens of others in the building, typing away on his computer whilst a mountain of paperwork sat by him.
"Can I help you?" He said in the same monotone as the clerk upstairs. Misato half wondered if Rei was the only clone Nerv had on its payroll.
"Shinji-kun here needs a Nerv contract. I'm trying to get his lodgings sorted out." She answered.
"Hm, let me see what I've got." He reached into a filing cabinet.
"Any short-term ones?" Shinji asked. "I shouldn't be staying here too long."
"As it so happens…" The clerk drew out a crisp document, that could only have been freshly printed. "Fixed term, one month. Can be extended if the employee wants."
"That's…good…" Shinji tilted his head.
"I didn't know we did things that short term." Misato frowned.
"Neither did I until a few hours ago." The clerk shrugged. "The CEO emailed it to me this morning."
"…my father?" A flurry of emotions crossed Shinji's face. Each battled to take control of the young man. He reached out a hand to take the form, paused three quarters of the way there, then retracted a little.
Wondering if it's a poison chalice? Misato sadly sighed internally. He really screwed you over yesterday.
"Do you want it or not? I've other things to do." The clerk said.
Shinji shook his head and took it. "What do I get from it?"
"Aside from lodgings, you'll get the standard employee benefits and privileges, access to Nerv facilities, your own key card, private medical insurance, etcetera."
"…do I get paid?"
"Yes. Annual salary of an Eva pilot is nine million yen, but as you'd only be with us for a month you'd get a month's wages."
Shinji mulled over it for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. Have you got a pen?"
"I do." Misato rifled through her jacket pockets and retrieved a standard biro that was a bit cracked. She handed it to Shinji, who then went off to find somewhere to sit down whilst he wrote.
"I can do this if you want." She offered.
"I've done this sort of thing before. It's fine." Shinji sat down on a plastic seat.
"That's going to take some time, Shinji-kun. There's a cafeteria here. Want anything?"
"Tea please." He'd already started scribbling.
By the time she got back, piping hot plasticene cup in hand, Shinji was already halfway through. From a quick glimpse at the form, Misato noted the neat handwriting that could only have come from years of practice.
"Never seen a fifteen-year-old do his own paperwork before." She mused aloud, handing him his tea. You're better at it than me. Less beer stains for one.
"When you're on the dole, you learn things. Oh, and thank you." Shinji took the cup, let the steam waft through his nostrils, then sipped it.
"Figures." Misato chuckled before her expression darkened a little. "You aren't new to any of this, are you? Paperwork I mean."
"I've had to do it for a while now. It's easy when you know how." He set his tea aside and carried on.
Misato hung back and leaned against a wall. It impressed her to see a young man, so obviously troubled, read through and fill out each line carefully. He made sure he missed nothing, as methodically as any of the clerks here.
Teens are never good at paperwork. Either someone taught you… Misato almost dismissed that idea outright. Whatever feelings he had for his carer were clearly negative, and Shinji didn't strike her as an irrational boy pathologically defiant of authority; you had to make him hate you. Which left one other conclusion.
…or you learned it all on your own.
It hit her like a brick wall. Whether or not he'd been taught it or learned it, a teenager had to file his paperwork on his own.
There hadn't been anyone to do it for him.
A kid all on his own in Kure. Holy shit, did your father know about that? Hot anger pulsed through her. Of course he did. The man knows everything.
"Done." Shinji said. He stood up and handed Misato's pen back to her.
"Great." She beamed, then turned to the clerk. "What do we need to do next?"
"You'll have to go upstairs to the Department of Lodgings. Floor twenty. They'll give you a form to sign for accommodation."
"Couldn't you send it?" She felt a muscle twitch.
"Not my department." He said. "Besides, they'll need the signed copy as proof. Good day."
Misato let her tensed shoulders relax as she resigned herself. They'd already been here for a while, so what was another thirty minutes?
"Back up we go I guess?" Shinji ventured awkwardly. She snorted and took a controlled walk back to the elevators.
As they ascended again, Misato's suspicions niggled at the back of her mind. "Shinji-kun, were you living with anyone in Kure?"
A strategic question, designed to peel back a layer before she could press home the "attack."
Shinji's eyebrows knitted together. "No…not for a few years at least. My teacher died when I was fourteen."
"Your teacher?"
He didn't even use his name.
"Yeah. Friend of the family." He didn't make any air quotes gestures, but his tone indicated it.
"Not your aunts or uncles or grandparents?" She tilted her head.
Where was his family?
"I don't know anything about my mother's side, and Gendo was an only child. He always said his parents were dead whenever I asked."
That was it then. Shinji had been raised by someone he didn't know for most of his life and spent his teenage years alone. Gendo Ikari meanwhile was the only family he had in the world, and he had thrown him into a meat grinder without hesitation.
…Shit. My parents weren't perfect but good grief.
"But surely you went to school?" She asked.
"No. I was home educated."
Silence hung on the lift like a lead blanket.
No friends, no family, no medical history, no school. What the hell? It's like he's been kept off the grid on purpose.
"It doesn't matter." Shinji dismissed it. "I had a roof over my head and got taught all the useful stuff. That's what's important. Not many people got that after the Eruption."
"…silver linings, huh?" She said uneasily.
"Mm."
The elevator mercifully pinged and the doors slid open. They traipsed through the now unfortunately familiar corridors of this upper floor. Out of the corner of her eye she noted Shinji look out the windows, as if using Nakisawame's immensity to blot out thought of his past for now.
Can't say I blame him. There's kids in Fukuyama's unmarked graves who had happier childhoods.
"I'll still be taking you around all that, by the way." She said, nodding at the city. Deep down, she wondered how long it had been since this boy was taken anywhere. "Imperial gardens, army parade grounds, take your pick."
"Oh…" Shinji lifted his eyebrows. "Yes, I would like that very much, Katsuragi-san. Although I thought you probably wouldn't be seeing much of me after today."
"Eh, was going to get to know you anyway even before all this. Now we'll be working together for a little while." She smiled.
Shinji smiled back.
The clerk was still hunched over and vacant looking when they returned to him. Misato harboured a theory that office work sucked out your soul whilst your husk was possessed by the demon of bureaucracy.
"Here's your form." She handed it to him.
The clerk adjusted his glasses as he read through it, then nodded and began drumming his fingers across his keyboard.
"Hm, Shinji Ikari…" The light of the monitor reflected off his glasses as he scrolled through the relevant files. "Ah yes. You've been given a one-bedroom apartment in block-2 of our residential district. Sign this form and we'll sort out your key card."
Misato had to suppress a strangled scream of frustration, but then paused. "He'll be living on his own?"
"Yes." The clerk acknowledged, typing away on his computer.
"Shouldn't his father…"
"His every need will be attended to."
She looked back and forth between him and Shinji, feeling a thickness in her throat. Once again, she was about to throw this boy to the wolves.
Shinji clearly noticed her anguish. "It's alright, Katsuragi-san."
"Shinji-kun, you aren't even sixteen. You shouldn't be living on your own."
He shrugged. "I already said I've lived by myself for a few years. It makes no difference to me."
And he doesn't even think it's a problem. Good grief, I knew the boss was negligent but this? I wouldn't leave my child all alone in a dump like Kure. Me! And now he's making you live alone again.
She pursed her lips as she thought, whilst the clerk handed Shinji the relevant form and a pen. In a few moments, he'd sign himself up for more loneliness. And whilst Shinji talked rather acceptingly about it, Misato didn't get the impression he was happy.
My wreck of an apartment is probably more cheerful than whatever you're getting…She held that train of thought. Is it?
There were two bedrooms in her apartment, and enough room for a moderate gathering. The worst that could happen was a que for the bathroom.
I could put up with that for a few weeks. Is the boss going to be happy about it?
She inwardly snarled.
He's had absolutely nothing to do with his own son's life so far. He can go fuck himself.
"Hang on a moment." Misato said, flipping out her phone as Shinji's pen hovered over the dotted line. "I've got some calls to make."
"Katsuragi-san, it's really no trouble." He meekly offered, but she was already dialling the number.
No, Shinji-kun. It is. It really is.
