"Hieee!"
"Fire! Fire! Fire!"
"It won't die!"
The Death Cavalier charged a group of soldiers who had opened fire on it as soon as they had detected it, drawn by the fact that the undead mounted knight had used roads to travel to search for it's target- The land of it's lord..
The mounted undead knight outright ignored the submachine gun and assault rifle fire, and used it's shield to block machine gun rounds as it charged through the underbrush, completely unhindered by difficult terrain.
The undead landed it's charge, spearing three of the soldiers with it's lance in passing and picking them up like pieces of meat in a stick, while it's mount gored one more soldier who had attempted to run away but had been trampled over.
The Death Cavalier howled in it's victory… Until a massive shell impacted against it's shield-arm, ripping it off entirely and almost causing the rider to be tossed off it's mount from the force of the impact alone.
The undead howled in vengeance, and charged at a battle-tank which had rounded a corner and fired it's main gun instantly at the Death Cavalier.
The tank attempted to reverse in order to buy precious seconds for it's gunner to reload the main cannon- But the Death Cavalier charged before it could do that, managing to run over the tank while driving the barded lance right through the tank's armor and piercing the tank's commander through the chest.
However, before the Death Cavalier could draw distance to charge again, the tank's gunner had managed to reload the main gun, and fired almost point-blank canister shell into the Death Cavalier's back, throwing the shredded undead off it's mount and causing the mount to fall aside into a pile of bones, rags and evaporating dark mist.
The tank fired one more canister shell at the abomination, and saw that the abomination's body had turned into chunks of dark meat that evaporated altogether.
.
.
"Hm…" Momonga packed his bag and stood up as the school day ended. 'It seems that my undead are running into problems with local law enforcement. Another Death Cavalier died just now… Interesting. It shows that locals do have ways of countering low-level undead. And that my plan of using them to search for Nazarick probably won't work… The wraiths, corpse babies, and such 'ethereal' undead have fared better, although some of the Corpse Carrions were shot down by anti-air weapons and desperate hunters…'
Momonga chalked it up to 'one more successful experiment' and moved on, ignoring that his undead had killed tens of people during their confrontations. 'Hm… I did swindle a reward from Gendo for engaging that lewd-looking Angel, even though I would have likely looted it anyway… I could probably use it to ask him to see if we can get some sort of search-deal going for Nazarick… The fact I have Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown with me tells me that the guild isn't 'disbanded', although doesn't necessarily mean it has a guild base, but I won't stop searching for it until I've turned every rock and stone over…'
He looked around the room to see that the students were starting to file out of the classroom slowly, with most of the girls giving a brown-haired glasses-wearing boy a stinky eye and covering their noses.
The glasses-wearing boy looked utterly terrified, which Momonga couldn't really blame him for- After all, the boy had peed himself in the middle of class after Momonga had signaled him to be quiet.
'There's also that blue-haired girl…' Momonga thought about the girl on the seat behind and to the left. 'She looks quite similar to the one I encountered a week ago… Even the injuries match, mostly, so it's possible that she wasn't recycled but was sold as a defective product to someone for cheap… Odd that she'd end in a school. Giving clones education seems a bit counterproductive as they wouldn't live long enough to put that education to use, I would have figured she'd end up with a more depraved fate…'
"You have an intense look on your face, Suzuki-san." Someone spoke beside him and Momonga glanced over to see that the black-haired boy that he sat next to had spoken to him.
"I'm just contemplating plans going forward. Don't worry about it." Momonga handwaved. "Ah, come to think of it. We'll be sitting side-by-side so I'd like to introduce myself. Suzuki Satoru, at your limited service. Terms and conditions apply."
"Shinji Ikari." Shinji introduced himself and offered his hand, and Momonga shook it lightly. "Um… Why exactly are you in high school? Are you affiliated with NERV?"
"Heyyy! Shinji-kun! Suzuki-san!" A bright voice came from the class's doorway, and Shinji paled a bit as he and Momonga looked over to see Misato in the doorway, clad in her captain-outfit.
It looked like quite a few of the boys in the class were positively smitten with the older woman, although the glasses-wearing boy and a taller, jock-like boy behind him were too busy being terrified to gawk at Misato.
"Misato-san." Momonga replied cordially. "I take it that you're here to escort us to our apartment?"
"Please don't call it 'our' apartment, people are going to gossip." Misato had a vein pulsing on her forehead as she leaned forward with one finger up in her hand, taking the classic 'lecturing' pose. "But you're essentially correct. Get going. I mean, if you'd please."
"Sure, sure…" Momonga handwaved the woman's clearly deliberate slip to less-than-cordial language. 'Well, she's handling things fairly well if that's the extent of her animosity for me slaughtering her comrades. But then again, it might be just her nature. I don't think anyone in Ainz Ooal Gown were part of the military, but I imagine they'd be a bit rough and brutish people by default…'
"You're… You're going to live with us?!" Shinji squeaked and Momonga glanced at him.
"I could say the same. I take it that you're Misato-san's ward as well?" Momonga noted. 'Is she a single mother?'
"Um… yes…" Shinji looked more than a bit apprehensive. "You'll live with us? For real?"
"Yes, Shinji-kun! Now, let's go!" Misato had gone to tug Shinji out of his seat. "I have stuff I need to tell you, okay? Suzuki-san, please follow us as well."
"May I come with you, Captain Katsuragi?" An emotionless voice came from behind Momonga and he glanced over to see that the blue-haired girl was staring at Shinji with her seemingly naturally red eyes.
"Sure, fine, that works for me. Let's go, Rei-chan." Misato handwaved and Rei got up with the help of her crutch.
Shinji moved to follow Misato as she walked out of the room with parade steps, and Rei hobbled after the two.
Momonga shrugged and followed.
He remembered too late that the door frame was too low for him and there was a second forehead-sized chunk in the top of the door frame after he exited the room.
The rest of the students merely stared at the odd student's exit, and then began to gossip.
.
.
Kensuke finally allowed himself to pass out from terror.
.
.
"Dummkopf! What do you mean I have to move now? I have to finish my paper to graduate from College! I can't… What, no choice?! Screw you! Trottel! I am Asuka Langley Sohryu, and I won't… Oh, if Kaji said so too, then… I guess it's fine, I suppose… But only if Kaji accompanies me- Oh, he'll be coming too? In that case it's fine. I'll pack my bags."
.
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Momonga looked over the building that he had been given. "Huh, so it's… fifteen storeys, and a total of sixty apartments?"
"Fifty-nine. Shinji and I occupy one of the apartments." Misato had her fake smile on her face. "Rest are for you."
"You can have a couple of more as far as I'm concerned. Or perhaps the entire floor you're on. I don't need that many apartments, really…" Momonga handwaved. "I'm quite used to living in a small space, so that kind of thing feels a bit awkward to me. Moreover I'll probably not use the apartment all that much, since I have plenty of things to do."
"What would those things be?" Misato looked a bit pale but her expression was otherwise unchanged.
"Oh, just some personal research and stuff…"
"I should probably remind you that you agreed to confine yourself to NERV-controlled areas, so it might be a bit of a problem if you, say, went to Kyoto and it had another freak incident where a lot of homeless people suddenly disappeared…" Misato had a second vein pulsing on her forehead and the woman had gained a slightly green tint on her complexion. "NERV has converted the first floor into a giant kitchen and refrigeration unit so if you're feeling hungry, you don't need to…"
"Ah, no, it wasn't like that." Momonga handwaved again as he realized that NERV had likely caught onto the fact he had his ethereal undead capture homeless people from Kyoto and bring them to him during his week of solace, for research purposes. 'I made a bunch of Death Knights and Death Cavaliers… It looks like I don't have a max cap of simultaneous summons, although keeping track of all that I've made so far is a bit difficult… It looks like NERV thinks I ate the homeless though? Hm… Although, that might be a better misconception than knowing that I just turned them into low-level undead…'
He considered if he should continue doing that, and came to the conclusion that expanding his current number of undead probably wouldn't be necessary unless an opportunity provided itself- While the undead were not useless, he figured that he could probably get better results in his search for Nazarick through carrot than through stick since NERV seemed to be quite well connected.
And as far as his personal security went, Momonga figured he could just [Gate] off if something unexpected happened, as so far the opposition he had encountered in the 'new world' hadn't been all too threatening. 'Still, I can't allow laxity to overtake caution. But if there actually is an opponent that could seriously threaten me, I doubt a pile of low-level undead would help me much… And I can instantly summon a Overlord Wiseman or Grim Reaper Thanatos if things get hairy, even if that costs me levels…'
He realized that he had been thinking for a while and Misato had slowly started to creep her hand into her pocket. "Ah, don't worry about it. Ahem, yes, of course. I did promise to limit myself to NERV-controlled areas, so don't worry."
Misato sighed in relief.
"Misato-san? Suzuki-san? Is something wrong?" Shinji asked as the boy had stood behind the two for the entire conversation.
The blue-haired girl, Rei, was beside the boy and was staring at the air between Momonga and Shinji.
'Hm… Hm. I see. So she's Shinji's property, or something like that?' Momonga nodded to himself. 'Ah, I see. I suppose if he was Misato's ward then he'd have connections to buy a clone… I suppose that makes sense as to why 'Rei' would be at school.'
Momonga decided to assume the best and guess that Misato had brought Rei for Shinji to keep him company while the captain was too busy to be a proper mother for him due to her work. 'Although… Well, I suppose it'd build character if Misato got Shinji a pet that would eventually degrade and die, as it would teach him a valuable lesson about the fragility of life…'
Misato was staring at Momonga for some reason and she had a suspicious and a bit annoyed expression.
Momonga nodded at her as his respect for the woman's foresight and capability had gone up a notch in his eyes.
"I really don't know what you're thinking, but it better be something safe for work. Right, anyway, Shinji-kun, Rei-chan, follow me. Suzuki-san, please don't wreck the place… Dismissed!" Misato put her hands on her hips to issue commands, then turned around and walked off with headstrong footsteps.
Momonga nodded at her back and mosied over to a elevator and, after a moment of figuring out how the button mechanism worked, managed to get going to 'second' floor. 'I'll just pick one of the rooms…'
.
.
Shinji hurried after Misato, although he had grabbed Rei's school bags so that the girl would have an easier time walking with her crutches.
He found Misato leaning against a wall and holding her chest with one hand, and she was gripping her still-holstered service pistol with so tight grip that her knuckles had turned white.
She had a river of sweat running down her forehead, and it looked like the woman was utterly terrified.
"Misato-san! What is going on? Is it another Angel? Are we under attack?" Shinji paled as he looked at the normally headstrong woman's pose.
"I guess you could say that…" Misato composed herself with a visible effort. "I thought I was going to die, for sure… Haa… haa… Calm down, Misato… Everything's alright, that thing wasn't offended… Haa… I pushed my luck for sure… Gendo better raise my pay or I swear I'll…"
Shinji blushed a bit as Misato detailed all sorts of things she'd do to Gendo if her pay wasn't raised.
Rei looked a bit reproachful as she gave Misato a glare.
.
.
"Gendo, that…"
"Fuytsuki. Feel free to give Captain Misato Katsuragi a five percent increase in her salary."
"...I'll go ahead and give her seven point five. Ahem, should I mention that we have wiretapped the entire building, just in case…?"
"It might be best if you didn't. Our surveillance network must be flawless."
"Does that include the camera in her shower?"
"Flawless."
"Understood, sir…"
.
.
"Puhaaa… That hits the spot…" Misato practically screamed from delight as she put a empty beer can down on the kitchen table.
"Misato-san, you still haven't told us what was going on…" Shinji noted as he brought some dishes he had made to the table.
He had put extra effort as Rei was sitting beside Misato, and the red-eyed blue-haired girl was staring at Shinji with her usual emotionless stare.
'She usually just gets up and goes to her home somewhere in the old ruined district…' Shinji blushed a bit as he remembered one particular incident where he had gone to deliver Rei's new access-card to her apartment, and had ended up colliding with her and groping her chest by accident.
Rei had been quite cold towards Shinji after that, so for her to do a one-eighty and follow him home was a thoroughly welcome, if odd, change.
'Does that mean she's forgiven me?' Shinji felt pumped as he poured his soul into making the curry, and delivered the end results to the kitchen table.
He filled the plates, and offered one to Misato who, for once, didn't request to have instant ramen instead. And Rei merely looked at the plate in front of her, before starting to poke at it with her fork. Shinji had made sure to make a separate curry topping for her that didn't include any meat, as Rei seemed to be a vegetarian.
"Isshogood…" Misato was forking the food over without care in the world. "Ahh… Rei-chan, eat up, it's good…"
Shinji felt quite proud, even more so as Rei put a piece of tofu in her mouth and chewed on it a bit, before reaching for another with her usual, slow yet clinically precise motions.
"Huaa… So, to recap, First and Third Angels were defeated. Unit-00 is apparently going to be re-activated in couple of days, so Rei needs to get ready." Misato started to talk with more serious tone after stuffing herself full and after Rei and Shinji had eaten their fill. "Unit-01 is still under repairs, because the Second Angel more or less wrecked the thing to the point Ritsuko has to pretty much remake the thing from scratch."
"I… see." Shinji hadn't realized that Unit-01 had been damaged so badly. "I thought Ritsuko-san needed to just replace the engine or something…"
"The Solenoid Organ is the EVA. Without one there is no other." Rei spoke silently, and Shinji managed to barely pick up her words.
"Pretty much. So, anyway, Ritsuko's losing her hair over that." Misato nodded. "I got a message from Gendo just earlier that the Second Child will be coming over to help with Geofront's defense in couple of days, ie, as soon as the pacific fleet gets itself over to Germany and ferries Unit-02 over."
"I see… So I'll be out of the program, right?" Shinji wasn't sure what he felt. "I mean, without Unit-01…"
On one hand, Shinji felt an incredible surge of relief that he was no longer needed to pilot the Unit-01 and fight… But at the same time it made him feel incredibly helpless. 'If I can't fight… It means Rei has to. She has to oppose those monsters… While I just go to school as normal, and cower in the shelters when the Angels inevitably attack again…'
The teenage boy was thus unsure what he should feel about the news- That he had been replaced, more or less. 'Unit-02… It'll protect Rei, right?'
'...And, father hasn't even called me after Unit-01 was wrecked… I see that I was just a pilot for him… Not his son…' The thought rend at Shinji's heart, as he had looked forward to rekindling his relationship with his father, but it was clear that Gendo would not be the one to extend his hand towards his son. 'I tried to call him, but he didn't answer…'
"Don't look so gloomy, Shinji-kun. You're still Unit-01's pilot, whether you like it or not." Misato told Shinji. "Just because Ritsuko has to re-make it, doesn't mean you're off the hook."
"I… see." Shinji felt his apprehension rise, but at the same time, he felt oddly relieved. 'So I'm not useless after all…'
Rei merely tilted her head at Shinji. "Unit-00 will reactivate in two days. When is Unit-01 expected to be repaired? Shinji-san requires training to be able to utilize his EVA effectively."
"Ritsuko said that the repairs would take anywhere from few weeks to months, but apparently there's been a stay on that order. Which means she's figured something out but doesn't know enough to give concrete dates." Misato groaned into her drink as her pet penguin, Pen Pen, had waddled past her and she had taken the penguin's can of beer from it's fins and punched the can open with her finger.
The penguin let a protesting wark, and Shinji placated it by pouring a hefty load of curry into the penguin's cup.
Rei stared at the penguin for a while, before moving on.
"Right, so the next issue is our new guest." Misato seemed to recompose herself. "As you might have guessed, he's not exactly… normal."
"He is an Angel." Rei noted with her usual emotionless tone.
Shinji spat out his juice, and Misato spat out her beer.
"What do you mean?!" "How'd you figure out?!" The words mixed into each other and Misato slammed her hand against the table to take priority on the talking.
"When did you figure out that? Who told you that? His nature is supposed to be a secret!" Misato demanded. "It's fine that you know, because I was supposed to tell you anyway, but no-one other than NERV's command staff is supposed to know about it at this point?!"
"I figured it out myself. And that my new role is to protect Pilot Ikari." Rei answered with a bland tone. "I can be replaced. Pilot Ikari cannot. If the Angel desires to kill Pilot Ikari, I can attempt to delay it by sacrificing myself."
"Rei… Please don't talk like that." Shinji flinched at Rei's uncaring and almost self-destructive words. "Your life is as precious as mine."
"Incorrect."
"Ugh, Rei…" Misato groaned at the blue-haired girl. "Fine, fine… We have to re-evaluate how good 'Suzuki's cover is at any rate. So, Shinji-kun, it's as Rei says. Suzuki Satoru is the Second Angel."
Shinji's head spun. "So… That means…"
"He was the one who rampaged through entire Geofront, Central Dogma, and possibly Terminal as well, killed the First and Third Angels, and also wrecked Unit-01." Misato sighed and grabbed another beer. "I guess you can understand why I was so nervous when addressing it. As it is, we have no way of fighting it so we have to hope that it stays pacified."
"But… How? Aren't Angels just mindless beasts that attack us?" Shinji was quite flabbergasted. "I mean, he seemed a bit odd but it don't think Suzuki-kun was malicious… I think he was a bit funny… Moreover, wasn't it supposed to be skeletal?"
"Appearances can be deceiving." Misato noted to Shinji. "Ritsuko made a skin-suit for Suzuki, who we have codenamed 'Second', much like how you are codenamed 'The Second Child'."
"Is Second an ally or an enemy?" Rei asked calmly.
"Both, I think. At least if what I got from Gendo is anything to go by." Misato sighed into her beer. "Ritsuko told a horror story of what she had figured out from Second's abilities, and I doubt we'd be able to fight it even if we had all three EVA's active and walking. Or all five, if all the models were finished and shipped to Japan."
"So… We're dead?" Shinji felt terrified.
"We'd be if Gendo didn't personally approach the Angel and strike some kind of deal with it. I don't know the specifics and even that information is top-secret, but we can expect that the Second stays in line for a while at least." Misato noted. "On a related note, we can all expect a ten-millimeter caliber bullet in our heads if we go blabbering about what I'm telling you, so please don't speak to anyone about what you've heard…"
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Kensuke was unloading his camera's photos into his computer, and uploading them into his website.
'The world needs to be warned…!'
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"...So that's that. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm knackered." Misato finally slumped down against the table. "Wanna watch television and pass out?"
"I need to do my homework, Misato-san." Shinji sighed.
"Likewise." Rei noted.
Misato blew a raspberry at both of them.
A knock came from the door before she could retort, however, and she paled quite a bit in response.
"Don't tell me…" Misato shot up to her feet instantly and scrambled into her room, only to emerge jumping in a desperate attempt to pull her stockings and assemble her uniform, as she had put on a more casual shirt and briefs as soon as she had arrived home.
The door rang again and both Shinji and Rei looked towards it, before Shinji moved past Misato to open the door.
"Wait- Shinji-kun!" Misato tried to warn him, but the boy had opened the door already.
"Greetings. I figured I'd drop by and deliver some supplies, er, gifts. After all, we'll be living next to each other, technically speaking, so I figured it would be appropriate." a man spoke to Shinji while offering a bag towards him. "Umu, I definitely didn't come here because I got bored…"
"I see… Thanks, Suzuki-kun." Shinji answered automatically as he took the bag.
"Do you mind if I intrude a bit?"
"Sure, go ahead… We have curry?" Shinji looked to be in shock as Suzuki bowed his head so he wouldn't take a chunk out of Misato's door frame as well.
Misato sat back down, completely calm and collected even though her stockings were only halfway up. "Greetings, Second."
"Hm? We're already on codename-basis? I suppose Rei-san and Shinji-san know about our little arrangement?" Suzuki noted while he nodded slightly towards Misato and Rei.
"They do." Misato sighed as the cards were on the table and she was well aware that she couldn't do anything but press a 'oh shit'-button in her cellphone if the worst came to worst. 'That would send a message to Central Dogma to start to prepare another salvo of N2 mines we got from China, just in case Second gets into stuff and we need to stun it for a moment… Although, seeing how it ended last time, I doubt it'll help much…'
It wasn't as if Misato wanted to call a clean nuclear warhead bombardment on top of herself, but if things got desperate, she'd rather have that than nothing.
The Second however seemed to be quite peaceful so Misato merely adjusted her coat.
"Right… In that case…" The Second nodded to Misato and his outfit changed seemingly out of nowhere from his school-outfit into his earlier violet-and-black gold-trimmed robe, complete with the ridiculous pauldrons and ominous hood.
Rei stared at the man with her usual emotionless stare.
Shinji blinked.
Misato resisted the urge to groan.
The Second blinked in confusion at the reaction, before he looked down and realized that his robe was quite… risque… as it had a massive opening from his chest to just below his abdomen. Luckily, however, it just about covered what was below that, but there was enough of a shape to give an idea.
"Ahem… Sorry." Suzuki coughed a bit and closed the robe so it no longer showed the well-defined abs and chest.
'Ritsuko, for god's sake, you didn't have to put all your fetishes into the skin-suit…' Misato groaned internally. "Right, anyway, Shinji and Rei know about you. But please do try to be inconspicuous… That scene in the classroom…"
"Indeed. Well, I don't think it was that big of a scene, so please don't worry about it." Suzuki waved his hand a bit. "Hm? Curry? Thank you."
Shinji had filled a plate for Suzuki and offered it to him.
He took a bite seemingly out of instinct… And then paused as he had put his hand below his jaw for some reason.
"Ah, I see. I seemed to have forgotten that this body can actually eat… It doesn't quite have taste-sensory feedback, but my body underneath can sort-of taste things and feel the consistency… This solves the issue of food falling into my chest." Suzuki seemed to think aloud as he shoveled the food into his mouth. "Very good. Please convey my thanks to Ritsuko when you see her. The body she made is quite good, although it does seem to have a few odd lumps around the stomach area. Ah, and this is quite tasty, Shinji-kun. seconds, please."
Shinji shoveled more curry into the offered empty plate with robotic movements.
Rei was staring at Suzuki.
Misato was a bit baffled as she stared at Second who had blurted out a bunch of nonsense. "What?"
She shook her head to get her back on track. "Ahem, Suzuki-san. Please try to contain yourself a bit…"
Suzuki seemed to glance at the row of empty beer bottles in front of Misato, and she blushed.
"I get it, shut up…" Misato groaned out of instinct before Suzuki could open his mouth.
"I see." Suzuki nodded.
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"...Fuytsuki, deliver Second's message to Ritsuko when you have the time. It has found the C4 explosives."
"Very well, commander."
.
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'I don't get it.' Momonga sighed internally as he contemplated Misato's antics. 'Well, the curry is nice. I didn't really interact much with the people in my old apartment in Neo-Japan, so I might as well try to have a cordial relationship with my warden here… Besides, I did my homework already, curse you algebra, so I don't have much to do outside experimenting with stuff… And I experimented quite a bit with my spells already. And I need to get on top of my education before I can start to make sense of the 'new world magic', so… Eh.'
He felt as yet another Death Cavalier was destroyed, this time by an attack helicopter bombarding it from well outside the summon's reach. 'Yeah, I'll have to be a bit more creative in order to make basic undead work…'
Misato seemed to read his expression and paled a bit, and her hand creeped towards her pocket.
"Don't worry. I bit on a pepper." Momonga handwaved, causing Misato to let a long breath of relief.
"I didn't put any in…" Shinji seemed confused and checked his ingredients.
Rei merely stared at Momonga with absolutely zero expressions on her face.
'Haa… Well, baby steps…' Momonga sighed internally as he was well aware that his warden likely saw him as a monster (which he recognized was mostly true to an outside observer, based on the events a week ago), and Shinji and his pet-clone teenage girl didn't seem to understand what Momonga was doing in the flat in the first place. '...Come to think of it, I need to figure out how to approach Gendo in order to negotiate about the reward for killing that dildo-like Angel…'
"Misato-san? Do you happen to know how I could get in touch with Gendo-kun?" Momonga asked the woman who paled a bit and looked a bit green. "I mean, meet him. Don't get funny ideas."
Rei's mood seemed to shift from bland stare to an outright hostile glare as Gendo was mentioned.
'I see, so Gendo might have 'used' the clone before it was tossed off to Shinji, based on the hostile look on her face…' Momonga drew a conclusion from the girl's hostile mood. 'He did seem quite creepy so it would fit, I think… Well, that's not my business, anyway…'
"Why do you want to meet commander Ikari?" Rei asked with clear suspicion in her tone.
"Ikari? Ah…" Momonga realized the similarities in last names. 'Shinji Ikari, Gendo Ikari… Ah, father and a son… Hm. So Gendo gave Shinji his broken toy, perhaps as a gift or something, as a sort of 'fix this' project… Clones were quite expensive, after all, and fixing one would teach Shinji about responsibility and whatnot... Does that mean Misato is Gendo's husband and Shinji is their child? No, Misato has different surname, so... Hm, I see- So they may have broken up at some point, and Gendo is still keeping up some contact with Shinji... Hm… Well, that means he cares about his son, so I can probably use Shinji as a hostage against Gendo if things go awry…'
Momonga nodded inside his head and turned towards Rei. "Gendo-kun and I have some unfinished business so I figured we'd set the records straight before we proceed with our respective deals."
Misato looked uncomfortable and Rei's flat-out hostile one-eyed stare turned up a notch and she was gripping her fork with enough force to turn her knuckles white.
Misato opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, a red wired telephone beside the kitchen counter rang.
Shinji answered it out of instinct as he was closest to it.
The boy's look brightened instantly. "Ah- Dad! I…"
The look became downcast at the same speed.
"...I see. Suzuki-san? Dad is calling you…" Shinji offered the receiver of the phone towards Momonga.
Momonga walked over and put the receiver against his ear. "Moshi moshi. Suzuki-kun."
"...You wanted to… 'Set the record straight', so talk."
'So this place is full of microphones, got it.' Momonga noted. "Right, about that reward for taking care of the Third Angel…"
"It is on the way."
'Hm?' Momonga paused. 'I haven't asked for it yet, though?'
On one hand he wanted to say 'nono, I haven't asked for anything yet', but on the other, if he said that then it would imply that he knew less than he had let on. 'I did ask for 'it' when we initially negotiated, with the intention of having Gendo come up with an appropriately outrageous demand on his own, from which I could haggle down… Don't tell me that Gendo thought I still wanted whatever 'it' was, and delivered… Haa… Figures that trying to appear mysterious would come back to bite me…'
"I see. Thank you. In that case all is in order." Momonga finally defaulted to just going with the flow. 'I'd risk losing my credibility if I tried to haggle after the other side delivered on their promise… Besides, Gendo instantly jumped to deliver his end of the deal when we first met in that forest, so I should have figured that he would have been in motion instantly when I asked for a reward…'
"..." The call ended, and Momonga lamented the lost opportunity.
He returned the receiver on top of the red phone and walked back to his half-eaten second plate of curry.
Shinji kept sending him a glare all the way through, although an envious one as opposed to Rei's outright hostile glare.
Misato merely stared at him.
"Third one, please." Momonga offered his empty plate towards Shinji after a moment.
Shinji filled it, although it looked like he was in a seriously bad mood.
'Well, teenagers are supposed to have mood swings… I shouldn't throw stones over that…' Momonga remembered his own cringy youth, and felt a bit of sympathy with Shinji.
And then he reached to pat Rei's head as she stared at him, and he figured that she might be still mad over the mention of Gendo and spooked over the call. "It's quite alright. Gendo didn't ask about you. You're safe."
'I probably shouldn't mention that the house is being spied on, or she'll probably get even more scared…' Momonga sighed as he kept patting the broken clone's head, ignoring that Shinji looked quite jealous and Misato was sending Rei a desperate look while shaking her head ever so slightly.
Rei tilted her head in absolute confusion.
.
.
"Gendo, was that…"
"...I see. So the Second is telling me that Yui's soul is safe. For now. And that it is useless for me to ask for it before I deliver on my promise."
"...Is this really wise? There's no guarantee that Second will keep it's promise. Or that it won't just outright initiate the Third Impact on it's own."
"I don't have other options… Right now."
"...Commander, I must express my worry that you're-"
"Fuytsuki. Trust me. Trust me, like you have trusted me before. This is a time of unprecedented hardship, and we need to act decisively. The Second holds Yui's soul hostage, so I have to at least pretend that it can move me as it wished."
"Is that the extent of it?"
"No, as you know. But if I had to choose between Yui and the rest of humanity…"
"...I know."
Gendo was left alone to stare out of his office's window at the slowly darkening Geofront.