"Aida!"

Kensuke looked up from his mobile camcorder to see his class representative. He was busying himself in the twilight hours of lunch organizing its storage, deleting old photos and videos that would never be of use. The thing was in prime condition. Some might call the maintenance obsessive, but it functioning properly was very important to him. Anyone and everyone he could hold a conversation with was absent. He hadn't even been aware that he was being spoken to, much less the class rep.

"Did you hear anything I said?" Hikari said

"It wouldn't hurt if you repeated yourself," he said.

"You have to deliver these printouts to Ayanami's house! It's your turn."

He looked at the papers. "Since when have we been taking turns?"

"Since now."

"And why aren't you doing this yourself?"

Hikari crossed her arms and frowned. "I'm delegating, or would you prefer to have cleaning duty for the rest of the month?"

"Nope. Hand 'em over."

She did so. "If I find out you just stuffed them into the trash somewhere…"

"They'll get where they need to go, don't worry," he said as he put them in his backpack.


The disparity between Ayanami's residence and the rest of the city wasn't a stark line. As he neared the sounds of construction, which suspected to be demolition, and their effects, became more prominent. It seemed that renovation was long overdue to him. He had considered turning back, uncertain that this was even Ayanami's place. But he knew better, knew almost everyone's address in his class, and had directed Shinji here before without complaint.

"Hey! Anybody home?" he said as he banged on the door. No response. Again, he considered going back. Then he remembered the threat delivered should his classmate not get the material. No invitation was as good as any given the circumstances. He slowly turned the handle and walked inside, almost slipping on the piles of mail that had piled up in the doorway.

He made his way into the main room, which seemed to be her bedroom, doing his best to ignore the depressing sight. There was a cabinet that seemed reasonably cleared off, save for a small book and a broken set of glasses. He put the papers down, intent on leaving, when he took a closer look at the book. It was black and unmarked. The only thing that set it apart from its environment was its good condition and the lack of dust. It looked like it was a journal. Considering everything, it seemed strange that Ayanami would be the type to keep a journal. He'd think this room was uninhabited like the rest of the building appeared to be were it not for this book proving that to be a lie. He permitted his curiosity to get the better of him as he opened the book to the middle.

Blue, like the ocean I've never seen,
Deep, like the sea I've never swam,
Dark, like the depths I'd prefer to plunge,
Heavy, like the waves yet to crash against me,
I know what it feels like,
And I've never been

He read the page again. Then again. He turned the page.

How is it cold?
When there is no power,
and no wind?
How can anything be cold?
when there is so much friction,
so many people moving around

He went back to the very beginning, first page.

Mirrored,
Reflecting everything around it,
Crushing and burning and attacking everything around it,
They are human,
but more pure, free from sin

Kensuke flipped through the book. He realized the entire thing was filled with poetry, not a single line without, and none of the individual pieces were named. He regarded the thing for a moment, before placing it back down. He turned around and left, closing the door behind him, almost slipping again on his way out.


"I'm home," Kensuke said as he entered his house. The television was still on, and his father sat on the couch, asleep. He crept around to his room, and closed the door behind him. Working as long as he did, it'd be better if the old man slept in a proper bed. Kensuke changed and grabbed his bag and a spare set of clothes, then left just as quietly as he came. He wasn't concerned, his father knew he could take care of himself.

The sun had gone down by the time he got to his destination. The chalk had been washed away, and grass and small trees had returned, but the destruction was still evident. It was in the branches, strewn with too many snapped off limbs. The texture of the earth was too dense, packed by the immense weight of Unit 1. The slope wasn't so steep that he couldn't rest, and it provided a nice view of the city.

Camp was set up quickly, and school work brought out. A small lamp provided the only light. History was quickly completed. Second impact and it's effects made up social studies. Math proved to be a problem. There was more to it than regurgitating information, and he'd paid scarce attention during those lessons. His mind wandered, towards his absent classmate, and distraction took hold. A growing concern nagged at him.

With a sigh he put the work back in his pack. He could always do it later. Instead, he took out a notebook and began writing. With only a vague end product in mind, the only path forward was to start putting words on the page. It was quite a long time before he finished, and he fell asleep under the sky, not bothering to climb into his tent.


"Hey Ayanami, did you get those homework printouts?" Hikari asked

"Yes. They're completed." Rei said

"That's good. How are you?"

"I am fine." The conversation done, she went to her seat. Hikari often asked Rei how she was doing and if she needed any help getting caught up. The class rep's small concern did not bother her.

Class started quickly, and the teacher called them to begin work on their computers. As Rei opened the one assigned to her, a folded piece of paper fluttered out onto her lap. She examined it closer, and found there was writing on the inside.

When I think of you,
I think of the sky,
It sees all,
Without condemning,
I wonder what it wonders

If I could ask it a question,
I'd ask why it doesn't just fall?
Down to the Earth
Where all life dwells

If I could have a wish,
I'd wish your Eva was lighter blue,
So it'd remind me of you,
A piece of the sky here on earth

She looked around towards the rest of the class. All the other students seemed to be going about their day as usual. Shinji seemed to be focused, as well as Asuka. There was a head down towards the back of the class, sleeping. She wondered if the schoolwork was truly so difficult. Clacks from the keyboards and Soryu's foot tapping on the floor provided the only sound.

"Miss Ayanami? Please log in to your computer," said the teacher. She complied. Class passed by very slowly.


"Are you enjoying your meal Rei?" Asked Gendo.

She was. The noodles were as delicious as always. The money put forward to feeding her in such a manner must have been high, though she didn't know that for certain. She finished what was in her mouth before replying. "Yes," She said.

Silence resumed as it had before. Gendo chose to eat a rare steak, cutting it up with a knife and fork. Several figures waited on them from the sidelines. Rei was served a bowl of vegetarian ramen. She ate slowly, deliberately. It would be fruitless to compare it to the kind she subsisted herself off of normally. To do so would devalue both.

"Is something the matter?" Said Gendo.

"No," said Rei. Gendo continued to eat his food, occasionally glancing at a small tablet towards his side. She likewise resumed. Again, like before, nothing occurred besides the sound of silverware and chopsticks meeting plate and bowl breaking the air. "Commander?"

Gendo looked up at her. If he felt any surprise at her initiating dialogue, he didn't show it. "Yes?" He said.

"Who determines the Evangelions coloration?"

"Excuse me?"

"Who is in charge of the Eva's paint."

There was a small pause before he answered. "Dr. Akagi is the head of project E. Minutia such as that is her purview."

"I see," Said Rei. She went back to eating her noodles.

"Why do you ask?"

"I was curious."

Gendo said nothing, and went back to his meal.


"Hey, why you still got your computer open?"

Kensuke didn't look up at his friend, whose arms were filled with various foodstuffs he had acquired from lunch. Setting down his catch, Toji looked at the computer Kensuke was staring at. On it was a video feed from some shady looking website with some choice advertisements that caught his eye for a moment before he noticed what was playing. Unit-00 was center stage, running resoundingly fast for something as massive as it was. From the perspective of the camera, it seemed as though an olympic sprinter was competing atop a diorama. But it wasn't a diorama. Unit-00 crushed through an unfortunately placed transmission tower, not even noticing it. Though the footage was grainy, Toji could see clouds of dust signaling the movement of the other behemoths.

"Man, you never change do you?" Toji said. He pulled up a chair behind his friend.

"Yeah," Kensuke said, not turning from the computer. The camera perspective swung up towards the monster dominating the sky. It fell quickly enough that a visible wake formed behind it. "You see how big that thing is? must be over a Kilometer wide."

"That's great Ken. Did you even get any lunch?"

"Yeah,' Kensuke said, his desk bereft of anything save the computer. The Eva's neared the Angel, and followed by a flash. Dust scattered everywhere in a circle. Or at least mostly dust by volume. Though obscured, Toji reasoned that it would also contain a good deal of rubble and trees. Maybe a few houses. "See, there's no way anything else could deal with something like that. Even that JA that was tested could handle this. If it would even comply that is. Thing seemed not so well built if you ask me."

Toji didn't voice his thoughts on the concept of a giant robot. Didn't say how they have a tendency to cause collateral damage, or go crazy, or how with the JA it almost turned into a vary conveniently placed bomb. Instead, he regarded his friend, "So Ken, you think the Evas are getting replaced," Toji said.

Kensuke made a noise of agreement, still not even glancing in Toji's direction. The feed was obscured as the wave of particulate hit the cameraman's position. Kensuke leaned in closer to try to see, as if that would actually help.

"So when you went to Ayanami's house, you took a bunch of her panties right?" Toji asked, just loud enough to be overheard.

"Yeah-"

"Kensuke! What is wrong with you?" Hikari said. Kensuke blinked and looked at the class rep, who had orbited over without his knowledge. Several seconds passed as she hovered over him, waiting for a response. When no answer came from her classmate, she said "So, I'm going to give you two choices. Either we go to the principal's office, or you do cleanup duty for the rest of the month."

Kensuke looked at Toji. "Not funny"

Toji looked him back dead in the eye. "It kinda is."


AN. Thanks for reading my short thing. Criticism is welcome.