"…Why me?"

"Because of your complete lack of a capacity to assert your own opinions or anything approaching resoluteness during most of your pathetic daily existence? I thought that would have been obvious by now."

With his back against the wet grass, Shinji's face twisted in annoyance as he did his best to ignore Maisie's biting and haughty words. The half-girl had just gingerly stepped through the portal and would likely not stop needling him if given the chance, so it was with a weary sigh that Shinji began to push himself up. But he was halfway through the motion when a helping hand appeared before his eyes.

Shinji blinked at the unexpected offer, wordlessly looking up at Maisie for a few, silent seconds until she raised a fake eyebrow at him.

"Would you rather I retracted my hand?" the half-girl questioned.

"No! S-Sorry!" Shinji quickly accepted the offered help, old instincts flaring up. "It's just, I-"

"Found it strange? What can I say? Even my heartstrings are pulled by your kicked-puppy expression," Maisie finished for him with words coated in sarcasm. Effortlessly, she helped the young man to his feet then carelessly turned around and continued over her shoulder. "…And you may want to step aside now, Ikari."

"Huh?" Shinji wondered, still shaken by the recent experience. "Why…?"

He realised his mistake too late, when a startled cry came from the portal. The Third Child carelessly turned towards the source and a large object impacted against his midsection a second later, pushing him back to the ground. At least he wasn't face down this time, the part of him that wasn't in pain quietly celebrated.

"Because of that," Shinji heard Maisie offhandedly respond, her usual bored self back in full force. "So predictable… always so predictable."

But most of Shinji's attention wasn't focused on the retreating Doll, just like it wasn't focused on his hurting stomach, either. His eyes were stuck to the crimson missile that had pushed him against the grass and that was currently in a bit of a daze, muttering unintelligible gibberish against his bellybutton and causing the ripples of her hot breath to spread all over his entire body.

At least the embarrassing and highly volatile situation provided Shinji with a real answer to a question he had been curious about for some time: Ace, and by extension Maisie and 'Asuka', he figured, was every bit as warm as the original person even if she was 'only' some sort of mental fabrication. Shinji wasn't about to try and make sense of that, though, especially since Asuka's talk about Aspects and the rules of the mind from what felt like an eternity ago had soared completely over his head. Maybe he would ask the kind redhead about it some other time, but for now Shinji swallowed tightly and made himself ready for what he knew was coming his way.

"C-Could you… get off?" he asked of the slowly readjusting Ace.

Said redhead slowly brought her eyes towards his face, noting his proximity with a confused look a second prior to fully digesting the details of her position. Shock, embarrassment and anger flew past the Pilot's face in that order, before she quickly put her hands against his chest and forcefully pushed herself off him.

"PERVERT!"

Ace then stormed past Maisie, huffing and puffing, but not before letting Shinji know with a single look and under no uncertain terms that the both of them landing as they had was still, somehow, entirely his fault. At least she hadn't hit him, Shinji thought with relief.

The Third Child knew that contesting the issue would lead him nowhere pleasant, so he just picked himself off the ground again to follow the group. Asuka arrived at that very moment, taking a quick look around and looking completely lost (and maybe a bit guilty) about whatever had happened during her brief absence. Shinji just deflected the girl's curious questions as well as he could, however. There was no need to sully Asuka's innocence with Ace's more annoying quirks.

The group travelled through the foggy prairies for a few minutes until they reached a sudden break in the grey barrier, at which point Shinji stopped, noticing a familiar pyramid structure in the distance, one that was painted almost exclusively in red.

"That's... NERV?"

"Right now it is," Ace gruffly replied, clearly still annoyed at him. "It wasn't when we were in Germany and maybe it will be something different a few years from now. The mindscape can be unpredictable like that."

"But… this is Headquarters, right? Why is such an important place in Asuka's mind shaped like NERV HQ?" Shinji continued, feeling more than actually noticing Ace turn to stare at him through the corner of her eye. "Is being a Pilot really so important to her?"

"Gee, I wonder if that could be it. If only we had gone over something like that a few hours ago… oh, wait. We did," the Pilot dramatically scoffed, throwing her arms up in frustration before she redoubled her pace. "You better step up your game once we get inside, Ikari, or you'll end up being just as useless as Third Wheel over there."

Shinji narrowed his eyes at the Pilot's retreating back. He did pay attention to the things that they said around him, despite Ace and Maisie's usual claims to the contrary. It was just that the idea of glorifying NERV like Asuka apparently did felt completely alien to him, but maybe that was because his point of view was so much different to hers: he never enjoyed piloting EVA, unlike his roommate.

"Don't listen to her, Shinji, you'll do just fine." Asuka promptly encouraged him from the side. "We're going to help Asuka together, remember?"

"I know," the young man agreed, putting his feet in motion again. "I guess I'm just… a little nervous."

"Well, don't be! You've got me around to show you the ropes!" Asuka raised a fist to the sky with a cheer. "We'll have you influencing like the best of them in no time!"

Shinji had to admit that Asuka's enthusiasm was as infectious as ever. Infectious enough that Shinji lamented the fact that Asuka, of all Aspects, had to be the one with barely any say in the triumvirate.

'Just imagine how an Asuka that had her at the helm could have turned out.'

Being greeted every day with a smile instead of a frown, for one, sounded like a likely scenario. Or getting some amount of personal say in his daily life instead of being told to do this and that at all times. Chances were that Asuka's social circle would have expanded to include more than just Horaki-san (and arguably himself) as actual friends. Maybe even the unimaginable could have happened and she would have become friends with Toji and Kensuke, possibly even with Ayanami. The whole thing sounded like a very nice fantasy, honestly.

But for some reason it also felt… wrong. Like an Asuka that was always cheery, empathetic and obliging wouldn't be any less fake than the wall around his Asuka, the one that he had been getting to know in detail over the last few days, cracks and lies and everything.

It was the little things that wouldn't exist in such a scenario that made being Asuka's 'friend' worth it to him, after all: watching her devour the contents of her bento box from afar when she thought no one aside from Horaki-san was looking. Listening to her make one grandiose statement after another, or trying to lead the team in that way only she knew how to pull off. Even the small, unspoken 'thank you' smile he'd gotten out of Asuka one time, after he'd brought cold tea for both of them to Misato's veranda during a hotter than usual day. All of the above would be followed by a barbed wire of indifference or a demeaning one-liner, of course, but Shinji had since learned to tell apart the really angry Asuka from the Asuka that only wanted to appear irritated.

Needing to look into the differences every single time was still very tiresome, though, not to say annoying, and he didn't need his roommate's genius intellect to know who was to blame for that.

…

…But yes, even if they made him angry more often than not, Asuka wouldn't be Asuka without Ace and Maisie. Obviously, she wasn't herself without the Asuka from this side, either, so he would need to try his best to fill in her shoes without overdoing it. Trying to strike a balance between the three sides was clearly the best idea.

His experience so far had gotten the Third Child thinking, though: did he have little Shinjis running around his head, too? And if he did, what were his like? Probably every bit as indecisive and submissive as he was, 'doormats' as Asuka had called him more than once. But maybe someone like that weird Shinji with the sideburns actually existed inside his head?

'Yeah…' Shinji chuckled under his breath. 'No way.'

"What's so funny?"

And just an instant later, he found himself staring down into Ace's inquisitive eyes.

"N-Nothing!" Shinji managed to blurt out, only for the blue laser beams pointed at his face to intensify. Obviously, Ace wasn't buying his answer, but she couldn't decide whether she wanted to wring the truth out of him or continue to be angry at him.

Eventually, the latter option appeared to win out.

"…Whatever," she scoffed and lazily motioned to a massive gate before her, one that Shinji had been too immersed in thought to see approaching. "We're here."

A quick look revealed that the gate was a part of the pyramid itself, being one with its incline and proving to be much different from the large but otherwise normal entrances to the real NERV HQ pyramid. Asuka had apparently taken some liberties with the small details, and that feeling gained even more traction when something that looked like a little drone straight out of a sci-fi movie zoomed into their vision and began scanning them. The small machine seemed to focus for a few seconds on the small, plastic rectangle he had pinned to his shirt before it flew away, leaving only a satisfied beep as a goodbye.

The doors then parted through the middle and allowed them access, the group venturing forth and entering into a gigantic room that was completely unlike the thousands of maze-like hallways of the NERV Shinji knew. Probably another unconscious artistic license on Asuka's part, since she'd always been very clear about how much she hated those 'stupid damn corridors'.

No matter how much he agreed with her on that point, something even more surprising quickly caught Shinji's attention. More than one something, actually. A couple hundred, even.

There were little Asukas with disproportionate body parts running around inside the massive structure, carrying gigantic books and assorted materials in their tiny arms as if they were working in some sort of factory floor, how their oversized heads managed to strike any sort of balance with the rest of their almost cartoony bodies proving a complete mystery to Shinji. They worked without a break and with little regard to their surroundings, interacting with nothing and veering out of their selected paths only to avoid collisions with the environment. They appeared so in sync with each other that the hundreds and possibly thousands of tiny Asukas reminded Shinji of an ant colony or a beehive.

"And those are…?" Shinji asked as his hand almost moved by itself to stroke the head of a passing mini-Asuka. That same hand quickly shot upwards when the red gremlin tried to bite it.

"Workers. They gather and classify memories, put together thoughts and actions… that kind of stuff. They're the workforce that keep Asuka's mind running, but they're really not important to us, or to you for that matter," Ace explained without stopping. "Just know that they're there and let's keep going. Over here."

Shinji and his recently appointed assistant quickly moved to follow, the former now making sure to keep an arm's length away from the so-called 'workers' while the latter tried to death glare away any further attacks against her new boss. The Asukas were so numerous that their attempts were completely futile, but the workers were also so busy with their tasks that they didn't really care about them unless repeatedly obstructed.

After what felt like a few hundred metres of walking and an elevator ride that brought the group a fair distance above the hustle and bustle below, Ace finally led them to an overlook of the area with a long and fairly wide workspace that was shaped like a big C, one that looked strikingly similar to the setup of the NERV bridge crew.

"That one over there is your seat. Your secretary will let you know how it works," Ace briefly asserted as she pointed to the chair more to the left. She then sat down in the one in the middle. "And don't fuck up, remember?"

"I know," Shinji bit back, siting and trying to make himself comfortable. "You don't need to repeat it every ten minutes."

"I'll be the judge of that," the Pilot declared. In a swift motion she then spun the chair around, throwing a superior smirk at the Third Child and poking a thumb to her chest. "And while we're inside here, you will treat me as your superior, understood? Veterancy and experience are things that must be respected!"

A soft snort sounded from somewhere around Ace's back and Shinji spied a glance to see Maisie taking a seat on the right of the console. The Pilot quickly mimicked his moves, although in her case it was probably because she wanted to retaliate, rather than because she was curious.

Still, hearing Maisie take an unspoken shot at Ace did make Shinji want to follow suit, weirdly enough. Maybe it was because of what Maisie had said to him earlier, while he was lying face down on the grass? Or maybe it was because Ace's demand had sounded so close to something 'his' Asuka could have said?

In any case, Shinji's words came out before he could even think of stopping them.

"I don't think so, Ace," Shinji quipped. "The fine print of that contract I didn't sign said nothing about that."

"E-Excuse me?!"

Ace's reaction was so like 'his' Asuka that Shinji felt his slip (and the more than likely retribution) almost justified, but…

"Pfft!" a much louder snort suddenly came from the right. "BWAHAHAHAHA!"

…Shinji was far more worried about the fact that Maisie was now laughing uncontrollably.

"I-I said that…" Shinji mumbled, his focus shifting past Ace. Had that joke even been that good?

"I heard what you said, you sassy little ingrate!" the Pilot growled back. "Fine! Be that way! But don't come crying back to me when you have a problem!"

But despite Ace's huffing and puffing, Shinji's attention was still entirely on Maisie and the last remnants of her laughing fit, the half-girl rubbing tears out of her eyes that Shinji could have sworn came out as very tiny balls of cotton. Putting the bizarre sight aside, however, what really shocked Shinji to his core was that neither of the other two Aspects appeared at all surprised with Maisie's outburst, implying that her randomly breaking down into laughter was normal.

'…Don't tell me that she's the one who handles Asuka's sense of humour.' Shinji brought the thought to its logical conclusion, struggling to actually believe it. It would explain a few more quirks of the 'real' Asuka, though.

Ace then put on a pair of huge headphones in a big show that managed to win back Shinji's attention. She began to fiddle with the console in front of her, and it was at that moment that the Third Child noticed how the computers he had assumed were just like the ones at NERV actually looked nothing like the source material. They actually reminded Shinji of those manipulation toys for toddlers, only ones that had been enlarged and made to look a bit more serious. Probably every bit as resistant, too, because Ace looked like she was trying to tear the levers and dials and little lights off her poor console, occasionally sending an incensed glare his way.

'…Better give her some space.' Shinji wisely decided. His eyes then took a quick look at his own console and concluded that it seemed very similar to Ace's before he turned his attention upwards, and towards a second and higher platform that overlooked the area he was currently in and which did look exactly as it did in the original NERV. And that being the case…

"Hey, who's that seat for?"

"Huh?" Asuka stopped organising some notes she had apparently manifested out of nowhere to look at where Shinji was pointing.

"Up there. Where… the Commander usually sits," Shinji clarified, forcing out his father's rank as he narrowed his eyes at the platform. "Is that seat used by anyone here?"

"Oh, that one! I dunno. That seat's been empty for as long as I can remember."

"So… it's just a carryover from the original NERV?"

"Maybe," Asuka responded, going back to her notes and folders. "The funny thing is that there was an important looking seat in all the other versions of HQ, too, for some reason, even if no one's ever sat on it."

"Really? Isn't that-?"

Shinji never finished his question, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets when he turned his attention towards his assistant again. At some point during the last minute Asuka had decided to change her clothes, foregoing the yellow sundress that Shinji had come to associate with her for a blouse and tight mini-skirt combination. A crimson tie, shoes and glasses of the same colour completed the look, and Asuka' flaming mane had been tied up into a bun at the top of her head, making her appear a bit older. With the notes and documents nestled in her forearm, Asuka looked like a stereotypical teacher, or… a secretary, Shinji supposed.

"'Isn't that', what?" Asuka asked back, wondering what had made Shinji stop. She then smiled and did a little twirl when she noticed his stare. "Oh! Like it? How do I look?"

"G-G-Good…" Shinji stuttered, quickly looking away. "But why…?"

"Did I change?" Asuka finished with a shrug. "I don't know, I felt like it. I mean, if the dummy over there is going to keep calling me your secretary I might as well look the part."

'I'm pretty sure that actual secretaries don't really wear that kind of outfit, though…'

Shinji kept his corrections to himself, however, justifying himself with the fact that Asuka looked really damn proud of her new look. It made him wonder whether her choice of clothing had come out of a lack of knowledge or just a desire to tease him, however, like her sisters had taken to doing.

That last thought sent a shiver down Shinji's spine. If this Asuka got used to messing with him too, what little remained of his sanity wouldn't be able to take it.

"…Never mind." Making a note of trying to convince Asuka to change clothes again in the future, Shinji quickly looked for a shift in topic.

"What's the situation?" Ace suddenly asked aloud, intruding on their conversation and saving Shinji the effort of finding an excuse. Her voice was all business, and apparently directed at no one in particular.

"Asuka's still in her room, the same as the last two hours," Maisie answered back, now wearing the same headphones that Ace had put on a few moments back. "There has been no shift in behaviour whatsoever."

"Well, that's just great," Ace grumbled, narrowing her eyes at a wide screen situated in the same spot where the holographic tactical map was in the original HQ. The screen was showing an unfamiliar ceiling, and Shinji could easily figure out whose perspective the 'video' feed was providing. "That four-eyed idiot is starting to become a major pain."

"Hey, Shinji," Asuka counselled by his side. "I think you should put on your own headphones."

"Right!" the Third Child agreed, quickly taking the red device and putting it over his ears. To his surprise, however, no sound, or music or anything at all came out of the headphones, Shinji taking a quick look to confirm that they were plugged to the console and that everything seemed to be in working condition. A quick look at Asuka dashed his doubts, his assistant wordlessly encouraging him to speak a command.

"So…" Shinji wondered, thinking of what Misato would have said in a situation like that. "Status report?"

Before long, a steady stream of information began to reach Shinji's ears, courtesy of what sounded like at least a dozen slightly different Asuka voices. Each one gave their report on a different subject, from the things Asuka had been doing since what Shinji supposed was the last update, to what she had felt or thought during the day. The voices came all at once and spoke one over the other but, in spite of that, were still perfectly understandable for some reason.

The wording of the reports was kind of weird, however. Stuff like, 'Asuka was happy about her synch-results lately,', 'Asuka complained of the lack of proper sleep lately,' or 'Asuka became sad at being told a bad joke recently.' It was understandable, but far more detached and less informative than Shinji had expected.

"So Asuka's angry at… Makinami-san?" Shinji deciphered, not all that surprised by the news. "I guess it must be because of something she said. Maybe she's still mad about that Misato joke she made?"

Shinji posed his question to the area around him, hoping that maybe one of his two co-workers would shed some light on the situation, but neither Ace nor Maisie paid him any mind. They were immersed in their own work, asking for updates and flicking their gazes to the screen from time to time.

"Okay…" the Third Child then asked his secretary, watching the other two Aspects type into their computers. "What now?"

"Now you write a proposal for what Asuka should do!"

"So I just write whatever and she'll do it?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Remember that we only influence and propose things Asuka could do, the actual decision making is not in our hands."

"Oh, right. One of you mentioned something about that," Shinji recalled, a thought then coming to his mind. "And who handles that decision? Is it another 'you'?"

"I dunno. I think it's Asuka herself that chooses, but I don't know for sure," Asuka replied with a shrug. "You probably know better than me about that, Shinji."

Shinji considered his assistant's words, comparing what she had proposed to his own experiences: what if all those times when he had felt that he had to make choices or think about things to do, the little Shinjis that maybe lived inside his own head were the ones feeding him possibilities?

'If they do, they do a pretty crap job most of the time,' the Third Child thought, amused. 'No point in thinking about that, though. What should Asuka do in this situation?'

A quick glance with Asuka's vision reported that it was fairly late in the evening, around the time when Asuka usually had dinner. The most recent reports also gave Shinji more information about his roommate's situation, like how she was currently living with Ayanami and Makinami-san under some sort of training. It was safe to assume that the other two pilots were somewhere in the apartment, then.

"She should… go have dinner," Shinji promptly typed into his console, having reached a decision. "And talk… with the others."

The Third Child pressed the Enter key and a pop-up window asking him whether he wanted to confirm his proposal appeared in his screen. One quick click of the integrated mouse and a little Asuka flashing a victory sign showed up on-screen, the words 'MESSAGE SENT' floating around her.

After a few seconds the screen changed again: it now showed a bunch of Asukas wearing yellow construction hardhats, separated into three groups by the colour of their vests. The three teams then began building what appeared to be an Asuka statue each, rising higher and higher while a percentage number at the top did the same. It was probably meant to be some sort of breakdown of Asuka's decision, since the other two statues had a label below them explaining their proposals, too: 'Stay inside and go to sleep' and 'Come out and put Rei and Mari in their place'.

It wasn't hard for Shinji to figure out who had proposed what, the Third Child following the little Asukas with rapt attention as they continued their work in the same manner a manga character would. The whole thing was certainly kinda cute, but also really silly. Almost childish, in fact.

'…It sure fits Asuka to a tee.'

It wasn't long before the Third Child focused his attention back on his own work: much to his surprise, 'his' Asukas had built the largest statue and were now celebrating at the top. Shinji felt a tingle of pride within him at his victory, but it was quickly overshadowed when he felt the sharp look that came from his right.

Doing his best to ignore Ace's glare, Shinji actually stopped to consider for a second what he had asked Asuka to do, finding it to be something that he himself probably wouldn't have done in her shoes. He found it morbidly funny how his usual hesitation didn't rear its ugly head when he was making decisions for someone else.

Pushing the thought aside, Shinji watched as Asuka complained about being hungry and rose up from her bed, opening the door of her room and walking with heavy steps towards the kitchen area.

-O]|[O-

It was dinner time when Asuka finally emerged from her private area of the apartment, to find a spread of delicious-looking food waiting on the living room's table. Apology food, the Second Child guessed, quickly finding that the sight made the growls of her protesting stomach, the only reason she had come out in the first place, almost unbearable to suffer.

"Oh, Princess!" Mari exclaimed when she spotted her, putting a slightly dirty apron into the washing machine. "You're out!"

Rei stopped setting up the table just long enough to send a curious look Asuka's way, and the sudden attention made Asuka feel tempted to grab a snack from the fridge and retreat back into seclusion. In the end, though, that idea fell through when the much bigger temptation on sight compelled Asuka to take her seat at the table, much to Mari's undisguised joy.

There was a third plate at the table already, after all. It would be silly to leave it unused.

"Looks like someone's hungry~" Mari sang, walking over and sitting in the chair to Asuka's right. Rei joined a few moments later and completed the triangle at the table. "Right, we're all set now! How's that thing that you guys say at the table? 'Thanks for the food'?"

The other two Pilots had already began to pick away at their food and showed no interest in responding to Mari's question (much to the girl's dismay), and that state of affairs carried over throughout the entire dinner in spite of the Fifth Child's fruitless attempts to strike a conversation. Other, more subtle communication did take place in its stead, however, as Asuka covertly hunted for clues that would give her information about what happened during the evening.

Much to her surprise, Asuka found the biggest hint when she looked at the First Child: in both of her hands, some of the girl's fingertips were covered in carefully-wrapped band-aids. Clearly, Ayanami had been helping with the cooking. Or trying to, anyway, because it was clear by the state of Ayanami's hands that the Fifth had probably done the better share of the work. The First Child's clumsiness aside, however, the small scrap of knowledge sent another, different message straight into Asuka's mind.

'They're really trying to make this whole thing work, aren't they…?' Asuka thought, correctly assuming that the First and Fifth Children had stuck to the principles of their 'training' even in her own absence.

Which was already more than she, the Great Asuka Langley-Sohryu, had done. And no more than an hour after she had told Misato that she would try to become a good leader for the Pilot corps, too. What little value the word of the Second Child held, failing miserably when faced with the very first hurdle that had been put in her way.

'How very you, Asuka.'

That last thought echoing within her mind for a short while, the Second Child snapped back into awareness when her fork struck an empty plate. Blinking, Asuka noticed that she had managed to devour the entire serving while completely out of it, and was even more surprised when Rei took the now empty plate and useless fork out of her hands and made her way towards the sink. Mari followed with a quip about 'Bluebird leading the way', grabbing a few handfuls of the dinnerware and picking a spot for herself next to Rei.

Asuka watched them work, noticing before long that neither of the two girls had completely cleaned off the table. A few plates, glasses and knives remained behind, making up roughly a third of the original spread that the Second Child had seen on her arrival.

'...Damn, I knew that Wondergirl couldn't do subtle if her life depended on it, but I expected Glasses to be a bit better at it,' Asuka thought with a sigh, narrowing her eyes at the defenceless dinnerware. 'But there's really no getting out of this one, is there? You don't want to wear that stupid thing, and you also know that Misato will show no mercy, Asuka. It goes without saying that she'll also be disappointed if you fail to see this through...'

A heavier, deeper sigh followed, but before she could second-guess herself, Asuka stood up and joined her peers at the sink, remaining plates and glasses in hand. Neither Mari nor Rei made any mention of her actions, the trio working as a well-oiled washing, drying and placing machine within a few seconds of Asuka joining them.

Before long, all the washing up was finished. And while the Fifth Child had no doubt expected Asuka to storm out towards her private room the very moment the group had finished their first joint effort, Asuka surprised her by burying her head in her arms and resting against the table, instead. She remained like that for a few minutes, not moving in the slightest except for the steady rise and fall of her breathing, the other two Pilots sharing a brief look and eventually joining Asuka at the table at Mari's silent behest.

"...Fine, I like the moron. And it makes as little sense to me as it does to anyone else in this stupid world," Asuka admitted out of nowhere, to the mild shock of everyone present. "Are you going to get off my case about it now?"

-O]|[O-

Just as Shinji had suspected, Ayanami and Makinami-san were both working hard on dinner, a feast that looked fairly tasty to the young man's somewhat experienced eyes. It wasn't anything extravagant by any means, but all the basics were covered and well-seasoned and the meal had been made to look both attractive and appetizing as well. The mark of someone who knew what they were doing.

'Makinami-san must be a pretty good cook.' Shinji noted with approval, noticing the bandages on Ayanami's fingers that clearly disqualified her for the lion's share of the work.

Asuka sat down after a bit of grumbling and the trio shared a silent dinner despite Makinami-san's best efforts, rising up to do the washing up together after they were finished and giving Shinji a fairly good idea (and bad memories) of what Misato was trying to do with her training regime. Some small talk also sprung up between the three pilots at that point too, nothing important at all but just enough to allow Shinji to learn that apparently their input wasn't necessary during most conversations, Asuka choosing her own responses by herself.

There were some times in which a bunch of answers would appear on screen like they were some sort of multiple choice test, but Ace and Maisie, being a lot more proficient at their jobs than he currently was, would always beat him to them. Before long, Shinji gave up on getting his way on those for the time being and turned towards Asuka, who was eagerly following his progress.

"Now that I think about it," Shinji asked her, his work bringing up a fairly recent memory. "What exactly did you do to get yourself expelled? You never told me."

The happy smile that had adorned Asuka's face until that moment promptly disappeared to make way for a troubled grimace.

"…Oh, that…"

"Ace said that you ignored the rules and forced Asuka to do something, right?" Shinji continued. "Was it something bad?"

"Well, I mean…" Asuka sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I thought it was a good idea at the time, but it's pretty clear by now that I was wrong."

"So... what did you do?"

"You're really not going to let it go, are you?" Asuka groaned, but ultimately relented. "...Fine, fine. You deserve to know, at this point. Remember that day you went to visit your mother's grave...?"

"You did that?!" Shinji exclaimed, taking him less than half a second to figure out where she was going.

"I started it, because at that point it was the huge, pink elephant in the room," Asuka elaborated, motioning with a serious face towards her two others. "But then they decided to try and block me and I was forced into going all-in. The two of them didn't understand that quitting halfway through would have been an even worse idea, and here we are."

"B-But why?" Shinji insisted, thinking back with a grimace to the time Asuka had demanded the strangest thing out of him. "I mean, you of all people should have known that Asuka doesn't-"

"Fine, I like the moron," Asuka's voice suddenly intruded into Shinji's reply, coming from the large screen. "And it makes as little sense to me as it does to anyone else in this stupid world. Are you going to get off my case about it, now?"

The Second Child's sudden admission left Shinji as shocked as the twin-tailed girl he could see through the monitor. After all, his ears couldn't possibly have heard that correctly, right? There had to be some sort of problem with the audio feed, right?

…

...right?

Shinji quietly demanded answers from Asuka right as he heard something that sounded very much like Ace breaking down into a stuttering wreck next to him but, for her part, his secretary merely pointed forward at the screen with another sigh.

"…Because of that."