"This is Tokyo-3, I am attempting to contact any of the Returned. Can you hear me?"
Silence.
He handed it to Asuka. "Your turn."
"Tokyo-Drei…ist da irgendjemand draußen?"
Silence.
"Tokyo-3, is anybody there?"
Silence.
"Well, I guess that's it for now," she sighed. "You ready to head out?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Episode 3: The Guardian
Asuka smelled the air. "…it's…different, don't you think?"
"What is?"
"The air."
Shinji gave a puzzled sniff. "What do you mean?"
"Like there's more of a bite to it."
He smelled the air again. She was right. "Yeah…and it feels cooler out, too. Ms. Misato once said something about how when the seasons used to change you could smell it in the air before it even got cold."
"Well, Third Impact must have done a hard reset on the environment, so we're gonna have seasons again." She pursed her lips. "That must mean it's September. Wow, we were in there for a long time, weren't we Shinji?"
Shinji didn't respond.
"Shinji?"
He could vaguely hear her trying to talk to him, but his focus was on something else. The path to the grocery store gave him a vantage point of the beach. And just beyond the beach, floating above the ocean of LCL, was the figure of a blue-haired girl in a school uniform.
"Hey, baka-Shinji."
"Hey!" he exclaimed, jolting out of his daze. "I thought you were done calling me that."
"It got your attention, didn't it?" Asuka shrugged. "What were you looking at?"
Shinji looked out at the horizon. The figure was gone. "It was…nothing. Let's keep going."
Asuka stared at the solitary pack of ramen. "This is the last one," she called out.
"Well there's still plenty of the instant curry packets!" Shinji replied from the other aisle. "And some microwave rice."
Asuka grabbed the ramen pack and nervously tapped it against her hand. "I don't like this," she said.
There was a brief silence before Shinji appeared from the next aisle over. "What do you mean?"
"I've been here for only a week and we're already running out of food."
Shinji laughed. "We have plenty of food at the house, this is just a restock."
"What about when the store runs out?"
"Well then we'll go and find another one."
"And when that runs out? How long do you think we can keep this up, just living off instant foods?" She held up the pack. "Do you see the nutritional content in this? You're even scrawnier than usual from living off of this stuff!"
Shinji pretended he didn't hear that last part. "Well… we have the vegetables in the greenhouse."
"That's barely enough for two, and neither of us exactly have green thumbs."
Shinji shrugged. "I don't know, I mean I've been doing pretty well as is."
Asuka couldn't imagine how he could be so confident when he'd only been tending to the garden for a few weeks at best. "Well, just something to think about." She threw the empty pack into the shopping cart. "Because unless we come up with a proper sustainable food source, we're gonna die from too much MSG before we ever reach 20."
"I just don't see how you can talk so much about starvation when we have such a full cart," Shinji remarked as he and Asuka pushed the heavy shopping cart down the deserted street.
"Shinji, do you understand how ridiculous it is that we're becoming hunter-gatherers?"
"…what?"
"We're foraging, we're finding food by gathering it where we can find it. Not only is that incredibly stupid for two teenagers raised in modern civilization, it means we're gonna have to eventually start traveling when the food in Tokyo-3 inevitably runs out. Are you planning on becoming a nomad?"
"…no?"
"Then we need to really think about the long-term."
"What are you suggesting?"
"I don't know…maybe setting up our own farm?"
"You can't be serious."
"It's just an idea. We could…we could find chickens, and then we'd have a regular supply of eggs and poultry."
"Next thing you know we'll be raising cows."
"You laugh now, but they're versatile."
"Oh really, how?"
"Well, milk, for starters, which let's face it, you need."
"Thanks."
"Meat, which we could preserve. And… you know, fertilizer."
"Fertilizer."
"Yeah, fertilizer."
"…"
"…"
"You couldn't just say…the actual term?"
"Of course not, it wouldn't be proper! Anyway, I'm just throwing ideas in the air, I mean it would be impossible for us to…to…" She trailed away.
"What is it?"
Asuka didn't answer. Instead she was staring through the window of a nearby ruined building. Behind the broken glass, she could make out the figure of a certain blue-haired girl in a school uniform.
"Asuka?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she let go of the cart and made a dash for it.
"Hey, whoa whoa whoa!" Shinji steadied the cart, which nearly rolled away. "Wait a second!"
Asuka ran through the door, up the stairs, until she reached the window where she could've sworn she saw Rei. But as she had suspected would happen, she found no one there: just some old furniture and some graffiti on the wall that just said "eighteenth."
Wait…graffiti? Was that left over from before Third Impact?
Shinji appeared behind her. "Asuka, what is it?"
"I… sorry, I thought I saw something." She took one last look around before heading for the door. "I must've imagined it. Let's go, Shinji."
"You saw her, didn't you?"
She stopped. "What?"
"You saw Ayanami. I saw her too, this morning. She was watching me on our way to the store. And that wasn't the first time I've seen her."
Asuka stared at him. "Has that doll been spying on us?"
"Don't call her that. And no, I don't think that's it."
"Well why else would she be creeping on us like that?"
"The last time I saw her…it was the day you showed up. I think she was trying to let me know you were here."
"So then why would she—"
They stared at each other. And then they nearly collided as they both made a run for the door.
They were extremely out of breath when they finally made it to the beach, but they only had a singular goal in mind.
"Over there!" Asuka shouted.
There was someone on the beach. Her form was distinctly female, and she lay prone, with the waves gently lapping at her feet. Apparently the tide had brought her in.
Shinji and Asuka sprinted down the sand, getting closer. More details emerged—this person was wearing a red jacket with a black dress, and her hair had a distinctly purple tinge.
Asuka came to a complete halt when she realized who it was. But Shinji kept running until he was right before the body. Initially unsure, he knelt down and gently rolled her onto her back.
"Asuka, look!" he called out.
Lying there, with bandages covering the injuries she had sustained from the trigger-happy JSSDF, was his former guardian Misato Katsuragi.
Shinji knelt down, putting his ear near her face, and then checked her pulse. "She's alive!" he called out. "We need to bring her back to the house!" He grabbed Misato's arm and threw it over his shoulder as he tried to drag her up. "Asuka, help me out!"
Asuka stared at Misato. In her mind she had nothing but contempt for this woman: for letting Asuka self-destruct under her watch, for forcing the both of them to pilot the EVAs when they were most vulnerable, for taking advantage of Shinji at his darkest hour.
"Asuka, come on!"
But right now Shinji needed help.
Asuka sighed before walking over and throwing Misato's other arm over her shoulder. "If this hurts my back, I'm blaming you," she said to her unconscious former guardian before she and Shinji both lifted Misato up and began dragging her towards the house.
"Mommy, mommy!"
"What is it, Shinji?"
"Look what I found! It's a worm!"
"A worm?! Now where on earth did you find that?"
"In the garden! Under some leaves! Can I keep it?"
"Oh Shinji, why don't you show it to Asuka? She'll want to see that for sure!"
"Mommy, I can't show it to Asuka!"
"And why not?"
"Because Asuka doesn't like me, Mommy."
"What? What makes you say that?"
"Because she hates my guts, Mommy."
"Shinji, where is this coming from? I'll get your father. Kaji! Where are you?"
"She just wants me to die."
"Of course she doesn't want you to die, Shinji! She kissed you that one time, remember?"
"But you kissed me too, Mommy."
"…"
"Mommy, if I let her die, would you be mad at me?"
"I…"
"If I let everyone die, would you hate me?"
"Shinji…"
"You kissed me Ms. Misato, does that also mean you hate me?"
"Why did you do it?" Rei asked.
"Do what? Kiss him?"
"…"
"…I thought I was helping. I thought it would be his last push."
"…"
"But it wasn't what he needed at that moment."
"You manipulated him."
"Yes."
"Yet the world that you take the most comfort in is the one where you are still his guardian."
"It's not just that!" Misato clenched her fists as she shouted at Rei. "That's…that's how it should have been! Me and Kaji together… we could've looked after Shinji and Asuka. It would have been like one happy family."
"Was this not possible in your previous life?"
Misato stood there silently.
"Was it, Katsuragi?" Kaji asked, appearing nearby.
Silence.
"No. No it wasn't. Not with everything that was happening."
Kaji smiled weakly. "I know what you're thinking, Katsuragi."
Misato looked at him. "Kaji, make me stay."
"I can't do that. This is something you know you need to do."
"If I go back, I'll lose you."
He laughed as he gently caressed her face. "You lost me a long time ago, Katsuragi. All this…this is just your image of me. So I guess in some ways…" he was already beginning to fade. "I'll always be with you."
Misato stood alone with Rei for what seemed like an eternity.
"What do you intend to do?" Rei asked gently.
"I'm… I'm gonna protect them."
"From what?"
"The world." She straightened her back a little. "I'll be the parent they never had."
"You tried that before, did you not?"
Misato didn't remember Rei having this much backtalk. "Well… it's different now. There's no one else out there to interfere, so…I can raise them the correct way."
"It will not be easy."
"Well, parenting never is."
"I wasn't talking about parenting."
She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
Is this my house? she thought. Was it all a dream?
She glanced to her right and immediately made eye-contact with a scrawny teenage boy. "Shinji…?" she asked faintly.
And immediately his face was buried into her shoulder as he hugged her tightly. "I failed you, Ms. Misato," he wept. "I failed everyone."
"It's…it's okay," she immediately soothed as she hugged him back. "It wasn't your fault, Shinji."
The world was coming into focus. She was in a bed that wasn't hers. This room was not hers.
She was suddenly aware of a red-haired figure standing in a corner, leaning against a wall, glaring at her.
"Asuka…?"
"I hope the bed's comfortable," was all she said before walking out.
An Uncertain Reunion
She needed a drink.
No, no she didn't. She did not need to drink right now.
But a cold beer would be wonderful, wouldn't it?
Just…something with alcohol.
She doubted the kids had scavenged for beer. But she could check, just to be sure…
"Calm yourself, Katsuragi," she muttered. "You can live without beer for a while longer."
As opposed to not living.
She needed a distraction. So she decided to take in her surroundings for the first time.
The room smelled like Asuka.
She'd spent enough time living in the same apartment as that girl to know her scent. Asuka had been living in this room for a little while.
She walked over to the drawer and looked inside. Asuka's clothes in one, Shinji's clothes in another.
Hmm, looks like Shinji swapped out the collared shirts for some t-shirts.
Two more drawers, both empty. One of those was probably going to be hers.
She went to the window and opened the shades. What greeted her was the view of the street, with debris from the events of Third Impact lining it.
She didn't know what Shinji and Asuka's food situation was, but imagined they would need help scavenging food. If they could find a car, she could probably jerry-rig it as a new means of transportation. Probably a Jeep or some other off-road vehicle.
Then she went to the closet and looked inside.
Some towels, a few shirts that didn't look like they fit Shinji or Asuka—probably belonged to whoever lived in the house before them.
She was about to close the door when something caught her eye—what looked like small marks along the walls.
She pushed aside some of the clothes and took a closer look. Suddenly she realized they were tally marks.
"What the hell…" she muttered as she began counting them.
Shinji smelled the vegetable broth. "Hey Asuka, come try this."
Asuka rolled her eyes before walking over and grabbing the ladle from Shinji. She dipped it in the pot and took a taste.
"Well?" Shinji asked.
"It's not gonna get any better," she replied bluntly.
Shinji shook his head. "It's just something to put in her stomach, I'm not trying for luxury."
Asuka folded her arms as she leaned against the counter. "You didn't pamper me this much when I got back," she muttered. "Unless you thought that was somehow a form of greeting."
Shinji opened up one of the ramen soup bases and poured it into the broth. "I thought I already apologized for that."
"Where was my hot bowl of soup in bed?"
"I gave you ramen! And anyway, you locked yourself in what was technically my room as soon as you finished."
"Yeah? Well apparently that room's just gonna go to every one of your girlfriends who shows up on the beach, huh? Can't wait to see Rei."
Shinji glared at Asuka.
"What?"
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Oh, so sorry, your mother… wait, are we talking about Rei or Ms. Misato?"
Shinji gave her an exasperated look. "Ms. Misato, obviously!" He angrily drained the noodles, dropped them into the bowl, and poured the soup over them.
Asuka watched him do this and bit back her response until he had picked up the bowl and chopsticks and was headed to the bedroom door. "She cleaned your tonsils out with her tongue! That wasn't very motherly of her!"
Shinji stopped in his tracks. "Asuka, I'm only gonna ask you this once."
"Really. Well, don't let me stop you, go ahead."
He turned and flashed her a look that suddenly made her very nervous. "Lay off." And then he disappeared into the bedroom.
Asuka stood there in utter shock.
It wasn't just the fact that Shinji had apparently grown a pair for once in his life. It was the fact that he still seemed to care more about her.
Asuka decided she needed to go for a walk.
"125…130…135—"
"Ms. Misato, obviously!"
She stopped counting.
"She cleaned your tonsils out with her tongue! That wasn't very motherly of her!"
She forgot all about the tally marks. Instead she listened at the door.
"Asuka, I'm only gonna ask you this once."
"Really. Well don't let me stop you, go ahead."
"Lay off."
She heard Shinji approaching the door and immediately leapt for the bed, managing to sit down just as he entered.
"…is everything alright?" Shinji asked, sensing something had just happened.
Misato nervously crossed her legs and leaned back in a pose that she knew was a little too casual. "Everything's great, just peachy," she said, somehow making it worse.
He handed her the bowl and sat down on the bed next to her.
She sniffed the contents. They looked and definitely smelled like ramen, but there was something different about the soup. "What's in this?" she asked.
"It's ramen, but…I used vegetable broth instead of just water for the soup."
"Vegetable broth?" She gave it a taste. It wasn't particularly amazing, but it definitely tasted gentler than just plain instant ramen. "Where'd you get the vegetables?" she asked as she began to dig in.
"There's a greenhouse in the backyard. Carrots, tomatoes, a couple of herbs… we have our own ecosystem."
"You've made a little home for yourselves, then, haven't you? How long have you been back?"
"Asuka's been back for a week," Shinji said. "I was…a little bit before that."
"One week alone with Asuka. I'm surprised you two didn't kill each other yet." Then, noticing Shinji's look, "…that was a joke."
"I know."
Misato lowered the bowl, which she had somehow consumed half of in a very short amount of time. "Is everything alright with you two?" she asked, concerned.
Shinji knew she had overheard at least some of the conversation, but he only gave a blasé shrug. "It's Asuka, it's never okay between us."
"…she knows about what I did to you, doesn't she? Before I put you on the elevator to the cage?"
Shinji froze.
Misato sighed. Suddenly she didn't feel very hungry. "I guess there's no keeping secrets about before Third Impact from any of us, is there?"
"No, there's not."
"Shinji, I…" She bit her lip.
"I don't want to 'do the rest'," Shinji said quickly.
"No!" Oh god. "No, of course not. But… Shinji, it wasn't right for me to do that…" She trailed off. How could she even talk about this?
"Not now," he said. "We don't have to talk about this now."
"Shinji, if we don't talk about it—"
"I know. It's going to hang over our heads. But right now I care more about you finishing your meal."
The earnestness in that last sentence made Misato smile. Shinji always seemed to surprise her in some way. It was hard to believe this was the same boy she'd met only a year ago.
Only a year ago from my perspective, she thought to herself as she continued eating.
Asuka kept on walking until she found the building where they'd left the shopping cart, still piled high with supplies.
Stupid Major Katsuragi. They were barely scraping by as it was, now they had a third mouth to feed. Which meant they needed the food in this cart.
Shinji took hunger for granted, but Asuka knew what it felt like to starve to death. And she wasn't about to let Major Katsuragi be responsible for it twice.
Asuka walked around and began pushing the cart. But then she felt some trickling on her face. And suddenly it was raining.
Of course. Changed weather patterns brought about by someone reforming their AT Fields after freeing themselves from Instrumentality.
Right when she was out here, without an umbrella, pushing a shopping cart full of food.
"You have a sick sense of humor, you know that?!" she called into the air, hoping Rei would somehow hear her.
Asuka had barely adjusted the direction of the cart when she felt it clang against a large rock she hadn't even noticed in its path. Sighing, she stomped over to the rock and tried to kick it out of the way.
When it didn't budge, she knelt down, hoisted it into her arms, and looked for a place to gently place it. But its weight ached in her shoulders, prompting her to simply chuck it in whatever direction she happened to be facing.
That direction happened to be the building, and the rock flew straight through a window, shattering the glass.
Asuka stared at the broken glass, then at the various other windows on the ground floor. Then she grabbed another rock and threw it into a relatively un-damaged window, watching the glass shatter from the impact.
She remembered buildings like this. She'd resigned herself to living in the ruins of one during her worst moment. But now they were only a reminder of those times.
And they deserved to be destroyed.
But that would happen another day. For now she needed to take the food home before it got all soaked.
Shinji peeked back in after he finished cleaning up Misato's food. "You should get some rest," he said. "We can talk in the morning, maybe Asuka will have calmed down a little."
"Yeah," Misato agreed. "A house meeting—just like old times."
Shinji smiled. "Just like old times." He started to leave.
She stood up. "Shinji, wait."
He stopped. "Yes?"
She looked over at the closet. Should she ask him about it?
"I'm… I'm really glad to see you again."
He stared at her for a long time, unsure of how to respond. Then tears started to well up in his eyes.
"Shinji?"
"I thought you were gone forever!" he burst. "When you got shot, when I saw the blood after you left me in the elevator, when I heard the explosion…I thought you would never come back!"
She immediately walked over and pulled him into a tight embrace. "I'm here now, Shinji. And I'm not going away."
He let out a few tearful gasps before hugging her even tighter.
It took a couple of moments for Misato to realize a very soaked Asuka was standing in the hallway right outside the door, staring at them.
"Inseparable," she remarked.
Shinji abruptly let go of Misato and faced Asuka. "You're back."
"Were you crying?" Asuka asked, noticing his red eyes. "What happened?"
"It's nothing," Shinji said. "Just… we were talking about something. Was it raining?"
Asuka raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, baka, what do you think? Just letting you know I picked up the shopping cart."
"Oh, I forgot we left it! Do you want a towel or something?"
"Don't worry about it, I'll get it myself. I'm gonna try to take a bath…or whatever counts for one these days. Anyway, we're all stocked up on food. Should last us a month… or a week, judging by her habits." And she walked off to the kitchen carrying the last ramen packet from the cart.
"Asuka—" Shinji started to protest, but he was held back by Misato.
"You two are handling your shared baggage on your own time," she explained. "She and I are going to have to do the same."
Asuka lay on the couch, staring at the ceiling.
She looked over at Shinji, fast asleep on the floor.
They were definitely gonna have to fix the roof soon. It was absurd to have only one usable bed with three people in the house. What about when more people came back—and there was definitely going to be more people at some point, judging by how quickly Major Katsuragi had shown up.
She needed a drink of water.
She went to the kitchen, grabbed a glass, pulled the pitcher out from the fridge and poured herself some.
Then she heard a door open and barely had time to react before Misato appeared, tiredly rubbing her head, only to freeze when she saw Asuka looking back at her.
"Asuka," she said.
Asuka put her glass down. "Major Katsuragi," she said.
Misato smiled. "I'm not your superior anymore, Asuka, you can just call me "Ms. Misato.'"
"If it's all the same to you, I'll stick with Major Katsuragi."
Clearly she wasn't surprised by this response. "That's…that's fair."
"So," Asuka said. "What do you want?"
"Well… I was going to see if you had any beer in the fridge."
Asuka rolled her eyes. "We have water." Pause. Then, reluctantly, "You want some?"
"That'd be nice."
Asuka grabbed another glass and poured some water. She handed the glass to Misato and watched her drink.
She didn't feel like telling Misato they had a fully-stocked liquor cabinet.
Misato finished the glass. "Thank you very much," she said. Then she tilted her head and a look of concern crossed her face. "What happened to your eye?"
It occurred to Asuka this was the first time Misato had gotten a good look at her since she returned. "What do you think?" she asked, unconsciously touching it.
Misato put down the glass and started to reach out towards Asuka's face. "Let me see."
Asuka immediately slapped her hand away. "Stop pretending you care," she said quickly. "You're not being paid for it anymore."
Misato retracted her hand. "Asuka. I know this won't be easy for you to hear, but I came back because I wanted to help you two."
"Since when did we need your help? We're doing fine as is."
"You're a smart girl, Asuka. You know as well as I do you can't live off of instant food forever. How long did you think the two of you could survive alone?"
Asuka looked at the counter.
"We're going to have to get through this together whether you like it or not," Misato continued. "So if there's anything you'd like to get off your chest—"
POW!
Misato clutched at her nose and doubled back, more in surprise than in any actual pain. This girl was an Eva pilot, trained for quick combat instincts. But at the end of the day Misato was a military-trained professional, and Asuka was a small child.
Asuka kept her arm up, gauging Misato's reaction but remaining stone-faced.
"Okay," Misato said, slowly standing up straight. "Have you gotten that out of your sys—"
WHUMP.
Asuka sent an upper cut to her cheek and Misato was stumbling back once again.
"Not quite," Asuka replied.
Misato blinked. "Asuka, this isn't—"
CRACK.
Misato had to actually grab onto the counter to stop herself from falling over.
"I can do this all day," Asuka said calmly as she lowered her foot.
Misato steadied herself. She tasted a little bit of blood in her mouth. This was probably where she should intervene.
But now she had an idea.
"Keep going," she said.
Asuka stared. This wasn't what she was expecting.
Not that she objected to it, though.
She raised her arm once more, ready to deliver another blow to Misato's nose.
This time, however, Misato dodged it, and very easily.
Asuka tried again, and Misato caught her hand before yanking it around, locking Asuka's arms behind her back, and then slamming her head first into the counter and holding her in position.
"Let…let go of me!" Asuka shouted as she struggled to break free.
"Not yet," Misato said. "Let's get something straight here, Asuka: I know I fucked up. And I know you're angry at me, and you're entitled to that anger. I will try to make it up to you and Shinji however I can, but I'm not going to let myself be your punching bag. Understood?"
"And what if me beating the shit out of you is the only way I'll forgive you?" Asuka asked.
"Because at the end of the day—" Misato slightly adjusted her grip on Asuka's hands and she heard the girl make a gasp as a sharp pain went through her arm. "—I have about 7 years of self-defense training on you." And she promptly let go.
Asuka felt her wrist before glaring at Misato. "You may have fooled Shinji. Hell you may have fooled yourself, thinking you could have been a mother to the both of us. But you can't fool me. Third Impact or no Third Impact, I know what you really are." She walked back to the living room and flopped down on the couch.
"Good night, Asuka," Misato said, not waiting for a reply as she went back to her room and closed the door.
As soon as Asuka started snoring, Shinji let out the breath he'd been holding for the past five minutes. Suddenly having Misato back didn't seem as great as he'd once thought.