"To defy the Emperor is to defy the Empire. And to defy the Empire is treason."
Imperial propaganda administered to the conquered territories
3:30pm, Wednesday the 2nd of August, Sengokuhara High
Apparently there was once a time when it was cold. When the skies would be grey, when the wind would bite your ears and cheeks, when a blanket of this thing called "snow" would descend upon the land, covering it in white.
Toji and Kensuke, like many Japanese their age, had seen pictures of places with it. Usually of the Imperial homeland, northern Europe, Siberia, and the top end of the Federal fatherland once known as "Canada."
But they'd never personally set eyes on snow. And probably never would.
Not that it bothered them, as they were used to the constant sweltering heat of Japan's eternal summer. This was why they sat in the shade, where the temperature would drop by a few merciful degrees. Soon, they would board one of the school buses and be driven off to the airport, from where they would be flown to the island of Okinawa.
Kensuke was absolutely ecstatic, whilst Toji merely looked forward to getting away for a bit. Sakura was in good hands at the hospital and had ordered him to go and have fun. Although not of the variety where he would admire the girls in their swim wear...
"This'll probably get us a few dozen yen." The geek smiled to himself, looking at one of the many photos they had at their feet.
This was an...unorthodox but profitable form of employment. On behalf of all the hormone driven teenage boys in the school, he would set out to acquire images of Sengokuhara High's large stock of attractive girls, then sell them back to his grateful clients.
Was he meant to be doing this, probably not.
Did Toji tell him to give it up before Hikari found out almost every day. Yes.
But it was decent money for a fifteen year old, and he did have standards. The inner sanctums of the changing rooms were totally off limits, and full nudity was not something he ever took pictures of.
It could be said then that Kensuke Aida was a "horny little bugger" who let his hormones and greed rule him in a few areas where they really shouldn't.
Well, that's what Toji thought. He felt a little obligated to stick around his best friend whenever he was off doing madness like this. As tempting as it was to look at certain pictures of Hikari, he restrained himself. Many compared him to a monkey, but there was a gentleman hidden deep beneath all that muscle.
"You know you'll get your head ripped off if anyone ever catches you doing this?" He grumbled.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Kensuke shrugged, holding a photo up to the sun and smiling slightly.
Got to thank you, Soryu-san. Business is booming because of you.
Many of the boys had become infatuated with the exotic girl. Her red hair and milky white skin utterly enthralled them. Thus, pictures of her had been in demand of late.
"Don't know why everyone likes her...she's such a bitch..." Toji huffed to himself. Asuka had struck him the wrong way from the moment he met her. Just the way she held herself with such undeserved pride, aggressive towards everyone she didn't like or might deem as competition, and how she treated Shinji, his friend, made the jock's blood boil.
Spirits, she's just...unpleasant. I mean Horaki-san can be strict but she isn't...ah damn it.
He was blushing again.
"You know I can still give you some produce." Kensuke gave the larger boy a knowing wink.
"And you can keep it." Toji said, harshly.
"Alright..." The sandy haired geek trailed off, shuffling his photos for a while. Then he spoke again.
"Ask her out."
"Oh come on!" The jock sighed explosively. They'd had this conversation every other week for the past five years.
"I'm serious. You've crushed on her since...forever, so why not? You're a nice person and she could do way worse." Kensuke was honestly baffled by his best friend's infatuation with the class rep. Not that she wasn't pretty or anything but, she was quite overbearing. Making sure everyone was in on time, reprimanding those who didn't, putting bullies in line, ensuring all homework was in or yet another reprimanding. True authority in their class lay in her hands.
Toji had never liked authority figures so why...
The black haired boy remained quiet, but so fixated on this conversation and fighting off his blush, he failed to notice someone approach them. Kensuke so busy sorting through his photos doing the same.
Before they knew it, a shadow loomed over them.
"What...is this?" Said a voice laced with barely contained contempt and disgust.
The two boys looked up to see Samuel glowering down on them.
"Oh...oh, Meadow-san! W-we were just-" Toji tried to cover them, but the Imperial had already snatched up one of their photos. One of a particular redhead. The glower became a scowl.
"You know you should ask for someone's permission when taking a photo, you perverted savages." He crumpled the photo up, then ripped it in half.
"Hey! Do you know how much those cost to print-" Kensuke was saying, until the Imperial had snatched him by the shirt and hauled him to his feet, vehement fury in his electric blue eyes. His friend's honour had been slighted, Samuel would correct that.
"Consider yourself lucky that I don't break your camera right here and now, then shove it down your throat." The elder boy snarled, seeing the terror in those bespectacled eyes.
Toji was already standing, ready to move at a moments notice if things went nasty. But he doubted it. Major Samuel Meadow was many things, a violent bully not being one of them. This was for show, this was to hammer in a message and a lesson so it would never be forgotten.
Unbeknown to the jock, this was how members of the Imperial nobility were taught to deal with their subjects and subordinates.
"Please don't hurt us!" Kensuke whimpered, wincing.
The Imperial smiled. Clearly the lesson had been understood. Abruptly relinquishing his grip on the geek's shirt, he let him crumbled back onto the floor. Giving a quick glare at the equally tall but far muscular jock, he stepped back a bit.
Samuel his gaze then went past the jock, as if looking at something. The smile broadened.
"Don't worry, I won't lay a finger on you..." He turned away with hands held behind his back. All as another shadow eclipsed Kensuke and Toji.
"But she will!" The Imperial added, gleefully.
The two boys turned their gaze upon the newcomer, and felt even greater fear than before. The jock gulped, and the geek let out a near silent, strangled, scream.
"Guten morgen, boys. What are you doing?" Asuka snarled, lip and eye twitching.
Before they'd leave, the students had been tasked with cleaning up their classrooms. Making sure chairs were put away, floors were clear, and windows clean. It would leave them with less work to get back to.
Most of the students had flocked out of the room almost immediately, knowing full well the "pig tailed dictator" would put them to work as soon as she possibly could. But Hikari didn't mind, those who stayed behind were more enthusiastic and capable at the job, so it was a win-win situation for her.
Now only four students remained in that room. Herself, Ayanami, Ikari, and Kirishima. Whilst the class rep did occasionally look over her shoulder to make sure Mana didn't try anything with the boy she held responsible for her father's death, she needn't have bothered.
The girl was upset with him, she did not wish harm on him. The explosion on the day of the parade, where she'd pushed him over, had been a heat of the moment affair. One the girl was utterly ashamed of.
Father would have been so disappointed. She snatched a glance at the mousey haired boy who nervously worked in the corner, trying to maintain his distance.
Mana scowled.
I can't focus on that imbecile, I've got to work hard, I've got to get me degrees. I'm an orphan now, I have too...
She wasn't old enough to own the property her father had left behind, so it was taken away. Her home, her little lakeside home, was gone. The girl had no next of kin, and was therefore crammed in with another ten people in a care home for needy children. Granted, the state paid absolutely everything when it came to education, transport, and the like. General Motichka took care of her soldiers and their families, making her extremely popular with the armed forces.
The redhead did feel something akin to "indebted" to the dictator. Her life would have basically been over where it not for the JSAF pension.
Maybe the military will accept me after education is done? Go into administration, oversee ammunition dumps and all that...maybe...maybe...
It wasn't much hope, but Mana would hold onto it with all her heart.
In terms of their roles, Hikari was picking all the pencils, pens, and papers off the floor, Shinji was polishing the windows, Rei was checking whether or not anything was hidden under the desks, and Mana had a vacuum cleaner in hand. They worked efficiently as a group, being almost finished after ten minutes. For Mana and Hikari, it was strange to see a boy be so competent at domestic matters, that being the domain of women in Japanese culture for hundreds of years.
Whilst there were no laws against women taking employment, the stigma did persist in some places.
Over in the corner, Rei suddenly seemed as if she'd heard something, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. She stood up and made her way to the classroom door. Peeking out at the corridor, seeing nothing, she leaned back in and closed it, the lock clicking.
"Ayanami-san? What are you doing?" Hikari tilted her head.
"What must be done, class representative." The albino said cryptically.
"What?" Mana said, confused and annoyed. She was immediately answered by the howls of terrified teenage boys who thundered through the outside corridor, soon followed by various obscenities in German from a feminine voice.
"Oh joy, she caught them taking pictures...should have reprimanded them sooner." The class rep shook her head. She'd known what Aida was up to for quite a while now, but felt sure Suzuhara would talk him out of it eventually. The jock was many things, ungallant not one of them.
Clearly, she hadn't been quick enough. And now Kensuke would learn why he shouldn't go around taking pictures.
"Taking pictures?" Shinji scratched the back of his head.
"Yes. Aida-san thinks it's a great idea to sneak around the girl's changing rooms with his camera. He doesn't put it online at least but...ugh...stupid boy..." Hikari huffed.
Mana's cheeks became redder than her hair.
"So you're telling me those pervs have been snapping pictures of us for the past few months?" She snarled.
"Yes." Hikari nodded, despairingly.
"You could have said!"
"And you lot would have lynched Aida-san for it. He's not a bad boy, so I'd hoped he'd stop by himself. As that hasn't happened so far...I was going to talk to him." The pig tailed girl's hand clenched her "book of offenders."
Mana piped down. The book of offenders was not just a list of people their resident tyrant kept an eye on, but a legitimate weapon to bludgeon dissidents into line. She knew, she'd seen it. There was a reason there were no bullies in Hikari Horaki's class.
"You won't need to." Shinji cast a sympathetic gaze in the direction of his friend's flight.
"Soryu-san will do that for you." He sighed, and returned to polishing.
Hikari looked thoughtful for a moment.
"How athletic is she, Ikari-san?" She asked.
"Hmm...she's been an Eva pilot for years so she's probably a lot stronger than me. Military training and all..." Shinji shrugged.
"Ah...so any moment..." The class rep trailed off, straining her ears.
There were two faint screams in the distance.
It seemed Kensuke's business venture had come to an end.
Baka
Hikari shook her head, then appraised the classroom. Everything was as it should be, to her total satisfaction.
"Job's done, people. Myself and Kirishima-san need to get to the bus...I'm sorry you can't come along." She gave a look of pained apology to Rei and Shinji.
"It's no problem, really. Besides, I'm not a holiday person." The boy put on a smile.
"We have our duties to attend to." Rei added.
"Alright. See you next week." The class rep smiled.
"I'll be along in a moment, Horaki-san. I'll just get my things together." Mana said, earnestly waving someone who had been a friend in hard times on.
The group filed out of the class, only for Hikari to turn and stop Shinji a few paces from the door.
"Go back in there." She gestured at the class.
"What?" He said, confused yet realizing what the class rep was asking of him. And he didn't like it at all.
"What have I told you about letting things fester?" Hikari said harshly.
Shinji shuffled uncomfortably beneath her brown gaze, then sighed.
"Don't let it."
"Good boy. Now go on." Hikari smiled, satisfied, then turned away. He gave a quick glance at Rei, a glance that told her to go on without him. That done, he slowly made his way back into the classroom, bracing himself for what he had to do.
Mana was quietly packing her things into her bag, seemingly unaware of his presence. Afternoon light trickled in through the window, making the situation seem far too warm and welcoming.
Shinji took one step into the room, when her blue gaze snapped up to glare at him.
"How hard did the class rep have to twist your arm to get you in here, Ikari-san?" She said his name with savagery.
It took every ounce of his strength not to shake, even more so to continue walking. He gulped slightly before answering.
"I...I know about your father...about what happened to him-"
"Yes, he died because of you, what about it?" Mana snarled.
His heart tore itself apart, for the boy still agonized over watching that ship explode, watching a thousand lives be vaporized in a moment. It haunted his dreams.
She's right. If I'd just done what Misato-san told me to do, I'd have killed that thing then and there. This...this wouldn't have happened.
What nonsense. He'd have got it wrong anyway, he was too weak, too stupid to do anything otherwise. Stupid Shinji, what a fine and accurate nickname Asuka had crafted for him.
"I just...I just wanted to say...s-s-sorry..." He stammered, only to see her eyes flare.
"Sorry? Sorry isn't good enough, baka!" She abruptly stood up and prodded a finger into his chest.
"I...I know..."
"I'll never get to see my father again. I'll never get to...to...sit on the sofa and watch whatever is on television, or have any of his shitty cooking, or, or laugh when he'd accidentally cut himself shaving, or celebrate my birthday with the only family I had left. That's all gone because you couldn't do your fucking job!" She'd pressed her finger in quite hard, not enough to push him over, but enough to hurt.
Shinji's lip quivered as he tried to push down the tears, failing to meet her gaze with his own. She was right, and what else could he do? He'd offered his apology and she hadn't accepted it. Surely that was all he could do...
You have stared Seraphim, eldritch demi gods, in the eye. And you cut them all down. You can do this.
He was taken aback by this stern resilience, wondering if he'd gone mad and now had voices in his head. But...was it wrong? He didn't have much time, he'd have to think of something else to say and quickly. Thus, Shinji resolved to express not just an apology, but his feelings on the matter.
"Do you really think if I could trade places with him, I wouldn't?" Shinji said, sadly. He wished he could, to bring any one of those tens of thousands of people back. How many children like Mana had been bereaved of a parent, sibling, or loved one when the 6th Seraph destroyed the Tsushima?
How many died because he couldn't do his job properly?
The finger retracted from his chest as the redhead stepped back, surprised at this. The self absorbed brat who had so much more than she did at the moment...had he really just said he'd trade places with her father, gladly at that?
"Why did you say that?" She asked.
Shinji didn't lift his gaze. His fist merely clenched and unclenched. But Mana didn't feel threatened by that.
"I...I just...gah, I just wish people would stop dying because of me. I don't deserve it." His shoulders slumped further somehow.
Nothing made sense to her now. This person she'd focused her hatred on for a while now, was not only sorry for all the misery that had occurred under his watch, but genuinely remorseful and sad at the loss of life.
Mana closed her eyes, her stomach contorting in on itself. This boy had robbed her of her life, but it wasn't like he meant to. He hadn't done as well as he could, and her father died for it. Just another casualty of war, as those sick bastards at NERV would probably say. They who considered the entire Pacific fleet and the Eastern army nothing more than sacrificial pawns for the protection of their Evangelions.
But he wasn't a part of that decision making. His eyes were too soft, his body posture so filled with apology and self loathing, that Mana couldn't bring herself to hate him now.
Now she understood every single life lost was something he held himself personally responsible for.
How could she hate that?
Mana Kirishima loudly exhaled through her nose, her aggression fading away. Silence hung over the room for another minute straight until she spoke.
"Just promise me one thing, Ikari-san." Softness filtered into her words.
The brown haired boy said nothing.
"Don't let any more little girls cry for lost loved ones." Mana only just choked back a sob.
Shinji stammered for a few moments, unsure what to say. How would he ever promise something like that?
"Promise." The redhead insisted.
"...alright." He nodded, awkwardly.
"Say the words."
"I promise."
And with that the redhead sighed, as if the world had just dropped off her shoulders. She looked him in the eye and smiled, tears for a lost parent welling up in them, knowing this is what Otamo Kirishima would want. What he always would have wanted.
For her to move on.
"I...accept your apology...Ikari-san."
Ten minutes later
The school buses drove away, their S2 engines merrily humming. It was mind boggling to Shinji how, in years gone past, cars actually pumped out carbon dioxide and made so much noise. He wasn't sure why Misato kept her car that way, going to great lengths in making sure it still made that throaty roar whenever the engine fired up.
Perhaps it was nostalgia.
Modern vehicles now had a focus on comfort more than anything else. Weight and miles per gallon were not something designers and engineers even had to consider any more. The exception for that was Super Cars of course, for those who enjoyed speed above all else, but only a privileged few could afford them.
Their buses in particular were Mitsubishi KY-3s, not as massive as the vast HY-6s which could carry a hundred people per vehicle but still large. Fifty seats artfully slid in to each one, enough space between them for all to sit comfortably. One day, Shinji decided he would really like to actually go for a drive on one of those...but not today.
The four Eva Pilots stood there, having bid good bye to their fellow classmates. As in, Shinji and Rei had, Samuel merely raised his hand in a wave, and Asuka had glowered at the slightly bruised Kensuke and Toji as they boarded. Hikari had told them to take care of themselves, adding a little bit of sympathy in with their plight and promising to bring back photos.
Then they were gone, Shinji only just managing to catch Mana's eye in the bus window before they left.
Now he and Rei were stuck with these two, again.
"Well now what?" Samuel said.
"We wait for Misato-san to pick us up, then do stuff at home?" Shinji offered. He got a quick glare from the Imperial for his trouble.
"We can't do that day in day out! Don't you get bored?"
"Um...no..."
"I'm shocked, really would never have guessed..." Asuka sighed sarcastically.
"What has Ikari-kun done that's wrong?" Rei looked at them with a trace of confusion.
"Ugh, nothing, First. It's just kinda dull to stay indoors all day and do the ironing and washing up. Ordinary people go out and do stuff. Gott, they don't let you out the tank often, do they?" The redhead dismissed her.
The albino remained quiet, pondering those words.
Ordinary...what is ordinary?
Shinji meanwhile did not appreciate anyone taking that tone with Rei, but didn't make too much of a fuss about it. Asuka seemed quite stubborn and would probably make a huge argument about it. And he hated arguments, or confrontation in any way.
And yet I've ended up as one of mankind's last hopes. The universe must have a sense of humour.
"Good thing I brought my Playstation. Lord knows how bored I'd get if I hadn't." Samuel chimed in with a slightly brighter tone.
"You've got books haven't you?" Asuka said, annoyed at his complaining.
"The novelty wears off after a while."
The redhead shrugged, deeming his words to be fair.
"Eh, I'll probably be hitting the pool at some point. If I can't enjoy the springs in Okinawa, then I suppose I'll have to make do." She clicked her back, her sapphire gaze scanning the road and waiting for that purple car to come and get them. Misato had told them she'd pick them up that day, so as to save them the trouble of dealing with public transport. Shinji suspected it was his guardian's attempt at trying to make up for them missing out on the school trip, but he didn't mind.
"Swimming sounds...alright." He offered, coming to the startling realization he hadn't gone for a swim in months. A few baths, yes, but not a proper swim.
What have I been doing with my life? Oh...yes...of course...
"That makes two." Asuka smiled slightly, turning her gaze upon Rei and Samuel.
"Oh fine...swimming it is." The Imperial grumbled.
"I take no issue." Rei stated.
"Wunderbar! That's a day out sorted!" The German girl's posture became more cheerful, giving the impression to all that she enjoyed swimming.
Can't really blame her...it is nice.
The sound of a petrol like engine caught their attention, as a purple sports car heralding from a time before they were born, revved up the road to them.
"You've all got swimming gear, right?" Asuka asked.
The rest of them remained silent, with only Shinji tenderly raising his hand.
The freckled girl groaned.
"Oh that's just perfect...you've got trunks, Sam!"
"They're back in Britain, I wasn't expecting to go bloody swimming!" Samuel said explosively.
"I thought the Imperial military was all about, being prepared."
"Asuka, it was either my trunks or my Master and Commander collection. What did you think was going to happen?"
"Ugh, Imperial dummkopf!"
Shinji and Rei slowly looked at one another, almost communicating telepathically.
"This is going to be quite a week." The brown haired boy said, tiredly and in resignation.
The blue haired girl glanced at her squabbling comrades.
"...Indeed."