A Boar Among Angels
"It's no use. I shouldn't have come," Ikari Shinji sighed, hanging up the phone. The automated voice repeated emergency message, the same one that was being broadcast all over the city. He checked the photograph again. This was where Miss Misato was supposed to pick him up. She was late.
Shinji sighed, wondering if he should just go to the evacuation shelter.
"Hey, you!" a sudden shout cut through the still city.
Shinji turned to the gruff voice. For a moment, he expected it to be a military officer who'd tell him to evacuate.
What the boy saw was a muscular, shirtless man with bamboo sandals, twin katana, and a boar mask over his head.
"Eh?" Shinji muttered as the monstrous creature sprinted at him.
"Yeah, you! Where the hell am I?"
Suddenly, the earth shook. Both Shinji and the boar-headed man hesitated. "No way. What is this presence? A demon?" the stranger asked, putting his hands to his hilts.
There was no time to wonder what cryptic nonsense the man was saying. The earth shook again. In the distance, several military aircrafts flew from behind a hill.
"What! Flying… metal? What the—" The boar man ran a few steps forward, then froze as the Angel appeared. The creature was almost taller than the hill. It plodded forward, seemingly uninterested in the military crafts which surrounded it.
Earlier, Inousuke had opened his eyes to see a fluorescent light and a tiled ceiling. "What the—" he muttered, jumping to his feet in the abandoned clinic. The unknown, chemical scents assaulted his nostrils. Bizarre, alien sensations surrounded him. Nothing, from the desks to the floor to the ceiling to the lights, looked familiar.
"Wha? What? Demon!" He searched the floor where he'd slept. The boar mask lay there, along with his swords. He donned the mask and raised the blades, poised to strike at anything that threatened him.
Not for the first or last time, Inousuke pushed reason aside to rely on instinct. When nothing made sense, it seemed better to react first and analyze later. To him, analysis was often the same as hesitation. Hesitating got people killed.
At least, that's how he saw it.
Beneath the mask, he began to sweat. His grip on the hilts became painfully tight. He strained every sense, trying to find something he understood. There was no way to know how he should react.
"Tanjiro! Zenitsu! Nezuko!" He yelled the names of his friends and comrades, wondering what strange place this was that had summoned them.
No answer came. The air was still. Though his nose was overwhelmed, his other senses picked up nothing. There wasn't even an insect in the room. No voice existed to be overheard.
"Tanjiro?" Inousuke asked again. "Hey! Where the hell are—" he stopped. His fingers nearly dropped the swords as he lowered them. He hadn't noticed because of the initial panic, but now he realized why he had been so afraid.
He didn't sense anything.
"The hell is this?"
He kicked down the unlocked door of the clinic office, yelling the names of his friends. An empty hall greeted him. The floor was made of a material he'd never seen, and everything that he saw was beyond his understanding. Even the chairs in the waiting room seemed odd.
"Demon?" he wondered aloud. "No. We killed them. Muzan's dead."
Muzan had been dead for almost a month now. There needed to be another reason. Was he dreaming? No. That didn't make sense either.
Inousuke's heart beat frantically. With a roar, he swung his blades at empty air. Nothing reacted. There was no life he could detect. There was nothing. Nothing to attack, follow, or save.
Suddenly, there was a voice. It had a strange, echoing tenor, but it was something. "Hey!" Inousuke broke through every door he found until he stumbled onto an empty street. "This is the Tokyo-3 emergency broadcast system." The voice said. "Please report to your nearest evacuation shelter."
"Hey!" Inosuke screamed. "Where are you?" He could sense nothing in the voice, but it spoke nonetheless. A voice meant a living thing. Or so he hoped. "Hey!"
The message repeated.
The word 'evacuation' eventually broke through. "Oh, that's it." That word meant that he wasn't alone. There were people. The people just needed to go. If they needed to go, something was coming.
Inousuke sprinted through streets, looking in every direction for signs of life. The strange buildings confused and terrified him. They stretched up further than he'd ever imagined a building could. They were full of glass, glinting light as the midday sun shone down. His sandals clapped on the pavement. The evacuation message repeated.
…
He still didn't understand any of this.
"Where the hell am I?"
Inousuke kicked an abandoned car, sending it sliding several feet back on the street, though he didn't understand what it was he attacked.
Suddenly, he sensed a person. Someone was nearby. He sprinted toward the faint presence until he saw a boy in a white shirt standing beside a weird box. With a question and a wail of greeting, he sprinted toward the boy.
Then, he felt the other presence. Inousuke stopped as the first footstep shook the ground. A low sense of shame arose in Inousuke, followed by wonder. Part of him wanted to be furious that he hadn't detected something so massive, but this passed. Its presence was… light? It was like a fog, all-encompassing but weightless. He could feel its presence washing over him and moving. He could detect no killing intent, but he felt a relentless will of some kind. It was not a warrior, nor was it an animal relying on instinct.
While the ground shook with the thing's steps. Inousuke stared at the giant monster. Everything he'd seen so far was beyond his understanding, but this thing seemed to insult all he knew. It was so unlike Muzan, or any demon he'd faced, that he couldn't assume it was one of them. Whatever this creature was, it was different.
Inousuke tried to take in as much of the scene as he could, too overwhelmed to move. Where were the others? Maybe there had been some information about this at one of those meetings he'd ignored.
Inousuke blinked, then noticed the flying ships in front of the beast. "What?" he asked dully. Three great, green metal things (he guessed they were ships of some kind) flew in front of the beast. It didn't seem to mind them, but they were clearly focused on it.
As the demon slayer watched, one of the flying chunks of metal spat something at it. It looked like a white spear. As it struck the giant, a huge orange circle of flame erupted, changing the colour of the sky, sending a hot wind rippling through the air.
The self-taught warrior gritted his teeth, gripped his sword hilts, and steeled himself. He could not allow himself to freeze. To stop and question was to die. Whatever this place was, it was a battlefield. Whatever strange force had brought him here probably wanted him dead. For all he knew, the others were somewhere else in this strange world. In fact, Inousuke expected his friends to be somewhere near.
Something else occurred to him. There was also the kid in the weird clothes, who was now covering his eyes from the light of the flames.
Oh, Inousuke realized, this is an untrained kid in a battlefield. He needed to get this guy to safety. The Demon Slayer Corps had always been on his ass about ignoring regular people in the battlefield. He needed to try to care about saving people, not just defeating the enemy.
"Oi, kid—" something screeched behind him. He turned to see a blue beast of some kind screech to a halt.
Why was there a civilian still out? Misato wondered as she pulled to a stop. Her concern turned to confusion at the sight of the bizarre stack of muscle under the mask. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Shinji." She called out to the kid unlucky enough to be Gendo's son. All kindness vanished from her tone as she looked at the other figure. "Why are you—"
"You!" The boar man rushed forward, pointed at her, and stamped a sandal-clad foot on the hood of her leased car. The stomp left a large dent.
"Hold on!" She blinked, too mortified at the damage to her lease to notice how strong the foot had been. Misato leaned out her driver window, a shrill fury in her voice: "What's your problem, pig-head!"
The boar man started a sentence, turned to the Angel, looked at the kid, and grabbed at his mask. Finally, a strangled, infuriated shriek peeled out of him. "What the hell is going on?"
She wanted to ask the same thing. "Shinji," she turned to the Third Child, but he was already in the passenger seat.
"Yes?"
"Who is this guy?"
"Don't ignore me!" The boar man yelled as several more explosions rocked the city. They were much closer now. After several seconds of agonized grunting, as if he couldn't decide which syllables to form, the stranger yelled, "That thing!" He pointed at the Angel. "Is it a demon?"
"Demon?" she repeated.
It was a word that shouldn't have meant anything. Something long relegated to mythology and fairy tales. Yet, the stranger stood with authority. There was a chance – a good chance – he was crazy, but the terminology was too close.
"Get in the car," she decided. "I'll bring you to a shelter."
"Like hell you will!" Again, he pointed to the Angel, wreathed in flames and approaching with its horrifyingly casual pace. "I'm part of the Demon Hunter Corps! I'm not letting that thing run around."
Demon Hunter Corps…
Unfortunately, that sounded like a real thing. Misato bit her lip. Whatever he was going on about, it was something she didn't know. Which meant Gendo might have known. A decision needed to be made, "Just get in the car."
"So, you have no idea who this is?" Misato asked Shinji again.
"No, he just appeared, Miss Misato."
"Just call me Misato," she replied. "No need to be formal." The strange man was staring around the car interior as if it were an alien creature. "Hey, you in the back, what's this Demon Hunter thing you were talking about?"
"Corps," the boar-man finished. "The Demon Hunter Corps fought demons."
It was every bit as unhelpful as she'd expected. She kept turning her eyes to her mirrors, watching the puffs of fire and missiles. The boar-man seemed transfixed, too.
"You have a name, demon hunter?" she asked.
"Inousuke," he said. "You?"
Well, at least he had some kind of manners. "My name is Misato."
"I'm Shinji," said the Third Child. "Nice to meet you."
Inousuke grunted in response, still staring out the back. "Hey, have you seen a loud idiot with orange hair? Or a guy with a scar on his face and a green-and-black coat? Maybe a girl with pink eyes and long black hair?"
Misato almost turned completely around. She settled for throwing a concerned look to Shinji, who was openly gaping at the stranger in the backseat. Just my luck, she thought. The guy's crazy, not useful at all.
"No, I haven't seen anyone like that. You got separated from your friends?"
"I don't know." Inousuke said. He was staring out the window at the fight.
After a few minutes, Misato said, "Can't be helped." She stopped the car on an empty stretch of road outside the main city. "I need to see what the military's doing to that thing, and how it's responding. Shinji, duck so I can get a good look out your window."
"Ye— yes," Shinji said. He pulled back as Misato pulled binoculars from the glove compartment and leaned over him. The scene that unfolded was straight out of her nightmares. She wanted to cry and laugh all at once. All those direct hits, all those shots fired, were nothing. She watched it raise a hand to one missile. The metal unfolded around the arm like a banana being peeled, until it exploded on the massive body. The Angel was unharmed by the direct hit.
"Amazing," the Inousuke leaned against the window. "Those flying metal things are on your side, right?"
Slowly, Misato turned to the stranger. "What did you say?"
"All of that 'bwa!' and 'bo-boom!' and fire. Is that with you?"
Misato and Shinji both blinked in disbelief. Shinji said, "Hey, do you not know—"
Suddenly, he stiffened. "Something dangerous is here."
"Um," Shinji pointed to the Angel.
Misato looked up. The military aircrafts were leaving. All except one, which cut a straight line through the sky. "No way! They're dropping an N2 mine! Both of you get down!"
What came next happened quickly. Misato clutched Shinji, pressing him down into the seat. Inousuke moved to the opposite side of the car, where he broke through the rear passenger window with his elbow.
A millisecond of silence swallowed everything before the blast shook the landscape. The initial shockwave struck like the backhand of an angry god. The car slid along the road as the boar-man jolted, still half-way in the broken window. The tires hit the guardrail on the side of the road, throwing the stranger outside. The force of the explosion flipped the car over the rail like an toddler flipping a game board.
Misato clutched the Third Child as they tumbled through the air.
Suddenly, the car landed on its side, but it did not roll. It landed softly. The battle-scarred woman risked a peek. Her eyes opened and her jaw dropped. Inousuke was holding the car, bracing himself against the dirt as the shockwave pushed him and the car back. The man screamed, his muscles tensed as he held the vehicle, all while leaning into the pressure and bracing his feet in the dirt. Two lines formed in the dirt as his feet were pushed back.
Eventually, the wind calmed. The car was no longer being pushed. With a wail, the boar man brought the car slowly to the ground, resting it neatly on its tires.
Misato stared at the man, who was leaning against the car and panting. She heard another colossal footstep approach, but she didn't react. She gaped at the strange… could she call him a man? He just withstood the shockwave of an N2 mine while holding a car. That was impossible.
"Misato…" Shinji tapped his hand on her shoulder.
She looked down to find she was suffocating him, still clutching his face to her chest. "Oh, sorry." She released him, but her eyes snapped back to Inousuke.
"Your allies suck!" he yelled, no longer gasping. "They almost killed you, and they didn't even hurt the not-Demon. That was awful. Awful! Your allies are idiots! Who are they?"
There was no question now. "I work for Nerv," she said. "I'll take you to them."
The drive was surprisingly quiet after that. Inousuke stared out the back window, occasionally muttering. Shinji kept glancing back to the strange figure. Misato didn't blame him. "So," the Third Child said, "you work for my father, Misato?"
"That's right." She didn't do much to hide how annoyed or confused she was. "How much do you know about your father's work?"
"I heard it's important." Shinji looked again to Inousuke. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking while he wore the mask. He wasn't even breathing heavily after doing the impossible. The strange man just kept staring back to where they'd seen the Angel, without complaint or bruise. The only proof he'd experienced the event was some dirt.
"Your father's work is important, that's right."
Inousuke grunted, "Angel… Demon… Angel? Nothing's right."
"Hey, Shinji," Misato nudged the boy. "Do you have the message your father gave you?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah." He gave her the nearly useless bit of paper. Black marks of redaction covered most of it. It seemed to defeat the purpose, hiding that much. It took Misato a moment to notice a handwritten "come here" in the same black colour as the redaction lines.
"It's been a while since you've seen your father, huh?"
"Yeah."
Shinji stayed quiet, much to Misato's frustration. Neither of her guests seemed much for lightening the mood. Her car, her dress, and her day were ruined. The Angel was no longer even the strangest part. The stranger in the backseat didn't seem human. Whatever he was, he had saved her life, so she was grateful. Some nagging part of her wondered if it was a ploy. Maybe this… Inousuke had something to do with the Angels, or it was from on of the many agency's on the list of Nerv's enemies. Could this be an attempt of sabotage? Was he just trying to earn her trust to get into Nerv?
She doubted it. This Inousuke person seemed unlikely to plan something like that.
They hit a pothole. Something fell off the leased car with a disheartening clunk. "Geez," she sighed as they pulled into the tunnel.
After a few more seconds of awkward silence, Shinji said, "Should I be worried about radiation after that bomb?"
Misato chuckled, then applied a teasing tone she could put on like makeup. "You worry too much."
"I've been told that a lot." The Third Child stared into his lap.
Misato's eyebrow twitched. She was trying to lighten the mood, dammit. The least he could do is play along. With the same teasing tone, she said "You're kind of a buzzkill, for someone so cute."
Shinji blinked, but said nothing. He clearly wasn't playing along. She considered swerving a bit to get some kind of reaction, but the unbuckled man in the backseat prevented her from doing so. Some part of her considered telling Inousuke to buckle up, but she recalled the image of him holding up the car while withstanding the blast. A seatbelt was probably the least of his worries.
Again, she sighed.
"Hey," Inousuke said, still staring out the back window. "This is Japan, right?"
Both of the others faced him, "What?"
Inousuke didn't believe them. This couldn't be Japan. All this metal was too much… metal. It didn't make any sense. There were buildings made of the stuff. The walls were too big. Everything was too big. How long would it have taken to build all this? How could it have been built?
Why did the doors open without people pushing them? What was that plastic thing around Misato's neck that she could just put on the wall and make doors open? Why were the doors made of metal? What was any of it?
"What the!" he saw a chunk of moving floor.
"We don't have time." The purple haired woman said as she stepped onto the conveyor belt. "Just… follow me for now."
The former demon slayer shuddered, thinking of the last time he'd been in a place where the floor moved. He cast a distrustful look at the walls around him, expecting them to shift or open to reveal Muzan resurrected. He would have almost welcomed it. Awful as it would have been, it would have been something recognizable. Now, he had nothing to convince him this was real.
Whatever! He shook his head. It didn't matter. The people who were allied with Misato had nearly killed them. He wanted to know what those idiots were thinking. More than anything, he wanted to know what that big thing was.
Tentatively, Inousuke put his foot on the moving floor. It didn't hurt. It was just floor. But it moved. Was there a demon making the floor move? He looked up to the Misato and Shinji again. Both of them treated it as normal, and the only clear thing Inousuke understood in this world was that the woman was trustworthy.
She was easy to read, unlike the kid, who seemed to have no intent of any kind.
So, he stepped onto the conveyor belt and began marching with it. "Where are we going?" he asked.
She stared at a map and scratched her head. "I'm figuring that out, okay?"
The other kid leaned forward and pointed at a section of it. "We've been here already."
The belt brought them into a massive, vertical hall. There were conveyor belt's everywhere. Strips of moving floor lay above and below them, cutting through the open area in every direction. Inousuke wanted to vomit. He expected demons long slain to suddenly appear. "Whatever," he muttered. "If we need to get somewhere, why are we going so slow?"
He jumped to a conveyor belt about two storeys up. To his surprise, the two didn't follow him. "Oi," he leaned over the side of the belt and stared at their shocked expressions. The woman seemed paler than before. "What are you staring at? Is this the wrong way?"
Only at that point did he notice that their conveyor belts were moving opposite directions. He started marching against the floor to keep up with them, swinging his fists as he marched.
The boy stammered, "What—"
The woman finished, "are you?"
"It's a portal," Inousuke said.
"No, it's an elevator," Misato explained for what felt like the dozenth time. "You step inside and push the button for the floor you want. Then, it will go up or down to the floor you chose."
"You step inside one place, and you step out another." The boar man nodded, arms crossed, with infuriating confidence. "I've stepped through portals before. This is just a bit slower than the ones I've used. It's also the first time I've used one on purpose."
Shinji took a step back, tucking himself in the corner of the elevator. Misato rubbed the bridge of her nose. "It's not a portal," she sighed. She considered saying something to the Third Child – he was meant to be the star of the day, after all – yet, she found no energy to try. She doubted her day could get worse.
Suddenly, the elevator dinged. Someone was getting on. Misato didn't try to hide her groan. She'd known that she'd need to explain why she was bringing in some random guy, without clearance, no less, but she'd hoped she'd have more time to come up with an excuse. The doors opened. Ritsuko stood on the other side.
Misato cringed, muttering an "Eh," of surprise.
Ritsuko, donned in the impractical combination of a bathing suit and lab coat, stepped into the elevator. She seemed about to offer her usual cold sarcasm when she noticed Inousuke. "Incredible," the boar man said. "Other people can get on the portal along the way."
As the doors shut, Ritsuko lifted an eyebrow and cast a cold glare at Misato. "Who's he?"
"Hey!" Inousuke said, thrusting his thumb at his chest. "Ask me who I am."
The women ignored him. "You need to see what he can do," Misato said.
The intentionally cryptic message did the trick. Ritsuko turned instead to Shinji. "So, this is the Third Child."
A conversation began as Inousuke tapped his sandal on the floor impatiently.
They marched onward and onward. Misato spent every step hoping Inousuke wouldn't do anything stupid, dangerous, or violent.
The dangerous part was coming now. Ritsuko tapped her shoulder, "We can't show it to a civilian."
Misato grimaced. "We don't have time to drop him off at a daycare, if that's what you're suggesting. Besides… I'm curious what the reaction will be."
"What aren't you telling me, Misato?"
"Oi," Inousuke grunted. "Don't worry about trusting me. You're trying to get the big thing, right? I'm a demon hunter. I get fighting monsters. We're probably a lot alike."
Ritsuko seemed every bit as confused as Misato had been. "We got caught up in the N2 blast," she decided to say.
Ritsuko gaped. "But, you're unhurt."
She nodded to Inousuke. "He held the car in place as the shockwave tried to flip it over."
Ritsuko blinked. "That's a tasteless joke."
"I'm serious."
The scientist almost forgot about the Third Child.
The door opened to Unit-01's chamber. They stepped into the blackness of the massive room. The clap of sandal-clad steps ended. "What's the fifth presence?"
Both woman stopped. "What do—"
Ritsuko spat, "Explain."
Inousuke stepped forward, steps clacking. "It's not a person. It feels kinda familiar, but I don't know… It's not dangerous… It's… What do you people do here?"
Suddenly, the lights flashed, revealing the head of Unit-01.
"Hello, Shinji." Gendo's voice rang out from the speakers above. He stood in the observation deck at the top of the room, behind Unit-01's head. He seemed unbothered by the strange man's presence.
Shinji stepped forward. "Dad?"
"Been a whi—"
Inousuke jumped from the walkway onto Unit-01's head. He cleared the gap without trying, and rested his untrained, unprotected, and uncleared hands on humanity's last hope.
Silence pervaded for a moment. The room was so still that Inousuke's mumblings could be heard. "Incredible. This thing's… alive."
Nobody noticed Gendo falter. He composed himself instantly. "Shoot the intruder."
Misato stiffened. She'd considered this possibility, but seeing it play out was still shocking. In the moment, though, it made some sense. Inousuke had, through some form of instinct, uttered the secret that few people were allowed to know.
"Wait!" Shinji screamed, stepping to the edge of the walkway. "Don't shoot him!"
As the people on the walkway looked up, Gendo lifted a palm and said something to someone else in the observation deck. He was too far for Misato to read his lips, and he spoke low enough that his voice went unheard. She couldn't even see who he was talking to, though she could guess.
Inousuke seemed unconcerned by all this. He stayed on top of the Eva, holding his palms against it and muttering to himself.
"Hey," Misato seethed. "Get down from there!" She tried to be subtle, but her patience had long ago reached its limit.
Inousuke looked back to them, then casually jumped the several-meter gap back to the walkway.
Shinji yelled again, "Dad! It's been years! The first thing you do when you see me is try to kill the person who saved us? Why'd you bring me here?"
Gendo pushed up his glasses, then returned to the same posture he'd had when they entered. It was like watching a person reset. "There is a crisis, Shinji. That Angel that's attacking the city is a threat to all of mankind. It's trying to destroy everything. The creation in front of you can defeat it. All we need is a pilot."
Misato's frustration became abject shock. "You're kidding."
Ritsuko turned to her. "You delivered a pilot to us."
While this happened, Inousuke had looked among the talking crowd, saying nothing.
Suddenly, the earth shook. Everyone on the walkway toppled as the foundations of Nerv HQ swayed and vibrated. A support beam snapped out of place above and began falling to them. It was about to crush Shinji. Suddenly, the colossal hand of Unit-01 rose from the fluid, covering the bridge with its size as it protected Shinji and the others from the debris.
"It protected him…" Misato mused aloud.
Inousuke stared at the Eva. "Why does this feeling seem familiar?"
As they looked, the light in the Eva's eyes faded.
"Shinji," Gendo said, "you must pilot the Evangelion."
The Third Child gasped. "Wha— what?"
"Yer fighting the monster thing with the metal thing." Inousuke nodded. "I see. It's like armour, but it's alive. It likes you, too. Oh! That's why you made a big deal of the kid, isn't it?" Inousuke looked to Misato, who resolutely looked away. The boar-masked man looked up to Gendo. "You're up to something weird, but you know that the armour thing likes the kid. If the kid's inside, the armour will fight extra hard. Am I right?"
Gendo pushed up his glasses and ignored the man. Behind his glasses, Gendo glanced at Ritsuko as she bit her lip in barely contained anger. "Shinji," said father to son, "if you don't cooperate, the man with the boar mask will be shot."
"Why, father?" Shinji yelled, tears of frustration forming in his eyes.
Inousuke stepped toward the Third Child. Then, he paused. The man with the boar mask tapped his foot slowly against the floor, and the beat quickened into a percussive, distracting storm. The boar man added a mighty chorus of angry "Hmm"s to the noise.
Shinji took a step back, looking around the crowd. His eyes landed on his father. "You only brought me here to pilot this thing? You want me to go onto a battlefield?"
Ritsuko responded, "You are the only one who can pilot it, Shinji. You are our best hope."
Gendo added, "Yes. This is necessary for protecting humanity. There is no greater purpose than this. If you aren't interested, feel free to leave. We will choose our other pilot. Though she's injured, and likely won't return to us. We'll also, naturally, shoot this strange man that seems to have joined you."
"Heh," a quiet laugh snuck out of the boar-masked man. In a whisper, he said, "you could try, asshole." He looked to Shinji, then to Gendo, and to the women in the room. Resolutely, he stepped toward Shinji.
There were a lot of lies in this place. Secrets, too. Inousuke was neither smart nor deep, but he could tell that every person in the room was working for something different. The kid, for his part, was every bit as confused as Inousuke, and more frightened. The guy up above was his dad, after all, and that dude seemed like a prick.
Where are you? Inousuke wanted to know about his friends. But there was no reason to think he'd find answers. He'd spent most of his life without them, wandering from one place to another without hope or friends. Now, he was lost in a jungle so unlike that which had raised him.
He seemed to know more about the metal thing than he was supposed to. He could sense an anger in it. He almost thought it was like the big monster outside, but that monster was less… thoughtful. This thing, whatever it was, had strong protective feelings for the kid. Whatever that meant, it was something he wanted to explore.
"Kid," he said to Shinji, "something's wrong."
"I know that much! Shut up! Who even are you?"
He puffed out his chest and jabbed a thumb to his sternum. "I'm Inousuke!"
The earth shook. Ritsuko started forward, but Inousuke shouted, "Cool it. The kid's gonna get in the armour thingy!"
"Don't speak for me." Shinji complained. "I'm not getting in there. I'm just a kid. I don't have any fighting experience. How can I fight that monster? Why… Why should I have to do this?"
Inousuke stepped close to Shinji, who stepped back, anger and frustration on his face.
The emotions on that face were strange to the self-taught warrior. He wasn't sure he recognized them. The kid in the white shirt was angry, but it wasn't directed at any one thing. The anger was direction inward as much as outward. There was a sadness within it, too. Inousuke had no idea what to do with the strange, seemingly erratic combination of emotions. So, he marched forward faster than Shinji could back away.
"We're the only ones here who don't know anything," Inousuke said. "I'm not even sure what universe I'm in."
Shinji screwed his eyes shut and shook his head. "That sucks for you, but it's not my problem!"
Elsewhere, Gendo had signalled for all in the room to avoid interfering. A subtle hand gesture had signalled to have the other pilot, Rei Ayanami, prepared in case of emergency.
Inousuke said, "I say we call a truce until we both know where we are. I think we can trust Misazasato—"
"Misato. Do you have a point? You're too strange. Who are you?"
Inousuke grunted. The kid wasn't listening. "That big metal thing is at the centre of everything. Whatever it is, it likes you. It can fight the big thing that's destroying the city. So," Inousuke chopped both his hands to his left. "If you want to save the city and not let people die, get in the thing." He chopped his hands to the right. "If you want any answers to the questions, get in the thing. It sucks and it's not fair, but if you do it and get it over with, we can get some answers."
"No! I'm not getti—"
Inousuke grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him close. "That metal thing saved you, brat! Thank it! I feel something like a mother's love in it for you. You should get in so we can figure out what's up with it."
Shinji blinked. "My mother's dead."
"Mine too." He nodded. "Murdered by demons when I was a baby. I forgot her for a long time."
Shinji blinked, frustration dissipating on his face. Soon, he said. "If I get in that thing. I want you to explain how you feel all these things you say you feel."
"Done," he extended a hand.
Shinji reached toward it, then hesitated.
"You're too slow!" Inousuke shouted, echoing the thoughts of everyone in Nerv HQ, which shook at another footstep.
Shinji said, "I'll do it if you take off your mask."
"Fine."
Inousuke pulled the mask away. Shinji was surprised. Misato was shocked, offering a small "Eh…?" of wonderment.
"Huh," Ritsuko commented without expression.
Inousuke offered a sneering smile. Shinji wondered how the dark hair, ending in an unreal, neon blue, hadn't been matted beneath the mask. More than that, he was confused how a face with such soft features could have so harsh an expression. "Alright, there's my face. Now, let's help each other. In the metal thing you go."
Shinji reached his hand forward. Inousuke greedily shook it.
"Alright," Shinji shook his head and looked to his father. "I'll pilot this thing. You… you promise I'll be okay, right?"
Ritsuko stepped forward before anyone else could speak. "Of course. All you need to do is listen to us, and you'll be fine." Inousuke made a note of the angry glare that Ritsuko was – intentionally or unintentionally – blocking from Shinji's view. Ritsuko added, "nothing bad will happen to you."