Ah, another day of my life as the rest of the crew got their well-deserved mental checkup.
Yup. This organization just got its mental health support via several psychiatrists and psychologists! No more unresolved daddy or mommy issue, and no more-
"Commander, may I speak with you?"
Well, the good lead psychiatrist was here. Better answer her and give everything not confidential to her.. "Of course, Mrs. Megure. Is anything wrong?"
"Your guess was...almost 100% accurate. All of them suffer from unresolved issue with their parents, especially Pilot Sohryu."
Some were not guesses, ma'am. But I'm afraid I couldn't tell you the real reason how I knew it. "Some of it had been documented with their history. Especially Pilot Sohryu and Major Katsuragi. Asuka, her mother went insane after a botched test, and she was the one who found her body after her suicide. Meanwhile Misato had a father who got busy in his work, and before they could amend things he sacrificed himself to save him from Second Impact's point blank. It would definitely put dent into their psych."
"That...was really bad. And your son, I believe he have repressed memory of his mother. But what he remembered, was that he was left by you alone in a station, before your relative picked him."
I could noticed her looking at me in disgust, and frankly the old Gendo truly deserved that. "I am deeply ashamed of so many things I have done, doctor. When Yui stood alongside me, I feel like I can do everything I want. But her death...left me a wreck. My job was getting bigger and riskier at the same time too. I had to leave him, or I'm afraid I would hurt him."
"So, to put it bluntly, you took what you perceived as the coward way," Ouch. "You created this mask of cold indifference to make people stay away from you. But during this period, you noticed that this mask of you...also created this persona. People started to get attracted to you, thinking you're this enigmatic man. You got your women, titles, leaderships. And now here you are, listening to me interpreting what you said about yourself."
"Yes. That's all true. And to make it worse, I haven't told him the reasons for everything that happened to him in the past."
"Well, you and your son are pretty peculiar. You two sell your self-worth rather short. You are charismatic, and your son's a great fighter. But you two are so afraid of being hurt by a mistake, you trying to stay alone. And despite of this, you did a terrible job at doing that. You with your charisma, and your son with his kindness. Well, at least that's what used to be," the doctor's indifference look finally turned into a warm one. "The files from recent months showed your changes, and I'm happy to say that your major problems with your son are behind."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Of course, it doesn't mean you two are cured completely. For one, your son still repressed his memory regarding his mother. I think you need to talk with him sooner or later regarding this."
"We already prepared a file that explain his mother's death, which probably already given by my Major, but you're right that direct approach would be much better," although I didn't know how I would explain that Rei contained 2% of Yui's undamaged genetics and other DNA constituted of other humans just to make sure she won't fall apart. Especially since 25% of them were genetics of people with one or two similar feature with Yui.
"And, to finish this session, I have one request. We're going to talk about what you want to do since a long time ago. You don't need to tell the biggest desire that you have, just one aspiration that have been tugging on you since a long time."
Oh, thank goodness. I did not want to discuss about my wife, that would be too awkward. "Well, there's one thing I have in mind since I finished college. Is it okay to take a dump on your father's grave?"
"...Excuse me?"
"If there's someone to blame at, it's my father. Kazuya Rokubungi. That no good man was the one who started this cycle of abuse. And as far as I know, the only excuse he had was that Imperialism and Nazi beliefs he held in his youth. I do not remember much about his career as businessman, but I remember him beating me everytime he failed to make a half-boiled egg. So in a nutshell, he's just a sore loser. You know, kinda like that prick in Eureka Seven who beating Renton for his own failures. Except he never changed," and damn right he was. Also, Eureka was basically Rei-inspired character, lol.
"Oh. Uh...I didn't know that, and I'm truly sorry to hear that. But even in western culture, that disrespect against your parent was...something else. I'd advise you to not doing that. Unless we don't have any ruling about it, but..."
"Don't worry, this is just me talking about it. I'm not taking it too seriously at all, but this thought have been bugging me since a long time ago."
"So let me get this straight. You want me to create a clone of you with the Lilith DNA so we can age it up, make it 65 years old, order it to piss on your father's grave, and excused it as some kind of revenge from your distant uncle that have been wronged by your father?"
"Yup!" I affirmed what I wanted by great enthusiasm.
"You gotta be kidding me, Gendo."
"Come on, Kozou! That old man deserved it! And all of us could feign ignorance. I mean, come on! I just found out last month that my fifth-cousin nearly died in the mountain that Fifth Angel destroyed! The excuse will hold!"
"Okay, okay! It's not like I have any shred of fondness toward your old man, either."
"YAY! We're going to shit on my daaad! We're going to shit on my daaad!"
"Gendo, cut it out! Someone could-" *click!* "Heard you..."
Fucking hell. I thought my privilege made people scared to even knock at the door without the intercom?
Oh no. That means the one who entered the room was that evil, old piece of shit Keel, or...
It's Ritsuko. And she looked like she just lost her soul.
"I, uh...it's exactly what it looks like?" I had nothing to justify what she just witnessed, and I decided to give her the most banal honesty.
"Gendo, I really don't want to know."
"I can offer you to shit on your grandma if you-" unfortunately, the door slammed before I could give the irrefusable offer.
"Gendo, what were you thinking? Do you really think everyone have problem with their parents?"
"Naoko talked about it before, actually." and I won the argument as Kozo decided to shut up.
Well the battle against the twin's here, and I still hadn't make any progress with our Second Child.
"Let me show you what a pro looks like, Third Child!" and her false ego still hadn't been knocked off due to me waiting off. The doctor was right, Gendo's a coward.
"Technically, he has more field experience compared to you," Misato countered.
"Shut up!" in anger, Asuka charged into the angel and cleaved it into two halves. As she gloated, the thing turned into two entities, grabbed Unit-02, and threw it into sand for her trouble. Her head was planted into the ground, turned the whole thing into Looney Tunes-esque situation.
"Well at least we know the AT-Field of Seventh Angel is weak," I drew the silver lining from the situation. Meanwhile, my boy struggled against it, and he tried to attack both its core. They just returned into its singular form and kicked his unprepared ass again.
Luckily, my man Kaji flared his AT-Field, taking away the attention from the Seventh Angel as it started to chase him instead. It gave time to Shinji for a recuperation, and after he regained his footing, he took Unit-01 to pull Asuka out of the crater.
"Guys, there's an N2 bomb in our arsenal. Grab it before they managed to get Kaji."
"Got it. Third Child, stay here! Help Kaji in case they got him."
Well, I had to admit; that's a better strategy, Asuka.
Especially since they nearly grasped Kaji in their hands already.
"Okay, guys. This fight was...an embarrassment to us, to say the least. Well, the part where Unit-02 tried to become a javelin, at least. Both of you at least managed to suppress it before we dropped N2 on it, so...you still did a good job?"
"But you still went against our order, Pilot Sohryu. And this is your first warning," Misato warned the girl who acted like she did not listen to my best planner.
"Correct. One could only guess what would happen if both of you attacked at the same time. Maybe we can-"
"Hey, that thing got its core sliced, and when Shinji struck its twin form, they healed in instant! How are we supposed to defeat it in the first place?"
"But if you waited for me, maybe none of us would be humiliated that badly!" Shinji offered his own opinion.
"That's rich coming from the one who had to be saved by Kaji!" and my boy...actually stared her back? OMG, he's growing so much! Sniff, sniff.
"Hey! That's enough, you two! You were supposed to be preserving your integrity, not making it worse!" Misato barked at both of them, who backed away after her warning.
"Return to topic. From the look of it, both of them have to be defeated at the very exact time. This means a strike on both its core need to be penetrated by a synchronized attack. Unfortunately, six days is not enough to create a weapon with that ability, so we're going to make you attack it at the same time!"
"So we're going to use my dancing-"
"Agent Kaji, with all respect, that idea's daft," I rebuked his offer and...the guy actually sobbed after I rebuked his idea? He really wanted to be a choreographer, wasn't he? "But if it's fighting choreography, it would be a different case. After all, only Asuka that had any martial arts training. The other two pilots could get some, increasing their ability on field in the future while accomplishing their job at the same time. It's a win-win situation for us."
"But I'm already black belt in two martial arts! I can't lower myself to their level, or wait until they get as good as me!"
"I didn't say anything about making them learning to become black belt in six days. All you need is a partner that can kick and punch at the very exact same time as you. So either you're going to teach Rei and Shinji your Taekwondo and Jeet Kune Do, with just the basic so your partner Evangelion can kick the twin angel's asses at the same time, or," I showed them the display of Kaji's dumb plan that somehow worked in the canon, "you two are going to live together everyday, wear the same clothes everyday, and doing DDR game all days and nights. Did I mention that you two will wear leotard from the worst of 80s?"
Everyone, even Ritsuko and Rei, looked at the outfit and plan with disgust. And it was enough to make Asuka relented. "Okay, okay! I'll do it! Anything but that leotard!"
"Good. Also, I would like to have some words with you after this, Asuka. Don't worry, you're not in trouble. But I require for everyone else to leave this room as soon as possible."
Asuka exhaled after I reassured her, and the rest of them soon went with their own business. After we're sure no one else left in the room, we get our little chat.
"So...what is it, Commander?"
"Have you heard about the purpose of drill sergeant?"
"Well, they're there to break and mold the soldiers, sir," good answer, Asuka. At least this means you were trained adequately.
"Good, because I would hate it if you have grudge against me for telling you this: out of all the important people here, you're easily the most fragile mentally."
"EXCUSE ME?"
"Sorry for not mincing words, but that's exactly what happened here. I am afraid that your bravado to cover how your mother's insanity make you feel like shit will turn into something much worse in the future."
"If you want to suggest how to deal with it, then I'll tell you that I'm an adult that can handle it alone, thank you."
"Oh, do you?" I asked again. "It took me ten years to get it together, and amended things with my son, and even then there are still unresolved issues between us. What make you believe you have the better approach?"
"For one, I have become the prodigy! I have degrees at 13 years old!"
"And I currently command the strongest force in the world, with maintenance cost that can bankrupt every smaller country. But I am not stubborn enough to refuse to admit I have problems."
"And I'm not going to hear an Amish trying to be an armchair psychologist!"
"Except NERV's psychologist said that...Ugh. Asuka," I stopped myself from lashing out against Asuka. Goddamn, she could be insufferable, "you got your Bachelor's degree at the age of 13 years old. That's one hell of an achievement. Every parent would be very proud at their children for pulled that off. Hell, if I was your father, I would hug you already."
"There's always a chance it's not enough for her."
Well, here goes nothing. "That's a dilemma you have, young girl. You want to please your mother, who have passed away since a long time ago, and you have this imagination spot that your mother have such a high standard for you, she won't be satisfied with something as big as having a genius kid with college degree at tween age."
"What...are you insinuating, sir?"
"That deep down, you wonder if you hate not just your father, but also your mother."
Next thing I knew, I stared at Asuka gritted her teeth while holding one of her heel in my left palm. She cursed me before telling how much she hated me, and by god she had a way with words. But as she left the room with trails of tears, I had another stuff in my sleeve."
"You won't after I tell you this: there's a log chat between Yui and your mama before the activation experiment drained her sanity."
"W...what? What are you talking about? What good it could be?"
"You can learn about your true mother, not the woman your four years old self had complex but shallow memories."
The girl then walked to me, while I prepared to say sorry and returned her heel.
...And punched me in the gut. Hard.
"THAT'S FOR NOT OFFERING THE E-MAILS IN THE FIRST PLACE!" the girl shouted at my face, before her face softened. "W...was confronting me in our first meeting really necessary?"
"Ugh...yeah, it did. Better having you subconsciously admitted you're wrong this soon. If you broke down in the battle instead, you will be an easy target, and everything will go horribly, horribly wrong from that moment. You may get your synchronization rate lowered to single digit after, you may keep making mistakes to keep up your bravado, you may even died after...With this, at least someone can throw you some bone after they break you."
"Sir, you're really weird. But at least you're nicer than what I've heard," the girl smiled at me as she called me weird, and her sobs became more infrequent. Also I would take that as a thanks.
"Yeah, and this nice person will let you go for punching me that hard," Asuka laughed, and the tension lowered further. "And I never see most of them, but I'll tell you this: your mother was a wonderful person, and it's really tragic what happened to her."
"I don't need your pity, Commander, so keep it."
"Well I am the same with you, so I understand your condition," I retorted.
"Y...your friend became insane in a failed experiment?"
"No. It's my wife. She got sucked into the core without any trace of her. All we retrieved was 2% of undamaged DNA, 35% of partially undamaged DNA, and the rest was unrecognizable."
"Wow. I...really didn't know that. I guess that truly makes us on the same page, huh?"
Yeah, except no one used your mother corpse to turn it into half-human hybrid and turned it into your sister or something. "Yeah, we are. And Shinji by proxy too, so treat him good, okay?"
"As long as he don't holding me back!" she said as she started to walk out of my office.
"Oh, have faith in him. He got 40% synchronization rate in first try, after all."
"But he's still not as good as me, The Great Asuka!" Asuka's voice echoed from the hallway, sounded a little more natural after our conversation.
Well, that gone well. Now how am I going to explain about Yui and Rei to Shinji? The DNA part alone was nonsensical, but I really burned all pictures of Yui. And I supposed the professor did the same too.
Wait. I got it.
Her school and university must still have her photos!
And if my memories were right, her middle school photos would reveal the differences...
Sorry for the drama part, but I wanted to do it. Next time would be nothing but hilarity.