A/N: sorry for being so late, but you know...shit happen.
Also enjoy the eight angel's battle, and an addition to Kaji's adventure.
"Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Do we...really have to learn to swim?"
"Yes, son. We don't want to stereotype the name of Ikari, right?" especially since in real life I was a good swimmer. And I don't want to sink just because the Ikaris are lousy swimmer, dammit!
"Well that's true, but-"
"And besides, don't tell me you don't enjoy Rei in swimming suit teaching you in water while holding you tight?" oh, you thought you could just look at her without me noticing, huh?!
"Um not, dad. I'm just...is it really fine for you to-"
"There you are, you mad leader!" oh, here's the fun-destroyer woman. Goodness, Misato. Why can't you turn off the professional mode around me? "What the hell are you planning here, having all the three pilots on vacation with their classmates? And with you following them too! Are you planning to abandon your job? You're the one who claimed there's no vacation in this job years ago!"
"It's just an extension to my grand plan to make our public persona more affable, and I'm intend to make it happen accordingly. And if you haven't noticed Misato, I'm a changed man."
"But there won't be any available pilot in emergency!"
"That's where you got it wrong, Major. Super Awesome Angel Hunter Kaji's going to be on the spot, ready to get all the pilots back to Geofront when we have to fight for humanity," I said while a crudely drawn graph showed Kaji picked the pilots with human-sized capsules. Why didn't Naoko put drawing pen skill in MAGI so I didn't have to come up with this? Come to think of it, I think the computer's trolling me sometimes.
"...Please don't tell me that's his designated codename."
"Ask him yourself. He's the one who picked it," Major Katsuragi just grunted and walked away from the swimming pool while shrugging off Kaji.
Oh, and Kaji's wearing some kind of swimming equipment. Imagine Disturbed's mascot wearing floaty. Yeah it was that weird.
"You can't swim too?"
"Not anymore. I'm now weighed 300kg, so I need to use helium just to float. But anyway, my girl doesn't look happy. Mind telling me why?"
"Kaji-san, is your designated codename Super Awesome Angel Hunter?"
"Yup! If anything tell me about this transformation, is that don't take it too seriously!"
"You got it right, Ryoji!" I shouted while ignoring Asuka's and Shinji's looks.
"Well, Misato-san thought the name...doesn't fit you," Shinji admitted. Good one, boy. You learned to be honest and soft-spoken at the same time.
"Well, we'll sort it out. A bit of bickering between couples are fine. Anyway, I want to see you two try to swim first. I...still don't know if I can shrink my appendage to make it work, and swimming in helium will feel weird."
"Don't worry you two! Me and Wondergirl here will take care of you in case something going on! And I've seen you two waddle around, you definitely can float at least!" Asuka shouted at us.
"See that? There are two girls ready to be our angel in case we did something wrong. And don't worry, son. This side of pool's only 1 meter."
Shinji nodded, and we started our move to the better future (vacation!) by jumped into the pool.
The next time I woke up, I ended up watching footage of people trying to pump the water out of our system. A certain quarter-German girl also weakly ranted about 'dragging a house of brick'.
I shouldn't change my name from Rokubungi...
Four days since we went to the Okinawa Island trip and it's nothing but rain and storm.
Something wasn't right. Earth's a really hot place since Second Impact, and somehow this island's raining for days straight?
Yeah right. Some shenanigan's going on here.
"Okay, Commander. You're lucky the angel happened to be on Mount Asama, which is not too far from Okinawa. Kaji will pick up Shinji and Asuka as we transport their EVA units to the mountain while I give briefings to both on the way," Misato called.
"What's his estimation time of arrival?"
"I'm already here, Commander. Asuka, Shinji, ready for the first double supersonic flight ride?" Kaji greeted us, now he's in an armored getup so citizens won't be scared of him.
"I don't like the sound of it."
"Oh shut up, you wuss. Yes I'm ready, Kaji-kun! Anything to get out of this awful weather."
"Okay, you two. Get in this!" the man brought the next state of art for both pilots to protect them from the air friction.
It's, uh, somehow looked like coffin modeled from a plane. But it's designed by MAGI, computer that's smarter than best of politicians on earth combined, so it must be safe and awesome!
"...I can't believe you make me agree with Shinji. That thing looked more like a coffin for children. And we're supposed to fly in that?"
"Nonsense. It was designed by our own supercomputer, so it must be safe! Now get in. Commander's command," ba-dum-tss!
"Okay! We'll get in! You first, dork!" that's my son, you little canine!
"It's actually comfortable. I think we're good, Asuka."
"Don't mind me!" the girl quickly take a seat in the place. "Hey, this is very good! Genial!"
"Good thing both of you enjoyed it, because you'll be the first one to enjoy Mach 4 flight in the smallest airplane ever! Better than Baby Boom!"
"...Uh, Misato?"
"...So my boyfriend's now kinda like monster, but his wang become even-Huh, what? This thing's still on-uh, I mean, yes Pilot Ikari?"
"...Let's pretend you didn't say anything before. Is it true that we're going on mach 4 to get to the location of the angel?"
"It's either that or the angel hatched, Pilot." Shinji justifiably gulped. Now that I think about it, the feeling's going to be very different, like between car and bike.
...Will they be okay?
Well I heard several indignant curses in Japanese and Germany that's faded quickly, so it's too late to think twice.
"Is there any chance that we can become Iron Man too?"
"Unfortunately not at the moment," I addressed the question, surprisingly come from Toji instead of Kensuke.
"Aww shuck."
"Okay, Commander. I've done two 2000 miles trips in two hours, so I hope you have a good reason for ordering me to arrive here so ASAP."
"There's some suspicions that the weather in Okinawa Island is not normal at all. Locals here said the week before the island's filled by thick fog, and when we arrived it's raining all day. When we asked around they said it never happened in ten years, so-"
"A year after Second Impact where everything gone wrong. So you suspect that there's something done on this island? Like, weather manipulator or rain demons?"
"That's exactly it. And considering how our job going, it's also likely that the weather manipulator is being powered by demons. You can start by going to the thickest cloud there. And by start, I really, really ordered you to do this. I've been skipping and burning my vacation break quotas, and I will not use it just to blew it on bad weather."
"...Okay, I'll do it just to humor you," the man flied into the sky. Despite his multi-layered voice, I could detect a bit of sarcasm. Can't he see I'm trying to do some good things for community here? Can't he see that I need a day off or two?
"Commander."
"Yes, Rei?"
"I believe Agent Super Kaji detected something inside of me. He has been... asking questions," uh oh.
"He definitely needs to know something sooner or later. We have to tell him a little bit before he asked questions we're not ready for," I addressed the girl's concerns.
"You seem like you believe you have to spill your secrets."
"We need them to know our stuffs to fully support our causes, and that including the worst that I have done."
"Even the part of you using some of Yui-san's DNA to create me?" Rei asked.
"It's not like I used all of her; it's more like reconstruction from a damaged source that got changed by exposure to EVA to see if we can create pilots from there," seriously, will I ever live it down?
"And the part about Evangelion created from the one where angel come from?" Rei asked again.
"Misato's going to throw a fit, but it's just the same like you basically."
"How about the part where you have liaison with Naoko-san and Lieutenant Ibuki's mother?"
"Ritsuko will-I'm sorry, what was the last part?" what the hell?
"You once asked for files on Lieutenant Ibuki's relatives due to her similarity with Yui-san, and settled with her mother. Did you forget about it?" oh yes, the one where I learned that mixing mushroom, pot and wine's a really bad idea.
"Uh, that one's more like one time thing, I believe. And we got drunk. We were so drunk I don't even think we did it. So yes, it didn't go to the home in the run..."
"...So what about you and marine biologist Nadia-"
"You know what, let us be the only one who even know anything about it. In fact, never speak about this again," I commanded. Damn, how many people with Yui's looks that I banged?
And a while after that, I could see Kaji went to our room via a window.
Looked too crispy for duty. No wonder he didn't want anyone else to see him.
"I feel like I'll avoid calamary for a month. You're right, Commander. There's some kind of supernatural figure causing havoc around the island looking to fill its stomach. Said something about 'eating the tasty newborn'. Have some nasty thunder power too. Penetrated my AT-Field somehow."
"Uh, so the thing wanted to eat the volcano angel?"
"To make it short, yes. So...what would happen if a supernatural figure trying to eat an angel?" my best agent asked.
"I don't know. It's not like these monsters came out with an instruction book," God, how the hell did they translate the scrolls anyway? Like how the fuck did the ancient Jewish guys translated scrolls from aliens?
"Then we'll just assume the worst then. New Impact event?"
"That's the most likely scenario. More localized, but still resulted in great explosion, like Krakatau. Not to mention the other monster's going to become a super powerful being anyway. The flesh from angel can be turned into an S2 engine and give the monster a virtually unlimited energy source."
"Well shit. Any proposal how to stop the damn thing?"
"How about using the blueprint for pilot's personal transport device and use your regenerating flesh as the external case?" Rei suddenly spoke. "That way you will have multiple AT-Field to protect you, and a hardened wall in case it did neutralize your AT-Field."
"Sounds like a great idea, Rei! I'll try to do that, but I need you two to turn your radio device on so we have a way to communicate," the superhuman said as he walked out. He turned around however, as something came up in his mind. "I've read the files on the pilots, Commander. These are brilliant kids with great future. I would want them stay alive and had all their issues sorted."
And with that, he left.
"Rei, you don't plan to become nothingness in case I need you to initiate Impact, right?"
"Not anymore, Commander. I want to be with people I cherish," great answer Rei.
"Ah! Finally! The newborn creature is here! All I have to do is to eat it and-"
"Uh pal, I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
"What? Oh it's just you," the demon lowered his voice after he saw Kaji's default form. His grotesque wings were also very translucent, which made his green blood and stored electricity visible to naked eyes. Together with his fierce expression and several drums colored blood hanging on his back, it wasn't a pleasant sight. "That's a great disguise, but still...I can't believe you approached me again. Still want some more?!"
"Obviously not, but I can't let you get stronger. Not from a creature like that angel."
"So you chose to be hurt again. Why?"
"To save the world, of course. And why do I feel your question came from a psychological horror series?" Kaji asked.
"Because for next three minutes, your world will be filled by nothing but pain!" the demon charged at Kaji, and the superhuman agent generated a shield to protect himself. As the demon prepared to do the same with even more strength, signified by the drum started to make noises, he make a connection to Commander.
"You're looking at this, Commander?"
"Yes, Agent. It is very intriguing," I said before I turned around to my own key to Instrumentality and whispered, "They never said anything about demons truly exist here. Seems like SEELE have their own secret, after all."
"Like a famous person said, don't trust anybody," ...how the hell did this little girl unknowingly quoted Stone Cold?
"So, uh...the shield's holding up nicely, but what can I do to stop him?" well, we did have better issue to sort.
"Try parry it. Let's see if it can do something interesting."
Kaji tried to pull it off, and it worked! It somehow created a rather explosive short-circuit effect, which Kaji's armor and shield protected him. The super agent then kicked the disoriented demon with a very large hammer, and it launched the demon.
"Nice work! Now follow him and-"
"Wait a minute, Commander. I see something far above us now," my agent said as he accelerated upward. And boy, he was right.
"An unmanned plane with mini N2 strapped on it? What the hell is it doing here?"
"Beats me. I don't think that thing can kill an angel or destroy your vacation spot," don't tell me...
Someone wanted to kill the thing just before it fully assimilated the soon to be dead angel so they can use the corpse? Like another way to control Third Impact?
Oh god, we're really jumping the shark!
I did my best to hide my surprise and asked, "Can you take a better look and see any clue of where it came from?"
"My attempts to link to the plane has been jammed. Hold on, let me try to take a better look...uh oh!"
"What is it?"
"Our electrifying friend is back. I think he's pissed!" the feed showed the plane started to move. "The plane moved toward the demon. It's really programmed to follow him!"
Dear lord! What to do, what to do...AHA! "Kaji, I think we need to give the plane's owner exactly what they wanted. Preferably...with explosive approach."
"What do you mean Com-ah, I see. That thing's coming so fast, it might not be able to see me clearly," Kaji said as he covered the plane with his tendrils, turned it into a copy of him. "Planted the speaker here...and we go!"
It's somehow amusing to see the demon thing trash-talking a flying dummy, not knowing that his real target was safely recorded their imminent doom. Even better when both thing exploded into oblivion without the demon know anything about it, although I could swear I heard a Japanese's equivalent of 'FUUUUU!' over the feed.
"It's a beautiful explosion..." right you are, Rei. Right you are.
"Uh, so...what actually happened there, Mr. Spiegel?"
"The hell I supposed to know, Mr. Nazario? All of sudden it's covered in tendrils, and somehow smashed into pieces thirty seconds before Second Child destroyed the angel!"
"Shit. All our plan to use a Raijin as our key to Instrumentality just got foiled out of nowhere. Now what? We can't talk to others about how to recover from this. Not when they have their own plan too!"
"We have no other choice, then. We'll see if the guys who will exploit the sabotage of NERV in the Ninth Angel's arrival want to see our involvement."
Ah, everything went better than expected.
Kaji collected the remains of the electric demon, the weather returned back to normal, and everybody can enjoy the nice afternoon in Okinawa. And yes, both Misato and Ritsuko looked goddamn good in swimsuits.
What can possibly go wrong?
"Commander."
"Ah, my favorite agent! You did great, man. You're really great. What do you want, dude?"
"I will say this bluntly, Commander. Answer my one question clearly and truthfully, and I will be on your side fully!"
"Well I supposed you deserves one, and I would hate to see Misato and Fuyutsuki court-martialed you, so shoot," I answered before sipped my coconut.
Marduk Institute. Is it real? Because all the supposed offices have been nothing but dummies and shell corporations."
"There's only one institute, and even then we can't exactly call it institute. More like board of directors," I answered truthfully while adding some parts. "The truth is, pilots were drafted from already known internal pools. To pilot the Evangelion, a primal familiarity between the core and pilot is needed, and the process to get there is...pretty gruesome."
"Like what?"
"Listen up, Kaji," I decided to be very profound to him. "If you have heard any stories from Maya that scared the hell outta you, then this truth is still five times more terrifying than anything that scare her out of her mind. So if you want to, you can go and I'll prepare a cover up story that still covered most of it."
"I've seen some crazy shit on this job, so spill it."
"Okay, so here we go," I inhaled deeply. "As I say, the pilot and core need to have a sufficient familiarity, subconsciously. To do this, there's only two ways. Either we used spliced part of the soul of the potential children extracted from their brain, or we process the brain of a recently deceased relative and turned the material into soul that will powered the core," Kaji flinched, but I continued because he had to hear it. "Yes, Kaji. Evangelion contains what can be considered the soul of the children's parental figures, or their own tiny conscience."
"...Oh dear. That's why half of Shinji's classmates have dead parents or other close relatives, isn't it?"
"Yes. And using their own soul is very risky. We tried to split the soul of Asuka's mother for the best of both worlds, and look what happened to her. Rei's the few ones who have her sanity intact after she got parts of her soul taken. That's why she's a part of our dummy program," I explained...rather closely to the truth.
"...So, what happened to your wife-"
"It's pure accident. None of us want it to happen," damn, even with how this body's not mine, it still hurt.
Yui...would you want Gendo to move on and make his new paradise, or get his old one with you back?