Shinji's Redemption
Chapter 9
Shinji walked into the kitchen. After he got back from the hospital, Shinji went straight to his room and proceeded to sleep for the rest of the day. When he woke up he walked into the bathroom to take a shower. After he got out he went to go make himself some breakfast only to find Asuka in the kitchen making something.
"It's about time you woke up!" Asuka complained. Shinji rubbed his eyes, his head still hurt from when he passed out. He looked at Asuka to see what she was making. By the smell, she was making chicken noodle soup. He went and sat down at the dining table waiting for Asuka to Finnish. He couldn't help but watch her as she cooked. She wore a yellow tank top and blue short shorts. She had an apron tied around her waist. She wore her hair back into a messy bun, which tied her whole look together. Asuka finished cooking and the two started to eat.
"Hey you two," Misato greeted as she walked in. She walked over to the fridge and drank her morning beer. She instantly perked up, letting out a loud cheer, resulting in an eye-roll from Asuka. The three of them continued to eat. Afterward, Shinji got up and started to wash the dishes. Asuka looked confused.
"It's my turn to wash the dishes," Asuka said.
"I don't mind," Shinji said. Asuka looked troubled. She walked over next to Shinji.
"Move idiot, we'll do them together," Asuka said. Misato looked at the two. Shinji washed the dishes, while Asuka dried them. They worked together with ease, their synergy never faltering. By the time Misato finished her breakfast, they were already done. Misato couldn't help but smile at the two.
"Miss Soryu, can you read this paragraph?" The teacher asked. Asuka looked down at the sentence in the book they were reading. Asuka silently swore under her breath. Just as she was about to answer when the lunch bell rang.
"This is so stupid!" Asuka complained. Shinji looked at the paragraph. Shinji read the paragraph out loud so Asuka could understand it. He watched her write them down in German.
"Still having trouble with Kanji?" Shinji asked. Asuka replied with a low grumble. Shinji looked over and saw that Asuka wasn't eating anything.
"You're not hungry?" Shinji asked. Asuka had her head resting against her fists, looking bored.
"Nah, the food here sucks." She said. Just then a loud rumble could be heard. Shinji just smiled and pulled out his canteen. He passed it over to Asuka, who reluctantly took it. She opened it up and poured some of it into the lid. She took a sip of the broth to find that it was the same soup that she made this morning. Asuka smiled proudly. "I guess the idiot likes it enough to eat it again." She thought to herself. As they continued to eat Asuka kept glancing at the clock with a mischievous grin.
"What are you thinking?" Shinji asked, worried. Asuka got up and walked over to Shinji.
"We're skipping class," she said. Shinji barely had time to get up when Asuka pulled him with her.
Getting out was relatively easy. Due to them being pilots, it would make sense that they would be able to leave without proper notice. They walked up the street until they reached the closest bus stop. They had a few glances from people, probably wondering why kids are out of school at this time of day. They rode the bus into Tokyo-3.
The city was as busy as ever. Even during work hours the roads and walkways were filled with people and cars. The sky was bright blue with the summer sun, only a few clouds hung in the sky. Shinji and Asuka walked among the streets passing by all sorts of stalls and shops. One which caught Asuka's attention. It was a bakery. The smell of pastries filled the air. The two got cookies on sticks, something Shinji had never seen before. They continued to walk through the city, stopping at other shops.
Asuka looked over at Shinji. He had a small frown on his face. Asuka has gotten good at telling when something was bothering him, thanks to the synch training.
"What's wrong?" Asuka asked. Shinji blinked a couple of times and looked away.
"Nothing." He said, obviously trying to hide something. Asuka narrowed her eyes and looked at Shinji suspiciously.
"You're a horrible liar," Asuka teased. Shinji looked down.
"I'm sorry about Unit 01" Shinji admitted. Asuka just sighed.
"You apologize too much," Asuka said. Shinji just stayed silent. "How did it go Berserk?" Asuka asked. Shinji scratched the back of his head.
"I can't remember much, but judging from the first time this happened, it was a combination of stress and a spike in my synch ration that caused me to pass out," Shinji answered.
"Stress? Was he really that worried about me?" Asuka asked herself. Shinji looked up at the sky. It was just turning orange, signaling that it was getting late. Shinji stood up.
"It's getting late, we should start heading home," Shinji said.
Shinji looked into the fridge. There was hardly any food in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow. He looked at the clock in the kitchen. If he was going to go to the store he would have to go now.
"Asuka, I'm going to the grocery store to get food for breakfast. I'll be back in about an hour." Shinji said.
"Kay," Asuka replied. Shinji then left, leaving Asuka by herself in the apartment. For the first time in a while, Asuka was completely by herself. She turned on the TV to pass the time, only to find nothing good was on. Asuka then walked into her room to see if she could find anything to pass the time. Failing to find anything, she flipped on her bed completely bored. After a while of looking at the ceiling, she decided it would be best if she just took a shower and went to bed. She gathered her things for her shower.
After she finished her shower, Asuka walked into the hallway. She passed by Shinji's door. Out of curiosity, he opened his door to see what his room looked like. It was pretty barren with only a single painting hanging on the wall. She walked in to look at the painting. It was a bird-eye view of Tokyo-3 with Unit 01 reflecting in the ocean by the city.
"Did Shinji paint this?" She asked herself.
She looked closely at the painting, the rough and irregular paint strokes proved that it was hand-painted and not one of those computer painters. She looked down on his bed. His SDAT was just laying there on his bed. Asuka knew that she shouldn't snoop around people's stuff, much less use them without their permission, but she always wondered why he carried around something this old and primitive. Nowadays players like these could carry ten times the amount of songs than one of these cassette tapes could.
The curiosity got the better of her and she put on the headphones and turned it on. She cycled through the tracks, most of which were classical songs, but some rock was mixed in. It was obviously a mixtape that he made himself. She was about to put it back on Shinji's bed until she played another track. She pressed play and a music box tune started to play. This track was the longest, the tune went on for about eight minutes. She sat on his bed and listened to the whole track. The tune made Asuka very sleepy, it was like all her stress and worries were being slowly lost in the tune. Before she knew it, she was curled up on Shinji's bed, asleep.
Shinji opened the apartment door and walked into the kitchen.
"Asuka, I'm back." He said, yearning no response. He put the groceries in the fridge and walked into the living room. She wasn't there. He didn't hear any water running, so she wasn't taking a shower. He knocked on her door and there was no response. He shrugged and went to his room to find Asuka asleep on his bed. Shinji looked at the sleeping Asuka with nothing but confusion. He went to go wake her up only to find that she was listing to his SDAT. He tried to shake her awake, but she was fast asleep. He sighed and pulled the covers over her. He went to get some blankets and pillows from the linen closet. He set up a makeshift bed on the floor next to his bed. He turned out the light in his room and went to sleep.
Asuka woke with a satisfying yawn. Last night was some of the best sleep she had in a while. She never had any of her usual midnight nightmares, where she would wake up and couldn't go back to sleep. She stretched and looked around her room, only to find it wasn't her room. She looked down at the bed she was in. The sheets were a mess, and the pillow was part-way off the bed. She felt something on her head, it was a pair of headphones. She looked for where the cord would go. She lifted the pillow and found Shinji's SDAT player. Before she could continue, Asuka heard some rustling. She looked down at the foot of the bed. There lay Shinji in a mess of sheets and pillows.
Shinji didn't sleep well. His back and neck were sore, and without his SDAT he couldn't drift off to sleep. He sat up and rubbed his neck. He looked up to see if Asuka had woke up yet. He was met with a set of Angry and confused eyes.
"Why the hell am I in your bed!" Asuka yelled. Shinji's now awake ears throbbed in pain.
"I was about to ask you the same question," Shinji rebutted. Asuka was about to say something until she heard footsteps come down the hall. Asuka pulled off the headphones to Shinji's SDAT and ran out towards her room, leaving Shinji by himself. Misato walked over to Shinji's room. She looked in to see Shinji on the floor with a pile of sheets.
"Why are you on the floor?" Misato asked, confused. Shinji looked around himself trying to come up with a response.
"I uh...fell out of bed?" Shinji responded. Misato walked off chuckling to herself. "She actually believed that?" Shinji complained, crossing his arms in annoyance. After Shinji cooked breakfast him and Misato started to eat. Misato noticed a certain redhead was missing.
"Where's Asuka?" Misato asked. Shinji just shrugged. Just then, Asuka came walking into the kitchen. She sat down and started eating. Misato looked at the two. She knew something was up, she just didn't know what. She looked up at the clock and sighed. Misato got up from the table and went to her room to go change.
"Shinji, Asuka, I have to go to work early today. Make sure you feed PenPen and lock the door when you leave." Misato said as she walked out, leaving an awkward silence between the two young teenagers. Shinji just looked down at his food, he wanted to ask her why she was in his room and more importantly, why she had his SDAT. He decided to cut the deafening silence.
"Asuka, I don't mind you listing to my SDAT, but let me know if you are ok?" Shinji said. Asuka just kept looking at her food.
"I just wanted to see why you always carry it around with you," Asuka said. Shinji looked up at Asuka.
"It was a gift from my mom before she died, that's why you always see me with it," Shinji said. Asuka's eyes lit up. She couldn't believe it.
"Who took care of you?" Asuka asked. A frown appeared on Shinji's face.
"I lived with my teacher for a while," Shinji answered. Asuka looked confused.
"What about your father?" Asuka asked. Shinji face tightened.
"He left me when I was four." Shinji coldly said, without hesitation. Asuka could feel the hatred in his voice. It was unnerving to her to see someone as caring as Shinji to be so cold. Asuka genuinely felt sorry for Shinji, it was no wonder why he turned out as he did. "What about your parents?" Shinji asked. Asuka was torn inside. She swore to herself that she would never tell anyone about her mother, but it was only fair if he heard a little.
"My mother died when I was really young. As for my father, he was always busy with work." Asuka answered. For the first time in a while, Asuka actually felt empathy for someone.
"At least we have each other," Shinji said. Asuka smiled.
"You idiot," Asuka said.
Ritsuko walked into Gendo's office, it was more like an abandoned floor than it was an office. The room had no lighting except for the natural light that came through the windows from outside. She walked over to the desk in the middle of the room. There sat Gendo Ikari, covering his face with his hands. A chessboard was set up with all the pieces on the board, ready for a match to be played. Ritsuko sat down in the chair opposite to Gendo. He made his first move.
"How did the operation go?" he asked. Ritsuko looked down at the chessboard. She made her move.
"During the operation the angel became hostile," Ritsuko responded. Under his tinted glasses, he looked up at Ritsuko.
"I assume the pilots took care of it?" He asked.
"That's why I requested this report be made in private," Ritsuko said. Gendo made another move. "During the operation Unit 01 went berserk." Ritsuko finished.
"As long as Unit 01 made out and the angel was defeated, it doesn't matter if it goes berserk," Gendo replied. Ritsuko made her move.
"But it wasn't the angel that caused it to go berserk," Ritsuko informed. Gendo ignored the game and gave his full attention to what Rituko was saying. "During Unit 02's Magma dive, Shinji's blood pressure and synch rate slowly increased the deeper Unit 02 went, but the just before the angel awoke, his Synch levels spiked and that's when Unit 01 went berserk," Ritsuko said. Gendo focused on the game again.
"Are you saying Shinji knew the angel was going to awake?" Gendo asked.
"I'm saying it's a possibility," she replied. She looked at the board, currently, her King was being attacked by Gendo's queen and rook. He looked at the position for a while and then made his move. "Do you think this is just a coincidence?" She asked. Gendo moved his queen right next to Ritsuko's king, she was confused by his move, seeing that she could easily capture it with her king.
"Only one way to find out," Gendo said. He took his knight and checked Ritsuko's king. She was forced to move the king to the corner of the board. "We'll wait and see if anything else develops," he said. He moved his knight, attacking her king. The king was trapped in the corner of the board and couldn't move, resulting in checkmate.