Chapter 17: Reporter Rei reports.
"We should probably head back now. The sun's going down and we were lucky that NERV didn't give us another mission today." Mari suggested as a now very exhausted Shinji stifled a yawn. "We don't know what tomorrow will bring yet, and I can see that you're tired. Sakura's probably finished cooking dinner by now as well."
"Good idea" Shinji quickly agreed as he stood up from the bench and took Mari's hand in his own as they begun to head in the direction of her mansion.
There was no telling when the Angels would attack again and having one day off had already been more than enough for him. Especially if it ended with one more of Sakura's world class banquets.
"You said before that my mum was still alive somewhere, Mari." Shinji added as the two friends walked together down the beautiful pavilion.
"I did say that Shinji. Yes."
"How?"
"It's complicated."
"Try to explain anyway."
"Well. In a sense Shinji, you could say that Yui committed suicide without really committing suicide. And that the one person giving her any purpose in the life she still has, is you."
"What do you mean?"
Mari's serious face from the day she revealed NERV's treachery to the then oblivious Shinji returned as she took one quick look to check that no one was listening in to the two of them. She looked Shinji with a stare that seemed to look deep into his very soul.
"EVA Unit one is your mother, Shinji. Your mum is trapped inside unit 1. That is why only you can pilot it, and nobody else. That's the reason your dad keeps you around despite the fact he despises you."
…
Rei's long blue hair tossed and turned behind her as she raced across the unwashed stone floor, jumped into the Elevator and hammered the button for the 6th floor so hard she nearly broke it. For all she knew, Shinji could be trapped in his room hungry, scared and injured. This meeting with Asuka had revealed to Rei that her fellow pilot was not above using extreme domestic abuse to get what she wanted.
Asuka ranked barely one step above the Angels she fought against. For Shinji to receive a black eye and bloody nose from fighting an emotionless alien incapable of thought was one thing. But to get one from his teammate and roommate with whom he shared both a room and a reason to live, was unacceptably immoral in every sense of the phrase.
And Rei herself had done nothing more than drive Shinji further into insanity with how little she had appreciated the good in him. It ended here and it ended now.
"I defy you Gendo" Rei forcefully remarked as the barely functional elevator finally flashed the number 6 on its floor screen. "A father incapable of loving his flesh and blood son, is incapable of loving his other children too."
From a small blue bag she had around her shoulder, she carefully took out the pink heart shaped chocolate box. She had kept it hidden knowing that Asuka would have torn it to pieces had she even caught sight of it. She did not like gifts being given to Shinji but loved taking everything she saw for herself.
Her mind was conjuring up happy images which made her blush with sentimentality as she located room 613 exactly where she had been told it was. Images of an overjoyed Shinji-Kun receiving the chocolate box with a heavenly beam devoid of any sadness, as he pulled his Rei-chan in for a full-blown kiss on the lips.
She nearly fainted at such a prospect but knew she had to maintain discipline to have any chance of getting even a fraction of what she had just envisioned. Not to mention that as much as she would have liked to keep hiding the part that she had played in his father's plan to trick him, she needed to tell Shinji the complete and honest truth.
Unlike Asuka, Rei Ayanami took full responsibility for every action and choice she made. It was what girlfriends did and just one of the many ways that she would prove herself completely different from that sociopathic scumbag.
With a sweaty hand, she unlocked door 613 and very carefully pulled it open. She had stumbled upon the living quarters that her Shinji had been forced to share with two of the most unpleasant members of the unpleasant company NERV.
To say that the room was as bad as Rei had predicted would be the understatement of the century. Empty beer cans and various other detritus lined every table in the kitchen and dining room. The bin was chock full of more cans of alcohol than Rei thought was possible to ever drink up in a lifetime.
A stack of grimy, slimy dishes was pilled haphazardly on the table beside the sink on the verge of a collapse. Rei dared not touch it lest a rain of glass pierce into her skin and cover this already messy suite in more mess which Shinji would no doubt be forced to clean up again in his valuable downtime from his piloting duties.
The floor was more filled with dust than a sawmill. Every breath was a struggle for even Rei, who as an artificial human had a superior respiratory system to even human top athletes.
It was like asbestos poisoning but more severe.
A loud snoring in the other room caught Rei's attention and she quietly tiptoed into what looked to be a lavishly furnished bedroom. More beer cans were scattered across the incredibly wet carpet and a few were even placed on the nightstand table right next to the bed. One can was even left standing upright, still half full of fizzy cheap and strong-smelling alcohol.
Rei covered her nose as she crept nearer for a closer look. She may not have been completely human, but even she knew that such an excess of alcohol could be nothing less than toxic to anyone.
This was disgusting.
Sprawled out with her feet on the pillow and her head on the verge of losing balance and tipping from the bed, without even wearing a duvet, lay the great and honourable Major Misato.
Saliva was drooling from her mouth with every snore as she continued to periodically hiccup even in her sleep.
Rei could take it no longer. This was far, far worse than watching the Angels eat buildings and leak fluid after they were destroyed. She reached the dirty kitchen sink just in time as the contents of everything she had eaten in the past week flooded out of her mouth.
She tried to stop herself, but nothing could stem the flow of vomit that continued to flood into the jammed up sink and onto the floor once the sink was full of her sick.
She eventually managed after a few painful coughs and pats on her back to get it under control. No one should have been forced to live in close proximity with a pig like that.
Not Shinji and not even Asuka who Rei now saw no good in at all.
Never mind high ranking officers of the sole society in charge of shielding the last remains of humanity, this was not the good mark of a good guardian worthy of being let near fourteen-year-old child soldiers already knackered from a lifetime of endless battles.
No wonder Asuka could get away with anything she wanted in this home while Shinji took all the salt and rage in NERV despite being an above average pilot.
Something had to be done quickly. But what could Rei do?
That's when she remembered a small but unmissable item, she had seen in Misato's bedroom earlier. It was a brief sight, but the shininess of the item meant that it could not be missed even in a sea of other messily scattered things.
Rei ran back into the still sleeping Major's room and from one of the many messy shelves, drew a slightly old and slightly cracked camera which she discovered at the click of a button, still worked fine.
Just as the first child and first pilot had the right to request expedited search warrants, Rei also had the right to re-appropriate any item she believed would be useful in NERV's cause of combating the Angels with maximum efficiency.
Looking upon the hiccupping and snoring woman who had been put in charge of Shinji's missions and care, like an assassin staring down their victim, Rei tapped the photo button repeatedly.
The police needed evidence before taking action? They would get their evidence.
"You are not worthy of leading us pilots in our missions, Major Misato." Rei quipped in tranquil fury as she walked out of the room for the last time to get a few more photos of the rest of the apartment.
Like a Hollywood camerawoman, Rei took snap after snap of every room taking care to zoom into the empty cans of beer each time.
She eventually found what she guessed to be Shinji's bedroom at the end of a long corridor. This was her last stop. Even though she had once again been unlucky not to find Shinji himself, all the remaining secrets she craved were through that doorway.
For a long time in her dreams, she had been trying to ponder what Shinji's room would be like. She gently pinched herself as she put a trembling hand on the knob to remind herself that this was reality.
It seemed at first glance to be a tidy and homely little bedroom, much more well cleaned and tidy than those of his ungrateful roommates, if a little lacking in material possessions for Rei's comfort.
Perhaps Shinji just felt to live with less and wasn't so extravagant. At least Rei hoped this was the answer. The one object in the room was a big and battered radio, the paint quickly peeling off and covered in scratches.
It made Misato's camera seem brand new and cutting edge in comparison.
That was when Rei noticed a speck of dried blood on the otherwise spotless floor.
It was but a few tiny droplets, but Rei still managed to catch it with her extra sensitive sight.
Her alarm only grew when she found a half-finished packet of high concentration painkillers and an emptied glass on the beside table. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.
A large human shaped mark covered the wall next to the bloodstain. It was as if something, or rather someone had struck it incredibly hard.
…
"It was an accident Asuka, I swear" Shinji helplessly pleaded with covered eyes, trying to back into his room as furious Asuka clad in only a bath towel crested him menacingly. "I really didn't know you would come out at that second and…"
He got no further as he was kicked full in the face, the force of the impact causing him to collide straight into the wall behind him as a few drips of blood trickled from his nose.
"Shinji needs love too." He muttered under his breath in ultimate anguish as he clutched his broken nose, trying very hard not to cry and give Asuka yet another reason to mock him further.
…
A drunk adult, a gentle boy who shook at the mere mention of violence against anyone and an irate girl with a hair trigger temper and no empathy living in one apartment. Blood and painkillers found in the room of the least violent member of the household. A big hole in the wall beside the blood.
A five-year-old could crack the code.
Reporter Rei quickly flicked out her camera once again and photographed both these horrifying little details. This search was proving to be more fruitful than she thought it would even if she had failed to find her Shinji.
She would have loved to stay longer in this room, lying on the bedsheets of the boy of her dreams and appreciating how the very walls of this one space within the otherwise unbearable apartment echoed with solemnity and warmth.
But Rei knew that she had to get going. Shinji had gone now and there was nothing for her here either. She needed to get the truth out to the world before Asuka painted more floors red. The search for Shinji could wait.
Rei knew that Tokyo-3 had a broadcasting station somewhere in the city. Where it was exactly was simply a matter of asking directions and then getting there as soon as possible.
It was the place where all of NERV's propaganda was filmed to keep the public in line. Only good news, no bad. Well today there would be.
She had already taken the few notes of petty cash which Asuka had placed in a little box on a shelf in her room. Rei knew instinctively that this was really part of Shinji's paycheque which had been unfairly extorted from him. He wouldn't get to spend the little money his hard work earned him, but at least it could be put to a good cause.
The good cause being the ticket Rei bought to hasten her journey to Tokyo-3 news station, camera in hand. One quote that NERV never quoted from the bible despite its fetish about that book, was that the meek would inherit the Earth.
Not the loudmouth, not the selfish and certainly not the violent bullies but the meek. Tonight, was the night of the meek.
…
"So, what do you have in mind for our plan to stop my dad?" asked Shinji between mouthfuls of exotic Sushi expertly prepared by butler Sakura. "Do we ambush him in his sleep? Do we steal some EVA's and go in guns blazing at him? What should we do?"
"The reason we became good friends in the first place Shinji, is because neither of us believe in pointless fighting. Your dad may be a very evil man, but we can't stoop to his level. Him and SEELE are not the only problems. Bad dictatorships like theirs don't just spring up overnight." Mari replied, sipping vanilla flavoured lemonade. "Asuka was right when she said that nepotism alone is bad for deciding who does what. Have you ever watched a series called Gundam?"
"I did, and I didn't like it one bit. One bad leader being killed just to be replaced by a worse one. It's horrible. It's the reason I don't like it when people bring up politics. Because that's basically what it's all about. A group of jerks willing to put the world at risk just so they can get more."
"And there's the problem. Whatever solution we implement to solve NERV and SEELE needs to take into account what the people want. Not what we want. The only way we're going to break the cycle of death and destruction is by being better than NERV and SEELE. To do the kind things they would not do."
"So a nonviolent coup then?"
"No coup Shinji. A good leader doesn't need to lie to get into power. How many revolutionaries have you seen who actually did a good job running their country after their revolution succeeded?"
The terrifying mental images of Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin kept Shinji completely silent.
"Exactly. And now let me ask you another question. Which pilot in NERV won the most battles out of any of them?"
"Uh…" Shinji thought of all the times he had been forced to confront a far superior opponent after both Asuka and Rei were knocked out cold. "You?"
"No. Shinji. You. And who never gets angry with anyone no matter how much crap they've put him through after all the good he's done for the uncaring world that can go screw itself."
"You?"
"Trick question Shinji. It's you again. And now, last question. Who made the courageous choice to save a complete stranger on the road with a gun in her hand, knowing she could be dangerous? When he was just six years old?"
Shinji wanted this twenty questions game to stop. He knew the answer to this question but the terrible self-image that had been firmly implanted in his brain of him being a heartless coward scared of his own shadow caught his tongue.
"Uhh. Uhh. Aaah" he managed to blurt out as everyone he knew including Mari begun to circle his mind shouting the words "Getting in the robot Shinji. Get in the f*cking robot".
"You made the decision to help me, knowing that when I woke up, I would see that you and your mum were both NERV agents, the very group of people that the I along with the rest of the world despised. That needed not only kindness, but bravery and faith too. You're not just not a coward Shinji, you're the bravest of us all. (and living proof that the bible didn't get it completely wrong with the good Samaritan story at least) A lot of people in NERV already felt the same way I feel about you long before I came. I can tell simply by looking at them, that just about everyone who even remotely knows you would kill to go out with you. This is the truth, Shinji, even if you don't believe it. You already, without knowing it, have a harem that would walk straight into the jaws of hell if you told them to."
"That can't be true Mari. It just can't and even you know it can't." Shinji shouted in unintended anger. His poor self-esteem was still choking him out of breath.
"To give you an idea of what I mean, I once asked Dr Akagi as a joke whether she would be ready to start a relationship with you given the chance. She did not take it as a joke in the slightest. She told me that nothing would have made her happier. That she would throw away everything she dedicated her life to just to run away with you. A woman three times your age, views you in a romantic way. And that's not a joke."
"That can't be." Shinji gasped, shaking his head violently. "I thought, I thought everyone hated me."
"You know I'm not a good liar, Shinji. And you know that even if I could bring myself to tell a lie, I could never do it without good reason to the boy who saved my life. The bottom line is that everyone loves you Shinji. Everyone who isn't your dad and Asuka, that is."
"But what does all this have to do with saving the world?" asked Shinji, desperate to stop the torrent of praises he was being showered with that he still felt he didn't deserve.
"My plan Shinji is that we get everyone to vote. We hold a completely democratic election to see who gets to be the new leader of NERV and then that person will make the positive changes that NERV needs to be what it originally was meant to be. And that you and I both already know who the winner of that election will be."
"Who, Mari, Who? Who could be so popular and amazing like how you described, to have what it takes to replace my dad as the new head of NERV?"
Mari giggled a little to herself. Shinji's complete modesty when it came to himself was just one of the many things, that Tokyo-3 and soon the world would come to love about NERV's wonderful new leader.
…
Tokyo News station came within view as Rei came out from an alley, she took to avoid the crowd of fans her new appearance had attracted. The train ride had been something with everyone abroad the crowded cabin with their eyes fixed on her like a pack of wolves looked at their next meal which they'd have to fight over.
She wasn't sure she liked this better than when everyone ignored her even when she was shouting out loud. But it would hopefully help her sell her story.
It was a tower of black metal and glass, seemingly devoid of any other colour. A bleak place in the middle of a bleak city even before the impact.
And Rei knew the meaning of bleak better than anyone, having been born and raised to be the epitome of bleakness in preparation for the awakening of an incredibly bleak beast, hell bent on bringing bleakness to everything it saw.
"Bless me with your blessing just this once, all loving lord." the total atheist sincerely intoned, touching her cross necklace. "And if all fails, unite me and Shinji in our next life."
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to take the painful steps through the automatic doors of the building where as expected, a running man carrying a gigantic stack of papers fell right over upon looking at her entry.
She ignored him and went straight to the reception desk where a big, unsmiling man in a plain black suit as black as the building he was in was looking into the distance with seemingly nothing to do.
"Excuse me sir." She begun, wanting to get straight to the point. "But would it be alright if I could present my story on the news briefly. It's a very important piece of news that I think all of Toyko-3 could benefit from hearing and it's urgency cannot be overstated, for I believe it to be of vital importance to at least the national security of our glorious country, if not global security."
The police would be too corrupt to even care, so the news was Rei's only hope.
The man did not look convinced in the slightest and continued to stare blankly into empty space.
"The information I wish to speak to Tokyo-3 about could potentially compromise the safety of the planet if not reported immediately" Rei restated, trying to sound as serious as she could. "It is the reason I did not go to the press or police with my story first. There's no time. The people must know the truth I am about to reveal, or we are all doomed."
The man did not even reply but pointed gruffly at the door through which Rei had come through. His nose had not bled in the slightest nor had his stern expression wavered throughout Rei's plea.
"I am NERV's top agent, sir. Everything I wish to disclose to the public will be done with NERV's best interests at heart."
"You have no appointment here." The man briefly and bitterly replied, still pointing at the door. "I do not care if you come from NERV or not. You are not chief Gendo and thus still do not have the right to interfere with our news broadcasts on such short notice such as this. Take your leave."
"I can make it worth your while, Sir." Pleaded Rei as she pulled the few remaining notes she had taken from Asuka and placed them carefully on the counter.
She put on the Moe face that she and she alone could pull off as she did this. "Please, be kind to a young, innocent girl who only seeks to advance NERV's progress as best she can."
The man quickly swept up the notes and for a split second, Rei's spirits rose the slightest bit.
"You insult me with your poor sense of the costly times we live in, worthless urchin" the man mocked, still keeping his monotone voice. "I repeat once more. Take your leave before I order security to lock you away for loitering on these premises."
"Wait" interjected Rei as the man's finger reached out to press a button she could not see. "Please sir. I really can make it worth your while.
"And what will you pay with, worthless little urchin? Money? Currency? Valuable possessions? What a moneyless little beggar like you could possibly give to me to convince me otherwise, I cannot imagine. So, leave."
"I can" Rei had to swallow every bit of the miniscule amount of pride she had managed to gather in a lifetime spent endlessly being gaslighted and told she would never measure up to anything without her creator's help. "I can give you something valuable, more valuable than all the money in the world."
"And what's that." The man emotionlessly asked as he peered down briefly at a photo of a younger him smiling next to his now long-gone wife and daughter.
"A, a kiss." Rei stuttered forcing herself to blank out the image of every meeting she had been forced to endure with Gendo. "Let me report my story, and I can bestow upon you, a single kiss"
The man's stoic sternness and his incurable boredom vanished in a flash as Rei nervously finished her sentence. He took one more glance at the family photo and tears of great joy flooded from eyes. The last time anyone had offered him this priceless treasure, he was not the cold widow that the loss of his family to a hungry Angel had left him as.
His mouth shook up and down and he could not say a single words as Rei drew her face closer to his and planted a single chaste peck on his cheek.
"Know that even if you seem all alone in this cold, bleak world, that I will always care about you sir" Rei muttered as she withdrew and bowed before the now blissfully sobbing pile of jelly the man had become. "I know that you still have a good heart."
He nodded wildly as he quickly dabbed at his tears with a sleeve, taking one more look at the little girl in his family photo as he did so.
"Go straight to floor 6 and room 66." He quickly instructed. "The news channel finishes in less than ten minutes and you'll have to be quick. Go now before the others throw you out."
"Thank you sir" Rei quickly but gratefully called out as she leapt to obey his directions. "Take good care of yourself too."
She ran to the nearest elevator and hammered the button for floor 6, her hand on the door as the elevator climbed the floors and bolting out the split second it reached her destination.
She got to her intended room without meeting anyone else and not wanting to waste time, shot her Moe face once more upon pulling open the door causing every reporter in the room to faint with a blush.
She pushed the lead reporter closest to the camera out of the way even as she eyed the timer on the wall which had only a bit more than eight minutes left.
"I am Rei Ayanami" she quickly announced, knowing that time was ticking away by the second. "The first child and first EVA pilot of NERV. I interrupt your laughter at the expense of others, to bring you all an important newsflash whose importance cannot be overstated."
At the mention of these words, every smile upon every watcher in front of every television in the city went dead. Hikari who was now sat on her sofa beside her good red-haired friend Asuka to watch the evening news had briefly begun to laugh when she saw the reporters faint all of a sudden for unknown reasons, was now bending intently at the screen with a deadly serious scowl.
Why Rei's hair and clothes had gone all weird were the least of her worries right now as the overwhelming sadness in the bluenette's voice captivated her utterly.
Asuka's mouth dropped and she begun to shake herself violently. The most shy and antisocial human being who was not even a human being in Tokyo-3 if not the known world, was on TV.
Hell was freezing over. An Angel attack would have been a welcome return to reality at this point.
"Was? Rei? WAS MACHST DU DENN HIER?" Asuka demanded furiously in German, the digital image of Rei on a news channel corrupting her language lobes.
Shinji and Mari who had decided this evening would be as good an evening as any to see what the heck was up with the crazy world where nothing made sense, shared a matching look of surprise.
Shinji's more horrified and Mari's prouder that the other Nami was finally coming out of her shell in the most pleasantly surprising way possible. Shinji spilled his drink causing a massive puddle on the expensive carpet. "I'll get that" called Sakura as she left the room to go and get a mop.
"I have come to reveal two traitors among our midst. Two traitors whose lies have very nearly brought NERV and by extension the entirety of Tokyo-3 and the known world to its knees." Rei announced, keeping her eyes on the screen despite her shyness. "Two cold hearted tyrants who have besmirched the good name of the great and honourable NERV, undermining all that a noble organisation dedicated to the good of mankind is supposed to stand for."
She knew that the previous Rei died when Gendo sensed she was no longer loyal to him. And that as much as she wanted to bring down NERV along with Asuka and Misato, trying to do so at such an early stage would only result in a premature and painful execution and her memories of Shinji being erased once more.
Who knew then if Gendo were to make the clone replacing her a cold-blooded killer this time? What if this clone was programmed to murder Shinji and Nami brown (her informal name for Mari, the closest thing she had to a friend outside Shinji) instead of simply tricking Shinji into staying loyal to his father and to NERV?
She couldn't take that risk. She still had so many dates to go on with Shinji. And Nami brown still had so many laughs to share with Nami blue.
"As I will show you in the pictures I am now uploading, Asuka Langley has been bullying my fellow pilot, Shinji Ikari for years now. While the pictures I took earlier while inside Shinji, Asuka and Misato's apartment may be inconclusive as evidence, know that as the first child I hold myself to the highest responsibility of honesty in my actions and words and that for me to choose to lie at any time would be to undermine my own credibility, as well as the credibility of the great and honourable NERV as sworn guardians of mankind."
She put the face of the camera she had taken from Misato directly to the lens of the camera broadcasting everything she was saying and doing to every television and begun to flick through a few of the pictures of a very messy apartment full of empty beer cans.
The entirety of Tokyo 3 gasped in a mixture of fright and utter contempt. Drinks and popcorn begun to spill over every household, in one apartment the coke dripping onto the electric wires attached to the TV, short circuiting it.
"Major Misato Katsuragi was not wholly innocent in this entire affair either" Rei voiced over the images as she scrolled to the picture with the asleep and drunk purple haired officer in question. "Look at this picture. Does this seem any way for a reasonable and respectable military leader to behave around her two pilots? Does this set the example we need in these dark times when we pilots, along with the rest of you require a strong hand to see us through?
Everyone shook their hands contemptuously and stamped the floor. One man whose wall was plastered full of NERV propaganda jumped so hard that he broke the floor of his rundown apartment causing him to fall to the floor below screaming.
"She is a bad fairy." A three-year-old toddler screeched at the picture of Misato. "Blow her up!"
"You don't need me to tell you that any road on which Major Misato drives upon becomes an instant danger zone more dangerous than even the Angels." Rei added causing the viewers to jeer even louder as a group of security guards arrived from a nearby elevator.
"These two are the reason for our hero Shinji's below average performance. These two are the two tormentors who have conspired together to make a young hero's life hell. The reason why he is so reluctant to do his duty in spite of his wholly good intentions and above average performance as a pilot who none of us other pilots even combined together, could hope to hold a candle to. And with these two gone, there will be nothing to stand in the way of NERV's noble goals."
The picture of a human shaped hole on the wall of Shinji's room next to a bloodstain and some painkillers on a nightstand table was what caused Hikari to look upon the already flabbergasted Asuka with disgust.
"Get out of my house, meanie" Hikari ordered bluntly.
"Wait, you can't just order me like that. You're my best friend" Asuka protested nonchalantly at first but then quickly becoming more worried when Hikari's frown did not disappear.
"GET OUT! Or I'll throw you out. I don't make friends with meanies. And that's exactly what you've been hiding from me all these years." Shouted Hikari, reaching for a poker which she was now brandishing maniacally.
"I'll count to three. Stay after that, and I'll hit you the same way you've hit poor Shinji all these years." Threatened a now completely changed Hikari.
"One…"
"Wait Hikari. I'll have nowhere to sleep if you do that. I don't have any money because…"
Before Asuka had finished her sentence, Hikari had counted to three and then without warning brought the hard and heavy iron mercilessly to Asuka's arm, bruising it.
"Domestically abusive bullies who hurt others to feel good about themselves, deserve to be treated like domestically abusive bullies." Yelled Hikari as she laughed and cried at the same time. "Leave my house and never come back. And if I hear that you've so much as scratched Shinji again, I'll find you and break every single bone in your body."
Asuka opened her mouth to beg but Hikari simply raised the poker again, clutching her head while grinning maniacally. "Go now while I'm still completely calm, I'm going to count to three again and if you don't leave then, don't blame me for what happens next. One…"
Asuka took the cue seriously this time and booked it out of the apartment just as Hikari reached the count of 3 once more.
"I'M SORRY SHINJI. I'M SORRY!" Asuka heard her former friend hellishly bellow as the sound of breaking furniture echoed. Cold chills ran down her spine as she hurried down the stairs.
"You Japanese are not reserved enough" Asuka muttered angrily trying to belay her fright as she continued to descend as glass shattered in a room above her. "Don't you know to keep things to yourselves and not be such a loudmouth?"
"FORGIVE ME SHINJI. FORGIVE MEEEEE!"
Rei took a look at the locked door which was going to break at any second now that security was on to her. Then she looked back at the screen as the timer which now read 33 seconds begun to rapidly tick away.
"And Shinji. If you're listening to this. Don't worry. I'm coming to find you now. You don't have to be all alone anymore."
Then she dove from the nearby window and slid down the gutter pipe just as the door gave way and the security guards swarmed the room to find only a groggy group of reporters just beginning to come to.
"WE HAVE TO FIND HER!" Shinji immediately crowed as an advert came on the TV. He looked to Mari expecting some warning about how Rei was not trustworthy as another member of NERV and a non-human without capacity for empathy.
The response he got instead, cemented the few gaps in the now ironclad trust he had for his new girlfriend who he would bring along with him no matter where he went.
"Damn right we do. Come on" called Mari as she leapt to her feet beckoning Shinji to follow with a quick arm swipe, breaking into a run when Shinji had connected his arm with hers.
"We're coming to find you, Rei. Hang in there" promised Shinji as they headed out the door and into the now pitch-black night sky.
"Hold on, Nami blue" Mari added.
…
As Ritsuko rose from the sofa taking in all that she had just seen from a not fully human girl, who had shown more emotion in those few seconds than most of her co-workers had shown in the years she had worked there, she drew out a pamphlet that an annoying hippie on the street had forced into her hand that evening but she had no time to throw away yet.
"Smokers anon" it read. "Together, let's beat the bad habit of smoking and the grave that sells itself".
She made a silent vow as she headed to brush her teeth and go to bed, that she was going to go there tomorrow if hell should bar the way. On the way, she took every remaining packet of cigarettes she had not yet smoked, opened the window of her apartment and threw them out.
"AND STAY OUT" Ritsuko shouted as the last packet fell into a bush below.
Props once again to DarkScythe Drak, fictionelement777 and StraightedgeEpyon along with all my other reviewers. Every review is a wonderful gift to me.
Another problem with Evangelion 3 was that Shinji was kept in the dark about a long list of details that could have spared everyone so much misery.
I know it's probably played for laughs, but some of Asuka's punches and kicks against Shinji really would in real life be classed as severe domestic abuse. And no responsible parent would drink the amount Misato does and be allowed on the road.
Also Rei did save Mari from dying at the end of Evangelion 2, so it stands to reason they would have a good relationship.