I always loved this episode's name-BOTH OF YOU DANCE LIKE YOU WANT TO WIN!
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"Hello,Shinji"The boy in question turned around toward his red-headed classmate. "Guten morgen!"
"Guten morgen Asuka"He replied in a bored had spent most of yesterday night in the Lazarus evolution lab and was completely and utterly exhausted.
"Why so gloom?The most beautiful girl in school is greeting you."While she did come of as highly arrogant Shinji couldn't help but agree,not that he would ever say it out loud,it would only fuel her already massive ego. "I'm the most popular girl in school and all,you should be happy I even speak to you" and technically speaking he was the most popular guy in school.Yet I don't parade it around like its some kind of trophy
"Hey is the other here?"
"Other?" He asked with a slight tilt of his head.
"What are you stupid?"he wanted to reply with yes if only to see her reaction. "The first child of course!"
"Oh?Rei,she's sitting down on that bench over there." He pointed toward the girl who was doing exactly whet he said she was while reading a book.
Asuka approached her,blocking off the sunlight as she did so,Rei merely moved the book slightly to the right and continued reading,only for the German redhead to take yet another step forward and block her sunlight once was still in bandages from her fight with the Sixth angel,Cassiel.
"Hello!" Her overly cheery tone had managed to irritate Ayanami in merely 2 seconds,a new record,only will have a chance to beat it.Asuka looked mildly irritated at the other pilot's lack of response and continued to speak. "You must be Rei Ayanami,the pilot of the prototype.I'm Asuka Langley Sohryu,pilot of unit-02." She said proudly,if one paid attention they could hear Shinji shout 'THAT'S CLASSIFIED DAMN IT' over the Redhead ignored him and continued speaking. "Let's be good friends."
Rei found no reason to be friends with her fellow pilot,her first impressions had not been so good,she had beaten a record when it came to annoying her,not to say pilot Ikari had started paying more attention to the foreign girl than herself,leading to the development of an odd emotion some would call such she questioned why the other piloted wished it so.
"Why?"
"What do you mean why,it would be convenient you know?"Rei look up from her book for a split second before replying.
"If I am ordered to I will."
"Talk about odd"Asuka said with a small frown.
Staying slightly behind the crowd and leaning against the wall were the 3 male looked at Asuka in annoyance while Shinji sighed at Ayanami's response. As usual for her she refuses to live her life.
"Are only weirdos chosen to be pilot or sumthing?" Toji immediately got what was wrong with his question when his fellow pilots looked at him.
"Must be,if they choose you" Shinji said with a grin before yawning. He then approached the red-head with a small smile.
"Don't mind her,Rei's not good with small talk"The German merely responded with a 'hmp!' before going on with her life.
…
Meanwhile at NERV-HQ...
"You've lost some weight." Kaji teased his old friend as he put his arms around her neck. Ritsuko for her part laughed before asking. "Is that so?"
"You must be suffering from unrequited love"He said in an overly dramatic looked up at him.
"Oh..and how would you know?"
"A woman with a mole in the pathway to her tears destined to live a life full of them"
"If your trying to put a move on me,I'm afraid you can't." She looked ahead "There's a very ugly face observing us." Kaji laughed as he saw Misato's rather pissed off expression.
"Its been a while hasn't it?"He nodded as Misato entered the room "Your a little less discreet than I remembered."
"He hasn't ever been discreet his whole life!"Misato Shouted as she stomped past them. "You've already delivered Unit-02,shouldn't you be getting the hell out of here?"Kaji looked at her for a moment before laughing.
"So eager to see me gone are you?Well,i have bad news for you,I'll be staying here on loan for the time being."
"You've got to be kidding me!" Misato wondered who had cursed her to a life of misery,a sentiment which was very much helped by the sudden blaring of the Angel emergency alarms. "OH COME ON!"
On the combat bridge Fuyutsuki looked at the screen in front of him as the crew continued to get readings on what was assumed to be an angel.
"A report from the battle-cruiser Haruna detects a large submerged presence of the cost of the kii peninsula,paddern detected blue,Bismarck class super-submarine engaged the enemy with 25% of its available ordnance,no damage detected,both the Haruna and Bismarck are retreating,The JSSDF is surrendering control of the operation to NERV." Fuyutsuki nods.
"All personnel,first stage alert!"
…
Shinji watched the ground below him pass by idly as units 1 and 2 were transported to the beach for emergency combat operations. Unit 00 was in standby at the Geo-front with Kensuke as its temporary pilot. Asuka seemed incredibly mad at having to sortie with unit-01 by her side.
"This sucks,my Japanese debut and she wont let me pilot solo!"Shinji rolled his eyes before turning on the communications system and answering.
"Hey I also want to have some fun you know?I can't be cooped up in school all day or I'll go mad."The fact Shinji honestly enjoyed fighting for his life against demonic creatures dozens of meters tall told a lot about the Japanese education system after second impact.
"Whatever!Just stay out of my way."Shinji actually recoiled a bit in his seat as the German shouted bloody murder at him. Honestly can't you even appreciate people helping you?
"Jawohl mein führer" Was his short and sarcastic answer as they slowly approached the beach the angel was supposedly headed towards. The dead sea scrolls simply called this one Isfrael,twin angels of Music poetry and Dance,but as far as the intel they were provided stated they had encountered only one angel. Which meant one of two things, angel's names had no correlation to their abilities,or were missing something incredibly important about this gut told him it was the second option.
He hoped for the first time in his life that his gut was wrong as Eva-01 was drooped from the plane and fell down next to unit-02.
"Two against one isn't what I'd call a fair fight."Shinji actually gaped at that,of course it wasn't fair,that was the whole point!
"So you want to give the eldritchian abominations that are trying to destroy or entire race a fair chance?"He asked in a sarcastic tone to which his fellow pilot merely scoffed as their units both rose to their feet,power cables now connected to their backs.
An Explosion of water signified the angel's presence and Asuka's Eva began rushing toward it.
"I'll handle it,cover me!"She ordered,to which Shinji merely sighed and began firing upon the enemy with the pallet gun in his hands,he much preferred to use a sniper. Perhaps he could request one in the next engagement instead of an assault rifle.
He watched with no small amount of awe as Eva-02 jumped from building to building,spear in hand as it moved toward the angel,and then in one fluid jumping motion cut if in half.
"She actually did it..."his voice was but a whisper as he watched the angel's dead body with awe.
"What did you think of that third child?A fight should be clean elegant and without waste"Shinji just blinked a few times before getting some words out.
"Normally i'd have a witty comment to make about this but im just far too impressed." And then the angel's 'dead' form began to shift
"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"
…
Shinji had never wanted to die more in his life than he did at that moment,he'd rather have his chest carved into by Ramiel a thousand times more than see the footage of his,admittedly lackluster performance one more time. Ritsuko's 'this is pathetic' comment hadn't helped either,especially since it had been her official comment and not something she'd said to Misato or Shinji himself in an attempt to irritate him.
"This is all your fault!You screwed up my grand debut battle!"Don't snap at her don't snap at her don't snap...
"ME?!YOUR THE ONE WHO CHARGED IN WITHOUT A PLAN ROOKIE!"They continued their bickering as the Sub-commander looked on disapprovingly,if Shinji recalled the files he had been given prior to the meting correctly than that meant they had given control of the operation back to the JSSDF something which NERV had yet needed to do in the nearly half an year of angel attacks.
"Pathetic...we've been humiliated."Shinji looks at Fuyutsuki,was humiliation all the worst thing that had happened in the last battle for him?They had lost both of their units and would need to use millions more in repairs,their 2 best pilots were now not seeing eye to eye and their only other available pilot was completely inexperienced,not to say a terrible shoot with Eva-00's main weapon.
He then got up and looked at the 2 "Listen here you two. Do you know what your job is?"Asuka was of course quick to respond as was usual of the irritating red-head.
"To pilot Eva."
"NO,your job is to pilot Eva,NERV does not exist to make grotesque displays like this!"He points toward the fallen form of unit-01 and then that of unit-02. "You two must cooperate."
"Why should we?!"Both said in unison before looking away from eachother in anger.
…
Shinji was extremely exhausted after the last few day's events and as he returned from school all he could hope to do was lay down on his bed,listen to his SDAT and probably cry himself to sleep if Misato wasn't home. Yeah,that sounded like a great plan. Especially since no one was home.
He opened the door to his and Misato's shared apartment and sighed as he stepped inside.
"I'm ,As has been usual for my entire life." He said the last part with quite a large amount of sarcasm as he walked inside and wondered why the apartment felt like it was smaller than usual,probably just his exhaustion getting the better of he opened another door he was confronted with a wall of boxes.
"What the hell..."He asked in a low tone as his tired mind tried to process what was happening there.
"Don't be so rude,these are my personal belongings."He heard someone say beside him to which he turned and looked.
"Oh,hello Asuka."He said in a calm expression before doing a double take.asuka? "wait,what,WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!"
"Why are you still here" I live here "you've been dumped for the new model" we're the same age,my Eva's got 5 more kills than yours and we've both went through the same training regiment.
"Misato will be living with me"She points to herself before continuing. "But that's expected when considering my superior abilities."
Shinji then noticed a small box in a corner.Don't snap,MUST NOT KILL.
"And the Japanese sure don't have any sense of privacy,how can they live in rooms without locks,unbelievable." Shinji didn't listen to her rant he was busy clenching and un-clenching his hands in an attempt not to strangler her,burn the neighborhood down and go on a rampage with his Eva. Thankfully the sudden appearance of Misato saved Asuka from her untimely demise at the hands of Shinji.
"It is the Japanese way to consider other's needs above our own."Both of them look at her,Shinji's expression a mix of 'If you had anything to do with this I will MURDER you' and 'SAVE ME!".
"How are you two,getting along fine?"Yes if by fine you mean its been less than a quarter of an hour and I want to see her Squirm,in an non-sexual way. okay maybe in THAT way too but later!
A few minutes of conversation later and an explanation of the angel's abilities Misato finally reached her point,a point Shinji REALLY REALLY hoped he'd heard 's reaction was quite a bit more shocked than his calm attempt at not killing his guardian.
"NO WAY!A boy and a girl should never sleep together after the age of seven."Unless their dating,or having sex,or married,or have no choice,there are a lot of situations in which your logic does not apply Asuka.
"The angel is currently regenerating itself,it will begin its assault in 6 days,there is no time."Shinji crossed his arms and looked away from his guardian with a frown on his face.
…
"You've betrayed us!"Neither Asuka or Shinji wanted to deal with Toji at that moment in time,yet here he was,looking at Shinji with a betrayed expression that made the synchronized teens roll their eyes. "You look like 2 peas in a pod,i cant' believe this!"
"Neither can we,it's Misato's fault!"They both said at the same time. "She's forcing us to breath eat and sleep together." Hikari gasped.
"Y-your living a life of sin,how awful."Both Asuka and Shinji facepalm at that.
"Not like that!"They both shouted out at the same time. Before looking at each other and sighing in synch.
Misato then arrived and explained everything over,thankfully non-alcoholic,drinks to which everyone present save for the 2 pilots and the ever so deadpan Rei laughed at.
"So much for Synchronization,i could never sink to the level of a pathetic turnip."Shinji would reply with an overly sarcastic tone if he wasn't currently just a mess of sprawled limbs on the ground.
"Then do you give up?" Asuka scoffed at the proposition.
"You've got nobody else do you?"She asked sarcastically.
"Suzuhara,give it your shoot"While they did better than Shinji and Asuka had,it was still nowhere as good as then left in a hurry,and before Hikari could even speak up for her friend Shinji was after her.
"Well..."he started.
"Don't you dare say a thing Third!"She replied,he merely sighed and lowered himself into a crouch to meet her own height as she looked at the drinks the store sold. "i know." She then stated in a whisper.
"I have to pilot,there is no choice.I'll do it"
"No matter what,I'll put the stooges and Rei to shame!"Shinji rolled his eyes,thought he was at least somewhat glad she was back to her old self.
"That's the spirit"He said with a smile as he took a sip of his cold coffee,he mourned in his hearth at having to do such sacrilege but his body was in dire need of some caffeine even if it came from heretical stuffs like cold coffee.
…
"Where's Misato?"Asuka asked as she dried herself in the bathroom,Shinji went through a few pages of his manga with little intrest.
"At work,she'll be there all night." He answered,he did feel quite bad for his guardian,she had overworked herself immensely in those last few days and all he could do was make dinner and lunch as thanks.
"So that means we're all alone tonight."She grabbed her futon and put it in the hallway before turning back toward him.
"This is the impenetrable wall of jericho!Third Child. Take one step over it and you'll be a dead man!"Was she inviting him?a test of his knowledge perhaps?Now did he want to be arrogant and basically claim himself to be god by 'destroying' the walls of Jericho?Had she simply said whatever came to her mind?He decided to stay in his own bed out of fear for his life if nothing else. "And now its time for the children to go to bed" She proclaimed before closing the door.
A few minutes pass,Shinji can't sleep,he can't help but feel like he made the worst decision in his life by not entering the hallway then,he hears the door open.What is she doing?
She lays down next to him,her eyes still closed as she does looks at her,had she been sleep walking?It was the most likely answer as to why she was there in the first place,he looked at her face,calm and serene possibly one of the few times he would ever get to see it like her lips s,her lips were so very beautiful he simply wanted to reach out and.
"Mama.."He freezes,before looking at her again,she was still once serene face now twisted in fear,he remembers one small passage he had read on her file.'Mother committed suicide after failed contact experiment with Evangelion unit 2.'He looks at her with a saddened expression,he knew how that felt,to so desperately wish for someone you barely even knew,someone you could barely remember yet loved so strongly none the less. And as such he did the only thing he could,he held her close and hoped that things would turn out alright. Because in the end,i guess we're both just kids,aren't we?...Asuka.
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End of chapter 9.