Creation began on 03-07-17
Creation ended on 03-11-17
Neon Genesis Evangelion
DNA doesn't lie
She was exhausted, and the coffee in her was wearing off as she got back in her apartment. All Fusei wanted to do with the next day was sleep and regain energy from a night of watching nothing but random segments of code running through the MAGI, particularly the part identified as Balthasar; for some reason, she felt uncomfortable around the parts known as Melchior and Casper.
"Ah," she groaned as she sat on her bed and took off her shoes. "Kami, I will never wear heels unless I have to attend formal events where they're a requirement…and I will never attend formal events where they're a requirement."
Laying down after changing out of her clothes from the previous day, Fusei turned on a fan and let herself drift off to sleep.
Ring-ring-ring! She awoke, hours later, to the sound of her phone ringing.
"Mmm…hmm…" She groaned as she turned in her bed, reaching for it on her bedside table. "Hmm!"
Because she wasn't looking with her eyes, she had difficulty reaching for it, but managed to achieve the task and grabbed her phone and answered the waiting call.
"Hello, this is Fusei Hitode, who is this?" She greeted the caller.
"Fusei, it's Tetsuo Katagiri, calling with the results of the favor you asked me to do for you," a male voice uttered on the other end of the phone call. "The tests all came back positive from the sample you sent me."
Fusei slowly got up into a sitting position on her bed.
"Are you sure?" She asked him. "Am I dreaming this conversation?"
"Try pinching yourself, because I wouldn't lie to you with a false positive. I ran the tests seven times just to be sure, and each one was the same. How many people can you think of that have the same mitochondrial DNA as you do…and aren't dead?"
"With the exception of my mother and sister, just this revelation. Thank you, Tetsuo. You don't know how much this eases my mind to know that one part of my search has ended."
"You're welcome, but now comes the challenging question: How are you going to go about this further? You found who you were looking for, but they don't know who you really are yet."
Fusei sighed and pondered how to respond to this revelation.
"I'll tell them," she told him. "I'll tell him."
"Good luck in reaching out to him."
"Thank you."
She hung up and set the phone down. It felt like a dream, even though she had pinched herself three times in order to prove that it wasn't. She had almost given up hope on ever finding out where the person she had spent the last fourteen years of her life looking for. And there was no turning back now.
-x-
There was hardly a soul within the Geo-Front that believed the Sub-Commander was some sort of nutter off their meds when he seemed so calm and stable. Everyone from the Eva crew to the lowly bridge support staff didn't think he was crazy, but the rumor that started after he was incarcerated was starting to spread like a virus without a vaccine because nobody had the full story about it. This…and the unexpected Eva test set up for the next evening.
It was around the same time that Fusei had returned after her day off to recoup.
"Hey, there!" She heard someone say behind her as she walked down the hall to the testing room. "You must be Ms. Hitode."
She felt a hand touch her left shoulder…and she turned around, had a Taser in her right hand, and let the person have it in the neck.
"Aah!" The guy, none other than Ryoji Kaji himself, gasped and fell against the wall beside him, unable to believe that he was stunned by a woman with a Taser. "Ow…"
"Oh! Ah-ha-ha!" Fusei heard a woman laugh further down the hall, and saw Captain Katsuragi covering her mouth. "I didn't think anyone would try to incapacitate him before."
"I have this problem with people touching me without my consent," she explained the reason for her Taser usage. "And I'm not used to firearms and causing someone to die. So I carry a Taser. They don't kill, but they don't leave the victim feeling happy, either."
Misato came over and looked down at Kaji.
"Believe it or not, I think he was trying to hit on you," she told Fusei, noticing the Taser she used was very top-of-the-line…or just looked that way because it was kept clean-looking. "This is Ryoji Kaji. We used to date during college. He seems to enjoy trying to womanize or hit on beautiful girls. Pity, he doesn't return the advances of Asuka."
Fusei looked down at Kaji and said, "I was in a committed relationship with my boyfriend before he passed away. I'm not looking for that sort of commitment here."
"Oh? How long ago was this committed relationship of yours?" Misato asked, curious.
"Fifteen years ago."
The purple-haired realized that fifteen years was among the longest lengths of time a person chose to stay true to a lost love.
"My apologies," she told the woman as she put her Taser away.
"It's okay. You didn't know. Not many people like to explain everything about their past, but things like this…don't need to be kept secret like they're something so personal that nobody else would understand…unless they are personal."
"What was he like back then?"
"Quiet but friendly, perceptive and devoted. Not a tough guy, but not a pushover. He wanted to be a doctor, to help those in need."
"Like you?"
"Yeah."
Then, they helped Kaji up and carried him down the hall to the testing room.
"I swear to God, if you try to hit on me or touch me again, I will tase you where the light don't shine," Misato heard Fusei say to him, earning a chuckle from her.
"Wish I had your tenacity," she told her.
"I wish things could be easier done than merely said."
-x-
"…Is it really necessary for him to be here?" Shinji asked, uncomfortable with the fact that his…that Commander Ikari was present to watch the test being carried out by the crew.
"He just wants to be ensured that we get the expected results of this test," explained Fusei to him.
"It's just…"
"Bothersome?"
"Yeah."
Fusei, monitoring Shinji inside Unit-01, slightly turned her head to the direction of where Gendo stood behind everyone else in the room, but never turned to look at him.
"Your current score is about fifty-seven percent," said Ritsuko to Shinji.
Fusei then typed down a code to decrease the resistance in the synchronization by a small margin, resulting in Shinji's score to rise by twenty-three percent.
"How'd you do that, Ms. Hitode?" Misato asked her.
"It's just an optimization algorithm I've been working on."
Misato then looked at her like something was off with her. It was the way she sat at her console, the way her face looked, even her eyes. It was…almost like…she were facing…
"Is there something wrong, Ms. Katsuragi?" Fusei asked her.
Misato shook her head and responded, "No, it's just… It's kinda hard, reading your face."
"Heh," she chuckled slightly. "I'm an enigma half the time."
"Everything's running smoothly with all three pilots and Evas," went Maya to everyone. "We might not have a repeat of the previous test."
"Please, don't jinx it," Misato told the tomboyish woman.
"Yes, please. Don't jinx it," added Fusei. "We don't need a repeat variation of what we're doing here."
In front of them, Unit-01, with its decorative horn repaired, tied to the wall behind it.
"If all goes well, we should be able to implement the autopilot project with no problems," said Ritsuko.
"You mean, the Dummy System," Maya corrected, uncomfortable with that project.
"Bee in your bonnet, Ms. Ibuki?" Fusei asked, typing in codes for Units-00 and 02.
"There's some errors surrounding the Dummy System," she explained. "An earlier attempt at starting it resulted in at least three casualties."
Fusei stopped typing momentarily and looked at her. To know that three people died because of an earlier incident involving the Evas didn't help to give NERV good graces from the public.
"Maybe now, we can avoid a repeat of what happened," she told her, and resumed typing. I don't want to lose him before I can finally get to know him more.
Within Unit-01, Shinji had a hard time looking at Ms. Hitode without being bothered by Commander Ikari. After what happened the other day, he was starting to have his doubts over whether or not to simply disregard being told to forget what Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki had told him about his parents.
"They're not your parents!" The Sub-Commander's voice repeated in his mind. "They're not your parents! Don't listen to that man!"
If what he said is true, then who are my parents? He wondered, his curiosity coming from a place of concern…and longing.
It would be a whole hour-and-a-half before the test was finished and the pilots would be allowed to go home for the day.
-x-
"…You don't think the Third Child will do as instructed?" Gendo asked Ritsuko later that evening in his office, referring to the boy being told to forget about what Fuyutsuki told him.
"It's a possibility," she explained her belief. "We don't know how the boy's mind works, and with the rumors, it's only a matter of time before he does start to question who his parents are…and you're not exactly one to give answers to his questions. He's going to likely want to know why your blood types don't match if he doesn't already know."
"The less the Third Child knows, the easier he'll be to manage."
"And…what of Ms. Hitode?"
"Leave her be for now. It may just be a coincidence."
"One in a million? One in ten-million? One in ten? I hope that it is just a coincidence."
-x-
"Ayanami?" Shinji stopped in front of the elevator, seeing Rei inside it, looking at him.
"Ikari-Kun," she spoke. "You…shouldn't talk with Dr. Hitode any further."
"What? Why?"
The albino got out of the elevator and stood in front of him.
"Does she not seem unusual to you?" She asked him.
"No."
"She is…unusually friendly towards you."
"But that's no reason to stop talking to her."
"She may try to take advantage of you."
"Why would I want to do that to Shinji, Ms. Ayanami?" They both turned and saw Fusei, carrying a medical chart board with her.
Shinji bowed his head to her, but Rei remained impassive.
"How is being friendly unusual to you, Ms. Ayanami?" She asked her.
"Such behavior, especially in light of the recent incarceration of Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki and the berserker state of Unit-01 during the compatibility test, is often brought into question with one's behavior. As such, friendly behavior between adults and children raises questionable insight into the individuals involved." Rei explained.
"You mean, it might be looked upon as my being an adult fraternizing in unacceptable ways with Shinji, who is a young teen," Fusei responded. "Rest assured, Ms. Ayanami, I don't prey upon young people like a predator. That's not the type of person I am."
"It is not only that, Dr. Fusei, it is a bothering matter that may be only a coincidence."
"Which is?"
"Why a woman such as yourself possesses an unusually-mild resemblance to the very boy you wish to engage in conversation?"
"What?" Shinji responded to this; he hadn't noticed it before, but speaking to Fusei did feel a little bit like he was speaking to someone that was like himself, only talkative and wanting to know about him, not the Eva. "But…I don't see any comparison between us, Ayanami. It must just be a coincidence."
But to Rei, the resemblance, while very mild…was there in front of her. The woman didn't bear a resemblance outright, but if one looked carefully, they could see that she was like an older echo of the Third Child if he was a girl.
"Are you off to home, Shinji?" Fusei asked the boy.
"Um, yeah," he answered her.
"I was…hoping to be able to speak with you again. Are you free tomorrow?"
"I'm free during lunch."
"Okay, then. I look forward to speaking with you further. Have a pleasant night."
"Thank you, Ms. Hitode. You have a nice night, as well."
Fusei left the two to resume her previous trek to wherever it was she was going to, leaving the young teens alone again.
"I felt nothing wrong with talking to her, Ayanami," Shinji tried to his own feelings from his conversation with Fusei. "She seems like a good person… A really good person."
"People with good intentions are often people one should be conscious about avoiding," Rei stated. "People can't know each other completely, no matter how much they talk."
Shinji's eyes recalled that time in the cemetery where he was with Commander Ikari, who said the exact same thing. And it was disturbing to hear this from the strange-yet-beautiful young girl he worked with. But there was just something about talking to Fusei that seemed…to disregard Commander Ikari's belief that people couldn't understand each other because she seemed to want to know whatever there was to know about him.
"But we could if we wanted to," he told her, trying to establish this as fact. "I mean, it's not entirely true that people can't completely understand one another. If we make efforts in conversation, if we're patient and show restraint, then we can understand people. I'll be honest, but I don't know Asuka because she says nothing about herself that is actually worth talking about. She only once spoke about how she feels that she's a special person because she got chosen to pilot the Eva. I don't really know her because she doesn't say anything about herself that really matters. I don't really know about you because you don't talk about yourself outside of your reason for piloting the Eva…and we're talking. Of course, I'm no exception because I don't say anything about myself to anyone… Until I started talking to Ms. Hitode…who wanted to know about me. My mother died when I was little…and my father left me with her relatives for over ten years…and they didn't even care about me like they cared about their son. They thought I was just like my parents, but I can't see any comparison between the three of us because I don't even have a picture of my mother and my father never really talks about her. I don't have any friends that get me, that really get me. I'm virtually looked down upon by people because of my father, and now I'm in a position where I face creatures that want to destroy the world for unknown reasons that I can neither understand why or accept…and…as much as I hate that man…as much as I could wish what the Sub-Commander said to me the other day was true, that he and this dead woman aren't who I thought they were… I find myself unable to walk away from this agonizing state of being."
Rei didn't say anything, but there was no doubt that what Shinji had told her had sunk into her head.
Shinji then pushed a button on the wall and stepped into the elevator beside the two, leaving the girl alone where she stood.
It would be another five minutes before Rei thought of vacating the base.
And it would be another two minutes before Fusei, who never went as far as two feet down the hall so that she was out of sight, but close enough to eavesdrop on Shinji's conversation with the girl, learning more about the boy…and feeling for him.
If only we could go back to that day our lives were turned upside-down, she thought, and walked away.
-x-
"…Ahh," went Kaji, still reeling from the effects of being tazed by a woman he was trying to flirt with.
"Yeah, that's what you get for trying to put the moves on a woman with a Tazer and the will to use it," said Misato to him while on the bridge in Central Dogma. "You're a sucker for pretty faces."
"It wasn't even like that, Katsuragi," he defended his actions. "I was merely curious about her."
"What is there to be curious about Fusei Hitode?"
"She seems to like the Third Child."
"And that's a bad thing?"
""You mean to say, she doesn't rub you the wrong way when she engages in conversation with him? I mean, some new employees would want to know about the Eva from one that pilots, but not this woman. Instead of the Eva, she wants to know about him. Hardly anyone here has conversations unrelated to the Eva."
"Well, that may be the only thing that sets her apart from others. That…and how Shinji seems to like her because she seems to really enjoy talking to him about non-Eva-related things. How many people can you think of that want to do something like that with anyone like him?"
""Not many, including his classmates. Where is she now?"
-x-
The medical inventory at NERV was not like the hospital where she interned at. There were drugs that weren't even on the market that were able to treat STDs better than the ones currently available, even vials of vaccines that worked better than the ones she used to administer to little children. The fact that this paramilitary agency possessed such resources made it a little questionable to Fusei on how the United Nations could permit them to have such things that could've helped a lot of people all over what was left of the planet and withhold them from hospitals and other clinics that had to scrape up temporary solutions that were comparable to snake oil. And as she was making sure the inventory was up to date on everything, the young woman noticed, when she went to check on the medical unit's blood bank reserve, was that they didn't have much of a selection of necessary blood types for people.
"No O-Negative," she confirmed on the computer's database. "That certainly won't do for them. This is all blood that can only help those of the same type. I wonder…"
Since she had access to the NERV medical database, she could access the medical files of everyone listed, and she started with Ritsuko Akagi to know her blood type. The faux-blond was B-Negative, so she had to make sure that there was blood of her type to ensure that she and others of her type were at least covered medically. Then, she looked up Kozo Fuyutsuki, finding his blood type was A-Positive, so he was in the clear, but found that he wasn't on any sort of medication for his mental state. She didn't see any indication that he was ever mentally ill to begin with.
Wanting to take blood from people believed to be mentally unstable can be used as an excuse to converse with them if they're capable of communication, she thought, hoping that she could talk to the Sub-Commander about the reason for his incarceration instead of being checked into the hospital for psychiatric treatment. The medical staff here have to follow the same oath to first do no harm, same as I do when I took the oath.
Grabbing a syringe and a few empty vials, she left the ward to where the Sub-Commander was located.
-x-
Locked in a cage. That was how Fuyutsuki felt every time he looked around his cell. And while he was officially incarcerated for mental illness, he was just in there to keep him from telling the Third Child any more about his lack of familial ties to his parents, jeopardizing his usefulness to Gendo.
Suddenly, the door to his cell opened, and the elder saw Dr. Hitode step inside.
"Sir," she bowed her head to him as the door closed behind her.
Still shaking off the effects of a heavy sedative he was administered to slur his speech and mobility, Fuyutsuki slowly got up from the cot he was laying on and stood weakly in front of her.
"No, no, sit down, sir," Fusei urged him, helping him back down. "I need to draw blood from you, but I also wanted to ask you some questions…if you're willing to talk."
"This room…be bugged," he slurred to her, trying to say that the cell was likely bugged with monitoring devices.
He felt something slipped into his left hand and looked down at it, seeing that it was a small phone with a note app currently on. On the touchscreen, a message on the note app read, "I NEED TO TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID TO SHINJI THE OTHER DAY. DON'T TALK ABOUT IT. WRITE IT DOWN WHILE TRYING TO SPEAK OF SOMETHING ELSE IF YOU CAN."
"Do you trust me enough with a needle, sir?" She asked him.
"Yes…" He slurred, and then tried to write on the touchscreen phone.
Fusei set up the syringe and rolled up the sleeve of Fuyutsuki's right arm.
"So, how long have you been working here, sir?" She asked him, and he gave her back the phone with his left hand.
"Too…long…" He answered her, but on her phone, he typed, "GENDO AND YUI IKARI, WHOM I HAD BELIEVED TO BE THE BOY'S PARENTS, ARE NOT HIS PARENTS. THEIR BLOOD TYPES DON'T MATCH."
Sticking his sterilized area of skin with the syringe, Fusei attached the vial tube to the syringe and began to draw blood, allowing her to quickly type on her phone.
"IS HIS BLOOD TYPE AB-NEGATIVE?" She wrote down to him.
"I feel…as though…" He uttered to her, hiding his answer, but slowly moving his eyes up and down to give her a visual answer. "…Too much blood has been shed since I came here."
With the first vial filled up, Fusei replaced it with a second vial to continue talking to him.
"If your blood checks out, I'd like to draw more from you to fill the blood reserves, sir," she told him, and retyped on her phone, "IF WHAT YOU SAY IS TRUE, THEN I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR SHINJI FOR A LONG TIME. I HAD TO MAKE SURE THAT IT WAS HIM THAT I WAS TRYING TO FIND."
"Why did…you want…doctor?" He asked her, his eyes widening at her face.
"My boyfriend wanted to be a doctor, but he never got to fulfill his dream…so I tried to do it for him. So I sort of fulfilled two out of four goals."
"What were…other two goals?" His voice was starting to sound a little better.
"To get married, which I can't because the love of my life died. And the other…I think is better if I didn't say anything about it."
On her phone, she typed, "FIND MY MISSING BABY, WHICH I'VE FINALLY FOUND."
"Maybe that's why…he likes you so much," he told her, unable to believe that he was sitting in front of the real deal.
"Thank you very much," she praised him, and removed the third vial tube of blood that she used to replace the second vial, finishing drawing blood from him. "These should be enough to run tests and clear you."
"Get away…while you still can," he told her. "A good person like yourself…doesn't deserve this. None of you deserve this."
She somehow knew he was referring to Shinji and herself, and that they should leave NERV as soon as they could. But first, she had to let Shinji know that she was here for him, that she was here for the child that had been taken from her.
"Who doesn't deserve what they earn?" She questioned, and left his cell.
To be continued…
A/N: And there you have it. I could have gone on with this chapter, but I couldn't think of a way to add to it. And now Fuyutsuki knows and the revelation is at hand. But first, an Angel has to get in the way of things.