Hello, sorry for not updating sooner. I've actually had the rough draft of this chapter done for a while I just never had the time to type and edit it. School has been quite overwhelming the past few weeks, not to mention exhausting (I also have a cat trying to mountain climb me while I type this).
On a more cheerful note, thank you to all of you guys that have reviewed. I appreciate all reviews, though I think it's a given that I like the more pleasant and friendly ones. Well without further ado, here's chapter 4.
"Review." - Talking
'Review.' – Thinking
Review – Flashback/Memory/Dream
Genesis and Requiem
Chapter Four
Free-Style Time
Dream
It's a lovely day; the sun is shining and the wind a gentle breeze stirring the leaves. The garden is in full bloom and I'm walking through the terraces picking lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green beans, and squash for tonight's dinner. Once I've deemed my collection of garden produce enough I start my way back to my family's house up the hill past a row of fruit trees and a shed.
As I reach the back door the weather changes; the wind is blowing more violently and storm clouds begin to cloak the sun and the once blue sky it rested in. I go inside quickly to avoid what seems like a sudden spell of rain. I take off my shoes at the base of the stairs and make my way up from the basement to the kitchen where my mother is preparing dinner.
"Mom I've brought the veggies you asked me to pick," I say.
"Thank you. Could you wash them for me?"
I make my way to the sink next to my mother who is fussing over a pot of boiling pasta. When I turn on the water she turns to inspect today's harvest.
"These are really nice, perfect for tonight's dinner."
I turn, smiling, and as I am about to reply I stop short, absolutely horrified at what I see. Blood is dripping on the floor from various gaping wounds on her body. An eyeball is hanging from its socket, the other completely gouged out. Her head is caved in on the left and her arms are missing large patches of skin and her left leg is twisted at an anatomically incorrect angle with bone jutting out from a hole below the inner knee. One of her breasts is hanging by a small amount of skin and her intestines hang out from a hole where abdomen muscle and skin used to be, the spine is visible.
"What wrong sweetie," she asks as I hurl violently into the sink, trembling as I go into shock. I can't reply for my mind is a painful whir of emotions and thoughts.
"Come on now, let's get you cleaned up."
I flinch as her cold, dead hands touch my arms to guide me to the bathroom. The wind is roaring as thunder strikes loudly nearby and rain violently batters the house. I start to hyperventilate as the walls crack and begin to bleed themselves. My mother tries to get to move in the direction of the bathroom again muttering sweet sugary words. In my panic I try to push her away with my left arm, but to my horror it falls off and to the ground with a disgusting squelch and thud.
The world begins to quake greatly, everything falling apart, including me and my mother. Soon the roof has gone and we are exposed to the rain, which is blood as well. Very soon I am drenched and sticky with blood. My mother is trying to say something but I can't hear her over the rain, wind, and thunder. She looks up in fear. Suddenly a bright flash comes from above, engulfing me in fiery pain.
Dream End
Early Morning after Operation Yashima
I wake up with a start, trembling and sweaty. I wipe my brow and cover my eyes with my arm and lie back down while I try to calm down. I turn over and to look at the alarm clock Misato gave me yesterday so I wouldn't have to rely on Shinji to wake up for school. Not that I need it for that right now since Shinji and I don't have to go to school today because of yesterday's activities. It's 6:10 am currently.
I get up and dress myself. There's some stiffness in my legs from my 'jog' yesterday. Shinji is still asleep, he was pretty worn out. 'Oh, I know I'll make breakfast for him.' I walk into the kitchen and retrieve all the ingredients and kitchen implements I need for one of my previous mother's recipes. I start to cut up onions and potatoes after having pulled out a frying pan, thinking about what I was going to do today.
'I suppose I can make dango and mochi for a midday snack with tea. Would Shinji like that I wonder?'
I place the now sliced potatoes and onions in the frying pan and drizzle a little olive oil on them, mix the contents of the pan to coat the ingredients evenly, and turn the heat on.
Pretty soon the apartment is filled with the scent of potatoes frying with caramelized onions. Shinji seems to be more hungry than tired because soon enough he comes out of his room walking sleepily into the kitchen, most likely following his nose. His hair is sticking up at odd places.
"Ohaiyo sleepy head," I greet him.
"Ohaiyo," he croaks out as he wanders over to me and the stove, "What are you making?"
"Potatoes and onions," I chirp happily, I really like this particular dish, "You have time to freshen up before it's done, besides you kind of look like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed."
"Hai." He wanders off to the bathroom. I can just faintly hear the sound of running water over the sizzling pan of glorious food.
If you didn't know before I'll tell you now: I'm a foodie. I love food, all kinds, as long as its vegan. Though my favorites are the dishes my mother in my previous life made. It's my comfort food and it always makes me feel better after a nightmare like the one I had last night.
Shinji comes into the kitchen as I move around the potatoes, making sure nothing is burning, looking much better.
"This is nothing like what you cooked when you first moved here," He says as he looks over my shoulder into the pan.
"That was an Indian inspired dish, this is American or English I think"
"What kinds of food do you prefer?"
"I'll try anything I haven't had before so long as its vegan, but I really like good tasting food."
It grows silent again as I turn off the burner, deeming breakfast done. Misato is already gone and at work so I only grab two plates. Quickly enough the both of us are seated at the table eating in silence if it weren't for my humming and fidgeting. I forgot how good this shiz is. I love it, its so goooood. Like, you can't understand how good it is until you eat it.
"Did you come up with this by yourself?"
"No, it was one of my mother's recipes."
'Well I'm kinda telling the truth, she was my first mother after all.'
He sits there for a while before asking, "Why are you up so early?"
"I didn't sleep very well last night." I don't want to tell him about things like that yet. Luckily the doorbell rings before he asks me anymore questions.
"I'll get it," I say quickly, already out of my seat heading for the door. I only wonder who would ring the bell at this hour.
When I open the door I find a fairly sizable package sitting next to it. I check the label, finding that it is addressed to me and bring it in. I procure a knife from the kitchen to cut the packaging tape off. Once I open the box I let out a small squeak of joy, being so happy I didn't notice Shinji walk into the room. I jump when he asks, "What's in the box?"
"My gaming consoles, games included," I say, internally adding, 'and the bigger blacker box [1]. Of course, being the big gamer nerd I am, I got express shipping on my video games.'
I own consoles that are this world's equivalent of the PS2 and Xbox 360+kinnect.
"Oh, I know. Why don't we play a game?"
I own a dancing game and it'd be funny to try and get Shinji to play it with me.
"Which one?"
I pull out the case that has 'Let's Dance 3' emblazoned on its front.
"This."
I can see an expression of mortification on his face.
"Uh-umm, I can't dance…"
"You don't need to be able to dance to have fun."
"O-okay, if you say so."
I pause for a moment from rigging the console to the TV at his meek tone. 'This kid needs more help than I thought.'
"You don't have to play if you don't want to, all I ask is that you try."
He stays silent as I finish setting everything up.
"Okay, I'll go first so that you know what to do if you want to play."
When the game title menu pops up I click on the 'begin game' button and flip through the list of music until I find a decent pop song I'm familiar with. It's similar to Katie Perry's 'Fireworks' only with much better singing. When the song starts the dance queue pops up making me follow the rapid movements right from the get go without any sign of letting up soon.
I know I look like an idiot, but I've let go of the embarrassment to enjoy the exhilaration of the song's quick rhythm. I move my body as the game cues me to, enjoying the way my lungs burned from all the movement. The song ends as quickly as it started leaving me panting for air as I turn around and collapse into the couch. I look up at Shinji to see him gawking at me as if I were an alien [2].
"What," I ask as I move into sitting position.
"How can you so that? W-without being embarrassed I mean."
"I only goof off in front of people I trust, and it's not like I do it every day outside the privacy of my home, I'm not an exhibitionist."
As he mulls it over I go into the kitchen to get a glass of water. When I come back sipping on a cup of the cool liquid Shinji looks at me nervously saying, "I'll try."
"Okay," I chirp cheerily, "Do you want to start with easy songs?"
"Umm… if you don't mind I'd like that."
I move the list to the easy section which is highlighted in blue.
"Choose any of the songs in the blue section, they're the easy ones."
"Okay."
Shinji slowly moves through the songs until he finds one he's willing to try. It's one of those modern pop songs that are only good for dancing and/or exercise. I don't know what the song is, but, I do know I'm having an incredibly hard time not laughing my ass off. Shinji's movements are incredibly stiff and awkward. Not to mention he's already red in the face and panting after only a minute, the steps aren't elaborate or very physically exerting.
'Maybe Shinji is in worse health than I originally thought. Now I have to help him mentally, emotionally, and physically to have any hope of this world surviving.'
Before I know it the song is over and Shinji falls onto the couch beside me gasping for air. I quickly retrieve a glass of water from the kitchen for him. When I go to hand it to him he snatches it and quickly chugs the entire cup.
"Thanks, I needed that. I didn't realize it would be that hard, you made it look effortless. Guess I'm just not cut out for this kind of stuff."
"That's not necessarily true. I sucked at first too, no one can do something like that perfectly without practice," I say, then add as an afterthought, "and lots of exercise."
"I don't really like to do that sort of thing."
"Why not?"
"U-um, well you see I don't like to exercise because it usually hurts and it's just uncomfortable for me."
'What do I say to motivate him to try?"
"I admit, at first I hated the idea of exercise but after a while the pain turned into a pleasant burn and my stress level dropped and I felt better than I ever had before. It helps me deal with the day with a level head and unmuddled thoughts. Though, you can't just run 10 miles without building up your body to do said 10 mile run."
'Genius, using my experience from my past life might just work.'
Shinji looks surprised.
"Really? Exercise can do that? I suppose I could try but… I don't know the first thing about exercise routines."
"I'll do it with you then, these past few days have been so busy I haven't been able to do my ordinary routine. Besides, it's nice to have a partner, well, at least I think so."
"When should we start?"
"Early in the morning is a preferable time since it's cooler, but we don't have that luxury because Middle School doesn't have a flexible schedule like college. Although, we can still do warm-ups to wake up for the day. So we probably will have to do it afterschool on school days and in the morning on Sunday unless something to do with NERV or the Angels come up."
"What about our friends, Touji and Kensuke?"
I pause to think about that because I never really had friends to factor into my routine before.
"Well, I suppose we could ask them if they want to join us. We could also designate certain days of the week as hangout days and we won't be exercising all Sunday, so that leaves most of that day open."
Now it's Shinji's turn to think it over.
"Let's start tomorrow afterschool and ask them when we get to school."
"Sounds like a plan, "I say as I look at the clock noting that it is five after twelve. "You wanna make lunch?"
He glances at the clock and says, "Wow, where did the time go? I am hungry now that I think about it. Umm… Would you like vegetables and rice?"
"If you want that for lunch then go ahead and make it. You're the one cooking after all."
"Aa… okay. I'm going to make some miso soup to go with it, "He says while walking into the kitchen.
"Sounds good, "I say as I feel a wave of fatigue come over me. 'Must be my period coming.' I walk through the kitchen to get to the hall.
"Hey Shinji, I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when lunch is done please."
Shortly after opening the door to my room I fall onto my bed and flip on my MP4. I drift away listen to 'Orchestral Variations on the themes of Chopin – Revolutionary Etude vs. Fantasie Impromptu'.
This has taken me way too long to type. At the beginning I was healthy, but now, as I finish this, I have come down with an extremely nasty cold. I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, the story should be getting more exciting again soon, I just wanted more character interaction between my self-insert and Shinji to develop the beginnings of a bond between them.
Referential Guide of Awesome:
[1]- Cards Against Humanity!
[2]- In one of the spin off games for 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' Rei comes out to Shinji and literally says she is an alien. I guess it's her way of trying to communicate that she is part angel. Although, that does technically mean she's an angel.
Please review and as always I'll do my best to make another chapter that is hopefully up to your standards of awesome.