14
"Kensuke Aida. Touji Suzahara. Hikari Horaki. Come with me, please." All three looked up from their school work at the door and saw the man they knew as 'Tenchi Masaki' standing there, dressed in a NERV uniform and holding out a trio of papers to the teacher, who took them.
Hikari's mind went into overdrive and she turned on Kensuke, "What in the hell did you do now?"
Kensuke held up his hands quickly and shook his head so hard his glasses almost flew off, "I swear I didn't do anything!"
Touji rolled his eyes at the pair, "Since when did I become the responsible one?"
"If you three are quite finished…" All three stopped and blushed at the rather dry comment from Tenchi, who waved them forwards, "We have places to be. Miss Ayanami, come with us as well."
Rei nodded and put her things away before joining them without comment.
As soon as the door shut, the quintet walked out of the school and made it halfway down the block in a NERV van (driven by a Section 2 guard given that 'Tenchi' still didn't have a driver's license) before Kensuke broke the silence, "So… what'd we do? Not that I'm admitting anything, mind you..."
Tenchi snorted and shook his head, "Your electronic trips into NERV are well-known, Aida, and don't think you're going to get out of this without a long and probably loud conversation with several doctors and technicians about that, either. But no, that's not the reason you three are here."
Hikari fidgeted while Touji frowned and Kensuke blinked. Touji finally spoke, "We're Pilots, aren't we?"
Tenchi sighed and reached into his pocket, removing a one hundred Yen note before handing it back to Rei, who pocketed it with a well-hidden smile, "Why wouldn't you keep your mouth shut for another minute, Suzahara? That'd have been the easiest money I've ever made. Yes, you three are potential Pilots, but if you go on to become so is up to the egg heads and their tests. Anything else will have to wait for our arrival."
Kensuke, not happy with what they had not been told, turned around to Rei, "Well?"
Rei gave him a very level look for a second before she reached into her skirt pocket and removed the note she had just taken from 'Tenchi' and handed it back, "We will speak of this later, Aida-kun."
Most ominous…
(NERV – later)
With NDA's signed and the whole dog and pony show well under way, Shinji smiled a little as he watched the trio of new pilots absorb what they had just been told about EVA, about what they would be doing and where he fit into things. Their reactions had been… varied, ranging from Kensuke frowning, Touji openly balking and Hikari… was she blushing?
Touji stood up and stomped over to him, thrusting a finger into his chest, "You're not Shinji!"
Shinji couldn't help but smile a little, "How come? First rule of surviving NERV with any kind of sanity is to expect the unexpected and to learn to accept that things are not what they appear to be. I certainly didn't expect to go into an EVA, get sucked into it on the molecular level, come back OUT of it as an adult and still have to room with a rampaging hottie like Misato-chan. Not that I'm complaining about the last part, mind you, but I certainly didn't expect this."
"SEE?! Shinji doesn't talk like that!"
Shinji just shrugged, "Would you rather me act as I used to? Granted, it's taken a while to loosen up… but I can function like this."
Kensuke frowned a little more at this, "Just function?"
Shinji shrugged again, "You'll learn that sometimes 'just function' is all you can do when you do this job, Kensuke. You and Touji only got a little taste of what I do when you two snuck out of the bunker and I had to take you into the Entry Plug, but now you're going to see how bad of a job this can really be at times. I hope you can deal with it because, quite frankly, we need the help."
"Why?"
"Asuka is in a coma and probably won't wake up. I can barely activate my EVA anymore because of my changes and that leaves Rei by herself. This is unacceptable to many, hence why you three were activated." Shinji spared each of the three new Pilots a look that told them that he knew what they were feeling, but soon that look passed, "You're going to learn to do things nobody else can and you're going to have to learn them very quickly because we don't know when the next Angel is going to attack."
"And what if we don't want this?"
Shinji looked at Hikari for a second before he shrugged, "It's your call to say no, Hikari… but there are some out there who won't take no for an answer. They want to see the world keep going by any means necessary."
Hikari blushed and blanched several times as several things apparently went through her mind, "What about you?"
Shinji stayed silent for several moments before he sighed, "On the advice from Misato, I'm going to get back in the saddle and try to ride again."
Touji and Kensuke blinked and spoke as one, "Saddle? Misato?"
AN: Reviews, please.