The series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, from which this work of fiction is based is owned by GAINAX. Character from the source material are also owned by GAINAX. Original content herein is owned by the respective creators.
Evangelion: Primum Revelation Reprise
Chapter 2: Do It Yourself
Written by TS "Kain Tempest"
Shinji almost felt as though ever joint in his index finger had been dislocated with the force at which he pressed the trigger. The ferocity of the move turned what would have been a casual, yet fatal move to carry with it all of his emotion. Unit-01's arm barely showed any sort of strain, the sack of blood in its fist was more fragile than are. The skeleton was reduced to powder and the sheer pressure caused the skin to rupture, bursting the vessel like a balloon. The sound was as clear as a gunshot, but was far more painful, an icy knot digging into Shinji's stomach.
The disgusting sound echoed against the walls, ringing out and causing ripples to form on the golden lake. At the moment that the trigger was pulled, some small, but significant part of Shinji died with the being in the Evangelion's synthetic fist. An era had ended but so too were the ignorant days that children blissfully while away. Shinji had been faced with a terrible choice that now determined his place in the world forever. As he came to that conclusion, the singular splash in the lake confirmed it.
Shinji kept his shoulders hunched, his head down, not wanting to see the end product. Unit-01 unclenched its fist and let the bloody pulp drop. With a sight; the behemoth lowered it's hand to its side. The war with the Angels was over. NERV no longer had a reason to exist, and Shinji had lost all of his value to them and the world. He knew it in his heart, but only voices echoed in his head.
There was no one to blame but himself. Unit-01's hand was just that same as his own. He was in complete control and will the power to change events, but instead he proceeded upon the course presented to him. Shinji had killed someone, not something, not an Angel, but a human being. Any other Angel would be easy enough to destroy, but now he had been faced with something too human and so far from artificiality that he could not deny what he had done. It didn't help that the Fifth Child had cared about him, an honest sense of mutual love.
Shinji looked up, staring at the horizon when the blackness of the earth above and the lake below met.
"The song is good." Shinji blinked in surprise at the voice. Slowly his eyes panned across the field of view, settling upon a dark, round shape bobbing before him in the LCL. Crimson eyes stared directly at him. Not at Unit-01, but directly at him. Kaoru's disembodied held smiled.
XXX
Shinji's awoke with a start, the golden lake disappearing from his minds eye to be replaced by cerulean darkness. He sat up in bed, looking around to get his bearings. The room was drenched in shadows, blue moonlight coming from a solitary window on the other side of the room. Asuka snored softly on the bed beneath that window.
The faint light helped to trace her outline as she slept on the edge of the bed, a pail nearby. It had been a week since they departed from the abandoned city on the coast. The medication had run out and Asuka's bout's of nausea came back. Both were convinced it wasn't a simple case of food poisoning, but rather an incredibly stubborn flu. She had no fever or any other symptoms, just constantly sick to her stomach. Whenever they could scavenge some medication, it was always beneficial, both for Asuka physically but both of the teenager's psyche's as well. No one really tells you just how exhausting illness can be to those around you. Asuka wasn't taking any chances and despite having taken several drugs, had opted to keep the metal bucket handy when they found it at the cabin.
Shinji raised his eyes to look out the window. Aside from the night breeze stirring the leave on the trees, all was peaceful. No animals or monsters stalked those shadows. It was an empty world where would only had to fear exposure and hunger, but never the dark. That kind of thinking helped, especially when one needed to use the lavatory at night, which Shinji needed now.
Bringing his feet over the bed, the boy slipped onto the floor as quiet as possible. Asuka rarely was able to settle and he wouldn't forgive himself if he disturbed her. Of course, Asuka wouldn't let it slide either without extracting a pound of flesh or two. Reaching down, Shinji felt around the floor until his hand settled on the rubber grip of a flashlight while his other hand went for his shoes. Creeping out of the room, closing the door behind him before he flicked on the flashlight and slipped downstairs.
The entire cabin was remarkably well furnished and was probably the weekend get away for a wealthy business person. Carpeting and well made furniture was placed all around making the place seem rather cozy, provided their was electricity and functional plumbing, of which there was neither anymore. As Touji would have said, it was time 'to get back to nature'. Whisking a roll of toilet paper from a supply closet, Shinji headed for the back door.
Zipping up his fly and fastening his belt, the boy rubbed the dreariness from his eyes and retrieved his flashlight, passing the beam across the grey tree trunks that stood tightly around the property. After a few stepped, Shinji stopped and realized he had been humming. It was clear he must have been without sleep for far too long because he could swear he was hearing music in the distance.
Shinji looked around, trying to remain still and listen for the distant sound that had gotten his attention. Carried by the wind was the sound of someone strumming on a guitar, there was no mistaking it. A glimmer of hope had sprung in the boy as he considered the possibility of other people being alive. He turned to face the distant sound and glanced in the direction of the cabin. He wouldn't be gone for too long.
Not long before being completely encircled by trees did Shinji begin worrying about leaving Asuka on her own. If this were merely his imagination there was no point in dragging the sick girl out of bed only to be reprimanded for causing all this trouble over a fantasy. For all of his luck, it could be a derelict care out in the wilderness with a battery that had yet to run out, playing off of a disc. Something like that would also be too trivial to bother the spitfire with. But car batteries wouldn't last this long, certainly not a week of constantly running, and that was if the world ended and began again on the same day.
"The beginning and the end." Shinji said to himself. He stopped and pondered those worlds. They carried a particular gravity about them and although Shinji did not consider himself religious, the words were incredibly profound when spoken. He knew that the world he knew had long since disappeared, but he felt numb to it. Where there should be staggering despair, Shinji managed to distract himself with caring for Asuka and proceeding on their aimless wanderings.
When they left that terrible nightmare, the inland sea, and the beach with the shattered porcelain face, Shinji had led Asuka aimlessly across the countryside. They didn't know where they were going and were instead drifting from town to town. Asuka hadn't complained until after the city by the sea and Shinji figured that she had been driven not to complain until they were far enough away from 'the Valley of Death' as she had called it. Indeed, once they couldn't see any more titanic limbs towering over them, Shinji had felt a lot more at ease, which was probably why they had lingered at the cabin as long as they had. Far from civilization, they were free from the constant reminder that they were truly alone and could just pretend that they had just isolated themselves from the rest of the world.
Shinji slowed his advance listening carefully for the music, but he couldn't hear it anymore. A sinking sensation in his gut told him that he was just imagining the whole thing. He started turning to go back the way he came when he instead heard someone talking. A person's voice with no musical accompaniment, but far too faint to hear the content of. Shinji quickly ascertained the direction and adjusted his route, heading deeper into the forest and carefully navigating by the light of the moon and the glow of the flashlight.
Passing through the woods and seeing darkness and columns of grey, Shinji couldn't help but be reminded of an old horror movie he saw when he was a child. He wasn't meant to watch it, but it was just a chance encounter while heading to bed and one particular scene was on the television screen. A camcorder with a light being used by someone in the middle of a pitch black forest while they were being chased by something. It was creepy back when Shinji was a child, but it was many weeks later before the scene played out in his dreams, far more terrifying than it had been originally. The malicious white face of the villain staring at the victim with the camera propped up, on the ground. The image went from a freaky scene to an icon of pure terror. Shinji slowed down and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths as the dream began to replay itself in his head.
Despite not being anywhere near an entry plug, Shinji quickly resorted to the meditation exercises at Misato had recommended in order to clear his head for a sync test. The thought of Misato comforted him and despite the tang of sadness in the memory, it was far better than the blind fear that the night terror had inflicted. He began to think of Rei and her calm demeanour, but then suddenly something twisted in the vision of his mind's eye. He recalled the entry plug of Unit-00 and the vision of Rei looking up at him, but it was horribly distorted, transforming into the monster from the late night movie. It reached for him which bulging eyes of crimson and white, talon-like hands. He struggled, flailed, and completely panicked, the reins upon the Evangelion thrown far out of his reach.
Reliving the moment in his head, Shinji felt his heart race as his mind clung to that monstrous image. Opening his eyes, his breath quickening, Shinji panned the flashlight around, the sound of music forgotten. His imagination was getting out of control and although he told himself to stop, his body continued to panic, seeing the white-faced demon looking at him, reaching forward with its sisters, mangled, crowding around him.
A tree trunk, the bark warped by the years looked remarkably like a person's face. Shinji blanched and stumbled away from it. Striking an exposed root with his heel, the boy pitched backwards, becoming weightless for a second before striking a mossy slope. He tumbled and rolled, his back beaten by stones and his arms lashed by brush until he landed in a gully full of wet, rotten leaves.
Shinji laid on his back, looking up at the stars in the sky. He slowly caught his breath, but his mind continued to spin. He felt exhausted, the adrenaline completely sapped out of him. Through heavy lidded eyes he looked to the sky and puzzled about the crimson haze that arced over the heavens. No sooner as the thought crossed his mind, everything dropped into utter darkness.
"Shinji, where the hell are you?" Asuka groaned, slamming the front door and plunking the wet pail nearby as she eased onto the sofa. She still felt miserable what with the sickness in her stomach and now it was more frustrating than distressing. Especially now that her emotional punching bag had disappeared. Not that she really needed Shinji to be around, but at least his presence would dispense with the boredom.
Asuka estimated how much more medicine she had left as she shook two pills from a bottle and chased them with a bottle of water. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, taking care not to disturb the new dressing on her injured arm. She turned her attention to the ceiling with a sigh. Morning sunlight bled through all the windows, giving the room a pleasant warmth.
If it weren't for her nausea and her irritation at his disappearance, Asuka would have been concerned for her colleague. He couldn't have abandoned her because he had only a flashlight and the clothes on his back and he certainly wouldn't leave supplies he'd been gathering over the past week. There were no animals that could attack him and drag him off, for all she knew they were the last living things on the planet beyond plants. The mostly likely explanation was that he had received the call of the wild and had gotten lost on the way. Eventually he would find his way back.
Asuka took another slug of water, sloshing it in her mouth and then spitting it into the pail, removing the acrid taste of bile, real or imagined. She curled up against the cushions and grumbled. She would have preferred to keep travelling, but she had to wait to get over this flu and for Shinji to make his return. An annoying detail was that she had to overcome the former before she could complete the latter.
Looking at the dreary ceiling, Asuka's mind drifted to the events of the past few days and then earlier. Consciously she skipped over her time in Tokyo-3. She didn't want to deal with the depressing events and the frustration she had faced in that chapter of her life, the only souvenirs beings Shinji, Misato's jacket, her plug suit, and possible the wounds she had now. She touched her bandaged left eye.
Removing the bandage was a inner battle that had take her several hours to get over. Her hands had continued to shake as she stared in the mirror, awaiting the horrific visage that was going to look back at her. The day was a difficult one for her, and between her stomach cramping and the butterflies of fear, she wondered if she was every going to get it removed. When Asuka finally did remove the gauze compress, she was actually surprised by the result. The damage was limited, a small, dark scar on her sclera that ran from her iris to beneath the lower eyelid. The eye itself was still intact aside from the discoloration. A small scar had also been on the lower lid of her eye, having the same terrible redness of an incomplete wound. She had shuddered when she touched the soft, tender tissue and found a groove in the bone at the bottom of her eye socket. Whatever had struck her nearly punctured her eyeball but fortunately just grazed it.
The wound was unbecoming, but not as grotesque as she had originally imagined. But her lens was no doubt damage, everything was hazy and out of focus in her left eye. She could compensate with her right eye, but she was sure it would get worse over time. She had dressed the wound anyway, the cover up the disfigurement and to allow the cut to heal more. Asuka dropped her hand from the bandage.
They were running out of land to travel across. They were now on the west coast of Japan, wondering down the coast looking for God knew what. Shinji seemed to have relaxed after so much frenetic travel and the place they chose to settle down at was not something that Asuka would argue with. The cabin was comfy and with plenty of firewood, they could keep warm when the temperature dropped.
"But without something to do, I will go insane." Asuka grumbled, laying an arm over her eyes. "Shinji, you're such an idiot."
Who would love an idiot like you? Someone said in German.
Asuka's heart skipped a beat and she raised her arm, looking around the room. She knew someone had said it, or was it all in her head.
"Hello?" She probed. The cabin was silent. It wasn't Shinji, it sounded like a woman There was also a twisted pleasure in how it was said, every syllable milked for it's malicious quality. There was a powerful cruelty in that voice. Asuka could imagine herself saying that to Shinji in anger, but it would contain that evil delivery. Had she ever said that to someone else?
Something itched in a forgotten corner of her mind and her memories couldn't help but to scratch it. It never was important, but suddenly it felt relevant but she didn't know why. Given that she had the time and it was better than listening to imaginary voices, an unexpected trip down memory lane couldn't be too terrible.
She was a genius, a wonder child that no one at school could help but to adore. The instructors were pleased at her aptitude, the parents at her manners, and her fellow students for her beauty. Asuka was the perfect little girl in her element and with a grand destiny laid before her. NERV had chosen her for the clandestine Evangelion project. She would learn to be a defender of mankind, like a child born from the Greek gods, she would stand head and shoulders over all people.
While being styled to be a demigoddess, Asuka rocketed through the grades at school. Textbooks were consumed, cover-to-cover in a scant handful of weeks, while other children had to take four months to digest the contents. Her admirers worshipped her natural intellect, but were unaware of the hard work that took place behind the scenes. But that changed when someone mentioned her 'brother'.
It wasn't an easy mistake, but rather simple association. The boy had bounded through grades, seeming to mock his instructors and the exercises that were petty drills for him. He was the same age as Asuka, but was shorter, having failed to reach puberty. Despite his size and his academic success, no one picked on him because not only was he smart, but brutal. He had been forced to transfer to several schools after getting into fights, his reputation was that of a land mine for bullies. Asuka hated the fact that such a troubled boy could match her brains and much to her chagrin, the feeling was mutual.
Their peers and superiors looked on in admiration as the two 'geniuses' in the school waged a silent war of academic achievement. Jockeying for the highest possible averages. The competition for grades however, became trivial, when she crossed the boy's path at NERV. The thorn in her paw turned out to be much more difficult to pull out, and when they passed each other in the hall, Asuka could not meet his cold stare. Asuka physically shuddered at the memory of the look her gave her.
"What was your name?" Asuka asked the little demigod of her memories. The reply never came because she couldn't remember it. With a huff, Asuka rolled onto her side and slipped the memory back into the corner where she had stored it. It didn't matter if she remembered his name. If his attitude didn't kill him, he had been wiped out like the rest of the human race. Again she thought of got up off the couch and stood next to a window. She looked out at the bright day and the surrounding woods. There was no sign of the missing idiot.
A door creaked and Asuka almost jumped out of her skin. Whirling around, she scanned the deserted living room. Nothing seemed out of place, she felt her heart pound in her chest, her imagination conjuring all sorts of horrors that could be lurking. An innocent girl in a supposedly empty house was the makings of many a horror flick. But that was a ridiculous notion, no one was here, the house was empty. Determined to prove her courage, Asuka strode into the abode to hunt down the source of the disturbance.
The duo never fully explored the cabin before they chose to stay here. Shinji had been the one to enter and seek out any sort of dangers while Asuka sat outside like a good little dog. It irritated her immensely, but she was too tired to complain, let alone argue with a volunteer. Why Shinji was so adamant about checking a place that would have been abandoned was beyond her reasoning them as it was now, but Asuka wanted to make sure.
Standing in a short hallway, Asuka found everything to be in its place save for one ajar door from which sunlight glowed. Slowly she eased it open to reveal a small, rustic office. Books lined a pair of cabinets, a drafting table was propped up in one corner with numerous maps on it, which a recliner lounged in another. The wall beneath the large window was a workbench covered with papers and a wheeled chair. Asuka approached the far end of the room and picked up one of the documents. The writing was kanji but had an official air about it. Many of the documents followed the same suit, wedge beneath layers of maps and blue prints. Lying in the centre of the workbench was a single, modest volume of burgundy leather. Asuka craned her neck, some sense of reverence stopping her from picking up the tome. The script was tiny, a fine hand having scrawled across the top of the page.
-only confirms what the reports have already stated. Reparation procedures have been halting the natural recovery process of the entire region. Seasonal wildlife has not taken any sort migration behaviours and animals and insects with seasonal die off have instead continued to struggle with reduced resources.
A standard English paragraph in a cursive hand was what greeted Asuka. She reread the lines again, shock shuddering through her as she picked up the book, scarcely believing the treasure she had found. Out in the middle of the Japanese countryside, she had found the log book of a scientist who knew English, a language she could read. She continued doing just that, until she was at the end of the page.
Asuka stood with the log book in her hands, hesitant to continue her perusal. She was probably holding the last remnant of information from an age that no one would ever see again. The last thoughts of someone with a strangely eclectic collection of disciplines. No, not disciplines, this was someone who was simply discussing changes in the natural world, a journal containing thoughts and considerations beyond personal feelings and events. Lifting the previous pages and letting them slide over the spine in a buzzing flurry, Asuka saw sketches, notes on margins, maps, and more and more of the literary chatter of a busy mind. A soul completely unaware that the end of the world was coming, these were their final, uninhibited thoughts. In a way, this was private information closely linked to another person, she held something deeply personal to who they were and a moral bone in her body warned her from continuing her invasion. However, she scoffed at the notion that some vengeful spirit would haunt her for the trespass. All told, it would be far more interesting than the empty world she was in now. Furthermore, the author's story should be known to someone else, and Asuka knew their secrets would be safe with her.
Sitting down in the recliner, she opted to start at the beginning. Asuka leaned back and proceeded to read.
The bright morning sun caressed his face with its warm touch. Shinji stirred, slowly opening his eyes and looking up at the clear blue sky above. He blinked, confused and slowly turned his head, finding trees and brush surrounding him. The air was still, not even the wind touching the leaves of the trees that towered over him.
With a grunt, Shinji tried to sit up, wincing at the pain of many bruises and stinging cuts. He was at the bottom of a very sharp incline, his descent having left a trail of trampled bushes and dirt in his wake. Say that he was lucky to be alive was overstating the drop, but he didn't feel as though any of his limbs were broken, which had they been, would have seriously impaired any kind of travel from his current predicament.
Shinji slowly pulled himself to his feet, dusting off leaves and twigs. His foot bumped into the flashlight he had dropped and he tested the battery and with a sigh of irritation, realized it had gone out. Judging from he sunlight he was out a good couple of hours but didn't feel any sort of chill. No loss of blood then?
Having ensured that he wasn't too injured to move, Shinji looked around and quickly realized that he was lost. He had remembered roughed the direction he had gone when he left the cabin, but having followed the music. Shinji paused and listened carefully. There it was, a new song this time, or at least a part he couldn't remember from before. Shinji slid the handle of the flashlight into his pocket and proceeded towards the sound.
It only took a few minutes before he arrived at a clearing at the top of another bluff, one which he had no intention of dropping down this time. At the centre of the clearing rose a watch tower built on four stilts several stories high. He had seen these lookout posts on nature documentaries, a way for reservationists to keep watch over large tracts of land. Particularly for fires if he could recall. Whatever the reason, it was the source of the stood at the base of the tower, looking up the windows high above. He called out a greeting and received no response. He tried again, a little louder. Still nothing. But then why was he hearing music? Approaching the ladder, Shinji looked up the near dizzying heights towards the landing or the stairs set a story above, probably to ensure no dangerous animal decided to roost up there. Swallowing he began his ascent.
Inwardly Shinji simply focused on watching where his hands were going, keeping his eyes focused on the hatch and not at the ground. He was thankful that Asuka wasn't with him, the last time he was climbing a ladder with her he had been threatened with death for looking up her skirt. As if there was enough light to see anything, he was lucky he could find the hand holds. In the end, he still got a face full of her shoe and then the top of the ladder, Shinji continued up the staircase, reaching a wooden hatch in the floor of the watch post. He nudged it with the heel of his hands. It didn't budge. He pushed harder and it gave with suddenness that caused him to fall forward against the stairs. He gasped in pain as the corners of the steps slammed into his chest. He pulled himself up and slowly crawled into the watch post, looking up to see the source of the sound as the music ended and another string of speech came on.
It was a radio. He had been dragged into the middle of the woods by a hand radio. Shinji stared at the modest little machine sitting on the desk before him. He should have known better, all along he knew there wasn't another person here, especially when he called out, but he didn't want to believe his own common sense, sitting on the edge of the trapdoor, the boy simply shook his head out of disbelief over his own stupidity. Asuka would have been quick to remind him of that fact.
Thinking about how he was going to explain how he found a recording broadcasting… Shinji looked back at the radio. When they had heard music coming from abandoned cars, it had always been discs, but never a radio transmission. No stations were broadcasting after the power went out, so how could a radio receiver be getting a signal. Shinji approached the device, the man speaking didn't make any sense and it sounded like nonsense to Shinji. But then he grasped a few words, passages, and the overall manner of speech was German. This radio was picking up a German signal from way out here.
Shinji look around. Wall to wall, all he could see were windows staring out at the rolling forests to the north and south, mountains steadily rising to the east, and lowering to the ocean to the west. He was a long way from the sea and the mountains now. Just how far was the signal coming from? Lifting the small hand radio Shinji noticed two sets of wires leading off of the device and out a window that was slightly ajar.
Opening the window further, Shinji followed the lines to a small solar panel and an antenna at had been fastened to the side of the lookout post. At least that explained why the radio still had power. A thought struck him. If he was getting a signal all the way out here, would it be possible to take the radio all the way to the cabin, set up the equipment and thus receive the broadcast. Asuka would be able to know what they were saying.
Thinking of Asuka ceased Shinji's giddiness. He had been gone for a long time now, longer than he intended and now he was getting worried about her. She was still sick after all, and for all she knew, she might think he abandoned her. Like Shinji's father did to him. No, he wasn't going to do that. He could set a better example than his father did. Shinji stared intently at the radio. He couldn't rush this, he had to think it through.
The hand radio was small, but the receiver and the solar panel were not. No doubt they'd also be fragile. He also needed to make sure he remembered every detail about how the radio was set up, what wire went where, what frequency the radio was on, everything. He needed to make notes. Looking around the post, Shinji did a double-take as he saw the puddle on the floor, seeping into the wood.
Shinji had gotten used to stumbling upon the remains of other people, but it was always disheartening to discover another one. This one had broken down on a chair, a backpack leaning against it, bent as thought sulking. The victim was previously writing something down on a notepad. Whatever was written had become muddy as the LCL soaked and crumpled. Shinji plucked a piece of paper from the desk that had escaped the splatter and a similarly clean pen and began making his notes.
Her brain was only half awake when she heard her name called from afar. A few moments of gathering her wits passed before she finally jumped. The journal slid and feel to the floor. With a hiss of self-admonishment, Asuka snapped up the tome, snapped it shut and tucked it back onto the recliner. She arrived as Shinji shut the front door, tenderly setting a greasy, overloaded backpack on the floor.
"Asuka, it's good to see you're alright." Shinji panted, raising his head to show his face drawn with fatigue. T took several moments too long for him to notice the dangerous look on the red head's face.
"Where the hell were you, you idiot? I had the mind to leave you in this knothole of wilderness if it weren't for the fact that my guts were practically spilling out every morning!" Shinji was taken aback from the assault, both mentally and physically, falling back against the door. "You look like you've been on a death march. What have you been doing all this time? Playing hide and seek by yourself."
From Shinji's point of view, this was probably what it was like to come home drunk, provided it wasn't the Katsuragi household. Asuka was all huffy and indignant, absolutely furious at the zombie that had just now found its way back. Shinji scrubbed the sides of his face.
"You really haven't changed." Shinji mumbled. Asuka fixed him a sharp look.
"What was that?" She growled. Shinji didn't respond, setting his eyes on the backpack. Asuka rolled her eyes in irritation.
"You went out foraging and slipped in LCL again? Is this going to be a weekly thing for you?"
"I found a radio. It was receiving German transmissions." Shinji pushed out. Asuka looked at him incredulously. "I can set it up again, once I-" The boy simply let the sentence hang as he slowly dragged himself to the couch and collapsed onto it like a bag of boots. Asuka leaned over the back of the couch, glaring at him but he had quickly given way to unconsciousness.
"How rude." Asuka grumbled to herself. She looked back at the backpack, recalling Shinji's news. Crouching down she opened the sack and carefully extracted a collapsed receiver and a solar panel before fishing out a modest looking radio with a note attached to it be a shoe string. Carefully unfolding the note, Asuka found scribbled diagrams and a list of numbers. Shinji appeared to have done a good job making the sketches legible, but altogether they certainly wouldn't be professional grade.
Asuka considered the equipment carefully. It was difficult to grasp what kind of boon this was. If Shinji was right and there as a German transmission coming from somewhere, he wanted her to translate it. Of course, he'd probably want to be the one to try and set it up. That idiot was really enjoying the smaller, more timid girl she had become what with the stubborn bug she had. She never had been sick enough to be away from her normal activities back in Tokyo-3 and it seemed as though Shinji was capitalizing on it. Nuts to that theory.
Asuka's medicine had kicked in, she was feeling good about the book she found, they were in a safe place, and hundreds of other reasons outweighed the completely minor ones. She'd set up the radio without him, she'd prove that she wasn't helpless and that she wasn't going to tolerate that kind of lax behaviour. She wasn't going to wait on his instruction any longer. She packed everything into the backpack again and carried it outside to get to work.
Author's Notes
Shigeru was the first on my list of characters that simply had to go. I originally intended for him to be a middle man between Shinji and Asuka and to develop into a father figure. In the end, I tossed him out a lot earlier. I guess I just liked him in the show and wanted to give him some screen time.
I originally intended to cut down two chapters from the early part of the fiction, but I've instead opted to break down the middle part of the opening arc into two chapters, there is simply too much stuff I want to cover before I move on.
Also, I'm not sure when, but evenually my posting speed will drop down as I get out of the old chapters and onto new content. Since this early part is mostly just a rewrite I can quickly type out everything and just add the changes where I see fit.