Tal all!

My apologies for the long wait, my computer had a protracted period of convalescence while I replaced a fan. I also ended up splitting up the original chapter 3 into what you will see below and the upcoming chapter 4.

If it seems the story is starting a little slow… well yes, it sort of is. Things will begin to pick up, I promise.

Chapter 3

"Tal, lieutenant."

It was bright and early… or it was above ground anyway. It was always bright under the harsh lights of underground facilities of NERV. Captain Katsuragi had brought Shinji in for synch testing, she had told him. Whatever that was.

"Shinji, tal! It is great to see you again!" Maya said, her left hand holding files tucked under her arm. Her right was raised, the knuckles facing Shinji and Misato. "Did I do that right?"

"It was excellently done."

"Thank you. Dr. Akagi is indisposed but we wanted to see if you felt up get back in unit one today."

"Another enemy for me to fight already? I will be kept so busy here."

"No no. Actually because we had to rush you right into the fight, we don't really have a baseline for how you interact with the Evangelion. Before we can say whether you improve or your performance suffers under different conditions, we need to establish what 'normal' for you is."

"I believe I understand."

"Great. Your plugsuit should have finished curing overnight."

"...My what?"

Shinji had thought the coarse trousers bothersome. This garment, this plug suit, clung to his body in many novelly uncomfortable ways. Or were they uncomfortable novel? In any case, just entering the evangelion had been a relief. The captain had found it necessary to make certain comments about his appearance which had brought fire into his cheeks. Talking about him like he was up for sale. Totally unprofessional.

Maya had told him what to expect. The giant would not leave its cage today. It would only be activated to establish the link between its mind and his. The activation should proceed as it did before the battle, however it was unknown if the giant would choose to interrogate him on the finer points of the warriors' codes or if it had now accepted him as worthy.

As the static crept along his legs, Shinji was considering something. Captain Katsuragi's comment had been the reverse of common enough situation back home. Men often made idle conversation about a free woman they had no interest real in. If she heard, she would surely return their attention with a loud and vicious tongue lashing. Of course if one spoke of a slave girl that way they would no doubt be pleased. Kajira are vain creatures.

Oh they are, the little she-sleens…

The feeling was like a physical jerk, as if he had been grabbed by the shoulders and flung backwards. It was the same as before. He knew he was still sitting in the entry plug, as he learned it was called, surrounded by the warm not-quite-blood. At the same time, he now stood on a high hill, in the shade of single tree, looking out over a wide valley.

There was movement on the edge of his vision to his left and he turned to face it.

"So vain in their slavery, or should I say our slavery."

"Alice?"

She stood before him, hazel eyes with dark hair cascading down her back. Her collar and bracelets were gold shining in the sunlight and tinkling bells decorated her ankles. She wore only a single red silk wrapped and tucked around her hips, low to expose her belly button and was otherwise bare to the sun. Her chest hung high and forward, her brand was a feminine Kef on her left hip. They were both equally alluring to him.

"You liked her, didn't you? Tell me truly, did you think her your love slave, your destined?" Her voice was not was he remembered. She had spoken so softly to him, so tenderly. This Alice spoke with shrill cruelty.

"Who are you?" Shinji asked.

"Ah ah ah, I asked a question first, you have to answer it before you get to ask me anything." She replied, wagging her finger at him like a parent to a child.

He looked over the girl in front of him. This was a test clearly, he had to avoid the obvious choice.

"Well of course it's a test!" She said, hands on her hips and bent at the waist.

"You can…"

"Duuuh! I am hooked into your brain, of course I know what you are thinking. This is a test, just like last time was a test. So show me what you are, a man of Gor, or another boy of Earth. Don't think about it, just do it."

"I suppose this is as a dream, so there is no solution to be had by trying to approach you."

"Hey, I told you, no answers until you answer me!"

"You can read my thoughts, you know about my conversation with the Captain."

"Oh now she is quite the prize, wouldn't you saaaay? She would fetch a lovely price with a little training."

"And that means you know about my fitful sleep."

"Is talking me into a false sense of security your plan here? Don't worry, you can answer that after you answer me so I can answer you."

"Which means you know about what kept me awake, staring into the night. Deliberating on the very question you seek an answer to with this test."

"Oooooh, you're catching on! I was worried with the way you just went along with them you were going to be just like the earthlings. Meek… small… compliant."

"It is prudent to do as your hosts do in foreign lands. But to return to the matter at hand, I have your answer."

"Boooring, wrong, No, you fail. You did as I told you to." Not Alice said, then stuck out her tongue at him and pointed her thumb to the earth below. "Get o-"

"Silence slave!"

"Oh… and just what makes me a slave, hm?"

"You dress as a slave, you are marked and collared as one. That would be enough for you to be bound in any place. But no that is not what makes you a slave in this moment, in this place."

"And just what does?"

"I do…"

The clinging plug suit was gone. He was now wrapped in his familiar scarlet, a sword at his hip. It was a split second for his hand to fly and draw the blade then but a half step to close with the girl who had taken on the countenance of Alice. His hand was in her hair, throwing her to the ground. He fell upon her, the tip of his blade resting upon the grass a hair's breadth from her nose, his knee on her back between her shoulders.

"For I am a warrior. My currency is steel, and with it I purchase that which I desire."

"Do you take me as a slave?" The edge was gone from her voice. Her eyes were focused on the steel that filled her vision.

"Yes, now speak as one."

"I am a slave." She said softly.

"Indeed."

"May a girl know her master's name?"

"You know my name, girl."

"A slave is desires to hear it again, as it pleases her master."

"You belong to Shinji of Ko-Ro-Ba."

"Master fights for Earth." Not-Alice said.

"But I am not of it."

She closed her eyes and Shinji saw her smile.

"No, master is not."

There was no jerk as he left the hill above the valley. He was once again in the entry plug, but also he was the giant. All around him was the steel of the cage.

"Shinji, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Maya."

"Great. Sorry that took so long, I don't blame you for falling asleep. Have a nice nap?"

"Yes. Pleasent dreams."

"Good to hear! Your synchro graph looks great, just stand by for another ten minutes or so we will have enough data. Then we will be done."

"Aye."

I'm not done testing you.

I did not tell you to speak, Shinji thought, and there was nothing more.

"What about band, can you play any musical instruments?"

The day had passed and it was now after dinner. Shinji had come to an accord with the tarn who shared the captain's quarters. Bits of food from his own plate avoided any further longing gazes at his fingertips. Presently, he and the captain were speaking about school, which he would start tomorrow.

His fingers clawed through his newly short hair. He grumbled through clenched teeth, glaring at her.

"Captain, I am of the caste…"

Shinji slammed his hands down on the kitchen table and stood, sending the chair tipping backwards.

"Of WARRIORS! If you wanted a musician then you requested the wrong profession!"

"Dammit, I am trying to help you!"

"Then simply order that I don't have to attend this school."

"I told you everyone has to go!"

"I beg your pardon, I was under the impression I was brought here to fight forces which may wipe out all life on your planet, if it had been said that academics was part of the mission I could have studied as a scribe instead." Shinji rubbed at his face, grousing under his breath.

"I am sorry captain, I beg you forgive my outburst." He said, righting his chair and taking his seat again.

"No, it's okay… I'm just… I know you're frustrated, really, I get it. This is all new to you and you have to learn all these new things and now you have to go to school and I get hey transferring into a new class is hard in the first place. Never mind what you are dealing with. We just need to figure this out, okay. Truce?"

Misato held out her hand to shake and he grabbed her by the wrist across the table.

"Truce."

When Shinji pulled his hand away, he tucked his closed fists beneath his chin, such that his jaw was resting across his knuckles.

"Can I look?"

"Be my guest." Misato said. She slid the sheet of paper listing the available elective classes across the table, spinning it around to face him. Only his eyes moved, scanning back and forth and he was silent for several minutes.

"Can I ask you a question, y'know about where you're from, your culture?"

"You are my superior, I am compelled to answer your questions and obey your orders." He replied, eyes not rising from the paper.

"What is with the whole putting people in castes thing, pigeonholing them?"

"Pigeonholing?"

"Eh? Oh sorry. It means like categorizing them and not allowing them outside that label."

"Ah." Shinji said. His eyes rolled up from the paper to meet her own. He had such an intense gaze like this, it reminded her of his father.

"I could ask you the obverse captain. This curriculum covers an enormous range of subjects. How are students supposed to master them in, what was you called it, a semester? Half a year to learn a language or an instrument is a ludicris speed."

"Okay, first off it is just one semester, nobody is expecting someone to master it in that time. It is supposed to give you a wide breadth of knowledge."

"If one does not expect to master it, why bother devoting the time? If it just a passing interest, someone may pursue it on their own surely. If the city, the state as you would say, is going to be providing for their education, should the instruction not be focused on their eventual occupation?"

Misato shrugged. She leaned back, balancing her chair until it rested against the counter's edge. She picked up her beer can with just her fingertips and moved it to the countertop behind her head.

"Because we value choice and free will. To me it sounds like your way assigns occupation at birth."

"A man may change his caste, if he shows the aptitude and commitment. And the caste will have him."

"What does that mean?"

"What is that exactly?"

"If the caste will have him."

"Suppose if a halfwit wished to become a physician, or a mal-formed cripple a warrior? Neither one could do their duty and it would put others in danger, patients or comrades. Furthermore, when they are unable to earn a living doing these things, it falls on the caste to support them. So why would they accept them at all?"

"Okay, first off, don't say cripple, just don't. Or mal-formed."

Shinji lifted his head from his knuckles, tilting it sideways and looking at curiously. "Why not?"

"Just don't, neither is…. Neither is polite. The word we say instead is disabled."

"I see." He set his jaw back down across his fists. "You were saying?"

"Well okay, so you said…" Misato began, then reconsidered. "Okay so let's say a warrior like you is injured and it's bad. Like he is never going to walk again. He has become permanently disabled. What happens?"

"It would depend what he could still do. He may no longer have a place in the field, but he might train others, or if he could stand and had the eye for it, an archer on a wall."

"And what if there are no other jobs for him?"

"He could teach, just with his voice. I had an instructor in..."

Misato cut him off with a raised hand. "Let's say he can't even do that, just for the sake of argument. He is done, can't do anything for anyone ever again. This hypothetical veteran is alive, that's all."

Shinji's head rose a little, as if physically pushed back by the question.

"Well?"

"Then his existence would be a sorrowful one, if he truly could not do perform any duty, even to pass on what he knew to others. But he would be cared for."

"By who?"

"Whom." Shinji replied, quickly and reflexively.

"What?"

"By whom, not who."

Misato glared at the boy and he suddenly found something very interesting to stare at on the tabletop. "Tarl was a teacher once on Earth, that is what he taught me."

"Fine, by whom?"

"His caste. As a man has his duty to family and his caste and his city, so too do they have a duty to him."

Misato made a little hmm sound as she considered that. Shinji spoke next.

"A question."

"Go ahead."

"What if, in his days filled with nothing as you posit, he took up an interest in something, say pottery? And he had two working hands so he tries his hand at throwing a pot on the wheel. Behold, after much practice and failure, he can make a pot that will carry water."

"Okay."

"Then he could go to the potters and they would take him with open arms, so long as he can make a pot that will uphold their honor. Along with the water of course."

"Hmm, okay..." Misato was not convinced as she tilted the beer back, but she had to formulate how to make her point. The kid was smart, no doubt about it. Misato suspected either whatever training he had was more broad than he let on, or maybe he had been picked for some kind of officer track. He knew how to argue without sounding like an idiot.

"So warrior caste kids like you, you just automatically grow up to be warriors, no say in the matter?"

"If one displays a certain aptitude one may do something else, as I said."

"What if a kid just doesn't want to be a warrior?"

"As a people, we put great emphasis on duty, captain."

"Look, what I am trying to get at is it sounds like your warriors are conscripts. Your government calls on you to fight from pretty much birth and you go."

"I suppose that is correct, though I would not agree to the label of conscript. A conscript is forced into fighting, a warrior goes gladly. One conscripts peasants when one needs archers or other auxiliaries. We warriors are professionals."

"You know how I said before that we don't start military training until a person is of age?" She asked and Shinji nodded. "That's because for us, every soldier makes a choice and for us, you can't make that choice until you are an adult. See, every single one of us, from the commander, to me, all the way down to grunt guarding the door, we made a choice. We weren't forced into it by anyone or anything. Knowing what it entailed, we chose to put ourselves between harm and the people we swear to protect."

"To be commended, surely, but I think I would still have a man trained since he could walk by my side."

"Oh one guy, sure. But an army? No way. Give me a platoon of UN marines over a regiment of conscripts any day. I'll tell you, when the Americans were debating getting rid of conscription, one guy was arguing for the all volunteer force and this other guy, a general, says that will just give us an army of mercenaries, how can we trust them. So this guy looks at the general and he says better an army of highly motivated mercenaries than an army of slaves."

Oh that got him riled, Misato thought. She could see it in the way the skin around his eyes got all tense.

"I am of the high caste of warriors, I am no slave, Captain." He said, his tone clipped and his discomfort just oozing from out of it.

"Didn't say you were. It was just a metaphor someone else used."

"Hmph. Indeed."

His eyes and attention went back to the class list and Misato went back to her beer.

"English Literature."

Misato nearly choked at the sudden statement. She had to bring the chair back down and set her beer on the table before she caught her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"One of the elective courses here is English Literature. Tarl gave me many books and recited many poems from Earth, all in english. That makes six courses all together, which fulfills the requirement does it not?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah it does. 'Less they still require clubs, I dunno."

"Clubs?" Shinji said, exasperated. "There is more of this? When exactly am I to fit saving the world into this schedule?"

"Oh stop. Clubs are the fun stuff. It's like sports, team games that sort of thing. Oh, I bet you would love Kendo."

"Ken dough? I am not a baker either."

"Kendo, it is japanese swordsmanship."

"Oh!" Shinji finally dropped his hands to the table, his eyes alight. "Yes, that… that would be perfect. You know, Tarl always told me, whenever he visited someplace new, he always made sure to learn the local weapon."

"Oh. Thats sounds… like good advice. Heh." Misato said, forcing a smile.

The next morning...

"I saw a map, I could have walked." Shinji said from the passenger seat as the alpine rolled smoothly through the city streets, its electric motors whining barely above idle.

"You saw the map once, for like two minutes. I showed you where the school so you knew where the nearest elevator down was."

"That is enough. We don't make maps of our cities, it would be all too easy for the information to fall into enemy hands."

"Don't suppose anyone has ever called that a little paranoid."

"I assume so, and also that they lived out their days toiling for the civilization that found their maps and knew the best ways to enter their city."

Misato shook her head. Every conversation with him was an adventure at least. "So you what, just remember all the streets?"

"Aye."

"Okay then, so you remember what you are going to tell everyone today, right?"

"I am Shinji Ikari. I have been estranged from my father since after the death of my mother. In the interim I lived with a private tutor and family friend in foreign lands, only recently having returned thus accounting for my poor grasp of the language. If anyone inquires directly, I will admit my father is Commander Gendo Ikari, however I have no association with NERV myself and he does not talk about work."

"Well done." Misato pointed forward. "There is your school."

"Please stop here so I may approach on foot."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to appear an invalid who must be shuttled everywhere by a carriage."

"You know what? Fine." Misato pulled to the sidewalk.

"Okay, so where are you going if there is an alarm?" She asked after he had stepped out but before he had closed the door.

"There is an emergency access elevator at the North West corner of the school."

"Good. I'll meet you right back here after school is out, okay?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And the school has my number to call if you need me."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And your lunches are paid for, just show your ID card."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And don't be too formal, I mean be respectful but not…" Misato was cut off as he swung the door shut.

"Goodbye, Captain Katsuragi."

The captain pulled away. There were other male students dressed as he was, white shirts and grey trousers. There were female students as well. They wore blue skirts and red ribbons around their necks, through the folded down necks of their shirts. Shinji tried to ignore the collar comparisons his mind was making but the bare thigh between the female's short skirts and their high socks made it difficult.

He observed them, male and female. Everyone walked in a similar fashion, there was no bowing in deference or hiding faces. Many of the boys carried their book bags over their shoulder, so he did the same with his left hand. None were openly armed, unsurprising but still notable. Shinji was not sure if the captain wanted him to know about the weapon she carried under her jacket or not, but unless it was in a book bag, these clothes left little room to conceal anything greater than a small knife.

Pockets were strange to him, but as he hung his right hand by the thumb from the one on his hip, Shinji was satisfied that he looked like any of the earthling males. As he walked, he continued looking each one over. There was not a great deal of variation among them. This one's hair was longer or shorter than that one, a shade darker or lighter, a measure taller or shorter.

Brown hair, brown hair, brown hair… white? No, blue.

Shinji quickened his stride. Blue hair wrapped in white bandages. It was her, the girl from the hallway. The other pilot, the one called the first. The girl with the crimson eye..

She was a comrade, another like him. Perhaps she was Gorean too? Shinji could not recall ever seeing anyone who looked remotely like her.

Shinji dipped his shoulder to pass between two other students, uttering a quick pardon as he passed. Five more steps, four more, three more…

"Tal, sana." He said as he stepped to her side. First may be a rank, it would be prudent to call her by it. She turned her head and regarded him, but did not speak at first. One eye was still covered and she carried her bag at her side with one hand, the other bandaged and slung across her belly.

"Hello." She responded before looking forwards again. Not 'tal', no spark at meeting a fellow expatriate, no understanding. She was not gorean.

"You had just been injured when we last met, do you… recall me?"

"Yes. You were with the commander."

"Aye, that was me."

She did not respond. Truthfully she did not acknowledge him further at all.

"You are a pilot as well." Shinji tried.

"Yes." And again, nothing further, not even a look.

"Then we are comrades." Shinji reached to shake her hand before remembering she had no hand available, one bandaged and one holding her bag.

"My name is Shinji. What is your name?"

"Rei."

Shinji gave a small bow of his head. "Then you are well met Lady Rei. I am happy we will be attending this academy together."

Shinji was most pleased with himself when that got a reaction out of her. Her one visible eyebrow arched when she looked at him. She said nothing but the question was clear enough.

"If we are comrades, then you are a warrior to me. That makes you high caste like myself, and a free woman of high caste deserves deference, for she is precious."

This was all very unusual to Rei. Normally she was rarely spoken to outside of the geofront. It was her assumption that nobody took interest in her. Commander Ikari had instructed her not to concern herself with it and so she had not.

She was… precious?

"You look as though you are healing well. Not that I thought you looked poorly of course. I mean I couldn't afford your… Nevermind."

"What did you say?"

"No, please, it was ill advised, a crude saying, think nothing of it."

Nobody had spoken to her like this before. She had received compliments when she had completed a task successfully, but Rei had the sense that the third child, Shinji, was complimenting… her. Only the commander had ever done so, and even that had been in passing.

"Please finish." She said.

"Pardon?"

"Please finish what you were saying."

"What I was going to say literally was I could not afford your legs. It is an… undignified way of complimenting you. I apologize. I mean I don't apologize for complimenting you, just I am sorry I complemented you in that fashion… that did not sound right either, eeer..."

"I see."

"I should have… I meant to say is that you are quite beautiful."

What?

She stopped. He kept walking, only stopping when she did not follow. Other children were walking around and between them.

"Lady Rei?"

"Th-thank you."

"You are welcome."

With that she took the two steps to catch up. They spoke of the little things. What class was he in, the same as hers it turned out. He told her 'tal' was a greeting where he was from, and that he had called her sana, meaning first, because that is what he heard her called. She told him first was merely an identifier of her being the first pilot identified. He was the third. The second was elsewhere.

"Where?"

"Germany."

"Where is that?"

"Very far."

"I… see. And you, from where have you come?"

"Here."

"Oh. Pardon me, I thought perhaps all three of us are from places far afield."

"Where are you from?"

"I thought being a pilot you would be told. I am from Gor."

"Where is that?"

"Very very far."

She showed him where to go and how to store his shoes. This he found bizarre and annoying. His shoes were the tall lace up boots he had been given, while the other students wore shoes with few laces or none at all. Why change shoes at all and why so many kinds? A good pair of sandals could have done for all and been more comfortable. Despite the time it took, Lady Rei stood by waiting. Once he had finally gotten the boots off and slipped the small canvas shoes on, she guided him through the press of students to the room where his class was to meet.

"Hello, you must be Shinji Ikari! I'm Hikari Horaki, your class representative. We're really excited to have someone new, and from abroad even."

Oh thank the sardar he thought. They spoke English in school.

Shinji shook the girl's offered hand but looked for Rei. She had slipped away from his side and was sitting by the window at one of the many desks that took up most of the room. And for the same reasons he consciously ignored the red ribbon around the neck of her shirt, that stirred something in him. His right hand, hanging at his side now, clenched shut. She was a free woman and his comrade. It was not reasonable to want to take hold of her and keep her at his side. It was not reasonable to want to lead an injured woman to the first alcove he could find and coax the true female within her out.

But a teasing, taunting voice was reminding him that his homestone was Ko-Ro-Ba. Not this place. And so by her laws he could take this woman, this barbarian, and do with her as he pleased.

Such a pretty little thing. The captain is lovely to be sure, but her? Oh the things you could do with her, master.

Silence girl, Shinji pushed the voice that spoke with Alice's face down, along with the desire that spurred it on. In any case she was injured and to do anything to her could cause great harm to a comrade.

"So do you know how japanese classrooms work?"

Shinji had not realized she had continued to speak. "Oh, pardon, no, my apologies, I do not."

"Oh no no no, I understand you have spent most of your life out of the country, so this must all be very new to you."

"Yes, quite."

"Well, as I am the representative for Class 2-A. I lead the class in group activities and coordinate assignments for classroom duties."

"I understand, we have a similar position where I come from, called a cohortarch."

"Oh, that's great, so I don't really need to explain that. Our homeroom teacher, Mr. Nebukawa, will be here soon and when he enters we show him respect and then class begins. Go ahead and stand right up here and Mr. Nebukawa will assign you a seat."

"Understood, thank you."

"Pardon me for being rude, but how is your Japanese? It's no shame if it's not very good, it's a hard language. It is just there is this tradition, even though our school does most stuff in english that you introduce yourself to class in Japanese."

"It is… poor."

"It is alright, like I said it is a hard language. When Mr. Nebukawa asks you to introduce yourself, just bow and say watashi wa Ikari Shinji desu douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu. It's easy, don't worry. I promise we don't have that much public speaking."

Oh yes, an easy thing, not a mouthful of unfamiliar syllables at all, Shinji thought. These people baffled him. To meet people for the first time with 'please take care of me' was… He couldn't imagine saying that to someone, it sounded like begging for quarter before hostilities were declared. If a student joined a class like that back home, even the scribes and the artisans would laugh him out. Why would he worry about speaking to others? A man should be proud to be allowed to address his peers.

No. Shinji was quite done acquiescing to this place, to their defeatism. He was not like them, he was not an earthling and he most certainly not going to ask their mercy.

"Stand Bow Sit!"

What in all the hells was this? Shinji watched the small man, barely more than a dwarf and covered in wrinkles and pox marks slowly enter the room.

"Hmm, you must be our new student." He said, his voice just instantly grating. It reminded Shinji of rusty hinges opening. He spoke in Japanese, thankfully slowly. Shinji held out his hand to shake, but the teacher did not take it.

In just a few days on Earth, Shinji had encountered many things he had been told about and only now saw for the first time. Until this moment they had all been easy to rationalize. Like this thing he knew by one name was called something else but not quite.

The grey and wrinkled man before him was the exception. He knew that on Earth, unlike on Gor, people grew old. Tarl had explained that, without the medicine goreans took for granted, humans barely lived a hundred years and only then if exceedingly careful. Once they had passed their prime less than halfway through that time though, their bodies began to fail. Their bones grew frail, their joints stiff, their teeth fell out and they became more susceptible to disease. Eventually their organs failed and for the truly unfortunate their minds faltered until they were like children.

He had seen men who were disfigured, cripples, those afflicted with the wasting disease dar-kosis, men who had been burned from head to toe and somehow survived. One does not forget such things and he would not forget meeting this man today. Such misfortune left its mark upon one's mind.

On Gor all, from the wealthiest to the meanest, even slaves, receive a medical treatment known as the stabilization serum. For a very few, these treatments take longer to take full hold and so a distinguished bit of grey hair or a more mature countenance may be seen from time to time. However for the most part, aging is arrested while a man or woman is in their prime. A man may grow stronger or let himself go to fat. He may acquire scars and other marks of his life lived. Should he live long enough, he may grow wise. But he would not grow old. He would not be betrayed by his own biology to fall apart like ragged cloth.

"Yes." Shinji said, his arm still outstretched. The small man held a velice in his left hand and kept his right unmoving behind his back. Normally Shinji would have expected a dagger from that position but the with the distinct hunch in the man's back, he could see over to the teacher's empty hand.

"I read you have returned only recently to Japan." The teacher said.

"That is true." Shinji responded and withdrew his hand.

"It is customary to bow when greeting someone, especially someone of higher social status."

"I… shall remember that." Shinji stood aside and the teacher passed to a podium at the head of the room, in front of a writing slate that covered the whole of the wall.

Bow? BOW?! He was to supplicate himself before… Shinji stopped his anger before it bled out to be visible. He was a warrior, one of the five high castes. Not a hands worth of days before this moment, he had saved the lives of everyone in this room, including the aged teacher who thought he was worthy to be bowed to.

They should be the one's bowing down. Don't let them change you master.

When I desire the guidance of a slave I will ask for such, he thought, and the voice was silent again. Not that she was so far wrong. If they knew what he had done, none would presume to be his better.

"Thank you. Good morning class, today I would like to introduce you to our new student. He has lived most of his life abroad, so I hope you will be understanding and give him a warm welcome regardless. Mr. Ikari, please introduce yourself."

Shinji, thin and tight of skin, stood anxious in front of the children who were supposed to be his new cohort. He had liked his old cohort just fine. He liked his crimson tunics and leather sandals much more than the ill fitting shirt and itchy trousers he wore now.

The class representative had told him what he was supposed to do here. He was to bow and greet the the children, to beg like a pauper for their sympathy.

"My name is Shinji, I am from the city of Ko-Ro-Ba."

He crossed his arms over his chest, defiant. He could feel the expectation, that he should kowtow to them now.

"When I have cause to use a second name, it is Cabot, not Ikari."

He was gorean, a warrior. He bowed to nobody. He begged from no man.

"I am the pilot of evangelion unit one."

Gasps, shock, confused looks. Well well, that went over as expected.

"Uh...Uh...Er…" Mr. Nebukawa stuttered.

Shinji looked at his new teacher, smiling.

"Where shall I sit?"

"Uh...ah...uh-uh… um…. R-r-r-right over there." Mr. Nebukawa said, wrinkled hand raised and, this was rather pleasing, shaking. "Between Mr. Aida, with the glasses and Ms. Ayanami with the… blue hair."

"My thanks." Shinji picked up his school bag. It was fortunate to be placed so near his new comrade. The whispers were easily heard as he took the short walk to his seat.

"That kid's the pilot?" One said.

"No way, look at him…" Said another

"That foreign name is so cool..." A girl stage whispered to her friend.

"And he's got that dark hair blue eyes thing going on, oooooh." She replied.

"Where the fuck is koroba?"

Mr. Nebukawa had began to speak as he sat down but as soon as the old man turned to his slate, his new neighbor with the glasses had turned in his seat to face Shinji.

"Tal." The boy with freckles and lenses upon his face said.

"Tal?" Shinji replied, rather surprised.

"I didn't think anyone else read those old books, I love'em." He continued.

"Old books?" What was this boy on about?

"Yeah, the gor books, adventures of Tarl Cabot and all that?"

"Oh, you've read Tarl's books!"

"Yeah, the whole series."

"Truly? I did not believe him when he first told me he had published his autobiography on Earth."

"Huh?"

An explanation, quietly carried out, and several thrown pieces of chalk which proved while Mister Nobokawa was old his ears still functioned perfectly fine, and it was time for the midday meal. Shinji walked with his new acquaintance and the good Lady Rei had chosen to silently accompany them as they walked out onto the grounds to eat. Kensuke had been good enough to walk him through the process of obtaining his food, and Shinji was pleased the custom of bartering one's rations for more of another item was alive and well on Earth.

Rei had brought her own meal which lacked any meat. When he asked why, she explained.

"I do not eat meat."

"Why not, does it disagree with you?"

"I just do not."

Shinji had gladly traded the rather questionable looking sandwich of ground meat to his new friend. There was meat to be had at home, he was curious about the colorful fruits, of which a variety had been available. With Kensuke's portions he now had an apple and a banana to try. The peaches and plums could wait until tomorrow. He had found it funny at the time, but when Tarl had begun to teach him English, many of the books he used, meant for small children, used foods to teach the letters. And so he knew what these things were called and what they looked like, but now finally would discover what they tasted like.

Lacking any other guide, he chose to proceed alphabetically and began with the apple. Kensuke, Ken as he preferred, had led them to a spot where a stone seating bench circled the trunk of a broad shade tree.

"Hey Ayanami, do you believe him?" Ken asked Rei.

"I… have no opinion on the matter. I do not know where Gor is and so I cannot say how probable it is that one is from there."

The flavor of the apple was pleasing, not unlike a larna fruit.

"I still don't know if I believe you."

"You won't believe I am a perfectly normal person from far away, but you believe I 'pilot a giant robot' as you say."

"We'll sure, I've seen the robot. I did not say I was sure you did that either, it's just more likely."

"Lady Rei."

"Hm?" Rei looked up from her food, greyish brown noodles still hanging from her mouth. Soba, she had said they were called when he asked.

"Will you not confirm to this man our shared occupation?" Shinji asked. She quickly drew the noodles into her mouth with a slurp and swallowed.

"The commander says we are not to discuss that openly."

"And yet you just have. Master Aida, your proof."

"I…" She looked at him strangely before realization crossed her crimson eyes. Rei did not think herself one to act out so, but there was the tiniest huff and flare of nostrils as she returned to her noodles.

"Well damn." Kensuke said. "Okay fine, I'll concede the giant robot until evidence otherwise presents itself. The whole Gor thing though, I'm sorry I like the books, I love the books, but you are not going to convince me for one second that you are from another planet hidden in this solar system. I have argued this point till I was blue in the face, just putting a planet on the other side of the sun from us wouldn't work. There would be gravimetric distortions which could easily be detected."

"It is said the Sardar may control the force of gravity."

"Don't even start that 'the priest kings did it' explanation."

"And yet they did."

"You have got to give me something else. Speak gorean."

"Very well, what should I say?"

"Whatever you want."

"Lo Shinji, civitatis Ko-Ro-Ba."

"Let me guess, that was I am Shinji of Ko-Ro-Ba?"

"How perceptive my friend. Perhaps you can puzzle this out. La ja sa-kimaco Rei." Shinji said, gesturing towards Rei.

"Uh, well I know sa is usually daughter or sister, and la is usually like 'I am'. The phrase La Kajira comes up a lot in the books y'know."

"You are on the scent, care to take a guess?

"Naw, I got nothin'."

"What about you, m'lady?"

"Hm?"

"Would you guess what I said?"

She looked at them and did not speak, just staring for a long moment before answering. "This is my comrade Rei."

"Very good M'lady!" Shinji said, raising his hands in praise. "Exactly, skillfully done. Perhaps you have a gift for languages."

"Come on, give me another one." Ken plied him.

"Neim podia she poly jesuil." Shinji replied.

"Not even going to try. What did you say?"

Shinji gestured to Rei. "Her legs are very beautiful."

"I… Uh, well yeah." Kensuke stammered. Shinji glanced at their blue haired companion and was pleased to find her pale cheeks a brilliant shade of pink.

This place did not bother Shinji as it had earlier. It was certainly an annoyance to be placed back in school, but he was already making new friends.

"So uh… Gor."

"Yes, what of it?"

"Tarl writes a lot about uh… you know, kajiras."

"Kajirae."

"Huh?"

"You meant the plural of slave girl, yes? The word is kajirae."

"Oh."

"I have not read Tarl's manuscripts, however I imagine he does indeed discuss slave girls often. He is quite fond of them. He says he loved a free woman once and it went so poorly he never could again."

"Talena of Ar, she is a character in several books."

"What?!" Shinji cringed, a look of revulsion on his face. "The priest-kings come down from their mountains and save us all from her. Evil, wicked woman. Crazy."

Shinji spat on the ground.

"He said he loved her though."

"Foolishly, but all men err. The lucky live and hopefully are the wiser for it. No, she put him off free women for a time, but there was another. This was before I came to him you see, I never met her. He said little of how she died, only that it was far away and beyond his reach. He believed allowing her to go far from him, out from his protection, was his greatest mistake."

"Wow, thats rough. He never wrote about anyone like that."

Shinji shrugged. "Who would you relate such hardship, given the choice?"

"Fair point. Anyway, I know it's like normal for you but is all the stuff about slave girls true?"

"As I said, I have not read what he has written, but I see no reason he would lie."

"About how no matter what they are like before, they all become sex crazed and willing?"

"I would not say crazed. They just express themselves without restraint, it is only natural."

"And you can just go buy a drink and…"

"You mean at a tavern? Certainly, the girl comes with the cup."

"Dude, I am so jealous of you."

"Why?"

"You are an Eva pilot and you grew up on Gor! I don't know if I should be happy you told me it was real or sad I can't go!"

"Well…"

Shinji was interrupted by the roar of engines and the barking of tires near the school gate. The three children looked up to see a mass of men in black led by one very agitated Misato Katsuragi. Shinji could not understand a word of what she was saying. However he understood very keenly that it was coming out very fast and very loud, from a very angry looking woman.

"Uuuuuhh… Me no speakee japanese good?" Shinji said, raising his hands.

Shinji's hair was short, but not too short for her to grab him by his scalp.

"You little idiot, just wait till your father hears about this!" She said, in very clear English.

"Uuuuuh, so are you uh, Missus Cabot?"

Kensuke immediately regretted choosing to speak at this time. Misato held onto Shinji, but turned her terrible wrath upon the glasses wearing teen.

"Who are you?"

"Uuuum, Kensuke Aida, class 2-A! Um, Ma'am." Ken replied, open hands above his shoulders. "I'm a… I'm a…"

"Captain, he is my friend, he has been most helpful." Shinji interjected.

"Did I ask you something?" Misato asked, whipping her attention back to Shinji.

"No, Ma'am."

"Damn right. Now you." She said, looking back to the boy with the glasses. "What makes you think I'm old enough to be his mother?"

"I-I uh, didn't mean it that way Ma'am, I just thought like maybe his dad's partner like a girlfriend or…"

This was not having the intended effect. Quite the opposite in fact. She was turning red and was huffing like a bull ready to charge.

"I'm... just... gonna shut up now."

"First bright thing out of your mouth." Misato looked back to Shinji. "You, go."

Misato pointed and Shinji followed the fellows in the black clothes and dark lenses to a likewise black car. The kid in the glasses had run off and Misato now turned to Rei.

"How much did he say?"

"The third stated his occupation as a an evangelion pilot and claimed to be from a city called Ko-Ro-Ba, from a place called Gor."

"Okay… fuck, damage control is going to be a pain on this..."

"Captain…"

"Yes, Rei?"

"I wish to know more about him."

"Huh, you and me both, I still have to read that damn file."

"May I read it?"

"Um, I don't know what you are cleared for. I'm sorry Rei, I just can't share it."

"I understand." And with that, the blue haired girl picked up her lunch box, turned, and walked away.

"That girl…" Misato shook her head and headed for the waiting car. This little shit storm wasn't going to solve itself. The first child being weird was nothing new.

There were four people in the rather enormous and most ominus office of Commander Gendo Ikari. The commander, his second in command, his operations commander, and one evangelion pilot. Gendo sat at his desk, with Vice Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki at his shoulder. In front of the desk, Captain Misato Katsuragi stood facing away from them and toward Shinji, who himself stood at attention and was making every effort to keep his gaze anywhere but on the captain.

"You have ruined everything we put in place to protect you!"

Shinji had been brought before superiors and thoroughly lectured before. It was expected growing up in the warrior caste, there was a certain reputation for cavalier attitudes to uphold. If it had not happened at least twice before one turned twelve, the general consensus was the boy was odd and, even worse, boring.

"Your identity? Burned. Any protection you may have had blending in, gone! Do you know how I found out?"

Dressed down, he believed was the phrase Tarl had used to describe such this manner of scolding. Surviving it was like surviving a storm, stand firm and remember it can't last forever. Stood up straight as he was, she could look directly into his eyes in her heeled shoes and it was the kind of gaze that could sour milk. Not that he was meeting her gaze, he was not an idiot.

"Er, no Ma'am."

"When I want a goddamn answer I will tell you!"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I found out because your classmates had your picture and that you were a pilot posted all over the internet!"

"The…?"

"Did I tell you to speak?!... Well?"

"I was not sure if this was one of the times I supposed to answer."

"Grrrrrr… The point is all of your protection is now compromised. You are now a giant target and a liability! You disobeyed direct orders!"

"Captain Katsuragi, that will be sufficient." Gendo Ikari interjected.

"Commander?"

"I do not think continuing in this manner will produce any additional result, at least any that we desire. I imagine by now Shinji has made the choice to stand firm and endure. Isn't that right, Shinji?"

Misato stepped aside to give the commander full view of the boy.

"Aye, Ubar."

"Ubar? Hm, an interesting choice of word. Appropriate as it is, I would prefer commander or Sir."

"As you wish, sir."

"Excellent. Captain, professor, leave us."

Kozo was swiftly out the door, but Misato looked across the desk. "Sir, are you…"

"I am quite sure Captain. It was undutiful of me to not speak with my son earlier and I think such things should be kept between a father and his son."

"Sir, I don't think…"

"Objection noted captain, now please, wait outside."

She left, leaving behind Shinji looking over this Gendo Ikari. He had recognized him on sight, there was enough of a memory for that. That he shared his own countenance was an aid as well. However that was all there was to the man before him. What was there to see of him? All Shinji had observed was two tense conversations with Tarl and the man who raised him seemed to have a talent in provoking those sorts of reactions in people.

And now, they were just… staring at eachother. Gendo broke the silence.

"So you were raised in Ko-Ro-Ba?"

"Aye."

"I am surprised Mr. Cabot did not choose to make his home in Port Kar."

"Ko-Ro-Ba was his first homestone. I have visited Port Kar."

"Have you? And the house of Samos no doubt."

"Aye."

"How is the old slaver?"

"Successful. I met him only briefly. I don't have much news to bring of your homestone father, except that the city still stands."

"As she will for a great while longer. Forgive me, idle talk in a tense situation is a common habit of this place. I am sure you find it as annoying as I once did."

"You are no longer bothered by it?"

"I have taken on a great many things I did not understand upon my arrival." Gendo at last dropped his hands from beneath his nose. He was smiling as he sat up into the back of his chair. "However I think I might still understand a man of Gor like yourself."

"We are both men of Gor, are we not?"

"I count myself now as a man of Earth. Tokyo-3, this place…" Gendo rapped the knuckles of his left hand against his desk. "Is my homestone as we would say."

"Then you might try, but I was taught that the men of Earth, for the most part, do not understand us. May I ask a question before we continue?"

"Certainly."

"How well known is your providence?"

"The most senior staff here and a limited number of backers are aware. While you made the choice to reveal yourself, I would appreciate if you left that decision to me regarding my own origins. Captain Katsuragi is not aware."

"That is reasonable and I will abide by it."

"Thank you, now on the matter of your behavior in class today. You would have us all think this little defiance shows you are proud, and will not be so easily ordered about. Ironic for one who claims to be a warrior. However, truly, your concern is something else. I am sure you find the enforced egalitarianism, not to mention having to attend school, to be utterly stifling. You do not even have your sword. What is that charming expression about the coinage of warriors?"

"I am sure you know it."

"Oh certainly! But I want to hear it from you. Speak."

"I will not be ordered like a slave."

"Humor me then, I am homesick."

"The coinage of a warrior is steel, with it he purchases what pleases him."

"On Earth, the currency of choice is… currency. We don't put small matters of honor to violence. We reserve that for things that matter. Lives, people, resources. But we don't have the lives or resources to waste on fighting to determine the righteous."

"There are no small matters of honor."

"There are nothing but small matters when it comes to honor, Shinji. Hurt feelings and bruised pride is all it ever is."

"I pity you for your shame and weakness!" Shinji barked, hands clenched into fists. "Tarl told me about you. You were never of the warriors, you were nothing but a pirate. You wouldn't understand."

"Fortunate I was. A pirate is, by necessity, a realist. And do not talk to me of my weakness, boy. Such talk means nothing coming from a child, totally dependent for survival on another."

"I am not a child, and I don't need you to survive!"

"Truly? You cannot even read without assistance, you do not speak the local language. Have you learned about the monetary system yet? Did you think you could just walk in here like Tarl Cabot, learn the local weapon, and fit in? All you have is pride, no power. When you have learned to be a man, of any kind, then we will speak of these things."

"I can learn. The language, your money, and the weapon too!"

"Once you have learned the first two, we will discuss the third. If you behave."

"And what is that to mean?"

"Until you have shown you are able to behave as a responsible young man here, you will undertake no martial instruction outside that given to you here by Captain Katsuragi."

"And what exactly does a woman have to teach me about fighting? The use of poison?"

"That you say as much shows how poorly you understand Earth, Shinji. Now go."

Shinji did not know much of how men of Earth swore and profaned. However a gesture from Tarl's first home sufficed as he raised two fingers in a V sign with the knuckles towards his father.

"Out."

"Sardar take you."

"Out. And watch your language."

Kensuke walked beside Rei as they left the school yard after classes were dismissed. He had never spoken to her at length before today. She had always seemed so distant. Not like she held herself above it all, just like she wasn't really there in the present. Their new friend, if you could call him a friend after a half day of school, had changed that. NERV coming and hauling him away was all the confirmation the gossips needed. He was the pilot, and where was this Ko-Ro-Ba place?

Kensuke and Rei were the ones he had spoken to, so there had been some curiosity around them at first, but that had died out by fifth period.

"Damn, she was scary. Hot, but scary. Who is she?"

"Captain Katsuragi, Head of Combat Operations."

"So both of you are pilots then?"

"I have been ordered not discuss it."

"Come on, cat's out of the bag on this. I won't tell anyone, I am just curious."

"Why do you wish to know more about us?"

Kensuke shrugged. "I'm a sixteen year old boy, giant robots are cool."

"I have been ordered not to discuss it."

"Alright, I get it."

"... Do you know more about him?"

"Shinji? Well I mean if he is really from where he says he is, I read the books. The guy he says raised him, Tarl Cabot, is a character in an old sci-fi series."

"I will find these books."

"Let me save you the trouble." Kensuke kneeled and opened his book bag on the ground. He took out his school laptop. "Okay, let's see who has an unsecured network… there we go. Aaaaand sent you a link, you can download them there."

"Thank you." And with that she turned away. This was where their paths diverged.

"Hey Ayanami."

She turned her head, one crimson eye looking over her shoulder at him.

"If you like them, maybe you can tell me some not too secret stuff? Y'know, quid pro quo."

"Good bye."

"Alright Alright…" He said, hefting the bag over his shoulder, the computer packed away. "Seeya…"

He was five paces down the street when he heard her.

"Wait."

"Hm?"

"He is the son of Commander Ikari."

"No shit? Thanks Ayanami, and don't worry I can keep a secret if you can tell me anything else. I'll see ya tomorrow, alright?"

"Yes."

Rei did not know anything else about him. Not yet.

Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki were wrapping up the day in Gendo's office. What little damage had remained after Unit One had regenerated had been repaired. Zero was still being dug out of bakelite. Two was on its way to Wilhelmshaven. The Americans had nothing to say about Three and Four save that "we're working on it". Five was still at its appointed vigil and of course the old men were not saying a thing about six.

"Do you think it was wise, what you said to him earlier?"

"I said a many things to a great many people today, professor." His head down, scanning the sheaf of documents before him.

"You know very well I mean to your son, Gendo."

"What did I say that you took issue with?"

"You provoked him. You pushed him away. If you had taken the opportunity to endear yourself to him, which would have provided you with more positive influence upon him in the long term. Now he is likely to hate you, or at least claim he does."

Gendo looked up at his vice-commander.

"And what action will he take upon that sentiment? He has been raised such that he will never back down from duty, so we need not worry that he will refuse to fight. Rather if anything he will try all the harder to impress us."

"And when he inevitably subverts your attempts to limit his activities?"

"Why would I disapprove of him formulating and executing a strategy based on subversion and guile? He has been taught from childhood how to handle things directly, it is a fine time for him to learn to be circumspect."

"You expect a surprising amount of compliance from a young man who, when dismissed, responded with non-verbal obscenity and a curse for your death."

"And yet he left." Gendo said, then returned to his paperwork. The conversation, Kozo understood, had been tabled.

"You know…" The old professor added, a small smile on his thin lips. "Ubar is a rather appropriate title for you. The definition is, if memory serves, identical to that of the original Roman imperator. A temporary tyrant, appointed by civilian authorities, to take power in a crisis until its resolution."

"And like the Romans, if he should choose to keep his hold on power he need only the strength of arms to hold it."

"Hm. Suitable indeed."

"Alright, I'll bite." Misato began. They were seated at the kitchen table. Dinner had been prepared and eaten in tense silence.

"Pardon me, what are you going to bite?"

"Figure of speech. What made you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Oh my god, you are just like the commander… What made you break protocol and identify yourself instead of using the identity provided?"

"I dislike lying." He responded, flippantly.

"Dammit Shinji, stop being such a little shit!"

"Excuse me?" Shinji responded with none of playfulness that had been there a moment before.

"What are you trying to prove with this? I know you're not stupid, so why did you do it? Not fifteen minutes before we went over the whole story in the car together, so I know you didn't forget. You memorized a city map in a few seconds, you can remember a cover story. So what was it?"

"I was..." Shinji looked away from her. "Upset."

"I never would have guessed."

"Sarcasm, glorious."

"What made you upset, was it something I did, did someone say something?"

"It was…." Shinji said, drawing out the 'S' sound as he considered his words. "A combination of things."

"Okay, start from the beginning."

"When Rei…"

"Did she upset you?"

"What? No no, Lady Rei is wonderful, very nice. Pretty too…"

"Oh. My. God." The captain said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I don't even want to touch that conversation right now. Keep going, what got you mad?"

"Well the cohortarch, I'm sorry class representative, she instructed me on how I should introduce myself and it was just shameful. 'Please take care of me' who would say something like that on a first meeting."

"Oh for… really, that's it?!"

"Well there was something else I suppose, the…"

"We are staying on this a moment. Okay, I know your Japanese is not very good, but that is not what that phrase means."

"But…"

"Those words mean that, but when used together in that way it means 'let's have good relations'." Misato said. "It's about the context."

"Ah…" Shinji said, his face quickly falling. "Oh…"

"Yeah."

"That is truly a sensible and diplomatic way to greet a group one is joining."

"Yep." Misato followed up with a sip of beer. "How are you feeling about that right now?"

"Well… like a bit of a little shit I suppose."

"Good. So what was the other thing?"

"I owe you an apology."

"The look on your face just now was more than enough. Tell me about the other thing."

"It was the teacher."

"What did he say?"

"Well he was disrespectful but what bothered me was that he was… old."

Misato stared at him over the top of her beer can. "And?"

"Captain you must understand, we don't grow old."

"Huh?"

"We have a medicine that everyone, even slaves get. Anybody who ever sees a physician receives it. It causes the body to stop aging."

"Wait a second, are you telling me you're immortal?"

"Not truly, we just do not age once the treatments take hold. There are many ways to die, but the thought of one's own body breaking down and withering away…" Shinji gave a shudder. "It is a terrifying thought. The teacher, he was hunched over like a cripple."

"Don't say that word."

"Disabled, my apologies. But I could see his body failing, his skin looked like thin paper, his eyes were clouded. He looked… withered and weak."

She set her beer down and leaned forward,resting her chin across laced fingers. "And this upset you?"

"Yes… I suppose you people have come to terms with it and accepted it. Tarl has told me limited lifespan creates a certain beautiful urgency. To me though, I suppose I found it most fearful."

"I don't think anybody truly comes to terms with it, Shinji. It is a constant. But you people don't age?"

"No."

"How does that work? Do you just go to the doctor when you decide you are happy with your body or what?"

"No no, it does not work like that. It is not immediate. One receives the stabilization treatment and it takes hold over a period of time. That period varies from person to person, one may look more or less youthful. It may take hold as soon as one reaches their full growth or it may take a while and a man might gain some grey hair. So I will continue to grow, I'm still young, but as long as I keep myself alive I will not expire just because of age."

"Hell, I'd kill for that, lots of people would. Bring that here and you could be a rich man."

"No, I do not think so. It is given freely to all back home and I feel it would be unconscionable to profit from it."

"What?!"

"No compensation is expected, it is a service."

"You give away immortality!"

"Not immortality, there is no such thing. But nobody, not even the lowly, not even slaves, are made to suffer that way."

"Wow…"

"Is that so surprising?"

"Well… yeah."

"It is embarrassing that I was so brash based on a misunderstanding."

"Those are the times when we tend to act the worst I guess. You had the talking to coming, but I'm sorry for misestimating you… and your culture. Maybe if we learn more about each other these things can be avoided in the future."

"We have a saying that there no apologies between friends, they are not needed."

"So are you saying we are friends?"

"We sleep in the same space with no locks between us and haven't killed each other yet. Some cultures would call that a courtship, but I will settle for friends."

"Hey Ayanami, you seen Shinji?"

Kensuke had become well acquainted with his new alien friend and his absence was immediately apparent from just the energy, or lack thereof, in the classroom as Ken entered. It was Thursday, and would have been Shinji's fourth day at school.

"He will indisposed today." Rei responded, resting her chin in her palm and looking out at the clouds. The caste was off her arm and both red eyes looked at the sky uncovered.

"So, he's busy?"

"That is what I said."

"Pilot stuff?"

"I am not to discuss it."

"Soooo…" Kensuke said, sliding down into his seat. "Which book are you on?

Rei pivoted her chin on her hand to look at him. "Maruaders."

"Aaaaah, the Torvladlanders. Nine books in a week is pretty good, you must be enjoying yourself."

"Twelve."

"Hm?"

"I researched alternate orders of reading based on interest. I have read chronologically up to the ninth book and… some others."

"Like what?"

"The eleventh, nineteenth, and twenty second books."

Ken wrinkled his eyebrows and began to mumble and count on his fingers for a short moment. "The slave books?" He finally asked.

"Yes. I found them to be… compelling." She said, turning back to the clouds.

"Oh. Oooooooh…" Well, that got awkward.

Of the three dozen books of the gorean chronicles, the large majority focus on the doings of Tarl Cabot, ostensibly autobiographically. Kensuke had recently found that what he assumed to be a literary conceit was in fact true. Of the remainder of the books, there are a number which show the perspective of Earth women brought to Gor and made slaves. Among those were Slave girl, Kajira, and Dancer, the books Rei had just reported reading.

"Sooooo… You know Toji, right?"

"Who?"

"Suzuhara, y'know, big guy who wears his gym clothes everywhere?"

"I am aware he is in our class. I have not spoken to him."

"Well he is back today, you should eat lunch with us. No reason to eat alone just because Shinji is not here. 'Sides, if he shows up I will introduce him."

"I believe he will return tomorrow."

"Is that all I am going to get?"

Rei did not move her body, but looked at Ken from the corner of her eye. "I believe the captain will be familiarizing him with modern military equipment today."

Ken sighed and reached into his book bag for his laptop.

"Lucky bastard."

"Rits, that kid is downright scary sometimes." Captain MIsato Katsuragi said as she entered her friend's cluttered office, the heavy scent of cordite following in her wake.

"Why do you say that?" Ritsuko Akagi replied, not looking up from her desktop computer. She was leaning back in her chair, nails tapping away at her keyboard across her lap. Her nose wrinkled for a moment at the sting scent and she had to adjust her glasses.

"Were you even watching?"

"The first couple sessions. I had Maya took notes on the rest. Other stuff to do."

"He'd never even held a gun before today. I've seen guys fresh out of boot camp, shooting five hundred rounds a day getting groups twice the size he was shooting."

"Hmm."

"Hmm? All you have to say is Hmm? Thats nuts! I've never seen anyone pick up any skill that quickly."

"The commander did make a note somewhere to expect him to learn rapidly. I thought it was a misguided assumption about genetic intelligence."

"Did I tell you he memorized a map of the city streets after seeing it once?"

"Hmm, that actually could make sense."

"Whaddya mean?"

Dr. Akagi set her keyboard down and swiveled her chair towards Misato. "Well, from what we know, literacy is not universal nor even considered universally useful where he is from, particularly among the military class. If he has been educated in the kind of system that would exist within those circumstances, then it would unsurprising, even expected that he would have been trained to quickly retain information. He may even have perfect recall."

"Don't you think that is a little bit of a leap?"

"If he had been raised into another occupation, maybe, but military… If a soldier could not read, you could not give him written orders or any sort of manual on his equipment. Even textbooks for learning basic skills. Rote memorization would work but by all indications this is not an unadvanced society he comes from, just limited as to the technology it is allowed to develop. So developing those sorts of teaching techniques would make sense lacking widespread literacy."

"That still has holes in it."

"But it does adequately explain our observations, so I think that makes it a reasonable hypothesis. What he is doing is difficult, but we know it is possible. The takeaway is that we should be careful with what he is exposed to, because it is possible he only needs to see something once or do a thing once before he has learned it."

Several levels below and sections over from the 'firing range', as he had been told it was known, Shinji was standing beneath a hot shower, taking in the steam with deep breaths. Shinji knew, on a level that was becoming instinctual, that the captain was so many levels below where he stood and to his… that took a moment of thought and he stepped to face another side of the room to orient himself… She had said she was going to Dr. Akagi's office and that was approximately on his right from here.

It was this numbering system on the wall panels. At first he had not understood the order, but when he tried to put it into a sort of coordinate system both laterally and vertically it began to make sense. Different parts of the sequence gave one's location along different axis. Small rooms had longer numbers and in fact this is what had given it away. The longer number sequence gave a more precise location.

This was not completely alien to Shinji though. It was similar to a system he had learned when he had travelled once on a merchant vessel with Tarl. The sailing round ship, as opposed to the sleek multi-decked and rowed fighting ships, held cargo and passengers. The location of a given item or cabin was given, like the address on a street and the number sequences on these walls, as a count of beams from a given bulkhead.

Though, he thought, this was more like multiple ships lashed together. Sections of the facility had names and the sequence within each independent from the others. These names were nonsense as far as he could tell, some of the words he knew and others were strange. Pribnow box, Central Dogma, Gracial Nucleus.

Shinji took a deep breath through flared nostrils. That smell was still there. That smell like smoke and rotting eggs. It dulled his senses the way the explosives operating the powerful weapons of Earth had dulled his hearing even with plugs in his ears and covering over that.

Shinji thought he had an inkling now of why such things were not allowed by the Priest-Kings. It was terrifying to think of the carnage these Earthlings must do upon each other. Captain Katsuragi had said the weapons he fired were those of the common soldier, and far deadlier existed that were carried into battle in vehicles and others that are, and this was something of a wonder in his mind, sent into battle on their own without a man to guide them.

They were not weak, these Earthlings. It would be foolish to continue thinking so, as he had been taught to. He was not like them though. He was Gorean. They may be strong at arms here, but they were uncivilized and foolish.

For not the first time, Shinji felt homesick. He had been here only a hand, a week as they would say. He had made friends true enough, and the people had been… he hesitated to think nice, but certainly amenable. Things were so strange here though. Things did not even smell the same, and it was so noisy.

His difficulty with spoken Japanese was annoying, but the written language so vexing him was disheartening. Learning was a simple thing but language, or at least this one, did not come easy to him.

Shinji turned off the water and pushed his memories of home aside, they would do him no good. Instead he focused on the day's training, reliving the sequences in his mind while his feet carried him to his towel.

Ready, safety off, point in, finger on trigger, preeeeeessss do not squeeze, surprise break, stay on target, move, verify target is still viable, preeeeeessss…

What he wouldn't do for a proper bathhouse right now, Shinji thought.

He would dry himself then dress, and then it would be time to go home, eat more of those disgusting rations the captain lived on, and go to bed. Tomorrow he would see his friends again. Lady Rei had been asking many questions of women from his home and she seemed to understand him when he explained, to even be excited.

After his performance the day before, Captain Katsuragi had finally consented to Shinji walking to school on his own. It was a very welcome privilege. Shinji had found himself missing, of all things, the simple act of walking everywhere he went. It was not something one would think something to miss, but here he was, grateful to be free of the noise and insulation of automobiles. Walking as he was he could hear the sounds of the city waking up, he could smell the varied scents in the air. It was good.

Walking upon the sidewalk and joining with the artery of students moving towards the school reminded him of riding a tarn, which was funny enough to make him chuckle. Once a man had ridden astride the great birds with the reins in his hands, to travel any other way seemed not only low, but confining. Like it made one vulnerable.

Now a child or a woman might ride in a tarn basket, a wicker compartment slung below the great bird. One might even steer with a particular arrangement of reins which might be used from the basket. However that was not the same. These automobiles, it seemed to Shinji, were more like those tarn baskets. He wondered idly if there existed such a vehicle which could give the sense of speed and power that riding upon a tarn would.

As if to answer his thoughts, a truly awful noise echoed down the street and shook his bones. It was like the wail of some demonic beast and hurt his ears. Shinji was shocked that the children around him had not sought shelter as he looked for the source of the obnoxious sound.

It flashed by on the street, a man covered head to toe in black and straddling a mass of twisted metal with a wheel at each end. As soon as it had come it was gone and there was only the echo of its passing and the stink of fuel.

Shinji turned the corner to enter the school grounds. He did not know what that thing was called. He just knew that if anything might give him the thrill of riding the great birds on this world, that might be it. He desired it muchly.

"Oy, you!"

Shinji turned, looking about for whomever made this person yelling so angry. The one who spoke was a large young man, quite a bit broader than Shinji. He was not dressed as the students like himself, so Shinji was unsure if he was indeed one of them. Perhaps the dark clothing he wore was the uniform of a rival academy and he had come to make trouble. Such things would not be too unusual back home. Finding nobody else who appeared to understand whom was being spoken to and finding himself squarely in this man's path, he raised a hand in greeting.

"Pardon, were you speaking to me?"

"Yeah! You're the Evangelion pilot?"

"Aye." Shinji responded, bringing his school bag off his shoulder to let it hang at his side.

The brawny boy rolled up his sleeves and struck his fist into his palm. "Well then I gotta give you a whuppin'."

"Truly?"

Shinji dropped the bag.

"Is there a reason for violence between us?"

"I'll tell ya afterwards if you're still conscious."

The flood of students had ceased and parted for them now, a circle of children standing well back from the two boys.

"Is that so?" Shinji slid his right foot behind his left and lifted it to take a broad step back, bringing his body low to the ground with his arms in front of his body, elbows tucked towards his stomach and his hands flexing slowly. This was a stance suitable for wrestling when unarmed and facing a similarly unarmed opponent. "My name is Shinji, warrior of Ko-Ro-Ba. What is yours?"

"My name is… OOOOOW" He screamed and crumpled to the ground. Shinji had been so focused on his opponent that he had only caught a glimpse of the young girl before she acted, kicking up between his opponent's legs from behind and, Shinji feared, quite crushing his manhood. He had threatened violence, but no man deserved that. She wore a dark beret with her school uniform and her left arm was in a bright pink cast.

"BAKA TOJI!" She screamed, jabbing her toe into his side as he groaned on the concrete.

Shinji stood up straight. "Um, Tal?"

"Oh hi!" The young girl said, waving with her bound arm. "My name is Sakura and this idiot is my big brother Toji. He thought beating you up would make me getting my broken arm better or something. Like I said, he's an idiot."

"Why would assaulting me make your arm heal?"

"Cause I broke it when you were fighting the big ugly monster. Toji said you were the one in the giant robot."

"I am very sorry."

"It's alright. Ya wanna sign my cast?" She asked, her injured arm raised towards him. Shinji could see many marks in black ink already on the wrapping. The other students had moved on now, and there were soon no others outside save himself and the the siblings.

"Er…"

"You're from the homeworld, right?"

"Th...uh... what?"

"You're from Gor. That's what Kenny told Toji."

"Yes. I'm sorry, I did not think anybody else would know of my home as more than a work of fiction."

"Most people don't. We just say we are from Osaka."

Shinji nodded for a moment as the thought worked itself over in his head. Once it fully formed, he audibly gasped.

"You are from Gor? Truly!"

"Well, grandpa is. Papa was born here and nobody has been back since."

"I see, well met." Shinji looked at the older brother, he was starting to get up. "You know Lady Sakura, your brother meant well."

The young girl raised her foot, ready to stomp down on her brother's hand. "He was being an idiot."

Shinji held his hands up plaintively. "Yes yes, YOU can see that. You are truly a woman blessed with insight. Your brother and I though, I think we are cut of the bolt of cloth. We are warriors, and more than other men we are ruled by our passions. Do not judge him too harshly, I beg your favor."

Sakura set her foot down gently, mercifully on the ground and not on her brother's hand. The warning bell was ringing now.

"Oh, crap, gotta run." Sakura prodded Toji with her toe again. "You better not doing anything stupid, or I'm tellin' dad."

Shinji stepped closer to the young man on the ground. He wore very dark blue garments with red and white stripes decorating the sleeves. The man was clearly in great pain, but looked up at him. It was not a look of welcome.

"Ya must find this sort of funny."

"Not at all. Free women will do as they will, and to abuse and demean us is their prerogative. I do not think you deserve what she did, but I thought arguing the point might lead to further injury."

"Uuugh, yeah okay. I'll buy that."

"Is it true what she said?"

"Yeah."

"Are we at peace?"

"Bein' as I don't want to catch my little sister in a bad mood again and I think m'dad would have my ass for this if she told, yeah, we' cool."

Shinji bent down and offered his hand. Toji took the assistance and they stood together. They were of the same height, just above the average of the other students.

"I am Shinji of Ko-Ro-Ba, well met Toji of Tokyo-3. It is good to know there are other…"

"Yeah, would ya mind keepin' that quiet? I mean I appreciate you are out and all, but it wouldn't be good for my family I don't think."

"Not at all." Toji had caught his breath and both boys retrieved their book bags.

"Thanks. We should probably get going in. Ken said you are in our class too." They proceeded at a swift pace towards the school building, side by side.

"2-A, yes. Are you friend's with Kensuke as well?"

"Yeah, have been a long time."

"I have found him a good man in the short time I have known him. Is not he aware of…"

"Nope. Love him like a brother but he couldn't keep that a secret to save his life."

"Noted."

"So, giant robot pilot. How did you swing that gig?"

"A question I would love to be able to answer but unfortunately cannot. Is your sister's injury serious?"

"She'll have the cast for a few more weeks, it was a clean break."

"That is good. If I may ask, of what caste…" Toji looked at him and Shinji remembered what he had said just a moment before. "What is it your family does? Are you warriors?"

"Guess that is supposed to be a compliment comin' from you. I think grandpa did some soldiering but dad works for NERV."

"Really?"

"Yep. Have you noticed pretty much everyone in this town does?"

Shinji felt he understood Toji's motivation for choosing violence. It was on the surface about his sister Sakura, her injury and to a degree her honor. But the young gorean saw how this man looked at him. Toji was interested in finding out who he was. Not his name or his history as such, but his measure.

This Toji Suzuhara was of Gor at least in spirit, Shinji decided. He had chosen combat to judge him, to see if Shinji was the sort of person he could trust the safety of himself and his family too. Shinji just hoped he had impressed with his handling of the younger Suzuhara.

Shinji noticed another thing about Toji. It was the way he and the class representative looked at each other as she scolded him for nearly being late. She put no such words to himself either, only Toji. The class representative was Suzuhara's woman it would seem.

Rei had started reading as soon as she had returned home after school. She was only distracted by glare on the screen of her school laptop. Which was rather strange at night, she thought, until she realized it was dawn coming through her apartment window.

This was real. This place, these people, they existed.

She was hungry.

Rei rose stiff from her bed. She looked at her right arm and moved her finger, only recently freed from the bandages. The pain was still there, but no more than a dull soreness. She walked in stocking feet on the concrete floor of her studio apartment

Rei had not eaten so she would prepare food, in so far using the microwave was preparation. She had not dressed in clean clothes, or for that matter bathed either. Food for energy would be sufficient to get through the day. She could come home and sleep after classes were finished. Class was not compelling. However, she had more books on her computer now, she could read in class and if she attended she may see him again.

The machine beeped the completion of its cycle and Rei removed the paper cup, carefully peeling back the plastic top.

He was quite compelling. She would bathe before going out. Perhaps he would find that, in his odd manner of speaking, pleasing.

Her night spent reading, and the ones before, had taught her much about what he might find pleasing. These slave women, the Kajira of Gor, were lively and affectionate. They kept themselves to please their owners, their masters who they dare not anger or they would surely suffer.

Rei wished she could be so expressive, so full of joy, of inner beauty… of life. It was not a familiar thing to do, it felt unnatural to even try. It would do no good to stay here and fantasize, but as she sat down on the bed, Rei thought there was no harm in a little day dream. She set her cup of noodles aside. She could still get to school on time if she hurried after resting her eyes for a few moments.

"Kensuke, my friend, have you seen Lady Rei this day?"

"Huh? No, figured she is off on some pilot thing."

"I know nothing of it if she is."

Kensuke shrugged. "Maybe she's sick then."

It was just after second period and Shinji was concerned for his friend and comrade. Perhaps she was indeed ill, or injured.

"I will go, to confirm she is alright."

"Okay, do you know where she lives?"

"... No. I do not."

"Puts a bit of a damper on that plan, don't it?" Toji said from his desk behind Kensuke's. "I mean you could get it from the office."

"Dude, they aren't just going to give it to him."

"Sure they will. Shinji, all you gotta do is go to the front office and tell'em your class rep asked you to deliver her classwork since she will be out today."

"Toji, I feel somehow that Class Representative Hikari will not like that if it were to come to her attention."

"Dontcha worry about that, I'll handle it." Toji said, waving his hand as if the notion was an annoying insect.

"Thank you my friend." Shinji said, standing up from his seat.

"Dude, where you going?" Kensuke said.

"To the office to obtain the information, then to Lady Rei's residence."

"Okay… uh, bye."

With other kids talking to each other or doing work at their desk, nobody else seemed to notice as Shinji slipped out of the room.

"Dude, Hikari is going to be fuckin' pissed when she finds out he dropped her name."

"Oh yeah she is."

"You going to run interference for him or something?"

"Hell no."

"And to think I used to wonder why she never stopped yelling at you even after ya started dating."

Finally something sensible with these earthlings, Shinji thought as he left the school's main gate at a loping run. He had done as Toji had suggested and the administrator of the school had given him Lady Rei's address without argument or fuss. It was not far, perhaps a half of an hour at the warrior's pace.

The gorean warrior is trained for two speeds of march. The warrior's pace was the faster and the warrior's stride the slower. Alternating between the two, a group may stave off fatigue and travel ninety pasangs in a day. Alone a fit warrior could do better but that was in the lower gravity of Gor.

Shinji on the other hand was just happy to be able to stretch his legs. He ran in sprints, savoring the strain and the burning of his lungs and the wind on his face. The heavy boots he wore provided excellent grip and he took joy in throwing his weight into sharp corners such that he would have slid in even hobnailed sandals and instead stopping on a hair's breadth.

This was a joy he had not felt since coming to Earth. It was good. At home in Ko-Ro-Ba, he might have slowed for the market crowds but in the middle morning the streets here were all but empty. So he quickened his pace, pushing his legs to their limit in this higher gravity while he occupied his mind, counting time and distance of the regular city blocks to calculate speed.

Rei squealed in pain as the rough hand thrust through the tiny opening of her kennel and grabbed her by the hair, immediately pulling her out and throwing her to the stone floor. She cried out again.

"Please stop!" She pleaded. There was a time when she would have hid her pain and denied any outburst. That had been long ago and far away. Here the ability to hide anything had been taken from her, like her clothes and everything else. When she had tried to tell another captive her name, the woman had laughed at her and said she had no name, she was a slave until a master graced her with a name. Then she would be but a slave with a name.

"Silence barbarian." The owner of the rough hand, a brute of a man who towered over her. He was stripped to the waist and wore only sandals and a red kilt. The hand which had pulled her from the kennel hung open at his side, the other held a whip she had come to know too well.

"Now it is time to learn finally, after we have spent so much time helping UN-learn your foolish notions of femininity on earth." The slave master said, slapping the broad tailed whip into his open hand. "This is Gor, and you will now be taught to be a girl of Gor."

"Now , kneel."

Rei dropped to the plastic floor of her shower with deep moan that made her throat hurt for a second, the hot water running over her flushed skin. She looked up into the stream and the water over her tired and bloodshot eyes made the world a blur, all the easier to transition back into her own mindspace.

"Don't kneel like a free woman."

He kicked her knees apart then took her by the wrists, pushing her hands down palms up on her thighs.

"Like that. This is nadu, say it."

"Nadu."

"Look at that, the girl is not stupid. Now, you learn to speak. You are a slave, all men are your masters. You will address them as such."

Shinji looked up at the dull concrete and glass tower. It was in poor condition and looked of the same build as the one he had originally been sent to live in, before the captain had taken him in. The doors were unlocked and a quick scan of the entryway showed a guide indicating he needed to reach the fourth floor to find Lady Rei's apartment.

The young warrior did not even try the elevators. He was enjoying his exertion far too much and they looked poorly kept anyway. He took the steps two and three at a time, throwing himself about the turns of the stair well with a jump, hand clamped to the central railing to fling his body in line with the next flight.

The hall was filled with refuse. Some of it was in bags but much of it was simply strewn about. The air had the stink of squalor, but down the hall, Shinji could hear running water. He walked past broken and open doors without concern. What violence and vandalism had happened here was old, beneath generous dust.

It stung as Rei's shoulders slapped against the wall of her shower. It didn't bother her, it was warm pain. Good pain. Her eyes were tightly shut and and her toes struggled to regain purchase on the slick floor. Her hands were too occupied to help, one digging short nails into her breast and the other buried in the beryl blue hair between her legs.

"Oh… oh master PLEEEEEEEEEEASE…"

Water flowed into her mouth and her hair already stuck to her cheeks.

There was noise… it didn't matter, she was close, soooooo close. He had tamed her, taken here, used her for his pleasure.

"Lady Rei, are you here, are you alright?"

Red eyes flew open and fluttered against the water. It was him!

"Lady Rei… Ah there you are."

Hands away from her own body. To please herself this way would not be allowed. He stood over her, the sunlight through the windows behind him.

"I am sorry to barge in like this, but I was worried, you were not at school."

"S-s-sorry…"

"You do not look so well." He stepped closer, into the bathroom. "Did you fall?..."

"Master, please I did not mean to!"

"Master? Rei… Your eyes are red. Well more than… bloodshot, that is the word, your eyes are bloodshot. Have you slept?"

The way she turned away and cast her gaze down reminded him of a slave girl. Of course it would, she had clearly been fantasizing if she had called him master. But there was something totally alien to a slave as well.

"Lady Rei, I am concerned. Have you slept?"

She shook her head, little more than a twitch side to side. Shinji spun the control knobs, shutting off the water and collecting her towel from a nearby hook before he knelt down beside her.

"I think perhaps then we should get you to bed, yeah? I think you are having delusions."

She nodded just a little, mumbling something that sounded like "Yes'm." With his help she stood and received her towel. It was then Shinji saw what had made her look of deference so unslavelike. She did not seek to cover herself, but the way her eyes avoided his it was clear. She had of her desire what no slave could.

Shame.

"I am sorry." She said quite suddenly.

"There are no apologies between friends."

"You do not mind?"

"I was concerned for you, I came of my own choice. Why should I mind?"

"Oh… Did you know?"

"I did not, but you were not in class, and so…"

"You came to take me?"

Shinji was a smart boy, but he had been raised in a culture which tended to show favor to meatheaded idiots and so only occurred to him then that perhaps he and the Lady Rei were not speaking of the same subject.

"Well… I…"

"I have been reading and I've learned that on your world, if a woman acts a slave towards a man, he may take her as one."

Tarl Cabot has been known to exaggerate in his writings. From the greatness of his own deeds to the willingness and beauty of his partners, to the rather unique customs of Gor in regards to women and the condition of slavery. However this time, Shinji did not mind. In his mind, war horns had sounded, banners had unfurled, commands were being rushed by messengers, birds, all means available. This was a glorious opportunity, take it you fool! Strike now, that your spear may pierce the shield wall, part the flanks, and the prize be yours!

Rei had the towel wrapped about her shoulders. Her pale skin cool in the still air of the small bathroom and her eyes still cast down.

You are a man of Gor.

She gasped when he snatched the towel away and tossed it aside, then yelped as his pushed her back, lifting her from her feet as he rushed forward, pinning her body to the wall with his own.

Teenagers they were, eager and awkward. His thigh between hers, pushing her legs apart, her wrists one over the other, held by one hand above her head and the other around her throat as his lips crushed over hers. It was lust, unbridled by the wisdom of age or the strange conventions of Earth. It was a wondrous thing, beautiful, tremendously pure.

And then the sirens began to sound.

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! PROCEED TO YOUR ASSIGNED SHELTERS IMMEDIATELY. I REPEAT, PROCEED TO YOUR ASSIGNED SHELTERS. ANGEL INCOMING! ANGEL INCOMING!