Hello there everyone! It's been a while since I've updated this story sorry for the huge delay :'(. The truth is that I've had this chapter written for the most part since last year, however, I can't seem to like it too much. I uploaded it to get it out of my system and start working on the others.

I've been busy with my studies since last year too, so I can't promise you that I'll do frequent uploads, so bear with me a little bit.

I also plan to start writing more fics, some of them Eva-related but also a bit of Naruto and Black Clover which I really like. So if you're interested stay tuned!

Regarding this chapter, it's more of a filler/worldbuilding from the last chapter. It was actually longer but I decided to leave the last parts for the next chapter

Without further ado, enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 6: Sensory Overload

Misato's Apartment. Asuka's POV

I feel Shinji's breathing slowing down as he slumps on my shoulder; it seems he's out cold but still alive. However, the amount of blood he's gushing out quickly erases the small sense of relief I was feeling. As I'm trying to lift him up to carry him inside, Misato enters the living room, and as soon as she takes in me moving Shinji's unconscious form a look of shock invades her face. Her face quickly transforms from shock to horror, lifting her hands up to her mouth it looks like she's about to cry.

"Goddammit Misato get it together! He's bleeding out, come on and help me!" I yell to snap her out of the shock. She immediately gets in Commander mode and approaches me, grabbing Shinji by the maimed arm and putting it over her shoulder. As we are closing in on the kitchen, we halt as the sound of the door being opened shifts our attention to the entrance of the apartment where Ayanami is currently standing.

"What happened here?" asked Ayanami in the most worried voice I have ever heard from her as she watched Shinji leaving quite a trail of blood.

"That's not important right now, move aside we need to go to NERV" I replied. Resuming my walk towards the door, Ayanami made us stop once again.

"Wait!"

"What now Wondergirl?!"

"Look at his arm!" she said pointing at his missing forearm.

"What the hell?" said Misato looking in confusion at the point of interest, and I don't blame her. From the looks of it, Shinji's arm is growing back. First, the bone started growing from the center of his wound, followed by muscle and after the arm was completely formed, the tissue began covering the muscle. It was gross, to say the least.

"Asuka, get him inside and lay him on the floor against the kitchen counter" came Misato's voice to bring me out of my stupor of seeing his regenerative abilities. Without resisting I complied with the Commander and proceeded to lay him on the floor. When we successfully put him against the counter the hole in his torso began closing in the same manner his arm did. We saw how bone began to form on the inside, followed by organ tissue, muscle, and lastly his skin. To top it all off, there was no scarring whatsoever.

Looking at Shinji's unconscious form completely healed up gave me some sense of relief, it seemed everything would be all right. I double-checked his breathing and confirmed that he was still alive. Sighs of relief could be heard from Misato and Wondergirl.

"I'm going to take a bath; I want to get rid of all this blood as soon as possible" I voiced to my roommate and fellow pilot.

"Hold on miss, I need an explanation first. What happened to Shinji?" quickly interjected Misato and Ayanami nodded slightly to signal her interest in the topic.

"I don't really know; I just saw him blast some stranger out of the balcony with some strange power. He was already injured when I found him," I replied.

"Well, that doesn't help much, I guess we'll wait for him to wake up," said the Commander.

With that out of the way, I make haste for the bathroom and quickly lock myself inside. Shedding my clothes at light speed and running the bath, I sit in the bathtub and pull my knees to my chest and take a deep breath, followed by an even longer exhale. The adrenaline is leaving my body and I feel myself exiting the rush of the moment. Shinji almost died (or so I think) and I felt…

Terrified, horribly so.

When a normal human suffers a wound like that, you know there's not much you can do to save them, and for a moment I forgot Shinji's not human and thought he was going to bleed out in front of me. I scrub my face with my hands and remember I was crying in front of him. I hate crying, it makes me feel like I'm not strong enough to confront reality, and it's the second time already. But what I hate the most is crying in front of him, I don't want him to see me as someone weak. I'm not weak, not like him, I can face reality and have no need to keep secrets from others.

'Shinji's just a coward, just because he has been acting nice and keeping out of my hair doesn't mean I'm not angry at him anymore'

Yet there I was crying for him.

Yet I agreed with Misato that I don't want him to have a girlfriend who isn't me.

Yet I wore the blouse because he said he liked it, and it made me feel good.

Yet even though I have every right to be angry at him. I don't want to be angry anymore

"I'm pathetic"

Misato's Apartment. Shinji's POV

"It's time to wake up" Came a voice that brought my consciousness back. I wake up in what seems to be the kitchen of my home. Looking around I find that Misato and Rei are sitting in the table apparently talking about something serious. They're… glowing? An orange light is surrounding them, but it's almost unnoticeable, and I can't hear them? Now that I think about it, I can't hear anything at all. I lift my hands to touch my ears in case I lost them, but I can feel them perfectly.

"Your hearing is about to spike up, be ready" Came the strange voice again, but before I could ask who is it, I was assaulted by a multitude of sounds from all kinds of volumes. However, Misato's and Rei's voices were the most pronounced ones, it felt like they were screaming with a speaker in my ears.

"Ahh, fuck!" I screamed and grabbed my ears to keep the sound from coming. "Stop shouting please!"

"Shinji!" said Misato to my misfortune, I'm going to start bleeding from my ears soon, I think.

"Please lower your voices and give me a second" I managed to say before Rei spoke. They silently nodded in approval and helped me stand up from the floor. I start to look around better now that they're in silence, but I still can't find whoever spoke to me before.

"That's because I'm inside yourself" came the strange voice again.

"Who are you?"

"You know who I am, we've spoken before"

After he said that, I suddenly appeared in front of me, the only difference is that this version of myself had red eyes.

"Now that you completed the transition, we can communicate with each other no matter the conditions," said my reflection.

"What are you supposed to be? And where's Kaworu?" I asked.

"I'm a part of your conscience, the part belonging to the Fruit of Life. Your weird friend is still inside you, thanks to your decision earlier" he answered.

"Why can't I see him then?"

"I am sorry Shinji-kun, but I will need to recover my strength before I can materialize again. That stranger really damaged my soul" came the voice of my silver-haired friend. Well at least he's still alive, I'm glad I was able to save him before Alistair killed him.

"Shinji-kun?" came Rei's voice in a whisper. I remember I have an audience and they are waiting for an explanation of what happened. Realizing this, I pull my hands towards my stomach where I remember Alistair punched me through and found that I had already regenerated, my arm too.

'Oh right, I forgot I have a superhuman body also'

Suddenly I remember what happened just before I blacked out.

"Where's Asuka?! Is she okay?" I asked hurriedly.

"She's all right, just taking a bath to scrub all the blood she got on herself trying to lift you up and carry you all the way to here" answered Misato to which I respond with a sigh of relief.

"Shinji-kun, we need an explanation about what happened to you. Why were you so… beaten up?" prodded my sister. I proceeded to narrate all that happened after I arrived home from leaving Kaguya at her place and shared all the information I could gather around Alistair. While I was in the middle of explaining the events of tonight, Asuka joined the conversation silently and decided not to intervene in my storytelling. After I finished, we decided to stay in NERV sleeping quarters to not risk getting attacked again in our home, Rei also decided to join us and bunked together with Asuka, much to the red-haired misfortune.

Now in my room for the night, lying on top of the mattress and failing to find sleep because my senses are still in overdrive. I can clearly hear the footsteps of the night crew patrolling the halls, the electricity running through the lights and the water flowing through the pipes. Everything is just so loud I can barely hear my own thoughts.

"You realize we can never go back home, right?" came the voice of my new conscience.

"I had the feeling yes, now that they found where I live there's no telling when they'll attack" I reply.

"You should get rid of your weird friend also, he's safer outside of your body"

"You mean Kaworu? First, I can't get rid of him, he's my best friend. Second, even if I wanted to get rid of him, I don't know how"

"I'm not talking about destroying him, what I mean is you should expel him from our body"

"Again, I don't know how to do that" I replied, annoyed this time.

"When he recovers from his injuries, you're going to need an empty body to put his soul in. Once you have that, just follow my instructions and you should be able to place his soul in a new body"

"And how in the world I'm going to get a body without a soul? That's just impossible, all the Rei clones were destroyed" I fired back.

"Easy, you can create bodies from your own, whether you decide to infuse them with part of your soul or not is up to you." What?!

"I don't know why you're surprised, both Seeds could create bodies and infuse them with cores, and you happen to have both their abilities," said my counterpart. I guess he felt my surprise too.

"Okay you need to explain to me the extent of my powers, but for now I just want to stop hearing so many noises and get some sleep, how can I achieve that?"

"That's going to be a problem, because the transition wasn't completed in the right way your senses are going to be in overdrive for quite some time" Great just what I needed. I'm going to go insane like this.

After what felt like hours I could finally catch some sleep, I don't know how but the sounds that were invading my senses began to slowly recede to the background and before I knew it I found myself traveling my memories. From the moment I arrived in Tokyo-3 to pilot the Evangelion, to when I was crucified in the verge of Third Impact.

Pilot the Eva Shinji, or Rei will have to do it in your place.

Welcome home Shinij.

You won't die because I will protect you.

Asuka Langley Soryu! Charmed, huh.

This is the impenetrable Wall of Jericho!

Burying memories is man's way of surviving. But there are some things a man should never forget.

Sometimes you need a little wishful thinking just to keep on living.

You hate yourself, don't you?

The next morning. Shinji's POV

The sound of my cellphone ringing brought me out of my sleep. It was so loud it was giving me a headache, prompting me to quickly pick it up and silence the demonic device. When I saw why it was ringing my decision changed, Kaguya was calling me.

"Hello?" I said to the mobile device

"Shinji? Sorry for calling so early, did I wake you up?" came Kaguya's voice from the other side, and I grimaced at how sensitive my hearing is.

"Not at all" I lied. "I was just about to start my morning routine. What's up?"

"Something came up in my hometown so I'll be out of the city for a couple of weeks, I was just calling to let you know"

"Should I be worried?" I asked a bit concerned

"Nope, just family stuff. But it seems we won't be able to see each other for a while" she said in a saddened tone. And to be honest, I was kind of saddened by the news too.

"Well, nothing we can do about it, I guess. We can still text each other in the mean time, or I could give you a call if you don't mind" I replied

"Of course I don't mind Shinji, I hope you do call actually"

"Great! When you come back let's go out to eat something nice" I said

"That's a deal! See you soon Shinji" and with that, she closed the call.

A couple of weeks without seeing her, maybe that's for the best. With the transition I'm going through and yesterday's incident, these following days are sure to be busy and troublesome as hell. Getting up from the bed and turning the lights on, I had to cover my eyes because of how bright I was perceiving the light so I could adjust to the change at a slow pace. Grabbing a change of clothes I started listening to a conversation from the outside of my room, it looked like Ritsuko and Misato were speaking about yesterday. Deciding to get over it quickly, I headed out with the change of clothes in my left arm and before they could start talking again I lifted my right hand to stop them from speaking. Again, I see some kind of orange glow coming off of both of them.

"That's their soul you are seeing," said my other half inside my head. So this is what Rei meant when she said she can see the souls of all Lilin.

"Before you ask, please speak in a low tone, my hearing is messed up since yesterday," I said to which they nodded and proceeded to talk as I asked them to.

"Shinji, after you finish taking a bath I need you to come my office so we could debrief what happened yesterday, and after that, we're going to start your physical test" Ritsuko stated, and honestly I expected something like this.

"All right, I'll be with you shortly" I answered her.

"How are you feeling Shinji?" asked Misato, concern evident in her voice.

"I'm okay I guess, my senses are going haywire though and it's really troublesome"

"I'm glad, let me know if there's anything I can do to help you"

I gave her a nod and proceeded to walk toward the showers so I could get on with my morning routine. On the way, I came upon Toji who also was heading to the showers, which is weird because I've never seen him this early in NERV. Another weird thing that happened is that my hearing was back to normal, I hope it stays that way at least for now.

"What's up Shin-man? It's weird finding you here so early" initiated Toji.

"I was just thinking the same thing. What are you doing here so early in the morning?" I asked back.

"Well, ever since the first attack I've been exercising in NERV's facilities, just in case something suddenly pops up here. I just finished taking a bath. What about you?"

I decided to tell Toji about what happened last night, most of it at least. I prefer to keep details like me completing the transition and the effects it's having in me to myself. Excluding Kaworu, Toji's basically my best friend and I've had enough of keeping secrets.

"That would explain why the Red Devil was walking the hallways when I arrived" Asuka's awake? Why didn't Misato said anything about that?

"You feelin' okay man? I see you're not hurt, but last time you got three broken ribs even though the strike looked like crap" added on my fellow pilot.

"Yeah, just a little shaken up still, but everything's good" I answer honestly.

"Cool, if you need anything hit me up man. It's been a while since we worked out together" said Toji giving me a friendly pat on my shoulder and continued walking down the corridor.

I go back to my initial plans and head to the showers to get on with my morning, maybe after I'm finished I'll head to the cafeteria before going to Ritsuko's, I'm feeling hungry. Finishing my bath, I walk towards the cafeteria, a small part of me wishing to find Asuka sitting there so we could talk about what happened yesterday. Since I woke up last night she's been awfully quiet and dare I say avoiding me. But to my bad luck she's nowhere to be found, I do come across Toji and Hikari who are sitting enjoying their breakfast. Hikari calls me over to join them so I head there and eat breakfast together with them. Toji already filling her over what happened yesterday, the only thing she asked was where was Asuka, to which I answered that I haven't had seen her today.

"So how are things going with your girlfriend Shin-man?" asked Toji out of nowhere taking me by surprise. I noticed Hikari tensed up a little when he mentioned Kaguya.

"Kaguya? Really good, yesterday's date went quite well. However, earlier today she called to tell me that she'll be leaving for her hometown for a few weeks due to family business" I replied.

"That sucks. What about the Red Devil?"

"What about her?" I asked, uncertain about what he could mean by that.

"Are you finally moving on from her? It's about time if you ask me!" he exclaimed, which earned a slap on his arm from his fianceé, followed by a frown. "What was that for?!" protested Toji.

"You earned it" was the only thing Hikari said.

Not wanting to answer Toji's question, I used the distraction Hikari just gave me to divert the conversation to another thing that's been on my mind since I woke up.

"Hey Hikari, have you seen Asuka today? I want to talk with her"

"I crossed paths with her on my way here, supposedly she's going to speak with Dr. Akagi about something, didn't tell me what though" replied the former Class Rep with an honest smile.

"Thanks, Class Rep"

Finishing our breakfast, we bid each other goodbye and walked our respective ways. I could faintly hear how Hikari was giving Toji an earful of how "inappropriate" was for him to talk about Asuka like that in front of her, given that they were best friends. Thankfully I could avoid answering that question, I'm not good at lying when it comes to Asuka so I lucked out of embarrassing myself in front of my friends. After walking for a while, I finally reached Ritsuko's office and everyone in the room immediately looked at who caused the intrusion. All the attention suddenly made me a little uncomfortable, so I just let out a nervous laugh and scratch the back of my neck.

"We've been waiting for you Shinji" said the Commander

"How are you feeling Shinji-kun?" added my sister, concern laced in her voice. Or at least the small amount of emotion she could muster to insert into her voice.

"My hearing's fine now, so I'm better than before" I replied and walked towards the only empty chair in the office which happened to be beside Rei.

Ritsuko was busy typing something in her computer while both Misato and Rei keep looking at me as if trying to decipher if I was lying or not. Asuka was sitting down with her arms crossed and her right leg on top of her left one, facing ahead to Ritsuko. Is she ignoring me? As soon as Ritsuko finished typing away, she turned towards me and told me to recount what had happened yesterday with as much detail as I could remember.

"So, things just got worse" said the Doctor after pondering all the information I just relayed.

"First, they have a superhuman who –we should assume– is capable of flying and has enough strength and speed to sever Shinji's arm without giving him time to react" she continued. "Second, it appears they can track you Shinji, so anyone who's around you, is in danger of getting caught in the crossfire of another attack" that's actually a solid deduction, a little sad though.

"Third you already com-"

"Why are your eyes glowing?" interrupted Asuka, staring at my face with a frown in hers. Being under her gaze like that unsettles me a bit. This was followed by everyone shifting their attention from Ritsuko to my eyes, which only made things worse.

"Wh-What?"

"Your eyes, they are glowing now" said Misato, and quickly fetched for a small mirror inside her purse and handed it to me. And true to what they said, my eyes were glowing. My pupil was now surrounded by a white light, like a shining star in the middle of a deep blue ocean, sparkling lively. I might be looking too much into it right now, but for some reason I can't help picturing the similarities between my eyes and Kaguya's. A feeling of dread started to build in my stomach about what that might imply, but I decided to let it go for now, I must be overthinking things.

"I… don't know" I replied. "Could you all please stop staring? It's unnerving"

"We can dwell on what that means later, first we need to start testing Shinji's capabilities so we have more information about what he can do, and about the possible abilities these aliens might have." Interrupted Ritsuko.

We all nodded and began walking to the outside testing grounds, the doctor wanted to start by testing my athletic abilities; how fast I could run, jump and the like, with a MAGI computer monitoring my every move so nothing goes unnoticed. For the running test, I'm pretty sure I reached a supersonic speed level as I felt the sound barrier breaking around my body. For the jumping I'm not sure, I just now that I reached some clouds without using my flight. After I landed and accidentally made a small crater by not slowing down my fall, I started feeling weird all over again. I could only hear my breathing and beating heart, everything else was muted. I can see Ritsuko in the distance signaling me to answer. I had to walk over to her and tell her I can't listen to anything. After understanding my response, she quickly pulled out a white paper and wrote on it, saying that we were done with testing for today.

Everyone started to leave the training grounds, however, I decided to take a seat in the ground to catch my breath for a moment. I close my eyes for a bit, focused on calming my breathing and trying to hear something else besides my own heartbeat. I felt a nudge on my forehead and opened my eyes to see Asuka offering me a bento box. Surprised by her gesture, I took the box from her hands and at that moment I recovered from my sensory overload, suddenly I could listen to the sound of my surroundings, Asuka's barely noticeable fast breathing, and the faint, faraway sounds of the Geofront functioning.

"You cooked me lunch?" I asked her, surprise evident in my voice.

"If you can call that lunch. For being a multi-million company NERV's kitchen sure is undersupplied" she answered with a huff, earning a short laugh from me.

"Well, I appreciate the gesture so thank you Asuka"

"Whatever, you defended our house from that freak, so it was the least I could do for you"

We started to eat together side by side in comfortable silence, by some reason I couldn't stop the small smile from adorning my face. Lunch is by no means a big deal but thinking that Asuka took the time out of this hectic day to prepare a meal for me filled me with happiness. After a while, Asuka broke the silence.

"Maya mentioned the other day, but your hair is really long now" she mentioned while pointing at a few strands that covered my face with her chopsticks.

"You think? I guess I'm used to it by now so I barely notice it" I replied back.

"It reminds me of Kaji when you put it in a ponytail to be honest"

"I'm…"

"I don't mean it as a bad thing. So don't even think of apologizing Third" she reprimanded me, correctly assuming what I was about to say. After a moment of silence, I dared to ask her a question.

"Do you like it long?" I questioned.

"What?"

"My hair. Do you prefer it long or short?" I clarified.

"Why does that matter?"

"It doesn't. I was just curious" I pulled back, suddenly self-conscious of what I was asking.

"…"

"…"

"I could cut it up for you, if you want" she broke the awkward silence and caught me by surprise with her statement. "I do my hair all the time, I don't trust someone with scissors so close to my beautiful hair, so I just maintain it myself" she added, maybe so it doesn't sound so weird what she just said before.

Briefly, the image of Asuka cutting my hair in front of my room's mirror and passing her hands through my hair flashed in my mind, and a warm feeling spread through my chest. Maybe it's not a bad idea to change my hairstyle right now, no?

"I guess you could" I replied.

"Well, I'll swing by your room later in the evening then to do it"

"I'll be waiting"

Definitely not a bad idea, right?

Author's Note

That's the end of chapter 6! As we could see, this one focused more on the initial struggle Shinji's facing after completely unlocking his power and Asuka coming to terms with her desires regarding Shinji.

As always, thanks to everyone who reads my story. I never thought to have so many people reading and leaving such helpful reviews in my first work. That said, I apologize again for the wait and promise to deliver the next chapter as fast as I can, and with the best quality :)

Lastly, don't forget to stay tuned if you are interested in other stories, I already uploaded one in the Naruto Universe. I plan to have it be a short story, maybe 5 chapters long.

See you on the next chapter!