White. The whole world was white. It took about five minutes for his sight to register anything but white. As he waited for his sight to clear he tried to remember what happened after he entered the Evangelion. The only image that came was a rain of blood. Okay, forget last night. If I'm here I must have won, so now we check out and find a payphone. As the world became more defined Shinji sat up in the bed and looked around. White walls, white ceiling, white floor. Sheets, bed, nightstand, chair all white. The only thing beside himself that wasn't white, were his pants and coat on the other side of the room. No IV, not dizzy. I'm getting some clothes on. Stupid hospital gowns. Noting his weapon, extra magazine, and five dollars missing Shinji put on his coat and stepped out the door. He was promptly run over by a gurney. It was about then that Shinji began to dislike hospitals.
"Hey kid watch out. You need to be careful around here." Before Shinji could reply the orderly took the empty gurney and continued on his way. As he fought the urge to throw the short, fat man out the window, Shinji started down the hall. He constantly scanned the walls for signs or markers to guide him out, and was doing fairly well. He turned a corner and found his path blocked by a blue haired girl in a wheelchair. They both stared at each other for a moment. She's the girl from the dreams. She spoke in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "Please move." He stepped out of her way and watched as she was wheeled away by a nurse. A hint of vanilla lingered in the air.
"Shinji Ikari, meet Rei Ayanami, Fist Child. Pilot of unit-00."
"Is she always that friendly?"
"Actually, that's the first time I've heard her use the word please."
"Wow. Oh! Captain, do you have a moment?" Shinji asked as they began to leave the hospital.
"Only if you start calling me Misato off duty."
"Deal. I don't have a place to stay around here, would Nerv be willing to set me up with something?"
"Actually, HQ has arranged private quarters for you. Although I warn you, the buildings are on the verge of being condemned. Practically everyone just went and got their own place."
"As long as the room has a ceiling and walls I can improvise the rest."
"You know if you want, you could submit a petition and live with your father."
"No."
"It's not right for a boy your age to live alone."
"It's not right to have children in combat, but it happens. I'll be fine. It'll be nice to have privacy for a change. By the way some of my things are missing."
"We put your weapon in the armory, is that all your missing?"
"Nothing of consequence."
Misato's car looked like it had been in a three weeklong hailstorm. It only took about five minutes of coaxing before the two were on the road. They drove on in silence, mostly. When he was informed that Misato's car stereo didn't work, he took one look at it, and then began rummaging through his bag. "What are you doing?" Misato asked. Shinji didn't reply until he had pulled out some wires, his SDAT, and two small speakers. "This," was all he said as he hooked everything together. When music began to come from her speakers, Misato decided to show him one of her favorite places around town.
! Gold rained down from the sky. At first the city seemed quiet, asleep almost, a picturesque sleepy, seaside town. Then the buildings began to grow. In a feet of engineering that should be called magic, building after building rose from the ground. To even breathe during this moment seemed blasphemous. It was all Shinji could do was stare in awe and not fall over the railing. Misato grinned at the look of pure joy on the young boy's face. As the city woke and became the bustling metropolis that it truly was, Shinji's reverie was ended. The pair then headed back to the car and began the drive to Nerv housing.
"Shinji, I've been meaning to ask you. How did you get involved in Mithril?"
"I was recruited by Andrei Serenovitch Kalinin."
"The Andrei Serenovitch Kalinin! I attended one of his lectures in college. He's a tactical genius. How did you meet him?"
"When my mother died, I was sent to a military academy. I didn't fit in very well and just tried to keep my head down. 'The nail that sticks up gets hammered down' was my philosophy at the time. One day Kalinin showed up to review the schools records. Turned out he was one of the founders."
"I've heard of that school, it's off the coast of Brazil. It was founded after the Behemoth incident."
"Right. I had gotten lucky in a few of the exercises. Myself and a few other cadets were taken on a real world mission as a final test. I was the only one that passed. After that I was placed under Kurz Webber for initial AS training. That's my career in a nutshell."
"So much for the low profile, huh?"
"Couldn't be helped, it had to happen sometime."
"What do you mean?"
"The things you hide from have a nasty habit of finding you."
All things considered the apartment wasn't that bad. Sure the bathroom was cramped with the toilet butted up against the shower stall, and the kitchen doubled as the entryway. Also the only furnishings were a twin bed, nightstand, desk and chair. On the plus side, the main room was about the same size as most living rooms. As far as dorms, military or civilian go it was actually very large. The gray walls could be painted or covered with posters. The heat, ac, water, electricity, and gas all worked. Not to mention there were free phone and internet access plugs. Not bad at all Shinji thought as he sat outside of his new home, having just returned from the twenty four hour everything store for supplies. He already began to personalize the place by adding a wooden box and straight-backed chair that he found. Leaning back in his chair, he kicked his feet onto the railing and watched the sunset while enjoying iced tea and the evening breeze. With the work crews gone and the concrete dust settled, everything was quite pleasant. At that moment, with his shaggy hair and lanky body, he seemed to be a cross between a gunslinger, Ichabod Crane, and that guy in the back of the classroom that's always asleep. A smooth blues tune came on Shinji's SDAT stereo as a figure approached from his left. Startled, Shinji nearly fell on his face trying to stand. A bit rattled he began to speak, "Oh, good evening Miss Ayanami. I'm Shinji, Shinji Ikari." "What are you doing here?" She asked ignoring the greeting. Slowly he replied, "I live here. At least for now." Her curiosity stated, Rei walked past Shinji and began to enter the apartment next door.
"Hey Ayanami?"
She just turned head towards him.
"I, uh, ordered a pizza. Would, would you like to join me?"
"Why?"
"Why not?"
Rei just continued into her room. Shinji sat down slightly deflated, waiting for his dinner to arrive. When his pizza finally came he turned to find Rei setting up a folding chair on the other side of his box/table. As the night wore on, Shinji found that Rei's only exposure to music, was classical. Rei found out that meat is your friend, and that although it sounds funny, shrimp and pineapple pizza is delicious.
"Hey kid watch out. You need to be careful around here." Before Shinji could reply the orderly took the empty gurney and continued on his way. As he fought the urge to throw the short, fat man out the window, Shinji started down the hall. He constantly scanned the walls for signs or markers to guide him out, and was doing fairly well. He turned a corner and found his path blocked by a blue haired girl in a wheelchair. They both stared at each other for a moment. She's the girl from the dreams. She spoke in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "Please move." He stepped out of her way and watched as she was wheeled away by a nurse. A hint of vanilla lingered in the air.
"Shinji Ikari, meet Rei Ayanami, Fist Child. Pilot of unit-00."
"Is she always that friendly?"
"Actually, that's the first time I've heard her use the word please."
"Wow. Oh! Captain, do you have a moment?" Shinji asked as they began to leave the hospital.
"Only if you start calling me Misato off duty."
"Deal. I don't have a place to stay around here, would Nerv be willing to set me up with something?"
"Actually, HQ has arranged private quarters for you. Although I warn you, the buildings are on the verge of being condemned. Practically everyone just went and got their own place."
"As long as the room has a ceiling and walls I can improvise the rest."
"You know if you want, you could submit a petition and live with your father."
"No."
"It's not right for a boy your age to live alone."
"It's not right to have children in combat, but it happens. I'll be fine. It'll be nice to have privacy for a change. By the way some of my things are missing."
"We put your weapon in the armory, is that all your missing?"
"Nothing of consequence."
Misato's car looked like it had been in a three weeklong hailstorm. It only took about five minutes of coaxing before the two were on the road. They drove on in silence, mostly. When he was informed that Misato's car stereo didn't work, he took one look at it, and then began rummaging through his bag. "What are you doing?" Misato asked. Shinji didn't reply until he had pulled out some wires, his SDAT, and two small speakers. "This," was all he said as he hooked everything together. When music began to come from her speakers, Misato decided to show him one of her favorite places around town.
! Gold rained down from the sky. At first the city seemed quiet, asleep almost, a picturesque sleepy, seaside town. Then the buildings began to grow. In a feet of engineering that should be called magic, building after building rose from the ground. To even breathe during this moment seemed blasphemous. It was all Shinji could do was stare in awe and not fall over the railing. Misato grinned at the look of pure joy on the young boy's face. As the city woke and became the bustling metropolis that it truly was, Shinji's reverie was ended. The pair then headed back to the car and began the drive to Nerv housing.
"Shinji, I've been meaning to ask you. How did you get involved in Mithril?"
"I was recruited by Andrei Serenovitch Kalinin."
"The Andrei Serenovitch Kalinin! I attended one of his lectures in college. He's a tactical genius. How did you meet him?"
"When my mother died, I was sent to a military academy. I didn't fit in very well and just tried to keep my head down. 'The nail that sticks up gets hammered down' was my philosophy at the time. One day Kalinin showed up to review the schools records. Turned out he was one of the founders."
"I've heard of that school, it's off the coast of Brazil. It was founded after the Behemoth incident."
"Right. I had gotten lucky in a few of the exercises. Myself and a few other cadets were taken on a real world mission as a final test. I was the only one that passed. After that I was placed under Kurz Webber for initial AS training. That's my career in a nutshell."
"So much for the low profile, huh?"
"Couldn't be helped, it had to happen sometime."
"What do you mean?"
"The things you hide from have a nasty habit of finding you."
All things considered the apartment wasn't that bad. Sure the bathroom was cramped with the toilet butted up against the shower stall, and the kitchen doubled as the entryway. Also the only furnishings were a twin bed, nightstand, desk and chair. On the plus side, the main room was about the same size as most living rooms. As far as dorms, military or civilian go it was actually very large. The gray walls could be painted or covered with posters. The heat, ac, water, electricity, and gas all worked. Not to mention there were free phone and internet access plugs. Not bad at all Shinji thought as he sat outside of his new home, having just returned from the twenty four hour everything store for supplies. He already began to personalize the place by adding a wooden box and straight-backed chair that he found. Leaning back in his chair, he kicked his feet onto the railing and watched the sunset while enjoying iced tea and the evening breeze. With the work crews gone and the concrete dust settled, everything was quite pleasant. At that moment, with his shaggy hair and lanky body, he seemed to be a cross between a gunslinger, Ichabod Crane, and that guy in the back of the classroom that's always asleep. A smooth blues tune came on Shinji's SDAT stereo as a figure approached from his left. Startled, Shinji nearly fell on his face trying to stand. A bit rattled he began to speak, "Oh, good evening Miss Ayanami. I'm Shinji, Shinji Ikari." "What are you doing here?" She asked ignoring the greeting. Slowly he replied, "I live here. At least for now." Her curiosity stated, Rei walked past Shinji and began to enter the apartment next door.
"Hey Ayanami?"
She just turned head towards him.
"I, uh, ordered a pizza. Would, would you like to join me?"
"Why?"
"Why not?"
Rei just continued into her room. Shinji sat down slightly deflated, waiting for his dinner to arrive. When his pizza finally came he turned to find Rei setting up a folding chair on the other side of his box/table. As the night wore on, Shinji found that Rei's only exposure to music, was classical. Rei found out that meat is your friend, and that although it sounds funny, shrimp and pineapple pizza is delicious.
