I have fixed and changed this chapter some so that it reads a whole lot better. I am working on the next chapter so I'll see when I can post it. But if anyone is interested I have a Buzzword account. So give me a buzz and I'll let you get a preview of it.
Hearns
Part 10, Deep Dark Secrets
Rei quickly ran away from Asuka as she approached the doorway of the bathroom. She needed to be alone. Heading to the room she had she closed the door and sat down on the Bed Roll. Yui was experiencing her memories, the memories of her First Death. Rei reached down and pulled the thick cover around her small body. She could still feel the fingers of the senior Doctor Akagi around her throat. Rei didn't want to remember events like that... But they were coming at her. Images of winding up naked in the LCL tank with her other clones still made her afraid. She could feel her consciousness being downloaded into a new body again and again... Going from innocent, not having a care for your existence, happily floating in that tank of LCL naked, left her desiring to be back there. No memories, no existence, just being happy floating in a sea of nothingness with your mind blank of all thoughts of doing anything greater in your existence. Rei didn't want to feel the fabric of the human garments around her body that reminded her of her bound physical existence to this world. Rei reached down and under the covers just pulled her nightshirt off... She could feel the coarse fabric rub against her naked skin as she heaved it off her body perfect body and wanting to feel the naked pleasure of LCL over her.
Asuka was right she was a doll, a living doll for a group of sick men whose thought was about being in control of the next phase of human evolution. As much as Rei wanted to return to nothingness, something inside of her wanted to stay. She tried to run from it in her mind, but it kept breaking through. Maybe it was some remote fragment of Yui Ikari snaking through. The more she ran from it the quicker it found her.
Regressing into tears, Rei started Crying. A strange human emotion, but she felt defeat of not being happy. She had nothing in her short existence to show for her life... She was a half-breed creature that was meant to bring about death. That was when a figure opened the door. It was Asuka standing there naked.
Asuka had spent the last ten minutes trying to calm down Yui, but only scared the girl more. It took her a moment to think about this girl and what her life had been like. She was an Angel and the Angel had appeared. The thought hit her right between her eyes.
The Angels had appeared on the Beach, Naked. Quickly Asuka moved away and started to peel off her shirt and shorts, along with her underwear, tossing them into a corner that was the farthest away from young Yui before she slowly started to approach the girl. Fighting the urge to cover up her body with her hands Asuka took one-step, then another as she inched her way forward. This felt worse than the time that she Rei and Shinji had to do that Sync test in the nude. But right now, she was more concerned about calming down young Yui. After the five longest steps she had taken in her life Asuka knelt down next to Yui and sat down by the girl.
"Yui. See, I'm like you. I won't hurt you." Asuka said as she slowly reached a hand out to the scared little girl. It took Yui a long time to stop crying and reach out and touch Asuka's hand.
"I... I don't want to be covered up. Too scared of the monsters that might get into my skin from being covered up." Yui said as she let the stream of tears pour from her eyes.
"Yui... listen I won't let you do anything that you are not comfortable with." Asuka said as she started to feel a little strange from the air touching her naked flesh. "If you want to be naked, it's okay with me." Asuka said turning to the young girl as she started to grin. Yui's tears had slowed down some as she reached out and hugged Asuka around the neck.
"No clothes?" Yui said as she pulled away from Asuka to look her in her eyes.
"No clothes, but I will have to cover you with a blanket when you go to bed." Asuka said as she saw the fear return to the girl's eyes. "But when you get scared, you can pull the blanket off and be naked again." Asuka said reassuring the young child. This was like giving a young kid a flashlight to chase away the boogieman underneath their bed. However, in this girl's case it was a monster that got into your skin when you wore clothes or were covered up. The fear was essentially the same.
"Really?" Yui said looking Asuka in the eyes with more confidence. That was when Asuka got the idea that Yui might feel safer having someone in the room with her, just like her mom had done in her youth to chase away the monsters. That was before the accident with Unit Two.
"How about I bunk in your room tonight, so that I can fight off the monsters if they come?" Asuka asked as she watched as Yui hug her like crazy.
"You really will?" Yui said as clutched onto Asuka's naked flesh as if it was going to dissolve away.
"Yes, I will." Asuka answered as she got up and arched her legs so that she could pick the young child up without straining her back.
"Now it's off to bed for you Yui." Asuka said as she walked with the girl in her arms down the hallway to Yui's bedroom. Once there Asuka unrolled the sleeping mat after making a thorough check for "Flesh Monsters" and got young Yui into the sleeping covers.
"Now listen, I'll be back in just a second to get my bed roll and we can sleep safe and sound." Asuka said with a grin. "How about that Churby..." Asuka said grinning as she tickled Yui's forehead with her nose.
"Okay..." Yui said as she sat with the covers around her waist. "Hurry back quickly Asuka..." Yui said as she watched Asuka head through the sliding door. Once clear of the door Asuka leaned against the wall. Good God how did Rei do this? Quickly Asuka decided to hurry back to the bathroom to grab a towel and cover herself in it so that she could run to her and Shinji's room, grab her roll and head on back to Yui's room. That was when she heard crying. After taking a few steps, she realized that it was coming from Rei's room. Forgetting that she was nude Asuka entered the room to find very distraught living doll.
Yui was getting Nervous as she sat in her room waiting for Asuka to return. She said that she would be back to sleep in her room with her, Yui pulled the blanket around her body. Could the monsters get through her AT field? That thought was working its way into her mind. No... She needed to be brave like Asuka. Fearless. Could the monsters have gotten her??? Yui needed to find out. Slowly getting up out of her bed, she pulled the blanket over her head like a cloak and started to sneak her way out of her room. Going down the hallway some, she heard Asuka's voice as she was speaking with someone. After a few steps she could somewhat make out the voice of the person she was speaking to.
It was Rei.
"Rei, wait what do you mean that Yui was having one of your memories?" Asuka said as she answered an unheard question.
"I am a clone." Rei said as she spoke between going into her whisper voice and to an untold normal tone. "I am the third; she has been remembering my first death." There was a long pause...
"Your first death?" Asuka questioned a bit concerned.
"I was created; I was enjoying many of the simple pleasures of the world like Yui is... But one day I heard Commander Ikari say I do not need that Old Hag Naoko Akagi." There was a pause... "He laughed, he thought it was funny. Since he was an adult, it may have been a type of Joke only Adults told." Rei said as she went cold but Yui could tell that Rei was scared just by Asuka not replying back quickly. "I had not been around that many humans before so at that moment I decided to tell Doctor Akagi that Commander had called her an Old Hag... that she wasn't needed anymore." There was a long pause... "I thought that she was going to be happy and laugh the way that Commander Ikari did when he said it..." That was when Rei started Crying again, "I kept saying it to make her happy. But, she called me a little bitch and proceeded to place her hands around my neck... squeezing as she called me a little bitch... my lungs were burning... I wanted to make her happy and she was hurting me... she was strangling me so tight that I could feel her thumbs pressing down on the middle of my throat... then the last thing I heard was a crunch sound as things started to go black." Rei was quiet for a long time. Asuka was stunned. Yui just stood there... It was her vision in graphic detail. This was a memory of Rei's...
"I was dead... Then I awoke in a floating body... I think it was happy before my consciousness was inserted..." Rei started to shake again... "Memory upload from Central Dogma complete... Dummy Plug ready for operation..."
"When I saw all the other me's floating in the tank, I knew that I could not die, I was just a copy; I could be replaced at any time." Rei pulled her legs in front of her naked chest. "I didn't feel the same, I wanted to scream, but I couldn't remember how to. I just lay there, naked, as Commander Ikari treated me and brought my mind and body up to speed." Asuka slowly reached over and caressed Rei's shoulder. "The emotions felt so... Strange... I wanted them out but my body wouldn't listen. All that was there was logic."
"Rei, I didn't know..." Asuka said looking at a very humanized Rei. After taking some time, Asuka leaned over and hugged Rei letting the moments flow between them as a common ground was established between them. "Rei..." Asuka said biting her lip, "I went through some serious trauma too." Asuka leaned against Rei's side letting her naked flesh touch her's.
"Pilot Soryu..." Rei said as she stayed still.
"Call me Asuka..." Asuka said touching Rei's cheek.
"Asuka..." Rei said the word as if it was alien. Then Yui felt the wood of the floor creak under her weight. At that moment Asuka and Rei looked right at her.
Asuka sat there for a long moment as she held Rei in her arms. It was a strange feeling all the things that she had called this white skin blue haired girl made her feel lower that mossy slimy sludge that coated the bottom of rocks. Rei had been killed and the person in her arms was... was a copy. A clone. An individual who deserved more in life than she had gotten. Asuka felt sick to her stomach as she held this defenseless creature who like Yui needed help. Asuka tried to force the images of how her mother died out of her mind, but kept seeing herself hang next to her mother... the burn of the rope around her throat as it dug into her flesh. But in Rei's case it was to very human hands that had done the squeezing around her throat. Asuka bit her lip as she thought about being a witness to your own murder. It scared her as she felt Rei's hands snake behind her back. She needed to say something to Rei, something to tell her that she wasn't alone in feeling pain...
"I went through some serious trauma too." She said as she leaned against Rei's side to distribute some of her weight against Rei's body. She could feel the curve of Rei's naked breast against her flesh as she could feel Rei's sweat slide across her skin.
"Pilot Soryu..." Rei said as she stayed still in Asuka's arms as she pulled back to look Rei in the eye.
"Call me Asuka..." as Asuka she reached up with one hand and touched Rei's check as she saw a tear start to form in one of Rei's eyes as Asuka slowly stroked her face with her thumb.
"Asuka..." Rei said her name as if it was an Alien word. But it was the most normal she had seen Rei. Correction this Rei. Rei Ikari in her life. Then there was a creak from the floor outside. Turning around she saw Yui standing in the doorway naked holding her blanket. The fear in the child's eyes screamed that she had heard their entire conversation as she ran off.
"Yui..." Asuka called out as she attempted to stand, but fell over on top of Rei. "... wait..." the words stuck to the air like Peanut butter slapped against the ceiling.
"Pil... Asuka..." Rei said as Asuka realized that Asuka's hands had landed on top of both of Rei's breasts...
"Shit. Sorry about that Rei." Asuka apologized as she slid off and pulled Rei up with her. "Listen... we need to speak with Yui." Rei turned towards her.
"Why?" that single word from Rei just stuck like a dead weight.
"Rei... Shit. Listen she is having nightmares from your previous version and you might hold the answers to help her out." Asuka said as she grabbed Rei by the hand and ran down the hallway towards Yui's room. When they got down there Asuka saw Yui sitting on the floor with the blanket wrapped around her like a shield. The sent of urine and fear stuck in the air.
"Yui." Asuka spoke in an attempt to calm the girl down. "I know that you are scared but..." she didn't get the chance to finish her sentence.
"I have her death in my mind." Yui said shaking. "I don't want to be like her. I don't want to be floating in a tank."
"Yui. Rei has the same problem." Asuka moved forward as she reached out and felt a faint AT barrier. "She doesn't want to be this way either." Asuka sat on the floor and reached through the field. "The same things that scare you, scare her. Heck. If you are what she was like before the pain, then maybe you can help her." Asuka waited before she motioned for Rei to come in.
"Rei." Asuka extended her hand out and had Rei kneel down on the floor next to Yui. "If your life had been different, you could have been able to understand emotions. Have friends galore. Hell I would have even become your friend and we would have had boys hanging out with us." Asuka let things play out. "Yui..." Asuka paused for dramatic effect. "You are like a kid sister to Rei here, I like you. Now how about we teach your sister how to have some fun. In exchange we will all fight the monsters together." Asuka held her hand out waiting for the two girls to place her hands on top of her's.
"Asuka..." Yui spoke looking at Rei. "I can handle that." But a moment later the girl was shivering. "I don't want to be alone." Asuka understood.
"How about we all have a slumber part in Rei's room tonight?" Asuka said placing her hand on top of Yui's.
"What's a slumber party?" Yui and Rei said at the same time. For that moment it hit Asuka that these two had no cultural reference about what a Slumber party was.
"Okay..." Asuka looked at the two girls. "Basically, it's where a group of girls get together in a room, share stories, play games, have fun and go to bed together." The looks on the two girls was of blankness. "I used to be the master of these while growing up you two. So even the most stuck up girl at the party had fun." Asuka reached over and grinned. "We can fight the monsters off together Yui and Rei..." Asuka paused. "I'll tell you some about what I like to do for fun."
"Fun, like swimming, reading, being gorgeous." Rei spoke attempting to tap into what she knew of the concept.
"And..." Asuka paused for dramatic effect. "Talking about boys, and ways to get them to like you."
"As in acquiring a mate for procreation?" Rei said in her usual bluntness. Asuka would need to add tack to the list of things for this girl to learn.
"That could be one way to put it." Asuka said as she realized that she might be having the Sex talk with Rei before the night was over with.
"I will come." Rei said as Asuka didn't want to read too deep into Rei's words.
"Okay..." Asuka said getting up and offering her hand out. "Today we are official the... What would be a good name for our little cadre here?"
"Three Naked Females in a Room." Rei said with the obvious.
"Well that sure would keep the problem of having Shinji walk in on us." Asuka smirked. "Well off to Rei's room." Asuka said as she moved over to pick up the set of soiled linen off of the floor as Yui moved with Rei.
"Rei... Do you have any extra bedding?" Asuka waited for the response.
"I do." Rei said as she moved an ease that made Asuka wonder if that girl had been raised in a nudist camp.
"Okay... I'll join you with Yui's bedding." With that Asuka clumped up the roll of Yui's bedding and ran to the door and kept up with Rei and Yui until they were inside of Rei's room. For the next few minutes, the three of them prepped the room for their sleep over as they made an island of bedrolls and they all sat down. Asuka for a good part of that night didn't realize she was naked, but during that time she learned more about Rei than she had in the past few months. Rei loved swimming, Math, Poetry and reading. Since she didn't have any connection to the world her sense of fashion was non-existent. Yui loved the smell of vegetables, the color pink, playing with her toy ball, and watching clouds... Asuka started to tell about the thing she liked such as scuba diving, which got a lot of interest out of Rei, but it was the fact that after swearing in German for a bit that she and Rei both liked boys on some level. In Rei's case she didn't know how to approach them. As the night went on and it was time for bed. Asuka and Rei did the mandatory monster sweep for Yui's sake before they all bedded down. Given that Asuka didn't want to make it feel like she was trying to put off Yui or Rei given how fragile they were Asuka got stuck being the middle of the girl sandwich.
Halfway through the night when Asuka woke up she felt Rei's arm covering her stomach as she slept on her side snuggled against Asuka's shoulder. And little Yui sleeping soundly on her chest with a bit of drool running out of the side of the girl's mouth. Asuka just grinned. This was the most normal she had felt in months since coming to Japan. Maybe it was time for her to have some of her childhood back too.
Toji looked at the girls before him. It wasn't the fact that he wasn't alone, but whatever happened had filled the sea with LCL. One of the girls, Rachel looked like hell, but he was glad they weren't alone. Then Hikari's older sister Kodoma came up to him and gave him a hug. She was glad that he was alive too; Hikari had told her that he had been an EVA pilot but at least they had a heads up on some of what had happened. All Toji knew was that he and the other EVA pilots were supposed to stop Third Impact, but since it had happened well there should have been at least a plan "B."
"Toji." Kodama said as she moved with him on the heavily shelly beach they were on. "Listen I know that you were in basic training, but what were you supposed to do after Third Impact occurred." Kodama's words started to sink in.
"I don't know, I guess that the main part of the job I had was to prevent it. I guess that the lab geeks back at NERV were supposed to hatch up a way to deal with the mess." Toji spoke with regret as he noticed something off in the distance.
"Hey... what's that?" Toji called out as he started to squint his eyes in a vain attempt to make out what he was seeing. It looked Red, Had white stripes along the sides and a green. "Shit..." Toji took off running down the beach in a flat out sprinter's pace.
"What is it?" Raven called out in her broken Japanese. But Toji was a good distance away from her and Kodama before they realized that whatever it was they would have to get there too. With that the two girls quietly decided to start off in a soft jog to catch up with Toji.
After several moments Toji was close enough to see what he suspected the red object to be. It was Unit Two. Quickly moving as the best he could around the strewn wreckage he saw the head and torso of Unit Two. Unit Two looked like it had been through hell and back.
"Asuka..." Toji called out as he rushed up a section of undamaged EVA armor. After working his way around to where the spinal area was for the Entry Plug and saw that the plug was semi-ejected. After taking a moment to see that the hatch had been manually opened. The strong smell of undiluted LCL flooded his nose as he turned away to take in a breath. Slowly getting in he looked around the dummy plug as he sat in the cockpit and accessed the controls. It took a moment for the back up battery to kick in, but he was able to play back some of the battle images and Asuka's voice.
"Die... die... DIE..." Asuka sounded strung out, over powered, full of pure aggression. That was when he saw her opponents. Eva's... she was fighting Eva's. The extra large mouths and eyeless heads gave him the creeps. That was when the system screamed damage, damage, as on the screen sensory information of what limbs were being torn off made Toji's blood run cold. Then the system went dark., as sporadic images deployed through the system as Unit two's battle power ran out, but from the readings Asuka had achieved a sync ratio equivalent to Shinji's Berserker mode. Hell this was Asuka's Berserker mode. Then as the system slowly started to shutdown to life-support mode as the readings started to be displayed on the screen. The computer screamed the words on the display...
THIRD IMPACT...
THIRD IMPACT...
THIRD IMPACT...
That was when Toji blinked a few times...
"It's happened..." Toji said as Rachel stuck her head through the hatch...
"What happened???" Rachel spoke in broken Japanese.
"Third Impact." Toji said as he felt like he wanted to throw up. Then he realized as he looked at his arm that this pod had been opened from the outside. Realizing that Asuka was still alive and maybe Shinji and Rei. He ran through the diagnostics to see if he could access the logs of when the plug was inserted. After several long moments an internal view of the cockpit was shown. The time stamp screamed the current time and the log time. Three maybe four weeks... then the hatch was popped. Asuka looked like hell; it looked like she took it as much as she dished it out on those... Angel EVA units... Then through the hatch was... Shinji...
"Easy there Asuka..." Shinji spoke as he moved into the cockpit. Sitting on the control hump Shinji activated the release attachments to the plug suit and pulled Asuka up and out. Asuka screamed from a clearly broken arm before she passed out in pain.
"Shit... Stay with me Asuka..." Shinji called out as he rushed outside. After several moments Shinji returned and tied and splinted Asuka's arm and bandaged her eye before he started to move her again.
"Their alive..." Toji spoke aloud as Rachel moved in and sat in the pod with him.
"They are your friends, right???" Rachel said as her broken Japanese started to improve. Toji nodded. "If they are still alive, then that means that there might be other people."
"Toji..." Kodoma called out from outside, Toji and Rachel pulled out of the pod to see Kodoma pointing towards a grave marker.
"I don't think one of your friends made it." One look at the cross told him that the person that hadn't made it had been Misato.
"Kodoma... I think there were three survivors. But I know whose grave that is..." Toji's voice nearly cracked under the weight of his own words. "I think Asuka and Shinji made it, I'm trying to see where they went after they were here." Toji leaned back to the console and called up data logs to see if there were any satellites in orbit that he could pick up an AT Field with. Suddenly the screen in the pod lit up as he saw several what looked to be Angel Readings, but... the computer flickered to saying human, and then back again. Toji tweaked the commands to zero in on where they were at to see if he could calibrate the readings. But when he got a look at Unit Two's location and especially on Kodoma who was outside, he was still getting the same Angel/Human flicker readings back and forth. Quickly Toji moved the satellite overlay back over to where the Human/Angel readings were coming from. There were survivors, but given that they needed help it was fifty-fifty that they would be walking into a trap. Then he saw a blue head of hair walking towards the beach. There was only one person that he knew of that had that hair color. Rei... Shinji, Rei and Asuka were alive. Now all he had to do was to see if he could map out a quick route to get himself, Kodoma and Rachel there. The beach looked like the easiest path to get to them. The he saw something that made the shift of clothing around him want to show his manhood. Rei was going skinny-dipping. Rachel looked down to see what was going on and punched him hard on the shoulder.
"Hey you can look at her later; we need to get to where the others are at." Toji nodded as he saw how far it was between Unit Two and the shoreline farm were Rei was at.
Kaworu watched his fellow Nephilim bathe. Rei seemed to be more relaxed with herself. Her naked flesh seemed to be taking on her human genes and darkening to adapt to the sunlight. He was glad; her awakening to her Angel/Lillium Heritage was worth it. That was when Rei giggled some as Yui tossed water on her. There was a bond occurring between them as sisters. Kaworu relaxed as he watched the girls play. That was when Sheba sat down next to him.
"Kaworu," Sheba said as she looked out at Rei. "I think that this Rei is about to remember things about her past." The words just stuck for a moment as they started to settle down.
"I agree with you there, Sheba. She is about to experience the memories of the Instrumentality that she was denied." Kaworu watched as Rei and Yui continued their splashing battle.
"I hope that she is ready as they start to bleed through." Sheba spoke as she started to sense another AT field approaching the fading away from the very edge of her senses.
"Yes, the Barons are still out there." Kaworu turned towards Sheba.
"Yes... and these mortal fools had the insanity to awaken them." Sheba shook her head as she got up and started to march down to the beach and pulled her dress off. Pausing for a moment to hang it on a piece of steel rebar that was sticking out of the side of a ruined building, Sheba continued naked into the sea to join Rei and Yui's little water battle. Kaworu just grinned as Sheba gathered her AT field together and started hurtle balloon sized balls of water at the girls. Yui sneered as she and Rei combined their fields together to create a meter in diameter ball of water and drop it on Sheba. Sheba just stood there as she started to throw more red ocean water at the girls.
"Normality... Enjoy it Rei... it will help you in the times to come." Kaworu said as he decided to join the girls as he started to undress.
Asuka has spent the previous night sleeping naked with Yui and Rei. For her it had been a very surprising experience. For either Yui or Rei, Nudity for them was almost second nature to them. After Rei has spoken about being raised in a tank of LCL, Asuka started to think of Rei almost like a Mermaid out of a fairy tale she had read as a child. She thought of how despondent Rei was before she knew of her origins, but now after the nude slumber party, Rei seemed more like a person that she could deal with on a more personal level. Asuka decided to see what her body looked like from Rei's perspective so walking into the bathroom she dropped the blanket she had covered herself in after deciding to catch some extra shut eye in her and Shinji's room. Turning and looking into the mirror Asuka was caught off guard in seeing her face. She looked different, between the scars that ran from the edge of her eye she saw that her hair had taken on a darker tone. It almost looked purple like Misato's then slowly she looked at her nose, same nose she had since she was younger, but as she looked herself in the eye, she freaked... her eyes, her beautiful Blue eyes... they... they were... RED. She had Red Fucking Irises... Looking away then back again to confirm her fears, as she blinked repeatedly, she wanted to know what happened. She closed her eyes and counted backward from ten in her native German.
"ten, neun, acht, sieben, sechs, fünf, vier, drei, zwei, eins..." She opened them up again and they were red, well a brownish red. "Scheiße..." After pausing for second, she decided to let her anger bleed out and spoke in her native German. "Broß. Gerechtes großes, Wunderkind. Du Mußtest die Welt mit deinen Energien bumsen. Und ich wichele oben mit roten Augäpfeln resultierend aus ihr. Great. Just Great, wonder child. You had to fuck the world with your powers. And I wind up with Red Eyeballs as a result of it. After letting her anger out, Asuka noticed that given the subtle change in her eye color, she started to realize that she looked more distinguished. More like a... Warrior... shit, she went from being a running devil bitch of pure fury, to looking like... Amazon... Quickly Asuka started checking the rest of her body for any other changes that might have taken place. Boobs about the right size, Nubs and the round area around them looked about the same. Same belly button, Asuka turned around to look at her ass in the mirror. Her behind did look a little firmer she patted at it to see if it still felt the same. Looking back at her front, she noticed that she had a little crotch hair growing; about the same she had before this entire mess started. Knees and toes checked out. So given what the Angel's said, she did have some Angel inside of her. But it being this subtle is what caught her off guard. Lifting an arm up she noticed that even though she hadn't shaved her pits in weeks, getting some of her body hair back into place wouldn't take too long. The scars on her body were the last thing Asuka checked. Given that her entire arm looked like it had been scuffed up by a cheese grinder, it still felt the same. Asuka wondered what Misato would have thought seeing her stand here in front of the mirror naked, examining her body.
"Asuka, you can't make your boobs grow any faster." Misato said that one time when her guardian walked in on her in the bathroom a few days after she had started to room with her and Shinji. Asuka giggled at that as she touched her boobs remembering how she wanted Kaji to touch her naked breasts...
"Asuka..." a voice called out. It took Asuka a moment to register the information that there was someone in the doorway.
It was one of the Rei clones... Hina... if she was right. She was kinda the bashful one of the group, but she looked kinda of afraid of being naked around the others, like she was more human in that aspect. But what creped Asuka out was the fact that the girl had no iris's in her eyes.
Hina had pleaded with Sheba and Asuka to give her a different appearance. So taking a salad bowl, they plopped it on her head and proceeded to trim and cut all of the hair that wasn't in the bowl almost down to the skin.
This subtle change to her hair made her stand out and helped improve her self esteem. Right now seeing her stand there in doorway in her white swimsuit made Asuka seem a little uneasy.
"Oh, hi Hina..." Asuka said as she reached down to pick up the bed sheet at her feet and wrapped it around her body. The young Angel girl shifted a little before she bit her lip and started to poke her fingers together before her.
"Asuka..." the girl said shyly... "... I need to urinate." Asuka sighed as she let her head fall in deep thought.
"Okay, you can come in." Asuka spoke as the young angel moved in and pull her pants down her legs and proceeded to sit on the toilet.
"Asuka..." the young Angel spoke as the sound of urine stared to tinkle into the water filled basin."Um... are you examining your body for flaws or... is it some sort of Lillium thing that females..." Asuka turned around towards Hina so quickly and almost lost her balance in the process.
"Wait... you think what I am doing in front of the mirror here is seeing how much I have..." Asuka realized that Hina was culturally innocent in Asuka's nature. "Hina... I was just seeing how much my body has changed since..." Asuka moved over to one of the tubs and sat down on the rim. "My body is going through puberty. I just want to see how much of my features have changed. I'm still growing." Hina blinked a few times she attempted to understand, but Asuka understood that the girl had much more to learn about life. Asuka just waited for the girl to nod, but she had the feeling that given this girl's shyness, she just needed someone who could help her open up. Hell the main reason she was standing here in front of the mirror was to see how much of her was still... well Human.
"Listen... how about I leave and get dressed and you just... continue doing whatever you needed to do in here okay." Asuka said as she wrapped the sheet around her tighter and left the bathroom. "If you want to know what is going on with your body, how about asking Sheba, she seems to be the expert around here on, well Angel Anatomy." Asuka spoke as she swung her head back into the bathroom before she slid the door shut giving Hina some privacy as she left.
Navi was moving around the ruins of what used to be Tokyo Three. Given that she and the others had taken several days to explore the area where they were reading AT Fields, the feeling that there might be other survivors out there made her think about how the Angels were starting to at least sympathize with her Asuka and Shinji.
Lillith over the last few days Navi had learned more about her than anything else. Lillith was a daughter of an Outlaw Angel who attempted to destroy the symbols of God. So roughly, given that Lillith was the offspring, Lillith had earned the title of being tainted and stained, for what among her people were seen as terrorist acts. So the marks that Lillith was placing on her skin were a type of notice that she was attempting to make amends for her father's crimes. Daniel the Male angel that had come with them had a bit more of a muscular body, but he had his own story. He was the son of farmers, and had felt the brunt of the Second Impact when most of his family was wiped out. As much as he wanted to hate Humanity for the damage it had done from the Second Impact which for Navi's case she thought that the Angel's had done. She had the itching feeling that it was the fault of both sides doing something on their worlds to lead about this mess. So if the Giant Angels and the EVA robots were a result of the damage of second impact then, if they didn't get things right this time around, both peoples would become extinct.
That was when Lillith moved off to the side to take a tinkle break.
"Navi... I need to go..." Lillith said as she unzipped the one piece jumpsuit she was wearing and squatted down behind what was left of a mid-eighties classic Porsche.
"Okay..." Navi called out as she turned to give her friend some privacy.
"So much damage." Daniel said looking at the falling apart buildings.
"Yeah... looks like Third Impact did some serious damage along the coastline." Navi said as she saw large rivers of Ocean water and LCL a few feet from where they were standing.
"I shudder to think about the damage done back on my world?" Daniel said as he thought about the winged statues back home.
"Well it looks like some of the texts I have read about what happened after Second Impact. I mean the planet was a serious mess for years afterwards." Navi said as she remembered the rash of movies that were released about surviving the Third Impact.
"It still is... What in your peoples collective mind did you have to awaken the Barons?" Daniel said as he looked out at the buildings.
"The Barons???" Navi spoke as she looked at Daniel with concern. "Who are they?" The question sat in the air as Navi looked over the landscape.
"The Barons..." Daniel said as he let the question be answered with his words. "The Barons are the giants that God sealed away in ice, fire, water and blood. And when these four were sealed away, God created the light, forged the Angels and forged Man." those words quickly flooded back to Navi as she remembered some of what she had heard from her trips to Sunday school. "It was said that if they ever returned the Angels would have to fight them again beside God." Navi started to feel sick.
"Then the Barons happened to be..."
"What caused the second impact?"
"And the Third Impact was to seal them again." Navi realized as she looked down at the ground before she turned her gaze skywards.
"Yes... But this seemed to be shaped by the will of something else, something that God almost had willed into play." Daniel said as he looked around to see a tree growing out of the rubble.
"Daniel... Navi..." Lillith called out as she ran out from behind the car she was taking a leak by leaving her jumpsuit almost flopping to her waist exposing her naked upper body. "I think you should see this..." Lillith said as she looked down on the ground. It took a moment for Navi and Daniel to come by her to see what had gotten her attention. As they approached they saw what had gotten Lillith's attention... It was a handprint that had dried in the moist ground right next to three sets of barefoot tracks.
"People..." Navi called out as she looked at the pattern on the ground. "Three of them."
"Yes and it looks like they are heading back to the farm." Daniel said as he looked at the direction they were going.
"Well that answers the question if there are other survivors... Now all we have to do if find them." Navi said as she started to trace the outline of one of the smaller footprints.
Asuka was standing in the kitchen cooking lunch. Well if taking the bread the Shinji had made the day before and putting on some peanut butter and jelly on it. But Asuka suddenly lost her appetite when Rei walked in. Normally this wouldn't have put her off, but Rei was only wearing a short tank top. And only a Tank top. Rei was naked from the waist down.
"Hello Asuka." Rei said as she sat down. Asuka had gotten used to some of Rei's nuances. But being partially covered made her feel at ease, given that night she had spent with Rei and her kid sister Yui some of Rei's life had spilled out and Asuka learned that being cloned and dumped into one body then another when it was too damaged or was killed must work on someone psyche in such as away that final death almost felt like a release. But For Rei right now it was learning to live again without the backups that were forcing her to learn. Asuka learned that Rei was trying her best, but there were times to just let Rei be Rei and this was one of them.
"Rei... how were things today?" Asuka spoke knowing that Rei sensed that she was uncomfortable.
"Pil... Asuka..." Rei caught herself... military brainwashing still in place Asuka thought as she let it slide. "The bath I took with Sheba and Yui was fun..." Rei was grinning. "Yui started to splash me and then I started to splash water on her then, in the process we got Sheba pulled in as we threw water around."
"So an old fashioned water fight." Asuka grinned. Well Wundere Girl was being normal... given that soon the blue haired girl would be asking her on advice on boys...
"Yes... especially after Kaworu got involved..." Asuka stopped in her tracks... okay... a little too soon for her...
"Was he..."
"He was undressed... Yui and I splashed him a lot. I think he felt a little sad, but happy that I was connecting with humanity... or the Lillium as he calls humans. But as a Nephellium, that is what he calls me... I am beautiful..." Asuka blinked a few times as she reran those few words in her mind.
"What did he say?" Asuka wanted to confirm.
"He said as a Nephellium I was beautiful." Rei's words sunk in. Asuka forced herself to sit at the table.
"Did he... want to kiss you?" Asuka spoke trying to keep the information in her head.
"Was he supposed to do that?" Rei tilted her head worried if she had done something wrong. "Because he said it, but he did not kiss me." There was a pause. "Was there some action that I was supposed to do to summon him to kiss me?"
"Rei... how did you feel when he said it?" Asuka said as she started going through her emotions with Kaji...
"I don't know... I have no reference for how I should feel." Rei said looking at her.
"Listen Rei... did you feel happy when Kaworu called you Beautiful?" Rei looked away from Asuka and closed her eyes as she looked like she was putting some serious thought into her recent experience. "I felt, like I wanted to grin. A little nervous in the stomach. Uncomfortable." yeah those were the classic signs of someone liking you.
"Rei..." Rei looked at Asuka... "It's okay for you to be nervous... hell it is probably the first guy that you have actually noticed that liked you and you were able to grin at."
"There was Shinji, but I think I liked him because he forced me to communicate with him." Rei said as Asuka looked off to the side.
"Well, first rule Rei I think Shinji was your first true friend." Rei blinked at her. "And second, I think Kaworu really likes you, so what did you do after he said that?" Asuka waited for the response.
"I left to come back here and change into clean clothes with Yui." Rei spoke as she saw Yui come in wearing one of Rei's sleep shirts.
"So... why are you not wearing any underwear?" Asuka got the feeling of where this was going.
"Yui is out of clothing and I only have shirts." Rei spoke and Asuka understood that for Rei being nude was part of the way she was wired along with Yui.
"So you were planning on doing laundry?" Asuka realized where this line of thought was going.
"Yes... But me and Yui got hungry." classic Rei line of thought.
"Listen, how about I make you and Yui a few sandwiches and we do laundry together." Asuka realized that it was time for another girl talk. This time partially nude. At this rate, Asuka and Rei would have a fully clothed conversation in the next few weeks or months.
TBC