Evangelion Rewrite: Chapter 8 Responsibilities and Relationships
Shinji's heart was forcibly pumped which made Shinji's entire body wretch and jolt. The cold chill in his body was chased away and warmth began to flood back in, which also brought pain. His whole body ached with pain and the heavy feeling made it difficult to breathe. But he was breathing, which meant that Shinji Ikari was still alive.
Several days later Shinji had fully healed and was having his first breakfast since returning to Misato's apartment. He bit into his toast as PenPen took hold of a fish and they both swallowed at the same time. Shinji turned to PenPen and saw that it had turned to him at the same time. He then picked up a piece of toast, whilst PenPen picked up a fish, and threw it at PenPen. PenPen had thrown his fish at Shinji and they both caught the other one's meal and swallowed their retrospective catches whole. Then they both went onto eating their own meals again in synchronized motion.
Misato entered the dining room, looking worse for wear, and sat down with a beer. One chug later and she was back in high spirits. "Oh, you better not think about running off during our parent-child teacher conference." She told Shinji. Shinji took a bite of his toast and followed up on the conversation with, "does that mean you are coming?" He then quickly finished his toast, PenPen also finished his fish, and started washing up whilst waiting for Misato's answer as she tucked into her own toast. "It's my responsibility." She declared. 'God help me' Shinji thought as he pictured Misato at his school, acting responsible. He then left and exited the building, pulling Touji and Kensuke by their collars after discovering them outside.
The screeching of tyres signalled the arrival of Misato. Shinji decided to leave the classroom to greet her, before anybody else got any ideas. When she stood before him with a light yellow jacket and thin shirt with a skirt that showed off a lot of leg, Shinji couldn't help but give half a smile. "Alright let's get this over with." He said.
The next morning Shinji's toast remained untouched, thoughts swirled around his head about Ritsuko's speech. The second impact that caused all of this, the arrival of the first angel. Things were in plain order yet they still didn't seem to add up. Shinji delved for the answers out of reach inside his mind, but his stream of thoughts were cut off when Misato appeared in a very sexy and feminine suit. "Good morning." She said. The sudden words kicked Shinji's cynical side back into high gear. "Are you trying to impress people or give them an erection?" Shinji asked. Misato looked at Shinji sternly, but he was having none of it. Thoughts flooded his head 'there's that stern mothering look again. It pisses me off!' "I don't mind that you're irresponsible and that you're childish. But it's revolting when you give me that look as if to try and act like my guardian!" These words stung Misato so she lashed back at Shinji.
"It looks like someone woke up with a bad attitude this morning. I want you to be in a better mood when I get back." Misato jabbed at him. Shinji growled deeply and threw the table on it's side, smashing his plate. PenPen ran for cover at the sudden outburst. "What is it with you!? I died and suddenly you think you have a right to mother me!?" Misato went to slap him, but Shinji caught it. The tension flared off of each other as they both tried to get the other person to back down. "Let go." Misato said, finally angry. "Tell me why you think my near death experience changes anything?" Shinji asked, his voice full of menace. Misato looked away and Shinji finally let go. Misato left without another word and Shinji savagely kicked the table.
Shinji sat at the table with his hand held together. He was still thinking back on the argument that he had with Misato earlier in the morning. PenPen was still keeping his distance from him, but the penguin was no longer cowering and happily wandering around the apartment. A phone rang and Shinji picked it up and answered it. Apparently somebody had been tinkering with their own anti-angel weapons and now one of them had gotten loose. Shinji sighed and said that he'd be right there in the Eva.
Shinji walked into an aircraft that was carrying the Eva, inside sat Misato. She briefly explained the situation and the plan whilst in professional mode, but her words bounced off of Shinji as he thought back to the fight he had, had with her. But then Misato said something that threw Shinji off entirely. "Did you say that you'd be going inside?" He asked her and Misato nodded her head.
"That's right Shinji." She said. Shinji shook his head violently.
"No, that's not happening. I'll take the risk for this." He told her.
"You're forgetting that I'm not Rei. I won't be forced down and so that you can face the danger alone. Besides, can you think of another plan in the next five minutes?" Misato sighed after saying this, then she added. "You're going to have to learn that it's okay to rely on other people Shinji." Those last words annoyed Shinji and he slammed his fist against the aircraft's metal shell.
"We're nearing our target!" One of the techies from Nerv yelled. Shinji and Misato took their positions in the Eva. Misato on top and Shinji inside the Eva, piloting like always. The Eva suddenly dropped and fell threw the sky, Shinji grinded it's heels against the ground and ran straight for the rogue weapon, which turned out to be a humourous copy of Shinji's Eva. Reaching the Eva, Shinji grabbed hold of the hatch on it's back and slammed his foot on the machine's leg. Knocking it down to one knee. "Alright put me on!" Misato commanded and Shinji did so. At first it seemed like Misato had gotten on safely, but the machine bucked as it tried to throw Shinji off, throwing Misato off in the process. "Misato!" Shinji yelled in fear. But, with luck Misato had caught hold of some grips that lead up to the hatch that she needed to enter. Shinji gritted his teeth, fully knowing that she wasn't out of danger yet. He swung around the robot and grabbed hold of it's body in a vice like grip and grinded his feet against the floor.
Inside the robot, the word error flashed over and over with a low pitched beep. The plan had to be altered. So Misato ran towards the nuclear reactor and started to heave against one of the pins.
Steam fired from the robot and Shinji tried to block it with his hands, but it was good as more steam tore it's way through the machine. Getting desperate Shinji hopped up and wrapped the Eva's legs around the machine's back. Then he slammed the Eva's head against a pressurized hole. It had slowed the destruction down, but steam burst from the machine at a high rate that Shinji could no longer keep up with.
Back inside the machine, Misato gritted her teeth and heaved with everything she had. "Move it, move it, move it!" She yelled. The inside of the machine started to glare red as the warning lights flashed like a siren. "Damn it, stop whining and work already!" Misato screamed and her command worked as the pins slide back into their capsules. The lights turned green and the machine stopped rumbling. "Misato!" Shinji shouted at the entrance of the machine's control room. Misato looked and saw Shinji rush in. It looked like he had gotten out of the Eva and went to check on her as soon as the machine stopped moving. "Misato! Are you okay" Shinji asked when he found her. "I'm fine Shinji." Shinji shook his head and knelt down besides Misato.
"This should have been my risk to take." Shinji told her. Misato shook her head stiffly. "Shut up about risks will yer? I had to take responsibility and I did." Misato said tiredly. "Why? Why did you need to take responsibility Misato?" Shinji asked. Misato looked up at Shinji and said "because that's what responsible adults do. I know I've tried to force this upon you all of a sudden. But sometimes that's how it works, I hope that you'll understand when you come to build a relationship with someone." Shinji nodded and hugged Misato. Which took her by surprise, but she soon relaxed and hugged him back.
Shinji had decided to leave early the next day and give school a miss for a change. PenPen had given him a curious look, but he knew what would happen if he let Misato know that something was up, so he stayed very quiet. Shinji then took his security card with him and left for Nerv.
Shinji travelled to the heart of Nerv and finally managed to get to his Eva. He watched the engineers work on the Eva as they made routine check-ups. They looked at each other, wondering what to do, when they spotted Shinji. But they decided to leave well enough alone and went back to work.
After a brief amount of time passed, Shinji left again and found the control center where the three main techies also working on check-ups. Shinji had never talked to them directly in a face to face conversation. So he decided to introduce himself. "Hey there, I know this isn't news to you, but I'm Shinji Ikari." The three people swung round to stare at the fifteen year old boy.
Not sure what to make of him, they shrugged and decided to introduce themselves. "Shigeru Aoba." A medium-long haired man said with a nod. The man with glasses looked a little disgruntled at the unfamiliar situation, but finally declared that his name was "Makoto Hyuga." The last techie to state a name was a girl about Shinji's height, which made her too small to reach the controls from her chair alone so she sat on a pillow as well. Shinji chased away any resounding thoughts of 'cute.'
"Maya Ibuki." The girl said and Shinji immediately recognized the voice.
"Hey, you're the girl that saved my skin during the fight with the fifth angel. Thanks for that." Shinji said with a genuine smile. Maya froze and looked out of the corner of her eyes at the other two techies who were signalling for her to get rid of him. "Listen, Shinji, we're busy right now so can you-" Maya began her excuse for him to leave, but was cut off by Shinji. "Would you like to go on a date with me sometime?"
"What!?" She shouted out loud and the sudden development caused Shigeru and Makoto to comically fall out of their chairs. Maya blushed and stammered before finally calming down and saying to Shinji. "I think that you're a little too young for me." Ahah, let's see him counter that one, she thought to herself.
"That's fine, it's only a simple thank you date." Shinji told her. Misato looked for help from her two co-workers. But they both just shrugged from the chairs that they had just gotten back into. "I see." Maya said to herself and Shinji smiled, taking her answer the wrong way. "Great! I'll pick you up at seven o'clock." Maya stuttered rather cutely, but no words came out. "Bye guys, thanks for the talk." Shinji said to the other two technicians, despite not saying much to them, and left. Makoto got up and nudged Maya and she shouted out "Wait!" at the top of her panicked voice. Shinji turned to look at her. "I expect no less than for you to pick me up with a nice car tonight!" She smiled victoriously after saying this, thinking that Shinji wouldn't be able to comply to her demands, but Shinji mistook her smile as one of happiness and nodded cheerfully before saying "that's fine. See you later." After this he left.
"Don't worry. There's no way that he'll be able to come up with a good car, he'll turn up in some old banger or just walk to your front door. Either way, you'll be able to turn him down then and there" Shigeru said to Maya, hoping to cheer her up and it worked as Maya nodded to herself confidently. 'That's right' She thought to herself. 'There's no way that, that kid will be able to turn up with a car.'
Author's Note: I only have one thing to say today, it's about Maya's confident thoughts on Shinji not being able to get to her house with a good chair. All I have to say about that is this: Is that a challenge Maya?