Evangelion Rewrite: Chapter 19 Mount Asama
"I still don't see why you think it's so funny."
"Well, I don't see you don't think it was funny." Answered Shinji to an overly irritated Asuka, after having gotten changed and left the swimming pool, Shinji decided to go to Nerv's private gym. Only to have Asuka follow him. Looking over the gym, Shinji spied enough stainless steel to set up a kitchen utility business, enough weights to crush a sumo wrestler and even enough running machines to make a three hundred metre running track. In all honesty, Shinji wasn't sure why he'd bothered to come in. "Don't try to ignore me Shinji! I'm trying to make a point!" Asuka barked, breaking Shinji's tired daze and forcing him to attention. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
"To reiterate." Asuka replied to the drear Shinji. "When I am doing something, regardless of what it is, I do not want you involved. I don't even want you so much as disturbing me." As Asuka continued her lecture, Shinji slipped back into his own thoughts. 'Do I really have to be more friendly to her from now on? Couldn't I just start tomorrow? Or the week after?' He slumped down as he realized that he just might not be the right person to try and be friendly to a person like Asuka. "You're not listening to me again Shinji!" Shinji opened his mouth to reply, but Asuka's pager went off. "It's an alien." Asuka stated professionally. 'Only Asuka and Gendo Ikari could make an angel seem like a liberating experience.' Shinji thought to himself, stretching as he got up. Asuka saw this as a good a chance any to mock Shinji. "Hurry up you idiot. I won't be able to look good if you hold me up."
The entity of Nerv was on full alert, rooms were darkened and the familiar red sign was piercing all the unfortunate ear drums that happened to be in the vicinity. Shinji found himself located in the darkest room, of course, standing in between Asuka and Rei. A metaphorical example of between a rock and a hard place. Except with spikes on either end. Ritsuko stood in front of a large picture of an unnatural creature, taking soap box lecturing position, as she looked across at the eva pilots. Next to Ritsuko, stood the only warmth in the room. Maya Ibuki, one of the few people that Shinji would gladly listen to. However, Ritsuko was the person doing the chalk talk. "This picture you're seeing is of an angel in some sort of-"
'always good when the smart people say "some sort of" it really means "I have no fucking clue." Which iterates on how smart the smart people really are.' Shinji wanted to up and leave, but the bomb collar hanging around his neck, it's deactivation not currently part of Nerv's knowledge, meant that Shinji had to play the good student. That included keeping his mouth shut, unless told otherwise. "This objective's primary objection is to capture the angel. Capture it alive and in a form as close to it's original state as possible." For Shinji, lectures were always annoying, especially from people that Shinji didn't like, which was mostly everybody. But the word 'capture' forced Shinji to hang onto Ritsuko's every word. Unfortunately, Asuka was the next to speak. "And if we fail~?"
"Then you must destroy it immediately, understood?"
'Quite a leap from capture, but it works for me.' Shinji snidely commented to himself.
"Roger." The three eva pilots declared, in accordance with Ritsuko's question.
"The designated pilot will be-"
"Ou! Pick me, please, I love to go diving!" Asuka yelped out like a puppy after it's foot had been treaded on. 'Again.' Shinji thought to himself. 'She's like a damned kid, I really need to get to the bottom of this.'
"Asuka, you will carry out the mission." Ritsuko declared. To which she replied,
"sure! It's going to be easy." If Asuka Langley's arrogant voice created a metaphorical blizzard in the room, then Rei Ayanami's deadpan question of "and me?" froze the bloody room solid. Thankfully, the warm and gentle Maya Ibuki was the next to speak. "The special equipment we'll be using hasn't been standardised for use in the prototype."
'Only Maya could make a statement like that interesting.' Shinji thought as the conversation again blurred before his thoughts. Asuka leaned forward and said something, but Shinji didn't hear it. He was instead trying to make eye contact with Maya, who seemed almost robotic. Either Nerv was telling her to act like this around Shinji or she really was giving him the cold shoulder. Shijnji sighed, already feeling tired. From behind, he heard footsteps heading away from him and was brought back into reality when Ritsuko said "is there a problem Shinji?" Shinji looked around and saw that he was alone with Ritsuko, Maya and the big onscreen picture up above. Staring at it for a few short seconds, a question popped into Shinji's mind that he asked out loud. "Did I look like that, a long time ago?" Ritsuko and Maya looked down at the angel in it's fetal position, Ritsuko a bit bemused by the state of affairs. "Yes, though probably not as long ago as you think." She answered vaguely.
"I see." Said Shinji, he wanted to keep his mouth shut, but something still puzzled him. "It looks awfully human like that, snuggling up for warmth, don't you think?" Ritsuko pursed her lips, to her, Shinji was beginning to stall. "You have a mission, find the Angel in it's egg stage and capture it, I'd advise that you get to that." She ordered. Forgetting that this was the best way to annoy Shinji. "You know." He said as he turned round, "despite all of the smartest people in Japan. You really know fuck all about any other this, don't you." Ritsuko ignored Shinji and coldly stared at his back as he walked away. Shinji thought that Maya would say something to that, but he knew, without looking, that she wasn't even watching him. So he bit his thumb and drew the fire symbol on his hand.
'There sure is a lot of waiting around.' Shinji thought to himself as he stood alone in a room with Eva 02, wrapped up in it's finest fat suit. He wasn't alone if he counted Rei, but so far, her limited self-motivational and limitless loyalty to Nerv made it difficult to not see her as another machine. But boredom strikes everybody eventually and Shinji was no exception. Quietly planning how to talk to Rei, without getting a vague or obvious reply. 'She'll just reconfirm her loyalty if I talk about the mission and she has limited to no experience of outside. Maybe she be more incline to talk if she felt like she owed me a favour.' Shinji finally decided to call out her name. "Rei?"
"Yes." She relied softly. 'She's like a bloody android interface' Shinji thought to himself. "How about I clean your apartment for you?"
"Why?" Rei asked in response to Shinji's own question.
"Well." He began. "Last time I looked it was a little dingy. You might get a healthier life style with a cleaner apartment." Shinji was impressed with himself, he felt like he had successfully imitated a brochure he saw recently. Though, it was probably a bad one. "I don't think it needs cleaning." She answered back bluntly.
"That's what you say now. But, think of it this way, those glasses that you like will be much more presentable with in a cleaner environment." The line had been set, now all that remained was Rei's bite. "Maybe." She replied, not interested in where the conversation was going. "Good, I'll be round tomorrow to clean it up." Shinji wasn't sure how he felt about creating the situation of imposing himself into a fifteen-year old girl's apartment. But Rei was being so dismissive that he felt restricted in what he could do to try and understand her. Thankfully, Rei nodded giving her cold approval of "okay." Which was all Shinji was going to get out of her, because she quickly become silent again. Ritsuko entered a few minutes later, but silence still dominated the room for a full five minutes until Asuka forced the opposite. "No way, how could you!?" Asuka arrived in her own fat suit, trying to squish herself though the doorway into the room and Shinji, loving every moment, howled with laughter until his sides hurt. "Stupid Shinji! How could you laugh in a situation like this!?" Asuka's angry shouting just made Shinji laugh even more. But he did manage to force out a question. "You- ah ha- Asuka- he hahaha - you -ah ha ha, he he ha ha ha ha- you look so fucking fat! Ahaha! Aha ha ha haa!" Both Shinji and Asuka looked close to tears, but for opposite reasons. "I don't see how that anything to do with the mission at hand Shinji!" Ritusko scolded Shinji like boiling water, in the hopes of bringing order back to the room. Knowing the seriousness of an angel attack, Shinji tried to calm himself down by leaning on Rei's shoulder. Rei didn't know what to do as he silently laughed on top of her, but it wasn't long before he straightened himself up and got off of her shoulder. Allowing Rei to breath a sigh of relief. "As I was saying." Ritsuko said slowly, watching Shinji for signs of trouble, who pulled a poker face in accordance. With silence in the room, she decided to continue. "This exosuit is designed to protect you, type D equipment is designed for combat under extreme environmental duress. Not high fashion."
"Forget it!" Asuka cried. "I won't do it, I won't go out in public like this! This is the kind of thing you have Shinji for." This comment made Shinji chuckle even further, but he coughed harshly as three pairs of eyes pinned on him. "I will go in unit 02" Rei said, possibly to be the order in what was becoming a violent series of reactions. But Asuka's pride forced her to act and she slapped Rei's hand away. "Oh no you don't!" She screeched into Rei's face, "the only way you're getting into unit 02 is over my dead body! I'd rather do it than let her take my place."
'Between Asuka and Rei' Shinji thought to himself. 'There is an equilibrium.'
Finally inside his own Eva, Shinji felt an uncomfortable heat well up inside the cockpit. But, being able to watch something whilst still being away from Asuka, was a comforting release that washed all discomforts away. Through practice and experience with the Eva, Shinji had gotten use to the abnormal amount of controls and had finally found the com mute button. Giving his ears a deserved rest as he watched Asuka lower into the volcano. Unfortunately, Asuka stopped before she could take what may be her fatal plunge. But it allowed Nerv to prepare a few things, similar to a last goodbye, and it wasn't long before her fat Eva was dangling over the volcano. After the Eva began to lower from it's crane, Shinji turned the com back on. "Oh man." Asuka cried, "talk about hot!" Thankfully, in Shinji's mind, she remained quiet for a few seconds, until she shouted down the com link. "Hey, look at this Shinji!" Causing Shinji to turn the com link back off as Asuka dove into the lava. Presumably shouting something stupid along the way.
Within a few minutes, Asuka had reached the Angel and Shinji had fallen asleep. Unknown to Shinji, Asuka was doing quite well. She had yet to panic and had even locked the angel in the electromagnet field. But, with the operation having been completed, the crane cranked into motion. Waking Shinji up from his undeserved nap. With a yawn, he looked over the edge to see Asuka returning with some sort of sphere. "Wow." Shinji said to himself. "She actually did it, I'm impressed." But Shinji decided to leave the com link off, lest he hear her gloat endlessly. After a couple of minutes, a beep sounded off in Shinji's Eva. 'Must be an emergency.' Shinji thought and flicked the com link back on, breaking the switch in the on position. 'Shit, now it really is an emergency.' But the lava down below began to bubble and Shinji couldn't help but worry. "It's started to hatch, earlier than we predicted!" Ritsuko shouted down the com link in full alert, Misato turning into officer of the day mode in reaction, and orders soon flowed down the communication system. Shinji helplessly watched the action happen down below as, despite all the commands, Asuka was a sitting duck to a rapidly growing angel. "Why hasn't she gotten out her prog knife?" Shinji asked, realizing that he couldn't see the familiar spark of light. "She lost it due to the magma pressure, throw down your own Shinji!" The voice of Misato ordered.
"Roger." Shinji confirmed and hurled his Eva's knife into the pool of lava. 'The life and times of Asuka Langley Sohryu will have to wait.' There was more panicked barking on the com link and Shinji could see why, the angel was preparing for an attack, before the knife had even arrived. "I'm jumping in." Shinji declared.
"You idiot, your suit won't survive." Ritsuko retorted in defiance of Shinji, but he had already dove deep into the lava.
Asuka's body was sweating and sweltering with the extreme heat and nasty situation. The angel looked ready to attack and the knife hadn't even gotten to her yet. "Hurry up!" She cried as she reached helplessly for the knife, until the tip of the Eva D suit's pincher had managed to grab hold, unfortunately, the angel was also in striking distance and bit the Eva's leg as Asuka struck the Angel in the head with Shinji's knife. Causing sparks to fly off and dissipate in the molten lava. "What the hell!" Asuka cried as she tried to force the knife deeper without any luck and after a few moments more struggling, the Angel wrestled Asuka's melee arm away and grab a tight hold of the Eva's head with it's mouth.
Shinji desperately put as much energy as he could summon into his legs, hopelessly swimming towards the two small combatants in a fight to the death. But suddenly, Shinji's head seared with pain and he felt the interior of the Eva suit become dark and cold. Before long, he felt his consciousness drift away from the Eva until he was just floating in dark space. "No, no, no not now! Not now!" Shinji Screamed in panic.
"What's happening to him!?" Misato demanded, when she saw the Eva unit 01 start to struggle. "His metal health signs are all over the place, I've never seen something like this!" Exclaimed a very surprised Shigeru. Shinji felt a tug at his leg, he looked down to see a faceless man in a suit, with a red armband, grabbing hold of him and trying to pull with all of it's might. He screamed. But only hurt his lungs in the process, unable to realize that he wasn't making a sound. To Shinji's increasing despair, more of the faceless creatures started to swarm him, all wore red bands and they tug and clawed at Shinji's leg and then lower torso. Before long, they had grabbed hold of his arms and he could clearly see white marks; where their features should be. "His vitals are dropping." Shigeru said with little empathy, unable to understand the situation and looking ready to give up. "Find out why." Misato growled, through gritted teeth. Her hands shaking a little as she became worried. Shinji was now inside a teeming crowd of swarming suited men that all pulled his weak body down, trying to cover Shinji's mouth up in the process. 'I won't let you, bring me back!' Shinji screamed in his mind, the only place where he could still hear noise, and wrenched an arm free from a group of the faceless. Gritting his teeth, he put every last bit of strength into bighting down. as hard as physically possible, onto his hand. Pain seared not in Shinji's hand, but in his head. However, bright light soon burned into Shinji's eyes and he had complete focus within seconds. Looking down, he saw Asuka desperately try to beat the Angel away with the prog knife, but it had taken more than a few chunks out of her. "I think that this is enough for one day." Shinji forced through his gritted teeth.
"His Eva Sync level is rising." Maya said with a little bit of relief.
"Is Shinji out of danger?" Misato asked. "What about Asuka?"
"They both seem to be-" Maya begun her statement calmly, but something on her monitor caught her out. "hang on. His Eva Sync level won't stop rising. It's nearing two hundred."
"How on earth could this be happening?" Ritsuko asked, shocked that Shinji went from one end of the spectrum to the other.
Fending herself from the angel, as a last blind effort, Asuka had blasted the angel with her Eva's bromide cooling gas. Allowing her to ready her knife, but it was still faster and had grabbed hold of Asuka's Eva with every limb and try to drag her down to her molten death. "I don't want to die." Asuka whimpered. Thankfully, her prayer was answered and Shinji's Eva smashed against the Angel like it was shot out of a cannon and he was quickly rebounded against the Angel, grabbing a tight hold of the cable wires holding Asuka in place. Asuka, now freed, gave a final war scream as she plunged the knife into the creatures skull. Resulting in a deathly screech as the monster dissolved in it's own womb. Asuka wasn't given time to relax though, as the type D suit started to close round her like a Venus fly trap and the cable itself, began to snap. Within a breath before the final snap, Shinji grabbed hold of the Eva's pincer and became Asuka's lifeline.
Shinji's head still bled as he sat in the medical room, being interrogated by the blonde with a white lab coat. "Just tell me, what happened, it will be much easier to understand the full story if you tell me everything, detail by detail." Ritsuko, was pressuring Shinji as she changed his bandages. Willing to be relentless until she found out everything. "I already told you, I jumped in and the molten lava made my head spin. After that, I don't know until I was able to see Asuka again." Shinji, however, was deadest on lying and neither of the two were bound to give up anytime soon. Misato could see that an argument like this could go on forever. "A soak in the hot springs will no doubt help calm Shinji down." Misato declared, trying to reason with Ritsuko. "And we'll just try this conversation again tomorrow." 'When I don't have to be there.' Thought Misato with a little mischief. "Fine, pamper the pilot and then bring him back tomorrow. But those are important results and Commander Ikari will also want to know the details that Shinji's hiding." Ritusko walked out after this and left Shinji on his own with Misato. Allowing an uncomfortable silence to grow between them. Which prolonged itself the longer that the two forwent eye contact. Finally, Shinji was the first to break. "How is Asuka?" He asked.
"Bored waiting." Misato replied and the silence returned, as if it had never left. Before the unfeeling moment was held too long though, Misato beckoned and Shinji followed.
The hot spring soaked into Shinji's skin and soothed his aching muscles. Much to Shinji's surprise, a mail order had come through containing a very excitable PenPen. Which cheered Shinji up a little, none of the tenants in Misato's apartment, including Misato, had spoken to each other since the last angel incident and Shinji had felt himself become a little lonely. It was the first time that Shinji had been around people and still felt lonely, which scared him a little. Yet, soaking in the hot spring made his blues float away. "Shinji, can you hear me?" Misato called, making Shinji jump from not quite having expected his blues to float away that quickly. "Yeah?" Shinji answered back, hoping that he didn't sound surprised. "Can you be a dear and throw me over the body shampoo?"
"We ran out of ours." Asuka called over, adding context to Misato's question.
"Sure." Shinji answered and got up. PenPen handed Shinji, in his beak, the body shampoo and in his haste, he threw over the shampoo without warning. "Ow! You idiot, watch where you're throwing you jerk!" Shinji could only guess that this was the voice of Asuka and remained deadly silent. "Ouu, he hit me in my most private part." She whined. Causing Asuka to reply with,
"Ohh, let me take a look at you" and Shinji's face burned a little.
"Ouu, watch your fingers." Asuka yelped and Shinji's face became red hot. He looked around for a while to peek. 'Rock underneath, blocked by bamboo. How on earth-' PenPen interrupted his thoughts by standing in front of him, with a rope in his mouth. "Extra sardines and whatever prize fish I can find, for you PenPen." Shinji whispered with upmost silence. Taking the rope, he formed a pulley and hoisted himself up from the ground. Slowly, and silently, climbing up the bamboo. Reaching the top, he slowed down just a touch and as soon as he picked over. Asuka shouted, "you can have your body wash back now" and a bottle of shampoo hit Shinji square on the head. Causing him to plummet down into the water. "Shinji? Are you okay over there?" Misato asked kindly. Shinji groaned, but pulled himself up in a hurry and shouted back. "I'm fine, PenPen's having fun."
"Oh." Misato replied, a little disinterested now. Shinji though, couldn't be more glad and breathed a steady sigh of relief. PenPen looked at Shinji, with a look that was perhaps disinterest or disappointment. Smiling a little, Shinji picked PenPen up, put him onto his belly, floated flat on his back and listened to the cry of the evening cicadas.