Chapter 27

Harsh white light seared into the back of the girl's head the moment her eyes began to flicker open, forcing them closed again. Keeping the light out did nothing for the splitting headache she felt as she let out an involuntary groan of pain.

She tried to bring her right hand up to rub at her forehead, but there was something holding it down. Some hesitant probing with her left hand told her that it was somebody else's arm resting on hers, crossing over just below the elbow.

And the fingers of that hand were intertwined with her own.

Asuka Langley-Soryu summoned up her strength and opened her eyes again. The hospital light still seemed like it wanted to burn her retinas out, so she turned away from it as quickly as she could, suffering a stab of agony in the back of her head in the process.

Fortunately, the sight that greeted her made the effort worth the pain, and she smiled at the peacefully sleeping face of the boy laying next to her.

Just as the warmth provided by Shinji Ikari was about to lull her back to sleep, his eyes fluttered open and locked onto hers.

"Mmnnn... 'suka?" Shinji mumbled as he slowly woke up.

"Hey," Asuka said back, before frowning and adding. "What happened?"

The boy's brain was clearly still in the middle of booting up as he replied. "Revn'nt. Y' got h'rt." He let out a large yawn before making an effort to sit up and vigorously shake his head. "Not badly, but you got a concussion."

That explained the pain in the back of her head, as well as the light sensitivity. Asuka shaded her eyes as best as she could as she too sat up. Her head throbbed in protest, but she ignored it. "Can't have just been a Revenant," she said. "Especially since I had one of their damn weapons. Should have been a breeze."

"You are correct. It was two Revenants."

Asuka's head spun around, causing yet more pain.

"Hello, Asuka. It is good to see you awake again," said Rei, standing in the doorway leading into the adjacent bathroom with a cup of water in her hand. She walked over to the bed and passed the cup to Asuka, who mumbled her thanks before drinking it dry in seconds.

"So... I can't really remember anything beyond the launch," the redhead muttered after placing the cup on the table next to the bed.

"The doctor that brought you in here said you might have some short-term amnesia," said Shinji.

Asuka turned, slowly this time, to stare incredulously at the boy. "Amnesia? And a concussion? What the hell happened to me?" She gently rubbed the back of her head as she spoke. The pain was beginning to dim, but it felt like it was going to remain for a while longer.

As the First Child spoke, bits and pieces of the battle began to creep back into Asuka's memory.

"This time, I'm not just fighting for Shinji. I'm fighting for Mama too!"

"As I said, two Revenants attacked this time," said Rei. "Both of them were heavily armoured, but they had no weapons. We split up to deal with both, and fought for a few minutes until you successfully eliminated your target by impaling its core with the stolen Lance. Unfortunately, the core detonated immediately and destroyed the Lance. Unit-02 suffered some minor damage as you were unable to move out of range in time."

Exultation flowed through Asuka as her new weapon finally stabbed deeply into the Revenant's core, only be tempered by anger as she bemoaned the loss of said weapon in the core's explosion.

The bluenette's head drooped as she continued to recount the battle. "Instead of the remains of that Revenant flowing back into the ocean, the other target absorbed them. I am... sorry, Asuka." She looked sadly up at her fellow pilot. "I was unable to stop them from merging while you recovered."

"Don't bother apologising, First," Asuka wearily replied. "These things are obviously cheating just as hard as the Angels did." She glanced pointedly at Shinji, who began to absentmindedly rub what remained of his right arm. "Anyway, what happened next?"

"The remaining Revenant's armour became almost impervious to anything we could attack it with," the First Child said. "Even our strongest weapon emplacements and rockets were not enough to shatter it."

"So how did you defeat it?" Shinji inquired. "I mean, you obviously managed somehow..."

"Desperate times called for desperate measures. On recommendation from the MAGI after determining the force required, Misato ordered an N2 strike with three warheads at point blank range in order to crack the armour. Asuka and I were tasked with keeping the Revenant inside the target area."

The Revenant seemed to know what was about to fall on its head. It charged recklessly towards Asuka, and the two titans slammed together like sumo wrestlers, each attempting to bring the other to the ground.

"It was strong. Really strong," Asuka murmured. "We could barely hold it back. One of us had to keep it there."

Rei nodded. "You insisted on that duty, and since you are more skilled than I at melee combat, I agreed. You held the Revenant until the N2 strike was only a few seconds away, and then your entry plug ejected."

"Strange," Asuka murmured. "I don't remember triggering the-"

Rockets ignited a split second after she ejected, blasting the entry plug away from Unit-02 at over a hundred kilometres per hour. It was fast enough to escape the blast radius, but not enough to outrun the shockwave. Already off-balance from the sudden ejection, Asuka was knocked around inside the plug as it went off course. Alarms sounded, but she was too busy keeping a death grip on her seat to attempt to silence them.

The last thing she heard before the entry plug hit the ground was the sound of a boy screaming her name over the comm system.

Asuka leaned forward, clutching at her head with both hands. She finally noticed the strangely heavy cylindrical device wrapped around her upper left arm that smelled faintly of LCL. Rei was still talking, but her voice sounded far away.

She awoke a few minutes later, with her head pounding and an agonising new bend in her left arm. There was no LCL in her plug anymore; it had evidently been emptied shortly after her crash landing. She felt the back of her head with her right hand, and her fingers came away red and sticky. Asuka silently thanked whoever decided to use LCL as a shock absorber in the entry plug. If she had taken that impact without it, her brains would likely have been splattered across the plug.

As it was, her head still felt like that had happened though.

She was pulled out of the memory by a hand gently rubbing her back, and Asuka turned to look into Shinji's worried face. A faint smile was enough to convince him that she was alright, but he still shifted his hand to lightly press her shoulder down in an attempt to get her horizontal again. Since there was no reason she could think of to remain upright for the time being, she allowed it.

There were still some chunks missing from her memory, but some patient questioning enabled the First Child to fill them in. Unit-00 had charged towards the Revenant almost before the explosion had dissipated, and finished it with two knives delivered directly into its core before the smoke had cleared, and before the enemy could recover.

Unit-02 had suffered some major damage from the close proximity of the N2 explosions, despite being partially shielded by its unfortunate opponent, and would take at least two week for repairs to complete. Its entry plug was crippled in the crash, but there were plenty of spares to go around.

After a little while, Rei excused herself to go tell Misato that Asuka was awake. The moment the door closed behind the girl, Asuka sighed and spoke.

"You know, she could have just used her phone to send Misato a message instead of walking off."

Strangely, there was no response from the Third Child, but she could sense an aura of disapproval.

"...I... guess you saw through my little deception, huh?"

"I had a bad feeling. I was pretty sure what it was as soon as your phone began to ring," Shinji admitted, sounding somewhat sheepish as he laid back down. "I was just hoping I was wrong. That maybe you were getting called away for a surprise sync test or something."

After a long and slow exhalation, Asuka quietly replied, "I'm sorry for lying to you."

Shinji chuckled softly. "It sounds strange to hear you apologise to me."

"Yeah, but I'm serious."

"I know." His hand slithered over hers, fingers absently caressing her palm. "You were just trying to keep me safe. I'm sure if I'd tried to leave with you, Mister Kaji would have just tried to drag me back here. At least I managed to convince him to let me watch."

'Watch me get hurt again,' Asuka sullenly thought. Her right hand began to idly clench Shinji's questing fingers, occasionally snapping shut before opening again to let them continue. "You're still injured though. You wouldn't have been able to join us."

"Bullshit."

The redhead almost swallowed her tongue at the curse that erupted from Shinji's mouth. "W-what?" she gasped. She had never heard him swear before.

"Even if I didn't have these new legs, I would have been able to pilot," Shinji replied, anger beginning to leak into his voice. He turned his head to face Asuka. "The Evas are controlled through the neural link, right? It wouldn't matter how many limbs I've lost if I'm using my mind to move Unit-01's arms and legs."

"It's... not that simple, Shinji." Asuka's hand shifted to fully grasp the boy's hand. "Besides, you wouldn't be able to stay in the pilot seat without at least your legs."

Shinji growled through his teeth for a few seconds, before raising his head and slamming it into his pillow a couple of times. "You're right," he eventually muttered. "You're right, and I hate that."

"Hey, I hate it too. For once I wish I wasn't right, but..."

"Yeah..."

Several silent minutes passed before Shinji said, "I forgive you for lying, of course." Asuka remained quiet, knowing that he wasn't finished. "Just... please don't do it again. I think the lie actually hurt a little more than seeing you get injured."

"Well I'm sure you'll be joining us next time," Asuka replied. "If your new arm isn't done soon, I'm going to ask Misato to get Commander-y at whoever's working on it."

News about the prosthesis ended up arriving soon after the conversation petered out, thanks to the arrival of Misato and Rei. After greeting the redhead with a hug and giving her own account of the battle, the woman informed them that Shinji's prosthesis only needed a couple more days to be completed. However, some surgery would be required to prepare what remained of Shinji's arm. The stump would receive implants to transmit the required signals from the brain all the way down to the tips of his new synthetic fingers.

"Now then, if there are no further questions," Misato said after delivering the information, "I'd like to borrow Asuka for a bit if you don't mind, Shinji."

The redhead and the boy both swivelled their heads to look curiously at her, making a questioning sound in perfect sync. "Um... okay?" Shinji hesitantly replied.

As she left the room, Asuka cast her gaze back through the doorway to see Rei gently rub Shinji's right shoulder as the Third Child smiled at her.

Misato stopped at the nearest bench, sitting down and patting the space next to her. Asuka paused for a moment, trying to work out why she had been called away, before slowly taking a seat next to her... former foster mother?

"Before you get too concerned, I'm not here to judge you on how you fought," the Commander of NERV stated. "It's actually about something a little more... personal."

Her words had the opposite effect of what was intended for Asuka. There were only two things she could think of that Misato could be referring to. Her mother, or-

"I'd like to talk to you about Shinji."

...Or that.

There wasn't really anything Asuka could think of to get out of the impending awkward and embarrassing conversation, short of faking sickness or injury. To Misato's credit, the woman seemed to not have teasing in mind this time, staying firmly in her caring and motherly persona. That was enough to get the inwardly cringing German girl to relax, if only slightly.

"W-what about him?" Asuka inquired, immediately cursing herself for stumbling over her words already.

The woman stared down at her lap and her fidgeting hands for a few seconds, before sighing and looking up at her. "I'm just going to come right out and say it. How are you two doing, now that you're together?"

A napalm bomb detonated on Asuka's face and her skin melted instantly.

At least, that was what it felt like.

The red-faced redhead spent the next ten seconds sputtering incomprehensibly, before she finally managed to choke out, "W-w-what are you t-talking about?!"

"I'm not blind, Asuka," Misato replied. "I've seen how you and Shinji have been acting ever since he came out of the tank. You were close before that, but now..." A warm smile lit up the woman's face. "Let's just say that Kaji still doesn't suspect anything. And he's supposed to be a spy."

"Pretty dumb one then," Asuka sourly muttered. "But how do you know? We haven't exactly been shouting it from the rooftops."

"I'm a woman too, Asuka." At the girl's flat-eyed stare, Misato relented. "Alright, that and some bits of security footage. I'm glad you talked me into that bed arrangement; you two are just so adorable together!" She laid a gentle hand on her shoulder as her voice turned serious. "But do you have any idea just how proud you make me?"

"Huh?"

Asuka was surprised to see moisture gathering at the edges of Misato's eyes. She barely had enough time to let out a surprised squawk before she was almost crushed in a hug.

"I've been waiting for this for over a year, Asuka," said Misato as she squeezed the girl tighter, mindful of the device on her arm.

"A-a year?! What?" the Second Child stammered out, muffled slightly by a shoulder in her face.

After one more squeeze, Misato finally let go. "Who do you think is the reason for having you two in my apartment? I was planning it as soon as I heard you were on your way to Japan." She exhaled sadly. "I was hoping you two would become friends, support each other, that sort of thing. It crushed me to see you two fighting all the time."

Asuka rubbed the back of her head. "If I knew even a fraction about Shinji back then as I did now, maybe we would have had a better relationship."

"Well, better late -very late- than never I suppose." Wrapping an arm around the girl, Misato drew her closer and said, "You've more than made up for it though. It's all thanks to you that Shinji's getting better every day; physically and mentally."

A nurse passed by them, and two sets of eyes tracked her until she was out of earshot.

Asuka leaned into the hug. "It's the least I can do, considering it's kinda my fault that he-"

"Stop right there," Misato quickly interrupted her. "I refuse to hear any talk like that."

"But it-"

"No. You're helping him. Like I just said, you've more than made up for anything you might have done."

The redhead knew when to give up, especially since she didn't want to feel bad about what had happened the previous year.

"So anyway," Misato continued. "How did it feel to hear those magic words?"

The slight change of subject was clearly meant to lift the mood. It took Asuka a few seconds to realise what the woman meant by 'magic words', but it took only a fraction of a second for her face to heat up again. Since everything was already out in the open, she didn't bother embarrassing herself further by attempting to deny what had taken place not so long ago.

"It... felt wonderful to hear them," she quietly said. "I still remember how it felt when I first learned I was going to be an Eva pilot. What Shinji said was so much better."

"And what about him?"

"I'm not a mind reader."

Misato chuckled. "Alright then. What did he look like when you told him?"

Asuka didn't need to spend much time trying to remember. It was etched into her mind. "He looked... like a boy who had been trapped in a dark room for most of his life, only for somebody to suddenly open the door."

"Keep him in the light, Asuka," Misato solemnly requested. "That's all I ask of you."

Sensing that the conversation was soon to be over, Asuka got to her feet. "Of course I will."

"Oh, yes, one more thing before you go back to your boyfriend."

The Second Child tried to fight down the blush that came forth when that word was said. "What is it?"

"I'm... considering trying to get Shinji back into school again soon," said Misato. "Do you think he'll be able to handle it yet?"

Asuka considered the idea. The SDAT player had worked its sinister magic once more, but for the cause of good. It had reached the point where Shinji once accidentally left it in their hospital room during a physical therapy session, and didn't seem overly concerned as he walked back through the medical wing without its protection.

But would it be enough to protect against an entire school's worth of people?

"Give me some time to bring it up with Shinji," Asuka requested. "It's going to be a big step for him."

"And you'll be there to take it with him."

For once, Asuka didn't feel like arguing about going to school.

The two returned to Shinji and Asuka's room. He was still deep in conversation with Rei, who had a noticeable blush on her face when the redhead got back into her bed.

"I... um... don't think I can offer much help, Rei," he said apologetically. "I don't exactly have a lot of experience, after all. Maybe Asuka or Misato can help you."

"Help with what?" Asuka asked as she got comfortable.

"Romantic interactions," Rei replied, causing Misato to quirk an eyebrow. "I was unable to see that Kensuke had such intentions towards me, and I do not wish to make the same mistake again."

If the eyebrow on Misato's face could rise any more, it would have left the woman's face completely. "Did I miss something interesting?"

"You should ask Rei all about it," Asuka suggested. "Not to mention that you're the most... ah... experienced person. Definitely the best one to turn to."

A clearly naïve First Child turned to Misato and asked, "Would you be willing to help me?"

"Sure! You've gotten me intrigued now."

Asuka almost felt sorry for the girl as she was led away. If she was blushing just from trying to talk about it with her brother, then Misato would soon be able to fry an egg on Rei's face. Once she was positive that the two were gone, Asuka began to mentally prepare herself.

Ever since she had moved herself into Shinji's hospital room, there had been something that she was both eager to attempt yet afraid to bring up, considering what had happened last time. But talking to Misato about her relationship with the boy last year had stirred up that memory, and it was now refusing to go away.

Perhaps it was finally time to make amends.

"...Hey Shinji," Asuka nervously said.

"Yeah?"

"..." She took a deep breath.

"Um... Asuka?"

And said it.

"...You wanna kiss?"

It was no surprise that the only thing Shinji could say to that was, "Bwuh?"

Asuka couldn't help herself. "You know. Kissing." She at least managed to keep her face straight.

"I-I..." The poor boy's face was turning bright red. He coughed nervously into his hand. "Asuka, what are you doing?"

"I'm asking if you want to kiss."

"I know that much, but... what brought this on so suddenly?"

At that point, Asuka's face finally fell. "Damnit. It's just that... Something Misato brought up made me remember what happened last time. I basically tricked you into it and then held your nose for so long that you probably almost passed out. And in the end we both felt like shit. I... I want to try again, Shinji. I want to do our first kiss properly."

Her words seemed to have stunned the boy so hard that his blush disappeared. He blinked rapidly a few times, before shyly glancing away as the redness slowly seeped back into his cheeks.

"I... I c-can't lie, Asuka," Shinji stammered out. "I'd really like for us to do it properly as well."

"Well, g-good!" the redhead replied. "So what are you waiting for? Scared?"

"Scared?" Shinji's head swivelled back around, and he almost glared at her for an instance before he chuckled slightly. "Yeah, I am a bit."

"...Me too," Asuka admitted. She shuffled sideways on her bed, bringing the two of them into closer proximity. "But I was scared last time as well."

"Really? You?"

"Yeah."

Asuka slowly moved her face closer to his, and she could swear that Shinji was doing the same thing. She was glad that they were sitting on the beds. Shinji's height meant that she would have had to almost stretch her neck out to reach him if they were standing.

With a few seconds to go before they would make contact, Shinji tilted his head slightly and closed his eyes, but Asuka kept hers open to stare into his face for as long as possible.

"Asuka?"

"Mm?" Her eyes focused on his rapidly approaching mouth.

"What... were you actually afraid of last time?" Shinji quietly inquired. They were scant centimetres away from each other, and he was talking now?

Millimetres. Asuka could now feel the heat emanating from Shinji's face. "Honestly? I was... scared I'd like it."

"And... did you?"

She stifled a shiver at the feeling of his breath on her face as he spoke, and smiled. "More than I thought I would."

Contact.

Asuka felt the back of her head explode outwards as electricity surged through her lips, through her skull, and down her spine.

At least, that was what it felt like.

When she was finally able to think straight again, Asuka realised something. Unlike their last ki- last two kisses, the thing that had been missing was now there. Somewhere in that couple of seconds where her senses had fled, Shinji's left hand had come up to gently cup her cheek.

The last two times, she had taken the lead almost out of necessity. This time, however, Shinji seemed to be the one 'leading', judging by the extra physical contact between them. And so Asuka felt obligated to one-up the surprisingly bold Third Child. She brought her own left hand up and placed it on the back of his head, applying just enough pressure to dissuade any thoughts of breaking the kiss before she wanted to. She was unhappy that there was no possible way for Shinji to escalate their physical contact, but there was nothing either of them could do about it.

Time seemed to stretch out forever. Minutes, hours, days passed and they remained locked together. The contact was so gentle, yet somehow still immensely powerful. While their lips weren't feathering over each other, neither were they mashed tightly together. Somehow, both of them knew that neither wanted to do too much or too little. Even when Asuka shifted slightly on the bed to keep her balance, Shinji's head moved perfectly in sync with hers, ensuring that the most amazing-feeling thing in her life would stay unbroken.

If somebody came in and threatened to turn Unit-02 into scrap unless she stopped, Asuka would have rolled her eyes and ignored them. This was far more important to her.

It took her a while to realise that both of them were holding their breath. There was no tickle on her face as air moved out of Shinji's nose and the tightness building in her chest, something that wasn't being caused by the kiss, told Asuka that they would soon have to stop.

Make that very soon.

Actually, make that now before her lungs exploded.

At exactly the same instant, the two teenagers let go and pulled away slightly from each other, panting heavily -also in sync, Asuka realised- as their bodies finally got the oxygen they needed. She had to stifle the urge to take a deep breath and just plunge right back in, and the look on Shinji's face said almost the exact same thing.

"Wow...That was..." they both said, before pausing awkwardly. They opened their mouths to try and speak again.

"It was amazing."

"It was wonderful."

With their synchronisation finally broken, Shinji and Asuka smiled bashfully at each other as they repositioned themselves on the linked beds to put an arm around each other.

"Shinji?"

"Mm?"

Asuka paused for a moment as the boy snuggled up even closer and put his head on her shoulder.

"Next time, we're both going to have to remember to breathe," she declared, before resting her head on his.

The kiss seemed to have driven away whatever was left of the pain in Asuka's head. She quickly fell asleep, but didn't relinquish her hold on the young man she had just shared a real first kiss with.


Late that evening, as Misato was idly checking her work email before heading home, she spotted a message with an attachment in her inbox from Ritsuko.

While monitoring Shinji for any problems due to his extensive surgery, the camera in the room he now shares with Asuka caught something I'm sure you'd be interested in. Since it's technically not important, I've sent a copy to you and purged the original. What you do with that copy is up to you.

Next time something like this happens, I'm not going to check it while Maya's around. My right ear's still ringing thanks to her...

Her curiosity piqued, Misato opened the attachment.

A minute later, her secretary burst through the door, the small sub-machine gun in her hand sweeping rapidly across the room as its wielder searched for the source of the Commander's apparent distress. Upon seeing nothing out of place, she lowered the weapon before looking quizzically at the sheepish woman behind the desk.

"Heh, sorry," Misato said. "Just saw something amazing and I couldn't help myself."

Satisfied that her boss wasn't being attacked, the secretary toggled her weapon's safety back on, before giving Misato a mock-disapproving look as she left.

At least it was better working for this Commander, rather than Ikari.


It took two days for Asuka's arm to recover enough to take the healing device off. During that same time period, Shinji was taken to surgery in order to get the necessary implants for his prosthesis attached.

When he came out of surgery, there was now something akin to a cap of metal and circuitry covering the stump and extending a few centimetres up his arm; the metal appearing to have completely replaced the skin. It took several attempts for Shinji to reassure Asuka that he was in no pain at all from the procedure, but that didn't stop her from cautiously -and curiously- poking at it.

Later that day, sometime after the two female pilots left to perform a sync test, Rei returned to Shinji's room to see him idly playing the Second Child's handheld game system. Despite only having one arm, he did not appear to be having much trouble with the device. The door hissing closed caused him to jump slightly with a guilty look until he saw who had entered.

"Oh, hello Rei," he said, closing the lid of the device. "Is the sync test over?"

Rei nodded. "Yes. Asuka is currently next door. She said to tell you that she wanted to spend a bit of time with her mother."

"Ah. So you've come to keep me company then?"

"Actually, there was something I was hoping to ask you at a time when Asuka was not around," the bluenette admitted as she sat down on the chair next to the bed.

"Oh?" Shinji put the game system aside and sat up straight. "What's up, Rei?"

"Um..." Rei looked away for a moment and nervously scratched her cheek. "Have there been any... problems between you and Asuka ever since you recovered from your comatose state earlier this year?" As she finished speaking, she stared directly at Shinji.

The boy raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Problems?" he repeated. "No, not that I can remember. As little as I deserve it, Asuka has been nothing but caring and considerate towards me." He paused and blushed slightly as he ran his hand through his hair.

"Oh... that is good to hear." She relaxed her gaze, satisfied that Shinji wasn't lying to her. While his self-deprecation made her mentally frown, she understood that it would still take time for him to recover his sense of self-worth.

Or rather, she realised with a deepening of the mental frown, to gain said sense in the first place.

"What brought this on, anyway?"

"Asuka was not very happy with the results of the sync test today, despite the fact that it could easily be because she is still not fully recovered," Rei explained. "It reminded me of how she acted last year whenever she did not 'win' a test."

"Ah. Well, there's no need to worry about me," Shinji replied. "Asuka and I... we've both been hurt badly in the past, so neither of us want to risk hurting the other. If there's ever a serious problem in our relationship, I'm sure we can resolve it peacefully. After all, it's not like we could find somebody else who would understand us nearly as well."

The First Child smiled. She almost stated that she would be able to understand both of them, but she quickly realised that her brother was talking about a romantic relationship. "That is good to hear. I wish the two of you nothing but happiness."

"Thank you, Rei."

After a moment, Rei noticed the new addition to Shinji's right arm, uncovered by the temporary prosthesis. She leaned closer and looked curiously at the metal on his arm.

"Ah, right. My new arm should be ready in a couple of days," Shinji said as soon as he noticed his sister's attention. He raised the stump of his arm up for her to get a closer look, and seemed unsurprised as she too poked at it.

"It is unfortunate that it is taking so long for your replacement though," Rei replied sadly.

"Yeah, but the doctors said it was because an arm is much more complicated than a leg."

Thinking back to her medical textbooks, the bluenette replied, "That is certainly correct. After all, a hand requires much more fine motor control than a foot."

Shinji lifted his remaining hand up to his eyes and began to flex the wrist and fingers in various ways. "Heh, that's true," he said after a short moment of quiet. "It's not like I was ever going to pick something up with my feet. I just hope I'll still be able to cook and play the cello properly when I have the new arm."

"Do not worry, brother. If that does occur, you will not be the only one complaining to the person in charge."

After attempting to stifle a chuckle with a closed fist, Shinji grinned and said, "Yeah, Asuka would be back at NERV the next day tearing a strip out of them for giving me a sub-par replacement."

"And Misato and I would be right there with her," Rei added with a soft smile.

As if she had sensed the uttering of her name, Asuka burst in through the door. For a moment Rei thought there was something wrong, until she noticed the size of the smile on the redhead's face.

"Hey you two," Asuka barked. "Got some great news for you! Mama's awake!"

Shinji was out of the bed almost before Rei could process what had just been said. By the time she had arisen from her chair, the boy was already at the door.

"How is she? Can we go see her?!" he excitedly asked.

"Duh, that's why I'm here, dummy!" Asuka replied as she grabbed his hand. "Come on!"


Rei swiftly followed as the Second Child yanked the boy out of the room and into the one next door. Kyoko Langley-Soryu was still laying down in bed, but the First Child could see alertness in the woman's open eyes. There was a doctor and a nurse buzzing around the bed, but they did nothing to impede the teenagers as they got closer.

"Hello, young Ikari. Oh... and hello Ayanami," Kyoko slowly said, cracking a weak smile. "It's nice to see you... almost again, I suppose."

Rei bowed in greeting. "Good day, Ms. Soryu. You are looking well," she said, apparently choosing not to question the woman's choice of words.

Kyoko scoffed good-naturedly. "Hah, no need to lie to me, girl. I'm pretty sure I look like shit." She paused and frowned as she noticed something about the Third Child. Rather than focusing on the hand clutching that of her daughter, it was something much more unusual that caught her eye.

"Junge, was zum Teufel ist mit deinem Arm los!?"

Shinji recoiled instinctively at the woman's quick shout. He stammered for a bit, but gave up on translating what exactly she had yelled at him and bowed deeply as he haltingly exclaimed, "Tu-tut mia sehr l-leit, Furau Soryu!"

All traces of shock left Kyoko's face as she tried to work out what Shinji had just said in his partially-successful attempt to reply in her own language, but she was cautioned by the nurse against speaking so energetically, to which she huffed and rolled her eyes.

In her place, Asuka leaned sideways towards the stricken boy and said, "Um, Shinji? Not only did you apparently not understand what she said, your pronunciation was... kinda bad." She gently slapped his shoulder. "Looks like you're still not ready to graduate from my language course."

"O-oh?" Shinji returned to an upright position.

"She was merely surprised at your injury," Rei said in clarification. "You therefore apologised for not having both arms."

Shinji glanced to his right, noticing that he had forgotten to reattach the temporary prosthesis after coming out of surgery earlier that day. "Oh. Um... so- er... whoops?"

"Dummy," Asuka affectionately remarked. She turned to her mother and said, "Shinji got badly injured a while ago..."

Kyoko nodded slowly as the teenage redhead filled her in on the results of the battle against the Fourth Revenant, wincing in sympathy upon hearing about what Shinji had suffered.

The moment the door closed behind the doctor and nurse, Kyoko was speaking animatedly again, asking her own questions to fill in gaps. That progressed to the three teenagers telling her everything that had happened that year, minus a certain... personal subject. And then, when Shinji failed at hiding a yawn and was escorted back to his bed by Rei, the two Soryus switched to German and began to hesitatingly talk about something much more sensitive.

The ten years Kyoko had been gone from her daughter's life.

It took Asuka a little while to begin, and what followed was a sobering couple of hours as she sadly spoke about the many events in her life that her mother hadn't been there for. But as Kyoko quickly pointed out, she had been with her, just unable to make contact. Some parts of Asuka's life were inexplicably already in her memory, such as the girl's college graduation.

"Somebody shook your hand afterwards," the woman slowly said. "They tried to squeeze a bit too hard, and you almost crushed his hand in retaliation."

"...Yeah," Asuka murmured in astonishment. "I'd almost forgotten about that. But I do remember my sync ratio jumping a few points in the next test after graduation."

Kyoko reached out and patted her daughter's shoulder. "I don't know if it would be right to say 'you're welcome', but..."

"I understand."

Asuka belatedly realised that her mother had obviously 'seen' important events in her life. After all, when they had met in Instrumentality, that kiss had played in front of their mind's eyes. She said as much out loud, to which Kyoko smirked.

"Speaking of that boy," she said, deciding it was time to get the mood back up. "Don't think I didn't notice how you two were when you came in here."

A dusting of scarlet coated Asuka's face. She stuttered for a moment, before crossing her arms. "If anything, it's your fault, Mama. You're the one who told me just how shitty his life was."

"Language."

"Sorry," Asuka replied with an abashed look. "Anyway, when Misato and I found Shinji and got him back home, I couldn't bring myself to just ignore him after everything he'd suffered through. Especially since I felt like I had been part of the problem. Misato eventually used her authority to assign me as his official caretaker, which we both knew was just a formality, but it meant I had the perfect excuse to stay at home with him."

"And I can already see that it was time well spent," Kyoko remarked. "But did the apple fall far enough from the tree? Is Shinji free of the taint of that arsehole father of his?"

"I'm pretty sure the only similarities Shinji has with the Bas- er... with his father are physical. I don't know anything about his mother, but I'm pretty sure Shinji inherited her personality instead."

"Kind, considerate, polite, a good cook and cello player, but nasty when angry?"

"Er... yeah," Asuka replied, mildly surprised that her mother had listed the exact right points. "Did you know Yui Ikari?"

"I knew both Yui and Gendo. Back when she was alive and he wasn't a massive dick. I even babysat Shinji a couple of times."

"You did?" The redhead's eyebrows shot up. "I don't remember that."

"I guess it was much too long ago for you to remember, dear," Kyoko replied, before she suddenly gave a bright smile. "You two were adorable together. Whenever Yui and I could find the time, we let you play with each other."

"Wait... I think I remember something now," Asuka said, before scrunching her eyes closed. "Did I... try and hide from Shinji behind your hair?"

A squeal of joy erupted from Kyoko's mouth. "Yes! I looked around when I felt you behind me, but then you tugged my hair back over your face." The younger redhead covered her face in embarrassment, but she couldn't hide the smile on her face. "Oh, do you want to know a little secret, dear?"

"Um, okay?"

"Your new boyfriend is the reason I had you." The woman laughed as her daughter almost fell off her chair. "Yep! When Yui was pregnant, I got it into my head to have a child as well. Six months after Shinji was born, you came into the world."

"I... wow," Asuka murmured as she steadied herself.

"And when you were born, Yui made a joke about you two getting together." Kyoko's face lost its smile. "It's a shame she's not around to see how prophetic she was."

Asuka couldn't stop the anxious expression that that flashed across her face, but her mother didn't seem to notice it.

"But enough about the past, what is Shinji like now?" Kyoko inquired. "I'm afraid I don't know much about him other than the impressions I got while in Unit-02 and what little I remember from when he was a toddler."

"He's definitely better now, but he still gets nightmares unless I... um..." Asuka cut herself off, too embarrassed to explain her sleeping arrangement with the Third Child.

Unfortunately for the girl, her mother was going to insist on knowing. "Unless you what?"

"Unless... I... we..."

"Come on, dear. I'm your mother, surely you can tell me."

"...Wesleepnextoeachother." The words came out in a rush, as if they were trying to zoom past Kyoko's ears before they could be understood. But she still heard them.

"Sleep next to each other, hmm?" At Asuka's mortified nod, the woman sighed. "Don't worry, Asuka. If your relationship is at the point where you're fine with something like that, then I suppose I can trust Shinji to be a gentleman about the arrangement." She paused for a moment. "He... is a gentleman, right?"

Asuka nodded. "Yeah. Shinji's not doing it to try to get into my pants. Our arrangement is genuinely helping him to sleep soundly at night. And... it helps me do the same as well."

Without warning, Kyoko grabbed her daughter's arm and yanked her towards the bed, where she could properly envelop her in a motherly embrace.

"I'm so sorry for everything I put you through, darling," she whispered in the girl's ear.

"I don't care about that anymore, Mama," Asuka murmured. "You're here now, and that's all that matters."

The two redheads kept the hug going for a minute longer before breaking it. Asuka sniffled a little as she sat back down, not bothering to do anything about the tears in her eyes, but she was smiling again.

"I really should let you get some sleep," Asuka remarked. "The doctors are probably going to start working on getting you better tomorrow."

"Before you go, there's one last question I have about your relationship with that boy," Kyoko said as the girl stood up. At Asuka's quizzical look, she painted a serious look on her face and asked, "Do you... know what Shinji did while you were in a coma?"

"Yeah, I do," Asuka replied bluntly as she looked away. "I accidentally blurted out that I loved him, but Shinji refused to accept that as how I really felt until he told me about doing... that. He thought it would make me change my mind; hate him. I went away and thought about it for a bit, and came back to tell him that I was going to let it slide because of his mental state."

She turned to lock determined eyes on her mother. "Now, neither of us are allowed to wallow in what we did in the past. Last year was terrible for both of us; if we keep looking back, we'll never be able to move forward."

Kyoko matched the look in Asuka's eyes. "Alright then. If you truly love that young man then I'll accept it, but I won't lie either. It's going to take a little while for me to get over what Shinji did to you."

"I understand." Asuka leaned down to kiss her mother on the forehead, then smirked. "Is Shinji going to have problems from another redhead now?"

"Maybe not 'problems', but I will be watching him closely. Now shoo; Mama needs her beauty sleep."

"Good night, Mama," Asuka said, stopping at the door to give a farewell wave. "I'll be next door if anything happens."

"Good night, my darling."


The next day came with a mild surprise for Shinji, in the form of a prosthesis that was ready to be attached and tested. It was still missing the outer covering, but the people that had been working on it wanted to make sure it functioned perfectly before sealing it up.

Plus, they needed a little extra time to create the synthetic skin in the proper colour.

When asked why this prosthesis seemed to have taken longer to finish than what had been made for the one-time Fourth Child, the luckless man Asuka queried got a shifty look for a moment before stating that NERV had been looking into researching and improving prosthetic limbs for several months already. But Shinji's injury had caused a fire to be lit under the department courtesy of a certain Commander, and progress in the last month had been much quicker than the rest of the year.

As a result, NERV had made several advances in the field, such as improving a limb's efficiency at drawing energy from the person's own body, and quieter, more natural movement. Many people didn't like to be reminded of their handicap, after all.

Somebody had also come up with the idea of adapting the neural link between a pilot and an Evangelion into a deeper, more personal form of neural connection that would, just like the Evangelions, allow an amputee to move their new limb as if it were still a natural part of them.

As somebody who already knew how the neural link worked, Shinji would be the first to try the system.

There was a disquieted look on Asuka's face the first time she watched Shinji learn how to move an arm that looked disturbingly close to something from a mid-80's science-fiction film. That didn't stop her from remaining close to the boy, giving encouragement and support just like she had when Shinji was learning to walk again. Whether it was because of Asuka's presence, or Shinji's previous experience at moving a limb that wasn't 'his', the boy made rapid progress as the first week went on.

During that week, Asuka always tried to make sure that her mother either had company or something to occupy her time, such as reading or watching television. Even Misato offered to spend some of her spare time with Kyoko.

The girl was incredibly suspicious at the smirk on her mother's face when she entered the woman's hospital room after Misato's first visit. It felt like she had just missed a joke at her own expense.

At the end of the week, it appeared that no progress had been made in improving Kyoko's health. But then the Second Child came up with a suggestion that made the attending doctor slap his forehead and mutter about thinking of it first.

Within an hour, Kyoko Langley-Soryu was prepped and placed in the healing tank.

The day afterwards, the synthetic skin for Shinji's prosthesis was finally produced and applied to the bionic limb after necessary final adjustments had been made. Now that the boy no longer looked like an obvious cyborg, Asuka found that she was no longer unconsciously flinching whenever she took the false hand in her own.

Perhaps there was something to be said for the natural look after all.

As a 'reward' for his progress, Asuka 'graciously' allowed Shinji to give her a proper, full contact hug one evening. Even though the boy was still a little nervous about such an act, he quickly accepted. While there was obviously no sense of warmth coming from his right arm, the heat she felt from the rest of his body, not to mention the full body blush she herself felt after involuntarily making a happy noise that made Shinji chuckle, more than made up for it.

That night, the two of them ended up falling asleep on Asuka's side of the bed with both of Shinji's arms wrapped around her.


It took two agonisingly long days before Asuka's mother began to improve. After that, it was like a gate had been opened. Once she started recovering, it was only half of another day passed before Kyoko's vital signs stopped improving, though the doctor in charge of her insisted on a few more hours just to be sure, to Asuka's consternation.

"I want to make a suggestion," Kyoko remarked upon hearing about the extension to her time in the tank. "Either keep the patient sedated, or set up a television or something so they're not bored out of their damn skull while stuck in a tube." She turned to Asuka and added, "Er, no offence, dear."

The younger redhead simply chuckled.

"I'll, uh... make a note of that, Ms. Soryu," the doctor replied. "Next time, we'll..." He trailed off as he looked at the screen showing a readout of the tank's systems. "...Huh, that's funny..."

Both mother and daughter narrowed their eyes. Kyoko said, "Doctor, I'm a scientist. Whenever I hear 'that's funny' in that tone of voice, I immediately think something's wrong. And I happen to be in the thing that's making you say that."

The doctor appeared to not have heard her, as he confusedly rubbed the back of his head before getting in contact with a technician. Whatever he mumbled into the receiver didn't reach Kyoko's ears. Ten minutes later, said technician entered the room and checked the same readouts the doctor had.

"Huh, that's funny."

Kyoko growled under her breath.

Eventually, the combined irritation of the two Soryus seemed to sink into the men's heads, and they got to explaining. Unlike with Shinji's time in the healing tank, not to mention that of the test subjects, the compound that was used to heal the patient had suffered a drastic loss of its biggest component: LCL.

"Was there a leak or something?" Asuka inquired.

"The compound is mixed elsewhere and stored in a container that connects directly to the tank." The technician tapped on the screen. "No errors, no leaks... it's like the LCL just vanished."

"Or got absorbed."

The two men and Asuka all looked questioningly at Kyoko.

"Due to... security issues, I can't simply tell you everything," the woman continued. "Put simply, I returned from Instrumentality in a depleted state. The LCL in this tank was absorbed by my body to fix that. If I'm right, my vitals should show that I'm perfectly healthy now."

Within a minute, she was proven correct. Though the technician was hesitant, the doctor decided to let her finally get out of the healing tank. But despite supposedly being back to normal, Kyoko was firmly asked to stay a couple more days in the hospital for observation, to which she sighed loudly and acquiesced.

Asuka, having remembered what Shinji had said about his time in the tube, suggested an immediate shower to ensure all traces of the compound were gone. A lightbulb seemed to have switched on behind the technician's eyes, and he immediately set off, muttering something about an addition to the tank. The doctor procured a towel and a hospital gown for Kyoko, before making his own exit.

Half an hour later, Kyoko was freshly scrubbed and back in her room. And after two days, she was finally released from the hospital.

It was surely pure coincidence that that was the same day that both Asuka Langley-Soryu and Shinji Ikari were also declared well enough to leave.


Asuka was mildly surprised by the lack of shock on Shinji's face when they entered the Katsuragi apartment and saw what Misato had resorted to while both of them had been in the hospital.

But then again, the woman had always been a lazy slob when off duty. Shinji had obviously expected something like this.

She was glad to see that there were only fast food containers laying about the kitchen; no sign of any bottles or beer cans. She was also glad that arrangements had been made for Hikari to look after Pen-pen again. Asuka never again wanted to see what a penguin looked like after being fed cheap curry.

Shinji immediately went for the kitchen cupboard that contained the garbage bags, pulling one out and filling it with the detritus of almost a month's worth of bachelorette rubbish. Asuka simply sighed and joined him, and together they were done almost before Misato collapsed onto the couch in the living room.

Kyoko had been set up in the next apartment over. While Asuka would have loved for her to stay in the Katsuragi apartment, there was simply no space left unless her mother wanted to sleep on a spare futon in the lounge room; an option that the Soryu matron politely declined.

Their first dinner at home in a long time was almost a grand affair. Despite not having fully completed his physical therapy, with Asuka's help Shinji managed to produce a wonderful dinner, and the redhead was glad that Kyoko had readily agreed to join them.

"It's been over a decade since I last ate something that good, young man," Kyoko remarked. "In fact, if I'm not mistaken, it was when Yui wanted to thank me for babysitting you."

Shinji froze, a morsel of food hovering halfway between his plate and his mouth. Next to him, Asuka noticed his reaction and reached out to rub his shoulder.

"...Sorry," Kyoko ashamedly apologised. "Asuka said you don't like to talk much about your mother."

"Huh?" The boy looked up at the woman. "Oh! No, I was just surprised at what you said about babysitting me."

"Yesss, tell us all about it!"

The two teenagers and Kyoko all stared at Misato, who was now grinning widely and leaning forward with her chin in her hands.

"Oh... Gott," Shinji and Asuka both groaned at the same time, before simultaneously covering their faces with their hands.


"Hey Shinji," Asuka said as the two of them entered her room after dinner. "Do you, um..." She blushed slightly. "Do you... wanna go back to sleeping on a futon?"

The boy's face soon matched her own as he cottoned on to what she was tacitly implying. They both looked over at her bed, still in the corner of the room against the window and covered in a thin layer of dust. It hadn't been used once since Asuka had made the decision to sleep next to Shinji to help combat their nightmares. The bed wasn't exactly huge, but both of them could comfortably fit on it.

Or very comfortably fit on it, if Asuka had her way. She didn't want to give up the warm feeling she got in her chest when waking up to Shinji's face in close proximity. But she would, admittedly unhappily, do without that feeling if he didn't want to-

"I'd like that, Asuka," Shinji said, derailing her thoughts with that smile well before they could plunge off a cliff.

"Wait... r-really?" she stammered.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Futons are fine, I guess, but I know you'd much rather sleep in an actual bed. And, uh..." He turned away slightly, nervously rubbing the back of his head, but Asuka could still see the redness in his cheeks. "I... really liked our arrangement in the hospital."

Asuka gave him a warm grin. "Well good. Guess that means we can finally get rid of these things," she aimed a lazy kick at the futon that she used to sleep in, "and put the bed back where it belongs."

In no time at all, the futons were ejected from the room and the bed dragged back to its rightful place. Asuka was gently held away from getting onto the bed by Shinji, as the boy decided that the bedclothes needed changing first. As soon as that was done he bowed and waved Asuka towards the bed, and she smirked at him before catapulting herself backwards onto the fresh summer quilt.

"Aaahh, so much better than those hard mattresses the hospital has," she happily remarked. Her head shot up as she saw Shinji, old bedclothes in hand, slowly move towards the door. "Oi. Get back here, Third."

"Hmm? What is it Asukaaaaahh!"

The moment he was in range, Asuka's hand shot out to grab him and yank him towards her. The bedclothes dropped from his arms as he threw his hands out to either side of her to arrest his fall. She grinned up at him, trying to pretend that her cheeks weren't warming up again. She leaned up so that their faces were only inches apart, and Shinji gulped nervously.

"Leave them for now." Asuka patted the bed next to her. "Relax a bit, Shinji."

"Oh. Um. Okay." Shinji looked almost disappointed, and made to sit on the bed, but Asuka shook her head and told him to 'do it properly'. It took two attempts before she was satisfied with how he flopped onto the bed next to her.

"Tomorrow, I want to go to that music store and see if my violin has been repaired yet," Asuka declared. "It's been a few weeks now, hopefully Masami's arm has healed up."

Shinji's right arm came up, and he slowly rotated his hand in front of his face. "...I wonder if muscle memory will still work with a prosthesis," he mumbled, almost to himself.

"Don't worry, Shinji," Asuka replied reassuringly. "Even if you have problems, I'm positive that you'll be able to play brilliantly again soon enough." She shuffled closer to him and grinned. "If not, I'm sure I can think of a few ways to motivate you. After all, I'd like to be able to play with you."

Shinji smiled warmly. "That's all the motivation I need, Asuka."

"Oh? Guess I won't have to worry about my backup plan of taking my shirt off if you play well."

"Yeah... Wait, what?!"

Asuka's only response was to cackle at the look on Shinji's face.


The next day brought good news for Asuka. Not only had Masami's broken arm fully healed, he had managed to completely restore her violin to a pristine state. The elderly music store owner tried to give her the 'hero discount' again, and Asuka refused to pay anything but full price for his masterful work. In the end, a compromise was reached.

Asuka left the store with not only her violin, but also a brand new case and bow, as well as the sheet music books Shinji had been looking at last time. To her surprise a couple of those books were actually for a violin, and she ended up adding a few more to the bag Shinji ended up carrying out of the store.

The two of them stopped at a food court for lunch before heading home. Asuka had been keeping an eye on Shinji just in case he got hit with a stranger's memories again but to her relief the boy seemed, if anything, more cheerful than her.

After they both bought their lunch, Asuka headed for a booth table. Without needing any hints, Shinji sat right next to her, placing his tray down and smiling shyly at the redhead.

This gave the redhead a perfect chance to sneakily listen to what was playing on his SDAT player, and she began to slowly shift sideways on the booth seat, ostensibly to simply get closer to Shinji. Strangely, she couldn't hear anything at all, even when her ear was just centimetres away from the side of his head.

"What are you doing, Asuka?"

"Nothin'," Asuka innocently replied, before snagging a chip off his plate and popping it in her moth. She then reconsidered her response, and decided there was no harm in answering truthfully. "Just curious as to what song you were listening to right now."

"Oh. Let me turn the volume back up then," Shinji replied as he fumbled with the device.

"Wait, you had it turned down?" Asuka looked curiously at him. "Why?"

"Well, I've been slowly lowering the volume ever since you and Rei gave it back to me. It is rather rude to not respond to someone trying to get your attention, after all, even if I'm trying to... block something out." A smile began to bloom on Shinji's face. "But after a while, I noticed that people's memories weren't getting through to me, even when the music was turned down."

Asuka quirked an eyebrow. "You're starting to be able to tune them out automatically, you mean?"

"I guess so?" Shinji shrugged. "I still have the occasional... flash of someone's memory, but these days I usually don't have time to focus on it before it's gone."

"That's great! Pretty soon you won't need that thing at all to go out in public again!"

"Um..." The boy scratched at the side of his mouth. "To be honest... I've had my SDAT muted ever since we left the music store."

The other eyebrow rose up to meet its twin on Asuka's face. "And no problems? Even in this food court?" The mall wasn't exactly crowded, as it was a school day, but there were still plenty of people around.

"None that I can... well... remember."

Asuka grinned. This seemed like the perfect time to ask an important question. "In that case, Shinji..." She stole another chip. "If you're not having problems anymore, how do you feel about... returning to school soon?"

Shinji sank deep into silent thought for several minutes, and Asuka took several more chips while she patiently waited for his response. Eventually, the boy's head lifted back up.

"How soon are you thinking?"

"Next week?" she suggested. "That gives you time to prepare yourself."

"I suppose that will do, but..." He looked at Asuka for a moment, before nervously glancing away. After a moment, his eyes darted back to hers. "Will... will you be there too?"

Asuka paused with the last chip halfway to her mouth. "Do you want me to go to school with you?"

"Y-yeah," Shinji stammered. "To be perfectly honest, I think you're more responsible for me being able to forget about other people's memories than my SDAT. You've certainly been the only thing I've been able to think about at times."

Asuka brought the chip up to her mouth and bit half of it off, chewing slowly while staring at Shinji. It was incredibly flattering to learn that she had had such a positive impact on his thought processes. She didn't even bother to try and suppress the blush growing on her face at such an admission.

Shinji opened his mouth, possibly to prepare an apology, and Asuka popped the other half of the chip in his mouth. "Of course I'll go back to school with you," she declared. "We're boyfriend and girlfriend now. Wherever you go, I go as well."

"Does that apply the other way around as well?" Shinji asked as soon as he swallowed the chip.

"Are you implying that you wouldn't want to hang around me?" Asuka painted a look of mock outrage on her face.

"N-no! I didn't mean that!"

The facade cracked, and Asuka chuckled. "Oh Shinji, you're still so easy to tease."

Shinji huffed, crossing his arms and turning his upper body away. "And you're still mean."

Asuka planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. "No I'm not."

"...No, you're not."

Identical smiles remained on both of their faces all the way home.


That afternoon, Shinji discovered that his school uniforms no longer fit. Asuka quickly checked her own, and was relieved to see that she could still fit into them. Since she didn't feel like going back out again, Asuka sent a message to Misato, who replied back saying that she would take care of Shinji's uniform problems.

The next day, a delivery arrived at the Katsuragi apartment for Shinji. Several sets of uniforms, both normal and summer wear, including sports clothing. They fit perfectly, and the boy was left wondering just how Misato had managed it, before Asuka reminded him of the fact that NERV had measurements for all three pilots.

Pen-pen, who had returned to the apartment the day before, took one look at Shinji in his new uniform and gave the best thumbs up that a genetically modified penguin with claws on their flippers could manage.

The rest of the week passed, with sync tests and simulation training for the female pilots, and checkups for Shinji and his prosthetic limbs. The day after getting his new uniforms, Shinji asked to be included in the tests and training once more.

Unit-01's regeneration was picking up speed. The burns and holes from its last fight were gone, and about two-thirds of its right arm had been restored. Ritsuko decided it was enough to allow a test, but she ordered the technicians in the command centre to watch out for pain signals attempting to transfer through the neural link to Shinji, and be ready to sever the connection to Unit-01's right arm.

It was an order that turned out to be needed almost immediately. The fact that his right arm was a prosthetic with no sense of touch didn't seem to matter to the boy's subconscious. As soon as Shinji managed to get the stubborn Evangelion to activate, he immediately winced and rubbed at the arm until Unit-01's own arm had its links cut. Afterwards, though he complained of a sense of 'nothingness' in his arm, Shinji managed a respectable 49% sync ratio.

Soon, much too soon for Asuka's taste, it was Sunday night and then Monday morning.


Toji sighed and leaned back dangerously far in his chair. "Just another day..."

"Yep, nothing much going to happen today," Kensuke agreed.

"And nothin' will happen tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that."

The spectacled boy shrugged. "Let's be honest, the only slightly interesting thing that's happened recently was us getting that new science teacher."

"Another old geezer. At least this one doesn't harp on about what life was like before Second Impact."

"Suzuhara!"

Toji jumped in his seat, almost tipping over completely, as Class Representative Horaki reprimanded him, before pulling her thumb and forefinger across her lips in a 'zip it' motion as the bell rang.

The teacher came in, and Hikari led the class in the usual greeting ritual.

"Good morning class," the teacher said. "Before we get started, we have a couple of new arrivals... sort of."

Toji and Kensuke looked inquisitively at each other before leaning forward in their seats and staring at the classroom door.

The door slid open, and a boy and girl that most of the class hadn't seen since the previous year stepped into the room, which immediately erupted into noise the moment the students recognised the newcomers.

Or perhaps it was the fact that Shinji and Asuka were holding hands.

"What..." Kensuke began.

"...the fu-"

"Suzuhara!"

"Hey everyone," Shinji said with a small wave of his right hand. "We're back."