Okay so last expo and character chapter before things really kick off and the plot gets going. I'm gettin' excited. This is also getting to where I have already written quite a bit of content. I will admit, I am not totally satisfied with this beginning and at some point in the future I will revise for style (no plot changes though) and group them into 1 or 2 total chapters.
Chapter 7
Misato Katsuragi was shocked by what she had just learned. What was worse was that her best friend not only knew about it, she was part of it and was rationally explaining to her why it was necessary. The worst part was it was making sense.
"Misato, nobody likes that we have to use children for this, but as I said if we are going to put children in harm's way it should be as few as possible. That means having a small pilot corps and that means we need these kids to be obedient and able to carry out orders. Unlike flying a plane or driving a tank, the pilot has to actually will the Eva to violence and that means we need pilots who can do that without emotion into it. Its horrible, but it is necessary when the alternative is the death of all humanity, if not all life on Earth. When this is all over, I assure you the pilots will have the best possible care and won't want for anything."
"If they survive, Rits. That is a big if after this first fight."
"Misato, you are being very negative about this. We won, using the prototype and an untrained pilot. Soon the first production type will be fitted for combat, and you know Asuka, she has been training for this her entire life and is as healthy as any girl her age, mentally and physically."
"And what about Rei then?"
"Misato, Rei's condition is not connected to her treatment by NERV in any way. When she was examined as a child, we believed she had a simple case of albinism, it's a minor birth defect and she presented a fairly normal case apart from the pigmentation of her hair. As she got older, her body reacted adversely to incorrectly copied hormones being produced within her ova. They were removed surgically and she has recovered fine. She sees me every week and we manage hormone therapy so she will develop as normally as possible. Her irregular behavior is a side effect of her medications."
"But Shinji…"
"Shinji saved the world last week and if anything that shows the program works. If it would make you feel better I can look into having him seen by a specialist to determine if drug therapy might help. Misato, I need you to be clear on this though, you cannot share any piece of this conversation with the pilots."
School passed quickly and Shinji was happy the first day back had been designated for reviewing evacuation and shelter procedures and not actual education. At lunch, the boy who sat next to him in class had joined him under the shade of a tree.
"So Ikari…" Kensuke Aida started, leaning in. Shinji leaned away, really uncomfortable with the lack of distance. "When did you get into town?"
"Um, just last Saturday actually. Would you mind not getting so close Aida-san?"
Kensuke obliged and scooted back to a more socially acceptable distance. "So the day the giant monster attacked then. Aaaaand your last name is Ikari, like Commander Ikari of NERV?" Kensuke Aida tilted his head as he leaned in again, the sun light creating enough glare off his glasses that Shinji could not see his eyes.
"Um, uh, yeah, H-he is my d-dad, w-w-w…" Shinji was getting very uncomfortable now, his hands were pushing at the ground, ready to push himself up and run. He started looking around, looking for holes the fence or a door he could lock from the inside, somewhere away from the questions.
"Hey!" Kensuke almost yelled, making Shinji turn back towards the boy. It was not that glasses wearing young man scared him; it was what he wanted to talk about. "Ikari-san, calm down, calm down, I'm sorry I asked."
Ken had moved back several more feet and the distance, along with a change in subject, allowed Shinji to relax. They ate lunch together and Kensuke told Shinji all about the school and the other kids in their class. Shinji asked about Aida's family and he told him that he lived with his dad and his mom was gone. Taking comfort in the similarity, Shinji told him his mom was gone too, and he lived with Captain Katsuragi.
"So she is an officer at NERV?"
"Y-yeah…" Shinji was a little more comfortable approaching this topic this way, but it still put him on edge.
"Hey man, I am sorry I freaked ya out earlier, if you don't want to talk about it, its fine."
"Yes, I mean no, I would rather not talk about it."
"Cool with me. I know I keep saying it but I am sorry about before." Kensuke pulled his glasses off and breathed on them before starting to clean them with his shirt. "Dad says I need to learn to read people better, and I guess I didn't see that it was making you uncomfortable until it made you really uncomfortable."
"T-thanks, Aida-san."
"Call me Ken, Ikari-san"
"O-okay, please call me Shinji then."
"Alright Shinji… so this Captain Katsuragi, she good lookin'?"
And so Shinji Ikari made his first friend his own age in as long as he could remember.
After school Misato picked him up, still in the NERV livery hybrid, and took him back to the geofront to begin his training. Well he supposed it was a bit like school. The actual work would start tomorrow. First they had him fill out paperwork, then they took his picture, then he filled out some more paperwork, then they issued him a cell phone like Misato's, then he filled out more paperwork regarding NERV policies on cell phone use.
He dutifully filled out the paperwork, smiled for the picture and was told to not smile for the picture, and had to ask how to use the phone.
The fitting of the plug suit was not an experience he wished to ever repeat or discuss. It took several hours for the polymer to cure before the suit could be removed and the sensation started with feeling like he was covered in sludge to his entire body being squeezed too tightly before the suit finally reached the "snug, but comfortable" feeling he was told it should have. By the time Misato and Shinji returned home, Shinji could tolerate instant ramen before collapsing in bed.
School the next day, to Shinji's disappointment, concentrated on history. It was not his best subject, though far from his worst, it was just so boring. Today the lesson was about the impact wars. Several simmering conflicts boiled over as resource scarcity rose sharply. Korea was seen as a best-case scenario, where local councils followed dissolution of both standing governments and individual military units brought peace then formed a new state together. The India/Pakistan conflict was at the opposite end of the spectrum, having gone nuclear right away. The people of the region were now a culture in exile, especially painful given the connection of their cultures to various sites now part of the region known as the South Asian Exclusion Zone. No recognizable life remained, and due to radiation the UN enforced a strict quarantine of the area. Nobody was allowed in and there was nobody left to come out.
At lunch, Ken told Shinji there were stories of monsters, created from human and animals by the fallout, that roamed the SAEZ and that was the real reason UN forces prevented any access. Shinji found this dubious.
"Doesn't it sound more reasonable that they don't want anybody going in then coming back out and contaminating even more of the region?"
"Yeah that's the official story."
"Let me guess, I should never believe the official story?"
"Damn right."
"Uh huh, you're not one of those people who think second impact was an attack by aliens, are you?"
Later, at NERV…
Shinji made a mental note that he owed Aida Kensuke an apology then remembered he wasn't allowed to tell him he was right, kind of. He was in a briefing room, set up just like a movie theater, watching an informational film for new NERV employees. He had just found out that second impact was the result of attempts to communicate with an alien life form found in the Antarctic. The massive amount of energy released was thought to be secondary to the release of a high-energy signal, presumably to its home world. The angels are thought to be the response to that signal. Shinji saw a lot of holes in that story, but didn't say anything.
After the presentation, Shinji was introduced to the pilot simulator. It filled with LCL just like in the Eva, but he did not freak out as badly this time. Training was centered on basic movement and use of Eva scale firearms. Find the target, locate the core, and shoot. The weapons were not meant to be reloaded by the Eva in combat and did not rely on the ammunition to cycle, so there were no malfunctions to clear. Sub-systems and computers within the Eva took care of holding the weapon steady and aiming, so all Shinji had to do was look where he wanted to shoot and fire. It was like an arcade game but after hours of it Shinji was exhausted.
When they left, Shinji fell asleep in the car on the way home. He still made dinner when they got home, he was not tired enough to stomach instant noodles again. As he brought his knees up to his chest and watched the door, waiting for sleep to take him, Shinji had a thought. He was being trained to defeat the angels at range. From the video he saw of his first fight through, he did not remember most of it himself but they said that was normal given the trauma, he had fought the angel up close. As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered why nobody was teaching him to fight that way.
Elsewhere…
"ACHOO!"
"Bless you, ya alright Ssam?"
"Yes, thank you. Pass the kimchi, would you Vitali."
The next two days proceeded in a familiar way. Shinji made breakfast, went to school, had lunch with Kensuke, trained at NERV until his mind and body were numb, came home, made dinner, and slept in his corner. He dreamed of shooting kaiju in his sleep. Kensuke found the stories of his training, what he was allowed to tell, interesting. Shinji liked hearing about Kensuke's father job, he was an engineer. Shinji liked being around Kensuke, they both had room to improve their social interaction, and Shinji felt relaxed instead of trying to project a pleasing image.
On Friday, things began to change. On Friday, Ayanami Rei would be released from NERV medical, Suzuhara Toji would return to school, and a blue pattern would be detected heading East over the South China Sea.
End
So is the author a hack? Whose eating Kimchi with Vitali? Who the hell is Vitali anyway? And why does every long form NGE fic use that sneezing gag anyway?