Human After All
CHAPTER 3: SOME MAKE NEW CONNECTIONS, OTHERS SAY GOODBYE TO THE OLD ONES.
It was a beautiful day outside. The sun had never been so bright before. In the private house of the Soryu family, up in the hills, Kyoko was on a call with someone.
"tot? Bist du dir sicher? ... ich verstehe, danke, Schatz." She blew a kiss and closed the phone.
"Mama!" Kyoko heard her little flower shout.
She turned back and looked at her daughter, who was holding a monkey plushie in her hand with a big smile. "I'm here, Asuka! Come join mama!"
The little girl smiled even more and rushed towards her mother, laughing during her run.
"Mama! I found a cool bug, I think it was...a ladybug!" She exclaimed and her mother giggled.
One year after the incident at the GEHRIN lab, the place had shut down and now a new building under the name NERV had reopened. Gendo Ikari had been chosen as the commander of the new organization, with his teacher, Kozo Fuyutsuki as the sub-commander. At first, people were very vocal against these choices but, over time, Gendo had proven to them to be a trustworthy man. And just like that, many people chose to forget the past events regarding him and his wife.
"Another eva?" Gendo asked Fuyutsuki from his desk.
"Indeed. The old men want to build more Evas in case the angels come in masses. Unit 02 is now being built in the German branch of NERV, and as you already know, we have been chosen to build Unit 00."
That, Gendo knew. In his hand laid the documents of the failed attempts at building Unit 00, with pictures included.
In one of those documents, the six eyes of Unit 00 looked at the camera. That first build had been quite the handful, as it had woken up moments after activation. Six scientists are dead.
Another picture showed the face of a different Unit 00, this time with no eyes. That had been scrapped after being deemed unfit for any type of combat or support.
They had to go through many different models and trials, but finally, they managed to build the "perfect" Unit 00. It had only one eye, like a cyclops, but a quite big field of view, they had made sure of that. Almost as if this eva had two eyes and not one. Through the simulator, they had discovered that their new prototype worked really well in ranged combat, but it was slow at hand-to-hand and melee. Deemed appropriate by the higher-ups, the Eva would be immediately under work, and a soul would be soon found and inserted in the core.
"Have you found any candidate?" Gendo asked the professor once again.
"Two candidates so far, from the families of Aida and Suzuhara." Fuyutsuki answered. "Both work inside our building. If you ask me, I'd say we choose Suzuhara."
"Why is that?"
"The wife of the family has a history of serving in JSDDF. After she got pregnant she left the army and then, later on, she continued her degree in computer science," he said.
"I see." Gendo commented on the information.
"There's another thing. She is really close with her son and currently, she has been said to be 4 months pregnant. I suggest we wait longer before we put her in a synch test."
Gendo nodded. "And…what about Project Ayanami?" he asked.
"We need more samples from Lilith. For some reason, the angelic DNA refuses to merge with Yui's genes." with that said, Kozo got up from his chair and moved to Gendo's desk to leave two pictures. One of them showed the tube where the girl was being developed, and the other showed the fetus state of the clone.
"I see. You can go down in dogma and retrieve more samples. We don't have much time."
"We need Rei for our scenario."
Back at kindergarten, Shinji was playing with cubes, alone. His cousin didn't want to look at him anymore and other kids would glare at him funny.
"Toji, should we ask that boy if he wants to play with us?" Kensuke Aida asked his friend while wiping his nose.
"I don't know, but I am sad no one plays with him." Toji answered.
"Everyone calls him a weird kid." Kensuke commented.
"Like you?"
"Hey!"
Toji only laughed and walked towards the corner where Shinji was playing. "Hey there!" he exclaimed proudly, with Kensuke joining behind, who only said a simple "hey" as he wasn't used to making that many friends.
"H-hello." Shinji said back.
"Me and friend here Kensuke wanted to ask if you wanted to play with us." He said and looked back at Kensuke, giving him a small push.
"Hey! …um, yes, I would really like it if you would join us."
"Um…okay!" Shinji said to the two of them happily. "What are we gonna play?"
Kensuke's eyes shone full of life, "Militar-"
"Soccer!" Toji exclaimed before Kensuke could finish his words.
"Soccer?" Shinji asked and cocked his head to the side.
"You never played before? It's alright, I will teach you!" Toji responded to him and grabbed his hand. Shinji couldn't help but, once again, smile at that. He couldn't wait to tell his dad about it.
As they ran outside, Toji noticed the odd scar on Shinji's neck; but said nothing.
Back in Germany, due to the amazing intelligence, the young Soryu had shown, she was moved directly to 5th grade at only the age of four.
"Class, this is our new student, Asuka Langley Soryu. I would like for all of you to behave nicely with her despite the age gap, alright?" The teacher said to the class, and he got a positive answer from everyone.
"Asuka, you can sit at the first table since it's empty." He said, and Asuka nodded with a big smile. Even though it would sound weird to her peers, she was really excited for this class and all the friends she would make.
The lessons were over soon, and the teacher declared a five-minute break for everyone. Asuka's table was already occupied by most of the other students. "You are so cute, Asuka! Can I pinch your cheeks?" The blonde girl, Rebeca asked her.
"No, please." But it was already too late as the girl already reached for her cheek. At first, Asuka was annoyed but laughed at the gesture.
"Only four years old and in our class, huh? You must be a prodigy. I'm jealous." One of the boys in the back said.
"Yeah, and I'm sure you will be getting 9's unlike this número 6 here."
"What did you say, Coby?!"
"Tu es yo madre."
"That's it! Jurgen, hold me back!"
All of the class was laughing as the two boys ran around the desks.
"They are funny." Asuka commented
"They are, but they are dumb too." Rebeca said.
"Can we be friends?" Asuka asked everyone.
"Of course, we can!" The girls exclaimed.
"Heck yeah, we can!" The boys also joined them, until another voice broke through the good mood.
"Maybe with these idiots you will, little runt." A boy named Kevin said as he looked at the window.
"Hey…" Coby slowly got to his chair.
"What-" That was all Kevin could say before getting punched by him.
"Watch your words, dipshit. She's a little kid and a new one at that."
"A proud little runt, you mean?" Kevin said back, and it earned him a kick to the face.
"Hey, please don't fight." Asuka begged, but her voice was drowned by the booming voice of the teacher.
"What the hell is going on here?! Kevin! Coby! Both of you, out of the class and immediately into the principal's office. Now!" With those words, both students left the class together with the teacher.
It was now 6 pm and the class was over. Kyoko waited for Asuka outside the school gates. Her hair shone brightly in the sun, and it had the color of autumn leaves. To Asuka, her mother was the most beautiful woman in the world.
"Mama!" She shouted and rushed over to her.
"Hi, sweetie!" Kyoko knelt down to hug and kiss her daughter. "How was school?"
"It was really nice, mama! I made lots of friends, too!"
"Really? I am so happy to hear that."
"But there was also a fight in class." Asuka told her mother and opened the car door, jumping inside.
"Oh no! Are you alright?" Kyoko said and rushed to check on Asuka.
"I'm fine, mama. It was only two boys." Asuka answered and Kyoko breathed a sigh of relief.
"Next time, say the full context of the story first, sweetie. You scared me." With that, Kyoko entered the car and drove away from school.
As she and her daughter continued their talk, Kyoko couldn't help but constantly check the documents in the left seat.
Evangelion Project
Preparation for Eva Unit-02 is now green-lighted for work. We have chosen you, Miss Soryu, as the head of engineering. Further information will be revealed after the Eva is complete.
'You got this same message, didn't you? Yui.'
In the office, the two commanders were arguing about the future.
"What about the young Ikari? Unit 01 already has a soul inside; it would be more useful to train your son right now." Fuyutsuki said.
"That is irrelevant. Until Unit 01 is fully proven to be safe, Shinji will not pilot it." Gendo answered back.
Suddenly, Fuyutsuki slammed his hand on Gendo's desk. "So is it okay to use the child of someone else for a test?!"
"Indeed."
That took Fuyutsuki by surprise, "But he is child-"
"He is not my child. If he dies, it will be just one life for the sake of humanity's survival."
"But-"
"His life is irrelevant to our Scenario, professor."
With that, Fuyutsuki closed his mouth and looked at the window behind his young student.
"Very well. For our scenario." He stayed quiet for a while, but he couldn't help to leave one final comment. "I do not think Yui would be happy to see this, Ikari."
'Dear, keep Shinji safe'
"Then you didn't know her well enough." Gendo responded back. Kozo only sighed and stared, gloomy, at the pyramid of the Geofront. "I guess not. One question, Ikari."
"What is it?"
"Are you the one who killed Naoko?"
Flashback
After Ritsuko left the building, Naoko went back and typed the last codes of the MAGI. To finish something like that was astonishing. In only two years she had built the strongest computer, and perhaps the strongest AI, in the world.
'Gendo will be so proud' She thought to herself with a smile. A sudden noise filled her ears and she looked to the left to check who it was.
"Sorry, I didn't want to make a noise." Shinji said.
"Oh, Shinji. It's fine, little man. What can I help you with?"
"I was looking for dad but I can't find him." He said to her and slowly got closer to the woman.
"Your dad left an hour ago but he will be back. You can join me if you want." She told him and ushered him to get close.
For a while, the two of them remained in total silence. All they could hear were the vents releasing the cold air from above, and the sound of chainsaws and hammers in the other rooms.
"You are really quiet, sweetie. Is something bothering you?"
"Um…I wanted to ask a question."
Naoko smiled sweetly at him, "Go ahead, don't be shy. We are friends, right?"
"What does 'old hag' mean?" That question took her back, where had he heard that?
"It's a…a bad word, sweetie. Where did you hear that? A friend?"
"No." Shinji responded, "My dad called you that once when we were home."
Those last words kept repeating on her head. Had Gendo really said that? Had he… Had he hated the kiss? Their kiss?
"Old hag" Shinji's face now showed up in her mind, constantly repeating the word over and over.
"Old hag." Again
"Old hag." Again.
His face now slowly changed to Yui's and the word were said by her lips. "You're an old hag."
"How dare you say that to me, you little bitch! Do you think you can take him away from me? Like I am replaceable?! Well, so are you!" She shouted at the room as she slowly put more force behind the choke.
"Shinji!" in that moment she heard Gendo's voice. Then, she felt his punch. From the impact, she let go of the young boy and slowly took some steps back. Unfortunately for her, those would be the last steps of her life.
As she struggled to bring herself straight up, her left leg slipped from the edge of the command room and fell to her death.
End of flashback
"I did, and I don't regret it."
To be continued...
Author notes: This one was much faster huh? I hope all of you enjoy this chapter. There won't be a time skip again just yet. There are some things I need to finish now.
Huge thanks to YourBlandestNightmare and all my friends in discord for always helping me with snippets I send them. You guys are the best.
Translation for what Kyoko said in German: "Dead? Are you sure?... I understand, thanks, honey."