Chapter 14 - I Can Taste It!
One of the last things Shinji expected when he woke up was to already smell food. As the primary source of meals for four and a half people, two of which practically had to be bribed out of bed in the morning, it came as a bit of a surprise. Puzzled, he threw off the thin sheet that the previous too-warm night had practically required him to sleep under. After covering the horrifying sight of his pale chest with one of the shirts Asuka had 'encouraged' him to buy, Shinji followed his nose out of his bedroom.
And almost walked right into somebody.
"Good morning, Shinji," said the blue and white blur as he backpedalled. "I was about to wake you up."
His eyes still slightly bleary, Shinji squinted at her for a moment before realising who was talking to him. "Oh, good morning Rei." He glanced over her shoulder towards the kitchen. "Are you making breakfast?"
Rei gave a shake of her head. "No. Asuka has taken on that duty."
A disbelieving frown crossed Shinji's face. "Are you saying that Asuka actually got out of bed before eight o'clock on a Sunday?"
The redhead in question called out from the kitchen. "Damn right I did!" Asuka poked her head around the corner. "I suppose you can blame Rei for this, sort of."
At a glance from Shinji, Rei clarified, "Your inability to taste food is a hazard. If something has gone bad and you do not notice, you risk poisoning yourself or others. Yesterday I recalled something I read in one of my medical textbooks, and informed Asuka of the risks of such a condition."
Shinji blinked, stunned that he hadn't thought of so obvious a problem with... whatever had caused his sense of taste to atrophy. Especially after practically giving himself food poisoning from Misato's 'curry'. He looked at Asuka. "So... you've decided to take over cooking duties then?" he gloomily asked.
Asuka nodded apologetically. "Sorry. Sure you were still a decent cook, but your meals were rather bland, and I don't think NERV would be too happy if its pilot corps and tactical officer all got sick at the same time because of one mistake."
Shinji sighed. One less thing he was capable of doing for people now.
Either the disappointment was written all over his face, or Asuka somehow sensed his dropping mood, because she immediately brushed past Rei to stand face-to-face with him. "Don't start with the griping, Ikari. I'm not doing this because I want to take away something you like doing."
"I know, but..." Shinji looked away. "What's left for me to do now? I can only clean so much..."
"What's left?" Asuka echoed. She pointed in the vague direction of the Geofront. "What about whatever Doctor Akagi's got planned? That egghead believes she's onto something that'll let you pilot as well."
"She said it would be about a week or so before she might be able to show me whatever she's working on," Shinji corrected her, before recoiling as Asuka aimed a slap at his head.
"It's been three days, you impatient pessimist! Misato hasn't even finished with her paperwork yet!" Asuka groaned and turned to head back to the kitchen. "Just give it some time, for the sake of my sanity if nothing else."
"Alright, alright," Shinji relented as he followed after her. "Can I at least help with breakfast? I don't need tastebuds to cut things up."
"Sure. Er..." Asuka glanced at the oven, where something was apparently already cooking. A saucepan was sitting on the stove, but Shinji couldn't see what was in it. "Well... tomorrow we can start doing that together. I need to get you up to speed on what I plan to cook."
"What are we having today?"
"I've got some rolls in the oven that will be done in a few minutes," replied Asuka. "Been a little while since I last made any though, so I hope I got them right."
Shinji brightened up. "Oh, I remember you telling me about that a few years ago!" One of their online conversations had revolved around their favourite homemade foods. "You said that you... um, what was it... loved waking your mouth up with a strawberry jam roll?"
"Good memory," Asuka said with an approving nod. The oven dinged and she turned her attention to it, but not before waving a hand at the dining table, which had juice, butter, and a few jars of spreads sitting in the centre. "Take a seat. The rolls need to rest a little first, but there's boiled eggs if you want something while you wait."
"Uh... yeah, sure." Shinji sat down opposite the stove and poured himself a glass of juice.
After turning off the oven, Asuka carefully removed two eggs from the saucepan and put them in a small bowl that she placed in front of Shinji. "What about you, Wondergirl?"
"No thank you," Rei replied as she next to Shinji. "I do not eat eggs."
"Fair enough."
The oven door opened, and a heavenly aroma billowed out. Shinji forgot all about peeling the egg in his hands, and even the normally-stoic Rei was paying close attention as Asuka took the tray of rolls out and placed it on the counter. She caught them staring and grinned, then picked one up and held it next to her ear as she lightly tapped its base.
"They seem pretty damn good," Asuka remarked. "As to be expected of course. Baking is a science, and I am a college graduate."
Shinji gave a good-natured roll of his eyes as he resumed peeling his egg. Once it was completely devoid of shell, he took a knife and cut the egg in half lengthways, popping one piece into his mouth as he worked on the second egg. By the time both eggs and half of his glass of juice were gone, Asuka declared the rolls ready and set out two for each of them; the remainder being put aside for Misato.
Shinji slathered some butter onto his first roll. It didn't seem worth using one of the sweet spreads when he wouldn't be able to enjoy it, but he needed something to make the bread go down easier. He really wished he could taste it; Asuka had clearly put a lot of effort into baking bread when she could have just bought some. With a sigh, he tore a chunk off the roll with his teeth and began to chew.
He froze. Something wasn't right. Shinji looked down at the roll in his hands as he slowly moved the piece of bread and butter around inside his mouth. It looked normal, and smelled great. He glanced up at Rei and Asuka, but they were occupied with their own rolls. He cautiously swallowed the mouthful, before biting off another piece.
The roll fell from his hand as realisation set in. Across from him, Asuka was about to start on her own roll when she obviously saw the strange look on his face.
"Something wrong, Shinji?" she asked, lowering the roll back to her plate.
"I..." he began, before attempting to swallow.
"Shit, did a foreign object get into the mix?" Asuka cut in before he could continue. She was starting to get nervous, and started to rise from her chair. "Is it stuck in your throat? Can you breathe?!"
Rei's eyes shot towards him and she put her roll down. Just as she was about to stand up, Shinji frantically waved her back down as he finally managed to get the words out.
"I can taste it!"
Rei and Asuka stared at him as if he had just grown a second head. After a moment, Asuka narrowed her eyes.
"You're just trying to butter me up, aren't you?" she growled. Some distant part of Shinji's mind wondered if the pun was intentional. "Or were you just lying about not being able to taste anything?!"
"N-no! I'm serious!" Shinji hurriedly replied. "I can actually taste the bread!" He paused and frowned at the roll. "I... don't seem to be able to taste the butter though..."
Asuka stared for a few more seconds, before grabbing Shinji's knife and dipping it in one of the jam jars. As he was about to ask what she was doing, Asuka held the knife out in front of his face. Realising what she was trying to do, Shinji took the knife and licked it clean. He then shook his head. "No, can't taste that," he said before licking his roll. "But I can definitely taste this."
"That makes no sense at all," said Rei. "Bread itself has little actual flavour compared to these spreads."
"Yeah, you're starting to scare me now, Shinji," Asuka remarked, leaning slightly away from him with an odd look on her face.
"You?!" Shinji exclaimed. "I'm scaring myself!"
Asuka put a hand to her forehead. "Okay, okay... let's sort this out. Good thing it's Sunday..."
Several hours passed as Asuka 'administered tests' on Shinji's tastebuds. Uncooked items like fruit and snack foods were a bust, as was anything Rei prepared when Asuka brought her into it, along with anything Shinji made himself. A pattern quickly emerged: whatever Asuka made, whether it was cooking meat or preparing porridge, Shinji could taste.
"Are you still going to claim this isn't related to the contract, Shinji?" she asked in a gloating tone a couple hours after what would normally have been lunch time. She fell backwards onto the sofa in the lounge room. "I seem to remember wondering that after your dumb stunt with Misato's curry."
Shinji scowled as he sat down next to her. "Still doesn't make any sense," he muttered.
"I still find it hard to believe that this contract had any effect," said Rei, not looking up from the book she was reading on the sofa chair.
"Yeah, logic is well and truly out the window at this point," added Asuka. "Hell, just look at what we do for a living."
Shinji sighed and shifted on the sofa. There had been quite a lot of food used for the tests, even split among three people. He wasn't sure he'd have room for dinner now. "I guess our stomachs are in your hands now, Asuka."
XXX
A week passed. Asuka got up at the same time as Shinji to prepare breakfast for the two households, as well as lunch on school days. She mostly stuck to German or at least Western meals, generally reserving Japanese-style dishes for dinner. There were no complaints about the change in menu. Then again, Shinji was just glad he was able to taste something again, which of course meant that his appetite improved.
Every second day saw all three pilots at NERV for simulation training and sync tests. In the interest of fairness, AT-Fields were forbidden any time they trained against each other. During simulations against Angels, Asuka tended to take a forward position with a melee weapon while Shinji kept back providing ranged support, and Rei alternated between medium and long range support.
On one day when Asuka complained that the training was too easy, Misato devised a sneaky challenge that Ritsuko was happy to implement. They would have to fight one of the bipedal training Angels, but the target could only be killed by Shinji in Unit-01 by destroying the core with a Progressive Knife. The other two Evangelions were not given weapons capable of killing the Angel, only damaging it. Ritsuko had wanted to use the Third Angel as a target, but Misato managed to convince her that Shinji would be negatively impacted by having to face the thing that had almost killed him under such conditions.
Neither of them told the pilots about the limitation. The Angel was eventually killed, but only after three attempts and only once Asuka and Rei worked out that they needed to cover Shinji so that he could get in and stab the core.
Asuka stopped complaining about easy training. At least where NERV could hear her.
It was on this day that Rei was called into Commander Ikari's office after she had finished getting changed. When she entered the office, the elder Ikari was not sitting at his desk. Instead, he was standing in front of the massive window that looked out onto the Geofront, hands clasped behind his back.
"Rei," he said without turning around, clearly knowing exactly who had just entered his office. "Have there been any problems since you changed residence?"
"No problems to report," Rei replied monotonously, stopping next to his desk. "Pilots Ikari and Soryu and Captain Katsuragi have done their best to accommodate me."
"Hrm." Gendo remained silent for a while, staring through the window. Eventually, he said, "Section Two reported that you acted strangely upon first meeting the other pilots at school. You noticed something about them." It was not a question.
Though he couldn't see her, Rei nodded. "Yes. Pilot Ikari had no light, while Pilot Soryu had more than any human I have ever seen. It was... painful to look at her at first, but I am now acclimatised to it. But to look at Pilot Ikari, it is similar to-"
Gendo interrupted her. "So you can confirm that this... soul contract the Third Child claims to have signed has transferred his soul."
"It is illogical that such a thing could have happened, but I do not know of any method by which a soul could change hands. Even she cannot do such a thing."
Gendo hummed again. "Keep an eye on them. If anything about the Second and Third Children changes that may be related, tell me immediately."
"Yes sir." Rei thought for a moment. "Sir?"
"What is it?"
"Eight days ago, Pilot Soryu informed me that Pilot Ikari claimed to have lost his sense of taste."
Gendo seemed unfazed by the information. "Could he have suffered an injury that NERV was not informed about?"
"He did not appear to be injured, but he apparently began to lose it some time ago. Pilot Soryu believed that it may be related to the contract, but Pilot Ikari did not. However, seven days ago Pilot Ikari was able to taste a bread roll that Pilot Soryu had made. Further testing showed that he was only able to taste something that she had cooked."
Gendo turned to look at Rei over his shoulder for several long seconds. "...Strange." He turned fully around, and slowly walked back to his desk. "Do you have everything you need at your current residence?"
Rei shook her head. "No sir. I will soon require more medication. I currently have only enough for three more days, as the rest of my prescription was lost when my apartment was destroyed."
"Speak to Doctor Akagi before you go home," said Gendo as he sat down. "She will give you more. It is vitally important that you do not miss a dose."
"Understood, sir."
"Anything else?"
"Pilot Soryu has already taken me to acquire essential clothing and personal items," said Rei, remembering the shopping trip. "There is nothing else I need at this time."
"It is clear that you have started to develop a friendship with the other two pilots." Gendo fixed Rei with an intense stare. "Will you still do what is necessary when the time comes?"
Rei answered immediately. "My ultimate fate has not changed. I will play my part without fail."
Gendo closed his eyes for a moment. "Good. Dismissed."
Rei bowed and left the office. As the door closed behind her, she wondered what it was she had seen in the commander's eyes when he learned of the oddities surrounding Shinji's sense of taste. It certainly wasn't concern; he rarely looked at her like that even when she was injured. Rather, it seemed as if he...
She shook her head, banishing the unnecessary thoughts. It was not her place to question Commander Ikari. Her task was to defeat the Angels, then pave the way for Human Complementation.
And then her pain would finally end.
XXX
Two girls stomped through the halls of Tokyo-3 Municipal High School, students with self-preservation instincts hastily clearing a path as they saw the look on their faces. A couple of boys saw that one of them was holding a certain something in her hand, put two and two together, and pretended to be extremely interested in anything but the angry girls.
Asuka had just discovered that something... unsavoury was circulating around the school, and she was currently on her way to cut it off at the source. Hikari was tagging along both to ensure that nobody was permanently injured, and because she had a bone to pick with a certain someone.
The double doors leading outside were practically kicked open by Asuka as the two girls stepped outside. Asuka paused for a moment, looking around the quadrangle, before Hikari pointed out something in a shady spot between two buildings.
A dark-haired teenage boy was sitting on a milk crate, leaning against the wall with a cap covering most of his face. He didn't look up as Asuka approached, and merely frowned as she slapped the item she was holding onto the table next to a folder.
"No refunds," he grunted. "We are not responsible if somebody finds what you bought from us. Please direct all complaints somewhere else. And no, you can't see the boss, he's busy."
"In this case, I'm going to have to insist on seeing him," said Asuka, as she raised her fists. "And I have two very convincing reasons why."
The boy blinked at her words, before pushing his cap up and looking at her. "Oh... shit," he muttered, before realising Hikari was there too. "Oh, shit."
"Suzuhara!" Hikari barked. "Would you like to explain how you're involved in such a degenerate enterprise?"
"I'm mostly in this to watch Ken's back," Toji sullenly replied, looking like he wanted nothing more than to be somewhere completely different. "He's been threatened by some of the third year guys."
"Gee, I wonder why that could be," Asuka snarked, before turning over the item on the table. It was a photo of herself in her school swimsuit. "Could it have anything to do with the fact that you're sneaking photos of their sisters and selling them?!"
Toji glanced at the photo on the table, then back up at her. "Look Red, I'm just the muscle. I'm, uh... not exactly a fan of this idea."
Asuka snatched the folder from the table and brought it over to Hikari. Opening it, she was almost impressed at just how many photos there were, until she saw five whole pages dedicated to her. What really surprised her was that only one page had photos of her in her swimsuit. The other four were of seemingly random times when she was in her uniform.
How the hell had that nerd managed this?!
"Tell me, Hikari," she said as she continued to leaf through the folder, trying to work out just where the spectacled nerd had been hiding in order to get all these shots of her. "How many people do you think would be... unhappy with these two if we showed them this folder? I reckon we should tell them all at once. See how well the 'muscle' stands up to a dozen irate brothers."
Hikari scowled at the contents of the folder. "Disgusting," she spat as she turned her attention to Toji. "You're disrespecting every single girl at this school by being part of this, Suzuhara, and dishonouring yourself! I thought better of you!"
A tap on the class representative's shoulder from Asuka drew her attention back to the folder. Whatever else Hikari was about to say died in her throat, and her face turned bright red. She snatched the folder from Asuka and pulled out the photo that had caught her eye. After a few seconds of staring horrified at it, she then dropped the folder and proceeded to frantically tear the photo up.
Toji raised an eyebrow. "What, was that your sister or somethin'?"
"Nope," said Asuka, tilting her head towards Hikari. "It was her."
"What?!" Toji angrily got to his feet. "That's a lie! I looked through that folder ten minutes ago and didn't see her! N-not that I was actually l-lookin' for her, ya know?"
"You're blind then," Asuka retorted. She placed the folder onto the table and pointed at one of the sleeves. "I saw it sticking out a bit behind this one."
The affronted boy stared suspiciously at the offending sleeve. "There's two more then. Ken always makes sure there's three of each."
A moment of searching revealed the other two photos, similarly hidden on the same page. They were swiftly grabbed by a red-faced Hikari and shredded, the pieces going into her pocket to be disposed of later. Possibly by fire.
"So where's the body, bodyguard?" Asuka asked. She glanced at Hikari. "Wonder if Aida knew we were coming and ran off."
"He told me he was goin' to the bathroom," Toji replied. He then snarled and slammed a fist onto the table. "Damnit, I said I didn't want him to take photos of the class rep!"
Asuka quirked an eyebrow. "Why so chivalrous? Why try and make him leave Hikari out of this?"
"That was part of the deal. I watch Ken's back, he don't photograph the class rep." Toji suddenly looked shifty. "And... I get... a bit of the money he makes..." he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.
"So you're just helping someone take illicit photos of high school girls for pocket money, Suzuhara?" Hikari demanded.
"S-sort of!" Toji stammered. "I-I mean... I'm savin' it for somethin' important!"
"Oh really?" Asuka's voice dripped with false sweetness as she loomed over him. "What is this important thing? Tell us why it's alright to invade the privacy of these girls."
Toji glared up at her. "It's to help pay my little sis's hospital bills, Red," he icily replied.
Asuka blinked. It certainly wasn't the response she was expecting.
"Don't think for one damn second that I'm proud of this," Toji grimly continued. "My sister might never walk again, because my family can't afford to pay for the surgeries that'd fix her up. Hell, the money's the only reason I agreed to... to this." He waved a hand disgustedly at the table in front of him.
Asuka swore internally. If Shinji heard about this he would likely slip back into self-deprecation. As it was she suspected he was still harbouring some guilt even after his confrontation with Suzuhara.
"Toji..." Hikari's face softened slightly. "I understand you want to help your sister, but would she really want you to be doing this to get the money?"
As Toji shied away, something caught Asuka's eye; a person peeking around the corner then ducking back. She brushed past Hikari and moved up to the corner, where a quick glance showed a certain light-haired boy trying to quietly leave the area. She stalked up behind him, then wrapped an arm around his neck.
"Going somewhere, Aida?"
Without waiting for a reply, she dragged Kensuke over to Hikari, who was now giving him her signature 'class rep is very unhappy with you' look. Kensuke managed to stare back for about half a nanosecond before wilting.
"I seem to recall catching you in a rather similar situation, Aida," said Hikari. "And I also seem to recall you saying that you'd give this up."
"He's done this before?" Asuka inquired, 'accidentally' constricting her arm around Aida's neck a little.
"Early last year," Hikari replied. "I caught him with his camera somewhere a boy shouldn't be. And... I abused my authority by not dragging him before the principal, on the condition that he destroy any and all photos he'd taken and promised to stop.
"Tell me, Aida." She stomped up to Kensuke, looking him right in the eyes from a foot away. "Am I a pushover?"
"Er... n-n-no?" Kensuke stammered, leaning away from Hikari's burning stare as best as he could while trapped in Asuka's grip.
"Then why are you trying to walk all over me?!"
Asuka let go of the poor bastard and stood back to let the haranguing continue, Toji getting dragged into it as well, with a satisfied smirk on her face. It went on for a good ten minutes before the end of lunch bell rang. Out of the goodness of Hikari's heart, she was once again not going to make it official, but she promised both boys that if she even heard a rumour of them continuing their shady activities, she would bring everything to the principal.
As the two chastened boys scurried off, Hikari sighed and turned to Asuka. "Should I have really let them off with a second warning?"
Asuka shrugged. "Suzuhara was only in it for cash for a noble cause, and he wasn't exactly as involved in the business as Aida was. I'd have probably let him off with a punch in the face. Aida though... well I won't get into detail on what I would have done to him, but a giant robot is involved. And not in a way he'd enjoy."
Hikari looked down at the folder that had been left behind. She picked it up by the thumb and forefinger. "How should we dispose of this?"
"Burn them, I say," Asuka said with a dismissive wave. "Certainly not worth keeping these kinds of photos."
"Including the ones of you in uniform?" Hikari opened the folder to the relevant pages. "It's strange that his... customers," she spat the word, "were apparently asking for pictures of you like this. I'm not sure if it's illegal or not, but he was still being sneaky about it. Such a shame too... Aida has a very good eye for photography. If only his preferred subject matter wasn't so... dirty."
Asuka almost said 'burn the lot', but a certain photo caught her eye. It was one of her and Shinji; the picture had been taken from somewhere on the right of him, keeping her centred in full view while they were walking somewhere. She was grinning at something he had just said, and though he was just slightly out of focus, Asuka could still see that Shinji had a smile on his face.
Something compelled her to take the sleeve containing the photo out of the folder. She held it up to her face for a moment until Hikari politely cleared her throat, bringing her back to the situation at hand.
"Burn the lot," said Asuka as she dashed off to her locker in order to put the picture somewhere it wouldn't get lost.
Or found.
XXX
Shinji leaned against a tree, breathing heavily as sweat dripped down his face. When Asuka had offered to exercise with him, he had expected more of the slave driver mentality that had gotten him through the Evangelion simulations. To his surprise, the Second Child actually seemed to be going easy on him. Well, somewhat easy. He was still getting a strenuous workout, but against all expectations he was not crawling into bed at night wishing for death to release him from hell.
"Couple minutes break and we'll get right back to it."
Shinji jumped a little as Asuka suddenly spoke up right next to him. He glanced at her as she took a small sip from her water bottle. Suddenly thirsty himself, he wearily lifted his own to his lips and drank deeply.
"Yeah, okay," he finally gasped. "Another week and I might actually be able to keep up with you."
He swiped an arm across his forehead, rubbing the sweat off onto the wrist weight as he looked up through the leaves giving him a modicum of protection from the ever-present sun. When Toji had mentioned weights, Shinji had thought of small dumbbells. But then Asuka had rummaged around in her room and produced what looked like wide bracelets made of fabric.
"Body weights are good for exercising while you exercise," she had explained, wrapping one around Shinji's wrist. The surprising heaviness had made his arm feel... odd. "I've also got a weight vest, but I'll leave that for a while. Don't think you're ready to lug an extra ten kilos around just yet."
A hand clapped heavily onto his shoulder. "You're doin' good, Shin-man!"
Jumping in surprise again as he was brought back to the present, Shinji looked left at a grinning Toji.
"To be perfectly honest," Toji continued, "I wasn't expectin' ya to do so well so soon!" He paled slightly as he made eye contact with Asuka over Shinji's shoulder.
For some reason, Toji and Asuka had turned rather frosty towards one another over the last couple days. They were both still committed to seeing him get fit, but that seemed to be as far as their interactions with each other went. Shinji wasn't sure what had happened, and he wasn't about to get caught in the middle of... whatever it was.
"Come on," said Toji. "Break's over, time to get going."
Shinji nodded, and brought up the rear as his two far more athletic friends took off on the return leg of their jogging route. As competitive as they were with each other, both of them knew to occasionally look back and see if Shinji was struggling. So far, he had managed to not be an inconvenience to them, but he still felt a little awkward every time Asuka or Toji glanced back and caught his eye. It was as if they were expecting him to be sprawled out on the ground.
But Shinji wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of being right. Well, if that was what they were thinking. Regardless, he was improving himself. As exhausted as he was every day, it was far better than sitting around doing nothing but listening to his SDAT.
They were halfway home when Shinji's phone rang. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and glanced at the number. Recognising it as a NERV line, and thankful for the excuse to rest, he slowed down to a walk as he flipped the phone open to take the call.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Shinji," said Misato. "How are you doing today?"
Shinji quirked an eyebrow. It sounded like just a social call, but Misato never needed to call to catch up considering she lived right next door and saw them every day. "Uh, I'm fine... what about you?" he hazarded.
Misato must have caught the tiredness in his voice, however. "Jogging again, I take it? You sound out of breath."
"Yeah. Toji, Asuka and I are on our way back now." Ahead, Shinji saw that the two in question had slowed down as well. To Asuka, he mouthed the words 'it's Misato' and she nodded in realisation.
"I'll get to the point," said Misato. "Do you think you'd be up for some unscheduled testing? Got a little surprise for you."
"Testing?" Shinji repeated. The word evidently caused Asuka to get curious, and she stopped for a moment to let Shinji catch up, positioning herself to try and eavesdrop on the conversation. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at her inquisitiveness, Shinji pressed a button on the phone and changed it to speaker mode.
Misato hummed in acknowledgement. "I think it's something you'll really like, but it's going to take up quite a bit of time and energy. You up for it today or would you prefer to wait until tomorrow?"
"Make it tomorrow, Misato," Asuka cut in. "I can tell he's really tired. Whatever the test is, it'd be better if he's fresh for it."
"Oh hello Asuka," greeted Misato. "I suppose you're right. Besides, you'll be needed there too, so you'd have to rest up as well."
"Me?" Asuka directed a look of confusion at Shinji, who could only shrug. "What the heck is this test anyway?"
"A surprise!"
Shinji groaned loudly, recalling the last time Misato had used that word to avoid telling him about Asuka coming to Japan.
"I'll let Ritsuko know to prep for tomorrow," Misato continued. "No school for you two then, this test takes priority."
Above Toji's grumbling about the luck of pilots, Asuka said, "Could you please just freaking tell us what's going to happen? I would like to actually know what we're in for before it happens."
"Oh, alright you spoilsport." Though Shinji couldn't see the woman, he could certainly sense Misato sticking her tongue out at them. "The lab boys here have been building something. I'm not nerdy enough to be able to follow them, but I know enough to think that your wish might be about to come true, Shinji!
"If all goes well tomorrow, we'll have something that will let you get back into the fight against the Angels!"
