it's chapter 12 now. Honestly, I don't even know what drove me into this, but whatever. It's honestly weird.

Kinda insane how it's twelve chapters already and we're still stuck at Fourth Angel Arc... Oh well, I have to write even more per chapter now, I guess. I must be the real life version of Slowpoke fr.

Anyways, thank you for reading this. It's pretty amazing seeing a bunch of people following my story. I'm not really a good writer myself, but I hope the next few chapters would be satisfactory for you guys.

(Not really) a daily music recommendation because I post like one chapter per month: Round ZERO ～BLADE BRAVE · Nanase Aikawa.

Enjoy the chapter, everyone! Have a good time reading!

Chapter 12: The way you go, I'll make sure to follow it.

"There you are, 17th."

That voice. The albino boy closed his book and jumped down the piano. The silver moonlight pierced the window, being the only source of light in the silver-haired boy's room. Being showered by said light, Kaworu had an unreadable expression on his face.

"Noah." The boy was confused by this sudden situation. He tensed as he asked the man who was secretly standing in a corner of his room silently. "What is your business here, Mr. Number One?"

"That geezer already told you about us, huh. No matter." The man in shadow said coldly. "You was a valuable subject. Sadly, this is not going to end well for you."

"Hmph. Is that so." The boy gave the mysterious man a uncharacteristic glance. "For me? Sorry, I didn't hear it right. Could you repeat it again?"

Seemingly unaffected by the animosity in the teenager's words, the unrecognizable man just walked towards him without saying anything at all.

The two drawed their right hands at the same time. The sound of a bullet colliding into an orange forcefield echoed in the air.

"Fast reaction." The man simply said, throwing the hidden gun away after its unsuccessful assault. The Angel merely snickered as the A.T Field slowly retreated into his palm. His crimson eyes looked the man dead in the eyes without even blinking once.

"Enough with this needless acting." The words were spoken by the teenager, but for some reason, it sounded oddly old coming from the albino boy. "What is going on, Noah? We have a contract not to interfere with the other's business. Are you really going to break this vow now?"

"Heh." The man gave out a light chuckle. " As if it isn't too obvious already. Being the descendants of the Father, you couldn't feel it at all? Hmph, being the only one with freedom has its drawbacks, huh?"

The boy grimaced upon hearing the man. "What are you trying to accomplish?"

"Everything." He said, a look of madness appeared in his eyes. "The Ark will rise once again, and everything will be changed, for real this time. Tabris, will you be able to stop us? I'd love to see you try."

"Huh. Interesting information." Suddenly, the silver-haired boy smirked. "Mysterious appearance, talking vaguely... I think you could pass for a third-rate villain."

"... Hrgh." A noise of surprise escaped his dumbfounded mouth. "I didn't expect you to be so... bold."

"Neither was I." The Angel Of Freedom sighed. "Maybe I'm also slowly losing myself now because of your blabbering. Anyways." He looked up and stared at the intruder. "So this means that you and I won't be playing around anymore. As you said, something incredible must have happened."

"You can say it like that." The man huffed, clearly annoyed by his calm demeanor. He quickly changed his tone into a lower voice. "In the end, nothing will matter anyways. As a gift of being my acquaintance for such a long time, you can escape here and go do whatever you want. Shoo, shoo."

The albino boy deadpanned at the man who was making gestures with his hands before reaching out for his cigarettes. "You are not afraid of what I can do?"

"Tabris, what is going to happen the next few months will be completely out of this world, beyond you and me both. This is the 'final stage'." He said calmly, lighting the small cigarette up. "Hmph. This is truly incredible, just as you said."

"You still haven't told me what happened, Noah." The boy raised an eyebrow. "Can you try to be more considerate than a wood plate? It's hard talking to someone when they acted like an annoyance all the time."

"Shut it, 17th. You will see it soon enough." Grumbling in annoyance, the man simply let out a cloud of smoke from his lips. "In the mean time, get out of here. You are lucky that I convinced the others to let me handle you."

"Fine." Kaworu closed his eyes and sighed. He then walked out the room. "See you soon." he said out of habit, not bothering to look back.

The man laughed a bit. "I hope not. Farewell, traitor."

The door closed, and the intruder became silent again.

"You will see it very soon, I reckon. "

"Huh?"

I blurted out my thought honestly, dumbfounded by the irregular event that's happening in front of me. The bags full of grocery were dropped on the floor without me noticing, as I was too shocked to react.

It was an avarage schoolday Tuesday afternoon... or so I thought. Standing in front of my house( which is legally owned by NERV, by the way), I could only widen my eyes in pure surprise at the scariest thing that could ever happen to a teenager living alone.

My house door... isn't locked!? And there's light coming from the inside!?

No no no, there's no way, right? I swear I locked the door before going to school... I definitely didn't forget to do that!

Could this be... a robbery? Aw man, this is not good. This is definitely not good at all! How am I supposed to do in this situation? Call 110? But I left my phone at home... What should I do, what should I do...!

I scratched my head. There is no way I'm going in there without any preparation! I need to find an adult or someone to help...Wait a minute. There is always a bunch of Section 2 Agents around here, right? Why did they let this happen? And where the hell are they now?

This is definitely no joke, right? Is someone plotting to kidnap me or something? All of this is getting me nervous..!

Feeling tension building up in my stomach, I gulped as my right hand slowly moved towards the doorknob.

What would a sane person do in this situation?

Alright, I'm good to go. One, two, three... GO!

"Oh, hey ya Shinji-kun-"

Wait a minute, why is everything so dark? What am I grabbing? It's round like the doorknob, but it's squishy and warm?

I opened my eyes and looked.

"...Mind explaining what are you doing to me with your hand, Shinji-kun? And why you're holding a stick on your other hand?"

"MISATO-SAN!?"

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry...!"

Misato Katsuragi sighed at the scene of Shinji, her supposed constantly banging his head on the ground to apologize for grabbing her boobs without permission. She was sitting on the chair while Shinji was practically mimicing a bunny on the floor.

She understood that this was an accident, and Shinji didn't have any malicious intention. However, it's quite funny for her to see Shinji acting a pervert at times, she thought. And he is making a pretty hilarious scene, too, making all kind of dogezas just to express his guilt.

" *sniffs* I'm wowwy..." On the verge of tears, the poor kid face-planted on the ground in shame.

Now she actually felt bad seeing that the young boy made a mess on the floor. She laughed loudly after a not-so-awkward while of silence. "Ha ha ha, it's not that bad, Shinji! I'm just messing with you, that's all. You were just surprised, accidents happen, yada yada." She scratched her hair apologetically. " So yeah, sorry for breaking in your house without telling you first. And letting you cry like that."

"Was the door unlocked?" Wiping the tears aside, Shinji sighed heavily as he sat on the opposite chair.

"No, I have this card that can open any NERV facilities." She stated as if it was the most obvious fact in history of mankind.

Now it's Shinji's turn to be the confused one. "So what about my privacy-"

"You are practically one of the most important people on the Earth right now, Shinji. One in a billion." Misato said calmly while holding a unopened can of beer which she pulled out of her bag. "If an Anti-NERV factor knew your location and we don't even have the key to unlock your house, this world would be doomed, you know?"

Shuddering, Shinji looked at the purple-haired woman. "Y-yes. " Of course, he was too focused on her words instead of the strange appearance of the beverage. "I'm sorry for asking such a stupid question."

"You really forgot everything Commander Ichijo and I told you last time?"

"No, I didn't. I wasn't expecting you were here and-" He looked out of the windows after suddenly remembering something. "Oh wait, where are the Section 2 Agents, Misato-san?"

"They are secretly patrolling around here after the new rules created by the Commander." Misato opened the beer and toyed with it before drinking. "Something about a new threat Commandẻ warned us about, I think. So just to be careful, she sent me here to... well, live with you!" She laughed and drank even more beer.

Strange. He couldn't see any beer on the table at all. Where are those coming from?

Back to the main issue, Shinji was horrified upon hearing those words coming out of the now drunk captain. "Wait a minute, so the reason you came here is... taking care of me?!"

He won't be able to walk around his own home and sing terribly anymore!? No more days of instant noodles or eating junk foods for dinner?!

"Bringing my stuffs, Rei and Pen Pen here. Don't worry, the living expenses will be covered by NERV, so don't worry about it."

'It isn't about the expenses...' The boy grimaced. 'Am I really going to live with Rei and Misato-san under the same roof!?'

And of course, that's a part of the reason too. He really is going to live with two women in his house from now on.

And a flightless bird, too. Can't forget the most important member.

"You are thinking about why this happened to your freedom, right?" Misato looked at him as if she was reading his mind. "Well, don't worry, Shinji-kun. As long as I'm in charge, nothing bad or indecent is going to happen!"

"I have a feeling saying that it won't." Shinji deadpanned. "What about Ayanami-san, then? Did she agree to move here too?"

"Rei? Yeah, about that..." She chuckled. "She is having some 'tests' at NERV, so she won't be able to stay here tonight. I will pick her up once the tests are done. Also, Pen Pen is currently chilling inside the fridge I brought here, if you was wondering where he is."

He was confused why they even brought their refrigerator here, but he nodded anyways. "Alright." He looked at the clock hanging on the wall and noticed that time passed quickly as they talked. "Oh, it's this late already? I have to prepare dinner and shower. What do you want for dinner, Misato-san?"

"Anything, I don't really mind. Oh, you should definitely make snacks! Grilled squid, please!" She burped uncouthly after dunking all of the remaining beer down her throat. "I also brought the food for Pen Pen here. You can put it in the food bowl for him." She pointed at the small metallic box sitting on the counter labeled as 'Real Sardines'. Shinji nodded as he picked up the small food can and the grocery, and began preparing for dinner.

Yawning, the operation director lied on the table like a cat. Looking back, Shinji actually laughed a bit at his boss being so relaxed everytime he met her. "Life must be nice for her, heh?" He muttered as he finished chopping the vegetables. "To be so carefree all the time."

"Uh huh." She answered back, surprising the boy. "Oh, I said that out loud, heh? He he, sorry."

"I thought you was sleeping."

"I was. You talked too loud, ya know?!"

"Sorry..."

Despite that, Shinji found himself enjoying the company.

It's such a long time since he spent time talking with someone at home, after all. He could get used to this.

...

Oi, you idiotic Angel! He is thinking about you! Stop researching informations in his head or get out here! Contribute something to the story!

"Heh heh heh... Mari-chan..."

Just what on earth is he doing in Shinji's poor little head anyways? Let's just hope he won't see anything embarrassing.

"Fueh, I'm full~" The woman exclaimed satisfiedly. Despite what she just said a few seconds ago, she took out another Yebisu beer and drank it, before slamming it against the table and letting out an even louder satisfied sigh.

That wasn't very modest coming from an adult, Misato-san.

Hello, imaginary readers. Welcome to another episode of "my terribly unfunny life diary". Today's episode covers Miss Misato, Rei, and Pen Pen intruding my house. That's all, see you later.

Heck, was that good enough? I hope it is.

"Oi, Shinji-kun. Are you spacing out again?"

"Oh, er, nothing, Misato-san. Just usual character's monologuing stuff, that's all."

"Weird." She casually said while drinking even more beer.

Oh, I heard that a lot more than you think, Misato-san.

Also, the beer is literally appearing from the thin air... Ah, no. It's from her bag.

Is this called a 'retcon'? I think it is.

"Time to clean up the table. Misato-san, would you lend me a hand, please?"

"...No."

I simply stared at the pouting Misato holding her beer.

Seriously, you just devoured nearly all the food on the table. At least help out something, you know? Where is your dignity?

Although I thought I made a bit too much, but it turns out that eating while drinking beer is an effective way to finish dinner for Misato-san.

I don't really know if my food is that good... But it seems like the food I made was certainly better than what she had before.

"Er... why?"

"It's your house. Go clean it up! I'm not done drinking yet!"

Shouldn't it be the other way around?! You are the grown-up one, you know!?

"Alright, Misato-san." I put up a poker face, faking a smile. "I will do it myself."

"He he, nice." She giggled softly while looking away to avoid being seen. Unfortunate for Misato-san, I was looking at her the whole time.

So this was a play all along!?

I felt a small poke at my legs. Looking down, I can see the content-looking penguin flapping his little wings.

"Gawk!" He said, thanking me wholeheartedly. Heh, so a properly cooked salmon is enough to make him my friend after all.

I smiled. At least someone appecriated my cookings instead of gobbling up whatever they saw on the table.

I wonder how a penguin is acting more proper than a human though.

...

What do you mean you want to read newspaper? But I can accept that condition.

...

I understand your feeling, Pen Pen.

Both of us shook hands, acknowledging the pain of taking care of the carefree Misato-san.

You must have put up to this for a long time, Penguin-san. I respect you.

"Why do I have this feeling of being silently criticized?" The purple drunkard said questionably, now lying on the floor with her beer spilled on her shirt. "I'm out of Yebisu~ Shinji, gimme something to drink~ Your food is so good that I need to drink even more~"

Although I really want to retort... I really don't have anything to say.

Look like this head of this house is only me, huh? It's great seeing that my little authority has not been overruled, but the amount of house chores I have to take care of is going to skyrocket from now.

*Sigh* What am I going to do next? Clean up some room for Misato-san to move in, do the laundry, clean the beer mess on the floor... Or drag the already sleeping woman to the couch.

Jeez, this feels so weird. Isn't this supposed to be the opposite? I'm her official ward, you know?! Commander Ichijo said that last time! She also said that it's not good for a teenager to live alone in the first place!

Wait, I forgot she told both of them to come here.

...Huh, now that I think about it, I chose this place because I want a secret base for myself. Having Misato-san and Rei here... Isn't it defying my purpose of staying here!?

Well, things happened, I guess. I just have to put up with this, huh?

...Though living with two beautiful girls seems not too bad... Wait, what am I thinking?! I'm not a pervert!

Agh, let's just focus on one thing first. I should clean the kitchen before it's late.

I just hope this won't take too long...

After dinner, Shinji and Misato found themself working together to bring the luggages to the room. Since Rei's belongings were quite little, they quickly finished putting her things in the new room before it's time for the captain's turn.

"Is this good enough, Misato-san?" The boy asked while dropping a bag on the bed. He raised his left hand to wipe away the sweat that was forming on his forehead. "Is there anything left?"

"Good." The woman nodded, thanking him. Luckily, she seemed to be sober after resting a bit. "Thank you for your help, Shinji."

"It's nothing, Misato-san." He said embarrassedly. "I'll go prepare the water. It won't take long!"

The woman smiled. This kid is really good, huh. "I see. Eager to see me taking a bath, huh?" She teased him and giggled.

The boy reddened his cheek. "Of course no! Why would I do that?!"

"Hehe." Misato smiled. "I hit a jackpot. This kid is a goldmine of teasing's materials. I will have a good time teasing you everyday, Shinji-kun~"

"..." Shinji had already left the scene out of embrarassment.

People have limits, Misato. Don't push the line!

Anyways, as the somewhat sober purple-haired captain was resting again in her new room, Shinji finished his job heating up the water.

"Hmm, it's good to go. Misato-san!" He said. "The water is ready!"

"Coming!" She yelled, answering his call.

He stood up and stretched his arms, which were tired from doing so much work. Pushing the door aside, Shinji hastily got out of the bathroom in order to avoid a lucky pervert situation.

Shinji was a very self-conscious boy. Thanks for that, he is aware of many awkward situations that could happen in real life.

As he cautiously left the bathroom while watching both ways, he sighed at the thought of doing this everyday. This is very tiresome, he says!

Oh well, he's the one in charge here, right? Feeling some sort of responsibility enveloping his chest, he reminded himself to be mature. This house is going to need someone to be the straight man if Misato continued to be so carefree and immature all the time at home!

...Or Rei could be that one instead, hehe. Being serious all the time doesn't fit him well. The blue haired girl can be scary at times, too, so that's a good reason to let her be the one in charge instead of him?

Yeah, he can definitely imagine Rei scolding a drunk Misato. It would be great if she talked a bit more at times, you know?

Talking of Rei, he remembered she acted quite strange today. Something about redhead?

Hmph, it's probably nothing, he thought. Oh well, it's time to stop lazing around and prepare for his bath. His whole body was dropping sweats from doing chores!

...He should definitely make a list to divide housework later. This place isn't going to run by only one person!

As he took out the clothes one by one, a thought rushed through his head.

"...Am I going to get cooties from living with girls?"

Such horrifying question ,sadly, would not be answered for a very long time.

What are cooties, anyways? Sounds like a weird bug to him.

"Good. Your condition is stable. Your health seemed to get a lot better, but I recommend taking the usual pills every three days." The woman in her labcoat said while reading some papers on her hand. Sitting besides her was a mysteriously masked Commander, who was giving them both a thumb-up.

A thumb-up. Which was very out-of-character for her, by the way, if you didn't notice it already. Maybe this is the same case with Captain Misato, Rei thought. After analyzing those information, she concluded that having two different faces at different times could be a way to relieve stress.

To answer to the Commander's gesture. The blue-haired girl behind the glass just nodded silently as the masked woman and Doctor Akagi were working on computers monitoring her health . The new Commander is very efficient at her job of taking care of her health condition, she thought. Commander Ikari didn't talk to her much while they were doing this.

It was certainly better than floating inside the tube for an hour in complete silence, Rei mentally noted that in her heart. She respects Commander Ikari, but it's somewhat better not being stared all the time when she was getting a test.

...Looks like someone is slowly getting replaced.

"Alright, that should be it for today-" The faux-blonde woman looked at the masked Commander, who also gave her an encouraging thumb-up. Sighing annoyedly, Doctor Akagi rolled her eyes before crossing her arms and looked at the blue-haired teenager. "...Good work, Rei."

There was a long pause of silence as Rei stopped working before the gears started kicking in again. The blue-haired albino simply cleaned her body using a nearby towel, putting her clothes on as the two adults in the background watching her.

"...Thank you, Doctor Akagi." Now dressed in her usual school dress, the teenager awkwardly bowed while placing both of her hands on the dress. "I'll take my leave, Doctor Akagi, Commander Ichijo."

Taking this as her opportunity to shine, the Commander smirked under her mask as she spoke. "We'll see you tomorrow. Get some rest, Rei."

Bowing again, the blunette left the room. As the door behind her was closed, the faux-blonde immidiately shot a death glare at the masked Commander on her chair.

Her death stare could probably make it through an A.T Field if it was a real thing, I reckon.

"See, it's not that bad!" Completely immune to her threatening aura, the masked woman smugly said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Told ya."

"...I'm leaving." Doctor Akagi was done today. Packing up her belongings of the day, she walked out of the room without even saying goodbye.

"Boo! That's no fun at all, Akagi!" If she wasn't wearing a mask, she would consider sticking a tongue out at the doctor. She was definitely making progress with the faux-blonde woman, but it isn't the time yet, it seemed.

No Rome was built in a single day, after all. Patience is the key.

...Not for this other problem she was having on her other hand, though.

After making sure that no one was around, the Commander snapped her finger, closing all the windows and doors in the room. As loads of floating images of biblical images and tainted scrolls began to flood the atmosphere of the room, the woman had an unreadable expression on her face.

"No matter what I do, it's an unavoidable fate, huh?"

The woman said coldly, and her voice was completely devoid of emotion.

"I bet that kid already knew what was going to happen to her, but she stayed silent anyways. If it was not for me to open up to her, she would have kept her mouth shut until the finale."

Her head began to think about the possibilities of this scenerio. It was an unpredicted outcome, so sudden that her plan was almost overthrown.

"No matter what had changed, the old Angels had to be killed so the next one could awaken. The Angel's part inside her is reacting to the Call of the Father, despite being isolated from the link between Angels. If we're lucky, the awakening won't take effect until four more days... In that mean time, I have to prepare for the worst."

The brown-haired woman slammed her fist against the table, a rare moment of her anger being revealed to outside. "Good grief. Atleast I will try to make her last days meaningful... No." She gritted her teeth. "No! I'm not going to let things happen on its own like that anymore!"

She used to be someone who was willing to give up her life for her goals, but after realizing how precious the present is, she begins to change her ideals.

Those time was lost could never be regained. It was a painful lesson she learned from her own failures. And she would hate to let someone simply die like that!

As such, she will never repeat the same thing again.

"Somehow I'm more worried about the girl who is going to set this whole place ablaze than the actual people I need to protect. Damn it, it's hard playing from both sides." She grunted as she aggressively turned on the small device from before, making words and numbers appearing on its screen. I wonder how Gendo managed to make this look so easy?"

But for some reason, she smirked slightly.

"Heh, maybe this is something between otherworlders, huh? We both desire something we didn't have, so we went to another world to take it for ourselves. Guess I got carried away thinking that everything is going to be alright."

Now, what she needed was a plan; To protect this world, and to keep a promise.

Timer: 93 hours, 23 minutes, 12 seconds remained.

he he, very funni. A whole chapter and nothing even remotely close to water park was mentioned in the chapter. I am really good at avoiding nuisances!

Just kidding, it's on the way now. Anyways, thank you for making it this far! It's good to know that there is still so many people reading my story, which I appreciated very much. Although I would like some more thoughts of you guys on this story...So, I hope you're going to write a review or two this time! Thanks!

Ah sheet, it's 1AM already. I'm going to sleep now, hehe. Goodbye for now, everyone! I will see you guys soon!