Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion and all rights go to their respective owners. Also, all OCs are the creation of JimmyWolk himself.
SPOILER WARNING: This contains spoilers for the fanfic "The 2nd Try" and its sequel comic Aki-Chan's Life" which is all done by JimmyWolk. So If you haven't read that then you should stop right here and check those out first before continuing.
Summary:
The Ikari family and their friends decide to spend a fun day at the beach.
"The Beach"
"Mama! Papa! Everyone! It's the beach! I can see the beach!" Aki cried out energetically as she pressed her face to the van window.
Everyone present in the big van (rented by Kaji himself) with the Ikari family, Rei, Misato, Kaji, PenPen, Toji, Hikari and Kensuke all smiled and chuckled at the young brown-haired girl's enthusiasm.
It had been more than a month since Shinji and Asuka's wedding, plus their moving out of the Katsuragi apartment and into their new (old) home and everything was turning out smoothly, so much so that when the temperature started to rise even more, despite Japan's already scorching temperatures, the gang all agreed to spend the day at the nearby beach.
Upon arriving they found the beachside packed full of people, though luckily Kaji had managed to find a parking space very close to the beach. Once parked and getting their things out of the van they all went down a long flight of steps to the beach, though Aki, being impatient and wanting to run was held back by her mother and Rei by her hands.
"Come on, come on! The beach is right there! Come on!" Aki shouted in excitement.
"Man, she is impatient, isn't she," Toji said to Shinji, chuckling at the young girl's excitement.
"Well, Aki loves the beach and it has been a while for us. Plus I think Aki is curious about seeing a blue sea," Shinji said.
"Dude…was the sea red back…well in that future?" Toji whispered as they neared the bottom of the stairs. In his previous talks with his friend's daughter, Aki had always mentioned a few times visiting a "red sea" which he, Hikari and Kensuke were always baffled about but to get confirmation from Shinji that it wasn't some kid's imagination was a surprise.
Even more of a confirmation that it was indeed true was the look Shinji had, a variety of emotions before Shinji took a deep sigh. "Yeah you shouldn't ask any more about that, Toji."
Toji knew to not continue probing any further on the subject and simply left it be, knowing how sensitive the whole thing was for his friend. With everyone now on the beach, they found a space perfect for everyone to set up a small changing tent, a large beach umbrella and a large towel to sit on. Once all those were set up it was time for everyone to change into their swimsuits and beach outfits, the girls going first.
It took a few minutes for the girls to finish changing before they exited the tent, which gave the boys a nice eyeful of their swimsuits. Misato was wearing a one-piece black swimsuit that was suitable for women who were pregnant, yet despite her clearly showing a large dome still looked beautiful and worthy of any current supermodel.
Asuka came out in her new red bikini with a white lightweight sleeveless beach jacket along with wearing a sun hat and sunglasses.
Rei was wearing a blue bikini with yellow stripes on it, that was picked out for her by Asuka and Misato, otherwise, Rei would have brought and worn her one-piece school swimsuit.
Hikari was wearing a new all-white bikini while forgoing her two pigtails for a change, letting her hair down on Asuka's advice to her.
And lastly, Aki was wearing a children's one-piece red swimsuit, while she had on a pair of giant swimming goggles and a snorkel strapped around the top of her head.
"You know it's rude to stare boys," Misato's voice broke through to the guys who were all but staring at them and the girls ended up giggling/chuckling at them being caught.
Misato's attitude changed immediately when she looked down at herself and got depressed fast, as expected of a pregnant woman going through mood swings.
"Jesus Christ, I look ridiculous in this thing. I look so fat like a damn beach whale," Misato started getting very emotional to the point of tears which Kaji, having been advised by Shinji on situations like this beforehand, quickly went to hug his fiancée and soothing her with words of encouragement.
While this was going on, Hikari's eyes met with Toji's, who was looking at her intensely with a bit of a blush on his face before she decided to ask him what he thought of her current attire.
"Em…Suzu…I mean Toji, do I look good, I mean do you like my new swimsuit?" Hikari sheepishly asked her boyfriend. In all honesty, she was unsure if this was the right kind of swimsuit for her, but she had asked Asuka and even Miss Katsuragi for advice on how to attract Toji's undivided attention for this trip, which got her mixed looks and reactions from the two, Asuka's being both of disgust and annoyance while Miss Katsuragi's was that of a teasing and grinning one.
Ultimately Hikari was pointed by both women to this white swimsuit which apparently in their own words would bring out more of her purity and innocence that would surely grab her man's attention.
It was working as Toji couldn't seem to keep his eyes off her. Heck, Toji even had his jaw down for a while before Kensuke, who was next to him, put his jaw back up in his mouth, making the dark-haired jock remember to say something.
"Err…yeah you, you look good, no great even Hikari. The swimsuit looks great, really great and I err…like that it shows off your bellybutton." Toji finished rambling while he looked slightly away in embarrassment.
However, his comment on her exposed belly button made Hikari more self-conscious. "Wha! What about my belly button!?" Hikari cried out in embarrassment while she covered her exposed belly button with her hands in an attempt to block Toji's eyes away from it.
"Err…well it looks cute?" Toji answered a bit lamely.
Hikari, from everyone's perspective, looked like she had already got sunburn due to how red-faced she'd become in embarrassment. "You…you pervert!" Hikari shouted as she turned around facing away from Toji, leaving him stunned at such a reaction.
"…What did I do?" Toji asked in wonder, generally confused. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see his friend Kensuke who was giving him a disappointed look.
"Dude, you could have just said that she was beautiful and left it at that instead of making it weird Toji."
"Hey shut up man! At least I've got a girlfriend," Toji fought back with his retort, knowing that being the only single guy among their group was a sore spot for the military enthusiast.
Kensuke however didn't seem fazed by the jab at his single status and instead grinned. "Not yet I don't. Look around man I've got an entire beach of many single girls and women to choose from,"
Kensuke said with confidence that today would be the day he found a girlfriend for himself.
However, his look of confidence wavered as he saw many of the teenage girls on the beach accompanied by guys. "…I mean there's got to be a bunch of single girls out there…right?"
The only response he got was both Toji and Shinji patting his shoulders.
"Well, if they are out there, then good luck Kensuke," Shinji said.
"Yeah, good luck to ya man, though a piece of advice in case you do meet a girl, don't talk about military stuff. It will go a long way," Toji added before he pushed his friend to start walking along the beach, Kensuke took some unsteady steps before gaining a confident stride.
Just as Kensuke was out of earshot, Toji turned to Shinji. "So…do you think he's got any chance out there, Shinji?"
"Well, I mean, it is possible," Shinji shrugged though he did hope that his spectacled friend would at least find someone for himself.
Aki, who was getting tired and impatient at just standing around with the grownups saw an opportunity to just run towards the sea, but just as she moved to dash to the water she was swiftly caught by her underarms by her mother.
"Oh no you don't, Schätzchen, not yet!" Asuka firmly told her impatient daughter.
"Aww, but Mama! The sea, the SEA!" Aki whined loudly as she pointed to the sea filled with other people in the water.
"Nein, Schätzchen we need to put some sunscreen on you first. You don't wanna get burned now do you?" Asuka told her impatient child as she got out the sunscreen, applying some of the white cream onto her hand before rubbing it into her other free hand once she put the bottle down.
Aki grumbled and pouted but didn't resist when her mother applied the sunscreen to her exposed face, arms and legs. Next to her Rei was also applying some sunscreen too.
"Ok, there you go Schätzchen, all set, but remember what we told you, ok?" Asuka questioned her daughter, hoping that she memorised the rules they told her before coming here.
"I remember Mama." Aki groaned out, remembering that her parents told her the rules of the beach which were many like, stay within sight, don't go into the water alone with at least one of the group with her, don't bother other people or even talk to strangers, etc.
Giving the go-ahead Aki bolted to the water nearly bumping into many of the other beach-goers till she finally reached the water, where she squealed in delight as her feet touched cool water before backing away as the water receded.
Seeing this made Asuka smile, but she also saw that Rei was moving to meet up with her daughter.
"Rei," Asuka called out to which the blue-haired teen stopped and slightly turned her head back.
"Watch over her for me, please?" Asuka asked honestly.
"Understood," was all that Rei said before continuing towards her little friend, who was now knee-deep in the water.
Knowing that her little sunshine was in safe hands with Rei, Asuka turned to look at Shinji who was still conversing with Toji. An idea came into her head to which she smirked.
"Oh, Shinjiii..." Asuka called out in an overly sweetening tone, to which Shinji turned back to find that Asuka was now sitting down comfortably on the beach towel on the ground. He almost missed catching the sunscreen bottle that she casually chucked at him.
"Can you be a dear good husband and help put that hot thick cream all over my body, please," Asuka said teasingly with a smirk as she lay down on her front. Her smirk broadened when she saw that Shinji's face lit up bright red from the blushing.
"Asuka, don't say it like that," Shinji said embarrassed as he walked over and kneeled beside Asuka to do as she wanted. "At least till later ok," Shinji whispered the last part in Asuka's ear which made her blush heavy and even made her giggle in excitement like an actual schoolgirl.
While the two were having a romantic moment, the others watching them were giving them a variety of mixed stares and feelings. Hikari especially looked at the two in what could be described as extreme embarrassment, anger and even a tint of envy.
"That, that's so sinful!" Hikari cried out as she pointed her finger accusingly at her best friend and husband.
"Oh come on, grow up, we're officially married," Asuka reminded not only her friend but everyone else in their group as Shinji started applying the sunscreen on her.
"A fact that scares me," Toji stated which earned him being hit in the head with the sunscreen bottle Asuka threw at him for that snarky comment.
x-x-x
"Papa, Papa! Come quick! Look, look what I found!" Aki cried out to her father as she saw him approaching her and Rei. They were in the shallow waters on the beach near some rocks and had been swimming around there for nearly half an hour.
"What is it, honey?" Shinji asked while smiling, wondering what his daughter had found to pique her interest.
"I found this!" Aki presented her findings in her open hands with excitement. However, what Aki held in her small hands made Shinji freeze up and face turn pale.
"Um…Aki, Rei…what is that?" Shinji asked the two girls as he pointed at what was in his daughter's hands. At first, Shinji just assumed that his daughter had found something normal, like a fish, a crab, a seashell or just anything harmless, but what he was looking at definitely wasn't normal.
It looked like a tiny lizard but it had eyes that looked like those of a fish, didn't have arms as far as Shinji could tell, had an unnaturally long tail that was sticking up and had a tint of red at the tip, had a row of gills along its long neck, had some undeveloped dorsal plates along its back and lastly, its whole body was a sticky yellowish complexion.
Aki shrugged her shoulders at the question as she looked back at the creature in her hands, which strangely was also staring back at the little girl who held him. When Shinji turned to Rei, she shook her head negatively at him which surprised him a bit. He knew that Rei was very knowledgeable at almost anything, so her not knowing what type of creature was concerning.
"Err…Aki, honey, maybe you should put that back where you found it, ok?" Shinji said cautiously, really hoping that the tiny creature wasn't dangerous in any way. For all he knew the creature might bite, given that Shinji could tell that the strange creature did indeed have teeth and it could be poisonous or even have diseases too.
Aki however wasn't having it as she quickly turned to her side while also shielding the small creature when Shinji tried to reach it with his hands. "No."
Shinji sighed as he knew this was going to be a battle of wills again. "Aki, we need to put that back where you found it now," Shinji said a bit more firmly hoping to end this immediately.
"No way Papa, I like him and I'm gonna call him…err…oh "Silly", because he looks silly," Aki proclaimed happily. "See he likes it too!" Aki said as she noticed that the creature now dubbed Silly was looking up at Aki while it was also wagging its long strange tail like a happy dog.
"Yay! We're going to have so much fun, Silly, and have such the best of times and…err Silly?" Aki said who was happy a second ago was now confused as Silly was no longer in her hands, as the excited movements during her happy rant caused the small creature to drop from her open hands and into the water.
"OH NO! Silly, Silly, where are you!" Aki called out to the creature, even putting on her goggles and dipping her head underneath the water to see if she could find the strange creature.
Even after desperately searching, Aki sadly still did not find Silly. "Aww…I lost a friend," Aki sadly mumbled.
Shinji, despite being relieved that the strange creature was gone and thankful that he didn't have to fight his daughter further to leave, still went to comfort his distressed daughter by stroking her head. Rei also comforted Aki by putting her hand on the girl's shoulder.
"I'm sorry about Silly, honey, but this is perhaps for the best. Like we don't know if Silly could have survived away from the sea." Shinji comforted his daughter. Still seeing her with a sad expression Shinji remembered the reason he came out to Aki and Rei. "Come on honey, it's lunchtime and everyone's just about to eat," Shinji finished saying, hoping that food would change the mood.
Fortunately for him, Aki's eyes lit up at the mention of lunch. "Yay! It's lunchtime!" Aki cried out as she made a mad rush out of the shallow water to back to their group's spot at the beach already forgotten about Silly. Seeing this made Shinji chuckle and Rei smile.
By the time Shinji and Rei caught up with the hyperactive child, they saw that Asuka was drying off Aki with her beach towel while Kaji was unpacking their lunches out of the beach bag.
"Ok everyone, lunch is coming right up people, but the first order is for our lovely and impatient little lady, Aki-chan," Kaji said as he handed Aki her bento box, which Aki quickly snatched out of the old spy's hand.
"Thank you, Mr. Kaji!" Aki thanked the older unshaven man, having remembered her manners.
As everyone was being handed their lunches by Kaji, Aki, hungry and impatient quickly unwrapped her bento and opened the contents with some added rice balls.
"Thank you for the food!" Aki shouted out happily as she held the rice ball in her hand and was about to bite into it but felt a rush of wind and something snatched the rice ball from her fingers.
Confused for a second Aki looked around for the rice ball thinking that it might have fallen on the ground but heard the sounds of a seagull from up above and looked up to see that the bird held her rice ball in his mouth as it was flying away.
"Hey! Mr Seagull, come back! COME BACK AND GIVE BACK MY FOOD!" Aki shouted at the bird.
x-x-x
"Baka seagull," Aki grumbled angrily as she continued to build her sandcastle alongside Rei next to her doing the same, all the while occasionally looking at any passing seagulls, flying or walking around near other beach-goers with a glare.
Lunch had finished nearly an hour ago, but Aki was still angry over the fact that a seagull had stolen one piece of her food. Her Mama, Papa and everyone thought it was a funny moment but once Aki started having a small tantrum, they quickly calmed Aki down by telling her that they would treat her to either ice cream or a crepe later from one of the food vendors on the beach.
Yet despite that promise of more food, Aki's hatred of the seagulls remained and as she was about to call another seagull Baka as she was building another tower out of sand, Aki gasped as she saw a tiny crab scuttling along.
"Hi, Mr. Crab!" Aki said as she moved towards the crustacean before crouching down to see the tiny creature. Upon coming closer the crab stopped moving and appeared to look unblinkingly at the towering girl.
"Hey, Mr. Crab! Do you want to live in my sandcastle?" Aki asked the tiny crustacean.
The crab just stayed still while seemingly looking up at the human girl unblinkingly, to which Aki did the same, looking down at it and waiting for some response. After a brief moment, the staring contest was broken when the crab resumed scuttling along the beach.
"Oh…ok, bye Mr. Crab!" Aki waved to the crab before resuming building her sandcastle.
"And there I'm finished!" Aki declared as she finally finished her sandcastle. "Mama, Papa! Look I'm done with my castle!"
Hearing their daughter calling them, Asuka and Shinji got up from their towels to take a look at Aki's creation, which wasn't all that grand or even remotely spectacular given it was just a sand structure made in four cone shape buildings on each side, but it was something that their little girl created herself.
"That looks great honey," Shinji said to his daughter as he kneeled to inspect the sandcastle himself while also ruffling Aki's brown locks.
"Yeah, it's great Schätzchen," Asuka added praising her daughter.
"It is right! Rei, look I finished my sandcastle! Do you like it?" Aki called out to her friend who the trio saw was in the middle of building her sandcastle or in this case a completely smooth pyramid made out of sand.
Rei looked to Aki, before looking at her unremarkable sandcastle which after a brief moment she nodded and smiled at the young girl. "It's very well made."
Just as Aki was about to cheer happily for her friend's praise, everyone noticed that a crowd of people were gathering near the edge of the water, apparently seeing something spectacular happening on the water.
"Wait a minute, is that a bird?"
"Dude is that thing riding an actual surfboard?
"Is this for real or is this a joke?"
"Wow, that bird got some mad skills!"
"Wait a minute, IS THAT MY SURFBOARD!?"
Aki, wanting to see what was going on, got up and ran into the crowd quickly followed by Asuka, Shinji and Rei. Upon being able to squeeze past the mass of people and get to the front to see what the commotion was, Aki's eyes lit up as she recognised what or more accurately who was riding a surfboard on the water high wave on the sea.
"Mama, Papa, Rei, everyone! Look it's PenPen!" Aki shouted as she pointed out to where PenPen was.
"Wait…WHAT!?" Asuka and Shinji shouted in disbelief after they had managed to squeeze in front of the crowd and stand alongside Aki, along with Rei who looked stoic at the scene, as everybody watched PenPen riding on a surfboard and looking like a professional surfer as he rode the high waves.
"YAY! Go PenPen!" Aki cheered, which got the crowd of people cheering on too.
"YEAH! GO LITTLE BIRD!" a group of people cheered loudly, edging on the penguin too. The crowd even gasped when PenPen seemingly vanished underneath a huge wave, fearing for the little guy's safety but then cheered loudly when he reappeared at the end of the wave unharmed and still on the board.
The crowd continued to cheer and clap as PenPen made it to shore. The small bird basked in the cheers and admiration of the crowd, especially a group of women who started to gather and circle him, some even went to pet him after some hesitation.
Just as PenPen was enjoying the attention of the women, PenPen was surprised when he was grabbed and held by none other than Aki, much to his anger and disappointment, obviously wishing it was one of the older mature girls surrounding him.
"That was amazing PenPen!" Aki cried out as she continued to squeeze the small bird in her grasp. "I love you!"
"WARK, WARK!" PenPen cried out in displeasure while also trying to break free from the brown-haired girl's hold on him, once again cursing the little terror for ruining his moment, especially to the beautiful women who were now all awe at the cute sight.
x-x-x
"Ok Aki-chan, are you ready?" Kaji called out loud to the little girl.
"I'm ready!" Aki cheerfully and over-excitedly replied to the former spy as she was placed in the right position, her tiny hands holding a wooden stick as well as having her eyes covered by a blindfold by her Mama and Papa for the game to begin.
The said game was none other than splitting the watermelon. A few minutes before Kaji had asked the others if they wanted to play the game given that he brought a few fully grown watermelons along. After explaining the game to Aki after her confusion about what it was, the brown-haired girl was overly excited to play it and wanted to be the first to give it a go.
"Ok, here we go, one, two, three!" Asuka and Shinji spun around their daughter three times before moving slightly to the side with the others. Aki giggled from the slight dazed from being spun and nearly fell over but regained her footing. Now she needed to find and splat that watermelon.
"Aki! Turn around honey, you are going the other way!" Shinji called out as he watched Aki going way off from her target.
"Yes, yes, that's the right way Schätzchen! Just keep moving slowly forward that way," Asuka called out as well.
"Oh Aki-Chan, you're going off course! You need to go slightly to the left!" Hikari added her help when she saw Aki was beginning to venture away to the right, away from the melon.
"No no, Aki-Chan, that's right, you need to go left, LEFT!" Misato who was watching from her comfortable beach chair, got into the fun.
"Yeah, that's it Aki-Chan! You're nearly there!" Toji cheered the girl on.
"Ok kid, just a few tiny more steps and…stop you're there!" Kaji helped the girl finally reach her target.
"Ok Schätzchen, smash that melon!" Asuka! called out to her daughter.
Trusting her mama, Aki tightened her grip on the wooden stick before preparing to strike at it.
"HI..YA!" Aki cried out as she put all of her strength into smashing the watermelon.
Unfortunately for Aki, nothing happened to the watermelon as her supposed mighty strike simply bounced off of it.
"Did I do it!?" Aki called out as she took off the blindfold but was disappointed to see no damage to the melon. Not wanting to give up Aki then struck the melon again with the stick but only got frustrated when again there was no damage to it. Getting even madder Aki just kept striking the watermelon.
Everyone from the side just watched in funny amusement at seeing Aki repeatedly hitting the watermelon.
"Haha I guess Aki-Chan isn't that strong yet," Kaji said.
"Or maybe Kaji the watermelon is too thick and hard to begin with," Asuka replied to the older unshaven man. "Did you overwater them?" Asuka asked, vaguely remembering something about how to handle watermelons from her years of gardening.
"Oh boy, she's definitely not happy now," Shinji sighed as he continued to watch his daughter go into an angry frenzy over the watermelon.
"Well, she's doing a bit of damage…I think?" Toji replied to his friend. He squinted his eyes to see that Aki was doing a bit of damage to the outer shell but not enough to penetrate or break the thing together.
Misato, having had her fun watching seeing the scene decided to help her "niece". "Hey Aki-Chan!"
"WHAT!" Aki angrily called back, still not stopping her attacks.
"Use the stick to stab the melon instead of striking it, ok hun?" Misato said.
Aki stopped her attempts, taking in her auntie's words before manoeuvring the wooden stick downward and stabbing it down, which finally penetrated the watermelon.
"YAY! I did, I did it!" Aki cried out happily and continued to stab the melon till it was now reduced to chunks of pieces.
"Ok, next it's Ayanami's turn," Kaji said already preparing the next melon.
"Oh oh, I wanna spin Rei around!" Aki quickly forgot her smashed melon and went to Rei's side.
"You ready, Rei?" Aki looked up at her blue-haired friend who had just put on the blindfold and nodded in confirmation.
"Here we go! One, two, three! Go Rei!" Aki cheered for her friend after having spun the teen around.
To everyone's surprise, Rei didn't move for a moment before she turned her head in the direction of the watermelon despite not being able to see. She calmly walked over to it without any guidance from everyone and was already next to the melon before rearing back the wooden stick.
The next thing everyone knew the watermelon burst into nothing but tiny bits due to the force of Rei's strike on it. Everyone on the sidelines now had bits of destroyed melon on them as a result.
The only one who didn't seem stunned by what just happened was Aki herself who was cheering and clapping in excitement. "Yay, Rei that was wicked!"
x-x-x
It was a bit further in the day, but the sun was still high in the sky and despite having eaten many pieces of watermelon which everyone found out had mixed results as Kaji either under-watered some or gave too much water to them thus making it rather tasteless. Thus everyone agreed to get something at the local food vendor at the beach and Aki still wanted a treat from earlier due to the seagull incident. So going along with it, Shinji took Aki to the nearest one along with Kaji while Misato, Asuka, Rei, Hikari and Toji stayed behind.
"Papa! Papa! I want that one!" Aki said what seemed like the tenth time already as she pointed to pictures of the food printed on the side of the vendor stall.
"Yes, honey, I know, I know," Shinji sighed as he held Aki's hand, keeping her in place. They were currently behind Kaji who was getting something for Misato. Once Kaji gave the food vendor man his money, he turned around and both Shinji and Aki saw what he had purchased, which was four grilled squid on sticks
"Ewe…that's nasty!" Aki said, grossed out. She still hadn't gotten over the incident ages ago on the fish subject.
"Hey, don't knock it before trying it kid," Kaji chuckled at the little girl's behaviour.
"Are all those just for Misato?" Shinji inquired.
"Yep, that's right. She all but demanded I get these. Think she started getting those pregnancy cravings like you warned me about," Kaji said, remembering the tips that Shinji shared with him before.
"Yeah, I know," Shinji chuckled lightly before sighing heavily, clearly remembering the time during Asuka's pregnancy when she wanted many unusual or outright strange things to eat. Many of which he couldn't make or find in the ruins of the city which resulted in Asuka's mood worsening many times.
Heck, many times Asuka had accompanied him to make sure he wasn't lying or making sure he did a thorough search of places of what she wanted. She once broke into an untouched sweet store and came out with a huge sack full of candy and chocolate before he could attempt to lock pick the entrance. The memory of Asuka devouring her raid of sweets like that of a hungry lion eating its prey was still fresh in his mind.
"Papa, come on," Aki whined as she was getting impatient of wanting something.
"Ok ok honey," Shinji chuckled and with Kaji walking back, Shinji and Aki were next in line to order.
"Hello there kids. What can I get you?" The man behind the vendor asked.
"I want that with Strawberry!" Aki cried out as she pointed to the picture of a crepe. "Oh err please mister," Aki finished when she felt a slight nudge from her father to remember her manners.
The man chuckled having seen this situation with many kids many times. "Ok one strawberry crepe coming right up, and you young man?" the man asked Shinji.
"Oh, can I have three shaved ice, please? One strawberry, blueberry and green tea please."
"Ok coming right up." The vendor man said before getting to work making the orders starting with Aki's order first and it was less than a minute the crepe was given to Aki while Shinji carefully took the three shaved ice in both hands after paying the man.
Just as the two were on their way back to their spot on the beach, Aki was happily munching on the crepe, squealing at the taste and sweetness of it. Now back with everyone, Shinji handed two of the shaved ice to Asuka and Rei.
"Mama! Look at what I got!" Aki called out to her mother while showing her a treat to her.
"Oh wow Schätzchen that looks great," Asuka exaggerated slightly at her daughter's choice for a treat. Giving Shinji a quick look she saw him looking back at her with a tired smile while shrugging his shoulders, already knowing that he was spoiling Aki again with anything she wanted.
Just as Aki was about to sit down on the beach towel, a loud screeching coming from above from a very familiar seagull was coming close to Aki, preparing to snatch her food again.
Before another could register what to do, Rei quickly picked up a tiny seashell beside her and threw it at the descending seagull, which to everyone's shock hit the bird, causing it to fall and crash into the sand next to them before it quickly scampered and flew away from them.
Still in shock, everyone looked at Rei in awe.
"Dude, did she just hit a seagull with a tiny shell?" Toji asked in wonder and disbelief.
"Yay! Thank you, Rei!" Aki cheered for her friend and was happy that the seagull didn't get her food again.
x-x-x-x
"Kensuke! Kensuke, where are you man!?" Toji shouted out to his friend as he and Shinji searched for their missing friend who hadn't been seen since the beginning day.
It was now later in the evening and the sun was nearly setting on the horizon thus a lot of people on the beach were beginning to pick up and leave. The gang, having had their fun for today, decided to do the same. Aki did protest at this at first since she wanted to stay, but Asuka and Shinji had told her that they needed to get going. Of course, for all her protesting, the day full of excitement took its toll and she fell asleep almost immediately after being strapped into her child seat.
The gang were all packing up their remaining stuff into the van, but it occurred to them that they were missing Kensuke, thus his friends began searching for him.
They had been trying to call and search for him for a few minutes now and just as Shinji and Toji were beginning to worry about their friend, they saw someone in the distance running towards them and to their relief it was Kensuke.
"Hey guys!" Kensuke shouted as he waved his hand while continuing to run towards them.
Both sighing in relief, Shinji and Toji waited for their friend to reach them, which Kensuke did and was breathing heavily due to the running he did.
"Finally man, we've been looking all over for you," Toji said.
"Yeah I mean, you've been gone all day, Kensuke," Shinji added. "Like, where have you been all this time?"
"Ga..guys…you never…guess…what happened," Kensuke breathed out still trying to catch his breath from the running he did.
"What, you found some secret pirate treasure or something?" Toji joked.
"No, I had a date with a girl!" Kensuke cheered happily. His exclamation left both Shinji and Toji stunned and trying to process what exactly he had just said.
"…No way dude, you pulling our legs here right?" Toji questioned, still not believing that Kensuke managed to find and date a girl in a single day.
"No, I'm serious guys!" Kensuke said firmly, a bit insulted that his friends didn't believe he could do it. "I went on a date with a cute girl…well kinda," Kensuke finished saying but his last line was somewhat mumbled.
Unfortunately for him, Shinji and Toji did hear that last part and the latter was giving him a look of scrutiny.
"Ah huh, what do you mean 'kinda', Kensuke?" Toji said while making it sound like an interrogation.
Kensuke sighed as he decided just to tell his friends. "Well, what happened was that I did look around and even dared to ask a few girls on the beach if they wanted to…you know hang out, but I got turned down by all of them. After that, I was feeling down so I just went to the secluded part of the beach down by the rocks when two pretty older girls came up to me and asked if I was alone and single."
Shinji and Toji gave each other a side glance before looking back to Kensuke. "Wait, wait, wait. You went on a date with two girls!?" Toji said in more disbelief. His mind can't understand how his military nerd friend could pull off something like that.
"No man there's more to it than that, although it would have been nice if that was the case," Kensuke muttered out the last part, remembering thinking the same thing during that moment.
"Anyway when I answered, they told me that they needed my help for their friend, who it turned out was incredibly nervous and shy around guys in general. So I was picked because the girl herself picked me out of all the guys here, because I looked the least intimidating to her."
Shinji and Toji now understood the situation, although Toji just gave a deadpanned look.
"So basically you were on a pretend date rather than an actual one."
"Hey, that's not true!…Well, I mean sure that's what it started out as, but me and Shinobu really got to talking about a bunch of stuff after some awkwardness and she really opened up to me as well. She even told me where she used to live before moving up here, what her favourite things were and that she likes to sing too even though she's too shy to do it around people."
"Wow, it seems you had a great time with this girl, Kensuke," Shinji said, happy that his friend was able to enjoy himself on his so-called "date".
"Yeah, too bad that it was a one-time thing and you'll never see the girl again man," Toji added, still sceptical about whether Kensuke's "date" was genuine.
"Hey, that's not true either Toji, in fact, Shinobu even gave me her phone number," Kensuke declared which even shocked her two friends.
"A-huh and where is this phone number then?" Toji asked.
"It's right here written on my hand and….oh, oh, oh no, no, no, no, it's gone!?" Kensuke freaked out as when he looked at his hand, the phone number which was written in pen ink unfortunately was smudged around his hand, making it unreadable.
"This isn't fair! Curse my sweaty palms!" Kensuke cried out as he fell to his knees on the sand while Shinji and Toji gave their friend a look of pity.
"Hey! Are you three ready yet? We're good to go now. If we don't hurry, we'll hit more traffic on the way home!" Kaji waved to the three boys.
"Oh…yeah we're coming, Kaji!" Shinji called back to the unshaven man, before looking down at the kneeling and depressed Kensuke for a second and back to Toji who nodded in silent agreement before both boys helped Kensuke up and dragged him back to the van.
End.
x-x-x
(OMAKE-ENDING)
The atmosphere in the command centre at Terminal Dogma was in panic due to what was occurring in Tokyo 3. Just when everyone thought that they never had to deal with situations like this again with the angels all gone, a giant creature coming out of the ocean was definitely unexpected.
On the NERV screen, everyone saw that the JSSDF was firing everything they had at the enemy but nothing was doing any sort of physical damage. At this rate everyone feared that they would have to resort to using N2 mines to destroy it, which would result in the destruction of the city.
While everyone was looking on the situation in fear, one little girl who was being held tightly by her parents looked at the giant screen in confusion before changing into one of pure happiness and wonder.
"Mama, Papa! It's Silly, he came back!" Aki cried out as she pointed at the screen, which everyone in the command centre stopped and looked back at the young girl in pure confusion.
"Wait, what did heck did she call that thing?" Aoba asked in confusion. A moment later everyone heard the load roar coming from the giant monster.
Note:
For all those going to say it, yes the tiny creature that Aki found was a very tiny first form Shin Godzilla.
I kind of wanted to add it in for laughs, plus the Japanese Godzilla franchise is under Anno's shared Anno-verse along side his Evangelion, Ultraman and Kamen Rider. The last two I've never watched so don't start asking to do crossovers for them in this fic.
Anyway hope you liked this chapter and please leave a review if you can.