Chapter 1
Shinji heard a slight noise coming from outside the room, the sound of a sliding door. In the midnight of Katsuragi's apartment, the slightest sound would become dangerous, could cause many harmful effects, especially for the only boy here.
One of these effects was hallucinations. Shinji could have sworn he saw a yawning redhead walking slowly out of her room to somewhere, probably the bathroom. But when he blinked, all he could see was the door of his room sunk in darkness. It was not the first time his brain played tricks on him since he had been lying on the bed.
So Shinji turned over, looked at the ceiling, yawned, and then resumed his thoughts interrupted by the noise.
'Why can't I fall asleep?'
This was really a big problem. Usually, he slept like a dog as soon as his head touched the pillow, since the day Miss Ritsuko announced that all the pilots had to accept additional team tactics training last week. But now he was still awake, looking at the dark ceiling of his room at— Shinji glanced at the alarm clock next to the pillow—at 2:43am. Then he closed eyes and tried again to fall asleep.
'It is not normal, there must be a reason.'
Shinji began to search in his memory in vain. His dinner was the same as yesterday's, just boring rice and fish. His second suspicion was an accidental cup of tea or coffee he forgot, which was impossible since he spent the whole afternoon and evening in NERV without drinking anything but LCL. Nothing suspicious right?
'Oops…LCL.'
Yesterday Miss Ritsuko asked every pilot jumped into LCL tanks to get a full body check by Magi. It took them the whole afternoon to dip in the "stinky Fanta juice"(named by his colleague) in birthday suits, and the "fake blonde bitch"(named by the same) stared shamelessly at them bobbing in their birthday suits. To Shinji's opinion, the worst part was that Miss Ritsuko kept forcing them to calculate mathematical and logical questions constantly. He felt exhausted for a while, but by the time he got out of the LCL, that feeling had already strangely disappeared.
At that time, he believed it was the adrenaline rush effect before communicating with Asuka during the team tactics training.
'If true, why didn't I feel it before?'
The darkness in the boy's closed eyes began to be replaced by vivid memories. He had only suffered from insomnia twice since coming to Tokyo-3, neither of them was related to LCL definitely, in the first time a redhead's lips looked too soft and sweet, and the second time they tasted… No, stop.
'Stop it. I believe it is none of her business now.'
Opening his eyes once again, Shinji sadly found his heart pounding, which was the last thing an insomniac boy needed right now. Just when he was determined not to think about his redhead roommate never again tonight, he heard another slight noise came outside the room, and knew the German eagle had flew back to her nest.
'Her habit of getting up during the night.' Shinji almost started to remember his first experience with insomnia, but fortunately, he managed to control himself in time.
'Maybe I should just empty my head.' Even the idiot Shinji realized now that thinking wildly would only make it harder to fall asleep. 'Let me try sheep counting?'
Shinji changed his sleeping posture a little, then stretched himself, starting to imagine a huge meadow with sheep and a long fence. But at the moment of the first sheep jumped over the fence, Shinji felt his hand touched something that made the meadow, the sheep and the fence disappear all at once.
His right hand touched something.
There was something not far beside his pillow touched by his right little finger. With a slight flip of his wrist, he grabbed the thing in his hand. 'What's it?'
Shinji was curious. His fingers told him that it was a flat solid block, with a slit on the side. 'It was not like my SDAT…' And he remembered that his SDAT was safely under his pillow. He held it up in front of his face and examined it. As soon as he recognized its color, he realized what it was.
It was the one Misato gave him yesterday. The scene was still fresh in his mind. 'Aisuka…'
After another very unpleasant debriefing (they pilots had finally learned not to turn it into an internal strife), Misato asked him to stay for a while. "We should talk about your piloting."
Shinji was not surprised by it; he got the best synchronization rate today. And his battle commander was the person liked to give "private advice". He saw Asuka cast a suspicious glance at his face, made him reply an indifferent smile, as if he didn't care.
He turned his eyes to Misato. She looked tired, still frustrated from the argument in the conference room earlier. Rei said a light "Bye", then it came the sound of door opening. At last he heard a good hard slam, knowing both of his colleagues had left the room one by one.
It wasn't until the echo of the slamming door had completely faded that Misato broke the silence. She asked an unexpected question.
"Shinji. What do you think of Asuka?"
The redhead's moody nature flashed through his mind, accompanied by the memories of sharp German curses, bright red hair and having his nose pinched. It was really a difficult question to answer. Shinji made it short.
"She is mad." He was startled by the sound of his own voice, was he grinding his teeth?
Misato stared at him in silence for a moment, seemingly startled as well. Then she suddenly broke into a smile. "Yes, you are right. Asuka is mad. And all women are mad. Maybe I have told it to you before." She put a hand into her pocket.
"No... Miss Misato." Her weird smile made Shinji wonder whether his guardian hided empty Yebisu cans in this room.
"And I prepared an advice for you on how to communicate with a mad redhead." She pulled something red out of her pocket and waved it in front of Shinji's eyes. "A simulated personality model of Asuka, constructed with the brain scan data by Magi. You can call her Aisuka. Ritsuko promised that communicating with her was exactly the same as communicating with the real redhead. Just send messages, and Aisuka, who lives in Magi, would reply."
"Miss Misato, maybe you are mistaken." He didn't take the thing, but stammered. "We don't need mo… more com... communication. Or rather Asuka d—" His words came to a screeching halt at Misato's left hand on his shoulder.
"Shinji. You are a good boy, I don't know what's wrong between you, but you must fix the relationship with Asuka. Don't run away from it. Aisuka will help you." Misato shove the red thing into Shinji's hand, then pulled her left hand back. The childish smile of Miss Misato was gone, replaced by the serious face of Major Katsuragi.
"The Third Children, you must increase the level of cooperation with the Second Children to defeat the next Angel. Use Aisuka to make it. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Madam."
"Dismiss. Wait for me at the parking too, tell Asuka I have some paperwork to finish, I'll drive you both home soon."
When Shinji turned around, he heard the old Misato coming back. "By the way, Shinji. Aisuka really is the same as the real redhead, so please think twice before you confess yourself to her!"
"Misato!"
Although he still had a red blush on his face as he closed the door to the conference room, it quickly faded as he thought about Misato's words.
'As if I really need,' he walked to the exit of the corridor, while he stuffed Aisuka into his left trouser pocket, and pulled his SDAT out of the right one. 'As if she really needs the relationship. Cooperation on the battlefield is one thing, communication is another. I shouldn't get close to her. I've been told enough that night.' He stuffed the earphones tightly into his ears.
By the time the second song started, he had completely forgotten about Aisuka.
"Aisuka." Shinji didn't realize he'd whispered it. His right thumb touched the side slit, with a little force from his hand, he opened and then there was light.
It was the light from the screen, so faint even in the pitch-black room. First, a large line of text "AISUKA" flashed in the center of the screen, almost crudely taking over the entire screen as if showing some kind of personality.
'The logo is as rude as her.' Shinji thought with a bit of annoyance, his eyes were stung a little by the increased brightness.
After the logo disappeared, a chat window filled the screen, very similar to the one on his school laptop. Shinji wasn't surprised, he guessed that it might be because both programs came from Miss Ritsuko. Below the screen was a small keyboard, and the whole machine looked like the old flip phone Misato had left in a drawer.
Then Shinji noticed that there was already a message waiting in the chat window.
"A: Hello."
No timestamp, no avatar, only a few characters. It reminded Shinji of the millennium-era chatrooms he'd seen on the Internet before. 'Am I living in 1995 or so? There is no way to even know when Aisuka sent this message.' But then again, Shinji himself was a bit skeptical that Aisuka, who lived in Magi, had any notion of time as such.
The boy thought for a while, then started typing.
"Do you know you sleepwalk?"
His thumb stroked the send button, then moved to the delete button and erased the entire sentence. At last, the screen showed that he had sent a completely different sentence.
"S: Hi. It's Shinji Ikari."
It was better to be polite when talking to someone, especially someone who was exactly the same as Asuka. Now Shinji stared at the faintly glowing screen, imaging the message flying deep underground to the Central Dogma, to Magi's server where Aisuka would make her reply.
'It could take a long time.' The boy stared at the screen, which hadn't changed at all, and yawned again. 'Maybe check it in tomorrow morning is enough.'
Just as Shinji was about to put the machine down, the screen flickered, and vibrated slightly in his hand.
"A: Idiot. Of course I know who you are."
Shinji couldn't help but smile at that. So Misato didn't lie, Aisuka really was exactly like the real Asuka. His hand felt another tremor from Aisuka.
"A: Don't you know how to sleep?" Of course he knows, but does Aisuka, who lived in Magi know? Shinji thought of a new question at once, if she was an exact simulation of a real person, then should she be able to faithfully simulate Asuka's wakefulness as well?
"S: I was going to sleep but got waken up."
The reply was faster and grumpier than Shinji had expected this time.
"A: Do you mean it was me who woke you up?"
"S: I didn't say that." With the last message sent, Shinji immediately put the machine down and fixed his eyes on the dark ceiling.
'Great. It always turns into a fight. Even that's an AI-edition Asuka.'
Just as he was staring at the ceiling and grumbling to himself, he heard the machine buzzing again. So Shinji grabbed the machine again and checked. He saw a new message that he hadn't expect.
"A: Listen, idiot. I'm not here to argue with you. And it's stupid to send a bunch of spam just to argue. Do you agree?"
"S: Yes." Almost as soon as he sent the message, the new message was sent back.
"A: Just to save some time, let's make a pact. Let's all try not to fight here, and have a frank conversation, okay?"
"S: Yes. Sorry."
"A: Fine. Additional rule: NEVER say any stupid 'sorry' anymore."
Shinji's mind is getting dizzy. It was obvious that Aisuka was very energetic, and just as good as a real redhead at making his brain spin.
"S: Why?"
"A: You are a real idiot, aren't you?"
Aisuka was quiet for a moment before it buzzed next time. Shinji's first reaction was to retort, but he was afraid to continue the argument. The second reaction was to apologize, and now that obviously wasn't an option either.
"A: I have a question. Why do you always say sorry to others?"
Shinji froze, frankly he hadn't even thought about it himself. It's more of a subconscious habit.
"S: It's Japanese politeness."
"A: Bullshit. Even Hikari doesn't talk like you. Frank conversation, remember?"
"S: Well, Idk in fact." The boy could not escape, felt himself like a deer caught in the headlights.
"A: Well. Let me guess. Maybe you want to please others? Escape to get bawled from daddy?"
'She is much more annoying than the REAL Asuka.'
"S: I guess you are right." He didn't want to talk with Aisuka anymore, but her reply came quickly.
"A: A moment ago do you want to apologize for pissing me off? Well, listen. The whole point of people apologizing for something is to guarantee that it won't happen again, but every time you apologize, you do the same thing the next time. That's what really pisses me off. You apologize to escape."
Shinji didn't know what to reply. He wasn't expecting a candid Aisuka, and this was the first time he knew why apologizing would make the redhead angry. Although her words actually made him feel embarrassed. 'But it's not bad, is it? Misato asked Aisuka to help for a reason.'
"S: Thank you. I would not do that."
"A: Okay, I have always wished I can teach Shinji that."
'So that's what Asuka was thinking.' He still felt a little embarrassed, and felt annoyance after realizing he was embarrassed because of an AI's words. 'I need to ask Misato more about Aisuka.'
Before ending the conversation, he remembered what he wanted to send at first, and determined to strike back with it.
"S: So, do you know you sleepwalk?"
Shinji noticed with satisfaction that Aisuka briefly froze for a moment.
"S: Frank conversation, remember?" At the moment he pressed the send button, the machine buzzed again.
"A: You idiot. I've always been a good sleeper."
"S: Really? Don't you think it's a little ironic that you're saying that to me?"
"A: I do have a bit of insomnia sometimes, LCL is the reason. That's what happens when you're in it too long. I had known how to deal with it, idiot. But I NEVER sleepwalk, idiot!"
'Well. At least I can be sure the reason I cannot fall asleep.'
"S: How do you deal with it?"
"A: Put down the machine and just close eyes. Now the conversation is over."
"S: Good night."
"A: Gute Nacht."
Aisuka just fell into silence. And the boy put the machine down and closed his eyes. 'I will ask Misato about Aisuka in the morning. She is annoying, but is helpful indeed.'
Shinji Ikari fell asleep finally, and Aisuka slept beside his face.
TBC…
AN: I apologize for any incoherent sentences in this chapter. I have no any pre-readers to check my English. I hope I can write something humor like Gryphon117's masterpiece… That's my final goal. I hope Shinji and Aisuka are not too much OOC.
Welcome any comments!