Eight: Dawn, and an Afternoon Rain.

Twelfth Ward, Tokyo-3, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

July 20th, 2015.

This bunker stinks. The inside of the concrete enclosure did indeed smell, the faint odor of rotted fish mingling with the heavy miasma of solvent fumes. Toji clambered off a folded wrestling mat, pushing through a small group of people standing in front of the door. The small bunker was stuffed with at least a hundred people. Some lined the edges of the room on folded mats and metal chairs; most were milling around on the floor, separated roughly by age. A cluster of JSSDF soldiers stood near an exit, hands resting on their assault rifles.

Toji squeezed between the wall and a pile of boxes into a small nook. Sure enough, Kensuke sat cross-legged on the dusty floor, idly playing with a plastic gunship. Toji pulled up a fruit crate and sat next to him.

"The bunker smells worse than I remember," Kensuke said. "Like piss and hand sanitizer."

Toji sighed.

"Kensuke, you dipped out to go watch the fight. You're not the one who was stuck here for five hours."

"I didn't even get to see an Angel. Stupid Section Two caught me outside the tunnel." Toji made a noncommittal grunt. Kensuke set down the plane and turned to Toji, his eyes shining with an expression that read BAD IDEA in all caps.

"Wanna sneak out with me this time? I found this tunnel that goes straight to the old school."

"You're joking. Are you trying to get us shot?"

"Nah, trust me. No one will notice we're gone."

Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

July 20th, 2015.

"They're gonna notice we're gone." Toji clambered over a fallen beech tree blocking the trail, brushing a leaf off his shoulder. The city of Hakone stretched out at the foot of the mountains, a sprawling expanse of concrete block apartments fringed with suburbia, pockmarked with blast craters and pools of stagnant water. The retracted skyscrapers of Tokyo-3 lay like a scar in the middle of the city, a flat concrete and asphalt plain amidst the jagged skyline.

"How?" Kensuke replied. "They aren't taking a head count when the Angel's rampaging…speaking of which, where is the Angel?"

Toji squinted at the city. Nothing moved or breathed in the city below—other than the dim howl of a thousand air raid sirens the valley had fallen silent. The sun cast a dazzling reflection on the water of the lake, leaving purple spots dancing in his vision. Toji blinked hard, rubbing at his eyes, when Kensuke seized him by the shoulders.

"There! It's in the lake!" Toji squinted at the glimmering surface of Lake Ashi.

The water was parting.

As if pushed from below by an invisible wedge, a dark circle bloomed across the waves. A smooth red bulb sprouted from the surface, rising ten, twenty, thirty feet above the beach, casting a colossal shadow over the waves. A pair of great bulgy eyes peered from over the wrack, sulfur-yellow irises ringing massive dark pupils. Stubby, roach-like legs wriggled at the junction between onion-head and great columnar body. The butt of the creature finally cleared the lake, dripping sheets of water that drove a surge against the rocky shore. A pair of glowing tentacles uncoiled from the creature as it landed ashore, the ends leaving sizzling channels in the dirt.

Kensuke whistled appreciatively.

"Kinda looks like a wang, huh?"

You know, from this angle it really does.

In the midst of the downtown, a pair of steel rails telescoped out of a painted concrete lot. Alarm lights flashed around the margins of the huge steel trapdoors, the massive motors rumbling like distant thunder.

"And here comes the Evangelion," Kensuke murmured. "Come on, Ikari-kun, give us a good fight."

With a resounding clank, the launch doors sprang open. Unit-01 shot from the dark maw of the tunnel, wreathed in a corona of electric sparks. The colossus landed heavily in the street, sending a tremor through the city. Toji jumped as a startled quail took flight a few feet from his shoe. The Evangelion withdrew a huge knife from its pylon compartment and crouched into a fighting position. The long blade emitted a wan glow, the edges a blur of motion.

On the other side of the city, the Angel seemed to notice the mecha. It slowly tilted, fixing Unit-01 with an unblinking stare. For a long moment, the city was as quiet as a graveyard.

Then the Evangelion took a step. The Angel darted forward in a scarlet blur, tentacles trailing in its wake. One feeler slid through an office tower with a metallic screech. For a heartbeat it seemed the Angel's arm had passed harmlessly through, before the building toppled over in two razor-straight pieces. Thirty meters from Unit-01, the Angel slammed to a stop. Its tentacles whipped out ahead, slitting the roadway into smoking furrows of tar. The robot dove aside to avoid the attack as an entire block of towers were sliced into ribbons. A dense plume of dust billowed from the ruins, cloaking the titans in a choking pall.

Toji stared at the rising column of fumes, jaw hanging open. The top of the cloud towered into the sky, its shadow racing across the ground like a monstrous snake. It swallowed them in darkness and raced up the mountain side.

He's in over his head.

With a loud boom the Evangelion hurtled out of the pall, crushing a motel under its rump. The Angel glided out of the smoke, vermillion shell smooth and unblemished. The robot yanked an I-beam out of its forearm, the long steel rod appearing no larger than a splinter in its huge hand. It flicked it aside with a contemptuous gesture.

Kensuke peered into his camcorder, fiddling with the zoom.

Toji elbowed him. "Hey, who's winning?"

"Right now?" Kensuke wiped the lens with a cloth. "The Angel's beating us like a cheap rug."

The Angel darted out again, sending a tentacle raking along Unit-01's right shoulder. Its pylon tumbled to the ground, neatly sliced in two, and plunged into the motel's pool with a great splash. The other tentacle missed its neck by a few meters, hewing through the ground behind the Evangelion's feet. The power cable whipped away, sparks trailing from the torn end. Incredibly, the robot seized hold of the other feeler and yanked the monster up close. It hewed off one of the creature's appendages with a savage chop and plunged the knife towards its heart.

A gigantic wall of orange light manifested in the space between them, sending a wave of static across the valley. Toji grimaced at the overpowering odor of ozone and rosewater that billowed from the creature. "Of course the kaiju smells like flowers," he muttered.

"Better than rotten meat." Kensuke adjusted a setting on his camcorder. "Look, he's about to kill it!"

Unit-01 pinned the Angel to the ground under its knee, holding on to the writhing tentacle stumps with one hand and with the other bearing down on with every ounce of its weight onto the knife. The blazing wall bent back under the blade, glowing brighter and brighter. The smell of ozone became eye-wateringly strong. The Angel thrashed around, legs jabbing ineffectually at the robot's breastplate.

A single tentacle slipped free, the end swelling and mutating like a diseased fungus. With a single whipping motion it stabbed into the Evangelion's abdomen. Toji heard Kensuke draw a sharp breath. Oh no.

The glowing point jutted from Unit-01's back, stained dark red. The robot faltered, and with a great heave the Angel shoved off the ground. The tentacle slid out and struck home again, stabbing Unit-01 through the shoulder. The robot pressed a massive palm against the stomach wound, the bloody knife held weakly in front of it.

The Angel loomed overhead, throwing a long shadow over the tableau. It lashed down at the bleeding robot with crushing force. The mecha tried desperately to ward off the blow, but the tentacle sheared through the Evangelion's fingers and plunged into its knee. Unit-01 crashed to the ground. A growing pool of crimson stained the ripped-up street below, littered with the pulverized facade of the leaning office tower. Unit-01 hurled a sedan up at the creature with its intact hand. It crumpled against the Angel's AT-Field, sending a shower of burning gasoline raining down. With a whipping motion of the tentacle the Angel sent the robot flying through the air…directly towards Toji and Kensuke.

Fuck.

Kensuke tracked the Evangelion through the air, peering at the camcorder screen. "Did you see that, Toji! It just threw—" Toji grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dove behind a cluster of rocks just as the falling mecha crushed the forest behind them. He flinched as an uprooted cedar tree bounced off the boulder and rolled down the mountain, tearing a wide swatch through the undergrowth. Kensuke wriggled out from under his arm, absentmindedly wiping the lens of his miraculously still intact camera.

"You alright?"

Toji wiped a trickle of blood from his nose. "Yeah. Everything hurts like a bitch, though." He peered over the top of the rock.

The mammoth purple curve of the Evangelion's neck lay over a bed of crushed forest and turned earth, the brightly colored steel dented and chipped. The oblique stump of the cut pylon glowed cherry red, the torn shoulder plates exposing charred tissue and bare bone. He watched in horrified fascination as strands of pink flesh writhed like worms within the wound, twisting and weaving into ridged muscles and glossy sinew. That's not a robot…it's alive?

Beige skin crept over the margins of the tear, closing without a mark. The Angel hovered in the distance, slowly drifting on its belly towards them. Its stained appendages floated around the creature's great hulk; drops of blood fell in a slaughterhouse rain below.

"You two, get in!" Toji jumped. Is that coming from the robot? A white metal capsule spiraled out from the armored plating. With a loud hiss, four jets of fluid shot from the plug.

"Hurry up!" The tinny voice issuing from inside the mecha was distinctly female, but little else was recognizable over the heavy distortion. The door sprang open, and Toji clambered into the hatch. The bottom of the plug was flooded to about knee high with orange liquid, up to the back of a metal throne covered in wires and ducts. Toji climbed down into the plug, craning his neck to see the pilot sitting within.

Shinji sat in the chair, gazing intently at the readouts and screens covering the front wall of the plug. He made no indication that he had seen or heard them, even when Kensuke hopped down and clapped a hand onto his shoulder. His lips moved silently, mouthing the same four words over and over again. Toji waved a hand in front of his face. Nothing. He shook the pilot's shoulder. Still nothing. The intercom hissed again, and the same voice came over the line, much clearer this time.

"Shinji-kun, return to base. We'll send you back out after you drop off the civilians." With a clink, the conduits opened. Orange fluid poured in sheets into the chamber, the pool swirling around their knees. Touji scrambled up the side of the plug, Kensuke in hot pursuit. The door was locked. Toji banged on the door. "Let us out!"

Kensuke grabbed the wheel and tried to wrench it open. Toji took the other end and pulled with all his might, but it didn't budge.

"You can breathe the LCL."

Toji glanced down at Shinji, whose eyes did not move from the screens. "What did you say?"

"You can breathe the water," Shinji repeated. "It won't hurt you." The liquid crossed his head, and a moment later Toji and Kensuke were engulfed. Toji held his breath for as long as he could, before the burning got too much to bear and he was forced to take a breath of LCL. The pain immediately faded, replaced by a heavy coolness inside of his lungs. Toji exhaled, sending streams of tiny bubbles floating up through the plug, and drew in another strange breath. It smells like blood.

The Evangelion began to slowly trudge down the hill, towards the distant blinking light of the NERV pickup point. The timer readout stood at a minute and a half. Shinji reached out with one hand and flipped a switch; the various video windows on the screen consolidated into a single wide stream of the forest ahead of them.

Shinji pulled the control lever back and Unit-01 stopped in its tracks. He sat there quietly for a few seconds before he pushed the other stick. Slowly, the Evangelion turned around to face the city. The comms buzzed again, now transmitting a terse male voice with a Russian accent.

"Pilot Ikari, return to base. You don't have enough power left to fight."

"I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away."

"Pilot, that is an order—"

Shinji jabbed a button and the voice cut out mid-sentence. Toji glanced at the timer. One minute. Shinji took one slow step, then another. His expression was eerily slack, staring ten thousand yards beyond the looming shape.

Suddenly, he surged forward with a bloodcurdling scream. The acceleration shoved Toji and Kensuke back against the plug wall, the display blurring with the Evangelion's rush. Kensuke banged his head against a conduit—the orange fluid darkened to red around the shallow cut on his brow. The Angel turned to face them, tentacles lazily unspooling. Shinji leapt over a road, drawing his progressive blade from the remaining pylon. The blade gleamed in the afternoon sun, the vibrating edge blurry and translucent.

Toji braced against the side of the chamber, glancing at Kensuke. The other boy's face had gone pale, the camera long forgotten. Shinji's expression was bestial, pupils wide and mouth drawn into a snarling line. The Angel lashed out, tentacles of light shooting towards them. Shinji jumped into the air, grabbing the tentacles with one gloved hand and yanking the Angel in. The Evangelion crashed into the Angel, the orange wall manifesting between the two. Shinji screamed again, hacking wildly at the creature with the knife. The tentacles fell apart in pieces, scorching burns into the concrete below.

Thirty seconds left. Shinji stabbed the blade into the underside of the Angel, pressing towards the gleaming red orb embedded there. The field bent inwards, glowing blindingly bright: the smell of roses and thunderstorms became suffocatingly strong. The plug shuddered as the Angel stabbed into the mecha's belly; the underbelly of the creature loomed over nearly the entire viewscreen. Shinji's expression twisted with agony and he pressed harder. The instrument panel blazed with warning lights, dials pushed far into the red band. The yellow glow lit Shinji's face in stark, hard lines. With a sound like shattering glass the firewall collapsed. A brilliant flash of orange light lit the inside of the plug as the progressive blade sank deep into the creature's core. Fifteen seconds. Shinji thrust the knife further in, twisting the blade. A shower of blazing sparks sizzled against Unit-01's belly and washed the screens out in blinding static. Five seconds. With one final push, the core cracked.

The lights in the plug dimmed, the power timer reading zero seconds. The Evangelion released the monster, falling onto its knees. The Angel writhed and thrashed, sparks pouring from its belly. With a final convulsion the core burst into a torrent of blood. The Angel crashed to the ground, an inert mass. Shinji slumped over in his seat. The control sticks slid from his nerveless fingers, settling with a muffled thud into the forward position. The pilot drew his feet up onto the seat and buried his head in his knees.

Toji leaned around the edge of the chair. Shinji was curled up in the chair, shoulders shaking with great racking sobs. Far from the terrifying apparition of a moment ago, the boy—for that was what he was—seemed more frail and childlike to Toji than he had ever before. Toji reached out a hand out of instinct, stopped, pulled it back. With a final thud the emergency power ran out and the lights died. A silence fell over the inside of the plug that wasn't broken until the first rescue crews pried open the door.

Ninth Ward, Tokyo-3 Special Administrative District, Japan.

July 23rd, 2015.

The creature caught Shinji by the foot. He struggled and fought, but its grip was hard as iron. It grinned maliciously with a mouthless chitin face, two great yellow eyes shining like searchlights. It cut away his skin with knives of scorching light, dissected the muscles, gnawed at his bones. Shinji flailed, scrabbling for a handhold. His hand fell on something smooth and curved lying on the floor beside him. He snatched the object up and drove it deep into the creature's left eye. The creature thrashed and fought, but Shinji held on. He flung his arm around the Angel's carapace, pulling it close. The creature tore into his belly, sending white-hot daggers of pain through his gut.

Shinji pressed harder and harder, feeling the writhing monster grow sluggish. It lashed out one final time, cutting a furrow into Shinji's scalp, and finally fell still. crashing onto him.

Shinji shoved the carcass off, pulling the object out of the bloody socket. He looked at it and his heart stopped. The instrument was a long piece of bone, a flattened slat with a jagged tear where it had been wrenched free. Slowly, he felt his bare chest.

A great gash in the flesh exposed the glistening, heaving surface of his left lung. The rib below the wound ended in a mass of jagged splinters. Shinji tried to push himself up with his arm and fell. The flesh melted and flowed from his forearms, sloughing off in sheets. The creature's blood sizzled on his skin, opening blackened craters in the tissue. He screamed as the tendons dissolved and his arm bones slipped from the shoulder. He felt his leg bones come loose; the teeth fell from his jawbone and skittered against a pile of ribs…

Shinji jolted awake in a cold sweat. The room was pitch black around him, the curtains drawn firmly against the night. He reached up for the cord—or rather he tried to. His right hand refused to move. Shinji pushed harder, and the arm rose six inches from the bed, trembling violently, before falling exhausted to his side. He tried to close the fingers into a fist; they shut halfway and froze there, twitching. Shinji closed his eyes, letting the limb go limp. Am I dying?

He tried again, managing this time to grab the curtain pull dangling a foot above his face. He yanked the cord down and the curtain flew open. Pale street-lamp light spilled into the room, casting a silvery wedge across the floor and far wall. Shinji scooted against the wall and managed to prop himself up into a sitting position. He stared contemplatively at his right foot, which trembled like a leaf in the wind. He tried to kick off the tangled blankets; after a moment's resistance the leg yielded, sending the blanket tumbling off the futon.

The room was far colder than it had been when he fell asleep—the chill air raised goosebumps on his skin. Misato-san must have left the balcony door open again. Shinji took a deep breath and set his foot against the floor, rising into a kneeling position. He teetered there for a second before stabilizing against the window.

He pushed up to stand, but his leg reached the limit of his mobility and folded. Shinji fell against the wall, banging his forehead against the corner of the window, and came to rest with his cheek against the cold glass. It's raining again. Raindrops rolled down the glass and fell into the void below; the street lamp lit a curtain of flickering static that cloaked the sleeping world in shutters of falling jewels.

Shinji sat there for a long time, watching his breath fog the window-glass as the rain washed the stain of the Angel from this bloodstained city. His trembling leg slowed, fell still.

"Shinji-kun? I made breakfast…"

Misato's voice trailed off. The eerie silence of the apartment seemed to press down on her harder than ever before; it was one thing to live by yourself and another to find yourself suddenly deserted. The only sign that Shinji still lived here was the firmly shut door before her and the second plate of instant curry cooling on the kitchen table. She placed a hand on the sliding door, felt it shift slightly. The door isn't locked; I could go in.

Then what? Force him to talk to me? Make him settle my guilty conscience? Tell me this isn't my fault? How pathetic is that? A grown woman begging a child for forgiveness, like a little girl who got caught stealing from the cookie jar.

Her hand slipped from the door. "I'm going to work now, okay? Food's on the table." She turned away. He probably hates me now. Can't say I blame him.

She grabbed her coat from the couch, picked up her bag, and poked her head out into the corridor.

"Where'd I put my umbrella?"

She retrieved it from where it leaned beside the tea table, ignoring the pile of manila folders sitting on the worn wood surface, and shut the door behind her.

"I'll get those reports filed tomorrow." She turned the key in the lock and set off down the hall. The torrential rain ricocheted off the railings, spraying her coat with dark splotches.

NERV HQ, Tokyo-3 Special Administrative District, Japan.

July 23rd, 2015.

"The shipment made it through Customs, Captain. Can you take the delivery now?"

Misato blinked. Ise Minato stood in the doorway of her office with a hefty sheaf of documents tucked under his arm.

"The shipment…oh, you mean Ocotillo's missiles. What took them so long?"

"The JSSDF seized the thermobaric and depleted uranium warheads. They shipped the rest to Tokyo-3 last week." Misato kneaded her forehead. Feels like…yup, more bullshit.

"And why am I hearing about this now, as opposed to, say, last week? Before the giant monster went rampaging through the city?"

Ise shrugged. "It takes time for stuff like this to make it up the pipeline. I only heard about it on Saturday."

"Today's Thursday, you absolute non—never mind." Misato pulled out her phone and tapped out a message to Makoto. "I'll send Lieutenant Hyuga to do an inspection. Anything else?" Ise opened his mouth to speak.

"Where's the replacement oscilloscope I ordered, Ise? It's been a month and I know for a fact they're in stock. Can't be bothered?"

Ise spun around, banging his shin on the filing cabinet. Akagi Ritsuko had materialized less than a foot behind him, briefcase in hand.

"Or maybe you're intentionally trying to slow our work down," she continued. Ise's face reddened.

"What are you implying, Captain? I told you already that we're short-staffed—"

Misato broke in. "You've got twice the personnel of Ops, and we're still able to carry out our mission–even with one Evangelion down and our munition stocks empty. There are no excuses for incompetence."

"Captain Ise," Ritsuko said. "If you're done I need to speak to Captain Katsuragi, in private."

Ise huffed, gathered up his papers and stormed out of the office.

"What a prick," Misato said. "How does he still have a job?"

"His uncle's a big shot in the UN Navy."

"So a nepo baby. Typical. The first day I'm in charge, he's getting reassigned to bilge duty."

Ritsuko smiled thinly. "I dream of the day."

The Director of Project E tugged a document out of her briefcase and set it on the desk."The Commander asked me to see if you've changed your mind on the failsafe system."

Misato pushed the page away.
"Still no. Putting a bomb in the plug is a stupid idea."

"It's a safety measure, that's all. It's not like we're going to blow up our own pilot for no reason."

"And if it activates in the middle of a fight? Our only weapon will be blown to pieces. Besides, it's not like we can't cut the power if something goes wrong."

"That isn't—" Ritsuko caught herself. "Alright, but think of the damage Unit-01 could do in five minutes."

What aren't you telling me? Does Command know something about Unit-01's capabilities that they aren't telling me?

She composed herself, keeping her voice calm and level.

"If the concern is mutiny, we have measures in place—I briefed the Commander on them after the first deployment. The potential consequences of transporting an explosive device into a sensitive site far outweighs the danger from the Evangelion itself." Besides, I don't think I could murder a child, orders or not.

Ritsuko pushed back her chair.

"Fine, I'll tell the Commander. Do you have the file on you?"

Misato rooted around in her bag. Where did I put it again? Misato shook the bag onto the floor. "It isn't here."

"You left it at home? That's fine, just bring it back tomorrow."

She retrieved the briefcase, sliding the document back in. "I'll see you in the board meeting tomorrow, then." She strode off into the hallway, pulling a rumpled cigarette from her breast pocket. Misato pinched the bridge of her nose. I need a drink.

Misato poked her head into the hallway. Shinji's door remained stubbornly shut, with no sign it had been opened. She opened the fridge, pulled out a beer, and cracked it open. She raised the can to her lips—and was interrupted by the phone ringing. Ritsuko again?

She lifted the receiver from the frame. A boy's voice issued from the speaker.

"Hello? Is Shinji there?" Misato leaned over and glanced at the door—still shut. She returned to the phone.

"I'm his guardian, Katsuragi Misato. Who is this?"

There was a brief pause.

"I'm Suzuhara Toji," came the reply. "Shinji's classmate. I wanted to talk to him, if he's there."

"I'll check. Please wait a minute." She set the receiver on the table and knocked on Shinji's door.

"Shinji-kun? Someone's calling you."

Silence. Misato spoke a little louder, setting her hand on the door.

"One of your classmates, Suzuhara Toji?"

Still no reply. "I'm coming in." Misato pushed open the door.

Empty. Both the boy and his backpack had vanished from the room, which had been neatly organized. Misato numbly slid open the closet door. He even rolled up his futon. Her eyes fell onto a manila folder sitting on the desk, crinkled at the edge as if it had been clenched in a fist. She picked it up, blankly gazing at the torn cover. She flipped open the file, a heavy weight sinking into her stomach, and scanned the heading.

"LETHAL FAILSAFE: OPERATOR HAZARD NEUTRALIZATION SYSTEM." Her hand tightened on the cardstock, crushing the corner into creases. When she finally spoke it was scarcely louder than a whisper.

"He's gone."

Notes:

PREVIEW:
Yo, Ryoji here with your preview. The flight of Ikari Shinji! The Third Child goes to ground as the full might of NERV is thrown into the hunt. On the other side of the world, the three abominable children gnaw at the bars of their cage. An unholy alliance is made, the gears of the Second Scenario tick towards the end of all things. Next time on Herz und Seele: Chapter Nine: The Unheavenly Creatures. Don't worry, there'll be plenty of fanservice!