Rei Ayanami found herself suddenly very concerned with Pilot Soryu.
She had witnessed the previous day how Shinji had given a lunch box to her. And that was something that had... worried her greatly. It was good for the Scenario if the two pilots could work together. But this was not just professional cooperation. This was personal bonding. And that... It was strange. Rei had read about the concept of jealousy. It was one of those things where she could intellectually absorb the information, but not associate it with anything happening in her life.
Until now. She realized what she was feeling was jealousy. It was a surprising feeling.
If I feel jealousy towards Pilot Soryu, does that mean I feel a romantic attachment towards Ikari?
Is that the warmth I'm feeling?
Romance was another topic that so far she had approached only intellectually, and even then only briefly. It had never held much interest to her. Of all the things happening in the world, that one seemed the most distant to her. But from what she had gleaned, it caused people to act irrationally. Romance was a threat to the Scenario.
...but surely, merely having those feelings would be all right.
But if that's all that I can have, why then am I jealous of Soryu?
She had never cared much for class gossip, but she knew that the Second Child was considered exceptionally attractive. And the way Ikari acted around her made it obvious he was thinking much the same. As for Rei herself, she disliked Soryu's loud and brash manner. It just seemed so unnecessary to her, disrupting silence and order and everything for no gain at all.
…and yet, at Mt Futago, seeing that liveliness had been invigorating. And Soryu had caused Rei to smile at Ikari.
Rei feared she might begin to think irrationally herself. That was not allowed to be. It was one thing if humans did that, but she was not a human being. She was a tool with human shape, with a fixed purpose.
She could have tried to approach that topic with Ikari after school, but for the first time in their conversations with each other, she had hesitated. They had ended up talking about irrelevancies from school. It was her fault that she was thinking irrationally; there was no need to burden Ikari with it.
Classes came and passed as she pondered those issues. It was not that she paid no attention to them. But she could generally understand enough of the subject matter by only half listening to the teacher. That usually proved sufficient. And even if not... it was not like it was actually important that she get a school education. Or any of the people in the class. One way or another, these were the final days of the current shape of Lilithian life.
Soon everything will return to its origin, and I will...
She looked up. It was lunch break. And Ikari was standing in front of her desk. He had put a box on it.
Without further prelude, he simply declared: "It... it just seemed fair I should give you a lunch box as well." He smiled awkwardly. "I never see you with one of your own, either. And, after all, by all right you should have been angry at me a dozen times over."
Hesitantly, unsure what to think, feel or say, Rei opened the box.
"I'm sorry," she finally whispered.
"Huh?" Ikari asked.
"I do not eat meat," she explained.
"Oh," Ikari made. "I'm sorry, then."
"What is that?" a voice from behind Ikari complained. "Have you become the class chef now?"
Suzuhara looked demonstratively annoyed.
Ikari turned around to him. "I... ah, I just thought... it's just... I try to be nice..."
Suzuhara made a sound that was half laugh, half scoff. "Yeah. Being nice. To the attractive red-haired foreign student, and to, well... Ayanami." Rei did not understand why he grinned the way he did when he mentioned her name. "Sure that's just being nice."
"Well, uh..." Ikari tried to articulate. Then he sighed. "I'm sorry. That looks pretty bad, doesn't it?"
Suzuhara shrugged. "Hey, that's none of my business. I just think men shouldn't cook. We gotta have some principles, after all!"
"And in what century do you live?" a loud voice asked across several rows of desk. Soryu, of course. She has been listening. "Will you next demonstrate how the constellations move around the Earth?"
"The... huh?" Suzuhara asked back. "Speak Japanese, Red Devil!" That name drew some snickering from onlookers.
"It's not my problem if you can't even understand your own mother tongue, buffoon!" Soryu shot back.
"Can you also write that word?" Suzuhara asked provocatively.
"Can you write in a way that would even be understood outside Japan?"
"Why should I even need to? We have everything anyone could need! Even you came..."
While everyone was paying attention to the two squabblers, Ikari silently went back to his desk and got something out of his bag. A thermos flask, as Rei could soon see.
"I just remembered I also made some miso soup," he told her. "Temperatures have been rather low the past days, after all. You could try that instead."
He opened the flask, and poured some soup into its cup, then gave it to her. She took the cup to her mouth.
Her eyes widened slightly.
"That... tastes good," she commented.
"I'm glad you like it," Ikari stated. "Take the flask then. I have two lunch boxes now, after all."
"Uh... thank you," Rei said. The warmth she felt was not just the soup, as she felt it spreading to her cheeks.
She took another sip, and another. Most of the time she only ate in order to sustain herself. The only exceptions were when the Commander took her out to dinner now and then. The food on those occasions, usually European, Italian or French, tasted very different to her normal meals, but that had never made a difference to her. For her, it had always been another form of sustenance. And so was this soup, which also tasted different... but now, that did matter to her.
When she looked up again, she saw Soryu facing Ikari half the way back to his desk.
"You still promised me some answers, Third," he told him.
"I know," Ikari answered. It sounded slightly aggravated.
No interrogation methods, Kaji said. Hah. Easy for him to say. Damn that Third Child. A number of words were flying around in Asuka's head. Daumenschrauben... Eiserne Jungfrauen... Stasi-Methoden... oder einfach ein Tritt in die Eier.
It was not like she had learned nothing from him the previous days. Okay, so he's a damn good cook. And friendly. And he apparently hasn't told his friends anything about our talks... if they can be called 'talks'. And allowing for how weak and wispy he was, he also did not have a half-bad figure. He still was that, though. But in any case, he still had not been able to tell her more about what had happened to his mother. Damn him!
She was getting a bit desperate. She did not know how much longer she could pretend to be friendly towards Shinji. Sooner or later she would snap at him, again, and that would be the end of her efforts. That was how it always ended, her driving people away, people abandoning her. And that would almost be a pity with the Third Child. She had to solve this problem, somehow, and hence she defaulted to her usual style: Full speed ahead. She would meet and ask Shinji again, after school. On his way home.
That was why she was now walking towards Misato's apartment. She was a bit dumbfounded to see the First Child some distance in front of her, walking in the same direction. Rei stopped at top of a small slope and then looked back, in the direction of the school. Asuka furrowed her brows. That was where she had intended to wait.
"What are you doing here?" she hence asked Rei.
"Waiting for Ikari," Rei answered.
That felt like a gut punch for Asuka. "But... waiting, that is... I wanted..." She began to shout. "Why do you want to wait for that dork?" Rei remained silent. Asuka positioned herself right in front of her. "Answer me! What do you want with Shinji?"
"Talk," Rei merely stated.
"Talking? To Shinji? Why?" Asuka demanded to know. Goddamn little freak is sabotaging my plans... It was difficult enough to do this, to wait for some boy like she were his friend, without such outside interference. Again, Rei remained silent. That further agitated Asuka. "You don't even seem capable of talking like a human being. Do you even understand what I just said?"
"I did," Rei confirmed.
"So, why do you want to talk with Shinji?" Asuka asked again.
"We usually do," Rei explained. "I wait here for that purpose every day we do not have synch-tests."
Gut punch number two. So he and Wondergirl... well, it was obvious. And yet... she had expected that Shinji would at least look at her, maybe develop an interest. It could be awkward to deal with that, since she had none, but she had expected it. She was beautiful, a college graduate and an EVA pilot, after all. And in this country, a rare and exotic redhead. People should fall for her. Instead, Shinji had chosen this lifeless little...
...an image of Rei smiling at her flashed through her memory...
"Verdammte Scheiße..." she muttered. She raised her head and declared: "Fine. Then talk with him."
She was about to storm off when Rei called out: "Soryu." Asuka balled her hands into fists, but she stopped, without looking back. "Why did you walk to here?"
"You're the genius topping most exams in school," Asuka replied. "What do you think?"
"You have approached Ikari a lot this week," Rei observed.
Asuka turned around. "And do you have a problem with that?" Rei's eyes widened slightly, then she looked down. It was a surprisingly emotional reaction from the girl, who was usually so stiff and cold. Asuka scoffed. "You can have him, then. I don't go for little boys."
At least that explains why he never showed interest. He probably was fixated on her as soon as he arrived. Men! All breast-fixated. Kaji over Misato's udders, and Rei… actually has kinda nice breasts…
Asuka was staring at Rei, challenging her to defy her. Instead, the girl remained quiet and looking down. Pitiable…
...it was, actually. Asuka did feel a pang of pity, of empathy.
She harrumphed. "You don't even know yourself, do you?"
"No," Rei answered softly. That took Asuka aback. She had meant to belittle Rei, not to… she did not know what to say now. Instead, Rei eventually looked up. "It is maybe for the best if you form a stable relationship with Ikari. I shall not impede this."
With that, she trotted away, entering the park.
Huh, that was… weird. What did she mean by that? I did not mean to drive her off… okay, that's wrong. I did. But now she was feeling weirdly guilty about that. Rei had looked like a beaten puppy.
Those thoughts left her head as she saw Shinji approaching her position. She had to prepare for what to tell him. This was a sort of intelligence gathering mission, after all.
Shinji looked increasingly confused as he went up the slope.
"Uh… hello, Soryu," he greeted her. "What are you doing here?"
Asuka shrugged her shoulders. "I decided returning to my hotel room would be boring. I'm getting rather sick of it."
"Huh. Makes sense," Shinji judged. "Ah… have you seen Ayanami here?"
"She just left," Asuka told him.
"That's odd," Shini opined. "Did she say anything?"
Asuka became annoyed. "Look. The great Asuka Langley Soryu is willing to talk to you, and all you do is think about other girls? Are you stupid? That's just impolite."
"I… guess so," Shinji sort of agreed. "I'm sorry."
There was an awkward silence. Finally, Asuka prompted him: "Well then? Say something!"
"Ah… you wanted to talk to me!" Shinji protested. Asuka just crossed her arms. "Well, uh… there's a synch-test tomorrow. A regular one again."
"Not quite," Asuka disagreed. "Haven't you read the message? It will be an activation test. To see if we can still pilot our usual EVAs, after they messed it all up last Saturday. I swear, if they did something to my Unit…"
Shinji's lip curled up. "You'll… be displeased?"
"As will be demonstrated by a boot lodging itself firmly into Akagi's ass!" Asuka threatened. "Well, let's go, Third..."
"Achoo!"
"Bless you," Misato told Ritsuko. "Developing a cold?"
The faux-blonde shook her head. "No. No idea where that came from."
"You seem awfully calm considering what happened last time we stood in this room," Misato stated. "How the hell did they get the windows repaired so quickly, anyway?"
Ritsuko just shrugged. "After the first incident with EVA-00, we stockpiled security glass. We were going to retire it, you know. After all, it was merely the prototype. More proof-of-concept than anything else. Rei could have taken over EVA-01, and we would all have had a whole lot less trouble."
Misato sighed. "Shinji would probably agree with you there. But imagine if that's what had happened during the last battle. EVA-00 is still not combat worthy again after that beam hit it. If we had decommissioned it, that would have been EVA-01 instead, and we'd only have EVA-02 deployable right now. We need to have three units, for just such cases. Even if that means relying on the Prototype."
"Well, Commander Ikari agrees, so that's what we're doing," Ritsuko agreed. "I suppose constantly repairing windows is a small price to pay for having three units ready."
"For us, anyway," Misato stated quietly, thinking back to the dread she had felt when EVA-00 had gone berserk with Shinji inside. "It isn't us in those entry-plugs after all."
"Trouble with Shinji back at home?" Ritsuko asked. It sounded slightly teasing.
Misato shrugged. "It's solved now."
Ritsuko hummed and grabbed a notepad. "If you say so. But you have to admit, him spending a whole day in the city with Rei was... extraordinary."
Misato narrowed her eyes. "How do you know about that?"
"I do have access to Section 2 reports, you know," Ritsuko told her. "Being third in command and all that."
Misato sighed. "I'd rather not be reminded of that." She rubbed her eyes. "Look, we... argued. But we're back to normal. More or less."
"More or less?" Ritsuko prompted.
"Hey, he woke me up again today. That's normal!" Misato insisted. She grinned. "I even got him to take over laundry duty for today. I have the nagging feeling there'll be a whole lot of paperwork coming my way."
Ritsuko raised her eyebrow without looking up from her notepad. "So you use him as a domestic?"
"Hey, I traded in two future laundry duties for that. I'm playing fair!" Misato protested.
"I suppose if he puts up with that, things are indeed back to normal," Ritsuko judged, again with that teasing undertone. "So now he'll continue to be dragged down by his roommate."
Misato glared at her. "I could say the same about certain cats."
That got Ritsuko to actually grin, something that Misato counted as a success for her. The two did not fall often in their old game of verbal one-upmanship anymore, but when they did, Ritsuko always assumed the role of the cool, emotionless observer.
"So, what's the schedule for today, anyway?" Misato asked.
"Take a look out of the window and take a wild guess," Ritsuko prompted.
Outside the Pribnow Box, in the test cube, Unit-01 was being put in place.
"So Shinji is first," Misato concluded.
"Then Rei, then Asuka," Ritsuko added. "Ordered by decreasing risk, so if something goes wrong we can fix it right at the beginning." She made an annoyed grunt. "We should be doing such tests much more often, you know."
"As I remember, it was you Section 3 guys who needed all the time to have the EVAs rewritten 'safely' again," Misato pointed out.
Ritsuko sighed. "True. But the last synch-test before the cross-synch one was almost two weeks prior to that. We've become sloppy in our schedule."
"Ramiel crashed into our schedule," Misato argued. "A few days off from synch-tests after an angel attack shouldn't be too much to ask for."
"I understand that you want rest for your pilots," Ritsuko answered. "Taking care of such things is part of your job. But for my job, I need a constant stream of data to keep the EVAs properly calibrated. I don't think you have an inkling how difficult that can be. EVA technology is still far from mature. Really, if it weren't for the angels, they would never leave the lab and testing areas. Without constant maintenance, incidents like EVA-00 going berserk would happen far more often."
"Yes, yes, you've made your point," Misato conceded. "So I take it you'll ram up the synch-test schedule?"
"Considerably," Ritsuko confirmed. "The next test will be on Monday, and starting from there every second day."
Misato groaned. "Really, Ritsu? Asuka will be livid. And Shinji will be even more annoyed, he just won't show it..."
"Tough luck. That comes with being an EVA pilot," Ritsuko dismissed the complaint.
At her terminal, Lt Ibuki coughed politely. "Third Child is in the entry-plug. Inserting entry-plug now."
Misato walked up to her side to use the comm system. "Glad to be back in your own EVA, Shinji?"
His answer was curt and vague even by his own standards, barely more than an acknowledging grunt. Misato wondered what was going through his mind. She nodded towards Ibuki.
The Lieutenant started the process. "Initiating first level connection."
Ritsuko was now looking over her shoulder as well, with a deep frown on her face. "Those values are abysmal. He's doing worse than he did in EVA-00!" She sighed. "Let's hope it's just the unreliability of first connection readings. Increase the harmonics, Maya."
Ibuki nodded. "Ready for second level connection. All values are stable. Starting second level connection... now."
"That's... bad," Ritsuko whispered.
"What's the matter?" Misato asked.
Ritsuko waved towards Ibuki's screen. "Look at those values!" She could as well have told Misato to take a look at the Iliad in original Greek. "They aren't increasing." She looked at Ibuki. "Is he even..."
The Lieutenant shook her head. "Initiation of second stage connection has failed."
"Already at the second stage? Damn it!" Ritsuko cursed. She spoke into the comm system: "Shinji, how are you doing?"
"I, uh... well. I don't feel anything," Shinji reported. "Normally, around this time..."
"You'd get a mental feedback, yes," Ritsuko confirmed. "We can't get you connected to your EVA. Does anything feel off for you?"
"Off?" Shinji echoed. "Ah well, not as such... it's just... are those EVAs really safe?"
Misato and Ritsuko instinctively looked at each other. That was an odd question coming from the Third Child.
Silently, Ibuki pointed out something to Ritsuko: "Look at his psychograph, senpai. His ego-barrier..."
Ritsuko's eyes widened. Hastily she told Shinji: "Don't worry. EVA-01 is a very stable unit. It even saved you when you first saw it, didn't it?" She did not manage to make it sound very convincing. Misato knew her friend had some grave doubts about the Evangelions herself.
"What is going on?" Misato asked through clenched teeth.
Ibuki looked at Ritsuko, who nodded, and then explained: "Shinji's ego-barrier has always been problematic, to be honest. It's the psychological factor that defines the self via not being others, the psychological factor that separates people. Shinji's is usually very high, but can fluctuate widely in battle. By comparison, Asuka's ego-barrier values are constantly high, Rei's constantly low."
Misato raised an eyebrow. "I won't pretend to understand what this means, but go on."
"Well, now his ego-barrier value is very high," Ibuki continued. "My guess is he is separating himself from EVA-01. The A10 complex can't open up to the EVA."
Misato blinked. Ritsuko took over the explanation: "The A10 clips use the section of the brain that helps us be empathetic and communicate with other people. A kind of extrovert's section."
"One wouldn't think Shinji should be pilot material, then," Misato pointed out.
Ritsuko shook her head. "It isn't about connections to people in general, but connections to Evangelions. Or rather, the own unit; it is difficult enough for us to even only get that specific connection to build up. Whatever Shinji is with people, he usually easily opened up to EVA-01. Was in tune with it...which, really, is what the synch-rate signifies."
"And now he isn't," Misato concluded.
"What worries me is that this is already happening at the second connection," Ritsuko went on. "If the third connection had failed, we would have known it to be subconscious influences. But second connection... that's conscious thoughts."
"So Shinji is deliberately not synching?" Misato asked.
Ritsuko shook her head again. "No, then we already wouldn't have been able to initiate the first stage connection. But whatever it is that prevents him from synching, it is not something pushed to the darkest corners of his subconsciousness. It's something on his conscious mind. Face it, Misato, something is still bothering him."
Damn it. It was bad enough that this meant the connection to his EVA had failed. But what worried Misato on a deeper level was the implication of that. Maybe the rift between us still isn't closed. She sighed. One thing at a time. She had not become Operations Director of NERV by an inability to schedule tasks.
"I'll talk to him," she promised. "In the meantime... how quickly can you rewrite EVA-01?"
"So that Rei can pilot it? Matter of two hours, max," Ritsuko explained. "The real problem was rewriting EVA-02. The differences between EVA-01 programmed for Shinji and it programmed for Rei are minimal, anyway." She grinned and whispered, as if to herself: "Unsurprisingly..."
And what does she mean by that? Misato doubted she would come far with asking, though. Ever since Ritusko had become the head of Project E, her tendency to be all enigmatic and more-knowledgeable-than-thou had become insufferable at times.
"In that case... have its mental data written for Shinji during synch-tests," she asked her friend. "We'll just have to try again and again. But during standby, it should be written for Rei. As long as EVA-00 isn't repaired yet, we need to have EVA-01 deployable, regardless of who the pilot is."
Ritsuko sighed. "Misato, you have a knack for adding to the workload of others with completely reasonable arguments. I'm not looking forwards going through EVA-01's mental data every second day."
Misato grinned. "Tough luck. That comes with being head of Project E."
Shinji had failed again. Of this, he was sure.
However, for a change, he did not actually feel bad about it. Yes, he should have been able to synch with EVA-01. But maybe it was for the better if he could not. Maybe it would not be right, anyway, to use the machine that had killed his mother. Maybe this failure was all right.
He could pretty much guess what had caused this failure: Exactly those thoughts. He had been unable to clear his mind of his regained memories and of the persistant thought that his mother had died inside EVA-01. He had felt the usual warmth and comfort inside the entry-plug, and yet it had become a foreboding place.
After his failure, the schedule had been changed: Soryu had reactivated her EVA-02 without a problem, while Rei now came up last, and again in EVA-01. If an angel were to attack now, she would pilot the machine. That made him a little uneasy, as it meant Rei would be in harm's way only due to his failure, but then again, she was probably safer in EVA-01 than in the notoriously unreliable EVA-00.
That changed schedule meant that Shinji had had nothing to do for hours now. Misato was too busy observing the tests, Soryu was in EVA-02 and Ayanami was somehow also involved in the whole process, even before her tests had come up. So for hours, Shini had sat at a small table in a waiting room, a can from a vending machine in his hand. Having become useless inside an entry-plug, he had changed back into his school uniform. Now he brooded.
What will I do now?
He had not told Misato about his resurfaced memories the whole week. He did not want to make things even more complicated, and besides... he had told her he would pilot EVA. He could not step back from that mere days afterwards, no matter what was on his mind. However, now it seemed he could not even pilot EVA anymore. Was that a dilemma? Or a liberation?
...I don't want to think about this anymore.
He already had all week. And it did not help how much of an interest Soryu had shown in that topic during that time. It was not that he disliked talking to her. She had a delightfully irreverent and sarcastic streak. Maybe it was because she was a foreigner, but Shinji liked the blunt words she directed to those around her. Even when those were aimed at him. He did not mind that; he frequently did things deserving of scorn, after all. And she was so lively. And she was putting up with him even after he had, as always, screwed things up with her on Tuesday. Not without complaints, not without getting loud at him, but he did not mind that, either. Seeing Soryu in action, so full of energy... it was energizing him as well.
However, her increasingly single-minded obsession with his memories had become slightly annoying. And then what she had told him about NERV apparently keeping this all a secret, advising him to not say anything to Misato...
Why does she think about this to much? What's that topic to her, anyway?
It was not that he was holding anything back. He had told her what he knew; he just did not know more. It was not like...
...Soryu entered the waiting room. Still wearing her plugsuit, she positioned herself next to the table, directly next to him, looking at him.
"Jesses, Third, what is with you and always looking glum?" she asked as a greeting.
Shinji just shrugged. He had no real intention to tell her everything that was going through his mind right now. Instead he asked: "How was the test?"
"What do you think?" Soryu shot back. "Completely smooth sailing. EVA-02 is much more stable and advanced than the Japanese machines." She seemed to consider. "Though I suppose the scientists and engineers here did their best. For whatever that's worth. Like your mother..."
Shinji sighed. And here we go again. "I don't know for sure if she was among the development team."
"It makes sense, though, doesn't it?" Soryu pushed on.
Shinji shrugged again. "Yeah, of course."
Soryu looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Yes of course it makes sense! Otherwise I wouldn't say so, now would it?" She breathed out hard, as if in frustration.
"I really can't remember anything about my mother," Shinji told her. "Not even her face... and her voice only dimly, only that one sentence that has come back to me... I surely don't remember what job she might have had."
And why am I even telling her that much? He knew the answer, though: Because Soryu demanded it. Shinji could slid away into secure passivity with Misato, and he liked the safety of being around Ayanami. But around Soryu, he felt like he had to keep pace with her.
"Great, just great," Soryu muttered. "You're sure it isn't that you just haven't thought enough about it? Or are you just running away from the memories, because they're painful."
Shinji made a grimace, but remained quiet. Of course the memory was painful. And was that not what people, all people, did, running away from pain?
"I'm sorry, maybe it's different in Germany, but I can't just summon up memories on the spot," he told Soryu defiantly.
"I'm not asking you to, idiot!" Soryu shouted. "I'm just telling you to put up a little effort into it!"
At this point, Shinji hammered a fist against the table. Soryu stopped in surprise."Why?" he shouted back, without looking at her.
"What do you mean, why?" Soryu countered, making it once again sound like he was an idiot for asking that question.
"Why do you care?" Shinji specified loudly.
Soryu harrumphed. "So that's what I'm getting for showing a bit of interest in what has happened to you? No wonder nobody's willing to put up with you." Shinji formed both hands into fists. She doesn't have to put it that way... "If you do remember something, you know where to find me."
That seemed like it would end the conversation, but instead Soryu remained standing at her place. Shinji shook his head. "It took an Evangelion going berserk to uncover those memories. I doubt I'll remember more."
"Not with that attitude, idiot!" Soryu yelled at him. "Gottverdammt nocheinmal, don't be so defeatist!"
Abruptly, Shinji stood up, nearly toppling over his chair. Even so, he could not look directly at Soryu. Instead, his view was cast down, his body rigid, his hands fists. "Why do you care?"
Immediately, Soryu shouted back: "Because the same has happened to Mama!"
There was an awkward silence. Both teenagers just stood there, not changing positions, not speaking. Shinji's eyes were wide, while Asuka's face looked... She looks almost fearful.
"To... to your mother..." Shinji whispered.
"Yes," Soryu growled back. "After the initial contact experiment with EVA-02 she..." She emitted a furious, inarticulate sound. "I promise you, Third. If you tell this to anyone, you're dead. I mean that. I don't care what your EVA did against Sachiel, I can take you on with or without EVA. Say a word, and you're dead." She paused. "Don't tell anyone anything about the contact experiments, no matter which one."
The threat did not even register with Shinji. "...you also lost your mother..."
Still just looking ahead, he could not see if Soryu's expression changed. Calmly, but darkly she answered: "What is that to you?"
Now Shinji turned around to face Soryu. "I... I just thought..." He stopped. "Maybe it's presumptuous. After all, whatever happened to your mother, you became a college graduate at age fourteen, and the best EVA pilot in the world, while I... and besides, you still had your father..."
At that, Soryu just scoffed. "My father. Right. Let me tell you about my father. He shacked up with the doctor that was treating my mother, and married her before my mother was even buried. Then he just dumped me with NERV."
Shinji blinked. He blinked again. And yet again. The story sounded very familiar to him. Uncomfortably familiar.
"My father left me behind at a train station," he answered quietly. "That I still remember. I was... four. So it must have been only weeks or months after my mother died."
Again there was silence. It was ended when Soryu abruptly turned around on the spot. As she went she muttered: "Remember what I said about telling others."