Watching Kensuke play certain arcade games was almost frightening. He already had considerable high scores on all the normal machines, the ones that were played with buttons and joysticks. Those did not even catch his fancy anymore. Instead, these days he always went to those machines that used a gun mock-up with which to aim at the screen. Shinji had seen some people going completely wild mowing down virtual enemies on the screen, but not so Kensuke. He simply stood in front of that screen and remained entirely calm, only slightly moving his upper body to adjust his aim when necessary. His facial expression always stayed the same as well. Stone-cold.

It reminded Shinji uncomfortably of NERV's simulated training for the pallet rifle. Target in the centre, pull the switch...

History was repeating itself: Just like after those very first combat training lessons, he was running away again. Not from Misato or NERV this time, but from Ayanami. This was why he was content to watch his friends play the arcade. The entire time after school he had remained silent, his gaze downcast, simply following Touji and Kensuke. He was glad they were having fun, but he was just a hanger-on to them. When they spoke or joked, he was never fully part of it. It was if he were just an outside observer to their activities. And in any case, he was just here because it gave him an excuse to be anywhere else but on his direct way home.

I am absolutely the worst.

He had not even told Ayanami that she would not be seeing him on his usual way home anymore. For three school days now, he had simply gone to the city centre with Touji and Kensuke after school instead. He had no doubt Ayanami had waited every day; she did not seem like a person to quickly change habits. But he simply could not face her right now, not in any capacity. He could not even tell her not to meet him anymore. All he could do was avoid her as much as possible. He just wanted to be away from this source of embarrassment and distress. So even though it had been his fault that things had become so awkward between them, he had added even more harm to Ayanami. And even though he realized that, he could not stop it. In fact, that guilt only made his desire to avoid Ayanami and everything to do with her all that much stronger.

And like a wimp I'm giving in to that desire without a second thought. Without even trying. Selfish. Pathetic and selfish. That was part of the reason he was content to just watch Touji and Kensuke: At least they showed him not every human on Earth was as pathetic as himself. It was like trying to catch some of their glory, such as it was... some of their normalcy, their being fit to normal human standards, by being around them. Let's see how long they will put up with me.

"Another high score...?" Touji exclaimed dumbfounded from next to Kensuke. "Man, if you invested half as much work into school..."

Kensuke shrugged. "School isn't as satisfying. Besides, I get to improve my aim here. That'll help me more than all lectures on Japanese literature."

Now Touji shrugged as well. "Can't argue with you there, buddy." He turned around. "Hey, Shinji, wanna give it a try now?"

His eyes still cast down, Shinji just shook his head wordlessly. He really did not feel like playing arcade games, and especially not one that reminded him of NERV training.

"Yeah, actually, you're right," Touji conceded. That surprised Shinji, but he still did not look up. The world consisted of the floor in front of him. "Hey, I guess we'll see each other in school tomorrow, right?"

Shinji just nodded weakly.

"What?" Kensuke exclaimed. "You wanna go already? And what about..."

"This way, Kensuke," Touji urged him.

"Wait, isn't that..."

"Shut up, Kensuke."

Shinji still heard the words, but he did not even try to figure out what they meant. That happened fast. Now they've gotten sick of me as well. He was not sad, not really. In order to be sad he would have had to expect better.

Someone was in front of him now. A soft voice called: "Ikari."

Now Shinji did look up. Surprised... or rather, shocked. He felt trapped. "Aya..." he began, but he could not even finish the name.

Several seconds passed, with both of them just looking at each other. Neither of them moved. Shinji felt his heart racing. Ayanami seemed as calm and collected as always. Finally she asked: "Why did Pilot Soryu wish to harm you?"

Wait, what?

…

"Wait, what?" Shinji exclaimed. "Why are you asking that now?"

"I wanted to ask you on Friday," Ayanami explained matter-of-factly. "I did not meet you at your way home."

In as much as those 'meetings' had become a habit, it had been her unspoken 'turn' to ask something.

"I'm sorry," Shinji whispered, again looking at the floor. Then it hit him and he looked straight ahead again, at Ayanami. "...that is what you wanted to talk with me about on Friday?" Not about what I...

The girl just nodded slightly.

Now thoughts and questions jumped into Shinji's mind without any sense or order to them. "How did you even know I'd be here?"

"Suzuhara told me," Ayanami answered.

"Touji?" Shinji wondered. "You asked Touji?"

Ayanami shook her head. "He approached me. It was unexpected. But his information was correct."

Touji did? … That's why he left now. But why... Shinji did not pursue that thought further. He had wished to avoid Ayanami, but now he had been put on the spot. There was only one thing to do. With rigid upper body, he bowed down deep in front of her. "I am sorry, Ayanami. I should not have entered your apartment. And I should have left as soon as I saw you had been showering. It was foolish and stupid of me and it put you in an uncomfortable position."

He remained bowed. No answer came. When he looked up slightly from that position, he could see her head was tilted. "Is that an apology?" she asked.

"Yes!" Shinji exclaimed, a little too loud and trying his best not to jump up from his bowed position.

"Why?" Ayanami asked.

"Ah... because..." Shinj began. That was unexpected. Unexpected enough that he now did straighten up again. "What I did was wrong."

"Why?" Ayanami inquired further.

"It's rude to simply enter the homes of other people!" Shinji exclaimed. What I did is wrong, wrong, wrong!

"Why?"

"Well... that incident showed why!" Shinji insisted. "Because I just entered your apartment, I caught you showering. I embarrassed you!"

"No," Ayanami simply stated without any inflection whatsoever.

"What do you mean, 'No'?" Shinji asked.

"You did not embarrass me," Ayanami clarified.

What? What? Shinji could not believe what he was hearing. Does absolutely nothing offend her? Part of him, a very small part, realized that he maybe should be weirded out by this, maybe even find this creepy... but that part never had a chance against the sheer relief Shinji was feeling right now. No, I suppose nothing does. I can't offend her. Whatever I do, I can't screw this up. Not even with... that.

"I am glad," Shinji told her. "It was still a foolish thing to do for me."

Ayanami acknowledged that with a nod. "Is that why Soryu attempted to strike you? She took part in that foolishness as well."

A small grin formed at the sides of Shinji's mouth, the first time in days his lips had even only begun to curl up. Ayanami was a determined person. It seemed that when she wanted to ask a question, nothing would stop her: Not being caught in the nude, not five days of utter silence, not being abandoned after school and not even an in her eyes senseless apology.

"I think she was just embarrassed herself," Shinji explained. "After she... fell on you." And here we go again with the visual memories... Memories that were at once pleasant and intensely awkward. "She blamed me for that. Us both, really."

"I see," Ayanami answered. "Would she also have attempted to harm me?"

"I don't think..." Shinji began, but stopped when two identical noises started, one from his phone and one from Ayanami's. That sound was keyed specifically to one event... an Angel attack.

Without speaking a further word, both started to run straight for the nearest Geofront entrance.

Asuka lay face-down on her hotel bed and wanted the outside world to go away. There was a school book and a writing bloc on the desk that stood right next to that bed, but Asuka had quite enough of both.

Why the fuck are they still using kanji?

For Germany, the Latin alphabet with its 26 letters was quite sufficient. Okay, plus 4 letters German used but insisted were somehow not part of the alphabet. And some combinations like sch, ch, eu that were pronounced differently than what their single letters would imply. But even so – that was 30 letters and maybe 10 combinations. Instead of the around, oh, 20,000 kanji needed for high-level Japanese literacy, most of them with multiple meanings and multiple pronunciations. Even English and French, where one had to basically guess how spelling and pronunciation went together, were better, because they at least used an alphabet instead of damn pictograms.

Asuka could read and write katakana and hiragana without problems. Those were after all syllabaries, nearly as good as alphabets as far as writing systems went. But their use in Japanese was limited. It occurred to Asuka that the Koreans had done it right: They had kicked out their Chinese-derived script decades ago and had only kept their own syllabary. Not that the country was in an enviable condition right now: Reunited since shortly after Second Impact, it was now a completely neutralized buffer state between Japan and China under military rule. World events and conditions like that were something Asuka, as a college graduate and pilot of the most powerful class of battle machines currently out there (a political factor in itself), kept up with. But at least the people there did not need to learn thousands upon thousands of characters just to not be illiterate.

Asuka simply did not have the motivation to continue working on her writing lessons. She had done those for a week already. For several days now, she had come 'home' to a lonely hotel room and practised kanji. It seemed that was the only thing she was still doing outside school. It was disheartening to return to this hotel room day after day and stay there most of the time. At first she had immediately changed out of the school uniform; now she could not even be bothered to do that anymore. Even Kaji had only visited her once since she had started going to school. She had no idea what he was doing. Hopefully he'll hurry up about finding an apartment.

That had been part of the reason for accompanying the Third to the First's place. It had given her something else to do, and the chance to properly meet the First. Unfortunately, that had ended in disaster. Asuka still felt flustered and embarrassed when she thought about that incident. It had been foolish of Shinji to just enter the apartment like that, but worse, what had that blue-haired harlot been thinking? Showing up in the nude, not even hiding anything, just letting Asuka lie on top of her without moving, letting her lie on her... Gah! Even only recalling that memory made Asuka feel uncomfortable all over.

Fortunately, it had been easy enough to avoid both her fellow pilots at school. Both were essentially loners, always staying in their own private, little corners. Sticking to the crowds automatically meant avoiding them, and sticking to the crowds was after all one reason Asuka went to school: The social stimulation. Just too bad how abruptly this ends once I've come 'home'. She sighed. She was not looking forward to PE on Wednesday. No way to avoid the harlot then. Urgh. According to schedule it'll be swimming. Well, at least the school will have regulations against skinny-dipping.

With another sigh she slowly got up from her bed. It's no use. The only alternative to learning those vermaledeiten Chinese thought excrements is to brood on my bed. So back to a needlessly complicated writing system it is.

However, she had not even sat down when her phone emitted the quite clearly distinguishable angel alert sound.

She formed a fist and grinned. Yes! That's better than brooding or kanji. My first fight on Japanese soil. That angel has impeccable timing. I'll beat the crap out of it.

The corridor around Misato flashed red, so that it appeared like she was walking through red hexagons. I swear, sometimes NERV is overdoing things. I get that an angel is approaching. There's no need to turn the whole headquarters into an emergency sign-themed amusement park.

Fortunately, her sense of direction always became considerably better under stress, and it took her only five minutes to reach the bridge.

"Report!" she bellowed.

"Battlecruiser Haruna reports huge flying object at these coordinates," Hyuga stated.

Misato looked over his shoulder, on his screen. "At current speeds it'll be here in less than half an hour!" She looked at the image of the object: A blue octahedron floating in the air. I wonder how they'll name it. Suddenly, something flashed up on the screen. "What the..."

Hyuga confirmed what she was seeing: "Wavelength is pattern Blue. Angel confirmed!"

"No way we can still hope to intercept it in the open," Misato muttered. "This'll be a fight in the city."

Vice Commander Fuyutsuki seemed to agree. From the elevated position he and Commander Ikari held on the bridge he issued orders, carried through loudspeakers: "Issue evacuation orders. Tokyo-3 is to enter fortress mode."

"What's the status of the pilots?" Misato shouted.

"All three have confirmed the emergency alert," Aoba reported from his terminal. "GPS tracking shows all three are in close proximity to Geofront entrances. Expected arrival of all three within fifteen minutes."

Misato nodded grimly. "Status of the Evangelions?"

"Ah... uh..." Ibuki muttered from her seat. What the hell? "U-Unit 01 and Unit... uh, Unit 02..."

Misato looked over to her. That was unlike the Lieutenant. Among the bridge personnel, Ibuki had always been the one most concerned for Shinji and Rei, but nonetheless she had always acted professionally and disciplined.

The annoying emergency lighting had dimmed the light to a diffuse red, so it was only now that Misato noticed a figure next to Ibuki. A figure very close to Ibuki. Misato stormed over to there. What's going on?

What she found was the Lieutenant almost cowering in her seat, trying to get away from the uncomfortable proximity to the man standing next to her. What the fuck is he doing here?

"Ryoji Kaji, get the hell away from there!" she shouted. "Do you want to get us into a sexual harassment lawsuit? Let my people do their job, damnit!"

With a grin, Kaji turned around to her and took one step forwards, finally bringing a more comfortable distance between him and Ibuki. "Your people? Doesn't Maya here" Maya? "belong to Ritsuko? Ritsuko's Section 3?"

Finally Ibuki had it in her to finish her report: "No... no problems detected in Units 01 and 02. Unit 00's neural link capacity 0.2% below norm, but that is within parameters."

Both pilots and EVAs accounted for. Good. We'll be able to fight. With that cleared, Misato could concentrate on Kaji. "What the hell are you doing here, Kaji? You don't have the security clearance..."

"I do, actually," Kaji interrupted her. He got something out of his shirt pocket and let it dangle in front of her: A laminated identity card. "I've officially been appointed by the U.N. as an inspector inside NERV." His ever-present grin broadened. "I'm here to watch you, Misato."

"What the hell is this about?" Misato demanded to know. "You've changed sides?"

"You wound me, Misato," Kaji declared theatrically. "We're all on the same side. NERV is a U.N. special purpose organisation, after all." He suddenly got more serious and his voice more subdued. "But not everyone in the U.N. is happy about NERV. The amounts of money you get from the U.N. budget are staggering. The special privileges NERV enjoys, including your near-total authority over Tokyo-3, make some people very jumpy. And now you have three EVAs concentrated here. People fear that. Sure, for now the EVAs are tied down in fighting angels, but once they aren't anymore... you understand how much political power three EVAs could represent, right?"

Misato nodded. All in all, those were understandable concerns. But having a U.N. inspector watch her every step would be inconvenient. And that this inspector was Kaji... Misato's serious face broke down into an expression of helplessness. This will be a nightmare!

She was spared the need to answer when she heard Aoba reporting: "First and Third Children have arrived." And with only some seconds delay: "Second Child has arrived."

Ibuki took this as the cue to report on the Evangelions: "Power connection to all EVAs stable. All units awaiting their pilot."

Two minutes later Aoba reported: "First Child in Unit 00." About ten seconds later: "Third Child in Unit 01." Then nothing for a while.

"Angel has reached Tokyo-3 city perimeter," Hyuga now spoke up.

"Engage city defences!" Misato ordered. She was glad that for now she had a perfect justification to take her mind off Kaji. Damnit, Asuka! How difficult can it be to get into that plugsuit? Though Misato had to grant that she never had been inside one, something she was rather glad about. So maybe she should not judge the pilots about this. But there's an angel out there, and it's nearly directly above us already!

It took almost another minute until Aoba reported: "Second Child in Unit 02."

Figures. First time I'm getting into my plugsuit here is at an angel battle. Which would not be a problem if it were not for the fact Asuka had to share the locker room with that blue-haired freak. It made her suddenly very conscious about changing. Who wouldn't be with her around?

She only needed to look at her changing to recall the incident in that dirty, run-down apartment. It was an infuriating memory, and having the harlot in close proximity, again in a state of undress, only made it that much more infuriating. In the end, she left the locker room nearly a minute after the other girl, who of course was again all creepily calm and unperturbed. Well, too bad, real humans do sometimes have emotions like anger. Asuka would not apologize if that anger caused a minute delay.

She ran through the corridors towards the EVA cages. On the way, she caught up to Shinji. Not a very fast runner it seems. Jeez…

"That fight's gonna be easy!" she exclaimed to him. "With me here, the angels are toast."

"You sound way too… enthusiastic… about that prospect," Shinji muttered between heavy breaths.

"I am!" Asuka agreed. "I'm an EVA pilot. A warrior. And I'm gonna kick that angel into orbit, like England just shot a penalty."

Unsurprisingly, that reference flew just as high over Shinji's head. Japan. I am not going to watch baseball matches, that's for sure! If she was staying any longer in that hotel room, she might have to unpack all the Turbine Potsdam and Schalke merchandise already.

"You… actually… like fighting?" Shinji asked. He sounded nonplussed. Or, as nonplussed as running allowed him to sound.

"Hell, yeah," Asuka confirmed. "And I'm good at it, as you'll see. Angels? No problems. I showed that against that overgrown trout, didn't I?"

"Well, yeah," Shinji had to admit. "Still… it's weird."

Says that guy? Hah! They had reached the EVA cages. "Less talking, more climbing into giant thought-controlled robots!"

Before Misato could even say something, she could hear Asuka on the comms. "What's the situation?"

Part of Misato, the Captain, was annoyed at the lack of communication discipline. But the other part, the guardian of Shinji and former guardian of Asuka, suppressed this annoyance. It was bad enough she had to send those kids out to fight; there was no need to also subject them to military discipline.

"I'm transmitting a visual feed to you. The Angel is that blue octahedron above the city. It's on course to its direct centre," Misato replied. To the point above the upper-most point of the Geofront. That surely was no coincidence. "You will probably have to fight as soon as you hit the surface. That's why we're sending you and Shinji in first. You two have better synch rates than Rei; your EVAs will hence have better reaction times. But we will fight with all three EVAs deployed."

"Aww, really?" Asuka complained. "I bet you I could take on that Angel alone."

"Asuka..." Misato warned her. Now both the Captain and the guardian were annoyed.

"It's what I've trained for in Germany for years, isn't it?" Asuka argued. "That wasn't just research; it was combat training. And it was for use against those things, wasn't it? And it paid off when I defeated that one angel, alone. Shinji has nearly no training at all." Shinji? I'll have to have… no, I'll have to tell Kaji to have a talk about Japanese etiquette with her. Which probably would be useless, since Asuka knew Japanese etiquette. She just cared very little about offending the sensitivities of people around her. "I want to fight!"

"You'll get to," Misato told her. "If you think you're such a hot shot, by all means attack the angel. But Shinji will have a fair stab at it, too."

"Uh, actually..." Shinji began.

Misato was relatively sure what he was about to say. And if she could make him avoid combat, she would do so. She would dearly like to do so, in fact. But sending out EVA-02 without backup was just not an option.

"Launch in ten seconds," she ordered to cut him off. "Unit 00 will join you a minute later."

All three pilots acknowledged the order.

The EVAs had not even fully reached the top when Ibuki announced loudly: "Energy build up inside the angel!"

"Specifics!" Misato bellowed.

"It's concentrating at its core and… it's focused outwards!" Ibuki yelled back.

Damn. No! "Shinji, Asuka, hold! Don't step out..."

But it was too late. Shinji's screams were already filling the loudspeakers; long, continuous, haunting screams. Asuka, of course, tried not to do the same, but to little avail. She screamed in short, throaty fits. Both their Evangelions had been hit right in the chest by concentrated energy beams. In Shinji's case, that beam even managed to fully vaporize an entire building standing in the way. In the midst of this agony, Misato hastily ordered the elevators to be lowered again.

"Hyuga, take over for me," she ordered and then set out to walk to the EVA cages. Kaji joined her. That surprised and annoyed Misato for a moment. But then, Asuka is his ward.

"And you worry about a sexual harassment suit," Kaji muttered.

"What do you mean?" Misato asked angrily. She was to worried for Shinji to put up with Kaji's antics.

"That's exactly the stuff they're sending in inspectors for," Kaji told her. "So we can watch NERV sending out children to fight. Children to suffer. Child soldiers. You just know how this will look on a report."

The two entered the elevator to the cages.

"We need these children to..." Misato began to defend herself.

"I know," Kaji interrupted her. "That's why so far nobody has said a word. Asuka is right: Officially, she was at Berlin to help in researching EVA technology, rather than to get combat training as a six year old child. Officially, using the research objects as weapons is an emergency solution. Officially, the children have no military rank, are not part of any armed forces, and could walk away at any time. Hell, that's really why we're making them go to school, isn't? We're upholding an illusion of normalcy that just isn't there. No, those aren't child soldiers, why, they're just normal students who help out at NERV after school." He shook his head with an ironic grin on his face. "We've presented the world with a lie that's easy to swallow. And because the world is so dependent on those children to defeat the angels, nobody looks too closely and everyone just upholds the lie."

Now Misato understood. Her anger at Kaji became entirely subdued when she thought through what he had said. "But if they hear the screams of a child who thinks and feels his ribcage has just been torn open…. Who certainly has all the same pain as if it had in fact been..."

"Yeah," Kaji answered. "Of course, it's just three pilots. Just three children. In Africa there are several warlords with entire companies and battalions of child soldiers. But nobody cares about Africa. Half its territory is recognized as being stateless. But the U.N. … they have become a pillar of stability since Second Impact. Maybe the pillar of global stability. The paragon of virtue that keeps the squabbling nation-states at bay. If people become aware, really aware, how a U.N. organization is using child soldiers..."

The elevator came to a halt, its door opened. They stepped out.

"Do they really care about that?" Misato asked.

"Haven't you been listening?" Kaji almost hissed back. "No national government is going to care because the lives of just three children have been destroyed. But some are out to target NERV anyway. And NERV using child soldiers will be a very welcome justification for them to try to shut the whole thing down."

"So… will this be in your report?" Misato asked. "You know why NERV is necessary. It absolutely is. I'm surprised they picked you to be an inspector, to be honest. You've been with NERV. You aren't impartial. You could just omit certain things."

"Yeah, I could," Kaji agreed. He gripped the railing of the gangway and looked over the coolant liquid filling up the room. Both Asuka and Shinji had been pulled from their entry plugs. Cranes were transporting their seats to a waiting medical team. Both were unconscious. "But would it really be fair to Asuka and to Shinji to hush up how they're suffering here? And I don't like hush-ups. You know that, Misato."

Misato formed fists and cast her view down.