"Yen for your thoughts, Kaji?"
Is how Tatsuo leads the conversation. Or rather, attempts to lead the conversation. The mid-morning sun beats down from on high in the summer sky, pouring its golden rays into the interior of the Lotus Elan through it's dusty set of windows and casting everything within in a warm shade of brightness as he and Kaji speed down the main utility highway connecting the breadth of NERV-03 in the shadow of her high, steel towers that stretch upwards from where their foundations rest atop the ruins of the old Hamburg beneath the waves of the North Sea towards Section-IV's laboratories on the stony shores of the new Hamburg. It's been a quiet enough ride so far, for a quiet enough morning, one that was expected after last night's discussion; Kaji, in the end, truly relented and did let him crash on his couch once it was over with, stalking away from the living room for a brief few minutes and leaving Tatsuo alone with only the whispering thoughts at the back of his head that told him that trusting Kaji was a mistake and his briefcase containing one of the most dangerous entities in the world, only to return with a neatly folded blanket and a smoothed out pillow instead of his pistol that he had thrown rather forcefully into Tatsuo's lap.
After that, there was only the low roar of the air conditioning to keep Tatsuo company in the living room once Kaji had retreated into the darkness of his bedroom, shutting the door with a level of force a little under outright slamming the door, but as far as he was concerned, the fact that Kaji was letting him sleep on his couch at all was just another way of telling Tatsuo that yes, he did accept his offer, and with that, he had entombed ADAM in his briefcase once more and shucked off his work outfit, laying beneath the blankets in his boxers and t-shirt he stared at the ceiling and for once not ruminated on the days to come. Getting Kaji to at least be familiar with the idea of working with him was his first success in a while, his first success to actually feel like a success, after all the waiting and thinking alone in his office for the past six years. One of the nails, pulled up out of the coffin humanity had been placed in without even knowing it, and with that, Tatsuo had let himself drift off to sleep, unafraid for once.
Unafraid for at least one night.
Now, one hot shower and hot cup of coffee in the early morning darkness of the dawn that were taken freely without instruction by his sleeping host, Tatsuo is not afraid, but annoyed, annoyed again, because although he didn't expect Kaji to be as chipper around him as he is around Katsuragi and Ritsu, given their… history, this mood of his is certainly irritating. Kaji has not said a single word to him since last night, when he asked how he was supposed to know that Tatsuo wouldn't stab him in the back later down the road, and then received his answer. By Kaji's own admission, Tatsuo is a "smart cookie", and so he knew to follow Kaji down to the parking garage once the man had finally finished getting ready around seven in the morning whereas Tatsuo had already been awake and ready for an hour by that point. "I thought that a man with such a tidy home would have unlearned the habits Katsuragi gave you" had been what he had wanted to say to Kaji, if he had been still a twenty-three year old and the year was still 2009, but there would be plenty of time for picking at scabs once they had actually reached Tokyo-03 and attended their dreaded class reunion, and so he held his tongue and allowed Kaji to take his time. He wishes hadn't, though, because the griping that would have ensued would at least be preferable to this.
Forget having his hands full with a group of teenage trainwrecks or Katsuragi and Ritsu, he'll have his hands full with his own partner.
"...I was wondering how Asuka's doing, that's all." Kaji finally deigns to answer, his tone that foppish, lilting tone he uses whenever he's trying to keep his true feelings from seeping through the cracks, "She's over the moon that we're finally moving out to Tokyo-03."
A reasonable topic to talk about, given where they're currently driving to, so Tatsuo will allow him the luxury of a normal discussion instead of souring the mood by demanding that they conversate about the sharpness of the executioner's ax hanging above their necks and the noose tightening around everyone else's throats. Even the whispers in the back of his head must subside into mere images, sometimes.
"Who wouldn't be, if they were in her position?" Tatsuo sighs, reaching down to grab the lever on the side of the passenger seat before leaning back and making it recline, "As long as they've got the attitude for the job like she does, unlike those other kids."
And he means it. Really.
"So I've heard," Kaji replies, and Tatsuo can see his right eye dart to shoot a dissecting glance at him for a moment before it returns to the road, "How much do you know about the Children, anyway?"
More than you.
"A little, really," Tatsuo says instead, reaching back behind his head to cradle it in the crook of his elbows, "I pulled a few files, once the news about the first attack reached NERV-04, since I was curious, and then I pulled a few more once the other two happened. Or what little there was, anyway, since The First Child doesn't have a file, and The Third Child's is less than an inch or two thick, given that Ikari pulled him out of his magic hat regardless of the Marduk Institute's selection guidelines only a month ago."
Kaji's posture remains relaxed and his gaze on the road in front of them, but the way his fingers instinctively clench ever so slightly around the leather-pleated steering wheel is oh-so obvious to Tatsuo when he says the final part of that sentence. It's no wonder that he got himself into this mess in the first place; he hears someone sweeten the pot with a new tidbit of information, and Kaji is hooked onto what they say like a fish on a lure.
"But what I've heard around the water cooler is that both are pieces of work," Tatsuo continues, "The First has no sense of self-preservation when it comes to fighting the enemy and believes herself replaceable, while The Third pilots because he prefers to be praised over having his arm wrenched into getting inside Unit-01-"
.Which is the very least that Tatsuo will tell him. At least for now, anyway. It wouldn't do for Kaji to go running to Ikari or the suits in Tokyo-02 with disturbing rumors. Kaji just nods, looking forwards as he most likely pairs what he's heard in the last minute with all the other murmurs and half-truths that each of his masters have imparted to him.
"-By Katsuragi and Akagi."
"...They're taskmasters, is what the technicians given to us by Headquarters say." Is what comes out of Kaji's mouth after the moment of silence that comes after Tatsuo shoots that particular arrow across his brow.
"So you've been keeping tabs on them over the years, Kaji?" Tatsuo sneers, shifting his seat upwards with the lever so that if they're about to get down to brass tacks on this issue, it looks like he's actually invested in the matter. Which he is.
"And you haven't?" Kaji fires back, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel in a staccato rhythm as he obviously forces his eyes to keep themselves on the highway in front of them.
"Not in the same way that a man who misses his ex-girlfriend does."
"But still enough that you know about The Third Child living with Katsuragi?"
"When did I say that?"
"When you brought up the fact that Katsuragi uses the carrot and the stick routine on The Third," Kaji snorts, "Which I take means that you have your own set of eyes and ears in Headquarters… relaying information about them back to you."
"And why wouldn't I?" Tatsuo replies flippantly, "I was the Regional Supervisor of the German Division for Section-II, and now I'm the Director of Section-II; if I didn't know how to do my job, I wouldn't have gotten the promotion in the first place."
"Because if you're really planning to get back in their good graces once we get to Headquarters like you said last night, that means your interest is personal, not professional, like mine." Kaji states evenly, not even bothering to deny the fact that
"I wouldn't say that," Tatsuo chuffs, "It's more like I need to know if the rot in NERV has spread as far as them-."
And it has, he doesn't say. Since the days of GEHIRN. When he was powerless to stop it, and just didn't know it.
"-Before I can safely go sticking my nose into any business in their backyard, unlike your plan to schmooze with them the moment you step off the boat."
"Which I take to mean you still don't know how you're going to apologize to them."
"And why would I?" Tatsuo grinds out, because of course Kaji can't seem to square the circle that he just isn't interested in the same way that he is, "Katsuragi is the one who blew our disagreement over human nature out of proportion when she burned all her bridges so she could galavant off to join the JSSDF over one argument, not me, and Ritsu and I have never had issues with each other."
Not in the same way that Katsuragi and I do.
"...So what's your real angle then, if you're not planning on acting personable in their presence?" Kaji asks after a moment of contemplation on his part, finally getting around to what he's really been wanting to ask, and Tatsuo rolls his eyes.
"Do I really need to spell it out for you? My real angle is to do the job I've been given, and monitor NERV for parasites, both of the skin and the heart, and root them out so mankind can live another day."
Even if it kills him, because he has to at least try.
"Even while you know I'm in Ikari's pocket?" Kaji turns an eye towards him, searching for something that doest exist in Tatsuo's heart.
"Even so," Tatsuo mutters, "Since you're not really in Ikari's pocket; you're too good of a man to let yourself be fooled by his promises."
"...Well, that's heartening, hearing that coming from you," Kaji murmurs, the angular, stony expression lining his face seeming to melt into one of vague wariness, "Is that why you decided to show me ADAM so quickly, then?"
"You would have found out eventually, given your penchant for nosing around in everyone's business, but likely at a worse moment sometime in the near future," Tatsuo mentions casually, ignoring Kaji's blatant attempt to throw him off balance and break the conversational deadlock by changing the subject, "And you needed a reason to trust me, so I gave you one."
"So you weren't just being a show off, then," Kaji half-laughs, before it trails back off into that perpetually neutral voice of his, "And you were serious about me helping you out."
"As serious as a heart attack, Kaji," Tatsuo says while leaning back and crossing his arms, "And perhaps I worded it wrongly; it would be a mutual agreement, of course."
Kaji's eyes narrow.
"And how's that?"
Tatsuo smirks.
"By keeping each other from being shot in the back of the head by our bosses as we continue to dig up dirt on each other."
It's even uglier in person.
Tatsuo has seen photographs of it, of course, along with all the other Units that are operational at the moment. He wasn't lying to Kaji when he said that he pulled some files regarding the chain of events that occurred only a month ago in Japan, but there's a difference between seeing an Evangelion only in blurry photographs taken by shaking camera equipment during the heat of battle and the few, distant shots taken from the catwalks in the Evangelion Cages back at Headquarters that Section-IV is willing to let out of their greasy paws and into Section-II's files, and seeing one of them with your own two eyes. That's something he's heard from his penpals who've had the privilege of working at Headquarters before they came here or the honor of working at the scarce handful of other facilities that are legally allowed to construct Evangelion Units, and now he knows why; the photographs never communicate the aura that radiates from the given Unit properly.
From his position in front of the observation deck window, he can see out into the full, rectangular breadth of NERV-03's Test Facility-01, see the endless stainless, white tile that glows with the dull blaze of the fluorescent flood lamps built into the parallel walls and see just the bare top of the crimson behemoth that calls this place home. From his position, Tatsuo looks it in its eyes, or rather, all four of them, his emerald-shaded glasses meeting it's emerald-shaded crystals across a thick layer of tempered security glass, and that is the only thing that he looks at, because he doesn't dare look down, lest it feel like the floor is suddenly giving out from beneath his feet. The Evangelion itself is the size of a small skyscraper, over at least twenty-five stories in height, and the observation deck sits parallel to its head, and Tatsuo never really got over his fear of heights. A mental holdover, from a different time and place. So he looks into its eyes, and then at its head, and then continues to do so with his hands clasped behind his back, even as the gossiping gaggle of Section-IV technicians surrounding him and Kaji mumble and mutter to themselves and each other at their stations about having the men in black barge in on their testing like this. Kaji says nothing as well; he too is solemn in the presence of the beast, and it's no wonder why, not when he's been warden to the girl who pilots this… thing.
And it is a thing; NERV might cover the Evangelions in a quarter of a million tons of metallic alloys and synthetic material, but he knows what's really inside, what's really under its skin. But, in the end, what they have done does serve its purpose, because when Production Model Unit-02 is covered in it's scarlet, knightly armor, it's so much easier to think of it by that label instead of the abomination of mad science that it really is.
One that will help save humanity, if events go even slightly more proper than what he remembers.
Thankfully, Tatsuo's mind is saved from spiraling into a hurricane of "what-if's" by the sound of the main set of doors sliding cleanly open and overpowering the low clatter of fingers typing against keyboard in the background, and then Tatsuo's mind lets out an involuntary note of irritation once he hears a girlish squeal echo through the room after said set of doors open, followed by the fast clacking of hard-toed dress shoes against the floor that grows closer and closer with each passing second before-
"Kaji! You're here!" A youthful voice shouts from right beside them, and Tatsuo hears Kaji let out a warm chuckle just as he turns his gaze away from the Evangelion, just in time to see a mop of copper-red hair attempt to wrap itself around Kaji's upper torso.
"Slow your roll, Asuka," Kaji laughs, and this time it's as fake as fools gold, as he easily escapes her grasp before taking a light step back to stand right next to Tatsuo, far out of the girl's wrenching grasp, which leaves her standing alone in front of them, "Keep doing that and one of these days you're going to make me crack my skull against the floor."
"...And who is this?" The Second Child asks, childish suspicion present in her tone as she levels a baleful glare in Tatsuo's direction with her blue eyes.
It's hilarious, in almost an absurd and grating way, and if Tatsuo hadn't learned how to wipe his face of emotion when he actually cared to, he might have smirked. Right now, though, it's just irritating, but it's a knee-jerk reaction, one that is hollowed out and replaced with simple dread the longer that Tatsuo stares in the teenager's direction.
Asuka Langley-Soryu is only that; a teenager, skinny and five foot nothing and maybe just over a hundred pounds soaking wet with a zit on the right side of her pale nose and the signs of a few sprouting more on her forehead, clad in a butter yellow sundress and red, low-heeled dress shoes. Tatsuo would laugh at her if he wasn't currently imagining the sound of a lance tearing through steel as if it was wet tissue, and the sound of the harpies laughing wetly as they rip Unit-02 to gory pieces with their jutting, toothy mouths, and her screaming herself hoarse all the while. She stares at him for a moment longer, her eyes darting towards Kaji in a questioning glance the second before Tatsuo finally finds an answer.
"Director Tokuda of Section-II, Pilot Soryu," Tatsuo answers simply, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose so she can't see the way he doesn't want to stare at her for too long as a collective gasp seems to ripple through the observation deck at the announcement of his rank, "I'm Chief Inspector Kaji's supervisor, and will be accompanying the two of you during Unit-02's transfer to Tokyo-03."
"...So you're Kaji's boss?" The Second demands with something resembling disdain in her voice, and Tatsuo is about to just nod in confirmation before a dull pain shoots through his left side as Kaji elbows him in the ribs lightly.
"And a friend from college." Kaji smiles, his eyes meeting Tatsuo's with a glance that means "Play along, or else."
"Yes, and a friend from college," Tatsuo continues while glaring at Kaji, and then takes it one step further, "So that means that as his friend, I allow him to clean up the messes he makes instead of firing him like I would if I was just his boss."
Which is the correct thing to say, because it elicits a derisive snort from Kaji and a giggle from The Second before the mask comes back up, and with it the glare of skepticism that she is apparently so good at leveling. Kaji opens his mouth, about to fire something back at Tatsuo, but the sound of hard heeled dress shoes tapping in their direction ends the conversation before it can devolve into more childish mud slinging.
"Doctor Lafrenz," Kaji starts, his gaze narrowing ever so slightly, "How good to see you."
"Pilot Soryu, Chief Inspector Kaji." A raspy, feminine voice greets from their side, and Tatsuo turns his gaze to the right and is greeted with the visage of a brunette, sharp-faced woman with brown eyes dressed in the standard drab brown jumpsuit of the lower ranking personnel, and if it weren't for the standard triangular badge made of polished metal with the NERV emblem emblazoned on it, he would have thought that she was just another one of Section-IV's minions, not one of the Regional Assistants to Project-E. Her voice trails off when she looks at Tatsuo, and he clears his throat before answering.
"Director Tokuda, Section-II." He says while holding out a hand, and Doctor Lafrenz's eyes widen just as she reaches to shake his hand. Tatsuo can't say the same for her hand, though, and the ensuing death grip of a handshake has him clasp his hands behind his back the moment it's over so the room can't see him trying to massage the pain out of his palm with his other hand.
"My apologies, Director," She manages to say, "Major Sorokin didn't tell me that a member of the senior staff would be visiting from Headquarters today, otherwise I'd have been here earlier."
"All is forgiven," Tatsuo snorts, "And besides, I think that Major Sorokin would be as surprised as you are, given that I was promoted to this position from my previous one at NERV-04 just yesterday as part of the personnel transfer to Headquarters that was arranged by the Human Instrumentality Committee."
"Thank you, sir," Doctor Lafrenz breathes, her posture relaxing, "May I ask if your presence here is related to any fears that the Committee may have about potential data leaks in relation to Unit-02's final activation test?"
"No," Tatsuo answers simply, turning his head to eye the monstrosity on the other side of the window for a moment from behind his glasses, "I merely wanted to see an Evangelion in action with my own eyes, or at least a completed one, before cleaning up the mess that Headquarters has found itself in takes up most of my time; the rest of the branch offices sing both words of praise and envy when speaking on the subject of NERV-03's technical abilities, so I thought I might see if they were true."
"See! I told you we were the best, Kaji!" The Second blurts out, and Kaji's gaze turns to the ceiling for guidance from the heavens as a serious and confident look overtakes Doctor Lafrenz's features.
"To prove to you that is true, sir, I'd like to get on with Unit-02's activation test," She demands, and Tatsuo merely waves a hand over his shoulder instead of responding, causing Doctor Lafrenz to look over at The Second, "Go get ready, Pilot Soryu."
The Second lets out an energetic hum in response as she flounces away, out of the observation deck to the sound of her shoes hitting the floor while Doctor Lafrenz takes her leave, getting as far away from him and Kaji as is humanly possible without looking like a fool, leaving them alone once again. Tatsuo shoots a glance over to Kaji, who is rubbing his stubble hard with his hand as he grimaces, and grins.
"A bundle of joy and energy, huh, Kaji?"
"Tell me about it," Kaji grumbles, "I can't even tell you when she started acting like that, it happened so suddenly."
"Probably when she heard that The Third was competing with her for the position of 'World's Best Evangelion Pilot' ," Tatsuo hums, "That poor boy; he's only a month into working for us and he's already started a workplace rivalry without even knowing it."
"You may be right about that, now that I think about it," Kaji sighs, "Asuka's a prideful girl; I stopped trying to bring the subject of the other Children up after she didn't talk to me for a day straight last month."
"Maybe she needs an outside opinion, then," Tatsuo states, and then lowers his voice so the rest of the room can't hear them as well under the sound of computers functioning, "From someone who isn't the paternal figure in her life she's so desperately trying not to lose."
"...And how do you figure that?" Kaji mutters after staring silently out the window for a few seconds.
"I've read her file, so I know what her childhood was like," Tatsuo lies as easily as he breathes, "Dead mother, absent father, complete lack of parental attention, that a growing teenager so desperately needs, so I figure that trying to pit her against the other Children won't build her confidence up, only break it down further. It doesn't help that Katsuragi likes to play favorites, especially among those who can finally achieve her dreams of destroying the Angels, so it falls to us to give The Second a stable foundation so she can cope with Katsuragi yanking her chain in a proper way."
"...And how do you propose we do that, when the rubber hits the road?" Kaji grunts, no doubt displeased by the way Tatsuo is content with ragging on Katsuragi at any given moment, "It's not like we're part of Section-III, who manage the Children's lives entirely; we're only a pair of desk jockeys, at the end of the day."
"Not true," Tatsuo laughs, "Did you see the way that Doctor Lafrenz ceded all control of the observation deck to me simply because of my rank, despite the fact that I only got promoted yesterday morning and don't even have my badge yet?"
"And what's your point?" Kaji says while giving him the side eye.
"The Second won't feel so threatened if her position on pecking order is established, so I say we pester the brass into making her the official squad leader of the Evangelion Pilots."