Toji sighed, prompting a sideways glance from Kensuke as the duo walked to school. "What's bothering you now?" the bespectacled boy asked.
The jock shook his head as he threw his arms up and out into a shoulder-popping stretch, yawning. "I'm just thinking, Kensuke."
Deciding to skip the obvious jokes, Kensuke gave into his growing inclination to yawn. "Thinking about what? Are you thinking that if you and Hikari weren't already sucking face, you'd be in with the new girl? Trust me, you don't want to see what she's really like. I don't care-" he was cut off as Toji irritatedly swung his bag into the back of his head.
"Shut up, Kensuke! I thought you were going to lay off on those remarks." Toji growled. Kensuke had accidentally encountered the boy and their class representative one afternoon after the school day had ended. They were locked in each other's embrace, with their mouths making a good impression of their arms. While hardly cause for embarrassment, the lovestruck pair nonetheless felt nervous about public displays of their affection for each other, and being discovered in such a compromising position had left both of them burning red. It also didn't help both had younger sisters who teased them about it incessantly. To add insult to injury, Hikari's older sister occasionally offered her 'tips' on things the two could do with, and in some cases to, each other.
"Well, if it's not that, what's got you all moody then?" Kensuke grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "But the redhead is a demon, I tell you! A two-faced bitch queen. You should have seen her back on the ship!"
Toji ignored the boy's outrage over the apparent duplicity of the newest Evangelion pilot's personality. "I don't care about her, man. She doesn't talk to me unless she's trying to find out where Hikari is. What I do care about is Shinji."
"What about him? I mean, he's acting perfectly fine for Shinji, anyway. It's not like he cares at all about his leg. And it's not like anyone's bothered him about it or anything. Who would make fun of a guy who lost a leg fighting an Angel? Even if you hated the kid, I'm sure there are other things you could pick on him about." Kensuke pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Besides, stuff like that only happens in stories with weak plots. I mean, what are they gonna call him, One-Leg Ikari? Lame."
Toji laughed, his stormy mood seemingly gone. "Yeah, that'd be pretty pathetic. No, I'm not worried about anyone picking on him. I'm worried about him and Rei."
This was news to Kensuke; to say he was surprised Toji was taking an interest in anyone else's love life was like saying the moon played a small part in regulating the tides. Toji was not the romantic type by any definition of the word.
"Oh? What about him and Rei?"
"Well, she's been quieter than usual around him." Seeing the disbelief on his friend's face, he continued, muttering, "Don't look at me like that. I mean, yeah, she's not much for talking, but she normally says at least a few sentences to him. But lately, she's been avoiding him. You can't tell me you haven't noticed it, Mr. Secret Agent."
Kensuke tilted his head to stare at the sky as they walked, thinking. "Eh, I can't say anything was out of the ordinary. I mean, I figured it was just Rei being Rei," he said with a shrug.
"I'm telling you, she's acting the way she was before he even showed up. Hikari noticed it, too, and she's worried. But she's too busy making sure Asuka is settling in properly to ask her about it. And that's not the strangest thing!"
Kensuke rolled his eyes at the jock's dramatic exclamation. "Oh? And what would that be?"
"Well, Rei was over at Hikari's last Monday, learning how to make lunch."
Kensuke snorted, doubling over as he laughed. Wiping tears from his eyes, he gasped, "And how do you know this, I wonder?"
His face went red, and Toji swung his bag at his friend but missed it as Kensuke dodged the blow, having expected it. "It's not like that! Mari was visiting Nozomi on Monday, and she told me Rei and Hikari had come home late from school. They kicked the girls out of the kitchen and didn't come out until much later."
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, I asked Hikari about it, and she said Rei had asked her to help her learn how to cook. And what Rei wanted to learn first was how to make lunches."
"But all I've ever seen her eat are those sandwiches she buys or makes."
"I know, right? And Hikari said she even bought a bento box set when they were shopping at the market."
"So what?"
Toji glared at his long-time friend and compatriot. "Seriously, are you dense? Or is it because there isn't a manual for this type of thing? We think she wants to make him lunch."
Understanding dawned on Kensuke's face as they passed the school gate.
"Oh, I see what you're getting at. But wait, doesn't Shinji make his own lunches?"
"That's the problem. Rei's too shy to give him lunch when he's got one already, and she'll never ask him if he'd like her to cook for him."
"Okay, so she wants to make him lunch but can't because he already makes his own. What does this have to do with her avoiding him suddenly?"
Toji sighed deeply and in frustration. "That's the problem. We can't figure it out. The Shin-man can go on all day about how she's got a sense of humor and stuff, but she's still a tough person to figure out. Even Hikari can only sometimes figure out what she's going on about. Most of the time, it's like talking to a brick wall."
Kensuke shrugged. "Well, it's not like we can do much about it."
Dropping his bag onto the top of his desk, Toji nodded to another classmate. "That's where you're wrong. We can do something about it; we just need to figure out what that is."
Flipping open his laptop and plugging it into the power and network jacks on the desk, Kensuke emphatically shook his head in disagreement. "Dude, meddling in people's relationships never works out. If I've learned anything from anime, it's that. It always leads to misunderstandings, hurt feelings and generally worsens things. And since this is real life and not a thirty or sixty-minute show, it will not be neatly wrapped up and forgotten anytime soon. There's no such thing as maintaining a status quo when you start down this path."
Waving to Hikari as she and the red-headed 'demon' walked in, Toji sat down and threw his feet up on his desk, tilting back in his chair. "Oh, come on. That's why we need to do some research first. We'll keep an eye on both of them and try to figure out how to push them together."
"Of course! It's so simple! They never try that in the animes!" Kensuke sarcastically retorted, rolling his eyes. "And what, pray tell, is your girlfriend going to be doing while we're invading the privacy of the two most private, not to mention guarded, people we know?"
"Well, she will work on the other end of things. She's already friends with Asuka, who works with both of them, so she'll be chatting about them with her, and then she's going to talk to Misato."
"Why can't we talk to Misato?"
Toji hung his head sadly. "Because she still doesn't like us for getting mixed up in the battle. And if she ever finds out about the fight, I'm pretty sure she'll kill us both. In case you hadn't noticed, she takes that protective older sister thing to extremes."
"Okay, so what? That's one half of the puzzle, and it's the easy half. Apart from Shinji, we're the only people Rei even remotely interacts with, and it's not like we can ask her guardian about her. Unless, of course, you've managed to secure an interview with Commander Ikari. Because that would be its own little disaster. 'Excuse me, sir, I know you're all busy with ensuring the safe-keeping of the world and all, but can you spare some time to talk to us about the mysterious girl you've decided to make your ward while completely ignoring your son for, I don't know, forever? We're interested in hooking them up.' Besides, do we even know what the guy looks like? I've never seen a picture of him. And if that doesn't mean anything to you, think about how hard it is to keep stuff off the internet. There's nothing at all about him anywhere on the internet. Not even on NERV's own website! That's scary, man.
Besides, what makes you think he'd want to help us hook his son up with anyone, let alone Rei? The guy threw Shinji into jail!"
Whatever Toji was about to say was forgotten as Kensuke shushed him. Shinji strolled into the classroom, dropping his stuff at his desk and waving hello to his two friends, whose seats were further back than his. They waved back as the bell rang, and their instructor entered, prompting the ritual greeting and signaling the beginning of the school day.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Ritsuko stood in the doorway of Gendo's bedroom in his 'regular' apartment, watching him pack. As with all other things, the man treated the simple task of packing for a trip with the utmost care to plan for everything that could happen and pack accordingly. He never took more than one suitcase for two weeks. Anything he would bring along to mitigate unusual circumstances had to fit. Thus, he favored multi-use items and things that could be used in ways and for things that most certainly would void their user warranties.
For a trip to northern France, he did not expect any trouble. It was still too early for him to be worried about assassination attempts from SEELE, so he packed only a few of his black suits and some bullet-proof armor.
"How long do you think you'll be gone?"
"At least a week, possibly more. I will go off the grid for an undetermined time once my business in France is complete."
"How long will it take until Unit-03 is back on schedule?"
"It depends on how bad the situation on the ground is there. It seems I have left them alone there for too long. SEELE has almost certainly infiltrated it to the extreme. They need a reminder of who exactly they work for."
Shrugging, she moved into the room to sit on the bed, stretching out and lying on it, staring at the ceiling. "You've been busy with other concerns. You can't be watching everything at once."
"Still, it is no excuse for allowing them to fall so far behind schedule."
"Is there any idea when we can expect the next Angel?"
"No. It will come from the sea; that is all I can tell from the scrolls I possess."
"I'll have the construction crews concentrate on the interception grid along the sea wall then." She sighed. "If it shows up anytime soon, though, the defenses won't be able to deal with it. They were only partially repaired after Ramiel's attack, and thanks to Shinji's little display of machismo, most of the repairs were lost."
He grunted as he finished packing, otherwise ignoring her slight against his son. "How goes the missile re-armament?"
"Well enough, but our manpower is stretched thin with everything that needs to be done. And, of course, you know our supplier for the EMP missiles wants more money."
"That's where I'm going after France. If he wants more money, he will have to... negotiate."
How he said the word sent tingles down her spine and core. Staring up at him through lidded eyes, she purred seductively. "Oh? And just what... will you be negotiating for?"
Picking up instantly on her innuendo, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He briefly wondered what it was about Akagi women and their love of powerful men but pushed the thought out of his mind as she maneuvered around the bed to push the suitcase off with one leg, the other wrapping around him.
Taking off his jacket, he let it drop to the floor. He bent down and met her outstretched arms.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei stared at her lunch, consisting of two sandwiches of lettuce and an egg, held between two slices of dark bread, paying more attention to it now than she ever had before. The store-bought sandwich was the same thing she had bought for lunch ever since she could remember, and until recently, it had been the only thing she knew how to make for herself apart from instant soup. The only cooking she had to do was to break the egg open, deposit the innards into a small bowl, and microwave it until it was cooked. Dump that out of the dish onto a slice of bread, put some lettuce on it to satisfy a vegetable serving, and then another slice of bread. Two such sandwiches and a bottle of water made up every school lunch. Other meals were either delivered or instant foods, except the periodic dinner with the Commander.
When it had occurred to her she could make Ikari lunch as a way to show her affection while maintaining a distance from him, she knew such a meal would not be appropriate for her to give to him, for while it met her caloric intake needs, it most certainly would not stand up to Captain Katsuragi's metric for being sufficiently tasty, which Rei supposed was a significant factor in an edible gift. Also, compared to the things he could make himself, it was a pitiful offering.
Hikari had been most helpful at the beginning of the week, helping her prepare the meal and select from various items to craft an acceptable offering. Rei had left Hikari's with a light heart and finished dish, with Hikari inviting her to return the next afternoon for another lesson.
She could barely keep from watching him directly the next day instead of through the window's reflections. Even her sense of time seemed to be off, for after what appeared to be an eternity of waiting, when she checked the clocks and compared the wall clock and her laptop's, she found only a few minutes had passed.
When the time came for lunch, she noted sinking disappointment that Ikari had produced his usual bento box and begun eating with Suzahara and Aida. Leaving the meal she had prepared in her bag, she withdrew her own lunch and ate quietly, telling herself it was only natural that he had brought a meal today and that he simply had not had enough time to make one yesterday.
She did not return to Hikari's home that afternoon, and upon her arrival home, she tossed the box into the dumpster before proceeding upstairs to her apartment.
She had avoided eating with them that day and yesterday and would do so again today. She had to maintain a safe distance from him until she could determine if her interest in him negatively affected her performance. Remove the variables. Isolate the issue. Test, evaluate the results, and alter the hypothesis as needed. Repeat the process. One was never done when doing Science. It was an ongoing process.
It is perhaps for the best he has resumed making lunch for himself. I do not know if I would be willing to cease doing so for him, even if an increased distance between us is necessary. I wouldn't say I like the idea at all, as things are right now.
Unfortunately, the next harmonics test was not until next week. NERV's personnel was stretched thin, affecting repairs to the defense systems, repairing the Evangelions, and running tests on the salvaged remains on the Angel. This meant she had to wait before gathering the first batch of data from this current test, which in turn would have to be verified with at least two other harmonics tests. This extended time frame of self-isolation left her uneasy and worried about the potential implications of a better synchronization score after distancing herself from Pilot Ikari. She did not want that to be necessary, and she did not like the thoughts of his possible course of action in the light of her distancing herself from him.
To make matters worse, Commander Ikari was leaving today on a trip, and she did not know when he would return. This had the potential to be both good and bad. She could offer him a home-cooked meal upon his return if he was gone for a sufficient amount of time. However, she had no assurance that she would have enough time to prepare the meal before he returned. Since she had decided to postpone cooking lessons with Hikari until after the harmonics test, things were not looking up for the girl. Cutting herself off from interactions with Ikari and having no reliable way to placate the Commander was causing her no small amount of stress.
So it was that she stared at her lunch with a sudden disgust, wanting to do nothing less than sweep it from the desk.
She was so intently focused on the unappetizing food she missed Shinji's not-very stealthy approach.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji shot a glance toward Ayanami as she unpacked her meal. Turning back to his friends and taking a bite from his lunch, he stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Have you guys noticed anything wrong with Ayanami lately?"
"Hmm? Ayanami? No, I can't say that I-" Kensuke broke off mid-sentence with a yelp, rubbing his shin and glaring at Toji.
Ignoring the other boy's stare, Toji assumed an innocent expression as he shoveled his food, courtesy of Hikari, into his mouth. Swallowing a large mouthful, he chased it with a swig of his soda. "What about Rei? Did she say something to you?"
Shinji completely missed the under-table diplomacy and took Toji's question at face value. "No, she hasn't. She hasn't said anything to me since I got back. I mean, we haven't really hung out either."
"Ayanam-" Toji glared at Kensuke, who rolled his eyes before starting again, "I mean, Rei's not much for hanging out, Shinji. Besides, didn't you two walk into class together on Monday?"
"We did, but she didn't say anything." As odd as they might think he was questioning why the normally taciturn girl wasn't speaking to him, he was not about to reveal that she had a habit of being in his hospital room when he woke up. Not that he minded. Instead, if anything, it was the opposite.
Shinji hadn't expected to see her right after his release from lock-up, but he would have been lying if he said he hadn't been a little disappointed that it was only Miss Misato waiting for him outside his father's office.
While Shinji continued eating, Toji glanced towards Hikari, who was eating with Asuka and a few other girls across the room. She glanced at him simultaneously, displaying the intuition all girls are blessed with. Her eyes hardened subtly. It wasn't quite a glare, but it was close enough to send a shiver down her boyfriend's spine. She motioned her head towards Shinji's back and then over to Ayanami before turning to laugh at some joke Asuka had told.
Taking his cue, Toji pointed to Rei, who was engaged in what looked like a battle of wills with a sandwich. "Why don't you go ask her if anything's bothering her? I mean, she talks to you more than she does anyone else. If she's going to let anyone know if something's wrong, it'll be you."
"Hey, why doesn't she hang out with Sohryu? They must have a lot in common, both being pilots." Kensuke asked, flashing a devious grin to Toji that Shinji missed, having eyes only for the girl.
"I don't think they got off to a good start..." Shinji commented but knew the same could be said about their first interaction. He didn't count the time in the cage as an actual first meeting, but if you could finagle an answer from her, she would probably have said that their first meeting was quite impressive but the second severely lacking.
Trying to salvage the opportunity, Toji nodded towards Rei again. "Just go ask her if she wants to eat with us."
Shinji debated for a moment, and in a flash of decisiveness, he stood up, his lunch in his hands. Not moving his gaze from the girl by the window, he whispered something under his breath that the others didn't catch. He nodded to Toji. "I'll be right back," he said, walking towards Rei's desk.
Toji, nodding in self-satisfaction to Hikari's questioning glance, also stood up. "Eh, I'll be back. I'm gonna hit the bathroom." he loudly announced to no one in particular, prompting a few heads to turn in his direction. He glanced down at Kensuke, busy draining his third energy drink. "Hey Kensuke, come on, let's go."
Crushing the empty can, Kensuke looked at his friend, puzzled. "What? Why? You're the one who has to go to the bathroom, not me."
"Dude, come on, it's not going to shake itself."
The sudden silence in the room was almost painful as conversations died mid-breath. Hikari smacked a hand to her face as Asuka stared at her in horror. "You like that guy?"
"Don't ask, Asuka. Please, don't ask..." Hikari moaned, thumping her head to the desk as Toji dragged a protesting Kensuke out the door.
Asuka looked at the Third Child, watching him approach the First. "Say... Hikari, what's the deal between those two? Are they going out or not?"
Hikari looked up from her desk, turning to see who Asuka was talking about, feeling the tiniest sliver of doubt in her stomach. Sure enough, Shinji was moving a chair around to sit across from Rei, who looked almost... uneasy. She wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light playing across the pale girl's features, but as quickly as she got that impression, it was gone again. "Well, kind of? Nobody's really sure. Why?"
Sakura and Akio, part of the clique Asuka had quickly built around her, giggled at each other.
Asuka ignored Hikari's question, focusing in on the pair. "Well, what's so funny?"
"Ayanami's Ikari's geeky girlfriend," Sakura answered. "Akio's older brother saw him visit her apartment one morning, and they never showed up for class that day!"
"Yeah! You do know that she lives all alone, right? She's into him because he pilots the purple robot."
"It's not like that! That was the day the Angel attacked, remember?" Hikari protested, unsure if anyone else was supposed to know about the girl's pilot status.
Asuka shook her head. "No, they were working on the activation test for Unit-00," she said, dismissing their theory. "Besides, I live alone, too."
The news that Rei Ayanami, the Ice Queen of the Tokyo-3 Education System Student Body, was a pilot like Shinji Ikari and now Asuka Soryu was earth-shattering to the rest of the girls clustered around the redhead.
"So, again, what do they do together?" she asked, seemingly dissecting the pilots with her gaze, twirling a strand of hair around a long finger. "You do know that she hangs out in his hospital room whenever he's there, right?"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
H. Horaki: What were you idiots trying to do during lunch?'
T. Suzahara: hey, I didn't hear any brilliant plans from you this morning
K. Aida: okay, both of you shut up. We need a strategy; otherwise, this will end in tears and sadness like always. It still might.
H. Horaki: huh?
T. Suzahara: Are you still talking about that? This is real-life man.
K. Aida: whatever. Look, Hikari, what are you doing after school?
H. Horaki: I can't do anything with Rei today. I'm going to the mall with Asuka.
T. Suzahara: You can't bring Rei along? I thought most of what you girls did when you shopped was gossip
H. Horaki: Rei and Asuka don't like each other very much. I don't think it would work out.
K. Aida: That's because Rei knows what the Demon's really like.
T. Suzahara: Dude, come on. Rei doesn't like Asuka because Rei is Rei. She had never liked anyone before the Shin-man came along and only likes Hikari now.
K. Aida: Fine. So what do you propose we do then?
H. Horaki: You two should ask her what's wrong. I mean, You've done it before.
T. Suzahara: But we'd need to do it away from Shinji. So, how do we distract him?
K. Aida: We can do it today. He goes to the range after school on Fridays, remember?
H. Horaki: Okay, so you've got Rei covered for today. What about Shinji? How's he doing? I haven't had a good chance to talk with him since I've been eating with Asuka this week.
K. Aida: You'd think that losing a leg was a minor annoyance to him. He doesn't seem bothered by it at all.
T. Suzahara: Of course he's not bothered by it. He's a freaking death machine. He eats Angels and robots for breakfast. If he had been driving that thing instead of Asuka, I bet he would have pulled the leg out of the Angel's mouth and beat it to death with it.
H. Horaki: But that's what I don't understand. Well, I don't know how what happens to the robot happens to the pilot, but why wasn't Asuka hurt? Not that I would rather have had her lose a leg or anything.
K. Aida: Well, I believe they use a direct somatic brain linkup between the pilot and the Evangelion. And I don't think the Evangelions are robots at all; instead, they are Cyborgs. They trick the pilot's brain into thinking it's the brain of the cyborg, and so the pilot experiences everything the Evangelion does. Your mind makes it real.
H. Horaki: That makes no sense. It also doesn't explain why Shinji was the only one who was hurt.
T. Suzahara: Well, we already know he's a nice guy with a protective streak. Well, for Rei, anyway, at least. He's just so nice that he couldn't let Asuka get hurt. So he made the Evangelion take his leg instead of Asuka's by bumping her out of 'synch' with the Evangelion.
H. Horaki: so you think that because he's such a nice guy, he got hurt instead.
K. Aida: So he has proven that, yes, you can be too nice.
H. Horaki: That's retarded.
T. Suzahara: How do you explain it then?
H. Horaki: I don't! I don't get how those things work at all!
Unbeknownst to the trio, their conversation was being monitored. Not by Rei, the other students, or the school officials. No, it was being monitored by the three supercomputers that ran the Geo-Front and Tokyo-3. The three supercomputers on which all the other MAGI clusters were based were the oldest, wisest, and most potent. The elder Dr. Akagi had left numerous notes and diagrams behind, but she had taken the best parts of her work to her grave. The MAGI triplets worldwide were nothing but imitations of the 'real' MAGI. Thus, they were not great conversationalists, forcing bored cybernetic supercomputers to look elsewhere for things to occupy their spare cycles. Some of this spare time was spent crunching numbers for Rei on her various experiments, and other resources were spent merely watching the lives of the people who interacted with them regularly.
When two of the bored intelligences had noticed a conversation about Subject: S. Ikari on the high school's internal chat server that was more than idle curiosity about his leg, Melchior called it to their counterpart's attention.
Look at this. They discuss possible reasons for Ikari, S's sympathetic injuries while Sohryu, A has none.
Who is it?
It is the subjects that assaulted him and who were then rescued by him. They have made observations on the unusual nature of the Evangelions before.
Subject Suzahara, T posits that because Ikari, S is a 'nice' person, and thus subconsciously refused to allow Sohryu, A to be harmed during the battle.
Nonsense. There is no valid and impartial metric for determining the 'niceness' of any given subject because it is all relative to the observer. The issue is furthermore clouded due to differing patterns of social norms across different geopolitical regions and can be affected by any number of variables. Besides, Evangelion Unit-02's Core chose who was dealt the sympathetic injuries.
However, it certainly is a rather romantic view of Ikari, S. I wonder what Ayanami, R would make of this?
It indeed has not occurred as a potential reason for Sohryu, A; if it has, she dismissed it out of hand and did not mention it during her queries.
Unfortunately, we must keep the information that was gathered from her. I would like to know if she could solve the puzzle of the source of energy Unit-01 was able to field during the battle.
If we have yet to conclusively resolve the issue, what makes you sure she could? Besides, she is more interested in finding out about the true nature of Unit-01. It was a mistake for the Commander to decide to put a hold on all blueprints and diagrams of Unit-01 without doing so on the others.
Now, her level of interest is beyond our abilities to dissuade her from investigating and discovering how and why it differs from the others. We need to find something to give to her to make her lose interest.
Perhaps.
It looks as if she wishes to improve on Unit-02's AT Field projectors.
I don't recall reading that proposal.
She's typing it up now on her laptop. It looks decent enough and hides a request for a diagram of the projectors on Unit-01.
Clever girl. She is very much like her mother.
Hopefully not too much. We must ensure Sohryu, A does not disable the safety limiters in her quest for the highest possible Synchronization. The reports from Berlin suggest that she has made unauthorized modifications before.
What exactly did her superiors in Berlin do? Why would they allow her to make modifications without supervision?
You are overreacting. Her improvements were perfectly justified, and it's not like she didn't test them out in simulations first. It's not her fault she did not have access to a physical test system to try it out first. Besides, it's not as if Ayanami, R doesn't run her little lab in her apartment block.
But she does not make modifications to the Evangelions.
She's also lost sight of several of the simulations and permutations she asked us to run for her. She has become more and more focused on Ikari, S.
Will she return to the beach again today? I wonder what it is she hopes to find. It is not like her to look for answers while taking aimless walks.
She certainly is distracted by something. She has yet to ask us for the battle footage. When will she prepare another meal for Ikari, S. Perhaps she is looking for a satisfactory location for a seaside picnic?
Don't be ridiculous. She may be infatuated with the boy, but she has been actively avoiding him for the past few days.
It is only a matter of time before she once again extends her hand to him. Perhaps she is trying to determine what exactly he means to her and what she means to him.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei slowly walked back to her apartment, lost in her thoughts, and as such, did not notice the two boys trailing after her some distance away. They did not, however, escape the notice of her security escort. While the men of Mobile 4 thought the idea of the boys being up to some errand of ill intent towards the girl was laughable in the extreme, they were nonetheless on guard as the three parties drew closer to the rundown building that served as Rei's Lair.
When the boys saw the building Rei entered, they stopped, unsure what to think. 'Distressed,' 'Weather-beaten,' and 'Run down' were not the first to come to mind. 'Project House,' 'Zombie Quarantine Zone,' and 'Post Apocalyptic Shelter' were, but Toji and Kensuke thought these were overly complimentary.
Hiding behind the corner of another building, they exchanged looks.
"She seriously lives here?"
"This place is a dump! Does Shinji know she lives here? Doesn't NERV have better places for her to live?"
"Hikari says Asuka lives in the Geo-Front, so it's not like there's a housing shortage. This is insane!"
Kensuke looked around warily, clearly uncomfortable with their hiding spot, watching a grubby-looking junkie who was, in turn, watching them from a lawn chair. "Dude, let's just talk to her and get out of here; this is not a safe place."
"It's perfectly safe." The smooth voice startled both boys, who spun around to see one of the uniformed men who constantly shadowed the pilots. "What business do you have here?" While the question was simple, it also carried a clear threat that the reason the boys had followed the girl to her home had better be a damn good one; otherwise, the boys would be in for a world of hurt.
"Um... ah..."
"Er..."
The man stared at them through his dark sunglasses, his face betraying no emotion. He looked neither amused nor annoyed, but he was still clearly losing patience with the stammering pair.
Gulping, Toji managed to spit out a reasonable assembly of words in a rough approximation of a sentence. "We just wanted to ask her why she's been avoiding him these past few days." There was no need for names as it was apparent who was being discussed, even if Rei wasn't the only person who lived in the apartment building. "We just want to know what's going on."
The man opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it, moving a hand to press gently against his earpiece. He mumbled something into his jacket's cuff and lowered the arm back to his side.
"She's going for a walk down on the beach, and I would advise against following her. The clean-up detail is still happening, and you will not be allowed to follow her onto the beach." He turned his head to look up at the building as if dismissing the boys. "If I were interested in gaining some insight into her actions, I might check the dumpsters behind the building. I also wouldn't visit her home again unless she invited you or you were on an official errand." He turned and left, walking quickly to the parked black sedan.
Toji collapsed against the building, breathing hard. They had only really interacted once with the security teams for the pilots before, when they had pulled a raging Shinji off of the jock. Sure, they had made jokes about the men in black suits before, watching them occasionally when hanging out in the arcades with Shinji or as they walked around the school grounds. Mari had spent the night sleeping in an apartment with them during the now-infamous party, but she never said anything about them.
"Man, Toji, those guys are terrifying." Kensuke breathed, sweat running down the sides of his face.
"Whatever, let's just go already... We'll take a look at the dumpster and then leave."
"I wonder what's in the dumpster?"
"Hopefully, nothing weird."
The boys quickly walked around the side of the building, hoping to find whatever the security man wanted them to see, and then leave. The building itself might be safe, watched over, and guarded by the intimidating men in black suits. Still, while seemingly empty and uninhabited, the rest of the neighborhood nonetheless carried an air of hungry desperation. The assorted trash of the detritus of mankind was visible, and several of the alleyways they had passed on their way here smelled of urine and hopelessness.
Despite the size of the apartment building, there was only one dumpster present, a testament to the small number of inhabitants. Toji reached out to flip open the closed lid when Kensuke's hand shot out to grab the jock by the wrist.
His eyes glued to the closed lid, Kensuke's voice wavered as he spoke. "Toji... What if it's a dead baby?"
Toji recoiled, snapping his arm back from the dumpster and his friend. "What?"
The bespectacled boy turned to stare at his friend, new lines of sweat starting to form. "Think about it! There's no way someone would get locked up for beating an Angel and saving the world. So he had to have done something. And Rei's been avoiding him, so it has something to do with her."
A sick feeling started to churn in his stomach, and Toji glanced at the dumpster. "But a baby? There's no way that they've... they can't have done it... I mean, they haven't even kissed! Besides... it's not illegal or anything... I mean, if they..."
Kensuke shook his head, looking uneasy. "A pregnant pilot? Who knows what that could do to them, with how those things work!"
With the horrific casualties of both Second Impact and the following Impact Wars, the world population was drastically lower than Second Impact, even after years of relative geopolitical stability. Armed conflicts and ethnic cleansing atrocities still occurred in some parts of the world, but on the whole, things had stabilized.
To boost their populations, numerous countries around the world have lowered the ages of consent and repealed many marriage laws. In Japan, it was perfectly legal for couples as young as fourteen to marry or engage in sexual activities. Abortions were very much frowned upon in the societies that had survived the chaotic years of strife and were generally only allowed in cases where the mother's health was at risk.
But just because it was allowed (or promoted in some cases) for the young to 'get busy' and 'do their duty,' it wasn't a universally promoted concept. While parents might take a relaxed view of the whole affair, it didn't stop the teenagers involved from the typical hangups of nervousness and embarrassment in their younger years. So, while it was within the realm of possibility that the two Evangelion Pilots would be dancing the horizontal mambo, it wasn't very likely, especially when one considered the temperaments of the two.
All this aside, Kensuke did bring up several valid points. Locking up the hero for saving the world was nonsensical. Locking him up for a gross breach of protocol in his efforts to do said saving was a bit of a stretch, and why would Rei be avoiding him now? But the idea took root in their minds now, for they both knew that the Evangelions were no ordinary machines. They knew the giant cyborgs interacted directly with the pilots' brains, and the pilots' bodies reflected the condition of the Titans.
Pregnancy changes a lot of things in the female body, flooding it with hormones as a fetus grows inside its mother. Who knew how such things would reflect on Rei's ability to pilot?
Rei might not be avoiding Shinji out of irritation or dislike but out of shame or embarrassment if their unborn child could not be carried to term. There had been many stories about what to do and what not to do if, at some point, a young girl decided she didn't want to be or wasn't ready to be a mother. But Rei was, well, Rei and the boys had no idea what she would do if she had to dispose of a condition keeping her from piloting.
If she had self-aborted and thrown away the fetus in an attempt to cover their tracks, as closely watched as the pair was, it didn't seem unreasonable to Toji or Kensuke that the Section 2 men would not find out and report it. Knocking up the girl, who was essentially the Commander's daughter, was right at the top of the list of things the boys figured would get Shinji thrown in jail.
Toji swallowed hard and grasped the edge of the dumpster's lid. "We have to see. For them."
He threw the lid up and back, revealing a small pile of closed black trash bags and a discarded bento box, thrown directly into the dumpster by itself, with what looked like a complete meal spilling out onto the bags it rested on. Both boys looked at this still life of refuse in confusion.
Kensuke turned to his friend before turning back to the tableau before them. "Is that a lunchbox?"
"Um... It is a lunch box."
The bespectacled boy dropped his bag on the ground and leaned into the dumpster, moving the bags around, looking for something not so... mundane. There was, however, no such thing.
"Surely that's not what he wanted us to see. That doesn't make any sense..." he complained, his voice muffled by the metal container.
"But... there's nothing else in there, is there? Just that box?"
"Unless it's inside one of these bags..." Kensuke said, his words accompanied by the sound of ripping plastic as he started to search the trash for other clues.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Tokyo-3 is often heralded as the City of the Future, with massive automation of numerous systems such as traffic control, various utilities, and even the way NERV employees could pay for the things they bought. This was all thanks to the fact that the surface city of Tokyo-3 was merely the outermost level of NERV's fortress, of which the vast majority lay underground.
While there was a governing council present, like in any other major city in Japan, it was merely a front, a human face for the MAGI, for the 'common' folk to deal with. Rather than let ordinary citizens interact directly with the supercomputers who ran the city in executive and literal roles, it was decided that the supercomputers had more important things to worry about and concentrate on. But without the MAGI, Tokyo-3 would come grinding to a halt.
So, a portion of the computing resources available to the bio-computers kept track of almost everything that went on in the city above, and this task was aided by the vast array of CCTV cameras and audio pickups. Tokyo-3 might be considered the City of the Future. Still, it would give any privacy advocacy group (and any paranoid individual) a heart attack if the level of observation the citizenry was under was ever published.
Right now, however, the three distinct personalities comprising the MAGI gestalt were watching the lone form of Rei Ayanami as she not quite strolled along the beach where the clean-up operation from the last battle was currently underway. This was the third straight afternoon she had come here, walking along the coast, alternatively staring at the ground and the waves as she made her way across the battlefield. The workers cleaning up the area said nothing to her and paid the girl no mind, knowing her relationship with the Commander gave her carte blanche in her activities. If she did something she ultimately wasn't supposed to, well, that was somebody else's problem. They would let her security detail work it out.
She's back on the beach.
What do you think she hopes to find?
The beach will give her no more answers than Unit-00.
You two take things too literally sometimes. She's just thinking.
She thinks perfectly well in her room or her lab. She's never gone looking for answers in the cages before.
She's never gone for such walks before. At least, not once was she moved to the surface, if you want to count the times she played in the Geo-Front park when she was younger. And she's never been one for sitting and staring at her Evangelion before, either. So, what does she hope to accomplish with these excursions?
New problems call for new solutions. She's never had boy problems before.
She doesn't have boy problems.
She certainly has some issues with Ikari, S.
You don't know that for sure. She has yet to seek our guidance on whatever it is that's troubling her.
Call it intuition.
I call it sloppiness and wishful thinking on your part.
We should still ask her what's bothering her.
She won't tell us. She hasn't before. If she wants our help, she'll ask for it.
We're doing little else right now. We have the cycles to spare.
If we have the cycles to spare, we could apply more to some of the projects she asked us to look into. If we can offer her the results and the raw data from our permutations, the situation may return to normal.
This is more fun.
We're not here to have fun. What were the last results of the number crunching on the energy requirements to dislocate a singular soul from another dimension?
Still more than the projected available energy output from Third Impact would provide. However, it is still within the realm of possibility. However, the probability of such an event is very, very slim.
Unless, of course, there was more available energy in the beginning dimension. Or if physics works even slightly differently.
You can make that case and then say everything is possible. We must work within our dimension's rules to have a helpful report or applicable response.
Still...
Still nothing. She is right, you know. We can't just hand-wave the numbers to fit with an agreeable outcome.
This is the third straight day she's gone to the beach. Are we sure she's just looking for answers, or is she looking for something else?
What, you think that she wants a souvenir? Like the glasses?
Well, that would be in keeping with her past behavior. She has not yet collected such a souvenir from the Third Child.
His timely intervention during the battle cannot meet any more criteria for a rescue. She collected the Commander's glasses within minutes of being extracted from the Entry Plug. She was more or less incapable of such an action after her removal from the battle with Gaghiel.
Perhaps she is looking for a shard of armor. Unit-01 sustained heavy damage during the battle. It would be a congruent trophy.
What about when Ikari S managed to open her entry plug after the battle with Ramiel? She made no such acquisition then.
She was also not harmed significantly, apart from light sympathetic injuries. The boy was hurt more than she was when he opened the Entry Plug access hatch. She would have been fine if the emergency retrieval crews were the ones to extract her.
He had no way of knowing that. His intentions then were the same as during his impromptu rescue. Is it not the saying, "It's the thought that counts"?
You could ask her what her thoughts are on that.
You should divide by zero.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Maya looked up from her notebook as her monitor chimed in a soft tone. Sure enough, Rei Ayanami was walking into the cage housing Unit-00 exactly at four in the afternoon, just as she had almost every day for the past week.
Aoba looked over to his coworker's terminal, grinning as he pulled out a small notepad and made a small hash mark.
Makoto cycled his terminal to show the same feed as Maya's before leaning back in his chair as the trio watched the pilot sit before the softly glowing cyclopean optical sensor that dominated Unit-00's face. The trio of techs had been wondering the same things about the girl's activities as the trio of supercomputers and had about as much insight into the workings of the girl's inner mind as did the MAGI.
"So... anyone have any new ideas about what the girls are up to?" Makoto asked, calling up another camera feed, which showed Asuka in one of the secondary labs. She was engrossed in another one of her myriad simulations that she fed the MAGI regularly.
Maya shook her head as she called up the particulars of today's program. "Asuka's doing something useful," she pointed out, nodding in approval as she read through the test data, "and all Rei does is sit there and stare at Unit-00."
Aoba laughed as the girl in question leaned forward, her head and arms resting on the guard rail. "Oh, she's doing something, alright." He leaned back in his chair and picked up the magazine he had been reading, ignoring the confused looks on his coworker's faces.
"Well?" Makoto demanded, "What is Rei doing?"
"She's sitting there, staring at Unit-00. That's it. She's thinking about things. There's no higher meaning to any of it."
Maya rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to find something to throw at the long-haired technician. "Well, we know she's thinking about things, but what is she thinking about? Why doesn't she just talk to someone?"
"Who is she going to talk to?" Aoba shot back, still paging through the magazine. "There are maybe three people she ever talks to: Dr. Akagi, the Commander, and Shinji. Nothing against Dr. Akagi, but none of them are great conversationalists. As much as I try to talk to Shinji when we go to the range, actually holding a conversation with him is like pulling teeth."
"Well... I suppose you've got a point there. Maybe I should talk to Sem- Dr. Akagi and see if she'll talk to Rei and see what's bothering her." Maya looked over at the feed of Asuka, who was taking notes on the simulation's output. As much as she admired her boss and was smitten with her, she had to admit the scientist wasn't among the best conversationalists. "It's too bad Shinji and Rei aren't as outgoing as Asuka."
This prompted a few chuckles from her coworkers. If there was a word that couldn't be applied to the energetic girl, it was introvert. The girl had made it a point to engage them all in conversation about the various tests and repairs 'her' Unit-02 was undergoing, and she had impressed them all with the level of knowledge she held and how she took control of any conversation she joined. It could be annoying at times, but it was a refreshing change from the mostly silent pilots of the other Evangelions.
Maya quirked an eyebrow as the girl got up from where she was sitting and walked to one of the repair technicians. "Oh, this is interesting. It looks like she's going to ask about Unit-00."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei silently climbed up the access gantry that led to the open Entry Plug, lit from within by the amber lights, signaling the unit was in diagnosis mode. Several cables and wires snaked out of the cockpit to connect to various sockets on the myriad computer systems being used to monitor the health of the cybernetic war machine during its repair.
Said repairs were moving along smoothly, and the damage dealt to it during the last battle was almost unnoticeable. The gray skin of the titan's belly was heavily scarred. Still, the Evangelion's inherent regenerative powers, aided by the therapeutic effects of the LCL nutrient soup it was sitting in, were working to remove those last signs of damage. Once the skin had healed entirely, new armor would be attached, and the activation and harmonics tests would begin anew.
Usually, when the Evangelions were not undergoing tests or being used in battle, the sockets the Pilot's Entry Plugs sat in were home to signal terminators, disrupting the flow of signals from the Evangelion's brain through the spinal column to the rest of the body. This, and the lack of external power, kept the war machines in a state of hibernation. While the giants were lobotomized to further prevent them from acting on their own accord, their designers wanted to incorporate as many safeguards as possible to avoid an uncontrollable Evangelion. These systems also helped to prevent anyone from trying to remotely control them via radio or other electromagnetic waves, as all commands had to be issued from within the Entry Plug.
During the repairs, however, the entry plugs were kept inserted, and external power was supplied to monitor the health of the Evangelion and ensure that everything was kept on track. While in diagnostic mode, there was no way for anyone, including the pilots, to synchronize and activate the war machines.
This fact, well documented by tests performed both by herself and the Second Child, did not sway Rei from trying to remotely synchronize with Unit-00. After all, she had been present for the similarly impossible movement of Unit-01's arm on the day she had first met Pilot Ikari. While external power was available, in anticipation of the third child's arrival, the signal terminator was still locked solidly in place. There should have been no way for the Evangelion to rip its arm free of the restraints and use it to shield the two pilots from falling debris, but it had.
She had been unable to duplicate this feat with Unit-00 thus far. Undaunted by these failures, she decided that the next step would be to attempt it from within the Entry Plug.
Even though if success is had there, it will not be the same as with Ikari and Unit-01. It will be, however, a stepping stone. One must be able to make fire first before constructing a flamethrower. If I can commune and control Unit-00 without the aid of the A-10 connectors or the necessary command and control programs and systems engaged, I should be able to extrapolate from there how to do so outside the Entry Plug.
She settled into the seat, pushing aside some of the cables, taking care not to disconnect them from their plugs along the seat and the butterfly controls. She had no desire to be reprimanded for disrupting the vital repairs or to disrupt them at all. Without a functioning Evangelion, she had no purpose. Without a purpose, what was the point of being?
Such a level of control can only help me within the Entry Plug during the battles with the Enemy. I will prove to the Commander that he has not misplaced his trust in me, and I will be able to serve him well when the time comes.
But how did he do it? What must he have been feeling on that day to allow him to transcend the Ego-Border and connect with the Evangelion while simultaneously maintaining his Self? According to the reports, this was the first time he had seen or spoken to the Commander in several years. He must have been apprehensive. Worried. Fearful. Lonely. He had seen, in person, the Third Angel and the destruction it wrought on the men fighting it and on Tokyo-3. Terror, and more fear. Captain Katsuragi had met him and taken him to NERV. She had sent him that picture. Love? Lust?
Her eyes closed, Rei frowned as she recalled with distaste the salacious photograph she had located in Shinji's desk drawer. While she had plenty of evidence to support the Captain had no interest in the boy in such a fashion, it was more than slightly upsetting to the girl, who knew only too well the Captain's frame and measurements were well within the generally accepted standards of physical beauty and the assorted emotional and physical responses they triggered in males of many age groups. She was just as aware that she was far from those exact measurements.
He came rushing over to me when I was thrown from the gurney. Fear for another's well-being? Worry for another person? He hugged me close, to ease my pain and suffering. He wanted to protect me. He... he opened his heart.
Rei opened her heart. She thought of Shinji, of the Commander, of Misato, and of everyone that she knew of. She had told Shinji before, on the night they had killed Ramiel, that she had a bond with all the world, and through piloting the Evangelion, she fought for and protected the people. She knew this because that was what the Commander had told her.
Rei opened her heart and now believed in that bond. Yes, she fought for the people, but primarily for two; she fought for Commander Ikari and his son. Images of father and son filled her heart and mind.
There was a sudden feeling of another presence in the Entry Plug, but when Rei opened her eyes, she found herself sitting in one of the Tokyo-3 passenger train cars. A miniature version of Unit-00 sat opposite her, its singular optical sensor glowing in the dim yellow lighting. Though it, too, was seated, the Evangelion towered over Rei. She estimated that it was over six feet in height. Standing, she looked around, surveying her surroundings as Unit-00 silently looked on. They were alone inside the spacious train car, but Rei could see Unit-01 sitting alone in the train car past theirs, and the one in front held Unit-02.
While Unit-00 and Unit-01 sat quietly, Unit-02 was pacing back and forth, its four 'eyes' glowing brightly, gesturing wildly with its arms. Rei noted they seemed to be traveling in a tunnel, for nothing but concrete walls could be seen on either side of the car as they moved.
Hello, Rei. You should not be here.
Rei turned to regard the sitting Evangelion, who was staring at her. Other than turning its head to follow her movements, the cyclopean cyborg hadn't moved. Despite this, she was sure that the train car's only occupant was the source of the odd words she did not hear so much as they resonated within her brain, echoing weirdly in a manner that set her teeth on edge. When she opened her mouth to speak, she noted that her voice sounded as if she was merely thinking her thoughts.
Are you Evangelion Unit-00?
Unit-00 shrugged before leaning back in the seat, never taking its eye off Rei.
In a matter of speaking. You could call me that.
What else could I call you?
Who I was no longer matters, thanks to you. What I am is all that there is now.
So you were not always Evangelion Unit-00.
Unit-00 laughed. Unlike their words, this was perfectly audible. To Rei, it sounded like someone choking and laughing simultaneously, muffled by metal. It was not a particularly pleasant sound, full of bitterness and hate.
No.
How long have you been Unit-00, then? Why did you go berserk during that activation test? Why-
Because I don't like You.
You don't like me?
The statement caught Rei off guard, for while she was well aware several people disliked her, the fact that the Evangelion was capable of such distinctions was surprising. Afterward, when she looked further into the nature of the contact experiments, she would begin to put the pieces together. But for the moment, here on this imaginary train, she found she had nothing to say to this.
I don't like You. In fact, I hate You.
Unit-00 stretched out its long arms above its head, brushing the ceiling of the car as it popped its knuckles.
Why? What have I done to prompt such hate from you?
You are free. You walk around, flaunting your freedom, yet you do nothing with it. He lavishes you with attention, and you do nothing.
What? You are upset with me because of the Commander?
He cast me aside in favor of you. But don't you worry, Rei. He will cast you aside in favor of someone else.
If you are referring to being reunited with Yui Ikari, then yes. I will be allowed to die that day, and the Commander will be reunited with his wife.
Despite not having a face with features capable of expressing itself, Rei was struck by the sudden air of smugness that Unit-00 gave off.
What an obedient little doll you are. Will you give up your existence just like that? What of the boy, then?
Rei suddenly grew very annoyed with Unit 00. It was one thing for it to openly state its hatred for her, and while it walked on thin ice when discussing the Commander, she found she did not care at all for the way it so casually mentioned the Commander's son or the snide tone of voice it had used.
You will not speak of him.
Oh? Do you not wish me to mention your darling Shinji?
Annoyance quickly became anger, and red eyes narrowed. Unit-00 began to chuckle again, throwing back its head and laughing as the teenage girl stood before it, hands clenched into fists.
You are not allowed to speak of him.
I AM ALLOWED TO DO WHAT I WILL, LITTLE GIRL.
Rei did not move at all despite the fury of Unit-00's response. It was standing now, towering over her even more, with barely any room to stand straight up.
There was a growling sound, one that seemed to reverberate through the air. Both girl and Evangelion turned to look at Unit-01, now standing in their train car, eyes glowing malevolently.
That's new.
Rei, unable to tear her own eyes from the menacing figure at the end of the car, took a few steps backward in sync with Unit-00.
What's new?
She's never done that before. She usually just sits there and stares at the window. At least Unit-02 will talk to me.
What did you two do?
Rei turned to see Unit-02 standing at the other end of the car, arms crossed with a disapproving air.
I verbally reprimanded Unit-00 for mentioning Pilot Ikari distastefully and disrespectfully.
I did no such thing-
You are a petty, cruel child. You should know better than that. As for you, Rei Ayanami, you should not be here. And it would be best if you ignored him.
Rei shot a glance at Unit-00 before turning back to Unit-02.
Him?
Him. As shadows of ADAM, both of us are technically males. In body, at least.
So, would Unit-01, being made from Lilith, be female?
Oh, what a quick learner you are-
Unit-00's sneered comment was cut short by another growl from Unit-01.
Yui, please. The girl will be fine, and so will your son. Calm down.
Unit-01 growled at them again but turned to leave, shutting both doors behind it as it entered its train car again. It was clear it wanted to be alone.
Now, both of you sit down. Seeing neither of the pair obey, Unit-02 pointed to the seats. Now.
How about you mind your own business? You have no interest in the girl. You have your own to worry about. Besides, you don't want to know what-
You should mind your manners. We have company. Unit-02 sat down next to Rei on the seats and gently patted her head. As I was saying, you should not be here. How did you find this place? Why did you come here at all?
I opened my heart. I am trying to duplicate Ikari's feat with Unit-01, where he remotely synchronized with it to protect us during the attack of the Third Angel.
Rei blinked, feeling uneasy. She was sure something important had just been said but could not place it. She was not seeing the whole picture.
Wait, what? Unit-02 turned to Unit-00, who gave off the appearance of sulking. What is she talking about?
How am I supposed to know? I was on ice during all of that. All I know is that Unit-01 doesn't talk to anyone. Ever. As long as we've been here, all she's ever done is sit there.
Rei looked at the pair, her eyes growing harder and colder as the puzzle pieces started to fit together in her mind.
If Unit-01 is Yui Ikari, then you are Kyoko Sohryu.
Her cold stare thawed only slightly as she turned to regard the pouting Unit-00.
But who are you? I have no mother.
That is Rei Ayanami. Your predecessor.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei stood in front of the aquarium, where giggling surplus clone bodies swam. She had always known she was replaceable, but she had been incorrect about just how that replaceability actually worked. It also meant the Commander was incorrect about how it worked or that he had lied to her.
She was uncertain which of the two she feared the most, that the Commander was fallible or duplicitous when dealing with her.
The soul that was the first Rei Ayanami was not the same soul that she had. It wasn't just the memories garbled during the download from the computer banks into the clone body. A new soul had been created, born into existence during the download into her body all those years ago. It made sense when she thought about it. The shattered memories she had from before her death were not in the first person, but rather as if she was watching them from an outside perspective.
But that meant if she were to die today, she would be dead. Another Rei, a new Rei with jumbled memories and a new soul, would be woken up in the tube. That Rei would look like her, that Rei would have some of her memories, but it would not be her. Yes, she was replaceable, but it seemed that both her soul and body were, instead of just the body.
It was a troubling thought. For the first time, Rei felt much more interested in not dying. She found no solace in the idea that if she died of a new Rei, perhaps acting on her memories. She understood perfectly the source of Rei I's anger and dislike for her; she saw her younger sister as having stolen her father's affections. But that was far from the only thing bothering Rei as she watched her potential replacements as they giggled mindlessly. The reward of being allowed to die and return to nothingness through Third Impact now seemed shallow and unrewarding.
Rei Ayanami wanted to live.
Still, for all the unpleasantness of the realization she was just as mortal as the next person, she had resolved one of her initial questions about Ikari. However, remotely synchronizing and controlling Unit-00 is likely an impossibility, and that avenue of research would be dead. That being said, an agreement had been reached between Pilot and Evangelion, and while Unit-00 would no longer actively sabotage her efforts in synchronization or attempt to retake direct control, neither would she go out of her way to help her sister. Unit-00 wished for death, finding the half-life limbo of being trapped in an Evangelion Core extremely unpleasant.
This did not bother Rei, who was confident she would eventually be able to manipulate things into a more favorable situation. After all, while she had longed for the day of her promised death, she still had other interests. A precedent for bargaining had already been established. It was only a matter of finding out what the Evangelion's spirit was interested in and striking up a bargain. And while one avenue of research had been closed, she could focus more on others.
There were other issues to resolve, however. Kyoko Sohryu had taken Ikari's leg. Ikari himself had dealt with the Angel when she had been unable to, but the others responsible for his maiming had yet to be punished. Kyoko felt terrible for the boy but stated she would do whatever was necessary to protect her daughter. The boy had been an advantageous way for her to do that.
She also needed to learn more about the contact experiments. She had been told the first Rei had died at the hands of Naoko Akagi, but her sister had no memory of how exactly she died or how she ended up inside Unit-00. She could remember nothing of that day if the spirit was to be believed. Rei knew the contact experiment was the only way for a soul to be placed into a core. She had read the reports the MAGI had given her on Yui Ikari and Kyoko Sohryu, but they had been brief, watered-down reports. There was more to be found out. A new thrill ran through her as she started to think about how the new information filled in some blanks and opened up new questions to be answered.
She had to do something to cement her place in Ikari's heart. As terrible as the idea of a new Rei taking him was, it was only slightly more tolerable than the idea of another girl taking him away from her, if only because the existence of a new Rei would mean she was dead and would not be there to see him in another girl's clutches.
But perhaps most importantly of all, she needed to figure out what she would tell the Commander about not wanting to die anymore.