Sokila quietly painted with her hands: upon the canvas was a picture of what appeared to be Asuka and a girl with pigtails (Hikari Horaki?).
"The Red Lady...she seems..."
She trailed off, looking legitimately confused.
"...huh."
Idly doodling with her fingers along the margins, she hummed along with the song of the Velvet Room.
"They both seem...to have pain of their own...but it's different..."
She pouted, brushing the west of the wet paint off.
"...why is it so hard for people to talk with each other...?"
The faint haze of blue began to brighten-
xxxx
/Friday: September 11, 2015/
/Room 23, 2nd Floor, Izanagi Dorms, Hakone Academy/
Shinji Ikari blinked quietly as his phone — showing 4:27 AM — buzzed. Ah...what? To his dismay, there was another question from the MAGI.
HEROD: WE HAVE ANOTHER QUERY FOR YOU.
HEROD: SUPPOSE THERE IS A DISPUTE AMONGST YOUR COMRADES. WHICH ONE ARE YOU MOST LIKELY TO BELIEVE IS ON THE RIGHT SIDE?
HEROD: AIDA? SUZUHARA? KIRISHIMA? YAMAGISHI? AYANAMI? OR SOHRYU?
HEROD: THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER.
HEROD: PLEASE RESPOND WITHIN 96 HOURS.
...I can't deal with this right now.
He rolled over to try and get a little more sleep.
xxxx
As the sun rose over Tokyo-3, Hikari Horaki looked with concern at Rei Ayanami. "Are...you sure you're fine?"
"I feel like we've done this before," murmured Asuka Langley-Sohryu, as she and her three roommates advanced towards the Academy.
Rei, who was doing an admirable job of hiding any tiredness, replied, "I managed to finish my missions and get two hours of sleep. It will suffice."
"...it seems unfair, that there are only three Evangelion-users," said Hikari.
"It is what it is," admitted Rei.
As Rei and Hikari advanced, Mayumi briefly tapped Asuka's shoulder. "I have a quick question," she quietly asked. When Asuka arched an eyebrow, she added, "Did something happen last night between you and Horaki-san?"
Asuka blinked with honest confusion. Wait, what? "Just a disagreement over school priorities. I was trying to help her." Mayumi hung back, looking somewhat unconvinced. "What?"
"...maybe I was just imagining it," Mayumi murmured, looking towards the gaggle of students congregating at the school. "Just two days until the new moon..."
Yeah. Something that actually matters, thought Asuka with a stern grimace.
xxxx
Surprisingly enough, there were no missions that required an Evangelion-user that day.
Hence why, during lunchtime, Shinji was on-hand to witness two things: one was Rei quickly yet methodically eating her rice, fried tofu, vegetables, and bread roll before leaning back in her chair to take a quick nap; the other was Asuka in a serving gown, due to being part of the serving crew for lunch that day (much to her obvious chagrin).
"Man, you could strain rice noodles through her teeth for how tightly they're clenched," observed Kensuke, idly sipping at his milk carton.
"Any idea why she's so irritated?" asked Toji through a mouthful of bread. (Hikari lightly nudged him in the side as a not-so-subtle reminder about manners.)
Shinji shook his head. "She...seems like she's still trying to adjust to life here. It's different than what she's used to."
Toji rolled his eyes. "She could at least be less of a jerk about it."
Hikari merely hummed, saying nothing more.
"...speaking of jerk," murmured Shinji with a bit of embarrassment, pulling out his phone. "I got another question from HEROD."
Kensuke tilted his head. "Is it as weird as the one about love?"
"Worse," he bluntly replied, angling his phone so the three could see the text in full.
"...the crap is with those computers?" wondered Toji.
Kensuke gave Shinji the stink eye. "Whatever your answer was on the love question, they apparently decided that it means 'the power of friendship' is null and void."
"What kind of question is that?" honestly asked Hikari.
Shinji briefly elaborated that the MAGI at NERV had a habit of asking him a variety of questions, requesting answers on topics ranging from the mundane, to the philosophical, to the ethical, to the moral, and so on. "I still don't really know why I'm being asked these questions," he thought aloud.
Kensuke leaned closer. "Can I see the older ones?"
The answer came from a surprising source.
HEROD: YOU ARE NOT THE FOCUS OF THESE INQUIRIES
HEROD: REQUEST DENIED
"...that's kind of sassy for a computer," dryly remarked Kensuke. "Have you told Dr. Akagi about 'em?"
Shinji nodded. "But the MAGI won't let her see them. She's...rathered annoyed by that."
"I can imagine!" said Kensuke with a scoff and grin.
"...I'm not listed," observed Hikari, looking over the names listed in the question.
Toji impulsively chortled. "I mean, you're not fighting with us, right? It's only obvious. Seein' Sohryu's name there is kind of weird, though..."
"Ah. That makes sense," admitted Hikari, sounding strangely dissatisfied. "...do you think that you wouldn't come to school if you didn't have to?"
Toji and Kensuke both turned, perplexed. Shinji said, "Uh...why do you ask?"
"I...I think I'm just...curious." Glancing back over to the serving line — where Asuka was currently in a 'lively' conversation with someone was to what constituted a full serving of fried tofu — Hikari added, "...I guess it doesn't really matter."
"...if you say so, Class Rep." Toji immediately turned towards Shinji. "But between me and Ken, you'd back me up, right?"
Kensuke looked downright scandalized. "TOJI?"
"I mean, it's only obvious: Ken's got more smarts, but he's also more harebrained than me, and is more likely to get us into trouble."
"Now see here-!"
The two best friends immediately got into a spirited conversation as to often they were or weren't right, which only prompted Shinji to sigh. As Hikari quickly tried to get them to calm down, Shinji sighed. Maybe I shouldn't have asked...
(The strange melancholy that Hikari Horaki had just exhibited — drowned out as it had been by Kensuke and Toji's theatrics — slipped from his mind.)
xxxx
Once school came to an end, Shinji — inwardly marvelling once more at the lack of a mandatory mission, given the recent pace — found himself with a bit of free time. As such, sitting on the rim of the courtyard fountain, he decided to get back to a work he hadn't been able to read since last week: The Tragedy of Hamlet. As he opened it back up to where he had left off — at the very beginning of the third scene of the third act — he grimaced at the realization he had returned his Japanese-to-English dictionary-thesaurus combo to the school library mere days ago. Well...hopefully anything too complicated, I'll be able to look up, right?
Fortunately, he was just enough of a savant to get through reading with less difficulty than he could recall. Although his progress was still slow and steady, the older style of kanji tripped him up far less than he before. As such, he was able to follow along with the overall plot, which now focused on Claudius bemoaning his action of killing his brother, the former King of Denmark. "-what if this cursed hand, were thicker than itself with brother's blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens...to wash it white as snow? Whereto serves...mercy...but to confront the...visage? The visage of offense..."
"You know, if I didn't know your Persona was Hamlet, I'd be shocked by the fact you're reading Shakespeare."
Shinji jolted at the intrusion of Asuka's voice, looking up with shock at the redhead. "Ah...hello, Sohryu-san."
The Second Child looked at his book with a quizzical expression, as one trying to determine if there was some odd joke at play. "...I get why you'd want to know about the source material. But why read it when the Bard's stuff is supposed to be witnessed as a play, in a theatre?"
"...who's the Bard?"
"Shakespeare, duh. Though, I guess you wouldn't know about his nickname...do they even teach Shakespeare at your grade level?"
"I...honestly don't know," admitted Shinji.
Asuka huffed. "Lucky me; I had an assistant who apparently has just enough English ancestry to make her...insistent...about teaching me about his plays when I was growing up."
"...so you've read Hamlet before?" wondered Shinji, unexpectedly thrown for a loop by this revelation. (Why would it, though? She was from the continent of Europe; it would only be natural, for her to be more familiar with Shakespeare...right?)
Sitting down beside him with arms crossed, Asuka recited, "To be, or not to be: that is the question." Looking at him from the side, she added, "Not exactly my favorite; Hamlet always struck me as too wishy-washy. Too...unwilling to make up his mind."
"I see..."
Looking down at his book, she remarked, "I can only imagine how difficult that translation must be. Given how much the English language owes to Shakespeare, translating it to Japanese must not have been fun."
"...it has been difficult," admitted Shinji. "I'm still going through Act III."
"And how long have you been reading at it?"
"...since June...?"
Asuka's flat stare perfectly communicated her disappointment. "There's not even any prose; not really. It's all dialogue! How could it be taking you this long?"
Shinji somehow resisted the urge to fidget. "There's...been a lot to distract me," he confessed. "I mean...you understand, right?"
"I suppose," she relented. "But then again, why focus on reading the play when you can just watch it? Just four hours, and you're done for the afternoon. At least then you wouldn't have to waste so much time."
"...maybe." But this little play had been part of his foray into the Literature Club, and the reason why he had met Mayumi Yamagishi. What would have happened, had this play not grabbed him, rooting his fate in place, and connecting his destiny with Yamagishi's? "But I've made it this far. It only makes sense to keep on reading...and maybe I'll watch the play when I'm done."
Asuka hummed non-committedly.
"...is there a favorite play of yours, Sohryu-san? From Shakespeare, I mean?"
Asuka shrugged. "Wouldn't be able to tell you off the top of my head; it's been a while. Lots of lines have stuck with me though...and from a variety of his plays." Leaning forward, she recited them woodenly. "Act Four Scene One of a Midsummer Night's Dream: are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream." Seamlessly, Asuka continued. "Act One, Scene Two of the Tempest: Hell is empty, and all the devils are here." Onward. "Act Four, Scene Three of the Taming of the Shrew: Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak. And speak I will: I am no child, no babe; your betters have endured me say my mind; and if you cannot, best you stop your ears. My tongue will tell the anger of my heart; or else my heart, concealing it, will break. And, rather than it shall, I will be free; even to the uttermost, as I please, in words." It was the longest quote thus far, and Asuka could not help but snort. "That last one's ironic; given that my Persona is Matilda. Even if I'd rather not be treated as a child, I can't help the fact that I am..."
"...wow," Shinji blurted out. When Asuka looked at him with a disgruntled expression, he quickly amended his words. "I mean, you must have a good memory, Sohryu-san."
"It's not a big deal. It's just a story."
"But stories are important, aren't they?" Not even just the stories of a famous individual like Shakespeare...but stories in general. Such stories pulled him into the proverbial worlds of his friends, making him a part of their narrative; just like they were a part of his. "My story...your story...everyone has a story of their own."
Asuka rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, no need to try and be clever, Third."
"...I wasn't trying to be...?"
"Don't you have a play to read?"
...I don't understand you, inwardly thought Shinji, wondering why Asuka seemed so uniquely difficult. Yet, as he turned his attention back Hamlet and continued reading — "And what's in prayer but this twofold force, to be forestalled...ere we come to fall...or pardoned being down...? Then, I'll look up; my fault is...past. But...oh, what form of prayer, can...serve my turn...?" — he could not help but think of Asuka sitting beside him, pointedly staring ahead: one leg crossed over another, hands resting on her knee, foot flexing rhythmically with either concentration or irritation.
He wondered what she was thinking.
xx
Shinji had gotten through the third scene (rereading it a couple of times, because boy it was heavy), getting through part of the fourth scene — particularly through part of the immense argument between Hamlet and his mother, Queen Gertrude — before calling it a day. Surprisingly, despite the splash Asuka had made amongst the student body, no one had approached them the entire afternoon. It was something that even Asuka commented on it. "Man, looks like you native Evangelion-users are still treated with suspicion, huh? Just being around you scared everyone off."
"You're not bothered, are you...?"
Asuka shrugged. "Honestly, it was more of what I expected when arriving in Japan. The positive attention I got at first was a surprise." As she rose to her feet, her eyes drifted down to his book. "You read the bit where Hamlet considered killing his father...rather intensely, didn't you?"
Shinji only nodded, saying nothing else, because he himself was unsure of how to think. Hamlet wanted to kill his father...but because he thought Claudius would go to Heaven instead of Hell, he held off. What does that say...? (And what did that imply about him, since Hamlet was his Persona...?)
The Beast laughed.
His Other remained silent, a hand held tightly on the hilt of a sword.
As Shinji walked along, Asuka followed at a slight distance; he could feel her gaze upon his back, prickling with all the intensity of a curious hornet. As they moved along the contours of the Academy's courtyards, she spoke aloud once more. "Have you had a chance to think about what I said?"
"...could you be more specific?"
Asuka rolled her eyes. "The stuff we talked about a few days ago: about Marduk, Evangelion, and the oddity of you not being discovered for so long." When he didn't answer immediately, her face curdled with annoyance. "Seriously? You haven't thought about it at all?"
"We have the new moon the day after tomorrow," he emphasized. "And with all of our missions recently, I haven't really had time to think about it any further..."
"Feh. I can't believe you. Are you that satisfied with just resting on your laurels? Accepting just whatever people dangle in front of you?"
Shinji frowned, ironclad enough to brush past her criticism. And he was just enough of a savant to guess at what she was getting at. "Is that why you keep bringing up what I just read from Hamlet? Because you're curious about how I feel about my father?"
Asuka huffed, muttering "Tsk" before asking "I mean, why wouldn't I? I've met your dad, and he's...Gendo Ikari. I can't really think of any other way to describe him, and I don't recall ever meeting him in person until I came to Japan." As an afterthought, she added, "He just seemed kind of cold and distant, but there was something about him...Mari warned me not to be alone with him if I could ever help. And...I trust her judgment, as much as she irritates me."
That was fair enough (because he had the strangest feeling that something far darker had been the catalyst for Makinami's warning, yet not base in the way of 'typical' worries about men of power and authority...). He couldn't think of any other way to describe his father than 'Gendo Ikari': no other adjectives seemed to fit. Even so, it was a sore enough subject that he felt the need to pivot. "You seem pretty interested, Sohryu-san...why?"
"You're mysterious. The fact that you went so long without being named as the Third Child, being who you are? Why wouldn't I be curious?"
"...interested in my past? Wanting to dig into all the juicy bits?" he remarked, throwing back the very words Asuka had given him on the Eighth of September.
Asuka realized this, just by not only the widening of her eyes, but the impulsive twitch of her lips: a sign of genuine amusement. "So you do have a spine."
Shinji shrugged. "I don't think knowing more about my comrades is a bad thing. But like Sister Mary told me...as far as you're concerned, it has to come from you. So with that out of the way: what about your father, Sohryu-san?" Beyond her being an Evangelion-user, he couldn't recall the exact details of her parentage; if he had ever been told that she was an orphan, he couldn't remember the exact instant he had become aware of that fact. "I mean...I imagine he's not much like mine..."
"...you'd be right," admitted Asuka, after several seconds of tense silence. With a brief inhale of breath, she added, "He's dead: shot by my mother in the family home. And then when I walked through the door, mother shot herself in front of me." The sheer frankness with which Asuka spoke was so stark that Shinji nearly broke his neck from the whiplash. "And when she dropped dead...I awoke to my Evangelion."
Shinji balked, feeling his gorge rise for some unfathomable reason. Only willpower and horror kept him from losing it in front of the Second Child, because she was standing there as one merely discussing the weather. "That's...that's awful..."
"You'd think, wouldn't you?" she replied, crossing her arms with a neutral expression. "It'll be seven years ago this December."
...which means she saw all of that as a little girl. The thought of a mere child witnessing such tragedy was utterly repulsive. "I'm...sorry..."
"Why are you apologizing? You had nothing to do with it. Besides...it's not a big deal."
Something in her tone convinced him of that truth, was even more bizarre. "Why...why not?"
"Because for some reason, it didn't feel real to me," she plainly said. "It was certainly intense in the moment...but even when I was still a kid, I was struck by how...hollow it was. Like it was just a bad dream, instead of something real, and true." With a derisive snort, she added, "Granted, I had my fair share of therapy for it, but even Director Kirijo and Sister Mary would tell you that I've always acted 'too nonchalant' about it...but I can't help but feel the way I feel." With a forlorn sigh, she added, "And with First having been discovered in the Metaverse all by her lonesome, there wasn't exactly another Evangelion-user I could talk to about this kind of experience...and yet here you are."
"...and here I am," he repeated, not quite sure what to make of Asuka's words. (And yet...part of it rang true, for a reason he couldn't quite articulate...)
"So...does your father feel real to you?"
(There was a heaviness to the way she asked that question.) "...yes. For all that I wish I could understand him better..." (For all that he wished his father were more like Sojiro Sakura, or Ryuji Sakamoto, or Zenkichi Hasegawa...) "...he doesn't feel fake to me."
"And your mother?" she asked. "It's not exactly a secret amongst NERV that she vanished without a trace...but how do you feel about it?"
(Oh, if only he knew more!) "...I can't answer that question," he honestly admitted. "Not...not honestly." In response to a raised eyebrow, he explained, "My father...he won't tell me anything about it. And my memories of her aren't great...so even though it doesn't feel real, it's not the same as what you went with through. If I knew why my mother disappeared...and if I had witnessed it myself...then I'd be able to answer that question. But as it stands...it's not the same. I don't...I don't want to pretend that I've been through is the same as what you've been through..."
Asuka slightly tilted her head, appraising him with a measured expression. Finally, she replied, "Well, it's not like I know why my mother did what she did. But I guess I'm still 'special'...though not in a way most people would envy."
Shinji honestly didn't know what to say...well, that wasn't quite true. He wanted to ask if Asuka was okay. (Yet, part of him — somehow — knew that would not be received well.) "...I hope you'll find an answer one day, Sohryu-san."
"...thanks," she said, regarding him with a look that was...unique: that of someone finding buried treasure that could not be unlocked, yet was bound within a somewhat unappealing box. "...we don't have school tomorrow, do we?"
"Um." He tried thinking back to July. "I...think we do. But Saturdays are only a half day, at least..."
"...your country confuses me." Turning on her heel, Asuka walked away, waving over her shoulder. "See ya, Third."
"...see you," he murmured, trying to more fully ponder what exactly he had just learned about Asuka. Regardless...he understood her just a bit more...
xx
After a minute of walking, Asuka looked over her shoulder; the Third Child was on his way back to the Izanagi Dorms. Well...that was something...
Her Other could not help but laugh. "What was it that Sister Mary once said? 'You have a lot more in common than you might think'?"
The Beast placed a supportive hand upon her shoulder. "Yet at what point does this commonality truly begin...?"
...hmm. She didn't know what to think; not yet, at any rate. Curiouser and curiouser...
Those thoughts would have to wait for another day.
xxxx
END OF 9/11/2015
xxxx
Author's Note: Lovers Social Link is now at Rank 2.