Neon Senshi Evangelion

Fifteen

Shingo Tsukino hugged his mother, the brown haired man smiling a bit sadly. Ikuko Tsukino had only partially recovered from the loss of her husband and daughter, and had fought to find the energy to take care of her son. She had done well, everyone agreed, but it had been very hard.

"You be careful," the silver haired Ikuko warned. "I know these Angels are dangerous."

"I'm well away from the line of fire," Shingo promised.

Ikuko patted his cheek fondly as she sighed softly. "Your father would be proud of you," she told him warmly.

Shingo smiled back as he said, "I hope so."

The apartment building in Tokyo-2 was nice, Kodama Horaki thought as she headed back to meet her boss. Both of them had been in town on different errands, and had agreed to share a ride. Well, more like she manoeuvred him to give her a ride.

"Shingo!" Kodama waved from nearby the car.

"Hey," he sort of half smiled as her walked up to her.

"You okay?" Kodama asked gently as they got into the car, taking the driver's seat.

"I guess," Shingo shrugged, "she's so independent... she won't even let me pay to move her into a better place."

"She's sharing a unit with another lady, right?" Kodama asked curiously.

"Both retirees, yeah," Shingo agreed, "they couldn't afford the four bedroom and den, otherwise." He sighed, "And they are comfortable, admittedly."

"You just want to be the one taking care of your mother," Kodama pointed out wisely.

"Pretty much," Shingo conceded.

"So, when we get back to the city," Kodama said as she kept an eye on the road, "would you like to grab lunch?"

Shingo hesitated. "Actually, Major Katsuragi asked to meet with me for a business type lunch."

SCREECH!

Kodama recovered quickly, but they still had a nerve wracking moment or two.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Misato blinked as Shingo was dropped off, the car actually screeching away. He looked quite harried, and gave the impression of having had a very rough day.

"Mr. Tsukino, good to see you," Misato smiled.

"Call me Shingo," he smiled back, "Mr. Tsukino was my father."

"Shingo then," Misato said, "you can call me Misato. Or Major, if that's your kink."

"Misato," he nodded, smiling wryly.

"Come on," Misato led him into the cafe on the edge of Tokyo-3, "there's good food here."

As they settled down to a light lunch Shingo asked, "So, why did you want to see me?"

Misato nibbled some of her food, only putting it back down reluctantly. "Other than Naoko, you're going to be the primary representative from Japan Heavy Industries we'll be dealing with," she calmly explained.

"I guess," Shingo conceded.

Misato took a drink, "So it's been decided to give you a briefing on what's really going on." She put the cup down, "Assuming you want it anyway."

"Why wouldn't I want to know?" Shingo asked, faintly intrigued.

"Well, it doesn't help you sleep at night," Misato noted wryly.

Shingo took a sip of his own drink, thoughtfully. "Does Naoko know?" he wondered.

"Yeah, tho I assume she hasn't talked about it because of confidentiality agreements she signed," Misato said.

"No, she hasn't," Shingo acknowledged. He ate a bit, "Yeah, I think I want to know."

"Okay," Misato nodded. She ate a bit, "It's common knowledge that Second Impact was a meteor strike in Antarctica. It melted the ice caps as well as massively cratering the continent."

"Right," Shingo nodded.

"Which is bullshit," Misato noted.

"Yeah," Shingo agreed, "everyone knows it was aliens."

Misato smirked, "ALSO bullshit, in fact."

THAT surprised Shingo, "Huh?"

Misato shrugged. "We put that cover story out, in part because we don't think anyone would believe what actually happened," she admitted. She took a photo out of her pocket and passed it over to him, "Here, take a look."

Shingo blinked. There was a grainy image of a blonde haired girl, and farther away some kind of looming... thing. "What...," he started.

"There was some kind of battle on the Antarctic ice shelf between these two," Misato said, "no idea who either of them are. We only have this image because a GPS satellite was in the right place to get off a shot."

"So somehow these two... blew up Antarctica?" Shingo asked skeptically. "I mean... HOW?"

"No idea," Misato admitted. "We're done some digging, though... several high energy particle labs picked up massive bursts of exotic energy and particles. There were things showing up that had only been theorized before."

Having some background in science, Shingo got where she was coming from. "One or both of those people, somehow, generated that energy," he mused. Thoughtfully he added, "Do you think the destruction was deliberate?"

"We don't know," Misato admitted, "my gut instinct is that no, it wasn't. But..."

Shingo toyed with the picture, turning it about. "It looks oddly familiar," he admitted after a moment.

"Oh?" Misato asked curiously.

"There was a... kind of urban legend around Tokyo when I was a kid," Shingo mused, "a costumed heroine that fought evil."

This time Misato looked sceptical, "Really?"

"With blond hair that kind of looked like this," Shingo waved the pic about, "and she was called Sailor Moon. The stories about her stopped after Second Impact."

Misato nodded thoughtfully, "Which doesn't mean anything, a lot of people died in the Impact and the wars that followed. But it would be something for us to check out."

"And the Angels? Are they connected?" Shingo asked.

"We THINK the battle between these entities cracked open a kind of alien nursery," Misato said, "the Angels were what was growing in it."

"And all of this happened together because of coincidence?" Shingo asked.

"That's the current theory," Misato admitted.

"This is a really messed up scenario..." Shingo muttered.

"Heh," Misato smiled. She sipped her drink, adding, "So, why was Kodama Horaki so pissed off? Are you two DATING?"

"Ah..." Shingo blushed.

'God, teasing him is fun,' Misato admitted.

To be continued...