Neon Senshi Evangelion

Twenty Three

Hotaru Tomoe worked at the Crown Arcade, a business that was owned by Setsuna Meiou via various shell companies. While Hotaru posed as an employee, she functionally ran the place.

She exchanged cash for tokens, handing them out to the highschool students. 'Shinji, Rei, Mana, Toji and Hikaru,' she noted. They often came in after class, usually as a group, though sometimes Rei was absent when a school project came up.

"Afternoon, Miss Tomoe," Shinji said politely.

"Afternoon, Shinji," Hotaru replied politely. "Misato coming by?" she wondered, not having seen her for a few days.

"She's been busy with work," Shinji replied as he took his tokens. "I'm surprised you'd notice, ma'am."

Hotaru made a mental note not to underestimate Shinji. He was sharp at times. "She IS a regular," she pointed out teasingly. "Besides, I race her sometimes," she added.

"Heh," Shinji grinned, "Is she as bad as when she races me?"

Hotaru winked, "No comment."

Shinji chuckled and joined the others.

Hotaru felt a pang of guilt over their allowing these kids to be the ones fighting the aliens. YES she hadn't been much older when she became Sailor Saturn, but still... However, Setsuna had pointed out that the Angels were evolved to replace humanity. If the Senshi fought one, could the next be evolved to face THEM?

"Whoo hoo!" Toji grinned as he executed a great combo.

Rei just smiled calmly as she executed the counter.

"Eeep," Toji yelped as she killed him.

"She is deadly," Shinji teased.

"That was awesome," Mana smiled down at her warmly.

Rei looked away, blushing faintly. "It was nothing," she said shyly.

'God their cute,' Hotaru thought.

Shinji and Hikaru were using the racing game. Not surprisingly Hikaru was winning, mostly because she drove like a maniac.

"I really worry when she gets a license," Rei noted quietly.

"Hey," Hikaru pouted as she ran her opponent off the road, into a wall and a fiery crash. "Ooops," she added.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I think we should try to get together for a family meal," Yui noted mildly as the NERV staff meeting concluded.

"Not going. Thankfully," Ritsuko noted mildly. She added, "Though we should do something for the pilots... they really don't get rewarded enough for doing this."

"Point," Gendo acknowledged.

"I could take them out to the ramen stand again," Misato teased.

Gendo laughed while Yui frowned. "That is SO bad for them," she scolded.

Misato just grinned back. "Anyway... when? You know we're still getting Unit-02 ready, plus we're studying the Angel bits."

"Which doesn't need you or Yui there all the time," Gendo pointed out reasonably.

"Hey, something unusual could come up," Yui defended herself.

"If something happens I promise we'll text you," Ritsuko vowed, having lingered to watch the discussion play out.

"Trust me, we can handle it," Maya Ibuki added, having been waiting for Ritsuko.

"Hmph," Yui pouted.

Gendo hid a smile. "That applies to you too, Misato," he added.

Misato just shrugged slightly, "Shit seems to go wrong when I'm not here. I know it's not rational, it's just a gut feeling."

Maya shrugged, "Not ALWAYS. Admittedly there was that fire when Yui forced you to stay home..."

"The LCL spill when the Ikaris took that family vacation," Ritsuko added.

"And...," Maya started.

"YES things happened when Misato was away, but it's coincidence," Yui said to them firmly. That and she knew she had a tendency to hire staff who liked to push the envelope, sometimes past the point of safety.

"Anyway, getting back on topic... when did we want to do this?" Misato asked.

"I was thinking tomorrow night?" Yui offered.

"Barring an emergency, I think we should be fine," Misato smiled.

"Agreed," Gendo nodded.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Setsuna's second, personal phone rang.

(Like everyone at NERV she had a official, NERV issued phone. She also had one provided by the UN. But sometimes you needed communications that were totally private, which was why she had a third phone, with a blank registry that was, theoretically, untracable.)

Setsuna recognized the number as a burn phone she had provided Haruka and Michiru. "Yes?" she asked.

Skipping the pleasantaries Haruka asked, "Did you arrange that industrial espionage to happen so I could catch him and impress the bosses here?"

"You assume I have greater influence than I have," Setsuna answered calmly.

"Oh," Haruka replied.

"Thinks going well?" Setsuna asked.

"Yeah, they think I'm the greatest thing since white bread," Haruka said a bit sheepishly.

"Remember that your primary role is surveilance," Setsuna reminded her. "You are NOT to jump into Jet Alone and save the day."

"Would I do that?" Haruka tried to sound wounded.

Setsuna just snorted quietly.

"Be careful at NERV. I went over the specs for the MAGI computers. They could dig deep enough to blow our covers," Haruka noted.

"I have precautions in place," Setrsuna reassured her. She added, "Best hang up. We don't want to be traced..."

"Right. Stay safe," Haruka hung up.

Setsuna hung up, calmly tucking her phone away. While she hadn't arranged the spy, she strongly suspected Mari of pulling strings. She was their 'covert ops' expert, and it was certainly within her capabilities. She wasn't going to press her on it though... Mari would just answer 'You don't need to know. Plausable Deniability.'

Speaking of 'deniability' she had a covert asset to meet. Setsuna went into the bar, which was modstly deserted in the afternoon. She nodded to the barman, headed to a booth and sat down.

"The older man shuffled in, then sat. "This better be good," Toji's father sighed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Mari Illustrious Makinami was officially home schooled, which allowed the brown haired young woman freedom of movement. Mind you, Tokyo-3 was still well ran, and she was sometimes stopped by cops, but her UN ID from Setsuna usually made them back off.

Today Mari was disuised as a gyaru, with fake tan, trashy outfit and a fluffy red wig. She did not want to be recognizable, if something did happen. Mari sat down in one of the city's many public parks, tapping into the city's free wifi, then she went to work.

The Magi, the supercomputers that ran Tokyo-3 and NERV, were pretty much impervious to hacking. If Mari hadn't had a official password, she'd bounce right off their security.

(Mind you, it wasn't HER password. A nice woman in Europe had opened up a link Mari sent her, and she had infected the poor woman's computer. Voila, stolen MAGI password. Being a sort-of nice person, Mari also informed her she was hacked, via a proxy.)

Mari was diving into the Magi for several reasons. The major one was that Setsuna suspected that Yui Ikari was keeping secrets from the UN. Mind you, THEY were keeping secrets from the UN too, but the UN didn't need to know about timeless magical girls fighting to save Earth. Alien attacks that could reformat the planet were more of a public issue.

Mari couldn't directly raid Yui's files, of course. Security would notice that. But there were ways... she studied the system architecture, how the files were laid out. There was information in various places, and some was less secure than others.

"Huh. The testing data on the north pole biological matter? And it's unsecured?" Mari blinked. She wasn't qualified to read that, so she saved a copy to a drop box service.

Mari was surprised to find un-redacted personel data in public areas. Well, NERV probably assumed the Magi were completely secure, but still!

Her watch beeped. Mari knew she shouldn't risk accessing the Magi too long. Even with her precautions, she could be caught. She logged out her tablet, put it away, then walked off as casually as possible.

Just in time... when she found some cover and looked back, a cop was looking around where she had been sitting, then calling in. Mari ducked into a public bathroom, and washed the fake tan off then dumped the wig. She pulled a change of clothes from her backpack, changed clothes, then emerged looking like a young Office Lady.

To be continued...