Frowning, he stared at the ceiling, deep in thought. If he couldn't sleep, then he better get to work on something he had been trying to ignore since he got here. He was a martial artist first and foremost, it was his life, the very air he breathed, it was the end all be all of who he was. He was also a boy through one stupid means or another that had been thrown into a fucked up series where if he did nothing the world could very well end, and even if he did something it could still end up going that route. His only saving grace, as far as he was concerned, was his knowledge of the series.
He had seen all the Anime, including the movies, for the series. Which wouldn't really help him as much as he hoped. Sure, it would give him the basics, but not all the real details he could use. Manga to Anime transfers tended to take things to the extreme, or so he figured when he had compared Yu-Gi-Oh to the crappy cartoon, and they tended to leave a lot of things out. The problem he had, really, was that he didn't really get to read the Evangelion Manga all that much, at least not to completion, so the differences between the Anime and the Manga were going to become obvious before too long. He just wished he knew what those differences were, as it was he was going to end up stumbling around in the dark.
He shook that off. He'd deal with it when it came up, right now he needed to think about what he did know, and come up with ways he could influence the ending to his own ends. Gendo Ikari was insane, he had no doubts of that, the dork was trying to bring back his long dead wife and he didn't care who's life he had to step on to get it. Fuyutsuki, well, that guy was kinda a mystery as far as he could remember, but he at least knew the guy was loyal to Gendo, which sucked.
He rubbed his forehead, tiredly. There was Ritsuko, the doc. She was pivotal, at least as far as he could remember, to how this story had ended the first time thru. Even with the changes being made with him here, he doubt her role in the end was going to be any less important then what it had been in the main line. Dummy plug, Magi, Evangelions, she had a hand in the operation of all of them. She was friends with Misato and that Kaji guy, mother was a brainiac who had warmed Gendo's bed before killin herself, devoted to her work above all else. Gah.. he was gonna need to think of something when it came to her.
Misato.. well.. she's Misato.
Asuka.. well, she was a melodrama waiting to happen. Inferiority complex, covers it up by all the bullshit she causes, lonely, fearful, a lot like himself in some regards. He wouldn't have even noticed that about the girl if it wasn't for Hiroshi and Daisuke explaining it to him, and even they wouldn't have figured it out of Yuka and Sayuri hadn't told them. It made sense, sorta, and he just knew she was going to cause him a lot of headaches when she got here.
Rei. He frowned then, turning on his side. In all the excitement, he had nearly forgotten about the girl. In the main line she would have met Shinji by now, wouldn't she? Hmm. She was a half Angel, clone of Shinji's mother with some all powerful soul or some crap. Withdrawn, quiet, completely under Gendo's thumb. She was also pivotal in some way with how things turned out, but he wasn't sure just how she was pivotal.
Kaji.. just thinking about the guy was getting him good and mad. A double agent, the bastards loyalties lied with no one but his own. He even brought the key Gendo needed to control third impact too him in the form of Adam. Never had a single Anime character pissed him off more then this guy did. Sure, in the end he sided with the good guys, but he had already done far too much damage for him to even see that as a redeeming quality. There was going to be some serious problems between the two of them when he showed, he knew that much for sure.
He sighed, scratching his head tiredly. "Man.. why am I tha only one with a chance of stoppin this crap? Can't people ever call Super Man? Wazzat bout dem Power Rangers?" he grumped, climbing out of bed. He just wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.
---
Misato was very grateful Ranma had decided to go to bed, very grateful in fact. After taking a long cold shower, she had settled into the furo to just relax a bit herself before bed. Laying there, surrounded by the warm waters, her mind had begun to wander to her newest house guest. Questions, questions, and more questions were circulating in her head. Questions she didn't have a clue about how to answer, and a hefty dose of confusion with what had happened earlier tonight. The boy had screamed, she had rushed in thinking he was in danger only to discover he wasn't, but in fact jumping around like a rabbit on cocaine, grabbed her, flashed her, and then told her to get out.
Confusion just wasn't a strong enough word.
Picking up her cell phone, she placed a call. She better not be asleep, damn it.
---
"How's the Harmonics diagnostics coming along, Maya?" Ritsuko sipped her coffee, examining the Sync-graph from the first battle.
Maya yawned tiredly, gazing bleary-eyed at the monitor, "Nothing seems wrong. There shouldn't have been any fluctuations, I can't understand it."
"Don't let it get to you." the older woman said with a smile. "You shouldn't work yourself to death over that. We're not dealing with an exact science, not when it comes to the Eva's."
Maya rubbed her forehead, tiredly, "Suppose your right, as always sempai."
Ritusko hmmed, nodding knowingly, "I suppose I am."
Maya stuck her tongue out at the older woman in response to that, before grabbing her empty cup. "Getting coffee. You want anything?"
"No, thank you." she waved the younger woman off. It wasn't long after Maya had left the office that her phone began to ring. Fishing the little cell phone out of her pocket, she spared the caller ID a glance, before flipping it open. "Calling so late? I figured you'd be asleep by now, Misato."
"Are you sure he's 14?" was the very first question out of her friends mouth.
Ritsuko couldn't stop herself from twitching. That wasn't a question she had been expecting so soon after taking the boy in. "Ah.. out of morbid curiosity, why do you ask?"
"Just answer the question!" the other woman snapped, a little anger evident.
"Well." she abandoned the reports she had been reviewing, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs. "That depends. Are you asking me as a scientist, or as a woman?"
"Either! Both!"
"No, he's not fourteen."
"I didn't think so either." Misato sounded a little depressed about that, which concerned the older woman a little. "How old do you think he is?"
"Well, his birth certificate lists him as being fourteen." Ritsuko explained, idly sipping her coffee, "I don't have any hard evidence to dispute that, but with his looks, his body, and everything else I'd guess he'd be around eighteen, twenty at the oldest."
"But how can he pilot the Eva's if he's so old?"
"Ah, that's another hole in the theory." Ritsuko clucked her tongue, "No doubt about that, I can't really give you any kind of explanation as to that. Every fiber of my being as a scientist rails against the possibility he's that young, but I don't have any solid evidence to support it."
She sighed, "I see."
"Now." Ritsuko grinned a little, glancing to the door just in case Maya decided to come back, "What brought this line of questioning up? And don't hang up on me, I know where you live." she warned, playfully.
"Ah.. it's a little embarrassing."
If she thought that was going to deter her from wanting to know, she was dead wrong. If anything, she wanted to know more now then ever. "Spill it."
"Well.." and she told her.
---
Ranma quietly closed the door to his room, sparing the bathroom a glance. The light was on, and he could hear Misato's voice on the other side. He idly wondered who she was talking too, but quickly shook off his curiosity. It wasn't his business, he had enough with people poking their noses where they didn't belong back in Nerima, he wasn't about to start mimicking them now.
Carefully stumbling around in the dark, he made his way to the veranda, once again as quite as he could he slid the door shut. Looking over the edge, he spare the distance to the street a once over, before hopping up on the railing and leaping down, jumping off other rails like a bouncing ball until he reached the street.
He cracked his neck abit, to get the tension out. I'll just work off all this energy. Few hours of a good long work out should be enough to tire me out. So thinking, he stretched out a little bit, then leapt into a Kata.
---
Misato raised her feet, setting them on the side of the furo. She was starting to get pruney from bathing so long, but it was a welcome relief to explain everything that had happened to her friend. At least she knew one thing for certain, even if she couldn't prove it, Ranma wasn't fourteen. That just raised more questions then it answered, and was seriously starting to give her a headache.
"And then he told me to get out." she finished her story.
"I see." she could just see her friend now, the little twitch in her eye going full force. She was silent for a few moments, which was a little odd to Misato, her friend usually being quick witted and fast on responses. "Do whatever you want to do."
Misato blinked, "What?"
"We both know, even if we can't prove it, that he's not fourteen, right?"
"Right." she didn't like were this was going.
"So do whatever you want to do."
"What is that suppose to mean?" she sighed, exasperated.
"Misato." her friend began, quietly, "I'm not going to judge you for your tastes in lovers, and even if he is fourteen he's still technically of legal age, especially if you as his guardian give him permission. Have fun, do whatever you want to do."
"Wh.. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?!?" she yelled, louder then she wanted to, but the shock of her friend even suggesting something like that was overwhelming.
"Just that. With the constant threat of Angels and the possibility of death, who knows how long we have left in the world?" she sighed a little, continuing, "Just live for the moment, is all I'm implying."
Misato didn't like what she was hearing, not one bit. The memory of the incident with the beer and Ranma's own reactions to it crawled up and slapped her in the face. Even he recognized the fact they could all die in a moments notice, it was galling to hear her own friend say that. "I.. think I'm going to bed."
"Hey, don't feel so bad." Ritsuko chirruped, "You aren't the only one who's given him a look over. I caught Maya staring at a picture with his shirt off.." a rather loud rustle blared into her ear, followed by a, "SEMPAI! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!" before Ritsuko came back on, "Gotta go! See you tomorrow!" and the line was cut.
Misato glared at the phone as if it had just clubbed a baby seal.
---
Ritsuko waved her hands to ward off the woman, "Joke! Just a joke Maya!"
"That was mean!" Maya sighed, resting her head on the table.
"Hehe.." Ritsuko laughed a little, turning back to her reports and playing at actually looking them over as she thought about her conversation with Misato. She didn't like it, or even agree with half the crap she had said to her friend. However she had realized that as a scientist and one of the few 'in the know', that Ranma was a rogue when it came to their plans. He had knowledge, but to what extent they didn't know. He was a pilot who's back ground they didn't really have an inkling of, and an obvious security threat. However, he was also a young man and had to deal with all those wonderful hormones a young man his age had to. Misato was a perfectly beautiful woman, and loyal to NERV.
That was were things would get problematic at best. If Misato some how succumbs to her base desires, the possibility she grew emotionally attached to him would be a bad, bad thing. Especially if he told her anything really damaging. Still, there was a risk to take in everything, as Gendo had often agreed with her on. She figured their odds were about 50/50 at this point. All she could do was wait and see what happened.
Ritsuko sighed. Life was getting complicated, and she was sure she wasn't going to like it.
---
Tomorrow they got to...
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(Posted Mon, 17 Jan 2005 23:44)
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