Shinji was waiting at the lift, shaking his head in disgust at the lax security on board the Over the Rainbow. ‘Honestly, if any of my crew let some strange kid wander around the Odyssey unchecked, I’d find a nice deserted planet and get the whole lot of them to dig latrines for a couple of weeks. This is pathetic.’ Shaking off the criticisms of a Captain, the Platinum Dragon started whistling ‘Information High’ to himself as the lift finally lowered to his level and slid open. “…Umm…”
The purple-haired bombshell in the lift stared at him blankly for a few moments before scowling and lashing out with her free left hand, getting a firm grip on his ear, then yanking him into the elevator. “Shinji Ikari, where on Earth have you been!?”
Fortunately for Shinji’s continued well-being, there was a convenient distraction… “Hey, who are you two?”
Misato paused in her impromptu interrogation as she remembered the two other passengers on the elevator. Releasing her recently returned ward, the NERV Captain straightened her uniform before gesturing to the annoyed redhead. “Shinji, this is the designated pilot of Eva Unit 02; Asuka Langley Sohryu. Asuka, this soon-to-be-dismembered idiot is Shinji Ikari, the Pilot of Eva Unit 01.”
Asuka leaned forward and stared appraisingly at the young pilot. ‘Hmm, a little taller than average. Pretty slim, but with some muscle. The all black clothing looks good on him, but the long white hair and red eyes…’ “Kinda weird looking, aren’t you?”
‘Weird looking?’ Shinji frowned at her faintly before turning to the final occupant of the elevator. “And you are?”
The cheerfully smiling, scruffy-looking man grabbed his hand and shook it. “Hey there, I’m Ryouji Kaji, a Special Inspector for NERV. I must say, you look rather different from your file photo. A spur-of-the-moment change?”
Remembering the circumstances leading to his ‘change,’ Shinji smirked slightly. “Something like that.”
Misato was glaring at the two men, but nodded, throwing in her two yen. “You could probably pass yourself off as Rei’s brother or something.”
“Speaking of the First Child, when am I going to be meeting her? I know I saw her on deck earlier.”
“Commander Ikari thought that some fresh air would do her some good, so I was ordered to take Rei along for a ride. She wanted to be somewhere quiet to read, so I showed her to one of the Messes. We’re heading there now.”
Asuka arched an eyebrow. “She comes along for ‘fresh air’, then spends all her time in the depths of an Aircraft Carrier?”
The purple-haired Captain shrugged. “She’s an odd one, there’s no doubt about that.”
The conversation ceased as the lift slid to a stop with a *Bing!*, and the quartet squeezed out of the cramped booth and made their way to the Mess.
The group, three pilots and two adults, sat silently around a table in the Mess Hall. Misato was pointedly ignoring Kaji, Kaji was smiling broadly and nudging his Ex’s foot with his own, Asuka was frowning at Kaji, Shinji was watching the whole scene with amusement, and Rei was alternately reading her book and glancing up at Shinji with an expression of utter astonishment.
…ok, so it was a look of mild curiosity. For her, that’s the equivalent of a normal persons look of utter astonishment.
“So Misato, do you have a boyfriend right now?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
Kaji pouted and leaned back in his seat, taking a sip from his drink. His foot slid higher up Misato’s leg. “I’m hurt. Ow.” Misato folded her legs underneath her seat, and Kaji chuckled internally before turning to the Third Child. He had originally planned to tease Misato a little, but his Inner Spy couldn’t stand leaving a mystery unsolved. “Mr Ikari, I’m curious; who was the pilot of that impressive aircraft that made a mess of the flight deck a little while ago?”
Shinji found himself the centre of attention as he stared calmly at the spy. “What makes you think I know?”
“Come now, it wasn’t that hard to figure out. You disappeared from under the watchful eyes of NERV’s best Special Forces agents, whom also fail find even a trace of you after three days. A high-tech fighter lands on deck, briefly out of sight of the bridge crew, and minutes later you appear out of nowhere.” The brown-haired man leaned forward to get a better look at Shinji. “Even the best planes can’t fly themselves like that, and they have to land somewhere, so someone has to be helping you.”
The red-eye male smiled. “Not bad. Yes, someone did help me leave Misato’s place, yes, I was on that plane, no, that plane actually can fly itself like that, and yes, it does have to land somewhere.”
“Ah, but who helped you?”
Shinji chuckled and waggled his index finger. “Now that…is a secret.”
Misato stared at Shinji worriedly, trying to find anything wrong besides the change in hair and eyes. “These people didn’t hurt you, did they?”
“No, she didn’t. And she doesn’t want anything more than to make sure that a Third Impact will never happen.” ‘And maybe being taken down from that cross…’
Asuka snorted. “That’s what NERV is here for. Anyway, why would ‘she’ ask you for help when ‘she’ could have asked a highly trained pilot like me?”
Kaji spoke up. “Now Asuka, Shinji may not have trained as long as you or Rei, but he has a natural talent. After all, he did have a Sync Ratio of more the 40% in his battle with no prior training.”
‘Mein Gott!’ Asuka’s eyes widened in shock before she turned and glared at the white haired teen. “I’m not surprised he scored that high; even a chimp could pilot that primitive, unstable beast you call an Eva.”
Shinji adopted a quizzical expression. “But wouldn’t a primitive, unstable Evangelion be more difficult to pilot?”
Asuka’s glare intensified and she stood from her seat. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to check on my Unit 02.” With that, she turned and stalked from the room.
“Now that I think about it, I need to make a phone call to Tokyo 3.” Kaji gulped down the last of his tea before standing up. “Shinji, Rei, a pleasure to finally meet you. Misato, it’s always a pleasure seeing you.” He grinned and sketched a bow before strolling from the room.
“Good riddance!” Misato snarled at the door before turning to her flatmate. “I’m going up to the bridge to keep an eye on things, but when we get back to Japan we’re going to have a very long talk about where you’ve been, got it?” When Shinji nodded submissively she smirked, walked around the table, then hugged him tight from behind. “It’s great to have you back, Shin-chan.” She ruffled his hair affectionately before leaving.
The only people left in the room were the two red-eyed, part Angel pilots, a fact that made the female of the duo rather nervous. “I guess we’ve got a lot to talk about, huh Rei?”
The First Child nodded and closed her book. “Indeed.”
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(Posted Sun, 03 Apr 2005 18:15)
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