[Episode 87880] [Episode 87880]“God what a day, I need to sleep, I need a drink.” Said the lavender haired Major, sliding her feet similar to that of zombie, Misato slithered into the kitchen, upon the stove rested the pan Shinji had used to make Asuka’s eggs for breakfast that morning, no one had done the dishes.
Looking into the cupboard Misato found one of the cup-ramen left over from her last grocery shopping. Misato opened the microwave, closed the microwave door and turned on the power. It was an old microwave, one from before Second Impact, it didn’t have a definite time setting, you had to watch it, and choose when you thought the food was done or not. Misato sat down at the kitchen table, and waited for her instant ramen to cook. Slowly Misato’s thoughts began to wander, she thought back to the time at the hospital, when Shinji had gone berserk, and subdued Asuka. Misato could easily say she knew Shinji fairly well. After almost a year of living with the boy, Misato felt she knew all that there was to know about him, besides “personal” things of course. What she knew of the boy consisted of as follows:
1. Shinji was unbearably shy, due to lack of social skills the boy could hardly order take out without getting a little nervous. 2. Shinji was not a violent person, the boy couldn’t even yell at Asuka when she constantly ordered him around. 3. Shinji had momentary psychotic episodes, his berserk stages piloting in an Eva had told her that though the boy was not very aggressive, he was had his limits. 4. Shinji never attacked his friends, she knew the boy would rather die than harm another creature (besides an Angel), much less one of his friends.
So the boy’s behavior back at the hospital didn’t even make sense, why would Shinji react that way? Sure Asuka had gone too far, but not to the extent that violence was necessary.
However an odd sound derailed Misato’s train of thought, it had been a soft noise, very soft, so soft that even when she strained her ears she could barley hear it. She stood up from her chair in the kitchen and left the microwave to do its cooking.
The sound seemed almost as if someone was hiccupping, and panting all at once, like they were crying.
The sound eventually led Misato to the front door of Asuka Langely Sohryu, and now Misato was worried. Asuka was a very strong girl; there was no doubt about that. The fact that she managed to pilot Eva, deal with the trauma from early childhood, and still be sane person was testament to her strength. So the very thought that Asuka would cry, it just didn’t seem like her.
Her worry and love for the girl whom she thought of as a daughter, overcoming the fear of angering Asuka, Misato knocked on the door.
The crying stopped almost instantaneously. “Who is it?” The voice of Asuka called through the slide door, her voice lacking the confidence that usually permeated her being.
“It’s Misato; I just came to check up on you Asuka.”
Shuffling noises could be heard from within the room, the door slid open, revealing Asuka, who obviously had seen better days. The girl’s hair was frizzy and unkempt, her eyes were blood shut proof that she had been crying for a long period of time. She was dressed in yellow pajamas that were rumpled in some places. Her face scrunched up into a frown, Asuka answered. “What do you want?”
Misato took in a quick breath, trying to beat down her anger at Asuka’s impertinence.
“Asuka, I know why your crying, but sitting in their moping isn’t going to do Shinji any good.” Instantly the frown on her face turned into an angry scowl. Asuka opened the door wider and stepped out into the hallway with an aggressive posture.
“Why would I be worried about him? That moron attacked me! I’ve got no reason to care what should happen to him, so why should I be worried?!”
Asuka shoved her face right into Misato’s personal space, the scowl had now deepened to so much that she was baring her teeth to Violet haired woman. “And further more! He attacked me! ME!! Tell me Misato, why should I be worried about him? All he ever did was mope around all the time. Always was being a wimp, never sticking up for him self, always apologizing, even when it wasn’t his fault.” Asuka was now sobbing in between her words.
“He always made dinner for us too, he took care of us, he cleaned, and he made sure we got to work and school on time, never accepting, or even asking for gratitude! And he never even yelled at me! Despite all the times I’ve hurt him, he never struck back, not once.” Asuka made her way closer to Misato, just centimeters from actually touching the woman’s body, the bangs of her hair covering her face, casting a shadow over her eyes. “I just never expected that too happen, he’s always been so complacent, I never expected him to lash out at me like that.”
Asuka had now sunk her face into the crook of Misato’s neck crying her eyes out. Gone was the girl who would have thought that crying would be weak, what remained was the sad little girl, whom had had no shoulder to lean at her mother’s funeral. Asuka continued crying for a while, holding onto Misato for dear life.
Misato smiled. She was happy to se that Asuka wasn’t trying to do everything on her own anymore; she was finally admitting taking a break from trying to be strong. Misato knew this had been bound to happen eventually, Asuka had gone too long working on her own, trying to be number one, without at least letting someone else shoulder the burden. This had been bound to happen.
When Asuka’s crying finally settled down into repetitive sniffles Misato spoke.
“You really care about him, don’t you?” Her only reply was a slow upward movement, followed by a downward one.
Pushing Asuka away so that she might be able to stare into her eyes, Misato continued speaking. “Tell you what, we’ll go visit him tomorrow morning, you can skip school even.” Misato had thrown the last bit as a way to calm Asuka down, though she felt it wasn’t necessary, she thought the girl had needed a day off.
Asuka smiled, not a grin, but a smile, one of happiness, for once she was not concentrating on being the best, but now on just living her life to the best that she could. And Misato had to admit, she had never seen her so happy.
Then Misato smelled something, something was burning, and it smelled like plastic.
Then it hit her.
“OH NO! My Ramen! ..........Hey Asuka, what do you say to take out?”
*************************
Doctor Ritsuko raced down the hallway of NERV hospital, as though the devil himself were chasing her. She stopped only to get a stretcher, and anti contamination suit. Moving like a blur she across the shimmering tile floors she neared room 117A.
The room of Shinji Ikari.
Ritsuko barley slid her access card through the panel before she was running into the decontamination chamber. Once she was inside, and the door had closed, the automatic cleansing system began the process of ridding Ritsuko of all forms of bacteria on her suit. The actual protective clothing was a dark orange color, made out of a surprisingly durable polyurethane designed to keep out all forms of bacteria or diseases that the wearer would be exposed to while in the infected area.
Pulling the hood over her face, Ritsuko wasted no time in getting into the room when the door opened. What revealed to her was exactly as she had expected. The nurse who had come to bring Shinji his meal, and whom had been foolish enough not to wear a suit, now lay prone on Shinji’s bed, where as the boy in question, could be found asleep on the floor, yet she had no time to bother with the boy yet. If she did not act quickly, the nurse could contract the same infection that Shinji had, and then they’d have two more people to treat. Sliding one arm under the woman’s knee caps, and the other in her middle back area, Ritsuko lifted the woman up off the bed, out the door, and onto the stretcher. Making sure that the woman was properly strapped down, Dr. Akagi ran back to check on Shinji.
Still he was sleeping, peaceful calm, and a small smile gracing his lips. In all the time she had known him, she had never seen the boy so content. It really was sad, this boy whom had felt so much pain, and sorrow, who selflessly risked his life to protect them and everyone around him, felt so little happiness, that such a small thing as a kiss could send him soaring to heaven. ‘If only more men were like that.’ She sighed to herself. Looking to Shinji, and realizing how bad his back would feel if he continued to sleep on the floor, Ritsuko then lifted him up on to his bed. Pulling the covers over him and tucking him into bed, Ritsuko caught a glimpse of what being a mother felt like. And she liked it.
************** (Shinji’s dreamscape)
The ceiling was familiar; it should be he saw it every time he beat an angel. I was ‘his’ room, it was the one they had put him in every time he needed to recover from a battle. The walls were the same, white and unforgiving. The bed was the same, hard and uncomfortable.
But some how, something was different. He didn’t know what it was, but it was there, floating just beyond his reach, teasing him, daring him to figure out the difference. The sun was setting outside, and the Geofront was letting in the red sun set into the room, via open vents located in the ceilings of the dome.
He scanned the room again, trying to figure out the piece to the puzzle, but for some reason it seemed to elude him. Like annoying house fly the wouldn’t stop buzzing in his ears.
Then he saw it.
Shinji couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it before, it had been right there, clear as day. There was a trail of blood leading from the edge of his bed, and ran all the way towards his bathroom, and then it stopped at the closed door.
Shinji had never been the gutsiest person in the world, many could testify to that. However, the sight of the blood did not scare him, rather what the blood lead to, behind the bathroom door that frightened him. What he find when he opened that door, what be lying behind it when he opened the Pandora’s Box before him.
‘Only one way to find out I suppose.’
Moving forward with as much courage as he could muster, Shinji followed the trail to his bathroom door, slowly he raised his hand to the handle, opening the door and slowly pulling it back, Shinji stared into the open room.
Shinji held back the sudden urge to scream.
Covering the walls, the sink, the floor, the ceiling, and the toilet was blood. Covered in the red substance, like an image straight out of Steven King. The sight made Shinji sick to his stomach, he held back the urge to vomit, yet he wanted nothing more than to be able to. He fell to the floor, gasping for air, his shock having stopped his life functions, like breathing for mere moments, made him nearly pass out.
Once again Shinji noticed something; it was inside the bathroom, lying on the wall just above the sink. Unlike everything else, it was not covered in blood, it was the cabinet mirror.
Some how that didn’t seem right to Shinji, why would the room be covered in blood, yet the mirror didn’t have a drop anywhere near it, almost as if the blood was avoiding it.
Getting up Shinji did something he never thought feasible in real life; he walked into the bathroom and stared into the mirror.
This time Shinji did scream
Darkness……that was all he saw. A figure, humanoid in shape, made of sheer utter darkness that seemed to absorb all light which it touched. Its legs had talons attached to them, sharp as daggers, dug into the floor, gripping it with an unheard of strength. Its fingers were claws, poised for the chance to strike. Strutting from the back was a pair of wings, bat-like in shape, opened out, making the creature seem larger, and more intimidating. And in place of its eyes were a pair of blue voids, infinite in their depth, and they belied all the power that the creature possessed.
Shinji knew what he was seeing in the mirror. It was what the infection was doing to him. It was what he would become. Knowing this Shinji became fearful, he became worried.
He became excited. I was the same feeling, the exact same feeling he got when he got into Eva 01, the feel of power. He had seen what the infection had done to his strength, and that alone was enough, imagine what other things had been affected. But once again the feel of power made the boy scared, what would happen if he lost control? Who would be hurt, Misato? Asuka? Rei? Would he be able to stop himself? Would he even care?
Slowly his vision began to fade; his thoughts began to dim, until they were nothing more than darkness covering his view. His legs became weak, his knees buckled under him, and soon they gave way, letting him fall onto the tile floor.
And all was dark.
**************
Yes, your time is coming, I can feel it. Inch by inch, step by step, you come closer to being mine. All you need is a little push in the right direction to help you along. Then when you are ready, I shall make you mine, and we will take our vengeance against those who wronged you. Give them what they deserve.
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(Posted Sun, 15 Feb 2004 07:05)
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