Akane on the other hand merely spotted the pair and boggled. "It's the crazy boy."
He wilted a bit under the words, but looked like he was trying to keep up his confidence, mumbling something suspiciously like, "I'm not going to run away..."
"What aren't you going to run away from?" the middle Tendo daughter asked as she peered over the edge of the roof.
"Huh?"
"It's what you said."
"Oh... that. Well, you see..."
"Mind spitting it out already?"
"Alright," he said as he took a deep breath. "I've come to ask you if you could do something. If you're not something I only think I'm seeing, since I must be going nuts..."
"You know, if you think you're going crazy, you probably aren't."
"I'm not?"
Having little idea if it was really true, but being pretty sure of it and in need of something to keep the boy from breaking down, Nabiki nodded. "A crazy person would think that the world is the way they think it is, even in the face of proof otherwise."
"Sort of like Dad and Mister Saotome," Akane observed with a thoughtful frown, "Or the whole Kuno family."
"Something like that... So, what's going on?"
The boy perked up as the elder girl looked at him. "My name is Shinji Ikari, and this is Asuka. I'd like it if... You took her back with you."
"'Back with us'?"
"Yes. When you leave here, take her with you. Please? She won't survive long if she stays here with me."
Both Tendo girls frowned at the boy before peering at each other.
"What? What is it?"
"I don't know how to tell you this, but..," the elder girl told him, "We don't know if we'll be going."
"You don't?"
"No, we don't."
"There isn't a way that you can help her?" he asked, his voice echoing with disappointment.
"Well... There is one way that is possible, but we don't know when or if it will happen."
"It doesn't matter! If it does, then you can just take her with you! She deserves something better than what she has here, and with medical care she can get better, and have a great life."
"What about you?" Akane asked quietly.
"Me?" Shinji looked surprised by the question. "I deserve this world. It's my fault that it happened, and I'm not really worth saving. If anyone should be alone like this, it's me."
Crossing her arms over her chest, Nabiki gave him a sour look. "That's stupid."
"What..?"
"You try to save your girlfriend, but you don't want to save yourself?"
"My... my... Asuka isn't my girlfriend! She's pretty, and tough, and would kill me if I did anything! Not that I would, since I'm such a loser..."
"..." went the girl on his back.
"Whatever," the elder Tendo remarked, "Even if you refuse that, despite you wanting to go this far to try to save her, didn't it ever occur to you that if we were to take her, you'd might be able to tag along?"
"Well... no..."
"He really doesn't think much of himself, does he?" Akane commented, "I'm not sure if this is better than the creeps in school though. He seems nice enough..."
"I am?"
"You don't grope girls, do you? Attack them to date you? Come up with really stupid plans to try and get them to fall in love with you. You don't peep on them, and buy pictures of them naked?"
"What?!" he declared, his eyes wide with shock, "Of course not!"
"Then you're better than them."
"I... You sure you're not hallucinations?"
Taking a small piece of debris that had fallen on the roof, Nabiki tossed it so that it smacked him in the head just enough to bounce off it and onto the ground. "That hurt?"
"Ow... yeah..."
"Then we're not something you're imagining, though in this place, I could understand why."
"Oh..."
"Now come inside and make yourself comfortable. We may be here for a while."
"Umm... Okay..," he agreed slowly, and followed her instructions while:
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(Posted Sun, 28 Mar 2004 05:30)
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