How behind am I on SV? I'm just now catching up to BnB from
August. Yeesh.
Climbing up through the network of gray tunnels and brown hallways, jogging up flickering stairwells and riding shaky lifts, Shinji was surprised to feel how quickly he reached the edges of his allowance. His card was failing to open more and more doors as he tried to get to the surface. Eventually, however, he made it, the morning light of the real bright sun making him blink as he crawled out of an emergency access station into what looked like a vacant lot.
Even for NERV, this is just pathetically bad security if Shinji can just walk his way to the outdoors with a partly working keycard. OTOH, if he felt really like 'fuck you, dad!' he could AT-Field SMASH! his way out, so maybe Gendo should be grateful about Shinji doing it this way and showing him the flaws in his physical security at the same time?
It wasn't his world, but it was a world worth existing.
It's the only kind there is, kid. You've got to make it that way yourself. You mother told you that, once.
"If I was an old witch, where would I live?" Shinji chuckled under his breath.
Smash cut to Shinji's grandmother sitting in her mecha-cottage with two giant chicken legs?
Running out the alley, Shinji tumbled into traffic, stepping out just in time to avoid an oncoming bus
And Shinji juuuuuust missed his chance to turn Evangelion into the world's first mecha-isekai!
"Yeah, we can't have that can we?" Hikari bristled, picking up his utensils as he grabbed what little he brought and headed for the door. "Touji, please... just don't do anything stupid, okay? You still have a lot of people who care about you."
Touji gave a tired smile and unlocked the door. "You saw my grades, Hikari. Stupid's what I do best."
You're not
that bad, Touji. And jeeze, be nicer to your gf. She's putting up with a lot for you, and being as supportive as she can in these weird circumstances. OTOH, if you told her what your dad was doing, and what you're thinking of doing right now, she'd try to stop you. I guess it's a good sign that you and she already know each other so well you can read that on her and are therefore... um... not telling her/lying by omission? Gah. You
are stupid.
"And one more thing Shinji." There was a pause. "I love you too, ever since I first saw you on that air strip. There was never any doubt."
Ooof. And this is more than Shinji's gotten from his own parents in... most of his life. Yikes. You think there's a day since he was four that Shinji hasn't deeply questioned if his father
ever loved him?
"It did.... It also nearly killed me." Shinji tried to formulate his thoughts in a way that made sense. "Or tried to... eat me? I don't know exactly how to..."
"No power gained, no knowledge learned or skill mastered is without risk Shinji. I would think you would know that more than most," she chided him.
A little
warning that your cut-rate One Ring would try to eat his mind and soul would have been fricking
nice you old fanatic! He's your own grandchild, and you treat him like a partly-useful dupe and sacrifice!
"And if I died?" Shinji stopped, digging in the heels of his dirty shoes into the polished floor as he looked his grandmother in the eyes. "Or was... swallowed up by it? What then?"
She was less than moved. "Then you would have had more of your father in you than I first approximated." His grandmother gave a cruel smile before tugging on his arm urging him to continue. "Come, life has enough defeats and failures to weep over, do not do the same to your victories."
Oh, fuck you, lady. 'Oh, you'd have been dead, and that would have proved to me you were like that little shit my daughter married.' ? That's the comfort you offer Shinji after you nearly got him killed by not even giving a fuck to warn him? Grandmother of the year. You and Gendo should be locked in a room together for a year.
He could ask his grandmother for help killing him.
Shinji, you don't
have to speedrun 'completionist 100% Max Awkward Relationship with Kaworu', you know. And yeesh, what a lovely family if that's the best they can do for each other.
Some were soft and warm and inviting.
"You're just like me..."
Some were tragic.
"The color you like, Ikari... like the Second..."
Rei... That Rei's voice was soft and strained as she drifted in her noose.
Ooof. Rei really got the short end of the stick in that one.
"I told you, I am not going to..." Shinji was about to wrench free from his grandmother's grip when he felt something cold and sharp near his neck, a short black blade just above his skin. "What the hell are you doing!?"
"Buying myself a little time." Kunohama grit her teeth as the VTOL above them landed twenty yards away, ripping apart much of the flower garden's with wind as it touched down. A metal door slid open, revealing his father and Rei inside.
"You could have just asked..." Shinji hissed, nearly pricking his skin as he felt the blade against his neck. It was made of that same oily black stone, the substance anathema to him.
And now she takes him hostage, with a weapon that can actually hurt him. Grandmother. Of. The. Year.
He was not there for long, however. His body quickly healed, expelling the bullets and even mending his torn jacket and pants where the bullets punctured. "I hope you know," Shinji climbed to one knee and then the other, taking a deep breath and feeling the last of his injuries heal, "that that really hurt."
"Consider it your spanking for running off again," Gendo snarled, clearly still furious. "Now come on. We have things to do." He turned around and motioned to the helicopter.
"Fuck you too, dad."
And boy, you just murdered his grandmother right in front of him, while she was holding him hostage with a knife to his throat, and now Gendo expects Shinji to just calmly walk away with him for a chat while her body is still twitching next to them? JFC, you are a fucked up piece of work, Gendo.
Asuka shook her head. "Stop trying to save me, Shinji. There is nothing to save... I don't deserve anything better than this..." There was a flash and Shinji saw a memory of Asuka attacking Rebecca in grief and rage. "If I come out I am just going to hurt people."
"I can take getting hurt," Shinji admitted, remembering how he took the attacks from Valkyrie as it ran out of power. "Trust me."
"So this is just about you, then? Just about you coming in like the big hero and saving me?"
Still trying to push him away, because letting him near your heart is too scary, Asuka? Your pride is an inch from killing you, and you'd still do this instead of accept you might need anyone?
"Kaworu..."
The name made something in Shinjis chest wrench. "He's an Angel?" Asuka asked.
"Yes." Shinji admitted, knowing this was coming as soon as he opened himself up.
"And you and him..."
"Yes."
"You... you really love him too, don't you?"
"It is really, really,
really awkward, alright? There's not enough Facebook in the entire universe for all the 'Its Complicated' we've got going on."
"It should, you were in all the best ones," Asuka said earnestly for the first time in a long time. "Oh and for the record, idiot... I love you too."
Of course she'd say it like this. You little tsundere...
"Where..." Shinji blinked looking through the increasing group assembled on the platform next to the Entry Plug. "Where's Mari? I have so much I need to tell her."
At that Maya squeaked and stepped aside to let Misato stand in front. Her face was heavy. "Shinji..." A hand went to his shoulder and squeezed. "You have been gone for a month in there. Doctor Makinami is... she's dead."
Oh dear... there could be worse ways to find this out, but this is pretty close. To learn that not only were you not there, but that you missed it by
weeks? And your last conversation was an awkward, strained phone call?
This is going to be somewhat harder for Shinji than even his mother's 'death' was, since he's old enough to understand more about it, know there's not even the ghost of a chance he has to see Yui again, and that he can blame himself for not being there for her.
The door slid open and he saw Asuka sitting at the table waiting for him. Opposite her, Kaworu sat, his eyes blazing like setting suns.
"Come here, Shinji." Asuka beckoned, her voice a forced calm. "We... have a lot to talk about."
Ohhhh boy... Kaworu, you are possibly even
worse about letting your pride screw up your conversations with Shinji. Doubly so when you two try talking to each other like people who want to be more than close friends, not 'Angel vs Human Rep' headbutting. I really hope at least
one of you has the brains to let Asuka be the bridge between you, since you both admit you love her, and listen to her when she punches you in the head for being a dumbass.
