Asuka had never been bothered by the figure-hugging fit of her plugsuit. She liked the feel of the hi-tech fabric against her skin and the way it conformed to her movements without pinching or bunching. It let people know who she was - the pilot of Evangelion Unit 02 - and if some of the gazes it attracted were improper or disapproving, well, those prudes and perverts were beneath her notice.
And yet, this morning she stood in the locker room with her still-slack plugsuit hanging loosely around her body, hesitating for once to activate the tensioning system. Today, the prospect of those improper gazes felt... troubling. Unpleasant. Intimidating.
She slapped her hand against the locker. "Stupid Shinji," she muttered. It had to be something from his brain, another piece of him that had leaked into her. She triggered the tensioning system, checked that her A10 connectors were in place, and walked out into the hallway.
"Ah, Misato. Have a seat."
Misato hefted a stack of papers off the visitor's chair in Ritsuko's office and onto the floor before sitting down. "All right, Ritz, why don't you tell me what this is all about?"
"Dual sync is a completely untested scenario. We didn't even know whether an Evangelion would function with two pilots." Ritsuko leaned back in her chair. "Obviously it did, but the results just give us a new set of questions to answer."
Misato pinched the bridge of her nose. "So what's wrong with my pilots?"
"It looks like there was some mental contamination," said Ritsuko. "Maya spotted something on the psychograph readings, and given what you said about Shinji, it all fits. What we need now is a clearer sense of how much."
"Couldn't you at least pretend to care about them?"
"If I didn't care, Shinji would be at school and Asuka would be having the day off." Ritsuko fished her cigarettes out of her pocket. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a nicotine habit to feed and a simulator test to supervise."
Asuka walked into the simulator bay to find Shinji leaning against a safety railing, tapping his foot on the floor. The sight of him in a correctly fitted plugsuit instead of her spare was, she had to concede, quite appealing. "Hey, Shinji," she called to him.
Shinji looked up and smiled at her. "Hi Asuka. How are you feeling?"
She wanted to say 'fine', but the word stuck in her throat. He'd know she was bullshitting. "Weird," she admitted. "Does... does it bother you, wearing a plugsuit?"
"I'm mostly getting used to it. I still don't like the way Technician Kimura looks at me when I'm wearing it, though."
Asuka smiled weakly at the confirmation that that thought was one of his. "I... we should make some time to talk. About things. You know."
"I know a good café," said Shinji. "We could go there when we're done here?"
Asuka hesitated. It would look like a date. She'd look like she was on a date with this... actually kind of cute and talented boy, who'd got into an Eva even when he didn't want to, because his father was going to force a wounded girl to do it instead. What could it hurt? "Sure. But we're paying for our own drinks."
"Don't want to give people the wrong impression, right?"
"R-right!" Asuka felt her cheeks flushing. Having someone around who actually understood her was going to take some getting used to. "So why are we waiting?"
"Lieutenant Ibuki says there's a circuit fault with the simulator and she didn't want to make us wait inside the plugs."
"Huh. Someone nice works here?"
Shinji smiled wryly. "There had to be someone, I guess."
The PA system chimed. "We've traced the fault and replaced the damaged parts," announced Lieutenant Ibuki. "Simulator plugs will be open shortly."
Misato paced nervously at the window of the observation bay. This wasn't like waiting for a live launch. She was in her element there, directing her pilots in a tactical situation.
It was more like when she'd been waiting to hear about her mother's condition. There was nothing she could do, and even once she had an answer it might not change anything.
"Simulator online," announced Lieutenant Aoba, leaning back in his chair. "Looks pretty boring."
"It's supposed to be," responded Ritsuko. "We want clean psychograph readings. Ibuki, enable synchronization."
Misato turned her attention to the status displays that were now flickering into life. There wasn't much to see yet, but it was actual information to focus on.
A simulated world flickered into being around Asuka. It wasn't really an improvement on the inside of an entry plug; she was surrounded by a flat, featureless plain under a flat, overcast sky. She thumbed the commlink switch. "Hey, what's with this simulation? We always had scenery in Berlin."
A video pane showing Dr Akagi popped up in her view. "We'll be loading a real scenario shortly. We need a psychograph baseline from a zero-threat environment, without your Evangelion complicating the results."
Another pane showing Shinji in his entry plug appeared. "Could be worse. At least the sky and the ground are different colours."
Asuka raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"That was a programming error, Shinji," said Dr Akagi, before suddenly frowning. "Talk amongst yourselves. I may be some time." Her video pane vanished.
Asuka tapped her fingers on the control grips. She didn't want to talk about that over the commlink, and there wasn't anything else she could think of worth talking about. There was the other pilot, she supposed, but...
Her cheeks flushed as the unwanted memory from Shinji replayed itself. No. Definitely not talking about her.
Ritsuko stared intently at the psychograph traces on the wall display. The cross-contamination between the pilots was clearly highlighted by the MAGI's analysis, but the observable effects were not at all what she'd have expected. Neither pilot had exhibited any frank psychiatric symptoms, just modest behavioural changes.
She sighed. There were bound to be latent issues. Maybe a stress test was needed. "Maya, load Test Angel 16."
"16, sempai? Isn't that the—"
"Yes. Asuka's been trained properly and Shinji has field experience. They should be able to handle it."
Misato interjected in a tone that would have frozen a penguin to death on the spot. "Would you like to explain to me why Lieutenant Ibuki is cavilling over your choice of testing material for my pilots, Doctor Akagi?"
"I... have to concede her point, Captain," said Ritsuko, weighing her words carefully. "The baseline data is solid. Their stability in light of the data is surprising, but I'm sure some more analysis will give us some insight. I think we can let them go about their day in peace."
Misato's voice thawed very slightly. "I'm glad to hear it. We should have a proper planning session soon."
Ritsuko toggled the commlink. "Change of plan. The data we have is enough to work with, so we'll be giving you the rest of the day to yourselves. Shinji, Rei will be collecting the day's schoolwork for you. Make sure you're in when she comes to drop it off."
