There was
no talking on the way to Misato Katsuragi's apartment; not from Shinji, not from Mana, not even from the woman herself. The sheer amount of Awkward filled the car like city smog.
Glancing at the girl, he noticed that she was now wearing a similar uniform as the vast majority of NERV's employees: a beige, high-collar dress uniform with orange trimming along the shoulders, a thin belt around the waist, and a slim skirt with white leggings; it was far more professional and clean outfit than the bodysuit she had previously been wearing. It was like looking at two entirely different people. However, her melancholy expression was enough to dissuade him from trying to talk to her.
Eventually, they arrived at an apartment complex near the northern edge of the city, at the foothills of Mount Ashigara; the woman quietly motioned for them to follow, leading them up to the eleventh floor, just one shy of the top floor.
Walking into the apartment, Shinji noted the stacks of automobile, motorcycle, and firearm magazines by the sofa; the elaborate beer can stacks which evoked the image of a radio tower on a kitchen sideboard; the bookshelf by the TV set with various knick-knacks, souvenirs, and photos on the top shelf. The entire place seemed...unchanged, from when he had last been here nearly a month ago. The only difference was that, on the green couch, a penguin was...tossing a ball up and down...while watching a financial advice show by some guy called Tanaka?
"...what...is that?" murmured Kirishima.
"Oh, that's my pet penguin. His name's Pen-Pen."
"...you have a pet penguin?" asked Shinji.
"...wait, did you
not meet him the last time you were?" remarked Misato, blinking with confusion. A distant expression came to her face. "...oh yeah, he slept in late that day...the lazy bum."
("This'll be our little secret.")
Shinji frowned, feeling an odd tickling in the back of his head. Was there...something he was supposed to remember? Or had dreamed about...?
"So. I'm going to go take a shower. Pen-Pen, go ahead and order delivery! Shinji-kun, Mana-chan...you two make nice."
Mana looked shocked while Shinji loosed a bewildered "eh?!", but not quick enough before the woman had already shut the door to the washroom behind her.
xxxx
Don't let me down, Shinji-kun, remarked Misato with a hidden frown as she began to disrobe.
Let's hope you two can patch things up. With Mana being unable to summon her weapons, she was trusting Shinji to not summon his Evangelion.
(She didn't dare speak up during the car ride, because she needed to make sure how things stood between Shinji-kun and Mana-chan. The expressions she saw in her rearview mirror said plenty.)
Deep down...
( "...then trust me. Even though we haven't known each other that long...trust me when I think that Mister P means well. But it's not worth you and Ayanami-san fighting..." She was rather floored - and just a little bit touched - at how deeply Shinji bowed. Why was he going so far? "...please?" Damn it, he had no right to make her feel so crappy.)
...she believed that it wouldn't come to that.
xxxx
Shinji Ikari sat on one side of the table.
Mana Kirishima sat on the other.
Right now, Shinji was incredibly grateful for the fact that Pen-Pen was apparently ordering dinner over the phone, if only because it provided a decent distraction. "Wark...wark...wark?
WARK!" A few moments of silence, before the penguin kept nodding. "Wark. Wark. Wa-wark..."
"...I feel like I should be freaking out about this," murmured Shinji, glancing over at Kirishima. "Does...it not seem weird to you?"
"...for the most part, I've been in the Metaverse for the past several years," she admitted. "I don't really know if Pen-Pen is supposed to be weird or not."
"Oh. That...makes sense." The awkwardness refused to go away.
Mana stared at him with green eyes, looking...tired.
Incredibly tired. "...compared to that...all of
this is odd. To me."
"...I'm sorry."
"For what?" she muttered.
"For...what happened to you." His debrief with Dr. Ritsuko Akagi and Kensuke Aida had unveiled a lot of details that he hadn't been aware of. "For...trying to kill you."
She loosed an unladylike snort. "Don't know why you're apologizing for Tokita; you had nothing to do with him kidnapping me and my brothers and sisters. As for the other bit...it was normal. Expected. In a fight to the death...one side lives, and the other one dies. I just..." Her shoulders briefly shuddered. "...never expected to be the one on the verge of death.
I was the one who was supposed to be better...it was what I was
made for...until I ran into you." Sighing, Kirishima rested her arms on the table, laying her head on them. "...wish I had LABRYS and AIGIS here..."
Shinji tried
very hard not to slide back from the table.
Mana huffed. "Relax...if I couldn't beat you in the Metaverse when you couldn't even summon your whole Evangelion, what chance would I stand in the real world?" Her green eyes sharpened, frustration trickling in like ants on a crippled bird. "...I almost wish you'd look at me like you did in the Metaverse." He must have looked utterly befuddled, because she added, "when you were threatening to kill me...that feeling of facing death...was
terrifying...but...I preferred it to the look you're giving me now."
"...what look?"
"That look of
pity."
"...is that a bad thing?"
"I don't want your
pity!" she growled, finally showing some of her characteristic fire from their battle. "Pity won't change anything. Pity...is for the
weak..."
"...but..." Shinji glanced over at the door to the washroom, where the dulled sounds of a shower could be heard. "...isn't that why Misato-san decided to take care of you? Because she pitied you?"
That caused the girl to deflate. "I don't get her...I helped
kidnap her, she spent hours teaching me how to fight...and now she wants to be my
guardian."
"...but isn't that a good thing?"
"But what
benefit does she get out of it?! Is it just so NERV can use me as a weapon instead of Tokita? I don't know why they
wouldn't! Of COURSE they will...they
will...I don't care what Niijima-san said...but...but what she said made
sense..." With a frustrated yell, she slammed a hand onto the table, creating a crack in the surface. "...I don't know what to believe...Tokita sucked, but I knew my
place..."
Shinji couldn't help but stare quietly as the girl grumbled and muttered into the table, going back and forth with herself.
What...what can I do? What could he even do to help? From the sound of it, she didn't even
want his help...
His Other shook his head.
"Will that stop you?"
The Beast snorted.
"Without the power to walk alone...solitude will devour anyone, without exception."
The Other continued.
"Remember the strength of your bonds."
...but Misato-san had asked for his help. She had stopped him from...doing something horrible. He owed her that much, at
least. "...is...there
anything I can do to help? You want to find your brothers, right?" Her pained screams for Musashi and Keita, in retrospect, rang clearly in his mind. "I...I can help with that, can't I?"
Kirishima's stare
burned with skepticism.
A poke at his leg prompted Shinji to look down; Pen-Pen was looking expectantly at him, arms held up. "You...want me to pick you up?"
"Wark."
Blinking, Shinji did so obediently; to his surprise, Pen-Pen quickly clambered onto the table and waddled over towards Mana. The girl looked at the penguin with slight confusion and irritated suspicion; the landborne avian glanced down at the crack that she had caused before looking back at her. "Wark." He then promptly slapped her face with the flappy backside of his flipper.
Shinji boggled.
Mana blinked.
"Wark." Pen-Pen huffed, hopping off the table and waddling back towards the couch.
"...um..." Shinji looked back towards Mana. "...you okay?"
"It barely even hurt," muttered Mana, a wry grin slowly forming on her face. "But...it isn't my table...not mine to break..." She looked back at him, her eyes hardening into something more resolute. "Katsuragi may be genuine...I don't know yet. She didn't
have to do this...but she did. You could've
killed me...but you didn't. Honestly...you two don't make sense to me...but you still freed me from Tokita. So...I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now. No matter what...I'll endure...I'll
endure..."
As Mana made that resolution to herself, Shinji couldn't help but wonder what would come of this...
xxxx
And all the while, on a subconscious level, in words he had no way of knowing...a familiar voice spoke, within the depths of his being:
I am thou, thou art I...
Thou hast acquired a new bond.
It shall lead thou to the truth
that parts the seas of depravity.
Take hold of the Strength Arcana,
and let it guide you
to a new Promised Land...
xxxx
...but he would do what he could. After all, if he could prove himself to someone he had nearly killed, anyone else would be a breeze, right?
xxxx
The first sight that Misato experienced walking out of the washroom was Shinji Ikari and Mana Kirishima unpacking the recently-delivered yakitori and onigiri onto the kitchen table; in the corner of her eye, she saw Pen-Pen walking back from the doorway, holding the delivery receipt in his clawed flippers.
Okay. They're acting somewhat amicably. And we've got food. She spotted a new crack in her kitchen table.
Eh, acceptable collateral damage. I'll count this as a win!
Shinji turned around, saying, "ah, the food's here Misato-saaaaAAAAAAAH!" The boy's sudden yelp startled her, as he promptly turned around in shock. "
M-M-Misato-san!"
"...what's gotten into you?"
Mana Kirishima stared blankly before pointing straight at her.
That's when Misato felt a slight chill around her legs.
Oh, right. Wearing only a towel. Damn it, I'm going to need to remember I have a new roommate that's not a penguin. "Eh, I'm sure you don't mind
that much. You're a teenager, aren't you?" she casually joked before striding past the table and through the living room towards her own bedchamber.
"T-T-That's not funny," grumbled Shinji, still keeping his face hidden behind his hands.
"...eh, it's
kind of funny in a slice-of-life sitcom kind of way."
"Wark."
"Oh you have
no room to call ANYONE an exhibitionist!"
"WARK!"
xxxx
The brief argument that Katsuragi had with her penguin (with Ikari trying his hardest not to look anywhere near the towel-clad woman) was honestly the most surreal thing that Mana Kirishima had seen in a long time, and it caused an odd - almost
bubbly - feeling to well up within her chest; she only barely managed to fight it off.
(In retrospect, she would recognize this as a bout of impulsive laughter; her first one in a very, very long time.)
