Author's notes: The story came to me when I was reading Astro city, "The
Nearness of You." I personally find this story kind of WAFFY, but all my
prereaders said this was depressing. I dunno, what do you think? C and C
please, after all, I still plan to revise this, as it is only a draft. Send
it to lynch@surfshop.net.ph  
Thanks all! Stay safe and God Bless!



<all characters belong to Gainax, they're not mine and never will be. A
pity, that.>

LeeKing Works Proudly Presents:



Memories
By Kelvin "Lynch" Lee



Her name is Asuka. 

That much he remembers. She meant something to him, once, long ago. She was
more than just a dream,  more than just a wisp of his imagination. Or was
she?

He remembers more, the way she would look at him with eyes full of love,
the way her head would tenderly lay on his shoulder, and it would feel just
right. The affectionate way she would call him baka.
The way she looked when the sunlight shone on her face in the morning,
after a night of passionate love, her hair messed up, and her face serene
and peaceful, full of contentment.

 She was everything to him, and nothing. 

He has never met her. 

Never. 

So how does he know her favorite dishes? How she likes to cuddle up to him
before going to sleep at night, wrapped in his arms, her head on his chest
as she slept?  Could it be all in his imagination? 

Yet, why does he remember everything so vividly? Why does everything seem
like a memory, and not just a fantasy?  He remembers too much about her,
knows too much about her, for her to be simply a dream. 

She wasn't real. She can't be. How could she be? 

Yet, he remembers her , she was something to him once, she meant something
to him, once. 
He remembers her fiery temper, which matched her red hair perfectly, the
many fights and arguments they had, the battles they fought, both against
and with each other. And the wonderful making up after each fight. 

They had synchronized perfectly, they were one, body and mind, heart and
soul. 

He loved her, yet, he doesn't know her, much less met her, she doesn't even
exist. What's going on? 

"Ikari!"

Ikari Shinji was snapped away from his musing as he heard his name being
called. He raised his head from the paperwork he was supposed to be doing.
"Yes?"

 "You're supposed to be working, Ikari!" Said his supervisor, a cranky lady
in her early forties. She had a reputation for being an old sourpuss, a
ball breaker, hard on everyone in her department. When Shinji had been
transferred to her department in the company, it had not been a reward, but
a punishment, probably for all his daydreaming recently. The old sourpuss
did not like slackers. 

"I'm sorry ma'am," said Shinji, as he got up and bowed, his gaunt, lanky
frame almost hitting her as he bowed to her. He stayed bowed, the grimace
on his lean face unseen by the supervisor.

He needed this job, and he was on shaky ground with management already, the
last thing he needed was to get on the sourpuss's bad side. 

"Humph! Never mind the groveling!" Said the supervisor as she ran a hand
over her long blonde hair, which was streaked with white. "Just get back to
work! And don't let me catch you daydreaming on company time again!"

"Ye�yes ma'am." 

"Humph!" With that, she left in a huff. 

Damn! He's been here in this department only a few days and already she's
on his case. Maybe it's time to start looking for a new job. He sighed even
as he thought about it. He couldn't do that, he really needed this job, it
had taken a lot of wrangling from his dad to get him into this firm
already. If he heard that he quit it or got fired, dad would go ballistic. 

Getting up from his bow, he sat down on his chair inside his cubicle. He
hated this job. All you did day in and day out was look at figures all the
time. Maybe that was why he got bored so easily, daydreaming was his only
escape, more often than not. Yet the weird thing about all his daydreams at
work, and dreams when he was asleep,  were that they didn't seem like
daydreams or dreams at all. They were like memories. Of someone he had once
loved. Asuka.

But, who was she?

***********

Shinji took the Tokyo-3 transit home. He was standing and holding on to one
of the rails, which he had no trouble reaching, thanks to his height. He
had his portable SDAT player with him, and he was listening to some old
songs that he had liked even when he was still a gawky 14-year old kid, and
nothing like the tall strapping young man of today. 

His mind wasn't on the music, however, nor was it on the wonderful view of
Tokyo-3 that this transit route offered. He was still thinking about the
girl. He still couldn't figure out who the girl was, she definitely wasn't
his type for if his memories were right, she was a very aggressive and
forceful person, someone who would always speak her mind. She was
vivacious, full of life, a party girl. He didn't like that. Did he? 

He had always preferred the shy, quiet, demure type of girl, the
traditional Japanese type, who was reserved and conservative. Further, he
did not like fiery redheads, and his dad would kill him if he ever went out
with someone who wasn't Japanese  like this Asuka was.

 Why then does he keep dreaming about her? About her soft pouting lips, her
lustrous scarlet hair, her�.. STOP! Damn it, there he went again,
fantasizing about someone who didn't even exist. Was he cracking up? Was he
going insane? He had to know who she was. He had to find out, he had to
know the truth. 

*************

Shinji practically ran into his apartment, quickly locking the door behind
him. He was breathing heavily. He had to do something, something to occupy
his mind, every time he had let his thoughts wander, they had gone right
back towards the girl, and the few minutes that he had dozed off in the
transit, he had dreamed about her again. This was ridiculous. He knows he
has never met her. He knows. 

He set to work making his dinner. He had to do something, anything, so long
as it kept him occupied. In the back of his mind, however, he was of mixed
emotions concerning later that night, when he would have to go to sleep,
and meet her once more. He shuddered a bit at that, whether from
apprehension or expectation, he wasn't sure. 

He knew that at 27, he was too young to be having memory problems, besides,
some of his friends would know about this Asuka� Wait. That's it! Call his
friends and ask them!

Running to his phone he quickly started dialing some numbers. 

Riinnnnggggggg!!!!

"Answer the phone!" pleaded Shinji.

Riinnnn�� click� "Hello?"

"Kensuke! Hi, it's Shinji, listen, I've gotta ask you something�.."

*********

"You sure Toujii? Not even back when we were in high school? Damn, thanks
anyway, bye."

Dejected, Shinji put the receiver back on its cradle. He had spent the last
few minutes calling all of his old friends from way way back. None of them
remembered him chasing after a red headed girl like the one he described.
Heck, none of them even recalled a red head in their lives.  What was going
on? 

Sitting down on his chair, the dinner he was fixing forgotten, he looked
dejectedly at nothing. Was he mad? Going insane? He wanted to go to sleep
now, to not have to think anymore, and just let the oblivion of slumber
overtake him, but he didn't dare to, and he knew that any minute he might
start daydreaming again. 

Maybe I should ask dad thought Shinji to himself, maybe he knew something.
His father was, after all, one of the greatest scientists in the world, it
had been his dad who had created those robots called EVAs that had saved
the world from those weird monsters called Angels.

 Those Angels had kept attacking the city, intent on destroying it, if it
hadn't been for his father and his agency NERV, along with those EVAs�.
wait a minute�. The EVAs, what was it about the EVAs that seemed so
familiar? Asuka, EVAs, and himself, they were connected! But how? How? He
had to find out! 

Getting off the chair he was about to go to his phone again when his door
suddenly burst open and several black-clad men entered his room, all of
them armed with guns, most of them with laser-sight. 

They were all pointed at him. 

"Don't move!" shouted one of them at him. "Hands above your head!"

Shinji complied and froze. He was in shock, especially seeing as how
several red dots were on his forehead now.

"Wha� What's going on?!" Shinji managed to blurt out. 

None of them answered him. One of the men clad in black went behind him and
whacked him hard on the head with the butt of his gun. 

Shinji crumpled to the floor. 

"You'll find out soon enough." was the last thing Shinji heard before the
swirling blackness swallowed him up.
 
**********

Ikari Gendou looked at his unconscious son as he was once again prepped for
the mindwipe program. He hated himself for having to do this, to have his
son live a lie. But he had no choice. It was either this or to kill him.
And he would be damned if he would lose another of his blood. He had lost
Yui and Rei already. He would not lose Shinji. 

Once, he cared not a bit about his son, but things change. Things change. 

He hadn't thought that the mindwipe program would lose its potency so
quickly, it was a good thing that he had decided to tap Shinji's phone,
just in case.  

A pity that Shinji had to start remembering about his wife all of a sudden.
His former wife, anyway. Soryuu Asuka Langley and Ikari Shinji had been
married when they were in their late teens. The situation at the time had
been so bad that marriage at such an early age had been required, or they
might never have been married at all. 

Back then, Gendou had still nurtured an unhealthy hope to bring back Yui.
He had since then, learned the folly of his ways. But the manipulator in
him did not die so easily.

 Shinji hated him in the past, when he was younger, with an almost evil
zeal, but it had been tempered somewhat by his marriage to Asuka. But ever
since her�.

"Sir, we are ready to begin the mindwipe program." Said one of the
technicians behind him, interrupting his train of thought. 

Gendou didn't bother to turn around. "Proceed."

The vibrant whir of machinery could be heard as the mindwipe program was
activated. The unconscious Shinji was awakened by the program, shocks of
electricity began to course through his body, concentrating in his brain. 

There was pain. 

Shinji screamed. 

"ASSSUUUUUKKKKAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

Gendou continued to just look on, impassively.

****************

Shinji arrived to  work on time on Monday, he punched in his card, went to
his desk and began to leaf through all the assorted paperwork, doing his
job with such impressive fervor and dedication that the old sourpuss was
even impressed by his diligence.

And so Shinji continued to go on with his life, going to work, taking the
transit to work and back. Going out with his friends sometimes, spending
time with his father at others. He even started dating a bit again. But
every girl he did date, every single one, no matter how beautiful, or smart
or cute, none of them seemed to be interesting enough to Shinji. It was as
if he was comparing them all to this unmatchable paragon of womanhood.
Someone whom he doesn't remember, yet seemed to know. 

One day, after having odd dreams for most of the past few nights concerning
huge monsters and a purple savior that defeated them, he returns home from
work, his mind troubled. He is exhausted, and goes to bed without bothering
to change his clothes. He goes to sleep, and the dreams come. He dreams of
her. Of Asuka.

Of a beautiful red-haired girl who meant the world to him, of someone whose
soft blue eyes could enthrall him, of someone who was so hard, yet so
tender and vulnerable at the same time. Of someone he was once married to,
someone he once loved.

 He doesn't remember her, he doesn't know her, but he loved her. And that's
all that matters.

THE END?    

====
"I'm going to show you that there is a God."
                                        -Cameron Poe (ConAir)

If you like anime fanfiction why not check out our site? 
http://members.surfshop.net.ph/~lynch/LeeKingWorks.htm