Spirit Within 3
Part 5
Shinji's training.
Shinji Ikari stood in front of his father's desk with a rigid look on
his face. The man looked up from the report in front of him and sighed
heavily. "Do you accept?"
Shinji blinked and nodded dumbly. "I accept, but I'd like to know why
though; this seems like something you'd give Ayanami considering your
trust in me."
"The answer is simple. I have reports of your exploits in the temple you
stayed at; the name 'Little Death' was given to you at the age of ten due
to your battles with the nomads that once wandered through the area. They
have recently been eliminated by the new government, but you have more
active combat experience than Ayanami," replied the man simply.
"I see, I have a request then," Shinji smiled at his father coolly.
"Yes?" said the man with his eyebrow raising slightly.
Fuyutski walked into Gendo Ikari's office and nodded in acknowledgement
as Shinji paused long enough to salute him as he passed by. He walked up
to the desk with a smile on his face and placed several thick folders on
the man's desk. "I take it he has accepted?"
"Of course, how could he resist?" snorted the man lazily.
"Are you sure about this? He has no formal training, and those old men
are sure to be displeased by this," Fuyutski scratched his chin as he
looked towards the doorway.
"He will learn quickly. According to our records he should react well to
such responsibility; he will be much easier to control now," Gendo smiled
slightly. "Besides, his skills will be useful."
"They said the same thing about you," replied his companion simply. "As
for his skills, we still don't know how he caused that blast. It could be
dangerous." He paused for a moment, he could have sworn he heard Gendo
chuckle to himself for a moment.
Misato Katsuragi frowned as she brushed her teeth silently and looked
out the door of the bathroom down the hall. It was strangely quiet in the
hallway. She sighed to herself and walked over to Shinji's door and
knocked lightly. "Shinji, are you going to school today? Unit One is all
repaired now so..." She opened the door and saw the room was barren. A
single note sat on the cleared off desk in the corner. Her name was
neatly printed on the outside.
"So, he's run away, I guess I shouldn't be surprised," she walked into
the room and picked it up. She almost choked as she read it.
"Dear Misato-chan. Be back in a week! Shinji." On the bottom corner of
the page was a smiley face with its tongue sticking out at her.
"What the hell? That jerk! Doesn't he know he can't just run off like
this?" she dropped it and stomped off into the house.
Toji Suzahara, and Kensuke Ida stood outside the door of the apartment
patiently after they rung the door. They where more than a little
surprised when a beautiful woman answered the door and screamed "Shinji!"
"Uh, hi! I'm Kensuke Ida, and this is Toji Suzahara. We're some of
Shinji's classmates. We were wondering if he was here?"
Toji stood rigidly as he stared at the woman. "Y-yeah! Dat's right, I'm
Toji Suzahara!"
"I'm sorry, Shinji is at Nerve central right now, taking care of some
tests," lied the woman as she put on a smiling face.
"We brought some of the print outs that were building on his desk," said
Ida sheepishly.
"Uh, yeah," muttered Toji.
"Oh, is his sister here?" asked Kensuke.
"Sister? What s- Oh! She's with him... say aren't you two the ones who
climbed into the entry plug with Shinj-er...ko?"
The pair bowed deeply. "Yes, we're really sorry about dat lady," said
Toji in embarrassment.
"We wanted to apologize to Shinko about that, but since she isn't
here..." agreed Ida.
"I'll tell her," said Misato with an understanding smile.
"No!! Uh, I mean we'd rather do it ourselves if you don't mind. Its
kinda our fault," said Toji with his face growing completely red.
"Sure thing boys," she closed the door and dropped the pages on the
ground. "Damn it Shinji! I'm glad you're gone, you were a jerk anyway!"
Outside the two boys stared at the door with shocked expressions on
their faces. "This is an unexpected development," noted Ida.
"Yeah, she was a real babe," agreed Toji.
Shinji rested against a telephone pole and watched the cars move by. He
was dressed in a dogi and had a small roll of clothes hanging over his
shoulder. It was getting dark and he had still not made his way out of
Tokyo yet. He briefly considered stopping at a hotel, but frowned when he
realized that there was nothing but a string of so called 'love motels'
along the street he was on. After a moment longer of walking he noticed
an all night showing of a movie about the second impact. He shrugged his
shoulders and walked through the entrance after buying a ticket at the
booth outside.
Inside he found a few people sitting around, several with the same idea
as his. He moved to a seat near a young couple and sat a few rows behind
them. Apparently it was cheaper than the love motel also.
After about an hour he found himself drifting off, unfortunately the
couple in front of him was making a little too much noise. He sat up and
blinked as he saw the boy with his face in the girl's chest. He stood up
from his seat and staggered towards the exit, unfortunately his roll of
clothing hit the boy on the side of his head and the pair looked up at
him.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" they seemed to have just noticed he
was sitting directly behind them.
"I was trying to get some sleep, but it's too noisy down here," he
replied simply.
"Pervert!" screeched the girl as she closed her shirt and blushed. Shinji
hadn't even looked at her until she said this.
"What the hell are you lookin at kid?" cried the boy. He was much larger
than he was, but slimly built.
"I didn't look until she said something to me," replied the boy honestly.
"Get lost!" snorted the boy as he shoved Shinji in the chest. It didn't
do much, but the boy seemed satisfied.
"You didn't have to ask, in case you didn't notice I was already leaving
when this stupid argument started," replied Shinji curtly as he started
to walk away.
"You little punk!" screamed the boy as he jumped out of his seat.
The girl was trying to calm him down, and apparently get him back in the
mood again. She pulled at his arm, "Leave him alone, he's just a kid!
C'mon,"
Shinji wasn't about to let that happen, this was the most fun he'd had
since he'd come to Tokyo-3. "Let him go little girl, these clothes aren't
just for show you know. He's foolish to believe that he's stronger just
because he's older than I am."
This caused both of them to pause, Shinji looked over his shoulder and
smiled at the blank looks he was getting. Neither one of them had noticed
that he was dressed in a dogi until now. His smile faded slightly when
the boy started laughing.
He shook his head and started to walk away again. Leaving the pair
behind, he did pause long enough to bend one of the rails along the wall
with his hands. This stopped the boy's laughter, but the fight would have
been hollow if he had not taken him seriously anyway. He walked out into
the lobby and lay down on a bench just outside the theater for the night.
The next day he found himself outside of the city, the mountains seemed
to call to him as he roamed through the wilderness. He seemed at peace
now, it was so quiet outside the city limits. He smiled and stretched his
arms out as the wind blew across the valley he overlooked from the edge
of a cliff. Everything around him was green and alive, even the scream of
the cicadas seemed to comfort him now.
Misato Katsuragi rested against the back of a chair as she talked with
Ritsuko. The blonde woman was currently working on a laptop computer.
"Still no word from him?"
"Not one, he just left. I don't even know if he's really coming back,"
said Misato quietly. "It doesn't seem fair to push all this off on such
young kids."
"We have to use fourteen year old children to pilot the Evas," reminded
Ritsuko.
"I know, but it still isn't fair to put it all on their shoulders," she
looked out the window into a room where Rei was undergoing some kind of
scan.
"He'll come back, he said he would didn't he?" replied Ritsuko.
"I don't know, he's a smart kid. He may have just said that to keep us
from looking for a while. After what happened after the last mission I'm
not so sure." She hung her head slightly and looked away.
"What happened after the last mission?"
Misato stood in the doorway where Shinji sat waiting for her after being
picked up; she was still in her female body, despite the fact that she
had a cup of hot water in her hand. She looked up at her and smiled
slightly. "One of these days I'm going to come back from a mission under
my own power."
The woman ignored her and leaned against the doorway. "Why did you
disobey my orders Shinji?"
"Because I knew I would win," replied the girl simply without looking up
at her.
"I ordered you to fall back, I am your mission commander aren't I?"
snapped the woman angrily.
"There is no room for delegation in a combat situation," replied the
girl simply as she brushed her hair back over her shoulder. Shinji had
braided it into a pigtail.
"Damn it Shinji, that's no excuse," retorted the woman angrily.
"No Misato, I never said it was. I had to learn that lesson the hard
way, I also learned that if you see an opening you have to take it. You
can't expect another one, that's how battles are lost," she looked up
towards the woman with a haunted look in her eyes. One that Misato had
seen before.
"Learned that lesson?" everything seemed to fall into place somehow.
"You've killed before."
Shinji merely smiled at her, it was not a question so she did not
answer. "We all have our demons Misato, perhaps yours are even worse than
mine?" The girl hung her head memories played through her head. "Little
Death...Why not? You earned the name...They only wanted food...Us or
them." It was not something she remembered fondly.
"You think she might be affected by that?" asked Ritsuko as she took a
sip of her coffee.
"I don't know, but it's not something she wants to experience again. I'm
sure of that," replied Misato coolly.
"However you think of him Misato. I'm almost certain he'll come back.
People like that, aren't likely to go back on their word. Trust is
something they survive off of, I think that may be why you aren't getting
along with him."
"Because he won't give it to me easily?"
"You'll have to earn it, I know the type Misato."
She didn't answer, she simply sat silently thinking to herself.
Shinji found himself standing in the center of a field watching a column
of smoke rise into the sky above him. "So, looks like Ida is here," he
commented as he approached the camp.
"Hey! Ikari! What are you doing out here?" cried the boy as he rushed to
approach after noticing him.
"I'm training," replied Shinji simply.
"Oh, I see," said the boy with a shrug.
A short time later they sat around a campfire together.
"Toji is sorry about what happened. His kid sister got wind of it and
really tore him a new one. That must have been pretty embarrassing, to
have your little sister chew you out that way."
"So, you do this sort of thing a lot?" asked Shinji with an amused smile.
"Uh, yea. I enjoy it," said the boy with a slightly embarrassed look
about him.
"I can see why, I had almost forgotten how beautiful it could be out
here," said Shinji wistfully.
"I like it better here at night, then you don't have those noisy cicadas
chirping. It used to be quiet when I was a kid, but now there are a lot
of them," said the boy cheerfully.
"The world is stabilizing, it is the way of nature to bring balance,"
replied Shinji as he looked into the mist that had already started to
form in the darkness.
"Boy, you sure sound smart for a high school kid," snorted Ida.
"Well, I grew up in a monastery so I have a college level education.
It's just that I don't have anything to prove it besides the knowledge
itself. I could just go take a test, but I'd rather go through school
like a normal person."
Ida nodded at this, "I guess I can understand that. Wow, a college
education? Really?"
Shinji found himself smiling at this, "Of course, my sister took the
test already though, that's why you don't see much of her at school. She
has to pilot the Eva, and doesn't really have time for school."
Ida grew slightly uncomfortable at the mention of Shinko. "Uh, I've been
meaning to ask you about that, I know we didn't meet under the best of
circumstances but..."
Shinji smiled slightly at this, "I see, I hate to be the bearer of bad
news but..."
"I knew it, she likes Toji doesn't she? They never go for the brainy
kid."
"Actually no, my sister doesn't like boys at all."
Ida blinked, "Oh, you mean I've still got a chance? Maybe when she
starts to notice guys if I've been really nice to her she'll..."
Shinji found himself smiling despite it all. "No Ida, I don't think you
understand. She doesn't like boys at all, in fact I don't think a man has
ever interested her."
"You mean she's..." Ida trailed off as Shinji nodded his affirmative.
"Boy, Toji's gonna be pissed."
Shinji laughed. "She likes to tease a bit, but she'd never be with a man
I'm afraid. Poor Toji's probably got it pretty bad huh?"
The boy nodded meekly in reply.
"Well, I'll tell her to slack off a bit, how's that? She isn't mean, but
sometimes she forgets how people react to her being that way," Shinji
wasn't really lying about that, but his curse was still classified
information so he resisted the urge to let his new friend in on the
little secret.
Ida poked at the fire and the rice cooker he had over the fire and
smiled at Shinji. "Are you going to have something to eat?"
"I guess I should," replied the boy with a smile.
That night they shared the tent Ida had brought and talked for a short
time before going to sleep. The night ended all to soon.
Early the next morning Ida woke up to the sound of something roaming
around the camp. He jumped out of the tent and stopped cold at what he
found staring at him. Men in black suits stood surrounding them as Shinji
calmly emerged and smiled at them.
"Shinji Ikari?" the boy nodded in reply. "We're from Nerve Security
Intelligence. We've been ordered to bring you back," said the lead man.
"I've still got three more days of leave left, is there something
wrong?" said Shinji with a slightly amused look on his face. "He turned
towards Ida and smiled. I guess I'll see you at school then."
"So you just stood there and did nothin?" cried Toji in shock.
"That's easy for you to say. This was Nerve Intelligence, professionals.
Only an idiot fights when he knows he can't win," snorted the boy in
reply.
"Don't you have any balls at all?" cried Toji in disgust.
Several of the girls sat behind him took note of this. "Girl, pervert,
Ape," they chimed one after another.
Shinji sat alone in a room waiting for Misato again. She stood in the
doorway for a moment before speaking up. "So, did you enjoy your little
two days of running around?"
"I had three more days coming, are you going to tell me why my leave was
terminated?" said the boy as he looked up at her.
"Leave? What the hell are you talking about?" Shinji smiled at her and
took out a folded up form from his clothing bag.
"Didn't the commander tell you? I assume that these men are your doing.
I could have just shown this to them, but I thought it might be better if
I handled it personally."
Misato blinked and stared at the form. "Th-this is? Why didn't the
commander tell me about this? Why didn't you for that matter?"
"What are you talking about Ma'am? I left a note," said Shinji with a
small blink of surprise.
"You should have given me more information, wait a minute what did you
call me? Why the hell are you standing like that?" She looked Shinji up
and down and noticed he was standing upright at attention in front of
her.
"That's enough Lieutenant, you are dismissed," said Fuyutski as he
strolled into the room.
Shinji offered a small salute and walked out of the room. "Sir! What's
going on here?" said Misato in confusion as she watched the boy leave in
disbelief.
"Here is the paperwork Captain, I suggest that you get up to speed.
First Lieutenant Ikari is now the squad leader for the Eva Pilots," said
the man calmly.
"When did this happen? Why wasn't I informed?" said the woman as she
almost stumbled over her own words.
"I apologize Captain Katsuragi, there was a little confusion with the
paperwork and it didn't get out in time. We felt that given his combat
experience he might be more of a team player and an asset to us as a
leader. With Ayanami almost ready to return to duty and the second child
almost ready for transfer to our facility we felt it would be wise to
institute a lead pilot. His rank is little more than a formality." He
smiled at her and turned away.
Misato simply stared at the folder in her hands and sighed. "Oh, hell."
Gendo Ikari smiled from behind his hands as Fuyutski walked into the
room. "You were right, he came right back. Your little experiment was
successful. I still think it proves nothing."
"You're wrong, it proves that the boy is taking this seriously. He would
not have allowed himself to be forced had he thought otherwise, I think
he will prove quite trustworthy." His mind went back to Shinji's face as
she attacked the last angel. "Quite trustworthy indeed, and quite an
asset."
"I understand he has already sought to better our training program,"
said Gendo with slight amusement in his voice.
"He's actually requested to take the Eva out for training, something
about the body not being fit enough," replied Fuyutski as he tossed a
form on the table. "He probably doesn't have any idea how much it costs
just to power those damn things."
Gendo merely looked thoughtful. "Tell him I'll consider it."
"Are you certain?" said the man in shock.
"My son is aware of the organic nature of the Evangelions, and he also
knows a great deal about martial arts. It would be unwise to ignore such
advice completely. We can at least look into a less expensive way to make
the Units more... fit."
"I'll have a team look into it," said Fuyutski with a heavy sigh. His
thoughts wandered slightly. "Damn it Ikari, the budget is thin enough as
it is." Somehow he doubted if Seelee would look highly upon Ikari showing
favoritism to his own son.
TBC...
Next time: Rei joins the crew. Shinji starts to develop a strange
relationship with the girl he sees as his sister. As usual though, the
angels always loom over the horizon.
C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com
URL: Http://www.geocities.com/misatira/