The Sum of All Parts : Black
Neon Chronicle Evangelion
=====
Chronicles 0:1
"So... Misato-san... why isn't my father taking me to school today?"
fourteen-year-old Ikari Shinji asked the long-haired brunette in the
driver's seat.
"Because he's busy at NERV, I already told you, Shinji!" Misato
said, not taking her eyes off the road. "Kaji is meeting with him and
Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. They're preparing to transport Unit 02 to the
Geofront sometime today," she said.
"What about Mother?" brown-haired thirteen-year-old Ikari Rei asked
quietly.
"I think she had some business with Seele. Something about preparing
the Fifth Child or something," Misato absently replied. "Why do you keep
asking me these things? I'm going out of my way to do you and your parents
a favor here!"
"Well, it's because..." Shinji began, but he was cut off.
"It's because the 'famous First Child' baka Shinji here would rather
not be in the same car with me," Soryu Asuka Langley spat from the back
seat. She brushed her red hair back and shifted uncomfortably in the back
seat. "What is it with these Japanese cars? Why can't you people even get
any decent upholstery for your tiny cars?" She bounced around for effect.
"What the Second said," Shinji said, jerking his thumb behind him.
Misato snarled. "I don't want to hear another word from you kids!
Shinji, Rei, you're stuck with it, so shut up about it already. Asuka, you
know Commander Ikari assigned you to live with me, so I suggest you get
used to Japan pretty soon, because you haven't got a choice!"
"I _am_ shut up," Rei said expressionlessly.
"Heh, the Commander assigned me to stay with you so you could get
better sleep at night," Asuka said, smirking.
"I DON'T get any decent sleep at night with you around, anyway!"
Misato retorted, nearly sideswiping a little old lady sprinkling water on
the street.
"I refuse to be a part of this mess," Rei said, not loud enough for
anyone else to hear.
"Better than if Kaji-san sneaked in your apartment every night if I
wasn't around," Asuka flatly replied.
"Kaji? Why would I want that loser in my room at night anyway?"
Misato said, swerving the car to the right, running over the curb to avoid
running over a little black pig.
"I told Dad I could walk to school with Kensuke and Toji, but no..."
Shinji muttered, crossing his arms.
"Why the heck do we have such lousy living quarters anyway?" Asuka
demanded. "The place is a dump, it's full of weirdoes, the unit itself is
cramped, and worst of all we have to sleep on the floor!"
"We're only living at that place because we have to keep a low
profile!"
"Hah!" Asuka spat. "Why can't we live at the NERV Tenements like
Shinji here?"
Shinji snorted. "We don't live at the NERV tenements. We have a
house in Nerima."
"Besides," Misato said, "what's wrong with sleeping on the floor? We
Japanese have been doing it for centuries!" Misato snapped. She barely
avoided hitting the rear tire of the bicycle in front. The red-capped
rider seemed not to notice. "Damn cyclers! If he'd only take those
earphones out maybe he'd be able to hear to save his life!"
"Hey, Japanese boy," Asuka said to Shinji, "tell me why you people
sleep on the floor. Are you simply that cheap?"
"I sleep on a bed, thank you very much," Shinji said, looking at her
through hooded eyes.
"See what I mean? We have to wait hand and foot on Golden Boy here
just because he's the commander's son! What's probably the only reason
he's a prospective EVA pilot in the first place!" Asuka said, pointing a
finger at Shinji.
"That's not true!" Shinji protested. "I ranked highest in aptitude
for the qualification exams!"
"Your father probably just rigged the exams," Asuka said accusingly.
"DID NOT!"
"If that were true I'd be Second Child, Asuka, not you," Rei said
flatly.
"We're here," Misato said, stepping on the brakes. She unlocked the
doors. "Okay, kids, I'll pick you up at around five."
"Don't bother, Misato-san," Shinji said, slinging his bag over his
shoulder and opening the door. "I'll walk home with Toji and Kensuke."
"I'm walking home as well," Rei said.
As she said this, a bicycle zoomed past the car and screeched into
the school courtyard.
"What the HECK was that?" Misato asked, sticking her head out the
window for a better look.
"Oh, just Natsume-kun," was Rei's parting words as she left the car.
Shinji said. "Thanks for the lift. Bye." And with this he stepped
out and walked into school grounds.
"I'm going shopping with Hikari and Ibuki," Asuka said, exiting the
car. "You don't have to pick me up either. Auf wiedersehen."
"Okay, take care," Misato said as Asuka shut the door. She stepped
on the gas and started to pull away from the curb. "Thank God," she
muttered.
"Commander Ikari, I can explain," Kaji began to say, but he was
interrupted.
"Kaji," Gendo said, hands clasped in front of him as he sat behind
his desk, "I send you to do the simplest task and you botch it?"
"Commander," Fuyutsuki pleaded, "there's no need to get upset. It's
easily rectifiable."
Through the windows of Gendo's office, the red figure of the
Evangelion Unit 02 could be seen being loaded by ocean carrier into the
docking bays by a crew of about two hundred personnel from the inland
channel leading to the ocean.
"It had damn better be, Fuyutsuki," Gendo said. "I sent you to
Germany to get it and you try to cheat me by giving me these cheap
imitations?" Gendo pulled open a drawer and picked up a can and slammed it
on his desk. "Kirin Beer, Kaji? Have you ever heard of a German beer named
Kirin?!" He lobbed the empty can and hit Kaji on the head before it fell,
clattering on the Jacob's Ladder inscribed on the office floor.
Kaji swallowed hard but did not flinch.
Fuyutsuki sighed. Gendo was in one of his funny moods again.
"I merely got the package mixed up with another one, sir. I have the
real goods with me right now," Kaji said, raising up a plastic bag.
"I imagine your girlfriend's surprise when she opened her stash of
beer and found Oktoberfest-quality brew in it instead," Gendo said,
standing up and walking toward Kaji.
Kaji was sweating visibly. "Sir, I assure you, not one of these cans
were consumed. I fought long and hard to save them, sir."
"I imagine you did," Gendo smirked as he walked beside Kaji. He
quickly snatched the bag from Kaji and walked back behind his desk, back
turned to him. "I have your report of the Unit 02's delivery, as well as
your missive from Chairman Kiehl. That's all for now. Dismissed."
Kaji began to walk away, but Gendo called back, "Oh, and one more
thing." He turned around to face Gendo and reflexively raised his hand to
block another beer can blow to the head. He caught it and looked at it. It
was one of the Commander's.
Gendo smirked. "For your trouble."
Kaji nodded and exited the office.
Gendo sat down and placed his feet on his desk as he opened one can
and tossed another to Fuyutsuki. He chuckled as he raised his can in
mock-toast. "To world domination."
Fuyutsuki weakly grinned as he opened his and pretended to take a
drink. He could never understand the appeal of these things.
The trouble with pretending to drink in Gendo's office was that
there was no place to spit. Not a single potted plant or vase anywhere.
Aside from the Sephiroth and Jacob's Ladder inscribed into the ceiling and
floor there was no other feature to the place except for the lone desk in
the middle. The only way to fake it was to raise the can to one's lips and
tilt it like you were pouring the disgusting concoction into your mouth,
except of course your mouth was shut.
"Yui says hi," Gendo said off-handedly, which made Fuyutsuki spit.
Since the can was tilted toward his closed mouth he wasted about a third
of the beer, spilling it on the floor.
"You're so easy to fluster, Kozo," Gendo said, smirking, as he took
one last pull from his beer, opened a drawer and dropped the empty can
inside. He looked forlornly at the spilled beer on the floor for a moment.
"What a waste."
"Gendo, will you please be serious for once?" Fuyutsuki snapped,
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Fine, fine," Gendo relented. "Chairman Lorenz says that the
training of the Fifth Child under my wife's guidance goes according to
schedule."
"That's good. Do we start synchronization tests for the rest of the
Children?"
"Soon," Gendo speculated, swiveling his chair from side to side with
his feet. "We only have one slight problem. Yui would never agree to
Shinji or Rei taking the test just yet. I still have a lot of convincing
to do. You know how much trouble the synchronization test gave her,
remember?"
"That was different. For one thing, she was already too old to begin
synchronizing properly with the EVA," Fuyutsuki argued. "And another
thing. Dr. Akagi pushed her test too far without prior consent from either
you or me. I'm surprised you didn't censure her for her actions."
"Oh, believe me, what I did was punishment enough for Naoko. She's
still being punished to this day, in fact," Gendo said, and a sly smile
formed on his face. "But still, we needed her expertise at Artificial
Intelligence, and I was not going to let such a valuable mind go to waste
for that, not matter how reckless it was."
"I suppose you're right, Gendo," Fuyutsuki said, as he raised the
can to his lips.
"Fuyutsuki-sensei."
Fuyutsuki raised his eyebrows in query.
Gendo smiled. "You're faking again."
Kaji walked down the hallway to the main elevators, open can of beer
in hand. No wonder the Commander was so possessive of these things. Kaji
grinned in satisfaction as he raised the can to his lips as he waited for
the elevator.
"You liar! You told me those were for the Commander!"
Kaji froze with the can to his mouth as Misato appeared from behind
the elevator door. "Darling!" he said, throwing his arms out wide and
deftly tossing the can in the trash can beside him. "I missed you!" he
exclaimed, stepping into the elevator.
"You saw me yesterday, jerk," Misato said, folding her arms. "And
that was one of those beers you said were for Commander Ikari. You lied to
me again?"
"I swear, it's true! He gave me that one can for compensation!"
"Uh-huh." Misato wasn't buying any. "Next thing you'll tell me
you're not really having a thing with my landlady, she just had something
in her eye."
"But I'm not having a thing with your landlady!" Kaji protested.
"How could I have time to when I'm always with you?"
"Not since Asuka was assigned to live with me," Misato flatly
pointed out.
"But that was one week ago! Surely you don't think I could do such a
thing in the span of only one week!"
The elevator stopped, and the doors opened.
"Oh, my dear, dear, Kaji," Misato said, patting Kaji on the cheek as
she walked out of the elevator car. "I guess it's true. I do give you a
lot of credit," she said behind closing doors.
"The Second Impact was the flooding as a result of a meteorite
smashing into the polar ice cap. It completely changed the ecology of the
world. Fortunately," Soichiro-sensei lectured the class in a nasal voice,
"for us fortunate enough to be living in Tokyo, this most resilient of
cities, the devastation and flooding that so ravaged our city was gone the
next morning. However, the next morning, as everyone knows, the space
alien Lum arrived, starting the fateful ten-day race to determine whether
or not the planet would be subjugated or left alone. The man responsible
for our freedom today was Moroboshi Ataru..."
"Hey, baka Shinji," Asuka whispered. "Is this class boring or what?"
"I dunno, I think it's rather interesting..." Shinji replied.
"Will you people pipe down!" Kensuke hissed. "The teacher might
catch you!"
"What do you care, otaku boy?" Asuka spat.
"Guys, chill," the boy with the combed-back hair said. "You wouldn't
want to be standing out there carrying pails in the hallway again, would
you?"
"Toji-chan's right," Ikuko, a brunette with a medium-length haircut
concurred. She turned to him and smiled.
Toji blushed. "Th-thanks Ikuko..."
Shinji heard a 'hmph' and knew it was Hikari, a girl with brown hair
and a cute freckled face. She was being jealous of Toji again, it seemed.
"He should know firsthand," she said dryly.
"Uh, that is to say, I uh..." Toji stammered as he faced Hikari.
"Suzuhara!" Soichiro-sensei yelled at Toji. "Go stand in the hall!"
He pointed at a bunch of pails full of water in the corner of the
classroom.
Toji picked up a pail with each hand and grumbled out of the
classroom.
"Somehow I don't think that form of punishment works on Toji
anymore," Shinji commented.
"Gee, you think so?" class rep Yagami Ibuki said, snorting. "What
made you say that? Could it be the fact that this is the fourth time this
week and it's only Wednesday?"
"Frankly, I don't see what the heck Hikari and Ikuko see in that
loser," Asuka said, shrugging.
Shinji stole a glance at the teacher. Soichiro-sensei's back was
turned to the class (while he was admonishing Toji outside) and so he
leaned an elbow on Asuka's desk and smirked at her. "Maybe it's because
he's a nice guy, Soryu." He laid a finger on Asuka's forehead. "And maybe
the appeal of being nice is lost to that elitist Aryan brain of yours."
"WHAT?!" Asuka said, pushing off from Shinji and getting to her
feet. "You take that back!"
"Miss Soryu!" Soichiro-sensei yelled. "Pails! Hallway! Now!"
"But... but it was Shinji's fault!" Asuka pleaded, pointing a finger
at Shinji.
"Me?" Shinji asked in a disgustingly innocent voice, already seated.
"I was just sitting here, Otonashi-sensei. And it's not polite to point at
people like that, Miss Soryu."
"How does the man do it?" Kensuke wondered out loud.
"I dunno," Ibuki said, "but if it weren't for him Miss Germany here
would be a lot more unbearable."
"Asuka. Out. Now," Soichiro-sensei said, signaling toward the pails
and the door.
"Hmm. Uncle Soichiro's been in a bad mood lately," Ikuko mused.
Asuka grabbed a pail in each hand and muttered out of the classroom.
Shinji smirked. "Gee, from the time those two keep spending together
out in the hallway, you'd think they were an item or something."
Hikari growled at Shinji. Ikuko just grinned.
Shinji threw up his hands in mock-surrender. "Oops! I didn't really
mean to say that, honest!"
"Right," Ibuki snorted, grinning at Shinji.
Rei never really knew how to deal with people. Always the shy one,
she stood in the shadow of her more active older brother for most of her
life. Not that she minded. She looked to hide behind his shadow most of
the time, anyway, to avoid the awkwardness of human interaction.
Of course, Rei knew she was pretty. Enough people had said it
consistently enough to convince her that they weren't making it up.
Besides, people said she looked like her mother and she had always thought
of her mother as the most beautiful woman in the world.
The problem arose when she was told this directly. She never knew
how to deal with compliments, since her brother received more that she
felt she probably ever would, and he always downplayed it with his
signature sense of charming humility. The most amazing part of that was
that it was not false modesty at all. Father had always taught them that
their advantages over other people were only relative, and hearing other
people sing your praises was never as important as your own
self-assessment. Shinji usually felt he was only doing his part.
Rei, on the other hand, upon being told of her beauty, did not know
how to react. She knew she had very little to do with the way she turned
out. If anything, she wanted to point the fawning admirers in the
direction of her parents, who were directly responsible for her genetic
heritage.
So Rei had little to be proud of herself over, besides her
intelligence, which she also got from both parents, and so very rarely did
people recognize it, since she was so silent all the time.
The one person who made her feel even less sure of herself was
Natsume Ryunosuke, who was at that very moment smiling at her from the
other end of the classroom.
She could never quite understand what he was smiling at her for.
True, that one day they sat together all afternoon talking about nothing
in particular (which she oddly enjoyed), but that was only because he was
waiting for his father to pick him up and she was waiting for hers. When
the time had come for them to leave she strangely felt both satisfied and
regretful at the same time.
Behind Ryunosuke was Yoshimi, another shy girl, but unlike Rei she
was properly shy. Which was to say that she was shy as was required of a
proper young lady, whereas Rei was simply plain-vanilla shy. It made
Yoshimi seem demure, while Rei came off as aloof.
And behind Yoshimi was the short Ichinose Kentaro, a rather sullen
boy who cursed his own genetic heritage the way Rei cherished her own. For
such an innocuous-looking boy, though, he had his share of rumors
circulating about him. Some said that he lived with his mother who was
abandoned by his father who disappeared without a trace, which drove his
mother to alcoholism, which in turn made his home existence a miserable
one. Rei knew better than to take those rumors at face value, although
most rumors had a grain of truth in them, no matter how tiny, and so she
took note of it and put it away from her mind, like she did most
everything else.
At that precise moment, Rei turned away from Ryunosuke's gaze.
"Ryunosuke!" the teacher yelled. "Are you paying attention at all?"
"No, sir! I mean, yes, sir!"
"Wrong answer! Here are the pails. You know what to do. Take two
and..."
But before the professor could finish Ryunosuke took four in each
hand and two with his teeth and exited into the hallway.
"What's the point?" Kentaro muttered. "He could carry a hundred
gallons, no sweat. What's ten pails?"
Yoshimi giggled, covering her mouth with her right hand and facing
front, bravely trying to keep her composure.
Rei blinked, felt like she wanted to do something, but because she
wasn't exactly certain of what was proper to do she did nothing. Instead,
she listened - or tried to listen - to what was left of the lecture.
"Home from work, Ritsuko?"
"Yes, mother," Akagi Ritsuko called back, towards the kitchen. She
took off her shoes and walked toward the sofa, collapsing in a comfortable
heap. Diagnostics. Diagnostics. All she ever did at NERV was diagnostics.
Diagnostics for the MAGI. Diagnostics for the surveillance equipment.
Diagnostics for the Entry Plug circuitry.
She sighed. And now that she was home, her life would be treated to
diagnostics from her mother. She waited for several seconds for the tirade
to begin.
It did, and her mind began to parse. "Did you meet anyone new at
work?"
"No, mother." [New Boy at Work Test: Failed.]
"Is there anyone you particularly like at work?"
"No, mother." [Any Boy at Work Test: Failed.]
"How about Kaji? He seems like a rather nice fellow to me."
"No, mother, he's Misato's." [Old Guy Friend At Work Test: Failed.]
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, mother." [Cyclic Redundancy Check: Failed.]
"But I see the two of you flirting all the time." [Checking Bad
Sectors for Recoverable Data.]
"Trust me, mom. It's harmless flirting. [Primary Check: Failed.]
"How can he be Misato's? They keep fighting with each other."
[Checking Bad Sectors for Recoverable Data.]
"That's the point, mom. They keep fighting. They might as well be
married." [Secondary Check: Failed.]
"How can you say that? Just because they fight all the time doesn't
mean they're meant for each other. Look at Commander Ikari and me in the
past." [Benchmark Testing.]
"Trust me mom. They're hopelessly in love with each other."
[Benchmark Test: Failed.]
"Well, good for them. But, really, Ritsuko! When do you plan on
giving me grandchildren? Why, when I was your age you where... what?
Eight? I remember when..."
Ritsuko sighed and attempted to sleep through the rest of her
mother's speech. [Extracting files from archive.]
"Yui, Dear? It's me, Gendo."
Yui smiled. Gendo knew she did, even over the speakerphone. "Oh,
Gendo! I missed you."
It was enough to make a man believe in the existence of God. "I
missed you too. The kids are fine, I had Misato drive them to school today
because I had an important meeting to attend." He stuck out his tongue and
turned his eyes up at the half-truth.
"Really? I hope we're not imposing on her too much."
"What's to impose on? She's got a car, she was heading that way to
drop off Asuka, anyway."
"Yes, but Honey, you were the one who made her live with Asuka in
the first place."
Gendo grinned. "So I did. What an odd and fortuitous coincidence!"
He stuck his tongue out again.
"Whatever," her heard her say sarcastically, although he could still
hear the grin in her voice. "You'd better not be messing around back there
while I'm gone, buster!"
"Mess around? Me? I'm hurt, Yui, truly hurt."
"Uh-huh."
"No, seriously!" Gendo said, emoting his 'deep emotional distress'.
He staggered back a few steps, clutching at his chest. "Oh, you have cut
me to the core of my very being! Why do my actions inspire so much
distrust in you, my beloved?" He took his glasses off and threw them on
top of his desk in one single motion, with a flourish, openly 'weeping'
into his other hand. "How could I possibly even look at other women while
I have you, my dearest? It pains me so to hear you say such." He said this
while pretending to faint.
Yui burst out laughing. "Oh, Rokubungi, you're so ridiculous!"
"I try my best," he said, grinning.
"Well, anyway, I'm coming home in a few days with the Fifth Child. I
hope you can control your primal urges until then, or I shall have you
fire Captain Katsuragi and both Dr. Akagi's and replace them with
toothless old spinsters."
"Spinsters? Don't you think that's a bad idea? They might be
desperate enough, you know."
"Oh, stop it, Gendo!" She giggled, always a pleasant thing to hear.
"Well, I'll see you then. Bye, Hon!"
"Bye, dear." Gendo pressed the button and cut off the call. He sat
back down, rested his feet on his desk, and leaned back, hands behind his
head. He sighed to himself in satisfaction.
"Ahem."
He turned to face the source of the noise. "Yes?"
Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki wore a weary and rather sickly look on his
face as he faced Gendo, eyes hooded. "Commander, can I go now?"
To be continued...
=====
w.o.m
TimeRunner's Web Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/7482.
=====
"A little naive? Was that what you were going to say? A little naive?"
"I was going to say a little clueless, but yeah, that about covers it."
- Skuld and Keiichi, "What Wish?"