And moving on:

---
His Soul Is Marching On
---
A _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ (_Eva_) fanfic by Paul Corrigan

The first real difference I had with Misato Katsuragi--not the petty
squabbles that roommates have, though you may trust me that Misato's

slovenly

habits ensured we had plenty of those--was because, of all things, of

Second

Impact. It makes sense. Everything to do with Misato had something to do

with

Second Impact.

First person. That will help with the grammar and such.

The first conversation we had had to do with Second Impact. It was
actually at the posting of the results of the entrance exams for Kyoto
University. I was suitably pleased to have gotten in, but the girl with

the

long hair next to me, wearing slacks and a T-shirt emblazoned with a

picture

of Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster,

Don't even want to know

 was literally jumping for joy.

I recall her saying, "Mission accomplished!"

"You sound pleased as punch," I said.

"And you use horrible cliches," she responded

She remembered herself, and stopped jumping, but she still was smiling.
"Oh. Yeah. You can tell?"

After the mutual introductions I naturally asked, "So what department
do you plan to join?"

"Poli-sci.

"So you're going to become a burger flipper," I answered.

"Wow. You must be really smart, Ritsuko."

I'm sure I blushed. "I like to think so. So, what do you want to do
with your life?"

"Secretly wallow in angst and die young as I fail to save the world."

"Then you've come to the right place."

Misato's expression darkened. "Worked."

"Oh. Who?"

"My my father.

My... My (Or something to indicate the stuttering)

What can I say? I couldn't help but like her--well--bubbliness at once.
Who was it said that opposites attract?

Some idiot that tried a really weak line on a girl that wanted nothing to do
with him. Don't kid yourself. Like attracts like. It's only in very rare
circumstances that opposties get along for any real length of time, and even
then there tends to be a lot of common ground that isn't readily apparent.

(I was doing this, I should explain, to aid mother in her research; I
was getting my degree mostly for appearance's sake, because by the time I

got

into Kyoto U I already had what amounted to a decent medical school
education. One thing I will say for mother, she taught me everything she
knew, and that was plenty. I was probably spending as little time on my
actual coursework as Misato, if not less.)

Nice touch.

Misato always turned her back to me when changing. That had struck me
as shyness uncharacteristic for her--she was quite proud of her figure,

and

made sure I knew it in no uncertain terms

usually it was when she came on to me, but I wasn't into that whole yuri
scene.

She laughed harshly. "Gad, will ya listen to yerself? 'I beg your
pardon, Miss Katsuragi! I saw something not appropriate for mixed

company!'

Jesus Christ...Ritsuko, you're something else, you know that?"

I swallowed hard. "You got that scar in Second Impact, didn't you?"

Misato: Actually, I was running with a pencil in my hand and tripped. You'll
notice I only use pens now.

I was actually glad, after a fashion, that he's relieved me of the duty
of bringing it up, but still I couldn't help but ask:

"Are you sure you want to?"

Probably not since she keeps evading the question.

So I finally sat down beside her on the futon and told her, "During the
Second Impact I was safely tucked away in the GEHIRN headquarters in what
they call the 'Geofront,' several kilometers below the earth in the area

of

Tokyo-3. That is, when it happened I was probably in the safest place on
Earth a civilian could have hoped to be. I was given the gory details by a
co-worker of my mother. Dr. Yui Ikari, may she rest in peace."

More likely burn in hell, truth be told. :)

"Did her husband..."

"No!" I spoke a bit too sharply. "No. He had nothing to do with it. The
man was never the same after that. They were inseparable, you know. Poor
fellow probably depended on her for everything."

Ritsuko: Sometimes I think I should sleep with him to comfort him.

I looked at the can, rather astonished. "Your Guinness stash?"

"'Guinness is good for you.' Is what Mom used to say."

"I thought you said if I ever touched your Guinness you'd hunt me down
like a dog and administer heaven's punishment?"

Misato: Of course. Why do you think I handed it to you? It's not like I can
tell you this and leave you alive, you know.

"What did you write?"

"We were supposed to write a page, but I only wrote a few sentences. It
went something like: 'I do not know what I want to do. My father works all
the time and never comes home. I don't want to be like that. My mother

sits

at home and does nothing all day. I don't want to be like that either.'

Heh. Consice and to the point.

"Yeah, really."

"So...why did you tell me that just now?"

"Because," said Misato after a lengthy swig, resuming her narrative,
"the reason I was in Antarctica in the first place was that when Mom

finally

got her divorce from my father, she got alimony okay, but he got me. Guy
lived in a world of his own.

Odd. He didn't seem to be that interested in her from what Misato has said.

"To keep from going nuts? That was a tough job, let me tell you. The
time I wasn't taking junior high school courses on line I'd spend hanging
around in me and My

my

"So I looked and I looked well, and I looked at his face and I looked
at his arms as they placed me in the capsule. He," said Misato, her voice
trembling a bit here, "had had most of his skin burned off his face in the
explosion. There was some hanging off him, like in those pictures of

victims

of firebombings during the wars after Impact. Skin, hell. I'm sure I saw

bone

sticking out from his arms. He'd had flesh ripped off. He was a mass of
blood. Probably if he'd been able to get to a hospital in time he mightn't
have made it, he looked so bad. Not quite a dead man walking, I guess. He
lived long enough to get me somewhere he figured I'd have a chance of

making

it. But he literally looked like he'd been cast into hell and roasted over
the coals a few times.

Pretty grusome

"Cut it out!" Misato took another swig, then moderated her tone.
"Listen. I am _not_ going to cry. I am not going to stop talking about

this.

I tried stopping talking for two years, I tried cowering in fear for two
years. It didn't do me any good. No more."

---
The woman saw all, then she saw nothing.

That line, offset, seems out of place.

"And then I heard a scream, like the cry of an enormous bird or
something, and out of the cloud I saw some _thing_ emerge from it. Some
enormous thing with huge wings without feathers, like a bat. Actually, I
couldn't see its body--the wings were all I could really see. The body was
still hidden in the cloud. Thing was I could only really see the wings
because the edges of its wings glowed white, like a neon lamp. I don't

know

what it looked like. It looked literally like a bat out of hell, or a

demon,

or--"

"An angel?"

Nice. Effective imagery.

My interruption apparently aroused Misato's curiosity. "A what?"

"That's what Kyoko Zeppelin called it. SHe

She

"So when I looked up and they weren't there I guess I got my first clue
that something really was wrong.

"And then I didn't see anything at all."

Hmm

"And the second guy goes, 'They're shoes worth filling. He did
everything his faculties allowed to prevent Second Impact. We owe it to

him

to make sure nothing like Second Impact never happens again.'

"Now here's the thing. Nobody, and I mean nobody, had ever told me
what, if anything, GEHIRN and my father actually did. So I said, 'I want

to

help.'

Hmm. Nice

"So what? This is all about avenging your father?"

"No shit, Sherlock! That and a million other things like staying alive!
Of course you didn't have to worry about staying alive because you were

safe

in you goddamn bunker with your mom and all her pals and got to watch the
whole thing on TV while some of us literally got cast into _hell_! If

you're

not going to help, then at least stay out of my way, because if you think

you

can talk me out of this you've got another thing coming!"

Heh. Nice. Very emotional speech

Kaji paused a moment. "Empathy really never was your strong point, was
it, Ritchan?"

Heh

"I'm afraid it doesn't exactly run in the family," I shot back. "And
don't call me Ritchan."

"As you please, Ritchan."

"Oh, stop it, Kaji. You're not helping."

"Neither are you."

Nice return

Nice work. Enjoyed it. Nice look into Ritsuko and Misato's mindsets. It
worked for me.

D.B. Sommer



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