Finally after so long I get the third chapter up. A coalescence of laziness, writer's block, finals, and more laziness postponed its production. As I've said previously, please do continue to review, and criticize (constructively) on my work.
Also, I'd like to thank One Man Geek Squad for really helping me out. I do recommend him for those who need their Eva fics beta-ed.
Now without further ado, enjoy
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It was 3:00 in the morning, but Shinji wasn't able to sleep. He crept out of bed and into the living room where Misato lay, snoring tremendously. Beer cans surrounded her and her computer from which she worked. Shinji eyed her seductive body, yet dismissed the thought in a flash, cursing at himself in the process. He depressed the button that lead to the outside world and slipped into the unknown.
"I shouldn't be here. I should be out working with SEELE. But something is telling me to stay. I could just as easily run away," Shinji thought to himself briefly.
The streets were still slightly busy with electric cars humming past. It had started to drizzle, and the ground had an even coating of rain. The drops of rain accumulated on top of Shinji's hair, glistening every time light shone upon it. Lights from the center of Tokyo 3 could be seen from his position. There was also a construction site was visible to the far right of his apartment complex. He strolled around the area that he reluctantly had to call home. After a while, he ended up in a small park, surrounded by small trees and shrubs.
There was a fountain in the center. It hadn't been working for a while, considering the fact that a heavy coating of wet leaves had formed inside the individual concrete bowls. He sat down on a damp, wooden bench that faced the fountain as he took in the sights, the smells, the lukewarm rain that dropped every now and then on his face, even the twinkles of light that emanated from the city through the tangles of leaves and branches. So different from the headquarters of SEELE.
He sat in silence, with his hands clasped together as in prayer, or as the way his father would do. He sat motionless for some time until he shifted his position. This ended up with him facing Rei Ayanami. It was drastically different, seeing Rei here, and seeing the same girl on a gurney hooked up to hospital IVs covered in bandages. They locked eyes for a moment. Neither of them said a word. Her bandages were now were reduced to a covering over her right eye and a heavy cast which prevented her from doing anything that involved her right arm. The long gaze between the two ceased when Rei brought herself up from her seat and began to walk back the way she supposedly came from.
Shinji got up from the bench and reached his hand out as if to grab Rei in mid-stride.
"Where are you going?" His question came out a little squeaky.
What? My voice... what happened there? He steadied his voice, and asked again, "Where are you going?"
Rei turned to look at him.
"That is none of your business, Ikari."
The use of his surname surprised the boy. He was even more surprised that this girl hadn't even given his question a thought.
"Where I go and what I do should not matter to you. Worry about yourself," said the girl.
Shinji watched the girl depart.
Shinji exited the elevator of his new home and rummaged through his pocket for his cellphone. He tossed out lint which collected at the bottom of the pocket and came across a small bump along the lining of his jeans. No one would have been able to find it, unless they put on the jeans themselves. He ripped the seams with a piece of broken concrete and pulled out a small bead no larger than grain of rice. It was blinking a faint red. Shinji immediately knew what it was.
"Hmph. A military grade, elevation measuring RFID. So they even have tracking devices in my clothes." He scoffed at the fact and tossed it over the concrete railing.
"They think they're so slick. Nobody tracks Shinji Ikari,"
He kept on walking and Misato, still in her skimpy shorts and tank-top shirt, sprinted past Shinji without second thought. Only after two strides did she finally recognize her roommate. She skidded to a halt and twirled around to face Shinji. Her eyes were wide and her breathing heavy, "Wha- Shinji?" She scanned the boy until she noticed the rip in his jeans,
"So, you found it? I was hoping you wouldn't." Her breathing slowed as she ruffled her long, purple hair.
"You should find better hiding spots." Shinji said. "Even a child would have been able to find it."
Misato sighed. "Just go to bed. You have school in four hours." She pointed sharply towards the doors to their apartment. Shinji frowned at the fact of having to go to school with people. "Why should I need to go? I already know everything that they're going to teach us."
"It's mandatory," Misato said angrily.
Shinji walked over to his door and slammed it behind him. He fell down on his mattress, instantly falling asleep.
School in the city was as horrible as Shinji expected. The hallways were crowded, most of his teachers seemed to have been born in the Stone Age, and everyone was talkative. Shinji maneuvered his way through the thick cloud of students until he reached his classroom. His new classmates had already been seated, and the teacher had already given the students a heads up that a new student would be entering their class. The whole room gave off the brilliant red color of the NERV laptops. Shinji walked to the front of the room, and stood next to his name on the blackboard. The teacher had even written his name wrong, using Katakana instead of Hiragana.
Fools. My intelligence is more than all teachers in this entire building. And NERV expects me to learn from these idiots?
"This is Shinji Ikari," the teacher explained with the most amount of enthusiasm he could muster. "He moved from-."
Shinji rubbed the back of his head along with the accompanied sigh and said, "That information is not allowed to be disclosed."
"Oh. Well, please welcome Shinji Ikari to his new school." He paused as he scanned the room for someone. "Ah! If you have any questions, go ask the class president, Hikari Hokari. She'll tell you about anything that you need to know. Now with all this done, your seat is the fourth down next to the window." With that, he bowed towards the class and towards the teacher and made his way to his desk.
Shinji looked at Hikari. She was a girl with dark brown hair, and pigtails tied off with beaded hairbands. The girl looked barely intelligent.
School was a bore for Shinji. The teacher blabbed on about Second Impact. How the majority of the world's population was killed, resulting in the melting of the ice caps. How they were trying to prevent a third one with top-secret weapons. All of it gave Shinji a headache. He looked out the window every now and then, so that the teacher wouldn't expect him to be daydreaming. This continued for the next two and a half hours until lunch. His stomach growled every now and then for a fitting meal, since his breakfast had been half-cooked ramen. Bad tasting ramen, at that. Which never happens.
During the monotonous lecture on the Second Impact, a little blip indicating an instant message appeared on his laptop screen. The caller was listed as 'Anonymous' but he could tell it was from someone who was in the classroom.
"Shinji, rumor has it that you're guy that piloted the Eva. Is it true?" it read out.
Shinji closed the window and continued his preordained activity. The blip on the screen appeared again, and Shinji wasn't too pleased.
He opened it, reading, "Don't close the window! I just wanted to know."
He closed the window a second time and just as fast as he closed it, another popped up. "Just answer the question or I'll continue spamming!" More windows started popping up.
Shinji finally started to type out of frustration by saying, "You're not going to get an answer out of me." In a few seconds his screen began opening even more new windows and making little blips across the screen.
He was really fed up with these messages. "Fine! I piloted the Eva! Are you happy now? Just because I give you an answer doesn't mean it's true!" he typed.
Now, the entire class stood up in excitement. In no less than a couple of seconds he was surrounded by all thirty of his classmates asking him questions and shouting words like "Awesome!" "Cool!" and "What happened that day anyway?"
Almost like ants scurrying away from being sprayed, the crowd quickly disbanded as the bell rung for lunch. Shinji sat a this desk for a while until he finally realized everyone was listening in on his conversation. He was getting up when one of his classmates with a stern face walked up to him.
"My name's Toji Suzuhara," he said. His black hair was combed forward in a do not mess with me or I will kill you now hairstyle. "I have some business to take care of and it involves you. Let's go outside." The attitude he portrayed wasn't in the slightest joyful. His face was stern and could be read as easily as a child's book.
Behind the jock was a sort of scruffy looking kid with large, stereotypical, round glasses, freckles, and ruffled dirty-blond hair; your average looking nerd. Shinji came to the conclusion that this "underling" was either the jocks friend or he did the jocks bidding. Probably the latter.
"What do you want?" Shinji lifted his eyes toward his new adversary with a malicious glare.
"I just want to have a talk with you. Outside, or at least out in the hall."
"Does the rooftop work for you?"
The sky was a bright shade of blue. Thick clouds rolled across the deep blue sky, blocking direct sunlight. The wind kicked up and tousled around the uniforms of Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke. Shinji and Toji were less than a single stride from each other and Kensuke was practically hiding behind his "master".
"So, are you going to say anything? Or are you going to just stand there trying to make yourself look cool?" Shinji blatantly insulted Toji, who just scoffed at the insult.
After a few seconds, he began to circle Shinji and at the same time said, "A couple days ago when you trashed the city, my sister was in one of the buildings that you smashed. Thankfully she's alive, but I don't know for how long." Each time he encircled Shinji, he came closer to him.
Shinji stood his ground and gave his unforgiving glare at Toji. "It's not my fault that your sister has a leg gone or something. Besides, it's not like I even care about your problems." Shinji turned his back to the infuriated Toji and continued to walk to the rooftop's main doors.
Toji aimed for a hard punch to the back of Shinji's head and released.
Shinji was two steps ahead of Toji and spun around. Not only did he dodge Toji's punch, but he grabbed it in the process. His grasp held firm, and then he forced Toji's elbow inward. Something snapped.
With an earsplitting cry, Toji fell to the ground. Shinji walked over to Kensuke, who cowered away from him as if he were some kind of demon.
Shinji squatted down next to the writhing Toji. With cold, harsh eyes and a supple tongue, he said, "It's best not to even think of doing any harm towards me," Shinji stood up from his position and left through the gray, metal doors.
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I hope you enjoyed the quick chapter. With summer coming up pretty soon, more chapters will be produced along with new stories. I'd also appreciate if anyone would like to help with further enhancing this story or The Alabaster Demon.