13.

The masked man sat at the centre table in the small bar. The dim bar lighting played eerily across the figure, who sat in silence amid the music and the clinking of glasses and the muted chatter. The bar, while being situated in the business sector, wasn't much above those that had sprung up in the refugee sector, catering to those who were finding their new life a struggle and needed some escape – without caring much about where that escape came from.

A large coat, almost a cape-coat, covered the figure in darkness from throat to foot, and a full face mask, shaped like a bird's skull, but with a chin plate and no beak, covered his features. His hair was a shock of black, erupting from the cape-coat's high collar like a dark star.

The man had arrived almost an hour ago, but was yet to make any order. He was yet to make any move at all, in fact. The handful of other patrons that hadn't left since the stranger arrived kept their distance, staying to the tables that hugged the walls of the establishment.

"You a cosplayer or something?" asked a tired-eyed waitress as she approached his table. "Missing the rest of your otaku friends?"

The figure made no reply. She frowned.

"Listen, you've got to make an order or my boss is going to get angry," she tried again, holding up a pad of paper and pen. "What would you like? A drink? Alcohol?"

"Asuka Langley Sohryu."

The waitress took a step back, unsettled by the strangely familiar name.

"What?"

"Where can I find Asuka Langley Sohryu," said the man. "Where can I find Misato Katsuragi. Where can I find Maya Ibu –"

"What are you talking about?" replied the waitress, her voice raising in pitch. For some reason she didn't understand, the names frightened her. She took another step back.

"Where is Rei Ayanami?"

The waitress actually gasped, clapping her hands to her mouth. The figure had lifted its head to look at her. Its eyes weren't human. Before she could scream, a hand took her shoulder from behind.

"I'll deal with this, Mitsuki," said her manager, stepping past her. "I think it's time you left my establishment, sir." His voice was iron hard. The masked man had dropped his eyes again to the tabletop, ignoring him.

"Hey mister," called one of the more inebriated customers, "why don't you take that mask off?"

Very slowly, the figure turned it's head to the man that had spoken.

"Hey mister. Why don't you take that mask off?" it rasped.

"I'm not wearing a mask..." replied the customer, looking slightly cowed.

"I think I'd like you to take it off, sir," said the Manager, "I don't like not being able to see the faces of my customers."

"Mr Tanaka, I don't think that's –" began the waitress, looking terrified, but she was cut short by another customer.

"Why don't you do what the man says?" he called.

"Yeah, take it off!" said another. Neither received a direct reply. Instead the masked man returned his gaze to the table top in front of him.

"Where can I find Asuka Langley Sohryu," he repeated.

A large man sitting at one of the corner tables stood.

"I know her," he said, "but why should I tell you anything? You look like a madman! What are you, some hikky-otaku-scumbag? Have you got some sick fetish going on with that cloak and mask stuff?"

The large man was muscular and a good foot taller than the cloaked figure. He looked like he could have taken anyone in the bar in a fight and washed the blood down with a bottle of beer. But as he stepped towards the figure and reached a hand out to grasp his shoulder, there was a grey flash and suddenly his hand was flying across the room in a spray of claret blood.

The big man screamed and dropped to his knees, clutching the stump of his wrist. Everyone else froze in utter shock, as words of disbelief began to issue from somewhere in the room.

"What the f –"

The cape-coat was shifting, billowing like it was caught in an updraught, though the bar air was still and stale. Suddenly the room erupted. The walls, the floor, the tables, the patrons, the manager and the waitress, all came apart as if sliced by a million blades all at once. Chaos filled the room in a hurricane of movement, and at its eye was the masked man. Then as quickly as it started, the room returned to stillness. Wreckage clattered and human remains fell wetly to the scarred floor, great gashes rent the walls, furniture was smashed to matchwood. Only the dark figure and the big man remained untouched.

The masked man turned to the shocked and bleeding man.

"You know where Asuka Langley Sohryu is?" it rasped. The man nodded, in utter shock. He was going pale from blood loss as it pumped from the stub of his forearm, but the pain didn't seem to penetrate his fear.

"I – I – I work – work with her..."

A strange sound came from behind the mask, as if whatever was behind it was hacking or gulping or both. It was a greedy sound.

"Take me to her."

End of book 1.