After Evangelion

Episode 20: Crisis resolution

Rei's eyes fluttered open when the sunlight finally reached the height to brighten the curtains so that one could not fail to notice that it was morning. Her mind was still very much asleep and not even in anyway ready to awaken for another day. She had only really been asleep for a couple of hours, so it was understandable when all her limbs and body suddenly made early protest to Rei's mind about even considering getting out of bed. Instead of opening her eyes fully, she closed them again; and to combat the sunlight and merely turned over. Her mind didn't really shut down though, once it started, it just never stopped. Her mind now awake and with nothing to fill the senses started to think about the 'why' of everything. The first immediate question was: why and how was it she in bed now?

Her mind couldn't quite recall it instantly; it was like a faded photograph. Her mind started however to sift through the archives that were her memories and recalled for her consumption the last 8 hours of her life. It didn't take quite as long as she had hoped, but her mind rarely agreed with her body's desire to just go to sleep again. As with everything in her memory, it started to piece together slowly, single events found their connections with other events and formed a string, and while some people would consider this kind of recollection muddled and confused; to Rei this was quite efficient. Eventually she had recalled all the events and started to view them in order.

The whole race, how could she forget that? It felt like it had been a long battle, despite her memory recalling she had only been on the road for at least 15 minutes before that brutally sudden ending. She needed some resolve to remember the fine details; the start, the whole first 10 or so minutes where Rei was stuck behind Ryosuke who had been teasing her patience, the brief moments on the straightway, her pure stroke of genius that turned the tide of the battle…and the ensuing results. It was then she remembered the crash, or what she recalled of it through the rear view screen of the FC. The stark surreal images engraved into her mind of seeing the Skyline turn on its side and disappear.

How a moment of indecision felt like five minutes before she pulled the hand brake and stopped the car to investigate. Only some sort of weird destined fate could explain why Rei had gotten out, joined up with those two other races that Shinji knew and walked down to where the car ended up. Finally from there, looking at the bloodied up coward who had probably envisioned putting her in coma minutes before…how her mind debated on the ultimate sin and the ultimate forgiveness. In the end, her moral standard to not sink to his level was the only string of conscious thought that made Rei does what she did. Taking him back up to where Ritsuko and Misato were waiting. From there the rest was a blur of events that transpired for the rest of the night.

Upon their return to the hospital, already alerted by Ritsuko who just 'happened to be nearby'; Ryosuke was taken to the trauma section and was put under general anesthetic. It had been the quick action of the local racers would probably be the reason to why Rysouke would not die, but probably at the very least end up a wheel chair. Otherwise Ritsuko found the bleak irony of his final statement before going under was purely profound and had made a note to forward it to Misato. The surgery had lasted into the early hours of the morning, but otherwise successfully kept him alive. The actual injuries he sustained were not all that bad considering, the spine being the most badly damaged. Apart from a broken right leg and some head trauma, his worse injuries had mainly been a minor puncture in his left lung that a cracked rib had managed to cause. Internal bleeding had been stopped, but otherwise further treatment for possible spine damage was over the limits of the local hospital.

In waning hours after his initial surgery, a VTOL craft from Tokyo-2 general hospital handed on the roof helipad…a rarely used part of the building and took aboard its passenger for the one hour flight back to Tokyo-2. Ritsuko had gone upstairs and watched the lift off on the roof, knowing that this was the final time she'd have to see the wimp. His promise that this would be the last time they'd see each other would probably be true. Despite all of that, Ritsuko had noted with some small admiration that it was Rei's actions who had finally forced him to give up his threats.

It was only after they all learnt that he would live that Keiichi and Sosuske had then both muttered some mild obscenities as Rei had explained in Ritsuko's office the circumstances of the first ramming, the blocking, and the whole first half of the race. For what he did, being alive was really too much for him, they had even wanted to go up and pull the cords out before the VTOL arrived. But it was Sosuske, not Keiichi who understood the entire depth of Ryosuke's agreement; a promise to never return was in a sense the noblest thing he could've ever said…and this was coming from the guy who ran Sosuske off the road. Both of them left the hospital in the early hours of the morning, agreeing that the night had been one interesting series of events. Keiichi Yamazaki got in his car at around three that morning for the drive back to an inn he had booked himself into in central Karasuyama-2, Sousuke merely drove home.

Misato then had taken Rei home; the reason was that it was now three in the morning and they had a delivery in an hour. Finally alone with her, Misato had done her best while sleep deprived herself to congratulate her on the win…but even Rei could see Misato was still undecided emotionally between the fantastic feeling of winning against Ryosuke and the guilty feeling that he had almost died. In the end, it was down to what Rei had said about his promise to them while strapped to his wrecked GTR-32. Some strange sense of irony or…something, Misato probably wouldn't think of the right word to describe this for weeks. But it was an awful convenience that would only be confirmed in the time after Ryosuke woke up.

On her return home, Misato despite herself being awake over a day and badly needing coffee; elected to stay awake and do the delivery. It was a generous offer, if not worrisome one that was met with concern for a second. After Misato had assured her driving would be at a slow and safe pace; Rei took at value her word and proceeded to drop into bed and go to sleep…almost a day after she had woken up.

'What is going to happen now?' Rei asked herself, her mind now spooled back to the present after her puzzle 'is there something I need…I should do?'

Despite the previous protest of her body, Rei's mind had decided and ordered itself awake. Her mind had decided with a simple decision to just wake up, and with that the guilty pleasures of sleeping in more died away. It took Rei a moment to gain her bearings; she had woken up in a state little removed from a hangover. Looking around on the floor, Rei had found what she had worn last night; those clothes Misato had bought for her first race. She ignored that for the moment and walked sluggishly towards to the full length mirror that was planted on the back of the door, with that Rei had a good look at herself for the first time today.

Her first good look only repeated the same question she asked before she arose from bed. Naked in only her bra and panties, her first irrelevant thought was the strap on her bra had come loose and corrected it. That thought aside, Rei had a good inspection; no scars, no bruises, nothing to indicate she got hurt. She was fine. After staring at herself to answer the immediate questions relating to last night, she asked herself the questions from before. What should she do now?

Without thinking consciously of the action, Rei felt her forehead and then followed the strains of her hair down to the end. Her hair was a lot longer then what it was in her NERV days, grown out to shoulder length now, people had commented that it made Rei look…cooler. Why was longer hair cooler? Didn't it mean that she needed to expend more shampoo and conditioner to clean it?

Rei ignored that thought, it wasn't answering her questions. Today was Sunday, and her school uniform was useless. But for some reason Rei didn't feel like today was a day to stay at home. She turned her attention to the clothes on the floor. On top of the school uniform that Rei had forgotten to hang and/or place in the laundry basket, her only other clothes she had besides the ratty hand-me-downs she had in her suitcase. Rei sat on her bed and reached to pick up the aqua blue cotton top with the long sleeves and black trousers.

She decided against the jacket, there was no point, even if was a little chilly today. Rei was sure, not even by smelling for it, that there was the dry blood of Ryosuke on it. In a few more moments, Rei had subconsciously decided on what she would do for the day, with that she stood up after dumping the clothes back on the bed to first shower before getting ready to leave.

Ritsuko collapsed onto her couch and just let her body escape to the comforting relaxing realm of sleep. She had been up a full 28 hours now and her body functions were no longer capable of rational thought, despite her earnest attempts to be as such. She managed to supervise the surgery on Ryosuke and then the departure of him via the VTOL taking him away from her and her life here. Ritsuko decided there was no harm in what she was going, letting him go, and after doing that and sitting through a surgery debrief session and then a Sunday daily brief, something she did first thing every day, Ritsuko decided sleep was needed.

In her own selfishness…if one could call it that she commandeered a couple of blankets for an impromptu bed on the couch. Discarding her shirt and jeans, she'd been wearing since yesterday, she feel asleep…assuming she'd get at least a good sleep through this, at least it was more comfortable than sleeping on the floor of Misato's room. However, for as long as she hoped that her staff would follow her orders, even one would have to bend the rules, because she had left a little clause in her orders to allow for people needing to call her.

"Dr. Akagi?"

"What!?" she sharply hissed in a angry tone "this better be important"

Ritsuko draped the blanket around her, rather than put her pants on, it still left her front open, but the nurse wouldn't mind, she was only going to open the door a crack anyway.

"Phone message for you" the assistant nurse frightened at the wrath her boss was showing, handed a phone slip forward.

The nurse had seen people in the nude before, but somehow seeing her supervisor in only undergarments and only covered in a blanket seemed to be both humorous and disturbing to the young woman.

"Is that it? You woke me up for that?"

"Yes Doctor, the person said that you should read this straight away, and that he didn't give a rats if you were sleeping or in surgery"

"Fine" Ritsuko took the paper and slammed the door.

Ritsuko went back to her couch to try again fall asleep, falling back down again, she noted to herself why this couch wasn't a fold out bed. Surely she would remember to change this, after all her body was delicate and doctors were expected to sleep in their offices. The middle age woman picked up her present from the frightened nurse to see what it said.

It's arriving tomorrow, sorry for the delay

Ritsuko didn't know what the hell that meant… she thought; her assistant had woken her up for nothing. She would need to moderate her to remember to ask who was calling next time and that wasting her valuable time wasn't helpful. Ritsuko discarded the paper by letting it fall to the ground, turned over on her couch and fell asleep. It was only because of her assumed lack of rational thought that Ritsuko didn't know the importance of this paper slip.

"So tired..." Kensuke yawned as he sat at the counter "Asisaka, you awake?"

The two of them had their heads on the counter, half awake, both tired out of their minds. The subtle sublime comedy in their motions would have merited inspiration for a few panels of a manga. Asisaka was unable to decide for herself the nature of the day ahead, she had literally been up all day, and Kensuke was in the same state of affairs.

"Want to sneak out and buy some coffee?" Kensuke said, not even lifting his head to speak.

"I can't do that…" Asisaka replied in the exact same manner.

The two of them had their own thoughts of what to do today, Asisaka wanted to propose a shift system that she had used to help Shinji, but Kensuke was thinking that for as long as they kept talking, they wouldn't fall asleep. It was maybe because of the sound of their own thoughts or maybe just because they were just too tired to hear any more suggestions…they had failed to notice Rei enter the store and walk up to the counter.

"Are you sleeping?"

The brittle, cold, monotone voice of Rei was like an electrical shock for the two of them, Asisaka beat Kensuke to sitting upright, but it was he who spoke first.

"Rei?!" Kensuke gasped "…what are you doing here?"

A question that even Rei didn't know the answer to; she had started to compose the rational to why she had appeared here…the obvious default was her 'adventures' always started here…usually because Shinji was here…but he wasn't…so why did she come here instead of the hospital? The blank expression and the impending silence told Kensuke that Rei had absolutely no clue why she had come up. But it wasn't really her fault he knew… Rei's mindset was formed from habits and she obviously came here because…she followed Shinji…and Shinji usually came here in the mornings on a weekend…and somehow she had come here out of habit…but…

"I take it your just getting out and about right?" Asisaka offered, noting that even Kensuke had frozen up in thought trying to determine what it was Rei was thinking.

"I don't know"

The reply made Asisaka think…and now all three of them were confused on a subject that was very simple to answer had Rei had the cognitive ability to reply to it. The simple irony in asking Rei simple questions was one indeed too confusing, and sometimes with the right sense of humor, interesting

"I take it you just came here on a whim then, right?" Kensuke replied,

"I think so"

'We're not getting anywhere with this' Asisaka sighed, already the energy draining from her again. Shock only had so much effect before one returns to their previous state of normality.

"Isn't it a bad idea to be at the store barely awake?"

"Yeah…but with Shinji in hospital, and that whole thing last night…" Kensuke replied.

Rei thought about this kind of situation, applied her learned lessons from manga…the ones that didn't imply nudity as an answer, and replied in kind.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Kensuke thought of it first, then looked to Asisaka for approval, he didn't know from here eyes if she got it, but he ran with it anyway

"There is something you can do for us actually…a favor really"

"A favor?"

"Yes?" Kensuke replied, his idea now having the speed to achieve flight "me and Asisaka can't leave the store, but can you run down the road and get us some hot coffee?"

"I guess I can…" Rei replied before reaching for her wallet to see if she could afford it, Kensuke waved her off when she made the motion and opened the till to take out 1000yen. Asisaka felt a little ashamed at the idea, but had approved when she thought it through, their problem of a second ago solved by the mere chance visit of Shinji's sister.

"What do I have to get?" Rei asked

A brief description followed which then resulted in Kensuke writing down the order since he was sure somehow that Rei would forget. After that complication was past, Rei was out the door and walking towards the closest 7-11 store she knew about.

Misato only planned to be asleep for several hours, so when her phone went off, her eyes snapped open like mousetraps and gave her the immediate task of finding that infernal noise and shutting it off, preferably for good. After five seconds of isolating the noise, she figured…correctly it was on the kitchen table, and moved her whole body in that general direction, that there was the back of the couch between her and that infernal light source didn't seem to occur to her, and the result was a very unceremonious fall to the ground followed by a mild curse oddly appropriate for the moment.

Crawling on all fours like an animal or a toddler, Misato finally reached the table and after two unsuccessful grabs on the table for the device, she caught it and killed the screeching noise. The task now was to stay awake, this Misato did, staring back up at the ceiling…until she realized it was just the underside of the table. Her headache was back and she did not relish the idea of getting up now since it would require more effort now. None the less Misato had a business to run and even today she knew the store would be closed today while she accessed herself and her friends for what to do next.

After a concerted effort at getting up, Misato found herself on her feet, in the bathroom looking at the mirror to see her face for the first time today. It was at the very least not a pretty sight to wake up to say the least. Ignoring the results of the last day and a half, or last few weeks of stress lines; Misato disrobed for the shower. Turning it on for especially hot…it was getting quite cold lately, even for early October the weather was chilly. She leaned her head against the wall and let the waters impact her back and boil out for her the muscle cramps of her back. It wasn't quite therapeutic, but it gave her the same soothing effect that she would experience in the hot springs around Kyoto or anywhere else.

She went to work on her thinking; showers were good for that she knew from long experience, the aroma of steam somehow negated creating a bigger headache. Her first task would be to go to Ritsuko for an update on Shinji and other business. Then probably to Ryosuke…thank him for his efforts and appreciation for him to stay on their side. Then what…I guess by then it'll be afternoon and the hotels along the mountain road would expect their daily shipment; she would do that again, unless Rei was up to it. Misato wondered about that and stopped the shower, grabbed her towel, and without drying off she walked from the bathroom to Rei…Shinji's room.

Hindsight made Misato wish she had dried off since now with water on her skin to interact with the cold air of her home, she felt even colder than she did when she woke up. But it wasn't so intolerable that she didn't return to the bathroom and dry off. Opening the door to her room slowly, first to see if Rei was still sleeping…then fully to see she wasn't even home. Now wasn't that strange, Rei didn't even leave a note or anything…did she? Misato turned her head to the kitchen table, no message. Maybe Rei thought that she'd only be out long enough to be home before I woke up. None the less the questions weren't making her warmer and Misato finally succumb to returning to the warmer bedroom she lived in to dry off. After a few minutes she was dressed in fresh, unscrambled clothing and now looked something approaching civilized. With that accomplished, she returned to the kitchen in search of her next priority of requirements.

There was sadly no supply of leftovers in the fridge to have at, in fact she needed to go shopping, ever since Shinji was in coma, the three of them had expended the reserves of food that he usually acquired. Misato thought then just how funny it was for everything to rely on Shinji doing, and how she never seemed to appreciate it until he was gone. The laundry was piling up, the house was a massive trash bin of strewn clothing and paper plates…they had used up all the real plates awhile ago. And now the food had run out, all she had was the beer she acquired herself, but she needed solid food. Compelled to eat breakfast, she decided on a dime that she would have to eat out this morning.

She returned to her room to grab the jacket, and to her surprise the car keys rattled in her pocket. She must've forgotten to put them on the hook when she got home…and that meant that Rei had forgone the car and just walked somewhere; she wouldn't be gone long therefore. Misato shrugged it off and in a minute she was in the car thinking of either stopping by a 7-11, or going to that western takeout place on her way to the hospital. She decided on the former, cheaper food there and she knew how hard it was to sneak hot food into the hospital. She put the car into motion and was off for the day.

Upon completing the task of delivering the coffee to her friends in the store, they briefly chatted about the previous night and what was happening today, at Asisaka's recommendation, she should see Naoko who was suppose to be on shift today. Walking in the cold air, Rei found herself at the boardwalk and outside the café that Shinji had visited with Naoko last time. On her arrival to here, she found herself wondering why Asisaka had even recommended her to visit Naoko, she was one of Shinji's friends after all and while she had talked to Rei before…they weren't really more than acquaintances.

"Ayanami-san?" a voice came from her side, she only had to turn around to know that it wasn't Naoko speaking

"Sakagami-san"

The girl was standing their with a large paper grocery bag in hand and dressed in a dark grey wool jumper with turtleneck and grey skirt that went down to her knee, completing which were leg-length socks. It took a moment for Rei to realize this was the first time she had seen Sayuri dress in something not a uniform. Rei didn't quite know what to do now, but a response from her was in order, which came in short order.

"What are you doing here?" the question didn't seem to have an edge of tone, but it did appear to have some sort of tone that recognized as the one denoting confusion.

"I don't know" Rei replied honestly, no point in taking time with her reply like before

"I see"

With a simple gesture of the face on Sayuri's part, Rei nodded and the two walked together towards the pathway that would eventually lead them to the hospital, but the two of them found a park bench under a tree just in sight of the store that Rei was standing outside just before and the two of them started to talk again just like they did the day before on a different park bench that both faced the opposite direction and under a different light of the day.

"So you answered all your original questions?"

"Yes"

"And now you have new ones"

"Yes"

The two of them sat their, Sayuri placing her groceries at her side and staring not at Rei but at the store she was standing outside when they bumped into each other. Sayuri herself didn't know how to describe Rei. She had the mixed emotions of a person her age, but the honesty at her own confusion spoke of a person much older then she let on sometimes, and at other times of someone much younger than she appeared. She didn't know how to describe it. Rei at the same time didn't quite how to describe Sayuri, she was very calm, coolheaded, very precise with her motions as she witnessed yesterday during her own solo practice at the sword. More importantly, her advice while cryptic had the unique ability of being understood by Rei when its importance was at the most crucial.

Sayuri then looked at Rei, who too was staring at the store. She had a close look at the eyes, she remembered learning so much from people by the way they looked; Rei's eyes were not afraid of death, not afraid of the usual fears, but she did hide something else; not fear, not concern, not anything human. To be more honest with herself, Sayuri wondered if Rei was even aware of these fears or had remained ignorant of them; if that was the case, she had something that Sayuri had never witnessed before and that had interested her greatly.

"Do these questions relate to what to do now?"

Rei didn't reply for a few seconds, then answered "yes"

"You do the next thing" Sayuri answered "there is always a something after now"

Rei nodded, and pondered what that next thing was for her. After today? She had school tomorrow, maybe that was just it, and she had to just do the next thing in her daily routine. She would probably do the delivery for Misato today and tomorrow, and every day the week, that was just expected for her, at least until Shinji returned from hospital. After that? Another race; unlikely, she had only done it in place of Shinji for this one time and even then, it was for a special reason. Her learning experience from that would not be over for a long time. Was it simply a return to the usual life that Shinji had once lamented over wanting?

Sayuri rarely though out of the abstract and this one though, which she would put down to her curiosity in Rei…resulted in her decision to make this request.

"Come to me after school this week, but after Monday…maybe I can help you again"

"I understand"

"Rei!" came a voice from the direction of the café, it was Naoko.

"I guess I should return home" Sayuri gathered her groceries and stood

"Hey Sayuri! I didn't know you were here too" Naoko replied once she managed to recognize the girl next to Rei. While she was very easy to notice, Sayuri's black hair and dark clothes made her almost invisible against Rei's bright blue hair and bright colors. Sayuri already had her back to Naoko and didn't even reply and just like that she continued apace down the pathway towards her own home.

"How rude, she didn't even say hello" Naoko spoke rather angrily "I can never understand what is going on in her head…can you?" She looked at Rei who still hadn't gotten up from her seat.

"I don't know" Rei simply replied, both lying and telling the truth.

"Asisaka told me that you had gone to my workplace to talk to me…too bad she forgot I wasn't working today"

"I see" Rei finally got off the seat to be able to see Naoko at eye level "I'm just…finding the next thing to do today"

"Well if you want, I'm going to look at new clothes, and by the looks of it, you should come with me, didn't you wear that last night?"

"I did, it's the only thing I have except old clothes"

"Well lets change that" Naoko smiled, already envying her day ahead, she had always wanted to grab either Hikari or Asisaka along on her Sundays off, and somehow going clothes shopping with Rei seemed to be just as interesting.

"Had a good sleep?" Misato joked as she pulled the cover, and to her amusement finding her friend in only her underwear. This resulted in a good chuckle on her part "Even when I slept in the office, I at least kept my clothes on!"

"Shut up…I sleep better this way" Ritsuko grabbed her blouse and proceeded to get dressed. She put on her shirt as well but didn't bother with all the buttons, in front of Misato she didn't need to look professional. Once she was behind her desk, Misato had opened the bag and gave the doctor a bottle of tea. After swallowing down her first swig; Ritsuko started speaking

"Couldn't you have waited until later to bug me?

"It's late already, how much longer did you want me to wait?"

Ritsuko didn't bother rebutting that argument since had nothing in her head to fight back that comment. Before their talk could go any further a knock on the door came, it was the nurse. Misato got up since Ritsuko wasn't even going to bother getting ready for her.

"Here are your meals" the nurse handed her a tray with the two packages, both steaming warm "and can you tell Dr Akagi she has another guest?"

"Oh, who is she?"

"A Mrs. Natsumi Kakizaki" the nurse replied "she said she has business with regards to Ryosuke-sensei this morning"

Misato instantly went on alert; Natsumi Kakizaki was the deputy principal of the high school. Misato nodded and asked for a minute before returning to the desk. By the time the minute passed; Misato had done an impromptu cleanup of the office while Ritsuko had dressed herself more appropriately and behind her desk with the look of a doctor wide awake, just having lunch with an associate.

"You two didn't need to clean up on my part" Natsumi said as she took the other seat in front of the desk "Misato, we've known each other too long for that"

"Wait, you two know each other?" Ritsuko asked, now annoyed at the impromptu orders that Misato said to clean herself up, not that she would have anyway.

"Only for as long as Shinji has been coming to school, me and Misato talked a lot when he was having problems adapting"

"…I see"

"I'm very sorry that I had to call you out on such short notice, and despite the concerning news over your son" she replied with the normal formalities before attaching her own personal thoughts to it, "how is he?"

"He's alright" Misato replied "Dr Akagi can give you better information"

Natsumi turned to face the doctor who then explained that 'yes he is fine' line and it was only a matter of him waking up now.

"I'm actually here because I was told one of the teachers on staff was in an accident last night"

"Ryosuke-sensei?" Ritsuko replied

"Yes…something about a car accident"

"That's correct, he's suffered some minor injuries, but we're concerned about spinal damage so we've sent him to Tokyo-2 to be examined"

"I see" Natsumi said, before making a remark that surprised both of them "we'll, I guess it was a lot better he leave this way"

Neither Misato nor Ritsuko knew what to say in response to that; Natsumi seeing it on their faces decided just to elaborate before they got even more confused.

"What I mean is, I've had a dozen complaints about Ryosuke harassing students, and his arguments with me the other day over the assignments that some students handed in, including your son" Natsumi turned her head to Ritsuko "and your daughter"

"This wouldn't happen to be a history assignment would it?" Misato enquired

"Yes, it is"

"And?" she now worried, Misato knew Natsumi quite well, they hadn't talked for awhile, but they did occasionally run into each other at the supermarket and around town, as well as their bi-annual student-teacher-parent interviews.

"Well, the principal and I have agreed to terminate his contract with us and have his name added to a blacklist for people not suitable for working in a school environment"

"I don't think that will be necessary" Ritsuko replied at the sudden news "before he left, he informed me that he will quit his job"

"Then I guess that makes keeping your big secret a lot easier" Natsumi replied calmly

Both Misato and Ritsuko simply stared at the deputy principal of Karasuyama-2 public high school. Both having struck absolute fear into their spines that expanded to a chilling effect that could've frozen water, neither wanted to even attempt a reply not knowing that their silence alone would just confirm her suspicions. So Ryosuke had told someone…he had lied all along and now his word meant nothing when he woke up in Tokyo-2.

"How long?" Misato asked

"Have I known?" Natsumi asked "close to a year"

Now Misato was confused "…how?"

"Misato, they don't give the job of deputy principal to idiots" Natsumi almost chucked "I put two and two together awhile ago; it was only a year ago when Toji and his family moved here I got confirmation,"

"What do you know?" Ritsuko was more direct,

Natsumi went on to briefly explain what she knew; this included Shinji and Rei as Evangelion pilots, Shinji's blood relations and Rei's technical KIA status and Ritsuko and Misato's former jobs, as well as the details on the real cause of Toji's injuries. At the end of if, Ritsuko was praying that nobody was walking outside the office just then as Natsumi as quietly as possible compromised the information they though safe again no less than five minutes ago. At the end of it, Misato and Ritsuko were both open mouthed and wondered how this was going to play out now. The only seemingly helpful thing from this confession was that Natsumi didn't learn this from Ryosuke, but on her own.

"Who else knows?"

"Only one other person I'm sorry" Natsumi said "Mr. Mardukas"

"That British guy?" Misato said in surprise.

She was referring to the principal that was in charge of the high school last year. The man, who Misato felt was a little too strange in his manners to be an educator was very odd, she had heard he had been in charge of a military school once, and that maybe explained the behavior. In the two or three meetings with him, Misato had always come away from it with the impression that he as a strangely quiet man for his age.

"He said to me that he valued that it remain a secret, he said that in cases like this; it was best for people to remain ignorant"

"Then why are you telling us now?"

"Ryosuke" Natsumi uttered a single word, Misato went silent again "he's started to drop clues to everyone in the faculty, nothing you can connect, but enough to try get some of them into suspecting Shinji on their own"

"That bastard" Ritsuko dropped her head on the table, she knew that Ryosuke keeping silent was too good to be true, even if he didn't just blurt it out, he had left enough of mess behind to-

"I've told the teachers that Ryosuke was lying and baiting students…that what he really was doing was trying to cause distrust among the students" Natsumi responded before the other two came to their own assumptions "the teachers all agree with that line and nobody has gone further with their enquiries"

What Natsumi really had been concerned about was the results of a scandal like this; if one teacher started nosing into the business of the students he or she was suppose to teach, what message would that send? Ryosuke had tried very hard to make other teachers do the same, but faculty knew that nothing good would come out of it and as a result of their protests and had cooperated with the deputy principal, Natsumi then had recommended his dismissal.

"When I leave here, and with your permission, I would like to brief the principal" Natsumi said "I need to tell him now so he knows why Ryosuke raced Rei down Mt Kira road last night"

The second revelation that Natsumi knew about the street race last night, while not as shocking as the previous one, it still all the same gave Misato and Ritsuko the unnecessary shock of their life.

"Now how do you even know that?" Misato said

"You know Takashi Sagara right?" she replied coolly, now starting the enjoyable part of this talk "he's my cousin"

Misato slumped forward in her seat with a face of utter embarrassment and disbelief, it would make no sense for those two to be related, given there was at least eight years of age difference between them. Natsumi then elaborated; a week ago, Takashi had called her and asked if Rei went to her school and then if Ryosuke was teaching at the school. She then learnt of the race planned and how Ryosuke had been responsible for the accidents of the last few weeks. With this new information, Natsumi had spoken with the principal and school director and got them to agree that Ryosuke had to go.

"So what are you going to do now?" Misato asked, knowing that she had all manner reasons to expel both Shinji and Rei; illegal driving, underage driving…and even disrespect to the school if Natsumi really felt like it. It would be a problem either way; it would mean that Shinji would have to move to another town just for an education.

"Nothing"

"Nothing?"

"Misato" Natsumi faced her "nothing good will come out of exposing them to racing, besides the students adore them for it, and if we expel them for something we already knew about, then we would be no better than if we exposed them for being Evangelion pilots"

"I see"

"And as far as this meeting is concerned, I came in to talk to you about a teacher involved in a car accident"

"Which you have…" Ritsuko nodding to their agreement.

And with this simple gesture of good faith, both she and Misato could breathe easier knowing that Natsumi Kakizaki would play ball. With that over, Natsumi concluded matters and with the permission to inform the principal; left the office the same way she entered. Misato didn't quite know how to put it, somehow she expected her to say exactly this, but the revelations were two big hits to her brain that would take all day to heal. Ritsuko felt a similar way, but she was not as naïve as Misato often could be; that deputy principal was one hell of an operator to know what to say to them, that caring look she seemed to have was the perfect poker face for a razor sharp mind.

"You realize that not a lot of people are even going to believe how I know this right?"

"There is that problem"

Asuka and Shinji were back in deep space, the whole exercise of recruiting Shinji to help in her situation had succeeded and Shinji was only going to wake up soon anyway. Asuka had explained…vaguely what was going on with her real life counterpart. She had been travelling yes, but Asuka refused to confirm or deny if it was because of her prospective modeling career.

"Asuka, Hikari isn't going to believe a word I'm going to say"

"Yes she will, just make sure you two are alone though, the last thing I really want is the two other stooges and those two lackeys you picked up to overhear this" Asuka sternly warned him "Hikari will know what the hell I mean anyway"

"Alright, what do you want be to say"

"Kurt"

"Kurt?" Shinji repeated, what the hell did that mean? Shinji's German was pathetic in that he only knew from memory the curses that Asuka used during the war. Was it a person's name? Was it the name of the company that she worked for? Was it a name of a place?

"Just say that and she'll stop lying to you"

"But what does it mean?"

"I can't tell you"

"Yes you can"

"I can't" Asuka turned her back to Shinji, "learning anything else in this place wont give you a reason wake up"

"I'll wake up when you tell me" Shinji replied angrily, now he remembered the other thing about this Asuka; she acted just like a kitsune, she was sly in her secrets.

"No…" Asuka started to fad out right before his eyes "you're going to wake up now"

The person Shinji was talking about was standing outside a changing room patiently wondering how the hell she got dragged into this mess. Hikari had the day off and even for her, slept in until late, only leaving the house just shy of midday, on visiting mecha gamers, he learnt through Asisaka that Naoko and Rei had gone off to clothes shop. This information sent Hikari to spend only half and hour- a small town like Karasuyama-2 didn't offer to a lot of places to go shopping- until she located Rei and Naoko at a clothing store that was fairly priced, but was for Naoko and Hikari on the pricey side of their budgets.

Hikari had entered fearing that maybe Naoko was going to use Rei's money…if she had any, to pay for her clothes. What it had turned out was Naoko genuinely trying to give Rei a new look, similar in style to her garb from last night, but distantly something more her style. But Hikari still didn't trust Naoko, the two of them just didn't see eye to eye on some matters. Hikari the straight-as-an-arrow and Naoko the sporty athletic tomboy who seemed to enjoy the thrills that came with annoying or teasing Hikari whenever she was alone with her.

"Calm down Hikari, even after I pitched it to Rei, she agreed on the idea of new clothes"

"Picked out by you?"

"I have better taste"

"I've known her longer"

The two of them would be at each other's throats all day if this continued and the two returned their attention to the dressing cubical that Rei was haphazardly changing in. She took her time, but soon enough Rei exited, thankfully in something that even Hikari could approve. What was really clear was Naoko was a fashion expert of sorts and was trying to make sure the class representative knew that. Rei was wearing something similar to before, Cotton dark blue and black, and while it was clear Naoko was sticking to a theme, Hikari couldn't see a reason to disagree with the choice in colors. But Hikari couldn't be left undefeated.

"Why are you going with blue?" Hikari started

"It goes with her hair" Naoko replied predictably

"But dark blue and aqua don't go well" Hikari volleyed her second round "did you try silver?"

Rei simply stood there wondering first why they started complaining the moment she left the changing cubical. All morning she had been with Naoko alone until Hikari showed up. She had agreed to the idea mainly because of her previous thought this morning when she got up. It was true that Rei only had clothes suitable for home, and what she was wearing before were her only really suitable clothes for going out and having a normal life. Because of these factors, Rei had agreed and for the past several hours, she has towed along in Naoko's wake to three stores now wondering if Naoko had a clue what was best suited for her.

She had seemed to pick things that looked similar at a start; she had experimented with every base color, discovering along the way that Rei didn't work in the color red, that she didn't mind green, but she always looked…innocent and quaint in blue. Yellow was too loud for Rei, even Naoko knew that and the one experiment at pink only resulted in a laughing fit from the tomboy that it took her all of five minutes to recover her composure.

While Rei stood their awaiting comments she had been receiving all morning from Naoko about her look, with Hikari here now, she was about to witness a very different kind of battle. Not as bloody or violent neither as an Evangelion-angel fight nor as tense or heart pounding as a street race like the one last night; this was two women's egos exchanging shots in a general melee that promised not to be pleasant.

"Silver? Are you joking?!" Naoko replied in surprise "how depressing do you want to look"

"It's not grey, its silver"

"No, its depressing that's what it is"

"What Rei needs is cool colors; dark green and whites"

"She already wears that at school you dummy, what she needs is blues and black"

"Black? Who is being depressing now?"

"You got a better idea?"

"Yes, have you tried earth colors?"

"What, so she looks like she was rolling in the mud?"

Rei just stood there, wondering if there was really a need for this on going fight, just to decide on what clothes she should wear. What was wrong with her original clothes anyway? Aqua blue wool jumper and black trousers, they were pretty much the base of her. Without even attempting to listen in, she had decided that the argument was not something she could learn from, she wondered off on her own, returning to the stall where she saw something that caught her interest, but she couldn't really say anything to Naoko who seemed so engrossed on picking clothes for her that attempting to ask might have gotten a sharp rebuke.

Rei despite her lack of attention to the argument had taken some of the things Hikari and Naoko said, and complied that to the morning lesson so far, looking towards the shelves, she picked out her own selection and returned the cubical. She stripped down again and changed her clothes the ones she picked out for herself, a few minutes later, she emerged from the cubical wearing a dark silver Skirt that went almost down to her knee and a white-silver long sleeve cotton top. Navy blue knee length socks finished the look. It wasn't cold enough to put on a jacket, which she had picked out a dark blue one. Standing there in her new outfit, she tuned back into the argument that had never even stopped.

"Hikari, maybe it's because Rei doesn't look good in red…it clashes with her hair too much"

"I'm not saying deep red, I'm saying lighter, like pink"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding!" Naoko almost burst into laughter "trust me; she doesn't look good in pink!"

"Um…you two?"

"What?" both of them turned their heads and both were shocked to find that Rei was not dressed in the outfit that Naoko had selected for her anymore

"Naoko-san…I know you like the other outfit, but I was wondering…how do I look in this?"

Both of them were wide eyed and shocked, both at themselves for not noticing that Rei had walked off, changed, but that Rei actually looked… cool in that. Naoko suddenly wondered how the hell she had missed it; it was the icy cool look that made Rei her…and Hikari was right cool dark colors and white worked for her…not that she would ever want to admit that. Both of them looked at each other and decided that their ensuing five minutes of argument had only proven how much of an idiot they both were.

"It looks great…" Naoko first spoke

"Yeah…but should try a few dresses" Hikari replied, really referring to the type that she was wearing, one could wear over a shirt under as sleeves.

In the end, Rei left the store with her outfit she managed to work out, the previous dark-blue black one that she was wearing and several navy blue to silver dresses that Hikari had recommended. In all, a rather quick end to a very long process that amazingly Rei was able to afford. Misato had given Rei some money for going out, but the amount had until now exceeded the required. Hikari had wondered if maybe it was an indirect message from the two older women for Rei to buy her own clothes, if so; it had finally been accomplished.

The three of them walked back down the road, deciding for the rest of the day to just hang out by the boardwalk and remembering that Rei not only needed to dress like a normal person, but following on from Shinji hardened lessons, Rei also needed to learn how to be a normal person. Hikari didn't quite know how to describe the situation, it was odd, for the first time ever; Rei was doing something she considered normal- well, not normal as in every day tasks, but something that was considered normal on the social pane. The three of them had ended up, strangely enough, at the restaurant that Naoko worked at.

The tomboy remembered the last time Rei visited this place how she expertly lied her way through her questioning and walked away without so much as a smirk. She did remember however how Shinji felt like he was having a heart attack and felt afraid of the things she could have said…that was of course before Naoko found out about the whole ordeal, no less then a few days after he had promised her to explain it all…one day. Naoko wondered how Shinji would react when he learnt that she now knew.

On a dare of sorts by Naoko, Rei had gotten a chocolate milkshake while both Hikari and Naoko had ordered something more…adult, though on seeing the milkshake, Hikari had regretted the choice she made and for once wished she hadn't she didn't feel a need to act mature around girls her own age. Naoko regretted too, but then again it was because she was paying…Hikari's enforced punishment for dragging Rei along shopping, even if it turned out on a positive note.

Rei didn't quite know how to describe the situation she was in now, no less than half an hour ago, these two 'friends' following her were at each others throats and binding ego into a competitive edge and now they were like friends for life. How did she even belong to the same gender as these two? Rei just couldn't work it out, the strange attributes of girls socializing with one another was something that Shinji just couldn't ever teach her, and without any prior experience to it, Rei was positively confused. It helped that Hikari and Naoko understood now the whole reason why this was so, but it didn't quite helps her out in starting to learn these seemingly normal interactions.

As a result of this line of thought, Rei thought about the day so far, it had been one where somehow it had created its own objectives as she went; first leaving the house, then going to the store, then going to the café, then talking to Sayuri who offered her some contrarian advice on how to move on from yesterday. From there she ran into Naoko and later Hikari- and did what Naoko told her in some detail what normal teenager girls do on a weekend. Rei had thought that this seemed a strange thing to say, after all Asisaka was working right now. Now, after the several hours of shopping, it was just after three in the afternoon and they were sitting around a table under the shade of an umbrella and drinking dairy drinks and mini-cakes that the store sold.

It felt so alien to say that Rei could agree, or even say itself she enjoyed today…that it took her a full five minutes of quietly sipping at her milkshake and thinking at light speed before she even came close to matching of her feelings to the moment, it wasn't that she couldn't tell what her own emotions were like. She had the subtle twinge of tiredness that came from them walking around today after last night. But Rei also felt the almost unknown appreciation to be considered one of a group and the appreciation of help that naoko had gone to before, and the fun she had doing it. Having fun? Was that it? Did she really have fun today? Everyone had their own idea about fun, but was hanging around her own age group, doing the things they did and sharing an afternoon meal, and talking about everyday things fun?

'It could be' Rei told herself 'even for all the things I've learnt since moving here, am I truly enjoying my new life here?'

Rei didn't quite get the time to think that one over. Before Naoko could ask Rei how she was enjoying her milkshake, Hikari's mobile phone started ringing, it was song that didn't make a hell of a lot of sense to her since it had been without vocals and sounded sort of techno. None the less Hikari in ten seconds picked it up, Naoko and Rei remained silent, staring at Hikari wondering who was calling her.

"Hello?"

The other end of the call could be heard by neither Rei nor Naoko and so it relied pretty much on guessing what was really happening.

"Yes…she's with me and Naoko…we went shopping…clothes…I'm serious, we really did…"

The laugh that followed could be heard from the speaker indicated to Rei who was calling, it was Misato. Hikari continued talking, now ignorant of the smirk that Naoko was giving her.

"Yes…she had money…I see…you don't mind that we…okay…yes…okay" Hikari waited before asking "anyway, why did you call?"

Hikari's face changed with the response, but neither Rei nor Naoko could tell what emotion she was feeling.

"that's very good to hear…I'll be right over…yes…goodbye" Hikari replied and hung up, she put her phone away before explaining what that was all about "that was Misato…Shinji just woke up"

Author's commentary

I finally got around to completing this chapter today. Really been trying to work on another idea but I lost the original document for that and starting over afresh is proving very hard to make a start on. With this chapter, I've finally managed to get the story back on track and now I can start working on the rest of the story. From what I could tell some 6 episodes ago, this will not end by Episode 26, I had hoped it would, but I guess by now I should expect to be extending this to 35. When I drafted the original episode format; I was working by the Japanese Anime season time frame, technically this was a little too optimistic on my part, I just had too much to do with too much story for too little space.

After this chapter, I've decided to start the long overdue process of finally bringing my earlier chapters up to spec and resolving some (hopefully all) the spelling and grammar errors. Much to the concern that some might feel, I'm also going to, not that I expect it would make much of a different; have to change some of the dialogue and remove some spots that just feel out of place now. Since I started writing, my style has changed a lot and as a result, some of the writing now feels like a different story.

This is not to say I'm doing a total rewrite, far from it, but the spelling of character names like Asisaka's (the original spelling is actually for someone's surname apparently) and some very disturbing geography inconsistencies I've made me decide to go back and do the fixes. Why this would concern me is that while its fictional, I think its usually good practice for the story to make sense as well, I have a small txt file that indicates the date of the story chronologically as well as a number of minor details and a map of the town. Having created the txt file after chapter 10 didn't help me and as a result, the txt file doesn't have all the information I wish it had.

They way I've planned to do this is in 3 blocks, block 1 will be chapter 1-4 and will be fixed by the time Episode 21 comes out, Block 2 will be 5-8 and will be fixed by the time Episode 22 comes out, and finally block 3 which will be done by the time Episode 23 is out. Apart from changing the format of my chapter's presentation and the upgrades intended for all the episodes before 13, I hope everyone will still enjoy this series.

Nighthawk_Imac

July 2nd, 2009