"All right, all right, I'll clean up properly. I'll clean the room right now, okay?"
Misato Katsuragi regretted her impulsive decision. She had forgotten that she had no experience raising children at all.
Yet for some reason, she cared about what Shinji Ikari thought, so she gritted her teeth and set to work cleaning the messy apartment.
"I'll help you, too." Shinji Ikari was considerate as ever.
The two worked until mealtime. Although all they did was clear the trash off the floor, the whole apartment immediately looked much brighter and more spacious.
Cool, full-bodied beer slid down her throat, bringing a refreshing chill. Misato Katsuragi couldn't help letting out a satisfied moan as every cell in her body sprang to life.
She tossed the empty can into the trash and licked her lips, still craving more, but her gaze drifted involuntarily over the transformed room before her.
For a moment, an unfamiliar feeling stirred within her...
How long had it been since I lived in a home like this?
Out of nowhere, she said, "Shinji, I've realized you're not just like my dad. You're a little like my mom, too."
Shinji Ikari: "..."
Misato Katsuragi turned toward the boy sitting beside her and asked, her gaze complicated, "Have I ever told you about my family?"
"No, but if you'd like to talk, I'd be happy to listen." Shinji Ikari smiled, looking just like the elderly priest at the church near his home.
Perhaps it was that peculiar feeling Shinji Ikari gave her, like both a father and a mother, that eased some of Misato Katsuragi's reservations.
Misato Katsuragi's gaze gradually drifted out the window toward the distant south. The sky there was as blue as the Antarctic night stars, and the snow-white clouds seemed to carry a chill.
"My father gave up on our family when I was very young. He left my mother and me for his work and went to Antarctica."
"My mother and I would sometimes hide away and cry. Of course, she never let me see her crying, so I only saw it in secret."
"So I used to hate the man who abandoned us, and even now, I still haven't completely forgiven him."
"But that father I hated so much... when the Second Impact came, when only one of us could survive, he let me live."
At that point, Misato Katsuragi's voice faltered. She glanced at Shinji Ikari beside her, and as their eyes met, time seemed to stand still for an instant.
Shinji Ikari's eyes were so gentle that no other emotion was visible, yet they held something elusive. The boy seemed to overlap with someone in her memories.
Misato Katsuragi couldn't help slipping into a daze.
"And when you stood in front of me, I thought I saw my father again. Only afterward did I realize it was you," Misato Katsuragi murmured, a trace of self-mockery in her voice.
Shinji Ikari froze for a moment, but quickly returned to normal and shrugged.
"Usually, I only play Father when I'm hearing confessions. But if you like thinking of me as your father, suit yourself."
"What? I just said you reminded me of him. Don't push your luck." Misato Katsuragi laughed. "Looks like all those trips you used to make to church weren't for confession at all. More like you went there to be a Father."
"Of course they weren't for confession. God doesn't need to confess, and neither do I." Shinji Ikari shook his head dismissively, then took a can of cold beer from the refrigerator.
Misato Katsuragi's expression changed, and she hurriedly reached out to stop him. "You're not old enough to drink!" At that moment, she suddenly remembered her responsibilities as an adult.
"Says who?"
"The law, obviously."
"And what am I?"
"Shinji Ikari?"
"..."
"...God?" Misato Katsuragi ventured, then immediately wanted to tear her own mouth off.
She had no idea what had possessed her to blurt out that word. Perhaps the boy's teenage delusions had rubbed off on her.
Shinji Ikari looked pleased. "Exactly. Since I'm God, how could human laws apply to me?" As he spoke, he offered her a bottle of beer. "Join me?"
"Have you decided what to name the baby?"
"Something like that... you decide."
"Shinji. Shinji Ikari!"
Silence filled the NERV Medical Center in Tokyo-3. A long corridor stretched toward a closed door at its far end.
Beyond the door lay a spacious room flooded with light. Sunlight streamed through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows onto the white sheets and walls, filling it with peace and serenity.
In that idyllic scene, only the blue-haired girl on the hospital bed seemed out of place. She appeared to have had a nightmare, her head drenched in sweat.
Through the haze, unfamiliar voices rang in the girl's mind, distant enough to seem as though they came from another world.
Countless fragmented images flashed before her eyes like clips from a film, leaving her dizzy.
Those scenes were like jumbled puzzle pieces. No matter how hard she tried, she could not fit them together into a complete, coherent picture.
Yet despite their fragmented state, those images were seared deep into her heart.
In an equally spotless white hospital room, a gentle, loving mother tenderly cradled a baby in her arms, a contented, joyful smile on her lips.
The father stood silently to one side, his deep, guarded eyes fixed on the mother and child. He said nothing, yet radiated coldness and distance.
The girl did not know who they were. Everyone's face was blurred, as though veiled in mist.
She sat on the hospital bed, staring out the window with vacant, bewildered eyes, only to recall that day again.
It had been this same hospital room, and she had left it lying on a hospital bed. From here to the first hangar, where a purple giant stood in a red sea.
Until, at the very end, beneath those pallid lights, the boy had firmly pressed her back onto the hospital bed.
Suddenly, a faint noise interrupted the girl's memories. She turned her head mechanically and saw a medical worker in a white coat and glasses enter the room.
Holding a thick stack of medical reports, he walked straight to the bedside without looking up.
"Rei, you've more or less recovered, so you can be discharged today. We'll give you another examination in seven days, then resume the synchronization tests with Unit-00."
The white-coated staff member relayed the commander-in-chief's orders, checking the medical reports in his hands one final time to ensure that every item was accurate.
Only after finishing his checks did he close the folder, turn around, and head for the door.
But the girl seemed not to have heard him. She was still somewhat dazed.
Those mysterious fragments of memory continued to linger in her mind, as though they had taken root there.
"What are these? Shinji... Shinji Ikari..."
The girl murmured to herself, her voice so soft that only she could hear it, filled with frightened confusion and uncertainty.
Rei Ayanami
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