Ikari and Ayanami

Shinji Ikari stared blankly at the corner of the room, without noticing how many minutes had passed.

Through his daze, he realized that the sounds in the room had stopped.

Shinji Ikari turned his head. The girl was sitting on the bed, watching him. He had no idea how long she had been looking.

"Why are you here, Ikari?" Rei Ayanami noticed his gaze too.

Perhaps his guilty conscience was still bothering him, because Shinji Ikari thought she was asking about his unlawful entry.

"I don't know what's wrong with this door. It opened with a push." He left out the part where he had turned the handle.

"Because I forgot to lock it." Rei Ayanami did not seem suspicious-or rather, her face had been expressionless all along.

"Remember to lock it next time. It would be bad if someone dangerous broke in."

Shinji Ikari earnestly reminded her, then took a black card out of his pocket.

"Here. Lieutenant Colonel Katsuragi asked me to give you your new Identity Card."

Rei Ayanami took the new Identity Card from Shinji Ikari and slipped it into the pocket of her school uniform.

Watching her movements, Shinji Ikari realized that he had only ever seen Rei Ayanami in her school uniform or her combat suit.

What was Gendo Ikari doing? Did he know anything about raising a child?

Of course, Shinji Ikari knew the answer to that question. His own life was the most convincing evidence.

"Ayanami," Shinji Ikari suddenly called.

"What?" Rei Ayanami asked, puzzled.

"...Does it still hurt?" Shinji Ikari directed his gaze toward the trash can in the room.

Rei Ayanami followed his gaze to the bloodstained bandages, then looked down at herself, as though examining her injuries closely for the first time.

That gesture made her seem... a little less like a doll.

"No." Rei Ayanami paused, then raised her head to meet Shinji Ikari's eyes. "It's... fine now."

Silence fell again, but the earlier sense of stagnation seemed to have eased a little.

Shinji Ikari really had no useful experience dealing with someone like her. Misato would surely know how to get along with this girl.

The moment that thought crossed his mind, Shinji Ikari startled himself. He had never imagined that his expectations of Misato had grown so high.

He pressed his lips together, temporarily banished that unreliable woman from his thoughts, and asked, "Can I open the window?"

"Yes."

With the homeowner's permission this time, Shinji Ikari got up to draw back the curtains and open the balcony door. Although the light outside was entirely artificial, at least some light now entered the room, along with fresh air.

"The room feels completely different already. You should tidy up when you have time. If it's too much to handle alone, I can help. Living like this isn't good for your health..."

Rei Ayanami sat on the bed, watching Shinji Ikari as the unfamiliar boy fussed in her ear. Suddenly, she recalled the new dreams she had been having over the past two days.

There was no hospital room, no mother, no father-only a boy reaching out to her.

This time, it was not a dream that left her at a loss.

"Ikari..." she suddenly called. "May I call you that?"

The question came so abruptly, yet so naturally. It went beyond missions, orders, and regulations, reaching toward a hazy possibility called "connection."

Shinji Ikari froze, then wore his usual smile. Yet it was also a smile so faint it was almost invisible, but undeniably there.

"Of course, Ayanami."

He no longer used the formal address. And when Rei Ayanami heard her name, the fingers holding her Identity Card tightened slightly.

"Look at our merciful god, Lord Shinji Ikari. Look at the fruits of all your hard work for your comrade... What was that saying from that ancient, powerful country again? 'Anyone who goes out of their way to please you wants something from you.'"

Misato Katsuragi spoke casually as she reached into the storage compartment by the driver's seat and took out a cola.

It was a bottle of Vanilla Ice Cream-Flavored Cola. To the higher-ups who considered bullets a necessary expense, it was nothing special, but to Misato Katsuragi, it was her premium drink of choice.

"Personally, I think there's an older woman speeding around right now who keeps trying to seduce me with her eyes!"

Shinji Ikari absentmindedly sipped the Sakura-Flavored Cola in his hand and muttered:

"Is Lieutenant Colonel Katsuragi trying to tempt humanity's hope into making a mistake? Personally, I think the Renault is the only one that might get hurt."

"Don't flatter yourself," Misato Katsuragi said. "If I wanted to seduce you, I wouldn't do it in the car. I'd put two bottles of beer in front of you at home, and you'd happily drink yourself silly."

Shinji Ikari raised his eyebrows in protest. "You underestimate a god far too much. I'm not the sort of person who likes numbing himself with alcohol."

Misato Katsuragi merely glanced at him. "I didn't come looking for you on purpose, either. You'd been gone so long that I thought something might have happened. Our ace pilot isn't some nobody no one cares about, after all."

"Humans really aren't simple creatures," Shinji Ikari remarked.

Shinji Ikari was deeply displeased with certain humans secretly spying on him. Given the lofty goal he had set for himself, this was a serious act of blasphemy. He simply had no way to punish it yet.

"You're human too, aren't you?" Misato Katsuragi paused. "Didn't you say you haven't ascended to godhood yet? Then you're at least still human for now, right?"

"That's true." Shinji Ikari watched as the Renault pulled into the garage attached to the staff dormitory. "Want some beer tonight? I'm planning to grill some meat."

So who was the one obsessed with alcohol, exactly?

Misato Katsuragi felt she was taking the blame for someone else, though it was hardly unfair to pin that particular fault on her. "Of course. But we can't drink too late tonight. I have to get in early tomorrow."

"Why?" Shinji Ikari asked.

"Classified mission. Don't worry about it. You wouldn't be interested anyway," Misato Katsuragi said offhandedly.

Night fell, and a gentle evening breeze slipped through the room, softly lifting a corner of the curtain.

The smell Rei Ayanami had long since grown accustomed to gradually dispersed with the circulating breeze, and moonlight slowly spilled inside.

Rei Ayanami had simply finished a boxed meal from the convenience store, eating only the vegetarian portions.

Shinji Ikari had suggested she eat some meat too, saying that a balanced diet was good for her health. But she was a vegetarian who really did not like meat.

If Shinji Ikari had told her to eat it, she probably would have complied. The problem was that Shinji Ikari had said nothing and asked nothing of her.

This troubled her. She had to decide for herself whether to eat it, and she so rarely made her own decisions that her mind was a muddle.

After staring at the pieces of meat in the lunch box and thinking for a long while, she finally decided to leave them, even if it was a little wasteful. She really did not want to eat them-or rather, she did not like them.

After making up her mind and feeling an inexplicable sense of relief, the phone beside her rang.

"First Lieutenant Rei Ayanami, Unit-00's reactivation test will take place at seven tomorrow morning. Please arrive at headquarters on time to prepare."

Rei Ayanami listened to the emotionless electronic female voice on the other end, then hung up and set an alarm on her phone.