A little later.
- T-ha-a-a-a... - Misato clicked her tongue, exhaling, spreading out across the chair. - Oh, guys... Nothing could be better than a cold beer after a hot shower! - the girl confidently declared, taking another sip of the aforementioned drink.
This controversial statement, Rei and I ignored together, continuing to eat calmly. During the time that Misato was stuck in the bath, I managed to fry meat, boil noodles and personally prepare vegetable gravy with sour cream for Rei. Naturally, all this under the intently studying gaze of the ruby-eyed angel. But our irresistible captain, during this same time, apparently managed to calm down and return to her usual playful mood. She finally proved this with her next phrase, uttered almost without a pause:
- How about a sip?... - and a sly smile along with the can extended towards me. Rei froze for a moment and turned her one open eye to Katsuragi. At that moment, a thought flashed through my mind about the probability of the presence of a hidden bar with drinks in the bathroom. At least that would explain a lot. I will definitely have to check...
- Misato, you know that we are not allowed, we are underage, - I answered, not even looking up from the plate and simultaneously sending another piece of meat into my mouth. Ayanami, having remained silent in agreement, also returned to her food. She is amazing after all, because there was not a nod, not even a hint of lowering the eyelids, but the feeling that she supported me appeared. Lovely.
- Ugh! You're so abrupt... - Katsuragi pouted, narrowing her eyes meaningfully.
At this statement, I looked up and thoughtfully examined Katsuragi, wondering if she was really drunk or just playing the fool. Having come to no concrete conclusion, I returned to my food.
- And yet, Shinji, - Katsuragi broke the silence when I was already pouring tea. Leaning back in her chair, Misato thoughtfully looked at me with her gaze, absently tugging at a lock of hair with her left hand. - The fact that you are getting used to the Eva so quickly is, of course, wonderful, but you should learn to react to commands faster, and not make these... - the brunette made an indefinite gesture with her hand, choosing her words. - In general, follow commands without starting to discuss or comment on them.
- Alas, Misato. I can't help it. It's stronger than me, - I diluted the tea in Rei's glass with cold water and sat down next to her, taking my own cup in my hands. - Besides, you forget. I don't pilot the Eva and serve at NERV because I want to. If it were up to me, I'd be far away from here right now, - and I looked indifferently towards the corridor, taking a sip from my mug.
- Hey! What kind of thoughts are you!? The existence of all humanity depends on you! And you should remember this! If you pilot Eva with the spirit of: "I don't care" then you will die very soon!
"Well, that's great," I leaned my chin on my left hand and, yawning slightly, finished my thought: "I don't care. My death means nothing to me..." after which I took another sip from the glass.
During this short dialogue, Rei was looking at me with a strange gaze, in which I could only read interest, without any other emotions. But now Ayanami was forced to be distracted and turned to Misato, as she, with all her heroic strength, slammed a beer can on the tabletop:
- At least think about what you're saying! - the captain jumped up from her chair, flushed with anger. - Death may mean nothing to you, but the rest of us don't want to die yet! You're important to us as a pilot! So you don't belong to yourself anymore! - How much expression... How many feelings... I even smiled inside.
- And who do you think I belong to?... Misato? - My inner smile was slightly reflected on my face, which, combined with my slightly narrowed gaze and hand under my chin, gave me a very sarcastic and meaningful image. The only thing missing to complete the effect was to make the irises shine with a scarlet light, like my real eyes.
"You belong to all of humanity!" Katsuragi muttered stubbornly, although she noticeably lowered her tone; apparently the desired effect had been achieved.
- You're wrong, Misato. In this agonizing world, I belong only to myself, - I put down the empty glass and, still smiling, stood up from the table. - But don't worry, I'll keep my word and tear into bloody mince all the enemy Angels that dare to come to Tokyo-3, - I went around the table and started moving towards the door, slowing down a little next to Misato's chair. - After all, this is my true purpose in the service of NERV, - the girl shuddered slightly. It's even curious why, because I can't add infrasound to my voice in this body.
- Hey!.. Shinji, wait, where are you going?
- Sleep. I'll wash the dishes tomorrow, - I waved my hand without turning around and, adding a friendly note to my voice, said: - Good night.
Misato responded with shocked silence.
I approached my room in a cheerful mood. The conversation went as well as possible. It would be interesting to read what they would write about me when compiling a psychological profile, or what Misato would write in her characterization of me. Yeah, very curious. Although the most interesting thing is what Rei thought, watching our squabble?
Opening the door, I hesitate for a few moments and only after a second and a half I understand what exactly had bothered me. A couple of meters from my futon, there was another one on the floor, already made up and even bearing traces of use. Actually, we did order one with home delivery, or rather, I ordered it, as the most solvent inhabitant of the apartment, Rei doesn't sleep on the couch all the time, but since it wasn't in the hallway, and the accompanying packaging wasn't in the trash can, I decided that it would be delivered tomorrow and successfully threw it out of my mind. But apparently, while we were gone, Ayanami was busy with more than just relaxing...
While I was thinking standing next to the futon, the door to the room opened again and Ayanami appeared on the threshold. After standing there for a few seconds looking at me, the girl went inside and stood next to me, also looking down at the mattress.
"Rey, what is the second futon doing in my room?" I finally asked the question that interested me.
- It was delivered during the day, I unpacked it and brought it here, since there are no other free rooms in the apartment, only your room and the living room, - the girl answered clearly, looking up at me. In principle, she was right, the third room, where, in theory, according to the canon, Asuka was supposed to live, was now littered with Misato's unpacked boxes, well, and a couple of mine, and the cleaning was planned to be done after the "bed" appeared. Well, and Misato's room is not worth talking about at all...
- It's clear...
"You don't want me to sleep in your room?" Rei asked with childish spontaneity, looking into my eyes. I tore my gaze away from the futon and met the girl's, then smiled slightly.
- No, I don't mind. But I'm afraid Misato will be very much against it.
"Captain Katsuragi's opinion doesn't matter," Ayanami said without a shadow of a doubt.
I looked at the girl with great interest.
- I see... Do you want to sleep here yourself? - Rey thought and looked down.
- Yes... I want it, - the ruby eye looked up at me again, and a glimmer of anxiety appeared in its depths. As if the girl was afraid that I would drive her away now... Shinji stirred inside, muttering something unintelligibly embarrassed. I smiled.
"Then make yourself comfortable," and walking to my bed, I began to unbutton my shirt...
Half an hour later, when we had both long since settled under the blankets, the silence was broken by the girl's quiet voice:
- Shinji...
- What?
- You said then that you are not a human being... If that is so, then who are you?
Several long seconds of silence, in which only the barely audible, measured breathing of two teenagers can be heard...
- Well, since I kill Angels... Then, apparently, a demon...
We didn't talk any more that evening, Rei was deep in thought and didn't even notice how she fell asleep. Around one o'clock in the morning Misato looked into the room, but after standing on the threshold for a few minutes, she left without saying anything. An hour later, I heard her cell phone ringing, muffled from the depths of the apartment. A short conversation and Misato, quietly cursing to herself, got dressed and left the apartment, looking in on us again at the end. All this time I was honestly sleeping, it's just that my long-standing habit of monitoring the surrounding environment played a role here, so I heard everything that was happening in the house perfectly through my sleep, as far as human hearing and the silence of the night allowed, naturally. Around five in the morning, Misato returned, the specific sound of footsteps, as well as the rustle of clothes being taken off, spoke eloquently about the fact that the girl was dead tired, and the slam of the refrigerator door authoritatively announced the removal of a can of beer from it. The stomping of bare feet around the apartment lasted for about two minutes, after which the muffled thud of a body falling onto the futon was heard and everything went quiet...
The morning turned out to be unusually pleasant. The sight of Ayanami sleeping peacefully next to me had a terribly calming effect on me, so much so that I spent almost an hour in bed admiring the girl's face, until "duty to the motherland" drove me out of it. I would have sent this duty far away without the slightest twinge of conscience, but alas, almost half of it consisted of the fact that Rei had to be fed upon awakening, and the other half consisted of the need to feed Misato. So I was forced to get up. However, this did not darken my mood in any way.
In the kitchen I was met by a gloomy penguin, whose appearance strangely evoked associations with a severe hangover. The picture was made more interesting by several empty beer cans lying on the floor and a gnawed smoked sausage, which the penguin was looking at sullenly. Tormented by vague suspicions, I handed Pen Pen an opened package of fresh fish from the refrigerator. He slowly looked away from the sausage, measured the fish with it and, feigning even greater gloom, took the pack and hobbled to his own home, where he disappeared.
The situation is what is called: "no comment"...
Having prepared fried potatoes for breakfast, I was about to go wake up Ayanami, but the girl came herself. Sleepy, disheveled, in one school shirt, which as usual was almost completely unbuttoned, and touchingly rubbing her eye with her fist. This time I did not regret the lack of a camera, but took a device prepared in advance and generally bought especially for this the day before and took several photos.
Ray removed her hand from her face and, with a slight shadow of incomprehension in her gaze, looked at the camera, then turned it to me.
- Good morning, Ray. Did you sleep well? - I smiled warmly, putting the camera aside.
"Good morning..." she echoed. "Yes."
- Are you going to eat first, or should we change the bandage? - the girl looked at her bandaged hand and, looking back at me, nodded silently. Guess what she said with that. However, it was no mystery to me, and so a minute later we were sitting in the living room and I was unwinding the old bandages. In theory, they should have been cut off, but the ingrained habit of saving bandages, nurtured by life in the medieval world, and even in a society that does not produce its own tissue, was stronger than the voice of reason. And it would have been somehow stupid to come to my senses so many days after I had already started to always untie the knots. Besides, the closeness with Ayanami that accompanied the process was simply pleasant to me.
Well, when Rei and I had already had breakfast and were fully prepared for school, I knocked on Katsuragi's door:
- Misato, isn't it time for you to go to work?
- M-m-m-m-m-m... - came a pained moan from the other side.
- Misato?
- Shinji... I had a night shift today. I'm barely alive.
"Night duty?" I asked, adding surprise to my voice.
- It doesn't matter... - the sounds of fidgeting in bed, interspersed with sleepy moans, came from behind the door. - Go to school... - a clearly audible yawn. - And I'm going to slee-e... - another yawn, ending with a sweet sigh into the pillow.
- Good. Breakfast is on the stove. Have a nice rest.
- Ughhh... - came an indistinct mumble from behind the door.
Chuckling, I glanced at Rey, who was carefully watching the whole scene, and went into the corridor.
The road to school brought no surprises. Nothing new was happening at school either. The only difference from ordinary days was that today, according to the schedule, it was Rei and I's turn to clean the classroom after school. Yes, perhaps the particularly angry looks that Suzuhara was throwing at me. For a moment, I even wondered why all this attention? But the next moment, this interest had safely died down.
The first two lessons were again devoted to Social Studies, as on my first day of school, the old teacher quietly muttered to himself practically the same text about the Second Impact, and the whole class was inspiredly suffering from nonsense. Rei calmly looked out the window, thinking about something. The class quietly whispered. I leisurely rummaged through the memory of the school laptop, primarily looking for something to read? Alas, the choice was practically only history and literature, and even then the latter was mostly Japanese, which means it was a very specific reading material. Where Europeans can laugh at the blessed ones trying to find a deep meaning in the color of the curtains, you can't laugh at all with the Japanese and Asians, because their very culture of artistic writing is based on putting fifty deep meanings into each line. And for a while it might even be interesting... until you realize that these crazy savages, obsessed with the swallow dance and other dawn rays falling on sakura petals, need to get serious treatment and find a job. Something useful to society that won't leave time for this nonsense. And no, I'm not a racist, I'm just intolerant of other people's tastes and preferences when they conflict with mine. Or are too intrusive... The second was closer here.
The bell for the big break was greeted by the schoolchildren with enthusiasm worthy of a better use, and in just a few seconds the building was filled with the tramp of a "mad herd of hippos", except that the girls behaved more restrainedly, and even then...
As usual, having settled down on the bench, Rei and I quickly finished our lunches and each of us got immersed in our own affairs. But we were not allowed to read in peace when Suzuhara appeared with Kensuke looming behind him:
- Hey you, new guy! - the athlete greeted me "friendly", blocking the sunlight falling on the book and demonstratively folding his arms on his chest, apparently he considered this pose cool.
"What?" I responded casually, without looking up from my book.
- You are Ikari, right?!
- Yes.
- I know you were the one piloting that robot! My father and grandfather work at NERV and heard that the pilot's name was Ikari! Because of you, my sister got hurt! She was buried under the debris when you started destroying the city!
I sighed heavily internally, feeling like I was slowly starting to hate NERV...
"Were you badly hurt?" I asked in the same indifferent voice, showing curiosity.
"She broke her leg!" Suzuhara literally exploded with indignation.
"It will heal..." I turned the page.
- You bastard!... - the guy grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and jerked me up, but then let go with a dull wheeze and folded in half holding his stomach. I calmly closed the book, having first inserted a bookmark, and turned my gaze to the guy cowering on the ground. The audience watching this performance was in quiet shock, even Rey, tearing her eyes away from the book, looked at the scene with a hint of interest.
- You're a strange guy. You throw punches because of a broken leg, although the alternative was the complete destruction of the city along with all the inhabitants. I don't know what your father and grandfather told you, but it seems that in their haste to boast of their knowledge of some secrets, they forgot to explain things that are obvious to any reasonable person, - I shook my head slightly, rolling my eyes for a moment, expressing my attitude to this, after which I sat back down on the bench. Then Hikari made her way through the gathered crowd:
- What's going on here? Suzuhara!? - I sighed heavily inside again, now I have to explain myself to her, and the day was starting off so well... Oh, I wish Aska would come sooner, at least it won't be so sad with her.
"Nothing special, just a slight misunderstanding that we've already resolved," the freckled girl stared at me in surprise, and Suzuhara croaked something from the ground that, with some imagination, could have been taken as: "Don't interfere, class leader."
- What did you do to him?!
- Almost nothing. It will pass in a couple of minutes, - Hikari pouted with displeasure, but did not scold, and only leaned over Suzuhara.
Ignoring the curious schoolchildren and the class monitor and "athlete" who had begun to sort things out, I put the book in my bag, grabbed Ayanami's bag and beckoned the girl to follow me with my eyes. Rei was surprised, but obediently closed the textbook and stood up to follow. We hadn't even managed to get ten meters away from the crowd when the phone in my bag rang, which completely confirmed the premonitions that had been tormenting me.
"Yes?" I asked, taking out my phone as I walked towards the school gates.
- Shinji! Is Rei with you? - Misato's voice came from the receiver, agitated and excited.
- Yes.
- Grab her and go to the school exit, we have a combat alert! They're already on their way to pick you up!
- Got it, - having turned off the device, I almost broke into a bloodthirsty smile. Well, here it begins, the fourth Angel, if I'm not mistaken. Finally, otherwise I was already tired of waiting... However, suppressing the impulse of joyful anticipation, I calmly turned to Rei: - Misato called, a combat alert has been declared, they'll come for us now.
The girl who had been looking at me until then nodded understandingly and turned her gaze to the road. Her back tensed slightly.
The cars arrived quickly, not even three minutes had passed since Misato's call, and three black SUVs had already pulled up to the school. Two security guys immediately jumped out and headed towards us, and naturally we immediately went to meet them.
- Lieutenant Ikari! We...
"I know," I interrupted the security guard without slowing down, walking past him towards the central SUV, Rey following behind.
I let the girl go first and got into the car. The security guards quickly exchanged glances, but did not try to seat us in different cars, although apparently this was what they had originally planned. The one who tried to talk quickly slid into the free front seat, and the second one returned to the back car. A second later, the column took off.
Having finished fastening the girl, I leaned back in the seat and turned to the window. So, the fourth Angel, I don't remember his name, but it doesn't matter. He won't be a problem, but the question is different - will I be able to restore the volume of my spiritual energy with his help? In theory - yes, but how will it work in practice? Will Eve be able to absorb his essence without eating the Core? Only questions. And eating the second Core is absolutely forbidden now, and it would be fine if only the "committee" factor interfered, but that's not the point... Oh well, I'll find out everything on the spot.
The deserted streets of Tokyo-3 flashed past the window, judging by the things abandoned here and there, as well as the cars left wide open in a hurry, the alarm had already been raised. Well, quickly. Although I didn't hear the siren's roar because of the noise of the engine. Hmm, and the traffic lights were all red, just like on my first day here. Only instead of the handsome Captain Katsuragi, a sweaty guy of about twenty-five was sitting in the driver's seat, clutching the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white, and there were no exploding bombs and shells whistling overhead.
Tearing myself away from my thoughts, I turned to Rei. Ayanami looked calm and looked out the window with her usual detached expression. Against the backdrop of her composure, the obviously shaking security guys looked frankly pathetic. I smiled inwardly, after all, she is an incredibly interesting girl... Simply my pr-r-r-r-r-r-e-e-ss-ss. Feeling my gaze, Rei interrupted her work and turned to me. But in response, I only smiled at her slightly, with just my eyes and the very corner of my lips, a kind of joyful, anticipatory smile, and turned to my window. My mood was steadily creeping up.
A few minutes later, our motorcade drove up to the central checkpoint in Geofront, a few seconds of delay at the barrier and our SUV continues on its way to the elevator, while the other two cars turn away. As we drove through the inner corridors of the underground parking, I noticed Misato's car parked in its place, and also that the girl had parked not very straight - she was clearly in a hurry. Here are the flaps of the armored doors, a few more seconds of delay and the wheels that have landed on the platform are grabbed by metal grips. The elevator starts moving...