Kaiju Slaying For Death And Profit Ch 18

Howdy folks. Gonna post the chapter today because I anticipate I will be rather busy tomorrow. 
Bit of a short chapter. But an important one if you squint and tilt your head a little.
Anyways, hope you lot like it. Lemme know how I did with a comment or two.
=][=
Misato watched the various cliques formed by the technicians and analysts in the Control Room and withheld a sigh. 
People self-segregating into various groups was normal, but she could see three main groups forming; There were those who, like her, just wanted to kill the Angels and save mankind, and didn’t care much otherwise. There were those like Vice-Director Fuyutsuki, Gendo’s man to the hilt, certain that Director Ikari would lead them through the crisis. 
Then there were those like Maya, Naomi, Kaede and Hana. A growing number who had grown to...admire Shinji’s tenacity and ethos, having wholly forgiven or forgotten Shinji’s threat to let an Angel destroy all of Tokyo-3 purely to spite his father. 
She’d heard a few whispers from those who thought that had all been a ruse to accomplish some greater goal only Shinji was aware of. 
Misato wouldn’t think on it much beyond scoffing at it, but that last group had actually started to get together, forming a ‘support group,’ their little club holding meetings, dinners, and playing games after their shifts. And while that would normally not be a cause for worry, the last time Misato looked into a ‘friendly gathering’ and found nothing untoward, it had resulted in a domestic terrorist attack that cost the lives of almost three hundred people, an AWOL Pilot, an hours-long firefight, and the further erosion of her command authority. 
So maybe she was being paranoid. But would it be paranoia if another cult formed under her nose due to her lack of diligence? 
“Thinking pretty hard about something, huh?” 
Misato twitched and did not squeak in surprise, and if anyone said otherwise, they were lying liars who lied lyingly. 
“Kaji!” She snarled. “Stop sneaking up on people!” 
Kaji Ryoji stood before her in all his disheveled glory. He was a head taller than she was, his hair was dark brown, his eyes dark blue, his chin had that permanent stubble he seemed to like so much, and as usual, the top button of his shirt was undone and his tie was loose. 
She grabbed his tie and tightened it until it was near his neck. “And would it kill you to dress professionally for once in your life!?” 
“Woah there! Glad to see you still care.” Kaji said with that small little smile that showed very little of his teeth but made her feel like he knew something she didn’t and that pissed her off.  
“When are you leaving again!?” She demanded, taking her hands off him as if the contact scalded her. “It’s been months, shouldn’t you have gone away already!?” 
“Oh, you didn’t know? I was reassigned as the main liaison between NERV and the United Nations. I was hoping we’d see more of each other, but the...peerless enthusiasm and prowess of your Pilots has kept me surprisingly busy.” 
“Well good!” She said with a huff and walked off, unfortunately, Kaji followed after her. “Shouldn’t you be doing your job liaising!?” 
“Oh? But I am! I have something of extreme importance to discuss with you, Major Katsuragi! And for once it’s not about whether or not Shinji will be fit for service by the time the next Angel comes along.” Kaji said glibly as he followed after her to the elevators. 
Misato scowled. “You’ve never come to me with those concerns.” She said as they arrived and she pressed the button to call the elevator. 
“No, I was ordered to go to Ritsuko. Though most of the time, my inquiries were answered by Ritsuko’s lovely assistant.” 
Misato felt her eye twitch. She quashed the feeling that was absolutely not jealousy, and stepping into the elevator said. “Yes, I’m certain talking to Maya was quite the burden!” 
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Kaji said, stepping in behind her, the door closing behind him. 
“Oh? Then pray tell wh-”  
Kaji was on her, his thigh between hers, his arms around her, his warm breath on her neck, his lips on hers. And damn her, she found herself instinctively kissing him back, welcoming his tongue in her mouth as if it belonged there. 
She stiffened when she felt his tongue deposit something into her mouth, between her upper lip and her gums. 
He always was devilishly good with his tongue. 
He broke the kiss before the Elevator reached its destination. 
Her face felt like it was on fire, and damn her, she wanted more. But stopped herself. She pushed him away and fixed her clothes, putting on an act for any watchers. “You can’t be doing that Kaji. We’re not like that anymore!” 
He smiled, it was a strange smile, somewhere between serene and wryly amused. “Really? Honestly, it’s getting close to the date of our anniversary. Back when we celebrated it anyway. Stay safe, Katsuragi, we should go barhopping sometime, live a little before the big 3.0 hits.” 
Misato watched him depart, and used her tongue to more securely lodge the hollow-feeling pill in a corner of her mouth. 
Maybe...maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to go with him to a bar. Maybe she could even get him to foot the bill. 
=][= 
Aida Kensuke sighed and bit the nail of his thumb as he walked to school. 
It was amazing how quickly everyone just...moved on. 
Two weeks ago, close to three hundred people had been murdered, hours before a dramatic last stand by religious extremists as they preached that the world was ending and humanity deserved to die, God’s Angels had been sent to exterminate us all, and humanity was defying the Will of God by not laying down and dying. 
It had been covered in the evening news, the religious extremists had all been killed by the Special Assault Team, giving the families of all those affected some measure of closure and retribution. 
The school had been closed for a couple of days to give those affected time to grieve and get over the shock, then everyone had gone back to school, except Shinji had not shown up. People had been worried, but a NERV spokesman had said that while Shinji had been affected by the attack, he had survived it thanks to the heroic sacrifice of one of NERV’s operatives, he was in the hospital and was expected to make a full recovery. 
And then everything went back to normal. People went back to work, everyone at school had gotten extra homework to make up for the lost time. 
Nobody other than those directly affected even mentioned that almost three hundred people had died for no good reason. 
And to top all of that off, his dad had joined a cult. 
Sure, he said it was a support group made up of his colleagues at NERV. But after the...religious extremists did their thing last week, Kensuke had looked into how cults worked, and what his dad described sounded a lot like a damn cult. 
Worse, it was a cult based around Shinji. Because as Kensuke had realized more and more while reading through the documents on his dad’s computer, the news and NERV spokespeople never gave the full story. 
Shinji had killed the guy in his train car. 
Using a knife he’d hidden on his person. He’d cut off the man’s arm, spilled his entrails on the floor, stabbed him through the heart, and cut off his head. He dealt four lethal wounds on the bastard, and still hadn’t managed to stop the attack. And nearly died, surviving only because apparently, piloting a giant robot gave someone a higher tolerance to poisons and medicine, a hypothesis that was seemingly confirmed as Ayanami was found to have a similar unusual resistance, even if Soryu did not. 
To top it off, he disappeared into the city while looking like the bad guy in a slasher movie, and only reemerged after the religious extremists were dealt with. 
So, aside from the uncomfortable knowledge that apparently Ikari went everywhere armed, Kensuke alone knew that the only reason he hadn’t died (and if dad’s ‘support group’ was to be believed, doom all of humanity to extinction) was pure chance and something weird that may or may not happen to your body if you became an Evangelion Pilot. 
Shinji had come in and minute one, killed a monster while everyone at NERV tried not to panic. Shinji had given a speech about the sacrifices he was willing to make for the survival of mankind, then there was what he did when the last monster showed up, the one where the whole city was evacuated. 
The authorities had downplayed how bad it had been, the monster was calculated to be fully able to vaporize the entirety of Tokyo-3 in an instant. The three Pilots had essentially gone on a suicide mission, one predicted to have a 0.0000003% percent chance of succeeding. 
Shinji had stood up, basically said ‘I’ve got this, you just do your jobs and support me,’ and everyone, including Kensuke’s dad, had all taken him at face value, ignored their orders to evacuate, and watched Shinji do exactly what he said he was going to do. It was madness! 
What hurt Kensuke the most, was that his dad had chosen to stay and man his station, even after having been ordered to evacuate. Having had the choice and opportunity to get to safety, Kensuke’s dad had chosen not to, believing in the words of one teenager that he could tackle a mission with essentially zero percent chance of success, and win anyways. 
That Shinji had actually done it had nothing to do with it. 
“Oi! Watch where yer goin’ asshole!” 
Kensuke looked up and blinked in surprise at what he saw. 
A couple of the school’s delinquents had bumped into Shinji, the much shorter Ayanami next to him. 
Shinji, the boy known to have the worst attitude and the best grades in all the school. 
Shinji the teenager with a literal kill-squad of special forces following him around in case he’s ever in danger. 
Shinji, who had muscles so big, he could probably punch just about anyone into the stratosphere. 
Kensuke could not help but think that this was going to end badly as Shinji turned around. But before he could say anything, the other delinquent said. “Oi oi oi! Don’t you recognize him you dumbass!?” 
He then grabbed the back of the first delinquent’s head and forced the other to bow at the waist with him. “Sorry aniki!” 
Shinji blinked and looked nonplussed at the delinquents. “The hell are you doing?” 
Not getting up, and holding down his squirming friend, the delinquent said. “You’re the guy killing the monsters and saving the city. You deserve respect, and my friend disrespected you, we are sorry, please forgive us, aniki!” 
Shinji stared down at the delinquent before saying. “Nothing you said is incorrect, technically speaking.” 
Before Kensuke’s disbelieving eyes, in a very short time, a confused looking Ikari Shinji, holding Ayanami Rei’s hand, was escorted into the school by a growing crowd of the school’s delinquents who all seemed to just know to show up. 
Ayanami’s expression did not shift once through the whole ordeal. 
“Alright alright, enough!” Shinji shouted when they got to the school gate. “Don’t shove people! Your actions reflect poorly on me! So stop being a bother, go to class, and pay attention!” 
There was a chorus of, “Yes Aniki!” before the delinquents all scattered. 
“Seriously.” Shinji muttered, walking through the school’s gates. “Can’t have a normal day at all.” 
“What even would be normal?” Ayanami asked. 
“Dunno, but not this.” 
Kensuke stood in stupefaction. Then sighed and deflated. 
Ikari Shinji, Pilot, Monster Slayer, Center of a Cult, Lord of the Delinquents. 
If that’s what it took to be a Pilot, and he still almost died on every fight...Kensuke sighed again, and stepped through the gate, feeling inadequate. 
=][= 
“Here you go, enjoy those.” Ayanami said quietly, holding out a box full of ice cream cups to the crowd of rowdy boys. “Don’t get home too late, and make sure to do your homework.” 
There was a loud chorus of. “Yes! Anego!” Before the rowdy crowd of...former(?) delinquents each grabbed one cup of ice cream and ran in a different direction from each other. 
After a full day of class. 
Where none of them skipped. 
And by all accounts, paid attention and did not cause any distractions or issues. 
Hikari wasn’t entirely certain she wasn’t about to wake up and realize she needed to get ready to go to class. Because this day had been utterly unreal. 
“I can’t believe they listen to you.” Hikari groused, looking at the last former(?) delinquent’s back before he turned a corner and disappear. “They barely listen to me, and I have actual authority!” 
“Dunno what your problem is.” Soryu said, taking a bite of her popsicle, then spoke with her mouth full. “They listen to me easily enough.” 
Hikari felt her eye twitch. “Yeah, but you beat them all up. They are afraid of you, but they respect Ayanami.” 
Ayanami daintily licked her vanilla ice cream cone. “I believe my status as Shinji’s girlfriend grants me a certain amount of deferred authority over them.” 
Hikari took an angry bite of her ice cream sandwich, muttering. “No fair.” 
“Blegh, glad that’s over with.” Shinji said, stepping out of the convenience store, carrying a small cooler under his arm. “I can’t believe you made me empty out the ice cream isle for that buncha dumbasses. This ain’t cheap you know?” 
“They were good, so they deserved a reward.” Rei said between licks of her ice cream. 
Shinji took an ice cream sandwich out of his cooler, peeled it open, and tossed the whole thing in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed before speaking. “Yeah, guess you’re right. They weren’t too much of a pain in my ass.” 
“You could just admit you’re happy you finally found someone who isn’t afraid of you.” Soryu said with a grin. 
“Yeah? Well, you can shut up, you soulless ginger.” Shinji snapped back. 
“What’s that? I can’t hear you over your hypocrisy.” 
Hikari watched as the two Pilots seemed to go into a contest of who could say the most insulting thing. Nonetheless, the two of them were smiling. 
She just didn’t get it. 
“It’s nice that they get along now.” Ayanami said, licking her ice cream cone. 
Hikari watched Shinji and Soryu’s ever escalating...non-argument? Play fight? Competition? And shook her head. 
“I guess he really is a tsundere.” She muttered under her breath. 
“Oi! Stop callin’ me a fuckin’ tsundere!” Shinji said, pointing at her. “I ain’t no fuckin’ tsundere, I’m an asshole! Get it right!” 
Hikari shrugged, and took a step to put Ayanami between herself and Shinji. “I don’t know. If the shoe fits...” 
Shinji growled, took a popsicle out of his cooler, tore open the packaging, ate the whole thing in one bite, threw the trash in the nearest trash can, and stomped away, his back arched like an angry cat’s. 
Hikari and Soryu watched him stomp away, then turned to look at Ayanami, who was still standing next to the convenience store wall, daintily licking her ice cream cone. 
“Did...did he forget her?” Soryu asked. 
“I...I think so?” Hikari said, confused and somewhat concerned. 
No sooner did they say that, that they heard then saw Shinji stomp back, this time with an ice cream sandwich in his mouth, he took the hand Ayanami wasn’t using to hold her ice cream, and stomped away again, pulling her along. 
Except...he didn’t pull very hard. Ayanami walked at her usual sedate pace next to him. The huge Shinji stomping forward in slow motion, taking small, almost dainty steps forward to match Ayanami’s pace, but driving his foot down to get a good stomp in. 
If the resulting picture weren’t so bizarre, Hikari would find it comical. 
As scary as he looked, Hikari guessed that the huge tsundere wasn’t all that scary after all, once you got to know him, at least.