Kaiju Slaying For Death And Profit Ch 21
Oof, sorry about the semi-late post.
Honestly? I was going to post this some two hours ago, but on what I believed to be the final round of editing...I ended up having to rewrite half the chapter cause I caught a mistake. And at the end of that uhh...a whole new scene got added.
SOMEHOW.
Funny how that happens.
Still! I rather liked the chapter. Hopefully you lot will too!
Also, the poll got a just over forty percent turnout...which I'm kinda proud of. That brought a smile to my face.
With a grand total of two-hundred and thirty-nine total votes, the story that won the poll was He Who Fights Demons, Rage Against The Dark coming in second with one-hundred and twelve. So, next week will be another round of Saving Yourself, and the week after that, He Who Fights Demons will get an update.
Then there will be another poll to decide the next side-story to get an update.
If you are unhappy with how it turned out and didn't vote, I urge you to give the next poll a shot!
Or not, I'm not your dad.
OR AM I!?
No. I'm not.
I would have raised you better. =,=
Wait! Wait it was a joke! SORRY!
Here is chapter! Drop me a comment and let me know how I did.
=][=
“Why are we doing this again?” Ritsuko demanded, staring up at Shinji as he loomed over her in her office, fencing her in with an arm he’d slapped against the wall, her cheeks felt warm as she did her best to glare back at him to let him know she did not appreciate his petty intimidation tactic.
“Cut the shit and explain yourself. Out of all possible candidates, you choose the one friend Rei has made in the whole goddamn school.” He pressed forward, forcing Ritsuko to put her back to the wall to keep any separation between her body and his. “Why?”
“The Marduk Institute cho—”
“Don’t. Insult. My. Intelligence.” He snarled. “It’s NERV and SEELE, it’s always been NERV and SEELE, it’ll always be NERV and SEELE! Which means that you or the asshat with the stupid glasses decided to grab the one friend in the whole world Rei ever made and put her in the line of fire! What I need from you, is a no-bullshit explanation on exactly what you were thinking.”
Ritsuko worked her jaw before speaking. “Horaki Hikari had the highest aptitude for it out of all the candidates.” Shinji’s eyes flashed momentarily with something, but his mask returned too quickly for her to put a name to what she caught a glimpse of. “There truly was no better candidate, she was the logical choice. I wasn’t aware she was close with the First Children until you barged into my office.”
He narrowed his eyes as he pondered. “Truly? There were no ulterior motives? No backroom deals? Nothing? Just cold data?”
“Nothing.” Ritsuko stated. “I judged the candidates personally and made my decision.”
Shinji held her gaze for a while longer before stepping back with a sigh. “Dammit!”
“Why are you so upset?” Ritsuko ventured asking, burying the slight disappointment she felt at the space that had opened between them.
The feeling of his body heat had been…exhilarating.
Yeah, burying that thought as far down in her psyche as humanly possible.
Shinji turned to glare at her. “Check your data, see if it’s been doctored at all.”
Ritsuko scowled. “Why?”
Shinji turned away and lumbered slowly out of her office. “Because this sounds exactly like something Gendo would do to try and get more control over Rei and me.”
Ritsuko would call him paranoid.
But that did sound like something Ikari Gendo would do.
=][=
Ikari Gendo looked carefully over the results as Rei floated in LCL fluid.
He had to be extremely careful. With the clone storage gone, Rei was no longer easily replaced. Plans were on the way to restart production, but with the biological material stockpile emptied…he wouldn’t have a viable replacement for years, months if he rushed gestation and development.
But while the technology had advanced by leaps and bounds, thanks to the research done due the construction of the Evas, rapid specimen maturation still induced unacceptable and possibly catastrophic mutations.
All readings indicated that Rei’s body would reach optimal parameters in time for the ritual that would bring about his iteration of the Third Impact.
The ritual that would make him a God and grant him the power to reunite with Yui.
The procedure finished and he watched as Rei exited the tank. The coltish proportions of her frame reminiscent of a youth, but he could see the hints of the woman she would bloom into, given time.
Yui, or rather, a pale imitation of the only woman Gendo ever truly, fully, unreservedly loved.
Nostalgia and longing pushed him to cradle her cheek.
It took a moment, but she nuzzled into his palm just like Yui used to.
He felt his throat constrict, old despair and longing twisting his guts into painful knots.
He waited until he could be certain his voice would not crack. “Outstanding work today, Rei.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go get dressed, I do not have the time to share a meal with you today, soon, but not today.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gendo left. He’d been worried at first, worried that Shinji would develop troublesome attachments to his genetic half-sister. But whatever relationship they had, had seemingly stalled soon after beginning, the surveillance in Shinji’s apartment showing that they merely cohabitated, Shinji’s emotional distance pushing Rei further into his own control.
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
Five more Angels, then, NERV need only buy him enough time to enact his plan.
He would see Yui again.
Now, to make certain that the right number of critical replacement components for Unit 04 went ‘missing.’
=][=
Ibuki Maya scratched the back of her head, the skin there felt raw and over sensitive, when she picked her pencil back up, her nails had specks of red in them.
She barely noticed.
She stood from the table and went to the soda machine in the break room, some of the guys at the fanclub had started stocking the machines with the drinks Shinji favored.
She went back to her table, drink in hand, and looked over the pages of scribbled equations, absently muttering to herself as she looked over her work. “So, if the battery had been charged to one-hundred and eighty-seven percent capacity he’d have been able to achieve the locomotion showcased when he destroyed the Angel. Okay.” She flipped to a clean page and began to fill it with equations. “So, we’ve established the rough amount of energy he’d have needed in the battery…the Evangelion-rated batteries are built tough, so taking into account material tolerances…”
She took the occasional sip as she worked, at first, the foreign soda had tasted overwhelmingly saccharine, but it had quickly grown on Maya.
“Taking into account the length of time the battery would have needed to have spent in an overcharged state we can determine the energy lost per hour…”
Her mind cast itself back. The scent of blood returned to her nose, making her feel queasy. Shinji, in Unit 01, screaming his victory over the Enemy, making a simple but poignant declaration to all who would oppose him.
‘Death.’
Witnessing that with her own eyes had been fully worth the reprimand and docked pay for ‘abandoning her station.’ There had been empty threats to fire her, but while she herself was not as vital as the Miracle Pilot, Maya knew that the number of people in the world who could replace her and deliver the same results as she did, with the speed, accuracy, and consistency she did, could be counted on the fingers of one hand with fingers left over.
They all worked at NERV and had vital duties of their own to fulfill. Letting go of Maya would not be catastrophic for NERV, the same way that the loss of Shinji would be, but it would leave a void that those making empty threats would struggle to fill.
“Now, the amount of energy that would be lost as heat in Kelvin is…” She coughed at the number she came up with. Triple checked her math and continued. “R-Right…the material tolerances, the battery is largely made of tungsten so…”
Twenty minutes later she wanted to scream, cry, and laugh hysterically. All at the same time.
This time, the ‘reasonable’ and ‘sane’ reason she’d come up with for why Shinji was able to do what he did, should have resulted in the Evangelion detonating long before the time Shinji tore his way out of the Angel.
And the answer couldn’t be time dilation, because Shinji himself said he spent sixteen hours inside the Angel before managing to escape and kill it.
There didn’t appear to be any reasonable explanation for what happened! To Shinji, it would appear, the Laws of Thermodynamics were suggestions!
But that was ludicrous! They were called Laws for a reason! Except unlike actual laws, these weren’t agreed upon suggestions that resulted in a better working civilization, these were the Laws of The Universe! A fundamental part of reality itself!
One did not simply take the Law of Conservation of Energy as a suggestion!
She flipped to a new empty page, set her pencil against the paper, and paused. “What haven’t I considered yet?”
“That Shinji and the Evangelion do not work under the same limitations you do.”
Maya jumped with a squeak.
Sitting next to her was the First Children, a Mexican apple-flavored soda cradled in her gloved hands.
Maya blinked, twice. “Wha?”
“The Evangelion do not have the same energy generation capabilities as an Angel.” Rei said, her quiet, monotonous voice thundering through Maya’s mind. “But they have the genetic potential for it. Shinji was able to tap into that potential and bring it forth.”
Maya opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water. “Then…then why doesn’t he do it all the ti—because…because it costs him.”
Maya covered her mouth with her hand, her mind racing at the implications of what Rei had stated.
Angels were theorized to generate their own energy. The research into the Angel Core and the Core Fragments that had been recovered from their battles was so highly classified that they were for Ritsuko’s eyes only. But Maya had caught enough glimpses of the notes that Ritsuko left carelessly around her office to suspect that Angels could produce so much energy as to be essentially limitless.
But if the Evangelion had the genetic potential for it…then they weren’t mere biological robots…
“Angel…clones?” Maya asked, horror clawing up her throat like acid. “We…We cloned those monsters, that’s what Ritsuko meant when she said ‘replicate’? And Shinji…he said he ‘feels’ like an Evangelion…he reached such a high point of synchronization that there must have been some bleed-over.”
“And through his determination and refusal to surrender. He forced the Evangelion to produce energy the same way an Angel would, no matter that it lacked the organ for that.” Rei said in between taking sips of her drink. “This caused him harm. Like pulling a muscle, but…” Rei touched her chest over her heart, then her forehead. “Here…and here. Not biologically, something else. The Evangelion flowing into him as he flowed into the Evangelion.”
But…But Shinji’s corruption index was clean! If bleed-over from the Evangelion had tainted his biology, Maya would know!
Except…Except the report she had seen went through Ritsuko’s hands before Maya was able to see it. And in Operation Hammerfall, Ritsuko had shown she was willing to sacrifice the Miracle Pilot for the sake of hopefully salvaging Unit 01.
“Why…Why are you telling me this?” Maya whispered, looking at the Pilot’s slight frame as she took (admittedly adorable) little sips of her drink.
“Because Shinji likes you.” Rei said, drawing Maya up short. “And knowing that you drove yourself to exhaustion trying to make sense of something you weren’t given the information to make sense of…would make him sad. He also likes Miss Kaede.”
Maya’s brain screeched to a halt. “Come again?”
“Shinji finds you two pleasing.” Rei said, turning her ruby eyes to Maya, and Maya could not help but feel that there was a…predatory glint in them. “I do, too. You are brave, and you have never doubted him. When Shinji asks for any information, you deliver, when he was swallowed by the Tenth, you were the first to know, on faith alone, that he was fighting back. I cannot support him openly the way you do, if I did, then Director Ikari will know that I am no longer his doll, and that would be bad.”
Maya felt her face spinning and her head was red, or was it the other way around? “D-Doll? W-Why…Why would it be bad? We are all working together to stop the Third Impact.”
“No.” Rei said, taking another little sip. “Shinji is working to stop the Third Impact, but there are too many forces trying to make the Third Impact happen. They’re too well connected, too entrenched, and too powerful.”
Maya felt sick, she wanted to say Rei was wrong, but her words were said with complete conviction, and they put several things Maya had seen into a new perspective.
“Why…Why are you telling me this?” Maya gasped as she repeated the question.
Rei reached forward and clasped Maya’s hand with her own, squeezing with surprising strength. “When the time comes, when the fighting is nearly over, when his attempt to stop it fails. Shinji will be the one to decide the outcome. He will decide the fate of the world and humanity. He alone has the strength to carry such a burden.” Rei’s grip on Maya’s hand tightened to the point it hurt. “It pains me that I cannot support him, not and keep up the façade. If you do not find him pleasing, that is fine, but please, keep supporting him. He will need all the aid you can give him.”
Maya opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it, opened it a third time, and closed it with a ‘click.’
She felt like she was falling, like she fell down the rabbit hole and now nothing made sense, the sheer unreality of…everything not letting her move forward. Had someone laced her soda with psychedelics?
Shinji…Shinji would be sabotaged. The Third Children could stop the Third Impact, but those at the top would stop him for…why? What could possibly be their excuse for the genocide of the human species?
It had to be the Director…likely the Vice Director…no, it had to run much deeper, Rei said that those responsible were ‘too entrenched and powerful.’ The rot had to travel all the way to the top, it’s the only thing that made sense.
But…but what could Maya do? She was just Ritsuko’s assistant! If what Rei said was true, then she now had a target on her back, those who were conspiring to end Mankind would have her ‘disappear’ to keep the secret!
She thought back to Shinji’s speech when he went to battle the Ninth Angel. “The Spirit of Humanity is Indomitable; all is possible so long as you give me your support.” She muttered, the words lifting her spirits the same way they had before Shinji climbed into the cockpit and went on to succeed at an operation the MAGI had decreed had a 99.9999997% chance of failure.
If anyone could stop the Third Impact, it was Shinji.
He just needed help.
Maya squeezed the First Children’s hand. Her resolve crystalizing into rock steady certainty. “In any way I can help, I will. Shinji has my full, unquestioned support.”
=][=
Kensuke stared at his airsoft M16A1.
Three days.
In three days, Kensuke was going to have his big day.
He was going to jump into the cockpit of the most advanced weapon system in the world.
He would become a Soldier, a Legend.
An Evangelion Pilot.
Everything he’d ever wanted was in his reach: Glory, Honor, Fame, a Higher Purpose.
If he were to die, he would die in defense of Mankind and be forever remembered as a Hero.
And yet the only things running through his head were Shinji’s agonized screams and Rei’s panicked pleas for him to be alright.
The only thing he could see was Unit 01, screaming death into the sky as it bathed in an impossible amount of blood.
All he could feel was the earth tremble beneath him as the Evangelion nearly crushed him to paste as it fought the monster that sought to end the world.
He should be feeling excited, exultant, ecstatic. He should be bouncing off the walls and counting the seconds until tomorrow. He should be too excited to sleep and fantasizing about all the monsters he would slay.
Instead, he lied on his bed and wondered if he’d even be of use. All the times he’d go off to the mountains and pretend to be in the middle of a battle, where he dreamt of a valiant final stand against overwhelming odds…he couldn’t think of those times as anything other than childish fantasy.
Here he was, about to have his fantasy fulfilled only so much better because Evangelion Pilot. But…but he was scared.
He was scared of the monsters he would fight, of how much it would hurt.
He was scared of the Evangelion he would have to climb into the cockpit of.
A part of him hoped that the moment of truth would come about, and they would all realize they made a mistake and Kensuke wasn’t able to move the Evangelion after all. At least then he could quit without feeling like he was failing literally all of mankind.
He wished he could be like Shinji. The huge, rude Lord of the Delinquents wasn’t afraid of anything. He went out to fight the Angels time after time, not once afraid he would fail.
Kensuke blinked and snorted.
Maybe he could get Shinji-senpai to notice him and teach him the ropes? At least, now that Kensuke was a Pilot, he’d have to remember his name and not call him ‘Popsicle,’ right?
=][=
Hikari looked around her room and sighed in relief.
She’d already cooked and ate dinner, she’d made lunch for Nozomi and Kodama, she’d helped Nozomi with her homework, made sure the rough and tumble little girl took her bath. She’d done her own homework and worksheets even though she’d been exempted from class for the week.
She finally got to lay on her bed, where she proceeded to curl up, hug her knees, and cried.
She’d done so much crying over the last few days that she was surprised she hadn’t shriveled up like a prune. But here she was, doing it some more.
In three days, she was going to jump into the cockpit of one of those big robots. The ones that resulted in Rei being covered in bandages for months, and Shinji got progressively more hurt every time he went out to fight in them.
She’d heard rumors that he’d suffered brain damage, and that’s why he walked all weird now.
Hikari didn’t want to get brain damage!
But, if she didn’t join, then someone less able would have to take her place. And if her sisters got hurt in a monster attack, Hikari would have to live the rest of her life wondering if they would have been fine had she been at the controls.
But she didn’t want to! She wanted to find a boy that wasn’t too stupid! And he’d be the perfect gentleman, and he’d sweep her off her feet. And some hoodlums would accost her, and he’d ride in like a knight in shining armor and beat them all up!
And she’d cook, and he’d tell her how good a cook she was. And she’d have three kids an—
“Hikari?”
Hikari squeaked and jumped straight up and almost fell out of her bed.
“Kodama! I keep telling you to knock!” Hikari chastised her older sister.
Kodama had a figure that Hikari envied. She was tall, though she’d be dwarfed by Ikari. And she had the mature curves of an adult. Though she often complained about stores not stocking her bra size and having lower back pain.
“Oh Hikari.” Kodama said, stepping inside.
“Wha?” She gasped, before her sister was cleaning her face with a handkerchief. And Hikari remembered she’d been crying. “W-Wait, I can do it myse-mmp!-I can do it myself!”
“And now blow.” Kodama said, holding the handkerchief to Hikari’s nose.
Feeling mortified, she did as instructed, and let her sister take care of her.
An indeterminable time later, Kodama sat next to Hikari on her bed. And Hikari had spent the better part of an hour pouring her heart and her fear out against Kodama’s breast, reveling in the feeling of safety Kodama’s arms brought, false as she knew that safety to be.
It reminded her of her mother. Back when she’d been alive.
“There there, don’t worry Hikari. Everything will be okay.” Kodama said, rubbing gentle circles on Hikari’s lower back.
“How!?” Hikari demanded. “How!? Those monsters! The giant cube took months before it was gone! An-And one of them made a new lake! And they always cause so much damage. And Shinji has missed months of school because he always gets so hurt! And he’s huge! He’s so big, and strong, and all the time he goes out and gets hurt! How can I do better!?”
“See? That’s the secret Hikari.” Kodama said gently. “You don’t have to do better than Shinji.”
“Eh?”
“You know I don’t talk much about my job, right?”
Hikari blinked at the non-sequitur. “Yeah?”
“That’s because I work at NERV.” Kodama said gently, then brought a finger up to her lips. “But don’t tell anyone, okay? That’ll be our little secret.”
“S-So I’ll work with you?”
Kodama shook her head. “I work as a cryo-technician. If ever you’re working with me, something went wrong. But! Don’t distract me!” She said and tapped the tip of Hikari’s nose. “Do you know who is accepted as the second-best Evangelion Pilot in NERV?”
The second? Well, Shinji was the one killing most of the Angels, and Asuka had talked at length about how angry she was that Shinji kept getting better results than she did, but also spoke endlessly about getting better results than Rei so…“Asuka?”
Kodama tapped the tip of Hikari’s nose again. “Wrong! The second-best pilot at NERV is Rei!”
Hikari took a few moments to digest that. “But…but I thought Rei drove the worst machine and got consistently the worst results? How can she be the second-best Pilot?”
“Because she is a team player. Rei works with Shinji, follows his advice, and supports him on the field. Whereas Asuka always does her own thing, rushes about, and has nearly gotten Shinji killed twice, herself twice, and Rei once. So, she is universally accepted as the worst Pilot of the three, even if her test results are almost as good as Shinji’s. So!” Kodama tapped Hikari’s nose again. “What you need to do, is stick close to your Senpai and do what he says. And everything will turn out alright.”
Hikari hiccupped. “I wish it were that easy.”
“We call Shinji the Miracle Pilot you know!” Kodama said with a smile. “Just don’t tell him, he gets embarrassed.”
Hikari’s ears twitched at that. “Tell me more.”
Kodama’s normally gentle face split into a bloodthirsty grin, one mirrored in Hikari’s own face.
=][=
[Unit 04 readings nominal, S2 Drive active, palpitations and syncopation readings nominal. Neurological activity placid as expected. Unit 04 will be ready for synchronization test on schedule.]
[Unit 03 readings nominal. Main power supply nominal. Second stage apoptosis proceeding as predicted. All cooling systems nominal. Main data link-up lag within expected deviations…Conducting final tissue inspection…minor necrosis found among superficial tissues in right hypochondriac region. Team B, get those changed out.]
[Rrrrrooooger dodger. We’ll get that done in a jiffy.]
[How many times do I have to tell you to stop talking weird Takahashi? What even is a ‘jiffy’?]
[It’s not my fault that my artistic choice in vernacular confuses you, Watanabe.]
[Why did we even hire him again? America no longer has the most prestigious programs.]
[You’re just jealous you’ve never gotten to hold, let alone shoot a gun in your life.]
Misato leaned forward and pressed the transmit button. “Cut the chatter, we’re perilously close to running behind schedule.”
She barely paid any mind to the litany of ‘Yes, ma’am.’ That came back over the radio and went back to reading the reports of unusual turbulence during the transportation of the Eva.
“Feeling nervous?” Ritsuko asked, scribbling on the clipboard she was never without.
Misato looked into the eyes of Unit 03. She could only wonder what macabre, inhuman thoughts hid behind that mask? What dreams of horrid, resentful slaughter?
“A little.” She answered.
“Well, don’t be.” Ristuko said, looking over the arcane scribbling on the screens. “We’ll be ready for combat right away.”
“Yeah yeah, very exciting.”
“You don’t sound nearly excited enough.” Ritsuko said, raising an eyebrow. “If these two pass the tests and are fit for service, they’re going under your direct command, Major Katsuraki.”
Misato twitched at the title. She very much did not care for it. “And how long before these two start screaming ‘death’ at me, do you think?”
Ritsuko twitched. “That was a freak occurrence. Nothing more. Bits of code we haven’t optimized out of the computer-to-biological interface tissues.”
“You could just say brain, you know.”
“Humans have a brain!” Ritsuko snapped. “Evangelion have computer-to-biological interface tissues!”
“Right, right.”
[The Fourth and Fifth Children have arrived. I repeat, the Fourth and Fifth Children have arrived.]
Ritsuko pressed the button to speak into the mic. “Squad 2, initiate entry prep for Unit 03. Squads 3 through 6, run another diagnostic on Unit 04. One last round of tests, I want a record of every minor fluctuation of the S2 Drive. No mistakes allowed people.”
[Ma’am!]
Twenty minutes later, everything was still going well. Misato could only hope it would only be another round of boring tests.
That, and that the kid chosen to pilot the Eva was, essentially, another Shinji. Only a nicer one.
Yeah right, like she was that lucky.
It was then that Misato realized, she never took the time to meet the new Pilots.
[Primary connections established.]
[Entry-plug secure, transmitting pulse.]
[Psycho-graph position nominal. List cleared up through 1350.]
[Roger that. Can confirm, 1350. Fist stage contact complete.]
“This is Control.” Ritsuko said into the mic. “Authorization to proceed to Phase two, granted!”
[Roger Control…All neural links nominal. List clear to 2550, over.]
[Can confirm. 2550. Harmonics nominal. Approaching absolute threshold in five, four, three—]
The Eva’s eyes glowed a malevolent red.
“Abort the test! Shut everything down!” Misato’s mouth screamed without her input.
“What are yo—?” Ritsuko began.
“Abort failed! Repeat, abort failed!” One of the Matsushiro facility technicians screamed as the Evangelion began to struggle against its restraints.
“Cut all circuits! Cut power! Drop the gantry on it!” Misato demanded. “Do anything you need to, just slow it down!” She turned to Ritsuko. “Could it be going berserk, like Unit 00!?”
Ritsuko scowled. “No, we aren’t at that stage of the test yet.”
“Umbilical cable severed, but there is still a high energy reading coming from Unit-03!”
Ritsuko’s face paled. “Oh no…it’s an Angel.”
“Can we use Unit 04 to fight it!?” Misato demanded as the restraints failed one by one.
“No, that is at the very least eight to ten hours more work before we can get it ambulatory!”
[Sweet Jesus it’s free!]
Misato turned back to the horrible sight of the berserk Angel/Eva flexing its AT field, creating a bubble of destruction around it that shattered every remaining restraint, crushed the gantries into scrap metal, and liquefied the technicians that had been working to contain it.
It began to beat against the walls of its cryogenics tank.
“Can we do anything to stop it from here!?” Misato demanded.
Ritsuko’s expression hardened. “Activate the on-site N2-Mine cluster charge failsafe!”
Before anyone could agree with or dispute that order. The Angel shattered the welds keeping its mouth closed and screamed.
And Misato’s world was consumed in fire.
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