Misato flung the door open, threw a long, wrapped package into the 
entry. If she had to work ONE MORE DAY with that impossible man Gendo 
Hibiki, she would go insane. "Ryoga-kun? I’m home..." She removed her 
shoes and wandered into the kitchen. Nothing moving, nothing lying 
around. One good thing about having the son of that devil living at her 
house, he was good at doing the dishes. It didn’t look like he’d had 
lunch, however. She grabbed a six-pack from the fridge.

She stuck her head into the living room, but nobody was there, either. 
The television was off. In one corner, she saw Ryoga’s pack, lying on 
its side... and his umbrella, buried halfway into the wall. What did he 
think he was doing? House repairs cost a lot. She walked over to it, 
gave an experimental tug. It wasn’t going anywhere, not without heavy 
lift equipment or Ryoga’s intervention.

While she had learned that Ryoga was the sort of man that caused 
incidental property destruction (the remains of that stairwell at NERV 
were a sight to see, she never should have tripped him there), he 
wasn’t one to leave his stuff lying around. She walked down the hall. 
One room was empty, save for a couple of empty boxes and such. The 
other was Ryoga’s room.

She paused at the door, listened before knocking. There was a faint 
sound, like a hammer striking a nail, repeated every few seconds. She 
thought for a bit, then knocked. "Ryoga-kun? You in there?"

"Go away!"

Well, that decided it. He was depressed about something. She could 
either talk him out of it or watch as her department was destroyed 
piece by piece. "I’m coming in." Always a good idea to give warning, 
and besides, if he threw something, it would really hurt.

She cracked the door, saw no flying pillows or books, opened it the 
rest of the way. Ryoga was there, sitting on his bed. One hand was 
bruised, red and raw; the other held what looked like a chunk of steel 
railing, with a stylized fist impression on one side. He had been 
crying, too. Red eyes, bleary, runny nose, the whole nine yards.

"You want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Well, that doesn’t matter, you need to talk about it. What happened?"

He leaned back, adjusted the pillow behind him. "Today... today was the 
worst day in a long, long stretch of worst days of my life."

"Bad class day, huh?"

He twitched an eyebrow. "That reminds me. I’m going to class from now 
on. It’s not safe not to."

Well, he had cut class. Strike one, but the lecture could wait. "Come 
on, you can tell me."

"You’ve got to promise not to laugh at me."

"I promise, already. Go on."

Sigh. "Remember how I told you about that friend of mine?"

She nodded. "What, the one with the fiancées and everything?"

"Yeah, that one. He’s getting married." He coughed. "He’s marrying 
Akane."

Everything made a little more sense after that. "She’s special to you, 
huh?"

"Special? She’s EVERYTHING to me. I wake up in the morning for her. I 
fight for her. I train for her. I think of her, every day, every 
moment. When I’m in Eva, it’s to protect HER. I would do anything for 
her, die, kill, it doesn’t matter."

"We don’t have to worry about you killing your friend, then, do we?"

He giggled at that, not a laughing giggle, but the giggle of somebody 
who’s so close to the edge that they can see the fall. "No, it’s not 
his fault. Nobody’s fault, really. Mine. It was my idea. The marriage, 
my idea. I told him to marry Akane, and he said okay."

"Isn’t that a bit weird?"

"You’ve never met those two. He’s not the kind of guy to show his 
feelings... and she’s violent. They fight all the time, but he loves her. 
And Akane loves him."

"So you gave up."

"Yeah." Another mad giggle. "Not because of that, though. It had never 
been enough to stop me before, that. I fought with my friend over her. 
I’d lose, most of the time. He’s GOOD." He’d have to be, to take down 
Ryoga. Ryoga was barely human himself, in that respect. "But now, with 
all this... I can’t keep her, not keep her and make her happy."

"Why not?" She sat down on his chair.

"I... I’ve loved her for so long, what, two years? And she doesn’t care 
for me, not really, it’s just pity, that’s all. Maybe I’m her friend, a 
little. And... there’s another reason." He pulled his knees up to his 
chest. "You don’t get to hear this one. Nobody does. She doesn’t know, 
but if she did, she’d want to kill me. God, she gets so angry 
sometimes."

"I’m not sure I follow this. You love her, she doesn’t love you, so to 
win her heart you go up to her fiancé and tell them to get married?"

"Not win her heart. That’s... over now, I can’t win, I can’t even afford 
to try anymore. But, I can make sure she’s happy, damn it. She will be 
happy. With him." He was crying again, not much, but crying. "I don’t 
even dare see her. I could have killed her, don’t you see? So many 
times, and I didn’t see. Once, yesterday, and now I know." He was 
glowing, now, faint green.

Glowing, faint green?!

Just like the Evangelion yesterday. Misato did some quick mental 
gymnastics. "You want to talk about yesterday? What happened, with the 
Angel?"

"That? Side effect, I don’t know. I fired, and the shot..." sniffle, 
"twisted, and it hit... it hit her school. I went a little crazy then, I 
didn’t know she wasn’t there, I thought she was dead, and then Rei, she 
gets hit, she gets hit in front of me. And then, it’s Rei on the 
ground, and Akane dead, and all of my friends, and the gun doesn’t 
fire. Something... went out of me then."

"Yeah, we saw it. Pretty damn impressive."

He looked up. "Oh, that. No, that’s different. You see?" He held up his 
arm, turned it, patterning his face with a pattern of glowing shadows. 
"That’s ki, the power of concentration. Normally, a fight brings it 
out, but with me... depression can do the same thing. The ki blast is 
called the Shishi Hokodan. You let go, and it works. No telling why it 
worked, why it was that big, that’s a HELL of a lot bigger than I 
thought I could do."

Yeah, it was big. It had gone through the Angel’s AT field like butter. 
That meant what, one hundred eighty megawatts? More? "And you glow for 
a while afterward, then? Like right now?"

"No, it goes away."

"Then what was the glow?"

"I wasn’t done... there’s another part to it. A complete version of the 
same technique. It calls down... energy from the sky, I don’t know why it 
works. It’s a lot more powerful, it takes a second to go off. Sometimes 
a bit more."

Misato breathed deeply. More powerful? A lot? And down from the sky. 
That’s why he was so upset last night... what if he had finished? It 
would have killed them all.

He continued. "I just keep thinking, I could have killed Akane. Even if 
she wasn’t in the school... Nerima’s not that far from where I was, right 
then. If the big one was as much bigger... there wouldn’t have been 
anything left. I could have killed her because I was upset because I 
thought that I had killed her!" He wiped his nose with a spare bandana. 
"Stupid, right? I couldn’t help it, that was the scary part, I couldn’t 
help it.

"So I went to their house today, and I told him, get married. I 
couldn’t give her up if he didn’t promise to take care of her. And 
she’ll be happy." He dropped back, eyes staring at the ceiling. "Damn 
it all, but she’ll be happy."

"So, there’s no hope, for you and... Akane?"

He turned, looked at Misato. "No, damn it, that’s the point! I can’t 
hope, it’s too dangerous, if I keep loving her, I’ll kill her. I can’t 
control it, not enough. I can’t make her happy if I kill her because 
I’m too stupid."

She understood, sort of. Not ever the kind of problem that she had 
faced, though. It was love, though. He loved her enough to stop loving 
her. Romantic, really, except that it was horrible and SHE had forced 
him to go through it, her and the Eva. "I’m sorry, Ryoga. I really am."

"You didn’t do it. It was coming, it would have happened, except that 
now, I saw it. I saw it in time and now it’ll be okay. Everything will 
be okay." He grimaced. "Damn, but it hurts this way."

She stood up, left two beers on the chair. "In case you get thirsty." 
On her way to the door, she remembered another detail from last night. 
"That girl, Akane, she came last night, didn’t she? She snapped you out 
of it?"

Well, he now looked puzzled instead of maniacally depressed. "Huh? NO! 
That wasn’t Akane. That was just Ranma..."

Ranma. Well, that was one hell of a coincidence, that Ryoga would know 
a girl named Ranma. "Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll be out here when 
you feel like talking some more."

"Thanks, Misato. Thanks..." He rolled over, stared at the far wall. She 
slid the door shut and left him to his misery.
---
Paradise Lost, part 7
Fan Fiction by Andy Kent
All characters copyright Gainax or Rumiko Takahashi
---
Ryoga staggered out of his room. He’d cried all day... and now, he felt 
better. The world was still a dark and horrible place created 
specifically to subject him to every kind of hell that could be 
imagined, of course. But at least he was noble about the whole thing.

*[Yeah, kid. You know it’s working when you feel like hell, eh?]*

Ain’t that the truth. He’d get over it, right?

*[Right, over it. Before you know it, even. Just wanted to let you know 
that we’re proud of you, kid.]*

Oh, great. No sooner did he get everything under some semblance of 
control, than he started hearing voices in his head. And talking to 
them, and having them answer. Maybe he had gone crazy. He listened, but 
the voice did not return.

He moved into the living room, found the couch. Misato was in the other 
chair, with enough empties to last her the night. "Hey, Misato?"

"How you doing, Ryoga-kun?" She sounded concerned. At least he had 
somebody that cared about him.

"Better, some. Who gave Rei that gun?"

That got her attention. "What do you mean, gun? Rei’s got a gun?"

"Yeah, I was meaning to tell you." He popped the tab on his second 
beer. "The other thing that happened today. That friend of mine, 
remember? He’s got three other fiancées. One of them, she’s a jerk, 
always trying to trick him and other stuff. Some kind of obscure legal 
thing, that’s why she wants to marry him. The other one, though... she’s 
nice, just a little odd."

"Yeah?"

"I went over there, with Rei, I was going to tell her what happened. I 
did tell her... she got mad, we were going to fight, let her get it out 
of her system like I got it out of mine..."

"Yeah?"

"And Rei almost put a bullet in her brain. I saw it coming, moved the 
gun. It still hit her, but just a scratch. She almost killed her. 
Ukyou. She’s a friend, almost... even tried to help me out with Akane, 
sometimes. And she almost died too."

"Why did Rei shoot her?" Misato couldn’t even picture Rei getting mad 
enough to shoot somebody.

"I don’t know, really. Maybe it’s the whole protection thing. Last 
night, today, she’s trying to keep me alive."

"Well, that’s a good thing, right?"

"Yeah, unless somebody gets shot."

"Good point. I’ll talk to her about it."

That was good. "Don’t yell at her about it, though. I don’t think she 
knows she’s not supposed to shoot anybody."

"We’ll fix that."

"Well, okay. Look, I need some sleep, wake me up tomorrow, all right?"

"Wait a second." She shifted a bit. "You said three fiancées."

Oh, right, Kodachi. "Doesn’t matter now. Somebody killed the other one. 
Last week." Yeah, somebody. Somebody who pilots a purple Evangelion, 
why don’t you say, Ryoga? If only he could understand how the hell THAT 
had happened. "She was a demon. Her brother? He’s happier now. If they 
caught who did it, he’d THANK them."

"Oh, okay."

---

Ritsuko downed another cup of coffee. She still hadn’t slept, not since 
she’d awakened from that kick last night. Too much to do, too much to 
look at. Status reports. After-action reports. Sync patterns. Rei’s 
patterns. Ryoga’s patterns. That one really odd part on Ryoga’s 
pattern, when he killed the Angel. Damage reports. A spectral reading 
of the blast. Dead Angel analysis. She could hear the dying screams of 
old-growth forests in the piles on her desk.

At least Misato had it worse... Ritsuko didn’t have to talk to all of 
those people who had houses under the last Angel’s crash site. That was 
a lot of property. Those gentlemen from the high school custodial 
department, though, they were miracle workers. It was almost if they 
were used to pouring concrete and fixing damage around the clock. She 
toyed with the idea of drafting them into the Evangelion effort, 
reconsidered. At the beginning, sure, but now the need for secrecy 
outweighed other concerns.

She looked at the damage report for Unit 01. Abrasions around the 
hands. Hand armor, melted, palm side, extreme condition exposure 
pattern. Same on chest. Lots of little damages, too... hydraulic systems 
with decomposed fluids. Odd things, but overall, not too bad.

Unit 00 was in worse shape. Most of the external armor was gone, for 
good. It would have had to come off, anyway, but it could have waited 
some more. It also had lost a couple of armor sections completely, 
including the one over the pilot’s entry plug. She would really have to 
talk to Ryoga about the proper procedure for clearing a downed pilot. 
The thermal shock must have been massive... but Rei was alive. Come to 
think of it, the organic components of Unit 00 were in pretty good 
shape too, considering their parboiling. Good living paying back, she 
suspected.

Here was a good one... somebody picked up a radiation analysis of 
whatever that thing that Hibiki-kun had pulled off. Not EM energy... not 
free ions... not anything familiar, really. She filed it away. Have to 
look at that one later on, she supposed.

And then there was this conference to go to tomorrow. Those idiots. As 
if anything could replace the Eva at this point. Oh well, she’d taken 
care of that four days ago, she’d only have to attend. Misato would 
have to come too, of course.

Then again, if she was attending, no reason to stay up too late the 
night before. NERV did have to watch its public image, after all. She 
closed down her terminal and left the office, headed for the parking 
garage.

---

"Good morning, Hibiki-kun!" The two peeked their heads around the 
corner. "Later, Katsuragi-san!" Kensuke grinned. Even if he wasn’t 
fanatically devoted to seeing Misato on a regular basis, the whole 
stereo effect was still pretty cool.

"She left already, guys." Ryoga looked like hell. Of course, after 
taking off like that yesterday, he deserved to... maybe guilt had kept 
him awake. "Dressed up and everything, some sort of conference thing. 
She won’t be back until tonight."

"A conference? She’s just so COOL!"

"Touji, give it a rest, all right? Don’t sweat yesterday, Ryoga." He 
really didn’t have anything to apologize for. To think that he knew 
Nabiki Tendo! Kensuke had finished more business with her yesterday 
than he could normally have done in a month, if he could have convinced 
her to pay attention to him, and with better prices too. Of course, she 
had insisted on delivering some of the merchandise herself, which only 
made sense. After all, it pays to know where your customers live when 
you deliver guns and explosives.

"I’m okay." Ryoga took a deep breath, shrugged on his pack. "Let’s go. 
Hey, where’s Rei?"

"She’s... here she comes."

"Good morning, Hibiki-kun."

"Morning..." He started walking towards the stairwell. "You’re not going 
to shoot anyone today, right?" What did he mean by that?

"I still don’t understand why..."

"TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, OKAY?"

"Fine." Now what did all of that mean? Kensuke frowned, concentrated... 
Rei had a gun. USP, 9mm, shoulder holster, under the left arm. From her 
balance, she had two clips under the right. He smiled, enjoying the 
discovery. Life just kept getting better around these two.

---

Ranma ran along the top of the fence. Last night had been good; for 
once, Akane was willing to listen to his (Ryoga’s) idea, and she liked 
it, for some reason he’d never know. They’d told the family later, and 
then the nightmare started.

He’d never known how awful an encouraging father could be in this kind 
of situation. He’d almost been tossed, physically, into Akane’s room to 
spend the night. That would have to wait for later, they’d decided. All 
in all, though, it was worth having done. And finally, he could relax 
about the whole fiancée thing for good. Only thing he needed now was a 
cup of water from a certain spring...

And some breakfast. Just because he was going to marry her didn’t mean 
he had to eat her cooking every day, thank God. Somebody needed to 
teach her to make edible food, one of these days. Breakfast, breakfast, 
there. Ucchan’s. Hey, didn’t Ryoga go tell her about the wedding? He 
hoped so, he felt more like food than fighting.

Three jumps took him across rooftops, another set him down in front of 
the door. The sign said "closed", but that never applied to him, she 
said. Maybe that had changed, now. Hope not. She was still a good 
friend. He opened the door.

Ukyou was sitting behind the counter, her head down, sleeping. Funny, 
normally she was up way before he was, and she didn’t sleep there 
anyway. Her hair was tied back from her face with its normal bow... no. 
That bow would have been white, and not worn like a headband. This one 
was, of all things, yellow. With black specks. Heck, it was one of 
Ryoga’s bandanas. What the hell did that mean? "Hey, Ukyou, wake up 
will ya?"

She stirred, sat up, looked at him. The right side of the headband was 
not yellow and black, just a dull reddish brown. OH. That’s what it 
meant. "Oh, jeez, I didn’t mean for him to hit you! You all right?"

"He didn’t, Ranma. He just told me... how could you? I wondered, all last 
night. How? Why? Why now?" She hadn’t slept much, not from her eyes. 
"Why are you marrying Akane?"

This would be embarrassing. He sat down. "Look, it’s like this. Ryoga 
came over yesterday, he was tripping out, the day before must have been 
rough on him. You saw that thing he did Sunday night, right? You know 
how depressed he had to be to do that. Well, he came over, and we 
talked.

"He told me about it, the fear that he’d hurt Akane, the pain. He loves 
her, you know. But... he knows what he is, now. Remember, I told you 
about that time? When he had that soap, and couldn’t turn into a pig, 
and asked Akane out? He figured that out too, that he could have really 
hurt her. That’s one thing he never wanted, to hurt her.

"He told me that he couldn’t give her up, though. She loves me, and 
this whole mess..." He gestured, encompassing everything. "She wouldn’t 
have been happy with it, either. Then, he got the idea, I could see it 
on his face, it must have been like tearing his own heart out to say 
it. He TOLD me, outright, to marry her. And I had to."

"Liar." She was getting angry, now. "You’ve never let anybody tell you 
what to do in your entire life. Why in hell would you start now?"

"It’s not like that! No. It wasn’t like that. He was right, damn it, 
for once he was right. I had to say yes... I couldn’t have refused, that 
would have been giving her to Ryoga, and he couldn’t let that happen." 
Deep breath. "Neither could I. I love Akane. I’m sorry."

"Sorry? That’s all you have to say? Sorry!" She grabbed her spatula off 
of the counter, got ready to swing.

He’d planned on this. "What’re you going to do with that, Ukyou? Hit 
me? You won’t win, we’ve been through that. You can’t hit Akane with 
it. She’s not here, and if you did, Ryoga would really kill you. He 
wouldn’t hold back, either, not for that. You think you can stop him?"

"I tried yesterday. I wouldn’t have won, but we didn’t get to fight. 
That girl, Rei, she shot me."

Holy... "Oh my God. Are you OK? Come on, let’s go to the hospital, it 
can’t be too bad or the bleeding... is that a smile?" He liked Ukyou, but 
really didn’t understand her at all.

"Good to know you still care." She pointed at the bloody spot on the 
bandana. "It just scratched me, really. She wasn’t aiming for that, 
though. Ryoga saw it, hit the gun. Saved my life, probably."

"That makes four you owe him and three for everybody else."

"Huh? You’re not making any sense, Ranma."

"He told you about the robots, right?"

"You don’t believe that, do you?"

Well, he wouldn’t have. "I saw him get out of the purple one. Maybe 
they’re two-seaters, I don’t know, but he’s a robot pilot. And he’s 
killed three of those Angel things so far. AND given us a couple days 
off of school, don’t forget." He tried grinning. 

"Well, what do you know. He really is. That explains a little. You 
think it makes you crazy, piloting robots?"

"He calls it Eva. And Rei, she’s a pilot, too. She’s quiet, really 
quiet, you know?"

"Yeah." She stretched, ran her fingers through her hair. "I must look 
like hell warmed over right now."

"Not that bad, really. I like the new fashion accessory."

She looked up, startled. "Fashion..." Sputter. "Well, after his 
girlfriend shot me, you think it was the LEAST the jackass could do!"

"You going to be all right?" She’d need to get cleaned up, and opened 
for business.

"I’ll live. I haven’t given up yet, you know?"

"NO." Damn it, he wasn’t going through this again. "It’s not going to 
work. I’m going to marry Akane, in a couple of months. You and Shampoo 
have less chance of breaking it up than Kodachi, at this point. Before... 
before, I didn’t know, I wasn’t really sure. Not this sure, anyway. I 
didn’t mind you trying, you’re nice, really cute too, but... that was 
then. Now, you’ve got to stop it. You see? It’s over, if it had ever 
started."

"That’s cruel, Ranma."

It was. "I don’t have a choice. No, I did, and I made it, and it wasn’t 
you. I can be a friend, but that’s it. Besides, if Ryoga thought I was 
being unfaithful, he’d break me like a twig. Or take that big thing out 
after me, probably."

"What if I don’t want to be your friend, after that?"

"Then... it’ll be a damned shame, Ukyou. I don’t have many friends."

He got up, opened the door, jumped for a roof. That was like... it must 
have been a little of what Ryoga had felt, last night. Damn him and his 
fool honor and the whole fiancée thing anyway. And doubly damn that 
damned Genma for making him do that to Ukyou.

She’d get over him, somehow. Maybe... maybe he could help her be happy, 
some other way. Some other guy, maybe? He saw Ukyou, sleeping, with a 
yellow and black bandana around her temples. An idea came to him. It 
was so sick, so twisted, that it would probably work. And it would take 
care of two debts he had piled up.

He still hadn’t had breakfast yet.

---

Rei stepped into the office. It was comforting, a little, the patterns 
on floor and ceiling familiar. As was the figure behind the desk. 
"Hibiki-san?"

Gendo looked up from a stack of paper, saw Rei, smiled. "Come in, Rei. 
What do you need?"

This would be difficult. She hadn’t ever had a request to make before... 
just statements of insufficient this or that, things that HAD to be 
done. This would be different. "I need to ask a question." There. Good 
start.

He placed the paper down on his desk, folded his hands under his chin. 
Another familiar gesture, reassuring. "Go ahead, ask then."

Difficult didn’t begin to describe this. How could she tell him... "Where 
does Ryoga-kun get his money?" There. A neutral question.

"He has a pilot’s salary. It makes sense, what with him getting lost. 
The money makes his life easier and thus he will prefer to pilot Eva 
rather than leave." He unfolded his hands. "Why do you want to know?"

"I am an Eva pilot." He would see the meaning.

He did. "So." He smiled! Not much of a smile, but he wasn’t very good 
at smiling, not like Misato. "I should have guessed, before now. How 
much?"

She hadn’t planned on success. In fact, she’d spent all of her time 
thinking of various failure scenarios. "I... I don’t know."

"Well." Now he was smiling like Misato smiled, with his whole face. "I 
can’t say no, can I? And it makes sense, too... Do you want what he 
gets?"

"Not necessarily." It didn’t matter how much, she just needed what she 
would need. "I don’t know what things cost."

"You had no reason to know, though. What brought this on?" He answered 
his own question. "Ryoga, keeping track of Ryoga. Of course! You would 
see how he acts. He told you, or did you guess?"

"He told me, but after I guessed."

"Heh. Well, I can give you what he gets. After all, you are an Eva 
pilot." That sounded quite suspiciously like one of Ryoga’s jokes, but 
different. "But not all at once. You need a college fund, you know." 
That had to have been a joke. Since when did Gendo-san tell jokes?

"What are the details?"

"I can give you pocket cash, when you need it." He reached into his 
desk, grabbed a black leather case, opened it. His hand came out with 
several bills, all in the thousand or two thousand yen range. "Anything 
more expensive, you must come and ask me first."

"Understood."

"Do you know how to use money, Rei?"

"It’s an exchange medium. Used to procure goods and services."

"That’s what it is, not how it’s used. Look, let Ryoga handle the 
money, then. I’ll explain it to him." That was interesting. She’d never 
heard somebody say "explain" in that tone of voice. "Be careful not to 
waste it, and don’t tell people you have it."

"Understood." Well, no, but she’d follow instructions.

"No you don’t, but you’ll follow my instructions." Gendo-san always 
seemed to know what she was thinking. It was an odd and not 
particularly unpleasant feeling. "That should be all, then. You have a 
synch test in twenty minutes."

"Yes." She turned to leave. She thought about saying "goodbye", 
remembered how Ryoga-kun had acted when she had said that, last time. 
Maybe he’d be willing to explain later.

---

Ryoga stepped out of the men’s locker room. He remembered how there had 
been no partition when he first arrived at NERV. He’d changed in the 
bathroom for a week. Somebody must have noticed... which was scary, when 
you came down and think about it.

Rei was waiting in the hallway. "Are you going home, Hibiki-kun?"

"Not quite yet. I’ve got a couple stops to make, first." His fault, his 
problem. He’d fix it. Yeah. Besides, it was better than eating dinner 
at home, even if he was the cook.

"Where first?"

"Central Command." Everybody was off-shift right now. Aoba and Hyuuga 
were out doing whatever they did when they were out. (What? He didn’t 
know.) Misato and Ritsuko were gone, somewhere. Hadn’t been much of a 
test without those two on hand. Except for Maya, the place should be 
deserted.

Wait, Gendo might be there. Well, no real reason to avoid him, any 
more. Besides, Ryoga knew he wasn’t a bastard, so maybe Gendo would 
have some ideas to help as well.

Rei called the elevator. "Why shouldn’t I have shot her?"

No need to ask what that was about. "You really don’t know?"

"No."

Good question, now that he decided to think about it. "She wasn’t going 
to kill me. When I fight somebody, with my fists, with my umbrella, 
it’s real, I’m trying to hurt them, but they don’t die from it. I beat 
them up and then stop, or they beat me up and then stop. With a gun, 
though, it’s not like that. You’re dead or you missed."

"So, I shouldn’t use the gun?" She looked puzzled.

Hard question. This could get them both killed. "If they want to kill 
you, yes, use it. If they want to kill me, and they’re actually doing 
it, yes. If they’re not, don’t."

"Then why carry the gun?"

"I don’t carry a gun."

"I’m supposed to."

Yeah, there was that. Probably a good reason, too. "Just because you 
have a gun, it doesn’t mean you have to shoot somebody, though. If you 
had just pointed the gun at Ukyou, and not fired, it would have worked 
too."

"I don’t understand."

"She wouldn’t know you wouldn’t shoot her, right? She would have 
stopped. Probably. If not, you could... still shoot her."

"I still don’t understand."

Neither did he. "Maybe you just have to be brought up that way, I 
guess. Here. If I tell you that you can shoot somebody, go ahead. If 
I’m not around, you have to judge, but don’t kill them if you don’t 
have to."

"Understood."

Hey! "That wasn’t an order, Rei."

The elevator reached Central Dogma. The two stepped out, Rei leading, 
and entered the command center. As expected, only Maya was there, 
tapping at her terminal. "Wait here, Rei, I’m just going to be a 
minute."

"Hey, Ryoga-kun! Shouldn’t you be going home?" My, but she was cheery.

"Not yet." Damn, he couldn’t remember her last name. He’d just have to 
go with it. "Maya-san..." Good, not too familiar, she wasn’t ticked. "I 
could use some advice." Ibuki! That was it. Of course, he’d already 
used the first name...

She stopped typing, swiveled her chair around. "I might have some 
advice. What’s wrong?"

"Lots, but that’s not what I need the advice for. I’ve got a friend. 
He’s getting married... but he’s poor, right?"

She nodded. "Weddings are expensive."

"Right. And it’s sort of my fault they’re getting married now. My 
friend, though, he’d feel bad if I tried to pay for the whole thing. 
What exactly do you really need for a wedding?"

"A friend." On anybody else, he’d have called that look skeptical. 
"Right. Well, of course, there’s a church. Western or local custom?"

"Uh..." Like he knew. "I don’t think they care."

"Must be love. We’ll go with Western, it’s more romantic for modern 
couples. That means a Western church, maybe. How many people?"

"Two, duh."

"No, dummy! How many people to watch?" She had found that really funny.

"Let me see..." Not counting Akane and Ranma. He’d be there. Soun and 
Genma. Nabiki and Kasumi. If he was there, Rei would be there. Ukyou 
might come, but maybe not. Tofu would be there, if they could find a 
way to keep him from going crazy around Kasumi. "Eight."

"Eight?" Maya was shocked. "Just eight? How can it be just eight? The 
parents are four by themselves."

"Two. Akane’s mother died a long time ago. And Ranma, he hasn’t seen 
his mother in ten years, at least."

"How sad! But she’ll have to come, anyway. She’d never miss her son’s 
wedding."

"Yeah, but I don’t know who she is. Or where she’d be. Besides, she 
might try to kill him. Don’t ask me why, but he says so."

"It’ll work out, weddings do that. Who else, then?"

"Um... two sisters, both older. The oldest one, Kasumi, she’s got a 
friend, Dr. Tofu. There’s another friend, but she kind of liked Ranma 
too, so she might not come. Maybe some school friends, I don’t know. 
Me. Probably Rei could come too, if I’m there."

"Yeah, single guys can always bring a date." Oh, God, please say she’s 
joking. Wait. She’s grinning. No, now she’s laughing. Good, it was a 
joke. "Who’s the bridesmaids?"

"What are bridesmaids?"

"You know, they’re the bride’s best friends, they help her out. 
Probably her sisters."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"And the best man?"

"Huh? Me, I guess. What do I do, anyway?"

"You really don’t know weddings, Ryoga-kun. The best man gives the ring 
to the groom during the ceremony."

"Ring?"

"Yes, the wedding ring. You’re hopeless, do you know that? It replaces 
their engagement ring."

"Engagement ring?"

"You mean they don’t have an engagement ring already? My God! How long 
do they want to wait before getting married?"

All right, finally, he knew this one! "Two months."

"TWO MONTHS? Are they crazy?" Well, yes. "There’s no way to put 
together a decent wedding in two months! Well, maybe one or two. But no 
engagement ring, though, that’s rough. Not a good start."

"Hey, I could help him out with that, anyway, right?"

"Just don’t let her catch on, if you do."

"It’s okay, she’ll just assume that he sold his soul to her sister or 
something. You’ve never met Nabiki."

Puzzled look. "All right, but be careful about that. You two will do 
fine."

"Huh?"

"Please, Ryoga. Two friends getting married and you need advice? Oldest 
trick in the book. Come on, who’s the lucky girl?"

Wait! "No, no, it’s really not me!" Great, this was the last thing he 
needed right now.

"Suuuuure it’s not. I believe you." Ah. Sarcasm.

"Not that it matters whether you do or not..."

"And the mom thing? I know your father well enough to know about THAT. 
You might as well come out and say it."

"Rei, help!"

"Hibiki-kun is telling the truth."

Thank you, Rei. "See? See? It’s not me, really."

"Unless she’s in on it too. Isn’t she a bit young for you, though?"

"Maya, remember RIGHT before Eva went berserk for the first time?"

"Yes, why?"

"I feel just like that, RIGHT NOW."

She chewed on that for a second. "Oh, sorry, I shouldn’t have said so 
much. It is your business, after all. Just be careful... Hibiki-san would 
kill you."

"Aaaargh!" He jumped to the door. Why was she staring like that? It was 
only twenty feet, and he had gone horizontal, not up. "Come on, Rei."

---

Well, that was certainly cute. Maya could swear she’d seen Rei 
developing some kind of personality over the last few days... she’d ask 
more questions, even grin every so often. And she had understood a 
joke, laughed at it. It had scared Maya enough to make her drop the 
subject, then.

And Ryoga... well, he was rough around the edges, and much too young for 
Maya at any rate, but he WAS a little handsome. And muscular. And he 
had that spectacular endurance. Throw in a little pilot glamour and he 
would have to beat the girls off with a stick. Shame about the sense of 
direction thing, really. Like father, like son.

Plus, it was pretty obvious he was making the whole "Ranma and Akane" 
thing up. Obviously, he’d gotten the name "Ranma" from Misato sometime. 
Fairly stupid to use it here, too. Misato tended to get very drunk at 
social functions, and some times she would talk. Maya thought she knew 
why Misato drank so much, a past like that.

"Maya?" Eek! That was Misato!

Oh, it was coming through her headset. "Yes, Captain?"

"Find Ryoga and Rei. There’s a problem at the Jet Alone site, and we 
need Eva here."

"An Angel!"

"No, just a dumb robot that’s too stupid to stop moving."

"I’ll get them. Details?"

---

"I can’t believe she said that." Ryoga looked over at Rei as the two 
headed towards the train exits. "She... she thought... hell she still 
thinks!" Rei was blushing, not much but she was so pale. "That’s..."

Wait a second. If he could recall, the most stupid thing you could do 
to a girl was make her think you didn’t like her, for some reason. Hold 
it down, pull it in, center... there. "a misconception, that’s all. She’s 
just got an active imagination."

{RYOGA-KUN! AYANAMI!}

Oh, great, more voices in his head.

{REPORT TO FIFTH HANGAR!}

No, not voices. Maya, on the intercom. Angel attack?

---

Misato looked across the seat of the briefing room. Well, the briefing 
spot in the cockpit, anyway. She and Ryoga were flying a few hundred 
feet over the old Jet Alone proving grounds. "Do you understand the 
operation, Ryoga-kun?"

"Yeah. I’m supposed to drop down, run up to the robot, put you at the 
hatch in the back, then stop it from moving while you turn it off, 
right?"

"Right."

"That’s crazy!"

"Well, there’s no other options at this point."

"I’ll go. I can work the computer. Besides, I’ll probably be safer in 
there."

No time to argue. "I can’t pilot Eva to get you there, dummy. Get in 
there."

"Why don’t I just beat on it some?"

"BECAUSE it has a nuclear reactor! You’ll make it explode!"

"What were they going to do when the Angel hit it?"

"I don’t know. Shut up and quit arguing, we’re almost there."

---

Ryoga chased after the Jet Alone robot with Eva 01. It was pretty slow. 
He caught up to the back, grabbed the thing that looked like a handle 
with its left hand. It didn’t stop trying to walk, so he leaned back, 
shifting the weight balance to keep it from moving its pivot foot. 
"Ready?"

\"Go!"/ Misato crouched in his right hand. He moved it up to the hatch, 
watched as she grabbed the emergency release handle. Watched her as the 
rock beneath Eva’s feet gave, and she tumbled around the side, and 
down...

Down to a nearby hand rung. Wow! She was pretty good, to be able to 
hang on with one hand in that heavy environment suit she had on. 
"Misato? You all right?"

She gestured with the victory sign, went up the rungs. This time, she 
made it inside the hatch.

He wasn’t going to be able to hang on to the back of this thing 
forever. He pivoted, threw himself in front, braced himself against the 
thing. It was really stupid-looking. No head. The arms were really, 
really, really long, down to the knees, and flexible. And swinging, 
like the thing was still moving. He gave it a little punch.

\"I can’t do this if you’re rocking the thing, Ryoga!"/

Well, ripping its legs off was out then. He decided to stand there and 
hang on until something happened.

Two minutes of power remaining.

He moved one giant hand to cover a steam rupture. With any luck, that 
was a secondary backup coolant. Not radioactive, anyway. Besides, the 
primary coolant wasn’t on, that was the problem.

One minute thirty seconds of power remaining.

The ground under his feet couldn’t take too much more. Already, he was 
sliding a little bit.

One minute of power remaining.

\"Damn it, the password’s not working!"/

"Misato!" What did she mean, the password wasn’t working?

\"It won’t accept the password! It’s still trying to melt down!"/

Oh no. "Get out of there!"

\"I have to shut it down, Ryoga! I’ll try moving the rods by hand."/ As 
if they didn’t weigh several tons each. Not even he could do it like 
that.

"Misato, the coolant pump! Try breaking the coolant pump!"

\"Huh?"/

"They build these things to where gravity floods the thing with coolant 
if the pump breaks. Just find it and break it!"

A few seconds, and two more steam line breaks.

\"I found it! They label everything in here."/

"Great! Smash it!" He felt like smashing something. He had lots of 
anger to sublimate.

\"What, with my bare hands?"/

Huh? She had gloves on. "Just hit it!"

\"It’s... not... working!"/

Thirty seconds of power left, which meant maybe twenty till it blew. 
"Close your eyes. You can feel the pump, feel the metal and the water. 
Stiffen your right index finger. Ready?" This’d never work. It took him 
a week to get this right, and it didn’t work right on metal anyway. 
"Strike!"

\"Hyah!"/

And something happened. The big vent rods from the robot’s back 
withdrew into the robot’s body. "Hey! You did it! All right!"

\"Yeah, something gave, a little."/

"Wow! It’s a miracle! Are you all right?"

\"I’ve been better. I’m coming out, now."/

---

Misato was quiet for most of the ride home. Her right index finger was 
in a heavy splint. She didn’t know what was more stupid, Ryoga’s last-
second, stupid idea or her stupidity in actually trying the stupid 
thing. It hurt, really badly. He nodded, said something like, "It does, 
the first few hundred times," and then tried to wander off. She had 
managed to sic Hyuuga on him, though.

There was no way that the dinky amount of coolant that went through the 
broken valve could possibly have cooled off the reactor that quickly. 
The whole system had cycled... and that meant software control. It 
couldn’t have been the Jet Alone people; they were all stunned that it 
had worked, and had spent an hour pestering poor Ryoga about that 
bakusai whatever thing. That left very few suspects. She’d have to have 
words with Ritsuko when she returned.

"Captain?"

"Yes, Hyuuga?" Good thing he could drive.

"Message from NERV HQ. You’re to take Hibiki and meet Unit 02 coming in 
with the Fifth Fleet."

"Great." Good thing she had packed for an overnight stay at the 
conference. "Hey, Ryoga-kun, you packed?"

"You kidding?" He patted the top of his pack, lying next to him in the 
back seat. "I live out of this thing."

"Great."

"Hey, somebody make sure to tell Rei that I’ll be gone. Don’t want her 
getting worried or anything."

"Ryoga, I didn’t know you cared about Rei."

"Damn it, not you too Hyuuga!"

---

End of part seven

Send questions, comments, flames to akent@pdq.net