"What do you mean, you meant tomorrow?" Well, that was all well and good, from Ryoga’s point of view. Sure, he had been ready to go when the call had first come through, on the way back from stopping that Jet Alone thing... but, to be honest, was it really a good idea for him to go on board a ship? In the middle of the ocean? Yeah, he’d be just as ready tomorrow as today. And just as reluctant, probably. "Well, tomorrow it is, then." Misato put away her cellular phone. "Well, Ryoga-kun, guess who’s turn it is to make dinner." Maybe he should have pressed her to go early. Navy makes a fine meal, he thought he remembered somebody saying... --- Paradise Lost, Part 8 Fan Fiction by Andy Kent All characters copyright Gainax or Rumiko Takahashi --- "Ryoga, how can you be so cheerful? It’s six in the morning!" Misato crawled out of the remains of her bed. Oog. Nothing worse than waking up early. No way out of it, though, they had to be ready to fly out to meet the new Eva. "Guess I just slept well last night." The scent of frying sausage brought her the rest of the way awake. Not for the first time, she gave thanks that her youthful housemate happened to be able to cook. "Be there in a second." She staggered into the bathroom, attacked the mass of tangles on top of her head. Shouldn’t have had THAT many beers as a celebration, I suppose. Ow! Hey! She stared down at her right index finger. She’d forgotten about that... she’d sprained it pretty badly the day before. As if she should have been able to shatter a steel water flow valve with one fingertip. That Ryoga had the most stupid ideas imaginable, sometimes. And the umbrella thing was getting old. But, he did make breakfast. She finished up, stumbled into the kitchen. He was already halfway through a meal fit for a dozen hungry Vikings. The fridge was working well, though. Ah. Beer. Beer would make the morning better. She grabbed two, another for Ryoga (you never know), and sat at the table. "Mmpf. Go ahead, Misato. Pretty tasty, this morning." Did he have to rub it in like that? He kept on making references to that Akane person whenever he ate her cooking. The rest of the time, though, he talked about her like he worshipped the ground that she floated over. It was good sausage, though. She slugged the first beer, one gulp, and shouted, "Yeah! Now this is the way to start the morning." "You say that... mmpf... every day." He bolted another bite the size of her fist. "What time do we leave?" "I don’t know exactly, we just have to be at NERV by eight to catch the helicopter flight. Not that it would leave without us, but your father would kill me." Gendo did NOT like having his schedule messed with, not at all. "Well, what’re we going to do about R... Ayanami?" "Don’t be coy, Ryoga. We’ll give Rei the day off. Somebody’s got to mind the store in case the Angels attack again." As if he could hide that from her. Just look at him blush! "You’ll have to dispose of your two buddies yourself, though." She heard a knock on the front door. Speak of the devil, and should he appear... "I’ll get it." Ryoga finished the last bite, stood up and headed for the door. "Mmpf morning, guys." "Good morning, Hibiki-kun!" The two managed to wedge their heads around the doorway. "Good morning, Katsuragi-san!" "Guys, I’m busy today, no school. See you around." "No, wait a second." She had an idea. "Hey, you two want to come along today? We’re going to go see a friend." An evil idea. "Really? Come with you? What do you say, Kensuke?" "Anything beats listening to another Second Impact lecture, right?" Ryoga slipped outside, between the two. Rei must be arriving. "Well, if you guys will wait a second, we’ll get going." Kensuke’s eyes narrowed. "Early start. It’s in Japan, right?" "Not really." He was pretty perceptive, wasn’t he? "We’re catching a ride on Eva 02’s escort. They’re about a day from New Yokohama." "Escort... day... navy. COOL. Eva and Navy. Very cool. We’re going, Touji." Touji twisted back his baseball cap. "Right." --- "Good morning, Hibiki-kun." Rei thought that Ryoga seemed to be in a good mood. At least, he was wide awake and smiling. "Morning, Rei. Did Misato tell you?" "Tell me what?" "I’m going out for a couple of days. We’re going to visit the new Eva coming in." Well, that sounded fine. "Sure." "Um... she wants you to stay here, in case the Angels attack or something." He scratched the back of his head. "Understood." No Ryoga duties today, then. "Great. Have a good day at school, then." Ryoga turned, walked back to the apartment door, grabbed both Kensuke and Touji in a double hammerlock. "Look, you two, no funny stuff today, got it? No pushing people overboard or anything like that." She still didn’t understand humor. That sounded like a joke, and Kensuke and Touji were laughing, but Ryoga wasn’t. Not even smiling. Oh. If he fell off the ship, he’d turn into a pig. And they didn’t know he would do that. Why didn’t he tell them? He could get into trouble if he turned into a pig and they didn’t know how to turn him back. Oh well. "Good..." She’d almost said "goodbye..." again. Why did he react to that one word? "day." Perfect, he didn’t bristle at that one. She started towards the classroom. It was only ten minutes away, and the trip should go faster without her having to shepherd Ryoga. It was a lot of work, getting him somewhere. If Rei had ever really understood pity, she would have felt it for Misato right then. --- Kensuke thanked his lucky stars that he’d brought his camera. Of course, he always brought his camera. Unless he forgot it, which he hadn’t. And lots of film and batteries, come to think of it. This day was turning out to be a visual feast. First, there was the helicopter. He’d never had a chance to see an A-55 transport up close... and now he was riding in one. He made a mental note to tell the General that the seats in back were a bit crowded. These things were supposed to accommodate four armed troopers, but somehow Ryoga, Touji, and him (and Ryoga’s pack) had managed to eat up all of the room. And then... the fleet. Destroyers. Cruisers. FIVE battleships, huge guns and all. And the centerpiece, the masterpiece, the aircraft carrier "Over the Rainbow" was only a hundred feet below. He panned the camera. Cool. The trip over hadn’t been too bad. For some reason, Misato managed to stay awake for the entire flight, while Ryoga had dozed off fairly early. Not much conversation, except for some light teasing (Touji was so easy to tweak, even Misato had figured it out) and jokes. The helicopter touched down on the deck. Touji punched Ryoga’s arm. "Wake up, man, we’re here." Cool. Cool. The one word appeared over and over in Kensuke’s mind as he walked out of the helicopter. Real jets, American make, F-18. Flight crews. Fighter pilots. Technicians. Fuel cars. He made sure to check that the lens cap was off. Everybody had a slightly amused smile... well, maybe he was showing too much enthusiasm. But hey! This stuff was SO COOL. He turned, caught one person by the rail. SHE didn’t fit in here. Maybe sixteen, brown hair, two ponytails, yellow dress. NOT military personnel. She had stepped on... hey, that was Touji’s cap. A quick check told him that Touji had lost the cap... and was now, unsuccessfully, attempting to grab his cap off of the deck. "Long time no see, Asuka. You’ve grown up a little." Misato was smiling. "And how! I’m not just taller; my figure’s filled out as well." And then... man, these winds were killer sometimes on the Pacific... WOW! Well, so much for showing this tape to the Admiral... --- Those... those... those JERKS! Looking like that. Asuka was furious. Well, time for some divine punishment. First, the one wearing the black shirt. He’d been at point-blank range, so to speak. SMACK One down. The short, goofy-looking one... he had a CAMERA! A video camera! And it was on! The indignity. SMACK Two down. The third one was big, yellow shirt, no fashion sense. Dumb yellow headband, too. He was blushing beet red. This time, it wasn’t the satisfying SMACK of slamming palm into cheek. More like palm into steel. CRUNCH was more like it. Damn, but that hurt! "Ouch! What are you, a robot?" He was still blushing. She resisted the temptation to try again. An Eva pilot shouldn’t mangle her wrists over things like that. Misato (PURPLE hair? Really) piped up from the back row. "No, robot pilot, just like you. Asuka Langley Soryu, meet Ryoga Hibiki. Ryoga..." NOW he was reacting. "How do you do." He sketched a small bow. "Lovely morning, isn’t it?" What was this crap? "You mean THIS big lunk is the Third Child?" Come to think of it, he was HUGE compared to the others. Maybe six feet, must be at least one hundred eighty pounds, all muscle. "No way he’s only fourteen." "What? No, I’m seventeen. What does that matter?" "Well, OBVIOUSLY, stupid, you’re supposed to know that only fourteen- year-olds can pilot Eva. Not funny, Misato." "Really? Stupid NERV regulations. Oh well, too late now." "He really is an Eva pilot, Asuka. Killed all those Angels." Well, that didn’t make any sense... it’d keep. "Is that what I think it is?" "Yeah, a power plug for Unit 02. Just in case of emergencies, you know." Misato stepped behind the goofy kid, who’d recovered from his beating and was looking around like a tourist. "Come on, people, we’ve got to check in, you know." --- Justin looked over the motley group in front of him. One woman, thirtysomething, stunning except for a ridiculous purple dye job. One boy, black shirt, bruise on face, stupid white ball cap. Backwards, of course. Another boy, glasses, freckles, and camcorder. He was about to have a fit of some type, from how he kept looking around at everything. Asuka, he knew too well for his liking. The last, a young man, well- muscled and wearing a rucksack of all things. And he had some metal widgets stuck in his bandana. These guys could be fun. "Welcome to the "Over the Rainbow", everybody. What’s up?" "Captain?" The purple-haired one spoke up. "I’m Misato Katsuragi, NERV Operations Command. These are pilot Ryoga Hibiki and two friends, Touji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida. You know Soryu already." "Charmed, of course. I’m Captain Tylor. Justin Wakefield Tylor. What brings you guys by? We’ll make port tomorrow anyway." "Just think of it as added security, Captain. We also brought the power adapter for Unit 02." "Hey, that’s neat. Just plugs in the back, right? I don’t see why we need one here, though. Can Eva fight underwater, too?" "Well, no." Oh, well. It would have LOOKED fun. "But it’s always best to be prepared in case of emergencies, you know." "Yeah, I get a lot of that from my lieutenant commander, too." Another voice came from the doorway. "Just about everything you get from Star, I suspect, Tylor." Heh. Misato really had gone into shock, just like Kaji had said she would. "That just might be your friend Kaji, you know. Let’s find out." He creeped to the door, opened it and bolted through, looking down the hallway. "No, nobody’s here. A ghost?" "Not yet." Hey! Justin turned around as Kaji grabbed his captain’s hat. "Hello, Captain, Captain, everybody." --- Ryoga looked over at the man in the doorway. "Kaji-san!" Asuka launched herself that way. From what he could see... Kaji was about Misato’s age, maybe a bit younger. Dark hair. Lots of stubble, like he hadn’t shaved in a week. He was smiling. For some reason, Ryoga immediately liked this man. Of course, not everybody reacted like that. Kensuke was still going crazy about getting actual footage of the bridge, while Touji was staring at Asuka and rubbing his cheek. The Tylor fellow had grabbed his hat and promptly put it on backwards. Misato, on the other hand... she had flinched like his voice was a whip. Still tense, battle tense, too. Obviously something going on here. "Captain!" They all turned to look at the other door, which framed the lieutenant commander. Her name badge read "Star" and her face meant trouble... she was angry. "What are all of these people doing on the bridge?" "Well, you know, I was getting to know the new guys, and then Kaji turned up and grabbed my hat..." He cut off as Star walked over and twisted his cap back into position, turning his head in the process. "You can’t run a warship with a half dozen children on the bridge!" Hey, that was rude. "Sorry, people, but you’re not supposed to be here. Captain’s orders." "I don’t remember giving those orders." "You’re about to." For a second, Star’s fist flared red. "I suddenly remember. I’ll see you for dinner then, everybody." "Well, well. You two are hopeless. Shall we go?" Kaji turned, extended his arm to Misato. She made a point of ignoring it as she headed for the door. "Oh, make sure to get the power plug hooked up, Captain Tyler." "No problem." The door closed on an irate comment from Star. Well, that’s one way to run a ship. For some reason, he felt right at home here. The entire party crammed itself into a service elevator. "The cafeteria food isn’t quite as good as what you’d expect, but it’s palatable." Kaji was grinning. Misato was NOT grinning, and moved as far from him as the elevator allowed. Of course, it was a tight fit. Ryoga didn’t move a muscle... any twitch would probably be considered lewd, improper, or gay and lewd or improper. The door opened one thirty-second eternity later. Kensuke smiled evilly and said, "Don’t worry about Ryoga. He’s been living with Misato." "I commend you and your iron stomach, Ryoga-kun." Well, it was an effort. "I can honestly say, Kaji-san, that Misato’s cooking is not the worst that I eat on a regular basis." Kaji seemed stunned. "I wasn’t aware that such a thing was possible." "Would you guys please lay off my cooking habits?" Misato stormed over to the coffee machine, grabbed a cup. Touji started feeding change into the vending machine on the wall. "Dr. Pepper all right for everybody?" Hey, if he was buying... "Sure." A chorus of "fine" and "all right" answered Touji. He brought the drinks over to the table. "So, you’re the famous Third Child." Kaji leaned over the table. "Killed an Angel, with no combat training or synch practice." That was perilously close to an insult. "No practice, lots of training. I AM a martial artist first, you know." "I had not known, although I can believe it. I don’t believe some of the other things that I’ve heard, though..." Kensuke paused in the middle of changing the battery on his camcorder. "Believe it. I wouldn’t have either, until I saw him in gym class." "So, can he really break concrete blocks?" "Yeah, with his hands, feet, and head, too." Well, gosh, even Akane could do that... "That would account for his face, then." "Asuka, that’s rude." "It was just a joke, Misato, you know that." "It’s all right. I really can’t afford to worry about how I look." How did they get on this topic? "So, Ryoga-kun, you’re living with Misato. Tell me... is she still an animal in bed?" Hmm... it’s been a while since this many people face faulted at the same time... and he said... and meant... oh, man. He could feel his face turning red. Misato had spit coffee all over Touji’s cap, and Touji hadn’t even noticed. If looks could kill, Asuka wouldn’t need an Eva to fight a Kaji-shaped Angel. Even Kensuke had looked up for a second. "I’ll have you know..." "That’s SICK!" "No way!" Come to think of it, the thought was pretty repulsive. Why didn’t he feel attracted to Misato? Who knew. "I don’t really want to know, Kaji-san." "Ah, a safe answer." "Ryoga?" Misato’s voice was almost dripping with sugar. "Yeah?" "Let me borrow that umbrella of yours for a minute, will you?" "Sure." He pulled it out from his pack, flipped it, offered the handle to Misato. She grabbed it, both hands, and raised it over her head. "Take it back, Kaji, or it’s all over." "In that case, I take it back. What is that thing you’re waving around?" She lost her grip on the umbrella. It fell on the table... through the table. Of course, it was only a folding kind, and his umbrella WAS solid depleted uranium. He’d have to thank that construction engineer the next time he wandered by. "Um... good question. Ryoga?" "It keeps the rain off." It was also the central tool of his own style of martial arts, of course. Not that anybody would understand that. "No kidding. I’m going back to the bridge, then. Anybody coming?" Asuka grabbed Ryoga’s arm. "You come with me, pilot boy. There’s something I want you to see." Touji snickered, then ducked the requisite slap. --- Asuka clambered on top of HER Eva 02. So, that big lug was a pilot, was he? Well, anybody could get lucky, she supposed. And since Hibiki is his father... nepotism, a classic case of it too. He’d probably curl up and die the first time he saw REAL combat. "What are you waiting for? Come on!" For some reason, he was oddly reluctant to get on the bridge to her Eva. "I can see just fine from over here." "Over here" was the edge of the pool that suspended Eva 02. "I didn’t know that it was red." "Heh. The color’s not the only thing different about it. Ayanami’s Eva was just the proof-of-concept model, and yours was the testing model, just to work out the bugs. Everything they learned, they put into this one. Here, you see the final product, Eva Unit 02. The perfect Evangelion." "I’ll take your word for it." He said this to the rocking of the ship. The ship doesn’t rock like that... and it sure doesn’t make rumbling noises like that. "What’s going on? Enemy attack?" She looked at the entry plug, still open. After grabbing her duffel from the seat of the cockpit, she skipped across the bridge and back to him. All right. THIS is my chance. Wait until they get a load of me. --- Ryoga wasn’t sure why he was waiting at the side of the stairwell... well actually he was quite sure. Asuka had to be changing, which would account for the thrown shoe and the yell of "Pervert" when he had peeked to check on her. Obviously, she was putting on her plug suit. That meant she wanted to use the Eva. Well, so long as he didn’t get wet, it would be all right, he supposed. A wad of fabric hit him in the chest. "Get changed, pilot boy. Only plug suits in the cockpit." He shook out the garment. How Asuka expected him to fit into one of HER plug suits, he couldn’t fathom. She had to be a foot shorter than him, and just over half the weight as well. "Look, it won’t work. I’ll go as I am." He started for the door. "What, and get my entry plug dirty? Besides, you need your neural connectors for a good connection." That’s right. He fiddled with his headband until the two oblong metal pieces stuck up like antennae. "Always prepared, that’s me." "Oh, I give up. Come on." The two bolted for the Eva, listening to the sounds of battle. Ryoga didn’t trust the pontoons this time, either. One jump took him from the pool edge to the entry plug. He shrugged off his pack and tossed it into the cockpit. "I’m ready to go." "Hey! Get that gross thing out of there! It’ll pollute the LCL!" "It’ll be fine, I had it with me on my first run through this thing. Besides, I’m not leaving it here." "Whatever." She settled in the pilot’s seat. He settled for the softer part of his pack as a chair. Asuka keyed through the initial startup sequences. "There’s... an error somewhere. Something’s not working. Thought noise! You’re thinking too loud!" "Um... I wasn’t thinking too loud." "Yeah, but it has to be in German!" German? She had to pick the one country he’d never wandered across. "I don’t know German." Maybe the gibberish she had been spouting while starting it up had been German. "You’re pretty stupid, aren’t you? I’m switching to basic Japanese. Think you can handle that?" "Yeah." This was NOT the time to get angry at a little sarcasm. --- "The missiles aren’t working!" Star never did handle odd things well. "Have the escorts prepare a bombardment!" Justin leaned back in his chair. To be honest, he could have done without an attack as well. "Now, now, if the guns don’t work, tell them to stop firing. No sense in wasting the ammunition, and we might hit our own ships at this range." "Are you serious?" She whirled on him. "Just stop firing? In the middle of an enemy attack? What, do you hope that it will just go away or something?" "Not exactly." He gestured towards the door, which had just opened to admit Misato. "She might have some ideas, though." "Special delivery... would you like to order information on how to defeat the enemy?" Misato was cheery this time. "See? Go ahead, come in. We give big tips for good service here." "You’re probably shooting at an Angel, you know." Star was about to explode. If he managed to stay quiet for the next minute, somebody else would get hit. "Of COURSE we’re shooting at it! What else are we going to do? That Eva of yours has type B equipment... it doesn’t work underwater!" "So don’t let it get wet." Oops. He shouldn’t have said that. Here it comes... WHAP ouch! Oh well. One of the communications operators spoke up. "The transport says that they’re activating the Evangelion!" "Heh. Just in time, too. Way to go, Asuka!" Misato looked out the window toward the huge transport that carried Eva 02. --- "Ready, pilot boy?" Ryoga really wished that Asuka would stop calling him that. "Ready as I’m going to get." "Well, here goes!" The Eva jumped, launching itself a few hundred feet in the air. They couldn’t see too well, the tarp had gotten caught on the Eva, but the navigation system was working fine. Ryoga DID see the transport shatter under an impact from whatever that thing was. "Hope nobody’s on that deck down there..." Well, it was a little late to worry about things like that NOW. The Eva landed, both feet, on a helicopter launching pad. The metal deck buckled like rice paper hit by a flying body, and then they were airborne again. Nice hang time for something this big. Asuka did something funny with the controls, and the Eva flung the tarp off. This time, they came down on a gun turret. Good thing it wasn’t firing or they’d have lost a leg. "Asuka, we’ve only got thirty seconds of power left." "I know that! Don’t worry, we’ll make it." The next jump would carry them onto the aircraft carrier. Ryoga hoped that they had the plug ready, or this was going to be a short fight. The impact jarred him, and he bounced around at the bottom of the entry plug. Jets skidded off of the surface of the suddenly tilted carrier deck and into the water. Nobody on deck; obviously they had been seen coming. "There’s the plug." Asuka crouched the Eva, wrestled the plug into the socket on the back of Unit 02. "There, all the power we need." "Yeah, but none of the weapons." "Are you kidding? I’ve got the progressive knife..." She stood, flipped the knife from one shoulder housing. Interesting style, extending instead of his butterfly housing. Cool-looking, too. It started glowing purple from the intense vibration. "Here it comes... whoa! It’s HUGE!" "I expected that. Come on, let’s go!" The Angel heaved itself up and out of the water. Huge didn’t say it. It was easily six times larger than the Eva! No hands or legs though. Just looked like a big whale or something. Well, it didn’t need arms. Its weight alone was enough to slam the Eva into the deck. The left foot wedged into a jet elevator... the elevator collapsed. Ryoga felt the Eva tilting to one side... No. No water. No fighting under water. "I WILL NOT get WET!" --- Asuka felt something enter between her link with the Eva. Another presence. An angry presence, desperate. It jammed the free arm into the side of the carrier, halting their fall. Considering the situation, there could only be ONE reason. "Ryoga, you IDIOT! What are you doing?" He didn’t answer. Asuka could see beads of sweat on his face, tension in the muscles. He really didn’t want to go under, after all. He moved his arms... and the Eva responded, flinging it (and the Angel) up and away from the carrier. "Hey, stupid, this is MY Eva!" She tried breaking into the link... and suddenly, she "saw" what Ryoga had in mind. "Well, so long as it works..." The Angel crashed down on a missile cruiser, with Eva on top. The power cord hadn’t snagged, thank goodness. Now, the two pilots grabbed the sides of the Angel’s mouth, forcing it open. "Where’s the core?" Asuka’s fingers flew over the keyboard. "There!" Of course... dead center inside. "Tell them..." Ryoga had his arms braced against the sides of the cockpit, elbows locked. "Tell them to shoot in!" --- "What? Shoot IN it?" Misato turned to Tylor. "Can you do that?" "Sure, why not? Yurika, can you..." Star attacked her station. "Already on it, Captain. The battleships have the target." This just might work. "Tell them to be careful... if they miss, they’ll hit the ship or the Eva." "No problem. We DON’T miss. Battleships firing." The shells from the two battleships on that side of the formation streaked towards the cruiser... at least five of them went directly inside the Angel’s mouth. Of course, the other four exploded right ON the Angel’s mouth, and the concussion blew both Angel and Eva into the ocean. "Don’t miss, Yurika?" "I didn’t do that." --- Well, this was just dandy. Stuck inside an entry plug with Asuka for an hour, dangling in the middle of the ocean from the power cord. Misato had said it would take at least another hour to haul them back on deck. The damage wasn’t bad, though. No leaks, thank God. "I still can’t believe you did that. Couldn’t you at least have asked permission before grabbing MY Eva?" "Would you drop it? It worked, right?" This must be how Ranma feels whenever Akane’s feeling particularly jealous. No man deserved this. "Besides, you wanted me to come." "I can’t remember why! Be glad you did, anyway. Otherwise, you’d be headed for the bottom of the sea!" Brrr. That didn’t bear thinking about. "Yeah, well, could you at least stop kicking me?" "No! It’s got to hurt first!" "Come on, you might as well be kicking the wall. You just don’t know enough martial arts to hurt me with a kick." "That’s what you think..." She concentrated, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth for an instant. "There!" Her foot lashed out. CLANK "OW! My foot!" Oh, yeah, right, like he’d actually NOT wear a cup. Oldest female trick in the book. "Serves you right." --- Ukyou finished tidying the last table. After the lunch rush, she’d have about an hour of free time until the first dinner customers arrived. No reason to rush. She still didn’t believe it. Ranma had broken it off. No "look, let’s just be friends". No "I can’t, I’ve got a fiancée". He had actually SAID that he loved Akane, SAID that he didn’t love Ukyou. The jackass. How could he string her along for SO LONG and then dump her? He deserved Akane, AND her cooking! Especially the cooking. The door slid open. "Little bit early for dinner, aren’t you?" She turned around, spotted a green school uniform, red irises, blue hair. She jumped, rolled over the bar, came up with her large spatula. "What, back for more, then?" The girl (Rei, right?) didn’t go for her gun. She had a school bag in her hands. No battle aura. Well, maybe not. "I... need to talk to you." "Okaaaaaay. Come in." She didn’t put down the spatula as Rei sat down at the counter. "Talk about what?" "About Hibiki-kun." "And why me?" "Who else?" "Well, you could just ask Ryoga, he doesn’t lie." Usually, anyway, he was really direct. "He’s out of town." "Fancy that." Ukyou sat down. Rei wasn’t here for a fight. "Well, talk then." "First... he told me that I wasn’t supposed to shoot you." "Big of him." Funny, she was putting enough venom in her voice to drop elephants. Rei must not register sarcasm well. "I feel the same way." "I don’t understand why, though. You were going to hurt him." "Of course I was going to hurt him. This whole marriage thing is his fault, you know. If he’d just have kept his big mouth shut and suffered like he always did, none of this would have happened." "So why did he tell me not to shoot you?" Because he was stupid? "You tried asking him?" "Yes. He kept saying something about you being a friend and that you weren’t supposed to shoot friends... I don’t understand. If you’re his friend, why did you want to hurt him?" He said THAT? After what he did? He would, too. "It’s... a little complicated. Did he tell you about Ranma?" "He turns into a girl." "There’s more to it than that..." Ukyou gave her the condensed version of Ranma’s life story, fiancées included. "You see?" "No." "Well, take my word for it. He’s a great guy. I can’t believe he’s actually going to marry Akane!" "Why not? He loves Akane, you said." Hm. It seemed Rei never learned tact, either. "What does he see in her anyway? What does she have that I don’t have?" "Ryoga would know. He loves Akane too." "He did. He gave her up, remember?" "But he told me that he still loves her. This whole thing is confusing. Does everybody live like this?" "Who knows?" He still loved Akane, then. But he was giving her up! She knew how much he had felt... how deeply... "Did he say why?" "He was afraid of hurting her. He thinks he’s not safe to be around." Well, true, he was hard on his surroundings. And, if she took what Ranma had said at face value (the JACKASS!) then he’d almost blown up the whole city a few days ago. Just like Ryoga. "Why doesn’t Akane love Ryoga, then?" Besides the obvious? "Well... Ryoga’s not too smart. Plus, he’s never around when you need him. And he can’t remember how strong he is... it’s not normal. It can be hard on somebody." Rei’s eyes tightened a little. "I feel... something. I’m tired of thinking about this." "It’s called frustration. Ryoga’s good at that too, you know." AND Ranma, the jackass. Well, so long as Rei was here... "Is he really a pilot?" "Yes. He pilots Eva 01." "He any good at it?" "I don’t know, really. I didn’t see the first two fights, and the third one..." She flinched a bit. "I was busy and didn’t look at him. He just beat another one." "Really? When? I didn’t hear an alarm or anything." "Just a few minutes ago. He was out with the new Eva unit. An Angel must have attacked him." "How do you know?" The robots never showed up on the news, for some strange reason, but people talked about the fights. Rei shrugged. "I know." "Is he all right?" "Yes." "Well, that’s good then. Oh, yeah, before I forget..." Ukyou reached under the counter, came up with a yellow cloth. "Can you give this back to Ryoga? I’m done with it." "It’s got blood on it." "Don’t worry, I’m not infectious." Come to think of it, it did look pretty gross. "Well, then, I’ll wash it and give it back to him later." She replaced it back under the counter. "So, what else do you need to talk about?" For some reason she felt better. At least SHE wasn’t the only person suffering over Ranma (the jackass!) and Akane. "Dinner, maybe. I’m hungry." She looked surprised, too. Well, maybe it was the excellent cooking... "I think I can make some dinner. Let me guess... no meat, right?" That couldn’t have been a grin. Maybe a nervous tick. "Right." "Um... I hate to say this... but I’ve got this policy. No free food to anybody who shoots the cook." Ryoga’s tab, by now, looked like the defense budget of a small African nation. Rei reached into a pocket, pulled out a wad of paper. Paper money. LOTS of paper money. Man, Ukyou thought, she was in the wrong business. "How much does dinner cost?" "I was just joking, you know." Well, if she WANTED to pay, that was different. "Ten thousand should cover it." Rei counted out five two-thousand bills. "Is that right?" "Yeah." Well, so much for Ryoga’s tab. "Actually, it’s a lot extra, but I had to pay Dr. Tofu to look at my ear. Incidentally, he told me that I should cream you the next time I saw you." "I wouldn’t enjoy that." "No, you wouldn’t. So the extra charge is for me breaking doctor’s orders." "All right." By this time, the griddle was hot. "Here goes, then." --- Unit 02 was being unloaded from the carrier deck. Ritsuko smiled. It didn’t seem to be in bad shape, for all that it had been keel-hauled. Misato was coming down the gangplank. "Well, it seems that you had fun." "Well, some." Misato wasn’t smiling. "That Kaji. Who’d have thought he’d be out there?" "Where is he?" Ritsuko couldn’t see him on the deck, and he hadn’t come off yet. "I really don’t want to know. He hid somewhere during the attack and I haven’t seen him since." "Well, take a look at this." Ritsuko gestured to her clipboard, which had information from Unit 02’s telemetry. "Impressive, huh?" "Yeah, he broke his synch ratio record." "She did too, right here. It must have been the stress involved." Asuka limped down the catwalk, hopped into the back of Ritsuko’s jeep. "No kidding. YOU try piloting an Eva with that thing sometime." Ryoga didn’t use the catwalk at all. He jumped, dropped the seventy feet to the dock. "Hey! I thought we agreed to drop it." "That was before I had to walk on this foot." "Your own fault and you know it, Asuka." "Yeah, yeah, get in, stupid. Where are we going, Misato?" "Home, I guess." She looked over at Ritsuko. "You’re invited to a victory celebration, you know." "Not if you’re cooking, Misato." She didn’t bother looking up. Ritsuko had tried Misato’s cooking once, years ago. She was probably still digesting the stuff, come to think of it. "How about it, Kensuke?" He had managed to make it down the gangway himself. "No thanks, I’ve got to get home and store this stuff." He must have been carrying two days worth of film disks. "Thanks for taking me along!" "No problem. Where’s Touji?" Touji was coming out as well. Right next to Kaji. "Hurry, Ritsuko, let’s go!" Ritsuko started the motor. "See you at work, Kaji." He was carrying a case of some kind, an armored case. The mission had been successful, then. "Stay away from the women." "So, then I..." "No way! She let you..." "Of course!" The two were a good pair, Ritsuko concluded. --- End of part eight Questions, comments, flames go to akent@pdq.net Heh. Next time... living arrangements and face rearrangements.