Chapter 1

 

 

Rei was in school as usual at that time of the day. It was Wednesday and the class was having a social science lesson. The classroom had space for 30 pupils and with big windows allowing a good view of the school yard. It was painted with white on the walls, had a brown floor, a big blackboard in the front of the room, 30 desks and a desk ahead of the blackboard for the teacher. The teacher was talking about rules and norms in the society from his book. He’s name was Ryohji Kaji and were in his thirties.

 

He wore brown jeans, a grey shirt, a black tie and a pair of brown shoes. He was looking soft and lean in the face with lightly pressed cheekbones. Kaji had a middle large nose and lips, long black hair with a ponytail, a bristle on the chin, little beard at the edges of the face and green eyes to make it complete. Shaving himself was not in his thoughts.

 

The lessons was not boring, it was just that not everyone did appreciate it. Some were half sleeping in their desks while others tried to concentrate to learn something new. Rei was the only one who really liked school and tried her very best to become better from the education. The others thought she was too serious and needed to relax more. The day was warm enough to be gentle and with calm winds giving a clear sight of the sky. Autumn were on its way and the last hot days seemed to speed away.

 

The seasons had almost returned to normal which was a good sign. Some years back, there was not any changes of the climate, it were summer all the time. Farmers liked it of course until they realised the dangers of 365 warm days a year. The consequences turned up like spreading of deserts, warming up the poles that finally led to 3 or 5 meters higher sea level on the whole earth. Everything was a mess for a long time until humans got used to the new earth. Many died by the rose of the sea level. The ones left behind the deceased ones started to build up the ruins.

 

It took some more than a decade before things were completely liveable again. The real reason to why it had been so warm before the end of the old world, were unknown. Scientists had tried to discover the cause of the impact during many years but ended up with nothing. It was only what the big industrial companies wanted the public to think. Rei were smarter than the most in her surroundings and did not fall for that lie. When studying the history critically, it was the ozone layer which broke down by the high amount of carbon dioxide.

 

She had told the others about it during individual speeches, in front of the whole class. No one had believed her and was annoyed by her words. Luckily for her such things did not take her down, it was not important. Everyone had not seen her with disbelief but perhaps with asking faces. Rei had not plenty of friends in the class (almost no one) and none outside the school. Friendship is a detail which is hard to understand for her. It is not that she dislikes social contacts; she hasn’t got the strength to develop relationships with others.

 

The reason could be her old past back to her 5^th year alive; she had just been allowed to go outside by herself to the park, that horrible day. She went straight ahead to the green park nearby her family’s house, some courtiers away. When Rei saw the very place she was stunned. The place were surrounded with beautiful cherry blossom trees in bloom, the ground were covered with glittering fields of red and blue flowers, gentle twisted by the winds and there was a majestic old oak in the middle of it all. The sky was clear and the sun shone brightly, making the flowers to sparkle like crystals.

 

The little girl thought it was a dream; nothing in the world could be so tremendous like this. She had nearly passed the trees around before a loud shivering thunder came from nowhere. That caught Rei's attention immediately. She turned her head to different directions to see where it came from. Soon it was clear that the cause was made by an enormous wind blow, coming from the route behind the oak tree. The power of the wind was too overwhelming and intensive to hold for the old oak. The roots brooked of like an animal forced from its home after some seconds. The tree was unable to do anything more than to follow the wind. The strong wind pushed the plant directly against the little girl. She was scared to death and started to dart back home.

 

All the muscles in her body flowed to maximum strength to avoid the great threat. Her breathing came up fast and the horror in her eyes rose each second. (I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, echoed in her mind). Rei ran everything she could and the sweat streamed down her forehead. The body could not stand it any more and started to hurt. The tree approached her fast and slammed her to the ground. The oak did not land on her and continued its way to somewhere unexplained destination. That hit broke every bone in Rei's body and let her rest helplessly, all alone on a wonderful flowerbed, decorated with her own fresh blood.

 

That day which began joyfully, had become a completely nightmare. The little girl wore a tiny purple dress covering her from the neck bones to the knees, a small pair of blue shoes and a bow on the left side of her blue hair. Her skin was very white, her lips and nose soft and perfectly matched with her face. The blue hair covered her ears and formed a sort of thick gracious helmet, which ended where the back of the head stopped. Something more noticeable about the blue hair was that it was spiky in the edges. It narrowed off down the forehead in a sweet leaf figure between the eyebrows. Rei just lay there completely helpless; all she could do was to wait for the death. Death was not what she looked forward to and the immobility made tears to form in her red eyes. When everything seemed to be over, some familiar voices came closer and continued approaching.

 

It was both her parents Yui Ikari and Gendo Rockabunji. When the troubled adults could finally see Rei, then they ran towards her. They had heard the sudden thunderbolt and felt the strong wind that came to the house. It was clear that something wrong had happened. Thunder causing a strong wind from nowhere is not a normal natural phenomenon. It had made them both to start running from the house, past the neighbourhood to the place were she would be. When they finally came within close range, they could see what had happen to their daughter.

 

Gendo was dressed in a black costume with black shoes, wore his eyeglasses and had white glows on his hands. He was long about 1.70cm in length, 34 years old and normal sized in musculature. His hair was dark brown, short cut on three sides of four, a fringe stretched a bit down his forehead and the eyes were dark brown. The face of the man was sharply formed, had a sharp shin, a normal sized nose and a pair of lips. The outside was angry looking and was decorated with a full beard of the edges of his face (New gate fringe). He had also two very strong out sticking cheekbones on the sides. Those made the total sight of him greatly impressive.

Yui was his 30 years old wife wearing a pair of orange shorts, a white vest and a pair off orange shoes. She had a thin feminine formed body with hips, legs, breasts, arms and more, as women usually had. The hair was dark lilac, growing down on the sides, leaning down her backside to the shoulders in a pony tail, and she had a thorny fringe over her forehead. Yui's face was leanly formed, had a good matched nose and a pair of lips. Her normally happy expression and a pair of lilac eyes made her to the ultimate opposite to Gendo.

 

Yui started to cry with a terrified face while Gendo leaned closer with an anxious expression. He tried to caught Rei's attention but with no response. The damages were easily seen with distorted body parts and blood leaking out of the wounds. It did not take long before they realised she had been paralysed by all the broken bones, which made her unable to speak or move herself. The situation was deadly serious and needed fast actions. Gendo took of his costume to stop the blood streaming out, by wrapping it around the visible leaking holes. When the blood stopped to flow out, he called for an emergency helicopter to pick them up with his mobile phone.

 

It took some long minutes before the helicopter came to their location.

The helicopter were grey, formed like a bigger elliptical bottle, covered with metal for a war, marked with a red half leaf with the words Nerv, and lastly a propeller over and a propeller shaft in the back. It seemed there were also four adjustable jet engines around the helicopter. When it had landed on the ground two workers jumped out with a stretcher. All the four of them lifted Rei carefully onto the stretcher. That was not easy when the little girl yelled out in pain through the entire move.

 

She was carefully laid on the stretcher and carried into the helicopter. When everyone was inside, the helicopter took of and flow trough the air. The jet engines were adjusted backwards to give more speed. In the vessel the workers placed a quadratic plastic box over Rei's crashed body. It was connected with tubes giving her clean air and pain-relieving tranquillisers. The tranquillisers mitigated the pain flows trough the nerves immediately. Rei finally felt herself safe under the shell with her parents close. She gave them a little smile to stress of their worry, before she went to sleep.

 

The girl’s skin was whiter than usual and regained its original colour slowly. She looked so untroubled and harmless in her slumber. The breaths were hard to perform but showed that she was alive. When her parents saw those given signs, they could at last be a little eased. The inside of the helicopter were created to be a sort of mini hospital. It was formed rectangular, was white painted, had some benches, some drop-leaf tables in a corner, 3 medicine cupboards with 2 closets and an air and electricity making machines.

 

The medical workers started to input some more instruments into the protection shell; two couples of plastic tubes to cover their hands, some detergent to clean the wounds, some bandages to cover the injuries and a couple of scissors to take away the clothes in the way. They carefully started to take away the dress to uncover the bloody parts. They had to nearly cut off the entire dress, because Rei had broken every bone in her body. Many parts of the body could just be bandaged for now. There were other parts of her body with out sticking bones, which needed to be put back in place.

 

The skeleton had to be forced back to become normal connected again. Cracking sounds and spraying blood were heard during the recovery of Rei's demolished body. It was not pleasant to witness the operation. When looking at the process, you could believe they tried to sew up a corpse. The good point was that Rei was not awake during the healing.

The damage, horror and the physical effort had taken its right. She slept hard and the important adjustments did not trouble her at all.

 

20 minutes had already passed and the workers struggled hard to replace her rear. Two pair of eyes watched closely from a distance. They belonged to Gendo and Yui who were sitting on a bench. The atmosphere in the hospital room was harsh and depressed. It affected Yui pretty much but Gendo did not, in the same way as her. He was thinking on how they would help Rei to become fully recovered. They are both bio-genetic professors with deepened knowledge in techniques and human repairing. Normal treatment would not be enough to restore their daughter.

 

Gendo knew that from the beginning when he had called for the helicopter. Therefore he had called to Nerv and not to the ordinary hospital. Yui was at first surprised why a helicopter from Nerv had come instead of one from the hospital. Her puzzled thoughts were put together when her husband gave her a serious look, filled with determination. Gendo did always his best when the situation needed it and Yui knew that. The different faces he gave away were hardly ever seen, the exception was Yui who could decode those complicated expressions. When she had understood his plan she just obeyed his request as a “yes” to fulfil it. Her husband noticed this and continued with the plan.

 

Nerv was both a well-known and a top secret organisation. The famous part was on the surface and looked like an infirmary. The underground parts were below and went deep down a cleared hole in the earth. It was not made by man but by nature. A big meteor had smashed down on that location and made a big scar in the ground. That scar was big enough to contain a large independent society. When Gendo had found this hole, he had commanded to start the construction of a new base down there. He was the commander of the organisation and Yui was his partner.

 

The structures on the surface were just doing the same work as other hospitals. The difference was that it used more advanced technologies made from below. Down the surface the real hard developing process was placed. New technologies to help injured humans and creatures became discovered all the time. They were of course preformed and tested underground before using it on the ground. Everything was not made for the common people. They also created ways to strengthen humans, connect technique with flesh, weapons to protect humans and not to threat the environment.

 

Those were only some things on what they made. These are the main tasks for their purpose; to protect and assist the humanity. When other projects were more necessary to make then that, it would be considered. Money was not a big problem. Resources were sent from the Japanese government. The budget was also untroubled with incomes from renting out the new technologies.

 

The helicopter was approaching the Nerv hospital. It was placed in the middle of a plain empty land. It was flat, green, had some tress around and a river nearby. The infirmary was a sort of a complex. The size of it, the buildings connected to it, were very overwhelming. When looking from above it was like a base, when standing in it, it was like a city. The helicopter landed on a platform on a roof of the many buildings. Once it had stopped on the platform, Rei were carried out in a stretcher with wheels. The workers had finished what they could do a couple of minutes ago. The little girl looked now like a mummy with bandages.

Not everything on her was covered of bandages. The eyes, ears, the hair, mouth and nose could be seen.

The nose could not be covered but only supported with some plaster on top of it. The workers asked where Rei should be placed, because Gendo had told them in the mobile phone to await his instructions. He said she must be placed in the casualty department for special treatment. He also gave away an angry look to make them run faster to the department. That certainly made the workers to run to the elevator and go down. When they had stooped on the right floor, they ran directly trough the hallway into the agreed room.

 

Rei were placed on another stretcher and air support was given to her mouth. Rei started to open her eyes and did not know where she was. The light from the roof lamps irritated her at first. The eyes were used to the brightness after some time. Everything in sight was unfamiliar and strange. The room was quadratic, white painted, large and had a lot of machines. There were ordinary things that every hospital had like cupboards, closets, stretchers and tables. The object she looked intensely at, where the big basin with many related instruments. It was filled with some sort of liquid in a grey colour.

 

She tried to remember what had happened earlier but could not concentrate her mind. Rei was still tired and shaken by the hit of the tree. The little girl started to feel her own condition again. It felt like none of the bones were in good health and the inner organs felt undamaged. There was something weird with her own memory, which bothered her.

 

Rei had not got too much time for her own discoveries before two doctors came. She thought they were just ordinary doctors because of her lack of sight. The eyes could not work properly for now and could only detect dark colours. Therefore she had not either noticed the two medical workers in the background, standing there to keep an eye on her. Those two are actually her parents, Gendo and Yui in white coats. The two other workers were just dressed in blue pants, brown jackets, brown shoes and grey gloves.

 

Everyone now standing took on protection masks to cover their faces. Gendo took a machine from the corner and placed it over Rei. It was a little x-ray machine built like a plate, standing on four legs with wheels, a computer screen on top of it, two plates on the sides and some cords giving electricity from the sockets in the wall. The medical employers had not spoken about inner organ problems. He wanted to surely know if that was right. The x-ray machine made a strong beam going trough Rei. It also began to move upwards and downwards her. The scanning period only took some seconds. The computer screen beeped and showed a picture and status of the internal organs. The result satisfied Gendo and at the same time, confused him. Logically there would be some damages on the organs after the hit. There were now surprisingly, no visible wounds inside Rei. Something like this does not happen too often. It meant no extra work to re-establish any normal organs body functions again. The big task was to make the skeleton strong again. That is where the basin came into the picture. The instrument is full of a special liquid. That juice was a combination of pure titan, diamond and granite. The restoring project was meant to rebuild Reis skeleton by using those minerals.

 

The project was a good idea but very dangerous. The consequences were not really fully explored and too much minerals at wrong places, could be harmful. Everyone was aware of those risks and had no other choice. Therefore Nerv had constructed a special absorption suit for this reason in Rei's size. The costume had just in time become finished for the operation. The costume looked like a diving suit. It was made of a rare organic like material and covered a whole human body.

 

Everything on the suit was transparent; two plastic glasses protected the eyes and a respirator to give air access. Gendo took away the x-ray machine and carried it to a corner with a hopeful smile. When he went to the corner Yui approached Rei with the suit in her hands. She showed her little daughter the object she would wear the next couple of hours. Yui's visage expressed sadness and spirit to succeed with the operation. Rei saw the odd thing and gave away a scared look. Her mother only shook her head and embraced the little girl’s hair. The comforting touching from her mother calmed Rei even if she could not feel it. The warmth Yui were dearly giving her could be sensed with or without functionally bones. Rei were on and was going to take on the suit. Of course the others had to help her to put it on. Her parents

checked her bandages a last time before the dressing.

 

None of the bandages were disordered and no blood was leaking through. It was now the difficult part started. They had to take on the suit without hurting Rei. All people in the room had to work together and carefully. The dress was extensible and could easily be stretched out if it were necessary. Yui took away the air support before they began from the left foot. The first helper stretched it out from the bottom, the second further up, and Yui took in the middle to shove along so it would reach all parts. The last member Gendo held up Reis leg a little to make it easier to take it on. They operated slowly to cover every body part with the dress. They had put on the whole dress covering Rei from top to toe after some minutes. Sweet glide down the adults faces and a relived feeling painted the room. Gendo have had the hardest part in the process. It was less difficult to hold up a leg than hold up her top and bottom part of the body. He lifted her so smoothly like he lifted a feather. Rei had sometimes yelled in pain when it was too hard concentrated on weak spots. Gendo had on those moments, acted as if he have been hit by fire and placed his hands on more suitable areas. When the helpers had neatly placed the dress against Rei's body, it started to melt in.

 

The little girl became a little startled of the entering activity on her skin. That did not trouble her too much. “It has surely something to do with the recovery, she thought”. A transformation of the suit was seen. It had changed itself to a floating, yellow substance. The glowing material decorated all parts of Rei, except the eyes and her lips. The entire suit did not change and became absorbed. The eyeglasses and the respirator were leaved outside. This was a strange new event for Rei. Absorption that clear is not something she had felt before. The event did not really feel much but somehow healing. The reunion between skin and dress was over by some seconds.

 

Only some proofs of the suit were left behind. The precious details had their protections remaining and looked a bit impractical. Such things were not out of the schedule. When making the suit to be similar to a human body, it would also operate like one. The extra object was created to speed up and over maximize the usual absorption. Parts that were left would moulder away after a specific period of time. The melted in helper would also disappear after some time. It was now time to put in the girl into the special liquid. The medical workers connected air tubes to Rei's new respirator.

 

Everyone carefully put in the little girl into the basin. Rei started to sink in the basin with breathing air in her body. The healing process started at the second. It was barely noticeable but felt like pumping blood. She was now floating middle deep in the water, totally helpless. She could almost not do anything, except breathing and thinking disoriented. Gendo and Yui viewed looked straight at their child with smiles on their lips. “You will remain in the basin for some hours, before we will take you out again”, Gendo said to his daughter. She could only blink to them as an answer. Satisfied with the answer they went out of the room together with the helpers. Rei were left alone in the room still floating. There was nothing to do or able to make. Besides she was tired so she returned to sleep again. A little figure watched from the door spring. The person approached the basin to have a look. He closed in silently to not awake the girl.

 

The name of the boy was Shinji Keido. He was 6 years old, short and thin like common kids. Brown eyes and black brown hair, short on three sides of four, a fringe stretched down the forehead nearly to the eyebrows in a messy form. The face was narrow, lean with fine formed edges and a sharp chin. The nose and the lips was well fitted in and made him look very graceful. Shinji was just wearing a pair of green pants and a blue t-shirt. A pair of fast take on shoes was also on his feet. There were some special things about this adorable boy.

 

When studying him closer, you could notice that his clothing was covering up his endings pretty bad. Therefore it was easy to see the metal plates covering his visible parts. The hands, feet, arms, legs and the most of the face were sheltered with metal. Those counted eye catching belongings were nothing compared to the right eye. It was purple and green in the centre. There was evidence of a former operation of the area around the eye. A lot of red cut lines in a restoring process showed an improvement of the probably damaged organ. Much people would consider him to be a robot from his outside looks. That was not the case.

 

The reason was made by a mistake a while ago, which was declared top secret for at the moment. Shinji's eyes checked Rei's resting condition patiently and calmly. She looked like an angel floating in the sky a clear summer day. Rei was not viewable at the moment because of the covering suit. A weak person would obviously run away immediately. He is different. Her costume did not appear to be more awful than him. He showed more of a horrible sight than a healing suit.

 

Shinji's reformed steel plates covering his body, took the form of a zombie like human. The parts are sitting on his skin and mirrored rough wounds caused by the plates. They were very dark red and recovered slowly. It was nothing he could do about it. Scares are a common part of consequences from healing bigger injuries. Something like less more beautiful body is nothing he cared about. The important thing is that he was alive and there. Before this had happened, there was nothing in his life. Life just went on and to keep a good mode with fun things, seemed to have been pleasant. Shinji is parent-less and had grown up in an orphanage since birth. No one knew were his ancestors were and he did not care. Parents like that is nothing to have worries about. Anger and guilt had troubled him some time in the beginning.

 

That had led to fights with the others, which awakened his sleeping abilities. It was a very rare sort of gift Shinji have that no one else got. Through competing in battles, the more experiences he got. Since the first fight and forward, he had newer become really wounded by a fight. The only exception was the accident that changed his life, some time ago. The accident this boy was part of, was declared as classified information. Its reason was not more important than the usual human greed. Powerful persons in the higher social ranks with money, made it take that form, because common people would not understand. A thought with good ethic you maybe think. Lower commoners swallowed it and nothing more were said about it.

 

 

The world was a sort of virtual hell those days. Every state blamed each other for small things. Often most of the disputes newer went deadlier than so. Of course there were those which did. The state with most hate and armoured forces could attack the other state close by. Troops were sent in to kill and rebuild land. Everyone in the way trough their direction, were killed bloody and merciless. Soldiers during that time usually wore whole covering suits by leather and metal, a helmet by metal, bots, equipment like different weapons, grenades, aid packets and more. There were also more heavy troops in the wars ; air planes, boats, cars, tanks and so on.

 

Heavier machines were meant to kill faster and safer for the ones driving them. While hate inspired during battle, many sick ideas took form as well. You can say that human kind turned its heel back to the stone age. Killing, torture and raping were gladly preformed and cultivated as different interests. Through that way, the soldiers made it trough each war with less pain.

 

What is explained here is not easy to understand. People, whom were attacked, rapped or anything else, did nearly not understand themselves. When the actions went to real, it was too late. There is impossible to mention all bad actions that happened. Instead, there was one really devastating and horrible event, which was the worst one. It was in the 24th of December 1996, in Paris 2 in France (or the remains of it). Paris was a large city, stretching itself far away from the central square. Large hills with snow decorated the very outskirts of town. Everything was actually white by the falling snow. It was winter time. Farmlands surrounded with their greatness on how grand the population were. Houses and buildings of all sorts stood in amazing straight lines, tight together. In the middle of the running lines were roads of stone. The stone roads were flat and compressed without higher bits in order to make transportations easier and more environment friendly.

 

Beautiful trees and bushes utilized their living auras, almost giving the unmoving objects life. The outside of the town was really nice and gentle. It was nothing compared to the people in Paris. They were very friendly, happy, kind and never wearing thoughts with hate. Their reputation of being kind to anyone, were known by everyone in the world. That meant that they never fought with others. They were one of those not involved in any wars. Time changed fast and they were the first to suffer. When the night had neatly brought in the passive strength of rest, no one sensed that, it would be the worst and last night, in their lives.

Soldiers infiltrated into the city without a sound. Carefully helped by the darkness the mission went trough cleanly.

 

All of them took their given positions, unlocked the doors and waited for further orders. The time the doors were unlocked and everyone in positions, the real operation would begin. A movement in the air were heard, it was the signal, mentioning the soldiers to intrude into the houses. The mission was simply, terminate every human in sight. The assassins took their soundless pistols in hand, prepared to end the life of their victims. They secured every bit of the rooms. The investigating took long and went by as planned. When the first living object was found, it was no longer possibly to run away.

 

The first victim was a little girl, sleeping comfortable in her bed. She was probably about teen years old and tiny in size and length. Sweetness and innocence glimmered through her. The face was lean and soft with hair over the eyes. Looking like a maiden in sleep, curved in an innocent form under the madras, was a true shape of a child. Standing there in the door opening to the room, viewing her fully while aiming against her head, a final fast thick sound were heard.

 

His pistol had fired a shoot and a second one in her heart. The murder was over by three seconds. She never got the opportunity to feel the pain before death. An ending like that, is one of the most harmless ways of killing someone. Her life slowly faded away from its non-working shell, like it did not want to leave. The soul fled from the body while looking sad to the murderer. It floated while crying in the air for a while and disappeared. A source of life was gone, never to come back again. One victim erased, more to go, echoed in the mind of the assassin. Another after another were “neutralized” slowly emptying the big population of Paris. A finale blow ended the operation and the mission was finished. The last person in town was finally erased. The murderers disappeared without any trace of evidence, like when they came.

 

The consequences of that one, led to other things. Countries started to attack each other even more, which turned the world into a, sort of world war. This continued for some years till the sea water level rose in height. The wars stopped and people started to care about the new catastrophe instead. Meanwhile the reparations were in work and the hatred sort of lost its heat with some degrees. After those big restorations in the world, UN was formed. It was Japan and USA that had suggested it and made that organisation. Its purpose was simple, to make it impossible to let a new world war start over again. This seemed like a good thing and soon other states joined it. There were many quarrels in the beginning when UN's rules and headlines would be written.

 

The debate of the formal things also took a very long time. When it was over, UN had become a sort of a big compromise. The origin of its purpose was now really out watered. But it was in function and the most of the world’s nations were members of it. Even though these things happened, there were still some tensions between nations. Irritation and suspicions between countries will always remain. The peace was now in action and nothing really happened on the war line. Instead of making real wars, many nations started to build up their armies and defences. Development of their weaponry startled UN pretty much.

 

The president of it said that, the nations should not make their armies too big, but only within reasonable limits. It was to every nation’s defence a right the members had to build up their armies, if there was a threat or suspicion of it. So a new battle took place. Now it was not to win wars, but to have the strongest numbers as possible with any means. The competition ran trough the years, and is still living. Nerv was soon made in Japan, due to these happenings.

 

Shinji was still looking at Rei without a sign of hurry. After some time it was necessary to leave her alone. He started to go out of the room and was soon out of it. He did not notice that Rei had her eyes slightly open. She saw a little of him on as he exit. Her body was still tired so she could not see very well. The only she could, was just so she could notice the little boys presence. When he was on the very limit of the room he turned himself and said:

 

- We’ll meet again sometime, with a bright grin on his face.

 

Then he was gone. Rei was now the only one in the room. It was quiet and big. Only the bubbles created in the tank from her air help, could be heard. In normal cases she would feel lonely, but she did not. She just felt empty and at the same time a little excited. It was because of Shinji. Rei was glad that someone else then her parents had taken a little look on her. And besides, he had said that they will meet again. The feeling disappeared as fast as it had come and she was now totally empty again. She wondered why this glad feeling just ran away. Rei could not understand herself and gave up the thinking process. The best thing was to sleep, for now. Once again she fell a sleep and everything turned dark.

 

**Back to Rei in the present time**

 

Rei got a hold of herself and turned to reality. She had lost herself in deep thoughts again. Every time it happens she could not stop it nor remember what it was about. These sorts of things had occurred since that accident. She could not even remember that thing clearly. Her parent had told her, but it did not help. Rei sat in her desk and looked trough the window. She did not know for how long she had been away but it soon cleared up:

 

- Are you going to sit there all day, the lesson was over over twenty minutes ago. (Ry)

- Ayanami-san are you listening to me, Ryohji said. (Ry)

 

Rei noticed his second phrase and answered without much interest:

 

- Yes I’m listening. I’m just going to get my books then I’m off. (R)

 

She took her books and started to head for the door.

 

- You’re not studying too hard at nights, do you? (Ry)

- It’s not that, I just got away in thoughts. (R)

- Ok, watch yourself. Okey? (Ry)

- I will. (R)

 

After the cold and emotionless answers Rei had given, the room had become frozen and the teacher started to feel its awkward temperature. She went out of the room and the heavy atmosphere disappeared. The teacher sighed in relief when the room regained its original warmth. “Why is she always so heartless”, the teacher thought. Rei walked slowly and uncaring throughout the corridor to her locker. She thought it was weird of the teacher to care for her. Almost no one did and teachers were only meant to teach. She did not walk for long before a disturbing voice was heard

 

- Cold as usual you freak? (T)

 

It came from a bully called, Tohji Suzuhara. He was dressed in a black training overall and a pair of running shoes. He had dark hair and was tough looking. His face made him similar to a monkey sometimes. Rei did not care and kept going.

 

- Hey pay attention when I’m talking to you! T

 

Tohji grabbed her shoulder to make her face him. Before he could he felt a pain in his stomach. Rei had given him a fast blow with her elbow. After that she kicked away his feet making him to loose his stance, and punched him again in his stomach with her palm. Everything went fast and was barely seen for untrained eyes. The moves seemed to be hard but were very little of Rei's full strength. Even if these were little to her, it was still much for “normal” people. The last blow sent him trough the air and made him fly for a while. Meanwhile Kensuke Aida and Hikari Horaki where going slowly up the stairs to the same corridor. They barely reached the end before they saw Tohji fly them by and hit a wall.

He slide down it and dropped hard to the floor.

 

- Having fun fighting with Ayanami-san again? You seem to like the flying and the bruises you get. (K)

 

Tohji had pulled himself together and became angry at Kensuke's teasing. He looked directly at the boy who was his best friend. He was not especially tall and wore eyeglasses. He had light brown hair in a messy form, wore a white shirt with black jeans and a pair of sport shoes. He looked normal in the face with some sort of funny appearance. Beside him was Hikari, another classmate and the person who was assigned to discipline and to force the class to work hard, in short. In truth, that mostly meant to give the class news about school and to make the same group to take care of its duties. She was a normal seized girl with brown hair in two ponytails. She was dressed in a long skirt with blue and white colours. It reached a bit down her knees. Her face was lean and had some freckles under the eyes, and gave away some welcoming warmth to anyone. That was not seen when she saw the lying Tohji in a pathetic form on the floor.

 

- Suzuhara-kun, are you annoying Ayanami-san again? (H)

- Why can’t you realize your own stupidity? (K)

- Shut up! It has nothing to do with you what I’m doing or not. And quit bugging me you sick bastard he said, directed to his eyeglass wearing friend. (T)

- Haha, quit it would you? You’ll get older if you’re angry all the time. (K)

- I’m not angry! (T)

- Suzuhara-kun, if you don’t stop soon you’ll have to pay reparations for the walls you damage. (H)

- Shut up you irritating class chief! (T)

- I’m just trying to help. (H)

- Just keep quiet then you’re doing me a favour. (T)

 

They started to quarrel as usual, Tohji and Hikari. They were famous in school for their many or nearly daily disputes. The attention was moved to the two of them and his flying into the wall became forgotten. Rei was once again walking her way to the locker and passed the lively group before going down the stairs. Tohji saw her and became furious again, now at Rei.

 

- You witch! I’ll make you pay later! (T)

- Suzuhara-kun! (H)

 

Rei heard him and gave him a scary look. It was filled with strength and a threatening aura, a scary combination which frightened most people and bullies. Tohji saw it and backed away. Rei returned her view to the stairs and walked down. She came to her closet, took the things she needed and went out of the school building.

She was now 14 years old and was in the second year of junior high school. It was hard to think that her classmates were teenagers. They could sometimes be more like just kids below that. Those almost daily confrontations with the bully did not bother her too much. The one who did take any damage of it was just the moron himself. His favourite targets to get pissed on like her looks or her behaviour, were sometimes not so far away from reality. Even though that he liked to make it a bigger deal than it was. When looking or observing Rei closer, it would be easy or hard to see where barbarian found his resources.

 

She is a girl with blue hair, with grey white skin and red eyes. She was normal in length and body form. Everyone could see that she is a girl by her feminine appearances like breast, hips and so on. The special things about her body is her colour and her muscles. Rei has a little more muscles than normal girls in her age, but not so much that she looked like a maniac. She was wearing a combination of lazy and comfortable clothes; a big sized t – shirt and a pair of wide pants, with a pair of runner shoes.

 

She turned around a last time to be sure Tohji did not try to catch her or something. To not make her turn become a waste, she also took a look at the school. It is a big school or study complex. It has everything from kinder garden to university. So guess that it is big. Every building was by some reason painted in white and looked new and clean. There are also some minor gardens with trees, bushes, flowers and more, here and there. Not a too bad school. It was due to the earlier catastrophe this complex was built.

 

The leaders saw it as necessary to have a big and concentrated place for studies in their nation. Lack of space could also be a reason. After a quick view of the entire school she turned away and started to go home. The day started to cool off and a wind blew against Rei's face. She walked slowly through an avenue. It had some wonderful cherry blossom trees in bloom, standing on a carpet of sparkling green grass. This was good and hardly believable. A view like this was very rare. But in the middle of it, she also sensed that one special “person” would turn up very soon.

 

Rei went on walking completely entranced by a beauty sign of nature, when a person started to approach. The person speed up and jumped to Rei in high speed. The unknown hugged her and made them to fall to the ground. Rei was not prepared and she could barely stop the fall with her hands before hitting the ground. It was a girl named Eri Ayanami, her twin sister. Eri was hugging her with a happy expression. They were now at the ground, Rei on all her four, with Eri still hugging from her back. Rei went up again with the both of them, so they were once again standing straight. She shook off her sister roughly and looked with irritation at her.

 

- Why must you always be so childish? (R)

- Aren’t you supposed to act a little more like a teenager or something? Rei said with her coldness and with complicated hidden displeasure. Eri know her well and can sense her anger. She just giggled in a girlish way with blushed cheeks.

 

- You know that I like you really much onee-chan. (E)

- I know, but you don’t have to overreact like this. (R)

 

Rei brushed off herself from the dust while talking. Eri just watched her with joy with her arms behind her back. Eri is very similar to Rei, almost like a copy. The only difference while looking at them is that Eri has red hair colour while Rei has blue. Also their behaviour and interests are very different.

 

- So what do you want now Eri? (R)

- Well, nothing in particular…… (E)

- …………………………… (R)

- It would be fun if we could walk home together……. (E)

 

Eri seemed to like spending time with her sister. Rei did not know why she did so. And she tried to be a little “nicer” to the redhead, even if it was hard to notice it.

Their parents had named them Rei and Eri to fit each others names. Eri could be seen as a boy name. The twin did not care about that and love her name.

 

- Well you know how I go home right? (R)

- Yea in a weird sort of way, she said jokingly. (E)

- Really feeling up for it despite that? (R)

- Yes, if we can take it a little easier than your normal pace, ok? (E)

- ……….alright (R)

 

They started to go home now, together. It was a pretty amusing sight to see them side by side at the same time. One was neutral in her expression while the other acted childish, while giggling and blushing slightly. They had to walk slowly for a while before they could speed up. It would cause too much trouble if regular people saw them running fast. They are after all stronger than common people because of their training. And Rei has a little plus from her accident. Usually Eri takes the train home. The distance between their home and the school is about 30 kilometres, a pretty long way to walk on by foot. But Rei did always walk to and home from school.

 

They walked silently without saying anything more. After a short period of travelling, Eri did do something she did very often when being on a stroll with Rei. She took Rei's hand and hold it sweetly as they went on. It looked like they were a couple. Eri became even gladder by doing this, although Rei remained unchanged in her behaviour. A person can be used to many things. They can be normal or odd, but can still become acceptable with time. Rei have had much practice by living with Eri, so this was nothing.

 

This pair playing part went on for a bit. Rei broke up her sisters holding and started to dart away. Eri saw it and did also start to run faster. This was a part of their way with less people. It was an almost deserted place, where not too many or no one lived. It was a kind of city one abandon when it becomes way too old. The houses were still functional even if they were old fashioned. The girls jumped up on things till they reached the roofs, and continued running. It goes faster by running on them, and at the same time a little more of fun or training. They hurry on, and jumped between the houses when one ended to another. The air flew trough their hair and made Eri's uniform to reveal more of her body.

 

Skirts are the type of clothes you do not use when training or running. Rei know that very well. But it is not sure when speaking of her sister. She don't care about such matters even if the air stopped her speed a little and that her panties were seen. In this moment it isn't an issue because of the emptiness around here. No one would see her anyway. After some rapid

travelling between the houses, Eri started to chat a little.

 

- I heard that you fought with Tohji-kun again. (E)

- So what? He asked for it and it wasn’t really a fight. (R)

- I know but anyway, you don’t have to hit him so hard, even if he’s a fool.(E)

- It wasn’t hard, he survived. (R)

- Yea, more or less as usual. (E)

- Drop it would you? (R)

- Ok, don’t get angry, she said while laughing. (E)

 

Annoying sister. She always starts to take up little silly things to talk about, like Rei's fighting with the idiot, boys or so. But by some reason, she endured it. She did even talk to Eri when she hardly did to anyone else, when it was necessary, like lessons or so. Still she was chilly to her, and if it was considered talking was hard to say. It was mostly Eri that talked and Rei listened and could say some minor yes or no replies to answer her. Weird enough that did not bother her sister. She was despite that happy and cheerful when being near Rei. She was a really innocent and naive girl.

 

- You won’t become so popular among boys if you act indifferent and punch them into the wall. (E)

- I behave as I see to be a good way, and it is only that bully Tohji that I punch to a wall. (R)

- Yea, yea. (E)

- ………… (R)

- If you want to play with boys that way that’s your choice. (R)

- Yea, I know. I have done that a lot. But now I’m tired of it. Boys are often so perverted and narrow-minded. (E)

- ………how about you then? You’re showing your panties and thinks in childish ways…… (R)

- But that’s not what I mean! They mostly think about sex and doing it, and they are so isolated in their thinking. Just thinking the same all the time. Never thinks about something new now and then. (E)

- ….. (R)

- How come you’re talking so smart now, when you generally don’t? (R)

- Tihihi, I wanted to surprise you a little. I’m not totally dumb you know…… (E)

- …… (R)

 

The discussion died down. Rei and Eri returned the concentration on the dashing. Suddenly a sort of explosion was heard and a big wave of wind came blowing. It came from a point ahead of them. It was easy to feel that it was not a normal wind. The wind was too compact with a very big energy within. But that was not the first and only. Some others explosions were also later heard, with some seconds between. And finally a person was seen from a distance. It was a boy who jumped high up in the air and did somersaults between the houses and surroundings. He seemed to have a fun as if trying to break the laws of gravity. Without much seconds passing, he threw himself up to a roof of a nearby house and flew pass them. His speed was fast so he was not easy to see. He greeted them with a hand flat up, like you do when saying hello. With that done he speeded up and was soon far away from the girls.

 

- ………….. (R)

- That was something you don’t see everyday. He looked so handsome……. (E)

- Get a hold of yourself. (R)

- Aww, you’re so boring, you know that? (E)

- So? (R)

- …….. (E)

 

They were just a bit away from their home. Their house was on a place without nearby laying houses. Therefore they had to run on flat ground the remaining distance. Rei was tired of this slow going, so she raised the pace to get this over with. A drastic push with a foot and she was off. She darted away like an arrow when it is released from the bow’s tension. Eri could not follow that rhythm but tried anyway.

 

Rei reached their house first. She slowed down her speed with her heel in the ground. Because of the high speed, it took a while to stop. She braked with her heel in the ground for some metres. Then she stopped just some inches before the door. Some hot rubber smelled from the shoe. It also let out some smog from the friction. And at the top of that, there was also a very long mark in the ground where she had braked in.

 

Then Eri was approaching. She tried to stop like her sister but ended up to stumble and spin to her sister in mid air. Even a little stumble in high speed could led to some serious injuries. So just before she almost hit her head in the door, Rei caught her with one hand and held her above the ground. Rei let her down and let out a sigh filled with irritation of the twin's clumsiness. Eri brushed of the dirt she had on her and went in with a nervous giggle. Hopeless sister, supposed to be 14, and soon 15.

 

 

And she was still like this. It is her problem anyway. But even if it was, it was nearly always Rei that had to help out in the end. It was not much of a trouble for herself, although it could be like a bad tradition after some time. She gazed on the house and the environment surrounding it in the background. The house was standing on a pretty big land that and even have some mountains at the rear. It was some sort of dry steppe and half desert.

Some trees and bushes grew a little everywhere. Also the front was like the rear but not with any mountains.

 

Not a single other human or house was here. It was like a paradise for Rei. Eri did not really care, she would not be against some more neighbours. Their own house was pretty big. It had a simply form of a rectangle with three floors. Some doors and windows filled out the otherwise empty walls. The colour of it was just white with a light brown roof and doors.

 

Their father who had made this house did not like too eye-catching things. He did also need some space for his work as a scientist. But he was rarely home these days. He had said that he had much work and needed to do things overseas. It could maybe be connected some way with the fact that mother died. His wife had died some years ago in an accident. The weird thing was that no one could see any wounds on her body, nor any evidence of less poor health was sensed. And just one day she was gone, like she had never been here before in this world.

 

Of course their father Gendo Rockabunji had searched for her intensely for the past years. But he did not find her, so the government marked her as dead because of that. It was lucky that Rei and Eri was so small back then. They did not really understand what father had said with that Yui Ikari was died. So they did not suffer like their father had. Gendo was not the person who showed his feelings clearly, not even when his wife was gone.

 

In fact, it seemed like he became even more apathetic than before. So it was not such a big difference between the past and present. It was nothing to worry about. Rei shock of the troublesome memories she had and went in. She came in to the hallway and took of her shoes and put on her slippers. She walked in while watching her sides. She did not want Eri to surprise her or hug her as she often did, or tried to. Rei sneaked slowly to her own room, with her rug sack at her back. Rei almost made it to the stairs before a certain girl called her.

 

- Hey nee-chan! (E)

- ………… (R)

- Should I make dinner? (E)

- Do so if you wish…… (R)

- Ok I will! (E)

 

Eri tripped away happily to the kitchen. It would surely be something with meat again.

When the sister did dinner it would usually be something with dead animals. It is only Rei that is vegetarian in the family. She had told her sister many times that she did not want to eat meat, but she did not understand her words. To Eri, not eating meant wasn't something in her vocabulary. Rei did not really care about whether she ate animals or not, it was the killing she did not like. But to kill a plant or an animal was logically the same thing.

 

The difference was that plants did not scream and bleed blood, while animals showed emotions and horror like humans. It was really pathetic. That people thought it was more pain to kill an animal than a plant. If one killed an animal or a plant, one is still a killer. It is just what you prefer. Rei did not like any of the choices. The sad truth is if she didn’t eat she would die. So it became some sort of combination because of her sister. When her sister made dinner Rei ate meat, not any other time. She went in to her room and closed the door. She laid her rug sack in a corner of the room and sat down on her bed.

 

Nothing has changed for some time now, or has it?, she thought to herself. The blue girl's room was as empty and lifeless as her. It had only a bed, a writing table with a lamp on it, a stool and a book case. Simply the necessary things needed to have in a room and for school work. Accessories as flowers or stuffed animals and along those lines, like girls her age usually had, was out of the question.

 

The room was silent and still. It was like time and space had reached a dead end. This strange situation made it feel less suffocating and empty. It did not trouble Rei. She was used to it. Better get some homework done now, she said in her mind.

 

Rei took up some books from her rug sack and laid them on the desk and sat down in the stool. It was some history and english homework. The history part was to read and think about what was written in a book. The english task was to read some pages, translate, pronounce it and learn some words from English to Japanese and reversed. It was easy so it was done in about two hours. Rei was a smart girl for her age. She learned things quickly and could understand things others did not. Some at the school had wondered if she even had to go trough junior high school or even high school. It was discussed if she should be transferred to university level instead. Due to rules and the school, it could not become possible.

 

It would cause anger from the others if she got special treatment like that, therefore she had to endure through all school stages like everybody else. And besides, she received harder things to solve than the rest of the class with assignments at college level. In that way Rei did not waste her talent anyway. With the homework done she laid it aside and laid herself on the bed.

 

She tend to have a lot of free time. She usually trained herself or just did nothing. For now example, Rei would spend the rest of the time before dinner staring at the roof of the room.

Not so fun, but better than nothing. She was very bad at thinking about stuff she could do. Rei lay there unmoving and calm. Time went on and it became dinnertime. A sound of running was heard in the house. It stopped before her door, it was Eri.

 

- Hey onee-chan, dinner is ready. (E)

- ………….. (R)

- Come on, hurry up would you? (E)

 

She heard and made her way to the kitchen. She reached the designated area and sensed a smell of newly cooked food. It was some sort of pasta meal with sliced chicken in it. Rei sat down on a stool to the table and began to eat.

 

Her sister was already sitting, waiting for Rei. There were some different plates with assorted sorts of food on the table; salad, pasta, chicken, bread and a bottle with water. Eri talked almost non-stop while they ate. She talked about what happened in school, their homework, boys and other things.

 

The most she dragged up was just silly “girl” things. Rei was only listening and did not say a single word back. This was Rei's way of being a person after all. It seemed like Eri enjoyed conversing what she felt to someone. So therefore Rei became her trustee because of her lacking ability on replying back. After the meal was eaten they separated again. Before they had left each other Eri said:

 

- I’ll take care of the rest in the kitchen, so you can just go to bed or something. (E)

- ……………. (R)

 

Rei gave her a slightly nod with her head as an “ok” and went up to her room. She went in and walked over to the window. She looked out to the surroundings. Not much to look at, yet very calming. It was dark. The clouds in the air were floating across the sky, covering a little of the full moon.

 

The moon's cold light lit up a little of the dark night. She did quite frequently watch through a window or simply observing at nothing. It was like a custom or a habit for her. After staring for a while, she then packed down her things in the bag, brushed her teeth in the bathroom and went to sleep. Actually, It was more like a resting state rather than sleep. When one sleeps it also means dreaming. But because of Rei's lacking of using imagination, she did not dream at all. The night was quickly over and a new day began.

Rei opened her eyes and got up. She put on some clothes ,took her bag and went down to the kitchen.

 

Before she went down she walked over to her twin’s room. Rei hit the door some times to wake her up. She did not want to go in to her room. The hitting could wake up Eri or not, usually not. Therefore Eri arrived late to school in the mornings. Not that she was alone about it. Many teenagers at school did so, but she was worse than the standard example in that subject. When it did not seem to have any success she stopped and walked down to eat.

 

There were some leftovers of the salad from yesterday in the fridge. Rei took it out and ate it with some bread. After breakfast she brushed her teeth and went to school. She ran to school most of the time she could and walked normally at the rest. It took about 20 minutes.

Another day at the education complex. Homework, lessons, morons, idiots and so on. Well, it could be worse. This day would be a pretty long one. They would have lessons from 8.00 to 17.00. And the first thing this morning was adviser time; a time when the main teacher tells some news and upcoming events and such.

 

 

Waste of time but still something on the schedule. Rei put in her bag in the locker and moved to the classroom with some books. The morning was crowded. A lot of people were hurrying around. They had probably overslept and were late. Much talking was also heard. Rei did not care about what she heard. She retook her pace. She came to the classroom and sat down at her desk, and looked out the window.

 

It was still early so she was first in the room. Rei intended to sit there till class started. The question was if she could do so in silence. And she was right. A loud slam from opening the door fast was heard. It was a girl who came in and started to rest against a wall. She panted hard, trying to regain her air supply. She had short-cut red hair. It was Eri.

 

- Sorry I’m late she said, while breathing hard. (E)

- You’re not late. (R)

 

Eri looked up and saw how empty it was in the room. She look around the classroom and see only Rei. The sibling began to giggle nervously and blushed bright red. They are in the same class. It was not like that before. But by some reason Eri wanted to go in the same class as Rei. That meant spending the whole days with her and going to the same lessons. Normally that was not tolerated. The exception to the rule was made when Gendo claimed her right. The headmaster did not stand up against him, so it became settled then. Eri was really happy when she had heard about the good news.

 

She had hugged and kissed her father for a good amount of time to show her appreciation. Their father had flushed his cheeks a little in pink for her eagerly behaviour. He had understood her and calmed her down once she had thanked him enough. Then it was Rei's turn. She was not much lighter on Rei, rather more lovingly to her instead. It had lasted for a whole day. And it continued after that in a “more” normal way.

 

They sat beside each other with their desks close in every class they had, besides P.E. It was considered to be good. The teachers hoped it would cheer up Rei a little. That hope was fruitless. And furthermore, no one else wanted to sit or to be near Rei. It was actually kind of a mystery that the ones who sat before and after her, could manage to keep their calm. They had tried to switch desks but the teachers did not approve of that. They had to wait for a good opportunity. Eri took a seat near her desk and awaited the start of the class.

 

She hummed something for herself in a good mode. Some time passed on and the class began and everyone who was supposed to be there was there. Their teacher Misato Katsuragi was the last one to enter the room. She is a slim lady near 30 years old. She has purple long hair and purples eyes. She was wearing a black shirt and a brown skirt today. A small smile on her lips could be easily seen. There was always something going one when she did so. Maybe she had another unprepared test or something again? She walked to her table and cleared her trout.

 

- Be quit know kids and brats! (M)

- We have a new pupil starting in our class today!(M)

- He has come all the way from China and will go here from now on. (M)

- He’s pretty handsome too. (M)

 

Some giggles were heard from some of the girls. They were the type who liked to see some good looking boys. Some boys in the class did not like the news, another opponent to battle with in order to lessen the numbers of hindrances on the way to to get the girls hard to earn attention. Eri liked what she heard. Rei did not care. She lazily looked at the bird outside the window.

 

- You may enter now! (M)

 

The door opened and a boy entered. He walked over to the teacher and placed himself beside her. The pupils in the class were quite surprised of what they saw. It was a pretty long and well built boy. He has short black brown hair and wore their school uniform. He looked strong and serious, but still a little cute. The special thing about him is his outside. He has a right eye that is red purple and a brown black left eye. Moreover lots of scares and some skin coloured plates can be seen on him. He seem like a kind of robot or cyborg. No one said a thing, they just watched him closely. Then Misato broke the silence. She had finished writing his name on the blackboard.

 

- His name is Ikari Shinji. Try to be kind to him. He may look special but he’s not dangerous.

 

And that was a proof that things could change rapidly in the near future……..