Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E10 Part 1: YANA (Excerpt)

Outside of Aga, Niigata Prefecture. 275 km north of Tokyo-3.
Late September 2015

Daisuke Mamiya climbed down from his truck and walked towards the tiny Nissan two-seater pulled off to the side of the road. He'd heard this kind of thing had been happening. Folks would try and skirt the edge of the fallout zone, only to wind up stuck in the middle of nowhere when their little consumer batteries gave out. "Oi!" He knocked on the Nissan's window. "You need a charge?"

The driver's side window went down. Well, crap, Daisuke thought. He found himself looking at a lanky scarecrow of a foreigner, his tall frame almost comically folded within the tiny vehicle. Two haunted blue eyes peered out from behind a truly massive beard of tangled black hair. The driver wore what looked like hospital scrubs, and sat wrapped in a cheap plaid blanket.

"You, uh, speak any Japanese, then?" Daisuke tried to recall what few scraps of English he still had left over from high school. Which wasn't much, given that he'd been failing that class -- he'd sat behind that one really pretty girl, God, what was her name again? The one who'd dyed her hair pink -- right before Second Impact hit. After which point, of course, it hadn't mattered anymore. "You... oh kay?" He mimed the thumbs-up sign. "You help?"

"Izvinite," the foreigner muttered.

"Huh?" Daisuke stared at the strange man.

Underneath the blanket, the foreigner lifted his hand. Daisuke didn't see the shape of the gun until it was too late.

***

Staff Bathroom. Central Dogma. NERV Headquarters.
October 2015

He vomited the last of his breakfast into the toilet. Trembling, Shinji rose to his feet off the bathroom floor, the taste of tea and spoiled rice porridge still on his tongue. He wiped his mouth off with a paper towel and stared at himself in the mirror, just one question on his mind. Why? He asked himself. Seriously, just... why?

***

Central Dogma

He stumbled back out into the corridor. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Misato shrugged. "It's not your fault. You sure you're feeling up to this?"

"Yeah. Let's just get it over with." They started back down the hallway. "It just doesn't make any sense, you know?"

"This'll be your first time piloting Unit Zero," Misato said. "It's natural you'd feel nervous."

"Well, yeah, sure, a little, maybe." Shinji ran his hands through his hair. "But this is just a test. I didn't feel like this the last time I went into combat. I didn't even feel this bad when we were -- you know." He mimed resting his chin on the back of his hand.

"What do you want me to say?" Misato nodded at someone passing by in the other direction. "Our minds can be mysterious things sometimes, even to ourselves."

"But don't you ever get frustrated by that, though? Not even understanding what's going on inside your own head?"

"Sure. But it's not like getting frustrated is going to make me understand myself any better." They came up on the elevator to the catwalks. "You know how this'll work, right? We'll load you into Unit Zero here. Then you just need to wait while they haul you down to the test chamber."

"Nope." Shinji held up the paperback he'd been carrying under his arm. "Completely missed that the million other times you explained it."

Misato snorted. "Brat." She scratched the top of his head. "We'll go out for lunch after this, okay? Refill that empty stomach of yours."