Disclaimer: Evangelion is owned by GAINAX.


SCRIBES OF TOKYO-3
By Eva On The Rocks

CHAPTER 1. A DISCOVERY


THE KATSURAGI RESIDENCE

Misato Katsuragi cracked open a can of Yebisu and slumped down at her computer, trying to find another reason to put off completing the reports on the Twelfth Angel incident. As she eyed the monitor of the laptop, hoping that the reports would miraculously complete themselves, she found her mind replaying the hideous sight of Evangelion Unit One breaking free of the body of the most recent Angel.

I'm just glad Shinji's okay, Misato thought with a sigh, remembering that she was due to appear before the Committee in three days.

She had believed it best, considering Shinji's emotional state, that he not be subjected to questioning by the Committee, so now she would go before them instead.

"Stupid paperwork," Misato grumbled, taking another sip of her beer and searching for a distraction from the tedious part of her job description.

Shinji and Asuka were watching television in the living room, and Misato decided it was best not to disturb the peace out there.

Deciding to waste time on the Internet, she clicked an icon on her desktop.

"Suppose I should check the e-mail," Misato said to herself, watching as the new messages arrived.

Spam, spam, spam, penguin porn?

"Pen-Pen!" Misato rolled her eyes, deleting the junk mail and briefly wondering how in the year 2015, after Second Impact and with the current technology, the problem of spam remained.

Misato closed her e-mail and decided to type 'NERV' into a search engine, just to see what the masses had to say about them all these days.

A pop-up ad made itself known and she growled, reading the contents of the flashing window and raising an eyebrow.

"Google?" Misato scratched her head as she finished her beer. "What's a Google?"

She kept reading and was informed that Google was the greatest search engine on the Internet.

"Never heard of it," Misato said with a shrug, clicking the ad and finding herself looking at the website of Google.com. "Well, let's see how great it is..."

Typing in 'Evangelion,' Misato chuckled when the search brought up over one million results. She thought it was cute that the Evas had such a big fan base out there in cyberspace, and wondered how many of the sites Kensuke Aida hosted. She didn't feel like browsing so many sites - besides, what could they have to say about Evas that she didn't already know?

"Have to show the kids," she thought aloud. "Asuka will definitely get a kick out of it."

As Misato opened another beer, having decided it was more convenient to just bring a six-pack at a time into her office rather than make several trips, she remembered something Hyuga had said about entering your own name into search engines for a laugh.

Shrugging, Misato did a search, then promptly fell off her chair when several thousand results were found.




In the living room of the Katsuragi Residence…

"Did you hear a thump?" Asuka asked, staring blankly at the latest offering of some long running reality show.

Shinji nodded, unable to remove his eyes from the mind-numbing program, then realised he should probably give Asuka a response in case she thought he was ignoring her and became angry.

"Yeah," Shinji replied. "Probably just Misato. Pen-Pen's sleeping."

"Maybe she's cleaning up that hell hole," Asuka snorted.

Shinji chuckled. "Good one, Asuka."

"This show sucks," Asuka said, not moving to change the channel. "Why'd Misato sign up to the Reality Channel anyway? Who wants to watch a bunch of dorks making idiots of themselves on TV all day?"

Suddenly a shriek came from Misato's office and both children rose to investigate.




Misato stared at the offerings of the search engine's results as she climbed back onto the chair.

"Picture Galleries? Shrines?" Misato's voice was growing louder. "Fan-fiction? What the hell is that?"

Clicking on a 'Shrine' link, Misato found herself confronted with photos of herself, and let out a shriek before frantically clicking back to the search engine.

"There's pictures of me on the Internet!" Misato gasped, trying to think who would have posted them and deciding that the prime suspect was Ryoji Kaji.

There was a knock at the door, and then it slid open to reveal two pairs of eyes staring at her with a mixture of curiosity and amusement.

"Uh...is everything okay, Misato?" Shinji asked. "We heard a noise, then you screamed..."

"Oh, that..." Misato forced a giggle. "I...err...spilt beer on the keyboard."

Asuka rolled her eyes. "I told you she wasn't looking at porn."

Shinji turned bright red, stuttering out a denial, while Asuka chuckled and walked off.

"It's nothing, Shinji," Misato smiled. Her curiosity was demanding she investigate some of these web pages immediately, but she didn't want the children to know what she was looking at. "I'm just catching up on some work."

"Okay." Shinji returned the smile, his blush fading as he closed the door.




Four six-packs of Yebisu and several threatening e-mails to 'shrine' website owners later, Misato decided it was time to investigate this fan-fiction business.

"What's an Eva Fic?" Misato said, opening a page that was apparently home to hundreds of these Eva Fics.

The few brain cells yet to succumb to the alcohol were trying to tell Misato to look at the websites claiming to have detailed information about NERV and EVA. They soon gave up their plight though, and so Misato Katsuragi began her journey into the land of Eva Fan-Fiction.

Notes:

This started after I wondered what might happen if Misato, while drinking and wasting time online, stumbled across some Eva fan-fiction.

Thanks to AkagiNaoko and Spirogyra for pre-reading.

Part 2