Neon Genesis Evangelion
    Higher Learning

   Strike Fiss, 1999








Someone's crying.

I'm not sure why, but I think I'm glad it's not Asuka.  Or Misato.  I 
know Rei won't cry.  Not over me.  Not unless she knew the whole truth.  
But, to know that, I suppose you'd have to be someone else.  Rei, for 
all her perfection, probably doesn't consider the truth before her.  
It's too far-fetched.  

It takes me a moment to remember who else is there at my side.  The 
grass is cold under my back, and it's slippery from the backwash of 
LCL, but I don't mind.  It feels good.  I know that, in a few moments, 
the cold will take me, and I will be at rest.  Once more.  Finally.

The young boy...no...young man...who is crying on my chest, is Shinji 
Ikari.  I can just make out his telltale blue and white plug-suit as he 
asks me not to leave him and the others.  He keeps telling me that he 
wants to learn so much more.  That I'm the only one that can teach him.  
That Asuka and Misato need me.  That he needs me.  That Tokyo 3 needs 
me.

My eyes are barely able to focus now.  Blood has crept it's way from my 
head to cover them but I try to stay awake as long as possible.  

I'm glad it's Shinji who will send me off to the next world.  He's why 
I came here in the first place.  It saddens me to leave like 
this...without knowing if all this was worth it.  However, maybe this 
is what he needs to remember everything I tried to teach.  

I manage to look over to Asuka.  Her eyes are wet, from what I can 
tell.  But she is not looking at me.  I think it's because I've scared 
her.  I've scared both of us.  Still, I have to give her one last 
glance before I pass on.  My vision is foggy, now.  She seems 
surrounded by a kind of golden halo.  God, she is beautiful.

Misato is crying too.  She's holding my hand, I finally realize, though 
I cannot feel it.  The same halo surrounds her in my mind, and I drink 
in the sight of the two most amazing women I've ever known.  She's 
pleading for me to hold on, though she can tell by the way my blood is 
slowing that it's already too late.  Strange, I can remember a time 
when it was her blood.  I can still remember the taste...

I turn back to Shinji.  Mustering whatever strength I can, I hold out 
my hand for him to take.

He accepts it without thinking twice, ignoring the blood.  I'm not 
sure, but I think I manage to smile as well, because he suddenly smiles 
back as he grips my hand with both of his.  

I would have moved the universe to see that smile.

It is at that moment, where I know there is a chance.  A chance that I 
may have done my job.  Just maybe I did it right.  And just maybe, 
Shinji Ikari will not have to do the same thing I just did.

And as everything goes quiet, and my mind falls down into the 
cold...lit now only by the two halos and a smile that were my last 
visions...I take one last breath, and I dream of the past few months.











First Lesson:  The Family Unit



Being only a foot and a half high, Pen-Pen never did get the hang of 
door-knobs.  This was one of the facts of many that made the penguin 
one of the only people in the apartment that never took advantage of 
Shinji.  When he gently scraped his beak up against the door to 
Shinji's room, a moment was all it took for the young man to wake up 
and emerge with a smile.

"Good morning, Pen-Pen." Shinji whispered as he opened the door.

"Wuaaagh!" Pen-Pen replied gratefully.  

They walked or waddled over to the kitchen, and Shinji fixed up a quick 
meal of sardines that he had left out on the table overnight to thaw.  
A moment later, he emerged from the front door with the newspaper, 
reading any interesting headlines before he handed it over to Pen-Pen.  
"I think your stock went up another point." Shinji said.  
"Congratulations!"

Pen-Pen watched as Shinji put on his cooking apron and began to fix 
breakfast for the three humans.  Today was a very special day for the 
young Ikari.  Pen-Pen wasn't too sure why he was doing all the work, 
but figured everything went smoother when Shinji did the chores anyway.  

The sound of the shower running hinted at Asuka being awake and 
prepping herself for the morning routine.  Misato wouldn't be awake for 
another ten minutes at least, and would let herself be known by asking 
for her morning beer.  Shinji re-doubled his efforts to get breakfast 
on the table and succeeded with time to spare.

Both of them enjoyed their quiet mornings.  Shinji sat and ate his 
toast and coffee while looking over some notes for class.  Pen-Pen 
enjoyed the daily entertainment section and quietly licked the 
remaining sardine salt from his beak.

It is June 6th.  Shinji Ikari's sixteenth birthday.  Oddly enough, it 
is also the first day that the school had been open in nearly three 
weeks, due to the last angel attack.  Shinji looked a lot happier than 
usual.  Probably because of those two facts.  School was a nice routine 
for him, and a birthday is always nice...even if nobody remembers it.  

Pen-Pen remembers, though, and reminds himself to order the dancing-
girls for the party tonight.  Or, at the very least, to get the 
presents wrapped.

Asuka Langley makes herself known.  Of course, that usually involved 
some kind of anguish on Shinji's part.  Today is no exception, and he 
almost swallows his own tongue as she smacks him on the back of his 
head.

"Morning, Baka." She says with a big yawn.  "You better not have had 
any dirty dreams about me."

Pen-Pen is still torn up over if he finds Asuka's presence to be a good 
thing or bad thing.  After all, she is loud, annoying, always watching 
soap-operas on TV, and is constantly pestering his friend Shinji, who 
is the only human who can get his sardines to taste juuuuust right.  
However, she looks very nice in the shower, as Pen-Pen has observed no 
less than three times, and that almost makes up for all of it.  The 
fact that, for all his complaining, Shinji would probably not want her 
to leave makes up for the rest.  Asuka can stay...for now.

"Morning, Asuka." Shinji grumbles, rubbing his head as she settles down 
on the seat next to him to begin shoveling food into her mouth.  "Sleep 
well?"

She shoots him a dirty look.  "No!" she says loudly, making little bits 
of egg fly out over the table.  "And it's not polite to talk to someone 
who's eating!"

Shinji sighs and turns back to his homework.  "Sorry, Asuka-chan."

Asuka deems eating as more important than mentioning how he ALWAYS says 
'sorry', and is quiet for the remainder of the meal.

One thing is missing from the cozy little picture, however.  
"Uuuuuuuuuugh..." Misato groans as she walks out of her room and heads 
towards them.  Her eyes are half-dead, and she looks like she 
recovering from cryogenic storage with the way her skin looks so pale.  
Pen-Pen sill likes her, however.  Though this woman has a lot of 
personal demons that need slaying, she's always put him, and the 
others, ahead of herself.  

Of course, that does not count in the morning when she has a hangover.  
Nobody gets in the way of her first beer.  
"YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" she whoops as 
the tab is cracked and the first third of the can is poured into her 
lips.  Pen-Pen smiles to himself.  Yup.  Same old Misato.

Shinji and Asuka are used to the outburst and let her join the 
breakfast table without even looking up in disgust.  "Morning, Misato-
chan." Shinji says warmly.

"Looking forward to this morning?" Misato smiles as she takes a bite of 
Shinji's cooking and deems it scarf-able.  "I hear summer vacation has 
been cancelled."

"WHAT?" Asuka yells.  "Just because of that last angel??  Shiest!  Next 
time I'll destroy the school myself!"

Misato regards the younger woman with a frown.  "Didn't get all your 
homework done, did you?"

Asuka blushes and shakes her head.  "I couldn't read the questions.  
I'll have to ask Sensei Taisho when we get to school."

"You had THREE WEEKS to ask us!" Misato yells back.  "Are you saying 
you didn't even STUDY?" she pointed to Shinji.  "You could have at 
LEAST asked Shinji to help you!"

"Shinji's a pervert." Asuka explains, talking like Shinji isn't even 
there.  "If I asked him to be my study-partner, he'd get a nosebleed 
and think we were going to make out all night!"

Shinji just ignores the comment and takes a sip of his tea.

Misato has long since given up and just focuses in on her breakfast.  
"Very well...but I want a signed letter from Sensei Taisho by the end 
of the day." She smiles as she sees Asuka squirming.  "And he's going 
to let me know how much homework you need to catch up on, so I know how 
much TV you're going to miss."

"AAARGH!  YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING!" Asuka yells back.

Shinji and Pen-Pen share a sigh.  Yup.  Another normal morning.  They 
both stand, not bothering to interrupt the emerging argument, and move 
to the kitchen where Shinji uses the few-minutes head start he's gained 
on the day to fix his and Asuka's lunches.  Pen-Pen goes to his fridge 
and opens the door.  "Wuaaagh!" he tells Shinji.

Shinji nods.  "Later, Pen-Pen."










Asuka follows Shinji on the way to school, a step or two behind.  She 
keeps telling him is so he can't look at her butt.  Of course, she 
fails to tell him that it's also so she can look at his.  This would be 
because she herself doesn't really know she's looking.

"Can you believe Misato?" Asuka grumbled as they walked.  "How did she 
know I didn't do that homework??  Was she searching through my things 
again?!"

Shinji said nothing, reading a book as he walked.  He was rather good 
at it from his practice at NERV.  "Mmm." He hums in a tone that could 
be seen as either positive or negative to her comment.  That particular 
talent seemed to get a lot of practice lately.
 
Asuka frowns.  "Well?  What about you, Third Child?  Do YOU know how 
she knows?  I bet you helped her look through my things, hoping you'd 
get a glimpse of my underpants!"

"I do your laundry." Shinji mumbles to himself.  "I see more of your 
underwear than YOU do.  Why would I want to go looking through your 
room?"

"HENTAI!" she smacks him across the back of his head.  "That does it!  
I'm doing my own laundry!"

"Good." Shinji smiles happily.  "It's about time."

Asuka blinks as she realizes she's been tricked.  "AARHG!  Never mind." 
She pouts.  "I still don't see how Misato knew, though."

"Everyone knows you didn't do homework." Shinji commented quietly.

"Mmph.  Well, we can't ALL be Invincible Shinji's, now, can we?"

"Don't you like anything about School?" Shinji frowned.  A small bit of 
attitude finally chipping free from his iceberg of untouched reserves.  
"You went to college for four years, didn't you?  You had to have liked 
some of it."

"There is a big difference." Asuka explained.  "College and High-school 
are nothing alike." She sighed.  "This place is so boring.  I already 
know more than the sensei, and it all seems useless."

Shinji nodded.  "Yeah...I guess you're right."

Asuka smiled at Shinji's comment.  "Of course I am!" she patted him on 
the shoulder.  "See?  You're getting smarter just by being in my 
presence!"

Shinji, very wisely, chose not to comment on that.






Elsewhere...a few blocks away...






The Principal of the school was a stout man in his late fifties.  Went 
by the family name Yamamoto.  Thin gray hair covered his head, and gave 
him the look that he was about to be blown away by the wind.  Still, he 
had penetrating eyes that bore straight through the glasses he wore on 
the bridge of his nose.

Those eyes were glancing down to a piece of paper in front of him on 
his desk, and then up to the young man who was seated before him, 
waiting patiently.  "I'm curious about something, Mr. Miyazaki?"

"Please." The younger man smiled.  "You can call me Kaoru."

"Very well.  It seems that this is your first teaching assignment in 
Japan?" the Principal frowned.  "I'm not sure you'll enjoy this job.  
Are you aware of what this School is?"

"If you're worried about the Angels, I know all about them." Kaoru 
nodded, his jaw set in a more serious expression.  "In fact, that's one 
of the reasons I requested this job."

The principal's eyes were wide.  "Really?"

"I know that must sound a little crazy." He smiled, prompting a smile 
from the older man.  "However, I consider it an honor to help teach 
these students.  After all, they may be the ones who will rebuild human 
kind."

Yamamoto nodded respectfully.  "Even if it means putting yourself in 
danger?"

Kaoru nodded back.  "I consider it worth the risk, so long as they 
learn something I can teach."

A final look at the young man's credentials almost sealed the interview 
right there.  Yamamoto nodded to himself.  "I understand you were all 
but promised this position?  The three Magi must really think you're 
qualified."

"I'd like to think so." He nodded.

"And you are ready to start today?" Yamamoto asked hopefully.  "Sensei 
Taisho hasn't been released from the hospital yet, unfortunately." He 
sighed.  "A good man.  A little long winded, but we were hoping he'd be 
able to teach until the end of the semester."

"I actually knew him." Kaoru smiled sadly.  "I hope he is able to 
return to class.  I would love to talk to him again."

There was a short pause, then Yamamoto filed the papers away.  "Well, 
class is starting in ten minutes." He smiled.  "I expect to see you 
there."

With bright eyes, Kaoru blinked, then stood and took Yamamoto's hand in 
a vigorous shake.  "Thank you, sir.  You won't be disappointed!"

Principal Yamamoto laughed.  "I think the students may appreciate your 
enthusiasm." He cleared his throat.  "I'll have payroll set you up by 
noon, and tomorrow, you'll have a fresh desk and the lesson plans ready 
for your approval.  The children should be caught up due to the 
vacation they've had, so you'll have a few days to test the water." He 
raised an eyebrow.  "But I want you full steam by the end of the week."

They bowed deeply, ending the interview.  Miyazaki Kaoru smiled one 
last time, nodded, then gathered his briefcase and laptop before 
walking out the door...closing it quietly behind himself.

"There goes one crazy sonofabitch." Yamamoto smiled to himself as he 
filed away Kaoru's resume.  "He'll fit in perfect in this place."









The children were already assembled in class, milling around and 
clustering in their usual groups before the day started.  Toji and 
Kensuke were explaining to Shinji how that the construction to the 
school was just a cover-up to place more bugs and hidden cameras.  

"Did you hear about Sensei?" Kensuke asked as Shinji yawned away the 
rest of his morning sleepiness.  

"No?" Ikari blinked.  "Why?  I thought he just broke his wrist when the 
school got hit?"

Kensuke grinned, edging his glasses up on his nose.  "Oooh no.  You 
see, that's what everyone THOUGHT." His face got more serious.  "I 
hacked into the local hospital just last week, and found his name on 
next month's nurses chores."

"No way!" Toji blinked.  "So the old fart is still in the hospital?"

"Yup.  The nurses regiment didn't say much about his treatment, but it 
looks like he's still on some pain-killers, and has to get a sponge 
bath once in a while.  He probably broke a hip or something else that 
always happens to old people."

"I hope he's not in any serious trouble." Shinji said.

"Well, all I know is that we're getting a substitute for a while." 
Kensuke continued.  "Weird thing is that they haven't even been hired 
yet."

"Maybe they'll just forget about us." Toji smiled happily.  "And we'll 
get the next month off!"

The school bell rang, signaling the start of the day.  Everyone looked 
around and was surprised to see the Sensei hadn't already walked into 
the room.  Normally, he was right on time.  

Asuka's hopes were high that maybe the old man got hit by a car on the 
way to school, and all her homework would be moot.  The door opened a 
moment later, and the Three Stooges rushed to their seats, along with 
most of the class.  Asuka took her time, of course, not willing to 
hurry for anything.  "Shiest..." she sighed.

Everyone wondered who this younger man was walking over to the sensei's 
desk.  He dropped his case on the desk, then reached into his long, 
green tweed jacket, pulling out a pair of glasses.  He had messy black 
hair, but it seemed to fit his face.  A strong, shaven jaw line with a 
curious soft smile.  His eyes, now hidden behind his glasses, looked 
over the class.    

Hikari stood, blinking nervously.  "Konnichiwa..." she announced.  "I'm 
the class representative.  May I help you?"

The young man jumped.  "Oooh!  I'm sorry!  Please, forgive my manners!" 
he smiled.  "You are Miss Horaki, are you not?"  His voice was 
familiar, and very soothing.  

The female population of the class began to melt like snow on a summer 
day.  

"H...Hai..." she replied with a blush.

"Very well." The young man nodded.  "You may skip your duties for today 
until we are all introduced." He walked over to the chalk board and 
began to write on it.  "My name is Miyazaki Kaoru, and I'm your new 
Sensei."

Everyone relaxed noticeably as they realized he wasn't just some crazy 
man who had found his way in their class.  The ladies all began to 
smile.  After all, he wasn't exactly an ugly man.  Toji noticed this 
too, and crossed his arms.  "Who is this joker?"

"A man with very good hearing, Mister Suzuhara." Kaoru smiled as he 
wrote his name on the board.  The class laughed in response, angering 
Toji even more.

Shinji couldn't help but grin as well.  "He seems like a nice guy."

"Shut up." Toji frowned.

Kaoru turned around to face the class, who were all waiting for him to 
finish.  "Sensei Taisho hasn't been able to leave the hospital, so I 
will probably be teaching this class for the remainder of the 
semester."

That prompted sighs of relief from most of the class.  Mostly because 
there was a chance that this new teacher wouldn't ramble on about the 
Second Impact for hours on end.  

"Excuse me." Kensuke raised his arm suddenly. 

"Yes, Mister..." he looked at his class names list.  "Aida?"

"How do we know you're not part of some government plot to heard us all 
into slavery?" Kensuke asked proudly.  "If you really ARE a teacher, 
you'll tell us what your credentials are."

"Retard." Asuka grumbled from the other side of the class.

Kaoru smiled.  "I'm sorry, young man.  But if I tell you why I'm here, 
I'd have to kill you moments after."

That prompted another round of chuckles.  Kensuke sat back in his seat, 
arms crossed.  "Ooh, I see...hiding in plain view.  Brilliant 
strategy." He whispered to himself. 

"I understand that you've all had a nice, long vacation." Kaoru said 
with a stern look on his face.  

Everyone sighed, and opened their laptops, ready to copy the impending 
avalanche of notes.  

"However, I'm afraid that you'll have to bare without homework for one 
more day." The new Sensei smiled as he saw everyone's surprised looks.  
"I don't have the lesson plan yet, and so, today is going to be more of 
a get-to-know-you class."

The young ladies all began to giggle.  

"Now," he sighed, opening his briefcase and looking over some notes.  
"I know most of your names already.  I can see that Ayanami isn't 
present?"

Shinji cleared his throat. 

"Yes, Mister Ikari?"

Shinji stood, timidly.  "Uh, well, she's sometimes...not..."

Asuka's eye began to twitch.  

"Don't worry, Shinji." Kaoru nodded.  "I'm aware of her status with the 
Evangelion project.  As well as yours and Miss Langley's.  Your 
absences won't count toward your final report."

Shinji blinked, then sat down with a smile.  "Hai."

"Okay." He put away the class roll-call. "To put Mister Aida's 
suspicions to rest, I am indeed qualified to teach your happy young 
minds." He stood and then sat on the corner of his new desk.  "I major 
in history, though I can tell by your faces that you've already heard 
about the Second Impact."

"HAI!" everyone almost screamed.

"Good.  Then we can focus on the interesting stuff that NERV won't 
classify to death." Kaoru adjusted his wire-frames.  "Also, I majored 
in philosophy, so I intend to give your minds a healthy workout.  Most 
of my class will not require a lot of homework, but I will need your 
attention in class.  I promise you will have lots of time to chat with 
your friends, but I will also expect you to know what we have 
discussed."

The class nodded collectively.  The males almost forgave this new man 
for stealing their girlfriend's eyes...so long as he promised minimal 
homework.

"I'll hand out a brief test at the end or beginning of each week to see 
how you're all coming along in your studies." He continued with a 
ridged smirk.  "Each of you will give me your best effort.  If you do 
not?  You will find my punishments are equally strange as my hair." He 
smiled as the comment prompted another chuckle around the class.  
"Otherwise, we should all get along quite nicely." He stood.  "Are 
there any questions?"

A young woman named Keiko raised her hand.  Many of the men in the 
class considered her to be the most beautiful woman they had ever set 
their eyes on.  

"Yes?"

She smiled.  "Are you single, Mister Miyazaki?" then sat down, giggling 
as three of her blushing friends joined her.

He rolled his eyes back into his head.  "Yes I am.  All that means to 
you is that any time you start misbehaving, I will have time to come up 
with more work for you." He smiled evilly.  "Next question."

"What happens if an Angel attacks at the end of the week and you can't 
give us our tests?" Toji asked.

Kaoru nodded.  "Good question.  In such a case, I will grab the Angel 
by it's neck and put him in detention, where he will have to write your 
tests for you."

Everyone laughed and nodded.  

"If an Angel attacks, don't worry about school." He continued.  
"However, I will not accept 'an Angel ate my homework' as a valid 
excuse."

Asuka had a large smile on her face.  "I'm going to like this class."

The Sensei cracked his knuckles.  "Now.  Lets get this show on the 
road.  I want each of you to introduce yourselves, starting in the 
right hand corner of the class and moving back in the row, then up the 
next one.  Nothing too dramatic, though if you want to act out your 
favorite opera, I'm all ears." He smiled.  










The final bell rang, closing the day.  Five hours seemed to fly by in 
five minutes, and many of the students were almost sorry they had to 
leave.  

"Miss Langley?  Mister Ikari?" Kaoru announced just before the class 
shuffled out of the door.  "May I have a word with you two?"

The two Children walked up to the front of the desk where their new 
Sensei was filing away his papers.  Asuka grinned to herself.  "So, you 
wanted to meet the world-famous Evangelion pilots, did you?"

"Yes, actually." He smiled warmly, looking up past his glasses at 
Asuka.  Suddenly, though, his smile was gone...replaced with something 
else.  For the briefest of moments, he found himself staring at Asuka's 
eyes.

Shinji was the only person on earth that would have noticed, and he 
coughed, not sure what was going on.  Asuka just waited, arms crossed, 
oblivious to the situation.

"Uh..." Kaoru shook his head slightly.  "Anyway, I just wanted you two 
to know that I'm going to make sure you both get every chance to keep 
up with your studies."

Asuka sighed.  "Is that all?" she flipped her red hair away from her 
shoulder with her hand.  "I thought you might want my autograph!"

"I'm a pilot too." Shinji said quietly.

"Yeah, but who would want YOUR autograph?" Asuka retorted. 

Kaoru smiled and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.  "Mister Ikari?  
Would you?  I'm your biggest fan!  I love EVA-01!  The way you ripped 
apart the Third Angel was amazing!"

Asuka watched, dumbstruck as Shinji blushed, then grinned, and began to 
scribble his name on the paper for Miyazaki.  "I've never had anyone 
ask for my autograph before..." 

"Well, it's a shame." Kaoru nodded.  "You're quite a famous young man.  
It must be NERV security that stops all your fans from getting too 
close."

Asuka just grumbled something under her breath as Shinji finished and 
handed the pen back to Mr. Miyazaki.  

"From now on," Kaoru continued "if there's anything you two..." he 
cleared his throat "three...sorry...need, I'm at your disposal.  From 
what I've seen of your records, and what I know of the Angels, you two 
will probably appreciate a more adaptive environment.  Think of me as 
your tutor."

"I'm a college graduate." Asuka yawned.  "Why would I need a tutor?"

"If I'm not mistaken, Miss Langley, you are also not very good at 
reading your text questions." He stated simply. 

She face-faulted.  "H...How did you know??"

"I know everything, Miss Langley." Kaoru smiled.  "Your school 
transcripts are quite in depth."

She blushed and gasped.  "Really?  What do they say about me??"

Shinji was enjoying the exchange immensely.  

"Nothing much." Kaoru coughed.  "But enough to warrant me to worry 
about your education.  I'll be moving into Tokyo 3 over the next day or 
two...but once I'm settled, I'll give you both a number to contact 
should you need any help with your homework."

Both Children nodded.  

"Now, get out of here." He sighed happily.  "Enjoy your afternoons."

They both bowed respectively and turned to leave.  Just before they got 
to the door, though:

"Oh, and Children?"

"Hai?" they both replied, turning back around.  

Miyazaki Kaoru smiled and bowed his head.  "It was a real pleasure to 
meet you both."  He said warmly.  "See you both tomorrow."

Shinji and Asuka smiled, then turned around, letting the classroom door 
close on their way out.

There was a long, tired sigh in the lonely classroom.  Kaoru slumped 
over slightly, taking a deep breath before looking up.  "A real 
pleasure." He said, shaking slightly as he pocketed Shinji's autograph, 
then grabbed his briefcase before he left the class himself. 










Shinji found himself almost unable to think clearly as they walked home 
that day.  Sensei Kaoru.  An amazing guy!  He finally sounded like 
someone that would make class interesting!  Philosophy?  That sounded 
like a lot of fun.  He wondered what kind of history they would study, 
and what amazing discussions would rise.  

Asuka found herself dwelling on what the new Sensei thought about her.  
"He's seen my transcript?  Oh no!  Wait!  But it can't be all bad..." 
she figured.  "But...still!" she looked over to Shinji, walking a step 
in front of her.  "And why is he so happy?" she shrugged.  Oh well...at 
least the new teacher did say less homework.  Even Baka Shinji could 
appreciate that.   

As they got home, greeted by Misato and Pen-Pen having a shot-contest, 
they both were in high spirits.  

"Hey you two!" Misato hiccupped as they walked in.  "Asuka?  Did you 
bring me my note??"

"Couldn't." Asuka smiled.  "We have a new Sensei."

She raised her eyebrow.  "Really?"

Shinji nodded happily.  "He's a really nice guy, too.  Even asked me 
for my autograph!"

Misato smiled as Asuka developed a small thundercloud over her head.  
"Aww, that's nice."

"One fan, and his ego gets as big as EVA-01's butt." Asuka grumbled.

"My butt's just as big as your butt." Shinji replied quickly.  

"Your butt's huge!  What are you talking about!"

Misato, having being slightly drunk, began to laugh at the comment as 
the two Children developed large sweat drops on their foreheads.  Pen-
Pen just wobbled back and forth, trying to keep down his alcohol.

"Anyway." Asuka said, changing the subject before Misato couldn't stop 
laughing.  "He said that there won't be much more homework, just so you 
know I'm not slacking off."

"Okay." Misato ignored her.  "I fixed dinner, by the way.  Pen-Pen 
helped too.  I think he left something in your room, Shinji, so you may 
want to check it out."

"Hai." He nodded.  "I will."

Asuka, upon hearing that Misato had cooked, lost most of her appetite.  
"I'm going to my room."

Both Children walked off down the hall.  Shinji stopped at his door, 
Asuka stopped at hers.  He was about to go in when he noticed Asuka 
wasn't moving.  

"Asuka?"

She turned to him with a sigh.  "You know, just because it's your 
birthday doesn't mean I don't think you're still a baka." She stated.  
"So don't think I'm going to go easy on you today." She frowned.  "And 
don't think that means you can undress me with your eyes, either."

Shinji was smiling.  "Thanks, Asuka-chan."

She glared at him for a moment.  "Happy birthday, Baka-kun." She said, 
letting a small smile slip before she closed her bedroom door behind 
herself.  

The young Ikari stood there for a moment, enjoying the after-image of 
her smile.  He had learned to treasure such instances, as they were so 
few.  Asuka often smiled, but it was a special occasion when she would 
smile at him like that.  His own special smile.  The one she only 
seemed to give to him. 

Opening his door, he found a box, gift wrapped, on his bed.  The card 
had tiny scribbles that seemed to make a word...but he wasn't too sure 
what it said.  "Pen-Pen." He smiled, opening the box.

Inside was a bottle of sake...a very expensive one by the looks of the 
label...and a shrink-wrapped herring.    

Shinji Ikari smiled and laid down on his bed next to Pen-Pen's present.  
"This was a nice birthday." He whispered, looking up at the ceiling.  








 

That night, on the other side of Tokyo 3, a young man also laid on his 
bed, looking up at the ceiling.  Boxes of his belongings were scattered 
across the modest, but not uncomfortable bedroom.

There was a muffled grunt as he cringed slightly.  Fantasy images still 
flooding through his head.  Unconsciously, he wiped the mess in his 
hand off on the blankets next to him.

His breathing was returning to normal as he focused on the unfamiliar 
ceiling above his head...reliving the memories of the day.  His first 
day seeing them again.  Seeing her again.

Miyazaki Kaoru sighed, rolling over on his bed, away from his 
embarrassing trophy.  His voice was tiny, yet angry.  Angry at himself.

"I'm hopeless." 












To be continued...
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<Strike Fiss waves to everyone>  Hi!  Author's notes time!  Nothing too 
fancy, other than I am here to tell you I have about 20 "Lessons" 
already written, and so, I should be able to keep updating this every 
week on time for quite a while.  Probably until the end of the story!  
Amazing!  Wow!  

Kaoru is not spelt Kaworu here.  Sorry for anyone who cares, but yes, 
the name-choice of the new teacher has been carefully chosen.  Also, 
this will try to follow the original series as closely as 
possible...but don't expect miracles.  I'm sure even Mister Anno 
himself would change things if he had the chance.  Depending on how 
much Prozac he had at the time.  <smirk>  

And yeah, I know Shinji is 14.  So what?  They never changed ages, even 
though the series spanned at LEAST a year!  So don't come crying to me 
about me wanting to have some fun. Heheh. 

Anyway, there will be many more "Lessons"...I'm tired of saying 
"Chapter" but basically, it's the same thing.  <bows>  Hope you enjoyed 
this introduction!  Stay tuned next week!  Ja ne!
***********************************************************************

Strike Fiss, Ninja Crowbotics 2000.  Khattam-Shud, EOF.