Tokyo-3 Baby-sitters
Written by Alain Gravel
Assisted by Tam Ka-Wing
Story based on characters created by and copyright GAINAX
Started on November 16th 1999
First pre-reader draft finished on March 28th 2000
Final draft finished on March 31st 2000, revised on April 10th 2000
Additional revisions, June 06th 2000
Chapter 1 - The accident
As she stood in the Command Center, Katsuragi Misato
felt utterly useless. The life of her roommate and charge, Ikari Shinji,
was about to be put at high risk and there was nothing she could do about
it. It was a scientific matter, not a tactical one. Like many other times
in similar situations, she wished she had studied in the fields of science.
At least she could have been helpful instead of just standing there. She was, however,
able to find some peace of mind in thinking that Shinji couldn't be in better
hands than those of Akagi Ritsuko.
While she didn't show any signs of it, the said
Dr. Akagi was feeling like a nervous wreck. This wasn't really the first
time she toyed with life and death, but losing Shinji now was not an option.
The Commander wouldn't accept it. This wasn't the first time she was faced
with a delicate situation, but this time... the odds weren't good. Simulations
on the Magi had given a fifty-fifty probability of failure in extracting Shinji
from Unit-01. She had seen worse, but never had she felt as much self doubt
as she felt at the moment. She didn't like those odds at all.
That opinion was shared by the Major, although her
views were more optimistic. She thought about all those times Shinji had
pulled a miracle when everything seemed hopeless. Unit-01's first activation.
His victory over the Third Angel. Him, catching the Tenth Angel...
"He's beaten the odds before... I'm sure he can
do it again," thought the Major, trying to chase any doubt from her mind.
"Ego-border pulse connection is complete." Maya said
suddenly, after having spent long minutes doing computer stuff, as Misato
called it, for lack of a more precise term.
"Roger," followed Ritsuko. "Begin salvage operation."
Finally, it was starting. Misato wondered how Ritsuko
managed to be so calm. Or was she only pretending to be like she did?
"Roger. Signal-1 is sent."
"Eva received the signal."
"Signal-2 and signal-3 are now sent."
"Subject's catharsis is normal."
"Destrude isn't detected."
"Roger. Move the target to stage-2."
Misato didn't really follow everything that was
going one, but everyone seemed rather calm, so she took it as a sign that
everything was going according to plan.
"Shinji-kun...." she thought, hoping to see him
soon.
However, fate had other plans.
"It's no good!" suddenly almost shouted Maya. "His
ego border is in a fixed loop!"
Misato didn't need Ritsuko's brain to deduce this
meant bad news.
"Try to radiate all wave patterns from all directions."
"Hai!"
"No good. The radiated signals are captured in Klein
space."
"What does that mean?" Misato finally asked Ritsuko,
wanting to know exactly what was going on. The look Ritsuko gave
her almost spoke for itself.
"It means... we failed."
Failure.
"No, no, no... this can't be happening! Hang on
Shinji!" thought Misato, as her fingers held tightly the cross she always
wore. She didn't really believe in God, especially since they were fighting
his supposed Messengers, but she felt a silent prayer couldn't hurt. She
didn't want to lose Shinji. Just the thought of it... she couldn't bear
it.
"Stop the interference," commanded Ritsuko. "Reverse
the tangent graph. Set the addition value to 0."
"Hai!"
"In Q area, Destrude reaction is detected. Pattern
is sepia."
"Some changes detected in the core pulse. Plus 3
is confirmed."
"Maintaining the present condition is the top priority
issue. Prevent flow-back."
"Hai! Plus 0.5, 0.8... it's strange... I can't stop
it! My God! The EVA is rejecting the signal!"
"Shinji's ego formation in the LCL is breaking up!"
"The pressure inside the plug is increasing!"
"Abort all operations! Cut the power supply!"
"Too late! The plug has activated!"
The hatch of the plug opened and LCL poured on the
catwalk below, as well as in the coolant liquid that surrounded the EVA.
Along with the LCL, Misato saw Shinji's plugsuit being washed out of the
plug.
"No! No! NO!"
Misato ran out of the Control room, and soon reached
Unit-01's cage. Reality hit her hard as she saw, at her feet, Shinji's empty
plugsuit. She fell on her knees, and, fearing she wouldn't wake up if she
touched it, slowly moved a finger toward the plugsuit. Her eyes didn't
betray her. It was empty, this was all too real. She clutched the suit
in her hands.
"SHINJI-KUN!!!"
She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't. It wasn't
possible. Shinji couldn't be...
But in her arms she held an empty plugsuit. She
could feel the LCL on the rubber suit, on the catwalk... Shinji's essence...
"SHINJI!!!"
What seemed like a hopeless call for the fourteen
your old boy was, against all odds, answered by the sound of someone crying.
A sound that came from the believed empty entry plug.
"Shinji?"
Hope rose again within Katsuragi Misato like a mighty
fire, giving her a new vitality, but also clouding her judgment as she
failed to notice that something was very wrong with what she was hearing.
She barked orders to a crew of NERV technicians to lower the entry plug
on the ground, almost biting her nails as seconds that felt like minutes
passed. Finally, the plug was down and the purple-haired woman nearly leapt
toward it. She almost felt her heart break as she only saw an empty plug.
Then, she heard the sound again. She looked down toward the end of the
plug and gasped. There, she saw something, small, and pink, with blue eyes
and short black hair. She nearly fainted at the sight.
"Shin... Shinji?"
The small baby, not more then
a few months old, looked up toward the Major and his tearful face lit with
joy as it seemed to recognize the woman.
"Ga!"
Since there wasn't any beer in the immediate vicinity,
Misato's brain decided that the best course of action would be to rest.
Even NERV's Tactical and Operational Officers have their limits...
As she regained consciousness, Katsuragi Misato groaned.
Silently, she cursed herself for drinking all those beers the previous
night. As a result, she just had the weirdest, scariest and most realistic
dream she ever had in her life.
"I see you're finally waking up, Katsuragi."
Those words activated a number of alarm bells in
her mind. It actually wasn't unlike the alarms that one could hear each
time an Angel attacked.
Kaji Ryouji. That had been Kaji's voice. What was
Kaji doing in her apartment?
Her eyes snapped open and she realized one very
important detail: she wasn't laying on her bed, but in a bed in a room
she recognized as an infirmary room. The alarm bells just got louder at
that sight. Seeing that she was in her NERV uniform didn't calm her one
bit. Neither did the serious expression on Kaji's face. The Major may not have
had the scientific know-how of her friend Ritsuko, but she was able to
quickly access a situation. It was required for someone with a rank such
as hers. So she quickly came to a conclusion.
"It wasn't a dream, was it?"
Kaji simply shook his head.
Misato felt as if she was suddenly overwhelmed by
a maelstrom of different emotions: surprise, sadness, relief, worry, anger,
panic, confusion. She might have blacked out again if she hadn't suddenly
felt strong arms encircling her. For once, she didn't even try to resist
Kaji and simply cried against his chest.
"It'll be okay, Katsuragi. Everything will be alright..."
"How?" she managed to ask between two sobs. "Shinji's
dead!"
"Maybe not."
The purple-haired woman stopped crying hearing those
words, hope rising again.
"What? How?"
"The entry plug wasn't empty. You saw it yourself."
Slowly, the details of what she had thought had
been a dream came back to her.
Ritsuko saying that they had failed to recover Shinji.
Then the entry plug opening.
Shinji's empty plugsuit.
Sound coming from the plug.
An empty plug... except for a small baby. A small
baby with brown hair. A small baby with big dark blue eyes.
Shinji???
"There was a baby in the plug..."
"Yes."
"And you think it was... Shinji?"
"Well, this seems like the most reasonable explanation.
And it does look a bit like Shinji."
Misato tried to think about this. It did look like
Shinji. And she remembered that her first reaction had been to call it
Shinji. But...
"Even if it's him... it's not him anymore..."
"It's better then death. And maybe Ritsuko will
be able to do something to fix this. NERV needs Shinji as he was..."
Yes, that was true. So far, Unit-01 had only accepted
Shinji. The Commander wouldn't take lightly the loss of one third of his
fighting force. That would mean every available resource would be invested
in understanding what had just happened and fixing it. This time, there
were reasons to be hopeful.
"Do you know where... he... is?"
"Ritsuko is doing tests on him in another room."
The Major's heart stopped at those words.
"Tests?! Ritsuko is doing tests on him?!"
This outburst surprised Kaji.
"Yes..."
"She doesn't know how to handle a baby! She could
barely take care of her cats! She'll hurt him!"
In a flash of purple, the Major was out of the room,
leaving a surprised Kaji behind.
"And you know how to handle a baby?" he thought,
chuckling.
Quickly, he followed her. This could be fun...
"Gaga. Gaga. Heeee!"
Misato stared in shock at the sight before her.
Instead of trying to dissect it, Ritsuko was tickling the baby's stomach
while making baby sounds, followed by funny faces. Her assistant, Maya,
was doing likewise, but even more cheerfully, if that was possible.
"I need a beer," thought Misato. The situation was
just too weird.
"Well, isn't this cute?" said Kaji, as he entered
the room himself.
Both the doctor and her assistant froze and turned
red in embarrassment as they noticed they were actually being watched. Ritsuko
tried to put on the cold scientist expression she always wore, but found
it hard to do as Misato suddenly burst out laughing. So she just looked
at her feet in shame, feeling utterly humiliated. And for once, she didn't
have any smart comebacks. Quickly, however, Misato calmed down as she looked
at the baby and remembered how serious the situation was.
"Is this Shinji?" she asked, going straight
to the point. This finally gave the doctor the chance to go back to her
usual distant self.
"Preliminary observations suggest that this baby
is indeed Shinji. The lab is currently running a DNA analysis as well as
blood type analysis to confirm that this baby is Shinji, and that there
is no Angel contamination. It is also analyzing its brainwave pattern
to see if there is some sort of match."
"His brainwave pattern?"
"Yes. From what we could tell, this baby recognized
us. That would suggest that it has at least some of Shinji's memories.
I want to know just how much of Shinji's 'soul', for a lack of better term,
this baby has."
"But... if Shinji's memories are in this baby...
why can't he talk?"
"I'm not entirely sure. As far as I can tell, this
baby is only physically four to five months old. It barely started to develop.
A four month old brain isn't as developed as a fourteen year old's. My guess
is that the body hasn't developed the fine motor control to manage such
sophisticated physical actions as speech requires. This is just theory
however. Such a case has never been seen before."
"I see."
So, this was Shinji. Shyly, Misato extended a finger
and tried to touch the baby. She had to know for sure, but didn't really
dare do it. Finally, she closed her eyes and opened them wide as it came
into contact with warm soft flesh.
"My God!"
She pulled her hand away, as if fearing to burn
herself by that simple contact.
"It's very real, Misato," said Ritsuko a smile on
her face. "You can try again. He won't bite. He doesn't have teeth yet
anyway."
Again, she tried to touch it. She felt her heart
almost leap out of her chest when suddenly the baby grabbed her finger
with his small hand. She felt herself almost melting at the sight of his
tiny fingers around hers.
"You can pick him up," suggested Maya.
"Me?"
Both Maya and Ritsuko nodded, warm smiles on their
faces.
"O... okay..."
Awkwardly, Misato bent down and tried to take the
small baby into her arms. It felt so fragile. She barely dared pull him
off the bed. The baby just smiled happily and wiggled in her arms. She
couldn't believe that this small child was Shinji. He seemed so happy.
"When will we have the results of the tests?" asked
Misato, as she put the child down.
"Only tomorrow morning. I'll have a nurse watch
the baby, so we can all leave for now. No point in waiting here all night."
Misato nodded. This had been an emotionally draining
day.
Ritsuko and Maya left and Misato followed suit.
As she exited the infirmary, the Major felt an arm draping itself over
her shoulder. Kaji. She had almost forgot that he was there. He didn't
look like he usually did. He didn't seem about to tease her, he didn't
try to show that lady killer smile of his and he didn't have that very
serious expression he could sometimes have. Misato surprised herself in
realizing that his presence felt very comforting.
"Kaji... I don't want to be alone tonight..."
The perpetually unshaved man just nodded in understanding.
Something was wrong. Misato could feel it. Usually,
there was always a nurse standing watch at the infirmary entrance. She
wasn't there. Of course, it was possible that there had been an emergency
which would have forced her to leave her post, but Misato doubted it was
the case. There was an eerie silence in the infirmary. There was no doctors
or nurses running around. The place seemed dead. She didn't like it one
bit.
Shinji! Maybe he was in danger!
Pulling her gun from her holster, she ran toward
the room where she had last seen the baby, figuring he would had been kept
there. There was clearly a lot of noise coming from that room. She could
distinctly hear a baby crying. Not wasting a second, she opened the door
and entered the room.
"Don't move!"
The order took by surprise the group of six nurses,
who were all around baby Shinji, giggling and making baby sounds to get
his attention. So far, however, it seemed it had only resulted in making
him cry. It was really no surprise, considering that Shinji didn't like
big crowds. The room's mood changed however as Misato burst in. In fact,
one of the nurses fainted as she saw the Major's gun pointed right toward
her head.
"What's going on here?!"
"We were... watching the baby... Doctor Akagi needed
to get a few things in her office... and..." a nurse tried to explain.
"So you all left your posts just to play with the
baby?" asked the Major.
The nurses shyly nodded.
"Get back to work!" barked back Misato.
"But... Doctor Akagi asked..."
"I'll watch the baby! Now back to your posts!"
"Yes Major!"
Quickly, the fainted nurse was picked up off the
ground and the women scrambled out of the room. Some of them, however, kept
whispering about how cute the baby was. Misato sighed. She could guess
how some women must have felt; with Tokyo-3 in a perpetual state of war,
a baby was a rare sight. Even moreso here, in the depths of NERV headquarters.
Having a baby to take care of and pamper must have been a welcome change
for these women who usually dealt with NERV officers and crewmen, as well
as Evangelion pilots.
Pulling a chair, Misato sat down and stared at the
baby on the bed. It was the first time that Misato had had a proper chance
to sit down and really take a look at the baby Ikari Shinji had become.
She had taken him in her arms before, but the experience had been so out
of this world that she hadn't taken the time to take a detailed look. It
had only been fleeting glances here and there, or quick visual confirmations
to reassure her that the baby was indeed real, and alive, and Shinji. Her
Shinji.
He had been dressed in a sky-blue one-piece baby
suit. It looked sweetly in place on him. Everything about him just seemed
so tiny. His feet were small and active, wildly kicking at the air as
he lay on his back. Suddenly, as if tired of cycling an invisible tricycle
upside-down, he rolled clumsily onto his side and sluggishly pushed himself
up onto all fours. He crawled across the bed with the lightning speed that
only babies possess, and probably would have leapt right off if Misato
hadn't hurried forward to stop him.
The boy immediately lost all desire to explore upon
seeing the woman and plopped down heavily onto his bottom. He smiled innocently
and expectantly at Misato, who was caught unawares by the attention.
"Strange," she mused, as she held out a finger to
the boy, and he grabbed it hungrily in his tiny fingers and proceeded to
suck on it. "I know he is Shinji, yet... he doesn't seem anything like
the Shinji I know."
She watched as the baby's head bobbed up and down,
his hands weakly balled into fists around her finger. The look in his round
blue eyes was one of curiosity and satisfaction, as if the finger was a
pacifier of sorts. The thin shiny brown-black fuzz delicately covering
his head
didn't completely cover his pale scalp, and the boy seemed exposed
and vulnerable. On an impulse, Misato placed her hand on his head gently
and protectively. The head was fragile and warm. Unconsciously, a smile
began to form at the corner of her mouth.
"Buuueeeh!" squealed Shinji in delight, lips forming
an O.
Buuuueeeh?
She'd never heard so much as a light chuckle from
Shinji since she'd known him.
"Biiiibaaah!" Shinji giggled and blinked cutely.
Biiiibaaah?
Normal sounds for a baby to make.
Yet, somehow, Misato felt weird hearing them come
from this tiny Shinji's mouth.
Why?
"Maybe because I'm just not used to seeing you so
young, Shinji," she laughed.
No, that wasn't it.
It was because... the sounds were sounds of pure,
unaffected blissful joy. And she had never seen Shinji in this state before.
Not the Shinji that Misato knew. It was sad, really...
"I never knew you could be so happy, Shinji..."
This was a side of him she had never seen. "So this was what you were like
before? Before... you began to pilot EVA? No--"
She shook her head. Even before that. Before she'd
first met him, when she'd first drove up to that solemn, serious boy in
her car that day.
"...when you were a child? Shinji, were you this
happy once?
"Gouuougogaah!" The boy nodded his head as if in
agreement.
Misato had never tried to imagine her teenage charges
as children. In fact, she had stopped thinking of them as children a long
time ago. To her, the three EVA pilots were mini-adults, dealing with problems
and challenges that many people twice their age wouldn't even have to think
about in a lifetime. Yet this wonderful, tiny miracle in front of her seemed
too innocent, too uncorrupted. She thought of all that Shinji had gone
through. Then she imagined the baby in front of her growing up and living
the exact same experiences.
She shuddered and drew her hand back sharply.
The baby's eyes widened in protest, and his small
jaw began to drop. The tiny pink tongue lolled out limply. Misato could
see the tips of two white teeth beginning to come through his gums. Then,
the baby took a deep, shuddering breath.
Misato realised what was about to happen, and panicked.
"Uh, Shinji, please don't--"
"WWWAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A long wail echoed down the corridor. Misato
ducked her head out, apologized in embarrassment,
receiving cold stares from a few of the nurses, and tried to think of a way to
make Shinji shut up.
"Shinji. Shinji. Shinji!! Oh, don't cry, please,
oh--"
She stuck her fingers into her ears and began to
make funny faces at him.
"See here--"
Another funny face.
"--and here--"
Another one.
"--gnand dhere--"
Clap clap.
"Woo hee!"
Stomp stomp.
"Lah lah!"
Clappity clap.
"Boo hoo!"
"WAaaaaaaaAAAAAhhhhh..." continued Shinji.
It was then that a very surprised Ritsuko walked
onto the scene to see her best friend performing immature expressions in
front of Shinji, who was obviously ignoring her.
"So this is what all the noise is about," the scientist
shouted above the din. "I'm gone for only a few minutes and this is the
result. Can you be trusted with anything, Misato? How did you manage to
make him cry like this?!"
"Hey! It's not my fault! He just started crying!
I didn't do anything!"
In an effort to quiet the boy down, Misato stuck
his finger into his mouth again. The boy stopped crying at once and resumed
his sucking.
"MISATO!" Ritsuko was horrified. "Get your filthy
finger out of his mouth at once! Do you have any idea how many germs you
are introducing into Shinji's body? He's just a baby!"
She quickly reached over and jerked Misato's finger
away from Shinji's head. Before Shinji could started to bawl again, Ritsuko
hastily slipped a pacifier into his mouth.
"There, that ought to do it," she said, relieved.
"It's sterilized," she added. "That's one of the things I left to get."
Misato shrugged, partly out of embarrassment and
partly out of relief.
"So now what? What are the test results, Ritsuko?
Is this really Shinji?"
"Either that or a clone. The DNA matches perfectly."
"A clone?"
The Doctor nodded.
"A copy," she briefly explained, just in case her
friend actually didn't know what a clone was. "But I doubt it's the case
here. The brainwave scans didn't match those of a normal child and there
was many similarities to Shinji's brainwaves. I believe that, except for
the body, this is the same Shinji we knew before he was absorbed into
Unit-01."
So this was Shinji. Her Shinji. He wasn't dead!
Yet... she didn't feel completely happy about the news. It was Shinji...
yet it wasn't...
"So... does he... remember anything?"
"Probably not. His memories are probably dormant
in his subconscious. But they are there, inside," answered Ritsuko, tapping
her finger very lightly on the child's head. "He seemed to recognize us
after all."
Misato took the time to absorb this information.
Shinji was trapped... inside a child's body.
"Any plans to fix that?" she asked, hoping for a
positive answer.
"A simple one. We make him grow."
Misato gasped.
"Make him grow?! What kind of a plan is that? Shinji's
not a plant! He won't grow just by pouring water on him!"
Ritsuko sighed. This infuriated Misato even further.
However, unlike a certain redheaded pilot, she gave her friend the time to
explain herself.
"You know that we already can regenerate injuries
sustained by the EVAs and even re-grow missing limbs. The technology we
use can be adapted to the artificial growth of a human being. In fact,
we already have a template we can use for this operation."
"A template?"
"Don't ask."
The Major gritted her teeth. Was that another of
NERV's secrets?
"Very well... what are the probabilities that this
experiment will work this time?"
"They are very good. If I can convince Commander
Ikari that a maturation time of three weeks is more advisable then two
weeks, then this operation will have a 90% chance of success."
Misato felt more and more hopeful. A 90% chance
was good.
"When can it be done?" she asked, trying not to
sound too eager.
"As soon as the equipment is ready and adapted to
Shinji's situation. It'll take two weeks."
"So, Shinji will be out of the pilot roster for
five weeks..."
Ritsuko nodded. Five weeks. That was a lot of time.
But at least, it was better then having to grow up all over again.
"It's a good thing Unit-01 is currently under freeze,"
said the Doctor. "It gives us more time to work."
"And the Commander won't be tempted to put the baby
through synch tests," Misato nearly added. "So... what do we do with Shinji
for the next two weeks?"
"Here."
From a large duffel bag Misato had noticed in the
Doctor's arms as she had entered the room, Ritsuko pulled a book and handed
it to the purple haired woman. Misato blinked in confusion, before taking
a better look at the book. She gasped as she read the title.
"What the...! 'Babies for Dummies'... you don't
mean...? You... you don't expect me to...? No way!"
"You'll need this," replied Ritsuko as she ignored
her friend's objections and handed her the bag. "Everything you'll need
is inside. Milk solution, bottles, a pacifier, spare baby clothes, toys,
diapers... you'll need to buy more of milk and diapers of course."
Misato couldn't believe what she was hearing. This
couldn't be happening... it had to be a dream!
"What?! You don't expect me to take care of him?!"
"You are his legal guardian," Ritsuko coldly
pointed out.
"But... but... but... I have work to do! I can't
take care of a baby!"
"Not anymore. From this moment, you're on a leave
of absence, by Commander Ikari's orders. You are to report to NERV only
in case of an emergency."
Oh God! It was a nightmare!
"But... why not Maya?"
"I need her if we want to get Shinji back to normal
as soon as possible."
"But... but... but..."
Obviously, Ritsuko had planned everything. As she
realized that she was completely trapped, Misato silently cursed her friend.
"Oh, one more thing... try to remember that babies
don't drink beer."
"Ritsuko!"
"Seriously, Misato... Shinji is depending on you
now... don't let him down..."
"I won't!"
Ritsuko smiled.
"Good. And between you and me, that's why you were
chosen for this job."
Misato sighed. Something was telling her that the
next weeks would be hard ones. The she looked at Shinji. The baby noticed
that he was the object of her attention and smiled widely.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.
Taking advantage of the fact that her friend was
distracted, Ritsuko silently made her way towards the door.
"I'll be giving you news as soon as I can..."
"Uh? Hey! Wait!"
Too late, as the Doctor was already gone. Misato sighed
again. She had hoped that Ritsuko would at least help with the first night.
"Guess it's just you and me..." she said to the
baby, as she picked him up.
"Gaaa hoo!" was Shinji's reply, as he took a handful
of purple hair and pulled.
"EEK!!!"
"WAaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH..."
Misato took a few moments to assess her current situation.
Her hair was now more or less out of the baby's reach, tied
up in a ponytail behind her back.
The duffel bag of baby stuff was secure on her side,
under her left arm.
Shinji was cradled in her arms, where he was now
sleeping. And drooling on her NERV jacket.
Yuck!
"You'll have to clean that when you're older..."
thought the Major, before chuckling to herself lightly.
Realizing that she was now as ready as she would
ever be, Misato prepared herself to face her first challenge. Opening the
room door without waking Shinji up. Which was not an easy task, if one
considered that her hands were full of five months old baby.
"Think, Misato, think..."
It did not take long to formulate a plan. After
all, she was the one person who could always manage to come up in-extremis
with some sort of plan to fight the Angels. Well, this wasn't totally accurate,
as Ritsuko and even Kaji had helped at some times...
Misato simply pushed the room call button.
Knowing that this was the room where baby Shinji
had slept, although none of them knew the real identity of the baby,
one of the nurses answered in a matter of seconds. Urging the worried nurse
to keep quiet with a 'shush', Misato escaped through the opened door.
"Oy! Major Katsuragi!"
Familiar voices. Misato turned around to see Shinji's
two friends, Aida Kensuke and Suzuhara Touji. Suzuhara was seated in a
wheelchair, while Aida was pushing him in her direction. While the boy
looked physically better, as well as one missing an arm and a leg could,
Misato noted that Suzuhara sported a rather grim expression. Aida, however,
was smiling very widely. Mentally, Misato prayed that the boy with glasses
wouldn't again ask her to consider him as an EVA pilot candidate. The
timing would be really bad.
"Aida-kun. Suzuhara-kun," acknowledged Misato, in
a tone in-between a friendly one and a business one.
For a moment, Misato considered asking the usual
'How are you?' question, but decided otherwise. Considering Touji's condition,
it would have been awkward. Not that she didn't feel that way already...
"What are you two doing?"
"Well, I'm taking Touji outside for some fresh air,"
answered Aida. "Can't let the poor guy be trapped here forever."
"Oh? And how did you manage to get in here anyway?"
"Asked my dad if he could manage to get me a special
permission. Say... isn't that a baby in your arms?"
Misato cringed. With the sight of Touji, she had
completely forgotten about Shinji.
"Ah... well... yes... it's... a baby. Someone...
someone asked me to take care of him for a while. Yeah. Cute, isn't he?"
As far as she knew, men were not very interested
in cute babies, so she hoped that they would simply drop the subject.
"You know... this baby looks awfully lot like Shinji..."
Misato didn't know what surprised her the most.
The fact that Touji had actually spoke, although not really to her, or
the fact that he had actually noticed the resemblance between the baby
and his friend.
"Oh my god! Could that be... THE MAJOR AND SHINJI'S
LOVE CHILD!?"
That outburst from the military otaku drew every
look toward them. Misato felt herself becoming smaller and smaller, until
anger won the war against embarrassment.
"NO! This is NOT MY CHILD! And I certainly wouldn't
do such a thing with Shinji! Watch your mouth Aida!"
"So... sorry..."
The boy looked stunned. Misato immediately regretted
her words. At least the baby was apparently sleeping soundly enough not
to have been waken up.
"No. I... I'm the one who's sorry. The last days
have been... stressful. I didn't mean to snap like that."
"It's okay Major. You can shoot at me anytime you
want! Especially if you have orders to give!"
Both Touji and Misato sighed, then noticing each
other reaction, laughed, although Misato's laugh was more joyful than Touji's.
"So, Misato. How's Shinji lately?" asked Suzuhara.
"I haven't seen him since... you know..."
A heavy silence fell over the trio. It was a delicate
subject none of them liked to mentioned. The Thirteenth Angel. Misato felt
even more uneasy as she couldn't tell them about Shinji. These were his
friends, but that kind of information had to remain confidential.
"He's... he's fine. Don't worry. He suffered some...
injuries... after the Fourteenth Angel attack. But nothing too serious.
He'll be fine. We just had to... send him to another Branch... on an assignment.
Yeah! You'll probably see him in a few weeks."
Misato felt really bad about lying to them, but
it was for the best.
"I see."
"He's really sorry, you know. About..."
She found herself unable to say the next words.
"I'm sorry too."
Touji nodded.
"It's okay, Misato. No one's fault but the Angels.
Just... just do me a favor and kill all those bastards for me."
So much restrained anger...
"I swear we will."
"Good. Well, we kept her long enough, Kensuke. Let's
go."
Kensuke blinked a few times. He hadn't imagined
that this conversation would get this tense.
"Oh... yeah... later Major!"
The major watched the two teens leave, one pushing
the other's wheelchair. So strong for someone so young. She didn't know
how she would have handled herself, if she had been in the boy's place.
She shuddered just thinking about it.
She knew that war always had its share of victims,
but she couldn't help thinking how unfair things were.
"This could be a problem."
In her mind, Misato had come up with the perfect
plan: take advantage of the fact that Shinji was asleep and head directly
home. But now she realized the fatal flaw of her plan: she hadn't expected
Shinji to stir the moment she'd put him on the passenger seat of her
car. And to think she had been extra careful not to make any noise or make
any sudden moves as she opened the door and put him on the seat. So, now,
instead of being dead asleep, Shinji was rather wide awake.
"Now, Shinji," said Misato as she picked up the
baby, which giggled in delight. "I'm gonna be driving, so I can't hold
you. Will you stay put on that seat while I drive?"
"Bouahh."
Misato took that as a yes.
As Misato put him again on the seat, Shinji stared
blankly at Misato for a few seconds. Then, as Misato slid her key into
the ignition, she felt something grab her skirt. She looked down to see
Shinji trying to climb on her legs.
"You can't do that!"
Picking him up again, she put him back on the passenger
seat.
"You stay there, understand?"
The baby giggled. Misato nodded. Good, he had understood.
Or at least she thought he had before she stopped
him in-extremis from falling off the seat.
"This won't work."
For a moment, Misato considered putting Shinji on
the back seat of the car. It wouldn't do either, Shinji could still fall.
On the car's floor? She shook her head, as she noticed just how dirty the
carpet of her car was.
"Guess this car is overdue for some cleaning..."
thought Misato with a sigh.
For a moment, Misato eyed the passenger's side seat
belt. But she rejected the idea, as it was too dangerous. She would never
forgive herself if it strangled Shinji. The she noticed a roll of
duck tape on the floor, between two empty cans of beer. What if she taped
him on the seat? While tempting, she chased the idea out of her mind. She
couldn't do that to Shinji. And it was plain too irresponsible. Even for
her.
Now she understood why they sold those baby seats
for cars... which of course Ritsuko hadn't provided her with. Meaning there
was really only one responsible course of action for her.
Misato groaned at the thought.
"I hate this."
For the first time since her arrival in Tokyo-3,
Misato experienced the 'joy' of public transport. The streetcar was slow,
it was noisy, and while not overcrowded at this hour, the looks she got
from the few people riding it were making her feel uncomfortable. Misato's
only relief was that she could at least sit down. Carrying Shinji around,
as well as Ritsuko's bag, was putting a strain on her muscles.
"Bet my back will hurt like hell tonight," Misato
thought sourly.
At least she wasn't stuck riding that thing every
time she had to go to NERV like Shinji and Asuka.
Shinji...
She looked at him, sleeping soundly on her legs,
wrapped inside her NERV jacket. Figured he would sleep now that she had
given up trying to go home by car. He had probably remembered that streetcar
rides were awfully boring. She wasn't sure that it was necessary to cover
him with her jacket, after all it was a sunny day, but the wind was a bit
cold, so she had preferred not to take any chances. She let out a sigh.
It had barely started and already it had been an awful lot of trouble.
But as she looked at Shinji sleeping peacefully...
it might just have been worth it.
Figuring that she should follow Shinji's example,
Misato closed her eyes and tried to relax. Relaxation. It was a strange
concept. Something she would never had consider doing at this time of the
day, especially while being sober.
It was something she could get used to.
Just when Misato thought things weren't so bad...
it got worse.
"WAaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH..."
Her eyes snapped open, to see Shinji crying.
"Shinji? Shinji? What's wrong?"
She had her answer as the smell hit her. Hard. For
a moment, she was glad she only had a cup of coffee for breakfast.
"My God! What did those nurses feed you with?"
"WAAAHHHH..." was the only answer she got.
Various groans told her that the other passengers
of the streetcar were not enjoying the smell either. Most of them got up
and went to the opposite side of the streetcar, even if it meant standing up.
Misato felt as if she would die of embarrassment. If she could, she would
have crawled under her seat. Angel attacks she could handle, but this...
she didn't even know what to do...
Fortunately, an elderly lady took pity on her
and asked her if she had any diapers with her.
And so began Misato's journey into motherhood, as
well as her first crash course in diaper changing.
[To be continued...]
Omake/Extra (by Godsend777):
He had been dressed in a sky-blue two-piece baby suit.
It looked sweetly in place on him. Everything about him just seemed so tiny.
His feet were small and active, wildly kicking at the air as he lay on his back.
Idly, she wondered if he was so tiny all over. She giggled a little at the
thought. Toothpicks may have described it once, but when she has seen him a few
times before he woke up...
She chased the thought out of her mind. Grown women
should not think such things about young boys.
But she was curious. Too curious. So damn curious...
Her question was answered when Shinji, who had somehow
managed to wrangle free of the bottom half of his baby clothes, lay on his
back exposing himself to the world.
"Wow," Misato said aloud. "Guess not all of you shrank."
Author's notes:
This idea came to me thanks to one of my readers. You can get some nice stuff from readers. They can send you side stories, fan art, various info, stories to pre-read... One day, a nice fellow (Chaos Dragon) sent me a scan from the latest EVA doujinshi he bought at EBay. It was a scan from a story where Shinji, Asuka and Misato basically got reverted to a younger state (Misato ends up around 12 while Shinji and Asuka end up as babies) thanks to an experimentation by Ritsuko. I found the scan I received to be awfully cute and as I looked at it... an idea started to take form in my head. This is the end result.