Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Practice ❯ Acrobatics ( Chapter 6 )

“How did you do today, Shinji?” Mr. Akagawa asked as Shinji walked into the main music room.

“Hmm? Oh, fine, fine...” Shinji replied. “After I put this away, I'm going to go lock up.” That gives me a good enough reason to back, Shinji thought.

“That's alright, Shinji, I can do that.”

“I may as well, sir. Besides, I'm sure you're got more important administrative work to do.”

Mr. Akagawa's eyes widened. “Shoot, I had almost forgotten, the principal had wanted to see me in his office after dismissal today! Thanks, Shinji. I'll lock the outside doors, so make sure you close them when you come out.”

“I will, sir.” Shinji said as the music teacher walked out the door and closed it, standing up his cello case beside the others and closing the doors... or what passed for closed, anyway.

This thing should get fixed, and soon. Shinji thought as he watched the doors swing ajar again. If anyone got in here, they'd be able to get in this closet easily.

Sighing at the state of disrepair this part of the school was in, Shinji walked back into the Practice Room hallway and locked the first and third practice rooms up. He opened the door to the second practice room before locking it, ensuring that it would lock behind him when he closed it. He blinked when he realized that the light was off in the room. Shrugging, Shinji closed the door and turned around to flick on the light. “Okay, Motowa, so where is this...”

Shinji turned around and trailed off as he realized that nobody else was in the room. “Psst, Shinji! up here!” Motowa said from above somewhere.

Shinji looked up and saw that the air vent cover had been taken off. “The air vents?”

“Yeah. They can easily hold a person.” Motowa said, getting out of the vent and jumping down beside Shinji near-soundlessly.

“Okay, so lead on, I'll follow you.”

“Um, actually, I'm going to let you go first.”

Shinji gave Motowa a look of confusion. “Why?”

“Shinji, look at what I'm wearing.”

Shinji realized what Motowa was talking about. “Right, you've got a skirt...” Shinji blushed.

Motowa giggled. “I like you and all, but I'm not quite ready to give you that kind of a view. At least, on purpose.”

Shinji laughed. “Alright. So how did you jump up there in the first place?”

“Kicked off the wall.” Motowa said, pointing towards a scuff mark about halfway up the wall. “I can give you a boost if you can't jump up like that.”

Shinji gave the wall and the ceiling an appraising look. “Okay, I should be able to do this...”

Motowa stood back so Shinji didn't run into her. He leaped at the wall and kicked off of it, grabbing the edges of the hole in the ceiling. He tried to pull himself up, but his arms buckled. “Need a leg up?” Motowa asked mirthfully.

“Please.” Shinji replied, watching Motowa walk around Shinji and kneel down.

She grabbed Shinji's ankles and said “On three.” Shinji nodded. “One... Two... Three!”

Motowa yanked Shinji's legs up as best she could, and Shinji was able to pull himself up and into the space above the air vent. It apparently connected directly with a room upstairs, as there was a shaft going straight up along with the two going horizontal. “Shinji? You made it ok?” Motowa asked.

“Yep.”

“Do me a favour, stay back of the vent while I get up. I tend to be...”

“flailing?” Shinji offered.

“Something like that.” Motowa said in a `watch this' kind of tone that made Shinji blink.

Barely a second passed before Motowa shot up from the opening, her legs tucked in, grabbing for the sides of the hole. She was able to grab onto both sides, and when she had a good grip began to swing in place. After gathering up steam for a while she extended her legs and used the momentum to enter the air vent across from the one Shinji was sitting in feet-first, sliding for a ways before coming to a stop.

Shinji was dumbfounded by the display of athleticism. “Wow.” He said, unable to think of anything else to say.

Motowa giggled at Shinji's reaction, tilting her head up to look at Shinji upside-down. “Gymnastics has its perks.” She said mirthfully as she rolled onto her stomach, crossing her arms and resting her chin on them.

“You're a gymnast?”

“Yep. I do the uneven bars best, though I'm pretty good at vaulting, too.”

“Cool.” Shinji said. “So which way is out?”

“Thataway.” Motowa said, pointing in Shinji's direction.

“Okay...” When it was clear Motowa wasn't making any move to go across the hole, Shinji said “Aren't you coming this way too?”

“Well, yes, but I kind of need some space in order to make it across. Unless you want to catch me.” Motowa added with a smirk.

“Would that help?” At Motowa's surprised blink, Shinji added “I mean, landing on me would probably be less painful then landing on metal.” Shinji rapped his knuckles on the air vent's wall to emphasize his point, the sound reverberating down the shaft.

Motowa smiled warmly at Shinji. “You'd do that for me?”

“Of course!” Shinji said without hesitation.

“I could hug you... but I think I'll settle for tackle-glomping you, which is essentially what I'm about to do...” Motowa edged closer to the duct's opening so that all the weight was on her arch, pressed against the edge.

She looks like she's a runner on blocks like that... Shinji mused. “Ready, Shinji?” Motowa asked.

“Ready as I'll ever be...” Shinji said, suddenly not so sure about the whole thing.

Motowa said “Okay, on three. One... two... three!” and launched herself over the opening.

All Shinji saw was an orange-and-green blur before he was essentially run over by Motowa. Her momentum was so strong that they both skidded for a good five feet before coming to a stop.

Shinji groaned and tried to open his eyes again. He blinked when he realized that he couldn't see anything, even after his eyes were open. “Motowa? You ok?” Shinji said, his voice muffled by the fabric he was under.

He tried to sit up before his nose hit something squishy and Motowa squealed. “Sorry, sorry!” Shinji said, lying back down and waiting for Motowa to climb off of him, which she did quickly. “I-I'm fine, Shinji, are you ok?”

Shinji quickly probed his upper chest, which had taken the brunt of the force from Motowa's leap into him. “I'm a little sore, but I should be fine. What did I hit to make you squeal like that?” Shinji said, sitting up and turning around to look at Motowa.

Shinji blinked when he saw Motowa's face, which was beet-red. “You kind of hit me in a sensitive area...” She said.

It took a full second for the meaning of her words to sink in, but when they did Shinji blushed as hard as Motowa. “S-sorry.”

“That's ok, I wasn't sure where you were when we came to a stop either. I think I overdid it a bit...” She said, then laughed at the absurdity of it.

“Yeah, maybe just a bit...” Shinji said dryly.

Motowa giggled with embarrassment. “So, um, go ahead.” She said, pressing herself against the wall of the air vent to let Shinji pass her.

He moved past Motowa and began to crawl along the shaft. He heard Motowa falling into step, so to speak, behind him.

They moved along the duct in silence until they got to a corner with another vertical shaft. This one, however, had a large fan in it that blew upwards, and tiny tendrils of light made their way between the blades, bouncing off the walls until it hit the bottom. Shinji sniffed the air, a strange smoky scent reaching his nostrils. “What is that smell?” Shinji asked, not really expecting an answer.

Motowa smelled the air as well, and realization hit her. “Oh, um, that's smoke... A few people I know would sneak into this place and light up.”

Shinji blinked. “This doesn't smell like cigarette smoke.” Shinji thought back to the rare time he was around cigarettes, the plant being very endangered after the Second Impact and the industry a shadow of its former self.

“Well, uh, I never said it was cigarette smoke.”

Realization hit Shinji. “Oh.” He said, and turned the corner towards another point of light shining along the horizontal tunnel.

They moved in silence for a short while, before Shinji asked “Have you ever...” He trailed off.

“Lit up with my friends? No, I haven't.” Motowa replied. “I tried it once, hated the way it made me feel. I was so slow and sluggish. My friends are all artists, though, so it's not like I'm going to fault them for finding a reliable source of creativity.”

Shinji mulled over her answer. She said she had tried it, but hated it. I suppose that's good... I'd hate for someone with so much life go through it held back.

Shinji's mind then shifted gears somewhat. I wonder what it would be like to... He shook that thought out of his head. No, I probably shouldn't. For one, it'd wreak havoc with my sync ratio...

Shinji paused for a half-second to check his watch before continuing to crawl along the vent. “Are you running late?” Motowa asked, a little worry creeping into her voice.

“No, I've got lots of time. The synch test is at four, and it's only three-fourteen.”

“Ok, good. I was kind of worried that I was making you run late.”

Even if I was late, I wouldn't mind. Shinji thought to himself as they finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of a grate blocking the opening. “Now, Shinji, it's a bit of a drop, so you'll have to watch out for that. The grate swings up and leans against the brick, so you don't have to worry about it hitting you in the head or anything once it's out of your way.” Motowa instructed.

“Hai.” Shinji said automatically, pushing the grate until it had swung around halfway.

When he heard the clang of metal hitting brick, he appraised the drop and how best to jump down. He estimated the vertical drop at eight feet, and so if he hung down and dropped it wouldn't be that bad of a fall. Shinji carefully climbed down until he was hanging off the edge, then let go. His shoes hit the concrete with a slap as he landed. “Did you make it okay?” Motowa's voice echoed out from the shaft, sounding a little hollow.

“Yeah, I'm fine... do you need me to get out of your way?” Shinji asked, already stepping forward.

“No, you actually need to hug the wall for the way I'm going to get down.” Motowa replied.

“Huh?”

“Just watch.” Motowa said in the same `watch this' tone she used earlier.

Shinji stood with his back to the wall and looked upwards. Motowa was setting up like she did before when she leaped into Shinji. She took off, flying over Shinji's head. When she landed, she tucked into a roll and let her momentum dissipate, coming out of the roll perfectly to stand about twenty feet in front of Shinji. She turned around and smiled. “That was fun!”

“Wow, Motowa, where did you learn to do that?!” Shinji said in disbelief, still not sure that he had just seen that.

“A couple of friends of mine do this thing called parkour. It involves a lot of vaulting over things and jumping up, down and off of other things, and rolling is a big part of landing without killing yourself.”

“`Parkour'? I've never heard of it.”

Motowa shrugged. “Not a lot of people have. How are you getting to NERV?” Motowa asked suddenly as a thought occured to her.

Shinji thought for a second. “I was thinking of walking, it's a nice day out.” He replied.

“Perfect, then I can do a little bit of parkour on the way there. Not some of the really cool stuff, I don't have the right shoes or the right clothing on for that, but I should be able to show you some of the basics.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Shinji said as they walked out of the small alleyway and onto the sidewalk.