Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Practice ❯ Look Before You Leap ( Chapter 10 )

“Okay, you've dragged us all the way out to this park...” Toji said as they walked down a path in a park a couple of blocks away from Motowa's house.

“Patience, grasshopper, and all will be revealed in time.” Motowa said with a wink as she stopped at an arbitrary point on the path and gestured to the park as a whole. “Look around. What do you see?”

Shinji blinked. “Uh, all I see is an ordinary park.” He said, grateful that he could get his mouth to work. “A pair of Gazebos here, a raised concrete area here...”

He was quickly driven to distraction by Motowa's gym uniform, which hugged every curve of her body. His mind more than a few times went back to the Practice Room incident, and more than a few times he had to intentionally derail his train of thought.

“Ah, but there is more to it than that.” Motowa said as she resumed walking, this time to a long spiral ramp.

It was broken up into four segments, and connected to a medium-sized concrete section about six meters off the ground. “Once you get into parkour, or PK'ing, you learn to recognize places to vault, or jump, or climb, very easily. Now, when you see this ramp, the only way you can see to get up it is the way it was intended, to walk up the ramp, right?”

Shinji cleared his throat. “I see another way, probably what you're going to demonstrate. You can probably climb up the middle of the spiral using the rails as handholds.”

A twinkle appeared in Motowa's eye. “Exactly.”

Motowa turned to face the railing and said “I bet, however, you didn't think of me jumping over this rail to get to the middle section.”

“Nope.” Shinji said.

“That's the second thing you learn to do, string individual stuff into runs.”

Motowa grabbed a hold of the rail and jumped up onto it, balancing, and inadvertantly gave Kensuke a nosebleed. After appraising the jump almost like a cat would, she jumped, grabbing onto the rail with her hands and hitting the lower rail with her feet. She climbed up onto the second rail, and used the floor of the higher level to balance herself as she turned around. Grabbing hold of the lower railing, she jumped and brought her legs up, able to wedge her feet between the lower rail and the concrete floor. This brought her out of view of the three spectators. “Normally,” Motowa said, “This would be called a `cat' position, except for the fact that I have a foothold.” Motowa's voice called out before the thud of her shoes hitting concrete rang out again, Motowa vaulting over the rail she was hanging off of. “That patch of grass to your left clear?”

Shinji looked left. “All clear, Motowa...” He started, “...but what are you... hey, wait!” He yelled as he could hear Motowa run across the ramp.

Motowa launched herself up and over the railing, doing one front flip before setting up for the landing on the grass below. She landed a good five or six meters away from the concrete and rolled, turning around in the process and coming to a stop another meter away, facing the concrete structure and the Three Stooges.

“How--what--the--and--” Shinji stuttered, unable to fully comprehend that he just saw that.

As if some signal was given, the three of them started to clap for Motowa, who bowed in response. “Thank you.” She said, beginning to blush.

“How did you learn to do that?” Shinji asked as Motowa walked back to the group.

“Well, it took a long time to learn, believe me.” Motowa said. “But there's a lot of easy stuff you can learn almost right away, like that little vault maneuver I showed you.”

---

Motowa spent a good three or four hours showing Shinji and Kensuke some of the basic parkour techniques. Toji said that he had a prior engagement and left after about an hour. “Well, this has been fun, but I think it's time I headed in.” Motowa said.

“Sounds good, after all it's--” Shinji checked his watch and blinked. “Wow, it`s almost seven.”

“Yeah, time flies when you're having fun.” Motowa said.

“Especially when it's with someone you really enjoy being with.” Shinji said on impulse.

“Aww, that's so sweet...” Motowa wrapped Shinji up in a hug.

Kensuke coughed behind the two affectionate teens, prompting them to break the embrace. “Um, yeah, I'll see you tomorrow, Motowa.” Shinji said, trying not to show how awkward the situation had ended up.

“Yep. See you then. `Bye, Kensuke-kun.” Motowa returned, turning and walking towards one side of the park.

“Bye.” Kensuke said as he walked with Shinji back to the street they got to the park from.

“What?” Shinji said as he caught Kensuke smirking at him. “What?”

“You're falling harder than your Eva, you know that?” Kensuke said with a laugh, referencing the battle where Unit 01 landed from a particularly nasty blow right beside Kensuke and Toji.

“No I'm not.” Shinji lied, which only made Kensuke laugh harder.

“You are! And let me be the first one to say two things. Congrats on landing a babe like that, and I'm terribly, terribly sorry for your loss of freedom.”

This time, it was Shinji's turn to laugh. “That's all well and good to say you're sorry, Kensuke, but from what I've known of Motowa, she's not the controlling type.”

“No guy ever says that about their girlfriend, you know that. The female of the species always get the guy to want to do things for the girl.”

“That's what love is.” Shinji said, slipping onto a philosophical mood.

“If that's love, man, I'm never getting dragged in to that.”

“Set a coin down on a table and see one side, and you assume the other is the same.”

“Huh?” Kensuke said, thoroughly confused at Shinji's sudden mood shift.

“You assume that I get nothing out of my relationship with Motowa.” Shinji explained.

“Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't see you getting much out of your relationship.” Kensuke said.

Shinji gave a slightly cold stare to Kensuke. Whoa. Kensuke thought, suddenly breaking out in a cold sweat. He's related to Gendo, alright. “I am happy.” Shinji said in a tone that his father indeed used many times. “That is enough for now.”

“Jees, don't do that.” Kensuke said, shuddering, as they walked across the street to make their way to the nearest familiar landmark, NERV's Central Dogma access structure. “You scare me sometimes, you know that?”

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I don't know, this chapter seems a little unlike the other ones I've written. I look forward to seeing the reviews for this chapter.