Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Practice ❯ Orange and Blue ( Chapter 15 )

“I've delegated transport of the Unit to the U.N. It will arrive by the end of the weekend. You'll take care of it from there.” The Commander asks, his voice muffled by the liquid and glass between him and I.

“Hai. We'll perform the modifications and activation test in Matsushiro.” Doctor Akagi replies.

“And the pilot will be...” An unspoken question.

“Use of the Dummy Plug is not recommended at this time. One of our prospective candidates...”

“Will be chosen as the Fourth Child?” The Commander finishes for Doctor Akagi.

“Yes, there are two children whose cores can be prepared immediately.” Of its own accord, my mind begins to wonder who the Fourth Child could be.

“Then I'll trust you to make it so.”

“Hai.”

“Rei, we're finished now.”

I slip out of the light meditative trance I had brought myself into and open my eyes. “Hai.” I respond.

“Let's eat.”

“Hai.”

The LCL in the tube begins to drain through a grate in the floor. I start to sink to the bottom with the liquid, eventually touching down on the grate. When the LCL level drains to below my mouth, I exhale as much of the LCL in my lungs as I can, then take care not to breathe too deeply as I inhale again. I try to get as much LCL off of my body as I can while it drains. When the LCL has finished draining, gravity fully reasserts itself.

The tube opens and I step out. My first few steps are somewhat shaky, but I retain my balance well enough. I begin to walk towards the commander.

The Commander and I walk to the doorway. Doctor Akagi had left while the LCL was draining. The Commander keys in a command on the panel by the door, and it opens. The Commander and I walk to a change room and waits outside while I change into a plug suit. It is unfortunate that I must put clothing on over the drying LCL just to go to the showers. I would not mind walking through the halls of Central Dogma without the plug suit, especially at this time where there are almost no people on duty, but the Commander minds.

It is a struggle to put on the plug suit. The inside of the material has a thin coating of lubricant to make movement easier, but it only works on clean skin. The LCL coating me is making the material stick. I allow myself to let out a small sigh at the uncomfortable journey to the pilot's showers.

Not wanting to waste any more time than is necessary, I walk out of the change room without further delay, falling into step with the Commander, who has already begun to walk towards the elevator. When we reach it, the Commander keys in another command on a similar panel, and the elevator opens. We walk in.

The Commander, instead of pressing the expected button for the seventh floor, presses the button for the twelfth floor, his office. “Since you and I will be going directly to the cafeteria once you are done showering, I thought you might be better off using the shower in my quarters instead of the pilot's showers.”

“Hai.” I respond automatically.

It will prolong the discomfort I feel by a minute or so, but it is not disagreeable to have a proper shower.

---

I walk into the bathroom and immediately begin to take off my plug suit. The material sticks and has to be peeled off of me, as if I was covered in tape. I wince slightly in pain as part of the plug suit adheres to my left breast, and peels with difficulty and quite a lot of tension. I look down and see the breast begin turning red. That was not pleasant. I think.

I take off the rest of my plug suit with difficulty. Walking to the shower, I again wonder about the fourth child as I turn on the water. I am aware that the prospective Children are in my class at school, with several scattered around different classes due to the class being over-full with students. I do not know which students outside of class 1-A are prospective Children; as such, anyone in the school could very well be.

When the water temperature finally warms to an acceptable level, I step into the stream. The water begins melting the LCL that has dried into a gluey substance on my skin.

I look around for the shampoo. It does not appear to be in view. Turning around, I see an indent in the wall under the showerhead with various toiletries in it. I find the chemical shampoo designed to rinse out LCL from hair and pour some of it into my hand. As soon as the shampoo begins to work its way into my hair, I can feel the tingle of the light acid working.

I wonder at my curiosity as I continue to speculate. Looking down, I notice that the water on the floor of the shower has turned orange. That colour is the same as Motowa's hair's. I think. Motowa...

“Hi, I'm Shimano Motowa.”

The girl is the only one to pay any attention to me. I ignore her and continue with a series of stretches to loosen up various joints for the race about to begin.

Undaunted, the girl continues. “So, are you fast?”

“Yes.” I reply, adjusting the material of my swimsuit.

“You look like a good swimmer. Very slim and streamlined.” She begins to stretch also. “So what's your name?”

I decide not to reply. I would rather not speak to anyone. The girl stays quiet after that.

“Swimmers in the seventh heat, please make your way to the blocks.” An announcement comes from a man with a microphone from the other end of the pool.

I walk to my designated place in the third slot. The girl gets into position in the fourth. “Have a good race.” She says.

Despite my desire to ignore her, I respond. “I will.”

“Swimmers, on your marks.” The same man with the microphone says.

I tuck myself into a ball, waiting for the signal to go.

“Get set... GO!”

All other thought flees from me as I dive into the water. The cool liquid slides easily around me as I kick for a few seconds under the water before breaking the surface and beginning a breast stroke.

At one point, I look to my right. The girl is keeping up with me. A challenge.

I pour more energy into my strokes, pushing forward. I come to the other side and turn to the right to push off of the wall again. She has managed to match me stroke for stroke.

Redoubling my efforts, I continue to expend more energy in the hope of pulling ahead of the girl. My body begins to tire, but I push through it. The wall comes ever closer, stroke, stroke, stroke...

I hit the wall.

I look up at the scoreboard at the other end of the pool. I beat the swimmers in the first two lanes easily... I blink hard as I see the result for the third and fourth lanes. They are an exact tie.

I quickly glance at the remaining four lanes. They are all several seconds below Motowa's and my time. “Wow.” I hear from my right, and glance towards the girl, who is looking at the scoreboard with an impressed expression. “Tied. You really are fast.”

“So are you.” I return.

After a few seconds, I make a decision. “I'm Rei.”

Motowa looks at me. “I knew you'd come around.” She smiles.

I blink as I hear the water shut off. Looking around, I realize that while I was thinking about meeting Motowa, I had continued to wash without thinking. I turn the water the rest of the way off, then walk out of the shower. I reach for a towel and begin drying myself off. As I do, I look around for clothing... then realize there isn't any. I look at the sticky plug suit on the ground. I am not putting that on again.

I wrap a towel around myself and walk out into the main room of the Commander's Quarters. “Do you feel better?” The Commander asks me.

“Yes, I do.” I reply. “I am without clothing.”

“I went and got one of your school uniforms while you were showering.” The Commander says, gesturing to the clothing hanging over a chair near me.

I walk toward the uniform. The Commander realizes that I am about to change and turns his back to give me privacy. I drop the towel and begin putting on the uniform. “Sir,” I begin, “Doctor Akagi said there were two children who could be prepared for the role of Fourth Child. Which two?”

“The two prospective Children are Suzuhara Toji and Shimano Motowa.” The Commander says.

“It would be... nice... if Motowa were to be chosen. She is my friend.”

“Oh?” The Commander says. His tone of voice tells me that he is already thinking of some sort of plan. “Perhaps.”

---

That took far too long to write.

Forgive the delay, school and power outages have delayed the release of this chapter. But here it is.

So. Major-ass twist alert. What I've got planned for the next chapter might make it especially long or two chapters, but the events leading up to Ambivalence will be covered in the next update, no matter how long it is or how many chapters it spans.