Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ SDAT ❯ Chapter 1

SDAT

 

Written in an hour as part of a challenge. A simple, quick, one-shot.

 

Remember folks, Evangelion remains the property of Gainax…not me. This is not for profit stuff y'know like, so keep the lawyers away.

 

I……………………&# 8230;……………………I

 

 

Asuka Langley Sorhyu yawned, rocking back on her wooden chair, before allowing it to fall back onto its legs with a sharp clack. Left alone in the apartment, save for one sleeping penguin in the fridge behind her, boredom found her attempting a Sudoku puzzle on the back of a three day old newspaper.

 

Shinji was at the arcade with the stooges, Asuka sure he was playing some sort of perverted H-game with them. That's all they ever did. She didn't want to know what Misato was doing with Kaji.

 

The German girls mind reached out, the hand of her conscious clutching at the wire fence monotony of a normal Tokyo-3 afternoon until its fingers bled, longing for escape from its dull prison.

 

Her eyes locked onto a simple black object on the table in front of her, a small black plastic box, with two slender snake-like cables coiling around it.

 

“Shinji's S-DAT.” Asuka said to no-one.

 

He never left it behind when he went somewhere, she knew.

 

But there it was, orphaned from its owner, alone and sitting isolated on the table in front of her.

 

There was something about the simple box of consumer electronics that piqued her curiosity.

 

Just why would Shinji keep an old tape player? She wondered. At best, it was nearly a two decades out of date, a museum piece more likely to be found alongside VHS tapes and laserdiscs nowadays. How he'd even managed to get a cassette for it she didn't know.

 

And yet for a moment, though she was curious, Asuka was reluctant to pick it up, or even touch it. There was something so private about the old Sony player that disturbing it felt like she could be committing some mortal sin.

 

But her curiosity could not be placated by some small mental taboo.

 

Taking the player in her hand, it was everything she expected it to be. Heavier than her ZenV, and somewhat looser and more worn, the white printed “Sony SuperDAT Digital Audio Tape” faded to the point that it was almost invisible. Even the small cassette looked old.

 

“Pink Floyd mix 1” was written in blue biro on a stick-on label.

 

“Interesting,” Asuka remarked. “If a bit old fashioned.”

 

Then she noticed something else on the back, stuck to the battery compartment. Another label, almost as old as the player itself it looked. It had browned somewhat, the glue corners having picked up maybe twenty years worth of dirt.

 

But still, she could read a name written on it, in Hiragana.

 

Now who could that be? She wondered.

 

Asuka's attention was stolen by the mechanical whine of the hall door opening beside her.

 

“I'm home,” Shinji Ikari announced himself wearily, the brown haired boy taking a few moments to even noticed Asuka's presence.

 

“Welcome home,” the red haired girl answered.

 

And then silence.

 

Shinji looked at her, staring at her almost. There was something about his blue eyes that terrified her, though she couldn't place it. Asuka hadn't forgotten what she was holding.

 

Fine then, if that idiot wanted a fight, she'd have to give him one.

 

“That's mine,” Shinji said simply, snatching the player from her hand.

 

Asuka was too stunned to do anything but watch him as he retreated to his room. Her pride screamed at her to answer back, but for the life of her, the words wouldn't come. There was something about the directness of his speech, about the suddenness of his actions that seemed so out of character from what she'd expected over the last few months.

 

“Fine, who needs a stupid old tape player anyway!” she blasted after him, but by then, Shinji'd already closed his bedroom door.

 

Somehow though, the words had a hollow ring to them, more than usual anyway.

 

It just left Asuka feeling strangely confused, and more than a little uncomfortable. The girl couldn't shake the feeling that she'd come off the loser in that little exchange and that fact nagged at her pride.

 

It had to have something to do with the name on the label, it didn't take a child prodigy to figure that much out.

 

But,

 

Just who was Yui Ikari?

 

I……………………&# 8230;……………………I

 

In his room, Shinji lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling above him, then at the name written on the label. He closed his eyes for a moment and clicked `play', letting the drifting, aqueous guitar strings carry his mind and his troubles away.

 

But still, his thoughts were drawn to the name.

 

“Mother,” he whispered…

 

I……………………&# 8230;……………………I