Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Swim of Things ❯ Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

The Swim of Things

By

Ret Nuh

 

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“Hello. This is Yoshi Sato”

 

“And this is Ryo Suzuki coming to you live from Tokyo-4 high school. Boy do we have a match up for you folks today!” (A/N: Since announcers cut in and out on each other a lot I will differentiate between the two by using YS and RS respectively in their speaking. That way I am not writing “he said” every single time they throw in a word.)

 

(YS) “You can say that again. Both these teams are at the top of the standings in their division. It's still early in the season but this should be a pivotal game.”

 

(RS) “And as you would expect from such an important game the two teams have their aces ready to go. We have a pitchers duel today between Taro Abe and Shiro Arai. Both undefeated so far this year.”

 

(YS) “But you can't forget about each team's hitters.”

 

(RS) “Boy would that be a mistake.”

 

(YS) “I couldn't agree with you more on that. For the Hori Academy we have the duo of Kentaro and Raidon Kudo. Brothers in life and batting style.”

 

(RS) “And what a batting style it is. Both are near the top of the division in homeruns with nine and ten respectively. Already twice this year they have gone back to back with homers. Will we see that feat again today?

 

(YS) “It's a possibility but lets not count out some fireworks from Tokyo-4. While Hori has a pair of sluggers, Tokyo-4 has THE slugger.”

 

(RS) “And that would be none other than Touji Suzuhara. He leads this league in homeruns right now with twelve. I said it last year and I will say it again, this kid can smash the ball a mile.”

 

(YS) “Yes he can. A relative unknown last year as a first year, he came out of nowhere to become a deep ball threat. And this year he looks like he just got stronger.”

 

(RS) “You have to give it to old coach Kohrogi. He can really find some gems.”

 

(YS) “And speaking of gems, he seems to have done it again.”

 

(RS) “You are of course talking about Shinji Ikari, another second year who I believe is even in the same class as Suzahara.”

 

(YS) “That is correct. But while Ikari may not take the ball deep on you he will get a hit. The kid is near the top of the league in both batting average and on base percentage.”

 

(RS) “Pitchers, if you manage to actually strike this kid out you will want to save that ball. Because it will never happen again.”

 

(YS) “And if that wasn't enough to nerve the pitchers, he has proven to be a threat on the base path as well as he is near the top of the league in stolen bases.”

 

(RS) “Now that will get under your skin if you are a pitcher. And we will soon see if that happens as when we return from break we will get right to the game.”

 

After that the on air light went off and the younger Ryo Suzuki stretched as he leaned back in his chair. “So who do you think's going to win this one?”

 

After getting a drink of water the senior play by play guy Yoshi Sato answered “Tokyo-4 should take this one. Abe may be undefeated but his team has had to bail him out a couple times already this year. And I just don't see them doing that against Arai.”

 

Ryo Suzuki sat back up in his chair “Yeah, for a senior Abe gets rattled much too easily. But then again Hori has never been known for their pitchers. You think either of these teams are going to get anywhere this year?”

 

“Hori, no. Tokyo-4 has a shot but I don't see them getting past Rinkai Dai High” Yoshi Sato answered. The station manager then told him that they were returning to the game so he went back into his announcer tone. “Welcome back folks. The game is just about to begin and the starting lineup this afternoon for each team will be….”

 

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For the players of Tokyo-4 this was a big game as Hori was their top rival this year. They played in a divisional league of eight teams comprising of the schools found in the central Tokyo-4 area. While Tokyo-4 sounded like the official school of the city it wasn't. It just happened to be that the founders of the school didn't want to attach any big name to it so it got a generic one. Along with Tokyo-4 there was four other normal high schools in different parts of the city and three more private types of high schools. You had to get invited to join one of those and since Hori Academy was one of them this game was not only seen as a game against a top rival but a chance to beat up on those elitist preppies.

 

Or at least that is how most of the Tokyo-4 High kids viewed that school. You could find various people who didn't agree with that though. One was Touji as he was a good friend with the Kudo brothers as he had played summer ball with them a lot when he was young. Plus now they worked along side him for his dad in the summer. He actually got an invite to play at Hori through them but turned it down because he was unsure if he would be able to handle it academically. That and he didn't want to go to a different high school than Hikari.

 

Asuka was actually invited to attend that Academy as well but then again she got invited to join the other two private schools in the city along with a whole host of others throughout Japan. Misato even told her that if she wanted to she could go to one of these schools but Asuka chose to stay put. Most of the Marduk children ended up going to Tokyo-4 High and were going to be put in the same class as the school felt it would be best to keep them all together. After all they had already been together for so long, why break up the group now? In a land that was still very unfamiliar to Asuka this was a tiny bit of familiarity so she stayed in a place where she knew she would have friends.

 

Right now though Asuka was in the stands. She was sitting along the first base path in the front row, wearing Shinji's away jersey. She wanted to be sitting behind the umpire but Misato exiled her from that area as the girl was too high-spirited to be sitting there. Asuka had a tendency to view the game with a very different set of eyes than everyone else and she wasn't shy about yelling out all the injustices she thought she saw. This could get very annoying so Misato had her sit somewhere where she wasn't so close to the hitters and umpires.

 

As you can tell Asuka wasn't alone when she watched these games. There was actually a decent group of people who sat together for various reasons. It was sort of a fan club but it usually only had two members that were vocal. One of the vocal people was of course Asuka, the other vocal one was Kaji. He had already marked on his calendar that he was taking vacation time for every game the Tokyo-4 High Eagles played. He didn't care if his boss fired him or not, he wasn't going to miss a game. It was his big chance to root for some winners. Not that he had much to worry about as his boss was usually too busy on the golf course to even notice him missing. The other quieter fans that made up this group today were Misato, and of course Keiko, Rei, Asuna and Maya. This group grew and shrank from day to day depending on who was able to come. Others that routinely showed up were Touji's dad, his grandfather, and his little sister Mari, Hikari's little sister Nozomi, and on the rare occasion if he could get off of work her father.

 

Misato was there to cheer on Shinji as well as take care of her kids and talk to the others. Although when she said kids she actually meant Asuka and Kaji as Keiko usually acted like a good girl during the games, all the sights and sounds basically enthralled the little one. It was the other two that she had to rope down on occasion for getting a little too passionate.

 

Rei was there but only for the Monday and Thursday games. Basically she was bored of sitting at home and if everyone else was at the game then she might as well be there too. Plus she enjoyed talking to Misato and the other women there. The views she was exposed to was a nice change of pace from the typical teenager's way of life that she so commonly heard. In some ways Rei was too mature for her own good and that is what set her apart from most of the other girls in her school.

 

Also there today was Hikari's step mom, Asuna. She was tired of being cooped inside the house all day long and needed a nice breath of fresh air and the ball games were the perfect excuse. Since Hikari was one of the managers of the team Asuna felt it would be good to show support for her and the team she was in charge of. Plus she had a huge craving for some of the food she could only find at the ballpark. An added bonus was being able to talk with Misato. At first the two only knew each other informally through Hikari but Asuna didn't want to sit by herself so she sat down by Misato the first day she showed up at the ballpark. Over time they had become friends as Asuna found Misato to be an invaluable source of information when it came to all those things that had to deal with pregnancy. Plus Misato knew the perfect locations around the city to get some of those weirder foods that sound good only when you are pregnant.

 

And Asuna wasn't the only pregnant one seeking information from Misato as Maya sat by them too. The network had put her on hiatus ever since one of the tabloids leaked the news that she was pregnant. Most of the people who watched those investigative Eva reports watched it because of Maya, not the story. The whole Eva thing never really went anywhere and people were not as interested in it anymore. And when news got out that the cutie doing the reporting was not only married but also pregnant, her numbers crashed. The network canceled the segments after that and Maya found herself with a lot of free time on her hands. She was never used to sitting around and doing nothing so she found various activities to keep her busy and going to the high school ball games was one of them. Plus both Asuna and Misato were good sources of information for her. With Misato she could get the whole picture including after the kid is born. And Asuna was help for any near future questions as she was easily a trimester and a half ahead of her.

 

“So when in July are you due?” Maya asked Asuna as she was eating some octopus balls that were absolutely bathed in spicy mustard.

 

“Around late July” Asuna answered while eating a hot dog that had a large mound of eerily neon green relish on it. “But I'm betting it will drag on into August.”

 

“Because it's a boy?” Maya said as she had read that boys tend to come out late in one of her many baby magazines.

 

“That's one of the reasons” Asuna replied. “Plus my mom had all of us late and said so did my grandma with her kids.”

 

“Heredity does play a big role in all of that” Misato said nodding her head while she slurped up some cheap ballpark style ramen.

 

While all three of these women were greatly enjoying their snacks and talking to each other it wasn't nearly on the level of enjoyment as little Keiko. She got a special treat in the form of an ice cream bar. It was a swirl of many different colors and flavors and it tasted really yummy to her.

 

It was also making a big mess out of her and the one holding the bar, Rei. But to Rei it was only her hand getting sticky and a far better thing than letting Keiko hold the ice cream bar herself. If the little one did that it was almost guaranteed that the bar would be dropped at some point causing a rather sad outburst of tears and no one wanted to see that. Plus Misato always had some wipes on hand to clean up with afterwards.

 

The aforementioned group of people sat in the second row of the bleachers while Asuka and Kaji sat in the first. They wanted to be as close to the action as possible. Personally Shinji was always embarrassed by this as he wished the two would calmly watch the game like the girls behind them. Not only did the two get carried away at times but he got ribbed an awful lot in the dugout about what they were doing. But he never did anything about it though. Kaji was just excited and being supportive, and Asuka was his girlfriend. To him that gave her a free pass to say anything she wanted to. The guys in the clubhouse could tease him all they wanted to but at the end of the day he was going home with her and they weren't.

 

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It was the bottom of the first inning and Yoshi Sato and Ryo Suzuki were calling the game. (RS) “It's the bottom of the first with two outs. Shinji Ikari is at bat and the count is 3 and 1.”

 

(YS) “Ikari is showing good patience with the bat that he is already known for.”

 

(RS) “You can tell Abe wants nothing to do with throwing a pitch where Ikari can get it.”

 

(YS) “And here's the pitch… Oh low and outside. Shinji Ikari draws a walk from Abe.”

 

(RS) “That will bring up Touji Suzuhara. This could be a dangerous situation for Hori Academy.”

 

(YS) “Ah but the Hori coach looks like he wants nothing to do with it as he is calling for an intentional walk of Suzuhara.”

 

(RS) “Is that a smart play so early in the game Sato?”

 

(YS) “In this case I would have to agree. He doesn't want to be down right from the start and this will keep his pitcher from getting rattled early on.”

 

(RS) “And there is ball four. Suzuhara takes his base. That leaves runners at first and second with two out and the short stop Jiro Takahashi up to bat.”

 

(YS) … “And here is the pitch… A blazing fast ball right down the middle for strike one.”

 

(RS) “But that strike cost Hori Academy as Ikari was able to steal third setting up an obvious hit and run.”

 

(YS) “Ikari stealing third was basically a forgone conclusion Ryo, and here is the next pitch.”

 

(RS) “Oh bad cut by Takahashi. There was no reason to swing at that pitch.”

 

(YS) “Takahashi has been known to swing at pitches in the dirt in the past. Looks like he's still doing it. With the count being O and two look for a couple curve balls outside the plate.”

 

(RS) “And here's the pitch… A swing and a miss on a high curveball. And the Tokyo-4 Eagles go down swinging.”

 

(YS) “Takahashi has been a bit of a disappointment at the plate this year for the Eagles so far.”

 

(RS) “It looks to me like he's trying to be a power hitter but just doesn't have the swing down for it yet.”

 

(YS) “You got to go with what you know in this game Ryo. If you want to go from a normal hitter to a power hitter you need to learn how to do that in spring training. Now is not the time to be doing that.” Yoshi Sato then got a call on his earpiece to cut to a commercial break. “And we will be back folks with the top of the second after this short commercial break.” When the on air light turned off he got another drink and ordered one of the interns to go fetch them some food. He turned his attention to the Tokyo-4 dugout. “Coach Kohrogi's got to be steamed after that wasted opportunity.”

 

Considering Ryo Suzuki saw the same thing Yoshi was looking at , the short stop was getting an earful from the coach for a lousy plate appearance, he had to agree. “What's that kid thinking? You can't just turn into a power hitter overnight.”

 

“That's the problem with some of these young kids. They get it in their heads that they have to be the big slugger and it hurts them in the end.” Yoshi Sato said as he watched the Eagles send out their fielders and the station manager told him they were coming back from break. “Welcome back to this exciting game baseball fans. It's the top of the second with the score tied 0-0….”

 

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“God does Takahashi suck” Asuka grumbled out loudly. She was still pissed at the kid for taking what she believed to be Shinji's rightful position at shortstop and his lousy batting just added to that fire. The kid actually was a decent hitter but the announcers were right about him, he had got it into his head that he had to be a power hitter. Basically his ego didn't like it that some second year could out power him and he wanted to show Touji up. It hadn't been going very well for the kid though as his wild swings were missing the ball a lot more than they made contact. Factor into this that he was smaller than Touji and didn't have the same strength and you could call this a fool's quest.

 

“Like I always say” Kaji interjected sounding like he was an absolute expert on the game. “You've got to learn the fundamentals. If you swing for the fences every time you're just going to end up grabbing pine three pitches later.”

 

Asuka usually just let these words of wisdom pass by her. She could care less about the fundamentals, she just wanted to comment on the game. It wasn't as much fun as it could have been as with Keiko behind her she wasn't allowed to cuss people out normally. And sometimes that was half the fun to her. But still she got her jeering in, she just did it in a more subversive way. Meaning she yelled stuff out in German.

 

Most people in the area had no idea what she was talking about but the few that did differed in their reactions to it. Rei, who never let on that she knew German, would sometimes look at Asuka like she needed her mouth washed out with soap after a colorful phrase or two. Misato would usually just tell her to calm down a little but as long as Keiko never repeated anything Asuka said she wasn't too worried about it. Kaji was better known as an instigator in this particular action as he usually swore like a sailor in German right next to the brash redhead.

 

There was one other person who sort of understood what she yelled, Shinji. He was still in the process of learning the mother tongue of his girlfriend so some of the things said were sketchy to him. He was pretty good with certain words but not phrases. Most of the words he knew though were ones he would never admit to as they were ones he learned in bed. And of course some of those bed words doubled as vulgarities so he knew when Asuka was cussing about something or another.

 

There was a little break in the game right now as the catcher had called time and the coach had walked to the mound to talk to their pitcher about the strategy for the next batter. Touji took this opportunity to ask Shinji something. “What the hell is that nut job of your girlfriend yelling now?”

 

“She's mad at the ump” Shinji answered giving the clean explanation of what Asuka was saying.

 

“What for?” Touji asked confused. “The dude's calling a good game so far.”

 

Shinji just shrugged his shoulders as he never caught all of what Asuka was yelling from the seats due to the other voices from the crowd. But just then he heard something else from Asuka, it confused him and since there was a time out on the field he turned to look at her.

 

Asuka could tell he hadn't caught all that she had said so she said it again, this time slower and breaking up the words.

 

It was obvious that Shinji caught what Asuka was saying this time as he blushed.

 

Touji took one look at his friend and turned around while saying “I don't even want to know what she said that time.”

 

“Good” Shinji replied as a smirk took over for the blush. “Because I wouldn't tell you.”

 

Back in the stands though Misato told Asuka “God you're a filthy girl.” Rei was nodding in agreement to that while she sat next to Misato.

 

Asuka though grinned “What? I was only being nice. And it's not like you don't do that kind of thing too.”

 

“Doing it and yelling it out loud are two different things” Misato stated. “You know German is a pretty popular language for students to learn over here. It may be more than just us who understood that.”

 

“I doubt it” Asuka laughed. “They don't teach what I just said in school.”

 

“You know if someone said something like that to me during my company softball games I might play better too” Kaji interjected with a sly smile.

 

“In your dreams” Misato laughed at him. She would do those sorts of naughty things gladly but she wasn't going to promise to do them if he played good, even if it was in another language.

 

Asuka then noticed the look she was getting from Rei. It was definitely not a pleasant one as in Rei's opinion Asuka had gone to far. “Ah lighten up blue. I'm just having fun.”

 

Misato disagreed with Asuka and said “Don't listen to the girl. It's not appropriate to be yelling out such things.” She then whispered into Rei's ear “You should only whisper those kinds of words to a boy you like. That way it becomes a sexy little secret that you two can share.”

 

Rei gave Misato a curious little smile for that. She liked Misato's ways so much better than Asuka's. They were just more subtle and suited to her tastes, now if she could only get a boyfriend to try those kinds of ideas out with things might be a little more interesting and a little less boring for her.

 

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It was the top of the fifth inning and Hori Academy was up to bat. Yoshi Sato and Ryo Suzuki had just come back from a break (YS) “Welcome back baseball fans. It's the top of the fifth and we have the 3, 4 and 5 batters coming up to bat for Hori.”

 

(RS) “So far Arai has been a rock on the mound giving up only one hit in four innings of a scoreless game.”

 

(YS) “He has been exceptional tonight that's for sure folks. But now he faces the best batters in Hori's lineup. The second year Raidon Kudo at number three, his senior brother Kentaro Kudo at four, and senior Kin Watanabe at five.”

 

(RS) “This could be trouble for the eagles as all three of these players can hit it out of the park.”

 

(YS) “And here's the first pitch… Oh a foul off the tip of Raidon Kudo's bat into the stands along the first base line.”

 

(RS) “He almost got that pitch Yoshi.”

 

(YS) “That's for sure. If he would have swung just a little earlier this would be a 1-0 game.” … “And here is the second pitch… just outside the plate. The count is now 1 and 1.”

 

(RS) “Arai might want to fan Kudo off from the plate a bit at this point with an inside pitch.”

 

(YS) “And that's exactly what he does. Strike two for Raidon Kudo. I have to give credit to Tokyo-4 High's catcher, he has been calling a great game so far.”

 

(RS) “While Aida didn't play last year apparently Arai and him where teammates many times in the past.”

 

(YS) “And it looks like Aida is calling for a low fastball… Here's the pitch… and it's a speedy grounder between third and shortstop for a single!”

 

(RS) “It looked like that pitch floated just a little bit giving Raidon Kudo a good crack at it.”

 

(YS) “That it did Ryo. And next up we got Raidon's big brother Kentaro. Could this be the end of Arai's shutout?”

 

(RS) “We have seen this many times before folks. Little brother gets on base and then Kentaro Kudo brings them both home with the big bat.”

 

(YS) “And here's the pitch… It's a hit!…”

 

(RS) “…Holy cow! It was snagged out of midair by the second baseman Shinji Ikari…”

 

(YS) “…And now little brother Raidon is in trouble as Ikari flips the ball back to Suzuhara and they got him trapped between first and second.” … “And Suzuhara taps him on the top of his helmet to complete the 4, 3 double play.”

 

(RS) “Tokyo-4 High may be known as the Eagles but that Shinji Ikari is a ball hawk. Very little ever gets pass him.”

 

(YS) “You couldn't be more correct about that. Shinji Ikari reacted instantly and just snatched that ball right out of the air catching Raidon Kudo completely off guard as he tried to make his way towards second. I don't think anyone believed Ikari was going to catch a ball hit that hard.”

 

(RS) “You have to watch out for that sort of thing with Kohrogi's boys. He likes good hitters but he prides himself on excellent defensive play. The Eagles are actually in the top ten in the nation this year for turning double plays.”

 

(YS) “You wouldn't expect anything less from the wily old coach.”

 

(RS) “You can say that again Yoshi. His signals to his players may be outlandish but they seem to work as his boys are always in the right place at the right time.”

 

(YS) “And now the number five hitter, senior Kin Watanabe, comes up to bat. He singled the last time he was up so lets see what he can do to restart Hori Academy after that fabulous double play.”

 

(RS) “And the first pitch is a low fastball for strike 1.”

 

(YS) “Arai may be riding on a high after that terrific double play kept this game scoreless. And here is the second pitch… A foul tip off the bat for strike two.”

 

(RS) “And Aria's next pitch is his specialty, a low split finger that gets Watanabe to swing away for strike three. Not many kids at this level can even throw a split finger, let alone a good one.”

 

(YS) “What a fantastic top of the fifth. And we will bring you even more of this top notch action after this commercial break as we go into the bottom of the fifth inning with a 0 to 0 ballgame.” When the on air light went off Yoshi Sato commented “Damn that was a nice catch. I thought it was going to go for a double.”

 

Ryo Suzuki answered his fellow call man “That kid's got amazing reflexes. He should be playing shortstop.”

 

“I wonder why he isn't?” Yoshi Sato asked as if he was the coach of the Eagles he would have put Shinji there in a heartbeat.

 

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If the announcers would have followed that foul ball along the first base line more closely they would have witnessed another great catch. Sitting in front along the first base line can be a dangerous thing as many foul balls tend to head in that direction. Now while the main reason for Asuka and Kaji sitting in the front row may have been because of their exuberance it wasn't the only one. Shinji wasn't the only person with quick reflexes in this odd little family and when that ball came screaming at them Asuka jumped up from her seat and snagged it with her bare hands.

 

It wasn't so much that she wanted the ball, she didn't want the ball to hit anyone behind her. Especially the little one who was running around having fun in the aisle. Then again you would be hard pressed to hit the small girl as not only would you have to get the ball by Asuka but also another certain someone leaned in front of his daughter the second he saw the ball head towards them. This particular father had no problems taking a hard hit from a baseball that had the potential to end up closer to his daughter than he liked. Also at the same time Kaji moved to protect his daughter Misato grabbed Keiko and pulled the little girl towards herself for protection. This was a combination of motherly instinct and years worth of military training at its best. And as if that wasn't enough a certain blue haired girl stuck a hand out in front of the little child that was pulled close to her by the person sitting next to her.

 

Even though Asuna had seen this sequence of events before she still found it amazing how quickly everyone reacted. It was like at the snap of a finger everyone reacted. As for Maya, she knew more than Asuna. She knew the histories of each person involved so something like this didn't surprise her in the least.

 

While Keiko never realized just how many people were there protecting her she did notice Asuka catch the ball. And best of all after her Auntie Asuka caught the ball she gave it to her to play with. This garnered an awful lot of cute ohh's and aww's as once she got the ball she did what came naturally to her, she tried to throw it to her daddy. Her daddy and her always played ball at home so she saw no reason they couldn't do it here too.

 

And neither did Kaji as if anything could distract him from the game on the field it was his little girl. He didn't even mind missing Shinji's spectacular catch a couple minutes later. It's not like he hadn't seen Shinji do that before and he kind of wondered why everyone was making such a big deal out of it. That was just simply status quo for the kid.

 

So as the inning went on Kaji gently tossed the ball back and forth with his daughter who was only actually about a foot away. She was still pretty young so you had to go easy with the little girl, and you also had to have someone put a hand behind her as while she could stand and walk she also still fell down a lot. Good balance usually doesn't show up till after three or four years of age and she was still roughly a month or so short of two years.

 

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(YS) “It's the bottom of the eighth here folks and the two pitchers have sure been putting on a show for us today.”

 

(RS) “That's right Yoshi. This has been one heck of a game so far. Through seven and a half innings Arai has given up a total of three hits and Abe has given up six. With the score still being tied at 0-0.”

 

(YS) “For the Eagles we have up their number two hitter right now, Kioshi Ito. He has one hit, a ground out, a walk, and a strike out so far this afternoon, lets see what he can do versus Abe now.”

 

(RS) “I don't know if you noticed it last inning but I think Abe is starting to tire out on the mound.”

 

(YS) “That could be Ryo. He has never been known to be a full game pitcher. I'm surprised Coach Fuji has left him in the game and not brought in their relief pitcher yet.”

 

(RS) “And here's the first pitch… just outside the plate for ball one to Ito.”

 

(YS) “Hori Academy might want to watch out for some tricky plays right now. Old Kohrogi likes to slip them in, in situations like this.”

 

(RS) “And here is the next pitch… Ohhh hard swing by Ito for a strike. I think the senior Ito is trying to end the game all by himself right now.”

 

(YS) “He does have four homeruns so far this year so it's possible that he was told to swing for the fences. And here's the next pitch… another hard cut but strike two for Ito.”

 

(RS) “If Abe can retire can the strength of Tokyo-4 High's batting order this inning he should have nothing to worry about next inning as all six hits off of him today have come from the first four batters.”

 

(YS) “And here's the pitch… It's a bunt!…”

 

(RS) “Ito is off like a shot towards first and the throw is... not in time! A single for Kioshi Ito to start off the inning.”

 

(YS) “That was a brilliant play by Coach Kohrogi. He had Ito swing away at a couple of pitches so the infielders would play deep and then had Ito set up a perfect dribbler down the third base line that neither Abe nor the third baseman could get to in time.”

 

(RS) “You got to love the mental aspects of this game.”

 

(YS) “Yes you do Ryo, yes you do. And now up comes trouble for Hori Academy, Shinji Ikari.”

 

(RS) “Shinji has been solid at the plate so far tonight with one ground out, a walk, and two hits. If he manages to get on base again Hori will be in deep trouble.”

 

(YS) “And the first pitch is low for ball one. I don't think Abe wants to pitch anywhere near Ikari's strike zone right now.”

 

(RS) “But he's going to have to Yoshi. With no outs a walk is just as dangerous as a hit.”

 

(YS) “That certainly is true. But the next pitch is outside the plate for ball two. And the catcher has called time so he can go talk to Abe.”

 

(RS) “And out comes Coach Fuji to join the conference. I think they are just trying to calm Abe down at this point.”

 

(YS) “That could be. And since there is a break in the action let's cut to a station identification break.” The on air light went out for a couple seconds “Abe's screwed.”

 

(RS) “Oh yeah. You can see it on the poor kid's face, he's totally lost out there right now.” The on air light came back on. “And the conference on the mound is over so lets get back to the game… Here's the pitch… And it's a line drive up the center!”

 

(YS) “Ito is rounding second and slides into third while Ikari holds up at first.”

 

(RS) “With runners at the corners and no outs the big bat, Touji Suzuhara is up.”

 

(YS) “Oh and look at this Ryo, Ikari is showing no respect for Abe at all as the second he got the ball Ikari took a big lead off first.”

 

(RS) “Ikari is just daring Abe to try and pick him off right now.”

 

(YS) “And since Ikari is a known threat on the base path that is exactly what Abe tries to do but with no luck.”

 

(RS) “I have seen coach Kohrogi do this many times already this year with Ikari on base. He has the kid take a big lead off of first, threatening to steal, only to zip back to the base before you can blink.”

 

(YS) “Its sole purpose is to disrupt the pitcher Ryo. And Abe throws right back to first to try and keep Ikari honest.”

 

(RS) “It seems to be working as Abe isn't taking his eyes off Ikari at this point. He doesn't want to give up the steal and put runners on second and third.”

 

(YS) “If I were him I would be more worried about who is up at bat. Abe might just want to think about giving second up and concentrating on getting Suzuhara out.”

 

(RS) “I would have to agree with you there but I don't think Abe is as he throws back to first again. Highly questionable moves by Abe right now as he appears rattled.”

 

(YS) “And I think his coach knows this too as Fuji has a reliever warming up with the back up catcher in the bullpen right now.”

 

(RS) “But Fuji is showing some trust in Abe as he hasn't pulled him yet. I think he's giving the kid a chance to pitch himself out of this mess.”

 

(YS) “And let's see what he can do as he winds up… Here's the pitch… And it's hit hard!… It's going…. It's going…. “It's gone! Homerun number thirteen for Touji Suzuhara.”

 

(RS) “And that makes the game three to nothing in favor of the Tokyo-4 High Eagles. Suzuhara really got his bat under that one as he drove it deep over the left field wall.”

 

(YS) “And as Touji rounds the bases he is met at home with high fives from Kioshi and Ikari. Magnificent at bat for Suzuhara. And it also looks like this will be the end of Abe as Fuji is coming out to the mound. So while the next pitcher warms up we will cut from the action for a commercial break.” When the on air light went off Yoshi Sato was looking into the dugout. “I don't remember getting congratulated like that when I hit a homerun back in high school.” This was in reference to the big hug that Hikari gave Touji when he entered the dugout.

 

“If I did, I bet I would've hit a lot more of them, that's for sure” Ryo Suzuki replied with a smirk on his face. He heard Yoshi chuckle at that as he looked around at the people in the stands. There were quite a few lookers sitting out there. Even though they sat up above the fans at the game they could still hear certain people and right now he was looking at what he guessed was Ikari's girlfriend as the girl was wearing his away jersey while she danced around. But Ryo was in his early thirties so his eyes got drawn to the raven-haired beauty sitting behind the celebrative redhead. “Damn, she's a hot one.”

 

Even though Yoshi was in his late forties, married and with kids of his own, he still looked at where Ryo was looking. “Oh her” he replied with a smirk. “That is Misato Katsuragi.”

 

“You know her?”

 

“I used to work with her before Third Impact” Yoshi answered. “Whenever she walked down a hall every guy's eyes in the area used to follow her.”

 

“Looks like some lucky guy got her.” This was a fairly easy observation due to the little one that currently had a blanket over her and was sleeping in Misato's arms.

 

“That would be the guy sitting in front of her” Yoshi said. He didn't really know Kaji but he had seen the two together at Nerv and there was just something about them that made him think they were together even back then.

 

“Who is that blue haired girl sitting next to her? She's kind of a hottie too” Ryo asked as in an exotic way she really stood out.

 

Yoshi smiled as he answered “That is Rei Ayanami.” He was very glad to see the girl sitting there looking like she was having fun. That was something he had never seen of the girl before third impact. While he didn't know the specifics of the whole Eva pilots thing he did know who the children were who piloted them. And actually it never sat right with him that they put fourteen year old kids in those giant things, but he wasn't in a position at Nerv where he could say anything. He also didn't say anything more about the girl to his fellow broadcaster sitting next to him, the guy didn't need to know any specifics. Plus the on air light was about to go back on as the station manager announced they were coming back from break. “And welcome back to the game folks. The score is……..”

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Tokyo-4 High didn't score anymore runs that inning but they didn't need to as Shiro Arai pitched a scoreless ninth and the game was over. Afterwards Asuka was hanging around outside the boy's locker room waiting for Shinji to come out. Misato and the others had already left for home as they had to get dinner ready but Asuka always waited for Shinji so she could go home with him. Usually while she was waiting Hikari would join her as being a girl she didn't have to sit around in a locker room and listen to a coach ramble on and on about the game. This meant she was able to clean up and change faster than the boys. She was just standing by Asuka right now, chatting as usual, when Shinji and Touji walked out. “Where's Kensuke?”

 

“He's still getting his knee iced down” Touji answered his girlfriend.

 

“Is his knee still hurting him?” Asuka asked. She was actually concerned as in the game before this one Kensuke took a tough collision at the plate and ended up getting spiked in the knee pretty hard.

 

“It doesn't hurt him as much as it did before. He just said it was a little sore from being behind the plate the whole game” Shinji answered her.

 

“So why didn't the baka take the game off and let it heal properly?” Asuka nitpicked. “I mean the team does have two catchers for a reason.”

 

“Yeah but Shiro won't pitch to anyone other than Kensuke” Touji answered.

 

“Why? I thought you said the other guy was good too” Asuka asked as this sounded like nonsense to her.

 

Shinji answered this one. “He hasn't lost a game yet when he worked with Kensuke so he thinks it's bad luck to go with anyone else.”

 

“That's stupid” Asuka proclaimed.

 

“That's a pitcher” Hikari answered her. “You pretty much got to baby those guys and take the weird nuances they get into their heads with a grain of salt.”

 

Asuka let out a curt “Yeah whatever” as it still sounded stupid to her. But right now that didn't really matter and she asked Hikari “So you got any plans this weekend?”

 

Hikari didn't have any that she knew of and she looked over at Touji “Do we?”

 

“Only if you count sitting on the couch watching TV plans” Touji answered. “Why? You got something in mind?”

 

“Not really” Asuka answered. “We want to try and go out on Saturday to the fancy part of Shin Seiki's but that's only if Rei can somehow fit us in. Other than that I was just looking for something to do.”

 

“Haven't you been trying to get in there for a couple weeks now?” Hikari asked as she remembered Asuka talking about this before.

 

“For about three weeks now” Asuka answered while the four of them walked down the halls of the school. “But Rei says they're always super packed and the only way to get a table is if there's a cancellation.”

 

“Good luck then” Hikari told her.

 

“Thanks” Asuka said not really expecting any. She knew it was a long shot but she just thought it would be a really fun date. That and she would finally get to show off her Versace dress in a place where people would actually know it was a Versace. She had already tried that a couple times but most of those times all she just got was a “That's a pretty dress” and that was it. If people didn't even recognize it for what it was, what is the point of having a dress like that. But all that was besides the point “You guys want to catch a movie tomorrow night or something?”

 

Hikari looked over at Touji and he just shrugged his shoulders as that was fine with him, so she answered “Sure, that might be fun.” Truthfully that's what the two of them probably would have been doing anyway.

 

Touji then asked the magic question “Anything good out?”

 

Asuka thought for a second and couldn't come up with an answer so she looked over at Shinji “Well?”

 

“Not really” Shinji sighed. Him and Asuka were sort of in a dating rut. Friday night was date night and lately it was always the same thing. Dinner, a movie, go on a walk and stop at the park, then go home. They had pretty much exhausted the number of movies they had each wanted to see and they both actually fell asleep last week in the theaters as the movie was so boring. “Is there anything else we could do?”

 

“Yeah, I'm kinda bored of the movies too” Asuka answered. She then looked over at Hikari “Got any other ideas?”

 

Hikari shook her head no. Her and Touji were sort of in a rut too. “We need to do something fun and exciting for a change. All we ever do anymore is the whole movie and a dinner thing, isn't there anything else?”

 

“Same here” Asuka answered and threw out the first thing different that popped into her mind “How about karaoke?”

 

“I thought you hated karaoke” Shinji said.

 

“I do” Asuka answered. “But at least it would be something different.”

 

Shinji nodded a yes to that too. He wasn't exactly fond of karaoke either but it sounded better than another boring movie at this particular time.

 

“We could get a whole group of people together for something like that” Hikari answered happily. This was something different and it appealed to her. Unlike Asuka she enjoyed singing but since Asuka never wanted to do things like that they had never gone and did karaoke.

 

“I know a couple guys on the team who would be up for that” Touji said. “But you two would have to provide the girls or they won't show.”

 

“What do I look like?.. A pimp” Asuka jested while Hikari giggled. The easiest way to get a group of guys to go anywhere was to say there would be girls around and both Asuka and Hikari knew that.

 

“Thems the brakes red” Touji replied. “No girls equals no boys.” The funny thing about that was Shinji nodded his head along side Touji. That was just the way things were.

 

“All guys are hentai” Asuka kidded while thinking. “Are there any young guys, like first years, in that group?”

 

“Most of them are first years” Touji answered.

 

“Are you talking about some boys from the developmental squad?” Hikari asked.

 

“Yup” Touji answered. While not every kid who tried out for the baseball team made it that didn't mean you couldn't play baseball. There was a development league that was sort of like a JV squad. They didn't play in the actual games but they practiced alongside the other players and if someone from the varsity team got hurt one of them could get called up. Touji worked with these kids from time to time so he knew most of them.

 

“You know that might just work out” Asuka said as she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Asuka then dialed a particular number… “Hey Yuma, it's Asuka. What's up?”

 

A call from Asuka was all it took to turn what had been a boring afternoon into a good one to Yuma. “Hello Miss Asuka!… I'm not doing anything right now, did you want something?”

 

“Hikari and I were just trying to think of something different to do after school tomorrow and I was wondering if you like karaoke?” Asuka asked.

 

“I love karaoke!” Yuma answered excitedly. “My friends and I always do that.”

 

“Good” Asuka said. “Why don't you invite them along too… oh and also do you know of a good place for it?”

 

“Over on First Street there's a place my friends and I always got to. It's only like a mile from my school.” Yuma was beyond excited at this point. A couple times while shopping she had mentioned karaoke but Asuka never really responded to it. And being that she sort of idolized Asuka this was a huge thing to her, almost as big as that party Asuka threw.

 

“Can it handle a good number of people?” Asuka asked. “Hikari and I might bring along a friend or two.” Asuka smirked at Hikari after that. She was intentionally leaving out that those so called friends were going to be boys. She knew that would just make Yuma nervous as the girl was still shy around boys.

 

“Yeah! They have bigger rooms that are set up for big groups.”

 

“Well then we will meet you and your friends there at say…” Asuka covered the receiver on the phone as she asked Shinji quickly “What time are you guys done with practice tomorrow?”

 

“We should be done by five” Shinji answered.

 

“…is 5:00 pm good?”

 

“That will be perfect Miss Asuka!”

 

“Good, see you then Yuma, bye.”

 

“Bye Miss Asuka!” Yuma said still excited. This was going to be so much fun and she quickly got back on her phone and called her friends. It took very little cajoling from the girl to get her friends to agree. Her biggest problem was that her twin brother was watching TV next to her at the time and overheard the whole conversation. As you can guess, he was now begging to come along while she kept telling him no.

 

“There I got some girls” Asuka said smugly “Now can you top that?”

 

“Easily” Touji answered. He then got out his cell phone and placed a call “Yo Taketo this is Touji. Hikari and a bunch of her friends want to go karaoke but there are too many girls going with us. Can you grab a couple of the younger guys and meet us at the karaoke place over on First after practice tomorrow?”

 

“Are the girls single?” Taketo asked.

 

Touji looked over at Hikari “Is Yuma or any of her friends dating anyone?”

 

“Not that we know of” Hikari answered.

 

“They're all single man” Touji answered over the phone.

 

“Then hell yeah!” Taketo answered.

 

Touji hung up the phone after that “Well this should be interesting.”

 

Asuka was a bit protective of Yuma and she asked “He isn't going to bring along a bunch of skeezy jerks, is he?”

 

“I doubt it” Touji chuckled. “Taketo talks tough but he's never been out on a date in his life.”

 

“And we know his friends” Shinji answered. “They're all pretty good guys.”

 

“Good” Asuka smiled. “Then this should be fun.”

 

\\\\||||////

*********** OOO ***********

////||||\\\\

 

Yuma was standing on the corner of First Street outside the karaoke place with her friends Kohama Saito and Tamiko Hasegawa when they saw Asuka walking down the street towards them. Their eyes got big as they noticed who was with her. Being as it was Asuka it was no surprise that Shinji was with her. The same with Hikari bringing along Touji. Those two boys just made sense, the others they saw didn't though. When Asuka said she was bringing some friends Yuma thought she meant a group of girls. Instead there was primarily a group of boys walking down the street with her. There was one girl in the group as well but even she was sort of intimidating as she looked even more grown up than Asuka or Hikari, possibly a senior in high school from the looks of it to the young girls.

 

This was Miki Koyasu, she had nothing better to do and gladly accepted the invite from Asuka and Hikari when they asked her at practice. Plus she liked karaoke but since she hung around guys mainly she never really got to do it all that much. Talking with her as they walked down the street was Taketo Chiba. Taketo was a second year student like Shinji, Asuka, Hikari, and Touji but he wasn't in the same class as them. He knew Touji the best out of that group due to his involvement with baseball and he was a good baseball player too, just not good enough to make the team. This didn't bother him too much though and he figured he would most likely make the team next year with him being a senior and all then. Plus he was in pretty tight with the coach as he helped out a lot in the scouting of other teams department along with working with most of the young kids who were on the practice squad.

 

In fact behind him right now were three first year students, all equally as nervous as the girls on the corner appeared to be. They had sort of been roped into this fun little outing and didn't really know what to expect. At first Taketo thought his friends would jump at the idea of getting to meet some girls but each of the three guys he asked sort of hummed and hawed at the idea. Well more like it intimidated them as none of them had ever done anything like that before. But to say no was a hard thing to do when the peer pressure of both team managers, Shinji, and Touji was applied. So now along with Asuka, Shinji, Hikari, Touji, Miki, and Taketo was Kiyoshi Saito, Kanta Kusao, and Riku Kobayashi.

 

Asuka absolutely delighted in introducing the three blushing middle school girls to the three younger high school boys. It wasn't like there was much of a difference between the two groups as they were only separated by a year. And Asuka was emboldened by the fact that the three young boys in question were sort of blushing too. If the boys didn't like what they saw she knew they wouldn't have been like that. She knew this would be awkward at first but eventually she figured she could get the whole group to intermingle. Her biggest worry was actually whether or not she had to sing. Asuka was very good at a great many things but singing wasn't one of them. If you had asked Asuka about her singing she would tell you that Keiko's wailing sounded better than her caterwauling.

 

But as this jumbled group of many different types of people entered the building Yuma sort of held up Asuka so she could talk to her. “Miss Asuka, what are these boys doing here?”

 

Asuka winked at her “I just thought karaoke would be more fun this way.”

 

“But Miss Asuka?...” Yuma continued to question. The girl was pretty thrown off by all this and she knew so were her friends.

 

“Relax Yuma” Asuka tried to reassure her young friend. “These guys are perfectly safe. Nothing bad will happen so just try to have some fun.”

 

Yuma just looked up at Asuka still sort of nervous “But they're high school boys.”

 

“Other than Taketo they're only first year students. It's ok. Hell I bet you that none of them are even a full year older than you.” Asuka then noticed the deep blush on Yuma's face. “Plus they're kinda cute aren't they?”

 

“Miss Asuka!!!”

 

Asuka just giggled at the exclamatory cry of her young friend. “Don't be so worried, you're going to have fun. Trust me.”

 

Yuma let out an unsure “O-ok” and they entered a big room with several couches and chairs surrounding a table and also a little stage with a karaoke machine.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

The seating arrangement was exactly how you would expect it to be considering the young people in the group. The three boys immediately went to one couch while the three girls went and sat at another one. Asuka sort of rolled her eyes at this while Hikari let out a kidding “behave” and a “let them be for now” quietly at her friend. There was no point to forcing the two groups to intermingle so early on. As for Shinji and Touji, they of course sat on a couch with their girlfriends. They also pushed the intercom button right away and ordered some food as they were starving. This was no surprise to Asuka, Hikari, and Miki and they chuckled a bit while Touji, Shinji, and Taketo rattled off the food they wanted. The girls knew that when guys are hungry it's best to just let them get what they want or they will get all grumpy and uncooperative.

 

But with food ordered and soon to be on its way the guys were in pretty good spirits and the fun was started as Miki took the stage first. Being the oldest she felt it was her responsibility to try and break the ice for the younger kids.

 

When Miki was done with her song Asuka commented “For a tomboy, you're pretty damn good at this.”

 

“I may have sung along to the radio once or twice when the boys weren't around” Miki grinned at her.

 

“Suuure, only once or twice” Asuka snickered and then looked over at Hikari “You're going next because there is no way I'm going to try and follow that.”

 

That got Miki to laugh some more and even elicited a chuckle or two from the quiet kids. Hikari didn't have a problem with this and she went up on the stage to sing a song. She ended up blushing afterwards due to the overwhelming support of her singing from Touji. He thought she was the best singer ever and he just wanted to make his point clear.

 

Asuka made her point as well “You know, you sing just like Misato.”

 

Hikari took this as it was meant to be, a compliment. Hikari was one of the few people who knew the truth about how much Asuka looked up to her guardian so to be compared to her was a good thing. She smiled and told Asuka thanks while at the same time trying to get Asuka up off the couch as it was supposed to be her turn to sing now.

 

Asuka though countered this attempt by pulling Hikari down to the couch and said “I think we should let the girls go next. After all out of all of us they are the most experienced at this sort of thing. I think I want to see how the pros handle this first.”

 

Yuma's eyes, along with her friends, went big at that comment. None of them had ever sung in front of boys before. Asuka though was quite persistent about it and soon the three girls found themselves up on the stage “Pick whatever song you girls like, I'm sure you will be great.” Asuka then went to sit down on the couch next to Shinji so she could watch.

 

As three nervous girls, with their backs to the crowd, all whispered to themselves about what song they were going to sing Hikari looked over at Asuka. “You know you're not fooling anyone.”

 

“And what do you mean by that?” Asuka said sounding offended.

 

“You know what I mean” Hikari smirked. “I will get you up on that stage.”

 

Asuka stepped up to that challenge. “You and what army?”

 

“I don't need an army” Hikari told her while some of the others laughed quietly. It was obvious to everyone now that Asuka did not want to sing. “There are lots of other ways to get you to do something that you don't want to other than force.”

 

“No there isn't” Asuka quickly said. She was being a little rash right now because she felt she was losing this battle. But considering she was you have to cut the girl some slack.

 

“What if I get Shinji to sing?” Hikari asked.

 

No sooner than she said that though did Shinji state “Leave me out of this.”

 

Hikari looked at him “No” and continued on not even letting him rebuttal that. “And if that doesn't work” Hikari then leaned over and whispered something into Asuka's ear.

 

Asuka immediately looked at her friend afterwards and proclaimed “Hey no fair. Guilt trips are an illegal move.”

 

“Listen” Hikari explained to Asuka. “I've been trying to get you to go to a place like this with me for years. You think I'm going to let you get out of here without hearing you sing at least once?”

 

“Jeeze, where did you learn to be so pushy?” Asuka said. She wasn't really arguing so much at this point with Hikari but trying to find a way to save face while backing down. The next comment from Touji didn't really help her out in that quest.

 

“Try looking in the mirror red.”

 

“Just for that stooge you have to go next” Asuka said narrowing her eyes while glaring at Touji.

 

“Fine” Touji simply replied. “I don't got no problems with that.”

 

Asuka let out a little “Huh?” as that was not an answer she was expecting from him. She sort of expected Touji to fight against singing just as much as she was sure Shinji was going to. After staring down Touji for a couple more seconds she turned towards Hikari “I should have known you would have already influenced him.”

 

Hikari just smiled at Asuka while she shook her head no. “I didn't have to. My Touji just likes to sing.”

 

She asked out an unbelieving and surprised “Really?”

 

“And what's so hard to believe about that?” Touji shot back “Not manly enough for you or something?”

 

“Among other things, Yes” Asuka teased. Asuka then looked up at the girls on the stage “You ready yet? Because we can keep this up for hours if you let us.” Along with Asuka saying that there was a chuckled agreement from both Hikari and Touji. This was just typical arguing for fun's sake to them. You could sort of tell this by listening to their voices as none of them ever raised theirs. But it was growing boring right now and Asuka did want to hear Yuma sing so that is why she stopped.

 

Yuma knew all about this and was kind of hoping that Asuka, Hikari, and Touji would continue so she and her friends wouldn't have to sing. The three boys on the couch were sort of and sort of not looking at them. It was making the girls horribly nervous and to make matters worse Asuka was right about them being cute. All this added up to some jumbled nerves. But at Asuka's insistence they did start singing the song they picked out.

 

It was a good thing the three girls were using a microphone or else you would have never heard them. It was a very quiet version of a pop song and none of the girls lived up to the songs fervor. And when the girls finished the song all three of them were as red as they could be, this was so embarrassing to them.

 

Asuka realized her plan was backfiring so she tried a different approach to getting the girls to liven up. She walked up to the girls on the stage and picked a particular song while telling them she wanted to hear another one from them. All three girls groaned at once as they wanted this to be all over with so they could retreat back to their couch.

 

But Asuka had something else on her mind as she told them. “You know girls, I know a certain singer who offers me backstage passes every time he plays in towns.”

 

This got three sets of eyes to plink open real fast.

 

“Normally I turn them down as large crowds bug me but who knows, maybe I will accept them when he comes to town this summer?” Asuka smirked at them after that. She knew she had their full attention now. She had already gotten the tickets a while ago from Shigeru and had planned on giving them to the girls for keeping their mouths shut when they met him at her place, but originally she was going to wait till after school was finished to tell them that. But given the current circumstances now it seemed like just as good of time as any to let them in on this particular reward.

 

Now with the proper motivation the girls sung their hearts out. Embarrassment be damned, there was backstage passes to the Nerv's of Steel concert on the line here. Three cute boys sitting on the couch didn't mean a thing next to the studs they would be rubbing shoulders against this summer.

 

Asuka had retreated back to her couch to watch Yuma and her friends sing and was actually impressed. Those three girls were good. Probably better than both Miki and Hikari. This left her a bit worried as she didn't want to follow that act but on the bright side she noticed the three young boys were very much interested in the girls who were singing right now. You could just see it in their eyes. This was a good thing and soon her mind calculated her next moves to keep herself off that dreaded stage.

 

After Making Touji sing she was going to make the three boys sing, after all that was only fair since the three girls were singing their hearts out right now. And if it took two or three songs to liven up the boys to the current level of the room that was all the better. Plus she figured by the time the boys got done the food would be here and she would have another excuse not to sing. She smiled smugly as she knew she could make her crafty little plan work to perfection.

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

While everyone was eating Asuka's phone rang. Even before she could say hi though she heard “Good evening Ms. Sohryu, what can I do for you?”

 

Asuka responded with “Umm Rei???”

 

The answer she got was another weird one. “Let me check the reservation list… ah yes we just had a cancellation. Would Saturday at 8:00 pm work?”

 

This may have been a weird answer but it was one that told Asuka everything she needed to know. “You are the best Rei! I promise I will pay you back for this, big time.”

 

“Then I will see you at 8:00 pm tomorrow. Thank you for deciding on Shin Seiki's for your dinning pleasure.” And then Rei hung up.

 

This may have been a weird conversation but it was how it had to be. Rei had to make it look like Asuka called at just the right moment after she had just got called about a cancellation. The standard practice at the restaurant was that any spots that became open due to cancellations were to be taken by the next person inquiring about a reservation. Since Rei was the one who fielded the calls for this sort of thing she knew if Asuka didn't call within the next five minutes she would be shut out for the weekend again. So Rei sort of hedged the rules a bit and made it seem like Asuka called her instead of the other way around.

 

Back in the karaoke room Asuka looked over at Shinji and said “I finally get to see you in that suit I bought you like six months ago.”

 

Shinji just looked back at her while he still had a pork dumpling in his mouth. He quickly took a big swallow and asked “Can I even argue it?”

 

Asuka smiled at him looking very cute in the process “Nope.”

 

“Ok” Shinji replied and went back to eating. He knew as soon as they got reservations to that fancy place he was going to have to wear the monkey suit he was bought so this wasn't a big surprise. He just thought he would at least try to get out of wearing it. But since the try failed he went back to eating as there was no point arguing it. Plus as long as he was eating he couldn't be singing, the true primary objective of his.

 

Hikari looked at her friend a bit confused during this so Asuka told her “Rei just got us reservation at Shin Seiki's.”

 

“Oh” Hikari replied as that cleared things up. “Now since you're probably in such a happy mood maybe you could sing about it?”

 

Asuka shoved a piece of food in her mouth right away and said while chewing “It would be rude to sing and eat at the same time.”

 

“Then it's a good thing you have never been a girl that cared all that much about manners” Hikari responded and pulled Asuka unexpectedly up to the stage.

 

“HEY! Let me go!”

 

“Not until I hear you sing” Hikari said back while grabbing the microphone.

 

Asuka put her hand over the microphone to silence it and whispered back to Hikari “But I can't sing. I sound horrible.”

 

“Ah everyone says that about themselves” Hikari answered. “Just give it a shot.”

 

Since she wasn't able to convince Hikari she said out towards Shinji “I don't sing, right Shin-kun.”

 

“Uh huh” Shinji answered while still eating. “In all the time I have been with Asuka I've never heard her sing in Japanese once.”

 

Asuka smiled at that answer. But the smile faded as she realized her best friend was too smart for her own good. Any one else in the room would have not noticed the key words in that statement but Hikari did. She looked over at Shinji and said while pointing a finger at him “Shame on you Shinji Ikari. You should know better than to cover for Asuka like that.”

 

Shinji looked back at Hikari with surprise “What'd I do?”

 

Unfortunately Hikari only answered him with a glare. She knew what the two were up to. If push came to shove the two of them were in this together and dedicated to the fact that they were going to bail each other out if they had to. Touji was sitting next to Shinji at the time and he told him “Just give it up man. When she gets determined like this there's no telling her no. Trust me on that.”

 

Shinji though wasn't going to give up. “Honestly, Asuka doesn't even sing to anything she hears on the radio.”

 

The fact that Shinji was stepping up to the confrontation impressed Hikari some. He really was trying to protect Asuka, but that was besides the point. “I know why you've never heard her singing along to the radio. I also know why you have never heard her sing in Japanese. She's too self conscience and afraid she will embarrass herself so she most likely only sings in German around you, am I right?”

 

“You're wrong” Shinji flat out told her. This wasn't even a lie technically as while Asuka did sing mainly in German, she also sang songs in English.

 

“See” Asuka told Hikari. “I don't sing. Now if you will let go I want to finish my dinner.” Asuka then tried to tug her arm away from Hikari.

 

The trick didn't work as Hikari held on tight. With her other hand Hikari pulled out a piece of paper from one of her pockets. Asuka wasn't the only one who could come up with devious plans. “I have been practicing this since last night. Maybe you can help me with it.”

 

When Asuka saw the piece of paper she felt the icy grip of defeat surrounding her. “How in the hell did you get something like that?”

 

“The internet” Hikari answered. “You wouldn't believe how easy it is to get songs translated these days.”

 

Actually Asuka would. She herself had translated many popular Japanese songs into English or German when she wanted to sing them. Heck she could even do it off the top of her head in most cases. But when she did this trick it was always in front of Shinji. He would never judge her singing and would just sit there nicely and tell her she did a good job.

 

Asuka sighed as she knew at this point there was no getting out of this anymore, Hikari was going to get her way. “Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you.”

 

****^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^****

 

Asuka and Shinji were having some private time late that night. They weren't in Asuka's room but Shinji was helping Asuka get ready for their big date tomorrow. The place they were getting ready in was the bathroom. Specifically it was the tub. The two were taking a hot bath together and as Shinji carefully glided a razor up a leg coated in creamy white foam he said “I guess that wasn't too bad.”

 

Asuka just laid there with her head resting against his chest and her eyes closed while he shaved one of her legs. “I guess not. At least everyone was getting along really good at the end.”

 

“Even if we both did have to sing” Shinji sighed. He had gotten trapped into singing as well. Once with Touji and once with Asuka.

 

“I think we need to find some friends who don't know us so well” Asuka kidded. “Then we would've gotten away with it.”

 

Shinji just smiled at Asuka for that as he continued to shave a very beautiful leg. Asuka then opened her eyes and looked at the job Shinji was doing for her. “You know, it's not right that you can shave my legs better than I do.”

 

Shinji replied to that with “That's because you hate shaving your legs and you always do it as fast as you can. Nicking yourself up in the process.”

 

“Maybe” Asuka answered. “Or maybe I do that just so you will do it for me.” Asuka was looking up at Shinji while she said that. The big smirk on her face meant the truth was more than just one of those answers.

 

Shinji didn't care what the real answer was, he had no problems with shaving her legs. It was a very sensuous thing and Asuka always rewarded him afterwards. And as he continued on with his task he asked “Did it seem like Miki and Taketo had something going on between them to you?”

 

Asuka thought about that for a minute. The two were really starting to get chummy as the night went on. “There might be something to that Shin-kun. Not exactly the match I was going for though.”

 

Shinji chuckled at that. While the two groups of boys and girls were getting along swimmingly at the end of the night, it looked like that was all that was happening. There was probably going to be no magic hookups stemming from this fun little trip. “Are you going to try again?”

 

“At karaoke no. But if we think up some other fun outing, maybe” Asuka answered. Despite being forced to sing she did have a fun time. Asuka then lowered her leg back into the water as Shinji was done with it. Or at least he was done shaving it as he leaned forward and started to caress the leg. “Na-a-a. You can play with me later” Asuka told him as his hands were already stroking her upper thigh. “You have to finish the job first.”

 

“Are you sure about that?” Shinji asked moving his hands further up.

 

Asuka stopped his hands though before they could get started. She gave him a little smirk as she said “You and I both know that if we start on this now my other leg's never going to get done.”

 

Shinji knew Asuka was right about that so he surrendered to the luscious red head and started putting some moisturizing cream on the pretty leg that was raised above the water. But as he shaved the other leg he took the time to kiss Asuka on the back of her neck. He knew the erotic effect it would have on Asuka.

 

Asuka herself perfectly knew well he knew that too, that's why she didn't stop him. Even though it was she that delayed the inevitable she still wanted some relaxation time with the boy while they were in the bath. She was greatly enjoying this time and was letting out little giggles as Shinji's kisses tickled the little hairs on the back of her neck.

 

When he was done with her leg though she asked him while he cleaned the razor in the water “Why don't you ever press to shave the other part of me? It's not like I would stop you.” This was something she always found odd. After all he was a boy and she figured given half the chance any other boy would have shaved her bare. She wouldn't even have considered this a perverted act it was so prevalent of a trait in guys.

 

Shinji though whispered into Asuka's ear “What's the point of dating a red head if you don't have the proof.”

 

Asuka grinned at him “Hentai.” By not being perverted Shinji was very perverted. Just the way Asuka liked him.

 

Shinji nodded his head yes to that as he started ruffling his fingers through the small red mat of wet hair she supported as proof of her true hair color.

 

Asuka was very tempted to just let him go but she had a job to do too. “My turn to shave you now Shin-kun” and she took the razor from him. She also switched positions as she got up and turned around, straddling his waist and sitting on his lab so this task would be easier. She rubbed herself against him a few times and then leaned forward as she teasingly put a dab of shave cream on his nose before leaning in even more for a sumptuous kiss. She then proceeded to kiss him even more as the proof of his manhood hardened against her tummy. She rather liked that feeling. But the feeling also drove her to want more so she quit kissing him and proceeded to putting some shaving cream on Shinji's face. Then she began to shave Shinji, she was quick about it while at the same time careful. And once she was done with her task she wiped his face off with the washcloth and caressed his face to make sure she had done a good job.

 

With a bit of a raptness to his voice Shinji asked “Are you done yet?”

 

Asuka answered by giving him another kiss and grinding her womanhood against the hardness that used to be pressed against her tummy. This was something that Shinji absolutely loved about Asuka, the beautiful girl took pride in the fact that she didn't have to use her hands to get him off if she didn't want to. There were just so many more breathtaking ways she could do it. But while Asuka didn't use her hands that didn't mean Shinji didn't either. She soon found herself riding a finger while rubbing against Shinji along with a firm hand holding her ass. That boyfriend of her really knew how to push her buttons and when everything was said and done the two found themselves to be a breathless quivering mess.

 

There bath wasn't so clean anymore either so Asuka reached down with her toes and pulled the plug on the tub drain, letting the water slowly go down. She then turned around and leaned up against him, resting herself. “Well that was enjoyable” she purred while turning the water back on with her foot and switching the bath over to a shower. The two lovers then laid there under the raining water and let themselves cool down.

 

Once cool and collected though Asuka felt a hand start to massage her in the most intimate of place again while the other pinched a nipple. She let out a moan and did nothing to stop the boy. If he wanted to play with her body all night long she wasn't going to stop him. She might force herself upon him to pay him back a couple times during the night but she definitely wasn't going to stop him.

 

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*********** OOO ***********

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Asuka heard exactly what she wanted to as she walked passed the high-class sushi bar on her way to the hostess stand in front of the fancy restaurant. There were many hushed whispers from the patrons who recognized the type of dress she was wearing. It was doing her ego wonders but it was also doing something else. It was confusing her boyfriend. He recognized the word Versace easily enough but there were people saying another word he didn't understand. He turned and looked at Asuka “What's a Armani?”

 

“It's just the type of suit you are wearing Shin-kun” Asuka answered.

 

“So is it a type of fashion thing?” Shinji asked as if it was he was going to stop worrying about it. Asuka was the fashionista in this relationship, not him.

 

“Yup” Asuka smiled at him. She also knew how Shinji felt about all this kind of stuff so she told him “Don't bother thinking about any of this. Just know that I think you look very handsome in that suit.”

 

Shinji blushed a little as he said “Ok.” Maybe the suit wasn't as bad as he thought it was.

 

When the two of them got up to the hostess stand they were greeted by a beautiful blue haired girl, styled very accommodatingly in a pretty kimono. Along with the kimono she had a light shade of makeup that pleasantly accented her natural beauty. And to top it all off she had a pretty little hairpin in her styled hair. The polite hostess bowed to the both of them respectfully and said “We welcome you to Shin Seiki's Mr. Ikari and Ms. Sohryu. Please follow me to your table.”

 

Asuka held Rei up for a second though. “I have something for you.”

 

“A tip is not needed” Rei answered. “I am only the hostess.”

 

“You don't have to stay in character for us Rei” Asuka told her. “And this isn't a tip. I told you I would pay you back for this and I don't welsh on promises I make to my friends.” Asuka then took a very striking looking hairpin out of her purse and gave it to Rei.

 

Rei looked at it and almost lost control of the character she was supposed to be playing. This was much too expensive of a gift for Asuka to be giving her for just getting them a table here. The jewels on the thing were real and everything. Rei tried to give it back to Asuka “This is too much.”

 

“No it isn't” Asuka replied not accepting the hairpin back. “You deserve something like this and I'm finally happy that I found something to give you that you will like.” This had much more to do with than Rei just getting them a table. This had to do with all the help Rei had given her and Shinji and all the support she still showed them.

 

A warm smile came across Rei's face as this was a much nicer hairpin than she had ever owned before. “Thank you.”

 

“You're welcome Rei” Asuka smiled back. Then Asuka winked at her “And if you really want to pay me back, just wear it to school once or twice.”

 

Rei blushed at that comment “Maybe.” Rei quickly got her composure back after that and led the two to their table for the night and politely introduced them to their waitress before bowing respectfully as she took her leave. When Rei got back to her stand she took out her old hairpin and put in the new one that Asuka gave her. She couldn't help but have a slight smile on her face for the rest of the night.

 

(A/N: And that is the end to chapter 14. Count yourself lucky people. If the popular sport over in Japan was football the game would have taken this whole chapter and a good bit more of the next one. But since it was baseball, a sport I am not very fond of, you got only half a chapter. Along with a best friend who showed she can be conniving too at times and a smutty scene. Maybe the fact that baseball is popular over there is a good thing after all. Now excuse me while I go watch a real sport like football or hockey. I Re-re-edited. Changed a few words around. Fixed some grammar. Broke up some of the bigger blocks of text. And expounded on some parts to make them clearer. Basically gave this a good once over to improve its quality.)