Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Weaver ❯ Two ( Chapter 2 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: the mustachioed cat 
Anime/Manga: Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 04.17.2006 | Updated On: 04.18.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 313 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 04.17.2006 | Updated On: 04.18.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 313 | Status: Completed
Two
Doctor Akagi sighed and leaned away from the monitor so Misato could see the monitor.
"Down eight points. Dammit," the Major cursed, looking from the percentage readout to the video feed of Shinji, floating in the entry-plug.
The Third Child's features were normally tranquil during sync tests, now they were simply neutral, slack.
"If we put him any lower, it breaks down altogether," Maya Ibuki was saying. "And what's more, he is responding to the impetus differently. Actually..."
Shinji Ikari could not clear his mind. He could not think of waves breaking on the shore or something pastoral, which was what he normally concentrated on during sync tests. Every time he imagined something pleasant, serene, a huge black spider would dance across it, cart wheeling with all eight legs extended across the frame of his inner-vision. So he thought instead of the night before, and of what had happened to him.
An ambulance and two black vans had shown up sometime after the Weaver had left, and Shinji had by then been engaged in an animate conversation with a street lamp. He did not remember doing this, but was told by Misato, who had read the statement given by Asuka. After he had been restrained on a gurney and given something that should have rendered him unconscious, he had turned to an orderly and cheerfully asked her where home was. Then he elaborated that he was looking for three sets of walls, blue-lite and squared within a reasonable arthimetic. A bit off the ground, with wide slates and its own kitchen with three bags of sand and a picture of that girl.
This behavior, the doctors had told Misato, was a result of brain swelling.
The first thing Shinji actually remembered after looking down and seeing the empty space where his hand should have been was standing in line at the hospital cafeteria to get green jello. He knew he was there for green jello, but couldn't remember why. His food tray had already been covered in containers of the stuff, and the serving woman in front of him was giving him an evil look. Shinji had taken a surprised step back, and the tray slipped out of his control and slid off the counter and onto the floor.
He started to apologize and move to clean up the mess, confused but still apologetic. Then he got a look the his right arm. A Section 8 man, who must have been behind him the whole time, caught Shinji before he completely collapsed. He was taken back to his room in a wheelchair, where a nurse made him swallow some pills. The Section 8 man had called the Major, and said she was coming to visit him soon.
Shinji had waited for Misato to come, staring at his right wrist, then cupping it in his remaining hand and staring at the ceiling. It had been somewhat irritating to find that the thought foremost in his mind was whether or not they would let him continue to pilot Evangelion.
One hour ticked by, then another. A few doctors had come by to ask him some questions, to make sure he was himself again. A nurse came by to take measurements for a prosthetic. The light outside was beginning to fade when the Major finally arrived, with Rei in tow.
The Major questioned Shinji about the night before, and the Third Child had told her about the black thing, and had recited exactly what it had said to him. The Major had taken notes and then told him Asuka's version of what happened. The Second Child had apparently not been able to see Shinji's assailant as well as he had, and described a voice in her head that she could not understand. Hikari had blanked out the entire episode.
At the end of the impromptu interrogation - and it felt like that, though Misato had obviously tried to make him feel comfortable - Shinji had finally asked if he would still be able to pilot Eva with only one hand. The Major had said absolutely. This relieved Shinji a great deal more then he would have thought possible.
As the Major was leaving, she said that he would be held for observation for another twelve hours, then would be allowed to leave. There was a sync test scheduled for an hour after that, and a Section 8 man would drive him. The Major had hesitated at the foot of his bed, as though debating something, and then had left. Rei stayed.
Shinji really wished the girl had left with Misato. Yesterday's 'housewife' comment hung heavy in his mind.
"I am sorry," the girl had said. "I do not know what to say in this circumstance."
The girl had paused, focusing on nothing.
"I do not understand why Major Katsuragi ordered me to accompany her, either. But I am glad I was able to come."
Then the girl had left, and Shinji had wondered at her words.
The next twelve hours passed without Shinji sleeping. He found that he was unable to. The words of the Weaver weighed heavily on his mind, and would not give him any peace at all.
In the entry plug, Shinji wondered what Touji and Kensuke would make of him. He could handle teasing from them, but he supposed he would not be able to do most of the recreational stuff nearly as well. He was beginning to actually feel tired, and wished the test would end so he could go back to the apartment and maybe actually get some sleep.
After the sync test, on the way up to the control booth, Shinji kept his right arm behind him, sickened at the way the glove just hung limply.
"No need to hide it, Third," Asuka remarked, leaning against the elevator cage. "We all know its there. Seeing you trying to hide it just reminds us."
The redhead glared at him until Shinji showed her his right arm.
"It isn't really a big deal you know. Once your sync ratio gets as high as mine you won't even need the controls!" here Asuka made a motion, imploring to the heavens. "So we'll just have to hope and pray your score can jump twenty points before another Angel attacks."
Shinji was pretty sure this was Asuka acting nice. Even after their synchronicity training together, it was sometimes hard to tell.
"You all did very well," Doctor Akagi was saying. "Rei, your score was up eight tenths of a point from last time, very good. Asuka, you averaged within three points of your optimum. Concentrate harder next time, you eclipsed your old score at several points in the test."
Then the blonde scientist turned to Shinji, and he was suddenly afraid of what she was going to say.
"Shinji, it appeared that you had dropped seven points..."
Shinji clenched his fist. Here it came...
"But then we wiped your old data and re-established your baseline reading, while at the same time... nevermind, the important thing is your score hasn't been noticeably altered."
Misato came up behind the Doctor, grinning.
"Actually, Shin-chan, your score went up three points," the woman announced.
Ritsuko glared at the Major. "We only had a twenty-minute sample, that is not indicative..."
"Yep, three points up," Misato interrupted, walking past the scientist. "So, I figure I should take you out to dinner to celebrate."
Much later, Shinji finally fell into his bed, exhausted. The Weaver-words were distant now, and it seemed he would finally be free to rest. Dinner had been something of an event. They had gone to the same ramen shop Misato had treated the Children to previously, after they had caught and destroyed that one falling Angel. Shinji had wolfed down two bowls of ramen with a fork - he could not use chopsticks with his left hand yet. When not eating, Asuka was loudly complaining that she had been forced to cancel her date because of Shinji's "little mishap".
This particular complaint seemed genuine, unlike her performance in the elevator, which Shinji suspected Misato had staged.
Rei had ate quietly, and from time to time glanced in Shinji's direction. When Misato had gone to get the car and Asuka had gone to the restroom, the First Child had asked Shinji why he only spoke to her when no other person was around.
"It was just that one time," Shinji explained, somewhat caught off guard by Rei's observation. "I was embarrassed to have to ask you about my father."
As he said this, it occurred to him that he hadn't heard anything from his father at all. This was not really a surprise.
"I see," Rei was saying. "I thought it had something to do with me being a good housewife."
Shinji bit down on his chopsticks. He had thought that line of discussion over and done with.
"Nuh, no," Shinji laughed nervously. "It was just something I said... I... it was just an observation."
"Jeez Ikari," Asuka's voice came from behind him where, Shinji suspected, she had heard everything. "Propositioning First? You sure you aren't still nuts? There's a lamp post right over there, if you're feeling lonely."
At least dinner had taken his mind off his hand.
In bed, in the dark, Shinji massaged the stump at his wrist, and tried not to feel sorry for himself. He could still pilot Eva, that was what mattered.
And why, exactly, did that matter to him? Shinji had thought that he was piloting reluctantly. But if they did decide he couldn't pilot anymore, his father would probably send him away - he would have to go back to that quiet house and live with his teacher.
He wanted to stay in Tokyo-3. He wanted to keep going to school with his friends. He wanted to stay in the apartment, even if Asuka could barely tolerate him some of the time. This place was his home, and it was the first one he could remember having.
Shinji curled around his severed appendage, and went to sleep.
grand dreams fly and flee I afear 'tis time to rise and sing the song of yours and mine and ours yes
The Weaver's red eyes were pressed against Shinji's face, and he could feel the smooth, oily, yielding texture of its skin.
to see to spake and change with rote your route a beautiful thing glimmering upon the web forming a new branch
Shinji jerked back and tumbled out of the bed.
Please let this be a dream, he begged.
The Weaver's eyes followed him, and it pinned him against one wall with its head.
so strange and quick for a blue-human to surge past knowledge and form a chymical change so rare so quaint
The lights came on. Shinji saw the Weaver's five-fingered hand at the switch.
I only dance now here and back there in the three-quadrant of the Web history-resonating and thoughts-slim changing ever changing
It was suspended upside down, hanging impossibly from the florescent light fixture on the wall.
your symphony does not diminish the Web still echoes up and down with nauscent perfection this Weaver is so fascinated to behold a self-correcting Web a Web-born Weaver such times and trials are magnificent and beyond beyond beyond
The Weaver was caressing Shinji's cheek with one of its knife hands. Shinji froze as the flat of the many blades on the thing's hand brushed harmlessly up and down his cheek.
a change a change anytime at anywhen the creature said, snipping its other knife hand in front of Shinji's face and scissoring it open and closed. to choose that change this gentle thread
Then the Weaver let go of the light fixture and fell through Shinji, vanishing into the floor. The boy waited a heartbeat as the thing's monologue faded away, then rushed to the bathroom to vomit. Then, because he could still smell the thing, he took a shower.
Misato woke up around seven and told Shinji to turn down the television. The Third Child, now on the manic edge of sleep deprivation, nearly jumped off the couch at the sound of another human voice. Fumbling with the remote control, he turned down the volume, then sank down into the couch. Feet padded over from Misato's door, and the Major peered over the top of the couch.
"No chance of you sleeping last night, huh?" she asked.
Shinji shook his head. No chance at all.
"Are you..." the woman paused. "Stupid question, I know, but are you okay?"
"I mean," she hurriedly continued, "is it that... thing keeping you up, or this?" she gestured to Shinji's stump.
Shinji shook his head, not really trusting himself to speak.
Then Misato hugged him. Her arms snaked down around his head, and she pulled him up and hugged him.
"We're all still here Shinji," she murmured to him. "We are all here because we want to be. Remember that, okay?"
Shinji squeezed Misato's arm, the only thing he trusted himself to do at the moment.
They stayed like that for a moment, then the moment ended. Misato padded back to her room.
Shinji turned off the television set and thought for a while.
The Weaver-thing had come for him a second time. No one else had seen it. If he told anyone, what would they think? The Weaver terrified him, but he did not think it wanted to kill him. What it had said in his room he had nearly understood. Now, with the haze of sleep deprivation somewhat lifted, he examined the Weaver-words carefully.
It was... happy with what he was doing. When it had taken his hand, it had talked about a change, making a change because of something that had not happened yet. Maybe... that was it. The Weaver had made a change and was happy with it. The idea that he had satisfied the terrible thing made his wound no less grievous, but it did give him the courage to return to his room and go to sleep.
Doctor Akagi sighed and leaned away from the monitor so Misato could see the monitor.
"Down eight points. Dammit," the Major cursed, looking from the percentage readout to the video feed of Shinji, floating in the entry-plug.
The Third Child's features were normally tranquil during sync tests, now they were simply neutral, slack.
"If we put him any lower, it breaks down altogether," Maya Ibuki was saying. "And what's more, he is responding to the impetus differently. Actually..."
Shinji Ikari could not clear his mind. He could not think of waves breaking on the shore or something pastoral, which was what he normally concentrated on during sync tests. Every time he imagined something pleasant, serene, a huge black spider would dance across it, cart wheeling with all eight legs extended across the frame of his inner-vision. So he thought instead of the night before, and of what had happened to him.
An ambulance and two black vans had shown up sometime after the Weaver had left, and Shinji had by then been engaged in an animate conversation with a street lamp. He did not remember doing this, but was told by Misato, who had read the statement given by Asuka. After he had been restrained on a gurney and given something that should have rendered him unconscious, he had turned to an orderly and cheerfully asked her where home was. Then he elaborated that he was looking for three sets of walls, blue-lite and squared within a reasonable arthimetic. A bit off the ground, with wide slates and its own kitchen with three bags of sand and a picture of that girl.
This behavior, the doctors had told Misato, was a result of brain swelling.
The first thing Shinji actually remembered after looking down and seeing the empty space where his hand should have been was standing in line at the hospital cafeteria to get green jello. He knew he was there for green jello, but couldn't remember why. His food tray had already been covered in containers of the stuff, and the serving woman in front of him was giving him an evil look. Shinji had taken a surprised step back, and the tray slipped out of his control and slid off the counter and onto the floor.
He started to apologize and move to clean up the mess, confused but still apologetic. Then he got a look the his right arm. A Section 8 man, who must have been behind him the whole time, caught Shinji before he completely collapsed. He was taken back to his room in a wheelchair, where a nurse made him swallow some pills. The Section 8 man had called the Major, and said she was coming to visit him soon.
Shinji had waited for Misato to come, staring at his right wrist, then cupping it in his remaining hand and staring at the ceiling. It had been somewhat irritating to find that the thought foremost in his mind was whether or not they would let him continue to pilot Evangelion.
One hour ticked by, then another. A few doctors had come by to ask him some questions, to make sure he was himself again. A nurse came by to take measurements for a prosthetic. The light outside was beginning to fade when the Major finally arrived, with Rei in tow.
The Major questioned Shinji about the night before, and the Third Child had told her about the black thing, and had recited exactly what it had said to him. The Major had taken notes and then told him Asuka's version of what happened. The Second Child had apparently not been able to see Shinji's assailant as well as he had, and described a voice in her head that she could not understand. Hikari had blanked out the entire episode.
At the end of the impromptu interrogation - and it felt like that, though Misato had obviously tried to make him feel comfortable - Shinji had finally asked if he would still be able to pilot Eva with only one hand. The Major had said absolutely. This relieved Shinji a great deal more then he would have thought possible.
As the Major was leaving, she said that he would be held for observation for another twelve hours, then would be allowed to leave. There was a sync test scheduled for an hour after that, and a Section 8 man would drive him. The Major had hesitated at the foot of his bed, as though debating something, and then had left. Rei stayed.
Shinji really wished the girl had left with Misato. Yesterday's 'housewife' comment hung heavy in his mind.
"I am sorry," the girl had said. "I do not know what to say in this circumstance."
The girl had paused, focusing on nothing.
"I do not understand why Major Katsuragi ordered me to accompany her, either. But I am glad I was able to come."
Then the girl had left, and Shinji had wondered at her words.
The next twelve hours passed without Shinji sleeping. He found that he was unable to. The words of the Weaver weighed heavily on his mind, and would not give him any peace at all.
In the entry plug, Shinji wondered what Touji and Kensuke would make of him. He could handle teasing from them, but he supposed he would not be able to do most of the recreational stuff nearly as well. He was beginning to actually feel tired, and wished the test would end so he could go back to the apartment and maybe actually get some sleep.
After the sync test, on the way up to the control booth, Shinji kept his right arm behind him, sickened at the way the glove just hung limply.
"No need to hide it, Third," Asuka remarked, leaning against the elevator cage. "We all know its there. Seeing you trying to hide it just reminds us."
The redhead glared at him until Shinji showed her his right arm.
"It isn't really a big deal you know. Once your sync ratio gets as high as mine you won't even need the controls!" here Asuka made a motion, imploring to the heavens. "So we'll just have to hope and pray your score can jump twenty points before another Angel attacks."
Shinji was pretty sure this was Asuka acting nice. Even after their synchronicity training together, it was sometimes hard to tell.
"You all did very well," Doctor Akagi was saying. "Rei, your score was up eight tenths of a point from last time, very good. Asuka, you averaged within three points of your optimum. Concentrate harder next time, you eclipsed your old score at several points in the test."
Then the blonde scientist turned to Shinji, and he was suddenly afraid of what she was going to say.
"Shinji, it appeared that you had dropped seven points..."
Shinji clenched his fist. Here it came...
"But then we wiped your old data and re-established your baseline reading, while at the same time... nevermind, the important thing is your score hasn't been noticeably altered."
Misato came up behind the Doctor, grinning.
"Actually, Shin-chan, your score went up three points," the woman announced.
Ritsuko glared at the Major. "We only had a twenty-minute sample, that is not indicative..."
"Yep, three points up," Misato interrupted, walking past the scientist. "So, I figure I should take you out to dinner to celebrate."
Much later, Shinji finally fell into his bed, exhausted. The Weaver-words were distant now, and it seemed he would finally be free to rest. Dinner had been something of an event. They had gone to the same ramen shop Misato had treated the Children to previously, after they had caught and destroyed that one falling Angel. Shinji had wolfed down two bowls of ramen with a fork - he could not use chopsticks with his left hand yet. When not eating, Asuka was loudly complaining that she had been forced to cancel her date because of Shinji's "little mishap".
This particular complaint seemed genuine, unlike her performance in the elevator, which Shinji suspected Misato had staged.
Rei had ate quietly, and from time to time glanced in Shinji's direction. When Misato had gone to get the car and Asuka had gone to the restroom, the First Child had asked Shinji why he only spoke to her when no other person was around.
"It was just that one time," Shinji explained, somewhat caught off guard by Rei's observation. "I was embarrassed to have to ask you about my father."
As he said this, it occurred to him that he hadn't heard anything from his father at all. This was not really a surprise.
"I see," Rei was saying. "I thought it had something to do with me being a good housewife."
Shinji bit down on his chopsticks. He had thought that line of discussion over and done with.
"Nuh, no," Shinji laughed nervously. "It was just something I said... I... it was just an observation."
"Jeez Ikari," Asuka's voice came from behind him where, Shinji suspected, she had heard everything. "Propositioning First? You sure you aren't still nuts? There's a lamp post right over there, if you're feeling lonely."
At least dinner had taken his mind off his hand.
In bed, in the dark, Shinji massaged the stump at his wrist, and tried not to feel sorry for himself. He could still pilot Eva, that was what mattered.
And why, exactly, did that matter to him? Shinji had thought that he was piloting reluctantly. But if they did decide he couldn't pilot anymore, his father would probably send him away - he would have to go back to that quiet house and live with his teacher.
He wanted to stay in Tokyo-3. He wanted to keep going to school with his friends. He wanted to stay in the apartment, even if Asuka could barely tolerate him some of the time. This place was his home, and it was the first one he could remember having.
Shinji curled around his severed appendage, and went to sleep.
grand dreams fly and flee I afear 'tis time to rise and sing the song of yours and mine and ours yes
The Weaver's red eyes were pressed against Shinji's face, and he could feel the smooth, oily, yielding texture of its skin.
to see to spake and change with rote your route a beautiful thing glimmering upon the web forming a new branch
Shinji jerked back and tumbled out of the bed.
Please let this be a dream, he begged.
The Weaver's eyes followed him, and it pinned him against one wall with its head.
so strange and quick for a blue-human to surge past knowledge and form a chymical change so rare so quaint
The lights came on. Shinji saw the Weaver's five-fingered hand at the switch.
I only dance now here and back there in the three-quadrant of the Web history-resonating and thoughts-slim changing ever changing
It was suspended upside down, hanging impossibly from the florescent light fixture on the wall.
your symphony does not diminish the Web still echoes up and down with nauscent perfection this Weaver is so fascinated to behold a self-correcting Web a Web-born Weaver such times and trials are magnificent and beyond beyond beyond
The Weaver was caressing Shinji's cheek with one of its knife hands. Shinji froze as the flat of the many blades on the thing's hand brushed harmlessly up and down his cheek.
a change a change anytime at anywhen the creature said, snipping its other knife hand in front of Shinji's face and scissoring it open and closed. to choose that change this gentle thread
Then the Weaver let go of the light fixture and fell through Shinji, vanishing into the floor. The boy waited a heartbeat as the thing's monologue faded away, then rushed to the bathroom to vomit. Then, because he could still smell the thing, he took a shower.
Misato woke up around seven and told Shinji to turn down the television. The Third Child, now on the manic edge of sleep deprivation, nearly jumped off the couch at the sound of another human voice. Fumbling with the remote control, he turned down the volume, then sank down into the couch. Feet padded over from Misato's door, and the Major peered over the top of the couch.
"No chance of you sleeping last night, huh?" she asked.
Shinji shook his head. No chance at all.
"Are you..." the woman paused. "Stupid question, I know, but are you okay?"
"I mean," she hurriedly continued, "is it that... thing keeping you up, or this?" she gestured to Shinji's stump.
Shinji shook his head, not really trusting himself to speak.
Then Misato hugged him. Her arms snaked down around his head, and she pulled him up and hugged him.
"We're all still here Shinji," she murmured to him. "We are all here because we want to be. Remember that, okay?"
Shinji squeezed Misato's arm, the only thing he trusted himself to do at the moment.
They stayed like that for a moment, then the moment ended. Misato padded back to her room.
Shinji turned off the television set and thought for a while.
The Weaver-thing had come for him a second time. No one else had seen it. If he told anyone, what would they think? The Weaver terrified him, but he did not think it wanted to kill him. What it had said in his room he had nearly understood. Now, with the haze of sleep deprivation somewhat lifted, he examined the Weaver-words carefully.
It was... happy with what he was doing. When it had taken his hand, it had talked about a change, making a change because of something that had not happened yet. Maybe... that was it. The Weaver had made a change and was happy with it. The idea that he had satisfied the terrible thing made his wound no less grievous, but it did give him the courage to return to his room and go to sleep.