Kaiju Slaying For Death And Profit Ch 24

Good evening y'all. Sorry for the late post, the weekend was a bit of a crapshoot. I didn't get much time to write, so it's a good thing that most of this chapter was completed during the week.

I will say, this chapter fought me. A lot. I didn't really get a good flow going until at least two thirds of the way through. But it shows the stuff it needs to show.

A bit shorter than I'd hoped. But I don't think adding more will make it better. So here is chapter. Lemme know what you think about it.

Hope you enjoy!

=][=

[How can you sit there and simply expect this august body to pour even more funding into NERV!?] Snarled Monolith 4, why SEELE had decided to implement that particular farce now of all times was a mystery.

“The Twelfth Angel carved a not insignificant chasm through Tokyo-3.” Gendo said, steepling his fingers. “We require the increased funding if we are to rebuild the fortress-city in a timely manner.”

[NERV’s operations are several billion Euros in the red! We’ve bankrupted nations to keep the insatiable black hole that is your organization satiated, and now you tell us you need even more!?]

Fuyutsuki scoffed. “We’ll be certain to tell the next Angel to go easy on us so SEELE’s many corporations can look better in their next quarterly report.”

[Your flippancy is not appreciated.] Growled Monolith 7.

[He makes for a good point, however.] Stated Monolith 1. [We expected setbacks, we should not be surprised that some setbacks will be beyond our expectations.]

[You call this a setback!?] Monolith 4 hissed. [At the current rate of attrition, our assets will not recover from the economic damage for centuries!]

[We all knew the price of immortality would be high. Why do you hesitate to pay it now?] Monolith 01 demanded.

[Enough!] Roared Monolith 1. [NERV is a tool serving its purpose and serving it well. We must not allow short-sighed instinct to sabotage our ultimate goal. NERV will receive the increased support, no Angel must be allowed to get as close as the twelfth did. Ikari, you will account for each and every single cent allocated to you. Pray we do not find anything that arouses our wrath.]

The meeting ended and communications cut.

“They must not want us to see their bickering.” Fuyutsuki muttered. “What good will that do? We already saw the division in their ranks.”

“They’re trying to hide which among them is the one with the most power.” Gendo said. “It would not do for the help to witness the rivalries among their lords and masters.”

“The sheer pettiness.” Fuyutsuki said tiredly and without heat, long having made the transition from indignation into tired apathy.

“It’s no matter.” Gendo said, standing and striding out of the meeting room. “NERV will receive the funding it needs to undo the damage caused by the Angel.”

“Indeed.” Fuyutsuki said. “But we are behind schedule.”

Gendo ran his left thumb over his right palm, feeling the alien ridges of the thing he’d implanted, one of the two keys he needed for Godhood.

Soon.

“There is no need to worry.” He said absently. “The Dead Sea Scrolls were clear; We need only not interfere with events.”

“What will be your excuse to SEELE when we do not?”

“By then, it won’t matter.” He said absently. “There won’t be time to relocate NERV’s assets. By the time they can do anything, we’ll be at the endgame.”

Gendo clenched his right hand, the embryo of one of the gods Humanity had subjugated made his palm burn.

Soon.

Wait just a little longer, Yui.

=][=

“Oh, Asuka!” Hikari said, surprised and elated to see the foreign pilot as she entered the break room. “It’s been a while!”

Asuka’s scowl remained for a few seconds before she smiled at Hikari. “Hey Hikari. Finally getting a break from the rebuilding work?”

Hikari went to the couch opposite the senior pilot and sat down, then shifted, wondering how the other girls could look so comfortable in the skin-tight plug suits. Or Shinji, for that matter.

Absently wiping a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth, she sighed and leaned back against the couch. “Yeah, the last few weeks have been…ugh.”

“I can imagine.” Asuka said, raising her head haughtily. “As Evangelion pilots, we should be above such menial work as construction. Where is the prestige in being a glorified crane operator?”

Hikari blinked. “Uhh.”

“We are warriors.” Asuka continued. “The new breed of Knight. Such work is beneath us, but I guess needs must.”

“I…don’t mind the work.” Hikari said slowly. “I just wish I were better at it.”

Asuka scoffed. “Better? What, do you want to operate the world’s most cutting edge and expensive crane?”

Hikari shook her head. “No, I mean, half the time I can barely make the Eva move. Most of the time I can’t make it move how I want to. When I can make it move at all, I’m usually in danger of knocking things over.”

Asuka scowled. “Why? What’s the problem?”

“Well.” Hikari said slowly. “You know…the, the weird mental hoops you have to do to make the Eva move? It’s always so jerky. I don’t know how you, Ayanami, and Shinji can make it move so smoothly with your minds all awhirl.”

Asuka leaned forward, her scowl morphing into a look of concern. “Describe the process you use to move the Eva, everything, from start to finish. Leave nothing out.”

“Well…umm…first I try to open up and ‘feel’ for the Eva, then I try to think of weird stuff, or stuff to make me angry. And when I feel weird in the back of my head I try to keep that feeling. Being scared helps, and then—”

The longer Hikari explained, the angrier Asuka seemed to become. Until suddenly she exploded.

“That’s all wrong! What kind of idiot would teach you that!?” She snarled.

“Umm.”

“The whole point is to get into a flow state so the Eva can piggyback off the commands you imagine giving your body! Actively confusing and scaring yourself would create so much memetic interference that you’d not be able to complete any even mildly delicate task!” Asuka ranted.

“I uhh…”

“What possessed anyone to think this was the proper way to train a pilot!? Why didn’t they use the piloting manual!?”

Hikari sat up. “There’s a manual?”

Asuka’s glare made her quail. “Of course there is a manual! It explains in exacting detail the process, start to finish, on how to synchronize with an Evangelion and how to use the flow state to move it! Why would anyone think ‘confusing someone until the Evangelion moves’ is a good idea!? There would be no way to get consistent results at all!” Asuka’s eyes narrowed. “Of course, this is his fault, isn’t it!? It always goes back to him! But even he isn’t vitriolic enough to train you wrong on purpose, so what the hell!? What he’s having you do will get you killed! You’ve been piloting for a month but have no idea what you’re doing! It’s a miracle you can even make the Eva walk! Going by what your process is, I bet your results are completely inconsistent, when you can get results at all! Have you been of any use to the reconstruction efforts, or do people just work around you!?”

Feeling strangely defensive, especially because Hikari had largely been of very little use to the work crews no matter how hard she tried, she huffed. “I mean…it worked against the monster, right?”

Something ugly passed through Asuka’s eyes, something that made Hikari afraid. “If you won’t listen to reason, then keep doing what you’re doing and go die just like Kensuke, see if I care!” Hikari felt the bottom fall out of her stomach at Asuka’s words. The other girl stared back at her, her face losing color until it was paper white, her eyes so wide Hikari could see her own face mirrored in them.

The two of them stared at each other, the silence between them charged like a live wire until, finally, Asuka broke it. “I…I didn’t…I…” Asuka’s mouth flapped open and closed several times, before she whirled around and ran off.

Hikari stared open mouthed at the empty spot where her friend used to be, then got up and ran after her. “Asuka wait! Asuka!”

Hikari barely caught glimpses of the running girl, bumping into and running past NERV personnel in the hallways, following after her until she stood outside a bathroom, the door slightly ajar. She could hear muttering coming out of the door, prompting her to lean in.

“You are better than this.” Asuka hissed, Hikari peeked through the cracked open door, and saw Asuka, her back to the door, glaring at herself in a mirror. “You are supposed to be better than this! Goddamit Asuka, get it together!” She pointed accusingly at her reflection. “People are counting on you! How are you going to wrest the number one spot from that oaf, if you let your stupid feelings out of control like that!? And of everyone, you go off on Hikari!? Gah! You’re supposed to be better! The best! Get your act together goddammit!”

“Asuka?” Hikari asked, stepping inside and closing the door behind her.

At the sound of her name, Asuka flinched, then tensed up. “Hikari.” She swallowed hard, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Hikari. I shouldn’t have said that. I…”

“It’s okay.” Hikari began.

“It’s not okay! That’s the problem!” Asuka snarled. “It was out of line, and I said something awful!”

Hikari hesitated, while Asuka wasn’t wrong, Hikari did not want to continue that particular conversation, so she pivoted to the first thing that came to mind. “Can…Can you teach me how to pilot the Eva?”

=][=

“No, you’re getting too worked up. Deep breaths, remain calm.” Asuka instructed through the mic. “Remember, imagine the movement. Think about what the movement would be, visualize how the movement would feel, the Eva will take care of the rest.”

In the simulation room, Unit 04 slowly raised its left arm, then lowered it and mirrored the movement with the other arm.

“It’s incredible.” Said Ritsuko’s assistant, her eyes wide as she looked at the results the monitoring machines spat out. “Her synchronization is higher than it is using Shinji’s method.”

Asuka scoffed. “Sitting in the Eva doing nothing would lead to a consistently higher synchronization than that lunacy.”

The assistant scowled. “That method got her to a hundred and two percent synchronization.”

“Yeah, and when it mattered, she couldn’t get above two until Shinji said a whole bunch of stupid stuff.” Asuka shot back. “Being able to achieve a consistent and repeatable sixty percent is far more useful than falling to single digits and unpredictably soaring to high peaks.”

“She’s got a point.” Asuka jumped as Shinji’s voice sounded behind her, she whirled around and saw the big oaf. He walked in, looking far too relaxed, his left arm on a sling, wrapped up in bandages. “You’re pretty good at this, Asuka.”

“Of course I am!” Asuka snapped. “I simply used the manual on how to train a pilot to synchronize with an Eva!”

“There is no manual.” The assistant said.

“Of course there is!” Asuka hissed. “I wrote it!”

“Hold up, hold up.” Shinji said, gesturing for them to calm down, which made Asuka angrier but miss assistant closed her mouth. “Asuka, I looked, there was no manual in the system. What did you do with the one you wrote?”

“I submitted it for approval!” Asuka snapped. “Years ago!”

“Years ago you say…how many years ago?” Shinji asked.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Humor me.”

Asuka thought back. “Nine years ago.”

Shinji nodded. “Meaning you were seven years old?”

Asuka’s lip curled. “Almost seven, I turned seven a couple of months after I submitted it.”

Shinji turned to the assistant. “Maya, when you get the chance, could you please look through whatever backlogs there are for the submittal of proposed training manuals? I would do it myself but have no idea where to even start looking.”

“I’ll get it done.” The assistant, Maya, said with a swift nod.

Shinji turned to look at Unit 04, walking sedately in a circle in the simulation room. “Man, she’s doing a lot better.”

Asuka crossed her arms. “Of course! Without all of that mental clutter that your weird method caused, she is free to do more delicate tasks.”

“But how did synchronization happen so quickly?” Maya interrupted. “According to the MAGI, synchronization was expected to take at least nine months. We’d figured that Shinji’s tutelage was speeding things significantly, but this entirely different method worked seemingly just as quickly.”

Asuka snorted. “Have you any idea how hard it is for a five-year-old to enter and maintain a flow state? Hikari is sixteen, her brain is a lot more developed than mine and the First’s were when we started. Of course she’d pick it up faster than we did.”

Maya groaned and covered her face with her palms. “The MAGI gave us incorrect conclusions because of a severe lack of data points and flawed inputs.”

Shinji lay his huge hand on her shoulder, Maya stiffened, then relaxed. “There there, we all run into the ‘too smart to be dumb’ trap. It happens literally to the best of us. Now you know better.”

Asuka scowled and muttered. “Or they could have used the damn manual.”

Shinji looked at Unit 04 with a strange intensity, before shaking his head. “Alright then, I’ll leave you to it.”

“Yeah, you better leave before your stupid causes her to regress.” Asuka said to his retreating back, crossing her arms.

Shinji turned back to her with a big grin on his face. “Little lady, I at best pretend at competence on a good day.”

=][=

I stretched and continued my meandering walk through the ruins, listening on my HUD to my security detail freak out because I’d successfully given them the slip.

Seriously, a guy gets sick and tired of not having any privacy. It kinda sucked that I had to receive a close-up look at the devastation just to get a little bit of me-time in my walk to school. Seriously, six heavily armed fire teams and several times that number casual-clothed agents was too much!

And now they were talking about scrambling a helicopter, so I got a move on.

Rei had been busy aiding reconstruction efforts since Unit 00 could walk again, it would be my turn to relieve her once Unit 01’s arms finished regenerating in a week.

My climb over a boulder of concrete and rebar was made more difficult due to one of my arms still being in a sling, and thankful that my legs had fully healed I hopped over a chasm caused when an underground pipe became an aboveground pipe due to…probably an earthquake caused by the shockwave of that last angel drilling down using explosions.

As I walked, I heard a piano.

Blinking, I followed the sound, eventually coming upon a ruined church. Miraculously, the only part of the church that had remained intact was a stained-glass window depicting Archangel Michael swooping down to stab the devil through the throat. The devil’s claws gripping at and scratching the Archangel’s calves.

In the center of the ruins sat a pristine piano. Sitting at the piano was a pale boy with grey hair, his eyes closed as his hands moved through a flawlessly timed rendition of classical music. The clouds in the sky parting as he reached the crescendo to bathe him in light.

The boy's hands flew across the keys, the piano ringing like church bells declaring to the heavens the human hopes of equality and fraternity. And yet, the boy that produced such music simply sat there, smiling placidly with his eyes closed as if merely passing the time. As if pouring such emotions into the musical piece was a mild effort.

As the last notes faded away into the desolate ruins, a pair of ruby eyes opened and regarded me with mild curiosity.

I smacked my lips and stated. “You played the Ode to Joy wrong."