School was... different. Everyday there had been something new to keep the gossip flowing like a giggling hurricane through the lively corridors. It usually centered on a certain classroom, with four certain individuals targeted in the crosshair. Today, there was none of the usual gossip.
Only shock and disbelief.
Some students were questioning their sanity. Others were asking their teachers, who failed to come up with any reasonable answers, just as clueless as those in their care. One such teacher was in a similar position, albeit incredibly hungover.
Misato Katsuragi stood behind her desk, sighing. Shinji's apparently brilliant scientist parents had no answers for her, likewise with Asuka's mom. Her own, usually perceptive brain, had nothing, no logical explanation for the unusual apparition of trouble that had overtaken her apartment the night before. It only provided disturbing thoughts about what the future might hold for their everyday lives.
"Alright, come in guys. Let's make this as painless as possible, if at all possible..."
The door to the classroom slid open. Nobody in the class needed to guess who was going to walk through it. Everybody had already watched, open-mouthed as the Asuka and Rei, followed along by a strangely exhausted looking Shinji, had come to school that morning, with an identical looking set of Asuka and Rei.
But to the sharp-eyed amongst the students at the school, it was plain as day that something was majorly different about the newest additions to their class.
"Hello. My name is Rei Ayanami." The red-eyed Rei snorted from her chair as her imposter with the long, cerulean hair attempted an introduction. Narrowing her eyes at the rude interruption, the leaf-eyed Rei continued. "I understand that this situation might well be confusing for everyone, but it is my hope that we can all get along."
"Understandably, names are likely to get confusing during my time here, so for the moment, you may call me Rei II-..."
"Are you actually being serious, First Child!? Rei II? HA!"
The as-of-yet introduced Asuka clone laughed mirthlessly, an evil sound that chilled the spine of everyone sat down in their chairs. This Asuka was nothing like the one they knew and loved in class. They could feel it from the crazy look in her eyes, the maniacal tone to her spoken words, and her brutish actions that promised a swift and painful retribution to all that crossed her.
The Asuka they had known for so long did have a temper, and a scary one at that.
But their Asuka had never shown the bloodlust that this crazy version clearly had in her eyes. Apart from the fact that this Asuka had her hair in a ponytail, and was missing the bracelet, everybody in the class would have been able to tell the differences between them, even if they had matching hairstyles and accessories.
"Let me make it very clear to you shitheads. I am not her." Pointing at her cowering self who was content to lower herself as far as her chair allowed, the crazy Asuka continued, bitter anger injecting into every word.
"I come from a place, a world, far away and as close to hell as you can possibly imagine. I've fought messengers of God that threatened to turn everything everybody ever loved into skidmarks on the road. The Tokyo-3 in my world, alongside the world in general, is a fucking ruin, all thanks to a group of old fucktard Illuminati wannabes, a complete and utter dipshit that looks just like him-..." She spat the last word out with venom as she pointed at Shinji who was also trying to take cover under the limited defences of his desk. "And his fuckheaded, abhorred, genocidal arschloch of a father!"
Silence was deafening in the class of wide-eyed students. Even Toji, Hikari and Kensuke, who had travelled to the aforementioned hellish Otherworld, were speechless at the pure rage being thrown at them from the redheaded inferno of hate shouting from the front of the classroom.
"I'm here, because there is nowhere else for me to go. I'm not here by choice, I don't like any of this, I don't like any of you, ESPECIALLY YOU!" She screamed once again at the poor boy who was beginning to wish his desk would eat him whole. "And I don't intend to make this easy for any of you. Don't talk to me, don't come near me. I will kill you, and fucking eat what's left of your remains in front of your loved ones. And if the situation absolutely demands that you need to initiate a conversation with me..." Asuka glared at the class as a whole, making sure everyone could see that her eyes were daring them to question her, an evil smile dancing on her face as she felt the inferiority radiate from them.
"Call me Crimson."
Rei II, as she so helpfully decided to designate herself, took two slight sidesteps away from the incarnation of the devil herself, wondering if this Asuka had always been so volatile, back when she had a working memory of who she was.
"Out of all the names she could have picked, she chose the most agonizingly awkward one of them all?" The Asuka still peeking over her desk in fear whispered with a groan, before her eyes opened wide, just about managing to dodge a chalkboard eraser thrown with enough strength to easily knock her out.
"You wanna say that again, imposter!? Next time I hear any sass, I'll use your pretty little face as fucking toilet paper!"
Silence once again drowned the atmosphere, suffocating everyone to the point that nobody could physically move a muscle out of fear. Asuka from the Otherworld, or Crimson as she decided she wanted to be known as, had made it irrevocably clear who ruled the classroom. The pecking order was now firmly established. And to the remainder of the class who hadn't gone to the Otherworld, were truly and utterly convinced, that this girl was an utterly deranged psychopath.
Misato laughed nervously as the brutal self-introduction drew to a close.
"S-so does anybody have any... questions?"
---
The Artificial Research Laboratory had countless rooms used for experiments of various kinds. Rooms for research, development, virtual deification, a command centre in times of crisis and arguably the most important room to one of the prominent scientists in charge, an indoor hot spring.
It was in one of the research rooms that Yui and Gendo Ikari, alongside Kyoko Zeppelin Soryu, were sat around a table, armed with a forest's worth of paper strewn about in an unorganized mess, and laptops that connected to various feeds and databases. One of the laptops showed a security camera installed in Shinji's classroom, displaying the aftermath of Crimson's introduction. For some peculiar reason, the one girl who could make even the gods cower in their boots had decided to sit in the desk next to the one boy she had all but declared war on, ejecting the previous occupant by force. For the first time, Yui was glad Mana was sitting on the chair on Shinji's other side. At least she could protect him if Crimson decided she felt like snapping and eating her son alive.
"So."
The silence that had plagued the room after watching the abrasive transfer student was gently shattered by Kyoko, stretching her arms and clicking her back with a satisfied groan.
"What have we learned today?"
"My son attracts some weird people..." Gendo grumbled as he continued to watch the feed, just as worried for his son's safety as his wife. His eyes flickered briefly to the blonde doctor who had just sent him a withering glare and an irritated growl.
"My Asuka is not weird."
"No, but that one is."
"Granted, she's a little... angrier than the Asuka I conceived. But she's still Asuka. An Asuka who once had a mother by my name in that world. A mother who she lost at a young age, in an incident that can only be described as horrifying..." Kyoko looked downcast for all but a second, but bounced back almost as fast, smiling radiantly.
"I want to protect that Asuka, just as much as my Asuka. They're both my little Asuka's."
Yui smiled at the bubbly scientist. Just where did she get that optimism from? Even with the risk that Crimson might reject her maternal approach to the situation, that still wasn't enough to deter the smiling Kyoko.
"It's admirable, without a doubt, but be careful this Asuka doesn't try to kill you."
"Bah, it'll be fine! One day, they'll be just like sisters!"
"I'd be a bit worried if Shinji had a sister who screamed she was going to wipe her arse with his face..." Gendo mumbled warily. Both females in the room glared at him.
"We're trying to have a heartwarming moment here and you're ruining it."
"Sorry Yui..."
Turning her glare away from her husband back to the mountain of research in front of them, Yui groaned as she folded her arms on the table and rested her head on top. Nothing made sense to her anymore. Shinji and his friends had somehow been dragged into a world that could only be described as a parallel universe. After coming back, all of them had been shocked by the three teenagers that had followed them.
One was a literal phantom. Another was perpetually angry and clearly traumatized. And the last was an amnesiac. Three very different versions of the children they knew and loved. And to top it all off, the story of their world, their pasts, was almost nothing like the reality they all lived in.
"A world where 'Angels' came to destroy humanity, and children defended mankind by piloting abominable weapons that were to be used as a catalyst to end the world. I can't even begin to imagine the kinds of horrors those three have been witness to." It was a world Yui wanted no part of.
But a part of her, deep down, wanted to do something. Anything. Anything that might fix the damage that had occurred in that hell. At the very least, she wanted the three broken children that had dropped in from another world to lead something of a normal life, and maybe even repair some of the damage that had been inflicted on their psyche. But where would they even begin?
Asuka's mother had committed suicide, almost taking her daughter with her. Rei had been a hybrid-Angel who apparently had some of Yui's own DNA in her genetic makeup. Now she was almost stripped of her memories, but may or may not be a wholesome human. And Shinji had been forced to pilot a monster against his will by his own father, a man who sounded nothing like the one who sat next to her. A man who had attempted to orchestrate the near-genocide of mankind for a chance to reunite with the mother who had sold her own soul to a machine and left her son in a cruel, dark world, alone.
Not to mention Shinji was technically dead. A problem that would normally be impossible to solve. Yui wouldn't have even thought it possible the power of the bracelets would be able to resurrect the dead.
Yet, when the group came back from their field trip, her son and friends had explained how the bracelets had resurrected the Otherworld's Asuka and Rei, from skeletons no less. Reviving the phantom Shinji might be possible, but something was keeping the frustrated scientist wary of the spectre that resembled her son. An aura that told her in a little voice that, even though he was technically the same little boy as the one she had given birth too, something was off.
He could not be trusted.
---
Lunch had come to the whispering classroom. Normally that entailed a cacophony of students moving about, giggles and conversations about god only knew what, and the smells of various home-cooked or cafeteria-appropriated meals.
Today, the classroom was a graveyard, save for eight people. The majority of the class had decided a tactical retreat was in order to escape the stifling atmosphere of the class, leaving the infamous students a whole class to themselves.
Whilst Kensuke, Toji and Hikari were talking to, or rather, trying to mediate a heated discussion between the two Rei's, Shinji, Asuka and Mana were eating their food peacefully.
Or as peacefully as it could be next to the girl who had threatened classroom genocide only a few hours beforehand.
Perceptive to his new neighbour, Shinji had quickly realized that she wasn't eating anything. Partly because she had all but refused his offer of a bento box in the morning. Various sounds of hunger were making themselves known coming from the angry, or angrier version of Asuka, which seemed to only fuel her bitter expression as she glared at seemingly nothing in front of her.
"Here." Shinji took the lunch he had brought to school anyway, and placed it in front of the stewing teenager, hoping to any of the gods advocating peace in the world that she wouldn't take the thing and throw it in his eyes.
"I told you I didn't need it." He had been expecting a shout, but Crimson spoke in a low voice that didn't seem as angry as it had before. Sighing, he fished a spare set of chopsticks out of a case he kept in his bag, and placed them in front of her.
"Just... look. I can hear your stomach grumbling, and when was the last time you actually ate solid food? You've technically been dead for a while, eat this and you'll feel right as rain."
Doubting that his food actually had the stuffing to live up to his claims, Crimson took the bento box anyway, looking away from him.
"Whatever. If it shuts you up for five minutes, I'll eat your stupid food. Free food always tastes the best after all." Her face was tinged red. It didn't matter what universe they were in, some things really didn't change. And at least this version Shinji hadn't tried to destroy the world...
Shaking her head before any embarrassing thoughts came to mind, she put a mouthful of the fried chicken and rice into her mouth.
She had forgotten how good his food actually tasted. True to his words, it had been a long time since she'd eaten anything solid. And his cooking was even better than the Shinji's she had shared a world with.
"Probably because this Shinji isn't crippled with any of the destabilizing issues he had." Crimson thought to herself, not realizing she was devouring the food like a wild animal. Heck, even an animal would have some grace, compared to how Crimson was massacring her meal.
They say that food will always taste the best when you think of the person who's going to be eating it whilst it's been prepared. All of her favorites were in this box, and it all tasted incredible. Had Shinji been thinking of her when he made this lunch?
No. There was no way. It was identical to her imposter's bento anyhow. Two reflections of the same person were going to enjoy the same meal. It just made sense.
But if it tasted this good, what did that mean? Did the Shinji of this world like the Asuka who was here before she arrived?
Something inside her was gnawing away at her emotions. A whirlpool of mixed feelings filled her mind to the brim. Anger, loneliness, regret, confusion, jealousy. And for some strange reason, she really felt like she wanted to cry.
After finishing whatever was left of the meal, Crimson put the box down on the desk, a little harder then she intended, causing everyone to jump.
"W-was it good, Asu-...Crimson?"
"Thanks for the meal." The girl's eyes were covered by her bangs, as she stood up and walked out of the classroom. It was faint, but sitting right next to her, Shinji caught a glimpse of her expression.
Why did she suddenly look so upset?
"Did she just thank you!?" Toji said incredulously. "Not even our Asuka remembers to do that!"
A yelp of pain indicated that the boy was hit hard from both the girl in question and the class president.
"Can you learn to ever just read the mood? Just this once, keep that big mouth shut!" Hikari glared at him as she spoke. She was distracted by Shinji suddenly standing up, looking at the door where Crimson had hastily departed, looking worried.
"Go after her Shinji."
"Asuka?"
The redheaded girl was also looking at the door. She looked melancholic, and thoughtful at the same time.
"If that was me, I'd want you to come after me. And considering she basically is me, I'm sure she can't be alone right now." With a nod, Shinji ran out of the classroom. The others turned to look at Asuka, confused.
"What's going on Asuka?"
Ignoring Hikari's question completely, she continued to finish her lunch. Holding up a bit of her fried chicken, she looked at it for a second, as though the meat could answer all the strange questions in her mind. Popping it into her mouth, she chewed, a slightly lonely smile displaying on her lips.
"His chicken is good."
---
It had taken Shinji little time to find the wildcard student. As if following what he knew was cliché, he immediately went straight to the roof of the school. Where else would a person who wanted to be alone want to be?
Somewhere they could see the sky. As if the heavens above could give you the answers you wanted.
He knew because he'd been playing by the same rulebook not that long ago. Back when the Asuka from his world had been less than friendly towards him. Back in a time he'd rather not remember.
Putting aside his nostalgia at how little had changed since he had last been whiling away his time up here, he spotted the objective, sitting on one of the decrepit benches lying in the middle of the area.
She was sitting with her arms wrapped around her legs, silently glaring at a spot on the floor around her. It reminded him of how the Asuka he had grown up with used to act. Unsociable, seemingly uncaring, but in reality...
She just looked lonely.
"I can say for certain..." The girl he'd thought hadn't noticed his presence suddenly spoke up. "That you're definitely not the same Shinji Ikari that I know."
"What makes you say that?"
Crimson Asuka didn't even look at him. She continued to look at the ground angrily, as though if she glared at it for long enough, she could melt a hole into it.
"At least he had some semblance of respect for privacy."
Her words threw Shinji for a second. On the surface, she was accusing him of invading her space, and that she wanted nothing more than to be left alone.
But he knew better than that. He knew better then to trust words, laced with everything but the truth. He'd had plenty of practice with a certain someone else, at least when it came to looking underneath the underneath.
Against his better judgement, he slowly walked over to the bench, and sat down next to her. Close enough that he didn't show his poorly concealed fear, but far enough to not be touching her.
"What are you doing?" Her question was once again in a low voice. But this time it was laced with an actual warning. Shinji braced himself as he spoke again.
"Not running away."
Getting punched in the face, really, really hurts. Getting punched by the girl who looked just like another girl who used to punch you in the face all the time, somehow hurt less than he had expected it to.
"THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?" Crimson Asuka was livid. He could clearly see the rage of fire in her eyes, and for a split second, he thought he had said something he shouldn't have. But it was gone in the second it took to pick himself up from the floor, where the punch had unceremoniously thrown him. Rubbing his now achingly sore cheek, Shinji chuckled, serving to infuriate the girl even more.
"Is that it?"
Shinji suddenly found himself hoist in the air, the breath being squeezed out of him as the girl he had just taunted lifted him by his shirt, her eyes promising him death.
"I'll enjoy snapping your neck, shit-for-brains." A second after her words had dissipated into the noontime heat, Shinji felt his world turn upside down as Crimson Asuka threw him to the ground, straddling him. A right hook connected with his intact cheek, blackening his vision. More punches came. His nose cracked horribly. Blood exploded from his nostrils as the girl kept pounding into him. His face was likely going to look like a mass of bruises and blood later, but he let the girl continue until it seemed she'd had her fill. Letting her blood-drenched fists rest, she looked down her nose at him, cold ruthlessness filling her eyes.
"That enough for you, or do you feel like some broken limbs too?"
A chuckle filled the air. It was actually more of a bloody snort as Shinji started laughing on the ground. The laughing lasted until his throat decided it needed to clear some blood out of his airways. Spots of the crimson liquid found a home on the wide-eyed Asuka's face. Why in god's name was he laughing?
"And cue-..."
"And what?-ooph!" Asuka bent over double, her mind shocked as her abdomen felt a strong punch connect, briefly winding her. In her moment of weakness, Shinji pushed the winded girl off him, pinning her down by her shoulders.
"You... pathetic...urrf..." Crimson coughed as she tried to wheeze some air back into her lungs. "What kind of lowlife scum... *cough* hits a girl..."
"I should tell you. I'm a man who believes in true gender equality. I've got no problems dropkicking a girl if the situation calls for it-... GEEEH!" Shinji's quote was interrupted when the palm of Asuka's fist hit his already battered nose, throwing him off the seething female. Rolling just in time to avoid being stomped, Shinji scrambled to his feet, putting up a guard as he grinned at his opponent.
"Lowlife scum like you are the type of men I utterly despise. Who the hell would punch a girl like that!? I'M GONNA TEAR YOUR FUCKING EYES OUT!"
A dodged punch from her, a narrowly missed uppercut from him, a graze on her face, a claw-mark on his face. Both teenagers traded blows, not giving any quarter to their opponent. The fight landed back on the ground once again, with both of them rolling around, trying to find an opening.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT, THIRD CHILD!?"
"I don't know anyone with a stupid name like 'Third Child'!" Asuka screamed in response, trying to bite his neck whilst Shinji tried hard to keep her at arm's length, his bracelet dangling violently. At some point, she succeeded in biting his arm, eventually drawing blood. Shinji screamed in pain, but somehow also managed to keep a weird smile on his face, even managing to choke out a laugh.
"STOP LAUGHING AT ME!" Crimson Asuka screamed through his flesh, muffling her words.
"I can't. Not even she ever actually bit me before!"
The fighting suddenly stopped. Crimson Asuka's mouth was still wrapped onto Shinji's arm, her teeth looking all but animalistic, but she wasn't physically biting down anymore.
"She?" Muffled words again. This time accompanied by a curious look.
"Asuka, the other Asuka I mean... we used to get into fights like this all the time."
It was a strange feeling. He was explaining himself to a girl who's teeth were still firmly lodged into his forearm. But he continued regardless. He was used to strange occurrences in his daily life by now.
"She was a lot like you are now. Never was a people person. Used to get angry at the touch of a hat. And she used to take great pleasure in taking out her frustrations on me. It wasn't the happiest of times for either of us."
"Our parents work at the Artificial Research Laboratory. Both Asuka's mother and my parents. More often than not, this meant we barely ever got to see them. There was a time Asuka didn't see her mother for a whole year. And to an eight year old, that didn't do much good to her."
At some point without realizing it, Crimson Asuka had let go of Shinji's arm, a trickle of blood dribbling down her lip. But she just sat there, listening to him.
"She used to get angry, a lot. A few times her mother had to apologize to my parents when I'd turn up looking like I'd been put through a blender. There was a time Asuka had to be kept away from me, for my own safety."
"But I always knew. I knew she wasn't hitting me, or hurting me because she hated me. She just wanted to vent, she wanted to let the world know she was angry, and hurt, and alone. Alone except for one friend." Shinji cracked out another smile. "Me."
"I know you're not the same as her. You come from a world far more broken, from a past that's scarier than any horror movie I've ever seen. There's just no comparing the two, with what little I know about you and the others. But..." Shinji lightly nudged her shoulder with a fist. "Instead of bottling it all up, if you ever need to vent, come see me. A few scrapes and bruises are nothing this little thing can't fix."
At his words, his bracelet lit up. Both of their injuries started to glow with an odd, eerie, but somehow warm and comforting green light, before fading away, taking the pain with them. Standing up, he offered her his hand.
"I'm sorry for hitting you. I wasn't doing it with malicious intent."
Crimson stared at the hand for a moment, before laughing. A true laugh, without any of the mirth, ruthlessness or hate she had displayed before. Taking the hand, she stood up and turned around, hiding her face from him.
"You're... really weird. Like, super masochistic kind of weird."
"I've heard. Mainly from the two male idiots I call friends."
"But even so. This wasn't a... bad little chat."
"She calls that a 'chat'?" Shinji thought grimly to himself as he watched her walk away. She stopped as she reached the door to the roof.
"Oh, and one more thing." She turned to face him, smiling. A smile that mirrored the warm smiles he had seen the other Asuka displaying lately.
"Shinji, you taste pretty good. I think I'll take you up on more of our little chats in the future..." She winked as she walked through the door lading down from the roof.
Shinji, for his part, was wondering what kind of monster he had managed to unleash on himself once again. He was going to have to cover his whole body in fish oil at some point.