A few days ter. It has now been a whole week since Shinji escaped from the LCL.
How much longer before Arael attacks? Can’t be more than another week or two. I need to fix this. We need to be in top fighting shape, all three of us, or we’ll never survive…
Wait…
Can I still fight?
EVA unit-01 absorbed an S2 Engine. Isn’t it too dangerous to use?
Can I fight?
…
…
All the more reason to get Asuka and Rei to work together. Even if they end up hating me. Just as long as they’re alright…
Those days were spent trying to avoid Asuka while finding a way to mend the rift between them, and avoiding Rei while trying not to create a rift between them. Asuka was jealous, Rei was…
Just… too horny…
And now Horaki, too…
Jesus Christ, give me strength. You were friends with a prostitute, weren’t you? Yet you died a virgin. I need that incel power right about now.
His sacrilegious thoughts were interrupted when he passed through the security gate.
Where was Ritsuko’s office, again? Right, then down the hall, and… How many doors down? Found it.
“Hello, Shinji. How have you been?”
“Not so great, Miss Akagi.”
“Ristuko.” She corrected
“And what’s wrong?”
“Girls. Girls, and too many girls.”
“Boo hoo. Poor you, you little DOG.”
After speaking with her more often, Shinji found Ristuko to be a surprisingly jovial person. He had always seen her as somewhat stuck up. I guess revealing the secrets behind NERV and SEELE opened her up. It must take a tremendous weight off her shoulders to be able to speak about such things to more people.
“I know, I know, but I just can’t make any headway without hurting them. That’s why-”
“You called me. Figured. I got some of that from our conversation over the phone.”
“This… is gonna sound weird and immoral, but I have a favor to ask. Is there some way I could get a libido-”
“Waaaayy ahead of you, kid. Just be careful with it. Too much and you’ll get so horny that you could hurt them.”
She tossed a bottle of pills from the drawer in her desk at him.
…
Huh?
“I- What? WHAT?! NO! I WAS GONNA SAY LIBIDO-KILLING DRUG!”
“Seriously?”
“YES! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”
He looked at the pills, horrified. Just what did she think of him?
“Oh. I figured you needed to get them all on board with the polygamy thing. Once you fucked all of them at once, that should do the trick. At least according to the psych evals.”
A vibration in the air generally known as speech passed through Shinji’s auditory sensory organs, then were absolutely obliterated by the time they reached his brain. Otherwise it sounded like Ristuko was telling Shinji to have an orgy with three girls.
“I mean, five girls can really do a number, but with those bad boys,” She gestured at the pills
“You can hold out for a while.”
More weird auditory disturbances. That’s the only expnation.
“You okay, kid?”
Shinji was silent for a solid minute. Ristuko was getting genuinely worried.
“I’m so tired…”
Shinji fainted.
He woke up on a hospital bed. Hospital? No. Ristuko’s office. It was a sort of makeshift nurse’s station, too, wasn’t it?
“Morning.” She peered over his face, feeling his forehead.
“It’s morning?”
“No, just a joke. You don’t have a fever, or anything, but you’re real sweaty.”
“Sorry.”
“Oh please, it’s far from the worst bodily fluid I’ve gotten on my hands.”
“...”
“...so… The pills. You don’t want them.”
It wasn’t a question, but Shinji answered anyway
“Of course not! I don’t understand why you thought that’s what I was after. That’s so messed up,”
“You have to understand, one of the only other real friends I’ve had for a long time has been Misato…”
Shinji understood at once. He didn’t like it, but he understood.
“O-oh. I see.”
“Yeah. And the other was Kaji.”
“Was?”
“He went missing. Misato’s been looking for him. Or maybe she’s the one hiding him, I don’t know.”
“She’s been in her room at her computer constantly the past few days.”
“Definitely that, then. Gd he’s alright. If you hadn’t told them about-… Who knows-…”
“…”
“…”
“Misato told me something.”
“Huh?”
“She’s had feelings for Kaji so long. Still sort of does, but…
She’s decided to let him go.”
Shinji imagined it. Misato was in many ways a very immature person, but that kind of decision takes unbelievable strength. His opinion of her grew somewhat.
“I mean, she still starts dripping every time she sees him, so make of it what you will.”
With that imagery in his mind, his opinion of her shrank somewhat.
“I’m kidding, asshole” She teased.
“And you’re no saint either. Between Rei, Asuka, that prissy one, Misato, and myself, you really got some diverse tastes.”
“What?”
“I’ve been through puberty before, I know how it works. I see the way you look at us.”
Like puzzle pieces fitting together, the outrageous stream of words formed a pattern in his mind.
What she said earlier…
‘I mean, five girls can really do a number…’
“Wait… Five girls? You mean-”
“I was including Misato and me, yeah.”
“That means…”
“That I’m down? Yup. And she will be too. Especially with these” She held up the pills.
Shinji’s mind was racing. All of Misato’s flirting, her teasing, it was all a front…
…right?
“Even you?”
“Misato thinks I’m not a very sexual person. Truth is, I just don’t bring it up, since my tastes are… less than common…
Or moral…” she looked him up and down.
He shrank under her gaze.
Well…
Not all of him.
“You’re just a broken boy. In so much pain. You just want to be loved. To be held. And here you are, surrounded by horny women, and all you can focus on is how not to hurt them.
You’re really too precious for us.”
Shinji didn’t know what to say. He’d never been approached like this bef-
No, he has. A lot, tely. Too much. He just still didn’t know what to do with himself.
“I called them back here. For another surprise meeting.”
“What? Why?!”
“So we could settle this. They should be here in an hour. We can talk for a bit until then.”
“About what?”
“How we’ll handle them…” Ritsuko looked at Shinji like a beautiful Thanksgiving meal.
She even licked her lips.
