Chapter Text
Friday, 23 October 2015, NERV Hospital
Shinji opened his eyes. He was greeted, once again, by the now-familiar ceiling of NERV’s hospital. He didn’t feel at all sore, so he couldn’t tell why he was there.
A nurse opened the door. “Oh! You’re up!” she said, “Dr. Akagi will be… pleased.”
Shinji didn’t know why, but he felt like that nurse was going to say something else.
Later that day
“We’ll have to keep you for another day to run a few tests we needed you conscious for,” Dr. Akagi said. She was leading Shinji to a door. “This first test doesn’t require any special machinery or technology. It’s just your reaction to a stimulus.” She opened the door.
In the room, there was a bed, a table, some paper, crayons, and a little girl hugging her knees in the corner. She sniffled as she looked up. Her red-from-crying eyes widened.
She ran up to Shinji and hugged his leg. “The bad men came and, and put me in this room and, and, and asked me a bunch of questions, and I still don’t know where Mommy is!” she sniffled out. Shinji felt he had no choice but to hug her back.
“She says her name is Tori Ikari,” Akagi stated, “and that she’s your daughter.”
Shinji’s eyes opened. “Dr. Akagi, I- I- I promise I haven’t done anything like that ever!”
“I assumed not. You don’t seem like the kid to get someone pregnant and not own up to it. That, plus the fact that we found her in your entry plug when she definitely wasn’t there when we launched you.
“The fact that’s most concerning,” she continued, “is what she made when we asked her to draw her mother.” She fished out a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Shinji. When he unfolded it, he knew at once who it was. Who Tori’s mother was. The person he… He didn’t want to think about that just now.
“Asuka?” he asked to no-one.