Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ To Find Inner Strength ❯ The Uknown Force ( Chapter 3 )

Neon Genesis Evangelion

 

To Find Inner Strength

 

Chapter 3: The Unknown Force

 

 

Shinji's eyes opened to see nothing but blurred whiteness. He then closed his eyes tightly and opened them again, and then repeated the process until his vision finally cleared up. Shinji was once again in a hospital bed. He was actually relieved that piloting Unit 01 wasn't the cause. It was too stressful. However, most of his relief disintegrated the very moment he recalled the events prior to him passing out.

 

He recollected having the world's most brutal stomachache before hitting ground, just as he was reluctantly performing his katas before Asuka. He remembered having a weird feeling in his stomach whenever he performed them with Ryu, but he would always ignore it. It was quite unusual for a harmlessly strange feeling to explode into what felt like a ball of agony swelling in his gut, threatening to explode within him. Shinji finally decided that it must have been the food he ate. Sure, Asuka and Misato ate the same thing, but perhaps he was allergic to the sushi.

 

“That makes no sense. I've never been allergic to sushi!” Shinji frowned. It was too much trouble to sort out exactly what the cause may have been, so Shinji simply decided to drop the subject as it was leading nowhere much faster than he liked. He sighed as he sat up and looked toward the window to see the sun glaring against the closed curtains. He had been unconscious the entire night.

 

Slowly, the door to his hospital room opened. As he turned toward it, Kensuke and Touji entered, flashing suspicious looking grins. Shinji had a feeling that this was going to be a troublesome conversation.

 

“Hey, Shinji,' said Touji, “how ya holdin' up?”

 

Shinji smiled a little before replying, “I'm all right now. It was just a stomachache, nothing serious.”

 

Kensuke smirked. “So, do you always get rushed to the hospital for a minor tummy ache?”

 

Touji leaned over toward Shinji's face along with Kensuke. “We know your secret, Shinji. Asuka told us about it this morning.”

 

Kensuke grinned. “Yeah, Ikari, you might as well just confess! We know you're learning martial arts!”

 

Touji followed up. “Yeah! When exactly were you gonna tell us, Shinji? How could you leave out your own friends? Did it ever occur to you that maybe we wanna learn some Kung-Fu, too?”

 

“Actually, it's Shotakhan,” Shinji bluntly corrected.

 

Kensuke narrowed his eyes. “You still should've told us. Besides, martial arts would be the perfect thing to add to my war tactics! Imagine being on the battle field with no ammo left and nothing but your hands and feet to defend yourself with. And you're surrounded by enemies with hunting knives ready to slice your belly open and all of the sudden, BOOM! A spinning round kick to the face and then the fists and feet of fury fly all over the place, leaving nothing but unconscious enemies lying about!”

 

Touji and Shinji both stared at their four-eyed friend with confused expressions written all over their faces.

 

“Riiiiiiight.” Touji rolled his eyes. “Anyway, Shinji, Asuka says that you were doing some katas and suddenly passed out. She also said that the doctors said there were no signs of anything wrong at all. Medically, you're in perfect health. So, what exactly has been going on? What kind of training are you doing? Really.”

 

Shinji sighed. He knew this conversation would be troublesome. The truth was that he had no clue what was going on himself. Perhaps Ryu could give him some clues. Of course, that would have to wait since he would not see his master that day. “Well, I really don't know. It's probably nothing. I feel perfectly fine now.”

 

Suddenly the fast patting of footsteps could be heard, echoing in the hallway. The footsteps seemed to increase in speed and volume by the second until Misato came barging into the room. “SHINJI! I came as soon as I heard you were awake!”

 

“Whoa.” Kensuke and Touji uttered as they stared blankly at the out of breath form of the woman of their not-so-innocent dreams.

 

Shinji smiled. “Good morning, Misa..”

 

Misato rushed to his hospital bed and wrapped her arms around the boy, making him blush from the embarrassment of his friends watching. Said friends watched the burst of emotion with depressing jealousy.

 

“I wish a beautiful woman would jump onto me like that,” uttered Touji.

 

“Guess, only in our dreams, man,” Kensuke uttered back.

 

The both shared a sigh of despair.

 

“Shinji, thank God you're okay! You had me so worried. How are you feeling?” Misato fussed over him as she released her bear hug to look him in the eye.

 

“I feel fine, Misato.” Shinji reassured her with a smile. “I'm sorry that I worried you. Everything is okay.” He turned toward his two buddies. “Right, guys?”

 

As Misato turned their way, they both blushed with the goofiest grins every seen in Tokyo-3 and nodded rapidly. Misato smiled back at him sweetly, which made them blush even harder while they widened their grins.

 

Misato turned back to Shinji. “Okay then. Since they couldn't find anything, you're being released, but I wanted to be sure that you were going to be all right. And, hey! You didn't even have to miss any school! Isn't that great?”

 

Shinji frowned and deadpanned. “Yeah. It's my lucky day.”

 

Misato ignored the blatant sarcasm. “Well, remember that you have another sync test this afternoon at four. Don't be late! I have to get to work now. Bye!” Misato waved as she left as fast as she came.

 

Shinji sighed. “Man, I'm glad that's over. That's typical Misato for you.”

 

Touji and Kensuke maintained their goofy smiles while waving at the empty doorway.

 

“Bye, Miss Misato,” said Touji in a dreamy tone.

 

“See you later,” Kensuke said in the same tone as his athletic friend.

 

Shinji frowned again. “I wonder if they even care that she's a total slob.”

 

Later on, at school, the day seemed to be pretty normal for the most part, but for Shinji, things seemed to seem very off. The first thing was that his stomach had that funny feeling which made him anticipate it to explode into an orb of pain again. However, it didn't occur, thankfully. “Something like this would happen on the day I'm not meeting Master Ryu, wouldn't it?”

 

His only option was to ask Ryu, since the common connection to this problem was his training. At first, the feeling only came when he performed katas, but now it was beginning to bother him during his normal activities. It seemed that it wasn't a medical problem at all. The doctors couldn't find anything that would cause him any symptoms. As he sat in that classroom and pondered about his situation, he failed to notice that school was finally over.

 

“Hey, Shinji. Are you ready to go now?”

 

Shinji blinked twice, falling out of his state of deep thought to see Asuka smiling sweetly at him. Something was terribly wrong here. Usually it would be a demand for him to get his butt in gear, followed by her calling him an idiot. She was being nice to him. It was a nice changed, but for it to be so sudden, it scared the crap out of him. He decided to do the wise thing and not question her kindness. After all, with Asuka, that would make her angry enough to revert back to her angry self.

 

“Yes.” Shinji replied with a smile as he stood to his feet.

 

They arrived outside the school where Rei waited for them. The blue haired pilot greeted them in her usual polite, yet blank way. After exchanging greetings and her questioning of Shinji's health, the trio was off to the NERV building for their sync ratio tests. Shinji was, as always, nervous about the test. It wasn't a secret that at least a part of him was uncomfortable piloting the Eva, but it was his way to respond accurately to the demands of others.

 

For Asuka, the test was long, boring and easy. Mainly because she knew in her heart that she was the best at everything she does, especially piloting Eva Unit 02. As the test went on, she couldn't help but smile. No matter what would happen, she knew she would be on top, if even by a little. She saw Rei as a greater rival than Shinji when it came to piloting. Not that Shinji was pathetic, but just the fact that he was hesitant and timid most of the time. Then again, he had changed slightly. Shinji was still Shinji, but he seemed to be a little more adapted to life. Perhaps that training did him some good. Either way, Asuka was still the best. No one would beat her sync test score.

 

“Amazing.” Ritsuko said as she looked at a monitor full of text and then quickly jotted down some data onto her clipboard.

 

“What's up, Ritsuko?” Misato asked as she turned toward the doctor with a quizzical look on her face.

 

“It's Shinji. His sync ratio has jumped up by a full seven percent.” She pointed at the screen that showed all three pilots. “You said that he just got out of the hospital this morning? It seems like he made a full recovery and then some. Perhaps something happened to him that made him happy and confident. A girlfriend, perhaps?”

 

Misato shook her head. “Well, that's a possibility, but actually, Shinji's been learning karate for the last three months. He hasn't changed much, but he seems slightly carefree these days.”

 

“Ah.” Ritsuko nodded. “I see. That would probably explain it. However, Asuka seems to still have the highest ratio among the three. Shinji's is catching up to Rei, which I think is pretty amazing.”

 

Misato smiled. “I bet Shinji will be happy with the good news.”

 

Meanwhile, back in Chun Li's apartment, Ryu sat in the middle of the living room floor with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. A faint blue light outlined his body as he did so. The Hadou energy within him flowed smoothly through him as his mind began to show him images. He searched for a connection, but found none. He learned on his last adventure with Ken that the power of Hadou gave them a link to each other's mind. This was how he would find him, but so far he hadn't found anything. He detected that a strong user of Hadou was about, but he couldn't see through to their mind clearly enough. It was as if something was interfering. A cloud of closed emotions seemed to block his mental view. Before his concentration was broken, he could have sworn someone had called his name.

 

“Ryu?” Chun Li stepped into the room, dressed in casual slacks and a blue sleeveless blouse. She smiled brightly at the homeless martial artist.

 

Ryu smiled back. “Hey, Chun Li. You going out?”

 

She smirked. “No, Ryu. WE'RE going out. If you're going to stay here, you're going to have to at least wear some different clothes. No to mention find you some SHOES.”

 

“….she basically OWNS you!”

 

Ryu shook away that random thought. He then stood up, defeated. Chun Li wouldn't back down and she would end up convincing him somehow. He supposed just going without a fuss would be much easier on him. “I hate shopping,” he muttered under his breath.

 

Chun Li tugged him along by his arm. “C'mon, it'll be just like the old days. Remember when we were teenagers? How the three of us went shopping. That was so much fun. I only wish Ken were here, too.”

 

Ryu chuckled. “Yeah, I'm sure if he were, he'd still be spending like a madman and refusing to let us pay for anything.”

 

“Ryu…do you think Ken..?” Chun Li's voice became full of worry.

 

“Nah. He's much tough than that. I'm sure he's out there somewhere, probably trying to find out where we are. He's fine.” “At least, that's what I'm hoping for.”

 

Chun Li pepped up again and hugged around Ryu's arm. “Well, come on. It's shopping time! When I'm done, you'll barely recognize yourself!” She chuckled lightly.

 

Ryu smiled politely, hiding his reluctance. “That's exactly what I'm afraid of…”

 

It was much like their visit to Hong Kong, where he and Ken first met Chun Li and Fei Long. The only difference was that he was actually being forced to shop. Of course, like the last time, Ryu had the exact same sentiment about the entire idea.

“Shopping sucks,” Ryu muttered quietly.

 

Chun Li pouted as she put a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, come on. Don't be like that. I promise that when it's all said and done, you'll look and feel like a brand new man. It's not like I'm asking you to dodge bullets here.

 

Ryu sighed. “Couldn't you ask me to do that instead of shopping?”

 

Chun Li tugged him along, by his arm, out of the apartment. “Stop being such a baby, Ryu. You're a grown man, for crying out loud!”

 

“…she OWNS you…..OWNS you…..OWNS you!”

 

As the street fighting duo walked around the shipping district of Tokyo-3, people seemed to give Ryu strange looks. It was understandable because not many people went out in a raggedy looking karate gi without any shoes. It just wasn't fashionable in the twenty-first century. It seemed that the stares were growing harder and Chun Li took notice as her homeless companion seemed completely oblivious, or just didn't care. Either way she could feel the embarrassment increasing until she finally decided to do something about it.

 

“There!” Chun Li cried at as she pointed to a clothing store. Without any other warning she yanked Ryu's arm and took off into the store before the leering outside got any worse.

 

“ACK!” Ryu cried as he felt himself get jerked by his arm into a random direction. The next thing he knew was he was standing in a men's casual clothing store. Chun Li stood before him with an innocent smile as if she didn't just run at mach 5 speed and drag him along like her name was Eiko Magami.

 

Ryu asked sharply, “What was that all about?”

 

Chun Li, brushing off Ryu's irritation picked up a white button-down shirt from one of the racks. “I think this would look good on you. Care to try it on?”

 

Ryu sighed. “Do I really have to?”

 

Chun Li stated bluntly. “There's always choices, Ryu. Skipping out on shopping with me today just isn't one of them.” She grinned brightly as she handed him the shirt. “Here you go!”

 

Ryu reluctantly took the shirt and headed from the dressing room, wishing for a way out of this mess. As he walked toward the dressing room, he noticed a tall, thin man come up to Chun Li and start a conversation. She looked slightly irritated. He had brown hair with a ponytail, stubble on his chin, and his mannerisms seemed like that of a playboy. Ryu would know since his best friend happened to be one. He shrugged and stepped into the dressing room. If he tried anything on Chun Li, Ryu was sure he would end up having to save him.

 

Meanwhile, Chun Li frowned at the man before her. “Kaji, I suggest you learn to separate work and personal affairs.”

 

Kaji smiled. “But I am. We're nowhere near the office and you look lonely. Besides, I just want to get to know you, as you are new to our department.”

 

Chun Li smiled as well. “Oh, is that all? You just want to become familiar with me?”

 

Kaji nodded. “Yes, that's all.”

 

Chun Li frowned. “Like you are with Major Katsuargi?”

 

Kaji's eyes grew wide, but he regained his composure, flashing his smile again. “No, no. I don't know what you've heard, but..”

 

“Listen. I don't mind getting acquainted, as we are coworkers, but I suggest you not try to make it more than that. Dr. Akagi has told me many stories. Anyway, I'm out with an old friend right now, so we will have to hold off on meeting outside of work until another time.” Chun Li smiled again. “Have a nice day.” She then walked over to the dressing room.

 

Kaji sighed. “Now that was just cold.”

 

Ryu has finished buttoning up his shirt. He didn't even try to button the top because it seemed that he would be the first street fighter to be choked to death by a shirt if he did. As he took a look in the mirror, he sighed. He didn't like it at all. Ryu was more of a T-shirt and jeans guy, he disliked anything formal. Besides, it was something that Ken would more likely wear.

 

Just then, there was a knock on the dressing room door.

 

“Ryu?” Chun Li's voice chimed from the other side of the door. “Is everything all right in there? Do you need my help?”

 

Ryu's face turned a bashful red. “Uh, everything's fine! I'm coming out….” He opened the dressing room door only to be met by Chun Li's staring eyes. At first, her expression was indifferent, but it slowly turned to astonishment. Seconds later, the astonishment turned into spacey gawking.

 

Chun Li's mind drifted away as she looked at Ryu in the white shirt she picked out for him. It fit him just right, hugging his muscles snugly, but not too tightly. She had turned the rugged street fighter into eye candy. Of course, something would have to be done about those white karate gi pants.

“Uh, Chun Li?” Ryu raised an eyebrow as he spoke. “Are you okay?”

 

Chun Li shook off her daze. “Wow. Um, yeah! That shirt looks very nice on you, Ryu. Now, we have to find you some pants and some nice shoes.” She smiled sweetly at him as she tugged his arm, leading him to the pants section of the store. “C'mon, you stud muffin, you.”

 

As Ryu was dragged along by Chun Li, his face became red again. Of course, his expression was that of oblivious confusion.

 

“...stud muffin?”

 

Meanwhile, at Misato's apartment, Asuka chuckled at Shinji. “You scared?”

 

Shinji shook his head. “No way! It's just…”

 

Asuka smirked. “Never kissed a girl before, huh? That's pretty funny.”

 

Shinji sighed and fell onto the couch. “What's the point in even doing this? It's not like we're a couple and if Misato were to come in at the wrong moment, she'd get the wrong idea. It's just troublesome.”

 

“Well, if you're going to spout excuses, then never mind. You're probably too much of a wimp to do it, but just don't want to admit it.” Asuka turned away. “So boring.”

 

Something inside Shinji clicked at that moment. `W-wait a second! I'm not afraid!”

 

Asuka smirked. “Gotcha.” “Then, prove it.”

 

Shinji stood to his feet. “Fine, I will!” “Shinji, what the HELL are you doing? Don't do it, what if Misato comes in? This'll be my first kiss…not like I don't WANT to but…but..”

 

Asuka frowned. “Will you stop shuffling your feet? Don't stall, Shinji!”

 

As Shinji stepped closer to his target, his heart beat faster by the second. It was unthinkable that he would share his first kiss with Asuka, mainly because she was the most difficult to get along with. Rei, maybe, but this just seemed….strange. By the time these thoughts were pushed aside, he found himself only inches from Asuka's face. She had her eyes closed, waiting patiently for his lips. She looked beautiful, Shinji thought.

 

Asuka kept her eyes closed; waiting for the moment that Shinji's lips would touch hers. She wanted to kiss him and came up with a decent excuse to do it: boredom. Granted she was anything but bored, but she wanted to test Shinji's courage around girls. She did have an interest in him, after all, but this would be the test to see how far she could get with him. She grew impatient until she finally got a reaction out of Shinji.

 

“I'm sorry.” Shinji said. “I'm really not up to this Asuka.”

 

Asuka's eye went wide after hearing that. Her face became the very color of the mecha she piloted, as did a portion of Shinji's face after she slapped the living crud out of it. “You idiot!” She growled as she stormed back to her room, slamming the door behind her.

 

The dumbfounded Shinji stood there for a couple minutes before Misato arrived. It only took her a moment to realize what was going on. She could see that Asuka was locked in her room again and Shinji standing in the middle of the living room with a red handprint on the side of his face.

 

Misato groaned. “Can't you two get along for at least ONE day? Geez.”

 

Meanwhile at an underground base somewhere in the ruins of Cambodia, A thin man with think glasses watches a grid screen and noticed two blips glowing blue. He smiled sinisterly and said, “Found you at last.”

 

“What is it, Zoltar?” A deep voice booms from the darkness behind the man. Within the darkness, a massive silhouette sits in a chair. The only clear feature about him was his narrowed white eyes.

 

“Master Bison. We have completed the Psycho Grid Radar system, as you have requested. It seems that users of the Hadou energy have been found in the Japan area. One is located somewhere outside of Tokyo-3 and on the move. The other one is already within Tokyo-3 and seems to be stationary in that area. I've already seen Killer Bee to intercept the moving target,” Zoltar stated.

 

“Excellent. I have no doubts that their skills in the use of Hadou have increased over the past few years. I should have known that the Second Impact would not take them so easily. However, it did rid me of many other nuisances. Like some of the top agents of Interpol.” Bison grinned evilly. “Contact SEELE. Have them keep an eye out for the second target within Tokyo-3.”

 

“Yes, sir.” Zoltar bowed.

 

In a white hummer stretched limousine, Ken and his wife, Eliza were headed for Tokyo-3.

 

“So, you're donating money to help fund a heart association?” Eliza gave Ken a puzzled look.

 

Ken shook his head. “No, no. It's nothing like that. It's the NERV organization. They're the ones who have been fighting off all those giant angels with their robots.”

 

Eliza shook her head, “How can those big, ugly, destructive things be ANGELS? That's a mystery within itself.”

 

Ken shrugged. “I dunno, but a friend of mine who works there asked me to do this as a favor. I met him on a business trip and we ended up being pals. We're a lot alike, surprisingly.”

 

Eliza chuckled, “That can't be a good thing.”

 

“….Hey!” Ken pouted playfully. “You sure know how to hurt a guy, don'cha?”

 

Eliza winked at him, “I also know how to make a guy feel all better again.”

 

Just before the couple could get into anything, the car came to a screeching halt, causing them to both jerk forward, out of their seats.

 

Ken cried out, “What the hell what THAT?” He had a very bad feeling about this. Just as he pondered what could possibly be going wrong, a fist smashed through the tinted glass and unlocked the door from the inside. The door was then shoved open as a blonde woman with long hair and a green uniform stuck her head inside.

 

Ken's eyes widened at the sight of her. No because she just forced her way into the vehicle, but because the whites of her eyes were bloodshot pink and the pits of her eyes were burning crimson. On her forehead was a familiar looking chip. Bison's cyber chip used for mind control.

 

“Ken Masters,” said the woman in a robotic tone, “You will come with us.”

 

Ken's eyes narrowed. “Like hell, I will!”

 

Without taking her eyes off of Ken, the woman reached and grabbed Eliza by the throat, causing the love of his life to gag helplessly under her cobra-like grip.

 

Ken cried out, “Let her go, you mind slave bitch!”

 

“Then, come,” the woman repeated again with no emotion, as before.

 

“Okay, okay! Just put her down!” Ken shouted. He then sighed with relief when Eliza was freed from the unknown woman's mighty grip. He and Eliza stepped out of the other side of the limo to see the driver lying on the ground helplessly by more women, dressed like the blonde, but their uniforms were a dark blue. Ken cursed under his breath. “Ginji, are you okay?”

 

The driver waved his arm and said weakly, “I'll live, Mr. Masters.”

 

Ken looked to the woman in green. “I want you to let them go before you take me anywhere.” Ken knew that the only way out of this was to fight, but he couldn't risk putting anyone else in danger.

 

The woman nodded. “As you wish.” She then ordered the other women to help up the driver and get him and Eliza back into the car. Soon, they drove off, but only after he and Eliza shared a kiss, followed by her making him promise to come back in one piece.

 

After the car drove of into the distance, the blonde in the green uniform then said, “Our master grows impatient, Mr. Masters. Come with us now.”

 

Ken smirked. “Sure, under one condition.”

 

“Condition?” The blank look on her face turned quizzical.

 

Ken smiled, “The condition is….this!” He leapt through the air right into two of the android women with a drop kick. With a loud crash they hit the ground and tumbled along it violently. Without pause, Masters spun around and attacked the leader with his Rising Dragon Punch.

 

“SHO-RYU-KEN!” Ken shouted as he took to the air while connecting his signature uppercut into the blonde woman's chin. She fell back from the blow, but recovered in mid air and landed gracefully onto her feet.

 

She narrowed her eyes at her attacker. “This could have been avoided with your cooperation, Ken Masters.”

 

Ken frowned. “This could have been avoided if you were smart enough not to get on my bad side. As much as I hate hitting girls, you really asked for it, sister! Get ready!” A golden glow surrounded his body as Cammy watched and nodded.

 

“So, this is the power of Hadou. Let's see if you can defend against Psycho Power at your level.” Her own body began to glow with a familiar light.

 

“Psycho Power?!” Ken gritted his teeth. “But Bison….Ryu and I..”

 

“…are destined to join him.” Cammy finished grimly.

 

At that moment, Ken was engulfed by a familiar looking light from Cammy's palm. Afterward, everything went white.

 

A chill ran up Ryu's spine, freezing him in place for a couple seconds. Chun Li was latched onto his arm and didn't take long to notice Ryu's sudden pause. His eyes appeared to be widened with shock for a split second. “Something's wrong,” he muttered.

 

“Ryu, are you all right?” Chun Li gave him a puzzled expression.

Ryu nodded and turned back to her with a relieving smile. “Yeah, it's nothing. I was just daydreaming.”

 

Now, Ryu made two mistakes. The first was lying to his friend who was good at reading others. The second was lying to a woman who happened to be an agent of Interpol who could spot a lie from kilometers away.

 

Chun Li sighed, “If you're going to make something up, Ryu, you could at least try to put more effort into it. Anyway, if you want to keep it to yourself, I can respect that.”

 

Ryu replied softly, “Thank you, Chun Li.” “I have a really bad feeling…”

 

To Be Continued