Aozaki Aoko [660-661] (Patreon)

Chapter 660: Shinji and Rei

"Father, about this photo—do you have anything you ought to tell me?" In Gendo Ikari's office, Shinji placed the "family portrait" on the desk and questioned him.

"…I should have disposed of all your mother's photos," Gendo said coldly, striking his classic pose. "Where did you find it?"

"That has nothing to do with my question," Shinji replied.

"…It's just a photo taken by chance in the past. It doesn't have any special meaning," Gendo feigned ignorance with a blank face, then lowered his head to study the image, recalling the details. "That was Aozaki, wasn't it? We met once in France. That woman really loves meddling."

"Our issue has nothing to do with Dr. Aozaki, Father," Shinji continued. "Don't you owe me an explanation about Mother's appearance? Who exactly is Ayanami Rei?"

"…"

Gendo fell silent. He truly hadn't expected his good son to pull something like this.

When he first saw the photo, Gendo wondered if Fuyutsuki, that old lapdog, had betrayed him—slipped the picture to Shinji just to disgust him. But on second thought, that was impossible. He had already used his authority to recall and destroy all photos of Yui from anyone connected to her.

He hadn't anticipated that Aoko Aozaki from the European branch would, years ago, snap this photo without his knowledge—and then hand it to his son at this precise moment.

…This disrupted his script; it shouldn't have gone this way. Gendo thought hard. For now, it seemed like mere coincidence, not a deliberate move against him by Aozaki.

With that, Gendo slowly reached out to take the photo from the desk—Yui's smile in it was radiantly happy…

"You haven't answered my question, Father." Before Gendo could touch it, Shinji snatched the photo back and said seriously, "Who is Ayanami Rei? What is she to me?"

"…The Ayanami-type is an artificial human created using your mother's genetic information. She exists to pilot EVA Unit-00," Gendo said after a brief hesitation, revealing "the truth." "Genetically speaking, she's your sister. Your mother and I once made a promise: if we had a boy, he'd be named Shinji; if a girl, Rei."

The best lies are those that tell only part of the truth. Judging from Shinji's shattered expression, he clearly believed Gendo's "facts."

…

In the next room, watching the surveillance feed, Fuyutsuki wore the expression of "subway, old man, cell phone." How could that bastard Gendo even lie to his own son?

No—strictly speaking, he'd merely concealed the most crucial information. What he said wasn't untrue…

Ah, Yui—a girl that exceptional. Why did she fall for a "hoodlum" like Gendo?

Fuyutsuki thought ruefully, is the saying really true—"nice guys finish last"?

…

Back in Gendo's office, Shinji was floored by his father's shamelessness and lack of bottom line. Rage surged in him, almost bursting the "timid boy" persona he'd worn in this world.

But he restrained himself in the end, carefully put the photo away, and left the office.

Watching his son's back, taut with anger and on the verge of losing control, Gendo said nothing—only posed as if thinking, his eyes unreadable behind his sunglasses.

—Divider—

After leaving NERV HQ, Shinji didn't return to Misato Katsuragi's apartment. He went to the "relevant department" at NERV to ask for Rei Ayanami's address, then headed there alone.

Unlike in the original timeline, he wasn't out on the streets because of Misato's scolding and post-battle PTSD after fighting the Fifth Angel. His goal was clear now: tell Rei everything he'd learned—the truth—to his biological sister.

After about half an hour on the tram, Shinji arrived at Rei's apartment door. He hesitated for a moment, then knocked.

Ten seconds passed. No answer.

A minute passed. Still no answer.

"...?"

Shinji felt uneasy. He'd already checked with NERV HQ before coming: Rei had no assignments today and went straight home after school. But apparently not. Did something come up?

He'd prepared carefully for this visit—took leave from school, spent his savings on the best ingredients, intending to cook Rei some of her favorite dishes. The girl looked so thin and frail; she probably didn't eat properly.

But now…

With no response after knocking, Shinji sighed and decided to knock one last time. If still no one answered, he'd come back another day—though the ingredients might spoil by then… what a waste.

Perhaps a bit impatient, Shinji knocked harder this time. The door creaked and opened a crack.

Now this was awkward.

He scratched his head. Still—since it had opened, he might as well ask if she was home.

"Excuse me, Ayanami. It's Shinji. Are you home?"

He pushed the door open and called into the unlit, dim apartment. As before, there was no reply.

A sudden impulse rose in him. Instead of closing the door and leaving, he switched into the slippers at the entrance, picked up the groceries, and stepped inside.

The apartment was excessively "plain." No extra decorations. Even the walls were bare, unpainted cement.

Envelopes were strewn everywhere on the floor, along with empty boxes of medications Shinji didn't recognize. Apart from the bare minimum of furniture, there were no traces of ordinary human life.

On the cabinet beside a single bed that looked like it had been taken straight from a hospital ward, he saw tablets scattered in a metal tray and a beaker half full of water—which Rei apparently used as a cup.

Thinking of her artificial origin, a nameless fire burned in Shinji's chest.

He set the groceries by the kitchen counter, found cleaning tools in a corner, and began methodically tidying the dirt and dust.

Sister, huh… That man never truly cared about Rei. Whatever "conversations" Shinji had seen between Gendo and Rei were likely just calculated performances.

Or worse: Rei, cloned from his mother Yui, was merely a substitute for that man's wife.

Chapter 661: Family-Man Ikari Shinji

If there's one thing Shinji had truly mastered by fourteen, it's the cello he'd practiced diligently—and housekeeping skills nearly on par with Shirou Emiya.

From cleaning to laundry to cooking, the Shinji who grew up shuttled between relatives' homes could do it all. In Aoko's view, Misato "adopting" Shinji had almost purely negative effects on him.

Because aside from chatting with him when he was lonely, that dried-fish woman essentially hired a live-in, all-purpose housekeeper for free—or, to put it less nicely, she adopted herself a responsible dad.

No—given Dr. Katsuragi's personality, Shinji treats Misato far better than her real father did. Her dad wouldn't do her chores or cook for her.

As the current top administrator of NERV HQ's MAGI system, Aoko was practically the model of "the guard who steals the vault." With her "DeepThought" large model, she could easily infiltrate any IoT device in Tokyo-3.

Gendo apparently hadn't realized she could go that far—let alone SEELE, distant and detached.

Through the hidden cameras Gendo had installed in Rei's apartment (the old creep, seriously), Aoko sat in her office, sipping tea and watching Shinji briskly clean Rei's place.

If Aoko hadn't come to the EVA world and still thought of Rei as the "proto three-blank beauty," she might have found Rei's not cleaning her room to be a moe point.

But upon seeing Rei's room with her own eyes in the real world, Aoko fell silent.

In terms of mess, Rei's room could almost rival Misato's.

No—Misato's room, though messy, at least had a sense of life. Rei's apartment was different.

On the lone fridge sat an open medicine bottle with the cap forgotten. Inside were a few instant foods, but mostly refrigerated medications.

On the floor nearby was a box crammed with freshly removed bandages. Her school uniform and underwear were tossed on the hard single bed, and the NERV-medical-ward striped pillow was stained with blood. It was hard to imagine what she felt lying there injured.

Shinji, cleaning, seemed to notice too. Face flushed, he glanced at Rei's clothes. After a moment's struggle, he only removed the pillowcase and put it into the washing machine.

By now, his deft hands had swept up most of the dust and trash, sorting it neatly into garbage bags. Next would be wiping down the furniture and corners.

"Yosh!"

Pleased with his progress, Shinji nodded. Just as he was about to push through and finish, Rei—wearing almost nothing but a towel—stepped out of the bathroom and stared blankly at the masked, hooded Shinji holding a rag and cleaning her home.

Not in a million years had Shinji imagined his first proper meeting with Rei would be this mortifying.

"S-sorry, Ayanami!" He squeezed his eyes shut and stood at attention. "I—I knocked, but no one answered, and then I saw your door wasn't locked, so I…"

Even as he spoke, he knew it was a flimsy excuse. As a boy, he shouldn't have entered without permission—much less started cleaning on his own.

Any ordinary girl would've called the police. Rei, however, was not ordinary. She just glanced at him, then calmly walked to the bed and began dressing, piece by piece.

"…Did you come here for something?" Rei asked as she dressed, addressing the still-squinting Shinji. "An order?"

"N-no!" Shinji stammered, his face reddening more. The soft rustle of her clothing somehow stirred his imagination more than the earlier fleeting glimpse. "I just—I have something I want to tell you in person…"

"I see…?" Rei looked mildly puzzled, then said, "...Go ahead."

When Aoko tapped into the camera feed in Rei's room, she replaced it with AI-synthesized footage. In other words, no one else in the city—not even Gendo—could see what was really happening there.

On screen, Shinji cautiously opened his eyes. Seeing Rei fully dressed, he exhaled in relief.

With Rei's permission, he took a moment, then told her everything he'd learned from Gendo.

As Aoko expected, Rei didn't react much. In her displayed emotions, there was less surprise than confusion.

"…So, Rei, you should be my sister," Shinji said earnestly. "You and I are both children of our mother, Yui Ayanami."

"Ayanami… Sister… what does that mean?" Rei asked from her folding chair, looking lost.

"It means," Shinji answered, "we're siblings by blood. We're family."

"…Family?" Rei repeated a word that had always felt distant to her. Gendo's face flickered in her mind, then was replaced by the serious boy in front of her. "Can I have a family too?"

Holding the photo Shinji handed her, she looked at the woman whose face was 90% like her own. A strange emotion welled up—one unfamiliar to her—leaving the girl at a loss.

"Of course you can," Shinji said firmly. "From today on, let me take care of you. It's my responsibility as your older brother."

How odd, Aoko thought, comparing the boy before her to the one in her memory. Would the original Shinji say something like this? Perhaps he was good at housework and caring for others, but she hadn't expected him to talk about "responsibility."

Maybe this boy had changed more than she'd imagined. Things were getting interesting.

"I don't really understand…" Rei's feelings were a bit tangled. She wanted to refuse, but seeing the boy's face, the words wouldn't come. "…I'm sorry. At times like this, I don't know what expression I should make."

"It's okay, Rei. I can teach you, slowly," Shinji smiled. "Let me handle dinner today. I bought lots of ingredients."