Chapter 51:
Ordinary Classroom

 

THE CLASSROOM was noisy. Students were overjoyed at seeing their classmates alive. They talked about all the strange things that had happened to them and the strange things that were continuing to happen. Some even used the communication terminals to contact the outside world.

“Well, I tried it!” said one student, corroborating others who’d seen it for themselves. “My clothes go back to normal when I go outside.”

“What’s going on?”

Rei Six was only about as tall as the waistlines of her classmates. She stepped inside the classroom and walked through their gossip. Shinji was in his seat, taking a textbook out of his backpack. Six kept her distance but moved to get a better look at him. That’s when she noticed…

What…?! And I thought Shinji being here was weird…

She called out to the quiet figure standing alone by the lockers. “Hello, Quatre, the me who is angry.”

“Hello, Six…the me who knows no fear.”

Ayanami Rei Quatre had gone rogue when her mutant Eva was contaminated by the Q.R. Signum. She was supposed to be on the run with Seele/Kaji, and her formerly blue hair was now gray from the scale’s influence. She was wearing a black sailor uniform with a long skirt, just like all the other girls in class. She’d chosen this corner of the classroom because she knew no one would bother her here.

Quatre played with the light blue ribbon on her chest. “Do you recognize this uniform?”

Six felt like she did, but somehow she couldn’t pull up the corresponding memory. She joined Rei Quatre next to the lockers, thoughts running through her head.

Why is Quatre here? I thought she went rogue. Did she sneak her mutant Eva-0.0 into Tokyo-3 somehow? I should really go see Misato about this…

“What are you doing here, and what do you want?”

“Have you ever dreamed? I’ve had them from time to time. Ever since our mental mirroring was broken. Ever since ‘we’ became ‘you’…”

What was Quatre talking about?

“What’s that about?” she asked, lifting her chin at the figure across the room.

The two Ayanamis watched as Shinji put his textbooks on his desk.

Quatre ignored the question. “Well, have you? Have you ever dreamed?”

A loud voice interrupted their conversation. “How could you?”

Six turned to look for the source and found two more people who shouldn’t have been there. They were trying to come up with a solution for an impossible problem.

“That’s the only thing I did.” Kensuke folded his hands over his lap. Next to him stood Hikari, looking down on him with hostility.

“I don’t know… I don’t know how I want you to make it up to us…” Hikari closed her eyes and shook her head. She looked troubled.

The intelligence division had a policy of doing anything and everything in the name of achieving its goals. Nerv Japan had severed its ties with the other Nerv organizations, so they’d taken to selling leaks in exchange for information.

Kensuke had traded their Child data to Nerv Germany for information about the relics. As a result, the Horakis had been relocated to Europe without ever suspecting that they were being kidnapped. Furthermore, Hikari’s sister Kodama was turned into a pillar of salt after seeing the light of the Lance of Longinus over the skies of Europe. The intelligence division had stripped Kensuke of his office and put out a warrant for his immediate arrest.

“You should’ve killed me when you had the chance. Now you’re making me feel something like remorse.” Kensuke grabbed his desk and slowly leaned back in his chair, making the front legs hover over the floor tiles.

“This is an awful dream.”

“A dream? I see… I’m dreaming. This is what I’ve always wanted, but now that I’m here, I have nothing to say to you.”

“Hang on, this is my dream!” Kensuke shouted, attracting the classroom’s attention. Everyone had been talking in their own little cliques, because they knew how absurd the whole thing was.

This…is what a dream feels like.

The classroom was quiet now, and it felt as if that awful silence should never be broken.

“Teacher’s here!” Ayanami Rei Cinq said as she opened the door. The Ayanami who’d passed away wore a white coat over her uniform.

Shinji reacted to her voice and said, “Class Rep!”

Hikari complied and quickly returned to her seat. “All stand!”

But Ikari-kun’s the class rep now.

Her consciousness began to fade. Rather, she began to awaken from the dream.

You’re the class rep now, remember? How long do you plan on staying in junior high? We’re high school juniors now.

“Bow!”

That was the last thing Hikari said. By the time her classmates raised their heads, she was gone.