Title: During the Storm
Author: Psilanthropy
Chapter: One
Time setting: Between the 5th Angel's attack and Asuka's arrival

	Ikari Shinji looked out the window of his classroom. It was raining; pouring in fact. Lightning arced 
down from the sky every so often, but it seemed worse in the mountains. The wind howled against the 
school building constantly. It was the tropical storm which had been in the news for days. Of course it 
wasn't strong enough to warrant canceling school, but it had made the morning transits a living hell. The 
whole class was late, even the class rep. Class was supposed to have started twenty-five minutes ago, but 
the teacher hadn't arrived yet. Hikari was making an attempt to keep the class in order, and she was failing.
	"Ikari, hey!" Shinji snapped back into the classroom as his friend Suzuhara called his name.
	"Yea?"
	"Isn't it stupid that we have to be here in such horrible weather?" Touji exclaimed, his arms crossed.
	"It's odd that the teacher hasn't shown up yet," Shinji responded.
	"Maybe he thinks its the Second Impact again," Kensuke said jokingly. "Ikari, I noticed that you look 
kind of beat up. Did something happen in the last battle?" Shinji nodded. "Man, that must be so cool- Hey!" 
Touji's fist suddenly collided with the back on Kensuke's head.
	"Shut up! Can't you understand that getting the crap kicked out of you by some huge monster is 
not cool at all? Give the guy a little respect." Shinji was surprised at Suzuhara's sudden anger. Kensuke held 
up his hands.
	"Sorry, I didn't mean that it's cool Shinji got beat up."
	"It's OK," Shinji quietly said. "Ayanami is worse than I am." The other 2 boys looked over to 
Ayanami's desk. Sure enough, it was vacant. Shinji remembered only days before, when the two of them had 
defeated the fifth Angel. Her EVA-00 was badly damaged while she defended him. When he rescued her, she 
was in bad shape. However, that was the first time she had smiled at him. Ikari was left wondering if she 
had smiled because she was happy or relieved, or if she had smiled because he had told her to.
	An announcement called the class rep Horaki to the school's office. The class began to talk a little 
louder after she left. Both Kensuke and Shinji noticed that Touji watched the class rep leave the room. "Hey, 
Touji, what's going on, huh?" Kensuke asked, his voice sounding a little mischievious.
	"What do you mean?"
	"Well, you seemed kind of annoyed that the class wasn't listening to the class rep."
	"They should be quieter! There's no need for it!"
	"Oh, so you also watched her leave so closely because our loud talking made you concentrate on 
something else?"
	"No! What makes you say I watched her leave? Just what are you implying, Aida?" Kensuke and 
Shinji shared a knowing smile. "What are you two grinning at?!"
	"You like the class rep!" the two yelled.
	Coincidentally enough the class went totally silent just as that proclamation was made. Shinji, 
Kensuke, and Touji all looked in horror towards the door. Several of the girls in the class began to giggle as 
the class rep, standing in the room's doorway, started blushing. She quickly regained her composure.
	"All rise!" The class rose as usual, although three of the boys' faces remained red. "Class, our usual 
teacher will not be here today because of the weather. In substitution the university has sent us Nobuteru 
Hiroko-san."
	The aforementioned student walked in, and the boys proceeded to drool, even Shinji. She was tall, 
only a couple inches under six feet. Her hair was long, hanging below her shoulders. It was obviously 
unkempt, but had been fixed a little for her professionalism. Her face was very round, but her eyes were the 
most intriguing. Bright green they were, and most of the males in the class found themselves lost in them. 
Her build was thin, and there was little else remarkable about her. But the whole package, for some reason, 
was mesmerizing. She wore a green t-shirt and a pair of old blue jeans. Her professionalism went out the 
window at that point.
	"Bow! All sit."
	"Man, is she a hottie!" Touji exclaimed in a whispered tone as he leaned towards Kensuke's and 
Shinji's desks. "Possibly even more than Misato!"
	"Oh, but not as hot as the class rep, huh?" Kensuke replied. Touji immediately straightened and 
began to blush for a second time. "Your silence says more than your voice can." Meanwhile, the student 
teacher had began to introduce herself by writing her name on the chalk board.
	"Thank you, Horaki-san. I am Nobuteru Hiroko." The boys were even more captivated by her voice. 
It was quiet, yet everyone heard it. "I don't think it would be proper if I didn't tell you all a little about 
myself. I was born in Hiroshima in 1995. I moved to America just before the Second Impact, and I lived there 
until I was about 14, when I moved to Tokyo-2. I began attending the university there when I was 17, and I 
have been studying with a professor in this city for a couple months.
	"But my teacher never told me that this city was under attack from huge monsters!" The boys of 
the class laughed uncontrollably, even though her joke was not meant to be so hilarious. "Anyway, your 
teacher is also mine." The laughter suddenly stopped. Everyone knew that their teacher spoke of nothing 
but the Second Impact, somehow incorporating that event into every aspect of the day.
	Nobuteru looked around quietly, then suddenly smiled and waved her hand in the air. "Don't worry, 
I'll talk about a whole lot more than the Second Impact." The class collectively let out a sigh of relief. "I 
know it gets old, but that's just his style of teaching. I deeply respect how he can teach all subjects, 
making them relevent to that event in his life."

	The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. It continued to storm all over Japan, and the class 
readily invited the change in their schooling. Shinji waited alone under an awning outside the school, 
listening to the heavy raindrops hitting the plastic above. Misato was supposed to have picked him up, but 
she wasn't picking up her cell phone. The young Ikari was prepared to walk home in the maelstrom, but he 
remained still. Oddly enough, he found some kind of calmness in the storm.
	"It's kind of beautiful, isn't it?" Shinji spun around to find the substitute, Nobuteru. In her arms 
were many folders, and she also carried a backpack and two briefcases. "The way the lightning strikes, then 
the pause... You wait for the thunder... But when it comes, it still scares you. It's odd how humans can 
expect something and still get scared by it."
	"I guess so."
	"The rest of the students are gone, Ikari-san. Do you need a ride?"
	"Um, well, my guardian... She's supposed to pick me up..."
	"She isn't here yet. Do you think she'll show up?" Shinji didn't respond, but looked downwards at his 
feet. His shoes and the bottoms of his pants were already soaked. "So, you pilot one of those Evangelion 
robots, huh?"
	"What? Yes, I do. How did you know that?"
	"It's common knowledge, Ikari-san. The whole city and maybe the world knows your name. I never 
imagined my professor would send me in his place. I came in today totally unprepared."
	"I think you did pretty good."
	"Really? I appreciate it. I've never taught in front of a class before. So how 'bout that ride?" Shinji 
nodded finally, and Nobuteru pointed over to her car. "It's a fair run, but I don't think we'll get too wet. 
Ready?"
	"Yes!"
	"OK. Three, two, one, go!" The two took off across the parking lot, dodging the occasional puddles 
but on the whole still getting pretty wet. Her car was pretty old, but then again she was a college student, 
not that much older than Shinji. Her car's doors creaked as they were opened, and her seats were worn 
down.  "Ah, shit! That could have gone better."
	"How old is this car?" Shinji asked, not really worried about being a little wet.
	"I thought all guys liked cars. Well, anyway, its an '89 Toyota Cressida with the 1JZ turbo inline-6! 
It still hauls balls after all these years, but I don't drive it very hard because I couldn't afford to get it fixed."
	"Does all of your money go towards your schooling?"
	"Yea, all of it. I barely have enough for gas some weeks. This little bit of teaching I'm doing now 
should help me out a lot, though. The school agreed to help with my housing here in Tokyo-3 during my 
independent studies." The woman drove in silence for the next couple miles. "You have trouble expressing 
how you feel. Am I right?"
	"Kind of... Yes." At that moment something at the side of the road caught Shinji's eye. He watched 
it pass, analyzing its familiarity. The blue hair, pale skin, and black socks... Was that Ayanami Rei? He blinked,
and then she was gone.
	"Did I pass your place or something?"
	"No, I thought I saw someone I know, but I must be seeing things."
	"You care about those around you, huh?" she said in a more gentle tone.
	"Huh?"
	"You care about the people around you a lot. Your friends, co-workers, family..."
	"I don't... really have a family. My mother died a long time ago, and my father left me at an 
orphanage when I was three."
	"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
	"It's OK. Sometimes I feel better when I talk about it. My apartment complex is over there," he said,
pointing to the right. She pulled over to the side of the road. "Thank you, Nobuteru-sensei." A warm smile 
crossed the woman's face, and she nodded enthusiastically. Shinji grabbed his bag and got out of the car as 
quick as he could.
	He found Misato's apartment empty, and after doing a little cleaning Shinji lie down with his SDAT. 
That student teacher, however, was stuck in his mind. She had been very kind to him for no obvious reason. 
He had a very odd feeling when they were in her car. It wasn't that he was attracted to her. Sure she was 
hot, but Shinji just didn't feel that kind of connection. It was something different, something he couldn't 
describe.
	He knew that calling her 'sensei' would make her feel good about the job she had done. She had 
been right; he did care about those around him. That was just how Shinji was.
	Pretty soon, his cell phone wrang. "Hello?"
	'Shinji-kun? Are you OK? I'm so sorry I forgot! The Commander made me rework some of our 
weapons positions and I totally spaced out! Did you make it home OK?'
	"Yea, I got home fine. There was a college student sent by our teacher today, and she gave me a 
ride home. I'm fine, Misato-san."
	'Can you ever forgive me?'
	"Sure, of course I can."
	'Thanks a bunch, Shin-chan! I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully.'

	Meanwhile, Nobuteri Hiroko was sitting back in the school's parking lot looking through her many 
papers. "Let's see, who do these belong to... Ayanami Rei... Apartment 402, way over there in the 
construction zone? What a place to live." Since none of the children in the class 2-A could drive, she decided
that she should go around and hand out the homework printouts. A girl named Ayanami had the largest pile. 
Unfortunately her apartment was on the opposite side of the city.
	The drive was a little difficult in the pouring rain, but Nobuteru's careful driving maked things less 
dangerous. Fortunately, she had dug an umbrella out of her back seat and didn't get too much more wet as 
she ran up to the apartment complex. The apartment 402's door was straight ahead of the elevator doors, 
and Nobuteru noticed that her mailslot was overflowing.
	"Does she really live here anymore?" She approached the door and hit the doorbell. Upon hearing 
no noise inside, she pushed the button for a little longer. Still no change. Of course she had no right to enter 
the apartment, and if she left the printouts in the mailslot they may never be found. No guardian was listed 
in her file, so Nobuteru was at a loss. She had come all this way for nothing.
	Maybe not for nothing...
	She produced a small scrap of paper and left a note on the 402 door at eye level.
	Ayanami finally came home hours later, after her testing was finished. She approached her door and
took the note off her door, reading it at the same time. Rei continued into her apartment, folding the note 
down the middle before letting it fall to the floor. She took no initiative to call the substitute teacher, who 
had apparently left the note. She would return to class when her schedule allowed her, not before. The pale 
girl lie down on her bed gingerly; many of her wounds were not totally healed.
	Thunder broke the silence of her dirty apartment. Ayanami was not afraid of the storm; such a fear 
was unfounded. It was a natural occurance, and therefore was nothing to be afraid of. However, she 
couldn't help but jump when it struck. She tried several times to brace herself for the thunder, but she 
always jumped, and she could not understand why.

To be continued...