Misato Katsuragi brought Shinji Ikari back to her apartment.
She could not accept leaving a boy that young to live all by himself.
At the very least, she wanted to do what she could to help this boy whose relationship with his father was clearly terrible.
On the way, she showed him the true form of the city he would be protecting next: the fortress city of New Tokyo, packed with towering high-rises.
When Shinji entered Misato's apartment, he was stunned.
The room was full of clutter, trash, instant noodles, beer cans, and empty sake bottles.
The refrigerator was basically nothing but beer.
As for edible food, there was little besides instant noodles.
Even so, the apartment was lively in its own chaotic way.
Then, just as Shinji was about to head into the bathroom, he was startled by the sight of a penguin wandering around inside.
He let out a yell and rushed back out, stammering in shock as he called for Misato.
Misato, sitting casually on a stool, looked over at him.
"What's wrong?"
Before Shinji could explain himself properly, the penguin waddled out on its own and headed back toward its room.
"Oh, that one? It's a hot-spring penguin. A kind of bird."
The penguin opened the automatic door with practiced ease, shot Shinji a disdainful look, and hopped onto its own bed.
"There's… there's really a bird like that!?"
Shinji was dumbfounded.
"There were lots of them fifteen years ago. Its name is Pen-Pen, and it lives here too. He's our roommate."
Misato took a drink of beer and reminded Shinji to stop standing there awkwardly and go get cleaned up.
As Shinji retreated back toward the bathroom in embarrassment, Misato watched him and sighed to herself.
"Maybe I overdid it…"
As she drank, she reflected that he was still just a boy, eleven years younger than she was.
"Maybe I'm the one being seen through."
She guessed that perhaps Shinji had been testing her in his own clumsy way, forcing her to confront what it really meant to share a home with a teenage boy.
But Misato had shown no disgust, no discomfort.
That left Shinji sitting in the bath feeling a little guilty.
At least now, he understood one thing very clearly:
Misato was a good person.
…
…
…
In the timeline of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
At the Antarctic base, Ryoji Kaji watched the scene in Misato's apartment with a small smile.
"Misato, you really haven't changed…"
He understood exactly why Misato had brought Shinji home with her.
Unfortunately, he still had important things he needed to do.
These were things he had to accomplish in order to protect the person he cared about, so for now, he had no time to stay by Misato's side.
At NERV Headquarters—
"Huh… strange. I thought Misato was still single right now?"
Maya Ibuki stared curiously at the screen, and soon the staff in the command room began gossiping among themselves.
Even in a world threatened by extinction-level Angels, people still loved a bit of gossip.
Misato herself flushed bright red as she walked into the command room. Coughing a few times, she raised the file in her hand to cover her embarrassed expression.
Seriously, broadcasting somebody saving the world was one thing.
But why did it have to show private details from her life too?
At that moment, she felt as though she had been stripped of all privacy.
In the world of Grand Carnival
"Mm… wonderful, absolutely wonderful… Boy, you need to treasure the time you have living with a beautiful older woman like that.
"Don't look so gloomy. Don't keep your head down all the time. Cheer up a little.
"Why not use that helpless aura of yours—the kind that makes older women want to protect you—and make her fall for you?"
Bartholomew wore a wicked grin and gave Shinji a thumbs-up.
"A poor child… I really do want to pat Shinji Ikari on the head," Kasuga no Tsubone said sympathetically.
"A good child ought to be rewarded. What is this supposed to be?
"In this modern Japan without me around, have the adults all forgotten how to praise a brave child who's done something good?"
She watched Shinji alone in the bath with heartfelt pity.
It was far too cruel to force a child to pilot something like that under such mental pressure.
Kiara Sessyoin, meanwhile, licked her lips as she watched Shinji lying awake in bed with his MP3 player, unable to sleep.
She seemed to have formed a bold and rather dangerous idea of her own.
In the world of Carnival Phantasm
Artoria Pendragon watched Misato's apartment with intense concentration.
"I see… so this is the sort of style a mature, elegant modern woman prefers."
She had recently been worrying about buying new clothes, and now she felt she had found useful reference material.
"Mm… I should go shopping tomorrow with Shirou. Things like that are important. I can't afford to waste money."
Nearby, Taiga Fujimura smiled nostalgically as she watched the awkward, tentative interaction between Shinji and Misato.
She still believed that Gendo Ikari loved his son.
How could there possibly be parents in this world who did not love their own child? A child was the embodiment of their love, after all.
In the world of KonoSuba
"So jealous… I'm so jealous! He actually gets to sleep in the same room as a mature, beautiful older woman like that.
"Shinji Ikari, you've got to seize the opportunity. I do get how you feel, but still—
"Instead of spending every day miserable and depressed, wouldn't it be better to live a little happier?
"What does saving the world have to do with me? Come on, I'm just a kid!"
If Kazuma Satou were in Shinji's position, he definitely would not be suffering like that. He would be enjoying every day spent with Misato to the fullest.
He was also certain he had picked up some suggestive undertones from Misato's words.
An open, mature, beautiful woman like Misato Katsuragi was the sort of presence no teenage boy could possibly resist.
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