Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book One)

E5 Part 2: Is my child getting along with others?

Daihakone Station. Three blocks to the south.

It flowed from out of the tunnels and through the deserted subway station. Without a sound, it crawled up the stairs and out onto the open streets.

***

Fourth Floor Teacher's Lounge

"Or the peppermint. I could settle for peppermint." The Doctor very carefully held up his hands to either side. "Maybe the decaf, though? Just a thought."

"Who. Are. You?" Captain Katsuragi growled.

"Shinji's English teacher. Didn't I say on the way in? I thought I said."

"I'm not in the mood to be patronized today."

"Yeah, I... gathered that." The Doctor tried to sneak a glance back towards her. She'd hidden her eyes behind her sunglasses, light gleaming off of the mirrored lenses. "Look, not to be blunt here - but is there a particular reason you're pointing a gun at my head?"

"You tell me, Doctor." He winced. "Pro tip - we are capable of monitoring sounds and conversations within our entry plugs. Especially when the pilot forgets to shut off his mike."

The Doctor sighed. "Should've rigged the mobile to jam other signals," he muttered. "Knew I was missing something. See, that's what happens when you rush things."

"So you are the Doctor, then. The man Shinji met on that train." The captain adjusted her grip on the pistol. "I appreciate what you did then, but this little game ends now. NERV will not tolerate outside forces manipulating our pilots. And I won't tolerate anyone putting Shinji's life in danger."

"Interesting choice of words." The Doctor allowed an edge to creep into his voice. "Considering I'm not the one sending him out to die on a regular basis."

***

One block to the south.

Officer Kitazume keyed his squad car's radio. "Dispatch, this is four-three-one-nine. Are you seeing what I'm seeing here?"

"Confirmed, four-three-one-nine," the dispatcher replied. "We have you on camera."

"So what is it? Some kind of political stunt?"

"Negative. Nothing's been scheduled for this week. And you're in a restricted zone." There was the sound of typing at the other end of the connection. "Sending backup to your location. Please investigate further and report back."

"Roger." He gunned the car's engine and let out a short burst from the siren. Great, he thought. It had to be one of those crazy new religions, then, like they'd been talking about on the news the other night. Just what his day needed.

***

Fourth Floor Teacher's Lounge

There was a pause behind the Doctor. Then another click as the captain fully pulled back the gun's hammer.

(Huh, he thought. Didn't expect that to hit a nerve. Interesting. Also, that might not have been the best thing to say right here and now.)

"I'll ask you again," the captain said, her voice cold. "Who are you? Who do you work for?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Who do I work for?"

There was a sudden, sharp bang in the distance, like a firework going off. The Doctor turned around and craned his neck towards the window. "Did you hear that?"

She pointed the gun directly at his face. "Did I say that you could move?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. How am I going to answer your questions if you kill me?"

"Maybe I'm trying to decide if you're worth listening to."

He grinned. "Oh, I am. And you know how you can tell?"

"How?"

He looked her in the eye - or in the sunglasses, at least. "Because I don't ignore explosions outside of schools. Especially the ones that give me tea."

She looked at him for a moment. Then pulled back the gun slightly. "Fine. Just remember, I'm watching you."

"Wouldn't have it any other way." The Doctor walked around her and went to the window. "Well, except for the gun. I could really live without the gun. Literally live without it, in fact. I swear, you military types and your control issu -" He glanced outside and froze.

***

Class 2-A.

"Hey. Who are those people?"

Shinji looked up, bleary-eyed, from the sheet of notebook paper he'd been scribbling on. The short-haired girl who sat in the back corner of the class - he couldn't remember her name for the life of him - pointed towards the classroom windows.

The class migrated towards her. Hikari and her friends, who had been standing nearby talking, went to what's-her-name's side. Rei, sitting in her usual seat by the window, looked up from the small paperback she'd been reading. Kensuke jumped up from his seat, camcorder in hand. Toji made a big show of stretching his arms, then followed.

Shinji glanced down at the paper on his desk, the main features of which consisted of a doodle of a blue box and the words "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!" repeated three times and underlined. He sighed and got up.

***

Fourth Floor Teacher's Lounge

"... Captain? I think you might want to take a look at this." The Doctor stepped aside from the window.

***

Class 2-A

The first thing Shinji noticed, as he stood on his toes and craned his neck to look out the windows from the back of the assembled crowd - wasn't the column of smoke that leaked up to the sky in the distance. Nor was it the burning police car at the end of the street that was generating the fumes.

He didn't exactly see the hodgepodge of people - at least a hundred or more - that filled the school's parking lot, walking silently in staggered groups towards the main building. He didn't immediately spot that the crowd was mostly made up of students, wearing uniforms from all over the city, albeit with a good number of middle-aged professionals and subway workers.

The first thing that he noticed was the bone-white masks that half of the crowd was wearing. Or rather - he somehow knew immediately - that had grown out through their faces.

They had two dark spots over the eyes and long, pointed chins. Like the skull of a bird.