Ritsuko Akagi sighed to herself softly, standing there in the
living room looking down at the alcohol sodden form that was now
sprawled out on the couch. The slim blonde had come over there to talk
to Misato about the latest Angel attack, but it was pretty obvious
that their discussion was going to have to wait until later. She bent
down and got Misato's arm up over her shoulders, heaving the dark
haired woman into a kind of fireman's carry
"Whew," Ritsuko puffed out a breath as she staggered a bit
under her friend, "Misato, you've got to loose some weight."
With some effort Ritsuko avoided the random beer cans and got
Misato down the hall, then heaving her into the rumpled bed. She
covered her up with a sheet, pausing a moment to look down at her old
schoolmate. Even dressed in just her rumpled old T-shirt and a pair of
stretch pants, Misato could be damned attractive.
'She'd be almost cute. Well, if she wasn't drooling so much,
anyway,' Ritsuko noted it with some amusement.
She made her way back up to the living room, being careful not
to disturb the hopefully still sleeping Asuka and Shinji. Ritsuko
picked her way through the messy floor, shaking her head at the piles
of takeout containers, beer cans, and other litter. With a frown she
saw what looked like a journal laying there, covered with Misato's
generally messy hand writing. She felt just a bit guilty as she picked
it up and read, but she rationalized it as best friend's privilege.
"Some people say I'm a lush, that I drink too much," the angry
scrawl read and Ritsuko could almost imagine Misato's voice speaking
to her, "and maybe they're right. But they don't really understand the
basic nature of my job."
Ritsuko frowned to herself slightly as she read that, picking
up the bitter tone of the words. "I knew she sometimes had problems,"
she murmured softly, "but..." Silently she resolved to have a little
talk with a few of the spit and polish officers.
The next bit was written out more boldly, "You see, my job is
to send these kids out into battle, guide them, and maybe watch them
die if I'm not quite good enough to save them. And I just don't know
how much longer we're going to continue to be so damn lucky, how long
until one of them just doesn't come back."
Ritsuko closed the journal with a soft thump and set it back
down roughly where she found it before worriedly looking up the long
hallway to where her friend lay sleeping. 'What on earth do I do now?'
she wondered.
Silently she left, pulling the door shut behind her before
Ritsuko strode down the hallway. She rode the elevator downstairs, her
eyes dark with concern. Ritsuko had known Misato since school, but she
had never gotten that feeling of... despair from her before. In all
honestly, she hadn't thought that Misato was capable of such emotion.
'That's unfair,' Ritsuko scolded herself as she stroke the
streets of Tokyo Two. She hadn't expected Misato to form such a strong
parental bond with Shinji, but that was exactly what she had done.
'And maybe that's the problem,' she admitted.
She knew there was a great deal of stress coming from their
ongoing battle with the Angels. And on Misato that was likely
magnified, being the operational commander in most of the operations
against the Angels. Combine that with having to send her 'children'
out into battle again and again, and you had a recipe for a breakdown
of one type or another.
'Well, Dr. Akagi," Ritsuko thought to herself whimsically,
'now that you've identified the problem, what would you suggest for a
cure?'
She barely noticed reaching her building, unthinkingly walking
over to the elevator and rising up several levels to her floor. Lost
in her thoughts she wandered down the hallway, opening up her door and
stepping inside.
With a scowl Ritsuko picked up her pile of mail, idly
wondering how on Earth so much junk mail could continue to be
delivered even in a global crisis like this. She briskly flipped
through them, "Bill, bill, magazine, letter, another bill,
advertisement..." she stopped. She held up the brightly colored
pamphlet and looked at it thoughtfully.
"You know," Ritsuko murmured thoughtfully, "this might not be
such a bad idea."
The brightly colored fold out fell to the table even as she
headed off to her own bed. "Take a relaxing break!" the brightly
colored slogan read, "Visit the Hot Springs!"
The next day, Ritsuko arranged a visit with Gendo. Sitting
across the desk from him she silently reflected on the fact that Gendo
Ikari was a great man. Not a likable one, certainly not the warmest or
most pleasant of men, but still great.
It wasn't often she saw Gendo show surprise, and she savored
the moment as he peered over his glasses and asked, "You want to take
them where?"
Ritsuko smiled, "To the hotsprings for a short vacation." She
sat back, "The three pilots, while operating well together in the
field, still show a lack of unit cohesiveness. I believe such an
excursion could help cement bonds of trust and loyalty between them,
as well as providing a break from the stresses of being the Evangelion
pilots."
Gendo nodded thoughtfully, sitting back in his chair and
lacing his fingers together. "And whom would be accompanying them?" he
asked.
"Myself and Misato," Ritsuko replied crisply.
Gendo nodded to himself thoughtfully, and Ritsuko wondered
what he was thinking about. The other Pilots? Ritsuko herself? Or even
about his son, Shinji, whom he had recruited to pilot the Evangelion
Unit 01 for him.
"It all seems reasonable," Gendo initialed the authorization
forms and then passed them over the desk to her.
"Thank you, sir," Ritsuko smiled, turning and leaving once she
had been dismissed.
'He didn't even ask about Shinji,' Ritsuko mused a bit sadly
as she strode down the hall. She shook herself, 'That is not my
problem right now. What I have to figure out is how to offer my help
to Misato without letting her know I read her journal.'
"Easier said than done," Ritsuko sighed to herself.
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