Stage 43 - Interrogation Cover: Six scraggly-looking early-teen and younger boys sitting on a scrapped car amidst the remains of a destroyed building. The biggest/eldest boy in front is the young Kaji. Scene: Entry plug insertion into Eva-01 -- Rei in cockpit -- staff in Command Center Announcements: Entry start, LCL electrification! Commencing A^10 nerve connection!! (Rei is stricken by a bout of nausea and covers her mouth) Rei: Unh... Nerv Operator: Pulse reversal! Maya: Eva-01 is rejecting the nerve connection! Ritsuko: That's impossible! Fuyutsuki: Ikari- Gendo: Yes, it's rejecting me. Announcement: Cease activation! Rei (thinking): It's no good... any more Gendo: Have Rei sortie in Eva-00. Reactivate Eva-01 using the dummy plug. Misato: But Eva-00 is... Rei: I don't mind. Misato: Rei? Rei: I'll go. (thinking) Even if I die, there is a replacement. Shigeru: One more blow and all the armor plates will be broken through!! Misato (thinking): Good luck, Asuka... Scene: Zeruel breaking into the Geofront -- Zeruel's eyes flash and a large explosion rocks the ceiling city. Eva-02 waits below in the Geofront surrounded by weapons. Asuka: So you're finally here! (Zeruel appears through ceiling city) Even without Shinji, I can do this alone. It's a piece of cake!! (opens fire) Take that!!! (Bullets stream towards Zeruel) Scene: Shinji following Kaji through an underground passage Shinji (thinking): The ground's shaking seems to have intensified... I wonder what's happening with the Angel. (Kaji takes a card from his pocket and slides it through a card reader. A door opens to reveal an emergency shelter/storehouse) Shinji: What is this? Kaji: Well, let's just say that Nerv has a lot of facilities that are unknown to civilians. This is built a lot better than your average shelter, and even has access to the Geofront via linear rail. Shinji: Who would have thought a place like this existed right below the station... (thinking) and look at all these emergency provisions...) Kaji: I never told you why I was spying on Nerv, did I? Shinji: ... Not that I really care... Kaji (slightly flustered): Now, come on. We'll never get anywhere like that. (serious face) Everything started with Second Impact... Things were really bad right after that. You can imagine, can't you? (scenes of destruction) The cities were destroyed, there was no place for people to live, not enough food, and countless people died. My parents also died, leaving behind only me and a brother 4 years younger. (Shinji listens silently) Kaji: There were a lot of children who had lost their parents at that time. But those children couldn't just be left to fend for themselves, right? So the government rounded them up and threw them into orphanages. But think about it -- there were hundreds of thousands of orphans throughout the country, so the orphanages were filled to bursting in no time. There was not enough food or clothing, and we even had to fight for places to sleep. There were also not enough caretakers, so the rules were abnormally strict. Shinji (looking aside): ... Wasn't this supposed to be a story about spying? Kaji: ... Well excuse me for the long introduction... (slight comic relief?) (continuing) At any rate, some of us just couldn't take it any more, so we escaped. Me, my younger brother, and five of our friends. Of course what happened next was a foregone conclusion. Shinji: What to you mean, forgone? Kaji: You know -- we had to steal in order to eat. Shinji: So, before you were a spy, you were a thief? Kaji: We had to steal in order to live! But at a time when the whole world was starving, there just wasn't that much food we could lay our hands on. Then, by chance, we stumbled onto a military provisions warehouse, not unlike this one. The management/control systems were not as thorough as they are now, so it was pretty easy to sneak in. And we did so whenever we got hungry. Of course, having everyone go at once would stand out, so we took turns. Then, one day when it was my turn... Scene: young Kaji sneaking into military storehouse Soldier: Who's there!? (Kaji with arms full of foodstuffs = shocked/scared expression) Soldier: We know you're in there!! So come out quietly with your hands up!! (Kaji drops the food and comes out with his hands up to see a group of 5-6 sneering soldiers. One of the soldiers kicks him in the midsection and he falls to his knees gagging) Soldier: It's one of those brats that have been hanging around here lately. Soldier: And raiding the military storehouses! Soldier (grabbing Kaji by the hair): Where are your friends? Tell us where your hideout is! We'll throw the lot of you pests into facilities where you belong!! Kaji (knocking aside soldier's hand): I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have any friends -- there's just me. Soldier (striking Kaji in face): Don't you lie to me!! (continues beating Kaji) We know you always hang out with your friends! Now tell us where they are!! (Kaji lies on the ground groaning, but does not speak) Soldier: Tough little shit, ain't ya? (places boot on Kaji's head) Do you understand your position? Listen -- we have permission to kill outright anyone found sneaking into military facilities. (draws pistol and chambers a round) In other words, I can kill you right here without anyone saying a second word. (hauls Kaji up by the jacket collar and sticks the pistol against his face) I'm going to give you a chance, boy. You tell us where your friends are, and I'll spare you. But if you don't tell us, I'll pull the trigger right here, right now. Scene: Present day -- Shinji listens with shocked expression Kaji: I was afraid to die, Shinji. I've never been so scared as that in my entire life -- not before nor since Shinji: Did you tell them...? Kaji: ... Shinji): What happened... after that...? Scene: Back to young Kaji Kaji (trembling/crying): An abandoned building... between the East communal graveyard and the national road... Soldier (removing pistol): Okay, good boy. (to other soldiers) Let's go. (to one soldier) You stay here and guard him. Remaining soldier: ...Now let's just stay nice and friendly until the others get back. (Kaji sits dejectedly, then suddenly grabs a can of food and hurls it at the soldier, striking him directly in the face. Kaji runs away, with the soldier shooting after him. Soldier (firing): Wait! You little shit!! (Kaji runs panting away back toward his friends) Scene: Present day -- Kaji talking against backdrop of memory Kaji: I returned to my friends just in time to see a military truck driving away. (Young Kaji enters the building, only to find the bloody corpses of his younger brother and their friends - he can only stand and stare, speechless and crying) Kaji (sadly): I sacrificed my younger brother and friends, so that I could live... (Shinji listens quietly in shock) - End Stage 43