From: "GreyJedi" Subject: [Eva][Fanfic] A Morning Walk The usual accreditation to the series original creators Gainax, To Hideako Anno for the wonderous series of NGE and To ADV for the american release of NGE. Of course all rights and images belong to them... like anyone reads these things ever... Message From GreyJedi: I did not write this a friend of mine did. He asked me to upload it. A Morning Walk by Craig A. Butler A few small clouds hovered over the city, the sole remnants of the previous night's storm. The air still carried the sweet smell of rain, and just a little chlorophyll from the countryside surrounding the vast metropolis of Tokyo-3. The sun was just coming over the horizon, and much of the city was still cloaked in the shadows of the great skyscrapers that dominated the skyline. Already millions of people were scurrying from their homes to get to their workplaces on time; the great mechanism of civilization churned ever forward. As the initial rush slackened, an unremarkable old man stepped gingerly out of the door of his apartment building. He sniffed the air, smiling at the familiar scent of a summer's rainstorm. His smile faded as his eyes came to rest on the labyrinth of concrete and steel that surrounded him. The chirping of birds did not reach his ears; there were no birds here. Nor were there rabbits, or squirrels, or even ants. Tokyo-3 had been designed by some of the most brilliant minds ever to walk the earth to serve as the last stronghold of the human race, if need be. Nothing here was wasted, or unnecessary; it was the very embodiment of ordered thought in the twenty-first century. The old man hated it. He hated its stark functionality, its inhuman austerity. He would have felt infinitely more at home in the most primitive of huts. Memories of those days filled his mind, and he forced them away. The past was dead now, replaced by this grim, technological skeleton of itself. The irony that he was, perhaps, the world's most technologically sophisticated man did occur to him, but such thoughts were of no interest to him. He was as dead as his memories, and had been for longer than anyone would ever know. The old man banished these thoughts from his mind. He had waited an eternity to be freed from this world, and could afford to wait just a little longer. The events he had set in motion were speeding toward their inevitable conclusion, and nothing could stop them now. He began walking, threading his way through the streets with an easy familiarity. He wore no watch, and had no need for one. He arrived at his destination precisely on time. Two children, perhaps fourteen years old, walked past him on their way to school. As the old man fell in behind them, one of the children, an attractive, redheaded girl, grabbed her friend's hand and tried to make him run with her. "Come on, Shinji!" she cried, "why do you always walk so slow? If you don't speed up we're going to be late for school!" "No we won't," the dark-haired boy replied, struggling to get loose of her grip, "we have plenty of time, Asuka. Most of the other kids haven't even left home yet." "And if all the other kids decided to kill themselves I suppose you'd want to too?" she insisted, pulling harder. "Besides, we're important people and we have to act like it, and that means getting there first! Sometimes I don't know why I even bother! I -" Suddenly, Shinji planted his feet and pulled back. Asuka lost her hold on him, and they both fell to the ground. Despite the pain, Shinji laughed out loud. He loved interrupting her tirades, even if it meant a bruise or two. "SHINJI!!" Asuka was back on her feet in a second, and was screaming at him the next, "How could you do such a stupid thing! I could have been hurt! And you were probably looking up my dress too, weren't you!" "No, Asuka, I -" But nothing he could say now would save him. Neither of them noticed the old man chuckling at them from twenty feet away as Asuka gave Shinji the verbal beating of his life (again). Now they would almost certainly be late, and that would probably merit another lecture for the poor boy. The old man sat on a nearby bench and watched the one-sided exchange wistfully. He couldn't remember his childhood, if he had even had one, and would have given anything to be that young boy for just one minute, just one second. He wished that he could forget all that he knew and had seen, and could be a simple boy whose only cares were how to deal with simple girls. He allowed himself to imagine what it would be like, to be free and innocent and unburdened by centuries of living death. He watched the boy and girl as they continued the argument, on the one hand the fiery-tempered female, on the other the much-berated, yet calm, male. And to think; they were all that really stood between humanity and its destruction. The old man felt a wave of pity for the two, knowing that there was no way to save them. He wondered whether or not he should reconsider his plans, try and find another way, one that would spare this blossoming little romance? But there was no other way. If there was, he would know about it. Much of the efforts of humanity, without even knowing it, had been working for him to find another way, and there wasn't one. And now those resources, still without knowing it, were working for their own destruction, and his. Even if he wanted to stop it now, it was too late. With an effort, the old man walked up to where Shinji and Asuka still sat, she yelling at him and he trying not to anger her further. Asuka stopped when she noticed the gray-haired old man standing over them. "Who are you?" she asked sharply, in her rage forgetting to address the old man respectfully. It didn't bother him. "Enjoy yourselves, while you can," he told them, walking by quickly. He knew they wouldn't pay much attention to his warning, but after all, they were going to fulfil his greatest wish, so he felt they deserved what good will he could spare for them. "Who was that old geezer anyway?" Asuka asked loudly enough for him to hear, "anyway, Shinji, don't think that I'm done with you yet! Oh, what now?" She looked around as sirens began wailing all over the city. "Another angel? Don't they ever give up? Come on Shinji, we'll finish this conversation later!" She dragged the boy to his feet and pushed him toward the entrance of Central Dogma, following right behind him. Unseen and already forgotten, Lorenzo Kihl continued his morning walk,as the great engines beneath him began lowering the city to imagined safety. About the Author Living in America, I haven't had a chance to see the Neon Genesis Evangelion movies yet, so I don't know if my view of Lorenzo Kihl is anything like what he's like in them. Also, I'm not a really big anime fan like most of the people who read this will probably be, and I make no apologies for if it doesn't agree with your vision of this world. I was just kind of intrigued by the idea of Kihl, so I wrote this piece on him, and while it's not my best work, I think it's worthy of consideration. C.A.B.