A couple of minutes later.
- HOW CAN THIS BE?!! It's impossible! - a disheveled Misato stared dumbfoundedly at my open palm and her fist. The captain's entire worldview collapsed in an instant, and that's putting it mildly. - How can you win thirty times in a row?!! Shinji! I'm asking you! How did you do it?!" And she looked at me, full of despair, horror and incomprehension.
- I said right away, it's a bad method. Too random and unreliable, - I answered with an indifferent shrug and took a sip from a cup of cold tea. But anyway, I found someone to play games with, any experienced magician has intuition elevated to the rank of unconditional reflexes, otherwise you'll bake from your own experiments, literally to a crisp. But anyway, I just couldn't deny myself the pleasure of once again breaking Misato, although I admit it was hard, the girl's reaction is still better than my current body.
- Si-i-i-inji-i-i-i... - the beautiful captain said pitifully, making a pleading face, just a little more and you can see she'll shed a tear.
- Misato, are you complaining already?
- No-o-o, I want you to feel sorry for me. Come on, be a man!
- Hmm... Do you know that this phrase sounds quite ambiguous? - I asked, raising my eyebrows, looking at the girl's face.
"You bastard! That's not what I meant at all!" Misato jumped up, instantly blushing.
- I believe you. Even though it's a pity.
- You bastard! - and immediately, without any transition at all: - Well, Shinji, please! - the contrast between the righteous fury and the pleading tone of a little girl who begs her mother for candy was delightful. I almost melted. I had had some very eccentric acquaintances before, including extremely spontaneous girls, but even among them, no one could switch from one state to another so abruptly, at least without any reason and in the middle of a sentence.
- So am I a bastard, or should I feel sorry for you? You decide.
"Pity!" Misato responded without wasting a single moment to think.
"Okay," Misato blossomed. I stood up, walked up to the girl and began to stroke her head, saying in a calm and dispassionate voice: "Poor, unfortunate Misato, how hard it is for you..."
– SI-I-INJI-I-I!!!
- Okay, I was joking, - I took my hand off Katsuragi's head and started collecting the plates from the table. - I'll take the cooking, washing the dishes and cleaning, fine, and you'll do the laundry, taking out the trash and watering the flowers. But keep in mind, this doesn't mean that you can now not clean up after yourself and just dump the dishes in the sink.
- Shinji, you're a sweetheart! - Misato exulted. Although I'm willing to bet that if I had suggested this option from the very beginning, I would have been faced with a two-hour haggle, in raised tones and with the use of all the feminine tricks. - Listen, let's sort out your things! - this miracle suddenly suggested when I was already putting the dishes in the sink.
- Tomorrow.
- What tomorrow?
- I'll sort it out tomorrow, it's already late today, I want to sleep.
- But there were boxes from NERV, aren't you interested in what's inside?
- Most likely the uniform and weapons, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm tired.
- But tomorrow, you have school from early morning, you won't have time to unpack your things! - and then the phrase about weapons reached Misato. - What weapons?!
- I'll sort it out after school, - another washed plate went into the drying cabinet. - By the way, where is it? Or rather, how will I get there, I don't know the city.
"Don't worry, I'll take you," and shaking his head: "So what weapon?!"
- Thank you, - I removed the last plate and turned to the girl, wiping my hands with a towel. - A regular weapon, the one my father and I agreed on in the hangar. I can't tell you the exact brand, though, because I haven't seen it yet. Oh, and if you've forgotten, I'm now a NERV lieutenant and I'm supposed to have a personal weapon according to regulations.
- You haven't even read it!
- I haven't read it, but I doubt that there is no such clause.
"That's right," Katsuragi admitted reluctantly, under my expectant gaze. "All NERV employees have the right to carry weapons, and officers are required to have them on them at all times."
- What's there to argue about then? Or are you afraid that I'll shoot something off myself?
- Exactly!
- Then arrange for me to be briefed and visit the shooting range, what's the problem?
- Well, if you put it that way... - Misato scratched her ear thoughtfully. - Then yes, I don't see any problems. But first you'll go through the training so that I'm completely sure that you won't shoot yourself in the head, and only then will you start carrying a weapon!
- Naturally. Or did you think that I would go to school with him, and even put on a uniform jacket? To, so to speak, show off in front of my peers?
- Well... To be honest, yes.
- Misato, I don't think I gave any reason to doubt my own sanity and adequacy.
"Well, I'm sorry, I didn't think," Katsuragi said, embarrassed.
- Okay, forget it. Do you think that penguin of yours will occupy the bathtub for much longer? I wanted to rinse off before going to bed...