2010-07-17 - Cutscene: 4ST 7LB

Misato Katsuragi isn't a mother and shouldn't have tried to be.

That's no excuse for neglecting Shinji.

She can't help it, though, because of messages like the one Kaji left for her. He spelled some things out, but not enough. Misato is so lonely that it's nice just to hear his voice. The passcode is their first memory together.

On Misato's desk are empties and a full gun.

Misato takes the gun to the Geofront and presses it to the spine of Ritsuko Akagi.

Earlier, she tried to talk to Pen Pen to cheer herself up, but he saw through her ruse and ignored her.

She doesn't know where Shinji is a lot of the time, and she's glad he's not here.

Ritsuko's access code doesn't work anymore, thanks to Kaji, so Misato uses hers and they enter the core of the Dummy System.

Misato nearly throws up when she sees the core of the Dummy Plugs. A hundred Rei Ayanamis lift their heads inside their aquarium and smile, as if happy to have visitors. None of them blink.

Ritsuko explains what they are and kills them all. Misato can't watch them dissolve inside their tank, but she can't not watch, either.

Ritsuko breaks down and begs Misato to kill her.

Misato calls her friend stupid and leaves.

Misato tries to call Kaji, but gets his voice mail and leaves a message. She goes home and drinks a beer and thinks about how things fall apart, and how maybe it was always happening.

Maybe no one paid much attention.

The worst thing you can do to someone who makes their living as a strategist is to take away the bedrock they rest on and obscure their projections of the future. It hurts like a phantom limb, or a bullet to the heart. Misato Katsuragi can feel the scar on her chest throb.

It's probably her imagination.