[ it was times like this that you had to give asuka langley soryu credit where it was due. whatever the girl's flaws in personality and temperament might be, her dedication to the great facade of i'm doing fine-ness could not be denied. she couldn't convince a blind-mute if her life were on the line, but there was something to be said about her persistence. and following that something, whatever it was, were the qualifiers maddening, hopeless, counterproductive.

under the hood, kaji's expression is less than friendly, but he refrains from any knee-jerk responses. drop the act, asuka. if she wants - needs - to play this game... well, she'd be hard-pressed to find a better athlete than in him. ]

You can say that again, [ from her lunges to her knife-work to her gun-work, asuka's piloting style was a macabre mixture of ballet, surgery, and demolition. ] And to think, you were too young to drive a car around Berlin or Tokyo-3. Seems silly to think about, doesn't it.