Fanfic / Read the Fine Print (Evangelion)

Agatha: "Wait, really?! You're actually gonna sign it?!"
CelloBoy: "Why not? You said yourself that it's all bogus."
Agatha: "...Well... Fine. But just in case it isn't bogus, I'm gonna send you some damn fine chocolate."

Read the Fine Print (formerly known as You Should (Not) Sign Weird Contracts) is a Neon Genesis Evangelion Alternate Universe Fic by MisterHalt, author of You Are (Not) At Fault.

Shinji finds a pen pal when he is seven...a German six-year-old girl who goes by "Agatha" because she is not allowed to tell who she is or what she does. Some years later, Shinji and his pen pal find a strange soul-selling contract on the internet, and Shinji decides to trade his soul to her for chocolate as a joke.

When he is fourteen, Shinji is summoned to Tokyo-3 to pilot an Evangelion. However, he cannot generate an A.T. Field for some reason. When Ritsuko mentions that a soul is needed to create it, Shinji has a sinking feeling that the bogus contract which he signed some years ago is not bogus after all.

It can be read in FF.Net, Archive of Our Own and SufficientVelocity.

Compare with other alternate universe Eva fics like Advice and Trust, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, The One I Love Is..., A Glass of Wine, The Child of Love, or Children of an Elder God.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Asuka makes her appearance after the arrival of the Fourth Angel instead of after the defeat of the Fifth.
• Alternate Universe Fic: When he is seven, Shinji establishes a pen-pal relationship with Asuka, whom he sells his soul as a joke. As a result of it, he has a better relationship with his fellow pilot, but he cannot deploy an A.T. Field.
• Anger Born of Worry: Shinji runs off after Asuka defeats Shamshel, believing he is nothing but an unneeded nuisance. When Asuka catches up with him, Shinji is surprised because she berates him for making her worry.
  Asuka: "What the fuck is wrong with you, Ikari?! [...] Do you know how inconsiderate you are, making me worry like this?"
  Shinji: "Worried? About me?"
  Asuka: ''"Well I wasn't losing any sleep over the performance of the local sports team!"
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Rei finds the story of Shinji and Asuka's soul-selling deal difficult to believe, even though she can see souls.
• Aura Vision: Rei sees souls as glowing lights. She finds Shinji and Asuka disturbing because he is "lightless", whereas Asuka's "light" is blinding.
• Big Brother Is Watching: When Shinji questions how Bwynvienne knows they signed the contract freely, the demoness replies they were being watched by agents of the Infernal Administration when their contact was being signed.
  Shinji: "Wait, how do you know neither of us was forced to sign? We didn't see you when we put our signature on the contract."
  Bwynvienne: "When a contract is being signed, we are given pertinent information about the situation to ensure no duress or lies. If one of those had happened, the contract would have never come into effect. You may not see the Infernal Administration, but rest assured we see you."
  Shinji: "That's... not very assuring."
• Big "SHUT UP!": When NERV's staff starts laughing at Shinji for revealing he sold his soul for chocolate, Asuka patches herself into Unit-01's external speakers and lets out an "ENOUGH!". Her shout was loud enough to be heard across the whole base.
  With a glance at her fellow pilot, who was now beginning to curl up into a ball of embarrassment, she took a deep breath.
  "ENOUGH!"
  The sheer volume of the shout nearly sent Misato and Ritsuko stumbling to the ground. Later, NERV personnel would claim they had heard the Second Child all the way from the cafeteria.
• Blackmail: When Shinji describes how his father forced him to pilot by parading Rei around, Asuka concludes that was blackmail, pure and simple.
  Asuka: ''"Blackmail. If the First Child was really in that kind of condition, there's no way she could have put up a fight against the Third Angel. She was trotted out in front of you deliberately. 'Get in the fucking robot, Shinji. Or we'll send this cripple out to die'."
• Bonding over Missing Parents: In his first letter, Shinji mentions he is living with a teacher. It causes his pen-pal to ask what happened to their parents.
• Booby Trap: When Shinji joins Kensuke's camping, Kensuke decides to "secure the perimeter" around their tent. Shinji does not understand what his new friend means until Asuka gets caught by a tripwire.
• Crazy-Prepared: Even though nobody ever wants to go camping with him, Aida always packs extra food just in case he needs it. He also insists on "securing the perimeter" by setting traps.
• Deal with the Devil: Shinji signs a contract to trade his soul to Asuka for chocolate, barely paying any attention to the bit regarding the Infernal Administration. Years later, when Shinji finds out he truly sold his soul, both kids are visited by a demoness who confirms the contract is legally binding.
• Doorstopper: 276,083 words spread over forty-four chapters as of January, 2022.
• Dope Slap: Shinji starts screaming when Bwynvienne teleports into Misato's kitchen, and Asuka gets him to stop by slapping the back of his head.
  'Before Shinji could get too carried away, Asuka reached out and slapped him across the back of the head. He stopped screaming and winced, bringing a hand up to where he was slapped, and gave her a confused look.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Infernal Administration collects souls, and they are not exactly sympathetic to idiots who do not think of the consequences of selling their souls, but they make sure that a contract only comes into effect if the signer was not lied or forced to sign.
• Facepalm: Misato slaps her forehead when she realizes that Shinji is Asuka's pen pal.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: After a while, Shinji and Asuka begin finishing each other's sentences due to their souls progressively merging.
  "What's the matter, Aida?" Asuka asked, innocent concern in her voice. "You look like—"
  "—you've just seen a ghost," Shinji finished.
  It was a dirty trick, both their synchronized speaking and continuing each other's sentences, but Shinji felt like a little revenge was in order.
• Flaming Hair: The hair of Infernal Administration agent Bwynvienne is a literal cascade of fire. Even her eyebrows are burning.
  Where Asuka's red locks could resemble a fireball when she was in motion, and Shinji had actually thought of her at one point as 'flame-haired', this woman's hair was an actual ball of fire. It streamed down her back and was lush enough that she could potentially use it as a fiery cloak if she felt like it. Surprisingly there was no heat radiating off of her, and the chair she was sitting on was not bursting into flame.
  She raised an eyebrow. That was also on fire.''
• For Want Of A Nail: Shinji befriending Asuka when they are children and obliviously selling his soul to her causes him to be unfit to pilot.
• Gag Penis: As soon as Misato has a visual of Shamshel, she takes notice of its worm-like purple body and bulbous pink head and asks why an incomprehensible eldritch abomination would look like a penis.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Shinji starts screaming hysterically when a demoness shows up in their apartment, so Asuka slaps the back of his head to shut him up and calm him down. It works.
• Green-Eyed Monster: When they meet Bwynvienne, Shinji notices with amusement -and a repressed chuckle- that Asuka's stare is fixated on the demoness' lush flaming hair.
  Asuka turned her attention back to the woman. Or rather, as Shinji swiftly noticed, the woman's hair. He carefully prevented a chuckle escaping at what appeared to be jealousy.
• Horrifying the Horror: Rei, Lilith's incarnation, feels somewhat disturbed by Shinji's lack of a soul. She blatantly asks, "What are you?" when she meets him.
• Impact Silhouette: During its battle against Shamshel, Unit-01 left an Evangelion-shaped crater on the hills of Tokyo-3.
  She decided it didn't matter as she walked her kill beyond the hill she'd landed on. There was a nice deep imprint of an Evangelion there now.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even though Shinji does not even take part in that battle, he still runs away after Shamshel is destroyed right like he did in canon.
• In the Blood: As it turns out, Gendo also sold his soul to Yui.
• It's All My Fault: When Shinji wants to apologize to Touji for getting his little sister hurt, both Asuka and Rei point out that he should not apologize for anything: he was brought in because Rei got injured, blackmailed into riding a war machine which he had never seen and pushed in front of a giant monster. It is Nerv who is to blame, not him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Nerv's staff become ashamed when Asuka reports them for harassing a little boy. After hearing her out, Fuyutsuki agrees that their behavior was unacceptable, but he wonders out loud why she of all people is standing up for a boy whom -he thinks- she does not know.
  ''The adult officers remained abashedly silent as a thirteen year old girl spoke of them laughing at a fourteen year old boy who was just trying to offer an explanation for his inability to do something they had asked of him.
• Living Lie Detector: When Asuka declares their contract is void because they did not know souls are real, Bwynvienne warns her against lying to someone who can detect lies.
• Magically-Binding Contract: Asuka finds a soul-selling contract on the internet. Believing it to be a silly hoax, Shinji sells his soul to Asuka in exchange for chocolate. After coming to Nerv, Shinji finds out that Asuka now truly owns his soul. When they try to alter the contract, a demon shows up to reiterate their contract is legally binding and cannot be broken or altered even if the paper it is printed on was destroyed.
• Mindlink Mates: Because Shinji's soul is owned by Asuka and both are riding the same Eva, the border between their individual minds starts blurring until they're finishing each other's sentences and sharing sensory information.
• Oh, Crap!: Asuka panics when she realizes that the grey-haired man whom she has been rude to is the Sub-Commander.
  Asuka: "Who the hell are you, old man?"
  Fuyutsuki: "I am Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki. Would you like to tell me why I was capable of hearing your voice from the Commander's office, Pilot Soryu?"
  Asuka: (embarrassed) "Sub... shit. Um... sorry sir, I've never seen you in person before."
• Our Demons Are Different: Bwynvienne, the agent sent by the Infernal Administration, wears a pitch-black business suit and low-heeled shoes, and looks like a woman normal except for her literally flaming hair cascading down her shoulders like a cloak. She can appear and disappear silently at will and detect lies.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: It happens when Asuka stops Toji from bullying Shinji.
  Asuka: "First and only warning, asshole. Leave. Him. Alone."
• Read the Fine Print: When Asuka tries to convince Bwynvienne that their contract should be dissolved, the Infernal agent argues they read and understood the contract, and it was signed under no duress. Do not they like the result? Then they should not have it signed.
• Space Whale Aesop: Do NOT sign strange contracts you find on the internet because you might accidentally sell your soul.
• The Stations of the Canon: Despite the drastic change of Shinji being deemed unfit to pilot, major story beats like the order of arrival of the Angels remain unchanged.
• Stunned Silence: Shinji and Asuka become unable to speak when Rei casually says she is completely expendable.
  Rei solemnly shook her head. "That does not matter. The Angels must be defeated at any cost. If I die, I can be replaced."
  The matter-of-fact way she said that caused both Asuka and Shinji's eyes widen in shock. None of them managed to speak again before the warning bell for the end of lunch rang.
• Suggestive Collision: Asuka is dragging Shinji away from Kensuke's campsite when she trips on Kensuke's booby trap. Shinji ends sprawled face-up, and Asuka lying right on top of him.
• Surrounded by Idiots: In her first letter, Asuka complains that she is the only member of the Nerv's German branch who is not a blithering idiot.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When the Third and Second Child start speaking in German, Ritsuko cuts them off, feeling annoyed because they were wasting her time and definitely not because she cannot understand her conversation.
  "As interesting as I'm sure your conversation is," Ritsuko interrupted in typical adult annoyance which had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she couldn't understand them, "can we please get back to business?"
• Tempting Fate: Shinji signs the contract and sells his soul to Asuka, in exchange for chocolate, because he thinks it is all bogus.
• Title Drop: At the end of the first chapter, Asuka drops the chapter's title and says "Hello Shinji. Just call me Agatha."
• Took a Level in Kindness: Having an actual friend as growing up works wonders for Asuka's character. She is still short-tempered, but she is less belligerent and somewhat nicer.

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