"... That's completely insane," Shinji said.

"It's a perfectly safe procedure," Dr Akagi said in response.

"I'm not calling it unsafe, I'm calling it crazy. Is this some kind of prank?"

He, the Doctor, and Misato stood in a small side lab away from the main monitoring stations of the Geofront, where he had been told of his impending participation in a rather strange experiment.

"It's not a joke. This is a serious test we're going to carry out, which could vastly improve sync ratios and increase the overall power of a single Eva, by ensuring two pilots can operate without the problems you and Asuka had when you were both in the same cockpit."

"By... turning one of us into a plugsuit? How does that even work?" Shinji said.

"Oh, not one of you, you, Shinji," Misato corrected.

"Why me?!"

"Asuka has the higher scores right now, so boosting her would be more effective, Rei's neural patterns aren't as compatible with Asuka, and we need her on standby anyway, so you're the best candidate at this point," Dr Akagi said.

Shinji sighed.

"Can I opt out of this?"

"No. Now stop complaining and let me inject these nanomachines so you're ready for Asuka arriving!" Misato said

She plunged the needle into Shinji's arm, the Third Child wincing a little at the spiky intrusion, and then almost instantly feeling a strange sensation. From the site of the injection, he felt... rubbery. He tried to speak, but his throat felt stiff. All across his visible skin he took on a reddish shine, except parts of his arms that became black. At the same time he seemed to be deflating, some parts faster than others: his head shrinking inward as his hands, and feet flattened. As he collapsed in on himself, his clothes piled around his altering form, the shiny red-black synthetic material he had become resembling one of Asuka's regular suits, currently in the looser configuration.

"...Misato, he needed to get undressed and inject himself," Akagi sighed.

"Whoops. Well, I'd better fish him out and attach the relay doohickey and the other bits then," Misato said, pulling the suit/Shinji free of the pile of clothing, then attaching a small tab at the neckline.

"Ow! W-what happened?! I actually turned into a suit?!" A voice came out over a speaker, a few small yelps following as Misato attached the other portions of the plugsuit such as the wrist mechanism to tighten it up, and the other electronics.

"Oh, the test so far succeeded, Shinji. How do you feel?" Akagi asked, as Mistato began trying to put the Shinji-Suit on a hanger.

"Weird! I can hear but, I can't see, and it felt like something stabbed me in the ear and wrist. And like something's poking my face and shoulders..."

"Hmm, one second. Can you taste or smell?"

Akagi followed this question by dipping a paper towel in a mug of coffee, running it around the neckline.

"...Coffee? Ugh, too much cream..." The suit/Shinji protested.

"Interesting. Well, Asuka's about to arrive, so give us your input. The other team will monitor her, any questions" Akagi said.

"I can turn back, right? Wait, does Asuka even know about this?!"

"Sure, there's a reversal treatment but it needs to wait a few hours for the nanomachines to lose power before we can begin. And as for Asuka knowing? Nah, she'd lose focus if she knew the truth right now," Misato replied.

And so Shinji was carried, on hanger, to the locker rooms, and a few moments later, heard the sound of footsteps and German grumbling. If he still had cheeks to blush with, they would have been a different shade of red from his current form as it sank in Asuka was likely undressing a few feet away.

"...Wait, how do I speak to you? It's not reading my thoughts is it?!" He realised in a panic.

"No, it's just if you try to speak normally," Akagi's voice echoed in his 'ears', while Asuka ranted to herself.

"[How the hell do they not have my plugsuit ready... There's a dozen of them! Ugh, I bet that pervert Shinji's been stealing them and stashing them away to sniff them or wear them rather than let them get washed...]"

"Oh good, she's complaining about me again, at this rate I'm going to know every German insult there is..." Shinji sighed, to the amusement of the two women monitoring him in a side lab.

And then a speaker in the locker room buzzed to life.

"Oh, Asuka, we forgot to tell you, try to think and speak Japanese for this test. I know you prefer to do German in most solo tests but the system we're testing today just doesn't seem to pick up on German that well," Misato said.

"What?! Argh, was it built for that doll or the pervert first?!" She raged.

Then she remembered she had to press an intercom button to speak back, and repeated her rant.

"No, it's merely a... hardware issue. But I do remind you, if this device succeeds it will possibly double your sync ratio with little effort on your part, and an approximately 80% reduction on the added feedback."

"Improved performance and it might hurt less at higher rates? Okay, now I'm sold!" Asuka beamed, and began to pull on her suit eagerly.

"Agh! That feels so weird!" Shinji protested, as Asuka drove her feet into the suit and waggled her fingers into the gloves/his hands.

The warm sensation of her skin sliding inside his slightly cool rubbery form continued to feel weird, and he started to smell a faint floral scent, likely Asuka's perfume. He realised with a blend of relief and dismay, that as a suit, his 'body' was not making any awkward hormonal actions, especially as he realised that Asuka was about to press the button to compress the suit. A hiss of air, and he felt himself clinging all around her warmth, and the scent of the perfume flooding his neck/nostrils.

"Huh, this suit feels... clingy, for some reason. A bit tighter than usual," Asuka commented, then pressed the communications button again.

"Hey, is this suit new? It feels different. A little tighter."

"It's a newly made one with a few modifications, yes. But it ought to be okay with a little stretching," Akagi said.

"Oh, I see. Is everything else ready, cos I'm good to go," She said, and upon getting the okay, padded out of the locker room.

"I'm not.... This feels so weird, " Shinji moaned, but he was ignored.