EVA: Shinji Ikari Returns from the Dragon Clan

Chapter 258, Section 256: The New Chosen One (Part 3)
The night wind has been blowing for so long.

Shinji Ikari released much of his previously suppressed emotions.

It took him about a minute or two to walk through the withered grass back to the main road, leave Lake Ashi and walk back. Then Shinji Ikari stood on the hillside where he had started and looked towards the lake.

Chu Xun's figure was still there.

It looks quite flimsy from a distance.

I wonder how long Chu Xun will continue to sit by the lake after he leaves. Surely he won't really sit there until dawn? This guy must have his own troubles, right? Otherwise, he wouldn't have been sitting alone by the lake in the middle of the night on his very first day in Third New Tokyo City.

Although it's easy to tell from appearance that she's a clone, Chu Xun and Rei Ayanami are quite different.

Compared to the girl Shinji Ikari met a few months ago.

He's more like a "human being".

The fact that he enjoys humming Beethoven's music and has his own hobbies is enough to prove that he's not just a simple clone. When discussing the new Child with Misato before, Shinji Ikari still had some reservations that "the other person might be an enemy." Now that he's actually met the person, his first impression of this clone is quite good—but that doesn't mean he's completely ruled out the possibility that the other person is an enemy.

The main problem is that the timing of its appearance is too strange.

A few months ago, when Shinji Ikari was still unaware of the truth about the EVA units, Kaoru's arrival wouldn't have seemed odd. But now that the Human Instrumentality Project appears to be nearing its end, the arrival of a new Child is rather strange.

The people at the top haven't made a decision yet.

But which mobile suit will the new qualified pilot replace?
Unit 0 is temporarily unavailable.

Could it be Unit-01 or Unit-02? Shinji Ikari doesn't mind, but if Asuka finds out the new pilot might be able to pilot her mobile suit, they'll definitely argue, right? Although she doesn't seem so fixated on that anymore…

Moreover, both of these mechs contain a machine soul, so even if someone is a substitute, they might not be able to pilot either of them.

perhaps.

Are there other EVA units?

There's no point in thinking about it too much. I'll be able to see Chu Xun at headquarters tomorrow, and then I should know the answer.

Shinji Ikari walked through the night, lost in thought.

The city remained silent.

He walked all the way to the end of the road, and finally the familiar apartment building came into view. The car parked outside was gone, and the man was nowhere to be seen either. It was as if his earlier suspicion that he was from headquarters was wrong; he was just an ordinary passerby.

Using the light from the streetlights at the intersection outside, Shinji Ikari quickly returned to his apartment.

The apartment was pitch black.

Shinji Ikari turned off the lights when he left, thinking he would be back soon, so he didn't turn off the air conditioning in the living room.

A pleasant breeze greeted him as he walked in, dispelling some of the lingering night heat. He changed his shoes in the entryway, then switched on the living room light. He was considering whether to go to the bedroom to check if Rei Ayanami was awake, but the moment the light came on, Shinji Ikari froze on the spot.
Rei Ayanami was sitting on the sofa in the living room.

She stared at him without blinking.

When Shinji Ikari looked over, their eyes met.

He was startled—imagine you're relaxed in the dark, then you turn on the light and find someone staring straight at you. You don't even know how long they've been sitting in the dark, or how long they've been staring at you. It's like a scene from a horror movie, complete with some eerie background music; it could easily be played late at night and would scare children to tears. Shinji Ikari, being in his apartment, wasn't on guard and was thus given a fright.

"Ayanami?"

He was a little confused.

In the past, when he occasionally came home late, Rei Ayanami would always be waiting for him in the living room, and dinner would be prepared in the kitchen. This scene now felt as if the Rei Ayanami he knew had returned, the girl like a lily of the valley smiling and saying, "Welcome back." Thinking of their past life together, he subconsciously glanced at the kitchen, but there was no aroma wafting from it, leaving Shinji Ikari somewhat wistful.

Rei Ayanami was still staring at him.

It's more like a horror movie now.

But at this point, Shinji Ikari didn't find it that scary anymore. If that beautiful face was a female ghost, he'd get used to it eventually if he saw it every day. The girl sitting here in the middle of the night must have woken up and was hungry because she hadn't eaten dinner.

The two of them couldn't just keep staring at each other like that.

"Are you hungry? Wait a moment."

"..."

Despite receiving little response, Shinji Ikari tried to comfort her with words. He went to the kitchen, where the sounds of cooking soon filled the air. In between preparing dinner, he also had time to come out to the living room and turn on the television for Rei Ayanami.

Dinner was finally ready half an hour later.

After dinner, Shinji Ikari cleaned up the dishes.

Neither of them seemed inclined to go to sleep right away, watching TV. Despite having just taken a stroll outside, Shinji Ikari wasn't sleepy at all, while Rei Ayanami had only recently woken up. The girl, watching the TV program, frequently glanced at him, even more often than yesterday.

It seemed as if he had "sneaked out" tonight, making Rei Ayanami worry that he might suddenly disappear.

This familiar feeling...

Again.

Shinji Ikari watched all of this silently.

If the clone before him had no memory of the past, would she have made such "unnecessary" movements? It was precisely because of the new clone's abnormal behavior that Shinji Ikari was so conflicted. He couldn't truly regard this clone as the original Rei Ayanami, but he also couldn't deny the many similarities she shared with the original.

“Ayanami…”

At one point, he suddenly called out Rei Ayanami's name.

The girl turned her gaze to him, her red eyes fixed on his face, as if awaiting his next "command," but Shinji Ikari simply blurted out:

Are you Ayanami?

If Shinji Ikari had just met Rei Ayanami yesterday, he would have found it difficult to say those words.

But after a day of preparation.

He has managed to calm himself down for the time being.

Upon hearing this question, the girl frowned, seemingly pondering the rather simple question, "Are you Ayanami?" After a long while, she appeared to "understand" and nodded earnestly.

"So, have you ever been summoned by Lilith?"

Shinji Ikari asked.

He carefully observed the girl's reaction, but Rei Ayanami just stared at him blankly; the question seemed to be beyond her comprehension. Shinji Ikari felt that she probably didn't know who Lilith was, or why this Angel was calling her.

After they stared at each other for a while, she finally shook her head uncertainly.

...You won't get an answer from her.

Shinji Ikari sighed inwardly.

To this day, he still hasn't figured out why Lilith called out to Rei Ayanami. Shinji Ikari intuitively felt that there was some crucial clue hidden in it. If he could figure this out, he might be able to solve the problem of Rei Ayanami dissolving in Unit-00—or perhaps it was just a futile lifeline he was grasping at. After all, if there was anything unusual about Rei Ayanami before she suddenly dissolved in the EVA unit, it was that she was called out by Lilith.

Furthermore, the fact that Unit-00 could be piloted without a "machine soul" is also a point of suspicion.

Countless guesses flashed through his mind, but he couldn't pinpoint which one it was. Just as Ritsuko Akagi had said, humanity's research on the Angels was still insufficient; perhaps Lilith was just bored? After all, the EVA units were copied from the Angels, so perhaps they had some connection to Unit-00, the earliest "fake." Just as he was pondering this, Rei Ayanami suddenly stood up from the sofa and walked over.

"What's wrong, Ayanami?"

Shinji Ikari temporarily interrupted his thoughts.

Rei Ayanami didn't say anything, but gently tugged at the hem of his shirt, as if asking him to go somewhere. This unusually decisive action piqued Shinji Ikari's curiosity. He stood up and followed Rei Ayanami, but after only a few steps, he saw his cello case.

Would you like to hear the cello?

It's a habit that Rei Ayanami developed herself.

Or perhaps it's because you heard it yesterday, so you want to listen to it again today?
Rei Ayanami glanced at the cello case, then at him; the girl's innocent and clueless eyes made it hard to refuse. Shinji Ikari hesitated for a moment, but didn't refuse her. He hadn't decided what to play yet, but remembering Kaoru Chuo he'd met by Lake Ashi, he chose "Ode to Joy." He took the cello and bow from the case, slowly drew the bow, and Beethoven's music began to play.

The apartment was filled with piano music late at night, the flowing notes leaping and dancing. The neighbors had long since moved out of the city, so Shinji Ikari didn't have to worry about disturbing anyone.

Rei Ayanami simply listened quietly.

Until the end.

There was still no applause from her.

(End of this chapter)