EVA: Shinji Ikari Returns from the Dragon Clan

Chapter 4 3. What, I hit the apostles?

"You've always wanted to know about your father's job, right?"

The two got back into the car.

While driving, Misato Katsuragi tilted her head to take a look, "Now you should understand, this is our human enemy, the monster called "Apostle"! Unbelievable, right? In order to avoid extinction, we humans have to deal with such a monster. But don't blame me if you are scared, after all, you will know all this sooner or later."

At the end, her tone was full of emotion.

Terrible.

Shinji Ikari just thought it was outrageous.

The father whom I haven't seen for many years turned out to be a member of a justice organization that fights monsters, rather than a third-rate organization that waves the banner of protecting the world's environment.

Fortunately for this situation.

After seeing the previous apostle, Shinji Ikari also had some vague guesses.

After all, with Cassel's example, even if a dragon king appeared in this world, he would think it was normal and take up the knife. This is the responsibility of the hybrids. However, just like it takes a hybrid to kill a dragon king and an Ultraman to kill a monster, what kind of power is needed to kill an "Apostle"?

Generally speaking, ordinary weapons cannot deal with such unrealistic monsters, right?

As he watched the car drive into a dark tunnel, he gradually calmed down.

"What an exaggerated scene. I was shocked. It looked like a monster from a movie. But I still don't know what an apostle is. I don't even know why it wants to destroy humanity. Is this the kind of monster my father has to face all this time? Miss Misato, there must be some information you can tell me, right? I want to know more about my father."

It is both true love and performance.

Like a love-deprived child who wants to understand his parents better.

Such a natural request should not be rejected.

If it's a game.

In this case, it is time to enter the CG setting explanation phase. He also went through a similar phase when he entered school.

"It would be too long to explain, luckily I was prepared."

Misato Katsuragi drove skillfully with one hand and handed over a thick booklet with the other hand. Shinji Ikari took it casually and looked at the cover. There were two words "Top Secret" on it, which probably referred to the confidentiality level. At the back it was written in Japanese and English: Welcome to NERV.

He knew what the word meant - nerves.

"Top secret...can I see this?"

"You have sufficient authority."

Misato waved her hand nonchalantly.

A strange feeling emerged in Shinji Ikari's heart.

After all, he had been in the Executive Department for so long that he was very experienced in keeping secrets. Moreover, he had to write a long and boring report after each operation. The implication of this sentence... seemed that his rank was very high here? I heard that those high-blooded senior brothers and sisters in Cassel who had graduated, got married and had children, their children had very high permissions in Cassel from birth, which would only be activated on the day they reached adulthood.

What level of rank does the father have here to allow his son to enjoy such high treatment?

This shouldn't be information worth keeping secret.

Ikari Shinji asked:
"By the way, what is father's position here?"

"It's the Commander."

Katsuragi Misato said with a smile.

It turned out to be the case.

No wonder he moved himself from the shelter to a safer place. No wonder he was just an ordinary junior high school student, yet he could know such top-secret information.

This is all the effect of power!
But the female driver didn't seem to think so. She added,
"Your father is the commander-in-chief of NERV. Now you understand how hard his job is, right?"

Hard?

No! He only saw happiness beckoning.

If this was at Kassel College, my father would be the principal of Angers. If he had such a background, he wouldn't have to worry about graduation, and it would be easy for him to get credits, and he wouldn't have to fly around the world to move wherever he was needed.

If a normal person suddenly found out that his father actually held a very powerful position in the world organization.

I'm afraid this is his current mentality.

But I still have to say some polite words.

Shinji Ikari briefly expressed his admiration for his father's hard work and dealt with Misato Katsuragi. He then opened the intelligence booklet marked as top secret and began to learn about the information of this organization that fights monsters to protect all mankind.

The name of the organization is indeed NERV.

The booklet begins with a bunch of great and glorious words, probably about the indispensability of this organization that protects all of humanity.

After flipping through several pages, Shinji Ikari tried hard to extract information from the densely packed English and Japanese texts. Hmm... It belongs to the highest organization of the World Union. Its headquarters is located in the third New Tokyo City in Japan. It also has branches in other regions. It controls weapons to fight against the apostles. Its commander-in-chief is his father...

Before I could see much more, the end of the tunnel was already here.

The two got out of the car.

In front of us is a huge underground city, empty and lonely, looking like an unfinished subway, with cold metal and mechanical structures exposed everywhere, a rough design with a wasteland style. When we were chatting on the way, Miss Misato had already said that they were going to take a cable car next, and I don't know what the cable car in this underground city looks like.

“It’s so empty.”

Ikari Shinji sighed.

It is impossible to build such an underground city without consuming huge manpower and material resources. Those high-rise buildings on the ground that can be raised and lowered must have appeared to accommodate this place. I don’t know how much power NERV’s Japanese headquarters has in the United Nations.

"It's very empty. Even I don't know how big the space is. It's like a maze. If you're not an insider, you can't go deep into the headquarters."

Misato Katsuragi patted his shoulder and walked forward.

In front of the cable car.

Some people have been waiting for a long time.

He was wearing a white coat but a swimsuit underneath, which was a very strange outfit.

She was a blonde woman with short, bright blonde hair that didn't go past her shoulders. She had pink earrings on her earlobes and a teardrop mole under the corner of her left eye. Her expression and temperament were completely different from the outgoing Misato Katsuragi. She looked extremely cold, like an iceberg.

After seeing her, Misato gave an awkward but flattering smile.
"Ritsuko, why are you here?"

The man replied softly, "Not only are we short-handed, but time is also tight. You're almost half an hour late, which is really too slow, so I came out to pick you up, Captain Katsuragi."

Captain?

Shinji Ikari thought to himself, will you guys be awarded military ranks after graduation?

This treatment is much better than Cassel.

However, Miss Misato's previous appearance did not look like a serious soldier at all. She was probably in the field of civilian logistics. "Is this the boy?" The other party seemed to have known him for a long time. This question was just to confirm it again. The blonde woman did not wait for Misato to answer and introduced herself to him. "I am the person in charge of the E plan in the first department of the technical department, Ritsuko Akagi. Thank you for your guidance."

She has a completely businesslike attitude towards work.

Compared to being very familiar with others, this extreme in the other direction is more difficult to deal with. Moreover, Miss Misato directly called the other party by his first name, but the other party called Miss Misato by her last name. From the perspective of Japanese etiquette, it is unclear whether the two have a good relationship or not.

"I'm Shinji Ikari, please give me your guidance."

He quickly returned the greeting.

After the greetings, the lady named Ritsuko Akagi began to lead the way.

Cable car.

elevator.

The space of this underground city is terribly large, and the paths are winding. If you don't have a map, you will definitely get lost. Just like Misato Katsuragi now, she is holding the map and checking each step one by one, but the blonde Ms. Ritsuko Akagi is walking in front without hesitation, as if she doesn't need a map at all.

Although completely different from Misato Katsuragi's enthusiastic attitude, she rarely even talks to herself.

But for some reason, Shinji Ikari always felt that she seemed to pay attention to him. Sometimes when she stopped at an intersection, she would look back to see if he was behind. Could it be that this person looked unkind on the outside, but was very gentle and delicate on the inside? Shinji Ikari couldn't help but think of the idea that came to his mind when he was waiting for the contact outside. Compared with Miss Misato, this person fits the image of a "stepmother" more.

The three of them moved forward and changed to another cable car.

Suddenly, as if a voice came from a distant hell,
"All personnel, enter level one combat readiness, prepare for ground attack. Repeat, all personnel, enter level one combat readiness..."

It sounded like an official announcement.

An endless echo was produced in the empty underground city.

It seems that the apostle outside has not been eliminated yet, and its combat level has been raised. Ikari Shinji flipped through the catalog of the booklet and began to look for information on first-level combat preparations. This introductory booklet about the NERV organization is too thick. Even a quick glance through it will probably take a long time.

The two women did not feel nervous after hearing this, but chatted casually.
"This is truly an emergency."

You two don't look nervous at all.

Ikari Shinji complained in his heart.

"Yes. By the way, Ritsuko, what's the situation with Unit-01? Can it really be driven? I remember that it has never been used once, right?"

"I have loaded the weapon, but it is cooling down now. The chance of activation is 0.000000001%. It is totally useless."

When it comes to this.

Akagi Ritsuko's tone fluctuated and she glanced at him.

Even while looking at the booklet, Shinji Ikari's eyelids jumped. Just now, he smelled the scent of a part-time worker. However, he was just an ordinary junior high school student now, and this kind of thing should have nothing to do with him.

Unit-01?
It sounds like some kind of armored weapon. A helicopter? A tank? A submarine? I can fly one, but you guys don't know it, right?

He flipped through the catalog of the booklet, but there was no explanation of this thing.

"It's a very low probability, but it's not impossible."

Listening to Miss Misato's words, Ikari Shinji agreed slightly in his heart.

indeed.

Either it starts, or it doesn't.

From this perspective, the probability is actually one in two.

"Numerically speaking, the probability is almost zero."

"No matter what, if it can't start, I won't be able to complete the mission." The lively and beautiful female driver complained again.

A business trip?

How to start it?

In an instant, a light bulb went off in his head, and Shinji Ikari had an inexplicable premonition of something bad happening.

A certain extremely low probability guess popped into his mind, and all the previous clues seemed to be connected all at once. Could it be that this was not a scenario where the father worked hard for many years and then brought his son to enjoy the good life, but a conscription...

No, no!
The head of the technical department might have glanced at me because of something else.

I can't predict such development yet. I need more information. My level is so high, I should be able to get the answer to this kind of thing by just asking, right?
But at this time the cable car had reached the end.

Arrived.

Although they didn't say it out loud, the two ladies simultaneously showed subtle expressions of having reached their destination.

In front of me was a dark corridor, with the light from the corridor outside only illuminating a small area. I couldn't see what was inside clearly, as if a huge monster had opened its mouth, waiting for humans to fall into its trap.

He hesitated.

After seeing the two women walk in first, I followed them in.

"beep--"

After all three of them had gone in, the mechanical door at the rear closed loudly.

The only thing left was the extremely dim red warning light on the door.

Even though Shinji Ikari is a half-blood, he cannot see anything in this almost completely lightless environment. Humans are born to fear the darkness. Shinji Ikari vaguely feels that there are some terrifying carnivorous creatures lurking in the darkness, staring at him closely, and he is sure that this is definitely not an illusion.

After becoming a mixed-race, one is completely different from ordinary people in some aspects.

If he were an ordinary person, he would definitely be more willing to believe in his own thinking; but now that he is a mixed-race, he trusts his body's "intuition" more. The body's intuition is not false, but in this dark environment, he can't find the source of the gaze at all. For a moment, he can only tense his body and prepare for battle, but the two ladies around him don't seem to feel uncomfortable. He felt a slight tremor around him, which was a signal that the apostles outside were still destroying the city. Some inexplicable sense of oppression forced him to speak to relieve the pressure in his heart:
"It looks like that apostle outside is still wreaking havoc. Is there no solution?"

"That's why we need you to come." Ritsuko Akagi said meaningfully.

He asked sharply:

"I come?"

Several high-powered lights above his head lit up at the same time, illuminating the place as if it were daytime. The sudden strong light made Shinji Ikari unable to open his eyes.

"Open your eyes."

Akagi Ritsuko's voice was very soft and faint, but it was as resounding as a bronze bell on the top of a mountain.
"The secret of all mankind, the weapon of decisive battle, the final trump card, is right in front of you!"

Shinji Ikari blinked slowly, and only then did he understand the source of the inexplicable feeling of oppression. The huge orange-red pools around him were bottomless. He was standing on a corridor suspended above the pools. The vast and enclosed space made any slight sound echo.

The heartbeat was getting louder and louder.

In an instant, there was a buzzing sound in my ears!
All the objects around him disappeared, and all that remained in his eyes was the Godzilla-like monster in the water.

(End of this chapter)