Shinji Ikari, returned from Warhammer

"It is indeed a difficult choice," the man sighed softly.

The second pilot, Asuka, possessed the best combat data during testing, as well as a remarkable high synchronization rate. After the battle with the Fish Angel underwater, it was actually Asuka who piloted Unit-02 back to the surface. The combat data recorded by the data recorder showed that during the brief seven-second pilot switch, Asuka's synchronization rate exceeded 74%.

The First Child, Rei Ayanami, possesses an extremely stable synchronization rate and an exceptionally calm mindset. Compared to the highly aggressive Asuka, she is more inclined to obey orders and follow commands—the qualities of a warrior.

"But by comparison, when did you arrive?" Ritsuko Akagi glanced at the man beside her, who was wearing a light-colored casual shirt. "Prosecutor Kaji."

“I’m not a prosecutor anymore. I received a transfer order this morning, asking me to stay and work at NERV.” Kaji Ryoji looked at his friend from his school days, sitting sideways at her desk, holding a cup of coffee. “It’s a job assignment from the Command Office. It seems to be to serve as a psychologist for the Third Child. It’s a very easy job, and it’s close to you and Misato.”

Kaji Ryoji brought the coffee to his lips but didn't touch it, because suddenly, the entire development department's office fell silent.

"A psychologist? The psychologist for the Third Child?" Ritsuko Akagi put her glasses back on, stared at her friend sitting at her desk, and asked again.

“Yes, if I heard correctly, you are the psychologist for the Third Child.” Kaji Ryoji nodded. “Judging from your expressions, is there a problem?”

“That’s certainly a very relaxed schedule. You work one day and then rest for three months.” Ritsuko Akagi gave a cryptic smile, then pulled out her wallet from her white coat. “Go buy some good food. Consider it my way of taking care of you as an old friend.”

Section 7, Staff Dormitory Building.

As Shinji Ikari watched the workers in white protective suits arrive at the neighboring dormitory carrying large and small bags, along with that 1.5-meter-long hammer, a strong sense of immediacy welled up within him.

Shinji Ikari glanced sideways at Misato Katsuragi, who was wearing shorts and a t-shirt on the sofa. "Looks like we have some new neighbors."

Misato Katsuragi sat cross-legged on the sofa with a smile, holding her toes. "It's someone you know. It's for work. Guess who it is? There's a surprise!"

"Asuka, it seems she'll be my partner." Shinji Ikari opened the refrigerator and took out a box of pudding.

"How did you guess? I haven't said anything yet." Misato Katsuragi's eyes widened.

"No need to guess. Since my battle plan has been rejected, we'll definitely continue with the strategy of attacking with two units simultaneously. It might sound a bit narcissistic, but to ensure the success of the battle plan, I will inevitably be one of the two pilots. As for the other one..."

As if to confirm Shinji Ikari's words, the next moment, a cheerful female voice with a lingering tone rang out from in front of the entrance.

"Oh ho ho, Lord Misato."

Shinji Ikari turned to look at the figure standing in front of his own entrance hall. The girl's figure was somewhat blurry against the light, but the posture of her hands on her hips proved her identity.

"Why are all the rooms in Japan so cramped? But luckily I heard that lightweight walls can be removed, so I took over the dorm next door. Otherwise, if I really stayed here, there wouldn't even be enough room for my luggage. You agree, right, you idiot Shinji?"

As the girl entered the room, Shinji Ikari's eyes fell upon Asuka's proud and confident face. She wore a dark red, form-fitting long dress, her slender waist resembling a newly sprouted bamboo shoot, and her straight legs were hidden in the sunlight streaming in from the outer corridor.

Asuka approached Shinji Ikari with a mischievous grin, leaning forward slightly to reveal her snow-white neck.

"So, living with a beautiful girl is making you so nervous you can't speak. But let me make this clear first, it's just to improve our teamwork. Even if a womanizer like you lived under the same roof as me, I would never be interested in you. Too bad, you're already out of the running in the game of love, you idiot!"

Knowing in advance that she was going to be moved here, Asuka made a grand entrance, even though she had already decided back at school that she wouldn't give Shinji Ikari another chance. She still spent a long time getting ready, finally choosing her favorite dark red dress, looking as imposing as if she were heading to a battlefield.

Don't misunderstand, she just wanted to crush this fool with her arrogance. To make him realize that because he was indulging in those roadside wildflowers and weeds, he had missed the real opportunity to smell the fragrance of a precious plant.

But the next moment, she saw a very familiar figure emerge from the innermost room behind Shinji Ikari.

"The number one girl? What's she doing here?" Asuka's eyes widened.

Rei Ayanami also stood in the middle of the corridor, staring at Asuka, who was shaking Shinji Ikari while gripping his shoulders. She frowned slightly, a rare occurrence for her, and looked at Misato Katsuragi, who was sitting on the sofa.

“I didn’t receive any notification that Captain Shikinami was coming to visit my home, Misato,” Rei Ayanami asked.

Seeing the group in complete chaos, Misato Katsuragi slowly took a sip of beer before clapping her hands loudly to draw everyone's attention to her.

Ten minutes later, the four of them sat casually on the sofa in front of the coffee table in the living room.

Misato Katsuragi sat in the main seat on the inside, Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami sat on the sofa in the middle, while Asuka sat opposite Misato with her arms crossed and a cold expression.

"Regarding the Eighth Angel, the operations department has devised a new operational plan targeting the only weakness currently exhibited by the Eighth Angel: to have two well-coordinated pilots simultaneously destroy the Angel's dual cores. The key to this operational plan is that the timing of the attacks by the two EVAs must be perfectly synchronized. The two pilots chosen are the Second Child, Asuka Langley Soryu, and the Third Child, Shinji Ikari."

Misato Katsuragi was unusually sitting on the sofa, explaining the current situation to a few people, mainly Rei Ayanami and Asuka.

"Understood." Rei Ayanami nodded.

Asuka glanced at the blue-haired girl beside her with slight displeasure, completely unaware of what the other understood. It was she and Shinji Ikari who were piloting their mobile suits to fight the Angels, not her and Shinji.

Misato Katsuragi was unaware of the inner thoughts between the two girls, but she didn't care and continued talking.

"Therefore, the two qualified candidates need to live together temporarily to develop tacit understanding and achieve perfect synchronization. This is the first phase objective of this operation."

"There's a second stage, too." Asuka raised her hand as if to assert her presence.

"The second phase is to kill the apostle. The eighth apostle is currently repairing itself on an underwater fault line in the waters off the Kii Peninsula. It is expected to launch a second attack in six days. Time is of the essence."

"Six days, huh? Saying it's comparable to the Thunder Apostle's recovery speed is really an exaggeration. It's even slower than expected." Shinji Ikari lowered his head and took a sip of Maojian tea.

Misato Katsuragi understood Shinji Ikari's meaning, or perhaps he believed deep down that he alone could wipe out the Angels. However, the higher-ups didn't want to take the risk, and besides, he himself was the one who first rejected Shinji's proposal at the meeting.

"Now, you should get to know each other better and not fight. I've already asked the school for a week off for you. I feel that as long as you recover to the state you were in when you first emerged from the sea after defeating the Fish Apostle, defeating the Eighth Apostle shouldn't be a problem," said Misato Katsuragi.

Rei Ayanami stood up first, leaving space for the two who were preparing to fight the Angels. After Rei Ayanami stood up, Misato Katsuragi followed suit and left, leaving only the boy and girl facing each other.

Asuka wanted to turn her head away, but her competitive spirit prevented her from looking away first. However, Shinji was staring intently at her, and she irritably curled a strand of hair around her fingertip.

Could it be that he wants to confess his feelings to me? Now I finally understand the difference between the little yellow flowers by the roadside and the Dutch tulips? Should I give him a chance?

"Would you like some pudding?" Shinji Ikari asked with a smile, holding up the blue square box in his hand.

Meanwhile, in another dormitory on the left, Misato Katsuragi looked at the construction team next door and felt that the original staff apartment was about to be turned into a large single-level apartment.

The original three-meter by three-meter lightweight wall was completely demolished and replaced with sliding doors in a Japanese style, instantly doubling the area. But Rei Ayanami was still standing at the doorway, watching the girl sharing pudding with Shinji Ikari in the sunset.

"Do you have any negative feelings towards Asuka, Rei?" Misato Katsuragi walked up to her.

“No, Captain Shikinami has superior piloting skills and a higher synchronization rate, but she is also very aggressive in battle, similar to Shinji Ikari’s fighting style. Their personalities will not complement each other in combat,” Rei Ayanami said.

"Actually, in this operation plan, we've been discussing whether you or Asuka should be the second pilot. Should we choose the second pilot who excels in combat but lacks coordination, or the first pilot who is obedient and emotionally stable?" Misato Katsuragi said.

Rei Ayanami placed her hands on her lower abdomen and listened quietly to Misato Katsuragi's words.

"Personally, I'd prefer you pilot Unit-00 alongside Shinji Ikari to confront the Angels. But—"

However, here comes the most crucial point.

“Asuka volunteered to be the second pilot for this mission,” Misato Katsuragi said.

Rei Ayanami's ethereal face betrayed no emotion; she simply turned her gaze away from the living room. Misato Katsuragi merely walked over to her and patted her on the shoulder.

"Li, some things you have to fight for yourself. Of course, I'm talking about opportunities to fight."

At dinner time, as if the misunderstanding had been cleared up, they sat together happily.

"Those who do the right thing should not suffer misfortune. Justice changes with one's stance; only the victor is just." At this moment, the protagonist on television was shouting his classic line.

Asuka nodded. "But I still really like protagonists with a personality like Komikado's. They should keep striving and winning!"

The genius pilot from across the ocean sipped his miso soup and excitedly discussed the plot of the TV series he had watched that afternoon with Shinji Ikari. Neither pilot had made any progress all afternoon, if you could even count sitting together watching TV or playing two-player games on the computer.

But the two of them had a lot of fun.

After a satisfying meal, Asuka got up to say goodbye and returned to her dormitory. Although Misato Katsuragi tried her best to persuade her to stay, she still maintained her theory that boys and girls over the age of seven should not live together.

It was two in the morning when Rei Ayanami opened her eyes.

"...Shinji Ikari".

Rei Ayanami doesn't dream unless it's something related to him.

She quietly sat up in bed and reached out her right hand to turn off the bedside lamp. The room and the outside world were completely dark. She moved quietly through the dormitory like a cat perfectly at night, until she pushed open a door. Rei Ayanami lifted the air-conditioning blanket, tiptoed inside, and gently wrapped her arms around the boy's neck.

The owner of the bedding turned over, seemingly aware of something but also seemingly unaware.

But that morning, Shinji Ikari woke up feeling a little short of breath and encountered a similar situation. The tightness in his chest wasn't caused by a nightmare, but by something else entirely.

He vaguely sensed that there was a warm body in his arms, and they were embracing.

What is it like to be completely unguarded with someone?

They might be comrades-in-arms who entrust their backs to each other, or intimate lovers who depend on each other for life and death. Even so, they can still sense each other's presence in their daily interactions, so they are not completely unaware of each other's presence.

That's not right either. Perhaps he sensed it, but he wasn't on guard against her.

But in that realm of the mind, there was another extremely special person for Shinji Ikari. She was completely unguarded with him, seemingly letting him do as he pleased. It was as if the porcupine dilemma had no effect on him and her. Even when he got close enough or piloted his mobile suit, he could vaguely sense her emotional fluctuations.

Even Shinji Ikari couldn't understand the reason for this special lack of mental defense.

But what happened at that moment made Shinji Ikari realize something very important: she could also cross his warning range and get close to him without alerting him at all.

"Good morning, Ikari-kun," Rei Ayanami greeted him.

Moreover, Rei Ayanami's slightly pale yet lovely face was right in front of Shinji Ikari. In other words, the girl's head and Shinji Ikari's head were peeking out from under the same blankets.

The girl's gaze was clear, as if the other person hadn't slept all night, or as if they had just woken up a little earlier than her.

Because the blankets she crawled into offered a smooth, expansive sensation covering her chest and lower abdomen, undoubtedly stemming from their skin touching. This meant—

"Hey, you idiot Shinji!"

Asuka.jpg

Chapter 57: Gravity Acting Only Between Minds

That familiar, slightly arrogant, cheerful female voice, and the fact that only one person would prefix their own name with "idiot."

"Asuka...? Uh, wait a minute—whoosh!"

Just as Shinji Ikari's voice fell, the rather insecure sliding door was suddenly flung open. Asuka stood imposingly in the doorway, staring at the boy sitting on the bed.

A somber atmosphere filled the room, and everyone felt a little awkward.

Several seconds later, it was Asuka who broke the atmosphere first.

"You're not a free agent, are you?" Asuka stared at Shinji Ikari's smooth shoulders and his neck exposed outside the blankets. Although she knew Shinji was a very muscular man back when they piloted Unit-02 together, the bulging muscles on his bare arms still made Asuka sigh. He was a completely different person from the one with clothes on.

No, what am I thinking? Asuka shook her head.

Shinji Ikari smiled. "Free body? Is that what they call it in Germany? Speaking of which, you're of German descent, so you should know better than me. Sleeping like this not only makes the body feel relaxed and comfortable, but it's also good for your health."

Shinji Ikari pressed Rei Ayanami's head down, quickly pulling her back onto the covers the moment Asuka's voice rang out, immobilizing her with his limbs. But Shinji seemed to have worried unnecessarily, as Rei showed no signs of moving. She remained quietly in her place, peacefully nestled against Shinji's chest.

The slightly cold palms pressed against his abs made Shinji Ikari frown slightly. A trembling sensation, unlike the chill, accompanied his movements; his external muscles were stiff and tense from the tension, but his internal muscles relaxed.

Shinji Ikari felt her four legs overlapping through skin-to-skin contact. The areas he touched gradually warmed up. She was sweating from the stuffy heat of the bed, but it felt very comfortable.

At that moment, Shinji Ikari felt a desire for more contact, a closer touch. However, meeting Asuka's gaze slightly interrupted his thoughts.

The girl's gaze was sharp—

"Damn it! Just because you're of German descent doesn't mean you're a FKK!" Asuka's face fell instantly. She didn't want Shinji Ikari to misunderstand that she had any connection with those Germans who ran naked every morning.

FKK, which roughly means bodily freedom culture, has a long history and is quite mainstream in Germany.