Shinji Ikari, returned from Warhammer

"What is this?" Ritsuko Akagi asked hesitantly.

“Shinji Ikari left him alive so that I could hand him over to you for interrogation,” Asuka said. “But I was worried that he would resist after waking up, so I broke his arms with a baton first to prevent him from injuring himself again.”

Ritsuko Akagi fell silent. In truth, even Shinji Ikari had initially underestimated this girl with pure Tokusan blood. The fact that she was able to calmly confront Shinji, who was brutally tormenting the thugs, during their first meeting clearly showed that she was not some sheltered young lady.

Only Misato Katsuragi could no longer contain her anger, and at this moment she finally erupted!

"That idiot is still looking for Rei?! This isn't his responsibility; we'll find her ourselves. The most important thing right now is to pilot the EVAs and fight the Angels! That idiot! What an idiot!"

But just as the words were spoken, a tremendous sound boomed overhead. Accompanied by another round of shaking and rumbling, it was as if some terrifying disaster was approaching.

Those familiar with the inside story naturally know that the Angels have already reached the ground of Neo-Tokyo and are attempting to break through the defenses to attack NERV's headquarters.

But whether it was an illusion or not, it seemed as if a similar, enormous sound was echoing from inside Hakone, traveling upwards from the tunnel entrance. It was as if another equally colossal creation was awakening from its slumber, emitting a similarly deafening roar.

Chapter 74: The Rain Angel's Attack

"Damn the Touhou Conference, they only think to ask for an attack now!" Kazuya Tsurumaki slammed his fist on the desk.

Even the military generals who were just watching the show hadn't anticipated how things had developed to this point.

They had initially come with the intention of watching a good show, after all, NERV had risen to power by stepping on them and seizing a lot of power from them. However, it wasn't until the Angels had approached NERV headquarters and even infiltrated it with corrosive liquids that they realized things were going badly.

Could something really be wrong with NERV headquarters?

"What did the government say?" The old man next to him asked, his fingers interlaced and resting on his chin.

"You mean those guys in Second Tokyo City? They didn't expect this situation either, and they're running for their lives right now. Otherwise, they wouldn't be urging us so much," Tsurumaki Kazuya said coldly.

"But it's no use. The apostles are already inside. All we can do is bombard them with N2 mines and turn Hakone into ruins. At this point, we can only pray that they have good luck."

Although they were gloating, these generals of the Self-Defense Forces did not want to see NERV destroyed. At least until the Angels were completely wiped out, NERV, specifically designed to counter the Angels, still had a reason to exist.

—NERV headquarters, above Hakone.

The Ninth Apostle, the Rain Angel Matterel, a monstrous life form resembling a giant spider, easily dissolved the armored gates of the Third New Tokyo City and invaded the interior of Hakone.

As it entered Hakone, the air vibrated eerily. Though merely moving through a tunnel, its massive size placed an immense burden on the structure. Its chelicerae landed on the ground, sending powerful sonic waves crashing through the interior of Hakone, even shattering glass curtain walls several floors away. The air vibrations seemed tangible, transmitting throughout Hakone like a death signal!

The ground shook, tables and chairs trembled and shifted. The employees, who had been clinging to life, completely gave up hope and lay trembling on the ground. They had defeated five apostles, and the joy of their successive victories had almost made them forget the fear the apostles had instilled. Now, facing these mythical angels directly, without even truly seeing them, the oppressive feeling that transcended the level of life crushed them into the earth, leaving them trembling!

At this moment, deeper inside Hakone, near the Central Dogmatic Area, on the eleventh basement level.

Rei Ayanami hunched over, crouching low as she ran to a pile of junk and flipped a large cardboard box over her head. A few minutes later, she heard heavy footsteps. Guards in headquarters security uniforms opened the warehouse door and shone their bright flashlights around, meticulously searching every corner.

Although they were wearing headquarters security uniforms, Rei Ayanami could still sense the intense malice emanating from them.

"It's not here." "It's not here either!" "But it's here... a picture book of Yua Mikami!" "Idiot! That's not important at all. The most important thing is to find the target. And Yua Mikami? She's just some old woman from the last century!"

Judging from the footsteps, Rei Ayanami estimated there were about twenty people. Three intruders disguised as guards were in a group, and although they were talking to each other, they were checking very carefully.

In this completely dark environment, even if the intruders had flashlights, they couldn't cover every area, especially in such a large space. Rei Ayanami emerged, crawling among the boxes like a little wildcat searching for food. She wasn't very nervous, or rather, she was inherently emotionally sparse.

Or perhaps it was that spiritual attraction that made her believe that Shinji Ikari would find her.

The footsteps of the patrolmen nearby suddenly stopped, and Rei Ayanami retreated back into the cardboard box.

"How come there are rats in this Hakone place!" the intruder muttered. Then came the sound of flint striking metal as he lit a cigarette and rummaged through the back of the nearby shelf.

They received information that the first eligible person recognized by the Marduk Authority was in the vicinity.

Meanwhile, Rei Ayanami managed to find the emergency exit door during this brief moment, but her goal wasn't to escape through the door. After all, opening the door would be too conspicuous here, and even if she could escape, she couldn't possibly outrun these adult men. From beginning to end, Rei Ayanami's target was the ventilation duct next to her.

But the moment she found the vent, she froze.

The ventilation ducts had been shut off beforehand, blocked by several silver plastic bars resembling a fence. Rei Ayanami's heart tightened instantly. Clearly, someone had deliberately sealed off the Golden Hall; there was a traitor within the upper echelons! This was a premeditated attack! They had shut down the nearby ventilation ducts before the power outage, and even managed to pinpoint the location of every single candidate!

At that moment, a beam of light shone on her from behind.

"Found it! Found the target!" someone exclaimed in surprise.

"Don't run, little girl! We're security personnel! We're here to protect you under orders from Dr. Akagi!"

"Don't run! Damn it! I told you not to run, so don't run! If I catch you, I'll break your legs!"

Rei Ayanami flung open the fire escape door and ran off at top speed. Although they said they were there to protect her, their eyes, like those of a beast scrutinizing its prey, sent chills down her spine.

Just as she had guessed, how could a little girl possibly outrun these well-trained intruders? She hadn't run more than a few steps before the intruders viciously pinned her to the ground from behind, gripping Rei Ayanami's hair tightly like a hunter carrying its prey, and forcibly handcuffing her hands from behind.

"Five million in hand!" the intruders cheered, referring, of course, to US dollars.

The bounty for bringing a little girl out of Hakone at a specified time and place was a staggering five million yen, which seemed unbelievable to them, but it was indeed true.

The intruder, holding Rei Ayanami in his hand, felt like he was carrying his own five million dollars. At that moment, he began to envy his companions who were responsible for capturing the Second and Third Child Gods; after all, the price for just the Third Child God was a whopping ten million dollars. They were definitely going to make a killing this time!

But for Rei Ayanami, who was being treated like prey, she suddenly raised her head. Whether it was her imagination or not, she vaguely felt his presence. Just like that day when she woke up in bed and opened her eyes to see his figure.

Just then, the intruder heard a change in the sound of the wind behind him, as if someone was holding a gun to the back of his head. He suddenly looked up and saw a shadow directly above the fire escape. The figure was not very clear, but it looked like a devil that had come out of hell.

"You are...?!" Before he could finish speaking, a steel pipe pierced his chest, completely crushing his still-beating heart into mud.

Chapter 75: The Will of Unit-01

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" The shrill voice echoed throughout the building.

The moment the words left his mouth, the figure gracefully plummeted from the sky. It was simply unimaginable that someone would fall straight down from such a height without any safety precautions. Wasn't he worried about being smashed to pieces?

But in the instant of landing, this graceful figure grabbed the head of one of the intruders who was peeking out, pulling him and his body down to the next level, using his body as a cushion to land smoothly.

Without hesitation, they immediately opened fire.

The Glock 18 submachine gun roared, and in the instant the trigger was pulled, dozens of brass casings shot into the darkness, but they paid no heed to their comrades below who might still be alive. A hail of bullets rained down in an instant, and even the flashes of muzzle flash briefly illuminated the surrounding darkness.

The bullets that were fired did not make a dull thud as they disappeared into flesh and blood, but rather a clear thud as they struck the solid wall.

The intruder, still armed, was about to reload when a ferocious fist, as if struck by a train, slammed into his abdomen. The dark figure had appeared out of nowhere; he coughed up blood mixed with fragments of his lungs, which had also been destroyed. He forced himself to turn to look at his companion beside him, his eyes filled with shock.

He was clutching his neck tightly, and blood gushed out like a fountain. He was attacking himself, but somehow he also managed to kill his companion.

Without a word, his companion on the other side also convulsed slightly from the pain, and gushing blood spurted from his eyes, nostrils, mouth, and ears.

One man against more than twenty, but this was not a fair fight; it was a one-sided slaughter, a one-sided massacre of more than twenty people by that one man. The dark figure's attack methods were crude, or rather, he did so intentionally; he didn't even bother to use firearms. He was simply venting his long-dormant savagery.

"A devil! That's a devil!" someone finally cried out and ran back towards the road.

But a blood-stained steel pipe pierced his chest from behind, and this time, the last intruder to die died in exactly the same way as the first. Although Shinji Ikari was a killer on the battlefield, he sometimes displayed a certain aristocratic, obsessive artistic sensibility in his killing.

Not entirely. Shinji Ikari turned his head to look at the last person in the true sense. It wasn't Rei Ayanami sitting quietly in place, but the one he had deliberately spared alive. It was the leader of the intruders on this side. He had had his fill of killing in the elevator shaft earlier, only leaving one intruder alive as a casualty. Since he had left one alive over there, he would leave one alive here as well.

The last intruder stood frozen in place, still holding an automatic pistol, unharmed, completely terrified.

Shinji Ikari's appearance was like a whirlwind. Before he could react, his comrades were all turned into corpses lying in pools of blood amidst the carnage. Only the fingers of the corpses were still moving slightly unconsciously according to nerve feedback.

Only when Shinji Ikari slowly walked up to him did he scream in terror and try to raise his gun to fire at the devil in front of him. But Shinji Ikari simply raised his arm slightly, and all the bullets that were fired at an angle hit the ceiling. He himself was also hit in the abdomen by Shinji Ikari's knee, and curled up on the ground like a shrimp whose vein had been pulled out.

"Honestly, all you're aiming for are the chosen ones. Two waves of invaders aren't enough to satisfy you at all." Shinji Ikari grabbed his hair, forcing him to look him in the eye, just like he had grabbed Rei Ayanami's hair earlier.

"You damned devil... Ugh!" The last intruder tried to spit a mouthful of phlegm at Shinji Ikari, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he was punched and all his teeth were knocked out. The pain made him scream.

"Although I would love to interrogate you myself, time is limited, so I'll leave the interrogation to Misato and the others."

After breaking the opponent's limbs, Shinji Ikari turned his gaze to Rei Ayanami, who was handcuffed from behind. He didn't make any move, but simply pulled out a thin wire and fiddled with it a couple of times, just like when he opened Rei Ayanami's dormitory door, freeing her from the handcuffs.

“Let’s go, let’s meet up with Misato and the others first. I’ll take this guy with me,” Shinji Ikari said.

“I can help too.” Rei Ayanami quickly stood up.

There's something Shinji Ikari didn't tell the truth about.

He was actually looking for Rei Ayanami, but only incidentally. He was very curious about the roots of Hakone, what secrets were hidden within the Central Dogmatic District, which he had never been qualified to set foot in.

Shinji Ikari returned to the elevator shaft with practiced ease, with Rei Ayanami following behind him like a little tail.

But at that very moment, a powerful shockwave struck, causing the elevator shaft to shake violently. Cracks spread through the reinforced concrete structure, steel bars were torn apart, water pipes burst, and water vapor and cold air filled the air, causing Shinji Ikari's expression to change drastically.

The earth seemed to tremble, and Rei Ayanami felt an immense pressure descending from the sky, almost crushing her. It was an aura of majesty, the oppression of a higher life form over weak creatures like humans, like a tiger over a sheep, or a god over humanity. A single breath could crush a mortal! A deafening roar, like a storm tsunami, filled Rei Ayanami's ears.

The sound of a sharp object scraping against the steel wall was more terrifying than the demons of hell. This behemoth fell from the top of the enormous elevator shaft, revealing the apostle's own hideous face.

The Ninth Angel, the Rain Angel Mathilde, locked eyes with Shinji Ikari here.

This Angel seemed to be traveling along the same route as Shinji Ikari, and perhaps even sharing the same thoughts, heading towards the same destination. Tragically, however, they met by chance.

"Haha! You're going to die too! Everyone's going to die! You'll be buried with me!" The last remaining invader leader screamed sharply on the verge of death, as if he were delighted that the enemy who killed him and his companions would also perish with him.

Even though he is a legendary pilot who has killed several Apostles, he is now all alone. How can humanity possibly fight against an Apostle?

The Angel truly had no intention of letting Shinji Ikari go. It had no intention of killing ordinary humans alone, but the weak human before it unusually aroused its sense of crisis, as if it were facing another Angel.

Between apostles, it was a matter of life and death.

It extended its left pincer, preparing to crush the human before it into a bloody pulp, but the next second, a shockwave shattered the iron wall, revealing a purple machine through the ventilation opening directly in front. Its form was so enormous and powerful that it seized the falling pincer of the Rain Angel, and they locked in a stalemate in the elevator shaft.

It was Unit-01! Despite having no pilot, it had broken free of its restraints and arrived here. In the darkness, its eyes gleamed like gas lamps. It was like a purple lightning bolt tearing through the air, arriving before Shinji Ikari with an aura of utter destruction.

The open jawline, like the entrance to the cockpit, seemed to be waiting for something.

Chapter 76: Gendo Ikari: I need a good beating

Shinji Ikari stood before the bottomless elevator shaft, his expression serene and unwavering. Behind him, the Ninth Angel, the Rain Angel Mathilde, bared his dark claws, resembling a savage beast poised to bite at any moment.

But he completely ignored the Rain Apostle behind him that was trying to kill him. He looked up at the purple machine above him, which was kneeling down in front of him, its arms supporting the Rain Apostle's protruding claws, as if it wanted to embrace him from behind.

"Impossible?! This is something out of the Bible...!"

The leader of the invaders stared in horror at the scene before him, utterly unable to believe what he was seeing if he hadn't witnessed it himself. The unmanned Unit-01 appeared before Shinji Ikari as if summoned, spreading its arms to shield him from the Rain Angel's attack.

At this moment, this sacred scene reminded him of Moses, Noah, Solomon, Jesus... these divinely inspired figures from mythology.

With a creaking, jet-black pincer atop his head and a terrifying angel of destruction closing in from behind, his leisurely gait revealed that none of this occupied his thoughts. Despite the imminent threat of death and destruction, his confidence remained unshaken.

The Third Child, Shinji Ikari.

This is precisely the demeanor of someone destined to become the savior of mankind.

"As expected, Unit-01, you came to me through your own will."