Shinji Ikari, returned from Warhammer

“Men sometimes have to take on multiple jobs. Actually, I’m no different from a middle-aged office worker who drives a taxi at night.” Kaji Ryoji explained with a smile, “Actually, I received the order last night, but the head identity card (GEHIRN) for Committee Member Shinji Ikari just arrived. I delivered it over as soon as I received it.”

Tonight, many people are destined to have a sleepless night.

The alarm suddenly sounded urgently in NERV Hakone in the dead of night. Even though it was late at night, the duty personnel still quickly woke up Ritsuko Akagi, who was in charge. When she arrived at the monitoring room wearing a white coat and slippers, there was chaos inside.

"Unable to detect the second branch; data analysis shows no gamma rays!"

"Damn it, the reconnaissance aircraft's signal is terrible over there! Upload the data and let MAGI make a judgment!"

"How's the satellite monitoring? It should be fine, right? Hopefully, something like the Apostle incident won't happen again!"

"The hotline and satellite circuits are not responding! But the video is still playing and is being streamed to the display screen."

With a hoarse sound, the huge display screen suddenly lit up.

From the perspective of satellite detection, a giant pink cross, resembling the one at the time of the apostle's death, stands within the United States, accompanied by a red shockwave that spreads outwards covering 89 kilometers.

Although the United States was finally bombed, the members of the development department at headquarters were not happy. Soon, news of the disappearance of NERV's second branch reached Misato Katsuragi.

She was still soaking in the bath when she suddenly stood up from the tub.

"Disappeared? Are you sure the Second Branch Massachusetts Base has disappeared?" Misato Katsuragi asked seriously.

"Yes, it's been confirmed." Ritsuko Akagi calmly replied on the other end of the phone, "They've disappeared. The management and investigation departments are in chaos, and the general affairs department is in a panic because the way they disappeared is extremely unusual."

"What is the reason?" Misato Katsuragi asked calmly.

"It's still unclear. The only clue is an image transmitted from a geostationary satellite; no other traces have been left. Because the way it disappeared involves..." Ritsuko Akagi paused here, clearly indicating that this was a secret that couldn't be revealed over the phone.

“Okay, I understand. I’ll be right there,” Misato Katsuragi said in a deep voice.

Wrapped in a bath towel and wearing wet slippers, Misato Katsuragi hurried to Shinji Ikari's room and flung open the sliding door. "Shinji, something terrible has happened! You're with..."

Misato Katsuragi, who habitually came to find Shinji, was suddenly at a loss for words, because only Asuka was lying on the bed in the room, her legs wrapped in the blankets and her head buried in the pillow.

After Shinji Ikari left, Asuka moved in. The annoying guy who kept saying he was in the way was finally gone; this place was now Asuka's domain, the Goddess of Darkness.

"Sorry, sorry, you can go back to sleep." Misato Katsuragi quickly closed the door.

A few seconds later, a muffled sound came from the dark room.

"What an idiot, what Shinji? He already brought it up a long time ago."

"Miri is such an idiot. Can't she see that he's just a playboy? Why does she still spoil him like this?"

"Even top students can be idiots. Agreeing to any of his conditions will only embolden him."

"The management at headquarters are idiots too. Why did they fire him? Did they think that would make him submit?"

Asuka lifted the pillow, rolled over, and held it high in the dark room, her eyes gleaming with an ambiguous light.

Although she told Misato Katsuragi that Shinji Ikari had taken a moving company and moved all their belongings, it was a lie. Misato knew, after a little thought about Shinji's behavior, that he wouldn't do such a thing.

Because he wanted the best of everything, even though he knew nothing about sake, his sake cabinet was filled with the finest Daiginjo sake. His room, though only about 20 square meters, had a Slumberland bed, and even the mattress cost 20 million yen. As for secondhand goods, he never touched them, not even his own.

Perhaps in his heart, he would come back. But he never expected that Asuka would take his place.

You didn't expect that, did you, you idiot Shinji? You'll be sleeping under a bridge by now!

Asuka hugged her pillow and blankets again, seemingly still able to sense Shinji Ikari's presence. She remembered that night, when they were back to back, and she asked him why he wanted to pilot the EVA, but his answer was that no reason was needed, because he was meant to pilot the EVA.

That's easy for him to say. If he really gave up piloting EVA, it would be easy for him too. He probably wouldn't care about any of that.

They will not only leave the dormitory, but also leave the Third New Tokyo Municipal Junior High School, and then disappear from their own lives.

When he gets old, he'll be sleeping on the floor under a bridge, fighting with rats in the sewers for food. Looking at Asuka, the world-saving heroine on screen, will he regret his choices today?

"...Baka Shinji, don't even think about coming back." Asuka said sullenly, burying her head back into the pillow, greedily inhaling the boy's scent.

Then, her legs, which were clamped between the blankets, gradually exerted force, as if she wanted to pull something or someone into her body.

By the time Misato Katsuragi arrived in Hakone, the researchers in the development department had already compiled the data on the disappearance of the Second Branch.

NERV Branch 2 was NERV's North American branch, located somewhere in the Nevada desert. EVA Unit 4 destroyed it along with everything within an 89-kilometer radius during the NERV-02 activation experiment.

But this was only intelligence provided to the United Nations; the truth was—

"Let's watch the video replay. Countdown begins, three, two, one," Ritsuko Akagi shouted, counting down. Only she, Misato Katsuragi, and three executives from the development department were present, as the content of the video was classified as top secret.

A shockwave rose from the center, followed by a pink cross-shaped beam of light.

But this was just a normal cross impact. Although it affected the lives of thousands of people, destroyed the entire Second Branch, and covered an area of ​​89 kilometers, Misato Katsuragi knew the cold-blooded nature of Ritsuko Akagi during her research.

If it were only this level, it wouldn't be enough to make her so serious.

As the video was played in reverse again, Misato Katsuragi, who was completely focused, finally saw the difference. Although it was only a momentary change, it left her speechless.

"Disappeared?!" Misato Katsuragi exclaimed in astonishment.

“Yes, it disappeared rather than was destroyed.” Ritsuko Akagi pushed up her glasses, which reflected a bright light. “I’m afraid that in that instant, or even in the instant before the birth of the cross, it was already swallowed up by the Dirac Sea.”

The Dirac Sea is a vacuum theory proposed by British physicist Paul Dirac in 1928 to explain the anomalous negative energy states that appear in the solutions of the Dirac equation for free particles.

He proposed a vacuum that is actually filled with an infinite number of particle states with negative energy, hence this vacuum model is called the "Dirac Sea".

Dirac hypothesized the existence of positrons in this vacuum, which, as antimatter particles of electrons, were considered a hole in the Dirac Sea; the existence of positrons was experimentally confirmed by Carl Anderson in 1932.

Simply put, it is a sea of ​​negative-mass particles composed of the zero-point energy of the quantum vacuum. Although these particles are unobservable, they are by no means illusory. They can be formed with enough energy. Wherever there is matter, there is the Dirac Sea. Imagine the observed universe as if it were floating on its surface.

“That’s terrifying. Will an apostle capable of unleashing the Dirac Sea appear in the future?” Misato Katsuragi suddenly asked.

“Given the current level of evolution of the Apostles, such a possibility cannot be ruled out,” Ritsuko Akagi said coldly.

Although Misato Katsuragi was somewhat anxious, she knew that someone else was probably even more anxious.

"The task on our shoulders is getting heavier and heavier, and the apostles are becoming more and more troublesome." After a long while, Misato Katsuragi finally sighed softly.

“As we progress, the apostles are also learning and evolving. Let’s hope we don’t encounter unbearable despair,” said Ritsuko Akagi.

Then everyone fell silent. What was supposed to be a simple experiment to break through the time bottleneck had turned into such a tragedy. But for some reason, perhaps an instinctive reaction to previous incidents, Katsuragi Misato thought of a certain man whose glasses reflected light.

"Could this be his doing again?"

A cold laugh came from behind her, and Misato Katsuragi was horrified. It sounded like Shinji Ikari's laughter, but he shouldn't be here. She turned around abruptly, trying to find that ghostly figure in the crowd.

She didn't find him, but she did see Kaji Ryoji standing behind a certain executive, whispering a few words in his ear before retreating into the shadows and disappearing from sight.

111: The Terrifying Angel Who Converted to the Throne

The NERV headquarters is located in the central area of ​​a deep underground facility, outside of District 23.

A man calmly walked through the laser tunnel in front of the red warning sign that read "No Entry," but MAGI did not harm him in any way.

Upon reaching the deepest part of the tunnel, as he pulled out a red card and swiped it lightly, accompanied by a screen full of numbers and symbols, he felt a cold gun barrel pressed against the back of his head.

Kaji Ryoji wisely raised his hands, and the spiral door that was about to open closed again. "As the Minister of Operations, shouldn't you be in the central command? How come you have the leisure to come to a place like this?"

"Because I saw a rat, I was wondering whether to stomp it to death, poison it, or feed it to the cat to bite it to death," Misato Katsuragi said coldly, her gaze fixed sharply on the man in front of her.

“That sounds painful. Isn’t there a more comfortable way to die?” Kaji Ryoji smiled.

Misato Katsuragi ignored the teasing, her complex gaze filled with resentment at the man's back as she stared at him. "Is this your real job, infiltrating NERV to steal classified information, or is this just a side job?"

Which one are you referring to?

"Kashi Ryoji, who belongs to the Special Inspection Department of the NERV intelligence agency, and is also Kaji Ryoji of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Japanese government." Katsuragi Misato slowly revealed his true identity.

"We've been exposed." Kaji Ryoji let out a long sigh of relief, reaching for a cigarette in his pocket, when he was suddenly and violently slammed on the head by the barrel of a gun behind him. "Don't underestimate NERV, you idiot!"

"Was this Commander Ikari's order?" Kaji Ryoji cared a lot about this, because if so, it meant that Katsuragi Misato's arrival was to carry out a mission to silence Ikari Gendo, and that he was no longer needed.

“It was my decision,” Misato Katsuragi said. “Your actions are like dancing on a knife’s edge. If you continue this part-time job, you will die. That’s the only thing I’m sure of.”

Perhaps it was inevitable that Yoshiji Kaji would die. As a front man for a powerful figure, he knew too much, and his end would be incredibly tragic.

Kaji Ryoji was perfectly aware of this. "Commander Ikari still needs to use me, and I won't die until then. But I apologize for hiding the truth from you, Katsuragi."

“But what you’ve done has already touched the Commander-in-Chief’s sore spot! Even SEELE wouldn’t allow you to live! You’re too arrogant!” Katsuragi Miko’s face was icy.

“We are all arrogant, whether it’s you, me, or Akagi.”

"What a joke! Do you think I'm some kind of stupid fool who doesn't know what's good for him?!" Katsuragi Misato roared, her anger barely contained.

Kaji Ryoji continued to provoke, "You already knew the secret of the Angels. After they took the power of the Angels, they would naturally continue to evolve. With your abilities, didn't you notice just now that the Seraphim in this operation looked too much like an EVA being controlled by a pilot? It's just that you didn't dare to think about it and were too confident in your own plans."

"Shut up!" Katsuragi Misato pressed the muzzle of the gun against the back of Kaji Ryoji's head. Seemingly sensing Katsuragi Misato's anger, Kaji Ryoji stopped saying anything provocative.

"You're the one who told Shinji Ikari the secret hidden in the Dead Sea Scrolls! You're courting death!" Misato Katsuragi said, enunciating each word clearly.

During this time, the phone call with Shinji Ikari after the Second Operation kept Misato Katsuragi awake all night... The Fruit of Wisdom, the Complete, the Angel, Humanity—it was just a simple sentence, but for Misato Katsuragi, it was like a bolt from the blue.

Because this knowledge is classified as Level 3 secret within MAGI, it's absolutely impossible for Shinji Ikari to know it. Although he learned that it was "someone you can contact every day and trust completely," Misato Katsuragi's first suspicion was still about Ryoji Kaji.

Although, based on the description, Ritsuko Akagi and Rei Ayanami are more likely to be the correct match.

However, the former would never reveal this knowledge about Shinji Ikari, as she was closer to Gendo Ikari than Shinji. Rei Ayanami, on the other hand, would proactively tell him, but unfortunately, she didn't know it.

"What?! The Dead Sea Scrolls?!" Kaji Ryoji exclaimed in astonishment. "Wait a minute, let me sort this out! I'm a little confused!"

At this moment, he finally understood the source of Misato Katsuragi's anger. It wasn't his identity as a multi-faceted spy... Oh, although she was also angry about that, the latter would inevitably bring death.

She thought she was the one who told Shinji about this secret, but he really wanted to know the secret of the Dead Sea Scrolls that she mentioned, but even he couldn't access it!

"Not you? Kaji Ryoji, don't play dumb with me!" Katsuragi Misato's eyes widened.

Seeing the astonished expression on Kaji Ryoji's face, Katsuragi Misato had a feeling that things might develop in a way that was beyond everyone's expectations.

At the same moment, 2,800 meters underground in Hakone, amidst the darkness of servers and cables, a boy leaned back on the cables, his hands as a pillow.

[Identity verified. Welcome, esteemed Imperial Vanguard, Shinji Ikari!]

The voice belonged to MAGI, a mechanical female voice that every NERV employee was intimately familiar with. Soft screen light illuminated the boy's face.

"Oh, beautiful!" Shinji Ikari's lips curled into a deadly smile.

This is an area accessible only to Gendo Ikari; it's MAGI's main server. In this vast space, millions of colorful wires intertwine and head in different directions. The walls are lined with massive, old-fashioned computers; ancient transistors gleam faintly in the darkness, and magnetic tape memory whirrs and clicks.

Even with his SEELE-authorized ID card, Kaji Ryoji couldn't enter this place. Even his daughter, Akagi Ritsuko, wasn't allowed in without authorization.

But Shinji Ikari walked in so brazenly, and even in his presence, MAGI deliberately concealed his whereabouts. This was simply because he now possessed the highest level of authority.

It is also the highest authority granted by the emperor.

The terrifying angel Ilor, possessing power surpassing even that of a fetal angel, self-destructed two weeks prior due to her intrusion into MAGI's mainframe and the program programmed by Ritsuko Akagi. She was also one of the few Angels Shinji Ikari came into contact with but did not kill personally.