EVA: Shinji Ikari Returns from the Dragon Clan

Chapter 19 18. As long as Unit- launches an attack, everything will be fine.

Say goodbye to Misato Katsuragi.

Shinji Ikari went to the locker room first, and he quickly put on his blue and white combat uniform.

The EVA Unit-01, which had been repaired and buried in the orange-red pool, was being exposed from the pool through the conveyor tracks, waiting to be transported to the ground after the cockpit was inserted. Ikari Shinji was passing through the air corridor on his way to the cockpit when he suddenly noticed something staring at him. His intuition triggered, so he subconsciously turned his head and looked at the thing.

Before my eyes was Unit-01, seemingly motionless.

just.

——It seemed to look at itself.

Shinji Ikari instinctively shuddered and got goose bumps all over his body. What kind of a ghost movie opening is this? He would not regard this as an illusion. The half-bloods always believed in their intuition.

Can't go wrong.

It is indeed alive.

If I shout "Stop pretending, I saw it" now, will the Evangelion Unit-01, with only its head exposed, crawl out of the pool and come looking for me with its wet body? Maybe in the dead of night, I will receive a phone call threatening death in seven days, and I can only survive temporarily by transferring the curse of the videotape to someone else.

just.

Thinking of the existence who had interrupted his neural empathy and borne all the damage from the explosion on his behalf, Shinji Ikari felt relieved for the time being.

Unit-01 should have no ill will towards me.

The look on it was like a mischievous child who was not loved by his parents.

Maybe it was just because he hadn't seen it for three weeks, so he was blaming himself for not visiting it for so long. What the hell was this weird thought? When did he get so close to Unit-01? Besides, he couldn't give birth to a child that was eighty meters tall.

"Shinji-kun, what's wrong?" The staff member next to him looked at him who had stopped and asked curiously.

"No, let's keep going."

He shook his head, took one last look at Unit-01, and then continued walking towards the cockpit.

What follows is a familiar process.

LCL injection.

Neural empathy.

Various confirmation voices came from the communication channel until an unexpected report disrupted the orderly reporting process.

"Synchronization rate... 68.1%, that's up..."

"Amazing."

"It can actually rise, Shinji-kun."

Speaking of synchronization rate.

Shinji Ikari suddenly remembered that he had not yet asked Ayanami what her synchronization rate with Unit-0 was.

On this girl.

There are many mysteries yet to be solved.

After returning, he would have to let her try his cooking. He wondered what kind of food Ayanami would be interested in and how she would eat. He was a little curious about this.

All the reports in the communication channel ended, and Unit 01 arrived on the ground.

The restrictions on the giant were removed.

Finally able to move freely, Shinji Ikari controlled the view and looked towards where the new Angel was.

far away.

It's a thick smoke rising in the air.

The appearance of the new Angel was just as shown in the battle video, a large purple-green cockroach with two tentacles. Several helicopters were entangled with it, and in the distance, like annoying flies, they were guiding the Angels to attack remote areas of the city. After seeing the arrival of Unit-01, the helicopters, having completed their mission of containment, quickly withdrew from the battlefield.

Next is the 1v1 battle.

In the last battle with the apostle, he had fully experienced the defensive power of the AT force field, so this time he did not stubbornly try to see if the rifle could penetrate it. First of all, he naturally had to neutralize the AT force field.

It's easier to fight without defense.

With the experience of opening the AT force field last time, Shinji Ikari was much more skilled this time, at least he didn't need to be hit so hard that his entire left half was injured again. He stood there and tried hard for a while, following the feeling from last time, the pain, the pain that made him want to exclude and destroy everything in front of him, and soon waves began to appear around him, covering the purple-green paint of Unit-01.

The intensity is a bit too low.

I don’t know if this feeling is right, but the AT force field is out.

"Just make do with it for now."

he thought.

But there was a problem. With such a small AT force field, how could he neutralize the AT force field of the purple cockroach from such a distance? This thing couldn't extend that far, right?
Got to get closer.

Where the tentacles can't reach but the AT force field can.

Shinji Ikari tried to control Unit-01 to start stealth. After the helicopter left, the purple cockroach in the distance went straight in one direction without paying any attention to this side. He didn't know whether this stealth was useful, but it might be because the Angel had a more important goal, so as long as he didn't block its way, he wouldn't be attacked.

The purple-green mecha quickly approached to the limit of the safe distance, and the process was terrifyingly easy, just like driving on a wide sidewalk.

The AT force fields began to contact each other, taking advantage of the fact that the big cockroach had its back turned and didn't notice him.

He squeezed the trigger.

The feel is slightly different from that in the simulation training.

The huge assault rifle designed specifically for the EVA body, when he pulled the trigger, fired a series of strong and thick flames from the muzzle, forming a dazzling trajectory in the air, and rushed towards the apostle.

This is close range.

Plus back to body.

At least it should cause serious damage.

But the apostle seemed to have eyes on his back. He separated one of the tentacle originally used for de-urbanization in front and swung it behind him like a whip in an instant, directly facing the forward trajectory of the light column. Then the bullet and the tentacle collided, making a shrill whine and emitting thick black smoke.

After the smoke.

The big purple cockroach inside was unharmed. Not only that, it turned its head to look at Unit-01, obviously noticing this opponent, and stared at it with a pair of strange white eyes.

“Were we blocked?”

It’s not that simple after all.

Shinji Ikari fired a few more rounds of ammunition without giving up, but they were all blocked by those two strange tentacles. It seemed that he would not be able to harm the apostle unless he solved this problem.

Will we still have to fight in close combat in the end?
Unit-01:
Times have changed, but this still works.

apostle:

Times haven't changed.

This situation was also seen in the command room.

The original long-range combat plan had to be scrapped, and Shinji had to risk his life to fight this Angel. Close combat... Katsuragi Misato couldn't help but worry. This was different from simply pulling the trigger, and it required the ability to endure the pain. She recalled the conversation she had just had with Ritsuko. Could a pilot who had only been trained for three weeks really do something like that?
Last time.

The boy was nearly killed by the apostle's self-explosion.

Perhaps I shouldn't avoid contact with him just because the boy saw through my heart.

For the past three weeks, I have only had superficial interactions with him and our relationship has been very ordinary. This is not what a qualified Chief of Operations should do.

Trust Shinji more...

Again.

As long as Unit-01 launches an attack, I believe everything will be fine.

(End of this chapter)