I participated in the development of EVA

"..."

Ritsuko Akagi, who had retained some of her rationality, was immediately stumped by the question.

If there really is such a plan as I guessed, it would definitely be carried out in secret and I would not be involved.

It took a moment to come back to my senses.

"Really?"

Fumihiko Ikari breathed a sigh of relief. The fact that Ritsuko Akagi asked this showed that she was still willing to believe in him.

"How long have we known each other? Don't you know what kind of person I am?"

As he explained, his heart was filled with worry.

He knew that Akagi Ritsuko was like this now because she had become mentally unstable due to the disappearance of Akagi Naoko.

In the original work, the death of her mother was a big blow to Ritsuko Akagi, but that was a real death, and the appearance of Gendō Ikari gave Ritsuko an outlet for her emotions. But now Naoko Akagi has been swallowed up, and without Gendō Ikari as an outlet for her emotions, she has to face everything alone. Although Fumihiko Ikari gave her hope, every minute and every second is still a torment for Ritsuko Akagi.

Ritsuko Akagi regained her sanity.

That's why I swallowed the doubts that were about to come to my mind.

"Mother, please leave for a moment. I have something I want to talk to him alone."

The Naoko Akagi android is not a real person, so naturally he will not disobey the orders of Ritsuko Akagi.

"Oh."

After responding calmly, the android turned and left.

When there were only two people left in the room again, Ritsuko Akagi spoke again.

"Have you ever loved your mother?"

Fumihiko Ikari didn't know how to answer for a moment, and was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"Ritsuko, I don't want to lie to you. Sometimes two people are together, not necessarily because they love each other."

He expressed his true feelings and did not give the answer that Ritsuko Akagi wanted.

Because once this lie is exposed, trust will completely collapse and can never be rebuilt.

Ritsuko Akagi couldn't believe it.

"And you said you weren't using your mother, you didn't like her...why are you still with her!?"

"I need her, and she needs me."

Before Akagi Ritsuko could say anything, Ikari Fumihiko added a sentence.

"I never intended to use Naoko to complete the artificial god project, and the double insertion plug system had already been developed at that time, so there was no need for me to do so."

At this moment, Ritsuko Akagi was obviously more concerned about Ikari Fumihiko's previous words.

"What do you need mother?"

"She can give me a relationship that can last until marriage and childbirth."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Ritsuko Akagi was stunned for a moment before she spoke, asking about the doubts that had been accumulating in her heart for a long time.

"Why can't I?"

Ikari Fumihiko was silent for a moment before speaking out his thoughts.

"you are too young."

"I'm already twenty-four years old, is that still young!?"

"You were only twenty-two at the time, and I couldn't tell whether you wanted to be with me just to get Naoko's attention or if you really liked... me."

"… Where's your mother?"

"I could feel that her eyes were focused on me."

20:43:05

731.Ah???

Ritsuko Akagi hesitated to speak. She wanted to defend herself but didn't know how to start because she really cared about her mother more than Ikari Fumihiko.

He stood there in a daze for a long time before reacting.

"Isn't it normal for children to put their parents first in their hearts? If not, it would be abnormal, right?"

Is there anything wrong with this logic?

It seems to be fine.

Ikari Fumihiko was somewhat speechless.

"What's the point of saying this now?"

"yes……"

Ritsuko Akagi fell silent.

She just said those words because she was unwilling to accept the unexpected answer and justified her persistence over the years. She wanted to ask: If the rescue work for her mother could not be completed, would Fumihiko Ikari continue to stick to it? But when the words came to her lips, she remembered that she had put on her mother's vest and suppressed the words in her heart.

The two sat facing each other in silence.

Ikari Fumihiko sighed.

After taking a look at the Type 02 prototype, I understood something.

No wonder...

Naoko Akagi did not stop Ritsuko Akagi from misbehaving.

It was because Naoko Akagi didn't know how long it would take for her to wake up again, so she didn't stop Ritsuko Akagi from making trouble now... No! It could also be that when she injected her soul into the core, in addition to being forced by the situation, it was more of an escape. Naoko Akagi didn't know how to deal with the relationship between the three of them.

It's like...

He had been waiting for Naoko Akagi to make up her mind and then confess everything to Ritsuko Akagi.

They are all avoiding the problem.

Ritsuko Akagi spoke up, breaking the silence.

"…My mother made that choice because of me…"

"what??"

Ikari Fumihiko was confused again.

"When I saw you and mother together, I didn't know how to face it all. I kept having the thought of 'injecting my soul into the core' in my mind. After the war alert was lifted, I asked mother to 'let me enter the core module next time'. It was because of this sentence that mother did not leave the core module immediately..."

Akagi Ritsuko didn't have the courage to say the rest of the words, but Ikari Fumihiko knew what she was going to say.

"Naoko, did you realize that you wanted to inject your soul into the core?"

"..."

Ritsuko Akagi didn't say anything.

Fumihiko Ikari didn't know what to say. He really didn't expect that there was such a thing hidden in that incident. However, it also made him understand some things.

No wonder...

At that time, Ritsuko Akagi had already removed the insertion plug, but Naoko Akagi had not. It turned out that this was the reason.

Normally, if Naoko Akagi had noticed the plan of the former NERV Council at the first time, she would have stopped Ritsuko Akagi from leaving the plug, but Naoko Akagi didn't do that. However, it was precisely because she noticed that Ritsuko Akagi had this idea that she delayed for a moment at that time, and that's why...

wrong!

At that time, Naoko Akagi may have first had the idea of ​​injecting her soul into the core to escape the problem, and then she realized the plan of the former NERV council.

After sorting out the logic, Fumihiko Ikari couldn't help but let out a long sigh this time.

It turns out that this is the reason for Ritsuko Akagi's illness.

"this is not your fault."

"No! This is my problem. If I hadn't said that at the time, my mother wouldn't have made that choice..."

Ikari Fumihiko didn't know what to say again, and could only weakly speak again to calm him down.

"This is really not your problem."

"If it weren't for me, there would have been no need for Mother to inject soul into the core to calm the situation."

It is indeed as Ritsuko Akagi said, at that time Naoko Akagi only needed to delay the situation and there was no need to make such an extreme choice.

"This matter is actually my fault... If I could take some responsibility, things wouldn't be like this..."

"it's me……"

Fumihiko Ikari knew in his heart that it was not that one person did something wrong, but that the choices made by all three people were problematic.

At this moment, he even had a feeling...

The urge to inject soul into EVA's core.

If you fall asleep there and never wake up, you won’t have so many worries.

"I shouldn't have been born into this world..."

Hearing this, Ikari Fumihiko felt a chill in his heart.

After his grandfather, the only person who cared about him, died, he had similar thoughts and tried to end his life. He jumped into the river and realized that he could swim. He tried once but failed. He was going to search online for the least painful way to commit suicide, but he was distracted by the game activities...

I played games for three consecutive years before I finally got over the grief.

At this time, he didn't care about his depressed mood. He was afraid that Ritsuko Akagi would be upset. He wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know what to say.

After a moment of confusion, he chose to hug Ritsuko Akagi.

Apart from giving her a warm hug, he really didn't know what to do.

This time, Ritsuko Akagi could no longer hold back her emotions and sobbed on Fumihiko Ikari's shoulder.

Fumihiko Ikari was filled with mixed emotions at this moment.

He felt sorry and guilty, but more of it was confusion. He found that he had three girlfriends, but no matter what he did in these three relationships, he seemed to be making mistakes, just like holding a ball of sand. The tighter he held it, the more sand would leak out from between his fingers. When he came to his senses, only a few memories of the past were left in his hands.

After a long time, Ritsuko Akagi calmed down a little and stopped sobbing.

And just then.

"This is all Seele's fault!"

"what?"

This time it was Ritsuko Akagi who couldn't keep up with Fumihiko Ikari's pace.

"It was Seele who made the world like this, making everyone unhappy. If the world hadn't become like this, there wouldn't be so much misfortune."

"what?"

"Yes! That's right! The world will be a better place without Seele."

"what?"

Fumihiko Ikari’s logic is very simple.

Without Seele, the world wouldn't be like this. After he traveled through time, he could just lie back and play games with the help of the original owner's wealth and status, and he wouldn't have encountered so many messy things.

"Seele is the root of all evil."

"what?????"

Akagi Ritsuko was confused. What on earth was going on? How did Seele become the source of all evil?

Why can't she understand?

Fumihiko Ikari didn't care whether Ritsuko Akagi understood or not, and continued to talk to himself, "Now Seele is hiding again, we must get a bait to lure them out. Oh, right! The space elevator! As long as we build the space elevator, those guys will definitely jump out again--"

This was the only sentence that Ritsuko Akagi understood.

"You want to restart the space elevator project?"

"Ah."