——???——

What happened?

Shinji Ikari looked at the billowing black mist around him, puzzled.

He was very convinced that after being unable to find more classmates who could be "matched" from the gathering garden, he had returned to the principal's "office" to wait for the results. If the number of "recovered" in the school was not enough, the "angels"

If he squeezed out, he would have to expand the scope of recovery to the entire Third New Tokyo City. After all, he had no impression of the personalities displayed by certain people. In that case, he would not have to find people based on experience, but would have to ask "

"Noah" can only analyze the population data of the third neo-Tokyo City.

And if there are enough, before the "angel" condenses into a body and becomes the 18th apostle, he will have enough time to go from the "ark" underground to NERV to activate Unit 1 to meet the enemy.

Of course, the most important thing is to return to Ayanami, who is in the "on-hook" state in the Ark, so that she can see him as soon as she opens her eyes.

Yes, that's right, she has seen it too many times. This kind of small method to gain favor is useless, and will definitely be ridiculed by the information integration thought body, but "useless" and "don't do it" are two different concepts.

If he remembered correctly, shortly after returning to the "Ark", after "Noah" brought another pair of "personality disordered persons" into the "Recovery Circle" without their knowledge, "Angel Falls"

The reverse recovery of "" began. Those students who had not yet undergone the "physical examination" covered their heads one after another, showing a look of pain. Almost at the same time, Naoko Akagi, who was hanging upside down in the column of solution, and had been unresponsive, opened his eyes.

eyes.

And then...he inexplicably ran to this place where he couldn't sense himself and his eyes were filled with black mist.

The darkness flowing in front of my eyes may be fog, or it may not be. In fact, because I cannot feel and control my body, I am not sure whether the "eyes" I use to "see" these black fogs are "eyes".

He was a little anxious, because if the recovery plan for Angel's Fall was completed, then the "Fourteenth Apostle" would appear, and he had to solve it instead of being trapped in this inexplicable place.

But, what if I am trapped here and it was caused by the restoration of "Angel Fall"?

After all, in another world line, there is a group of "Ayanami sisters". With their strange speaking habits, it is easy to find unlucky people in "Academy City" who are overshadowed by their personality, and because of their special life experience

, they can easily switch personalities without any hindrance, but here... the time spent is five times longer, which may be the reason for the accident.

Sure enough, it was a mistake to be too confident. I had a good relationship with Eve's incarnation, could jump world lines, interfere with timelines, had card superpowers, and had a high synchronization rate with EVA, so I thought I was invincible.

As a result, it was okay during "Angel Falls", but hit the south wall during "Angel Comes Home".

With Ayanami's ability, as long as he doesn't deliberately hide his clumsiness, he should be able to defeat a mere apostle... right?

——

I don't know how long it took, maybe ten minutes, maybe a few hours, before something different finally appeared in front of Shinji Ikari's "eyes".

【1.048596%】

This is a row of strange numbers that look like they are made up of old filaments. They appear out of thin air in the black fog, but are not blocked by them, so that Shinji Ikari can always see each number clearly.

I seem to have seen it somewhere, but I can't remember it.

For some reason, these numbers give me a vague feeling of "moving".

【1.048595%】

Ah, it really moved.

call--

Although he couldn't hear any sound, the "black mist" in front of him instantly dispersed, allowing Shinji Ikari to automatically make up the sound.

The scene after the black fog dissipated really surprised him.

What appeared in front of him, almost filling his field of vision, was an unusually huge earth, with blue oceans and yellow and green continents. The outline was exactly the same as what he had seen in geography class, against the background of the surrounding dark universe and dotted stars.

Turn slowly.

Before Shinji Ikari could figure out what was going on, the next second, he began to "fall".

To be precise, his "perspective" began to fall rapidly towards the "Earth", so fast that the edges of his vision were blurred. This high-speed fall, even if there is no sound, just looking at the picture is enough to make people break out in a cold sweat -

—Although he doesn't seem to be able to sweat now.

So I am also an "angel"?

This is simply too strange.

In other words, after landing, will he become weird and be beaten by Ayanami driving Unit Zero?

You don’t want that kind of thing!

Huhuhu——

In the sound effects created by Shinji Ikari himself, his falling trajectory continued to twist and deviate. After it was finally determined that he was in the Antarctic continent, his falling trajectory finally stopped changing.

Wait, think about it carefully, after the second impact, the ocean has completely turned red, but the picture in front of you is still blue, which means...

Shinji Ikari looked at the blue ocean and then at his destination.

The second impact was actually caused by me?

No, wait, that's just the official statement. In fact, there was no meteorite that hit the Antarctic continent. Eve existed from the beginning.

So, if you are not a meteorite, what is it that is falling?

Huhuhu——

Except for the rumblings in his head, there was no sound or image that responded to Shinji Ikari's doubts.

No, I have to take a look.

He tried hard several times, constantly changing his perspective, trying to see clearly what "himself" looked like, but in the end, it was useless except that the perspective became skewed.

However, although this kind of distortion cannot see "self", he can see "others". From the distorted "perspective", Shinji Ikari can see that in addition to himself, there are at least three snow-white "shooting stars" heading towards him.

With long bright white tails falling from the sky towards the ground, judging from the color alone, they look like useless EVA mass production machines.

One of them was faster than me and had already touched the ground first.

Zheng——

At the same time as the contact, the "white meteor" disappeared, or in other words, exploded in all directions.

As if a bucket of paint had been thrown on it, the area where the "white meteor" came into contact with the earth suddenly became a large area of ​​white, whether it was land or ocean, and other meteors also followed suit and "landed" in other places on the earth that were not covered with white. , the earth that Shinji Ikari could see was instantly dyed with large tracts of snowy white, making it look like a cow or a Dalmatian dog.

This is outrageous——

boom!

Before Shinji Ikari could figure out what happened, his "perspective" plunged into the Antarctic continent.

——

【1.048595%】

When Shinji Ikari returned to the perspective of overlooking the earth, the black fog did not reappear, but the row of characters with a number jumping still floated in front of his eyes.

He silently looked at the earth. As expected, the earth showed a vast expanse of pure white snow. Both the land and the ocean were all frozen.

So, is this actually the "Third Impact"?

So next, it’s time for Ayanami to “reset the world”, right?

【1.048594%】

The strange numbers jumped in front of Shinji Ikari's eyes as if in response.

The next second, his "perspective" began to drop rapidly again.

Shinji Ikari skillfully tilted his "perspective" and looked to the side.

This time, because the earth had been completely frozen, there were no "accompanying" meteors, but what he saw still surprised him: he was at the top of a giant tree.

This is a giant tree with a thick trunk and lush branches and leaves. Its tip is pointed downwards and its roots are pointed upward. It is planted straight towards the Antarctic in a spear-throwing posture. The most incredible thing is that it is as a whole. They all exude an untimely bright golden light.

The reason I was able to see "myself" this time was not because I successfully adjusted my field of view, but because the tree was so big that even if I could only slightly tilt my angle of view, I could still see the branches, leaves and golden light in all directions.

Although there is no evidence, Shinji Ikari is sure that it is "Eve" without any reason.

a tree?

Ayanami is the incarnation of a tree?

In other words...she can actually be regarded as the kind of "elf" that often appears in Western fantasy?

It seems like...that's not impossible?

If you think about it carefully... isn't the love between short-lived humans and long-lived elves the object of their praise?

Just as Shinji Ikari was distracted, the giant golden tree plunged into the frozen Antarctic continent.

Perhaps it was still an illusion, but he seemed to hear the sound of ice breaking, roots stretching, and branches and leaves growing.

And with this stamp, the magical line of numbers directly skipped the integer prefix.

【0.989962%】

Shinji Ikari originally thought that his "perspective" would return to the "universe" and make another rapid descent. But this time, although his perspective returned, it seemed to be fixed and did not descend again. Instead, he began to descend again. Observe its operation from a perspective overlooking the entire earth.

After the giant golden tree hit the "Antarctic Continent", there was only a brief pause before the golden light began to expand outwards. Wherever the golden light went, the oceans and continents that were originally frozen by the "white meteor" melted rapidly and recovered. into their original appearance.

No, "fast" is just my own feeling. Judging from the rapidly changing seasons on this "earth" and the twitching activities of biological populations, I should be "slowed down".

And what this earth showed itself was exactly what it was like after the "first impact".
To be continued...