It's not yet midsummer, but cicadas are already chirping, but it's hard to tell whether it's the cicadas that are noisy one after another or the repetitive announcements on the roadside that are annoying.
"[At 12:30 today, an emergency warning is issued for the Kanto region centered on the East China Sea region:]"
"[Residents, please go to the designated evacuation shelter immediately. All roads, subways, railways and other public transportation within the area have been suspended. Please do not go out at will.]"
However, for a teenager trying to use a public phone on a deserted street, the mechanical response from the receiver is more annoying.
"[We are currently in an emergency period. All numbers cannot be connected. Please wait until the emergency situation is lifted and try again. Repeat——]"
"Well, I shouldn't have come," the young man put down the phone: "Every year we say that the [Apostle] is coming, but he doesn't come every year. Everyone has forgotten about it, and then it suddenly comes, ugh."
This is a young man who is only about fourteen or fifteen years old, with black hair and eyes, a round face, and a rather youthful expression. He is wearing a black uniform that looks like a middle school uniform, but because the weather is a bit hot, his shirt
It was unbuttoned, revealing a clean white shirt and a wide belt with a metal buckle that clearly did not comply with school regulations.
"What should I do?" He looked up at the sign on the street sign [New Tokyo City 3, 13 kilometers north]: "Do we have to walk?"
13 kilometers, it’s not close, but it’s not too far. If you are really determined to walk, it’s not impossible. Just treat it like participating in an amateur marathon. But the problem now is that there seems to be something nearby that is legendary and wants to destroy mankind.
——
Boom!
Following the sound of heavy footsteps, an unusually huge and strange black creature poked its head out from the cliff far behind the road sign, turned its small, bird-mask-like face, and glanced at the young man in front of the phone booth from a distance.
.
...the apostles appear.
Ta da da! Boom boom boom!
Before the boy could make any reaction, intensive gunshots and artillery fire rang out.
The heavy artillery and armored vehicles that were secretly deployed near the cliff took off their camouflage and opened fire on it. Fighter planes followed the apostle in the direction in which it appeared. As they passed by, they dropped missiles carried under their wings at it.
What was originally just a satellite town on the outskirts of the city instantly turned into a battlefield and front line.
In the bursts of firelight, the young man saw clearly the appearance of the "apostle". It was completely black and roughly human-shaped, but its shoulders were too big, its hands and feet were too thin and too long, and its bird-mask-like head grew on its chest, shoulders, and waist.
, there are ferocious bone armors on the sides of the legs and elbows.
"Now those guys who advocate mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence with the apostles should be dumbfounded..." The young man complained smoothly: "Whoever says that again will be sent to this thing."
Apostle is the name given by humans to these super giant monsters that suddenly appear and cause great damage after experiencing the "First Impact" and "Second Impact". Maybe they originally had their own names, but they were too late.
That’s all.
Afterwards, based on the results of these two impacts, humans accurately calculated that the Apostle Army would reappear fifteen years after the "Second Impact" - they must have some secret information that has not been made public.
However, now is not the time to discuss the hidden intelligence of the Earth United Nations. For the sake of your own life, it is business to escape from the battlefield first.
Buzz--
Just when the boy was looking around and preparing to find a nearby shelter to hide in, the seemingly stunned apostle turned his head and shot two blazing white beams from the two eyes of the "mask".
Fighters, armored vehicles and artillery positions were swept away.
...It's not that it didn't react at all, but it was calculating the trajectory and aiming.
squeak - squeak -
The apostle once again swept out several beams of light, destroying all the immovable and inconvenient artillery and armored tanks. Only a few clever fighter jets escaped by making superb maneuvers.
Then, he lowered his height, turned around, and ran away... from above the boy's head.
Damn it, the young man watched the giant "apostle" approaching step by step, quickly picked up his bag and hid on the side of the building next to him.
However, given the size of the monster, a house of this size may not have any defensive effect at all. We can only hope that it will not step down accurately.
Boom boom boom——squeak——
At this moment, a blue car drove by at lightning speed from the other end of the town. Its driver seemed to be very unskilled and bumped into other abandoned and parked vehicles on the road several times before successfully arriving in front of the young man.
Stop.
"Hey, boy," the driver rolled down the window, "Want a ride?"
It was a woman with long dark blue shawl hair and amber pupils. She was wearing a black professional skirt and a red vest. She looked very free and confident.
"Well," the young man glanced at her, quickly opened the car door and got into the car and fastened his seat belt: "You are the Captain Katsuragi who is scheduled to pick me up, right?"
"yes……"
"A sister who sent a photo of her with lipstick and a swimsuit as a contact photo, and specially drew an arrow to let people see her career line." The boy continued.
"Ritsuko Akagi! You're dead!" The woman known as Captain Katsuragi roared and stepped on the accelerator, and the blue car bounced out like an arrow from the string.
"[Click, click.]" At this time, the apostle who was originally chasing the planes that attacked it was attracted by the blue car that drove away quickly from his feet. The bird-faced mask turned, smoothly, or
He said that he was shooting a laser beam.
Buzz-buzz!
"So, that wasn't from you?" the boy continued to ask.
"Of course not! I'm still on vacation! I only received a photo of you and a location for me to pick you up. Who knows what you received over there!"
Lieutenant Katsuragi roared and turned the steering wheel randomly, drifting to avoid the beam.
The apostle turned his head in confusion, and another beam of light flew out.
"In addition to your swimsuit photo, it also has [Misato Katsuragi]'s signature and lip print."
"Oh? Hahaha... Forget about forging signatures, why not get a lip print yourself?" Captain Katsuragi, or Misato Katsuragi's body began to emit black air, and he fiddled with the steering wheel: "And give it to a junior high school student!
?”
The blue car swayed from side to side, dodging the second direct beam attack.
"[Huh?]" The apostle stared at the blue car carefully, and then two laser beams were emitted from the mask at the same time, cutting across the road in front of the car, one horizontally and one vertically. No matter whether it accelerated or decelerated, it would be hit.
"If the lip print is not yours, but that of someone named 'Ritsuko Akagi', can you do something about it?"
squeak - squeak -
The blue car came to a sudden stop. Katsuragi Misato turned to look at the young man in the passenger seat with surprise, and two laser beams just passed by outside the window behind her head.
"Okay! What a great idea!" She patted the boy on the shoulder vigorously: "From now on in [NERV], you will be protected by me, my sister!"
"I wish you the best, Sister Katsuragi," the young man blinked and changed his words directly: "But if possible, please ask my sister to just show a 'slight interest in me', so that 'Ritsuko Akagi' will try to 'seize'
Follow what interests you and get close to me, and we may get more dirty information about her."
"You guy-" Misato Katsuragi laughed and rubbed his head hard, making the boy's black hair look like a chicken coop: "This mouth must have deceived many girls before, right?"
"No, they all think I'm scary." The young man blinked.
"Ha, then they are probably blind. If I were ten years younger, I would not let you go." Misato Katsuragi continued to rub his head.
"Hmm? Then sister will be 7 years old?"
"...Well, not only are they blind, they are also deaf."
"[Click, click, click!]"
All attacks failed, and the apostle seemed to become angry. He completely gave up tracking the planes and strode towards the stopped blue car.
The next moment, a pitch-black missile flew from the direction where the fighter plane escaped, accurately hitting the apostle whose back was turned towards it.
"N2 (NO NUCLEAR)?!" Misato Katsuragi was shocked when she saw the missile in the rearview mirror. She reached out and was about to hug the boy and throw her down - but he raised his hand to stop her.
"You just drive, I will think of a solution," the young man said quickly: "I am a [qualified person ()]."
The so-called qualified people refer specifically to the children born in the year after the "Second Impact" 15 years ago. They will more or less master some skills that would have been called "superpowers" in the past, some are useful, some are
Funny, some will cause damage to themselves when used, and some cannot exert their power without specific conditions. The United Nations on Earth has established various institutions to research and apply these abilities, and NERV is one of them.
As far as Misato Katsuragi knows, all current experiments to replicate or artificially create "qualified persons" have ended in failure, and no new qualified persons have been born in the past 15 years, so each of them is a priceless treasure.
It is said that some radicals are trying to create a "third impact". Naturally, no one will support this kind of transaction that is not proportional to income and expenditure.
And this young man was of course called here because his qualified abilities would be useful to NERV.
"...Okay!" Misato Katsuragi quickly started the car and ejected at the same time as the missile that was hilariously inserted into the back of the "Apostle" exploded.
boom--!
As the white light bloomed, a huge mushroom cloud gradually rose, followed by a huge explosion shock wave and electromagnetic shock that spread rapidly outward with the apostle as the center.
Misato Katsuragi showed off her unprecedented driving skills and ran all the way, but judging from her speed, it was impossible to avoid this rolling wave.
In her busy schedule, she glanced at the young man beside her and found that he was raising his left arm, pressing his right hand on the back of his left hand. At the moment when the air wave was about to catch up with the car, she suddenly threw out his right hand and patted it down hard.
