2031, The Demonic Fog City of Death (Thirty-Eight)
——2016.2.24——
Gathering Garden, Literary Club.
"Hahaha, that apostle is so inferior. He re-created the apostle I accidentally suffered a loss in the past in the fantasy world. Do you want me to suffer setbacks again and be helpless? How naive!" Asuka poured out the tea cup.
He drank all the tea in it: "I blew them all up with my backhand. After breaking free from the hallucination, I shot the gun and killed the trash that was parked in the satellite orbit and only glowed!"
"But you lost the 'Longinus Gun'," Ayanami, who was reading by the window, said without raising his head: "The current observation results are that it exceeds the second cosmic speed and will eventually fly out of the solar system."
"It's so noisy! How did I know that NERV had a 'satellite orbit recovery plan'? I should have told you earlier that it cannot exceed the speed of the second universe!" Asuka put the tea cup on the table with a bang.
"Doesn't that just prove that Asuka you are very powerful?" Kirishima Mana walked out of the back room with a teapot and started to add tea to everyone: "Unlike me, I can only wait for Shinji-san to come to rescue me in the hallucination."
The literary club maid's arms and half of her face are still wrapped in bandages, and the skin that was originally covered now shows a sickly pale color. If her hair color and eye color are put aside, she looks like the first time I met Shinji Ikari.
Ayanami is almost the same.
"Don't worry, it's not an illusion. If you are in danger, I will rush to save you in time," Shinji Ikari answered quickly to prevent his thoughts from wandering, and then added: "Ah, I will also do it if Asuka and Ayanami are in danger.
go."
"Okay." Ayanami Rei responded casually.
Even if you are perfunctory with me, you should say thank you now...
"No need at all! The crane - cough," Asuka paused mid-sentence: "Shinji-kun just go save others, this talented driver is invincible in the world~ Oh hehehe~"
Well...this way of interpretation is not impossible.
Due to the "social death heartbeat", the entire NERV tacitly declared that they had no idea what the two of them had experienced in the illusion, and even imprisoned them for seven days on the grounds of "checking mental pollution" and "preventing the leakage of memes"
, to prevent fools who can't manage their expressions from showing strange expressions in front of them.
After all, the popularity of things like gossip will fade away in about a week.
Later, Asuka and Kirishima's real names were exchanged with each other during the quarantine. Because they each had something to hide, they somehow came to the conclusion that "the apostle scanned the memory and reproduced the setback again." It can only be said that it was wrong.
Now think about it carefully, I am so handsome and gentle, it is normal for a girl to have unrequited love. The pile of love letters in the shoe cabinet can prove it.
Bah, narcissist.
Unit No. 1 is not here, so go ahead and commit suicide by swallowing feces!
Since the above methods cannot cause death, I decided to remain silent.
What are you pretending to be? Do you need me to repeat what you were doing when Kirishima clearly expressed his affection?
Hmm... Shinji Ikari pinched his forehead.
Although I have been in the habit of talking to myself before, being able to quarrel with myself with a clear "persona" only happened recently. To be precise, it was when Kirishima's real name was thrown into the space-time rift and returned.
after.
Could it be... that he copied the personalities from other world lines back?
Ayanami has never commented on this matter, nor will she respond to these random thoughts. Maybe she thinks this matter is not very important?
"Due to the special nature of the fifteenth apostle, although you have been released from isolation, you still have to be observed for about ten days." Ayanami Rei raised his head and pushed up his glasses: "It's enough for me and Shinji-san to clean the club classroom."
Hmm... Indeed, since Kirishima was hospitalized due to the accident of Unit 3, the club classroom has not been cleaned for more than a month, and a thin layer of dust has accumulated in some corners that are not usually accessible.
"But..." Kirishima's real name was still a little hesitant.
"If dust gets into the bandage," Shinji Ikari pointed at his face: "The skin will become pitted."
"..." Kirishima Mana looked at Shinji Ikari with a look of "How do you say such obvious nonsense so seriously?" and nodded: "Okay then."
Oops... I accidentally forgot that she said "I believe everything she says"...
Why not deliberately talk nonsense in the future to make her give up that idea subtly?
"Then let's go back together," Asuka stood up and adjusted her collar: "If there is an attack from the apostles, I might have killed you before you come back."
"Not yet." Rei Ayanami pinched the frame of her glasses again.
——
Hmm...what on earth is she going to do?
Wearing a headscarf, Shinji Ikari used a duster to clean up the dust on the top of the bookshelf while sneaking a peek at Rei Ayanami and found that she had just wet the rag and was cleaning the window glass.
I'm actually cleaning the house...
Compared with other pilots who have their emotions and thoughts written on their faces, for Rei Ayanami, even if Shinji Ikari has a 100% synchronization rate with Unit-00, he cannot guess what she is thinking and can only roughly guess based on her actions.
Estimate.
She sent Asuka and Kirishima's real names away in advance. She probably had something to say to her, but she didn't say it directly. She was probably waiting for her to ask, and wouldn't say anything if the question wasn't right.
Being able to reset the world is hard work.
Is there a possibility that she wants you to confess?
Impossible, absolutely impossible.
Confession is a trumpet to declare victory, not a charge to launch an attack.
You were interrupted twice by her, you are really scared.
Stop talking nonsense, I will tell you when one day she decides to launch the third attack.
Confession successfully saves the world, but confession fails and the file is reloaded, right?
No matter what, she must be waiting for you to do something, that's absolutely true.
So, what exactly is it?
Wow…
At this time, Ayanami Rei had already finished wiping the glass, soaked the rag in water and began to wring it out.
Her wringing action was not the conventional tiger-mouth-to-eye-to-eye movement, but an upward and downward movement of her fists.
Ah, I remembered it!
"Ayanami, the way you twist the rag is so like my mother." Shinji Ikari said quickly according to the script.
Ayanami Rei turned to look at him, her expression unchanged at all, let alone the expected blush.
"Uh... that's actually..." Shinji Ikari scratched his head at a loss.
"Next month, there is a 50% chance of a third impact." Ayanami Rei turned his gaze back, picked up the rag and continued to clean the window: "You can try to stop it."
Oh I got it……
what happened!?
————
After repeatedly questioning Ayanami Rei, Shinji Ikari finally extracted effective information from a long series of short answers. Obviously, even if the incarnation of Eve does not blush, she will still be shy when answering directly about herself.
In summary, there should be an unstoppable apostle next month, namely the sixteenth apostle.
It's not "unable to deal with" in the conventional sense, but "unable to be dealt with by others" and "if she tries to deal with it, she will be tricked".
Specifically, a "ring apostle" with a "double helix DNA structure" will appear, which will actively contact the "EVA with a driver" and fuse with it.
It is fusion, not erosion, and what disappears after the fusion is the apostle himself. EVA's AT field will in turn be enhanced, so the AT field does not think it is an attack and will not respond.
But the problem is that it will also give all the DNA information it carries, how to use its power, and the memories it possesses to EVA and the driver. Because it is also "enhanced", it will not be rejected. After that, the driver
A member can transform himself and EVA into a new apostle with just one thought. Because it is an active and spontaneous act, there is no way to defend against it.
——
Although this apostle's ability is quite unreasonable, there are still traces to follow.
Up to the tenth time, the abilities of various apostles that appear are mainly direct means of destruction - including the one who was not born. He can easily deal with it with his "card superpower", but it becomes troublesome after that.
Real-life apostles began to infiltrate in the form of viruses, and card opponents also began to use methods targeting cards and decks.
In the early stage of the change in action mode, they were still a little dazed, thinking that the power of EVA lay in the body.
The Eleventh Apostle eroded the experimental machine to analyze its internal structure, and the Twelfth Apostle swallowed Unit 1 into the Dirac Sea to study its appearance. After they thought they had succeeded, they sent the Thirteenth Apostle to directly erode and control Unit 3.
Perhaps trying to prove that their judgment was correct, after the Thirteenth Apostle possessed by Unit 3 was defeated, they immediately synthesized the strongest data they could obtain and created the ridiculously powerful Fourteenth Apostle. If not for themselves
If there is a "card superpower" nearby, he may have been taken away by it in a wave, let alone the "Giant Soldier" that destroyed the 15th Apostle.
The fifteenth apostle who died two weeks ago seemed extremely weak, but he achieved a major result that no previous apostle had ever achieved: the key to successfully discovering and confirming EVA lies in the driver.
Thus, the sixteenth apostle, who possesses this almost incomprehensible ability, was born.
——
Theoretically speaking, this kind of thing similar to a psychic loophole can be used as long as the affected person has a strong mind and is not tempted by power, but the only pitfall in the entire process of the apostle's "attack behavior" is here: once the driver generates
No matter how absurd the idea of "if you become an apostle, you can do whatever you want", the transformation will be carried out automatically.
For example, "If I become an apostle, I will be the most powerful genius pilot", "If I become an apostle, Shinji-san will like me", these thoughts that are so outrageous that you will find something wrong if you think about it for a moment can also trigger transformation.
As for Shinji Ikari himself, there is even a reasonable and correct statement: "As long as you become an apostle, you will be the same as Ayanami."
Rei Ayanami, who can naturally resist this one because he is an apostle, will suffer from another point, which is the "memory of the apostle". The "double helix" is not meant to look good and replicate the shape of DNA. They are stored separately.
With the record of the two opposite motivations of human beings, "altruism" and "self-interest", the AT force field has been greatly enhanced, and Rei Ayanami, who can directly connect to Eve's body, as long as he has the thought of "humanity is better to be destroyed", the third time
The impact will come as expected.
In Ayanami's words, after she came into contact with the 16th Apostle, the chances of "Third Impact" and "Unit-1 being blown up" were each 50%, but Shinji Ikari did not have the courage to ask about the number of samples.
However, in "This Reincarnation", he seems to have increased the probability of Ayanami Rei's idea that "human beings should continue to survive" through timeline jumps and other methods, but it has never been much higher and cannot be completely reassured.
As for the increased favorability, synchronization rate, etc., they only increase the possibility of Ayanami taking herself to the next reincarnation, and it does not help save "this world". Combined with that there are many "Ayanami sisters"
In the world line, she will only take away the people she is interested in. Whether or not to retain the memory depends on the situation.
Shinji Ikari had no intention of asking about the situation of his "other self". He firmly believed that there was absolutely no second Shinji Ikari who could increase the synchronization rate of Unit-1 to as high as 600% and still be intact. After all, 400% had turned into pus——
This was just asked in passing.
——
After cleaning up, the two left the assembly garden together. Shinji Ikari didn't figure out how to defeat the 16th Apostle until he returned to his dormitory.
If we put aside the fateful method of "let Ayanami throw zero coins to decide whether the world will continue", there should be another method that has a very high success rate, but is very difficult to implement, but what exactly is it?
It shouldn’t be possible to use your “card superpowers” on the spot, right?
This feeling of frustration is like seeing the test questions one day in advance but not being able to do them at all.
Um?
The day before the exam...exam questions...
Why do we need to read the questions? Can’t we just look at the reference answers?
"Real name? Are you in the dormitory?" Shinji Ikari dialed Kirishima's real name's mobile phone.
"[Ah, yes, yes, Shinji-senpai.]" Her voice sounded a little nervous for some reason.
"You think of a way to leave a message to your 'future self'," Shinji Ikari continued: "Let your 'time travel ability be stable enough' and 'have not experienced the third impact' to come to my dormitory to find me at this time.
I need your help if I need something."
"[Hmm? Um...Okay.]" Kirishima's real name sounded a little disappointed.
Shinji Ikari, who roughly guessed what she was thinking, couldn't say anything to comfort her. He exchanged a few pleasantries and simply thanked her before hanging up the phone.
Although Kirishima's real name, who returned from the future, is full of "forbidden matters", as long as she can come, he can judge the future relationship with her based on her attitude.
Hmm... It's okay to make excuses for your scumbag behavior.
Boom, boom, boom.
There was a knock on the dormitory door.
The ability of a time traveler is really convenient. The first thing is that you will never be late.
Shinji Ikari tidied up his appearance a little, walked to the entrance and opened the door:
"Long time no see...hey?"
Standing outside was not the more mature-looking Kirishima Mana as expected, but a boy he had never seen before.
He looks to be about the same age as Shinji Ikari, wearing a white shirt and black trousers, with short gray hair and red eyes. His appearance is so handsome that it dwarfs ordinary girls.
"[Alterego, Kaoru Nagisa, came in response to the call,]"
