'A strange person.'
At first glance, it seed like an act, but upon closer inspection, it made a lot of sense.
Throughout the entire morning, Asuka followed behind Shinji, not even realizing that she had turned into his sidekick. She watched him chat idly with hangar chanics about laser-guided bomb paraters, then run over to the external power unit to help with installation, conversing happily with several technicians from headquarters.
'Bizarre. We only need to wait for the Angel to arrive, so why do these aningless things?'
She couldn't understand it. The "show of force" plan she had envisioned had ended before it even began. But as she followed him, Asuka found a new point of victory, and her mood improved instantly.
"By the way, I'm a Lieutenant!"
In the aircraft carrier's officers' ss, Shinji poked at his lunch with a fork, looking with mild astonishnt at the girl standing with her hands on her hips and her head held high. He found her emotions to be remarkably unstable: one mont she was gnashing her teeth, the next she was gloomy, and then she would flash this brilliant, sun-like smile.
"Oh."
"Hey! What kind of reaction is that? You're a Second Lieutenant, and I'm a Lieutenant. You should be saluting !"
Shinji thought about it, put down his fork, and gave her a look.
"Very well. I salute you, Lieutenant Asuka."
'No, no, that's not it! You should be more reluctant, preferably saluting with humiliation and tears in your eyes.'
Asuka gritted her teeth. She felt like she had won, yet hadn't completely won. Her eye twitched.
"What are you looking at?"
"Returning the salute."
'Who wants you to return the salute?!' Asuka thought. But eting his cold gaze, she unwillingly raised her hand.
A minor interlude. Shinji ignored the girl's awkward mood and turned his head toward Misato Katsuragi, who was busy eating yakisoba.
"Major, you've beco increasingly lax lately."
As his nominal commander, Misato had long since given up on "treating" her condition. After making the arrangents, she spent her ti sunbathing on the deck, lanting why she hadn't brought a parasol and sunscreen.
"Well, the invincible Shinji-kun will have everything arranged perfectly, so an old hag like who's just waiting to die can safely be a 'tax thief'."
She wasn't being sarcastic; after all this ti, she had grown accustod to "laying flat."
'Combat plans?' The invincible Lord Shinji-kun had more detailed plans than she did, so she just specialized in assisting.
'External liaison?'
Hadn't she seen how the Pacific Fleet treated others versus how they treated him?
'You could at least try to pull yourself together, Misato-san! Control this arrogant jerk!'
Asuka watched from across the table, her eyes practically breathing fire. She had once overestimated Shinji, but now that they had truly t, she realized she had been too conservative. The power dynamic was completely flipped.
Shinji was used to it, too. Misato was a lazy slacker in daily life, but she was quite reliable when it ca to operations.
"How much longer for the power unit installation?"
"One hour and twelve minutes."
"And Unit-01?"
"It has arrived at the coordinates and is circling. W-type weaponry is equipped, and the laser positioning channel is being established."
"I just spoke with the Admiral. The fleet formation will change, and the nuclear submarine search line will extend outward."
"Oh. As long as you've arranged it, that's fine."
Asuka listened, bewildered, only feeling that sothing was wrong after a long while. She furrowed her slender brows.
"Wait, what's going on with Unit-01?"
"As a precaution, Unit-01 is being air-dropped to the coordinates. If the Angel is intercepted, it will enter the battlefield via an airborne insertion."
"That's not necessary!"
The girl's voice turned sharp, her azure eyes filled with anger. "Even if an Angel cos, I'll pilot Unit-02 and take care of it myself!"
Shinji's fork paused. He looked at her with mild surprise, as if seeing a lioness protecting her territory. Soon, his gaze turned calm. So Chapters of Space Marines had the sa intense territorial consciousness; they would never seek support from brother Chapters unless absolutely necessary.
"Very well. I trust you. Unit-02 will be the primary combat force."
'That's more like it.'
The corners of her mouth curled up. For the first ti, Asuka smiled from the bottom of her heart. She didn't know why, but Shinji's recognition felt more valuable than the praise she usually received; a single casual word from him felt worth ten from anyone else.
"Then I'll take you to see Unit-02. Open your eyes a bit."
She was excited, pushing her tray away like a child who couldn't wait to show off her most precious toy.
Shinji didn't stand up. He looked at the food remaining on her plate and said coolly, "Finish eating first."
"Eat what? Let's go!"
Asuka subconsciously grabbed the boy's hand, but found it didn't budge an inch. His expression was extrely serious.
"Finish it. Do not waste."
Kensuke and the others were long used to this and quickened their pace. They knew Shinji acted like a refugee reborn; he cared deeply about saving food.
Naturally, an Astartes was not a refugee, but Shinji had seen too many hive-city citizens who had it worse than refugees. This world had one thing superior to the 40K universe: a standard of living that could be called paradise. In the Holy Terra, many lower-hive citizens didn't live past 30, and people who had never eaten canned food in their lives were everywhere.
The weight of his gaze was like a mountain. Asuka blinked, stunned. It was as if an elder who had suffered through many hardships was telling a fundantal truth. She lost the urge to be willful, sat down, and for the first ti in her life, ate her lunch until not a single grain of rice remained.
After lunch, the two took a helicopter to the transport ship. Once there, Asuka stood with her chest puffed out, brimming with confidence, as if returning to her own palace.
She pulled back the tarpaulin, revealing a giant robot painted in crimson with four electronic eyes.
"Ta-da! This is Unit-02, the world's first combat-ready EVANGELION. In the end, Unit-00 and Unit-01 are just prototypes—this is the true ultimate weapon for fighting Angels."
Her words were filled with posturing and put-downs, and her eyes burned with pride. After all, what mattered most to an "Adapter" was the EVA; communication skills and aura didn't matter.
'My EVA is the strongest!'
Shinji's reaction also satisfied her: there was a trace of surprise and a trace of appreciation, but mostly, it was nostalgia.
'Wait, what do you an, 'nostalgia'?!'
Unit-02 was red.
The boy was indeed reminiscing, because he had worn power armor with nearly the sa paint sche for over a hundred years. Seeing Unit-02 made him realize an overlooked problem:
'The EVA's paint sche isn't very loyal. Should I paint the Chapter emblem on Unit-01's shoulder guard and add laurels to the helt? Oh, the most important thing is the Imperial Aquila on the chest plate. Or perhaps I should just paint Unit-01 red? But then it would clash with Unit-02.'
As he thought, he suddenly looked at Asuka, whose eyes were becoming increasingly suspicious. "How about we change Unit-02 to purple and swap Unit-01 for red?"
'Ah? I said so much, and what are you thinking about?!'
She was almost enraged enough to go berserk. She couldn't keep up with his train of thought and stomped her foot.
"Idiot, schamlose Anhänger (shaless follower)!"
Shinji's expression shifted. He understood the insults, of course, but it served as a wake-up call, and he put on an apologetic expression.
"I apologize. That request was too unreasonable. Please forgive ."
He silently reminded himself not to beco arrogant because of his power. In 40K, if you told another Chapter to change their paint sche, it would be a grave insult.
Asuka couldn't keep up with his ntal gymnastics. She didn't understand why he made such a bizarre request only to apologize so strangely, so she gave her eyes a roll.
'Hehe, this trick works pretty well. He doesn't understand German, and he's so vain, so he just apologizes to get it over with.'
Thinking of this, she whispered a test run.
"Du. Bist. Ein. Idiot."
Shinji frowned. He had offered an apology, yet she was still biting his heels. However, he could understand her anger, so he bowed his head silently.
'Hahahaha, this idiot really doesn't understand! I told you, there's no such thing as a perfect person in this world. Even if his EVA piloting skills are okay, he definitely slacked off in his humanities classes.'
Just as she was thinking this, she saw a man standing by the hatch, leaning lazily against the railing.
"Kaji-senpai!"
Asuka cheered, waving her hand as if displaying her victory.
The man waved two fingers back with cool nonchalance, but his gaze quickly fixed on Shinji Ikari, who was looking right back at him.
'Interesting.'
Kaji's interest in this Third Child was even greater than SEELE's—not just because of his status or his brutal combat records, but because his transformation was too sudden. To put it cruelly:
He and Asuka were simply not on the sa level.
The girl often deliberately acted mature, but compared to Shinji Ikari, she was like a child in the presence of an adult.
Kaji walked over, hands in his pockets, and gave the girl an apologetic smile. "Asuka, can I borrow Shinji-kun for a mont?"
'Huh?'
Asuka looked back and forth. The two n were staring at each other, completely ignoring her. She clenched her fists tightly and lowered her head.
'Dammit.'
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