Plop.
The steel cables dragged Unit-02 out of the sea. Asuka looked forward and was instantly stunned.
'It... it's like a slaughterhouse.'
That was her only assessnt, and it was strikingly appropriate. On the twisted deck of the aircraft carrier, blood, organs, and minced at were scattered everywhere. The giant, flattened fish had been torn to shreds. Unit-01 had entered through the Angel's mouth and burst out through its back; Gaghiel looked as though it were draped over the unit like a tattered skirt.
Extre gore. The visual impact was dialed to the maximum.
Asuka suppressed the urge to vomit and zood in on the image. Next to this mountain of corpses and sea of blood stood a boy, looking down in deep contemplation. Countless helicopters circled above his head, and the sea was covered in lifeboats, but whether in the sky or on the water, everyone's eyes were fixed on the boy.
Admiration, longing, even worship—the sight of him being the center of the world made Asuka feel a pang of bitterness in her heart.
This was exactly what she wanted most: to receive everyone's attention and recognition, to no longer be treated as a weak and powerless child.
Yet, she couldn't find it in herself to feel even a hint of jealousy. Asuka had a sharp tongue, but she was quite intelligent.
"But... he earned it."
She lowered her head reluctantly, forced to admit that without Shinji Ikari, she would have certainly died today. The Angel was far more powerful than she had imagined, and the gap in strength was despairing. This wasn't a matter of synchronization rates; the Third Child was in a different dinsion entirely. No wonder Misato-san was so submissive.
"Lieutenant Asuka, co out once Unit-02 is secured."
The boy's voice suddenly ca over the comms. She blinked, her expression twisting slightly.
'Is he going to show off in front of ? Tell to be a good, obedient girl from now on?'
"What are your instructions, invincible Lord Shinji?"
Her tone was strange, like a child desperately clinging to the last shred of dignity. But Shinji didn't care at all.
"In this operation, you made a prominent contribution. As a hero, it is only right that you receive the cheers."
"Wh... what?"
Asuka blinked. In the zood-in display, she could see the boy's calm and serious expression; he had no intention of using her as a stepping stone. He truly wanted her to receive the praise. She even saw several soldiers standing at attention and saluting Unit-02.
In this bitter struggle, Unit-02 was just as important as Unit-01; she had also fought with her life on the line.
Though she wasn't the sole recipient, the feeling of being recognized was exhilarating. Asuka couldn't help but smile, though she quickly snorted and turned her head away.
"Hmph, I don't care. Cheers? That's just stupid."
Soon, however, the girl was standing on Unit-02's shoulder, basking in the applause. Her long hair had clearly been tidied up, and unlike Shinji's indifference, she enthusiastically blew kisses back, smiling so hard her jaw nearly dislocated.
'A total contradiction.'
Shinji glanced at her and smiled silently. She claid it was "stupid," yet her excitent was impossible to hide; she was full of the desire to perform.
It didn't matter. What mattered was that the Second Child's combat capability was good—far above Rei's—and her will to fight was white-hot. She was, in a sense, "loyal beyond words."
With these two foundations, Shinji's view of her couldn't be bad. As for minor personality flaws, could they be worse than the innate defects of an Astartes gene-seed? So Chapters were so cruel they made people wonder if they had been corrupted by Chaos.
Yes, Carcharodons, he was talking about you.
'That's the fourth one.'
He turned to look at the slaughterhouse. The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Angels had all been dealt with by him. His psychic power had grown again. He didn't know how many Angels there were, what level he would reach if he continued to grow, or if he could eventually break the barrier between the physical universe and the Negative Universe.
And then there was that thing.
He looked toward the carrier in the distance. The briefcase had been left on it. It was the "bait" that had lured the Angel back. As for where it was hidden? Blood Ravens excelled at "safekeeping" gear for others, so naturally, they excelled at hiding it. It would be quite embarrassing if soone actually managed to find it.
'There is an Angel inside the box. More accurately, it is no ordinary Angel.'
Ritsuko Akagi had said that Angels only appear individually; today's discovery clearly overturned that theory. Ritsuko had no reason to lie, which ant the Angel in the box was special.
'Captured by humans? Using the transport of Unit-02 as cover to secretly send this thing to NERV HQ? I am doing everything in my power to keep the Angels out of Tokyo-3, yet these people are bringing one right inside?'
Tapping his fingers lightly on the blood-stained railing, Shinji radiated a trace of killing intent. He had already analyzed the sequence of events.
Angels would follow the scent of that embryo-like thing. Transporting it alone would be extrely unsafe, so SEELE played a shell ga. On the surface, the Pacific Fleet was escorting Unit-02, but in reality, Unit-02 and the entire fleet were protecting the embryo.
It was a subtle plan. If Shinji's psychic power hadn't grown significantly, it would have been difficult to detect that faint reaction. So the question remained:
What is this thing? Why did SEELE want to sneak it into NERV HQ?
He lacked clues, but Shinji wasn't in a hurry. The item was in his hands now. He looked at a lifeboat drifting on the sea, where a scruffy man was looking around in a daze—Ryoji Kaji.
They are the ones who should be anxious.
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"Hey, it's . Things have gotten a bit complicated."
Ryoji Kaji sat on the bobbing lifeboat, soaking wet. He had nearly gone down with the transport ship to the fishes.
"What went wrong?"
The voice on the other end was deep and stern: Gendo Ikari.
Kaji's mouth twitched, but he suppressed his unease and recounted the events. He had stolen the embryo from SEELE and, using Unit-02 as cover, intended to deliver it to Gendo. As expected, they were attacked by an Angel en route.
That was fine. The mont the Angel appeared, he intended to slip away. But then an accident happened. At the critical mont, the damn coded lock wouldn't open. He was stunned.
It was as if he'd encountered a master thief who hadn't just broken in but had changed the locks. He had no choice but to wait by the door for the person inside to co out. Who would
have thought the thief wouldn't erge, but the Angel would instead charge straight for the transport ship like it was possessed?
"I had no choice but to retreat first. But I can confirm the intruder didn't make it out. They likely sank to the bottom of the sea with the ship."
There was a long silence on the line, broken only by heavy breathing.
Gendo Ikari was also bewildered. Lately, not a single thing had gone right. First, he was humiliated by his son, then Rei Ayanami defected, and now he had lost a key item.
The Adam embryo—it was sothing he had spent over a decade planning to obtain. For this, he had even cooperated with that brat to deploy Unit-01, just to ensure everything went perfectly. And now Kaji was telling him it was lost?
"Do you realize what you're saying? If the embryo is lost in the ocean and an Angel makes contact with it, it is the end of humanity!"
"I understand, but there was nothing I could do. Who knew Gaghiel would arrive so quickly?" Kaji felt innocent as well. He'd only stepped away to make a phone call, and the item vanished. "We need to organize a salvage operation imdiately. I hope there's still ti."
"How can we salvage it? Let SEELE know you were secretly bringing the Adam embryo here?"
Kaji opened his mouth silently.
In his heart, he knew SEELE actually did know—it was a test of Gendo's loyalty.
The ga was botched.
The double agent scratched his head. He certainly wasn't responsible; they couldn't expect him to fight an Angel. But neither side in the conspiracy had achieved their goal, as the item never reached Gendo's hands.
More troubleso was that if the embryo really fell into the sea, Gendo wouldn't dare search for it. But if they didn't, and an Angel found it, the Third Impact would begin imdiately.
Such a complex situation was beyond a re spy to handle. Kaji was rely acting on Gendo's request to steal Adam, and on SEELE's orders to deliver it to Gendo while monitoring him and reporting to SEELE what the Commander intended to do with it.
The rift between the two parties, caused by the Third Child, was widening. Even if they still needed each other, if Gendo used the embryo for anything outside the script, he would be a dead man.
"I can't handle this. Let those old n figure it out. Sothing this important can't be left out in the open."
Gendo decided to simply "lay flat." He suddenly realized the Adam embryo wasn't that urgent. After all, both of his reliable "tools" had gone out of control; he'd better figure out how to deal with Shinji Ikari first.
"Huh?" Kaji blinked for a mont, then put down his phone with a wry smile.
"So you did know."
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"Gendo Ikari saw through our probe. The plan failed before it even began."
"More than just failure—the item never even reached him. How is the salvage work going?"
"The wreckage has been found, but the target is not inside."
In the dark eting room, Gendo was absent today. The five old n of the Committee were gathered, their expressions grim. Their probe was seen through—that was a loss. They hurriedly organized a salvage operation only to find nothing—that was a double loss. Such a turn of events infuriated these n who controlled the world.
"Could Ryoji Kaji have betrayed us and perford a double act with Gendo?" Committee mber Julian, glowing with red light, tapped the table. "Though Kaji is our spy, we cannot guarantee his allegiance."
A spy could be a double agent, helping Gendo while helping themselves, taking benefits from both sides.
"Impossible. The 'Owl' agents were watching him constantly. Unless the entire 'Owl' network defected and acted with him." Committee mber John, glowing with yellow light, told a dry joke that drew a few low chuckles.
That was, of course, impossible. The "Owl" was an intelligence agency directly under the Committee, with executors raised from childhood; defection was impossible.
"Then the question remains: since Kaji followed the plan and only lost the Adam embryo due to an accident, who can tell where the item went?"
Chairman Keel slamd a fist onto the table, and the room fell silent instantly.
Yes, where was it? Kaji had no chance to swap or steal it. Gendo had no ti to search for it. Had the vital Adam embryo simply vanished from the face of the earth?
They had "lost the lady and the soldiers." If they'd known, they wouldn't have probed Gendo—but they had to. He was showing signs of breaking free from their control. As the executor of the Complentarity Project, his loyalty had to be absolute.
"If Gendo didn't do it, could a third party have interfered?"
"What do you an?"
"Simple. The ones cordoning off the scene were the Pacific Fleet—a force not under our direct control. They had plenty of ti to operate, while our people who arrived early were all focused on NERV's movents." Julian analyzed slowly, causing the others to exchange glances.
'Actually, that is a possibility.'
SEELE was the organization controlling the world from the shadows, but even if they had infiltrated national intelligence systems like a sieve, there were always places they missed. The UN—or the United Nations—had different goals than SEELE. National governnts only wanted to defeat the Angels and preserve human civilization; they never sought so mystical "redemption."
"No. They cannot know about the Human Complentarity Project." Chairman Keel shook his head imdiately. Everything was under SEELE's control; there was no such thing as a resistance organization in the world. Even Pri Ministers and Presidents didn't know the specifics of SEELE. Anyone who dared explore the truth had long since t a grizzly end.
"Then who do you say did it?" Julian spread his hands, leaving Keel speechless.
Indeed, Kaji was being watched closely; he couldn't have secretly delivered the item to Gendo under their noses. NERV was under total surveillance and had no ti to salvage it.
Perhaps a third party had interfered? They didn't know about the Complentarity Project but noticed the Adam embryo, so they salvaged it first, hoping to follow the trail and find the world's secrets? This was common. Every year, many journalists, officials, scholars, and self-proclaid heroes were "processed." Humans always loved exploring the unknown.
"How foolish. They know nothing. If they truly stole the Adam embryo, it will only bring about the destruction of all mankind."
"Chairman, similar things have happened many tis before." mber John chuckled low, mocking: "Back when Project E was being executed and the EVAs were being built, many 'pests' investigated in secret, claiming a secret organization was building robots to rule the world."
"Yes, and the South Pole. A large group of people has to be processed every year. There's always soone who thinks they're a hero digging up the truth to save the world, when in reality, they know nothing."
This sentint t with general agreent. With dozens of countries, nearly a million people, and thousands of departnts involved, so things couldn't be hidden. People would always catch wind of sothing and start digging.
Honestly, the Committee was tired; they had to achieve the final redemption of humanity and deal with these idiots.
"Then we can only proceed with that assumption for now. Activate all our chess pieces. Start searching from the Pacific Fleet. We must find the Adam embryo and eliminate everyone involved." Keel reached a conclusion, his tone easing slightly. "Do not be anxious. Even if there was an accident, the overall script is proceeding smoothly. The Angels are being eliminated one by one."
The others nodded. The Human Complentarity Project was like dancing on a tightrope. Despite all their planning, if the Angels won just once, everything would end.
"Furthermore, we cannot exclude Kaji and Gendo as suspects. Have Mark increase surveillance. We cannot give him the Spear of Longinus yet."
The mbers nodded again. Since loyalty wasn't absolute, he couldn't have the key. If the Spear were lost too, that would be the real disaster.
"Finally, let us go see Him."
Chairman Keel waved his hand lightly, and the room fell into darkness, leaving only a heavy voice drifting from afar.
"Perhaps so of these questions can be answered by Him."
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