Aozaki Aoko [628-629] (Patreon)

Chapter 628: Successors

Day by day, time passed like this, and Aoko and her group gradually blended into the lifestyle and atmosphere of the EVA world.

Time moved on to 2008.

Nothing unexpected happened with Asuka. During the day, she followed the routine of receiving the elite education funded by SEELE, and in the evenings and on rest days, she would come over to Land of Sapphire Flowers to play. She became familiar with the kids at Aoko's home, and her overall mental state grew healthier.

But since Asuka was at an age where she was still growing, she seemed to change every day. In four years, she had grown quite a bit taller, and the baby fat on her face was much less pronounced. At eight years old, the little girl was already showing the early elegance of a young lady.

However, due to practicing magecraft since childhood and living in the Land of Sapphire Flowers, the kids at Aoko's home grew much more slowly physically.

Asuka keenly noticed that her good friend Gray had hardly changed at all since they met four years ago, having only grown a tiny bit. As for Aoko and the others, they were completely unchanged.

Asuka suspected that those three might have already gained the legendary immortality ability.

Even if, on the surface, they still looked like fresh young girls, were they actually hundreds of years old deep down?

With this question in mind, one day while taking a walk with Gray, Asuka secretly asked her good friend.

"That's right," Gray replied straightforwardly. "Sister Aoko and Touko are magicians. They basically have infinite lifespans. Sister Alice's still a little behind, but even so, she can easily live several hundred or even a thousand years at this rate."

"Hiss!" Asuka gasped, "So doesn't that mean Aoko is already shockingly old?"

"...I advise you not to say that out loud," Gray said, looking around warily, then lowered her voice and said quietly to Asuka, "Sister Aoko is only about 30 or 40 years old... which isn't young, but definitely not old enough to be called an 'old lady.' Got it?"

Got it. Asuka nodded rapidly—best not to joke about age.

Actually, Aoko didn't care at all about others being curious about her real age. Her body wouldn't age anyway, so what did it matter if she was a bit older? Let those losers be jealous! The most important thing was to keep a youthful mindset!

Thinking this, Aoko snapped her fingers, closing the water-mirror magic she used to monitor all of Land of Sapphire Flowers, and focused back on her research.

Ever since she raised her caster level to 21 and advanced to legendary on the Faerûn continent, her leveling speed had slowed down.

Aside from regular magical research, chances to gain insight were rare. But considering this was a near-future modern society, she couldn't exactly expect to grind XP by slaying monsters in the middle of Paris, could she?

But Aoko didn't care much. After becoming an immortal, her mentality had changed—a lot of things just weren't urgent anymore. She just needed to go step by step.

Moreover, every week she had to spend some time teaching at the university and doing AI research, leaving her even less energy for magecraft.

Even though she knew this was just temporary, Aoko still couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for not doing her real job.

But it couldn't be helped—it was all part of the plan. With Touko as a successful example already infiltrating NERV, it proved Aoko's plan wasn't off track. For now, all she could do was wait patiently for the story to truly begin.

She and Naoko Akagi kept up communication about every two weeks these past years, but recently, Naoko would sometimes go missing, forgetting to reply to emails.

Aoko guessed that the woman was experiencing a second spring, deeply attracted by the gloomy, bespectacled man-child Gendo Ikari.

If that was the case, it meant Gendo had likely started—or already finished—creating the sharp-tongued loli Rei Ayanami and Unit 00.

If Naoko could restrain her jealousy and see Gendo's true nature, maybe her fate would be different. But in most cases, it's true that character determines fate.

One sunny afternoon, after finishing her teaching at PLSU, Aoko's phone vibrated twice in her pocket, alerting her to a new email.

Aoko picked up her phone, unlocked the screen with her fingerprint, and raised her eyebrows at the email's contents.

What was meant to happen finally happened. The email was written and sent by Naoko Akagi's daughter, Ritsuko Akagi. It was an obituary sent to Naoko's friends and family.

This wasn't the first time Aoko had received such an email. Last time, it was when Yui was dissolved inside Unit 01 due to an experiment accident. This time, it was Naoko Akagi's suicide by unknown causes.

Though she was mentally prepared, she couldn't help but sigh at the unpredictability of life. The last time she'd video-called with Naoko was only two or three weeks ago, and she'd seemed fine then. Now, she was gone.

Aoko was fully capable of resurrecting Naoko Akagi, but she saw no reason to do so, since her plan involved making use of Naoko's death.

Not that she was profiting off the dead—she had prepared contingencies for both Naoko living and dying. This was just taking full advantage of the situation.

Since you're dead, let me, your close friend, make the most of your death!

Aoko immediately returned to her office and released her latest AI large model, DeepThought, on the open-source project platform GeekHub.

This model was Aoko's painstaking work, designed to attract the academic world's attention immediately after Naoko's death and show that there are successors in this field.

Unlike the MAGI designed and built by Naoko, DeepThought was an AI large model based on a distributed computing system of general-purpose computers. The more users accessed it online, the greater its overall computational power, and the better it could answer questions.

It gave off a bit of a pyramid scheme vibe.

As expected, within a week of release, DeepThought shot to the top of the project leaderboards, with usage in universities and research institutes worldwide rapidly increasing. Its problem-solving ability was many times better than the original version.

An email from the Japanese branch of the Artificial Evolution Research Institute appeared in Aoko's inbox, signed by Gendo Ikari.

Chapter 629: TOKYO-3

Given that SEELE had surely investigated Touko's family background in detail, Aoko believed Gendo's offer must have been approved by SEELE, so she accepted the invitation without hesitation.

Aoko attached her resume to her reply, and soon after, she received a confirmation email from "NERV," including instructions on how to reach Tokyo-3, an e-ticket, and her NERV ID code.

A physical ID card would be mailed to her address in a few days.

The entire process was so fast and thorough that Aoko suspected they'd had their eyes on her for a while.

They probably saw Aoko as a backup for Naoko Akagi—recruiting her immediately after anything happened to Naoko.

As for why they weren't letting Naoko's daughter, Ritsuko Akagi, take over, Aoko thought the reason was simple: Ritsuko was a so-called all-rounder.

In the seven loops Aoko had observed, Ritsuko handled everything from maintaining her mother's MAGI system, being Rei Ayanami's personal doctor, to daily EVA repairs and testing. She was involved in almost every technical aspect of the EVA base.

But even such a person didn't have the energy to upgrade everything. Evidence: the MAGI system always remained as it was, with Ritsuko only doing regular maintenance.

Letting professionals handle professional work is a quality any competent leader should have, and it seemed SEELE and NERV understood that too.

Instead of having an all-rounder juggle the AI system, it was better to hire a specialized expert who could maintain and upgrade it. SEELE and NERV weren't short on money for top talent like Aoko.

"The fish has finally bitten," Aoko smiled at Alice, "It's time for us to move to Japan. Our destination this time is Tokyo-3."

"Sounds good," Alice shut her hardcover book with a snap. "I've grown a bit tired of life in Paris, anyway."

"How's Touko's situation?" Alice thought for a moment, then asked Aoko, "She seems pretty absorbed in her research lately."

"Progressing well," Aoko replied, "Bethany Base's main goal is to study artificial Angels or the feasibility of modifying Angels. Touko's group recently managed to separate a semi-complete Angel from its embryonic membrane and is studying how to add an entry plug to its spine."

Alice thought for a moment about having a rod jammed into her own neck, then coughed lightly. That surely wouldn't be comfortable.

"Are they trying to turn Angels into EVAs?" Alice asked. "Like how they treated that white giant we saw on the moon?"

"No, probably not," Aoko pondered, then answered, "From what we know, regular EVAs are human-made imitations of Adam or Lilith, while the one on the moon is probably a modified legacy from the previous cycle. They're fundamentally different."

Aoko couldn't be sure about this yet, because the white giant on the moon reminded her of Adam, the First Angel who caused Second Impact according to the Gospel of Gethsemane. Currently, the First Angel is Kaworu Nagisa, whose ride is the soon-to-be-completed Mark.06. This made her theory more plausible.

Unfortunately, Kaworu hadn't told them anything, and Aoko had no hard evidence, so she could only guess for now.

Recently, Bethany Base had somehow acquired an EVA shell—a semi-finished unit with only its head and torso nearly complete. Aoko suspected this would become EVA Unit 05, the Guardian of the River Styx.

Considering it was still six years until 2014, receiving Unit 05's chassis now suggested Touko's research had sped up the project's progress drastically.

"I've already bought your ticket," Aoko said as she tapped on her phone, "Don't you want to say goodbye to your colleagues at the literature department?"

"I've already resigned," Alice answered calmly. "I had a feeling something major might happen soon, and turns out I was right."

"You, Alice..." Aoko exaggeratedly looked her up and down, "Are you perhaps a distant relative of Kanbuko's mother?"

--- Divider ---

They didn't need to pack, since they'd kept almost nothing in their Paris house. All Aoko needed to take was her demi-plane magic ship. Buying Alice a ticket was just to keep up appearances.

Three days after Aoko received the email, the official NERV offer and physical staff ID card for Tokyo-3 arrived. The card listed her position as "Artificial Intelligence Specialist, Technical Section 1, Technical Development Division, NERV HQ."

The title was neither big nor small. She could handle any AI-related matters, but as chief scientist of Technical Section 1, Ritsuko Akagi would always outrank her. Aoko would be Ritsuko's assistant in AI, and if Ritsuko didn't approve a plan, Aoko couldn't force it through.

However... Because SEELE was wary of Gendo Ikari, NERV HQ's mystic protections only covered a few people. If Aoko really wanted to push something through, she could always tinker with her boss's mind a little.

And so, Aoko and Alice flew a regular international flight from Paris to Tokyo-3, finally landing at Tokyo-3 International Airport after a 14-hour journey.

Dragging her suitcase through the airport, Aoko checked her phone for local info. The email had said someone from NERV would pick them up, but Aoko and Alice saw no sign of anyone—until they spotted a large sign held by a young woman in a stylish red jacket and a form-fitting black dress, looking full of energy.

The sign read in Japanese: "Welcome Dr. Aoko Aozaki to Tokyo-3."

"Looks like we found our pickup," Alice whispered to Aoko.

Aoko nodded, then put on her business smile and walked over to the young woman waving eagerly at them.