Aozaki Aoko [644-645] (Patreon)

Chapter 644 The Key of Nebuchadnezzar

From what Aoko gleaned in her conversation with Mari, after dying and before rejuvenating, she had been working at the German branch the entire time.

Mari also knew Asuka's situation inside and out, which is why she kept trying to help the young girl.

The successful development of Unit-05a undoubtedly turned the Bethany Branch into a star among SEELE's various organizations, drawing immense attention.

It's said the base director has been run ragged lately because he's received many tour requests, including from the United Nations. Since the base hides numerous secrets, they obviously can't accept all of them; he has to sift out a few reliable and harmless parties to admit.

Even with this level of caution, spies like Ryoji Kaji still slipped in.

There are certainly far trickier operators among those applicants, which forced Aoko to take it seriously and start placing more magical automatons around Bethany Base.

Speaking of Ryoji Kaji, he's already set his espionage in motion. The base director and security may not have noticed, but he still couldn't escape Aoko's eyes.

The spy's every move, 24/7, was under Aoko's surveillance; even when he went to the bathroom, spider-form magical dolls tailed him.

By tracking Kaji's patterns, Aoko roughly figured out his primary objective at Bethany.

First was the assignment from Gendo Ikari: destroy Unit-05. But that mission is now nearly a bust—Unit-05 is complete, and it has no internal self-destruct.

Trying to unleash the Third Angel to destroy Unit-05 is even less feasible. Never mind that the Third Angel has been overhauled into a cyborg— even in its fully awakened form, it couldn't win head-on against Unit-05a, let alone self-destruct to take Unit-05 with it.

To further boost Unit-05α's combat power, the equipment department pulled out their trump card:

They built a replica Lance of Longinus. Although it's not as potent as the original, its ability to disrupt AT Fields is still outstanding.

Taken together, this left triple-agent Kaji in a bind. Since wrecking Unit-05 seems out of reach for now, he shifted to his second mission.

That second mission also came from Ikari, but not only from him; the UN and the Japanese government had a hand in it too.

At this point you might wonder: wasn't the Nebuchadnezzar Project originally a research program jointly assigned by the Committee and the UN? Why send a spy to steal tech?

The answer lies in Kaji's identity as a triple agent. Working for three major powers, his motive can't just be money.

He has an obsession with pursuing the world's truth.

A project like Nebuchadnezzar—aimed at linking the soul of man and god—would let him probe even deeper into the world's underlying truths.

Add to that Gendo's ambitions for the project; no matter what, Kaji would make this his top priority, without hesitation.

The Japanese government and UN council, long suspicious of NERV, capitalized on Kaji's bent, gave him the resources and openings, and helped him infiltrate NERV.

But after Kaji's investigations, he discovered that the project's chief researcher

was that frosty beauty of a scientist who never gave him a warm look on meeting—Aozaki Aoko.

Why are female scientists all so hard to deal with!

Kaji rubbed his temples, a headache brewing as he contemplated the situation. Back in school, his classmate Ritsuko Akagi was cold as ice. She might have seemed open to him on the surface,

but as a seasoned player he could tell her heart belonged to someone else.

Aoko was even more confounding now. He hadn't even managed to approach her before getting met with obvious wariness and hostility. Had his cover been blown?

No, impossible. Then it must be her personality. Maybe some scumbag like him hurt her before, Kaji frowned, speculating.

Damn it, Kaji clicked his tongue. If he finds out who that jerk is, he'll make him pay—no professional ethics as a scumbag at all!

Ah, if only outstanding women were as guileless as Misato—then he'd have it easy…

But on second thought, how could that be? Whether it's Ritsuko or this Dr. Aoko, they're both way smarter than him; his tricks were probably transparent to them.

Since the honey-trap won't fly, it's time to use his professional skill as an ace spy…

With that, Kaji pulled a specially customized laptop from his backpack. He would jack into Bethany Base's internal network and hack the database. No matter how vigilant they were.

Meanwhile, in Aoko's room, she watched Kaji's every move in a water-mirror spell, sneered, and then placed the special leak package she'd prepared for the spy in the most conspicuous spot in the database—just waiting for him to steal after all his trouble.

As for the Nebuchadnezzar Project, Aoko already had a detailed plan in mind, and for the final product she had designed two routes.

First, based on the Third Angel's gene module, create the Key of Nebuchadnezzar. Humans, as Lilith's progeny, could gain partial Angel traits and abilities after using it.

Second, the one the Committee and Gendo originally wanted: the Key of Nebuchadnezzar derived from the ADAMS genome, which would elevate human life-essence with no side effects, granting near-god abilities.

Aoko had no intention of giving Kaji the latter. She disguised the development plan and prototype schematics of the Angel Variant as if they were the ADAMS and placed them right under Kaji's nose.

He'd never spot the issue, and Angel gene coding and occult characteristics are similar to ADAMS anyway. Aside from Ritsuko Akagi, almost no one could notice the trick.

As for whether Ritsuko, after a close read, would tell Gendo the truth—or take the chance to screw him a bit—that's hard to say…

Chapter 645: On ADAMS — A Hypothesis

Based on the Nebuchadnezzar project's progress, Aoko's understanding of the ADAMS remains delivered to Bethany deepened. Her team found that ADAMS, whether by physiological structure or occult traits, differ from Angels.

If ADAMS must have a close relative, Aoko felt these white giants were closer to this world's humans.

If Angels bear the Fruit of Life and hold seats before God as divine emissaries, and humans are the exiles who inherited Lilith's Fruit of Knowledge, then ADAMS are the guardians of the Spears and Golgotha Objects, human prototypes without the Fruit of Knowledge.

So how did ADAMS trigger Second Impact and open the Gate of Guf?

Aoko pondered this and discussed it with Touko.

They concluded: ADAMS appeared in the Prime Universe because they were dispatched by the God within the Golgotha Object to fulfill a certain mission.

As for their permissions and abilities, most likely they serve as the keys to open the Gate of Guf and return to the Golgotha realm after completing that mission.

"A mission, huh…" Aoko murmured. "Originally, in prior cycles, the Angels' goal was to contact the First Angel, Adam, and trigger Third Impact to reset the world. But now these Angels aren't Adam's descendants… And in this cycle, it was ADAMS who triggered Second Impact. Does that mean ADAMS completed their mission? Then why didn't they return to the Golgotha realm?"

After speaking, Aoko fell silent. Both she and Touko pondered the core question: Why did ADAMS trigger Second Impact?

"Aoko, what if ADAMS came to the Prime Universe to retrieve something 'lost' from the Golgotha realm?" Touko suggested.

"Lost?" Aoko blinked, then suddenly realized something. "Since this world's framework draws from the Abrahamic traditions, then considering the Eden story, what ADAMS were tracking must be the 'Fruit of Knowledge'!"

"Exactly," Touko agreed. "This cycle differs from previous ones. So far we haven't found any fully materialized Fruit of Life—or Fruit of Knowledge. Even Angels clearly bearing the Fruit of Life only have 'cores' that are materialized souls."

"In other words, the 'fruits' here are more like classifications of intrinsic soul attributes: humans with knowledge, and Angels with boundless energy and lifespan."

"As for ADAMS, they also have 'cores,' but those cores lack the significance of the Fruit of Life…" Aoko mused.

"And since ADAMS are 'prototype humans' exploitable by humans, that implies that although they aren't Angels, they can, under certain conditions, 'become Angels,'" Touko continued.

"But there's still a snag," Aoko frowned. "If Second Impact meant ADAMS completed—or partially completed—their 'mission,' the Fruit of Knowledge exists within every human soul. ADAMS could just grab a few humans and call it a day. Why wait until the year 2000 CE?"

"Where did the humans of this world come from?" Touko asked the obvious question.

"Lilith…!" Aoko's eyes widened. "Lilith is neither Angel nor ADAMS. As the 'mother' of the human race that bears the Fruit of Knowledge, the only possibility is that she is the true source of the human Fruit of Knowledge—and the reason she was expelled from the 'Kingdom of God,' the Golgotha realm!"

"Bingo." Touko snapped her fingers. "As the 'sinner' who stole the 'Divine Fruit,' Lilith was cast into the Prime Universe and there birthed myriad life, including humans, distributing the Fruit of Knowledge among primates. So 'God' sent Angels and 'ADAMS' to punish Lilith and reopen the Gate of Guf to return to the Golgotha realm."

"…ADAMS can generate cores—materialized soul matter—but their souls lack the Divine Fruit," Aoko paced. "Thus humans can use ADAMS to materialize the Fruit of Knowledge within their souls, and by seizing the Angels' 'Fruits of Life,' become artificial 'gods,' complete Human Instrumentality, and enter the Gate of Guf?"

"That's basically the flow," Touko nodded, satisfied. "There are still many details we can't verify for lack of data, but the broad strokes should be right."

"Where do we find the missing data then? The Moon?" Aoko asked.

"The Moon's occult defenses are too strong," Touko shook her head. "SEELE spent twelve thousand years turning it into a steel drum. If we try to force it, that so-called 'True God'—Unit-06—could boot up any time and go for broke against us."

"The reason Angels keep attacking Tokyo-3 is because their 'foe,' heaven's greatest 'sinner' Lilith, is there," Touko went on. "But as God's faithful servants, Angels can't materialize the Fruit of Knowledge from human souls. That's what ADAMS are for."

"But if that's your line of reasoning, isn't there a logical hole?" Aoko frowned. "If Angels' mission is to reclaim the Fruit of Knowledge and punish Lilith, and ADAMS' mission is to descend and open the gate once the job's done, wouldn't it be simpler to just send ADAMS to kill Lilith?"

"Probably an issue of sequence," Touko thought aloud. "ADAMS were dispatched first for some reason. They opened the Gate of Guf but didn't kill Lilith or recover the 'Original Sin Fruit,' the Fruit of Knowledge. So God continued sending diverse, Fruit-of-Life-bearing Angels down."

"Our hypothesis surely has errors," Aoko said. "Second Impact's direct cause is the Gate of Guf opening, and the condition to open it is that something achieved 'apotheosis.' If ADAMS underwent apotheosis during Second Impact, then they must have borne both divine fruits at once, which contradicts our earlier conclusion that ADAMS lack the Fruit of Life. And after Second Impact, why didn't the mission-complete ADAMS return to the Golgotha realm?"

"Hm. If so, then Second Impact wasn't an accident," Touko replied. "It was engineered by SEELE or the like. The 'return workflow' for ADAMS was forcibly interrupted by whoever planned it."

"If only we could see the 'Dead Sea Scrolls,'" Aoko frowned. "We're just guessing here, and we can't resolve the logical contradictions among these hypotheses."

"Yeah—and if we could precisely locate SEELE's nest, that'd be even better," Touko slouched onto the sofa, limp. "Then we wouldn't have to burn so much energy guessing like this…"