Aozaki Aoko [666-667] (Patreon)

Chapter 666: A Precise Lethal Strike

Among the Apostles, the Sixth is one of the few true powerhouses. Of all its abilities, the most outstanding isn't its mountain-melting firepower, but its detection and reaction speed.

Not even ten seconds after the pseudo-Lance of Longinus was launched, the Sixth Angel sensed the threat. Its entire body first contracted, then inverted inside-out, reshaping itself into a five-pointed star.

Using the central concavity as a focusing parabolic mirror, it suddenly fired a cross-shaped beam far stronger than any of its previous attacks, blasting straight toward the pseudo-Lance.

The weapon bears the name "Lance" because of its anti-AT Field and anti-Angel properties.

In midair, the red "missile" quickly jettisoned its nose cone, revealing a "double-pronged spear" within. The mid-body attitude thrusters roared to maximum, forcing the Lance into a rapid spin—turning it into a rampaging drill.

The Angel's beam struck in an instant—but, to everyone's surprise at NERV HQ, the "strange missile" wasn't vaporized. It plowed upstream through the torrent of light like hacking through thorns, splitting the beam and pressing forward.

"What's going on?! What is that weapon?" Misato Katsuragi stared at the main screen, incredulous.

On the top tier of the command dais, Kozo Fuyutsuki inferred a crucial point.

"That weapon is probably…" Fuyutsuki said slowly.

"Yeah. Exactly," Gendo Ikari said, eyes locked on the screen. "It's the pseudo-Lance of Longinus developed by the Bethany Base. I didn't expect they had an aerial-combat variant."

Slicing through the light beam wasn't the end of it—the pseudo-Lance barely even slowed, accelerating toward the Angel's central red core, relentless until the mission was done.

There was no time to recharge. The Sixth Angel decisively changed form and concentrated all of its AT Field strength on the side facing the incoming Lance.

A titanic glass-cracking crash echoed over Tokyo-3 as the pseudo-Lance locked against the Angel's massive AT Field midair. The impact wave from their collision shattered glass across kilometers.

Just when everyone thought Unit-05's long-range strike was about to fail, the pseudo-Lance boosted again—its attitude thrusters surging as it burned the last of its fuel.

The burst worked wonders: the crimson tip pierced the Angel's AT Field with ease, like a needle popping a water balloon, and shattered the Angel's core.

The Sixth Angel let out a wretched shriek, swelling into a massive "sea urchin" as torrents of "blood" splashed across Tokyo-3's streets. The pseudo-Lance punched through a building and finally embedded itself in the ground, inert.

"Did we win?!" Misato asked, tense. If Unit-05's 'secret weapon' had taken down the Angel, the rest of the operation could be skipped—a blessing for civilians and pilots alike.

"No. That seems to have been a decoy core!" Ritsuko Akagi cut in. "The Sixth Angel isn't dead!"

Just as Ritsuko said, the Angel wasn't dead—and not because the destroyed core was fake. The Sixth Angel inherently possessed the ability to split its own core. Gray's attack had destroyed one of the two.

Now, leveraging the remaining "half-core," the Angel swiftly regrouped and reconfigured, returning to its five-pointed-star form from the earlier cross-beam attack. This time, to counterattack quickly, it reduced power to shorten charge time.

A blinding ray spanned the sky, streaking toward the airborne Unit-05. Gray immediately pushed both turbofans and reversed the AT Field for thrust to dodge, but the Angel's beam tracked too fast. Unit-05 was seconds from being hit.

At the brink of a catastrophic crash, a cerulean high-energy particle beam fired from the mountains east of Lake Ashi, striking the Angel's core dead-on. The piercing shriek sounded again.

This time, the Angel truly died. Its "sea urchin" body collapsed; the blood-red "fluid" surged into a tidal wave that flooded Tokyo-3.

"Nicely done, Shinji!" Misato slammed the desk, startling Makoto Hyuga beside her. But everyone was elated—the Sixth Angel had been freakishly strong, and a clean victory meant humanity had survived once again.

In Unit-01, Shinji exhaled in relief. Watching Unit-05's clash with the Angel had set his heart pounding, but at the last moment nothing went wrong; he hit the core. He was genuinely glad to have helped.

Up above, Gray began a descending spiral in Unit-05, checking in with the tower.

"This is Evangelion Unit-05 pilot, Gray Pendragon, requesting permission to land."

"Tower copies," replied an English voice over the comms. "Follow the guidance signal and land at the designated position."

"Roger. Commencing landing."

The massive Unit-05 circled like a large aircraft, but instead of using a runway, it employed its AT Field and body-mounted rocket nozzles to adjust attitude and set down firmly on both feet—stunning NERV staff yet again.

If Unit-02 was the world's first combat-ready EVA, then Unit-05 was a technology demonstrator integrating cutting-edge advancements from the European branch. Its installed tech clearly surpassed HQ's Unit-00 and Unit-01, making those cable-dependent older models seem "primitive."

—Section Break—

"It's been a long time, Dr. Akagi," said Touko as she disembarked, her first glance falling not on her sister Aoko, who worked at HQ, but on Ritsuko Akagi, who had come to meet her personally. "Wasn't the last time we met in Paris?"

"Indeed," Ritsuko smiled, tucking wind-tossed hair behind her ear. "All these years, and you haven't changed a bit, Dr. Touko."

"I've always had a baby face," Touko said with a grin. "You, Dr. Akagi, seem far more composed and steady now. Your reputation precedes you~"

"My little accomplishments are nothing," Ritsuko said with self-deprecating shake of her head. "It's your research that's renowned across NERV branches. And Unit-05—wasn't it the first unit to fell an Angel?"

"That was just a fluke, not worth mentioning," Touko replied lightly. "We both know what really happened with the Third Angel, don't we?"

Chapter 667: Too Many EVAs!

The air between them suddenly turned a bit tense—at least, that's what Maya, who had accompanied Ritsuko to greet Touko, felt. But after a brief stare-down, the two almost simultaneously smiled, as if nothing had happened.

"Welcome to Tokyo-3, Dr. Touko Aozaki," Ritsuko said, stepping aside with a gesture of invitation. "I hope our work goes smoothly."

"You're right," Touko nodded slightly and started forward. "Let's hope everything proceeds smoothly."

Ikari Shinji eyed the military-green EVA—so different in style from Unit-01. According to Misato, that was Unit-05, the one that had launched the aerial surprise attack earlier. The gray-haired, green-eyed girl talking with Ritsuko was its pilot.

"Let me introduce you," Ritsuko said with a warm smile. "This is Unit-01's pilot, Shinji. He's the one who delivered the precise, lethal shot to the Sixth Angel with the positron cannon."

"Hello," Gray said politely to Shinji. "I'm Gray Pendragon, EVA Unit-05 pilot from NERV Bethany Base. Pleased to meet you."

Shinji hurried to shake her hand, then stumbled a bit through his own introduction.

"Uh, I—I'm Shinji, Unit-01's pilot," he said. "Nice to meet you!"

Nervous as he seemed, Shinji was in a much better, more positive place than when his father had first called him to Tokyo-3.

"This is Ayanami Rei," Misato continued. "She pilots Unit-00—and she's this boy Shinji's sister, too."

"Oh?" Gray mused. "So you two are both Commander Ikari Gendo's children? Then why do your surnames differ?"

"Uh, well…" Shinji scratched his head, embarrassed. "Rei and I only figured that out recently. 'Ayanami' is my mother's maiden name…"

"Sounds like your family situation is pretty complicated," Gray said with a smile. "Nice to meet you both!"

Rei didn't seem interested in chatting with Gray; she simply nodded quietly, leaving the mood a bit awkward.

"Gray-chan, your Japanese is really fluent!" Misato jumped in. "Did you practice beforehand?"

"My guardian is Dr. Touko Aozaki," Gray replied. "I learned Japanese from her. Dr. Aozaki is very good at teaching."

"Speaking of which, we also have an Aozaki here at HQ. If it's not a coincidence, then they must be…"

"Yes, Dr. Touko often talked to me about her sister, Dr. Aoko Aozaki," Gray confirmed with a nod. "Because of work, they haven't met for a long time."

Because their "sisterhood" was public knowledge, once Touko finished handling Unit-05 and the Bethany team's ID verification, she moved openly into Aoko and Alice's apartment. With Gray, the four of them happily celebrated their "reunion."

Since the old apartment was cramped for four—and Asuka would arrive later—Touko applied to NERV HQ for a larger apartment with more rooms (for appearances' sake), right next door to Aoko's.

As expected, every room in the new place was bugged—a standard operation by old man Ikari's private intel unit. It'd be abnormal if there weren't bugs.

Aoko used "DeepThought" to feed the bugs AI-simulated audio, so the monitoring team would hear only trivial daily chatter.

"The Committee seems intent on bypassing the Vatican Treaty," Touko told Aoko. "Even with Unit-05 deployed here, the French branch still plans to send Unit-02 to Tokyo-3."

"Oh?" Aoko raised a brow. "Did Unit-05's performance finally convince them to force Gendo to mothball Unit-01 and Unit-00?"

"Possibly. The exact reason is unclear," Touko hesitated. "But it's good for us. Asuka's been impatient, and I'll have a legitimate reason to begin research on Unit-02…"

Speaking of Asuka—having seen Shinji defeat the Fourth and Fifth Apostles in succession—she'd been antsy every day. Just last night, she came to ask Aoko when she could officially transfer to Tokyo-3; training at the French branch was boring her to death.

Per the Vatican Treaty, a single nation can't simultaneously possess more than three operational EVA units. But since Unit-05 and Unit-02 are nominally under Russian and French management (Unit-02 managed by France), NERV HQ lacks authority to deploy them, so whether Unit-00 and Unit-01 must be sealed is still uncertain.

However, if Unit-02 still arrives in Tokyo-3 as in past loops and the original timeline, will Unit-03—the Ninth Angel's vessel—also be sent?

The current developments already differ greatly from the script in Aoko's memory. Originally, SEELE and Gendo planned to use Unit-03's pilot as a "sacrificial Angel" to trigger the apotheosis switch and launch Third Impact.

But now, with "four units on stage," what pretext will the Committee or Gendo use to seal Unit-02 and let Asuka get parasitized by the Ninth Angel?

Of course, under no circumstances will Aoko allow Asuka to be infected. Setting aside whether an Angel could even infect Asuka after she used the Key of Nebuchadnezzar, if Asuka did board Unit-03, it might directly trigger the True Third Impact.

Asuka carries "extra information" within the Key of Nebuchadnezzar from ADAMS. She is a human bearing the Fruit of Wisdom and can be regarded as a kind of pseudo-ADAMS. If she then acquires an Angel's Fruit of Life, it would be catastrophically dangerous for the world.

Not yet. They still need SEELE and NERV to build the NHG starship for them.

By all means—once the starship is complete, you can perish (be "complemented") however you like. I'll make it happen for you!