The Collection of The End

——2015.6.12——

The garden of assembly.

Literary Society.

"Ayanami-san..." Shinji Ikari tried to talk to Ayanami Rei.

"What?" The girl who lowered her head to read raised her eyes slightly and looked at him over the top of her glasses frame.

"No, it's okay, just go ahead and do your work." Shinji Ikari scratched his head and looked away.

"Yeah." Ayanami Rei lowered his head again.

How should I put it, it was a good thing that the synchronization rate returned to the passing line, but the follow-up was a bit troublesome, because the students who were idle in the assembly garden began to spread the gossip that he and Rei Ayanami were a couple.

If nothing else, it must be Suzuhara Higashi's gossip. Of course, it is also possible that he and Ayanami were seen by other classmates when they were riding the train or watching movies.

After all, those behaviors are all about dating.

We are obviously only fourteen years old!

...If you think about it carefully, it doesn't seem like a big problem.

It’s not about age!

No, forget it, does he have to explain to people that Ayanami-san is an apostle and it is impossible to fall in love with a human?

If you really ask her what she thinks about these rumors...

--Know.

——Why should you care?

——You care about this matter?

When the time comes, it’s you who won’t be able to step down.

Shinji Ikari hesitated for a moment and decided to change the question.

"Well, I've thought about it carefully in the past few days. Isn't the purpose of the apostle to rescue Eve who is sealed in the underground fortress? If it is you, it should be easy to do, right? Is father wary of you?"

"No."

"That……"

"Are you tired of this battle?" Ayanami Rei closed the book and looked up.

"Huh? Are you okay..." Shinji Ikari scratched his head.

After all, piloting a giant robot is fun, but I haven’t fully figured out the card system yet.

"There are two ways to end this battle," Ayanami Rei seemed to have turned into a ruthless information repeater: "First, I merge with Eve and activate the 'Planet Life Reshaping Program' to destroy the world. The new world will be in the world for a long time. There will be no fighting for a period of time, and two, destroy all the incoming apostles, let Eve continue to sleep, and the status quo of the world remains unchanged."

"This..." Shinji Ikari tried to clear his mind.

"I will not destroy this world," Ayanami Rei added: "At least not until Mr. Ikari Gendo dies."

I can only wish my father a long life.

"For all the apostles, do you know how many there are?" Shinji Ikari asked instead.

"Not sure, but I'll know when they appear." Ayanami Rei pointed to her glasses.

Then the "Information Integrated Thought Body" can make snitches, right?

Huh? Wait, this "all apostles" doesn't include herself?

"Except that I can also enable Eve to start the planet's life reshaping process, I am no different from humans. I will grow old and die." Ayanami Rei further explained as if he had guessed what he was thinking.

Well, indeed, she was still wearing a bandage before, and it took almost a month for her to fully recover. Shinji Ikari nodded while picking up the water glass on the table.

"You can fall in love, you can get married." Ayanami Rei continued.

"Pfft——" Shinji Ikari turned his head suddenly and sprayed water all over the floor.

"After analysis by the 'Information Integrated Thought Body', you want to ask this." Ayanami Rei had no consciousness of what he had just said.

"You bastard database! Don't meddle in other people's business!" Shinji Ikari wiped his mouth with one hand and pointed at the ceiling - God knows where that missing body is - and cursed: "If you really like the other person, you won't care about who the other person is! Even if you don't care about who the other person is! It’s a pure soul or a doll!”

Rei Ayanami looked at Shinji Ikari's incompetent rage and did not respond. He only said after he finally stopped: "Go back, the fifth apostle has appeared."

——

nerv headquarters.

"The target has passed Zeta!]"

"Optical scanning confirmed it to be a blue octahedron! No obvious weakness was found!]"

"Unit No. 1 has completed preparations for attack!]"

"The target has arrived above Lake Ashi!]"

Hmm...the apostle seems pretty pretty this time? Shinji Ikari sat in the insertion plug and looked at the image of the apostle coming from outside.

It was a crystal-clear blue rhombus, constantly flashing a faint blue light under the sunlight, floating in the air and heading towards the third New Tokyo City at a constant speed.

Ta-da-da...boom-boom-boom...

As always, in order to prove that they did not waste their tax money, the Ground Alliance used self-propelled guns and missile batteries to carry out a wave of painless bombings on the apostles, but the difference from before was...

Jiao - Jiao -

Several light blue beams of light flashed past the apostle's body, destroying all weapons attacking it almost simultaneously.

"It is confirmed that the fifth apostle's attack method is similar to that of the third apostle, Shinji-kun. Be prepared to respond when encountering laser weapons.]"

"Understood." Shinji Ikari glanced at the chestnut ball floating next to him. It looked at the beautiful appearance like the apostle's gem with bright eyes.

Don't look at it, it's the enemy and needs to be demolished.

"emission!】"

call……

Almost at the same time as it was launched, Shinji Ikari's "Duel Disk" appeared on his left hand.

Um? Does this count as a battle?

Shinji Ikari hesitated for half a second, then directly drew the card based on the idea that if he didn't draw, it would be useless.

Elemental Hero·Bubble Man]

Could you please shuffle the cards once? I really miss the normal magic and trap cards.

With the idea of ​​​​better than nothing, Shinji Ikari "summoned" the Bubble Man.

At the same time, the text on the Bubble Man card flashed.

When there is only this card in your hand and on the field, draw two cards]

I was wrong! Please be the first to come every time in the future!

"There is a high-energy reaction within the apostle! An attack is about to launch!]"

"What! It started to deform!]"

"What the hell! What is that?]"

"Shinji-kun! Get out of the way!]"

Shinji Ikari was reaching out to draw a card, but the headquarters was in chaos, and Misato Katsuragi even yelled.

I'm on the way to eject, even if you say you want to avoid...

Tsk-tsk!

Unit 1 arrived on the ground.

Now let me see what has become of the apostle...

what is that! ?

Shinji Ikari originally thought that the diamond-shaped apostle might have opened or rotated, but...

What appeared in front of him was a giant dragon with red body, scales and armor, four claws and two wings, two mouths on its head, and endless thunder wrapped around its body.

Don’t have illusions at this time!

"Kakakaka——" The giant dragon let out a terrifying roar. One of its mouths opened and spit out a ball of lightning towards Unit 1.

boom--!

Bubble Man turned into a puff of golden light without any time to react.

The next moment, the dragon's second mouth opened and spit out a thick stream of white breath towards Unit 1.

"Unit No. 1 was directly hit by a laser!]"

"The armor is damaged!]"

"The laser intensity is still increasing!]"

Obviously, what the headquarters saw was completely different from his own, so he had to avoid it first anyway... huh?

Shinji Ikari tried to control Unit-00 to avoid the attack, but Unit-00 remained as motionless as when the synchronization rate was 0%.

Is the 59% synchronization rate false? Now is not the time to lose your temper—

call--

At this moment, Shinji Ikari saw a new illusion. It was not the previous "seeing something that actually exists as something else", but "observing a certain scene from the perspective of a movie and television."

And this scene is: the huge red dragon is breathing dragon breath condescendingly, and the bandaged "Large Ayanami Rei" is facing away from the dragon breath, protecting the little Shinji Ikari in the palm of his hand, even though his back is constantly Burning and carbonization also remain motionless.

"..."

Looking at this illusion, Shinji Ikari suddenly remembered many things that he had ignored intentionally or unintentionally before. The higher the synchronization rate of the EVA driver, the easier it is to control the body, but at the same time, when the body is damaged, the driver will feel it on the mental level. For the same pain, the higher the synchronization rate, the greater the pain.

However, against the third and fourth apostles, no matter how the No. 1 machine was attacked, he didn't feel it at all.

You idiot, you already knew that it was an "artificial apostle", didn't you? Can it, no, think of her as a giant robot?

Even if she was hurt before, she would act according to her instructions, but this time it was different. Although she didn't know what the fifth apostle was, its attack made it impossible for Unit 1 to continue to act as usual.

"The armor plate was completely penetrated!]"

"The EVA body begins to dissolve!]"

"Execute emergency recovery procedures!]"

"No! The high temperature has melted all the nearby mechanical structures!]"

"Contact with insertion plug broken!]"

"Shinji-kun!]"

"Really... I spent a whole day improving the synchronization rate, not just for you to do this..." Shinji Ikari looked at warning messages flashing around him, and suddenly shouted: "Damn dragon! Give it to me Shut your stinky mouth!"

Without looking, he slapped the card he just drew on the duel plate.

"Attack incapacity" or "magic tube" must be one of them!

Astral Barrier: Attacks against your own monsters will become direct attacks against you. 】

Huh?

In the illusion, a rippled orange shield suddenly rose around the little Shinji Ikari, completely covering the large Ayanami Rei. However, the red dragon's attack did not stop, and instead began to ablate the orange shield. Shield, the large Ayanami Rei, who was originally enduring the attack, looked a little dull at the small Ikari Shinji who started rolling around in his palm.

The next moment, the illusion shattered and disappeared.

"Grr... ha... so this is... a normal experience for a driver?" Shinji Ikari endured the pain of having his chest drilled violently and took a picture of the second card he just drew. .

Forced Escape Device: Returns a monster card on the field to your hand. 】

Bang! Unit No. 1 stomped heavily, trampling directly through the passage gate that it had just popped out of, and then the entire unit fell down.

"Asshole...even if there is a counterattack trap card..." Shinji Ikari's consciousness began to blur, and he was still mumbling to himself.

Curry Curry...] Li Ziqiu shook his head with his hands on his hands.

"What... the opponent is a god? Is he not affected by trap cards? This makes no sense..."

——2015.6.17——

Nerv headquarters, ICU ward.

"Hmm...unfamiliar ceiling."

Shinji Ikari opened his eyes and stared at the roof in a daze.

The memory seems to be interrupted. The last scene is of using the emergency escape device, and then...

"Are you awake?" Rei Ayanami's voice came from the side: "The operation was successful. You are now a girl."

"What!?" Shinji Ikari sat up suddenly, lifted the quilt on his body and took a look: "What? It's still there."

"..."

"..."

Shinji Ikari silently pulled the quilt back up: "Where did you learn that saying?"

"The analysis of the information integration thought body believes that this sentence will help you wake up faster," Ayanami Rei replied: "In addition, the behavior just now was evaluated by it as 'looking at each other to show friendship'."

"I didn't see anything last time!"

"Then do you want to see it?"

"I……"

"'You can't even see it', this is what the information integration thought body said."

"..." Shinji Ikari rubbed his face vigorously: "I will kill that 'Information Integrated Thought Body' sooner or later... Now please get down to business."

"I am here to inform you that the second battle against the Fifth Apostle will be carried out early tomorrow morning," Rei Ayanami said: "You need to arrive at the EVA hangar at 17:30 today for the No. 1 unit startup test. If If it is successfully activated, it will set off at 18:05 and arrive at the Erzishan sniper position at 19:00 to be on standby. If there are no accidents, the operation will officially begin at 0:00."

After Ayanami Rei finished speaking, he took out a combat uniform from the bedside table next to him and placed it on Shinji Ikari's bedside.

"Hmm...what happened to my original one?" Shinji Ikari looked at it.

"The degree of meltdown on the chest and back exceeds 70%. The technical department is analyzing its cause, because if you want to have that kind of result normally, you should have been penetrated. They are very curious." Ayanami Zero is not at all satisfied He replied in a curious tone.

Hey, so that red dragon isn't that great either. Even an ordinary person wouldn't be able to be killed in one bite... Well, an ordinary qualified person.

"How is Unit-1? Where are the apostles?" Shinji Ikari continued to ask.

"The front chest armor was completely penetrated, and the body was severely melted. It almost affected the insertion bolt, but it has been repaired now," Rei Ayanami replied: "Since the synchronization rate was significantly reduced before the end of the battle, a startup test was required. , if it cannot be started, the second operation will be completed by Unit Zero alone."

Don't worry about this, Shinji Ikari shook his head.

Unit 1 wants to lower the synchronization rate to reduce its own pain? But that is useless. Since the card says it is a direct attack, it is a direct attack, and due to this behavior, the synchronization rate may not decrease but increase.

"What is the state of the apostle now?"

"After repelling Unit 1, it stayed directly above the underground fortress, transforming part of its body into a drill to drill downwards," Rei Ayanami replied: "Due to the continuous harassment attacks by the Earth Alliance troops, the speed of this drilling operation It has been greatly slowed down, and it is expected that all the armor plates will be penetrated at 4 o'clock tomorrow morning. If the second operation fails, the third operation will be carried out in the underground fortress, and the chance of 'Adam' being rescued will exceed 87%."

After she finished speaking, she picked up a tablet on the bedside table, adjusted it twice and handed it over: "This is its attack form. Please be vigilant during combat."

Um? Did she guess that what I saw was not the fifth apostle?

Shinji Ikari took the tablet and took a look at it thoughtfully...

Is this something shaped like a sapphire jewelry that made me look like that? !

2007. Death World Demonic Fog City Fourteen