Shinji Ikari caught a glimpse of another side of his father — the gentle side that Rei Ayanami alone was allowed to see.
It was a feeling he had never experienced himself.
Misato Katsuragi thought Gendo Ikari was far too biased — so cold toward his own flesh and blood, yet so attentive to an outsider.
Unit-00 goes berserk. The entry plug is ejected, crashing hard to the ground.
Temperatures in the hundreds of degrees — every minute the pilot spends inside brings her closer to death.
Gendo Ikari throws himself forward without hesitation, gripping the scorching handle with bare, unprotected hands and forcing it to turn.
His glasses melt.
The man displays a staggering force of will.
Ritsuko Akagi watches with something close to envy.
This is treatment reserved for Rei Ayanami alone. This is an expression no one else ever gets to see.
Standing on the burning coolant, tending to Rei — this man shows a tenderness with no trace of the cold-blooded creature he appears to be.
Since losing his wife, Gendo Ikari has pressed on and on, driven by a singular ambition he refuses to abandon.
He will pay any price.
Shinji Ikari sits inside his Eva, watching Rei laugh and talk easily with his father.
The girl who, like himself, had always been alone — she only shows her smile for Gendo Ikari.
Shinji watches, jealous, longing. "Ah…"
He wants so badly for things between him and his father to be better.
He wants to be cared for. He wants to be praised. That's the only reason he tries so hard to pilot the Eva.
"Rei Ayanami… why does Father smile for her, but look at me like I'm nothing…"
That night, Shinji lies in bed staring at the ID card in his hand — the expressionless face of Rei Ayanami looking back at him.
Another night he can't sleep.
He lies there turning over the question of what kind of relationship Rei and his father could possibly have. He can't make sense of it — why the difference in treatment between his own son and a stranger is so enormous.
The next day, Shinji stands at the door to Rei's apartment. He rings the bell. No answer.
He turns the handle and steps inside. "Excuse me… excuse me, it's Shinji. Ayanami, I'm coming in."
He tiptoes into the room.
He figures no one is home — he'll just leave the ID card and go.
Rei's room is nothing like other girls' rooms. Blood on the pillow. Blood on the sheets. Snow-white bandages, stained red, stuffed in the trash can, in a cardboard box.
Only painkillers and medicine bottles on the refrigerator.
Not a single cute or personal thing anywhere.
Shinji glances around, notices the clothes on the bed, and then spots something on the shelf — his father's glasses, broken.
"Are these… Ayanami's…?"
He puts them on.
The sound of curtains being pulled. Shinji stiffens and turns — a flood of light, pale white skin, Rei Ayanami fresh from the bath, dripping wet and toweling off.
Rei stares in surprise at the person who has appeared in her room.
When she sees that he is wearing her most precious possession, a look of displeasure crosses her face. She walks briskly toward him and snatches the glasses off his face.
Shinji — flustered, mortified, flailing — stumbles backward and knocks Rei to the floor.
White undergarments and a bra tumble out of the wardrobe and scatter everywhere.
Shinji's eyes go wide. He stares down at Rei's flawless figure, at those striking crimson eyes.
He can't speak. His left hand is braced against the floor, and his entire right hand is closed around something soft and white. He's turned to stone.
"Would you mind moving?" Rei says, perfectly composed, utterly unbothered by the fact that Shinji has just seen everything.
"Ah — yes — I'm sorry——!" Shinji scrambles to his feet, still looking, still looking at Rei, still savoring the sensation in his hand — soft and warm, strangely familiar.
"What did you want?"
"Ah, that — that, I — I — someone told me — told me — to come, to come and do what again…"
Shinji racks his brain in a panic, trying to remember what he came here for. A beautiful girl is getting dressed right next to him, and his heart is pounding so fast he can hear it — thump thump thump thump —
"The card! The card, the ID card — they issued a new one! I came to deliver it to you. That's all — I didn't have any other reason. Ritsuko-san said she forgot to give it to you. It's the truth. I rang the doorbell and no one answered. The door wasn't locked…"
He explains himself in a rush, clearly terrified of Rei thinking he's some kind of creep.
[Scene shift: Demon Slayer, Season 1 timeline]
"Waaaaaah——! ——! ——! So — so — SO cute! What an incredibly cute girl!! Snow-white skin, crimson eyes, that ice-cold expression that doesn't care about anyone in the world!!
MOVE, Shinji Ikari, get OFF her——! ——! ——!
A girl this cute is way beyond what you can handle. Get out of the way and let ME handle this!
I will make her happy with my burning heart and my genuine, sincere love."
Zenitsu Agatsuma's eyes fill with animated hearts as he stares, transfixed, at the transcendently beautiful Rei Ayanami. A bouquet of wildflowers materializes in his hands.
"Ah… Rei Ayanami… what a beautiful name! Please marry me, please please please marry me, be my wife——!! ——! ——!"
Zenitsu spins around and looks at Tanjiro Kamado and Inosuke with absolute seriousness. "I'm going to join NERV as a pilot… The demon-slaying stuff — I'll leave that to you guys!
I can definitely become a qualified pilot… it's got to be way easier than training at the Butterfly Mansion!"
Kanao Tsuyuri quietly walks over, drawing the long sword at her hip and pointing it at Zenitsu. In her other hand is a note, four large characters written on it: Deserters Will Die.
"Wuaaaahhhh————! ——! ——! I'm not a deserter, I'm not running away! I haven't run away yet!!
And besides, does this even count as running away? I — I — I also want to save people in other worlds!!
Everyone has their own strengths, right? Right?!
I'm absolutely terrible at fighting demons — I can barely do the Thunder Breathing at all, I only know ONE move!! If I run into a demon I will definitely die, wuwuwu, I am going to die!!
But piloting an Eva — maybe I could defeat those Angels really easily!"
Zenitsu ducks behind Tanjiro's back, tearful eyes fixed on Kanao, who tilts her head and says nothing.
"Ummm ummm…" Inosuke sits on a nearby tatami mat, shoveling white rice into his mouth without stopping. "I don't get it — what's so great about that woman. Her muscles aren't as good as mine. She's not as strong as me. She's built like a pair of chopsticks. And her room doesn't even have any food in it — is she some kind of monster who doesn't need to eat?"
He's quite fond of Misato Katsuragi, he decides, because her fridge and her room are full of food. That woman is clearly very smart.
"Anyway — Tanjiro, did you hear?! There's a visitor from another world who's joined the Demon Slayer Corps recently! He has a crimson blade — it's incredible, seriously incredible…!
He's already slain so many demons, they say even the Upper Moons run when they see him!"
Zenitsu grabs Tanjiro's arm and shakes it frantically, desperate to change the subject before Kanao decides to eliminate him on the spot as a deserter.
Because if a member of the Corps deserts, there's a chance they could go defect to Muzan Kibutsuji and become demons who prey on humans.
"I've heard! The visitor from another world wears an enormous rosary around his neck — thicker even than the ones Gyomei-san wears! I saw him spar with the Stone Hashira once. It was unreal — the sword he swings is far heavier than mine, jet black, terrifyingly sharp…"
Tanjiro tells Zenitsu excitedly: "They say that when he fights demons, in an instant — their heads are already severed!"
Kanao shoots Zenitsu one final look, sets down her note, and walks back inside — offering him a gracious, forgiving glance as she goes.
[Scene shift: Fate/Grand Order, manga timeline]
"Ho… ho… So this world, which has no mages at all, still managed to produce artificial humans of such quality?
Quite well-made, I'll grant them that. Pity the shelf life is so short. These manufactured toys must each be paired with a compatible operator, mustn't they — which means there must be many more of them somewhere."
Gilgamesh studies the scene with curiosity, wondering what Gendo Ikari is really after. If you can produce artificial humans, why not just have artificial humans pilot everything?
"The disturbance when Unit-00 went berserk wasn't even in the same league as when Unit-01 goes berserk.
Everyone here seems astonished at how compatible this boy is with Unit-01.
They mentioned this was a plan set in motion fourteen years ago — meaning Shinji Ikari was designated as Unit-01's pilot long before he ever knew it." Siduri observes.
"Hmm… hmm, this is like a Noble Phantasm bound to a Heroic Spirit — only the Spirit itself can draw out its full power. Anyone else who obtains it is just holding an unusually hard fire poker."
Dr. Roman massages his temples, staring wearily at a world that blends pure technology with the occult.
"Hmph, hmph, hmph — there's definitely something in that underground city that the Angels want.
And I'm now certain — these Angels are each operating independently. Otherwise they'd simply attack together, and one Unit-01 could never hold them all off.
But that raises the question! Humanity is guarding something to prevent the Angels from taking it, and they've chosen a purely passive, defensive strategy — waiting for the enemy to come to them.
Which means whatever they're guarding is almost certainly something the Angels can sense directly. Hiding it, relocating it — none of that would work.
Storing it somewhere else wouldn't be any safer than keeping it in the fortress city.
Whatever it is, it's of enormous importance to these people, and it's inseparably tied to that mysterious plan of theirs."
Leonardo da Vinci sits nearby in a chair, black coffee in hand, legs crossed, analyzing calmly:
"Da Vinci-chan is getting more and more curious! Does art even still exist in this world?
Facing a crisis of extinction, yet their social fabric hasn't collapsed — everyone just goes on living their daily lives."
"Which means the people living on this planet don't really feel threatened by the Angel invasions — or else they have enormous trust in this organization fighting on their behalf," Dr. Roman says. "Honestly, I'm almost envious of them."
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