Caught Completely Off Guard

"Hm? A synchronization rate of 120%?"

A bespectacled middle-aged man with a somewhat stern, gloomy face folded his hands on the table. As he looked over the latest report, a flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes.

But his usually steady nature kept him from showing much else.

He was Gendo Ikari, NERV's highest-ranking official.

"Airi Suzuki's cousin, from that village. Airi Suzuki herself may have ulterior motives for approaching us."

Kouzou Fuyutsuki, standing beside him with his immaculate appearance and graying hair, had also noticed a detail specifically called out in the report.

Fuyutsuki had been the teacher of Shinji Ikari's mother, Yui Ikari. His feelings for her may have gone beyond those of an ordinary teacher, and he also knew about the final Human Instrumentality Project. He now served as Commander Ikari's deputy.

Given their current status and intelligence network, they already knew something about Takigakure, the mysterious village that produced elite soldiers and top-class spies.

Based on fourteen years' worth of gathered clues, the village was indeed unusual and special. It looked like some kind of secluded rural paradise, and it did have a few strange traditions of its own.

Overall, though, the village seemed to know little about politics. Once it was secretly discovered that their physiques and training methods seemed to be hereditary, impossible to learn or even replicate through cloning, these exceptional weapons became the object of a fierce scramble between various factions.

They were exceptionally capable solo operatives, with excellent reputations for completing missions and an outstanding sense of duty. In short, they were perfect top-tier workhorses.

NERV had always wanted to recruit some of them. Airi Suzuki and several others now serving in the UN forces had all been deliberately transferred to the area.

They had also discovered that these people might