The Giant Machine Appears!

The next morning, he woke not to his alarm, but to his phone ringing.

Huang Zhetian opened his eyes groggily, fumbling around for his phone.

When he picked it up, he heard Misato's voice.

"Is Mana Kirishima with you? NERV can't get involved in this. It falls under the government's military jurisdiction. We have no authority here, because this is a matter between humans!"

Misato laid everything out right away, instantly jolting Huang Zhetian awake.

He understood. Things were moving too fast. Or rather... was the government's military under SEELE's control too?

It seemed the Giant Machine was their attempt to take on NERV. But a weapon like that wouldn't accomplish anything. Simply operating it was already agonizing for its pilots.

They even had to start training as children, and only barely met the standards by the time they were twenty-one.

In short, compared to an Eva, it was worlds apart.

After Jet Alone's failure, it was the Giant Weapon's turn. At this rate, they would have to bring the Mass Production Units out early.

Were they trying to disrupt NERV's plans this way?

Unfortunately, it wouldn't have the slightest effect on Gendo Ikari.

"Miss Misato, I understand!"

"And another thing! Take Mana and get out of there right away. We have no authority to intervene if the government's military arrests her! If you clash with them, then... you'll put us in a very difficult position," Misato warned again, her voice grave.

"All right. I'll think of something." Huang Zhetian rubbed his temples. This had come far too suddenly. According to the plot, things shouldn't have progressed this way. Sometimes, he really couldn't rely on the plot to figure out what would happen here.

Huang Zhetian immediately woke the other three and gave them a rough explanation.

Shinji hadn't expected Mana to be one of the Giant Machine's pilots.

Mana also explained what had happened.

Three pilots had come together, including Mana. One had been seriously injured and hospitalized. She hadn't told them before, and apparently NERV hadn't told its Eva pilots either.

Mana could only visit that teammate in secret. The other pilot was Musashi.

They met privately, concealing their identities.

Now that Mana had been discovered, Musashi probably wouldn't be far behind.

"What do we do?" Shinji asked anxiously. He couldn't stand by and watch his girlfriend get arrested.

Huang Zhetian instructed them, "Now's your chance. Hurry and leave. Shinji, escort her out of here. They'll probably track her here very soon. Asuka and I will see if we can buy you some time. Put on disguises first."

With that, Huang Zhetian opened the door and went out to check.

A short while later, everyone had packed their things and walked out of the hot spring inn.

Asuka hadn't said a word the whole time. As they were leaving, she said, "All that planning, and we still didn't see this coming. Or maybe we should have known all along. We just hadn't confirmed it."

Mana gave a bitter smile. "A woman's intuition, I suppose. I thought you were the first to figure me out, too. That machine appeared right when I transferred here. Could it really have been a coincidence? Not that much of one."

Shinji asked, "What happens if the government officers take Mana back?"

Mana's eyes went blank. "I don't know either... probably-ah!"

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and everyone immediately dropped to the ground.

Huang Zhetian pressed Asuka down beneath him and looked up. It was the military!

How did they get here so fast?

"All of you, stay down! That first shot was a warning! You three may be Eva pilots, but if you obstruct our duties, you could still get caught in the crossfire. Even NERV won't have much to say about that!" The squad leader pointed his gun at the four people on the ground and immediately issued his warning.

Then he waved a hand, and two soldiers came forward at once, forcibly restraining Mana and taking her away.

"Let me go! Ah! Shinji! Help me! Mmph!" They covered Mana's mouth and dragged her toward an armored vehicle down the mountain.

"Mana!! Let go! What right do you have to restrain me?! I'm an Eva pilot!" Shinji watched in despair as his girlfriend was taken away, unable to do anything!

The squad leader warned him again. "You're obstructing our duties! When you got up to interfere just now, we already had grounds to eliminate you on the spot. If you weren't an Eva pilot, you wouldn't even be alive to speak right now."

Apparently, they had been lying in wait here for quite some time.

"You three aren't our concern. Anyway, your supervisor has arrived, so we won't linger. You'd better watch yourselves over this!" Leaving that threat behind, the squad leader led his men down the mountain.

Huang Zhetian and the others stood up. Asuka's expression was anything but friendly.

No one had ever dared speak to an Eva pilot like that! Even the military government in her own country hadn't dared.

"Haven't we shown this country more than enough respect?! When an Angel attacks, if I accidentally hit their government troops, that counts as friendly fire too, doesn't it?" Asuka said, her face twisted with fury.

"This really isn't within our jurisdiction. The government's military caused this, so let them sort it out themselves," Huang Zhetian said calmly. Put plainly, it truly wasn't their business. NERV had no authority to interfere in human affairs or human wars.

From the very beginning, NERV had been established to defeat the Angels and protect humanity.

"Right, right! I'll go to my dad! My dad's the commander!! I'll go find Dad!!" Shinji was babbling. He couldn't think straight now; this had hit him hard.

The only person who could resolve this was his father.

Shinji still believed there was a chance.

Asuka looked puzzled. "They already said this isn't within our jurisdiction. Going to your father won't help."

"Trying is better than not trying at all. We're going back to NERV now!" Shinji hurried down the mountain.

Misato had also been waiting anxiously below for quite some time.

Meanwhile, with Mana.

The military vehicles drove onto the road at the foot of the mountain.

But they had no idea that a Giant Machine weapon was waiting beneath the lake for them to pass.

Boom-clang!

With an enormous crash, the road collapsed under its weight.

An enormous figure appeared before the military vehicle leading the convoy!

Its shadow engulfed them, and the vehicles behind crashed into one another.

Chaos erupted at once.

The Giant Machine's eyes lit up, and it swept its enormous arm across.

The lightly armored combat vehicles at the front were swept straight into the lake.

"Fall back!! Aah!"

Boom!

The Giant Machine's arm telescoped into an enormous machine gun, blasting the helicopters overhead until they exploded.

Its mechanical eyes swept the area, then locked onto an armored vehicle.

Mana was sitting inside that very vehicle.

NERV Headquarters.