It had all begun with the Second Impact.
After the Second Impact, the entire world had fallen into chaos...
"Can you imagine it? Cities were destroyed, there was nowhere to live, and food was scarce... the dead and wounded were beyond counting."
Kaji began his story as he led Shinji into NERV's secret underground passage, heading toward Unit-01's hangar at the Underground City base.
"My parents died too, leaving me and my little brother, who was four years younger..."
Shinji frowned, watching in disbelief as Kaji spoke without any change in expression. He could see no trace of sorrow on Kaji's face.
"Who knows how many children suffered the same fate as us back then...
"Of course, the government couldn't just leave us children to fend for ourselves. Eventually, they began taking measures and sent us to care centers...
"But think about it. There were hundreds of thousands of orphans across the country. The little orphanages filled up immediately. There wasn't enough food, clothing, or supplies. We even had to fight for somewhere to sleep.
"There weren't enough people to look after us, so some of the rules were pretty strange.
"Anyway, eventually we couldn't take it anymore, and a few of us ran away. There were six of us altogether, including my brother and me.
"To fill our stomachs, we had no choice but to steal, cheat, and swindle...
"The whole world was starving back then, so food wasn't easy to find.
"Then we stumbled across a place that looked like a military base.
"Of course, their security systems weren't nearly as advanced as they are now.
"So it was easy to sneak inside. Whenever we got hungry, we went there.
"All of us going together would have attracted too much attention, so we took turns.
"Until that day,