"The Technical Department will recover Unit-03's wreckage."
"There are survivors! Get the medics!"
They entered a field of rubble. Hundreds of people stood silently in the sunset's fading glow, hurrying about with medical equipment or search-and-rescue instruments in hand.
Like angels beside God's throne, they listened to God's prayers and showered the world with love and kindness. All these people needed was a pair of wings, and they could practically ascend to heaven.
But in the middle of one tent sat something resembling a black coffin: NERV's emergency treatment unit.
Its appearance suited a funeral, as though it had cast an invisible pall of sorrow over the ruins.
Shinji Ikari walked over to the black coffin and sat beside it, silently watching the woman lying inside. Hundreds of devoted souls from NERV's Medical Department bowed at once.
"I'm still alive?" With bandages wrapped around her head and gauze taped to her face, Misato Katsuragi opened her eyes blearily, her gaze clouded with the confusion of someone just waking.
"Shinji?" Sensing someone watching her, Misato Katsuragi turned her head and saw the boy. Her gaze followed Shinji Ikari very cautiously.
"You're dead too? Was that Angel really that powerful? Are we in hell now? I even woke up in a coffin. That's certainly in keeping with hell's style."
"If you died, you'd go to heaven. That's my turf as God. Although you've committed more grave sins in your life than anyone could count, I could still let you in through the back door."
Shinji Ikari said it with a smile.
"Grave sins? What sins have I committed? I've shed blood for humanity!" Misato Katsuragi protested indignantly.
Although she did have her own selfish motives, her actions still counted as fighting for humanity.
"The Gospel of Matthew says: I say, walk by