Tokyo-3 welcomed ice, snow, and cold for the first time.
The steel city, which sank beneath the ground to the sound of warning sirens, had always been desolate. In the biting wind, it seemed almost devoid of life.
The city should have been deathly still, but the novelty of snow gave it a different hue.
Standing on a slightly elevated hill, looking at a landscape unlike anything she had ever seen, felt like dreaming.
The low temperatures condensed the moisture in the air, and snow and freezing fog made everything look dreamlike.
The hospital room, however, was still warm.
The sensation of lips meeting in a kiss.
"So warm."
Still barely conscious, Rei Ayanami felt as though she were kissing Shinji Ikari. Only now did she realize that the sensation did not belong to her.
She had collapsed on her way into battle. Certain that she had not yet awakened, she clearly understood that this was some mental illusion, whether a dream or something else.
That made it strange that kissing Shinji Ikari felt so real-because someone really was doing it.
It was an Ayanami who shared a mental connection with her: Quatre.
Every Ayanami could feel that warmth.
What had originally been a single, solitary warmth belonging only to Quatre became many sources of warmth, which then fed back into each of them until they were filled with it.
It kept growing, so intoxicating that she did not want to open her eyes.
Rei Ayanami truly wanted to fall asleep in that warmth.
She clutched the thin white blanket covering her, her body taut as she curled into a ball.
Sleeping beauty.
"You're awake, aren't you? But you woke up too late. That idiot Child of God already left."
Hearing the voice, Rei Ayanami came to her senses and