Shinji Ikari raised his head and looked at the White Giant.
"Miss Soryu, do you really want to come out?"
The girl's soul inside the Cockpit did not answer. She had suddenly noticed a more important problem.
She was already calling him by the nickname she had come up with, so why was he still being so polite and distant?
"You keep calling me Miss Soryu. It doesn't sound nice at all. I'll let you call me Asuka."
"But then it'd be hard to tell you two apart."
"Just call that fake Shikinami. Call me Asuka."
Miss Asuka Langley Soryu finally revealed her true intentions.
Asuka frowned as well.
She had thought this original merely had the temper of a child who had yet to grow up, but now she was actually pushing her luck.
Her gaze sharpened, and she prepared to act.
Original, clone-none of that mattered anymore.
She had to show her who was in charge!
"That won't do."
Before Asuka could act, Shinji Ikari rejected Miss Soryu's request outright, making Asuka curl her lips into a smug smile.
Asuka Langley Soryu? Asuka did not consider her worth her attention at all.
Asuka's attention was entirely on Shinji Ikari. She never noticed that the White Giant beside her was trembling.
Shinji Ikari was the emotional anchor on whom she had unloaded so much of her mental strain.
She stole a glance at him, silently commending his answer.
As for Asuka Soryu, she no longer even registered her presence.
So what if she was a clone and the other girl was the original? Weren't they both human?
She could just pretend the other girl did not exist.
"You jerk! I'm not talking to you anymore!"
"Didn't you say God loved everyone, and that you'd love me too? Idiot! You're