The Three Sages

The next morning, when the alarm on her phone rang, the sun had yet to rise, and a thin veil of mist still shrouded the sky.

Rei Ayanami took the automated red underground train to the enormous alloy gate.

She swiped her new Identity Card at the entrance, passed through the gate, then stepped onto a long escalator leading downward.

Rows of hollow steel frames lined the surroundings, like a forest of steel-or an enormous birdcage.

This massive artificial underground complex had no shortage of metal, that hallmark of human civilization's progress, nor of laboratories built from it.

Unit-00's reactivation experiments had already wrecked two testing grounds, but the good news was that NERV Headquarters still had a double-digit number of similar facilities.

At that moment, Ritsuko Akagi and Misato Katsuragi stood side by side nearby. In a rare turn of events, the trio famous throughout NERV for always being inseparable was missing one of its members today.

Shinji Ikari was absent.

There was, however, another man named Ikari present. Gendo Ikari stood before the control room's glass window, looking at the enormous yellow unit before him.

With the assistance of the staff, Rei Ayanami entered the cockpit. As the Entry Plug slid into the unit's spine, she once again found herself inside Unit-00.

"Startup system normal."

"Neural synchronization system within baseline parameters."

"Flooding Entry Plug."

"Connecting interface."

"No abnormalities in the A1O neural pathways."

"LCL electrical state normal."

"Establishing mental connection with Japanese as the foundational language for thought patterns."

"All risk checks prior to 1405 cleared."

Perhaps the technical department's adjustments to the neural contact system had really worked. This synchronization test went very smoothly.

Every procedural risk check was cleared, and Unit-00 remained stable, showing no signs of going out of control.

Inside Unit-00's cockpit, Rei Ayanami floated in the reddish-orange LCL.

The cockpit, which should have retained its reddish-orange hue, suddenly blurred. Then a dazzling white light flared up, rapidly engulfing the entire screen.

A rainbow of colors shifted into black and white, then scarlet, abyssal black, and finally blue-green. The entire process felt like passing through a tunnel into another world.

Fortunately, the bizarre spectacle did not last long before abruptly ending, replaced by an utterly familiar scene-

The snowy white walls inside the testing grounds, the pallid, feeble lighting, and the figure of a middle-aged man standing silently by a third-floor window.

But this time, a certain boy was missing.

"Looks like Shinji has some competition now," Misato Katsuragi remarked, arms folded as she watched Unit-00 perform a series of prescribed movements in the testing grounds.

"He wouldn't care." Ritsuko Akagi looked at the enormous NERV emblem in the testing grounds. "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world. He's God, and everything else is beneath heaven."

"What's all this heaven-and-earth stuff? You're starting to sound mystical too. Don't let that kid rub off on you. What's Rei's synchronization rate?" As operations commander, Misato Katsuragi's first concern was still this measure of combat capability.

"It's still unstable. Her synchronization rate was already far below Shinji's, and it'll only be lower after the system adjustments. But it should be enough for combat," Ritsuko Akagi answered.

"Shinji really is one of a kind." Misato Katsuragi did not know whether to be pleased or disappointed.

Ritsuko Akagi said nothing more.

Before Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami had always been the candidate with the highest synchronization rate at headquarters. Yet even she had caused Unit-00 to go out of control twice in succession.

Rei Ayanami could still pilot Unit-00 now. Compared with having it lose control at every turn, this was already the best possible outcome.

In any case, humanity now had one more combat asset capable of fighting the Angels, but NERV's staff had no time to celebrate.

Just then, the sound everyone least wanted to hear rang in their ears.

The warning lights in the corners spun and flashed red as shrill alarms rang throughout NERV Headquarters.

"Emergency..."

Shinji Ikari used his new Identity Card to enter NERV Headquarters. Like Rei Ayanami, he slowly descended in the long, narrow elevator, with MAGI's alarms still ringing in his ears.

MAGI was the Three Sages Supercomputer System developed by Ritsuko Akagi's mother, Dr. Naoko Akagi.

It served as NERV's brain: a set of three supercomputers working together to control, manage, and automate NERV's internal systems.

The system consisted of three supercomputers named MELCHIOP-1, BALHASAR-2, and CASPER-3. They had respectively been implanted with aspects of Naoko Akagi's personality as a scientist, a mother, and a woman, and made management decisions through a consultation mechanism.

This organization always liked to tie everything to religion. MAGI's name came from the three wise men from the East in the New Testament of the Bible.

MELCHUOR, BALTHASAR, and CASPER were their respective names. According to tradition, they traveled from the East to Jerusalem to bless Jesus at his birth.

Shinji Ikari had never seen the three computers at the system's core, however, because they were housed in an area of NERV Headquarters called Central Dogma.

Central Dogma lay at the lowest level of NERV Headquarters and formed its innermost core. Yet the great God who supposedly ruled all the land under heaven did not even have clearance to enter.

As soon as Shinji Ikari walked into the operations command room, he saw a crowd of busy operations support staff.

Not only were Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi watching from the side, but even Gendo Ikari had taken the elevator to the command room.

"The monitored target has breached the Odawara Defense Line."

"Analysis of the unidentified flying object complete. Pattern blue. Confirmed as an Angel."

One report after another reached Shinji Ikari's ears. Strangely, no one had come to tell him to pilot an EVA today.

Shinji Ikari looked at a monitor in the corner and saw the yellow unit and a blue-haired girl preparing to deploy.

Misato Katsuragi instinctively looked toward Shinji Ikari, only to see him walking toward her. She was still rather nervous, like a schoolgirl in a movie caught doing something wrong at a convenience store.

"So Unit-00's reactivation experiment was the classified mission you mentioned?" Shinji Ikari asked flatly.

They had let him observe the last experiment, yet had not even told him about this one. He really could not understand what Gendo Ikari was thinking.

Gendo Ikari's reasoning was actually quite simple. He merely did not want to fail in front of Shinji Ikari again, even if the technical department had calculated the odds at less than one in ten thousand.

"That's right. Here's some good news: Unit-00 passed its reactivation test."

"So, by the looks of things, I won't need to deploy?" Shinji Ikari asked.

"That's still unclear. It depends on what the higher-ups decide. I don't have the final say this time." Misato Katsuragi pointed at the raised platform behind her.