Dr. Akagi

Misato Katsuragi tried to ease the tension, smiling as she changed the subject. "Say... how did those people from the Heavy Industries Community even know about AT Fields?"

"Top-secret information must have been leaked." Ritsuko Akagi sat quietly to one side, her gaze fixed on the promotional brochure that had already been reduced to ashes.

"What is the intelligence department doing?" Misato Katsuragi couldn't help grumbling.

Ritsuko Akagi merely tilted her head to glance at her, an inscrutable hint of a smile curling her lips, but said nothing.

An eerie silence settled over the lounge. The three of them had spent some time together by now, and both Shinji Ikari and Misato Katsuragi could see the ill intent in her eyes.

The strange atmosphere in the little room lasted until JA's public trial run began. Anything that could bring that expression to Ritsuko Akagi's face did not bode well for this exhibition.

The spectator seating in the control room was packed, and the consoles behind it glowed brightly. Beyond the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows stood a modern high-rise.

It was well into the afternoon, and sunlight reflected off the building's solar panels, making everyone squint slightly. The building resembled an enormous cage, imprisoning a giant in the darkness.

A deep, thunderous rumble rang out as the building slowly split down the middle, as though cleaved by a giant's invisible sword. The entire structure outside the windows parted to either side.

They discovered that a giant really had been imprisoned inside this building-shaped cage: a red-and-white humanoid machine in the eighty-meter class, as tall as the building itself.

JA

The man in charge stood before the central control console, looking at the visitors as he called out confidently:

"We will now begin the JA trial. Please feel free to watch from the windows. There is no danger."

He had left Ritsuko Akagi speechless with his rebuttals at the product presentation, and he was in an excellent mood now.

"If it's unmanned, why make it humanoid? The human body isn't the best design for combat, is it?" Somewhat puzzled, Shinji Ikari asked the brilliant scientist drinking coffee beside him.

"JA uses invasive brain-computer interface technology to collect the operator's brain signals directly. They call it unmanned, but a human is still controlling it," Ritsuko Akagi explained.

Shinji Ikari frowned. "Then why not just let an intelligent computer like MAGI control it directly? You wouldn't have to limit the machine to a humanoid form, either."

Ritsuko Akagi gave him a slightly surprised look and nodded. "Not a bad idea." She really hadn't thought of that before.

"I didn't realize you had some talent for this. If these unmanned machines put you out of a job someday, would you be interested in joining the technical department?"

"No thanks. Looking at too many numbers gives me a headache." Shinji Ikari waved a hand, then heard familiar yet unfamiliar technical jargon coming from behind him.

"Pressure normal."

"No abnormalities in cooling system circulation."

"All control systems engaged."

As the technicians reported in, everyone soon saw six black rods extend from the red-and-white mechanical giant's back. Then it began walking toward the control room.

Some of the visitors cried out in amazement, but those exclamations did not last long.

Someone soon noticed something was wrong. Behind them, the man in charge ordered it to stop, yet the giant kept advancing.

Watching the giant stride closer until even the control room began to tremble, Shinji Ikari turned to Ritsuko Akagi. "Was this your doing?"

"No, but it was predictable." Ritsuko Akagi gently blew on her hot coffee. "Do you know what NERV's annual budget is?"

"That's a very lucrative pie. Even if NERV isn't worried about JA threatening its position, the people who like having us burn through ammunition won't stand for it."

"I get it." Shinji Ikari nodded. Ritsuko Akagi had made herself quite clear.

NERV bore the heavy responsibility of protecting humanity, and every project involved astronomical sums of money. Quite a few people had grown rich over the years as a result.

Even Shinji Ikari was one of the beneficiaries. His fixed monthly salary was hardly a small sum, after all.

"So we just sit back and watch?" Shinji Ikari asked, slipping an arm around Misato Katsuragi beside him.

Suddenly pulled into the boy's embrace, Misato Katsuragi was still blushing in a daze when an enormous mechanical foot smashed through the roof and stamped down where she had just been standing, leaving a huge footprint.

"The transport from headquarters should be here soon. You can get ready," Ritsuko Akagi said.

"Nobody told me I'd be doing anything like this when I came here. Or are you asking me to pilot the EVA, Ritsuko dear?"

Shinji Ikari narrowed his eyes and bent down toward Ritsuko Akagi, who sat before him. Their eyes met.

"More or less." Ritsuko Akagi smiled, meeting his gaze without flinching. "You wouldn't want people finding out you've been forming your own little clique at headquarters, would you?"

A smile curled Shinji Ikari's lips. He straightened and looked down at her. "You really do look like a devil from hell right now. But a god doesn't bow to threats."

"Then think of it as rescuing your adorable believer." Ritsuko Akagi winked at Shinji Ikari, and she actually looked rather cute.

Shinji Ikari remained unmoved. "Calling yourself adorable with a straight face? You really are shameless, Miss Ritsuko. But words alone won't do. Here, sign this."

High in the sky southwest of Old Tokyo.

A United Nations Air Force C-XX Eagle Heavy Transport Aircraft, over four hundred meters long, had taken off from Tokyo-3 and reached the outskirts of Old Tokyo.

This was a deserted stretch of coastline. Before the Second Impact, the sea had actually been some distance from here.

The fishermen had now moved inland to live in the new urban districts, or formed settlements out of fishing boats at sea. Only the ruins submerged back then remained, washed day after day by the red seawater.

Its wings sliced through the clouds as the enormous transport, designed specifically to carry EVAs, swept across the sky, passing over Old Tokyo on its return flight to Tokyo-3.

Hyuga Kou, who had come from headquarters, was piloting the transport. Ritsuko Akagi sat in the copilot's seat reading JA's product documentation, while Shinji Ikari changed clothes in the back.

As for Misato Katsuragi, she had just recovered from the shock of her brush with death and was watching Shinji Ikari change into his combat suit out of sheer boredom.

At the controls, Hyuga Kou reported, "JA spotted. The target is advancing toward Atsugi City."

"I won't need to go all out against it, which means I've got five minutes of operating time," Shinji Ikari said.

"Watch out for its nuclear reactor, and be careful of a core meltdown. You and Unit-01 have AT Fields on par with an Angel's, so a nuclear blast won't threaten you. We'd be in trouble, though," Ritsuko Akagi reminded him.

"Wouldn't it be easier if you people didn't cause all this trouble in the first place?" Shinji Ikari said flatly.

"This has nothing to do with me." Ritsuko Akagi had no intention of taking the blame for those big shots.

"There are still far too many animals in this world," Shinji Ikari sighed.

"Those idiots did a decent job with the safeguards. As long as you don't damage the Nuclear Reactor, do whatever you like." Ritsuko Akagi gave a cold smile, her words laden with meaning.

"Understood." Shinji Ikari nodded. This was what Ritsuko Akagi really wanted: the EVA would utterly crush JA before the eyes of the world.

Anyone who crossed Ritsuko Akagi was in for some truly rotten luck.