"Limings, what are you doing here? I didn't send an Ultra Sign asking for help."
Then Limings pulled Zero's spectral form into a special space.
Seeing Zero's body riddled with wounds, Limings could barely hold back his emotions:
"Zero... what happened to your body?!"
"Was it that Gomess in your report?"
Zero remembered the report he had uploaded.
"Don't tell me you came here on your own just because of that..." Zero asked, puzzled.
"As if I'd come here on my own..." Limings stubbornly denied.
"The director and the captain were worried, so they specifically sent me to check on you..."
"And the higher-ups are quite interested in this unusual Gomess, too. Studying him is part of why I'm here..."
Although Limings deliberately acted as though he wasn't concerned about Zero, he couldn't hide the tremor in his voice...
Zero smiled without calling him out.
Limings changed the subject and asked urgently, "Where are you now? I brought supplies to treat you. I need to start right away."
"You can go straight to the NERV base. Their senior staff know who Shinji and I are. If the guards at the entrance ask, tell them you have something to report to Dr. Ritsuko Akagi in person, and that Mr. Kazuya Serizawa, who visited a while ago, sent you."
"Here's the route." Zero briefly showed Limings the way.
"All right, I understand, Zero. Wait for me." With that, Limings closed the mental space.
Limings looked at the two lives he had brought with him and sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness I won't need these..."
Then, unable to contain his emotions any longer, he began cursing.
"Zero, you really are a complete idiot..."
"Getting hurt this badly again..."
If Ultramen could cry, Limings's eyes would already have been brimming with tears.
As Zero's