The two arrived at the base and stepped onto the elevator heading down.
"Are you scared? Of getting into Unit-00 again?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I heard you were badly hurt during the last test, so I wanted to ask if you really were all right."
Rei Ayanami did not answer. Instead, she asked Shinji, "You're Commander Ikari's son, aren't you? What kind of person do you think your father is?"
Remembering Zero saying that Rei was quite close to his father, Shinji decided to be tactful.
"Someone I can't figure out."
At that answer, Rei turned her head away thoughtfully.
Neither spoke again until Rei Ayanami entered the Changing Room to put on her Combat Suit.
"That girl... she's like an exquisitely crafted doll..."
"Rei doesn't feel like a normal person... but I keep feeling like I've seen her somewhere before. Even being near her feels familiar..."
Unit-00's reactivation test began.
Unit-00 was yellow overall, without Unit-01's prominent shoulder armor, and the Electromagnetic Antenna on its head was exposed.
Its chin protruded like Unit-01's, but it lacked Unit-01's mouth structure. A single dark red eye sat in the center of its face, unsettling to stare at.
"Compared to Unit-01, this looks more like an experimental model."
Zero had Shinji stand in an inconspicuous corner so that, if Unit-00 went berserk again, he could secretly restrain it with telekinesis.
"Boundary crossed. Unit-00 successfully activated!"
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, however, an enormous, perfectly regular octagonal geometric body, blue all over, was slowly floating toward Tokyo-3.
The Fifth Angel-Ramiel.
The phone rang, and Fuyutsuki answered it.
"Ikari, the Fifth Angel is here."
"Go to level-one alert. Unit-00 isn't ready for actual combat yet. Prepare to deploy Unit-01."
"Unit-01 will deploy in 380 seconds!"
After receiving the information and images of the Angel, Zero grew wary.
"Based on my uncles' combat experience, the simpler an enemy looks, the more dangerous it tends to be. This thing has no visible structures built for close combat. Its ranged attacks are probably extremely powerful!"
"Shinji, be careful."
"Right!"
The Angel had already floated into Tokyo-3.
"The target has entered the airspace over Lake Ashi. Unit-01 is ready for launch!"
"Launch!"
Unit-01 began shooting up toward the surface.
Zero nervously scanned the Angel and discovered that energy was building inside its body.
At the same time, a technician at headquarters reported:
"High-energy reaction detected inside the target!"
"This is bad!"
The Angel's octagonal body began to change, its structure collapsing upward and downward until it formed two irregular blue cubic masses of equal size. The red core between them began to glow.
Just then, Unit-01 was launched onto the surface.
Boom!
In an instant, a blinding beam shot from the core. Several defensive buildings between it and Unit-01 melted outright into puddles, and the laser streaked toward Unit-01.
Seeing the incoming laser, Zero immediately took control of Shinji's body and reached for his glasses.
But searing pain in his chest stopped him.
The beam struck Unit-01's chest, and its chest armor began to melt. The pain fed back to the pilot, and worse still, the temperature of the LCL fluid inside the Entry Plug soared like a kettle of water nearing its boiling point.
"Aaaaaaah!" Zero screamed in agony. Even an Ultraman could feel pain while in human-host form.
"Zero!" Shinji shouted as he watched Zero scream.
"Raise the defensive wall!"
A wall specially designed to defend against lasers rose between Unit-01 and the beam, temporarily blocking the attack.
"Shinji" gained a moment to catch his breath.
But the Angel had no intention of giving him that chance.
Its existing structures piled outward in four directions, forming an irregular cross with four exposed tips. Each tip held a red core, and all four gathered even more terrifying energy.
Hummm!
Beams carrying greater energy and higher temperatures shot out. Nearby buildings began melting and collapsing even without touching them.
As the beams destroyed the defensive wall and swept toward Unit-01, Zero desperately tore free of the restraints holding Unit-01 in place and rolled aside. Even so, one beam grazed its waist.
The armor around its waist melted instantly.
Explosions erupted everywhere the beams passed. Amid deafening blasts, every building engulfed by them melted like chocolate before exploding. The beams did not stop until they had swept clear across Tokyo-3.
Viewed from above at that moment, a broad trail of explosions could have been seen cutting through Tokyo-3.
"Requesting withdrawal!" Barely holding on, Zero knew this operation had already failed.
Shinji's body was severely injured. If he forced a transformation now, his transformation device might burn out and leave him unable to transform, just as had happened to his father on Black Tide Island years ago. He could not gamble on that outcome.
And he would not allow Shinji's body to suffer any further injuries.
"The synchronization rate has dropped to its minimum."
"Approved!"
Zero steered Unit-01 toward the far side of a mountain, hoping to get out of the Angel's attack range as quickly as possible.
The Angel had no intention of letting him escape and fired another laser.
Fortunately, the Angel's laser could not turn. Zero made Unit-01 dodge with a cartwheel, and the beam struck the mountain, punching straight through it.
"Hah!"
Using every ounce of strength he had, Zero made Unit-01 leap, crashing down behind the mountain.
"Unit-01 has ceased functioning! Prepare to recover it!"
"Send out the medical team!"
The Angel stopped attacking and returned to its regular octagonal form.
It floated to the very center of Tokyo-3, where its lowest structure began to twist into a drill and bore into the ground.
"The target is steadily drilling toward the Underground City..."
Meanwhile, "Shinji" suddenly coughed up blood as he was carried out of the Entry Plug.
"Zero..." Watching Zero suffer, Shinji understood that Zero had taken over his body to spare him that heart-rending agony.
"Shinji" was taken to a hospital room and hooked up to a mass of equipment.
The intense pain made Zero tremble all over, but he did not groan, unwilling to worry Shinji.
An ordinary person would surely have passed out from pain like this, but it was not enough to make him lose consciousness.
"Zero, let me take over again... you don't have to torture yourself like this for me!" Shinji shouted through his tears.
This was the first time anyone had sincerely sacrificed themselves for him. Zero was enduring excruciating pain for his sake, yet would not even make a sound because he did not want Shinji to worry.
Zero forced a smile. "It's all right, Shinji. This is nothing. If I couldn't handle even this, how could I call myself a warrior of the Space Garrison?"
"An injury like this is twenty thousand years too early to get the better of me!"
"Waaaah..." Shinji was sobbing too hard to speak now. He truly felt that he was worthy of being loved.
Once the pain eased a little, Zero let go of the bedsheet he had torn with his grip and reached toward the wounds on his body.
"Good thing I learned a few tricks from the Silver Cross Army back then."
"Golden motes of light rose from Shinji's hand and drifted onto the wounds."
The wounds slowly disappeared, and the pain vanished with them.
Utterly exhausted, Zero returned control to Shinji.
"Let me rest for a while... Shinji."
Zero's eyes went dark. He was too tired.
"I'm going to avenge my big brother Zero..."
Before you continue