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Ran, Taiga, Leito
Shinji finally recovered from his shock and fully remembered what had happened in his dream.
"So... you're inside my body now? This feels so strange..."
Zero rubbed his nose. "It's all right, Shinji. You can take your time figuring some things out later. For now, all you need to know is that we'll be working together for a while."
"Working together?" Shinji looked at Zero blankly.
"That's right. I need to recover from my injuries, but while I'm healing, I'll help you deal with monsters like the one that appeared earlier."
Shinji's eyes lit up.
"So you need me, Zero?"
Sensitive as he was, he immediately picked up on the most important part. Having grown up without ever experiencing familial affection or having any friends, his first thought was that someone needed him. That made him incredibly happy.
"Yes, that's right. I really need your help, Shinji," Zero encouraged him, sensing his emotions.
As someone who had once been a child who didn't even know who his parents were, he naturally understood what it felt like to be needed. Although Mother of Ultra had treated him very well back then, that could never replace the love of his own parents.
From Shinji's personality, he could already piece together most of the story. This boy was probably like his former self, never having received love from his own parents. Nor could he have had an elder like Mother of Ultra to care for him. That was why Shinji had turned out this way.
As an Ultra Warrior who had endured the same hardships, he deeply sympathized with children who had never received their parents' love. Now that this chance encounter had brought him together with a boy so much like himself, Zero naturally decided to help Shinji overcome his emotional scars.
"From today on, we're partners!" Zero told Shinji in his most spirited voice, hoping to encourage him.
"Partners..." At that word, a spark appeared in Shinji Ikari's eyes. He had never experienced anything like this before, and he immediately nodded. "Okay, Zero! I'm looking forward to working with you!"
With their minds and bodies united, he could clearly feel the light Zero conveyed to him. That warm light... was something he had never experienced before, something called care.
A warrior who had not known his own parents, who had once nearly made a terrible mistake before growing through his trials into a true Ultraman, and a miserable boy with a tragic past who had never experienced family love or friendship had miraculously become partners.
Outside the hospital room
After sitting there all day, Misato Katsuragi was beginning to question everything.
"Why hasn't the commander come yet? Is he so busy he can't even come when something happens to his son...?"
She still couldn't believe that it was because the commander didn't care about his son at all. She assumed work was keeping him away and still thought she would be severely punished.
After all, Misato didn't understand Gendo Ikari. She didn't know that, in his eyes, his son had always been nothing more than a tool.
"Ugh... in the end, it was my fault." The more Misato Katsuragi thought about it, the more unsettled she became. Finally, she tipped her head back and gave up. Worrying wouldn't help.
Tap, tap, tap.
Footsteps approached. Misato turned to look and began trembling involuntarily...
Commander Ikari had arrived.
"What's the pilot's condition?" Gendo Ikari asked in a completely emotionless voice as he reached the hospital room door.
He hadn't referred to Shinji Ikari as his son, hadn't even used his name. He hadn't so much as called him "he," treating him only as the pilot of EVA Unit-01.
After all, he saw his son as nothing more than a tool, one that could never escape his grasp.
Misato froze. Huh? Pilot? What pilot? Does he intend to make his own son in there pilot an EVA?
Misato heard the distance in his words and was momentarily stunned, but she quickly recovered and answered, "Shinji's condition is nothing to worry about. Somehow, the serious injuries he sustained yesterday have almost completely healed today."
"Once he wakes up, we just need to keep him under observation for another night."
She had seen Shinji yesterday, badly injured after being caught up in the fighting so close to the battlefield. Yet the results of today's medical examination had completely surprised her. Shinji Ikari's wounds had miraculously healed, and his vital signs were entirely stable.
"Understood." On hearing the news, Gendo Ikari immediately turned to leave. "Move him to the base dormitory afterward. Have him ready for Unit-01's activation test tomorrow morning."
He was as emotionless as a robot.
"Aren't you... going in to see Shinji?" Misato Katsuragi asked hesitantly.
"There's no need." Gendo Ikari never broke stride, and by the time he finished speaking, he was already gone.
Misato was left standing in silence.
"What a weird old man," Misato grumbled once the commander was far away. Commander Ikari's attitude had made her rather angry, but she certainly wouldn't dare express her displeasure to his face.
Inside the hospital room
Shinji had also fallen silent in his hospital bed.
After becoming one with Zero, his hearing had become the same as Zero's, allowing him to hear the voices outside.
"Dad..." Shinji pulled the blanket over his head. He was miserable.
Any child would be heartbroken to hear their own father say something like that.
Father and son hadn't seen each other in years. A few casual words from Gendo Ikari had sent him foolishly rushing over, yet his father couldn't even be bothered to see him.
"Why... then why did he call me here?" Shinji Ikari sank into self-doubt again. If his father hated him so much, why had he called him here?
Deep down, he still held a little hope. He hoped his father needed him, that he could help his father and earn his praise.
As his thoughts spiraled, Zero could no longer hold back.
In fact, when he became one with Shinji, Zero had learned some of Shinji's childhood memories. To Zero, those memories were nothing short of horrifying.
After Shinji's mother died for some unknown reason, his father, Gendo Ikari, had actually abandoned him outright.
He had then left Shinji with relatives and never bothered with him, making Shinji's childhood utterly miserable.
Earlier, Zero had refrained from bringing it up out of consideration for Shinji's feelings. But after hearing Gendo Ikari's words just now, he was finally certain: this man didn't care about his son at all. He treated him purely as a tool.
Now he had hurt Shinji even more, and Zero was seething.
"So your dad is still around?! You'd be better off if he weren't! Is that something a father-no, a human being-should ever say?!"
Zero was furious. If he hadn't been an apparition, he would have marched up to Gendo Ikari, slapped him across the face twice, and made him give Shinji a proper apology. His own past, so similar to Shinji's, made him utterly despise people like Gendo Ikari.
"That man is scum!" Zero's fury gave Shinji quite a fright.
After a while, Zero finally managed to calm down. "That man probably called you here because of that thing called Unit-01." Zero had also heard the conversation outside the room and guessed that Shinji's father had summoned him to pilot whatever this Unit-01 was.
Shinji asked in confusion, "What's... Unit-01?"
Poor Shinji didn't know anything about those monsters.
Nor did he know that, if not for Zero, his father would have forced him to pilot Unit-01 against the Third Angel without any experience.
"I don't know either. It has 'unit' in its name, so it's probably some kind of mech," Zero guessed.
Some warriors who had visited other universes had mentioned things like mechs upon their return. He guessed this was probably something similar.
"So... Father called me here so I could pilot that mech." Shinji understood.
He felt a little better, because he thought his father needed him.
Seeing that Shinji still held out hope for his father, Zero couldn't help sighing.
"This kid... sigh."
With that, he patted Shinji's shoulder. Remembering that he couldn't touch him, he coated his hand in telekinetic power so Shinji could feel the pat.
He comforted him aloud. "It's all right. If you don't want to do it, you don't have to."
At the same time, he silently swore that he would protect Shinji, using whatever means were necessary.
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