This was the most powerful Angel humanity had ever faced.
The fourteenth Angel, Sachiel, hammered the twenty-two layers of special underground armor with its beams, peeling humanity's last fortress apart like an onion. In Underground Hangar One, orange-yellow LCL was being pumped into Unit-00's Entry Plug; its smell slowly drifted into the standby room nearby.
Lu Mingfei leaned against the wall. The blows against the armor overhead traveled down through the vibrations, hammering his heart one after another. Just a few weeks ago, he had become the Fourth Children and climbed into EVA Unit-03 for the first time. Then...
After the last incident, Shinji had run away from home, and no one had found him yet.
Gendo Ikari had ordered Rei Ayanami to pilot Unit-01 against the Angel, but Unit-01 had rejected her.
Lu Mingfei looked at the girl with short, pale blue hair before him. She had just gotten out of Unit-01 and returned to the standby room, where she was leafing through a book in a foreign language.
The pain of neural impulses surging backward when an EVA forcibly disconnected seemed not to exist for her.
Lu Mingfei swallowed. Just as he was about to say something, his Adam's apple scraped against the band of metal around his neck.
He shuddered violently. His hands rose on instinct, then stopped abruptly, frozen in midair.
He still hadn't gotten used to having this thing on him.
The DSS Choker, the remote-controlled bomb Gendo Ikari had fastened around his neck.
If he made the slightest suspicious move, or if that old man with the reflective glasses happened to be in a bad mood, this thing would go "bang" and blow his head apart.
"You're nervous. Do you need some medicine?" Noticing the boy's reaction, Rei Ayanami raised her head and watched him quietly with her red eyes.
"No... I'm fine." Lu Mingfei gasped for breath. The sound of Sachiel bombarding the base sent his mind flashing uncontrollably back to piloting Unit-03. The Angel had taken control of his unit, but the one hundred percent synchronization rate had made him feel as though he himself were attacking Unit-00 and Unit-02.
And as though he himself were being torn apart and devoured by Unit-01.
He didn't blame Shinji, just as Asuka and Rei Ayanami hadn't blamed him. He had heard Shinji's heart-rending sobs over the comm channel as Unit-01 lunged at him. That boy, every bit as much of a loser as he was, had desperately resisted fighting. It was Gendo Ikari who had cut off synchronization and forcibly activated the dummy system.
Two boys, sitting inside powerful weapons, had watched helplessly as those weapons hurt each other, able only to mourn for one another through the thick armor.
Why was this world so awful?
Ever since Lu Mingfei had been dug out of Unit-03's wreckage and fitted with this damned choker, the reactions of everyone around him had been driving him mad.
Those cautious looks, as though he were something fragile, constantly reminded Lu Mingfei that he was a pitiful thing that could explode at any moment.
He hated Gendo Ikari. At last, he understood why Shinji Ikari hated his own father so much. Gendo Ikari deserved to die.
But what difference did that make? Lu Mingfei didn't even have the courage to resist. All he felt was fear. He wanted someone to give him a hand, but no one could face him. He couldn't face himself, either.
In the end, the only person who could sit here quietly with him was Rei Ayanami.
"If the power grid up there goes completely down, the fish tank at Misato's place is done for, right?" Lu Mingfei said. "Shinji ran off overnight. If his tropical fish go belly-up too, he'll probably never come back."
He knew it was an utterly stupid subject. Their last fortress was about to be breached, and he was talking about tropical fish.
"The backup generator in Sector Three can keep basic life-support systems running for seventy-two hours." Rei Ayanami turned a page. "The water will retain its heat for a while. Life is fragile, but it doesn't disappear that easily."
That very lack of inflection in her voice let Lu Mingfei breathe a little easier.
Suddenly, a terrifying crash erupted overhead. Great clouds of dust blasted out of the ventilation ducts, and something came crashing down from above, setting off a deafening clatter over their heads.
"The final armor layer has been breached! Unit-02 is engaging!"
"Conventional weapons are ineffective! The Angel is counterattacking!"
Lu Mingfei crouched down and covered his ears with both hands. The horrifying memories he had barely managed to shut out came flooding back.
Rei Ayanami closed her book. She rested one hand on Lu Mingfei's trembling arm and pressed the other against his forehead. It was cool and soothing.
"I'm fine. Just a little cold."
Lu Mingfei raised his head and looked toward Unit-00 nearby. The engineers were loading an N2 Bomb onto it.
"Ayanami, Unit-01 already rejected you. Why are you still here on standby?"
"I can pilot Unit-00."
"But Unit-00 hasn't been repaired yet!"
"It doesn't matter." Rei Ayanami stood and straightened her white combat suit. "Even if I die, there will be someone to replace me."
"Bullshit!" Lu Mingfei stood up with her, his eyes turning bloodshot.
"Who could replace you? Rei, you're the only one. The only one!" He grabbed the girl's wrist. There was no warmth in it, as though he were holding a piece of ice. "Let's go get ramen after we beat this one, okay? With an extra serving of chashu. We'll make Shinji treat us, and I'll pay. We'll bring Asuka along. You owe me a bowl of noodles. You can't back out."
He didn't even know what he was saying. Ramen? Chashu? He was discussing ramen with a girl who was about to charge at an Angel carrying an N2 Bomb. This was even stupider than talking about tropical fish.
Rei Ayanami looked down at the hand gripping her wrist.
"I don't owe you ramen," she said.
Lu Mingfei froze.
"But if you're treating," she said, "I can come."
Another tremendous crash came from above, and a sudden sense of foreboding rose in Lu Mingfei's heart.
The standby room's loudspeaker suddenly crackled to life. "First Children, please proceed to Launch Pad One. First Children, please proceed to Launch Pad One."
"It's time to deploy." Rei Ayanami gently pulled her hand free. She turned, picked up the book she had been reading, and held it out to Lu Mingfei. "For you."
Lu Mingfei didn't take it. Desperate to keep Rei Ayanami there a little longer, he caught her hand again. "Hey, Ayanami, this book's in English. I can't read the title."
"The Problem of Pain."
"What's it about?"
"Humanity's attachment to self-centeredness causes people to turn away from God's goodness, allowing evil and suffering to enter the world."
Rei Ayanami placed the book in Lu Mingfei's hand, then turned and left. Lu Mingfei stood rooted to the spot. He wanted to tell the girl not to go, but he knew those words would mean nothing. As he watched that slender figure recede into the distance, all the strength suddenly drained from his body. He fell to his knees, and the book hit the floor. The words on its cover caught his eye.
Pain is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
Pain is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
"How much time do we have to get ready? I'm going with you!" Lu Mingfei took a step after her and shouted.
The girl ahead stopped. She turned her head slightly, her lips moving.
"Ten minutes left."
Thunder crashed over the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
Lu Mingfei opened his eyes. Red lights flashed inside the medical pod, and platinum-blonde strands of hair took on a faint blue sheen beneath the blinking alarm lights. Zero released her fingers from Lu Mingfei's shoulder and pushed the IV valve fully open, her ice-blue eyes fixed on the boy before her.