"Hm… Alright. Sure…"

"..."

"I've heard some concerning rumors- That the Second is alive, and has It… Yeah, Gendo thinks it ambushed me and grabbed it mid-transport… I don't know, I got knocked out instantly."

"...!"

"I know. I'll try to get it back."

"..."

"Huh? I see. And Sixth? It's approaching Geofront as we speak…"

"..."

"Sixth is actually Seventh? I see… So Fourth Child managed to beat the actual Sixth with the Provisional Unit-05. Color me impressed. Then again, Mari's always been a tough one."

"..."

"Hm… So there was something else also? A humanoid insect of some sort? So that's been dealt with? What about the seals of the vault?"

"..."

"Alright, sorry, sorry, not mine to think about… Anyway, till next time." Ryoji Kaji closed the lid of his burner-phone and pressed a red button on the side of it, sending a signal which ignited thermite charges in the burner telecommunication network and collapsed the one-use line of covert communication that SEELE used to talk with Kaji to relay their orders.

"Haa… Well, I suppose this will get interesting…" Kaji noted to himself as he cracked the flip phone in two parts and flicked it to a trash bin, followed by his nearly burnt-through cigarette which set the trash bin on fire.

.

.

Momonga leaned against a wall while he listened to Kaji's conversation roughly five feet away from him, clad from view with [Perfect Unknowable] and a set of obfuscation scrolls, while also amplifying the sound with a spell so he heard both speakers.

He was glad that the obfuscation spells prevented anyone seeing him, not only because it made snooping around easier, but because the spying scroll caused a pair of fluffy bunny ears to appear on his head and it was quite embarrassing.

'Huh, so Kaji's priority is to ensure NERV manages to beat Angels from 'three to twelve', but succumb to the thirteenth Angel…' Momonga noted while nodding thoughtfully, causing the bunny ears to flop a bit. 'I read from Kaji's memory that he was a double agent, but it looks like he's actually a triple agent with his own agenda… Hm. Impressive. However, the fact that his priority order is to take me out is somewhat worrying… So, just in case:' "[Greater Seal: Time Stop]"

Momonga nodded to himself once more as he teleported off after storing a spell so that it was ready to unleash at a moment's notice.

'Hm, EVA Unit-05 apparently blew up in somewhere called 'Acheron', Siberia… Shame that I wasn't there to scoop up the loot… So there was some kind of arachnid and insect-angel? I think Kaji said that there were two, but eh… I can't mope too much…' Momonga sighed as he opened his apartment's door from the inside as he had teleported in and tried to walk out.

'Tried' being the keyword as he opened the door only to come face-to-face with a quite annoyed-looking Misato Katsuragi.

Moreover she had a choker of some sort in one of her hands while she had her arms bunched up and was tapping the floor with her boot in clear annoyance.

"Greetings?" Momonga waved his hand while casting quick [All Appraisal Magic Item] on the chokers as it looked to be something new. 'DSS Choker? Deity Suppression System? Worrying… I'm guessing that Gendo ordered that and is trying to limit my movements now that he has an excuse to do that… And probably sent Misato to deliver it while hoping that I'd go along if the 'request' came from a 'friend'.' "What's the occasion?"

"You promised you'd limit yourself to NERV-controlled territories." Misato sounded quite annoyed, and it looked like she didn't notice the DSS choker glowing blue for a moment as the item was under her arms. "You're in breach of your contract."

"Can't a man go to a toilet in privacy…" Momonga sighed theatherically, but it didn't seem that Misato was amused, which was further reinforced by the fact that she was clad in her captain-outfit which in turn told Momonga that she was approaching him in official capacity. "Misato-san. We both know that the deal I have with Gendo is quite… flexible in many places."

"What were you doing? We lost contact with you. Completely." Misato seemed quite mad about Momonga's little covert excursion and didn't seem to buy Momonga's excuse.

"Call it gathering intelligence about our enemies." Momonga told the woman frankly. "Besides, don't we have a common, big, and angular problem to worry about? You know, the one somewhere over there?"

Momonga pointed at the direction of the coast, from where the angular Angel would eventually attack once it glided it's way across the ocean- Apparently it could appear instantaneously out of nowhere, which was how the Angel had ambushed the UN battlefleet, but would need to slowly glide to it's target after that.

Momonga didn't believe the explanation, however, as he was more certain that the Angel was just keeping it's cards close to it's chest after fighting Momonga, and wouldn't reveal more of it's abilities until it was advantageous for it to do so- Momonga had recovered his mana, and the Angel would have likely recovered it's equivalent of mana, and the conventional military didn't seem to be able to do much against the floating geometric shape so neither side benefited from rushing at each other's throats.

Apparently NERV made estimates based on the Angel's speed and came to a conclusion that Japan would have roughly forty hours before it would reach mutual engagement range of Tokyo-3.

"...Please put one of these chokers on. It has a tracker." Misato offered the DSS choker at Momonga, breaking him from his daydream. "You've broken our trust by wandering off. If you want to regain it, then-"

"Let's be honest here, Misato-san, and not use 'chokers' but 'anti-AT field bomb collars' when talking about those. Ah, for the record, that might be able to damage me, but it won't be enough to kill me. Moreover, this body you've supplied to me has plenty of trackers already- Don't blame me if your equipment is so shoddy it stops transmitting." Momonga had gleamed through the item's 'information' with the [All Appraisal Magic Item] and made quick guesses on what 'AT-field' meant. '[All Appraisal Magic Item] gave me a huge list of stuff within my body when I experimented with it, but I'm certain that it is tagged with microphones, tracking chips and whatnot after they picked up the fact I had used anti-divination scrolls and [Perfect Unknowable]... Hm, AT-field? I'm guessing it's the local equivalent of some tier of magic or physical immunity… That red S2 core said that it could also project 'AT field', which does match with the fact the mechs had [High Tier Magic Immunity] of some sort…'

Momonga walked off in his thoughts after nabbing the DSS choker from Misato's limp hand and putting it to his inventory.

It looked like the woman wanted to object, but hesitated, took a step towards him, paused, and then stomped the floor in annoyance before huffing and walking off.

'Hm… Mathematics and Physical Education today…' Momonga thought idly as he walked off to school… and almost collided with Shinji and Rei as they came out from an elevator.

The reason he almost collided with them was that both were practically kicked off the elevator, with Rei landing in perfect 'Seiza' sitting pose with her face as expressionless as ever, while Shinji landed on his face with his butt in the air.

"Hmph!" A redhead walked out of the elevator after kicking the two other teenagers off, and paused as she spotted Momonga.

"You!" The girl pointed her finger at Momonga in a dramatic fashion.

'I think she was in the infirmary earlier…' Momonga noted the familiarity. 'So she's affiliated with NERV, and is living with Misato if her presence here is any indication… Or she's just dropping by, but from the hostility to those other two- Ah, I get it!'

Momonga realized that since Shinji was likely Misato's and Gendo's child from their previous marriage, Asuka might be her child from current marriage, which would explain the hostility the red-head showed towards Shinji and his blue-haired pet-clone. It was a stretch, but it would explain some things. 'I'll have to ask Misato-san at some point… It'd be good to have a roster of her family members in case I need hostages…'

"You. I don't like the look you have on your face." the red-head growled. "You're thinking something utterly ridiculous. Don't lump me up with the jokers over there! I am Asuka Langley-Sohryu, and I won't be ridiculed!"

"Hm. I see. So, you are another of Misato's children and came over to live with your mother, right? Shinji-kun is Gendo's, but who's your father?" Momonga went directly on the offensive with his theories, using the theories as a bait- If he was correct then Asuka might confirm his words, and if he was incorrect, the girl would likely feel compelled to correct him and that way tell the truth.

It looked like the 'bait truth with a lie' worked as Asuka's mouth opened…

…And Asuka closed her mouth, opened it again in shock, and seemed to get a small tear in the corner of her eye- Before she launched a picture-perfect 'falling ax kick' aimed directly at Momonga's temple.

The kick connected, and Asuka bounced off.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Dummkopf! Of course your head would be denser than Shinji's! Ow! Gah! Don't tell me I broke my heel- ow, owie, owie…" Asuka was jumping on one leg while holding onto the one she had used to kick Momonga in the head, and finally flopped down to sit on the floor while holding her ankle with small angry tears in her eyes.

'I see, so her attacks aren't 'high tier' as they don't penetrate my [High-Tier Physical Immunity III]' Momonga noted. He wasn't feeling particularly vindictive as it looked like Asuka was already regretting her attack. And he got an idea, as well as a chance to perform an experiment. "Asuka-chan, would you mind letting me see that injury?"

"..." Asuka sent a glare at Momonga. "These two jokers told me you're an Angel."

"I've been told that. They call me Second." Momonga told her the codename Gendo had given him. "Call me Suzuki Satoru, or Ainz Ooal Gown. Ah, I think it'd be best if you called me Suzuki- Apparently Ainz Ooal Gown is a bit too flagrant for locals."

Asuka stared at Momonga as he took a red vial from his inventory and put a tiny drop of the liquid within onto her ankle with the help of a pipette. He also put a drop on his forehead as the flesh-suit was a bit squashed in the area, as it hadn't been protected by his [High Tier Physical Immunity III].

He promptly re-bottled the healing potion from YGGDRASIL and stuffed it back into his inventory.

'Good, good… So I can partially use those without needing to waste the entire potion. Excellent. I should be able to prolong my stock for tens or hundreds of years without resupply if I don't have to spend an entire potion for minor injuries…' Momonga felt glad that his experiment was successful, and it might have shown on his face as Asuka seemed to be mollified a bit.

At least, he assumed that Asuka was mollified as she opened her mouth and closed it a few times while she was pale as a sheet, before she scrambled to her feet and fled.

Shinji stared at Momonga with an unreadable expression, while Rei tilted her head at Shinji who was still on his face with his butt in the air after being kicked off the elevator.

.

.

"Fuytsuki."

"Hm. What are the chances that it misspoke?"

"None. I'm guessing that it planned to induce the Second Child into its plans and is earmarking her for us, telling us to not break Sohryu. Not that we could afford that anyway, she's the last 'Sohryu' model who survived, the others either died or failed. However, as the DUMMY Plug system is progressing, we'll be liberated of our need for pilots for EVA's soon. We'll have to just go with Second's whims until then- We have a lot more room to maneuver now that I have Unit-01's Solenoid Organ." Gendo noted. "But we can't be too lax- Second's plan spreads like rot. And if we took a blade to the rot before it spread, we'd only cut our own arteries. The Second has effectively ensured that it has the key and the lock for the Third Impact… We can only plan for what comes after."

"Hm…" Fuytsuki glanced at the pile of headache medicine, salty sausages and sweet porridge that made the NERV Commander's breakfast- Which all combined to tell Fuytsuki that Gendo had a massive migraine. Which was further reinforced by the commander's somewhat unkempt attire. "You look like…"

"Shit."

"...I wanted to find kinder words to describe it, but yes."

"...The thought came to me, when I was in Terminal Dogma with the Second…" Gendo told his second-in-command while trying to get his raging headache under control- And only half of the headache was caused by the drinking of last night. "There's a chance that there are more than one set of Dead Sea Scrolls- or rather, Dead Sea Scrolls were likely only telling one half of the story. The Dead Sea Scrolls instructed humanity to use Black and White Moons, the White Moon giving us Seed of Life to form Evangelions, and Black Moon giving us Spear of Longinus to arm them- But both are weapons, lacking an enemy to fight. We thought the enemy to mean the Angels… But there may be more to that."

"What makes you think of that?"

"Ainz Ooal Gown… Six-six-six's own goal. We are besieged by Angels… But where there are Angels and Men, there are Demons."

"...Hm. Sounds a bit far-fetched, but after everything that's happened, I can see that being true as well. Does that mean SEELE is unaware of Second?" Fuytsuki looked out of Gendo's office window while the commander took definitely more than the prescribed amount of headache medicine.

"It's possible. At least I doubt SEELE knows of Second's true nature- They may have just thought it to be a mere Angel. Moreover, I have an idea on what his goal is, and it definitely doesn't line with SEELE's." Gendo took a swig of coffee and sighed. "SEELE, for all their faults, do aim for the greater good… At least what they believe is greater good. The Human Instrumentality Project would unite us all, break the borders between humanity's souls, reduce the Liln back to the Sea of Life, and give us an opportunity to start anew, united and of one mind and soul, forever banishing the barriers between our souls… However, that is not what he strives for."

"What makes you so sure?"

"By keeping Adam yet not using it, Second is effectively prolonging our stay in this doomed world- The First Impact brought life to Earth. The Second devastated Earth and it's life, and wrenched the Doors of Guf open." Gendo noted. "The Third was to be the second First, which would devastate the sea and return all life to the primordial soup, ready to start again yet this time with our minds as one."

"SEELE's version of the Human Instrumentality Project." Fuytsuki noted. "What of ours, and what of Second's?"

"Our version… Is proceeding as I have planned, despite the setback. It should be better said that Adam's loss was more a blow to SEELE than to us. Second has forced both SEELE and us to move the hands of the clock, but we still have the initiative. Yet, that initiative is fragile- We are living on borrowed time. Second will eventually collect, so we need to have coins in one hand… And a dagger in the other."

"So, until then, peace? I'm glad that dr. Akagi's DSS-choker attempt didn't escalate things…"

"Indeed- The choker was a good test, albeit something that had a very small chance of actually working. Speaking of which-"

.

.

"Did you know DSS choker was a bomb collar?!"

"It's not exactly 'bomb collar', more akin to a 'insurance device'. I got the schematics from NERV Russia who had… um… 'researched' the tech for 'insurance purposes', and-"

"Is it a bomb collar or not?! Stop lying, Ritsuko you dye-hair bitch! I almost died!" Misato raged at her phone. "Second was seriously half a blink away from just splattering me all over the hallway! You told me it was just a tracking collar!"

"Misato, we both know we don't stand a snowball's chance in hell if we don't at least try to contain Second somehow-"

"Line interrupted- Switching to Commander Gendo Ikari." A mechanical voice broke Ritsuko's words and effectively ended the conversation.

Misato blinked in surprise as Gendo entered the phone conversation.

"Captain Katsuragi. Doctor Akagi. You are ordered to not hinder Second in any way, shape or form. I don't care if Second breaks all it's promises and deals, attempts to breach Terminal Dogma, kill either one or both of you, or eat the sun. Do not attempt to stop it. Doctor, you are docked a month's salary for your independent action against our 'ally' without consulting me first. Focus your attention on getting Unit-01 fixed instead. Dismissed." Gendo's voice was quite monotone, and was followed with a slurp like that of a man drinking coffee after a harsh night, followed by an automated female voice that MAGI used in voice communication. "Line interruption: End. Resuming normal calls."

"...Fuck."

"...Ritsuko, you can come eat Shinji's curry tonight if you want to."

"Thanks, Misato…"

.

.

"So…" Momonga lifted his eyebrow at Shinji as he, the boy, and Shinji's pet clone-girl were walking towards the school after getting off a bus. 'Hehee… Busses are pretty cute… Not to mention there aren't starving and dead orphans on the streets so the view is nice… Neo-Japan's Tokoy had a lot of those, and current-day Kyoto had bunch, so I'm guessing they're keeping Tokyo-3 fairly 'high standard' and are cleaning the wretched and poor off the streets with flamethrowers or something…'

"Um…" Shinji responded a bit awkwardly. "So that was Asuka… She's living with us, for some reason…"

"Asuka Sohryu-Langley was assigned to Misato Katsuragi and Shinji Ikari's shared apartment." Rei voiced from the side like a recorder.

"I see, thank you for telling me. Is she Misato-chan's daughter?" Momonga turned towards Rei and asked about his theory, mostly out of idleness rather than out of genuine desire to know.

"Asuka Sohryu-Langley does not currently have any genetic relations to Misato Katsuragi." Rei voiced with the same tone after a moment of thinking.

"I see…" Momonga was a bit baffled as his theory had been shot down. 'Surely the housing situation in Tokyo-3 is not so bad that NERV would need to stuff so many people into a single apartment… Then again, the center of Tokyo-3 was flattened quite badly during my initial appearance here, so they may be struggling financially- Not to mention that I've been given the entire building sans Misato's apartment, so they might have been projecting the air of financial stability initially to 'lure me in' but are actually on the verge of economic collapse…'

Momonga felt a bit guilty over causing NERV to almost bottom out over repair costs, but at the same time, they had launched a salvo of some sort of ridiculously powerful high-explosive warheads at him, so the guilt evaporated quite easily.

'Come to think of it, I might as well give Asuka a flat in that floor, since I don't really have much use for them… Having positive relations could be exploitable, even if she's just a teenager.' Momonga thought while stroking his chin. 'I wonder what her role is in NERV? If she's actually someone with an actual rank then it'd be good to have some sort of handle to the operations… I'll just have to snoop carefully in order to not attract attention… The human forces that have been killing my undead have changed tactics and are just observing the Death Knights outside it's attack range, so it's likely that they're starting to catch up to my tricks… Worrying…'

"Um, Suzuki-san… About what happened earlier, um, can you please forgive Asuka?" Shinji asked while looking a bit cowed as his shoulders were bunched together as if he was waiting to be yelled at.

"For what?" Momonga asked as he had been in the middle of thinking about what kind of exploitable value the red-head would have after dismissing the issue of his summons. "I don't know what you mean?"

"Ah, I mean… umu, I get it, thanks…" Shinji nodded while he looked quite relieved.

'Umu…. I think Shinji's getting a bit tilted…' Momonga noted that Shinji was starting to talk about random things. 'Then again, it might be just teenagers doing teenager things…'

Shinji babbled on about his day, about a cassette player or something, cracked glasses, and something about self-confidence, someone being mean, and whatnot while Momonga was just nodding or agreeing on automatic businessman-instinct whenever appropriate.

Rei was walking behind Shinji and it looked like Shinji had forgotten that the girl was with them after a moment of venting, and eventually the trio reached school, whereupon Shinji seemed to remember that Rei was with the group and promptly blushed to his eyebrows.

Rei stared at Shinji for a moment before walking past him and towards the class, and Shinji slinked off after her while clearly cowed and embarrassed… Until Momonga paused him by putting his hand on Shinji's shoulder.

"Stand with your back straight, proud and defiant. Body language does not necessarily need to follow your mood- Always remember to appear strong even if you feel weak, and appear weak if you need to lure someone to ambush. No-one sees inside your head but you, and the world is based on appearances- It is said that 'Confidence is a fool's substitute for intelligence', but the saying does not specify if the fool is the one acting… Or the one looking at the act." Momonga told the boy while he rubbed Shinji's shoulder in a specific pattern.

"E-eh?"

"For instance your father seems indomitable because he allows people to only see that side of him, but in reality he is as insecure as you- He just hides it better, and keeps everyone at arm's length to hold up the illusion in order to not be seen as having weaknesses. He's responsible for his people and NERV, after all. Showing compassion to you would make you a target. In other words, to protect you he has to pretend to not care about you. Gendo commands NERV and in doing so is playing a difficult game where each weakness he shows is exploited, and to lose means the death of both him and everyone he loves. So, that is why he stands straight even if he's quivering on the inside." Momonga advised random things about confidence and such, while he used the stoppage and the touch to plant a tag on Shinji as his previous tag on the boy had expired. 'The tag would allow me to teleport near Shinji and snatch him if I needed to use Shinji as a hostage against Gendo- In other words, do pretty much what I said just now… Also, I'm fairly sure that if my flesh-coat is spied on, Gendo will know what I just said. However, with the tag in place, it's unlikely that he'll be able to save Shinji before I'd get to him first… So, let's call this my 'response' for your 'tracking collar', Gendo-kun…'

.

.

"He's got you there, you know. You may not care about Shinji, but Yui…"

"Shut up, Fuytsuki. MAGI- Check Central Dogma and Geofront for faint signals of Pattern Blue and foreign transmissions. Second may have placed bugs and clones in- No, rescind that order. I forgot- Angels can see our hearts just as we can see each other's faces. It shouldn't be a surprise that Demons can see them as easily… What a terrifying foe…"

"Speaking of terrifying things… Your VTOL has arrived. 'Archeron' reports that it has defended itself successfully, alongside the Key, and it seems that Unit-05 managed to defeat one of the attackers in a way that preserved most of the attacker's body mass. The second attacker evaporated alongside Unit-05 when the Provisional Unit was forced to self-destruct to kill the second attacker. The report was vague on details, but from the after-action, we can assume that the attackers were Angels."

"I see… I suppose this is what SEELE meant when they said Unit-05 was 'problematic'... They were buying time. We may finally have a proper Angel sample, as well as a S2 engine…" Gendo sighed and got up from behind his desk. "Although, in highest likelihood SEELE has already combed through the Angel's remains and has extracted the S2 engine for their own purposes. But I'll find out for sure soon."

The man walked to his office's elevator and reached for a button… Before pausing. "Fuytsuki, you'll be in command until I return. Watch your back for Ryoji Kaji. Second came in contact with Kaji when he captured Adam, and Kaji reported problems with his memory- It's possible that Kaji has been compromised."

"I'll keep an eye out. Good luck, Commander."