A gurgling of chemicals echoed throughout the cavernous facility. The smell of precipitated refrigeration and tobacco permeated the air as the ponytailed man knelt down, locking a suitcase equipped with more than ten million dollars worth of cryogenic technology.
After a final click, Rioji Kaji took the cigarette between his fingers and exhaled, his body perfectly still in a stark contrast with his drumming heart and startled stomach.
"I thought German child labor laws were more strictly enforced." He quipped before taking another drag.
"They are. But then again, I'm not really a child, am I?" A few feet away, a being in the shape of a teenage boy stood, hands in his pockets. How he'd entered the room without activating the door mechanism was a mystery.
"So, Is that it for me?" Kaji asked while turning to face him. He was actually hopeful that was the case, it would certainly be better than being put through one of the chairman's horror shows.
"The Committee does not know of your presence. It was my… flesh that felt you approaching." The boy's scarlet eyes darted towards the container in the agent's hand before returning upwards. "I presume you know what can happen if I get too close to it."
"You could say that." Kaji put the cigarette back in his mouth and instinctively moved his freed hand to the holster in his jacket. The boy closed his eyes.
"That would not be effective, But if it brings you some comfort, you may try."
"And reveal my position?" He scoffed before exhaling one last plume of smoke. He dropped the cigarette and stepped on it without looking down. "What do you want? And why am I not dead, or worse?"
The boy opened his eyes and then gave the agent a grin that was equal parts sincere and unnerving.
"I've come here to… make a deal."
The droning of cicadas swelled under the midday sun. Shinji Ikari slumped over his desk as the teacher continued his daily rant about life before Second Impact. Shinji could swear the old man would cycle over the same four or five anecdotes every few weeks. And this was only made worse by the apparent apathy of his classmates. Did no one notice, or did no one care? And which one would be worse?
Not that it mattered much anyway, because the whole thing was a complete fabrication, at least according to his guardian. When he'd asked, she told him that the catastrophe was somehow caused by an angel and then covered up by the world's governments. However, she didn't go into too much detail, deferring to an upcoming official briefing on the matter at NERV that would answer all of his questions. Shinji had noticed that the topic seemed to make the woman uncomfortable, and so he dropped it.
Even adults were not immune to believing fake stories if repeated enough times. He wondered which of the adults in positions of authority followed the official story out of fear of governmental retaliation, and which did so out of an attempt to convince themselves that the more relatively mundane explanation of a meteor strike was correct. As cold and careless as nature can be, being the victim of random chance is often easier to digest than being the target of a conscious (and possibly malicious) attack from God.
He was pulled out of his reverie by a message blinking on his laptop's screen:
11:32 AM | Aida K.: Hey Shinji, you awake?
11:32 AM | Ikari S.: Yea, what's up?
11:33 AM | Aida K.: Something's... wrong? with Ayanami, might wanna take a look
Shinji turned back over his shoulder, barely staying low enough so that the laptop's screen still covered him from the teacher's field of view. Rei Ayanami sat on her spot in the corner as she looked out the window with practiced aloofness. This time, however, a wavy smile curled up her lips, trembling for a moment before returning to the usual flat line, only for the cycle to repeat a few seconds later. Shinji realized she was actually looking at her own reflection. Had she blinked even once since he started looking?
He was confused and, to be honest, slightly entranced as he waited for the next blink to come, when Rei's eyes turned to him, accompanied by a slight frown. The boy snapped his head back to the front of the classroom. 'What is she doing? What am I doing? Did I stare for too long? I guess If it counts as staring, I probably did.' His fingers keyed hurriedly:
11:35 AM | Ikari S.: I think I know what you mean, but I have no idea. We probably shouldn't be staring, though.
11:35 AM | Aida K.: I wasn't. Were you? (˵¯͒ω¯͒˵)
11:35 AM | Ikari S.: Not at all!
A light blush crept on Shinji's face. Deciding to drop the matter for the moment, he closed his laptop. He wiped the sweat from his brow (surely caused by the day's weather and nothing more) and pulled on his collar a few times to let some air flow around his chest. The privilege of an AC unit—reserved for third years—quickly became one of the few things he looked forward to in the coming months.
In a mixture of boredom and curiosity, he eventually found himself glancing at Ayanami once more. Shinji wondered how she was holding up under the oppressive heat, especially being so close to the window. And then, as if the universe had listened to his silent question, a lone bead of sweat glistened as it travelled down her right temple to her cheek. It curved around her delicate jawline inwards to her slender white neck, sliding down perilously onto her collarbone and-
The rough sound of someone clearing his throat made his eyes snap to his friend Kensuke, who was now looking back at him with a toothy grin. Shinji's blush came back with a vengeance as he jerked his head back to the front of the class.
Deep within the GeoFront, the supreme commander of NERV read through a bundle of paperwork. Repairs on Unit-00 were starting their final phase, yet reviewing these release forms was all but a performance of institutional legitimacy; he trusted Dr. Akagi to make the right choice at every turn. Well, trusted would not be the right word, expected was more appropriate. A tool was expected to perform its function well, otherwise...
Behind him, an old man stood with his hands clasped against his back. Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki watched disinterestedly as the younger man silently finished reading the forms. He signed them with a fountain pen that was probably too expensive, bundled up the papers and bumped them gently against the desktop to re-align them before sliding them back into the legal-sized envelope.
A soft beeping within the desk got Gendo's attention. He closed the envelope efficiently and then placed it to his side with one hand while he opened the topmost right-side drawer with the other and picked up the red landline phone.
"What is it?"
"Ikari, It's about the package."
"Did you get it?"
"Yes, but…" Gendo's mouth became a thin line. "Something else happened. This line won't remain secure for long, but I have an idea. Can you record this exchange?"
He flipped an unseen switch, which in turn lit a red LED on the desk's surface. Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow.
"I am."
Something made of plastic clacked and slid against the speaker, and the man's voice sounded farther away. A series of quick tones of varying pitch blared through, it was akin to Morse code, but with the colorful variance of old arcade machine sounds.
"I'll be unavailable for a few days, but it'll all make sense soon." the agent said before hanging up.
Gendo hung up the phone and closed the drawer. He pulled out his work phone and readied Dr. Akagi's number.
'It better, for your sake.'
After a rather uncomfortable Parents Visitation Day period, Shinji was at least spared having to walk back home under the boiling weather. He would instead enjoy a thrilling ride back home with his guardian, Misato Katsuragi. Her Renault Alpine bolted through the intersection at such speeds that no one would be blamed for assuming an angel had come and was already breaching the GeoFront.
A couple of deep breaths and a short elevator ride later, Shinji found himself sprawled on the couch, thanking the gods for arriving in one piece and hoping his nausea would subside sometime soon.
"Oh, don't be such a baby! It wasn't that bad." His guardian scoffed as she walked to kitchen for her afternoon beer.
"S-Sorry, I guess I'm just used to taking the train." Shinji lied.
The can of Yebisu let out a hiss as Misato opened it with one hand and put it to her lips, but before she was able to give it that glorious first sip, her cell phone started ringing. She pulled it out with her free hand and read the caller's number, her eyes softened in recognition.
"Hey Rits, how's it going?" She put the can back on her lips.
"Hello Captain," Ritsuko replied sternly. Misato stopped once more: Being addressed by her rank let her know that the doctor was in her "no-nonsense" mode—the Commander was probably nearby.
"In light of some… recent developments, we've decided to move the Third Child's Second Impact briefing up a few days. This new briefing includes you, by the way, so be ready. Is Saturday at 0700 hours good for you?"
"Ah, yes, of course." Misato said. She didn't really have any say in the matter, it being phrased like a question was a mere courtesy. Her grip on the can tightened slightly, there was going to be no Friday night drinking.
"Good. I recommend that the pilot has some breakfast beforehand, he'll go straight into a lengthy sync test session soon after"
"Alright, thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, talk to you later. Buh-bye." She hung up and sighed. She walked to the living room and plopped down on the couch next to Shinji. He was doing some channel surfing.
"Something wrong, Misato?" He turned to her.
"We have to wake up really early on Saturday for a NERV thing." She pouted while deflating in disappointment. "Probably around six, if you consider the distance and traffic."
"I had to wake up early for class anyway, so I don't mind." Shinji tried a slight smile, mostly as an attempt to make her feel better. It didn't work.
"Well I do! I was looking forward to doing... well, nothing!" She lifted her arms dramatically as to make a point, a few drops rained from the opened beer can and spritzed on the couch and on Shinji's face.
"Whoops!"
"It's okay" Shinji said, rubbing the drops off his cheek. He passed the controller and stood up. "I should get started with homework."
Misato put the can to her lips and looked at the boy's back as he left. Was this somber passiveness the only demeanor he knew?
After nightfall, Shinji lay down in his bed, facing away from the moonlight that seeped through the window. He felt the dual-triangle shape debossed onto the plastic button rub against his finger as he pressed it to repeat Track 25 on his S-DAT cassette player. He turned his body and saw the unmistakable pyramidal corpse towering over the city landscape, it was surrounded on all sides by cranes and other hastily put together scaffolding. He pressed play and listened.
After a few replays, his thoughts wandered back to a few nights ago, when the angel code named Ramiel was pierced by the blast of the JSSDF positron cannon prototype. For a split second, his mind flashed through the event, highlighting elements of the battle he wasn't able to fully take in during the adrenaline-fueled ordeal: the sweat on his palms as he aimed, the feeling of vertigo as he ran towards Unit-00's entry plug, the possibility of a single misstep making him fall to his death, the heat of steam blowing against his face as the container depressurized, the dampness of tears trailing down his cheeks, Ayanami's eyes as they fluttered open, Ayanami's small hand in his, Ayanami's weight as she leaned on him, Ayanami's soft hair, Ayanami's... everything, really.
His eyes snapped open. He attempted to gulp down the lump in his throat as he considered his fellow pilot. Why was he thinking so much about her? Why had he stared until she caught him. Was he being a creep? That had to be it. Of course, the frown she wore when she'd noticed his gaze earlier today was all the evidence he needed.
His dry lips parted slightly and even though the sound of music in his ears would drown out the words, he whispered to no one in particular before turning away once more.
"I'm disgusting."
Eventually, Saturday came, and the pink early morning sky gave way to endless numbered archways. In the weeks since he'd arrived at Tokyo-3, Shinji had made a small game of counting them all as they descended through the GeoFront, but he would always get distracted or bored and lose count. He smirked ever so slightly as he got closer to beating his personal record of 139: 131, 132, 133, 134, 135-.
"Hey, Shinji."
"Yes, Misato?" He turned to Misato, his ghost of a smirk replaced by a small frown. Fortunately, she was facing forward and didn't notice.
"It's too quiet and there's no radio down here, so let's have a chat!"
"Okay, what would you like to talk about?"
"I don't know, made any new friends recently?"
"No I uh, I don't... I'm not very good at that kind of thing."
"I know…" She took her hands off the steering wheel and leaned an elbow on the open window. "Don't worry, you're still pretty new and most of your classmates met last year at the latest, so it's normal for it to take some time. Besides, Aida and Suzuhara still hang out with you, right?"
"Yeah," he straightened up and smiled weakly at her reassurance.
"I don't need many friends. I wouldn't know how to keep them anyways." He looked down at his knees. "It's fine if things stayed like this." She nodded in understanding, and he was relieved, it seemed Misato had finally forgotten about—
"But what about Rei? She's pretty cute, huh?" She turned to him with a sly grin.
"I-I don't know about that!" He scratched his face nervously while turning away in an attempt to hide a growing blush on his cheeks. Unfortunately for him, his ears had also taken on a shade of pink, something Misato wasted no time to point out in-between giggles.
Shinji squirmed in his seat. After the defeat of Ramiel, he was so shocked and relieved that Ayanami was alive and well that he couldn't let go of her hand until the recovery teams arrived. By then it was too late: Captain Katsuragi gave him a hell of a time with teases and innuendos that thankfully flew over his fellow pilot's head. And just as he was about to protest, he'd felt the sting of his seared hands return. By the time the doctor was tending to him back in HQ, Misato had left to take care of the paperwork and bureaucracy that would always follow the defeat of an angel. Shinji hoped that by now the whole incident would've been forgotten, but of course he couldn't have his way. He could only imagine what she'd say if she knew what happened earlier that day in Ayanami's apartment. The thought made him want to flatten himself against the seat until he disappeared.
"Hey, I'm just teasing you!" He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"I know! I wish you didn't," he murmured.
"I'm sorry, you just make it too easy." She grinned. She released her hand and her expression softened into a smile as she turned to the front of the car once more.
Shinji looked away from her and out of the window. He smiled despite her gibes. At least being teased meant there was an unspoken trust that it'd be taken in good faith, perhaps even a budding friendship between him and his guardian. It certainly felt better than his completely lackluster life back with his tutor. He let himself enjoy that feeling as he started counting the archways once more. Maybe he'd be able to break his record next time.
"Enter, Captain"
Misato slowly opened the door to Gendo's office. As if the low lighting and the deep slate colored floor weren't ominous enough, the Tree of Life design across the ceiling did nothing to calm her nerves.
She closed the door behind her with a click and strode with military flair until she was fifteen paces away from the commander. She saluted briefly before standing at attention. As a pregnant pause developed, she considered the man in front of her in relation to her ward. Beyond having rather similar facial features, could two people be any more different?
Shinji had watched the Second Impact briefing video with her a few hours ago. She was sick of that story, but thought it would be a good idea to stay with the boy for emotional support. However, Shinji took it surprisingly in stride. Perhaps it wasn't as impactful for someone who was too young to have lived through the nightmare.
They'd parted ways shortly after that, Shinji walked to the male locker room to don his plug suit for today's synchronization test while she took the main elevator to answer her summons from the Commander himself. Her train of thought would come crashing down as his next words reached her:
"I believe you're familiar with UN Inspector Kaji and his ward, Pilot Langley." Her body tensed. What had that idiot gotten himself into this time? It'd been years since she last saw him.
"Y-yes sir, I am." She stuttered. She could swear the tiniest smirk crossed his lips. Did he enjoy making others uncomfortable?
"Under circumstances that will soon be disclosed to you, Inspector Kaji has provided us with a lead that will be of great importance in the war against the angels. You will be entrusted with information only Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki, Chief Scientist Akagi and I are privy to, and we expect it to stay that way. Am I being clear?"
"Yes sir." Misato straightened.
He picked a folder from his desk and walked towards the captain with an unreadable expression on his face. "Read these and accompany Dr. Akagi after today's synchronization test. After that, resume your daily duties until further notice." He stopped in front of her.
"Yes... sir." Her voice almost trailed off as she struggled to take the folder from the Commander's hands.
"Do not make me regret this, Captain. You are dismissed." He released it.
Misato nodded and walked to the door. She entered the hallway and turned left back to the main elevator. What could be so dire a situation as to warrant the Commander acting like this? How and why was Kaji involved? Just how much had things changed in the past eight years?
As the floor indicator clicked endlessly, her patience started to wear thin. She would've peeked through the pages if not for the camera right behind her. She slumped her shoulders, the elevator was over half the way through to her floor anyway.
"I guess it can wait a little longer." She sighed and regained her posture.
'Protecting the Earth... That's what Eva's for. Come to think of it, just what is Eva? the entry plug smells like blood but I feel so relaxed here. Why?' Shinji's mind settled in the sync test routine. He was starting to feel more confident in his ability to pilot Unit-01, but if previous sorties were any indication, whatever self-esteem he'd be able to build up would be crushed by the time the next angel came around.
"Synchronization rate holding at 32.6%. Less than 5% variance across today's previous markers."
"Zoom out to the daily view and overlay it with last week's for reference."
"Yes, Doctor."
Dr. Ritsuko Akagi stood behind her protegee Lt. Maya Ibuki as she took notes on her clipboard. As expected, the Third Child's scores were steadily improving. While not as high as during his sortie against the third angel—apparently a lucky outlier—a small but constant improvement was preferable.
"Hey Rits!" Ritsuko heard Misato calling as she arrived; she was holding a cup of coffee in each hand and a bundle of folders under her right arm. The captain offered one of the cups and Ritsuko took it before turning back to the console.
"Thanks. He's steadily improving, all within acceptable parameters." She sipped the hot liquid and pursed her lips for a second. She turned towards Misato and held the cup in front of her. "I think this is yours... Ah, sorry, now there's lipstick on it."
"Oh, my bad! And don't worry," They swapped cups and Misato made sure to grab it so that the pink smear faced away from her. She took a sip and nodded before continuing. "I've been... a bit distracted."
"Is it related to those papers?"
"Yes" Misato replied. She stepped a bit closer and lowered her voice. "I only skimmed through them but the Commander was all hush hush on the matter, so I figured I'd wait until the sync test is over. I hope you'll enlighten me in some of the... finer points?". It wasn't meant to be a question, yet it came out that way.
She nodded slowly and reached over Maya for the console microphone. Misato noticed that Ritsuko had little regard for the young woman's personal space as she did so, something the technician was quick to express with some jitteriness.
"Shinji, how are you feeling?"
"I'm alright, Dr. Akagi... I can almost forget that I'm inside a liquid while we do these tests." He replied with a small chuckle.
"That's good. You've been steadily improving these past weeks, keep up the good work. We will begin the shut down procedure now, you may exit the hatch as soon as it's done."
Shinji let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Doctor."
Ritsuko keyed a few commands on the main console and put a hand on Maya's shoulder "I'll leave it to you, call me if there's any problems."
"Yes, of course," Maya eagerly replied. Ritsuko nodded and signaled Misato to follow her to the elevator.
"I heard you went to the Parents Day Visitation, I'd never have thought you the motherly type." She teased with a smirk.
"Oh, shut up. You make me feel old." Misato sipped from her cup with a frown before continuing. "All part of the job. Plus, do you think the Commander would care to attend to that sort of stuff?"
"Not in a million years, unfortunately." Ritsuko pressed the elevator button and hung the clipboard on one of the corkboards just beside it. The doors opened with a ding and both women walked in.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
'All part of the job.'
It was technically true, Misato's status as Shinji's guardian included civil responsibilities. And yet, the words echoed in her mind. Sensible, respectful, and sometimes brave Shinji. A bit too uptight and self-deprecating, but honest, tidy, and surprisingly decent at cooking. Maybe she should ask him to do it more often. The floor indicator continued ticking.
Her mind invariably returned to the papers. The information contained within had only left her with more questions than answers. Apparently, the Dead Sea Scrolls found after the second World War were never fully revealed to the public, partly because their contents had to do with the arrival of the angels. But the way they were formatted, they seemed less of a warning or a timetable and more of a liturgical text.
She gulped. The floor indicator kept ticking. Her mouth twitched.
Dr. Akagi dug through her coat and pulled out a one inch thick tablet with NERV's logo on it, it was one of the nodes capable of interfacing directly with the MAGI local network. The device's unwieldiness forced the doctor to type one-handed. Misato raised her eyebrows and pounced at the chance of smalltalk.
"Woah, you type faster with one hand than I can with two."
"Hmm." Ritsuko nodded without turning.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
"Uh, are you programming something?"
"No."
"Oh."
Ritsuko glanced at Misato as she shifted her weight in her peripheral vision. The Captain stared awkwardly at the screen from where she stood.
"I'm sending an email to Fujita from procurements."
"Y-yeah?" Her face lit up and turned to face her.
"The vending machines in the middle floors haven't been stocked since we defeated the fourth angel. The supplier left the city and they're taking too long to find an alternative. I told him there's a good one north of Yokosuka, but he refuses to cover toll costs. I'm explaining how it's still more cost-effective in the long-term."
"I... see. Gotta be honest, I wasn't expecting you to be on top of this sort of thing." She snickered as she crossed her arms.
"As head of Project E, logistics and organizational efficiency are my priorities." Ritsuko turned back to the screen and kept typing.
"Yeah, but-" Misato's mouth gaped slightly. Her eyes narrowed. "Wait, Is this because they stock cigarettes?"
"Maybe." She smirked.
They reached their destination and the doors opened with a ding. Misato was about to say something but the doctor silently pressed her on to follow, it would need to wait until they reached their destination. They walked through the labyrinth of hallways for almost a minute before they reached an office with no windows and a steel plaque on the door that read "Conference Room 3". Ritsuko pulled out a key from her breast pocket and opened the door, turning the lights as she entered. Misato followed.
The room was illuminated with ceiling panels. It was the usual office affair, with a large oval table surrounded by twelve metal folding chairs and a clean white wall designed to be projected to. Ritsuko pulled the chair closest to the white wall and put her hands on the table. She waited until Misato closed the door behind her and signaled for her to sit down.
"Before we begin, I want you to know that we might be in a better position than we previously thought,"
Misato sat down and nodded, prompting her to continue.
"For a while, we've suspected that the committee that oversees NERV—SEELE—knows exactly how many angels are out there, and more or less how they will arrive." Ritsuko paused, waiting for her words to fully register.
"You mean like predicting the future? And who's 'we'?" Misato frowned.
"Commander Ikari, Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki, Me... and Kaji."
"The Commander mentioned him. What has that moron gotten into, Rits?" The Captain's expression conveyed annoyance, but her tone betrayed more. Ritsuko smirked. This was Misato's way of asking if he was in danger. 'So she still cares, huh? that's nice.'
"Nothing he can't get himself out of," she started. Misato raised her brow and opened her mouth, but Ritsuko raised her hand to stop her. "We can talk about that later, he can handle himself."
"Whatever," Misato spat while crossing her arms. "I don't really care," She grabbed the folders and put them on the table in front of her. "So, you were saying?"
"Right. Well, I know this might sound counter-intuitive, but we- I was hesitant about sharing this information with you because it could impair your decision-making during operations. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain... predictions about the order and nature of the angels, some are vague and some are worryingly accurate. People have taken them to be the word of God, or the future, or at least a possible one."
"And you believe this? No offense but it sounds kinda... Y'know." Misato said with a forced chuckle. She was obviously skeptical, but it wasn't like Ritsuko to mess around when it came to the job.
Ritsuko pulled a cigarette and lit it. She took a long drag and offered the pack to Misato with a look that her friend understood as 'you'll need it', so she accepted it. The doctor walked around the table, handed her the stick and lighter and walked back as she replied: "As a scientist and naturalist, I would've scoffed at the mere suggestion a few years ago, but the research we've done in metaphysical biology here at NERV has bridged the gap between the natural and what we previously thought supernatural in more ways than one."
Indeed, the discovery of the human soul as a quasi-physical phenomenon, the salvaging of said construct with complex, esoteric machinery, and the face of a certain blue-haired puppet all came to the doctor's mind. She crossed her arms. Misato lit her cigarette and slid the lighter back across the table.
"Regardless, it was all speculation: the committee has refused to give up the contents of the scrolls to the Commander. This continues to create a divide between the organizations."
"So they knew? They knew and didn't tell us?!" Misato stood up with rage building up inside her. It was such a farce. Did they know how close to death they would be during Operation Yashima? Did they know about the third and fourth angel as well? This was a war like none other in the history of mankind, why weren't they getting all the help they could get?
A few uncomfortable seconds passed. Ritsuko seemed to consider something for a moment before continuing: "Trying to glean a best faith interpretation, if these texts are truly prophetic, us learning their contents and acting based on it might change the future." She ground the cigarette into the ashtray. "And if this future guarantees victory, what if changing it leads us to a path where we're not as fortunate?"
"So this is for real, then? You're actually considering it." Misato asked for her own confirmation more than anything else. Ritsuko nodded. She hoped this whole angel prediction mystery would distract from other more unsavory things going on at NERV, things she was much more involved with.
"This is where Kaji comes in. Unbeknownst to SEELE, there's another set of documents with information similar in nature to that of the scrolls. If the Dead Sea Scrolls are a gospel or written prophecy, these documents would be some sort of apocrypha. I don't fully buy it that way, but the analogy still stands. Kaji was able to learn about this from a trusted source and left us an encrypted message before returning to Germany, he's going to help us push Unit-02's requisition schedule up by a few days."
"And the Commander, does he believe this stuff? Does he think the scrolls are legit?"
"We would rather be safe than sorry. My guess is that he plans to use this new set as leverage for SEELE to share the information encrypted in theirs. However, we need to prepare for the potential consequences of antagonizing them in such a blatant manner. I trust you won't tell this to anyone, not even the pilots or the bridge crew."
"Wait, antagonize the UN? What kind of game is the commander playing?"
Ritsuko couldn't help but scoff. For all her tactical skill and field experience, Misato could be hopelessly naïve. After all the dubious things Ritsuko had seen in the past decade, it was a surprisingly refreshing sight... and now she was going to make her stoop to their level.
"It can't be helped..." Ritsuko found herself muttering.
"What?"
"Misato," Ritsuko turned to her friend while digging for another cigarette. "things aren't as simple on the political level. If you think the commander is getting high on power, you have no idea how those bureaucrats in the UN are feeling ever since Second Impact and its consequences. You've been in some of the affected countries; all the resources powering NERV could've gone to infrastructure and food efforts, which also means passing through their pockets for tax exemptions or straight up money laundering." She lit the cigarette and sat down on the chair she'd pulled before.
"But that's a necessity, nobody else can fight the angels!"
"For now." She stopped for a moment, considering whether she should share more. Misato's disbelieving looks quickly convinced her: "Listen, we have people doing intel work in the JSSDF. If what they've found out is true, the Japanese government is already developing a purely mechanical competitor to the Evangelion units."
"What? But why?"
"Why wouldn't they? NERV is a UN asset operating 80-meter tall weapons of mass destruction in Japanese territory. They want to show that they won't be dependent on international support forever, so they're trying to poach private investors away from the UN, and consequently, from us."
"But the AT-Field! they can't possibly-"
"It doesn't matter, it'll be billions of dollars and years of R&D before they realize their mistake. There's a growing resentment brewing all around NERV, Misato. After your stunt with the positron cannon, that resentment could only grow."
Misato nodded apprehensively. Her gaze lowered to the folders, a drop of sweat slid down her temple.
"For what it's worth, this is in no way your fault, you made the right call. We wouldn't be here otherwise."
Misato looked at her friend, and they smiled faintly at each other. Ritsuko pocketed the lighter and grabbed the projector's remote on the table. The lights dimmed and the faint spinning of a fan joined the hum of the air conditioner.
"Regardless, we'll be able to confirm whether Kaji's information is accurate very quickly."
"How... quickly?"
"If our new data is accurate, within the next five days. But first..."
The first slide appeared. Misato's eyes widened.
"There's a few things you should know about NERV."