Chapter 4.

NERV Headquarters. Thursday, October 1, 2015. 6:59 A.M.

Misato had, cumulatively, slept for a little over ten hours over the course of four days. She'd known the bitter taste of sleep deprivation before, during her college years — and that wasn't a metaphor. A lack of sleep actually left an unpleasant taste in one's mouth that was difficult to describe.

It wasn't the combination of watery coffee and bland institutional food, to be sure, although that was another experience from college.

With a headache beginning to develop, Misato opened a travel-sized bottle of ibuprofen and popped two capsules into her mouth, swallowed them with the help of the aforementioned watery coffee, and returned to the lukewarm breakfast that was supposed to have been the previous night's dinner. She counted herself lucky that no one was around to see her in such a disheveled state.

The break room's tiny TV showed a rerun of an old sitcom episode. It was simple 'junk food' programming that was the only thing she really felt like watching at that moment, and even then, she was barely paying any attention. All that really registered was the laugh track.

She was far more alert, however, to her phone's buzzing with 'Ritsu' as the caller I.D. She picked up.

"Hey."

"Misato," Ritsuko said, "construction of the device is finished. We're about to give it a test run."

After what had felt like the longest four days of her adult life, Misato had more than just a small sliver of hope.

"I'll be right down," she responded before hanging up.

After leaving the break room and her pathetic excuse for breakfast behind, a series of short elevator rides took Misato from B-Level to E-Level — the location of NERV's Advanced Technological Research & Development Laboratory.

Misato affectionately called it 'the Asylum.'

NERV R&D was a division where the most brilliantly deranged minds in the entire organization worked on finding solutions to problems that sometimes didn't even exist. The scientists and technicians that worked there had a reputation for being somewhat eccentric, even by the usual standards of a paramilitary agency that used brightly-colored humanoid cyborgs as instruments of mankind's salvation.

Misato usually made a point to specifically avoid that lab. Whether or not they were true, she had heard the occasional horror stories of other NERV staff facing harsh and profanity-laden rants from the R&D staff for 'disturbing their work.' She wondered how Ritsuko had been able to take charge in such an environment to develop Operation: 'Panopticon'; she assumed that Ritsuko had a much scarier side that she never got to see.

The lab — which reeked of instant ramen, hand sanitizer, and regret for various life choices — was a veritable beehive. More than thirty active-duty technicians were hard at work adjusting dials, monitoring lines of code, and thoroughly inspecting the centerpiece of the operation: the Biological Signature Monitor Unit, A.K.A. 'the Doughnut.'

Ritsuko stood close to the device as she listened to the input of one of the R&D scientists, nodding occasionally. Once the scientist went off to do whatever else, she turned her attention to Misato, who approached.

Off to the side, waiting patiently for the demonstration to begin, were other NERV staff including Shigeru Aoba, Makoto Hyūga, and Maya Ibuki. The three First Lieutenants were the primary technicians for the Evas during deployments; in a way, they were the most important players after the pilots. They monitored the synchronization between each pilot and his or her Eva, physical damage, energy readings from enemies, placement and delivery of spare weaponry for the Evas, and so much else that it was almost a crime that they didn't get paid more.

Maya, Makoto, and Shigeru likely had no idea of how the Doughnut was going to work, but they were at the lab out of concern for Shinji. Misato had never seen or heard any of the three speaking directly to a pilot, but she knew that they definitely cared. After each successful mission, they were visibly relieved, and after each unsuccessful mission, they were visibly worried. They likely felt closer to the Eva pilots than anyone else did — even Misato herself, and she lived in the same apartment with Shinji and Asuka.

Maya, in particular, seemed very concerned. The short-haired twenty-four-year-old was a kind-hearted and sensitive person, which wasn't necessarily the norm for NERV. Maya hadn't even met Shinji, and yet she appeared just as strung out as Misato was: her eyes were red and surrounded by dark circles, and her skin was so sickly pale that she herself looked like she needed a blood transfusion, or at least plenty of water and a decent meal.

"Okay, everyone," Ritsuko announced to the present tan-uniformed NERV staff, "I'm going to give a quick explanation of how this device works before we commence a preliminary test." She raised a small remote control unit in one hand, and flicked open a plastic cover to press a red button underneath. The Doughnut hummed to life with a sequence of alternating red lights, and a panel atop its main body split open to reveal a telescoping antenna that rose about ten feet into the air before stopping.

A lab assistant brought a laptop to Ritsuko, who switched it for the remote control.

"So," she continued, "to be brief, you have to enter a biological trait of your target and then continually narrow your search criteria. So, let's say I want to scan for biological sex. I have to program the device to scan for XX chromosomes."

She typed something on the laptop's keyboard, and the Doughnut chimed.

"Okay, it registers three people with XX chromosomes in the room: Major Katsuragi, First Lieutenant Ibuki, and myself. So, now, I'm going to add a range for height: for example, between 170 and 180 centimeters." She entered the data, and the device chimed once more.

"Now it only recognizes Major Katsuragi and me, because First Lieutenant Ibuki is shorter than 170 centimeters. From there, we can add whatever known aspects that we want, so we can be as specific as possible: weight, body fat percentage, blood type... things in the body that don't regularly change."

She closed the laptop and handed it to another assistant. "The only major shortcoming is that the signals from the antenna project outward and downward — a sort of cone shape. Right now we're in the Geofront, so the antenna is only picking up everything below it, and that's barely anything since most staff work on B-Level. The range of the device increases with height, so if we want to try to scan the entirety of Tokyo-III at thirty-six square miles, we need to place it at the highest possible point in the geographic center of the city."

"Tsuburaya Tower," Misato said, almost interrupting. "It might not be exactly at the center, but it's close enough, and it's a little over three hundred meters tall at the rooftop."

Ritsuko nodded. "It won't give us coverage for the whole city, but it'll give us a good start."

"Thank you all," Misato addressed everyone in the room, "for your hard work and perseverance in completing this device in such a short amount of time. What you've created will help save people's lives, and you should be proud of that. We are in your debt."

She paused to take a breath.

"Operation: 'Panopticon' is now in effect. All members of Alpha Team plus First Lieutenants Ibuki, Hyūga, and Aoba are to accompany me and Dr. Akagi to Tsuburaya Tower. All members of Bravo Team will be on standby until further notice. Everyone else should leave to get food, water, and plenty of sleep; whatever respite you need, you've earned it. Thank you, once more. Dismissed!"

As the nonessential personnel began to clear from the lab, Misato turned to Ritsuko with a tired but determined grin.

"Drinks are on me after this, Ritsu."

Ritsuko smiled in return. "Let's bring Shinji home."


Tsuburaya Tower, Downtown Tokyo-III. 7:30 A.M.

Tsuburaya Tower had one hell of a view of Tokyo-III from its sky-high rooftop. It was unfortunate, then, that the roof wasn't normally accessible — and it was doubly unfortunate that none of the five NERV personnel currently atop it had the mental bandwidth to appreciate the gorgeous vista.

"Okay," Ritsuko said, activating the appropriate program on her laptop as the chilled morning breeze wafted past her, "I'm entering Shinji's information: XY chromosomes; height, 165 to 166; weight, 47 to 49 kilograms... and then all the other things that are less exciting to say out loud."

Bedecked in tactical garb complete with bulletproof vest, Misato grimaced slightly, regretting skipping her admittedly unappetizing breakfast. She wasn't too afraid of heights, and three hundred meters wasn't high enough above sea level to cause legitimate altitude sickness. It had to have been an empty stomach that was making her feel gross.

She glanced towards the three Lieutenants at Ritsuko's side. Shigeru, ostensibly the strongest of the trio, had assisted by carrying the ten-kilo Doughnut in its heavy protective case from the car to the elevator, and from the elevator to the stairs to the roof. The other two were mostly there for moral support. Misato especially didn't want poor Maya overexerting herself; the Major had thought about asking her junior to go home, but she knew Maya would've refused. Feeble and easily upset though she might've seemed to many, Maya was not a quitter.

The Doughnut interrupted Misato's train of thought with a bright chime.

"Ah, I've got something!" Ritsuko exclaimed.

"What is it?" Misato said.

"Three matches total — out of close to a million people," Ritsuko continued. "It'd make sense for there to be other individuals with the same body type in a big city, but..."

She punched a few more keys, and the Doughnut chimed once again.

"...just as I theorized, only one of them has a skin allergy to cobalt. Misato, I think it's him."

Misato's heart almost leapt out of her chest.

"Location?" she urgently asked.

"A building near the old marina; I'm sending the map location to your phone now," Ritsuko answered.

A fraction of a second later, Misato's phone buzzed, notifying her of the message. She read the address, then looked back at Ritsuko to confirm.

"Go get him," Ritsuko said with a nod.

Misato nodded back, then turned to head for the rooftop stairs, meanwhile barking into the radio in her right hand.

"Alpha Team, we have a lead. Prepare to move out."