Evangelion Versus Angel Online

Chapter Six

"Seeing and believing are two very different things. If you ask an eye-witness anything, their first reaction is to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But you have to take something into account: it might have been dark, or she might have had red hair and not auburn or he may have had a different nose. Whatever the case, not many people only say what they know; they also say what they honestly think they do know. Don't let it trip you."

-Shiro Takeda, Fundamentals of Law Enforcement (3rd Edition), 2019

"Then take my hand."

"Wha-" I tried to say before Langley took my right hand in hers and pulled a teleport crystal.

"Special teleport: Agency!"

We were enveloped in a white light that didn't look like a normal teleport. The light effect is too... glittery.

When I opened my eyes, we were in a modern office building. A receptionist was standing at a desk in a sterile-white room.

"Welcome back, Red Baron. Welcome, Ranger Job, to the main offices of the International Project Evangelion Agency."

7_June_2023 - 06:38

"Asuka," I said, still numb from shock and the rough teleport, "please tell me exactly what I'm looking at." It wasn't exactly a pleading tone, but close enough.

She seemed to ignore me. "Thank you," she answered to the greeting we'd received. That woman called me 'ranger' for some reason. "Where is the sub-director?"

The woman at the desk glanced down, probably at her heads-up-display. "The sub-director is on level three, director's office."

"Good," Asuka responded. "Shinji, let's go. We're going to see the director."

I let her drag me along by the wrist. I just don't know what's happening anymore. We got to a staircase hidden behind a wall before she let go.

"Come on. I won't carry you the entire way."

I slumped over when she let me go. I don't need to be coddled. In fact, I resent it; but I don't know anything right now. All I need is information for right now. "Asuka," I said, trying to look as serious as possible while I pick myself up, "please just tell me what is going on. I don't know where we are or anything you're talking about!"

She took a tall breath in, let it out and took another in saying, "this is my guild's headquarters. Your presence was requested by the commanding officer here, but we couldn't find you. You dropped off the radar for months," she finished. That last part almost seemed a complement. "That enough for now?"

Not really. "Sure." Lazy, lying little-shit of a marksman. And why don't I ask for more information? I really should have learned not to trust so easily in this screwed-up game. I guess I'll never get it.

"Then come on."

"All right," I said, following. At the top of the stairs, they only seemed to go up a floor or so, I asked, "who is the commander here?"

"Sub-director," she corrected me. "You'll meet him in a minute."

"Fine." No use trying to get information now. I'll probably get what I want anyway if I wait. With my luck, it'll be a twenty-something-year-old in a demon get-up playing soldier.

At the end of a hallway only detailed with black lines to separate the white walls from the white ceiling and floor, Asuka and I entered a dark office. First thing I noticed was some strange writing on the floor, and designs. It isn't Japanese or English. At a guess, it's older than either.

"Hello, Shinji," a voice came from across the room.

"Who-"

"I've been waiting to see you for quite a while now. It's rude to keep an old man waiting. Might expire at any moment," he finished dryly.

Perhaps. The darkness was replaced with a dull glow of red light. "Professor," I asked, puzzled.

"Yes, my boy. It's been too long. How have you been these last months?"

Is that supposed to be a joke? I've been fighting monsters from the depths of hell, had to kill more people than I care to admit and have had a generally piss-poor time. And now, a second speck of light reveals itself in an otherwise unwinnable situation? "Prof," I said, falling back on a nickname I used for the man since I was a child, "care to tell me what in the fuck is going on here?"

"Language, my boy. All in good time," he answered in that suave, but aging, voice.

"Sub-director, the item," Asuka said suddenly, reminding Prof of something.

"Ah, all too true," Prof followed along with her. I couldn't. He continued, "Shinji, you should have something interesting in your inventory."

"Like..." I have lots of interesting things I'm carrying. Not a one of them tells me anything about my current situation.

"It should be small, crystalline and-"

I materialized something I'd been holding on to for a while. "This," I asked, holding the small, lapis-blue and obsidian-black crystal.

"Yes." Prof remained in his chair, but I could tell he was captivated by it. I've seen that look on his face before; that my-boy-you've-done-it-now face that tells me that I've done something right for a change. "Do you know the purpose of this item?" He turned from doting mentor, instantly, to professor of evolutionary biology of Kyoto University. Reminds me of my university days... really, those twenty-year-olds were too much for me to handle. Well... the truth is that I was only sitting in on Prof's lectures and he humored me more than once, by calling on me, an eleven-year-old at the time, when I proved to absorb the texts better than the actual students.

I quoted what that Irate person told me about as well as I could remember. "It connects you to Earth. You get a day's worth of time out of the game, but you can't take off the NervGear or break the connection."

"Exactly. It's something that Yu- Dr. Ikari and I managed to force on the game's programming at the last moment. Control was only wrested from us after a long hack and the hacker blowing out one of the Magi supercomputers back at the labs."

I was taken aback. What do you mean you and dad planned for this? "You and dad knew about this? And you didn't stop the launch?" I was outraged. What is going on!?

"Shinji, my boy," Prof started, "by the time we could act, it was already too late to stop what was in motion."

"Then what happened," I asked quietly.

"The head designer of the world planted a surprise in the game code of the floating castle. By the time we knew what he'd done, all we could do was plant a few surprises of our own," he waved his arm across the room pointing out the office space that probably didn't exist in the beta, let alone in the moments before the end of the tutorial, "and get some Nerv personal in here to run things."

I said all I could think of. It wasn't polite. "Well you're all doing a shitty job so far!"

Prof and Asuka were visibly upset at my sudden outburst, but what else could I do. I can't believe Nerv, the industry head in computer science and VR, could let something like this happen. They knew. They knew something could happen and hardly did a thing.

Prof just said, "We are doing all we can. Thus far, we've had little opportunity to gather intelligence. You hold the key to fixing the largest issue this group faces." He motioned to the Link to Tellus Prime item that I held in my off hand.

"Then," I started in again after breathing, "what do you want me to do?"

"We don't actually want you to do anything," Asuka said from behind me. She'd been standing near the door as if expecting to have to leave.

"What's that supposed to mean," I demanded.

"It means," Prof said, "the mission to which you are key is my responsibility to undertake."

I stared down at the crystal in my left hand, wondering. "What does that mean for me?"

"What do you mean, my boy?"

"I'm invested in this game, to whatever end it leads me to. Right now, that means fighting to the top floor and ending this game. Or even dying to help someone stronger reach that goal." Am I really so into this game that I'd give up the chance to go home early; even die? "I want this to be on my terms."

"Are you talking about game-money? If that's the case, we stockpile money and goods for missions here-"

"No," I interrupted. "I'm not talking about money in here. What I want isn't so ephemeral." I was pulling out my best test-words. I wanted to come across as serious, especially after that outburst.

"In that case, simply state it."

"Prof, I want two things for this," I held up the item. "I want a lab at Nerv."

"What," Asuka said, responding to the request. "What could you do with-"

Prof cut her off. "For what reason?"

"Before SAO, I was working on some home-made NervGear-"

"Don't tell me you used that to come in," Prof said wearily.

"No. I used an off-the-shelf model," I said, not quite lying. What I'm wearing now is a model I've never heard of, but I think it's more or less safe. "But I was building this new model and I think I found a way to make it work without the massive transceiver on the current models."

"Even some of the best scientists in the world can't work that problem out. You think you can," Prof asked.

"Yeah," I answered immediately. It startled him slightly.

"Done," he said, seeming to give me what I want. "And," he said, asking what else I wanted.

"All the data you have about what happened at Nerv in twenty-ten."

There. I said it. I finally asked for information. I've never been in a position to demand the files before. The most I've gotten is the bits released in newspapers and online. All I know is that it happened and Nerv and father couldn't cover it up because of all the VIPs in the lab that day.

"Done," Prof suddenly said after a moment of tense silence. "In exchange for your cooperation with this organization, you will receive, on release from Sword Art Online, all files that I can access pertaining to what happened at Nerv in twenty-ten. I assume you want the files, in particular, on what happened to Dr. Yui Ikari?"

I nodded affirmation. I don't care about anything else at Nerv. "That's all. Nothing more."

"Indeed," Prof said darkly. "I can promise no more on that end. I was in charge of the investigation-"

"Cover-up," Asuka chimed in from near the closed door. "Let us not mince words, director."

"Yes, colonel, but I didn't think he needed to know that," Prof said sheepishly.

"And I think he did," Asuka shot back. "If all he wants is information, I say don't skip out on the important bits." She turned to me. "It was a massive cover-up. With all the VIPs at Nerv, it nearly sent the whole lab into bankruptcy. But the higher-ups stepped in and kept the company afloat, if only to keep the public face from taking too much damage."

I turned to Prof. "And you didn't see to inform me of this?"
"You would have received the information with everything else I would have given you when this is all over."

"That leads me to another point," I said. "If you die, what's to keep Nerv from cutting me out of the loop?"

"That is the next part of the plan."

"That means?"

"I am planning on using the Link to get back to Nerv, gather intelligence and return with some form of help."

What? "You're planning to bring more people in?"

"Impossible. The game is closed to entry, but I think that I can gather information that might help. Maybe get the back-door codes or locations of Game Master terminals. In the worst case, I can get a handle of whether or not we are alone in this."

"And if we are actually alone," Asuka asked.

"Then damned we may very well be."

I said, "So what? We're going to die anyway, why not give it out all!"

"Sounds nothing-at-all like a certain pupil I once yelled at for giving up on Super Solenoid theory," Prof chided.

"I eventually learned it," I defended.

"What is the second law of use of the theoretical S-Two engine?

"Something that I still don't agree with."

"The law?"

"The Super Solenoid engine can destroy unlimited energy." I waited a moment. "Bunch of bull."

"And yet, the main branch of Nerv is working on the assumption that we can produce this engine one day. Doctors Katsuragi and Suragi both have differing opinions on generation, but it comes to the same thing."

"I don't want to have this discussion now. I still hold that the physical world holds true even in the face of the S-Two theory."

"Perhaps another day, my boy."

"Maybe," I surrender.

"Now, back to business. May I have the Link to Tellus Prime?"

"We are in agreement, Prof?"

"Of course, my boy. If you need more reassurance, I will leave instructions with your father-"

"Don't worry about that," I quickly say, "Father doesn't need to know what I'm looking for, Prof. I'd feel better if you left instructions with Dr. Akagi."

"I see," Prof says.

I think I've said too much. No matter, I hand him the Link.

"Thank you," he says.

"Director," Asuka says, "what are we to do in the mean-time?"

"If my avatar remains, watch over it. If not, simply stay at attention and lock down this room. I will be back in one day."

Prof takes the Link over to his desk and sits down.

"Hey, Prof," I say.

"Yes, my boy?"

"Lemme know how the old man's holding up."

"Of course."

He activated the Link and vanished.

"Well," Asuka says, "that proves one thing."

"What?"

"We have a day to kill in a locked room. You wanna-"

It's a little shorter than I wanted, but here it is. The next part will either be covering the Link to Tellus Prime or whatever Asuka and Shinji are doing in the mean-time... or both.