Chapter 2020: The City of Demonic Mist in the Dead World (27)

—2015.11.27—
The Garden of Gathering, the Literary Society.
"Don't be sad, Shinji-kun~ our combined synchronization rate is 100%~ hehehehe~"
Asuka laughed while slapping Ikari Shinji on the shoulder.
No... it's been a few days, is it necessary to keep talking about it?
Ikari Shinji drank tea from a teacup, ignoring the ecstatic genius driver.
About a week ago, the results of the second round of body exchange experiments were "Ayanami Zero and No. 2 Unit, the synchronization rate is 50%, Ikari Shinji and No. 0 Unit, the synchronization rate is 0.1%, Asuka and No. 1 Unit, the synchronization rate is 99.9%."
At that time, I was in a state of confusion because of the incredible sight. The synchronization rate was only 0.1%, but the synchronization rate between Asuka and the first machine was so high that it was outrageous. This is definitely a shady story.
When she secretly asked Ayanami afterward, she replied, "It's very troublesome."
Simple and easy to understand, if Asuka's synchronization rate is the bottom of the three, she will definitely create all kinds of trouble.
But if the calculation is based on these data, what happens to the No. 3 machine after that... It has nothing to do with myself.
However, there are still some hidden dangers in this matter. After Ayanami answered the question about Asuka's synchronization rate, he unexpectedly asked him, "What did you see?"
It seems that the information integration thinking body is not omnipotent.
Ikari Shinji, who vaguely sensed that those scenes might be important, did not answer directly, but just used what Ayanami Rei said to him before as a shield: "I may have seen something, but I didn't see anything."
After that, Rei Ayanami just nodded and said "really?" and didn't mention it again.
On the contrary, Shinji Ikari is a bit tangled. I have been thinking about whether to try to say "You are like my mother" when she is cleaning, or do housework for her, but I still can't find the opportunity-Sanitation of the Literature Club It was Kirishima's real name who was cleaning, and there was no need to clean up that pure white apartment.
This is just to study whether the two Ayanami's reactions are the same, not to see her blush.
"Shinji-san, do you need more tea?" Kirishima's real name walked up to him with a teapot.
"Uh..." Ikari Shinji looked at the empty teacup and found that he had drank the air for a long time before: "Thank you."
"What? What?" Asuka brought her face closer: "Are you still worried about the low synchronization rate? Don't worry, the driver will cover you later today."
"In that case, I will drive the second machine in the future, and you will open the first machine?" Ikari Shinji looked at her.
Let me first propose to lift the roof off.
"No way!" Asuka immediately shouted, "Don't try to hit my daughter!"
"If you don't change, the synchronization rate between me and the first machine is 65%, and the synchronization rate between you and the second machine is 55%," Ikari Shinji said.
Asuka didn't seem to have thought of this, and after staying for two seconds, she finally reacted: "No! Your synchronization rate with Unit 1 and Unit 2 are 65% and 43.5% respectively! And I'm 99.9% and 55%! This is my total victory!"
"You can't drive two EVAs at the same time." Ikari Shinji pointed out her blind spot.
"I have the highest average score!" Asuka responded quickly this time: "You can't even beat Ayanami! The tail of the crane!"
This nickname is really strange, but she shouldn't take 99.9% of the story... Ikari Shinji nodded to Kirishima's real name, raised his teacup and drank tea.
Anyway, the window is open, what about her.
Drop drop, drop drop —
"Hey, Mr. Kaji~" Asuka answered the phone quickly: "What! The apostle appeared directly in the city?!"
…what?
Shinji Ikari glanced at Rei Ayanami by the window with a bit of disbelief. Where's your early warning radar?
"..." Ling Ling raised her hand to squeeze the frame of her glasses, blinked twice, and then stood up: "Go back."
—
NERV headquarters.
"[What is that? Has the zebra crossing become sperm?]"
Due to the emergency, the three drivers did not go to the headquarters, but directly boarded their respective EVAs, and it was only then that they saw the attacking apostles for the first time from the communication screen.
It was a strange, huge sphere floating in mid-air. It was covered with black and white patterns interlaced and reciprocated, and there were three black holes on it that were at a certain angle to each other.
Like a bowling ball... Ikari Shinji thought silently.
"[The twelfth apostle suddenly appeared in the city of No. 3 Shin-Tokyo without any warning. We didn't have time to settle the city, and we couldn't test firepower. We can only watch your on-the-spot performance,]" Katsuragi Miri said: "[But So far all...Ahem, most of the apostles are a style of play, that is, 'neutralize the AT force field, destroy the core', you should pay more attention to its special abilities, and, if possible, try to reduce the degree of damage to lowest.】"
"[Hmph, such a big ball, the target is obvious, and whether it shoots a beam or turns tentacles, it's not an opponent for this genius pilot!]" Asuka said proudly.
I seem to have heard the saying "Pride will be defeated"? Ikari Shinji looked at the communication interface of Unit 0.
"[What about tactics?]" Ayanami Zero's expression was unusually serious, ignoring Ikari Shinji's gaze.
"[One EVA for long-range sniper support, one for melee combat, and the last one for mid-range suppression, if the division of labor...]"
"[Melee of course is up to me!]" Asuka grabbed the words: "[The synchronization rate of 99.9% can easily allow EVA to perform actions that are difficult to do when the synchronization rate is low, which is very suitable for close combat!]"
Your current sync rate has not reached 60 thanks.
"[...Then, Zero is in charge of sniping support, and Shinji-kun will assist and suppress.]" Misato Katsuragi did not expose her: "[The locations of the three EVAs have been adjusted, launch!]"
hum! hum! hum!
The three EVAs went straight up from their respective standby locations and parted ways halfway.
In his busy schedule, Shinji Ikari looked at the window of Unit 0 again, and found that Rei Ayanami shook his head and nodded at him with subtle movements.
Understood, Asuka can't beat her and needs her own support.
Let's get started - eh?
Ikari Shinji touched his left arm while looking at the apostle in the window, but he felt empty, there was nothing there except the sleeve of his combat uniform.
…what's the situation?
—? ? ? —
"Is there such a possibility," Shinji Ikari looked at the strange snow-white environment outside: "Ayanami means, 'If you can't beat it, bring Asuka back to win'?"
[Curry Curry...] Chestnut to fingers.
"No, I'm not blaming you for not reminding me, who knew that the apostle this time was so weird." Ikari Shinji patted Chestnut Ball's head.
The huge "zebra crossing sphere" displayed by the twelfth apostle is just an illusion. When attacked, it will disappear immediately and appear in other positions. Asuka thought it was some kind of teleportation ability, and when she chased after waving a big knife, she fell directly into it. The "shadow" of the sphere.
No, it can now be confirmed that it is not a shadow at all, but the entrance to this strange space.
At that time, when Shinji Ikari commanded the first plane to step on the edge of the "shadow" and pulled the second plane out of it, he seemed to realize that his prey was snatched away, and the coverage area of ​​the "shadow" instantly expanded five or six times, and the suction also More than a star and a half stronger, he just threw the No. 2 aircraft out, and the entire No. 1 aircraft was completely engulfed by the "shadow".
However, because he noticed that the engulfed part was not harmed, he made a thumbs-up gesture from the last engulfed hand of the first machine in a hurry.
In this way, NERV should come to rescue him after planning, and the preparation time left for them is... the time limit for the insertion plug to fail after being completely isolated, which is 14 hours.
Although the appearance of the apostle this time seems to have exceeded Ling Ling's expectations, she will always find a way, so she doesn't have to worry at all. In the past ten hours, she still has chestnut to chat with, and there will be no psychological problems. Perfect .
The only thing I was a little worried about was... Ikari Shinji looked at his left arm.
The "Dueling Plate" appeared as usual, but the position of the deck turned out to be empty.
Do you know that this is outrageous? The first few apostles have already appeared against their own decks, and this time they have directly emptied their own decks. If you have the ability, come to a dignified duel! ?
"[I'm relieved to see that you still have such fighting spirit, partner (Aibo).]" A familiar voice sounded.
"Ayanami - who are you?"
Appearing in front of Ikari Shinji was a black-haired boy with sharp eyes. He was wearing a black vest and dark blue leather pants, with a golden triangle ornament hanging on his chest, and a pure black cape behind him, but his hairstyle looked a little bit. A starfish, with a few strands of golden highlights on the forehead to decorate this "starfish".
"[My name is Atum,]" the black-haired boy said, "[It's your...stand-in.]"
[Kuku Kuri—! 】 Chestnut Ball squinted and swayed left and right, as if laughing.
"[Okay, I shouldn't use a concept that I'm not familiar with,]" the boy who called himself Atum sighed: "[To be precise, I am the embodiment of your ability as a 'qualified person'.]"
Ikari Shinji realized with hindsight that the reason why he felt his voice was familiar was because his and his voice were almost exactly the same, but the pitch and pitch were different.
"Well..." Ikari Shinji said after thinking for a while: "So, you are the master of the cards 'Magic Tube', 'Six-pointed Star's Curse', and 'Reflector Power'?"
"[Oh? Why do you think so?]" Atum raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Because all I had in the past were cards related to magic, it wasn't until I arrived at the third Shin-Tokyo City and got the 'Skyscraper' that the 'Hero' series of cards appeared," Shinji Ikari looked at the chestnut ball: "That's probably at the same time. Bring it to me from the 'chestnut ball' that appeared."
"[Yes, that's the deck of its new owner after I sent this little guy out,]" Atum smiled slightly: "[As a 'Duel King', it doesn't matter if you use your junior's deck, doesn't it? ?]"
"Just hearing this title, I think your story will be very long..." Ikari Shinji said: "However, you are here specially, shouldn't you introduce yourself specifically? Could it be that you have a way to get me out of the current predicament?"
"[This is the 'Dirac Sea', also known as the 'Imaginary Space']" Atum said: "[Only 'things that leave the original world' can appear here, and your 'hero' deck is still sustenance In the 'Third New Tokyo City', it is naturally unavailable.]"
"Throw people out of the original universe? The apostle this time is really outrageous." Ikari Shinji complained.
"[Actually, that's just an illusion. If you were really thrown out of the original universe, I wouldn't be the only one who would appear here.]" Atum replied.
"Then..." Ikari Shinji wanted to get to the bottom of it.
"[It just so happens that the second owner of this little guy has a deck that suits your current state, but it's too hasty to bring it, I'll give it to you now.]" Atum raised his hand to stop Ikari Shinji continued to digress, pointing at his duel plate.
Huh... The originally empty deck was instantly filled with a stack of cards, and the "drawable card" special effect appeared.
"you…"
"[I can't show up in your world, because 'I am you' there, so there shouldn't be any chance in the future,]" Atum said: "[The situation of the chestnut ball is a special case.]"
"...Thank you," Shinji Ikari bowed his head slightly to Atum: "For your care over the years."
"[If you really want to express your gratitude, just pay a little more attention to the girl named Kirishima's real name,]" Atum said with a smile: "[She will surprise you.]"
"Huh? She's not—" Ikari Shinji raised his head and wanted to ask, but the mysterious boy had disappeared: "...A future spy?"
[Kuri Kuri~] Only the chestnut ball, which had grown wings at some point, was still waving its claws to say goodbye to the void.
"He does have a face that never shuffles cards..." Ikari Shinji complained, raising his hand to draw a card.
【New Universe】
This card does not have any description. The surface of the card is a huge vortex, which is composed of various colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and purple, entangled and turbulent.
It's hard to guess what it's used for just by looking at the card face...
Ikari Shinji pondered for a moment, gave up thinking and knocked it out.
hum—
The moment the card was played, the nothingness world that was originally pure white outside the plug was instantly changed, and it became like... a moving image of the card face of the new universe.
However, unlike expected, this "vortex" is not going from outside to inside, but is constantly expanding outward, as if a universe is really being born.
Did the universe look like this when it was born? That was really nice.
Whoosh-squeak-squeak-
Shinji Ikari had nothing to do, chatting with the chestnut and drawing cards to check the strength of the "New Universe" deck, during which he also slept. In the end, after about twelve hours, the "New Universe expansion" reached its limit. The horrific sound of balloon inflation reaching its limit began in all directions.
This apostle's "Dillac's Sea" is a little small—although the "Dillac's Sea" itself cannot be measured by size.
In short, put on a handsome pose first...
Squeak-boom!
When the NERV headquarters was about to carry out the rescue operation, the zebra-like spherical body of the Twelfth Apostle and the shadow below it were torn apart like a balloon in front of everyone, revealing that he was kneeling on one knee, making the action of a thinker 's first machine.
"[Shinji—]" Asuka's cry was halfway through, and suddenly turned into a roar: "[Go to hell! You idiot, the tail of the crane!]"