Chapter 1337
Asuka: It's alright.
Hikari felt that the Angels were different from humans...
So they replaced the syringe in their hand with a huge syringe that they had to hold.
"?!?!?"
Kaworu was completely dumbfounded. Holy crap! What are you doing?!
His red eyes widened as he stared intently at the enormous object in Hikari's hand. It wasn't a syringe at all; it was clearly a metal cannon barrel, as thick as an adult's waist and over a meter long. The needle gleamed coldly, connected to complex energy conduits and extraction devices. Hikari held the giant syringe tightly, the weight of his white lab coat twitching, but his eyes behind his glasses gleamed with excitement.
“The size and cell density of the Apostles are completely different from those of normal humans,” Hikari explained seriously, as if reading an academic paper. “Ordinary needles may not be able to penetrate your subcutaneous tissue, nor can they extract enough sample volume at once. This is a temporary modification I made, specifically for large-scale biological sampling. Don’t worry, I’ve calculated the capacity; it won’t drain you dry…probably.”
"Probably?!" Kaworu's voice cracked with shrillness. He pressed himself tightly against the window frame, wishing he could disappear into a crack in the wall. "You call this a syringe?! Is this a blood draw or a blood bank?! All the blood in my body doesn't even amount to this one tube! You might as well just stuff me into a juicer!"
Hikari tilted his head, seemingly seriously considering the suggestion: "A juicer? That would damage the juicer. No, it's better to extract it directly. Come on, stick out your arm, or your neck will do. Arterial blood is of higher quality."
He took a step forward, clutching the giant syringe, his shoes thudding on the floor. Kaworu watched the needle approach, his hair standing on end; his apostle's dignity and elegance shattered.
"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer! Choi Myung! Choi Myung, save me! I'll confess! I'll confess everything! I'll tell you everything about the next apostle! Don't let him stab me! Aaaaaaah!!!"
Kaworu's piercing screams echoed through the corridor, while Hikari's laughter sounded particularly cheerful in the empty space.
Meanwhile, on Cui Ming's side...
"Kaworu Nagisa? Never mind, that's Shinji's problem."
Hikari is, in a way, the nemesis of the Angels!
Because he was truly filled with a desire to study these beings. His gaze wasn't that of someone looking at enemies, but rather at rare treasures, living encyclopedias waiting to be explored. Each Apostle's unique life structure, energy flow, and the connection between soul and body were invaluable research material in his eyes. He wished he could bring every single Apostle into his laboratory, slice them, sample them, analyze them, and record their data, studying them from the cellular level all the way to the soul level, thoroughly dissecting how this existence, existing between life and concept, actually operates.
It's a pity that the ones in front were all wiped out by Cui Ming...
The fetal angel Sandafeng was shredded to pieces, the Mazar people were minced into meat, and those precious samples, unique cellular structures, and rare energy remnants were all reduced to ashes under Cui Ming's chainsaw of light. Every time Hikari thought of this, he couldn't help but sigh with regret. It felt like an archaeologist watching a pyramid being blown to smithereens, or a biologist watching the last dodo bird being roasted. He held the empty test tubes, gazing at the charred and broken fragments salvaged from the battlefield in the laboratory, his heart aching so much that he gasped for breath.
"What a waste... such a waste..." he muttered to himself, his voice filled with regret, "Even leaving an arm would have been better... even leaving a piece of the core would have been better... how could they have cut it all off..."
But that's okay, we can study it further later!
Hikari's eyes lit up again, the light behind his glasses blazing menacingly. He whirled around, his gaze scanning the trembling Kaworu in the corner of the corridor. The Seventeenth Angel, the Angel of Freedom, the perfect sample of Adam's soul, stood there alive, his silver hair still trembling slightly with fear. Wasn't this a ready-made research subject? The previous ones were gone, but the next ones were still lined up! There was more than one Angel; once this one was studied, there would be another, and the one after that. As long as Cui Ming kept fighting, he could continue his research, endlessly, without end.
Hikari clutched the giant syringe in his arms, a smile that would terrify Kaworu Nagisa gravitating towards him, and took a light step forward.
“Don’t be afraid,” his voice was as gentle as if he were coaxing a child, but the content was chilling. “It’s a pity that the people in front of you died, but you are different. You will be fine... at least I will try my best to keep you alive.”
Kaworu looked at the approaching figure and closed his eyes in despair.
He felt he might not live to see the day he could win over Shinji Ikari. Asuka leaned against the railing, her gaze fixed on the infirmary. She saw Choi Myo walk out, carrying a tray, and then she saw Rei Ayanami lying on the hospital bed, her eyes following Choi Myo's retreating figure.
Asuka doesn't actually have any thoughts about Rei Ayanami being given special attention by Choi.
She crossed her arms, her chin slightly raised, a knowing glint in her eyes. That girl was like a porcelain doll, used as a tool from childhood, with no family, no friends, only able to eat fish and meat, living a cautious and pitiful life. It was only right that Cui Ming take care of her; after all, that girl really needed someone to watch over her.
In her opinion, Rei Ayanami was quite pitiful.
Asuka recalled her childhood. Although her father was an incompetent bastard, at least she had a complete family, her mother's companionship, and memories of being hugged. And Rei Ayanami? Born from a petri dish, indoctrinated with commands, treated as a cog in a pilot's machine, she had to learn even what she was. This contrast softened something within Asuka. She snorted and turned her head away.
She took pity on him and let Choi Myung take care of him!
Anyway, she doesn't lack time. That idiot is just taking care of one more person, and I don't care.
After all! She! Asuka! is incredibly generous!
She straightened her chest, as if this decision were some great blessing, her eyes gleaming with pride. She was Asuka, NERV's most outstanding pilot, one of Choi's most trusted confidantes—how could she possibly hold a grudge against a clone who couldn't even eat meat? This magnanimity, this composure, this superior tolerance—that was Asuka's unique charm.
But I really miss it...
Her gaze drifted into the distance, as if piercing through walls, through NERV's thick armor, returning to a long-ago twilight. What color was the sky then? Was it a burning red, or a despairing gray?
Asuka seemed to see a scene from when she was a child, where Choi Myung saved her and her mother from the invaders' gunfire...
The explosions were deafening; buildings collapsed, and flames engulfed the streets. Little Asuka, held in her mother's arms, trembled under a collapsing wall. Huge shadows swept across the sky—the invaders' warships and killing machines, their beams slicing the earth to pieces. Her mother shielded her with her body, but they both knew that when the next wave of attacks arrived, it would all be over.
Then Cui Ming appeared.
He emerged from the smoke, covered in dust and blood, a still-smoking weapon clutched in his hand. Without hesitation or a word, he lunged forward, shielding them with his body and raising his hand to fire at the enemy in the sky.
He carried little Asuka in one arm and dragged his mother along with the other, running wildly through the gunfire. Behind him were the ruins of constant explosions, and in front of him was a safe passage he had torn open with his body.
I've grown up, but Cui Ming has never changed...
Asuka withdrew her gaze, looking down at her hands. These hands could now pilot an EVA, grip the control stick, and fight. And Cui Ming? He was still the man who would stand in front of them amidst gunfire, the one who would pull Rei Ayanami out of her fate in the cultivation dish, the one who would never back down no matter what enemy he faced. Time seemed to have stood still for him, or rather, he had transcended the erosion of time.
We should thank the intruders, actually...
If it weren't for that enemy invasion, if it weren't for that disaster, she wouldn't have met Cui Ming in her childhood, wouldn't have been saved by him, and wouldn't have followed his figure for so many years afterward. The Star Guide brought destruction, but also, by a twist of fate, bound her fate to Cui Ming's. This complex, blood-stained gratitude settled in Asuka's heart for many years, transforming into something much deeper.
She took a deep breath, turned around and left, heading towards the training room.
Fine, I'm going to training. Let that idiot take care of him; he has to have dinner with me tonight anyway. (End of Chapter)