Chapter 17:
Shadow Puppets

 

WHERE DID THAT come from?!

Torwächter B suddenly pulled a great bow from his shadow and fired at the Longinus-wielding Wolfpack. He barely missed his mark but managed to take down one of the beasts that made up the U.S. Eva’s A.T. Field.

When did it…? The bow wasn’t taller than the Torwächter.

The moon slab was still drifting toward Earth. Although it had lost half of its mass from Azumaterasu’s arrow, its surface was more volatile than ever. Fissures formed on the ground, debris flew in every direction, and to top it all off, the avian hallucination still flittered across the surface.

Torwächter A1, also known as the Asuka/Eva synthesis, was still being targeted by Mari. But Torwächter B, the black giant in possession of Shinji’s heart, had jumped in between them to protect her.

The attacks are getting worse!

It was as if something had possessed the black giant… In fact, the change had a physical quality to it. Mari put her nose to work. Torwächter B had left their last battle claiming to be Shinji, but—

What’s going on? The black giant now had the same scent as the Shinji she knew.

B held his right arm in front of A1, as if to shield the Asuka/Eva synthesis.

 

Without an arrow to nock into his great bow, the black giant held out his right hand to protect the blue-eyed girl who wore the red wind over her bare skin. This was the form she took when he could see her, but when out of sight, he sensed the amalgamation of many others behind her.

In any case, the girl was fighting back. She stepped forward, clearly wanting to protect rather than be protected. She recognized him somehow.

Who could she be…? All he knew was that she was important to him. Maybe he should ask her.

He planted the great bow in the ground as the lightning serpent darted toward them.

 

The Torwächter used the bow as a pivot and spun his whole body to deliver a roundhouse kick to the prongs of the lance in Wolfpack’s mouth.

The blow caught the beast in the jaw, and it was sent flying. It twisted its body, extended its claws, and forcibly latched on to the ground to bring its three-thousand-ton body to a halt.

He smells different. Why?

<<You’re Shinji, aren’t you?! That’s what you said before disappearing from Novaya Zemlya!>> Mari yelled at the black messenger that was Torwächter B. Or at least, she’d intended to. What came through her speakers amounted to little more than a canine howl.

Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica was still in the fight, however, and Ayanami Rei Six had managed to understand her. <<That’s not Shinji!>> she retorted. <<Shinji’s more absentminded than that.>>

But Mari trusted her animal instincts more than human reason.

<<This black Shinji… He has the same scent as the Shinji I know… Have they become one?>>

Six was still fighting off Angel Carriers, and she was unable to get closer to Mari.

Mari kicked the gravel beneath her to resume attacking Torwächter A1, who was behind Torwächter B. She was fighting the low-gravity environment for footing.

<<Why are you picking on Asuka?!>> Six saw no reason for it.

Wolfpack shook its neck and twirled the red lance in its mouth like a baton. The prongs were facing the right way now.

<<Like I said, I’m going to eat her.>>

Six felt a chill run down her spine. She knew Mari was serious, though she didn’t know why.

<<Stop picking on Asuka!>>

<<I’ll take good care of her inside me.>>

What was she talking about?

<<Asuka! Come here!>> Six called out to Torwächter A1 as if she were playing with Azuchi and Momo. The red giant turned to face her, but she had no intention of leaving Torwächter B’s side.

“Ugh! Seriously!”

Six didn’t know who was friend and who was foe anymore. Her information was limited, since she’d been stranded in space since before the Novaya Zemlya operation.

Even the displays in her plug identified Torwächter B as Victor 2 and Torwächter A1 as Victor A1. She didn’t know that one of them had stolen Super Eva’s heart.

However, Six recognized the gravitational wave patterns of the heartbeat that spread over the battlefield, and it sounded a lot like Super Eva’s.

Is that really Shinji? What happened to Super Eva?

Thinking while fighting was hard on her little head. Mari was far away by the time she noticed.

The U.S. Eva pursued the two Torwächters. It crossed a ridgeline over to the side of the slab where the sun shone. The bird hallucinations passed over Six, and she lost sight of Mari.

The Earth rose as Six remained in the shade. From what she could see of the planet, half of it was covered with clouds, making it glow like a snowman. “Why is it so white?”

Three Angel Carriers closed in on Six to block her way. After being shot at by the Field Piercer—Angel’s Backbone—they’d correctly deduced that Eva-0.0 specialized in long-range combat and had no way of defending itself in melee.

Six growled in frustration. She tried to move over to the bright side of the lunar landmass, but one of the Angel Carriers jumped over Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica’s head.

“No!”

She was completely surrounded now. She continued jockeying to escape her cage.

Suddenly, something happened to one of the Carriers, whose back had been facing the sun. The cocoon in its abdomen broke open and sprouted butterfly wings larger than its host.

Each wing spanned 1200 meters, and they belonged to the protist-like Angel, Sahaquiel.