Chapter 6: The White Herald

Chapter 6:
The White Herald

 

THE TEMPERATURE INSIDE the caldera had risen considerably, though it was still below freezing.

 

Repairs on Tokyo-3 quickly ran aground.

Voltage drops due to the low temperatures left the electric trains largely inoperable. Fortunately, the work crews managed to get the internal combustion engines running again, but once turned off, the engines weren’t easily restarted, which meant the trains had to run nonstop.

Construction noise might have been a nuisance, but the snow absorbed much of the sound. Even from a short distance, the work sites looked almost like mirages.

Snow.

The ice shards attracted moisture from the air and caused snow to fall inside the caldera, much to the bewilderment of the citizens eager to get their city working again.

 

For the past twenty-five years, no one in Japan had seen snow.

It was after sunset now, but the rising cold mists lent a soft glow to the sky above Tokyo-3. From the perspective of the patrolling drones, which managed to stay in flight despite the flurries accumulating on their frames, the Hakone caldera looked just like a snow globe.

 

Three black, bulletproof, security-division SUVs traveled the snowy roads with trepidation. Upon arrival at Nerv HQ, the middle vehicle’s door slid open, revealing Ayanami Trois sitting in a wheelchair.

She didn’t yet know that Ayanami Quatre—or in a sense, she herself—had attacked Shinji and vanished, and she didn’t understand why her hands and feet had been placed in restraints.

 

Something white landed on her shackles.

“It’s cold,” she said.

Still in a haze, unable to hear the voices of her other selves, Ayanami Rei noticed the white substance falling all around her.

Flower petals? No, these are melting.

Japan didn’t have winters anymore.

Ayanami Rei Trois gazed into the monotone world of Eva-01’s creation, seeing snow for the first time.

I want to fall asleep just like this, surrounded by white.