Chapter 7: Heurtebise

Chapter 7:
Heurtebise

 

IT HAPPENED IN GERMANY, in a town called Norden, which faced the northern sea. Nerv Germany had established a base here, some distance away from the Euro Sixth Army garrison.

“What happened to it?”

Aida Kensuke stood on a steel frame, looking down from the ceiling upon the giant in the underground facility. This was the cage of the Euro Eva, Heurtebise.

“Did they get the Angel to dig for coal?”

He might be forgiven for thinking this, considering how black the Eva’s hands and feet were. Something must have happened during its mission. The artificial Eva-02 had been pure white and beautiful. Now its lower half was being pressure washed because of how tainted it had become.

Still…

What could be so urgent that they needed to dispatch Heurtebise? Hikari had already buried mankind’s greatest enemy.

And tomorrow’s a big day for it, too.

A victory lap around Europe had been scheduled for the heroic Eva, which was why it was being cleaned, repaired, and given a fresh coat of white paint over its restraint armor.

“The angel of righteousness stays busy.”

Heurtebise had been hailed as the hero who’d defeated the black giant, Armaros, and Hikari was the guest of honor.

“But never mind the people,” Kensuke said. He cast his gaze upward at Armaros’ Q.R. Signum embedded in Heurtebise’s shoulder.

“And here I thought Armaros’ graviton portal opening scales would’ve disappeared along with him.”

Heurtebise possessed one more black plate, and it was located in the chamber of the Devil’s Backbone, a Field Piercer grafted onto its left arm, which looked like it might possess the Eva at any given moment. The veins of the two scales continued to pulse red with power.

Armaros’ two lesser giants, the Torwächters, used them to open up a tunnel network. Those tunnels looked as if they were made of the same black membrane as the scales. Maybe the Q.R. Signums came from the tunnel network and not from Armaros himself? There’s no way of knowing.

Kensuke shook his head, frustrated at the mysteries that still remained.

“Maybe that’s why…” He looked down again at the distant floor. “Maybe that’s why Nerv Germany is still a little gloomy, despite having won the battle.”

Kensuke was too far up to see the looks on the crew’s faces, but he could tell that they were all pale.

<<Would you like to know?>>

A voice came from nowhere. Kensuke instinctively pushed away the steel frame he was holding on to. There was still a bit of ceiling, despite him being 150 meters away from the floor, and he ducked under a steel truss to hide himself. He peeked out at the spot where he’d just been.

No one’s there. I’m getting jumpy.

“What am I doing?” He was embarrassed at himself for panicking.

I could’ve set off the motion sensors with that much movement.

Kensuke turned around. He gasped when he saw Hikari right in front of him and backed away in shock, his back slamming against a slanted steel frame.

“Horaki…”

Hikari was wearing an older plugsuit, the black one with gold circuits running around it. She stood on the steel frame without anything to keep her balanced. She didn’t even look bothered by the height.

“Run, Aida. Get as far away as you—”

An arm thrust out from under her jacket, grabbing Kensuke.

“What are you…?!”

This act knocked both of them off-balance. They were falling now, and still Kensuke tried to understand the reason behind her actions.

Is she taking her anger out on me?

This was the conclusion he came to as he plummeted.

Hikari had become the pilot of Heurtebise because of Kensuke’s—and the rest of the intelligence division’s—shady transactions. She’d been bought with information and resources. The Horakis had taken the move to Europe well enough; they treated it like a holiday. Unfortunately, Armaros had thrown the Lance of Longinus around the globe at that time, and the light it gave off had turned hundreds of thousands of people into pillars of salt—including Hikari’s sister.

Kensuke stopped struggling. I guess I had it coming.

Their free fall to the bottom of the cage continued until Heurtebise broke free of its restraints and moved its black hand to catch them.