Prologue

Prologue

 

NOTHING WENT as planned.

It was to be the end of mankind as a collective of individual beings. The Geofront opened its mouth to the sky, but the band of mass-production Evangelions encircled Eva-02—not Shinji’s Eva-01.

At the commencement of the Human Instrumentality Project’s final ritual, with Asuka and her Evangelion at its center, Eva-01 emerged from a hard-won fight against the enemy forces assaulting Nerv HQ and disrupted this ritual.

The tree of life, which had materialized in the sky when the Lance of Longinus pierced Eva-02, now crumbled, the Human Instrumentality Project terminated by Shinji’s hand.

This is where ANIMA begins.

 

Eva-01 cupped its hands together, as if scooping up water, and raised them to the clear, blue sky. From Katsuragi Misato’s perspective on the ground, the giant’s gesture seemed like a supplication.

“What are you holding?” she asked and then prompted, “Shinji-kun?”

Realizing he’d been asked a question, Eva-01’s pilot replied through the external speaker.

<<I found Kaji-san’s field—his watermelons.>>

During the Battle at Nerv HQ, the Geofront’s dome ceiling had collapsed onto the subsurface, the tranquil, subterranean space devastated by bombs—courtesy of the Japan Strategic Self-Defense Force—and gusts of wind from the swarm of mass-production Evangelions.

The watermelon patch’s survival was nothing short of a miracle.

The dome’s collapse had blanketed the subsurface with a layer of ash-colored dust and debris, crumbled bits of the armored ceiling and the buildings of the city above. Only chance had left this particular patch of land identifiable—a broken garden faucet spraying a tall fountain of water.

Shinji gently brushed away the dust and found the watermelon leaves and vines still alive.

Before the battle, the child pilot had been taking care of the field in its owner’s absence.

<<I don’t suppose I should replant the field where it was, should I?>>

“Honestly, no.” Misato gestured to the concrete dome, currently under construction, that would soon cover the old Nerv HQ and its surroundings. “Once the dome is finished, there’ll be no sky. And without reflecting arrays, sunlight won’t reach down here. After the new above-ground HQ is built, the Geofront will be closed off.”

<<Yeah, I figured. That’s why I’m going to move the field to the surface.>>

“What did Ryoji say about that idea?”

<<He said I could do whatever I wanted.>>

He’d also added, “After all, your choice created this world.” But Shinji left that part out.