Chapter 27: Kaworu Visits
Chapter 27:
Kaworu Visits
Kaworu Visits
<<H
UMANITY MUST NOT
…desire wings…or obtain them.
>>
Quatre’s voice continued to force Armaros’ message into Super Eva’s cockpit.
“So, what then,” Shinji said, “have you come to punish us for getting wings? I see
your
side has wings now, but that’s okay, is it?”
Why can’t humankind fly? Are we supposed to wait until after we’re dead?
<<
It’s because you’ll be liberated.
>>
This voice was different.
“Kaworu-kun?” Shinji asked.
“Huh?” Maya responded. “What did you say just now?”
But Shinji didn’t answer, instead replying with a question of his own. “Is it possible that your command optimizations could be causing the opposite effect?”
Maya tilted her head to the side in doubt. “Without the optimizations, you wouldn’t be able to perceive the wings as part of your body.”
“I think that’s the problem. I can sense the wings, but I still feel like I have four limbs. I keep getting confused. Are the wings my arms? Or are they my legs?”
Maya shifted. “Go on.”
“I want to try to find them
through
Super Eva. I don’t know if I can, but I want to try. I’d like to return to the Type-F’s field generation format.”
“If you do that, we’ll fall from the sky.”
“We should be so lucky.”
“Even when there’s an enemy right in front of us?”
“Without any control, we’re just a balloon up here,” Shinji said with a confidence he didn’t entirely feel.
The scientist sighed through the LCL and pressed a button on the controls. Shinji felt the constricted A.T. Field gradually spread out across his skin.
Is this what Kaworu-kun meant by being set free?
That was when the Zeruel Carrier’s powerful beam struck him. Super Eva’s field held out, but the force of the impact sent them careening helplessly through the sky.
Shinji grunted. If the cockpit hadn’t been filled with liquid, he would’ve been crushed by the force, even if Super Eva remained unharmed.
Maya appeared terrified half to death, but Shinji felt something altogether different.
He was more aware now of his A.T. Field. Something prickled at his senses—and not the impact of the tremendous heat from the Angel’s direct hit, but something narrower; something smaller, more distant, and sharp.
Someone is watching me.
Shinji felt the gaze of the black giant, Armaros, and it was even stronger than Zeruel’s fierce attack.
His heart—and Super Eva’s—began to beat faster and faster.