This evil power that once tried to devour her now lay dormant inside her body like a submissive puppy, at her beck and call.
"A true masterpiece, Princess~"
Suddenly, a lazy voice came from behind.
Asuka was startled and instinctively turned around. The blue light patterns in her left eye instantly brightened, and a terrifying aura erupted!
Whoosh—!
The curtains in the room moved without any wind, flapping loudly under the impact of the rippling, transparent rainbow barrier.
This was the "AT Field."
"Wow~ So scary, so scary~"
Mari Makinami, wearing loose pajamas, had a sharp glint flash through her eyes.
The big-breasted glasses girl leaned against the doorframe, taking a bite of an apple she held: "Don't be so tense. If you tear down the BOSS's house, I won't be able to protect you either."
Asuka took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the boiling power within her body as the blue patterns at the corner of her eye slowly faded.
"How did you get in? Stupid Glasses...!" Asuka turned her head away, her ears turning slightly red.
Mari Makinami walked over with a grin, showing no self-awareness of being an intruder.
She circled Asuka, her green eyes shimmering with excitement and an almost fanatical light.
"Let me see, let me see..."
Mari Makinami suddenly leaned in, sniffing Asuka's neck like a cat: "Mmm~ Such a nice scent. The fishy smell of LCL is gone, replaced by..."
She suddenly reached out, her fingertip lightly brushing the skin under Asuka's left eye.
"Truly incredible, Princess!"
"Inside your body, a full-blown beast is roaring right now." Mari Makinami's voice lowered, carrying an unfathomable tone. "Now, even without piloting eva unit-02, you could probably twist an Angel's head off with your bare hands, right?"
"Something like that... how could it be possible!"
Asuka slapped her hand away and took a half-step back, looking warily at this woman who was always impossible to read: "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying, I'm so envious..." Mari Makinami pushed up her red-framed glasses, a mysterious smile curling at the corners of her mouth. "Though I don't know how the BOSS did it, this feeling of being completely filled and fully remodeled..."
"You... what are you talking about! Pervert!"
Asuka's face instantly turned bright red, like a ripe tomato. "What 'filled'... that was treatment! It was treatment, do you understand?!"
"Yes, yes, treatment~"
Mari Makinami laughed like a cat that had stolen some cream, throwing an arm around Asuka's waist and resting her chin on her shoulder. "Since it's the BOSS's masterpiece, let me bask in the glory too."
"Let me borrow your bed for the night; I want to feel his residual warmth up close."
"Get lost! If you want to feel it... why don't you go find him yourself!"
"Oh, are you jealous?"
"Don't be so stingy. I'm just worried the Princess will be lonely~"
Amidst the bickering, Asuka didn't actually push Mari Makinami away.
She knew her current strength was extraordinary; one mistake could tear Mari Makinami's body apart.
It's not like she liked snuggling with this stupid woman!
...In the living room.
Hansen didn't bother with the two kittens' antics in the bedroom.
He sat on the sofa and activated the system's Perspective function.
His vision penetrated the walls and fell upon Asuka.
In his eyes, Asuka's life form had undergone a world-shaking transformation.
Her original human genetic chain had been forcibly broken and inserted with the Angel's violent fragments, but all of this had been forcibly bonded and reshaped by the even more dominant Imaginary Divine Power.
If the old Asuka was an exquisite but fragile glass dagger, then the current her was an alloy combat knife being tempered.
Tearing an AT Field with bare hands?
That was just a basic operation.
Closing the panel, Hansen turned his gaze toward the pitch-black night sky outside the window.
On the other side of the city, there was someone else who wasn't sleeping... Tokyo-3, in a certain cheap, old apartment building.
The environment here could be described as filthy, messy, and poor.
The walls were covered in mold, and the air was thick with the smell of dampness and fermenting garbage.
Rei Ayanami's room was here.
There was almost no furniture in the room, nor any sense of daily life.
It was empty, like a warehouse for temporary storage.
Corners were piled with blood-stained bandages and used medicine packaging—traces left behind from her repeated experiments and battles.
Rei Ayanami, wearing somewhat old pajamas, sat quietly on the edge of the bed.
In a corner of the room lay a pair of glasses.
The lenses were covered in cracks, and the frames were warped and distorted as if scorched by high heat.
Those were the glasses Gendo Ikari once used, and they were once her only spiritual pillar.
But now they were covered in dust, clearly untouched for a long time.
Rei Ayanami reached out, her fingertips lightly touching the cold frames.
"..."
No feeling.
The old feeling of peace and being needed that came from holding them had completely vanished.
All that remained was the cold metallic touch and the old dust clinging to them.
Another image involuntarily surfaced in her mind.
In a forest under a torrential downpour, that black-haired man descended from the sky, never flinching even when facing countless gun barrels.
He took off his trench coat and tightly wrapped it around the battered red-haired girl, holding her in his arms.
At that moment, Hansen's back looked like a blazing fire burning in the dark night.
Scorching, dominant, yet incredibly warm.
That temperature, even just watching from afar, made Rei Ayanami's chest feel hot.
Jealousy, longing... emotions she had never felt before were activated like instincts.
As a Clone of the Ayanami series, she wasn't supposed to possess these complex human emotions.
But from the moment she met Hansen, that silent heart seemed to have started beating again.
"I... don't want to be like this anymore."
Rei Ayanami murmured softly.
She looked at the broken glasses, a flash of resolve crossing her eyes.
Clatter.
She let go, allowing the glasses to fall onto the dusty floor.
Then, she stood up, without giving them another look, and walked barefoot toward the entrance.
Even though it was still raining outside.
But she only wanted to go to that place.
To that place... where light and heat exist... 2 AM.
Hansen was about to rest when he suddenly sensed a faint presence outside the door.
That presence was very light; if he didn't sense it carefully, it would almost merge with the sound of the rain.
That person seemed to have walked in the rain for a long time, so long that the heat in their body was dissipating bit by bit.
Hansen raised an eyebrow slightly, got up, walked to the entrance, and opened the door.
Whoosh—
The night wind, mixed with moisture, poured in.
In the wind and rain outside the door stood a drenched, petite figure.
A heart-wrenching sense of being broken washed over him.
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