Chapter 546: Spiritual Foresight
While Ryo was fully absorbed in the deep modification of Unit-03 and building an increasingly close working relationship and personal trust with Asuka, Ryoji Kaji once again "happened upon" him one evening just as he was stepping out of the hangar.
With his customary, slightly playful smile plastered on his face, Kaji spoke in a relaxed tone, yet his words carried a distinct subtext: "Dr. Ryo, you've been spending a lot of dedicated time lately with Unit-03 and our proud little princess. Don't get so caught up in playing nurturing games with a young girl that you forget the real business we were focusing on before."
His gaze held a faint, barely perceptible layer of scrutiny, but it also implicitly contained a genuine concern for Asuka, a junior he had previously looked after quite closely.
Ryo stopped his steps. Facing Kaji's half-joking probe, his face showed no ripples at all as he responded calmly: "Dedication is necessary. Pilot Asuka and Unit-03 are by no means an insignificant pastime. In my view, they are highly likely to become one of the critical variables in preventing SEELE—or rather, Gendo Ikari—from triggering the Third Impact in the future."
"Oh?" The smile on Kaji's face receded slightly. He leaned forward a fraction, displaying genuine interest. "That's a fascinating perspective. Have you discovered something, Doctor?"
Instead of answering directly, Ryo tossed out an even more impactful deduction: "Based on my analysis integrating various sources of information, SEELE's ultimate objective is highly likely to use the most unique Unit-01 as a key to actively trigger the Third Impact, forcibly opening the Doors of Guf to enter the so-called Anti-Universe, thereby fulfilling the Human Instrumentality Project under their definition."
"And as for the uniqueness of Unit-01," Ryo paused, his gaze turning sharp as he looked at Kaji, "I suspect that what is imprisoned at its core is not a biological clone derived from Lilith, as officially claimed, but rather... Adam."
"Adam?" Kaji's brow furrowed in earnest. "The First Angel, Adam? This..."
"I believe there is not just one Adam," Ryo continued to lay out his deduction. "According to metaphors in certain ancient documents and analogies of energy signatures, it is highly likely that Adam exists as multiple individuals, or rather, core fragments. Unit-01 is merely one of them. As for where the other cores reside, I do not have definitive clues at the moment."
A brief silence enveloped the space between the two men.
The relaxed expression on Kaji's face vanished entirely, replaced by a deep, heavy gravity. He took a deep breath and spoke slowly: "If... if your hypothesis regarding the existence of multiple Adams holds true, then I might know the whereabouts of one of them."
Ryo's gaze instantly locked onto him.
"The Moon," Kaji lowered his voice even further. "EVA Unit-06, which is being secretly constructed by a branch directly under SEELE... Its core is rumored not to originate from the Lilith system."
This information was like the final piece of a puzzle, locking perfectly into Ryo's deduction with seamless precision. The masks of casual relaxation they used for disguise slipped away completely, leaving the atmosphere tense and urgent.
"Unit-06... Adam core..." Ryo repeated in a low voice, the clues in his mind rapidly connecting. "If Unit-06 uses Adam as its core, then its completion highly likely means SEELE has assembled the critical conditions to initiate the final ritual."
"The Doors of Guf... the Third Impact..." Kaji picked up his thread, his expression more severe than ever before. "In other words, the moment Unit-06 on the Moon is declared complete will highly likely be the exact moment SEELE believes the time is ripe to open the gates and execute Instrumentality."
This was no mere guesswork, but the most logical conclusion aligned with SEELE's behavioral patterns after conducting an objective deduction based on the core intelligence held by both sides. A clear and pressing chronological milestone, like a massive shadow, suddenly cast itself over the hearts of both men. All their prior investigations and preparations seemed to point directly to this oncoming critical threshold that would decide the fate of the world.
"Time is running out, Doctor," Kaji's voice carried a heavy weight.
"I know," Ryo's reply was equally succinct.
Time had indeed become pressing.
There was no explicit countdown clock, nor any public emergency notice, but Ryo could clearly perceive that a certain indescribable, fundamental shift was occurring in the atmosphere inside NERV Headquarters.
This did not mean the staff had become visibly busier or more frantic, nor did it indicate that daily protocols had fallen into observable disarray. In fact, on the surface, everything continued to run systematically: routine maintenance of the EVAs, pilot training, and departmental coordination meetings all maintained their customary, highly efficient, and icy rhythm.
This change was a more subtle, deeper shift in the rhythm captured by Ryo's psionic talent, which was heavily enhanced by his gene-seed. It felt like a silent background noise; a frequency that was once stable and orderly had now begun blending with an imperceptible, persistently sharp harmonic wave.
Whenever he walked through the deep corridors of Headquarters, the ubiquitous energy field—jointly composed of massive machinery operations, living cellular activity, and the circulation of LCL fluid—seemed to turn more viscous and burning. The invisible pressure permeating the air was quietly escalating, not in a physical sense, but as a tight constriction originating from the spiritual plane.
Occasionally, at non-specific moments, his psionic tendrils would catch a fleeting, non-human, vast, and silent ripple of consciousness from the extreme depths underground. That fluctuation belonging to Lilith's main body seemed more active than before, or rather, closer to a certain critical threshold.
He noticed that Dr. Ritsuko Akagi's time spent in the Central Control Room and her personal laboratory had grown noticeably longer, her eyes frequently bearing a trace of exhaustion masked by precise calculation. Misato Katsuragi's tone during tactical briefings, while still decisive, occasionally held an almost imperceptible pause of a fraction of a second between commands. Even Gendo Ikari, the man forever hidden behind orange lenses and interlaced fingers, seemed to exude an absolute, abyss-like silence that felt deeper and far more purposeful.
None of these were concrete pieces of evidence, but rather an extraordinary intuition granted to him by his psionic perception. It told him that massive cogs were accelerating their rotation in unseen places, and an irresistible torrent was gathering deep underground, rushing toward an established destination.
Combined with the intelligence shared with Ryoji Kaji—regarding EVA Unit-06 on the Moon, which used Adam as its core and was nearing completion—Ryo could be almost certain that the opening curtain of SEELE's ultimate script was being silently drawn.
The phrase "time is running out" was no longer a vague concept, but had transformed into an increasingly clear pressure within his psionic senses, resembling the low tide right before a tsunami strikes.
He stood on the observation platform of Unit-03's hangar, looking down at the white machine that had completed its paint job and was undergoing final system tuning. The modification work had to be accelerated once more, and all embedded backdoors and protocols needed to complete final testing as quickly as possible. The coordination training with Asuka also needed to increase in intensity, ensuring she could become a reliable executor at the critical moment rather than an uncertain variable.
At the same time, he had to begin preparing for the worst-case scenario. If he could not assemble all conditions before Unit-06 was completed, or if SEELE's actions proved even swifter than he anticipated, then that ancient relic from his main body might have to be brought into play ahead of schedule.
An invisible clock was ticking away. Even though he could not hear the sound, the psionic ripples generated by the movement of its hands were battering his perception without a moment's pause.
The ultimate game was drawing near.