I don't remember much about the movie's plot; all I recall is that it wasn't a full set of underwear, and the feeling of utter exhaustion. If not for the fact that both of us had work we couldn't avoid, we'd likely be indulging for days.
Ever since crossing over into this world, every day had been tense. Especially recently, with all the stress surrounding the human experimentation, Gendo felt suffocated. This was a rare chance to relax and unwind. For Kana Fuyutsuki, although she didn't lose any family in the Second Impact, she did lose some close friends. Her familiar world had turned into ruins, and she couldn't find anyone to confide in—everyone around her was worse off than she was, living in even more pain. All this weighed heavily on her, and every day she could only numb herself with work.
Living in this post-catastrophe era, everyone suffered.
Despite trying to restrain themselves, both ended up being late the next day.
"No way! Did she actually push you down last night??? I thought she was joking yesterday."
???
What do you mean by "she pushed me down"?
Such a blunt topic caught Gendo off guard; he didn't quite know how to respond.
"Uh, it was mutual... no one pushed anyone."
"Forget it. Just make sure you guys take it easy and save some energy for work; there's a lot to do lately."
"I know."
To avoid this intense topic from continuing, Gendo quickly changed the subject.
"What are you working on?"
As he approached, a faint scent of perfume wafted over, causing Emiko Ibuki to wrinkle her nose—not that the scent was bad, but it reminded her of things not conducive to concentrating on work. "During yesterday's experiment, I felt that linking the visual and auditory systems through the neural interface added unnecessary mental strain on the pilot. If we convert these signals into digital ones displayed on screens and transmitted through communication channels, the operation would be much less taxing and easier to handle."
Having been through one experiment without a major incident, and realizing it wasn't as dangerous as he'd imagined, Gendo was less resistant to human experimentation now.
"CRT?"
"We'll use CRT for now to save costs, but later we'll probably switch to PDP."
Gendo was a bit surprised. "Plasma? Doesn't that stuff leave a burn-in if a single image stays too long? Uh… wait, it's not just the burn-in. When the cockpit is embedded inside EVA later, the heat generated by plasma could turn it into a pressure cooker. Cooking up a pot of human broth—ugh, a cockpit consuming one pilot every 100 kilometers—"
"That technology just came out. How do you know so much?"
In his previous life, Gendo liked to watch science videos and had a basic understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of plasma TVs.
"Switch to LED liquid crystal displays later."
"I don't know much about that. Do whatever you think is best."
After a pause, Emiko continued, "By the way, there's a meeting later."
"What meeting?"
"It's to report on the progress of various projects and exchange information."
"Okay."
After lunch, they went to the conference room, and soon it was filled. The number of project teams in the EVA department was more than Gendo had imagined. But on second thought, considering they were developing something as bizarre as the EVA bio-weapons, even twice as many teams would make sense.
Among all the projects, there were only about five or six people under the age of thirty. Gendo and Yui Ikari had seats, while Emiko Ibuki sat in the audience seats. Most of the others were over forty, just by looking at them, one could sense their scholarly aura. At that moment, Gendo felt like a husky that had stumbled into a pack of wolves. Indeed! He was the husky.
The senior experts reported on their department's work one by one, and Gendo only understood bits and pieces. He wasn't even sure when to speak.
Seeing this, Yui Ikari shook her head and took the initiative to ask, "Group Leader Gendo, how was yesterday's experiment?"
"The situation wasn't very promising. We found many problems, but the overall approach seems feasible."
"Any solutions to the problem of the experiment subjects' resistance?"
Feeling the weight of all eyes on him, Gendo was under immense pressure.
No, no…
I've been slacking off a bit too much lately, doing only trivial tasks without any technical input. Now I have to present something to avoid appearing incompetent.
"There are some potential solutions. The first is to suppress or bypass the subject's consciousness, which will require the cooperation of other departments. The second is that, like managing a flood, it's better to divert than block. This involves increasing the synchronization rate between the pilot and the test subject, thereby reducing or resolving the issue."
"Synchronization rate?"
"It's a term to describe the compatibility between the pilot and the EVA."
For a moment, everyone seemed to not quite understand the concept of synchronization rate.
A professor frowned and said, "Are you suggesting we train the test subjects like pets?"
That's quite the leap!
"No."
Gendo thought for a moment before saying, "It's more like a blood transfusion. We need to find pilots whose blood types match the EVA's."
Upon hearing this explanation, everyone began to understand what Gendo was getting at.
Yui Ikari took over the conversation. "Do you think there are special individuals among humans who are naturally compatible with the EVAs? What would be the point of compatibility?"
How would I know—
The original work didn't specify any of this!
Gendo shook his head. "I'm just proposing a direction. We'll need experiments to verify whether it's right or wrong."
Yui neither agreed nor disagreed and nodded before turning to another team.
"Any updates from your team?"
The one speaking was Naoko Akagi, Ritsuko Akagi's mother and the developer of the MAGI supercomputer from the original story.
"Not much progress so far; we're still studying the special wavelength emitted by the red core. But… Gendo's earlier speech gave me some inspiration. I'm thinking of building a special device to alter human waves and synchronize them with the EVA core's waves, just to see what happens."
???
The special wavelength from the core... Could it be the AT Field mentioned in the original?
Wait a second!
Could this be a trap?
In the original story, wasn't Yui involved in core research when she disappeared? Could this be the experiment? If that's the case, Gendo Ikari will definitely set his sights on me, right?
Definitely…
Didn't Naoko Akagi die because of this in the original?
No way!
I have to stop Yui from participating in this experiment... But that would mean Shinji Ikari can't become a pilot, and the future would definitely change drastically.
Yui didn't agree or disagree either and nodded before looking at the last team that hadn't spoken.
"Currently, we're still trying to synthesize the Longinus Alloy artificially, but… experiments have shown that Longinus Alloy does have the effect of suppressing EVA consciousness. However, the effect isn't ideal, and a large amount of it would be needed to completely suppress EVA consciousness."
Is Longinus Alloy the material used in the original story for making the EVA restraints?
Wait—
Why was this crucial information left until the end?
Yui nodded. "Now that all teams have reported, does anyone have any thoughts?"
A professor was the first to speak. "The application is simple. We can make armor out of this alloy that provides protection while suppressing EVA consciousness. But this raises a question: Previous experiments on consciousness have shown that consciousness is closely related to neurons. Would this approach affect normal neuron function?"
"It definitely would, but we can calculate the dosage and find a suitable range."
"The idea of compatible pilots has some merit, so this factor should be considered too."
"If it's hard to find natural compatible pilots, we could try to create or modify compatible pilots through technical means—of course, provided that such a variable exists."
"Creating pilots through artificial means seems more feasible than finding compatible ones."
...
Listening to the discussions around him, Gendo felt out of place. Some of the discussions made his skin crawl. It felt like he was part of an evil organization. Well… alright! He *was* part of an evil organization.
End it…
Just end it already!
Now all he wanted was for the meeting to end quickly so he could get back to slacking off in Lab One.
"Modifying humans is too difficult with current technology, and we lack enough scientific personnel within the organization, so let's set that aside for now."
Shouldn't this be dismissed on ethical grounds!?
Alright...
With humanity on the brink of extinction, there's certainly enough reason to temporarily abandon ethics.
Survival is the primary need of any civilization.