The moment Ryoji Kaji made his stance clear, the scene erupted once again into chaos. His attitude was unmistakable, and it meant one thing: a major piece of news was about to break.
For the gathered reporters, it was like the sudden detonation of a time bomb.
Seeing the crowd in such frenzy, Kitazawa Ryota only pressed his lips together in a faint smile.
"Heh. There's no need to rush. I know you all have countless doubts. Why don't we clear them up with a little video first?"
"What? There's video footage?"
The reporters glanced at one another, wide-eyed. No one knew what Ryota was about to reveal, but since he insisted, they had no choice but to wait.
Soon enough, television sets and monitors were hauled into place. Ryota cast his gaze across the press and gestured.
"Please—watch."
As the footage began to play, one sharp-eyed reporter immediately cried out:
"Look—that's the Russian President!"
"Yes! It's him—no doubt about it!"
The crowd gasped in astonishment. But there was a problem: the recording was in Russian, and almost no one present could understand a word of it.
Only a handful of journalists fluent in Russian watched in mounting horror, their faces turning pale.
"This… this can't be real. It's too shocking. Dear God, it can't be true…"
Their strangled exclamations drew the others' attention.
"What did he say? What's in that recording?" a nearby reporter demanded, unable to contain himself.
The Russian-speaking journalist's voice shook as he answered:
"You won't believe it… Carson City—it was carried out under the direct orders of the Russian President himself."
"What! Impossible!"
The revelation hit the press corps like a thunderclap. They froze where they stood, stunned beyond belief.
The Carson City disaster in Nevada had been horrific—an entire city and its Evangelion vanishing without a trace, leaving not even rubble behind, as though swallowed from existence. The international uproar it caused had yet to subside.
And now, Ryota had released proof tying it all to Russia. Proof that the Russian head of state had ordered it personally.
If this wasn't news, then nothing was.
Excitement surged through the gathered journalists, their blood pounding with the weight of the scoop. The atmosphere swelled into feverish intensity.
"Where did you even get this footage?"
"Is there a link between the Carson City disaster and the Unit-10 incident in China?"
The questions came in waves, the press closing in like the tide, each hungry for a bigger headline.
Ryota, however, handled them with calm ease, his smile never faltering.
"Heh… an excellent question. As for how I obtained the recording—well, that has to do with our mission in Russia, when we infiltrated to seize what they called their 'top-secret data.'"
"As for Unit-10, yes, it does bear some relation to Carson City's disappearance. But the details… I'm afraid I cannot disclose."
What could be spoken, he spoke with clarity. What could not, he kept sealed. In truth, Unit-10's matter was the handiwork of the Americans, who from the very beginning had pinned it squarely on Japan. But as it turned out, the true culprits behind Carson City were the Russians.
Ryota had no intention of exposing the Americans' scheme outright. Politics, after all, was a game played by its own rules.
Still, even he did not know what consequences his revelation today might bring.
Perhaps an earthquake shaking the entire world.
Perhaps he had just been the one to flip the table.
From a distance, Ryoji Kaji watched silently.
This was never supposed to be made public. The incident's implications were too vast—well beyond what ordinary people could contain. It could very well ignite a world war. Yet Ryota had insisted on revealing it, and Kaji wanted to see just how far the boy was willing to go.
Inevitably, once the media reported the story, it spread like wildfire. The news crossed oceans in hours, reaching the ears of the great power across the Pacific—the United States.
…
In the depths of the White House, the President's office thundered with crashing sounds, as though heavy blows were raining down upon the desk.
The President of the United States was in a fury, roaring at the heads of the CIA and Homeland Security.
"This is your intelligence work? You found nothing—and in the end, it was NERV who uncovered the truth instead! Do you have any idea how utterly disgraceful that is?"
His rage was not only for the intelligence failure. He was furious for another reason as well.
It was on the recommendation of those very agencies that he had authorized the use of Unit-03, fitted with a simulation system, to be deployed into Japan—a covert retaliation meant to catch them off guard.
But the scheme had backfired spectacularly. The real culprit was not NERV Japan at all. And now, it was NERV who had exposed the truth.
It was as if someone had slapped the American President across the face. How could he not be livid?
His officials exchanged uneasy glances. To think that Russia was behind it all—it defied belief. If the two superpowers came to blows, it would mean world war. Humanity itself might not survive.
After a heavy silence, the Director of Homeland Security finally spoke.
"Mr. President… regardless of how we feel about the revelation, the question is—what do we do now?"
"Yes, Mr. President," another official added. "The Carson City tragedy cannot go unanswered. But must it necessarily mean war? That is the real question before us. If America and Russia go to war, it will not just be another conflict. It could be the next world war… and perhaps the end of mankind."
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