Volume 2 (Neon Genesis Evangelion Academy: Record of Heaven's Descent)
| Volume 2 | |||
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| Author: | Min Min (眠民) | ||
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| "Volume 1 (Neon Genesis Evangelion Academy: Record of Heaven's Descent)" | "Volume 3 (Neon Genesis Evangelion Academy: Record of Heaven's Descent)" | ||
Volume 2 is the second edition of Min Min's manga, Neon Genesis Evangelion Academy: Record of Heaven's Descent. It is comprised of six chapters.
Chapter Overview
Chapter Five
Every year, Nerv Foundation Academy hosts a festival open to the public on the "Festival of the Sotor." Shinji's homeroom class will be performing a nativity play.
Shinji and Kaworu go to the chorus room to check up on the choir's status. There, they meet Kaji, whose interest is in the star singing De Nuevo twins (one of which saw the earlier fight between Shinji and Ramiel). Kaworu senses something odd about them, but he heads back to homeroom with Shinji.
The person acting as Gabriel the angel sprained her ankle and is unable to do her role, so Asuka tells Rei that it's her mission to memorize all the lines of the angel before showtime.
Because Rei was told it was a mission, she is able to accomplish what would be a near-impossible task normally. She performs well and the play looks to be a success until Misato punches Shinji onto the stage. The whole set collapses and Shinji recieves a punch from Asuka afterwards.
Chapter Six
The last remaining Angels are hiding out in an old house. Arael (the crow) and Ramiel have already been defeated. There are also Angels in the area surrounding the school, and it is agreed that they all must not wait as they are being threatened by the Guardians. They are planning to infiltrate the school from within.
At home, Shinji admits to himself while watching the news that he's detached himself from the reality of the Guardian's actions. He thinks of the Angels during a basketball match in gym class, and it leads to him and Kaworu falling on the ground in a foul. Kaworu gets a bad rugburn from it. Shinji tells him he'll take him to the infirmary after class, but when Kaworu lifts his shirt during changing he notices that Kaworu doesn't have any scars at all.
After gym class is a free period for the students. Most of them are into an online game called "Apocalypse of Night," which they will play during free time. Kensuke and Toji question Kaworu on whether or not he plays that game. Kaworu says yes, and then they ask his character's name and class. Kaworu replies, "Fallen Angel, Tabris," which is a rare character class. Shinji was surprised at this, thinking that Kaworu wasn't one to be into an online game.
Shinji during free period gets up the website that explains the Magi's prophecy. Kaworu tells him that a human from the Guardian's organization made it so they could find out more information about the Angels whereabouts (by leaking some information).
Shinji realizes that people are dying because of the Angels, though no one else outside of the guardians does (which makes that idea more chilling). As he looks at Kaworu, who is playing the online game, he thinks, "Just what are you people..."
Chapter Seven
The chapter opens with Makoto de Nuevo saying, "I've located my target," and doing something to a computer screen.
Shinji heads to lunch with Kaworu, but remembers he forgot something. As he leaves Kaworu, there is evidence of a tangible chasm between the two. It is made up of an awkward, tense, feeling.
Later before lunch, Shinji returns to that same room to pick up something he had forgotten, and he meets Makoto. Makoto reprimands him for getting close to his sister (the girl who saw the Ramiel fight), Cecil.
Kaworu sits down with Rei during lunch, and Rei tells Kaworu they'll have a meeting that day. She ask him why Shinji isn't coming, and Kaworu tells him that Shinji's not ready because he is fearful and anxious. Rei asks him why he didn't turn Shinji away when he knew Shinji was following them that day. Kaworu replies with, "To either fight to survive, or to fight because he has no other choice but to become a "spear," he should have the right to decide if that's what he wants."
Rei says that she exists to obey the Commander's orders, and Kaworu puts his hand on her face, saying, "Honestly...it wouldn't hurt to start thinking for yourself for a change."
After lunch Kaworu hands Shinji the meal ticket he bought for him. Then he asks if something happened, since Shinji didn't show up in the cafeteria. Shinji tells him nothing has happened, closing himself off to Kaworu, and Kaworu feels this. It reminds him of a memory long ago where the feelings he shared with another were cut off.
At home, Shinji thinks about his accepting his role as a Guardian. He thinks of it as a bad idea, and regrets it. He thinks about how base his motivations for joining the guardians really were.
While engaged in all this thought, Shinji hears the doorbell ring. He opens the door to see Kaworu waiting outside.
Chapter Eight
Shinji goes to a vending machine to get some juice for him and Kaworu, and when he gets back he finds Kaworu to be in a deep gloom. He berates himself for showing up at Shinji's house without bringing anything. He also shows up at Shinji's house partly because Asuka told him that close friends often stay at one another's house on the weekends. Shinji says you don't have to, and that Kaworu's a bit strange. Kaworu doesn't take this remark lightly, and seems to be pushed into a deeper gloom.
Shinji says it's all right, and puts his hand on Kaworu's head. This wakes up a flashback of a younger Kaworu where he's sitting on a bench in a lab area with bandages on. A younger Shinji has his hand on his head, like he does in the present, and is comforting him.
Shinji tells Kaworu his mother used to pat his head like that when he was little. Then he talks of how he hasn't seen his father a lot because of his work, and that that probably wouldn't change even if he wasn't overseas. Kaworu asks him if he's lonely. Shinji replies with "Of...of course I am." Kaworu says, "...I just wanted to know what they're like. Um, parents."
He explains that things like attending school and having a parent weren't deemed necessary to the organization, because "We were made solely to oppose the Angels. As artificially created children."
At this time, Kaworu puts his hand on Shinji's arm and says, "Don't worry, I understand. you're unsure of yourself now, aren't you, Shinji-Kun? The emotion you feel right now is fear, and-" and Shinji reacts with "Of course I'm scared! Isn't that obvious?" Shinji asks Kaworu is he's afraid. Kaworu says that he's not afraid because he chose to be a Guardian for himself.
Kaworu gets a call from Asuka, who berates him for skipping the meeting that night. Kaworu forgets why we came to Shinji's, but then remembers. Restoring the bond between him and Shinji, he tells Shinji "I...I would be happy to have you fight by my side."
Chapter Nine
Kaji asks Shinji about Kaworu in the morning. Kaji asks him what kind of person Kaworu is, and Shinji says, "He's a really good person. A little odd, though."
Kaji remembers when he got a letter from Shinji's father, who he doesn't know is alive or dead, that asked him to take care of Shinji and enroll him at Nerv Foundation Academy. He remembers when he went to pick Shinji up at an orphanage his face was "empty" and his "eyes devoid of emotion."
He thinks of the tragedy that happened at the organization, and about the survivors who have since adapted to a new life and moved away.
Then his thoughts stray to Kaworu. Kaji says that there was a test subject, an extraordinarily gifted boy, who resembles him. He admits to himself that there is no way to establish a link between them since a list of survivors of the tragedy was never compiled. Kaji's next thought is about the mysterious explosions happening, and he hopes he's worrying over nothing.
On the way to school Shinji catches up with Rei, who asks him what he will do in the future. Their speech is interrupted by an earthquake, which Rei explains that "The earthquakes are a sign that the strain on this dimension is getting much stronger, or so I've been told."
Shinji notes how petit Rei is, and how she still fights, and will continue to fight, even if wounded. He asks her if she's afraid to fight, and why she fights even though there's a risk. Rei says, "...I have no choice but to fight. With the exception of that, I have nothing. Because if I don't fight, I'll have lost my reason to exist." This expected reply saddens Shinji even though he thought she felt that way to begin with. Now, Shinji wonders why he fights. He recounts a memory from last night where Kaworu tells him, "What I fear the most isn't the prospect of fighting, or anything like that. What I fear the most is losing this world that granted me life."
Shinji thinks that if he allows himself to fear, then it will destroy whatever resolve he's built up. He says to Ayanami that maybe he'll fight to, because he has friends he doesn't want to lose, because he wants to be able to live happily and laugh with all of them, "Together, in this world."
Kaworu overhears this and smiles to himself.
Back at school the students continue to be hooked on the "Apocalypse of Night" online game. Kaworu says that he's stopped playing it, and that Toji should too, because "One of these days, you might not be able to make it back."
Chapter Ten
It was revealed that a month ago Kensuke was given a game to test by a mysterious man named Mimori. This man claimed he worked for the GNX game company. Kensuke was told to install it on all the school's computers so that the gaming company could get data on how well their game played.
That game was "Apocalypse of Night," the game everyone at Nerv Foundation Academy is hooked on. It is the same game that Kaworu told Toji he should stop playing.
A lot of the students who play the game have become unconscious, either collapsing in the hallways or at their desks.
Kaworu sent a virus through the game that destroyed the data of everyone who was playing it, just so that people would not longer be harmed by the game.
There are so many children absent from school that Misato dismisses the rest of the class. She tells Kaworu, Shinji, Rei, and Asuka to stay behind. She takes them to Nerv headquarters.
Misato asks Toji and Hikari (Asuka calls her Akari) to go check up on Kensuke, who has been missing a lot of school days. When Toji, Hikari, and Kensuke's mother get to Kensuke's house and into his room, they find he is gone.
At the GNX game company headquarters Mimori, the man who gave Kensuke the "Apocalypse of Night" game to spread, is visited by a younger woman.
However, the two are really Angels. The younger woman is revealed to be the Angel Shamshel. She has come "meet the girl," who is the Angel Iruel. Mimori gave a body to it in cyberspace, and says that because Iruel lives in the digital world, he has established a link to Nerv Academy Headquarters.
