Volume 3 (Neon Genesis Evangelion Academy: Record of Heaven's Descent)
| Volume 3 | |||
| |||
| |||
| Author: | Min Min (眠民) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Publish date: | |||
| Volume chronology | |||
| ← Previous | Next → | ||
| "Volume 2 (Neon Genesis Evangelion Academy: Record of Heaven's Descent)" | – | ||
Volume 3 is the third edition of Min Min's manga, Neon Genesis Evangelion Academy: Record of Heaven's Descent. It is comprised of six chapters.
Chapter Overview
Chapter 11
The chapter opens with a mysterious man gazing at a recent picture of Shinji. He is the Commander of Nerv.
Makoto de Nuevo, an Angel, spots Kaworu, Shinji, Rei and Asuka heading to Nerv headquarters. He follows them so he can pinpoint their base, but is too slow and is unable to follow them. At this point, we learn he took a human from birth instead of taking control of an adult. He also discloses that Angels are the support system of the world, and losing them would cause the world to dissapear.
Kaworu, Shinji, Rei, and Asuka with Misato form a conference inside Nerv headquarters. They've identified an Angel within the game "Apocalypse of Night." A normal person looking at a computer screen running the game on Misato's laptop would see the actual game, while the Guardians can't. Misato puts on a thick pair of what look like sunglasses before launchin the game. Misato's plan of destroying the Angel will require the Guardians to go into the game itself. Nerv has prepared a simulation so the Guardians will get used to the plan.
Nerv Foundation Academy is also revealed by Misato have originally been "a front for what we're doing right now." Most of the teachers at Nerv Foundation Academy are involved in what the Guardians are doing.
After that's said, Ritsuko brings the Commander into the room. Shinji is shocked, and a little fearful, to see his (presumably dead) father step into the room after so many years without communication.
Chapter 12
Shinji rushes to his father, expecting to be recieved, but his father, Gendo Ikari, is cold towards him. After pushing Shinji from him, he asks Shinji if he's ready to fight. An emotional reunion is not the object of the Commander's visit and not something he seeks. Shinji questions why his father asks him this, since they haven't seen each other in a long time, but Gendo poses his question again, demanding the answer. Shinji says he will fight, and his former fear and confusion is washed away by the approving smile Gendo projects.
Gendo leaves, though Shinji wishes to be with his father longer. He asks Misato why his father being at headquarters was kept secret from him. He then says, "Why did he act that like that to me? Father never used to be so cold..." to which Asuka says to herself, "Don't be stupid."
Kaji, the journalist, wrote an article about the Angels and of the coming disaster, and tried to submit it to a magazine. The magazine rejected it. The president of the magazine heard about the article after Kaji walked out, and professed interest in reading it when he heard it spoke of the Angels.
When Kaji is sitting down reviewing his article, he gets a call from Misato saying that Shinji will be staying at Nerv (who will have custody over him instead of Kaji being Shinji's guardian). Kaji then asks Misato, "What do you plan on forcing Shinji-Kun to do?...Is that school just a front for the new organization? Do you people still intend to use human beings as weapons?"
Misato says to Kaji that being Shinji's guardian makes Kaji, in his mind, a "saint," that he recieves mental benefits for caring for Shinji. Misato says further that she never deludes herself into thinking what she does is right, and she says, "You were never involved with HQ from the beginning. Make sure it stays that way. For your own sake." She then hangs up on him.
At Nerv, Misato commences the simulation to help the Guardians prepare for the next Angel battle. She says it is to help them hone their ability to maintain their "sense of self-awareness." However, Shinji is very uneasy even in the simulation.
Chapter 13
The chapter starts with a flashback on Gendo as he stands in the room of white pillars. It is a memory of 'the tragedy' that plagued the organization years ago and ended up in a lot of deaths. It starts when Gendo sees Yui about to go into a room instead of evacuating because of the explosions. Gendo grabs her arm to make her come with him to escape, but she says there's something she has to do, and she leaves throught the door. In the present, he says "Never in my wildest dreams the you I'd find "here" would end up doing the exact same thing. But you don't have to wait much longer. It's only a matter of time before I bring you back, Yui."
The simulation tests end. Maya asks Misato if Shinji's really compatable with the Eva because his test scores are so low ("...He seems to have the reflexes of a 75 year old man").
It is revealed that Yui, Shinji's mother, was the lead researcher of the project that led to the development of the Evas. The Evas were created by combining them with her biological data as a base. Therefore, Shinji is naturally compatible with them. Even so, Maya says, "It seems like such a waste to give it (the Eva) to him."
Rei gets called to see Gendo. Shinji hears this and runs out of the room.
Misato, after remarking how Gendo sees Rei often, says to Ritsuko that Rei looks a bit like Yui. Ritsuko replies with, "Does she." It seems she knows the true meaning of the similarities in looks between Rei and Yui.
Shinji runs to the break room and wonders why his father is so different. Shinji asks Asuka if she hates him, since he's confused by his father's lack of kindness towards him and unable to see why he is so. Asuka describes her grudge towards him, but then tells Asuka him that he has to earn people's respect by showing he "can get the job done." He can't expect for people to like him just because he's the son of two prominent scientists, she says. Also, she says he needs to stop acting the victim since he let himself into the world of the Guardians. It seems Asuka can sympathize with Shinji, since she's had real parents and Kaworu doesn't. Asuka wonders why she's telling this to Shinji. It's probably a reflection of ideas she uses to sustain herself.
Afterwards, Shinji gets a call from Toji, who says Kensuke is missing.
Chapter 14
Toji looks at Kensuke's computer screen and sees two orders on a black backround: "Your next commands: The Shemhaza's (Guardians) elimination, The pillar's destruction." Toji has a feeling that Shinji and the other Guardians know the truth behind the game. Toji and Hikari catch sight of Kensuke, and they begin to follow him.
Kaworu goes to get shots from Ritsuko. She finds out that Kaworu didn't show her a scrape that he had gotten when Shinji pushed him over while they were playing basketball. It's grown a lot worse, and she tells him that it would be simple to replace just that small part.She reminds him that "that" body has no regenerative purposes She asks him why he refuses to allow her to fix it. Kaworu says, "Normal children are often injured somewhat during their phys. education periods, aren't they? And those sorts of wounds won't suddenly heal on their own, either." When asked why he would push himself so far for such a thing, he says, "It's just the nature of human sentimentality, I suppose." He then says later that even if people lose a great many things, they still have the ability to hope. Then, "I have no intentions of double crossing you. After all, I am here not because I have been forced to stay, but because I have chosen to. And as long as his existence (Shinji's) remains safely intact, I intend to spare no expense in offering my cooperation to your cause. After all, a promise is a promise."
At Nerv headquarters the Guardians and Misato are holding a meeting. They hypothesize that Kensuke spread the game to the school computers.
Since Kaworu can sense Angels, and he did not sense one in Kensuke, Kaworu hyphothesizes that Kensuke is only being controlled by the Angel. He has not become its vessel.
Toji and Hikari follow Kensuke to the school, where they watch him use a computer. Toji sees a hand reach out from the computer screen. He then witnesses the Angel Iruel push itself out of the monitor.
Chapter 15
An Angel wakes up late at night in the Angel's house to find that his "other half" has woken up.
Shinji and Asuka are placed into a digital landscape so they can defeat the Angel from within it's cyber living space. They have to defeat the Angel and return to the real world before the timer on their wrists runs out of time.
Kaworu and Rei head to the school, where they know Toji and Hikari are. In the school they are ambushed by zombie-like students who are presumably being controlled by the Angel Iruel (and they are probably the same students who fell unconscious from playing the game. It must have been the Angel's plan to secure these bodies in the real world to slow down the Guardians).
Kaji witnesses Rei and Kaworu fighting the children at the school, but is overwhelmed by something behind him (looks like the silhouettes of two of one of the Angels and it's other half) before he can finish his thoughts.
Rei remarks on Kaworu's arm, which he used to block an attack on Rei earlier. He says it's becoming difficult to move, but immediately cuts off his explanation when he senses an Angel's presence. When he runs in it's direction he finds nothing.
Asuka and Shinji come across enemies in the digital world but are easily able to defeat them.
Shinji asks Asuka if they should slow down since the world they're in is still full of glitches. Asuka rejects this stance, and then asks Shinji if he's ready to kill. When Shinji is hesitant to answer, she says, "I...I guess I really do hate you after all."
She then rushes forward down the street they're on, and a hole opens up below her. She falls in while Shinji looks down into the bottomless pit she fell prey to.
Chapter 16
In the pit Asuka fell into she sees the image of her dead parents. Surprised and happy to see them, she begins to run to them while telling them of her being a Shemhaza (Guardian). But a doll grabs onto her foot and stops her from reaching them. It tells her that she killed her parents. When she looks up at them, their faces have veins sticking up from them. The sides of their necks have a circular bulb projecting from them.
Outside the pit, the digital cityscape is deteriorating as Shinji runs to preserve himself.
At the GNX game company Mimori says that he caught a virus (Asuka) in one of his bugs, and that that capture has activated the game's self-destruct program. He tells Shamshel that he threw bugs into the game so that he could destroy it if "everthing went smoothly." Shamshel asks what's happened to Iruel, and Mimori just tells her that "sometimes you've gotta sacrifice the little things for the greater good." He says the Angels aren't comrades, and that they are only working toward the same end.
Kaji, Toji, and Hikari were tied up together inside the school by the Angel and its other half, named "Cess."
Shinji makes it to a safe location created by Nerv within the deteriorating cityscape.
Asuka's signal has been lost, and the state of her physical body may be compromised. Misato tells Shinji to go on solo and continue with the plan. The retrieval of Iruel's core takes priority. Shinji refuses to go along with the plan without rescuing Asuka. He says he fights so he can live together with his friends (and just because they can make more Guardians, he asks if that makes them more expendable), making Misato agree to let him rescue Asuka. Shinji also promises to retrieve the core.
In the pit, two different aspects of Asuka are represented. One is the child Asuka, who fears the words the parents are telling her, and who is the active aspect. This Asuka openly recounts the killing of her parents and is unable to suppress that stress. The grown Asuka, or Guardian Asuka, looks to be pinned to the wall far above the scene that's taking place between the young Asuka and her parents. She is unreactive, probably because of the mental stress due to buried memories coming to the surface.
Asuka is revealed to have been part of an experiment. The organization wanted to compare how good artificially created Guardians were to ones produced by parents that were formerly Guardians themselves. Asuka was held under the pressure of being better to the man-made Guardians. Later, she had to kill her parents, who had become Angels. Asuka thinks that she may have killed them to be free from their expectations.
Young Asuka's mother begins to strangle her, but at this moment Shinji breaks into the walls of the space Asuka is being held in. This wakes up the Asuka pinned to the wall. Shinji fires his Eva gun and breaks the wall that held her arms and legs. The little Asuka fades. Shinji then tells her, "You're important to all of us. Listen, Asuka, it's okay to depend on the people around you. We want to help you too, if you'd only let us."
The image of Asuka's mother approaches her, and Asuka tells her, "Don't you or any of your friends ever dirty my mama and papa with your filthy hands ever again!"
The image of Asuka's mother is revealed to be Iruel.
