Chapter 526: Asuka
Just as everything seemed to be entering a stable track, a new crisis descended once again.
The Seventh Angel broke through the defense network in a bizarre spiral posture. Its slender limbs, like brandished blades, easily sliced open the array of auto-cannons deployed to intercept it.
Right at the moment it was about to inflict even greater destruction upon the city's core district, an ear-piercing howl tore through the sky.
An EVA painted red and orange, with sharp and aggressive lines, tore through the clouds like a falling meteor, crashing down upon the battlefield in a perfect tactical drop posture.
That was Unit-02—entirely different from Unit-01's clumsiness or Unit-00's simplicity, every angle of it exuded sharpness and agility.
At the exact moment of landing, Unit-02's right leg sprang out violently like an extremely compressed spring.
The muscle bundles beneath the armor plates let out muffled, explosive pops. The precise structure of its foot completed the micro-adjustments for a stomping motion within a thousandth of a second.
This flying kick precisely pierced through the weak point of the A.T. Field the Angel had just deployed, subsequently slamming into its core region without hindrance.
BANG—!
The Angel's body was like a piece of glassware struck by a heavy hammer, bursting with countless cracks from the inside.
Before the humming of the shattered core could fully dissipate, the massive biological tissue began to rapidly shrivel and disintegrate.
The entire process was smooth as flowing water, taking no more than ten-odd seconds from its descent to the conclusion, displaying an oppressive combat efficiency.
The Third Child, Asuka Langley Soryu, formally stepped onto NERV's stage. Her crisp laughter, carrying unconcealed pride and flamboyance, echoed over the battlefield through the external speakers.
At the Ninth Research Institute's observation center, Ryo completely captured this lightning-fast battle.
His gaze swept over the fluid joint movements of Unit-02 as it retracted its stance, noticing the unique design of its back thruster nozzles, as well as its power-generation patterns that were completely different from Unit-01's.
"Outstanding explosive power and precision," he recorded rapidly on his data pad. "Maneuverability is significantly superior to Unit-01's baseline by over thirty percent. It seems the combat specialization of each EVA unit is different."
However, this admiration for technology was quickly diluted by reality.
After the Seventh Angel was destroyed, its remains disintegrated just like its predecessors, pouring down as a sticky rain of LCL blood.
This liquid, rich in anomalous activity, splashed onto the newly revitalized sea, immediately reacting violently with the seawater.
The ecological data on the monitoring screens began to blare alarms frantically.
The high-concentration LCL fluid generated by the Seventh Angel's disintegration caused severe secondary pollution to the restoration zone.
These substances, rich in abnormal biological activity, reacted immediately upon contact with the seawater. The monitoring system recorded a sharp drop in the water's pH value within a short period, and the total alkalinity indicator deteriorated by over 60%.
The water hypoxia condition caused by the pollution was particularly severe.
The dissolved oxygen concentration in the core polluted area plummeted to below 2mg/L, far below the minimum requirement for marine life to survive.
Water quality monitors showed that ammonia nitrogen and nitrite levels rose fourfold within two hours after the pollution occurred, indicating that the water body's self-purification capability had completely collapsed.
The extent of the damage to the ecosystem was shocking.
The coral communities exhibited widespread acute bleaching reactions, with over 70% of the reef-building corals dying within 24 hours.
The schools of fish within the breeding zones suffered collective hypoxic reactions. Especially for fish in the Sparidae and Pomacentridae families, which had high requirements for dissolved oxygen, the mortality rate reached over 85%.
Even large seaweeds that originally possessed strong stress resistance, such as kelp and sea lettuce, exhibited tissue necrosis and shedding.
The progress of ecological reconstruction in the restoration zone suffered a major setback.
The primary ecosystem previously cultivated using the deployed "Seed of Metatron" was almost entirely destroyed, including the established foundational food chain and microbial communities.
According to preliminary assessments, this pollution caused the restoration work to regress by at least three to four months.
The scope of the pollution was still continuing to expand.
The diffusion speed of the LCL fluid exceeded expectations and had already affected the previously unimpacted Northwest Zone breeding farms.
Staff were urgently setting up isolation barriers, but with little effect.
The ecological restoration project of the Ninth Research Institute faced its most severe crisis since its inception.
A section of the Ninth Research Institute's marine restoration zone near the core polluted area instantly reverted from an oasis of life back into dead waters. That familiar, rusty-smelling bloody scent permeated the air once again.
Looking at the large swaths of reddened data on the monitoring screen and the floating corpses of marine life on the real-time feed, Researcher Tanaka couldn't help but pound his fist against the console.
Miyuki Suzuki silently pulled up the comparative graphs of previous environmental data, her brows tightly furrowed.
Ryo stood before the observation window, looking at the sea outside that had once again been dyed an ominous red. His eyes were calm, but his slightly pursed lips revealed a trace of his displeasure.
This was not just an ecological regression; it was a direct assault on his research achievements.
"Log: The disintegration fluid of the Seventh Angel possesses strong lethality toward newborn ecology. The subsequent pollution costs of conventional Angel annihilation protocols have been severely underestimated," he spoke calmly into the recording device, before casting his gaze toward the distant direction where Unit-02 had landed.
"Rapid pollution brought about by highly efficient kills... this perhaps warrants more vigilance than the Angels themselves."
The shocking scene of the Seventh Angel being instantly killed was a glorious victory in the eyes of ordinary citizens and a portion of NERV personnel. But to Shinji Ikari and the members of the Ninth Research Institute, the price was too heavy.
Shinji watched with his own eyes as the sea—which he, Dr. Ryo, Rei Ayanami, and many staff members had expended immense effort to slowly bring back to life—was dyed a dead, silent red in the blink of an eye.
The massive die-off of those little lives that had only recently settled down caused him to harbor strong negative emotions toward that Unit-02 pilot he had never even met.
These emotions also spread to school.
When Asuka Langley Soryu walked into the classroom as a transfer student, carrying her signature confidence and pride, she was not met entirely with a welcome reception.
Especially among some students who knew the inside story, or whose families worked on projects related to the Ninth Research Institute, whispers circulated that "it was her reckless actions that ruined our sea."
Although Asuka tried to arm herself with an even more overbearing attitude, those intentional or unintentional alienations and strange looks still pierced the sensitive heart beneath her proud shell like fine needles.
This stalemate wasn't broken until she also moved into Misato Katsuragi's apartment under NERV's arrangement, becoming "roommates" with Shinji Ikari.
During dinner one evening, Misato brought the matter up with rare seriousness.
"Asuka, regarding the battle against the Seventh Angel last time," Misato weighed her words. "The combat itself was very beautiful, impeccable. However... the LCL pollution generated by the Angel's disintegration after its death caused severe secondary damage to the marine ecological restoration zone overseen by the Ninth Research Institute. That was something Shinji and many others... expended great effort to restore."
Shinji, who was eating with his head down, paused his movements, but didn't look up.
The hand holding Asuka's chopsticks also froze mid-air; a momentary look of shock flashed across her face.
She only remembered cleanly annihilating the Angel and winning a full house of applause; no one had ever told her there was such an ecological disaster afterward.
"...How was I supposed to know something like that would..." She instinctively wanted to defend herself, but her voice grew quieter as she spoke.
She glanced at the silent Shinji, then recalled the vague rejection at school. Some puzzle pieces seemed to connect.
She wasn't an unfeeling block of wood; it was just that pride made her accustomed to attributing all negative feedback to the jealousy or stupidity of others.
But now, receiving confirmation from the tactical commander Misato, the nature of it was completely different—her victory was indeed built upon the destruction of others' important achievements.
That night, for once, Asuka didn't watch TV dramas in the living room, but returned to her room early.
She lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling, her mind repeatedly replaying Misato's words from earlier and Shinji's silent profile. An unfamiliar, uncomfortable emotion spread from the bottom of her heart.
It wasn't regret—she absolutely did not regret killing the Angel—but a sort of awkward feeling akin to "having messed up" and "implicating unrelated things" that made her chest feel a bit tight.
She rolled over, buried her face in her pillow, and let out a muffled hum.
This matter was indeed a bit... hard for her to let go of.