The primary entity's response was cold and efficient, accompanied by a series of environmental parameter comparisons and socio-psychological model simulations.
"Logical chain established. This environment has a demonstrable adverse effect on the psychological health of a standard human adolescent. Recommendation: provide environmental intervention or psychological counseling protocols. However, her core value as a pilot remains unaffected; the base environment is sufficient to maintain her physiological existence and combat skill training. Emotional state fluctuations are considered secondary variables."
"I intend to take her away from the Dead World to a nearby Imperial world to clear her head," the secondary avatar proposed, its specific idea carrying an unquestionable persistence.
"Necessity is questionable." The primary entity's feedback carried a weight of pure rational calculation. "Investing resources into non-productive 'recreation' is inefficient. Her value lies in synchronization rates and combat effectiveness. Emotional issues can be diverted through positive stimulation by increasing training difficulty or introducing new technological modules."
"I was the one who brought her here," a ripple of emotion surfaced in the secondary avatar's consciousness stream. "I bear responsibility for her—not just as a pilot, but as a... human being. A stable emotional state will yield more benefits than harm for her long-term development."
"Responsibility?" The primary entity's consciousness seemed to pause for an instant. It wasn't a calculation delay, but rather a deep retrieval and interrogation of that specific keyword.
"Our core goal is to aggregate the knowledge and technology of thousands of worlds to find the way home. Serving the Adeptus Mechanicus is a means to acquire resources and authority, not the ultimate end. In an optimal efficiency solution, an individual's emotional state is usually viewed as a variable to be managed, not a priority to be addressed. Your sustained attention to this specific individual appears to have a sub-optimal input-output ratio."
The primary entity's response carried a chilling sense of self-examination: "After undergoing full Mechanicus augmentation and systematic suppression of most emotions, am I... such a sentimental person?"
The secondary avatar fell silent for a moment. He could feel the primary entity's method of evaluation based on pure logic and efficiency—a result of Mechanicus modification and a long-term logic-dominated mindset. But he himself, as a vessel closer to "humanity," felt something different.
"Efficiency... perhaps. But what lies at the end of the journey home? If, for the sake of the goal, we eventually turn into machines that utterly disregard emotion, then even if we find the way back, will 'I' still be the original me?" He paused, images flashing vividly in his mind of the red-haired girl struggling time and again in her original fate—craving love yet being hurt. These were precious memories from the transmigrator's past, making it impossible for him to view her merely as a sample.
At the same time, a deeper, non-logical directive was at play. Protecting these "known" individuals who carried special meaning was, to some extent, guarding the "humanity" anchors that were gradually being eroded by mechanical logic.
"She is Asuka, isn't she?" His consciousness stream carried a note of undeniable confirmation. "Seeing her like this, I cannot use 'efficiency' to convince myself to look away. And..."
This time, the primary entity remained silent for even longer. The vast database not only retrieved personality models and behavioral prediction data regarding "Shikinami Asuka Langley," but at a deeper level, those strictly sealed perceptions and emotional projections belonging to the transmigrator toward Neon Genesis Evangelion characters were briefly activated and weighted into the calculation.
"Based on maintaining the long-term stability of a high-value experimental unit, optimizing her psychological state to ensure continuous research data output, and..." the primary entity's final judgment was delivered. The logical chain remained solid, but the underlying parameters driving that logic now included the weight of those suppressed "special emotions." "...Considering the 'selective protection' you insist upon, which originates from our shared memories, I approve the temporary environmental adjustment plan."
"Target World: 'Corona-01,' an Agri-World. The environmental parameters of this world are excellent, and the information complexity is moderate, meeting the psychological relaxation needs of a standard human adolescent. Relevant access codes have been temporarily granted to your identification mark."
The data clearly indicated a strong correlation between the target individual's psychological state and combat effectiveness; the risk probability of efficiency decay due to long-term depression exceeded the threshold.
"Additionally," the primary entity's information stream continued, "the exclusive EVA-Titan units for Shinji and Rei Ayanami have entered the final assembly stage. Rei Ayanami's spirit-body synchronization repair treatment is largely complete; she will soon awaken. The three of them can form an EVA-Titan combat squad. The Legio Canum is very keen on this; they are desperate to obtain live combat data of the EVA-Titans and explore the possibilities of synergistic operations with Imperial Titans."
The information transfer ended, and the primary entity seemed ready to cut the link, but a hint of sentiment rose in the secondary avatar's consciousness: "We brought these three children out of that hopeless world, only to throw them into the even grander and more brutal wars of this universe. Is this truly for the best?"
"That 'her' we 'know' should not be trapped to death in this gray despair. This is not about efficiency; this is the choice 'we' made based on our 'knowledge'."
Osiris (the secondary avatar) took a breath of the cold air and turned to walk down from the observation tower. He needed to tell Asuka the plan for their brief departure.
When the engines of the heavy transport craft emitted a steady hum and smoothly broke free from the suffocating gravitational pull of the Dead World, Asuka pressed nearly her entire upper body against the cold porthole.
She watched intently as the gray planet in her field of vision gradually shrank, its colors growing dimmer until it finally merged into the endless black and starlight of the background, as if it had never existed. The invisible pressure that had resided in her chest for so long—almost becoming a part of her body—seemed to quietly loosen as the distance increased, finally dissolving into a sigh of relief that she might not have even noticed herself.
The journey was so brief it almost left no time to savor the moment of escaping the cage. When the eternal darkness outside the window was replaced by a planet overflowing with the radiance of life, Asuka's eyes were suddenly set ablaze.
Target World: "Corona-01." It was a registered Agri-World, but unlike those planets that pursued only the yield of a single crop, the database showed it was dedicated to producing a diverse variety of crops that retained their primitive flavors.
Vast, fluffy clouds stretched out like dark-white behemoths across a clear sky. What appeared was a vibrant, living palette that almost seared her vision, which had grown accustomed to the gloom: a boundless azure ocean, like the finest sapphire, clashing intensely with the layered emerald and forest greens of the woods and farmlands that stretched to the horizon.