Chapter 6: Bond Beneath the Calamity
The devastating shockwave finally subsided, like an enraged beast gradually calming its breath.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of scorched material, intense gunpowder smoke, and sky-blotting dust, reducing visibility to a minimum.
The deep blue Renault sports car lay pitifully overturned by the roadside, its roof and one side door severely deformed, with the window glass on that side long shattered into a glittering carpet of fragments.
Suddenly, two heads cautiously emerged from the twisted window frame of the passenger side, which now faced the sky.
Shinji and Misato, covered in dust with their hair tousled by the residual shockwave currents, looked like two startled deer with their fur standing on end.
They tightly gripped the car roof above them, struggling to support their bodies as they peered out from the gaps in the steel wreckage.
Their faces, hair, and clothes were coated in thick dust, almost obscuring their original skin tones and hair colors.
Misato's signature deep blue hair was now matted with grime, tangled into strands that clung awkwardly to her cheeks and neck.
Shinji wasn't much better off, his face covered in a layer of dust, lips chapped, with sand grains still clinging to the corners of his mouth.
Maintaining this comical yet wretched posture, they stared blankly toward the direction of the explosion.
In the distance, the colossal mushroom cloud—symbolizing humanity's ultimate conventional weaponry—churned as it soared into the sky, its interior flickering with the dim red glow of dying embers.
"..."
Shinji opened his mouth, but his throat was too parched to produce sound, only drawing in a breath of heavily dust-laden air.
A single absurd thought lingered in his mind: this trip back through time had truly been an "eye-opener."
First, witnessing a giant Angel up close and nearly being crushed to death, then becoming a "zero-distance observer" of humanity's most powerful bomb, the N² Mine.
This "newbie starter pack" was a bit too hardcore!
Misato also fell silent. Behind her sunglasses, her beautiful eyes blinked, filled with shock and lingering fear.
As she gazed at the destructive scene, her lips pressed tightly together, she seemed to be assessing the situation while simultaneously trembling at the terrifying power—this was her first time seeing an N² Mine deployed in combat.
When the aftermath of the explosion completely dissipated, leaving only deathly silence and scorching wind in the air, the two finally began attempting to crawl out of this "steel coffin."
Misato, being the adult, took the lead.
She struggled to twist her body, trying to free herself from the narrow, deformed space.
Shinji also wrestled his way out, inwardly grumbling: after living 14 years in this world, plus over twenty years in his previous life, he never imagined he'd one day be crawling out of an overturned sedan like an armored soldier escaping a destroyed tank!
"Watch out for broken glass!"
Misato hoarsely warned, carefully avoiding the sharp edges herself as she clambered out through the passenger window hands and feet first, stumbling slightly upon landing.
Shinji followed close behind, moving clumsily but managing to climb out relatively smoothly.
As his feet touched solid ground again, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as if he had been reborn.
"Hey, kid, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Without bothering to dust herself off, Misato immediately turned to scrutinize Shinji from head to toe, her tone clearly concerned.
She reached out her hand, seemingly wanting to check if he had any visible injuries.
Shinji instinctively took half a step back, avoiding her hand, and raised his own to wipe his face, only to smear more dust across it.
"Cough... cough... I-I'm fine, just got a mouthful of sand..."
His voice was hoarse, and he felt a gritty, coarse sensation all over his mouth and nasal passages, making him extremely uncomfortable.
Misato, seeing that he could move relatively freely and speak clearly, breathed a slight sigh of relief.
She glanced around at the surrounding wreckage, her gaze finally settling on the pitifully battered dark blue sports car. She sighed helplessly, placed her hands on her hips, and said, "Well, it looks like our luck isn't completely terrible. But we can't rely on this to get us to NERV Headquarters..."
She paused, a flash of determination in her eyes. "But we can't just leave it lying here like this! Come on, Shinji-kun, lend a hand. Let's flip it over! At least we can see if there's any chance of saving it."
Shinji looked at the heavy car body, then at Misato, who was also covered in dust and stood half a head taller than him, and sighed silently to himself.
He nodded. "Okay."
However, though he agreed verbally, his body didn't immediately move into action.
Instead, he awkwardly turned around, his back facing Misato, and slowly... crouched down.
Misato was just flexing her wrists, preparing to exert force, when she saw his strange behavior and couldn't help but freeze in confusion.
She thought Shinji might have suffered internal injuries or sprained something during the earlier tumble, and it was only now acting up.
Frowning immediately, she stepped closer, her tone laced with concern. "Hey? What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell? Did you hit something earlier?"
As she spoke, she tried to move around to the front to check on Shinji's condition.
"Don't! Don't come over!"
Shinji flinched as if he'd been stepped on, his voice filled with obvious panic. He almost scrambled sideways on his hands and feet, still stubbornly keeping his back to her and burying his head even lower.
Misato, puzzled and even more curious by his intense reaction, pressed on.
"Hey, kid, what's really going on? If you're hurt, you have to say something!" she insisted, taking another step forward.
"I'm fine! Really fine! It's just... just taking a break! I'll be fine in a moment!" Shinji's voice was muffled, carrying an indescribable sense of embarrassment and urgency as he curled up even tighter.
Misato wasn't so easily fooled.
She stared suspiciously at the boy's stiff back, her gaze inadvertently sweeping over his hunched posture, especially the area below his slightly arched waist that he was deliberately shielding with his arms...
As a mature woman, Misato instantly understood what was happening!
The worry and confusion on her face faded like a receding tide, replaced by an extremely peculiar expression—first shock, then sudden realization, followed by a teasing, mischievous smile that spread across her dust-covered yet still beautiful face, growing more and more pronounced.
She crossed her arms and stood leisurely a few steps behind Shinji, no longer trying to approach. Instead, she drew out her words, asking in a playful, distinctly teasing tone:
"Heeey~~ Shinji-kun~~~"
She deliberately paused, watching the boy's noticeably stiffened back, before continuing slowly:
"Onee-san... am I actually quite charming?"
These words exploded like thunder right beside Shinji Ikari's ear!
"Boom!" He felt all the blood in his body rush to his face, his neck and ears burning so fiercely he wished he could dig a hole and disappear immediately! Embarrassment, shame, mortification... all these emotions instantly overwhelmed him.
He wanted to wail internally: In the original storyline, that naive 14-year-old boy being protected beneath Misato like that would only feel fear and gratitude at most—how could he have any other thoughts! But now he was a transmigrator with a mature man's soul inside this shell! The instinctive reactions of this adolescent body, combined with that extremely close, soft, and fragrant full-body protection from a woman just now... Could he really be blamed for this?!
He kept his head lowered stubbornly, pretending not to hear, desperately wanting to bury his face in his knees, completely unable to turn around and face Misato's teasing smile.
He roared helplessly in his heart: 'This damn puberty! This damn transmigration!'
Misato watched the boy's ostrich-like posture of wanting to shrink into a ball, along with his ear tips that were red enough to drip blood, and finally couldn't hold back a "pfft" of laughter.
The laughter sounded particularly clear in the quiet ruins after their narrow escape, carrying a sense of mischievous triumph.
"Alright, alright,"
She seemed to have laughed enough, her tone becoming much lighter, carrying a onee-san's tolerance and teasing. "Had enough rest? Your leg numbness should be gone by now, right? If we delay any longer, it'll be dark!"
Hearing that she wasn't going to press further, Shinji felt slightly relieved internally, but the heat in his face didn't diminish at all.
He dawdled for a few more seconds in his squat, confirming that his body's reactions had completely subsided, before slowly standing up.
He still didn't dare look at Misato, just conspicuously stretched his legs, and said dryly: "...Yeah, my legs were a bit numb just now. They're fine now."
Misato watched his obvious "protesting too much" behavior, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons behind her sunglasses, barely suppressing another burst of laughter. She cleared her throat, trying hard to make her voice sound more serious:
"Good—let's start pushing the car! On my count!"
"One! Two! Three! Push!!!"
They each pressed against one side of the car roof, gritting their teeth, exerting all their strength.
The heavy car body emitted an ear-grating groan, and with their combined effort, it began tilting with difficulty, bit by bit, until finally with a heavy thud, it landed upright with a "clang!" Though the car body was battered and all the windows were shattered, at least it was on all four wheels again.
"Whew... whew..."
Misato patted her dust-covered hands, looking at her beloved car that had endured such punishment yet still stubbornly stood before her, revealing a smile mixed with heartache, helplessness, and a sense of accomplishment.
She took off her cracked sunglasses and casually tucked them into her chest pocket.
Without the sunglasses blocking them, her bright, sharp eyes—now filled with post-survival fatigue and a trace of genuine smile—were completely visible.
Though her face was dirty and her hair messy, this face covered in sweat and dust bloomed with a vibrant, heroic, and absolutely beautiful smile under the sunset's afterglow.
She turned her head to look at Shinji, who was equally covered in dust and panting heavily, her smile sincere and radiant:
"Thank you, Shinji-kun! You've been a huge help!"
Shinji stared at her smile, momentarily stunned.
That smile seemed magical, instantly dispelling the lingering awkwardness and gloom in his heart.
He instinctively waved his hand and offered a somewhat shy yet equally genuine smile: "Not at all... I should be thanking you, Miss Katsuragi. Thank you for saving me twice."
Hearing the slightly formal address "Miss Katsuragi," Misaki's beautiful eyebrows lifted slightly.
Gazing at this boy who, despite his disheveled appearance, now carried far more steadiness in his eyes than during their first meeting, her smile deepened with a natural sense of familiarity as she said:
"Just call me Misato."
She reached out as if to pat his shoulder, but noticing the thick layer of dust covering him, she chuckled and withdrew her hand. Instead, she simply looked at him with her bright eyes, her tone casual yet carrying a formal weight:
"Let's work well together from now on, Shinji-kun."
The setting sun stretched their shadows long across the scorched road littered with rubble and glass shards.
In the background loomed the still-churning colossal mushroom cloud symbolizing destruction, alongside the battered yet standing dark blue Renault.
Amid the ruins, a new bond had quietly formed in the aftermath of calamity.