2010-07-15 - Cutscene: No Part of My Body

Underneath Tokyo-03 there is a place called the NERV Geofront. Deep within this place are hangars which are used to store giant beings known as Evangelions. There is also a man there, named Gendo Ikari. He is not an incredibly expressive man at the best of times -- he is cold and severe by habit, and he explains himself to no one.

That is why it is perhaps odd that in one of these Eva hangars, Gendo Ikari stands, and seems to be speaking to himself. The eyes of Evangelion Unit-01 are dim and lifeless. Its massive head, covered in purple armor plating, dwarfs the tall man. It could swallow him whole and not even need to relax its throat.

"Here we stand," Gendo Ikari says, "and the time remaining to us has been diminished still further."

Gendo pauses and pushes his glasses up his nose. "And yet... I believe the last angel will appear now, at any moment. Our wish will come true if we destroy it."

Gendo Ikari is beginning to sweat now. A hand slides into his pocket. "Yui..."

"...it's near."

Ikari's hand closes on a small case. His grip is tighter than perhaps it should be. "Soon..." He begins to remove the case from his pocket and realizes that his hand is trembling. "The time will come when we can meet."

Gendo can feel fear, now -- it registers like a quiver the back of his throat, a tremble in his shoulders that he forces himself to suppress. He opens the case, and inside, on a small pillow, is a thing.

It looks like a slug. It also looks like a sea horse. It has an enormous eyeball. Its spine is visible through its tight flesh, a series of raised notches. Many small nubs, vestigial legs, poke out of the folds of its belly. Vents, gills, some sort of ridges mark its skull, or what may be a skull at first guess. It curls inward, the tip of its tail slapped against its other end.

Gendo Ikari lifts this creature up between two fingers. Standing in front of Evangelion Unit-01, he forces himself not to hesitate. His mouth opens, and he places the creature inside, and swallows, hard.

As it travels into his body, Ikari reflects on its bitter taste, and recalls the words of one of his countrymen, centuries past, who noted that glory is bitter stuff.