NGE: vault of the fallen

CHAPTER 10

the former military academy had been repurposed so it could train new riders, dragoons, and pandoras, to take part in the new seraphim trials, as they were dubbed, the military was slowly disbanded until only one real fleet remained that being the old guard, they were originally their personal forces of the first minister, they stayed in service as the united world federation's active navy, so that the federation didn't get caught entirely with their pants down

shinji was given an invitation to attend the new vanguard academy, of which he had declined, at twenty-one years old, shinji didn't want to fight any longer, he had fought long and hard for seven years after all, shinji was granted an ark-class, and two starforge-class automated shipyards, in case he ever changes his mind, of course shinji himself is oblivious to this fact shinji was also awarded his own province with a fully provisioned estate including automated building facilities, again should shinji choose to return, shinji didn't know about this either

commander yamashiro had succeeded in forming her own faction, named the white lotus, many were surprised her faction was named after a flower instead of after a dog or a bird, but none brought it up

"anna and i have decided to attend vanguard academy, and compete in the trials, set out" goh said, i gave him a deadpan expression

"do i appear surprised to you, your a battle junky and have rubbed off on anna so she's almost as bad as you are by this point" i said, he chuckled

"we hoped we could convince you to join us, you would work well with us, as the trials are a team event" he said, i nodded

"i am well aware of this fact, but i do not intend to compete, i don't even have any experience in the field" i said, this caused all three of the apartments occupants to do a double take

"you first minister shinji ikari have no experience" mira said, in disbelief

"let me be clear all of my fighting experience is with using EVA unit-01, and it's original operating system, i did not upgrade to the current OS with my EVA, so i never had a need to recruit a dragoon, i have used a pandora, occasionally, but those were in rare and very dire circumstances, and i have never bonded a pandora to myself so they were only used in their base forms, my evangelion is my claim to fame on the battlefield, outside of it i have no experience whatsoever" i said, they were dumbfounded by this

"i'm sure you had individuals who would have been happy to serve you" she said

"had partners of their own already, or only wanted to be near me because of my rank and position, the individuals i would want to bond with either had extenuating circumstances that made me rethink my decision, or downright hated my guts" i responded

"your seriously paranoid" anna said

"no he's not, he has every reason to think as he does" goh said he remembered the terrible visions unit-01 showed him of the angel conflicted, and how used shinji actually was

"thank saruwatari-san" i said

"are we not friends shinji, call me goh" goh said, i shrugged

"as you wish" i said

"how can you be sure of that" mira asked

"because i have seen what he has been through, no seen isn't the right word, i have experienced it, being cured by his EVA gave me a unique insight to our friends history, why the united world federation trusts him so much, isn't just because he could have ended the world but didn't, it was because despite the hell the human race put on him, he still decided they were worth saving, shinji proved himself to be the definition of a good person, in the eyes of his entire planet, they knew that shinji had their lives literally in his hands, and they also knew that he had every reason to end them all, but he didn't" goh said

"i am known in many circles as a true angel, and the angel of rebirth, i was and apparently still am the guardian angel of humanity, which is ironic, because i am still an angel as result of third impact, and my government knows this as well" i said

"that's shinji's mystic art, no one knows what it is, because he has never had a need to use, it but it's absolute territory, shinji can manipulate humanities AT-fields" goh said, i looked at him in surprise

"how the hell did you figure it out" i asked

"your ability, i guessed, misato filled in the blanks, i haven't told anyone though, only those who knew previously and those in this room know and that's it, though i must ask you two to keep this a secret, it has been placed as a national secret until shinji agrees to share it, so only his original world knows the truth, a quarter of the overall population, and maybe a tenth of the fighting force" goh said

"if that, the fighting force from my world was not large, second impact hit my world hard" i said, i sat back

"i'll think about entering goh, the academy is meant to teach even the most of ignorant of individuals, like our friends from white lotus, that being said i don't know how i feel about doing this and revealing my abilities to the world, i don't know what would happen should anyone bond with me" i said