NGE: vault of the fallen

CHAPTER 11

goh decided and anna had decided together they would convince shinji to join them for the trials before entering themselves, and so they did

this meant that six competitions were held, as the tournament is held every six months, and only individuals with a kill count of at least fifty dominus-class seraphim, seraphim were classed into five levels, dominus was the second largest, only trumped by leviathan-class, the classes were as such, the smallest were the parasite-class, named such do to their ease to kill, then there was the reaper-class this was the class that one had to start worrying about they were the size of a standard tactical frame-type vector, but they hunted in packs and were deceptively physically strong, baron-class was third, they were the size of centurions, but could be brought down by a skilled knight frame-type vector pilot, the dominus-class which were the same size as the baron class but they were tanks and could take many hits from megaframes before going down, and finally the most powerful leviathan-class these were masters and used both their freezing and AT-abilities perfectly, only the most experienced and capable fireteams could take on a leviathan, and killing one is an instant admittance into the seraphim trials should you wish to partake in them, as well as a cash reward for your accomplishment

"katsuragi, you rarely show up to see me" i said, she nodded

"true, but i wanted to give you a progress report since you left" she said, i nodded, as i led her to my sitting room, and gave her a bear, which she took greedily, quickly popping it open and taking a long swig

"you have no idea how long it's been since i have had one of these" she said

"since NERV" i said, she blinked

"how the hell did you figure that out" she asked

"i pay attention, especially to what was my most important subordinate with you i would have definitely fallen apart" is aid, she took the praise, and practically ignored it

"anyway, i was here to tell you other competitions have opened up, sponsored by the seraphim magistrates, these are essentially dressage competitions for riders, and their dragons, mostly do to how kinky some of our riders and dragoons have been becoming, subdivisions of the trials have opened for such competitions, where one would race their dragon in human form around a track, it was seriously kinky, and i signed up for it, since kaji was my dragon i could enter him, and he couldn't complain much" she said with a chuckle

"you have seriously been punishing the poor bastard, aren't you a dragon too" i asked, she nodded

"my chosen rider, has yet to claim me" she replied, my eyebrow raised in confusion, if it wasn't kaji who would she choose, misato shook her head at her former charge's obliviousness

"anyway the seventh annual seraphim trials are about to begin, seraphim scoring will begin in three months time" misato said, i nodded

"cool, though i am confused what took so long, the last tournament was over thirteen months ago" i said

"i'm aware, but we have decided to place the competition so that it will happen on a schedule, the tournament will happen in late december early january, and in late may, early june" misato said

"i see, and three months from now is may" i said nodding in understanding

"yep, you thinking of participating" she asked, i sighed

"goh want's me to" i said

"goh, not saruwatari" she teased

"he told me to call him goh, should i start calling you katsuragi" i asked, she shut up immediately at that, she would prefer he didn't

"what do you want to do though" she asked

"i got no damn clue" i said her eyebrow raised in confusion

"misato i made my name around unit-01, i did that on purpose i knew no matter what unit i'd used i'd do well because nothing is as hard as controlling an evangelion, but that wasn't the only reason" she said, she simply sat their waiting for him to continue

"what do you know of the artificial souls of the EVAs that we were given" i asked

"practically nothing" she said

"they were copies, specifically copies of rei's soul, the sovereigns made copies of souls they new would be the most docile they could find so that the EVAs could stay functional and under the pilot's control" i said, her eyes widened

"that's why rei had no troubles with her EVA, and why asuka said piloting unit-02 had become so easy" she said, i nodded

"the EVAs weren't fighting against the pilots anymore, instead they were actively helping the pilots, it's like using the dummy plugs as a support system, but it was still a soul, the pilots still had to subjugate to control the EVAs, asuka and rei did it subconsciously rei was able to bond with the copy of what was her soul, she was the only one that didn't have to really force her EVA to submit, asuka had been forcing her EVA into submission from day one, so it was a subconscious effort for her" i said

"what about you" she asked, and i laughed

"it was anything but subconscious for me, the soul of my EVA had evolved do the EVAs past experiences the soul was pulled along to keep up, and entirely new entity was born from those ashes it was why i made certain the entry plugs of the EVAs weren't sealed with the EVAs themselves, i had named the girl who was born from rei's soul tsukihime, and she was like rei in every way, except instead of following my father, she was loyal to me, and at first we were partners she helped me fight, and we conversed constantly, revealing she was more of a cross between mari and rei" i said

"that's why you were always talking to your EVA, because she responded, we thought you had gone insane, yet you acted fine outside the cockpit, that answer's so many questions, wait you said it started like that what happened" i smiled

"the real reason i have stayed away from everything to do with what is essentially today's society, i started to enjoy controlling tsukihime, forcing her under my thumb, having her fight for me and do as i please, you watched me slowly get more brutal and more like well, awakened unit-01, you always assumed that was unit-01s doing no that was all me, i wasn't restraining unit-01 i was pushing it into those actions, pushing her into those actions, and tsukihime simply submitted like any ayanami would" i said

"you got drunk with power" she said

"i soon realized what i was doing, but tsukihime only encouraged me to continue, telling me it was the reason why she existed, that she belonged to me and was my weapon to use however i wished, my fighting style was me getting slowly more drunk in my own power, eventually i just accepted it as who i am, but i also knew i needed to quarantine myself and tsukihime, plus my mystic art made that very idea, possible" i said with a chuckle