I don't know, you tell me.
The snake-like Angel turned reared its ugly head at me. As I thought, it was actually attracted to me. I had the EVA move to the side slowly and sure enough it followed me. I realized in the moment that this method of testing was stupid. After all, if you saw an animal your size in your room you too, would follow it with your eyes.
The Angel moved first, it's electrical limbs grotesquely curved then slammed down like a whip. There was a small input lag between my thought and the EVA's movement, thankfully it wasn't long enough to prevent me from dodging the attack.
"Very good, now grab the weapons we're sending --" Akagi's voice in my ear was irritating.
"No," I spat back immediately, "There's no point in using weapons that will do no damage. It'll just up cost for no reason." I could not understand why they bothered sending regular assault rifles in a fight against something what could amount to infinity from Jujutsu Kaisen.
"The point is research and development, do not disobey the orders of your superiors." Akagi's demanding voice was about as pleasant as dragging your finger through sandpaper quickly.
I rolled out of the way of another attack. Because it's limb was whip-like I couldn't use standard joint-control techniques I had been practicing. The best scenario in this case would be to focus on the basic footwork I knew and keep dodging, which is what I did. I got back up and brought both my fists up.
I narrowly dodged another two whip strikes coming for me.
"Grab the weapons Shinji!" Akagi's voice in my ear made me turn my head.
"I heard you the first --" I felt something grab my arm. "AGH!" It was as if hundreds of red-hot needles had stabbed into my skin. It was completely different from the pain I had sustained in my fight against Sachiel. It was more intense because of the higher sync rate... but somehow I managed to push through. My past experience with Sachiel and consistent piloting training had somewhat gotten me used to it.
Beyond that. I may not have a full understanding of how to utilize cursed energy, for complex things such as barriers, but reinforcement did mitigate the effects of the pain I felt.
I grit my teeth and got my balance back.
The tentacle wrapped around my arm and pulled me in. "Bastard!" Since it had my arm wrapped, I had to step in rather than back -- I doubted the EVA could contest with it in strength when my sync rate was in the 78%. The other tendril whipped me from the back. Rather than needles stabbing into my arm, it felt more like something had cut my back. Since the Angel seemed so eager to pull me closer, I obliged.
I rose my fist, my mind raced.
Line Drawn.
Ratio formatted.
Weakness Formed.
I used my hip and my shoulders to put as much force into my fist as possible... as much force as I was allowed to put into it while being dragged and pulled by the Angel. As I approached Shamshel's shell, I felt as though I had hit steel. My fist was repelled and I was pulled back, then whipped on the front this time.
"Shinji, use --"
"SHUT UP!" I yelled from my coms, their talking was distracting me. Tokita hadn't taught me what to do in a situation like this, and I doubted my footwork would do much in this scenario. The Angel had an A.T. field active which repelled all of my attacks. "Well then, if you're going to play dirty!" I reached out with the EVA's hand and touched the barrier between us.
Hexagons glowed, stopping it from going through. A warmth in my chest reassured me and I felt even more connected to the EVA than I had before. I could listen to what it was hearing. I was no longer seeing things through a monitor inside the entry plug, I could see through its eyes.
My arms covered in some sort of glowing light grasped the shield in front of Shamshel as if it were cloth, and with some struggle I ripped it apart. Shamshel's electricity still made my body twitch in pain, but I could handle it. I raised my other fist and punched Shamshel's shell with enough force for its tendril to let go of my arm.
"Good, now move back and grab a weapon!" Akagi's ignorant advice fell on deaf ears. She was a genius in a lab, but that was the worst piece of advice I had heard today.
"Hell no!" I moved closer, bridging the gap between Shamshel and I. To begin with, it's main weakness is that it moved those tendrils like whips, if I moved away I gave it space to reel them back and swing them at me. By closing the distance a lot of the force from its attack could be reduced.
"Shinji!" Katsuragi's voice rang in my head. I grabbed Shamshel's giant neck? The beginning of it's tail? The part right beyond its head and made the Eva turn as it fell. I put as much force as I could. As both the Death Machine and the Angel fell, Shamshel's electrical tendrils were pulled back as if they had a mind of their own.
"Telekinesis is so not cool," I let go of him and dodged backward. Maybe Akagi had a point after all. Still, I would refuse to tell her so. I heard a metallic sliding sound akin to a sword being unsheathed, then an exhaust pipe releasing something. I turned my head and saw an armory filled with guns. "What'd you want me to use these for? Kill time? If I wanted to entertain this giant thing I'd ask it to play poker with me."
"Shinji!" This time it was Akagi's voice felt more annoying through the communication device. I would have to ignore her again.
"AKAGI!" I yelled back, she wasn't the only one who could yell. Shamshel stopped dragging it's full body on the ground and rose. "Any bladed weapons?" I knew there was a knife on the shoulder of the EVA, but Shinji had never been told technically, so if I suddenly grabbed it would be weird.
"None." I heard the coms mute -- I could tell they were muted because all noise, including white noise shut off entirely -- it was rather peaceful inside this cockpit for once. If it didn't smell of blood, and I didn't need to drown to be in here, it would be nice to have a nice nap in here.
With that sentiment out of the way. I hated Akagi with every fiber of my being. If I didn't know any better, I would say she's the sole reason I could produce cursed energy, energy that was produced from negative emotions. What do you mean None?
Without the sharp knife Shinji had used to stab Shamshel's core with, I would be forced to use my bare hands, which meant only one thing was available to me -- my Ratio Technique.
Shamshel threw it's telekinetic tendrils in odd patterns. I kept myself standing instead of rolling and dodged by hopping, treating this like a life-or-death jump-rope game. With so much ducking and jumping, the odd person watching this from far away might confuse this very life-threatening situation I was in for a live version of the Dinosaur running game.
There was only way to get close enough to Shamshel to hit it's core, and knowing so I had to brace myself.
"Better my arms than my back, I suppose." I took a deep breath, imagined my cursed energy moving to my arms, then reached out to the tendrils attempting to whip me. I turned my wrists while grasping them, then reinforced my arms to endure the pain and pulled with all the strength I had. Shamshell was dragged toward me. Then, I dashed toward it and slammed against another wall of hexagons.
"Oh for the love of --" I slammed my fist against it and ripped the A.T. field to shreds for a second time before visualizing its core.
Line Drawn. I drew the line from the top of it's head to the bottom of it's body -- specifically the bottom that is on the ground. By interpreting the line this way the core was on the ratio I needed.
Ratio formatted.
Weakness Formed
"OSU!" I punched it with all the strength left in me.
SHRRRR
I heard a hum as the crimson orb on Shamshel's body began to glow. The angel's body bloated and began to expand. The tendrils loosened their grips and I immediately dashed back while covering my face. Crimson erupted like a dye-bomb, covering the EVA, and as an extent myself.
I walked back to the docking station and went back to NERV HQ. Getting out of the Entry Plug, the first thing to meet me was a sour faced Akagi. It looked as if she'd drowned herself in lemon extract. Her eyes were knit in a glare and her teeth were clearly clenched. Paying attention to her left temple, I could see a vein bulge ever so slightly more than usual.
"Would you like to explain what happened out there?" Akagi asked, crossing her arms, "if you are not going to follow orders then your contract will be terminated. We have no use for a pilot who won't follow orders."
"Hey, hey... he beat the Angel didn't he?" Katsuragi stood between her and I, but I wasn't going to take this good cop bad cop.
"Maybe if your orders weren't horrible I would actually follow them. What do you mean use ranged attacks?" I asked knitting my eyebrows, "Are you insane? You were the one who explained to me that an Angel's A.T. field could completely negate military fire-power. What good is a rifle if it can't do anything to them? Experiment? Do that with automated turrets!" I stood my ground and took a step forward, "I'm your soldier, sure, but I'm not letting you get me killed because you have gripes with me. My job is to kill angels, not to act as your guinea pig."
"Be that as it may, if you had listened to our orders we could have tested the weapons' effectiveness and adapted them for use in the next fight --"
"Ugh, you're not listening. Is every adult like you?" I pointed at my ears, "There is no next fight if I die."
"There is something else that must be addressed. This 'instinct' of yours," she changed the topic immediately and I sighed and rolled my eyes, "when did you think it would be a good idea to share this information with us?"
"Ah yes, hello there science-oriented facility that has created giant Mechas to fight Kaiju with the power of science, I actually have this gut feeling that I can feel the presence of Kaijus when they get near me. Explain how? Uh, no clue. When did it start? Three weeks ago. Are you sure about it? I dunno, it's only happened ONCE." I got closer to her. "You didn't even believe me until the Angel appeared, why would I bother at all?"
"Guys --"
"Not now Katsuragi" We both said in Unsion before we continued to stare at each other.
"Very well, if you continue to disobey orders then you will simply not be called upon when the time comes." Akagi said that like they had a lot of options to begin with. They didn't know, I knew what the next Angel would be, and that Angel required two people to defeat in the original -- both in the movies, in the series, and in the manga.
"Sure! But remember," I pointed at myself using my thumb, "I'm the strongest there is. I got the highest first-time sync rate -- I asked Misato -- highest first-time sync rate of all time, I've beaten two Angels and I did so with little to no casualties. Next time an Angel comes in, and you cannot defeat it, you better get on your knees and apologies before you ask me for any favors!"
I may have gotten a little too heated.