“…… country~roads~take~me~home~

to~the~place~i~belong~

xstxtountain~mama~

take~me~home~country~road……”

At night, next to the campfire that crackles from time to time, Shigeru Aoba is playing the guitar one by one, gently humming a leisurely tune that everyone is quite familiar with, and everyone enjoys the quiet atmosphere, and even the voices of each other are unconsciously lowered a lot.

Soon, however, Shinji Ikari's young voice, which had not yet begun to change his voice, interrupted Shigeru Aoba's singing, and even startled the birds that were perched on the treetops nearby.

"- What! I, I, I, I, I want to live in a tent with Chu Xuan? ”

Makoto Hinata said that Shinji Ikari, who was assigned to the tent tonight, stood up from the folding chair with a "whirl", and his face was red from the light of the fire.

Feeling the surprised and inexplicable gaze of everyone, Shinji Ikari's face became even redder, and he sat down again with his body bent, and asked Hinata Makoto, who was looking at him with his mouth wide open, in his throat:

"W-That...... Am I going to live in a tent with Senior Colonel Chu Xuan? ”

"Of course, Senior Colonel Chu Xuan's tent is only used by himself, and we are three people squeezing into a tent, so I wonder if it's average.

But I didn't expect you to react so much, sorry Shinji.

Then you can come with us tonight, anyway, the tent we rented was originally for 2~4 people. ”

Hinata Makoto apologized to Shinji Ikari for his inconsiderateness, but Shinji Ikari shook his head vigorously, poked his two index fingers at each other, and said in a slurring voice:

"No, I'm not unwilling, I just think...... Taken aback.

For example, if Senior Colonel Chu Xuan agrees, then, then I will bother. ”

Shinji Ikari's wording was quite polite and formal, it was just living in a tent with Chu Xuan, and he said it as if he was staying at Chu Xuan's house, which made Hinata Makoto scratch his head in confusion.

"Ah...... I don't think Senior Colonel Chu Xuan will object......"

Speaking of this, Hinata Makoto, who had been suffering from the suspicious gaze of others, simply stood up and asked loudly to Chu Xuan, who was quietly listening to the night insect chirping with the black cat and Ayanami Rei not far away:

"Colonel Chu Xuan, it's okay to let Shinji live in your tent too, right?"

"No problem."

As Hinata Makoto expected, Chu Xuan didn't have to think about it at all, and directly agreed, after all, he was not a beautiful girl dressed as a man, so there was no need to find various reasons to avoid sharing a room with other "people of the same sex".

"I'm sorry for your trouble!"

Although Hinata Makoto and Chu Xuan didn't care about this trivial matter like sesame grains, Shinji Ikari still stood up a little nervously and bowed to Chu Xuan.

"Hey...... Shinji, that guy...... Probably projected part of his feelings for his father onto Chu Xuan......"

Looking at Shinji Ikari who was behaving a little strangely from a distance, Misato Katsuragi's eyes flashed with some kind of indescribable look, it was not a look of jealousy that Chu Xuan had easily established a relationship with her ward, but a certain nostalgia...... But it's not just a look of nostalgia.

Misato Katsuragi, who was next to her, looked at Shinji Ikari's slightly imaginary face with Commander Gendo Ikari, and the corners of her mouth curled slightly.

"What's so bad about that? Boys have to imitate a man's back in order to grow up. ”

Sitting on the other side of Ritsuko Akagi, Maya Ibuki and Misato Katsuragi with complicated expressions did not speak, but there was a little pity in their eyes, Commander Ikari Gendo ignored his son, this is no secret in the NERV base, and everyone does not know what happened to the father and son in the past, so that they will become such a strange relationship.

Everyone doesn't think it's Ikari Shinji's fault, but the general situation is that there is a stepmother to have a stepfather, and for Commander Ikari Gendo, who has never paid any scandals, what kind of considerations does he have to treat his biological son so coldly?

"Shinji, we're going to go to the glade in the forest to see the stars - the clearing where we picked the wild vegetables in the morning, would you like to go together?"

When the bonfire was about to burn out, Chu Xuan took the black cat and Rei Ayanami to take the initiative to go to Shinji Ikari, who had been listening to music with Hinata Makoto and Shigeru Aoba, but had been listening to music with headphones, and sent him an invitation to stargazing.

"Hey...... Looking at the stars, it's a nostalgic activity. ”

Shigeru Aoba put down the guitar in his arms, stretched hard, and stood up.

"Shinji, go ahead, this is a rare youth."

The shoulder-length literary young man patted Shinji Ikari on the shoulder, then showed his shiny teeth and gave him a thumbs up.

"Well, thank you......"

Shinji Ikari agreed to Chu Xuan's invitation with some embarrassment, and he didn't know if his thank you was said to Chu Xuan or to Shigeru Aoba, or maybe he was thanking both of them at the same time.

Because the "adults" are no longer interested in the overly youthful activity of stargazing - or maybe it's just because they're embarrassed to get together with the children and take turns looking at the telescope, in short, the only ones who end up looking at the stars together are Chu Xuan, the black cat, Rei Ayana, and Shinji Ikari, but there shouldn't be any danger near this campsite, and there are no wild beasts.

And...... Probably no one still remembers that Chu Xuan is actually only "18 years old", right? But it's true that he's not just 18 years old.

"By the way, speaking of stargazing...... You should be able to see P.L.A.N.T. and MACROSS with this telescope, right?

-- I saw the lunar base just now. ”

After observing the moon, the closest moon to the earth, and the earth's "neighbors" Venus and Mars, the black cat looking up at the starry sky suddenly thought of the "human miracle" unique to this world when Chu Xuan was looking for the next star.

For Shinji Ikari, the rapid development of aerospace technology, various mechas, and the emergence of new humans are already part of the "common sense", but in the world where the black cat lives, there is no such surreal "black technology" - and of course there are no zenith stars and interstellar insects.

"You can see it."

With his super computing power, Chu Xuan quickly and accurately aimed the telescope at the P.L.A.N.T. composed of the colonial satellite and the space migration ship Macross located at the L5 point of Lagrange, and then gave up the eyepiece.

Out of the consideration of gentlemanly demeanor (in fact, he did not dare to compete with the black cat for the right to be the first to watch), Shinji Ikari only put his eyes in front of the eyepiece after both the black cat and Rei Ayanami finished watching, and saw the appearance of P.L.A.N.T. for the first time "with his own eyes".

In fact, the P.L.A.N.T. seen from the eyepiece of the astronomical telescope is not as good as in the photo, it is just a string of ordinary steel spaceships or small steel satellites, but Shinji Ikari still has a certain emotion in his heart that can only appear when he sees it with his own eyes.

"That's the kingdom of the new humans...... Is it also a front-line base for humanity p.l.a.n.t......."

"That's right, P.L.A.N.T. is a frontier base in the universe established by humanity in order to save energy to escape the gravitational pull of the earth, and is mainly composed of various industrial colonization satellites and a few agricultural colonization satellites.

As for that part of the macross...... Perhaps the school teacher has already told you the truth, which is actually a cosmic migration ship built by humans.

If humanity can't resist the invasion of interstellar insects, then it can only embark on a journey of escape with the Zenith people who fled to the solar system. ”

Chu Xuan pushed down his reflective glasses expressionlessly, pointed out to Shinji Ikari the cruel future that everyone didn't want to talk about, and then raised his head to look in the direction where P.L.A.N.T. was located, as if he could directly see those artificial satellites that were too small compared to the real "satellites" with the naked eye.

Chu Xuan's indifferent words made Shinji Ikaru's body pause for a moment before he replied softly:

"Hmm...... A teacher once told us. ”

- Although the teacher didn't say it explicitly, he implied that Shinji Ikari and the other children, who were still young, would definitely not be able to fit all the humans on Earth, maybe not even a tenth of the humans, and that the incompetent humans who didn't study well would only be abandoned.

Although the teacher's approach was cruel and made some of the children who didn't study well more self-defeating, it also made other children study harder, and Shinji Ikari had always thought that he was destined to be abandoned before he came to the NERV base. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to subscribe (this site), reward, your support is my biggest motivation. )