In Fang Zheng’s view, the training for Shinji Ikari in the animation was always quite foolish.
Foolish from start to finish.
So he was definitely going to... change it.
"Listen up, Shinji."
Standing in the gym, Fang Zheng held a wooden sword, smiling as he looked at the slightly nervous Shinji Ikari in front of him.
"You must understand, if you’re going to accept my teaching, it’s going to be a very, very painful process, one that might make you cry... Are you really sure you’re okay with that?"
"I..."
Faced with Fang Zheng’s question, Shinji Ikari hesitated for a moment, not knowing what to say. He lowered his head, thought for a while, and then responded softly.
"Well... I don’t know..."
"Alright, then let’s analyze this first."
Fang Zheng wasn’t expecting an answer from Shinji Ikari right now, so he coughed lightly and continued speaking.
"You should understand by now that you’re an EVA pilot... In short, you can’t escape from piloting this EVA, it’s something you must do."
"I know..."
"No, no, no, it’s not the same."
In response to Shinji’s complaint, Fang Zheng waved his hand.
"Since you’ve piloted an EVA, you should know that it’s different from a regular robot. When it gets hurt, you feel the pain too... right?"
"Uh-huh..."
Hearing this, Shinji Ikari subconsciously touched his waist—he had felt that pain when Unit-01 was pierced by the Fourth Apostle before, so he naturally understood what Fang Zheng meant.
"Ever been in a fight?"
"..."
Faced with Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Shinji remained silent for a moment and shook his head.
"Then take a guess, what’s the first thing you should learn in a fight?"
"Well... how to hit someone?"
"Wrong."
Fang Zheng waved his hand.
"It’s learning how to take a hit."
"...Huh?"
"To put it simply, when you control an EVA and fight an Apostle... well, that’s the official and elegant way of saying it, but in reality, you’re just controlling the EVA to fight the Apostle, aren’t you?"
"Uh..."
Recalling his battle with the Fourth Apostle, Shinji Ikari didn’t have the courage to argue.
"Learning how to take a hit isn’t about actually getting hit, it’s about accumulating combat experience. That way, you can make judgments more easily."
Saying this, Fang Zheng shook the wooden sword in his hand.
"This brings us to the second point: during a battle, you don’t need to rely on others’ orders to act all the time."
"Huh?"
At this point, Shinji Ikari was confused again.
"But Miss Misato said..."
"I know what First Lieutenant Katsuragi said, but in the battlefield, it’s different."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng raised his right hand and made a gun gesture aiming at Shinji Ikari.
"You see, Shinji, if I had a gun and pointed it at you, would you quickly find a place to hide, or would you wait until someone shouted at you to dodge?"
"Ah..."
"Got it? Orders from others have a delay. Even if they make the right judgment, there’s a high chance that timing might lead to a mistake. Therefore, you don’t need to follow orders from the rear for every move. After all, you’re the one battling the Angel Envoy on the battlefield; how you act, you have the most priority in decision-making. Of course, if the Operations Department has a plan laid out, you must follow through, but as for how to execute... First Lieutenant Katsuragi doesn’t need to teach you hand by hand."
"So, what should I be learning now?"
"Hone your intuition."
"Intuition?"
"Exactly."
Looking at the clueless Shinji Ikari, Fang Zheng chuckled.
"You’ve never been in a fight or suffered hardship; as a result, even if danger heads your way, you’ll just stupidly stand there waiting to die. That’s definitely not acceptable. So we need to hone your intuition first; at least make you aware of danger’s presence, and then learn how to evade it."
"..."
Hearing this, Shinji Ikari once again fell into silence.
"What’s wrong?"
"I don’t care. Anyway, to others, my life and death don’t matter..."
"You don’t care about yourself either?"
"Of course."
"Good."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng raised the wooden sword—aiming it between Shinji Ikari’s legs.
"... Mr. Fang Zheng, what are you doing..."
Seeing this, Shinji Ikari’s face turned white immediately, and he quickly instinctively clamped his legs.
"Aren’t you afraid of dying? I won’t actually kill you, but I can let you experience what it means to wish you were dead... What do you think?"
"Wait, wait a moment...! I think, Mr. Fang Zheng, I think we can negotiate..."
"A Q&A is useless, remember what happens if you can’t dodge, you know better than I do!"
"Noooooo!!!!"
Hearing the screams coming from the gym, Rei Ayanami paused silently, then... directly turned around and went back to her room.
In the days that followed, Shinji Ikari’s "Hell" descended upon him.
Dealing with someone like Shinji Ikari, an introverted child, just talking doesn’t mean much. With so many psychologists in the world, how many autistic patients can they actually cure? Moreover, it’s not about psychological treatment right now; the Angels could attack at any time. Hence, Fang Zheng’s approach was simple and straightforward.
And that was Hell Sparta training!
Every day, Shinji got up to run, then eat, go to school, come home, continue training, train until he was starving, eat, train again, bathe, and finally fall asleep exhausted.
To put it bluntly, it was about not giving Shinji Ikari a chance to overthink.
For such introverted kids, the more personal time you give them, the more they overthink. Conversely, once they’re caught up and forced to train every day, they don’t have time to think about these things. At fourteen, when they’re growing, even eating enough is a problem. While focused on the dining table, who would think about whether "he likes me or why am I so annoying"?
The stomach is the most important thing, isn’t it!
And Shinji Ikari was quite obedient. Although at first, he wasn’t used to it, Fang Zheng never gave him a chance to overthink. Plus, even though the training was strict, the food tasted quite good. Fang Zheng was proficient in this technique of giving a stick and then a date. Dealing with someone like Shinji Ikari was naturally a piece of cake.
So Shinji Ikari kept adapting and adapting, and then...
"Huh? The Angel is coming?"
Looking at Misato Katsuragi in front of him, Shinji Ikari was completely puzzled. He had been so obsessed with training these days that he almost forgot what he was supposed to do when Misato came to call him. Meanwhile, Fang Zheng chuckled and said,
"That’s right, this time Unit-00 will also be deployed, get ready."
"Ah, yes!"
For so many days, Shinji Ikari had been trained into a reflex. Upon hearing the command, he immediately nodded and left, leaving Misato Katsuragi staring in surprise at his departing back. Given her understanding of Shinji Ikari, she originally thought that this young man would act up again. But he actually followed orders without a fuss?
Thinking of this, Misato Katsuragi couldn’t help but look at Fang Zheng questioningly.
What did he do to this introverted boy?
This time, the attacker was naturally one of the most striking and powerful Angels, the Fifth Apostle Thunder Angel. It looks like two pyramids joined together into a geometric shape. Compared to Little Shui, and the Fourth Apostle whose appearance is indescribable and needs a mosaic to be shown, the Fifth Apostle’s level was truly science fiction breaking the limits.
"Target intruding over Lake Ashi!"
On the screen, the Fifth Apostle gradually approached Tokyo-3, while at the same time, Unit-00 and Unit-01 were ready.
"Launch!"
With Misato Katsuragi’s order, soon, the two prepared EVAs shot out rapidly, flying towards the ground.
Now is the time.
Watching the scene, Fang Zheng rubbed his chin. If he remembered correctly, the Fifth Apostle almost turned Unit-01 into roast chicken at the first encounter. Of course, that was because Shinji Ikari was not good at fighting at the time. However, now he had been thoroughly trained via the Hell Sparta method, there should be no problem.
Besides, he still had a backup plan...
Sure enough, at this moment, suddenly the alarm sounded.
"Target generating high energy reaction!"
"What?!"
Hearing this, everyone present was startled.
"Circumference accelerating, starting contraction!"
"No good!"
Seeing the analysis pattern, Ritsuko Akagi’s face changed dramatically, and at this moment, Unit-01 and Unit-00 had already risen to the surface.
"Not good, quickly dodge!!"
At this time, Misato Katsuragi also realized something was wrong and urgently issued the command.
Unfortunately, it was too late. As her voice hadn’t even fallen, a light beam from the Fifth Apostle’s gap shot explosively towards Unit-01!
It’s over!
Something’s going to happen!!
Witnessing this scene, almost all the staff sweated. But then, the scene that happened left them dumbfounded.
Almost at the same time, Unit-01 suddenly crouched down, did a backward roll, quickly freed itself from the Restraint Device, and suddenly dodged sideways. The light beam from the Fifth Apostle narrowly missed Unit-01 and struck the ground where it had originally stood!
"Boom!!"
The sound of explosion, flames flew, and the staff collectively breathed a sigh of relief. None of them had expected Unit-01’s reaction to be so swift, able to directly dodge the Apostle’s sneak attack?
However... that pose looked kind of weird.
Right now, Unit-01 was hunched behind a nearby building, thighs tight, hands covering its crotch... Hmm, a robot making this pose is quite awkward.
But... it’s useful, isn’t it?
Watching Unit-01 on the screen looking as if it feared being ambushed, Fang Zheng also laughed. Never mind how it looked, practicality is key. For days he trained Shinji Ikari for this. It seems Shinji Ikari’s reflexes were successfully honed by him.
Compared to the smug Fang Zheng, Shinji Ikari in the cockpit was sweating profusely as he looked at the crater made by the Thunder Angel’s explosion. Fang Zheng’s special training was indeed effective, but also insane. To ensure Shinji stayed alert, Fang Zheng even assigned a task to Touji Suzuhara and the others: keep an eye on Shinji in school and if he showed any gap, give him a thousand years of pain.
Since the Fourth Apostle battle, after being saved, these two’s relationship with Shinji improved, naturally not refusing such "enhanced male friendship" actions. Consequently, Shinji was tormented daily, worried about being attacked at school.
Now, the training was effective, but the aftermath emerged—as soon as he sensed killing intent, he felt a burning pain from his behind...
Oh my, can it still be good if it happens?
Thinking of this, Shinji Ikari’s gaze at the Fifth Apostle instantly filled with killing intent.
This time, I’ll definitely take you down!!

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