"A man said once that the greatest stories are never told. This is not a fictional story but a historical account, written to ensure that future generations will be aware of what their ancestors went through. And considering the reverence some people show towards me, I decided it would be best if I wrote this personally; too many times throughout history did scholars exaggerate the acts and deeds of a great person, mangling the truth so far beyond recognition that future generations started doubting its authenticity. I have no illusions about being such a person; indeed, the reader shall find that I am just as flawed as everyone else... maybe even more so.

For people using this document for research – historians, librarians, scholars, whatever –, I tried to make my account as clear and truthful as I could. I lived a long life and there is no way to tell how much longer I will walk this mortal coil, but chances are that whoever is reading this will do so at a time when I'm gone. Thus, trying to lie or mislead the reader is completely pointless.

Even if the reader does not take any of this at face value, I only ask that you listen. I didn't write this solely out of posterity. There were many errors and mistakes I made which could have been avoidable, errors and mistakes that came at a horrible cost. I have never been a man of religion and certain events I recorded here confirmed my belief that there are no deities worthy of worship in this universe, even as some of my fellow men started believing I should fill that spiritual vacuum – yet I still find myself praying that whoever is reading this will not repeat the same mistakes I made. Because if they do, there might not be anyone left to read their memoirs.

Believe me. As the greatest mass murderer in recorded human history, I know what I'm talking about."

- The memoirs of Kaworu Nagisa, first recorded circa 2371 AD

Low Earth orbit
~251,275,368 BC, exact date unknown

When the lone yellow star rose slowly from behind the planet that formerly obscured it, the light illuminated nothing but destruction.

For entropy is a force that cannot be denied. Over time, all will return to nothingness, whether naturally or by force. In this case, force was what shattered the once mighty hulls that floated in the silent void, the once golden-white metal now charred and blackened. Not one of them was untouched, for the enemy they once fought refused to be denied.

As the planet turned and light illuminated the darkness, it reflected off a billion objects. Long and slender vessels in the shape of enormous towers glided across the void, their numbers outshining the innumerable stars, the glint of bluish-gray on the metallic hulls declaring nothing but cold indifference for their fallen foes. To them, all will become one, or become nothing. Those who are worthy are absorbed; those who resist are purged. As it always has been, as it always will be.

For as the planet turned, a shape slowly emerged from the night. A long, slender bow of a spacecraft revealed itself, its half-circular cross-section widening steadily as kilometer after kilometer of golden-white hull plating inched out of the planet's shadow. A smaller secondary spire joined the main body underneath, still separated by several kilometers before the two joined together where the triangular hull ended to partially reveal a massive sphere inside the half-circular outer hull, the hole framed by two winglets at the sides, angled slightly downwards, with the titanic spacecraft finally ending in an almost collar-like half-circle over its massive engines.

On the bottom of the titan, beneath the rim of the domed outer hull, hangar bays opened and smaller vessels swarmed out like hornets defending their nest. Except these "hornets" were still individually in the hundreds, some even in the thousands, of meters long themselves, hurriedly arranging themselves into a haphazard battle formation... even as the beings within knew it was pointless. There was nothing that could be done: their foes were just too many, a malevolent darkness creeping across the sky like a swarm of locusts, darkening the very galaxy itself with their numbers. No matter how many were destroyed, new ones took their place; no matter how many decades and centuries the war dragged on, they could do nothing but fall back against the advancing wall of doom that spanned thousands of lightyears in every direction. Now there was nothing left but the very world that had given them life – and the enemy was at their very doorstep.

At an unseen signal, the smaller vessels simultaneously opened fire. Yellow beams of ionized plasma and energetic particles crossed the void, gouging deep gashes into the gray vessels. The first line shattered immediately, metal plates melting and tearing, gleaming towers falling apart underneath the onslaught they were subjected to and adding their own wreckage to the debris already separating the two sides.

But the enemy refused to be denied. Enormous bolts of blue-hot plasma detached from the tower-ships, their searing payload hurtling across the void with deadly accuracy to hit their mark. Hexagonal energy fields flared into existence in their path, the bolts slamming against the sudden impediment before breaking through. This time the result was far more destructive: instead of penetrating the armor and wreaking havoc inside like their counterparts did, the plasma bolts simply melted through their entire target, exotic metal alloys failing to withstand the temperature and physically impossible nature of dark matter plasma.

Even as more tower-ships fell apart, more and more took the place of the fallen ones, the fleet mindlessly pushing onward despite their losses. Casualties were irrelevant; everything and everyone was completely expendable, with trillions more to replace them. They could take their losses; their prey could not.

Such was the face of inevitability.

The lone figure standing atop the titanic vessel knew that all too well. He knew this was the end. Their time had come and gone, never to return. As leader, it was his role to delay that fate for as long as he could, but averting it was beyond his power. No force in existence could do so. He knew the failure was not his; the conflict was lost the moment it began, the moment they attracted the attention of something infinitely their greater. Even so, he felt nothing but sorrow... yet he would fulfill the duty that was required of him.

The final duty of all warriors.

"Supreme Alpha, we cannot delay any longer. The system is almost completely surrounded and the spatial interference is approaching warp tolerance. We must go."

"Then go." – the warrior replied curtly. Nothing more needed to be said.

A ring of light formed behind him, framing his head and upper body as the warrior kicked off the vessel a moment before he ceased to be where he just was, the universe distorting around him as he rapidly accelerated to relativistic speeds that left the vessel behind in a split second before decelerating just as swiftly, coming to a standstill in the middle of the enemy fleet at an acceleration that would have killed any lifeform a million times over. With a single command from his mind, the red spear in his hand shifted, two edges becoming six as he brought the weapon to bear. A massive torrent of light erupted from the hollow space enclosed by the weapon, lancing out towards the enemy with unstoppable force. As unrelenting as they were, even they could not stand against the might he unleashed upon them: with a slashing motion, the beam cut across the fleet, a thousand vessels perishing in a single blow before they even detected the incoming attack.

Reacting to this new threat, the vessels shifted their positions and unleashed their barrage upon the warrior even as he slashed outward with his weapon, several dozen energy beams erupting from the spear. His targets didn't even try to evade before the deadly lances of light were upon then, each beam burrowing through a separate vessel before emerging on the other side and seeking a new target even as the previous one erupted into a blinding white firestorm as the reactor core within failed, the entire vessel crumbling into itself like a giant sinkhole as the very fabric of space itself shook and struggled to remain contiguous. With the innumerable vessels all imploding at once, what remained was a weak and tenuous curtain between the physical universe and what laid beyond, forever weakened and strained – yet it would not be until eons later that anyone would feel the effects.

But not all of them had him in their sights. He saw great plasma bolts impacting the planet, each flash extinguishing millions of lives. Sorrow rose even higher within the warrior, even though he knew all along what would transpire no matter his actions. His task was merely to distract the great enemy – and so he did, leaping into battle with the might that had come to be known of him. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions fell before him... yet his strength wasn't infinite, unlike the ranks of his enemies.

Just before his end came, the warrior saw the titanic vessel, surrounded by a sphere of hexagons blazing like a star in their strain to hold back the sheer firepower directed at them, some of them failing altogether, vanish as a swift yet immense ripple consumed it, spiriting it through space and time to somewhere their enemy could no longer follow... and he knew their fate was out of his hands now.

Then a blinding brilliance covered the battlefield. Even the local star's light disappeared before it, the gray vessels pausing at the unexpected phenomenon. Their indecisiveness only lasted for a split second before they could think no more: vessels and debris alike became dust, dust became nothingness. In his broken armor, the warrior's still body dissolved into liquid, a tiny red light emerging from his mortal shell to join many others in answer to a calling that promised life anew.

Eventually the brilliance faded, leaving only a silent void and a two-pronged red spear drifting slowly towards the now uninhabited world. As the world turned and day became night, the only source of light below was the dull crimson of magma breaking through the crust in the most heavily bombarded region, the ash in its wake plunging the formerly blue world into a million years of darkness.

[Screen caption – main title: 大量破壊実体エヴァンゲリオン]

Tokyo-2, Inner District 5
September 25, 2041

The hapless pedestrian barely managed to step out of the way of the teenage boy of around 14 years of age swearing under his breath, sprinting past without breaking his stride. – "Sorry!" – the boy called behind himself before turning his attention back to the front. 'Why NOW, of all times?!'

Kaworu Nagisa was not having a good day. To him, it seemed like an eternity – but the truth is that it was only a week ago that his life was completely overturned.

Until a week ago, he was enjoying (to a certain measure) the life he had always known: the life of a teenager living by himself in a condemned building in downtown Vienna dating back to the 1970s, with no heating, running water or even electricity other than what he could get from illegally tapping into another building's network. Technically, he was a homeless squatter – but as no one ever bothered to evict him, he just showed himself in and all was fine. Besides, what choice did he have? Roam the streets until he froze to death in the next –30°C winter storm? Get eaten by a random specimen of the various xenofauna that roamed Earth since Second Impact? Kaworu was perfectly fine with his current living arrangements, thank you very much.

That is, until a certain altercation with the son of his school's principal ended up getting him expelled from high school, barely two weeks after he began high school. That in itself was already a bad thing and for any other teenager, a source of much yelling and scolding from one's parents. Not for him, though. If there was any advantage to being a street kid without known parents, it was the lack of getting yelled at by an adult.

With that said, no parents also meant no one to wake him up in time for school if his homemade alarm clock suddenly died during the night. Especially while his internal clock still hadn't completely readjusted to having been sent halfway across the world. Having only turned 14 this month, education was still compulsory for him and his expulsion naturally attracted attention from the authorities. Kaworu, naturally, knew that he was going to be sent to another school instead and that is precisely what happened... but what could've possibly caused said authorities to send an Austrian teenager to Japan, of all places, was beyond him.

Or rather, he had a good guess that it had something to do with his Japanese name. For the simple reason that nothing else came to mind.

And so here he was, running down the street of a Japanese city built from scratch after the Great Revolution of 2018, touted as a shining jewel of human perseverance alongside White Forest City... and he was late for school, right on his first day. At least, he thought he was late. Not having a watch or any idea how long it would take him to walk to school from his new home, he decided to depart early, just to be safe. As luck would have it though, that damn alarm clock died again and he almost overslept.

Bad luck wasn't the only kind of luck he had that day, however, as he rounded another corner to see the school's gates barely a hundred meters ahead of him. Letting out a sigh of relief, he slowed to normal walking speed and started rummaging through his bag, finally pulling out a slightly crumpled sheet of paper just as he reached the gate.

He almost didn't notice the rising sound of an electric engine until the black sports bike shot past him and through the gate, passing so close to him that his shirt was ruffled by the wind. The students who got inside before him immediately scattered in every direction to make way, most of them voicing varying degrees of surprise and/or indignation. None of that really mattered to the biker, though, who deftly steered the vehicle into an empty parking slot and came to a stop, the engine going silent the instant the bike stopped.

The scattered youth made annoyed grumbling, several sending glares towards the driver before filing into the building, as if they were already used to this situation. Well, most of them: the twintailed girl storming out and immediately heading to the biker with a none-too-pleased expression looked anything but content. – "碇さん、それが危険だった!" – she erupted.

Only now did he notice that the biker was anything but usual: the thigh-length black synthetic leather coat, the shades that likely substituted for biker goggles and an unruly mop of blue hair, of all things, did not conceal whatsoever the clearly feminine features of a teenage girl.

That... was most definitely how the girls in his old hometown dressed. Not even close. If anything, she looked more like a mafioso or something.

"どのような無謀な運転はそれでしたか？!" – Twintails continued in rapid-fired... he guessed it was Japanese. – "君が誰かを傷つけるできた！"

"しませんでした。" – the other girl replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

"私は何が起こったのか見た！" – Twintails pointed a thumb towards Kaworu. – "君がはほとんど彼を傷つける！"

"彼は負傷していない。"

"それが関係ないのです！ もっと注意してください！" – With that, the twintailed girl turned away from the biker and went straight for Kaworu. Behind her, the biker girl just walked away without a care for the world. – "ごめんね、渚くん。気にしないでください、碇さんはいつもそうです。" – the twintailed girl said, this time to him.

Kaworu scratched the back of his head uncertainly. – "Um... I can't speak Japanese. Sorry."

"That's quite alright." – the girl replied in fluent but ever so slightly accented English. – "Nagisa-kun, right?"

"How did you know?"

"The principal told me you were coming. I'm here to fetch you. I'm Hikari Horaki. We're going to be classmates, in room 2-1... but you probably don't know where it is, which is why I was waiting for you here."

"Ah, yeah, I had some, uh... technical difficulties. Almost overslept. Sorry."

"It's alright. This way."

True enough, she led him into the building, down a set of corridors and upstairs. Kaworu was used to being surrounded by people of his age group but wherever the two of them passed now, everyone just stopped and stared at him as if he was some kind of curiosity. Even with all the mixing of ethnicities after Second Impact, Japan's population was mostly native, with the usual Asian features and dark hair.

With his pale skin, ash-gray hair and crimson eyes, Kaworu was sticking out like a sore thumb and he knew it.

Evidently Hikari noticed it as well, if her slowing down to let him follow her closer was any indication. – "Sorry about the staring."

Kaworu shrugged. – "It's probably my hair. I've gotten used to it."

"I've been meaning to ask, if you don't mind..." – she said after a momentary pause. – "Why did you dye your hair?"

"I didn't dye. This is my natural hair color."

"Really?"

He nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see him. – "Yeah. I don't know why, it's always been like this. My eyes, too."

"Are you, um... an albino?"

Kaworu shrugged again. – "I don't really know. Never bothered to ask a doctor."

They walked in silence for another minute.

"Why did you transfer here, if I may ask?" – she asked eventually.

"It wasn't by choice, actually. I got into a fight that didn't end well for the other guy."

Hikari paused in her step and turned to face him. – "What do you mean?"

"He and his gorillas were harassing a younger kid and I told them to cut it out, so they came at me instead." – He shrugged. – "I fought back."

"...and?" – she probed.

"Like I said, it didn't end well for them and the principal didn't appreciate his son ending up in the hospital with a broken cheekbone."

The girl immediately lost her cool at that. – "You picked a fight with your principal's son?!" – she all but shrieked, attracting the attention of everyone in earshot.

"I didn't!" – Kaworu denied, defensive at her sudden outburst. – "I just told you, I told them to leave that kid alone and they attacked me! I only fought back."

Which was the exact, literal truth.

Hikari just stared at him for a few moments before skeptically asking – "And why exactly did you step in, then?"

"What was I supposed to do, let them beat him up instead?" – He let out a sigh before adding – "Anyway, nobody listened to my side of the story, so... I'm here."

Again, she stared with a probing glare before turning away from him and resuming her journey, Kaworu falling in behind her. – "No offense, but I honestly hope you don't intend to make a repeat performance here." – she eventually said.

"Not if I can help it." – he replied.

They eventually arrived to a classroom. Right outside the door though, Hikari paused and held him up. – "Seriously, no fighting. Please." – she said quietly.

Kaworu smiled. – "Don't worry. I'm not the troublemaker type." – he assured.

Hikari's expression seemed to lighten up at that, which was one less weight on his shoulder. On the other hand, it was immediately replaced with another; for the moment they entered the classroom, the entire class collectively turned to stare at him. As if the staring outside wasn't enough already.

Kaworu never really felt comfortable at being the center of attention for so many people at once.

Even if that attention came in varying flavors. Case in point, the girl at the second desk of the door-side row: brown hair with hairband and twintails ('What is it with twintails?' he wondered), glasses and a very generous chest, eyes running over him like those of a predator savoring a particularly delicious prey.

She was clearly and openly checking him out – and judging from her approving smirk, her impression was positive. – "Lookin' good there, stranger!" – she called out, flashing a thumbs-up at him.

"Mari!" – Hikari reprimanded the other girl. – "Cut it out!"

"Already staking your claim, Kari? That's bold."

"I said cut it out!" – Hikari repeated before turning her attention towards the class. – "Everyone listen up!" – she called out in a tone that was definitely unlike the polite and friendly behavior Kaworu had seen from her so far. Before he could ask her to not bother with an announcement, she thumbed towards him. – "Starting now, he'll be in our class. No heckling him, understood?"

"What's up with that hair?" – someone called from the rear of the class.

Kaworu sighed. – "For the second time today, it's not dye." – 'Not like I could afford it in the first place.' he silently added. –"This is my real hair color."

"Yeah, right."

"Yamada! You mind shuttin' up?!" – a boy in a tracksuit called back. – "New kid just got here and you're already making an ass of yourself."

Kaworu thought he could see a faint smile flash across Hikari's face at that before she snapped back into 'class rep mode'. – "Suzuhara! Watch your language! And Yamada, I just said no heckling!"

"Hey, I just asked a question! How is that heckling?"

Without bothering to answer, Hikari turned back to Kaworu. – "So, um... you'll sit in front of Suzuhara."

Kaworu nodded. – "Okay. Thanks for everything."

She smiled at that. – "Don't mention it. It's my duty as class representative." – With that, she walked to her own desk right next to the door, the busty girl behind her immediately leaning forward to get her attention, the move emphasizing her chest to such an extent that Kaworu idly wondered if she was doing it on purpose.

Not that it mattered much, in the end. As the girls in his previous school (well, schools now) learned, Kaworu Nagisa was not easily influenced with flirting. Or influenced at all.

Chapter completed on 15/02/23, re-edited on 18/11/28.

A warning to new readers. This story is technically a crossover, yet I'm posting it here instead of in the crossover section because the other half is obscure enough that no one would find the story otherwise. With that said, prior knowledge of the other half is not needed to understand the plot and references; all necessary context and background information will be provided in end-of-chapter author's notes.

This is also going to be a VERY long story. I don't know the current length but it will probably be somewhere between 200k-300k words. Hell, it might even hit 400k words. I'm not writing it long just for length's sake; that's how many it will take to write down the whole plot without leaving anything out.

Explanation on the title: the 'Strategic' part is not meant as in 'something to do with strategy' but meant as in 'strategic weapon of mass destruction'. Thus the kanji in the title, tairyō-hakai jittai, literally meaning 'entity of mass destruction' (Japanese has no word for 'cyborg' but instead transcribes the English pronunciation into katakana) – which I believe is an apt description of an Eva's combat effectiveness against conventional forces.

Regarding the unsubtitled dialogue in this chapter: I do not use translation convention. That is, non-English dialogue will not be translated or subtitled (and in the case of Japanese dialogue, not romanized), if rendered in writing at all. Assume everyone speaks English unless stated otherwise. The reason for this is that there is no non-English language the entire cast speaks without exception; Kaworu in particular doesn't speak Japanese here, so he realistically wouldn't understand Hikari's outburst. Of course, if this story would be an anime, English dialogue would be in Japanese as well. With that said, I'm not going to toss around random Japanese and German phrases just for the hell of it either, for the simple reason that I don't speak either and thus the more (and more complex) I use, the more likely I'll screw up and make myself look like an idiot. Only when it makes narrative sense will a character use a foreign language.