Evangelion IF: Shinji Ikari and Mana Kirishima, a World Too Late for Love

Beneath the rebuilt streets of Tokyo-3, the scars of war have not yet healed—and neither has Ikari Shinji. Three years after the fighting ended, the city has rebuilt its buildings, its shops, its laughter. But Shinji remains frozen in a past he cannot outrun, caught in the quiet space between "once a pilot" and "just a high schooler." He smiles. He deflects. He tells no one about the gaze that seems to follow him, or the question he can never answer: did he actually protect anyone at all? Then