For concerned members of the audience: I'd like to inform you that no Mary Sue's or Gary Stu's will appear in this fanfiction. He's going to get along with some members of the cast more than others - a few will be harder to win over at first, but not everyone is as open as he is. There won't be a harem ending or an asspull where SEELE gets "Omae wa mou shindeiru'd" out of nowhere and the apocalypse is stopped. Death is coming and it won't be stopped.

While our protagonist won't be going for the imouto route, (sorry Rei fans) he'll still look forward to treating her as if she was a little sister. Expect fluff and family fun times after a bit of coldness at first. No smut here - well, as spicy as I can make it, at least.

I do love a good OP protagonist story and a dash of a happy ending mixed in every once in a while, sadly this won't be the case. All he can do is try - and isn't that the lesson learned from Eva? Will he save Kaji's life? Will the second Rei survive? Will Misato stop drinking? Or will he sit back and do nothing much like a certain Third Child we all know? Only time will tell.

This chapter concludes the "prologue" of sorts to get acquainted with our protagonist. Sorry for the wait. After this, the main story begins as NERV rears its head at the new and improved(?) Shinji Ikari.

With that out of the way, please continue to read and review Isekai'd into Eva.

It turned out waiting was much harder than it sounded. Apparently paranoia kicks in around the fourth day. Something about, you know, BEING ALONE but I digress. It was weird. How could Shinji just do nothing for all these years? It was like being an NPC in a video game or something. All he did was wake up, eat, go to school, come home, do work, then go to bed. And absolutely nothing else besides his damn cello.

I even looked for his, ahem, "goods" but nothing turned up. Apparently Shinji was incredibly boring - more than I expected. That would have to change by the time I got to NERV. In music and other...genres of entertainment.

School wasn't really anything special. My mind had more important matters to focus on, like the dangers of altering the timeline.

It scared me. Knowing the future, that I could prevent it from happening again, all of it. But it left me lost: should I take the safe path and let the horrors repeat? Or risk it all and potentially create a bigger catastrophe down the line, putting everyone's lives at risk? I didn't want to pull a Gurren Lagann and end up like Shinji in the third movie, out of the loop for a second time.

My thoughts drifted to the baby Hitler dilemma I saw in a movie once - if I could kill baby Adolf, would it be right? Because if I didn't, millions would die. But if I did, someone worse could take his place or the USSR would become an unstoppable force. And even millions more would die anyway. Let's not even mention the issue of shooting a defenseless baby before it became a genocidal maniac.

To kill ten to save a hundred or to kill a hundred to save ten? What was the answer?

The answer was obvious: save everyone. But that wasn't "realistic." So the little shit lived, and the safer option was executed.

Damn you, reasoning.

So it was settled: stick to the timeline and make sure the major beats happen at any cost - but everything else was fair game as long as it didn't have any long-term consequences.

I do have a lot of range in that department. Come to think of it, Shinji could have talked to a lot of people. I could always chill with the Bridge Bunnies, hang out with Ken and Toji, talk to Fuyutsuki - it's not like I didn't have options here.

Three more days. Just three more days of waiting and the adventure would begin.

A shame Sachiel had to die first. His design was always my favorite out of all of the Angels.

My mind now set, I focused on my dinner, excited for what was soon to come.

It was a bright and sunny morning. From outside, I could hear the sounds of birds from chirping in their nests or huddled on telephone wires. Cicadas buzzed loudly, drowning out the birds, and just long enough to be heard over the gentle flow of what little traffic there presumably was.

...and I've already been through this before. I got up, showered, brushed my teeth, and was about to dress myself when I realized something - why show up exactly like Shinji did in the first episode? It wasn't a bad look necessarily: white shirt, black pants, tennis shoes, pretty average.

But I'm an EVA pilot now! Asuka had a point - there was no one else like us, for better or worse. So why be what everyone was expecting? Why not be weird? There was nothing wrong with a surprise here or there.

A grin stretched across my face as I nabbed a tie, a graphic t-shirt, and a few other things I bought with what money Shinji had laying around. It was a lot - he sure loved to save his allowance. Deciding not to draw attention, I splurged a little on personal stuff for when I'd move in with Misato - just to keep up appearances. Posters, a game system, books, art supplies, the usual.

Out with the old, and in with the new. I ditched the undershirt for a graphic white tee with a red design, one with Angels and biblical symbols on it - very simple with its use of shapes. A red tie was hung around my shirt collar, now a full dress shirt. My white sneakers were replaced by a stylish pair of burgundy ones. Fashionable, matching, yet very formal. I kept the pants.

Even though I was worried about someone pointing it out, I bought a small necklace with the Star of David on it. It would match with Misato's cross, and was fitting with - well, I don't need to say it, now do I?

My stuff all packed and ready to go in my (brand new) backpack, I took one last look at my room. I kinda felt sad having to leave so soon. If I didn't have to save the world...I would have loved to have stayed and made it my own. But that was in the past.

I made sure to bring the S-DAT so I wouldn't get bored on the lonely train ride there. What could be better than listening to the pre-Second Impact's greatest hits album for an hour?

The cello would stay until someone from NERV came to pick it up, probably.

Until then, hold down the fort for me, pal.

The cello stood there as stoic as ever.

Perfect! You're a natural.

My wrist watch beeped. Ten minutes until the train arrived.

With pep in my step, I strolled to the station full of fear, excitement, and...joy.