I'll be splitting the rest of this chapter by scene, not section, because the rest is just one huge section.

With a little narrative character-presentation for Gendo, I just crafted a viable excuse to give Cirus a solo battle debut. More accurately, I wanted to show off Unit 14's unique capabilities, and do my mystery-foreshadowing that the reader can already tell I'm so fond of. Also, Cirus' more natural, laid-back personlity becomes more apparent, ironically, in battle. And something that bears mentioning. I hadn't, when writing this section, planned the Tokyo-3 reconstruction that comes up later, so I had to make sure those buildings in the crater were described as 'temporary' constructs to make it all fit properly later. Remember writers, revisions are occasionaly necessary! *smirk*

The battle, or rather, single blow, itself is probably one of my better battles. Why? It's so short. I tend to drag battles out too long, but only with scenes I want to see, so I can't ever bring myself to scrap them. (Actual publishing will probably cure me of this 'problem'... I'll just keep my own private version for my sanity.) Naturally, the big 'foreshadowing' is the odd behavior around Cirus' AT field (i.e. not using it), and the most obvious point of interest is the arm-blade he used to kill Hutriel. Yes, Unit 14 still has those armor-fins on the forearms that the other Evas have (look at any picture where you can see their forearms to know what I'm talking about). The blade come out through those fins. I wrote Kenosis very quickly, and so the style is very utilitarian, the detail-level moderate in many ways. Another issue, is how I used two 'earth' Angels in a row. Yes, that's kinda cheap, but not necessarily 'inaccurate'. ...Just unlikely.

It's important to note, that of everyone's reactions to the battle, very little should be read into Rei's reaction. I am not implying she has some special connection to Cirus. I am depicting her uncanny intuition. She simply knows these things. Again, I'm not rocking the character boat yet. I worked at establishing my new character in the original setting, and then I started 'growing' everyone.

Another aspect of Cirus I'm trying to get across is that he's actually quite humble, despite his skills and abilities (and nature... but that's explained later). The lack of swagger after the battle is conspicuous for that reason.

I debated, and still hesitate, about having Rei 'trip'. She's a very coordinated, focused, always on the ball character, and she's my obsession, so I more than like all of that. The scene, however, is just too much fun not to keep, and I think Rei occasionally misstepping when jumping down from a high ledge is not too out-of-character. I enjoyed writing this scene so much. Visualizing the weight in one's arms, from Cirus' perspective, is just so neat for me. (Okay, I admit it, catching Rei from a fall is a fantasy of mine like anyone else... Cirus is a self-insert character.) However, I make sure to keep Rei her natural self. Rather like that severe and extreme event with Shinji, she doesn't care, but is being obstructed from her business by his interference (and the subtle freeze of shock). Cirus caught her on instinct, part of his respect for women in general, but we already know he has a 'soft spot' for Rei with his blush from before. He's quite mature, so he doesn't drop the ball. Rei could be seen as being rude, but in reality she just doesn't care in this scene, it's not part of her personality.

Of course, the final scene just rams this point into your eyes. Cirus loses his cool for the first time in the story, and actually dents the front of a metal locker. The reader can see he's not handling things as well as he'd expected. Now the fact that Shinji actually picks up on this odd behavior is a point of debate among fans, I see that, but then I think 'why not?'