Though a minor scene, I enjoy Rei's waking in the hospital room near Cirus. Ayanami-sama is a lovely character, and I enjoy her solo moments quite a bit. I rely on Shinji's moderately grown courage to give Rei a pleasant surprise of human interaction from the only other person she cares about so far. What's important about the scene is what Rei learns about Cirus, and how it affects her. Learning that he is willing ot risk so much for his duty makes quite an impression, but also the simple facts of what he did concern her. She is as much intrigued by Unit 14 as Cirus at the moment. Also, Ayanami-sama is uniquely aware of how much strength it required to recover from the first shock. As a result, she is the least surprised by the revelations around his Eva as they are discovered later.

Rei's moderate changes so far in Kenosis are reflected in this scene quite clearly. The synch ratio improvement is actually indicating a greater comfort with her world as she sees it, however slight that increase may be. Now that Third Impact is under doubt, and the command staff of NERV are all either relaxed about it, or at a loss, her world has relaxed a bit. Ritsuko complimenting her is as much a surprise as it would be for Asuka to actually smile at Shinji. Of course the latter half of the scene is mostly comedic value or character interaction. The harsher interaction between Misato and Ritusko is an aspect of the complexity I mentioned above. The pair have a very unique friendship, combining animosity and sincere concern in almost every facet of its connection. The visual of Unit 00 trembling to hold up a pylon while Unit 02 predicatably maunders on in self-absorbed style is particularly amusing to me, for some reason. Asuka leaving others out to dry would never surprise me.

Beyond establishing that Cirus has recovered, this scene is almost entirely comedic character interaction. Asuka's dive-tackle is perhaps heavy-handed, but Cirus is a younger Kaji to her, so just think of her as projecting onto the boy. If Cirus actually tried to join in, she'd probably stomp on his heart as much as she would Shinji's. Doesn't mean he can't poke fun at her crush, however. You'll notice Cirus only ever 'flirts' with Asuka, he never uses such crass terms toward Ayanami-sama.

As always, I enjoy any excuse for generic character interaction, but the real heart of this scene is the accidental injury to Unit 14's left hand. Technically, Cirus would have still at least shouted in pain at getting a bolt through the hand, unless he was quite focused and determined not to reveal any weakness for whatever reason. When I wrote this, I visualized him as being so focused on the task, that he assumed his hand was just cramping up. Thus, Asuka has to tell him she just nailed him to the pylon.

This short scene is actually the real purpose of the last section, obviously. If you're wondering, the wound vanished while he was descending toward the cages. We finally get to see his 'official' personality, the cold, controlled spy, which I think is rather neat. He interacts with Misato on even footing, which, for a child, is rather disturbing to watch, and I wrote it that deliberately. I hope that effect gets across. I also found the fact that Asuka is a trained military pilot useful in this scene, as she could cop-on faster to Misato's 'silent order'. I think Shinji would have missed the boat completely...

Ah, here we go. The purpose of the chapter-title is revealed. Rei's shifting character is made very clear in this scene, demonstrating the direction she's going. She's reached a point where she's willing to test what she doesn't know, but can feel. Of course, she retains her inherent 'Rei-ness' of calm distance and lack of self-worth, but the seed is there. The reader might be surprised at Misato being so manipulative. I found it quite natural, considering how she viewed Rei in the anime series. She never really considered her important once she knew Rei was a clone. Indeed, she probably just saw Rei as an extension of NERV's corrupted reach. I've actually softened her quite a bit by assuming she likes Rei and thinks of her as a girl in extreme circumstances. I want to like Misato.

One of my favorite early scenes, for obvious reasons. The reader gets a clear demonstration of Cirus' attitude toward Rei. Where he had no hesitation in lying to Misato's face until she pressed the issue, here he is hesitant, tense, and highly frustrated. Rei's presence has an obvious and extreme effect on him, and he doesn't like how he has to act around her. At this point Rei is interested in him for no other reason than his curious behavior. The reader may notice I try my best to show Rei both developing, but still her usual distant self with her odd, hesitant exit from the apartment. She is still blunt and direct, but this time she knows something is missing. Unable to think of a solution, she does finally leave. And it's quite clear that Cirus is not happy with Misato. What becomes more obvious later, is that the fastest way to anger Cirus is to get at Rei.

The next scene's entire purpose is to maintain the ominous tension of Cirus' dark mood at the end of the previous section. He seems to have the same disturbing control as Kaoru, and that reference was intended. Something is brewing, but what? Just building tension here. The finish, where Rei watches him walk off, is simply maintaining that she is curious about him now. I don't intend any peculiar regard other than that.

Cirus knew Misato was either there for him or to get a report from Rei, so yes, he was waiting at the end of that hall as soon as he was out of sight. While the interaction between Misato and Rei is obviously important, it's mostly functional at this point, and gets us to the real point of the section: Cirus and Misato's confrontation. The fact that he actually grabs her arm is deliberately out of character. He is extremely angry, but controlled enough to not physically harm the Major. The reader may notice he never reacts this violently to anyone other than Gendo afterward. He regretted grabbing her arm at all, but stayed focused in the moment. These little bits of information are why the commentary may be of real use to a reader of Kenosis. His defensiveness of Rei is made quite clear in this argument, and it's actually one of my favorite interchanges in the story. "And I thought I was the cold blooded one," is just such a razor-sharp comment given the context. Sorry, I do enjoy my own writing too much sometimes. I hope the reader found it interesting at least.

Misato's apology to Rei is how I reassure the audience that Misato really is a good person, she just got a little confused about human value for a moment. She does care about Rei, she simply knew Cirus felt softly toward her, and thought she could use that. Ayanami-sama, of course, reacts as we expect, maintaining her usual character after the experiment in the land of social etiquette. For now, it appears nothing is greener on the other side for Rei.