first. ( audio )

[nothing]

[ The voice is hushed and small, but no less direct for it. ]

Reporting. Met with Ikari-kun and the pilot of Unit-02. [ Kaworu Nagisa, the Fifth Child - she omits him, as something unsettles her still. ] Housing was located, according to instructions. No status problems. I will wait.

[ Silence, as if she forgot to end the recording, until: ]

Requesting information on where to buy clothes. My plugsuit is not useful here.

Comments

[salvagedsoul]

[It's the exact same response. Kaworu looks away, his eyelids drooping with heavy thought. But his smile is broader, genuine.]

You and I, really, are the same.

[nothing]

You may think what you will.

[ What she thinks, she at least won't consider in present company, even to herself. ]

[salvagedsoul]

[Maybe he's coming off like he's enjoying this, and in a way, he is. But it's from a warm feeling in his chest - not malice.]

You didn't know you were going to be brought back when you self-destructed.

[The same, the same, the same.

Rei has his sympathies, - he's sure Seele would have done the same to him, had his death not been part of their plan from the beginning, or if they had some other use for him.]

[nothing]

No.


... I am aware that we can understand each other.

[salvagedsoul]

[he looks back again, still pleased.

Something about this feels good. Makes him feel more at ease.]

Regardless, if you'd like to protect Shinji-kun from me, I won't mind.

[nothing]

[ Rei doesn't have anything to compare this to. Though the unwanted memory of the Sixteenth Angel invading her heart in her own form is all that comes close, it hardly fits. She sees it plainly in him, something far more than base curiosity towards beings who stand on the other side. ]

It was my promise.

[salvagedsoul]

Well, I can't stand in the way of a promise made to Shinji-kun.

Do as you like.

[nothing]

I intend to.