2010-06-03 - Cutscene: Yes

"Ungh!"

A NERV biotechnician grips his face. His nose is smashed and bloody, bent wrong, broken. Her eyes are wide with a combination of anger and shock -- what the hell just happened here? "Someone control the little bi--"

The words die in the woman's throat when NERV Commander Gendo Ikari steps into her field of view, moving with single-minded purpose, as if the rest of the world didn't exist. The center of his attention is an ongoing scuffle. Through the clamor of metal bits scattering and people trying to keep control, screaming in Japanese can be heard, high-pitched, female, a delicate voice straining under the weight and force of anger. "Give it back!" the girl cries. "Give it back!"

Gendo Ikari watches Rei Ayanami, wearing little more than a paper gown, fight three NERV biotechnicians. Every time they get close to wrestling her down, she finds a way to break free -- desperation and surprising physical fitness unite to give her strength. One of them brandishes a syringe -- Rei slaps it away, continuing to howl her command.

Gendo Ikari looks over his shoulder at the technician mopping up her nose. He doesn't ask -- but she answers.

"She was fine until we took her personal effects, and then she went crazy over this... headband she was wearing," the minion says through a thick accent of injury that turns all their consonants wrong.

"Mm." Gendo Ikari walks over to wear Rei's clothing has been left and picks up a sky-blue ribbon, probably around six feet long. He lifts it to his face and examines it, and then, with a grim, stony expression, marches toward the fracas, which halts almost immediately. Even Rei is prompted to suddenly stand still, obediently staring at Gendo, bruises from the struggle beginning to rise on skin the color of porcelain.

"Rei," Gendo says, before pointing at an 'EXIT' sign over one door. "What does that say?"

There's a long, uncomfortable silence as Rei stares at it, and then at Gendo, without answering. After thirty seconds, Gendo continues.

"What's three plus seven?"

Again, Rei has no answer, her eyes widening in a discomforted look of shame and self-reproach.

Gendo Ikari's expression doesn't change. He steps forward and hands Rei the ribbon, which she snatches with the impudence and neediness of a child. Gendo's arm moves around Rei's shoulders, shepherding the girl and beginning to walk.

"After what's happened... you deserve /some/ comfort. Especially with what's to come."

Rei does not look consoled by this. She ties the ribbon around her head. It trails behind her when she moves.

Gendo Ikari and Rei Ayanami walk together, out of the infirmary and deep into the catacomb-like corridors of NERV.