Rei Ayanami

"I understand. I will pilot it."

Rei Ayanami is a mysterious fourteen-year-old who is, as far as anyone knows, the ward of NERV Commander Gendo Ikari. Beyond that, little else is not classified. Keenly intelligent and disarmingly blunt, Ayanami's lack of social graces endears her to few, and create the rather popular impression that she is in some way deeply autistic (in addition to the less popular rumor that she is a Coordinator). Ayanami divides her time between attending a specialized school in Tokyo-3 and piloting the Evangelion Unit-00, an advanced prototype designed for combatting extraterrestrial / metaphysical threats known as 'Angels.' She has a reputation for taking extreme risks, driven by the need to accomplish her mission at any cost -- even that of her own death.

Background Information
Rei Ayanami was brought into the NERV fold at a prepubescent age by the program's director, Gendo Ikari. As she has grown, she has undergone rigorous scientific conditioning to enable her to synchronize effectively with the monstrous prototype for NERV's angel-killing technology, the Evangelion Unit-00. For undisclosed reasons, she requires near-constant biological maintenance, largely in the form of a carefully concocted pharmaceutical regimen; this may or may not have anything to do with her affirmed status as a vegetarian. In the past year, NERV has begun deploying her into Earth Federation Army conflicts as an apparent show of solidarity.

Nearly any information beyond this is intensely classified.

Personality Traits
Rei Ayanami is a girl of few words. Even those who interact with her regularly are not granted the privilege of insight into her inner world. There is speculation, which NERV will neither confirm nor deny, that she suffers from some manner of low-grade autism.

Talents & Abilities
Beyond her ability to pilot Evangelion Unit-00, and her generally exceptional schoolwork, it is not known -- or, at least, not available to the public -- whether or not Rei Ayanami possesses any particularly noteworthy talents or abilities.

Notable Affiliations
Rei Ayanami is known foremost as an experimental pilot for the NERV organization, which defends Earth from beastly, ultrapowerful creatures known as 'angels.' She possesses a close mentor-pupil relationship -- some would say more akin to the relationship between father and daughter -- with the organization's leader, Gendo Ikari. She is monitored on the battlefield by NERV's foremost tactician, Misato Katsurugi, and off it by the subfaction's chief scientist, Ritsuko Akagi.

Rei maintains something vaguely resembling friendship with her fellow Evangelion pilots, Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Sohryu. All three children are limited (for varying reasons) in their ability to properly socialize with peers, however, so this closeness is often left unremarked upon, let alone tangibly displayed.

Recently, Rei has entered into a stilted, awkward romantic relationship with Leo Stenbuck, to the general confusion, alarm, and amusement of both teens' peers.