It was well after dark before the plane carrying Shigeru, Maya, and Naota touched down in Tokyo-3. Exhausted, the three staggered out of the V.T.O.L. followed by Canti who appeared unaffected. Stretching, Naota slung the bass back over one shoulder, grabbed his backpack from Canti, and threw it over the other, leaving his mechanical friend to carry his brother's bat. "So, what now?"

Maya pulled her cell phone from a pocket of her uniform and started dialing. "Well, now we figure out where you're going to stay. I don't know if we'll have to go down into the Geofront yet, so I'm calling one of our superiors to find out."

Nodding, Naota walked around the landing pad, stretching his legs. Reaching a guardrail around the edge of the building they were situated atop, he surveyed the city—his new home. "It's…smaller than I thought it would be," he observed quietly, wondering where they kept their military installation hidden. Behind him, Shigeru grinned.

"Yeah, I thought so too, at first. Wait 'till you see the Geofront though," he said, joining the boy at the railing.

Glancing up and to his side, Naota regarded the older man. "What's a Geofront?"

"It's like a cave, sort of. Not only is there a city above ground, there are a large number of structures—along with manmade lakes and forests—underground as well."

Naota nodded, starting slightly as Maya Ibuki leaned against the railing at his other side. "Nice view huh?" she asked, looking out over the city, drawing another nod from the boy. "Well, it seems living arrangements have already been made for you. You'll be staying beside Captain Katsuragi and the Third Child, Shinji Ikari." She looked up to regard her coworker. "I'll take him there, you should check in with headquarters. Dr. Akagi is expecting an informal, initial report from one of us, and you're it."

"Damn," Shigeru grinned, pushing off the railing and heading for the roof elevator. "Oh well. It can't be helped, I suppose. You get off so lucky."

Maya smirked, tugging at Naota's sleeve. "Well, come on. We should get you home and settled in. We should probably pick up a few things first though. I can help you."

Shifting the guitar around on his shoulder, Naota nodded and turned away from the view of lights below. "Sure," he said, following the others. He glanced at Canti as he passed the robot, which seemed to be looking out at the city with amazement equal to Naota's own. "Come on Canti."

…

Naota, Maya, and Canti strolled through one of the few malls in downtown Tokyo-3. Naota looked around, eyeing the stores that were still open, wondering where he would get the money to pay for anything he bought. Maya seemed to read his mind. "We'll use my NERV credit card. None of these have a spending limit on them, but try not to splurge. You'll be paying me back for this out of your next few paychecks," she grinned, tousling his hair through his hat—the floppy, brim-all-around one.

"Sweet. When do I get one of those?" he asked, thinking of the three hundred yen his dad had given him, currently tucked away into his wallet. Not much, but really all Mon-chan could afford at the time.

"Which one—a pay check or a NERV ID card?" Maya asked, steering the trio towards an electronics store. "A kid has to have some entertainment," she thought, lamely trying to justify her urge to buy new toys.

After purchasing a decent sized television, a pair of game systems, a couple of games for each, and some movies Maya gave the sales clerk the address to the apartment complex Naota would be moving into, along with the room number. "They'll deliver and set up the stuff tomorrow sometime. Now, let's see about getting you some food. What do you like?"

Half an hour later—after stopping to pick up groceries—Maya decided to make it a 'date' and they stopped by a small ramen stand that was still open. After a quick bite to eat—Naota insisted on using what cash he had to pay—they stopped for ice cream cones, then Maya drove him to the apartment complex. They made idle chitchat on the ride up in the elevator, then got out and walked along until they came to Captain Katsuragi's apartment. Maya pushed the bell button and waited.

…

Shinji Ikari lay awake on his futon, listening to his S-DAT player and thinking about the events leading up to this point. He sighed as the song he had been listening to stopped, the S-DAT clicked, and the machine reversed the tape direction to play the opposite side. Despite the fact that he had his headphones in, he had the volume low enough that he heard her approaching footsteps. Rolling over, Shinji pretended to be asleep as Misato knocked on his door.

"Shinji? Can I come in?" she asked, opening the door and standing in the entrance. "Shinji," she paused. "What do I say to someone who's gone through what he has in such a short period of time? Was it only just yesterday that it started, this morning that Unit-01 and its Pilot were recovered?" She took a breath and continued. "You did a brave thing today, a very brave thing. You should be proud… I am. Good night, Shinji." Sighing, she closed his door, tucking her towel more firmly around the top of her breasts to keep it from slipping off.

As she opened the door to her own room, a knock at the front door to the apartment drew her attention. "I bet that's either Maya or Shigeru with the new kid," she thought, strolling to the door. Glancing down, she realized she was still very lacking in the clothes department but she was too tired to bring herself to care. "Screw it," she mumbled, opening the door. "Hi," she greeted, seeing that it was indeed Maya and the kid—Naota.

"Uh, Captain, Ma'am…" Maya stuttered, taking in her superior's state of undress. She was embarrassed, not because of any feeling of indecency around the woman, but simply because her superior was embarrassing herself in front of one of the Pilots. "She doesn't dress like that around Shinji, does she?"

Misato yawned, shaking her head to clear out the cobwebs. "Maya, we aren't at work. Just call me 'Misato,' please. I see you've brought our guest. Pleased to meet you, I'm Misato Katsuragi; just 'Misato' while we're off duty, and 'Captain' only when we are. I hate the military, you see. Those people are too formal and don't know how to cut loose and have a good time. No sense of humor whatsoever either," she said, thrusting her hand out at the boy. He was shorter than Shinji—but not by much—and definitely scrawnier. But judging by the way he carried himself, seemingly unfazed by the weight of the heavy bass guitar hanging from his shoulder, he had a deceptive amount of physical strength. He shook her hand, his grip firm for a kid.

"Naota Namdaba," he replied, grinning. He liked this Misato Katsuragi. "They said there was another here, the Pilot?"

Misato nodded. "Yeah, one of them anyway. Shinji's asleep right now—his last couple days have been pretty rough. You'll meet him in the morning, and probably Rei too. Ritsu told me she'd already arranged everything with the school and you'll be in their class. Have you been issued a phone yet?"

Naota shook his head. "We get cell phones too?" he asked, impressed.

"Well yeah, we need to be able to reach you in case of an Angel attack and to inform you of tests and stuff. They don't have any limits on them or anything, and it all gets billed to NERV as company expenses. Heh, one of the benefits of working for the world's single most important agency of the day," she laughed, making a mental note to have two phones delivered tomorrow.

"Well, I should get going," said Maya, handing Naota the key to his apartment that she'd picked up at the front desk of the complex. "Sempai said you all have tests tomorrow afternoon, after school. Rei can lead the two of you into headquarters. Goodnight Cap—Misato, Naota."

Naota waved goodbye to the Lieutenant and thanked her for taking him around to shop for things for his apartment, then turned his attention back to Misato. "So, I guess I'll see you both tomorrow," he said, waving his own goodbye and opening the door to his apartment. He stepped into the apartment, followed closely by Canti, who closed and locked the door behind the two. Looking around, he found that the place already had a refrigerator, dish washer, and a washer/dryer combo setup. "This is nice. It's larger than I thought it'd be," he commented, surveying the rooms. "This one is mine," he said, pointing to the largest. Canti nodded, handing Naota his bat. "Thanks. Well, I'm going to bed. There isn't much you can do tonight, since we don't have a tv yet. Oh well. 'Night."

Canti waved as Naota closed the door to his bedroom, and then began putting away the groceries they'd purchased earlier that evening. Like his young roommate, he was enjoying the change of scenery. Mon-chan and grandpa would be fine back in Mabase; Canti was needed here, to look after Naota. The odd robot quietly set about arranging the kitchen into some semblance of order, idly wondering how long it would be before he could go out and shop for other things their new home would need.

Misato woke early the next morning, which was abnormal for her. Usually, unless she had to be on duty early in the morning, she tended to laze around in bed until well after noon. Stretching with a yawn, she got out of bed and dressed quickly. She could hear the shower running and knew it had to be Shinji getting cleaned up before school. "He must still smell like LCL," she thought, wrinkling her nose at the memory of the smell that had covered the boy the previous day.

She stepped out of her room, making a bee-line for the beer-fridge. She grinned as she popped the top on a Yebitsu, downing half of it in one go. "Ahh, that's the way to start a morning," she sighed, walking to the door to her apartment. Seconds later, she stood in front of Naota's door. She was so startled by what answered the door that she almost dropped her beer and pulled her sidearm out. A large (slightly taller than herself), blue robot dressed in blue jean pants, wearing an apron and a chef's hat waved her into the apartment, where she could smell things cooking. "Uh… hi? I'm looking for Naota Namdaba, he does live here, right?" she asked, confused. She didn't remember this guy from her brief meeting with the boy last night.

The robot nodded and then pointed at itself. The screen that was its face lit up with the kanji for 'Canti,' then switched through several other languages including English, two versions of what she suspected was Chinese, and Russian. "Right, uh, you're Canti huh?" she asked, getting a nod. She took the seat it—he—indicated at the kitchen counter and was a little stunned when he offered her a plate of toast and eggs. "Uh, thanks."

Canti nodded, checked the items on the stove, and then stepped out of the kitchen to knock on Naota's door. The door opened a moment later and Naota stepped out, clothed only in boxers. "Mornin'," he mumbled, walking into the bathroom. He came back out a few minutes later to find Canti and the woman—Misato Katsuragi, he remembered her name was—standing and sitting at his kitchen counter, respectively. "Hi," he said, taking a seat and eating what Canti put in front of him, mumbling quick thanks.

"Good morning Naota, did you sleep well?" Misato asked, quickly getting over the fact that the boy had such an odd roommate—hell, one of hers was a warm-water penguin. The boy nodded through a mouthful of food, idly scratching an errant itch at his side. "You should probably take a shower, but you don't have any towels or anything yet, do you?"

Naota shook his head, swallowing and reaching for a glass of orange juice. "No. Damn, I knew there was something we forgot last night," he cursed, taking a long draught of juice.

"You can use my place," Misato suggested, polishing off the rest of her beer and standing. "I'll go see if Shinji's done yet," she said, turning for the door. She was stopped however by a hand on her shoulder. Turning back around, she smiled as Canti handed her another plate of food and pointed in the general direction of her apartment. "Right, thanks. I'm sure he'll appreciate this."

…

Shinji finished dressing and stepped out of his room, pocketing his S-DAT, and hearing the front door open and close. Walking into the kitchen, he found Misato setting a plate down on the counter. "Good morning Shinji. This is yours," she said, pointing at the plate.

He couldn't smell that anything had been cooked in the apartment and wondered briefly where she'd gotten it. "Good morning Misato," he replied before digging into the food. He had to admit, it was good.

Misato went into the bathroom, checked that there were clean towels, and nodded in satisfaction when she found what she was looking for. "Hey Shinji, you don't mind if Naota borrows the shower for a while, do you?"

Shinji looked up from his food. "I thought you said the penguin's name was Pen-Pen," he stated, confused.

"Uh huh," Misato answered, coming back into the kitchen. "You haven't met Naota yet. He just transferred in last night."

Shinji nodded and resumed eating. "When's he coming over?" he asked around a mouthful of food, then almost jumped when someone knocked at the front door.

Misato stood and answered the door. After a quick introduction, Naota jumped into the shower and Shinji finished off his breakfast, rinsed off the plate and left it in the sink.

…

Naota ran his fingers through his hair, slicking it back against his scalp and enjoying a hot shower for a change. There was never enough hot water when Haruko had lived them with. That seemed like months ago but he knew it had been less than two weeks. Sighing, he reached for the shampoo. "It isn't so bad here. The people have all been nice so far, even the Ikari guy. He didn't say much, though," Naota thought, rinsing out his hair and grabbing a washcloth and the bar of soap. "Glad she keeps something besides that froofy girly soap," he mumbled, going about the essentials of cleansing himself.

Several minutes later, he stepped out of the shower a new man—well, relatively speaking of course. Dressing in the clothes he'd brought over from his own apartment—shorts, a tee, his long-sleeved blue shirt, and his baseball cap—he put his wet towel in the hamper and exited the washroom… nearly stepping on something along the way. Looking down, he found a medium-sized fowl looking back up at him, a towel draped over what passed as its shoulder. It gave a short 'wark' before stepping between his legs and closing the bathroom door behind itself.

"Uh, Misato?" he asked, stepping back into the kitchen.

"Yes?"

"You know you've got a penguin in your bath, right?"

Misato nodded. "Yeah, he likes to take one whenever he can. He usually takes about three a day, sometimes more if he feels like it."

Naota and Shinji—who had just returned from getting his bag from his room—both regarded her with odd looks. "Right," both said at the same time, then looked from the older woman to each other and grinned. If one had looked closely, they would have noticed the silent conversation that passed between them. "She's crazy."

"You're telling me? I live here now."

Misato made a sound somewhere between a sneeze and a cough, then looked suspiciously from one boy to the next. Shrugging to herself, she smiled. "Well, you two need to get to school. Come on, I'll drive you."

Naota nodded, following the woman out the door. Had be noticed Shinji's cringe, he might have preferred walking at the chance of getting lost. "Hey wait, I have to get my stuff," he called, stepping back into his apartment. Rushing into his new room, he emptied his bag of clothes and stuck the bat into it, closing it around the handle, and then shouldered his guitar along with the backpack. He tried to justify bringing the guitar as simply wanting to have something to do during lunch period. "It has nothing to do with her, nothing at all."

Waving to Canti, who had his back turned, Naota left the apartment—missing the lunch his roommate had set on the counter. He rejoined Misato and Shinji, and the three of them walked the hall and caught the elevator down. "You play?" Shinji asked, eyeing the Rickenbacker.

Naota shook his head, remembering that the guy who had picked him up from Mabase—Shigeru—had offered to teach him. "No, but I'm learning. You?"

"A little. I'm not very good with a guitar. I mostly play cello," Shinji replied, thinking of the instrument tucked away in his closet.

Misato smiled as the two continued talking, comparing favorite songs, bands, foods, and everything else people who have just met talk about. "Maybe Ritsuko was right, at least partly. All he really needed was a friend his own age. The children at school would have probably ignored him until they found out he was a Pilot—then there would probably be a case of mass hero-worship. Maybe now he won't be alone when the shit hits the fan."

The drive to school was uneventful—for Misato anyway. For the two boys it was a harrowing, life-or-death exercise in self-control, as both had to fight the urge to scream and/or wet themselves at points during the ride. Finally though, after what seemed like an eternity, the ride ended. Fearful that the madwoman would throw the car back into gear and take off at any second, both leapt from the blue Alpine, slamming the doors and standing a good distance away. "Bye kids! Have a nice first day," Misato called, giggling at their expressions as she took off at speeds any professional race driver would have been proud of.

"Holy fuck, I am never riding with that woman again," Naota exclaimed, wobbling a little as he walked into the school. "The last time I felt like this was when Haruko decided it'd be fun to do wheelies on the highway—on the Vespa's front wheel."

Shinji nodded, silently mirroring his friend's sentiments. "I thought she was bad before… I think I'll walk to school from now on. Who's Haruko?" he asked, walking into the building with Naota.

Pausing, Naota looked back at Shinji. "Remind me to tell you later. Come on, let's find the main office and get our schedules."

After a little walking around, the pair managed to find the room they were looking for. There, they were greeted by a girl with freckles and pigtails. "Hi, I'm Hikari Horaki. Are you the new students?" she asked, bowing politely. After seeing them nod, Hikari smiled. "Great. I have your schedules here. Come on, I'll show you to your first class. We have the same homeroom."

Later that morning, after the people who had been hired to build a door connecting the Katsuragi-Ikari residence with the Namdaba residence had finished their work; the men who brought over Naota's purchases were treated to an odd site. On the Katsuragi-Ikari side, they heard a tv on. Since the door adjoining the two rooms had been left open, they took a quick look around to see if anyone was in, in case the person they were bringing the items for had any preference as to how they should be arranged. From the door, they had a clear view into the living room where—they had, at this point, rubbed their eyes repeatedly to make sure they weren't seeing things—a penguin and a blue robot sat watching a movie. Deciding they were being paid simply to deliver the goods and not ask questions, they promptly forgot they ever saw the warm-water bird and the mechanized man, and finished their job as hastily as possible. Had they stayed, they might have been scared further by the look that passed between the two occupants of the room. Bird glanced at machine and machine looked back. "Humans," they seemed to say, and then resumed watching television.

…

Shinji and Naota took seats near the back of the class. It seemed that most of their classmates were not here yet. A row to Naota's right and a seat up a boy sat with a camera and a model tank, making engine noises with his mouth and pushing the tank around his desk. Looking up, they watched as the class rep. walked up to the boy's desk with a stack of papers. "Aida," she called, trying to get his attention.

Aida's tank stopped, its gun turret turning and elevating to point at Hikari. "Target sighted," he said, bringing the camera to bear on the girl. "Fire at will men."

Glaring, Hikari set the papers on his desk. "Will you stop playing and turn that thing off? Here, these are for Suzuhara. Can you give them to him?"

Aida nodded, but didn't put the camera down. "Sure class rep. I planned to go by his house today anyway. He hasn't told me anything, is he sick?" he asked, putting the papers in his desk drawer, along with his notebook and pens.

Hikari sighed, knowing that the papers were as good as forgotten about. "I don't know. He called the school and said he wouldn't be in for the next week, but they wouldn't tell me why. They said it'd be best if he told me himself. I'm worried," she added quietly.

Aida grinned. "Gee Hikari, if it was like that, why didn't you just say so? You and I can go over to his place this evening and see what's going on; then you can tell him off for making you worry like that."

Blushing, Hikari shook her head vehemently. "No, it isn't like that! Really! It's just my duty as class representative to worry about the welfare of other students. What if he was injured in the attack," she muttered, rushing back to her seat as other students started to file in.

"No, I'm sure if Touji was able to call the school, he's fine," he thought. Shrugging, Aida panned his camera across the room, finally stopping on Naota and Shinji. The camera zoomed in on the blue guitar propped against Naota's desk beside a book bag and a baseball bat. "Nice Rickenbacker. Right handed bass?" he asked, standing and changing seats, so that he was now beside the pair of new students.

Naota nodded, his hand straying absently to the neck of the guitar. "Yeah, but I only know how to play it one way," he said, plucking one of the strings.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Aida, the camera leaving the bass and zooming out to take in both new faces.

"It means I'm not very good with it," Naota answered, grinning. "It was a gift, but I haven't had much time to get acquainted with it yet. I'm Naota Namdaba, by the way."

One hand extending, Aida grinned. "I'm Kensuke, Kensuke Aida. And you are?" he asked, offering his hand to Shinji as well.

"Shinji Ikari."

"Ikari? Why does that name sound familiar?" Kensuke asked, and then shrugged. He'd probably remember where he had heard it later. Glancing up, he saw that the teacher had finally arrived. Hikari stood up from her desk at the front of the class, ordering them to rise, bow, and be seated. The teacher immediately launched into a lecture on Second Impact, not bothering to introduce the transfer students to the rest of the class. Reaching over into his bag, he retrieved his laptop and plugged it into the school network before turning it on. He motioned for Shinji and Naota to do as the majority of the class—with the exception of Hikari—had, and pull the school laptops from their places under the desks.

Shinji ignored the scroll of conversation in the school chat room, concentrating instead on the girl sitting up and to his left. Rei Ayanami sat with her head to the window, seemingly ignoring the world around her. "Why does she look so familiar?"

…

Nothing of any real excitement happened for the rest of the day, save for Canti landing in the middle of the school grounds to deliver Naota's forgotten lunch and taking off again. All in all, it reminded Naota all too well of the school he had been in just the previous day. "At least it isn't Mabase," he thought, chewing on an M&M from a package he'd gotten out of a vending machine in the cafeteria.

As the last bell of the day rang, the class erupted into a frenzy of movement and Kensuke, Shinji, and Naota made their way outside and into the sun. "Man, that's why I hate homeroom," he sighed, changing discs in his camcorder.

Naota shrugged causing the Rickenbacker to shift around on his back. "It wasn't so bad. Sure, it was boring as hell, but at least it isn't Mabase."

"Hey, isn't that Ayanami?" Shinji asked, pointing to the school entrance.

And indeed, it was Rei. As the threesome approached the bandaged albino, she regarded them with her good eye. "The Captain has ordered me to escort you to headquarters for testing," she stated, turning on her heel and walking off.

Shaking his head at the oddity disappearing slowly down the sidewalk, Shinji turned back to Kensuke. "Sorry, we have to go. It was nice meeting you," he said, then jogged after the blue haired girl.

"What Shinji meant to say was 'It's been cool, see you tomorrow Kensuke,'" said Naota, grinning. With a wave, he turned and followed after the retreating Pilots. "Later."

Shaking his head at the retreating trio's backs, Kensuke leveled his camera at them: Rei—bandaged and trying not to limp, Shinji—quickly catching up and staying just behind but within arm's length of the girl should she fall, and Naota—blue Rickenbacker shining in the sun from its place on his back and his bat bouncing against his leg a couple of paces behind Shinji and on the other side of Rei from him. "Something tells me these three are more than just students. I wonder where they're going, and why those two decided to just transfer here all of a sudden. Maybe…"

Kensuke paused, thinking. No, it couldn't be one of them. Besides the fact that they were all so young Rei was injured, Shinji seemed too meek, and Naota was too much of a delinquent to even be considered for military service. None of them could possibly be the pilot of the robot that—along with whatever else had been out there the other night—had trashed so much of the city. Despite all that, Kensuke resolved himself to dig around and find out whatever he could regarding the three mysterious children disappearing from his viewfinder into the distance.

…

Naota raised his eyebrow, eyeing Dr. Ritsuko Akagi as if she were mad. And at the moment, he was thoroughly convinced that she was indeed certifiably insane. "You want us to what?" he asked, glancing between the doctor and Rei. He didn't know if it was more odd that she had made the request or that Rei didn't seem to be questioning it.

"Strip and put on these hospital gowns. Rei has to be thoroughly examined to make sure her injuries are healing properly and you have to be fitted for a plug suit. It's not like I'm asking you to do it in front of each other, there is a privacy screen," she said, grinning at the boy's blush. She didn't get much of a chance to poke fun at anyone other than Misato, and that was only on rare occasions. Having a chance to embarrass the new boy, who was causing a headache and a half for most of the technical staff at the moment, was just too tempting to pass up. "I'm sure Rei wouldn't mind though, she'll need some help getting out of her clothes. I have some files I need to get from my office, so I'll be back in a few minutes," she said, leaving the room and locking the door behind her.

Sighing, Naota tried to avoid the girl's gaze. "What the hell is with that woman? She's either a big pervert, as much of a tease as Haruko, or both… seeing as Haruko was both." He nearly jumped out of his skin at Rei's soft voice.

"Trainee Namdaba, Dr. Akagi requested that you assist me in the removal of my garments to prevent strain on my injuries," she reminded him, wondering why the boy appeared flustered. "It is not as if she asked us to become one," she thought, frowning imperceptibly for a moment as that thought almost triggered a memory and becoming annoyed as it eluded her. Rei's mind was usually razor sharp and not being able to remember something was somewhat disturbing.

Naota, on the other hand, was not annoyed. No, if anything, he was petrified. Sure, he'd seen Haruko, Mamimi, and Ninamori in various states of undress over the past year but that was largely due to bad timing on his part and a perverted roommate. For some reason though, Rei reminded him a little of Mamimi. She'd not so much as batted an eye when he'd once walked in on her using his bath. It was as if she simply didn't value herself enough to care what anyone saw. "Uh… are you sure it's ok?" he asked lamely.

Hating to repeat herself, Rei simply nodded, stepping closer. Sighing in defeat, Naota helped her remove her blouse, carefully avoiding staring at her bra. "How did you get this on in the first place?" he asked, folding it sloppily and putting it on one of the cots beside them.

Kicking off her shoes, Rei's face twitched as the motion caused her injuries to throb. "Patience, and time—time we do not have at the moment. Dr. Akagi expects us ready by the time she returns."

Nodding, Naota unzipped her skirt and placed it beside the rest of her uniform on the bed, trying not to concentrate on what he was doing. "I see. Why don't you have one of the NERV medical staff come by your apartment in the mornings and assist you? Could you sit down so I can get the socks?" he asked, kneeling.

Rei sat, lifting one of her feet. "They make me uncomfortable," she answered, standing as he finished.

Naota stood as well, grabbing the privacy curtain and pulling it between them. "Do you need help with the gown?" he asked, pulling off his cap and shirt and tossing them to the cot beside him.

"Yes, and my brassier," she replied, pulling aside the curtain enough that his hand could reach the clasps holding it in place across her back.

Naota's hand froze halfway to where it had been reaching for his shoelaces. He hadn't considered that. Really, he had simply expected them to keep their undergarments on under the flimsy hospital gowns. "You're joking?" he asked, straightening up. Seeing her shake her head, he sighed. "This girl takes that woman way too seriously. She said strip and Rei strips." He didn't know why, but he had the feeling that the two women had been through similar routines before. Reaching out, he carefully unhooked the clasps and jerked his hand back. "You're not embarrassed by this at all, are you?" he asked, realization dawning. No, she wasn't playing some odd mind-game with him, as Haruko had before.

"Should I be?" she asked, ignoring the curtain as she finished undressing and pulled the gown on as much as she could, then stepping back to her previous position.

Naota found the strings that would tie around her midsection like a belt and began to knot them together, winding up with a butterfly knot like one would see on shoelaces. "Yeah, most people are. I've only known one person who didn't care, and she was… odd to say the least. Normal people get embarrassed and self-conscious when others see their body. It's just something that society ingrains into our psyches from like day one, while at the same time telling us constantly that our bodies and sex sell better than anything else. You must have lived a very sheltered life. Don't you watch tv?" he asked, knotting the strings around her neck. "And listen to me—that's probably the deepest thing I've ever said in my life. It'd probably surprise the hell out of Ninamori to hear me talk like that. I'm her little delinquent," he muttered, wondering what she liked so much about Naota-the-delinquent. It probably had something to do with the fact that her dad was Mayor of Mabase, and constantly in the people's eye.

"I do not own a television," Rei replied, not surprised at all by his observations. Despite the fact that she was on medical leave, she was still expected to keep up with some of her duties. One of those duties included keeping up to date on the Pilots. It was a testament to the power of the micro S2 engine residing where her uterus should be that she was even able to walk right now—any normal human would still be comatose, on a bed in the bowels of NERV if they were that lucky. The Commander had ordered her to slow her regeneration to just over double that of a normal human's—meaning it would still take close to three weeks to heal completely.

In the few hours before school, she had been called from the infirmary to the Commander's office and given a set of three personnel files to review. Contained within were the psychological profiles of three pilots: Pilot Ikari, Test Pilot Namdaba, and Pilot Trainee Namdaba. No, it didn't surprise her in the least that he'd made the connection as fast as he had. The file on his brother stated that he was amazingly adept at such matters—so much so that several people at his high school had accused him of stalking at one point but the accusations were dismissed without ever seeing the light of day because of the people's respect for him as a "local hero."

Naota nodded at her admission, not very surprised, and watched as she turned around and sat back down on her cot to await Dr. Akagi. Closing the screen the rest of the way, he finished undressing and was in the middle of putting on the flimsy paper gown before speaking again. "You should get out more. Come visit my or Ikari's place some time. I'm sure neither he nor Misato would mind a visit and I've only really got Canti to talk to at my apartment. Actually, I think they were supposed to put a door between the two apartments this morning…"

Contemplating his statement for a few moments, Rei finally made a decision. "Perhaps, in the future I may do so," she said quietly.

Finished tying the strings to his own gown Naota sat on his cot. Suddenly, something Haruko—or maybe it was Ninamori?—had once said came back to him, and he was speaking again before he could even finish the thought. "You should be embarrassed because it's not something people are supposed to just flaunt around each other. It's something you're supposed to share with the people you love, I think." He paused, trying to make sense of his own thoughts, when the door opened and Dr. Akagi stepped in, cutting off him off.

Glancing up from the files in her hands, Ritsuko pulled open the curtain separating the Children. "Did you two have fun while I was out?" she asked, inwardly cackling at Naota's discomfort. She was startled however when Rei answered.

"Trainee Namdaba and I had a most enlightening conversation," the girl stated, standing and signaling that she would be the first to be examined. Turning her head to regard Naota for a moment, she added, "I would like to continue it at a later date." And with that, she strode from the room, followed by Ritsuko—a look of puzzlement crossing her face as she looked between the two kids again.

…

Half an hour later, Naota lay on a flat bed of sorts, his body being slowly drawn into machine behind him. "Uh, is this thing safe?" he asked nervously, glancing at Dr. Akagi's face before the machine enveloped him completely.

"Of course it is, we use it all the time," she answered, tapping at a keyboard near the machine. "Rei was just here, in fact."

Naota, of course, was not relieved by this statement in the least. Taking a deep breath, he held it as a pair of metal rings passed over his body. "Great, I bet I know what it's going to say too," he thought, remembering the last time he'd had his head x-rayed.

Outside, Ritsuko frowned as the machine completed its scan. What it told her was impossible, so she had it run a quick self-diagnostic and then perform the scan again. This time, when the results came back the same she decided to just give up and keyed in the sequence to bring Naota out from it. "Well Naota, it looks as if you'll have to come back later—it's malfunctioning."

Standing, Naota walked around so he could look over her shoulder. "Let me see," he said, and glanced at the screen when the woman stood aside, perplexed. "That's normal."

Ritsuko was stunned for the second time in an hour. "What do you mean, 'normal'?! It says your brain is missing and you say that's normal? You don't act surprised either."

"Yeah," Naota grinned, playing with the display so that it switched through several sets of results, which all showed pretty much the same thing. "Haruko had Canti x-ray my head almost a year ago, after she smashed her guitar into it and it's been like that ever since."

Ritsuko had been over parts of the file involving the events of the previous year in Mabase and recognized the name. "Maybe there is some credibility to her claims of being an alien," she thought, then shook her head. No, that was impossible. "If your brain is missing, what are you thinking with?"

"Don't ask me," Naota shrugged. "It hurts my head just thinking about it. Are we done yet?"

Shaking her head, Ritsuko led him out the door and down the hall. "Not quite, we still have to fit you for a plug suit."

Following the blonde a short way down the corridor, Naota turned and glared back the way he had come when he heard a quiet giggle coming from the hall behind him. "Shut up!" he yelled, covering his bare ass with his hands and ducking into the room Ritsuko had opened. "Why can't this day just end already?!"